Located 30min away from the central coastal city of Da Nang, the resort boasts unique French architecture and excellent views of the city and the mountain range from a single-wire cable car that has earned a spot in the Guinness Book of World Records.

“We are delighted to open Mercure Bana Hills French Village, which overlooks the picturesque mountains and diverse eco-landscape of the popular tourist destination,” Chief Operating Officer for AccorHotels Upper Southeast and Northeast Asia Patrick Basset said.

This is AccorHotels’ first property in the mountains of central Vietnam. It’s also the fourth Mercure property in the country following the successful openings of Mercure Hanoi La Gare, Mercure Hoi An and Mercure Phu Quoc Resort and Villas.

“A great new high-quality golf course at the foot of the mountains is sure to delight guests who enjoy the game,” Basset said.

The hotel’s architectural design was inspired by the quintessential villages of 19th-century France. It is also in the midst of an entertainment hub and is near a boutique mall. Its restaurants and bars offer a wide selection of international cuisine.

“Visitors to Bana Hills can look forward to beautiful views of the mountains and the scenic surroundings of the luxury resort. Located on a 6ha area filled with 20th century French-style castles and houses, Mercure Bana Hills offers an authentic experience for both business and leisure travellers. There are also spectacular views of Da Nang and the unique architecture in the area,” Shane Edwards, general manager of the property, said.

With the opening of Facebook Philippines, which found its home in Manila, the top social network strengthened its investment in the country.

Facebook says it sees “strong momentum” in the Philippines with more than 49 million Filipinos on Facebook, 44 million of whom access the social network on mobile.

At a programme held in Makati City, Facebook Vice President for Asia Pacific Dan Neary, emphasised the Philippines’ potential as the country leads the charge in Facebook global metrics.

“We recently did a survey in the Philippines and again just to reaffirm how vibrant the Facebook community here is not just for individuals but for companies here as well,” Dan Neary said.

“Two thirds of everybody in the Philippines is connected to a company page. We started to look at the dynamics of them. 1 in 3 is actually recommending brands on Facebook and it’s a discovery vehicle for most of users. Ninety-five percent of them are talking and discovering products on Facebook,” he added.

Facebook is not just for keeping individuals connected, he said; it helps companies do business as well.

Neary added that the country “is a highly engaged mobile-first nation filled with people who are creative, entrepreneurial and have a strong sense of community.”

He said Facebook Philippines opened its doors for partnership with large businesses, small and medium enterprises and startups to help them achieve their business goals.

Among the early business partners of Facebook were Nestle and Kalibr, a job market startup.

Leading the Manila office is Digs Dimagiba, who will serve as the head of Facebook Philippines. Dimagiba was recently the mobile business director for Samsung Electronics in the country.

“I’m excited to lead the dynamic Facebook team in Manila and to help our partners innovate and achieve their business goals,” Dimayuga said.

Facebook did not disclose the size of its operations in Manila.

RIIRPhaChaeLae waterfall is 100 metres high and it is situated in Namkhien village, about six kilometres from the centre of Hom district.

Direc tor of the provincial Information, Culture and Tourism Department, MrVonepadithDalanouvong, told Vientiane Times yesterday that PhaChaeLae is now the most popular waterfall in the district.

He said hundreds of Lao and foreign visitors flocked there during the Lao New Year holiday from April 13-16.

Many people also went to cool off at Pheung waterfall in the district’s Phoukatha village, he added.

Although PhaChaeLae and Pheung waterfalls were officially opened to the public several years ago they have not been particularly popular in general.

Hoping to generate more public interest in these beauty spots, officials from the district Information, Culture and Tourism Office and other sectors concerned have explored the potential of the waterfalls and submitted their findings to the provincial authorities, MrVonepadith said.

He noted that PhaChaeLae waterfall in particular should be put on the tourist map as it is quite spectacular.

The falls are surrounded by woodland so the air is cool and fresh and the water flows all year round.

Hom is one of five districts in Xaysomboun province with the others being Longxan, Anouvong, Long Cheng and Tha-thom.

Xaysomboun has 50 officially designated tourist sites, four of which are of historical interest, nine are cultural sites, and 37 are areas of natural beauty.

