The Straits Times : Weekly Overseas Edition, 10 January 1998

Total Pages: 24
1 24 The Straits Times : Weekly Overseas Edition
  • 20 1 The Straits Times WEEKLY EDITION SATURDAY, JANUARY 10, 1998 Price: 551.20 (in Singapore) Elsewhere by subscription only MITA (P) 047/08/97
    20 words
  • 800 1 US President phones PM Goh and Suharto WASHINGTON President Bill Clinton and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) launched an emergency initiative on Thursday to pull Indonesia back from the brink of economic disaster and stem Asia’s deepening financial crisis. The American leader,
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  • 704 1  -  By Lim Seng Jin THE High Court yesterday acquitted a former Government of Singapore Investment Corporation manager who was convicted last May of taking bribes of nearly $2.4 million. Overturning a lower court decision, Justice M. Karthigesu said a section of the Prevention of
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  • NEWS FOCUS
    • 540 2  -  But reprieve for those willing to work in plantations, assembly lines By Brendan Pereira in Kuala Lumpur THE great foreign labour clearout in Malaysia starts in August with the non-renewal of 150.000 work permits, the Home Ministry announced on Thursday. Affected bv the
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    • 905 2  -  He is jailed 3 years after pleading guilty to manslaughter By Tan Ooi Boon A MAN went berserk and hacked his elderly moth-er-in-law to death with a chopper because he could no lon ger tolerate her constant nagging and taunting. Lim
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    • 339 2 SINGAPORE must be prepared to invest in defence in good and bad times, said Deputy Prime Minister Tony Tan on Wednesday. Speaking at a ceremony to mark the completion of upgrading works to the Republic of Singapore Air Force’s
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    • 337 3  -  By Geraldine Yeo INNOVATE or evaporate. These stark choices were presented when the Government launched the National Innovation Framework for Action on Wednesday. Education Minister and Second Minister for Defence Teo Chee Hean said that Singapore needed to build a niche for
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    • 719 3  -  WP man owes $740,000 in damages and interest By Walter Fernandez THE courtroom battle between Workers’ Party member Tang Liang Hong and 11 People’s Action Party leaders, which has lasted nearly a year already, resumed this week with Senior Minister Lee
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    • 798 3  -  Tussle over $7l m estate of matriarch of ‘Cycle Carriage founder’ family Reports by Lim Li Hsien THE matriarch of the Chua fam ily, which once controlled the listed company Cycle Car riage, left a will which apparently excluded six of her grandchil
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  • HOME
    • 639 4  -  She had black belt in self-defence By Sharon Vasoo DINI HARYATI. 19. had a black belt in karate and taekwondo. but it did not protect her when she was raped and murdered over last weekend. Her half-naked body was found hidden in
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    • 210 4 FORMER Nominated MP Walter Woon, 41, has been appointed Singapore’s next ambassador to Germany. A Foreign Ministry statement made the announcement on Tuesday night, almost four months after The Straits Times reported that he had taken two years' secondment leave from the National University
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    • 969 4 SINGAPORE'S economy will be back on track in one to two years, and the Singapore dollar will harden bv then. Senior Minister Lee Kuan Vew has said. He said: “There’s nothing which has weakened. We have a current account
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    • 726 5  -  Lump sum payments in new collective pact structured to encourage them to retire earlier By Rav Dhatiwal SINGAPORE Airlines stewards can expect to collect a gratuity of up to 30 months’ pay when they retire, just like their female colleagues. Gratuity payments
      LUDWIG ILIO  -  726 words
    • 523 5  -  By Sharon Vasoo THREE families had to move out of their terrace houses last Saturday after a 2-km retaining wall collapsed and crashed into their backyards in Mount Sinai View. The crash at about 4.30 pm damaged the backyards of 10 houses in the
