SIA regional vice president for Southeast Asia, Philip Goh, said the airline would launch its first long-haul flight to Amsterdam on May 9, using its new Airbus A350-900 fleet.

The planes will also be deployed to destinations in Asia, including Jakarta. In July, the aircraft will be used to add services to Dusseldorf, Germany.

“Subsequently, we will launch a new destination in Europe – Dusseldorf in Germany in July 2016,” Philip said in Jakarta on Friday.

The A350 for long-haul flights will have 253 passenger seats in three classes – 42 business class, 24 premium economy class and 187 economy class seats. Philip said the new fleet would have higher ceilings, larger windows, an extra-wide body and lighting designed to reduce jetlag.

SIA has 67 Airbus planes on order, including seven ultra-long range variants that will be delivered in 2018 for non-stop services between Singapore and several destinations in the US. “[Destinations include] New York, Los Angeles and others,” he said.

In addition, the airline will launch new routes from Singapore to the Australian and New Zealand capitals, dubbed ‘Capital Express’ services. Subject to regulatory approval, the airline will operate four times a week starting from September 20 traveling Singapore-Canberra-Wellington.

SIA’s new Wellington service will add to its existing routes serving Auckland and Christchurch, while the new Canberra service will add to SIA’s extensive Australia network which currently includes Adelaide, Brisbane, Melbourne, Perth and Sydney.

The airline will operate 266-seat retrofitted Boeing 777-2000s fitted with 38 business class seats and 228 economy class seats on the routes, Philip said.

Pelindo III president director Djarwo Surjanto said the system would be divided into two main sections, namely front end and back end systems. The front end system will include container, non-container and vessel service applications, among others. Meanwhile, the back end system will comprise applications related to administrative matters, such as human capital and financial management. The front end applications are targeted to be completed in September 2016.

“With container applications in the front end system, all service users will be able to monitor the position of their containers in real time. It can be estimated when their containers will arrive at the destination ports. It can all be traced online,” said Djarwo in Surabaya, East Java, last week.

The ports that will be connected with the system are Tanjung Perak (East Java), Tanjung Emas (Central Java), Lembar and Benoa (Bali), Kumai, Bumiharjo and Sampit (Central Kalimantan), Bima and Badas (West Nusa Tenggara), Maumere, Ende, Waingapu and Kalabahi (East Nusa Tenggara) and Batulicin (South Kalimantan).

Pelindo III’s move will be followed by Pelindo I, II and IV, so that 24 ports from Sumatra to Papua will be connected under a single system and form the backbone of the government’s sea toll program.

Djarwo said the development of the ICT based system was predicted to be completed within the next two years. He expressed hopes that the ICT systems in all 14 ports would be connected each other by January 2018.

With the connected system, Djarwo said, it would be easier for Pelindo III to evaluate the performance of the 14 ports under its authority, and hopefully reduce both waiting time and dwelling time.

For the first stage, Pelindo III has prepared around Rp 250 billion of the total Rp 1 trillion of investment it will use to pay consultants, buy hardware and prepare a data center. The figure does not yet include funds for building developments.

To build the ICT system, Pelindo III has conducted a comparison study with several modern ports abroad, such as the Hamburg port and Bremen port in Germany and the Rotterdam port in the Netherlands.

Megawaty Khie, the vice president and managing director of SAP Indonesia, a partner company in the development of all applications of the ICT system, said Pelindo III had taken a brave move.

“Pelindo III has created an IT revolution in Indonesia’s port industry, which is really competitive. The built applications, which will allow real time connection, will help the company expand its businesses and win the competition,” she said.

The measure is part of the group’s restructuring process.

The group’s charter capital is planned to raise to 13.5 trillion dong ($604.7 million) from its current capital of VND10.7 trillion.

The Ministry of Industry and Trade (MOIT) said that in order to increase Petrolimex’s charter capital and reduce the State’s ownership proportion at the group to fewer than 75 per cent of charter capital, the ministry has approved a plan to issue more ownership to Petrolimex’s foreign strategic shareholders.

The deputy prime minister reminded the ministry to revise regulations, which are unsuitable with the current situation, to ensure that foreign strategic investors will partner with Petrolimex to invest long-term in the Nam Van Phong oil refinery project in the central Khanh Hoa Province.

Previously, Nikkei reported that the Japanese JX Nippon Oil & Energy Corporation planned to buy 10 per cent of Petrolimex’s stake.