Other highlights in the province are the 2,820-metre high PhouBia mountain in Anouvong district; the Nam Ngum 2 dam and reservoir located 35km south of Anouvong town; PhouMork mountain near Long Cheng village; Khoum Molakot near PhouMork mountain in Long Cheng district; Dan PhaSaeb cliff which is about 18km north of Long San village; the Palace of King SisavangWatthana; and VangPao’s house which is located in Long Cheng village, Long Cheng district.

Xaysomboun province has a population of more than 81,000 people and many colourful ethnic groups.

The province launched the Visit Xaysomboun Year campaign at the end of 2015, encouraging visitors to explore some unknown and untouched sites in this formerly restricted area that was for a long time closed to all outsiders.

The tourism campaign not only attracted visitors but business operators who were interested in investing in tourism-related activities.

In 2014-15, the number of visitors to the province climbed to 22,137 people, including 4,945 foreign nationals, generating revenue of more than 2 billion kip.

This is the first medium-priced mobile phone in the world with a 21 megapixel camera with a Sony sensor on the chipset of Mediatek Helio P10, often used for luxury phones.

The smartphone has internal memory of 32GB and 3GB RAM with fingerprint security.

The first 300 customers who order Prime X Max from April 19 – 22 through website: http://giovang.mobiistar.vn will get a discount of VND1 million (US$45) for the VND7 million ($315) smartphone.

Lotte Mart Go Vap on Phan Van Tri will cost US$45 million, Hong Won Sik, general director of Lotte Vietnam Shopping, said.

The new store will have shops selling fashion and jewellery items, a food court, an entertainment area, a cinema, a supermarket area and other facilities.

The company has invested $600 million in its 11 stores the country, and plans to expand to 60 by 2020, he said.

Hong told a press conference in HCM City on April 21 that more than 90 per cent of Lotte Mart’s products are sourced in Vietnam , and it would strive to increase the rate.

This year the company would continue to organise programmes to promote exports of Vietnamese products to South Korea, he said.

Lotte Group would invest in a $2 billion property complex in HCM City’s Thu Thiem, he added.

PAL president and chief operating officer Jaime Bautista described the talks as “very preliminary,” while declining to give additional details.

Taking a partner, either for money or for strategic purposes, like another airline, has always been in the cards since taipan Lucio Tan retook full control of the flag carrier in 2014.

PAL has been in an on-again, off-again talks with foreign groups, and in more recent interviews, Bautista said the carrier was more keen on bolstering its business and valuation rather than considering investors.

“It’s just talks,” Bautista said on the sidelines of an event marking the launch of PAL’s Manila-Saipan flights that would begin on June 15, 2016. Saipan would be PAL’s 44th international destination.

Bautista said previously a strategic partner made sense for PAL, which is seeking to expand its presence globally.

In an interview last March, Bautista said PAL had firmed up a multi-year strategy to improve services, expand its network and reconfigure existing Airbus A330 aircraft to tap higher yields.

Part of the strategy was to erase any ambiguity over PAL’s market positioning and rank it among the top legacy carriers in the world, he said.

The five-star status would be based on an audit by Skytrax. PAL is currently ranked as a three-star carrier.

The company would also continue to boost its fleet.

Bautista said PAL had its 75th plane delivered last March 15, 2016. He said they would get six more planes this year: two long-range Boeing 777-300ERs and four Airbus A321s.

Last February, it placed an order for six Airbus A350-900s, which are next-generation long-haul planes to be used for non-stop Manila to New York flights, and potentially, new European destinations such as Amsterdam, Hamburg, Rome and Paris.

Due to strong demand, Bautista said the commercial Philippine aviation sector this year would likely grow between 8 per cent and 9 per cent, faster than the 6 to 7 per cent growth worldwide. For PAL alone, passenger volume would hit 14 million in 2016, up from 12 million last year, he said.

Under Circular 24/2015/TT-NHNN, commercial banks are no longer allowed to provide lending in foreign currency to firms which do not need it for offshore payments since March 31 this year. The tightening in foreign currency credit is aimed to step up the central bank’s anti-dollarisation drive.

SBV said that the new regulation affects only those firms which often obtained foreign currency loans from banks and would later convert them into dong to fund their domestic production.