      Picture by ALI YUSOF^.  -  523 words
    • 272 6 PEOPLE who shop at Changi airport may get lucky and be rewarded with prizes worth more than $1 million including a BMW car. a cabin cruiser and a designer home entertainment system. The airport will hold a year long shopping promotion from Tuesday to Dec
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    • 932 7  -  After 2-month-long service campaign by Comfort... By Tee Hun Ching ALMOST two months after Comfort launched a service campaign, more than 90 per cent of its cabbies now help passengers with their luggage, it said. The company which is the largest taxi operator
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    • 804 8  - Traffic jam on second link again By Geraldine Yeo IT LOOKED like the Causeway jam all over again. But this time, on the second link from Tuas. Last Saturday's squeeze on the Malaysian side o? the new crossing continued into Sunday, about 1 km from the Customs complex. Vehicles going
      Picture by SAMUEL CHUA.  -  804 words


  • Page 6 Advertisements
    • 259 6 Call Your Friends, Family And The World... Free. For 60 Days Be A Beta User Ndw! 'i N V IS. Visit our Website: http//www.mediacom-tech.com.sg Multimedia communication is easier than ever with Mediaßing. Our new range of communication applications increase your power, freedom and versatility on the internet! And now, you
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  • Page 7 Advertisements
    • 357 7 The StmitsTimes WEEKLY EDITION The Straits Times Weekly Edition brings you a crisp summary of the week's major happenings in Singapore and in the Asean region. Covering news from social issues, politics, business, career opportunities and others, we bring you closer to home wherever you may be, once a week.
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  • Page 8 Miscellaneous
    • 1115 8 RADIO SINGAPORE INTERNATIONAL (ENGLISH) PROGRAMME SCHEDULES 1100 1400 Hours (GMT) 6015 KHz (49M BAND) 6055 KHz (49M BAND) MONDAY 1100 News 1109 Business Market Report 1115 Arts Arena 1130 News 1135 The Front Page 1138 E Z Beat 1145 Newsline 1200 News/Weather (Asia-Pacific) 1205 E Z Beat 1220 Business Market
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  • SPORTS
    • 206 9 THERE are commemorative coins and there are commemorative coins. Officials of the Monnaie de Paris (French Mint and the French World Cup 98 committee) chose Singapore for the overseas launch on Tuesday of what they billed as the rarest World Cup coins ever
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    • 199 9 SQUASH SQUASH players who think they are good enough to don national colours are invited to attend trials for next month’s Asian Championships. The Singapore Squash Rackets Association, under new president David Tan, has decided to “open up its trials”. Tan, who replaced
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    • 775 9  -  General Secretary issues warning as world’s first trade show is held to drum up business Football Expo 98 By Yap Koon Hong SEPP BLATTER, the second most important soccer official in the world, urged sponsors and television on Monday to
      irmaiv 1 i van «11%« ivoimhii – Picture by JERRY SEH.  -  775 words

  • MALAYSIA
    • 438 10 In a desperate bid to avoid being sent home... SHAH ALAM Many foreign workers here are rushing to apply for permanent residence in Malaysia in a desperate attempt to avoid being sent home. The move was an apparent response to a government
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    • 486 10 Bemama KUALA LUMPUR The An ti-Corruption Agency (ACA) will, for the first time, be armed with the authority to arrest, as well as a host of other powers aimed at boosting its effectiveness under a new Act launched on Thursday. The new
      Bemama  -  486 words
    • 236 10 PENANG Penang postmen will take on the added duty of selling stamps while on their rounds delivering the mail this month, in view of the festive season. Pos Malavsia Bhd Penang manager Kamarudin Mohd Noor said the public could buy the 30-Malaysian-cents
      — Sun picture.  -  236 words
