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World News Quick Take

■ Public Debt
Philippines in crisis
The Philippines' former finance secretary has admitted that the country was in deep fiscal crisis due to an unmanageable public debt, news reports said yesterday. According to the BusinessWorld newspaper, Jose Isidro Camacho, who resigned from the cabinet last month, told an economic forum that the country's public debt was beyond manageable levels. The former investment banker also warned that the country's political system was ill-equipped to deal with the problem. "We could not deny the numbers, right now, we have a fiscal crisis," Camacho said. "The situation is not a mere problem but a crisis that needs to be solved immediately." Finance department data showed the country's public sector debt has totalled 5.162 trillion pesos (US$93.85 billion).

■ Development
ADB revises forecasts
China, South Korea and the Southeast Asian nations are expected to grow by an average 6.1 percent this year and 6.6 percent next year, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) said yesterday, revising upwards an earlier forecast. The higher-than-expected growth will be built on the back of China's rapid expansion, an improving external environment and strong domestic demand, said the ADB's quarterly report tracking growth and reforms in the 12 East Asian economies. The ADB had previously forecast 5.6 percent growth this year and 6.3 percent next year for the East Asian economies. It said that the external economic environment facing East Asia improved significantly in the third quarter of this year with a global stock market rally fuelled by encouraging corporate earnings.

■ IPR
US ranks No. 1 in survey
The US ranked first for its ability to create and protect intellectual property, followed by Japan and Singapore, a survey found yesterday. Conducted by the Intelleigen Group, a market research firm, the poll analyzed 400 variables relating to people, infrastructure, market and culture to arrive at an intellectual-property index. Out of a possible top score of 10, the US garnered 6.84, Japan 4.71 and Singapore 4.03 points. India scored a negative 0.3 points and China a negative 3.25. "The scores can be interpreted as a dollar invested in IP in the US would most likely generate more financial and other returns compared to a dollar invested in Singapore," said Chee Chun Woei, the firm's chairman. "On the other hand, you might actually lose the dollar, and more, if you invested it in IP in China, and to a lesser extent, in India," he said.

■ Corruption
World Bank wants action
The World Bank called on UN members on Wednesday to strengthen transparency and help make multimillion-dollar government corruption scandals a thing of the past. Some 5 percent of GDP worldwide is lost to corruption such as misuse of funds and embezzlement, the World Bank said at a UN conference in Merida. Nations need to reform campaign financing and make their governments more open to scrutiny, in part to attract foreign investment, World Bank official Daniel Kaufmann told reporters. So far 70 nations have signed a UN convention against corruption which aims to help them recover money pillaged by unscrupulous leaders and hidden in foreign banks.

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