The Japanese partner will pay about 20 billion yen ($177 million) for its share at Petrolimex.

As of December 31, Petrolimex’s total assets reached VND51 trillion. The company earned VND146 trillion of revenue and VND3.76 trillion of pre-tax profit.

By the end of 2014, Petrolimex accounted for 48 per cent share of the petroleum distribution market in Vietnam with more than 2,300 gas stations nationwide.

The 50 million real (56.8million ringgit) facility, which would be built on a 98,000-sq-metre piece of land, would be used to manufacture monorail trains, including rolling stock and bogies.

The site was awarded to SEB by the Sao Paulo state government in recognition of its commitment to develop Brazil’s urban transport infrastructure, SEB said in a statement on Saturday.

SEB held a ground-breaking ceremony for the facility, in Taubate, southeastern Brazil, on March 10 (Thursday), which was attended by Sao Paulo Governor Geraldo Alckmin; Taubat Mayor Jos Bernardo Ortiz Monteiro Jr and So Paulo city authorities officials.

SEB was represented by its country president (Brazil operations) Hilmy Zaini Zainal.

“This investment is part of our strategy to localise manufacturing of monorail trains. This will help us improve manufacturing efficiency and boost local human capital development through job creation,” Hilmy said.

All processes, as well as, manufacturing design would be in line with the Kuala Lumpur manufacturing centre.

The facility in Taubate is strategically located between the two most important Brazilian cities of Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, with good access to major ports and road networks, he added.

“We have been in the Brazilian market for several years now. Since winning our maiden monorail contract for Line 17 – Gold, we have come a long way, garnering two more Brazilian projects, Manaus and Line 18 – Bronze.

“We believe there is a lot more opportunities in Brazil which we can capitalise on and our commitment to this facility will strengthen our position in this market,” said Hilmy.

When operational, the facility would manufacture monorail trains for Line 17 – Gold and Line 18 – Bronze Sao Paulo projects and have the capacity to build metro and light rail trains.

The facility will be built in phases and operations are scheduled to begin in 2017 – Bernama

Scomi Engineering’s other major overseas project is the second phase of the Mumbai monorail service.

“Kuching has been growing in stature for several years now, and is becoming a key part of the EastAsean Growth Area (BIMP-EAGA). Having hosted several key regional events, such as the AseanTourism Forum and Routes Asia, Kuching is now firmly on the map for both leisure and business travel,” said Olivier Berrivin, Best Western Hotels & Resorts’ managing director of international operations – Asia.

Scheduled to open in 2018, the new-build Best Western Plus Kuching will offer 200 contemporary rooms and suites, all equipped with flat-screen televisions and international satellite channels, mini-bars, comfortable beds and complimentary Wi-Fi.

“This exciting project will showcase the 21st Century vision of Best Western Hotels & Resorts, to provide modern, well-connected and value-for-money accommodation in the key Asian destinations. Best Western provides exemplary service to our guests and I have no doubt that the Best Western Plus Kuching will become very popular with travelers,” he concluded.

Best Western Hotels & Resorts currently operates three hotels in Malaysia: Best Western i-City Shah Alam, Best Western Petaling Jaya, and Best Western Premier The Haven Ipoh.

This was in response to recent press reports which said that Petronas was close to pulling out of the project, following frustrations with the stance of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s climate-change priorities and the introduction of new uncertainties for the project.

The new federal Liberal government in Canada is toughening up environmental reviews of major energy projects as it strives to meet international commitments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

A Canadian newspaper had quoted sources as saying that Petronas was threatening to walk away if it didn’t get federal approval by March 31.

“The Canadian environmental impact assessment process for the PNW LNG project is still ongoing, following which a final report will be produced by the relevant agency to be submitted to the Canadian government for approval,” Petronas said in the statement.

“Petronas, together with the project shareholders, will review the said final report and evaluate conditions attached to the report to further determine their impact on the overall cost structure and schedule of the project,” it said.

“The outcome, reviewed together with the LNG market outlook and overall project commerciality, will be used to develop the proposal for an investment decision to be considered by the PNW LNG shareholders,” it said.

Petronas added that it would update with more information as and when necessary.

Petronas and its partners are seeking to build an LNG terminal on the Lax Kw’alaams territory on Lelu Island as part of the proposed Pacific NorthWest LNG project, in which Petronas has a 62% interest.

