Chinese Tourism Surges in Europe
FONTAINEBLEAU, France — Europe is bracing for a Chinese surge following a tourism pact that simplifies visa procedures for Chinese tour groups and allows Chinese travel agents to advertise European destinations.
Last year, the Chinese overtook the Japanese for the first time as Asia’s most frequent travelers, making 20.2 million visits, China’s tourism administration says.
France, the world’s top tourism destination, expects to attract as many as 1.5 million Chinese next year, from the estimated 300,000 to 400,000 who visited in 2003.
China is encouraging its populace to travel — learn about the world, themselves and their country and in turn teach the world a little about China and its march to modernity.
By 2020, the World Tourism Organization predicts Chinese will be the world’s fourth most frequent travelers, taking 100 million trips, trailing the United States, Germany and Japan, which is expected to make a tourism comeback after a four-year slump.
Philippines Slashes Red Tape for SME Loans
CEBU CITY, Philippines — The Philippine government is now preparing the release of an executive order that will review credit requirements for small and medium enterprises (SMEs). Aster Caberte, the regional director of the Department of Trade and Industry, said the executive order will facilitate the creation of an SME credit bureau that will simplify the processing of loans to allow SMEs to borrow funds from the government.
Indonesian Military Returns to Power
JAKARTA, Indonesia — Indonesia’s new president is bringing the military back into key posts.
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono named economist Jusuf Anwar, who currently works at the Asian Development Bank, as finance minister. Business tycoon Aburizal Bakrie — one of only two ministers from the country’s largest party, Golkar — has been appointed chief economy minister. Outgoing President Megawati Sukarnoputri’s Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle is not represented in the new Cabinet.
Yudhoyono holds a doctorate in economics, and financial challenges could provide his first major test as president. Indonesia is Southeast Asia’s largest economy, but it has struggled in recent years with chronic unemployment and underemployment, as high as 40%.
The lineup also includes four generals, which could raise some concerns that Yudhoyono — a former general himself — remains under the sway of the powerful military.
The shift away from Sukarnoputri’s strategy of putting political appointees in ministries is a gamble for Yudhoyono.
Toyota Caught in the Act With Call Girls
Two Japanese Toyota employees were arrested and fined in China last June for consorting with prostitutes.
The incident occurred in South China’s Guangdong province in the Pearl River Delta, the seedbed of 80% of the province’s crime and home to numerous Japanese corporate subsidiaries.
The two men were caught “in flagrante delicto” in their separate hotel rooms. Token fines were duly paid, and the case was effectively closed until it was discovered by the Shukan Jitsuwa newspaper, which speculated that the incidents might have been set up by local police.
When asked for a comment, Toyota said the company was “deeply ashamed.”
Prostitution is taken very seriously by the Chinese, who are particularly sensitive to suggestions of being degraded by the Japanese following Japan’s invasion and partial occupation of China before and during World War II.
China Inc. Going Global
SHANGHAI, China — Never heard of Sanjiu? Bluestar? Baosteel? Minmetals? You soon might.
These Chinese companies aren’t yet in the pantheon of globally known names like Sony, Daimler-Chrysler or Citigroup, but China Inc. is fast raising its international profile with a corporate buying spree, spending billions on companies and resources to feed its growing industrial juggernaut.
Metals trader China Minmetals Corp. is leading a bid for Canada’s biggest mining company, Noranda Inc. Shanghai Automotive Industrial Corp. won a high-profile battle for control of South Korea’s No. 4 automaker, Ssangyong Motor Co. Electronics maker TCL Corp. bought Schneider Electronics GmbH, one of Germany’s few remaining television makers. TCL has since merged with France’s Thomson SA, which owns the American television brand RCA.
Such deals have Beijing’s blessing: After decades of struggling to prevent Chinese companies from spending precious money overseas, the government is pushing them to invest abroad.