The new rules on foreign currency loans are expected to stabilise exchange rates and strengthen the dong. However, it also has side effects on firms, especially agriculture and seafood exporters, which often take loans in foreign currencies to meet their great funding demand.

Banking expert Nguyen Tri Hieu estimated that without foreign currency loans, interest rates for which were often roughly 6 per cent to 9 per cent lower than that of the dong, input costs could increase for exporters.

To adapt with the new rule, many exporters have paid more attention to the movement of the dong – US dollar exchange rate. They are even hunting for high ranking personnel specialising in finance and foreign exchange. Previously only FDI firms were interested in such activities.

A high-ranking official of an HMC City-based human resource consulting company, who declined to be named, said that her company had received urgent orders from five major domestic companies to recruit senior personnel in finance and capital resources. Recruitment positions are required to have experiences in finance, foreign exchange, capital resource management and structured products.

The executive, with nearly 20 years of experience in finance and human resources, forecast that this was only the beginning of the ‘thirst’ for senior personnel to service transactions of firms in foreign currency derivatives and interest rate besides normal forward transactions currently.

Besides, banking experts said that the exporters had also paid more attention to insurance services of exchange rate and interest rate. Bidding demand of firms for dollar forward contracts surged sharply against early this year, they said.

Representatives from Sacombank and Maritime Bank told Nhip cau dau tu (Bridge for Investment) newspaper that more firms had been interested in financial products. Bids for interest rate swap (IRS), forward rate agreement (FRA), or interest rate option (IRO) products in the inter-bank market, were heating up due to rising consultancy demands from firms.

To offset the capital source that was previously transferred from foreign currency loans, some major listed companies are also preparing plans to call for new funds or issue corporate bonds in wake of the tightening of foreign currency credit and the high dong lending interest rate.

The rate went up from 8 per cent to 8.7 per cent, analysis from Colliers showed, the highest since the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) started tracking retail space data including food and beverage, fitness and entertainment businesses from the first quarter of 2011.

In the Orchard planning area, the vacancy rates rose 1.2 percentage points to 8.8 per cent in the first quarter, URA figures showed.

These disappointing numbers come as the retail sector continues to battle rising costs, weak sentiment and increased supply of space. The islandwide vacancy rate of retail space rose to 7.3 per cent in the first three months of the year, up slightly from 7.2 per cent in the previous quarter.

Citing URA Realis data, analysts said retail rental volume plunged by 32 per cent to 1,725 transactions in the first quarter from 2,550 deals in the last three months of 2015.

“We are seeing higher vacancies setting in, particularly for the newer shopping malls,” said Cushman & Wakefield research director Christine Li. “Besides spaces which have yet to fill up, spaces which tenants have pre-terminated also add to rising vacancy levels.”

Century 21 Singapore chief executive Ku Swee Yong told The Straits Times malls with higher vacancies in the Orchard area include Shaw Centre, Orchard Gateway, Orchard Central and Palais Renaissance. “Vacancy rate in general will likely worsen in the coming quarters because some retailers have said they would be shutting their non-performing stores later this year,” he noted.

Dubai-based conglomerate Al-Futtaim Group said last month it would shut 10 stores under its distribution and retailing arm RSH in the second half of the year. Its group chief executive for Asia Christophe Cann said yesterday: “At present, we are looking to exit at places where rentals are too high for us to continue to run a business.”

He said landlords have a stake in the retail industry, and “it would benefit tenants, and the retail industry as a whole, by lending a helping hand during challenging times”.

Sakae Holdings chairman Douglas Foo made a similar point, citing a good working relationship with the manager of Wheelock Place, where Sakae Sushi has an outlet. “When we talk about rental renewal, they don’t give you heart attack rates. Certain landlords will up rates by 30 to 40 per cent, and you have to ask how retailers can do a sustainable business like that.”

The slow leasing activity exerted downward pressure on rents, which fell 1.9 per cent in the first quarter, following a 1.3 per cent drop in the previous three months, URA data showed.

Consultancy JLL expects retail rents to contract by about 7 per cent to 8 per cent this year, in anticipation that some landlords may have to offer greater discounts to maintain stable occupancy.

Analysts say other challenges such as the manpower crunch are likely to persist for the rest of the year. Colliers International noted, however, that falling rents in the central area are an opportunity for some brands to open new flagship stores and strengthen their presence.

