■Commerce
China changes tack
China's nominal chamber of commerce, a former bastion of communist economic control, has elected 233 entrepreneurs to its 412-member executive committee, a federation secretary said yesterday. The vote at the closing session Wednedsay of the organization's annual congress was the latest sign of China's embrace of capitalism. All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce Vice Chairman Liang Jinquan said the new members would ensure that "China's private economy would enter a new phase of fast and healthy development in the next five years," the official Xinhua News Agency reported. China's communist leaders hail the private sector as their fast growing economy's main driver, merging with the party's uncompromising political control to build "socialism with Chinese characteristics."
■ Gold
Sales in Vietnam rise
Vietnam's property boom is spurring demand for gold bars used to pay for homes, bucking a slump in bullion sales across Southeast Asia. Vietnam's gold demand rose 5.4 percent in the third quarter even as total Southeast Asian sales fell 5 percent, the World Gold Council said. In five years, the number of gold shops in Hanoi doubled to about 400, said Vu Duong, deputy director of Kim Quy, a trader of the metal based in the capital city. Economic growth that averaged about 6 percent over the past five years left the Vietnamese with cash to invest, and property is among their favored assets. The price of an inner-city home can total several garbage bags of Vietnamese dong -- so gold bars have become a favored currency. "The country's economy is now open," Duong said. "The primary reason that people buy gold here is to buy property,'' said Brett Ashton, director of the Ho Chi Minh City branch of property consultants Chesterton Petty Vietnam.
■ Computers
Spending may rebound
Spending on computer-related and communications technology will grow 5.8 percent next year after posting its worst-ever decline this year, industry researcher IDC said. "Overall, the IT industry has contracted by roughly 3 percent over the past two years," said John Gantz, chief research officer at IDC in a release. "This is in sharp contrast to the average annual growth rate of 12 percent enjoyed by the industry over the past 20 years." Spending on electronics may rise after US consumer confidence increased in November for the first time in six months. Americans grew more optimistic about their current and future prospects, a University of Michigan survey showed. IDC said its worldwide forecast for 2003 may be too high if there is a war in Iraq or plunge in the stock market.
■ Sex sells
Women go for handcuffs
Handcuffs are the fastest selling item at five new shops tailored for women by Germany's biggest retailer of sex merchandise, the store chain said on Wednesday. Beate Uhse AG said handcuffs have been flying off the shelves of stores it opened this year to focus on sex toys for women, rather than the traditional male clientele. "Women's sexual appetites are steeped more in the realm of fantasy -- they like to use their imagination more than men," said Assia Tschernookoff, a spokeswoman for Beate Uhse at corporate headquarters in Flensburg.
Agencies
RSS