He said in Jakarta that the ministry had offered the 20 trillion rupiah(US$1.4 billion) project to investors in the Middle East, South Korea and China.

“Many investors expressed their interest when I offered it in the Middle East,” said Budi as quoted by tribunnews.com.

The increasing demand for transportation from BSD in South Tangerang to the airport had caused serious traffic congestion during peak hours, said the minister, adding that public transportation, including the LRT, would be a solution to the problem.

“We need to reduce the traffic congestion along the roads toward Soekarno-Hatta Airport as otherwise, we may need three hours to reach the airport,” Budi said, adding that the private company could apply to become an LRT operator.

However, he said that the government would still need to provide subsidies so that the fares would be affordable.

Currently, the government is constructing three LRT projects in Palembang, South Sumatra, in Jakarta inner city (LRT Jakarta) and the Greater Jakarta LRT.

It is the first rent-to-own home ownership plan in Malaysia to be fully enabled on a digital platform, where the application and submission of supporting documents are to be made online.

In a media release, Maybank Islamic Bhd said the public can browse through its http://www.Maybank2own.com portal for a range of properties by 12 established developers which include EcoWorld Bhd, SP Setia, Mah Sing Properties, Sime Darby Property, Gamuda Properties, UEM Sunrise, and Mitraland.

It is expected that seven more developers will come on board by the end of this month.

Customers are given the option to purchase the property after renting for at least one year at a pre-agreed price.

“Once an applicant chooses a property on the portal and applies to rent it, the bank would provide a decision within 24 hours working day, following which the |customer must make the three months’ rental deposit within |seven days.

Fixed rental price

“After the agreement is signed, the property is locked in at a fixed rental price for five years and the customers can migrate to Maybank mortgage seamlessly after one year of renting, or they can continue renting with 2 per cent step-up on the sixth year until their tenure ends,” it said.

Maybank Islamic chief executive officer Datuk Mohamed Rafique Merican said that the bank would continue to focus on creating more innovative syariah-compliant solutions and developing products and services leveraging on Maybank Group’s strength and expertise in Islamic finance.

“We are constantly looking at introducing products which offer better value proposition to our customers.

“HouzKEY promotes financial inclusion by offering an alternative path to home ownership, and it is also Maybank’s way of supporting Malaysia’s national agenda on home ownership,” he said.

Since the launch, there has been 13,000 visitors on the portal and 2,000 of them have indicated interest on the product.

Close to 70 per cent of them are from the target age group of between 25 and 34 years old.

Announced at a workshop on Tuesday by Nguyen Duc Thanh, VEPR’s director, the independent assessment report affirmed key 2017 economic successes across sectors, mainly due to increases in exports, investment and domestic consumption.

He forecast that Vietnam’s 2018 economic growth rate will be 6.65 per cent. This is within the 2018 targeted range, as passed by the National Assembly (NA), between 6.5 and 6.7 per cent.

With current favourable conditions maintained, other NA yearly objectives including an export growth rate from 7 to 8 per cent and average consumer price index of 4 per cent are also within reach, said Duc Thanh.

Achievements such as the GDP growth rate of 6.81 per cent, exceeding the National Assembly’ annual target, improvements in the manufacturing and agriculture sectors and recovery of the |service sector were also |noted.

Speaking at the event, Truong Dinh Tuyen, former industry and trade minister, attributed such macroeconomic stability to the Government’s determination to enact institutional investment environment reforms.

In the same vein, Le Dang Doanh, former Director of the Central Institute for Economic Management (CIEM), said that contrary to inflation forecasts in 2017’s last quarter, the State Bank of Vietnam’s (SBV) flexible and prudent monetary policy proved to be effective in curbing market prices. Nonetheless, Doanh warned that the high budget deficit and public debt will continue to seriously hinder the economy. While public investment is still limited, high recurrent expenditures will be a burden on the State budget in 2018, he added.

Prominent economist Vo Tri Thanh commented that monetary policy would continue to be tightened, despite the SBV’s pledges to loosen. Still, stable systematic liquidity facilitates low interbank interest rates.

Meanwhile, economist Nguyen Tri Hieu was convinced that in 2017 the Vietnamese credit sector focused largely on industry and trade, gobbling 78.4 per cent out of total credit. This partly explains the impressive growth in the manufacturing sector as well as in the service sector.

However, he was worried that as the country’s 2017 credit-to-GDP rate was around 135 per cent, higher than other countries with similar levels of development and approaching previous instability levels. He said this could lead to the disruption of the banking system’s financial balance.

Despite positive signs, there remain potential challenges associated with macroeconomic instability in 2018, as many internal and external economic problems have yet to be thoroughly resolved, admitted Thanh.

Economic problems that will remain dead-weight burdens to growth include low labour productivity, diminishing advantage of cheap labour due to the 4.0 industrial revolution’s impact, declining mining output, |stagnation in the manufacturing and agricultural sector, increasing budget deficits and public debt.

Dependence on the world economy and the foreign invested sector also creates many major uncertainties for Vietnam in 2018, relating to geopolitical developments and trade protectionism as well as rapid global technology changes, Thanh concluded.