    • 309 10 80,000 managers, professionals affected KUALA LUMPUR Malaysia has intensified its austerity drive with cuts in civif-service and entertainment allowances for government servants. Some 80.000 officers in the management and professional group and categories above it are affected. The cuts, announced in a circular dated
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  • SOUTH-EAST ASIA
    • 719 11  -  By Susan Sim Indonesia Correspondent JAKARTA President Suharto, acknowledging that Indonesia is now in the throes of an unexpectedly severe and long-lasting financial crisis, on Tuesday night unveiled an austere budget and asked the private sector to emulate its spirit. As Indonesians and foreign investors watched
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    • 295 11 Reuters. BANGKOK Life is no longer a cabaret for a former transvestite beauty queen, who blames Thailand’s flagging economy for forcing him to give up stage lights and high heels for a life of hard labour. The sweat pouring down his face, washing
      Reuters.; Reuters picture.  -  295 words
    • 320 11 BIRD FLU VIRUS AFP, Reuters. MANILA International airports in the Philippines have been put on alert for passengers and smuggled goods from Hongkong which could be infected with the “bird flu” virus, while Indonesia announced it has stopped importing chicken meat
      AFP,; Reuters.  -  320 words
    • 547 11  -  By Susan Sim Indonesia Correspondent JAKARTA President Suharto yesterday moved to appease market scepticism about his government’s commitment to economic reform with a renewed promise to implement “concrete steps”. At the same time, top military officials gave assurances that they were united behind the
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  • COMMENT / Pick of the week's editorials
    • 668 12 JANUARY 9 1998 COMPANIES taken aback by the drastic theme “Innovate or Evaporate" of the National Innovation Forum on Wednesday can take some heart from the fact that those choices characterise capitalism itself. Life was certainly possible once without the car or the microwave oven. But once
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    • 639 12 JANUARY 6 1998 THERE is a fighting chance that dialogue between Beijing and Taipei, suspended after Taiwanese President Lee Teng-hui visited the United States in June 1995. might be resumed in the New Year. That prospect will be welcomed by friends of both sides who
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    • 656 12 JANUARY 5 1998 THE disparity in educational attainment between Malay Singaporeans and the Chinese has been studied exhaustively. The primary- feature has been that the Mafays are some way behind in pass fates overall, but espe ciallv so for mathematics and science. Even this is
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    • 893 12  -  By Alan John WITHIN two days of opening, the second link between Malaysia and Singapore was already drawing groans from motorists who ventured to be among the first to try it. Stand still jams. Impatient motorists creating their own lanes. Too few
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  • COMMENT/ANALYSIS
    • 983 13  -  By Chua Lee Hoong IWAS driving along an expressway one dull, overcast day last week when, all at once, the sun peeped through from behind a thick embankment of clouds. Beauty was created in that split second as the edges of these clouds
      LUDWIG ILIO  -  983 words
    • 683 13 Business Times Editorial EVEN before the first full week of the new year is out, it has become clear that 1998 will be a rough year for the countries of South-east Asia. For some it may well prove to be a lot worse
      Business Times Editorial  -  683 words

  • INSIGHT
    • 1346 14 The top question in everyone’s mind as the year opens must be: What does 1998 hold for us? To find out, ChuaMui Hoong gazed into the crystal ball with five analysts, below and on the next page. Don’t write off regional currencies DBS' head of investment
      NOEL ROSALES  -  1,346 words
    • 1141 15 The INSIGHT crystal ball A watershed year with ERP ahead Mr Gerard Ee, president, Automobile Association of Singapore, and a Nominated MP. WHAT’S the year going to be like for the car market? It’ll be a slow market for car sales in the first half