So far, Petronas has spent about US$12 billion (RM49.2 billion) on this project.

It has encountered multiple obstacles, including aboriginal and environmental movement opposition.

“If Petronas were to walk away now, it would lose an investment of about US$12 billion. Is Petronas willing to bite the bullet?” asked one oil and gas (O&G) analyst.

Another analyst said if Petronas were to walk away now, it would also be very difficult to find a buyer for the asset at this stage.

“I think it is important that Petronas makes a business decision on this project soon,” added the O&G analyst.

Last month, this project had received a mostly favourable assessment from the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency.

The proposed facility will comprise an initial development of two LNG trains of about six million tonnes per annum (MTPA) each, and a subsequent development of a third train of six MTPA. It will liquefy and export natural gas produced by Progress Energy Canada in north-eastern British Columbia.

It was also given the green light by the British Columbia government in November 2014, and received conditional corporate support – or an FID – from Petronas and its partners in June of last year.

To recap, Petronas bought Canada’s Progress Energy Resources in 2012 in a deal worth US$5 billion that gave it shale gas properties in north-eastern British Columbia.

Since then, Petronas has sold equity interets in the company and its LNG assets to four partners, namely Japan Petroleum Exploration Co Ltd (10%), Petroleum Brunei (3%), Indian Oil Corp Ltd (10%), and China Petrochemical Corp (15%).

Earlier this month, Petronas group chief executive officer Datuk Wan Zulkiflee Wan Ariffin had acknowledged that Petronas was facing cashflow problems due to the prevailing low oil price environment, which necessitated its RM50 billion cut in capital expenditure and operating expenditure from this year up until 2020.

Between RM15 billion and RM20 billion worth of expenditure will be cut from the oil giant’s budget for this year alone, the bulk of which is likely to come from the upstream segment.

However, he reiterated that Petronas was committed to paying out RM16 billion in dividends to the Government from its operations last year as previously announced.

It said the first flight will take off from Bangkok at 11am on May 25 and land at Da Nang International Airport around 12.35pm.

The return flight will leave from Da Nang at 13.35pm and arrive in Bangkok at 15.15pm.

As scheduled, the flight will be operated on Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday with 144 Economy class seats on an Airbus 319.

The direct flight route operation from Bangkok to Da Nang was a result of the co-operation and investment in tourism and trade between the city and Thai General Consul in HCM City from 2012.

In February, travel firm Viettravel also offered direct charter flights between the city and Bangkok on Thai Vietjet in order to boost tourism between the central region of Vietnam and Thai destinations.

According to the city, import-export turnover between Thailand and Da Nang reached US$30.2 million, of which $28.5 million were exports from Thailand.

Thailand has only had one investment project in Da Nang so far with total value of $10,000.

The central city attracts around 700 tourists from Thailand annually.

Da Nang has hosted the annual East-West Corridor Trade Fair since 2007, which attracted businesses from Thailand, Myanmar, Laos and Vietnam.

Da Nang, which is situated at the end of the East-West Economic Corridor – linking Myanmar, Thailand, Laos and Vietnam, is connected by 19 international routes with over 4 million tourists in 2015.

“In addition to considerable employment opportunities, the Kempinski Hotel Kuala Lumpur also spurs further development of talent in the local service industry, thus stimulating the local economy,” KSK Group chief executive officer Joanne Kua said in a statement yesterday.

The Tourism NKEA aims to attract high-yield tourists through the development of an optimal mix and quality of hotels, with a high level of service delivery.

It was forecast that by 2020, Malaysia will require 37,000 more four- and five-star hotel rooms.

With gross domestic product of US$2.6 trillion (Bt92 trillion), Asean will represent a large market for insurance products to a population of 625 million.

According to Milliman, a US-based consulting company, life insurance penetration in Asean markets is still very low in comparsion with more developed economies.

In 2013, Singapore was the most developed country in the Asean bloc and only reached premium revenue of 4.8 per cent of GDP, which was much lower than that of Hong Kong at 12.1 per cent and 8 per cent in Japan.

Most of the Asean countries have a ratio of less than 2 per cent and this will be a great opportunity for life insurers to expand their market share.

Nguyen Viet Loi, director of the Institute of Strategic and Financial Policies at the Finance Ministry, said yesterday that the development of sea transport, road and air routes within Asean will be a prerequisite for the development of new insurance products.