The Singapore Airlines (SIA) subsidiary will start flying to Chennai in south India and Amritsar in the northern state of Punjab from May 24.

Flights to Jaipur, capital city of the state of Rajasthan and an increasingly popular tourist destination, will be launched in October.

Currently, there are no direct services from Singapore to Amritsar and Jaipur.

Scoot’s foray into India is an important part of its plans to expand its network since launching operations in mid-2012. The airline now flies out of Singapore to 17 destinations in seven countries, including Australia and China.Scoot’s flights to India will also boost the presence of the SIA group in one of the fastest-growing markets in the world.

SIA operates 51 flights a week to six destinations in India while its regional arm SilkAir flies to eight points 44 times a week.

India is a key market for SIA, which also owns 49 per cent of New Delhi-based domestic airline Vistara. The remaining stake in Vistara, which started operating early last year, is held by Indian conglomerate Tata.

In announcing the launch of services to India yesterday, Scoot said all flights will be operated with its fleet of Boeing 787 Dreamliners.

Scoot chief executive Campbell Wilson said the airline is excited about bringing its product to the Indian market.

On Scoot flights, travellers will be able to access inflight Wi-Fi and in-seat power, among other amenities.

Wilson said: “Our launch in Chennai will complement the SIA group’s existing services, while Scoot’s new services to Amritsar and Jaipur will bring travellers to the magnificent Golden Temple and the stunning Pink City.”

This is not the first time the SIA group is offering flights to Amritsar. SIA started services in late 2004 but pulled the plug about four years later due to poor yields.

Wilson is confident that Scoot, which has a lower operating cost structure, will be able to make the route work.

To mark its launch in India, Scoot is offering a limited-time promotion from now until next Thursday, with all-in fares starting from S$99 (US$73.10) for economy class and S$239 for business class.

Technician J.S. Gill, 55, who flies to India about once in two years, said: “Jaipur is an interesting new destination and I’m sure direct flights to Amritsar will be well received too. It saves us the trouble of having to fly via New Delhi.”

(US$1 = S$1.35)

Tsien was responding to a question at the annual general meeting (AGM) on April 22 about how fintech could disrupt traditional banking models and force banks out. “We need to collaborate with the technology that the fintech companies develop, and find ways to implement them within the bank to improve customer service, understand customers better and achieve operational efficiency,” he said.

Fintech firms will make inroads in segments of banking that require less trust, but banks will still have the upper hand when it comes to the customer’s trust, he noted, adding that OCBC is not about to invest in financial technology firms just to make a gain.

Shareholders also grilled OCBC on its latest acquisition of the wealth and investment management business that Britain’s Barclays Bank has in Singapore and Hong Kong for US$320 million, director fees and its exposure to oil and gas and China, among other issues.

OCBC chairman Ooi Sang Kuang said: “The Barclays business has significant exposure to ultra-high-net-worth individuals, which we do not have. With the acquisition, it will broaden our client and geographical coverage.”

OCBC also announced that Dr Cheong Choong Kong, 74, is retiring as a non-executive, non-independent director after more than 16 years on the OCBC board. He succeeded the late Lee Seng Wee as OCBC chairman in 2003, and retired from that position in 2014.

The mood lightened for a moment when an investor noted that OCBC will hold its “80th AGM next year”, and asked if there would be something special for shareholders, since United Overseas Bank (UOB) paid a special dividend last year.

UOB paid out 20 cents per share to mark its 80th anniversary.

OCBC will celebrate its 85th anniversary next year, and Ooi said the board would carefully consider the bank’s capital level and capital structure.

OCBC held the meeting at Sands Expo and Convention Centre to accommodate a larger crowd of around 1,600 shareholders, well in excess of the 1,200 shareholders at the AGM and extraordinary general meeting last year.

The greater number this year may be attributed to a reduction of board lot sizes from 1,000 to 100 shares, making investing more affordable to retail investors, and falling share prices.

Young investor Chin Jin Jie, 21, started investing this year and this was his second AGM.

Unlike some listed firms that have cut back on goodies at AGMs this year, OCBC continued to provide bento meals.

But freelance developer Lee Wai Meng, 41, said: “If the company can save money, in a way, that’s good for shareholders.”