Asia-Pacific

South China Sea spats need finesse, not finality

11 Jul 2012

Avoiding conflict in the oil-rich sea is critical to long-term growth in the region. At this week’s ASEAN meeting, Hillary Clinton will push China and its neighbours for a tidy resolution. But a tangle of rival claims may be more stable than a neat fix with winners and losers.

India’s No. 3 stock market faces 3 big challenges

11 Jul 2012

MCX has been green-lighted to take on the Bombay and National Stock exchanges in trading. The young contender must attract new investors, create ample liquidity and, finally, repair its image, which has been badly bruised by a protracted battle with regulators for its existence.

China’s slump pulls it into US campaign crossfire

10 Jul 2012

Weaker domestic demand means imports are cooling faster than exports. With shipments to Europe swooning, surpluses to the U.S. and elsewhere are swelling. That risks adding more fuel to the anti-China rhetoric from dueling American presidential contenders Obama and Romney. 

Bankrupt Hawker may not be so easily hawked

10 Jul 2012

A Chinese bidder for the jet maker is offering a heroic price, and could save thousands of U.S. jobs. But Chinese state backing could be a sticking point. All hinges not just on the foreign investment regulator, but whether a bankruptcy court thinks the deal can fly politically.

Greying China could be left in the red

9 Jul 2012

The number of people aged 60 or over may more than double to 438 mln by 2050. That will dent competiveness and worsen social strains. A higher retirement age is one idea to counter a possible $3 trln shortfall in the pension fund. At least it’s not too late to start preparing.

China grows faster but most Cubans are better off

6 Jul 2012

Raul Castro could use his visit to Beijing to pick up some tips on making Cuba’s markets work better. True, Cuba hasn’t done so badly - it’s richer than China, less unequal and less corrupt. But tentative reforms could produce a boost to growth and prosperity.

China rate cut targets financial not economic ills

6 Jul 2012

The latest interest rate move won’t fire up demand for loans. But it will buy time for stretched borrowers and may bring lending business back to banks. It’s the right priority - a financial crisis fuelled by bad loans remains a bigger risk to China than an economic slowdown.

Samsung’s phones look smarter than its valuation

6 Jul 2012

A record quarterly operating profit estimate of $5.9 billion elicited only a market raspberry. Yet the Korean firm’s shares look cheap, its Apple-rivalling smartphones are booming and the Samsung brand just came out top in Asia. Investors may be missing the wood for the trees.

India’s PM can start by tackling silly laws

6 Jul 2012

Manmohan Singh is talking a good game. He wants to woo back investors. Symbolic wins on tax and foreign investment will help, but his real test will be to hack away India’s rampant red tape. It’s a vague ambition, but there are some obvious first steps and good ideas to follow.

Migration can help resolve euro crisis

5 Jul 2012

Emigration is controversial in Portugal and immigration is unpopular in the UK. But resistance to the free movement of people is mostly economic nonsense. In Europe’s troubled single market, it’s dangerous nonsense. Labour mobility is a most helpful structural reform.

China stock bulls get rare help with timing

5 Jul 2012

Domestic shares look fairly cheap. Stimulus may work, and the coming change in the Communist Party’s leadership may also figure in the calculus for China’s economic managers. There are plenty of risks, but going long Shanghai could pay off later this year or early next.

China can’t reproduce its way out of trouble

5 Jul 2012

Ditching the one-child policy is becoming a mainstream idea, and rightly so. But China will need to prepare for the 2.3-child world. Resource scarcity and strained government finances could ensue. And a bigger population is less important than a productive one.

India’s pro-poor policy may be getting healthier

5 Jul 2012

A $5.4 bln plan to provide free generic drugs could mean the government is finally addressing its woeful healthcare system. It has lost out to food and fuel subsidies for too long. The drugs plan may spook Big Pharma, but long term even foreign drugmakers could benefit.

Mongolia’s task: avoid Nigerian resource curse

4 Jul 2012

The country, which held elections last week, is growing at a blistering rate on the back of its Oyu Tolgoi mine. Nigeria shows what can go wrong when government and private fingers get sticky - the bonanza is wasted and non-resource activity is burdened and disincentivized.

How to say "soft power" in Chinese

4 Jul 2012

Hong Kong’s new leader CY Leung gave his inaugural speech in the mainland’s Mandarin, not the city’s native Cantonese. The language choice is a sign of who’s boss. Cantonese-speakers may resent the change, but the economic and political forces are probably irresistible.

Euro-bomb need not destroy global economy

3 Jul 2012

Global manufacturing output contracted in June by the most in three years. That sounds like an ominous sign of global recession. But there are also optimistic signals in the U.S. and China. And Europe’s summitry, together with a likely ECB rate cut, may help global confidence.

Chinese IP awareness, sown by West, bruises Apple

3 Jul 2012

The gadget maker can easily afford the $60 mln it’s paying for the iPad name in China. And a lawsuit over Snow Leopard poses little threat. Still, the Middle Kingdom is increasingly alert to trademarks, patents and so on. Western multinationals wanted that, but it cuts both ways.

Deteriorating asset quality strains Indian banks

2 Jul 2012

As India’s growth fades, its lenders are developing bad habits. Debt restructuring has increased 156 percent in a year. And Indian banks have the lowest bad debt reserves in the Asia-Pacific region. Without an improvement, the pressure to fudge the numbers will only increase.

China samples Hong Kong’s secret sauce

29 Jun 2012

A planned $45 billion financial zone just over the border in Qianhai won’t just allow for experiments with currency conversion. It’s also set to test incorporating Hong Kong legal ideas into China. It shows influence doesn’t only go one way.

Juilliard improves tone of China’s urbanisation

29 Jun 2012

The U.S. fine arts school’s new Tianjin campus will avoid some political problems that beset Western universities chasing the Chinese dollar. For the host city, Juilliard may be largely a trophy - but any idea that improves the quality of China’s city life deserves a hearing.