But for the whole of 2017, growth came in at its strongest pace in seven years on the back of robust global demand for tech products.

Non-oil domestic exports (Nodx) grew 3.1 per cent in December, undershooting economist estimates of an 8.6 per cent rise and also much slower than the preceding month’s 9.1 per cent increase.

This came as electronics exports – a key growth driver for the economy over the past year – declined 5.3 per cent over the same month a year earlier.

Non-electronics shipments

Non-electronics shipments made up the shortfall, rising 6.8 per cent.

Nodx to Singapore’s top 10 markets went up, with the exception of Hong Kong, Taiwan, mainland China, Thailand and Indonesia. The largest contributors to the Nodx increase were the European Union, South Korea and Malaysia.

In a note, OCBC Treasury Research pointed out that Nodx to China, Singapore’s largest export market, also dipped 6 per cent in December.

“This bears watching to see if the December slump to China is a seasonal blip.”

For the whole of 2017, Nodx grew about 9.2 per cent, taking into account the latest December data. This was the strongest pace of expansion since 2010 and also blew past official forecasts.

Trade agency IE Singapore had tipped Nodx to rise 6.5 per cent to 7 per cent for the full year.

Michael Wattimena, deputy chairman of the House of Representatives’ Commission IV, which oversees the agriculture sector, among others, said on Tuesday the policy would affect farmers’ income as the harvest season would come within the next two weeks.

Meanwhile, the imported rice is scheduled to arrive late this month.

“Don’t let our farmers pay the price because of the government’s decision to import,” said Wattimena, as reported by tribunnews.com adding that the government should have a proper policy to stabilise rice prices.

The lawmaker also criticised the government-sponsored Food Taskforce (Satgas Pangan), which he claimed knew nothing about the ongoing the price increase.

The government has set ceiling prices for medium-quality rice according to region: 9,450 rupiah per kilogram in Java, Lampung, South Sumatra, Bali, West Nusa Tenggara and Sulawesi; 9,950 rupiah per kg in the rest of Sumatra, Kalimantan and East Nusa Tenggara; and 10,250 rupiah per kg in Maluku and Papua.

However, Bank Indonesia’s price tracking website hargapangan.id showed a gradual increase in rice price in many parts of the country.

Meanwhile, Confederation of Indonesian Workers Union (KSPI) president Said Iqbal said the rice import decision would further weaken the farmers’ purchasing power due to lower incomes in the upcoming harvest seasons due to the decrease of their commodity price.

The governments of Laos and Slovakia have signed an agreement aimed at boosting bilateral business relations and finance cooperation between the two countries. This comes after an official working visit to Laos by a delegation of senior government officials of the Slovak Republic led by the Minister of Finance Peter Kazimir.

The official visit of a Slovakian delegation from January 15-18 for the Laos-Slovak Business Forum aims to enhance friendship and boost economic ties.

As part of its bilateral cooperation efforts, the Lao Ministry of Finance has signed a memorandum of understanding on financial cooperation with the Export-Import Bank of Slovakia.

This move will strongly support the future financial and business ties between the two sides for both the public and |private sectors. – Vientiane Times

Metrobank plans stock rights offering

Philippines’ Metropolitan Bank & Trust Co plans to raise fresh capital to expand its fast-growing loan book, riding on the country’s strong macroeconomic prospects.

In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange yesterday, the country’s second biggest lender said its board had approved a stock rights offering of up to a maximum of 819.83 million common shares equivalent to the remaining unissued shares from it authorised capital stock.

“Timing and size of the transaction are subject to other details such as the offer price and are subject to receipt of regulatory approvals as well as market and other conditions,” the disclosure said.

Metrobank, which has grown its loan book by over 20 per cent in the last six quarters, believes that the robust growth of the Philippines will continue to loan expansion across the various segments of the economy.

“The capital raising exercise is expected to enable the bank to pursue these business prospects to sustain the loan growth momentum, leveraging on the bank’s sales and distribution network that has rapidly expanded in the preceding years. To that end, the bank intends to focus on enhancing customer experience through digitization initiatives and branch efficiencies,” Metrobank said. – Philippine Daily Inquirer

Work begins on VN-funded market on the border

Construction has begun on a $2 million Vietnam-funded market located in Tbong Khmum province’s Memot district, about 1 kilometre from the nearest border crossing between Cambodia and Vietnam.

The first-ever border market will likely be dominated by Vietnamese goods, according to Sok Heang, president of the Kampong ChamTbong Khmum Chamber of Commerce, but would also broaden locals’ access to products.

“Our people often cross the border to buy goods in Vietnam because they have more products than us,” Heang said. “When we have better connections to sell goods, it will help people along the border to generate income.”

Cambodian and Vietnamese officials agreed to the market project in July 2016, saying at the time it would promote trade. The finished project is set to occupy 2 hectares of land in the district’s Kandorl village, and should take about 12 months to build, according to Commerce Ministry spokesman Seang Thay. – The Phnom Penh Post