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    • 1337 15  -  Thinking aloud Han Fook Kwang LAST year was an inexplicable vear. More so than just plain horrid, which would have been bad enough. If it was just a horrible year, which it no doubt was in fact it was the
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  • MONEY
    • 421 16 Weekly market review THE local stock market hit a seven-year low this week, beginning the year on a despairing note for panicky investors as the effects of the regional currency crisis was compounded by domestic concerns. Indonesia weighed heavily on investors minds, as the
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    • 1778 16 Company Oat# ann Net earn TY IY <$m) ($m> CPS TY LV (cts) lets) AMDS* Nov 29 1 16.427 55.718 2.81 9.55 AS Auto Nov 6 1 7.240 4.895 6.54 5.44 Alexandra HiaqsDec IS 4 039L 0 8847 13L 295 Alliance Tech Oct 2 1 5.432L 3.391L Asia
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    • 81 16 ST Industrials Index The Straits Times Industrials Index dropped 341.85 points on the week to 1176.35. DAY Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday CLOSE 1495.95 (-22.25) 1439.12 (—56.83) 1368.06 (-/1.06) 1270.70 (-97 36) 1176.35 (—94 35) TURNOVER 55.411 ($121 317m) 107.768 ($241.954m) 173.542 ($332.858m) 196.835 ($461.375m) 280.068 ($670
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    • 204 16 RIGHTS ISSUE ExBooks Company Ratio date close Easykn.t Three-for-Two®HK10C Dec 31 Jan 7 NYA BONUS ISSUE ExBooks Company Ratio date close Datapuise Ona-(or-two Jan 13 Jan 19 Hup Sang Huat One-lor-tiva Feb 2 Feb 9 Feb 19 OTHERS ExBoohs Acc 6 Company Ratio date close Paymt Osprey Fucefl
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    • 943 16 Payment <%) Ck data Books dose Pay data AV Jennings 25« 54 Jan 2 Jan 8 Jan 22 AMOB Ln T 5.5 Dec 5 Oac 12 Dec 31 Amsteel Corp SOC b 10 Dec 23 Dec 30 Jan 19 Antah Hldg 50C 1 6TE Dec 22 Oac 29
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    • 74 16 Company Right» issuo AIS8 Thr**-lor-fiv* M$5.50 Inno-Pac One-forona $0.30 PMI Three-for-two @> M$1.00 Company Bonu» Issue H Royal T wo-for-three Kemayan Core One-for-tnree turn Chanq One-for-fiva PMI One-for-four Company Othars Inno-Pac Proposal) issua ot ona wrt for avary four ordinary sharas. Keppol Proposed issue ot up to 350,000
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    • 89 16 Datacreft E 6 Shenton Way #24-11 DBS Bldg Twr2 (*****9) Jan 15 9.00am ST Computer E The Auditorium 7 Bedok South Rd (*****2) Jan 6 11.00am Hwi Hong E TradeMart S pore Function Rm,Ground El 60 Martin Rd (*****5) Jan 6 10.00am Hup Seng Huat A 365A Jalan
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    • 574 17  - Sing up 4.1% since July on trade weighted basis By Narendra Aggarwal THE Singapore dollar has dropped by a hefty 20 per cent against tlie greenback since Julv. when the regional finan cial turmoil began, but it has appreciated against the cur rencies of the country's main trading partners. Against
      SOURCE BLOOMBERG; G CHANDRADAS  -  574 words
    • 189 17 COUNTER RATES Singapore dollar* to on* unit of foreign currency Buying OD Selling US dollar 1 7380 1.7905 Sterling pound 2 7833 2 9037 Australian dollar 1 0976 1 1542 Canadian dollar 1 2072 1 2577 NZ dollar 0 9760 1 0293 EC unit 1 9248 Singapore dollar* to
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    • 431 17  -  By Kaipana Rashiwala and Yeow Pei Lin MANY hotels in Singapore were almost half-empty last month as weaker regional currencies kept shoppers away and the industry sees a tough vear ahead, with a price war looming as hotels fight to fill their rooms. Hotels of
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    • 109 17 Contract date: January 9, 1998 UNIT ONE MTH 3 MTH 6 MTH 9 MTH 12 MTH CALL VALUE DATE uss 5 5’/* 5 57* 4V* 11’98 AS 4V* 4 V* 4' < 4', 4. 3 '4 11 7 98 NZS 8'. 8* 8' 7% 7-. 7'j 11’98
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    • 482 17 January 9.1998 MK$ ASM Pacific 4 22 •0 075 Allied ind Inti 0 54 Allied Oversea 0 45 ■0 04 Asia Sec Int 087 •0 09 Bank of EA 15 70 •0 60 C P Pokphand 1 20 •0 04 COL Hofei 2 00 ■023 Cafe De Coral f
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    • 1012 17 Mgrs Prices, January 10 A6*rd«*n Asset Mgt Asia Ltd Aoetdee-SpomG—jng 0 854—0 898" AIB Govett (Asia) Ltd Govett Asa P»c*'C G’cwtnFa c 83i—: 874« Govef G'06a B'a"as c a American Inti Assy ;54— ’074 A A jn* .inked'a 3 83C—c r±* A A Oeg.ona 1 EauN c o
