South Korean President Lee Myung-bak said yesterday he hopes G20 leaders will agree on how to draw up current account “guidelines” aimed at easing global imbalances but admitted a severe standoff between the major economies.
Lee, who will host the Nov. 11 and Nov. 12 summit of leaders from the G20 major economies in Seoul, praised China’s cooperation in reaching an agreement between the finance ministers and central bank governors last month to avert a “currency war.”
“I think countries that are having a severe standoff such as the United States, Europe and China will be able to reach an agreement on the basis of the principles adopted in Gyeongju,” Lee told a televised news conference.
Finance ministers and central bank chiefs from the G20 economies agreed late last month in the South Korean city of Gyeongju to shun competitive currency -devaluations, although they stopped short of setting targets to reduce trade imbalances.
Lee said the leaders would try to adopt detailed plans on strengthening the global financial safety nets by diversifying the funding mechanisms away from the IMF’s lending facilities and helping poor nations develop.
“The development agenda [promoted by South Korea] is aimed at helping strengthening the growth potentials and the ability to grow,” he said, referring to his country’s proposal to find alternative ways of helping develop poor nations.
On the pending ratification of a free-trade agreement with the US, Lee said the US would be sending an important message on its commitment to free trade if the two countries finally advance a pact signed three years ago.
“I believe concluding the South Korean-US FTA carries an important message on free trade as far as the US position is concerned,” he said, while reaffirming that he hopes to finalize the deal through a meeting with US President Barack Omaba on the sidelines of the G20 summit.
China’s undervalued yuan is hurting Asia as much as the US, and neighbors should help convince Beijing to let its currency rise, -financial experts meeting in the Philippines yesterday.
The Asian Development Bank-backed Asian Policy Forum also urged regional governments as well as G20 leaders to take steps to avert possible currency and trade wars.
The forum issued a statement calling for the G20 to discuss the currency problem at its summit in South Korea on Nov. 11 and 12.
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day
Thousands of parents in Singapore are furious after a Cordlife Group Ltd (康盛人生集團), a major operator of cord blood banks in Asia, irreparably damaged their children’s samples through improper handling, with some now pursuing legal action. The ongoing case, one of the worst to hit the largely untested industry, has renewed concerns over companies marketing themselves to anxious parents with mostly unproven assurances. This has implications across the region, given Cordlife’s operations in Hong Kong, Macau, Indonesia, the Philippines and India. The parents paid for years to have their infants’ cord blood stored, with the understanding that the stem cells they contained