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    • 9226 18 INDUSTRIAL AND COMMERCIAL Transaction Date: January 9.1998 I 1997 98 Curr Last vol Day Gr's Net M Cap Wt Avg High LOW Company Traded Sale ♦or000 High Low Div P/E Smil Price 157 205 ACE Dynamics60c ASE NT$10 200 US 21 -1 101 22 205 17 2
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    • 576 20  -  Few deals in weak market By Kalpana Rashiwala THE tougher times arising from the financial turmoil in the region have led to more Indonesians wanting to sell their upmarket condominiums in Singapore, including at Ardmore Park and Aspen Heights. However, the owners do not
      NOEL ROSALES  -  576 words
    • 453 20  - 20 remisiers and dealers of Lee Co asked to resign Analysts say dwindling market volumes taking toll on costs By Jean Chia ABOUT 20 remisiers and dealers at local stockbroker Lee Co have been asked to resign the first indication that poor market conditions are beginning to take their toll.
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    • 223 20  -  By Kalpana Rashiwala HOTELIER Ong Beng Seng has sold his private jet for close to US$9 million (5515.5 million) due partly to a general belt-tightening move, said sources. The 11-seater Gulfstream 3 was sold last month to an American party. It was due
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    • 349 20  -  By Tammy Tan TOSHIBA Singapore has retrenched close to one-fifth of its manufacturing workforce as part of a restructuring exercise, sources say. A total of 78 production staff, including supervisors and technicians, were handed their termination letters on Monday following a company
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    • 859 21 DIRECTOR JMARKET DEVELOPMENT COMMUNICATIONS DIVISION The Singapore Sports Council promotes and manages a wide range of public sports facilities. We have over 800 employees working together to realise our national objective of fostering a fit and healthy nation. You are invited to take on the challenge by joining our management
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  • Page 22 Advertisements
    • 892 22 NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF SINGAPORE The mission of the NUS is to nurture talents for the nation's future. This is of utmost importance as the success of our nation Mk* depends on the talents we have. With our current career options, you now have the opportunity to play a part in
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  • FORUM
    • 616 23 Is using a mobile phone dangerous to the health? A RECENT article (ST. Jan 5), “Brain tumours linked to mobile phones", was at best unscientific and at worst sensational. Most readers of the article may have been left with the impression that this association
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    • 358 23 I REFER to the letter “Cautionary tale for the Chinabound” (ST Weekly Edition, Dec 27), written bv Mr Tan Yong Cheng. I do not want to discuss Mr Tan’s experiences in China. Instead. I would like to take this opportunity to emphasise the following to
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    • 451 23 I AM writing in response the article “Asians see Aussies as ‘rude, uncouth, lazy and hypocritical’ (ST, Jan 5). The article quoted Australian newspapers which pub lished articles under the headline “Ugly Aussies". As an Australian citizen with a Caucasian Australian father and an Asian mother,
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  • 925 24  -  By Derwin Pereira, in Palembang and Rav Dhaliwal, in Singapore CRASH investigators acknowledged yesterday that the Sil-k-Air jet lost part of its tail before it nose-dived into the Musi River. Six pieces, including the horizontal stabilisers which control the plane's up-and-down
    IEE chee chew  -  925 words
  • 481 24 THE Boeing 737-300 that crashed in Palembang last month had undergone 13 maintenance checks in the 10 months that it was with Silk Air. All showed that the fasteners or rivets on the plane’s horizontal stabilisers small wing-like structures at the tail were
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