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International Four Star General West and East Singapore

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SINGAPORE: The Government of Singapore Investment Corporation (GIC) has created two new appointments "to enhance its global perspectives and strategy development."

Lim Chow Kiat, GIC's former head of fixed income, currency and commodities, will be President for Europe, covering Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

He will be based in London.

Anthony Lim has been appointed President for the Americas and based in New York.

The fund said the appointments come at a time when critical changes will be made to the global financial system.

GIC added that there is a need for it to not only gather but also contribute deeper insights into investment opportunities and challenges in the coming years.
 

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Can Singapore GIC win the World Economy War?

We lose war in China, India, South East Asia and NATO in 2008?
 

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TOKYO: Japan's Democratic Party Monday began talks on forming a new government, facing the tasks of reviving the struggling economy and reshaping ties with key world allies after its crushing election win.

Yukio Hatoyama's centre-left Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) is under heavy pressure to get to work quickly on solving the huge challenges facing this fast-greying country and pulling it out of its long economic malaise.

Media projections indicate that the DPJ won 308 seats in the powerful 480-member lower house in the Sunday poll, ending half a century of almost unbroken conservative rule. Official results were due later Monday.

Hatoyama, 62, who is expected to be confirmed by parliament as prime minister in about two weeks, is set to form a coalition with smaller partners such as the Social Democratic Party and the People's New Party.

The US-trained engineering scholar, the scion of a wealthy political dynasty, promised to build consensus and avoid "arrogance" in government a day after his party's historic win over Japan's conservative old guard.

"We will not just bulldoze our policies," he told public broadcaster NHK. "We must exercise patience and seek people's understanding because we have been given such latitude."

Japan's usually risk-averse electorate, frustrated with the worst post-war recession, punished Prime Minister Taro Aso and forced the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) from office for only the second time since 1955.

Aso said he would resign as head of the LDP to "take the responsibility" for his party's heavy defeat, set to leave it with only about 119 seats.

The DPJ has signalled a solid but less subservient partnership with traditional ally the United States and a desire to boost its regional ties, promoting a European Union-style Asian community and common currency.

In Washington, President Barack Obama's White House said it expected a "strong alliance" with the DPJ and hoped to hold early consultations with Tokyo, including on the stand-off with nuclear-armed North Korea.

"We are confident that the strong US-Japan alliance and the close partnership between our two countries will continue to flourish under the leadership of the next government," White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said.

As premier, Hatoyama would be expected to attend next month's UN general assembly in New York and a G20 summit in Pittsburgh, and seek early talks with Obama, Chinese President Hu Jintao and other world leaders.

On the home front, the new government faces the formidable task of reviving the economy after its worst recession in decades, with unemployment at a record high 5.7 per cent, and warding off a possible demographic timebomb.

The DPJ has promised to put the focus more on households than big business, with the aim of boosting domestic demand and raising the birth rate in the ageing country where the population is projected to soon go into decline.

"It is a historical event but this is very much the beginning," said Noriko Hama, a professor of economics at Doshisha Business School in Kyoto.

"There is very little room for dithering or dragging their feet. Japan will have to break with its past, or I do not think we will be able to cope with the social disparities and the economic situation."

Japan's dailies warned the DPJ that their victory owed just as much to voter anger toward the conservatives as to enthusiasm for their own policies.

"The will of the people caused an avalanche for the DPJ," the Asahi Shimbun said in an editorial. "But if we ask whether this shows confidence in a DPJ government, the answer is probably 'no'."

The top-selling Yomiuri Shimbun said voters are "rather worried" over the untested DPJ's capability to govern.

"They fared well under the slogan of 'government change'. Now that it has come true, what is important is how they will manage a government in real politics," it said.

Investors initially appeared to welcome the election result, chasing share prices up to a new 2009 high in early trade, although the rally later fizzled out by lunch due to concerns about a stronger yen.

- AFP/yb

Lose in Economy War LPD pack out?
 

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Why Singapore never invest Palm Oil Plantation and create job for Singaporean in plantation and crude oil in Myanmar, Cambodia, Vietnam and Philipine. We can do the refinery palm oil in Singapore.

Palm oil is an edible plant oil derived from the fruit and kernels (seeds) of the oil palm Elaeis guineensis. Palm oil is naturally reddish because it contains a high amount of beta-carotene (though boiling it destroys the carotenoids and renders the oil colourless). Palm oil is one of the few vegetable oils relatively high in saturated fats (like coconut oil) and thus semi-solid at room temperature.

The oil from palm fruit is widely used as a cooking oil, as an ingredient in margarine, and is a component of many processed foods. On the other hand, palm kernel oil is an important component of many soaps, washing powders and personal care products.

In 2008, world production of oils and fats stood at 160 million tonnes. Palm oil and palm kernel oil were jointly the largest contributor, accounting for 48 million tonnes or 30% of the total output. Soybean oil came in second with 37 million tonnes (23%). About 38% of the oils and fats produced in the world were shipped across oceans. Of the 60.3 million tonnes of oils and fats exported around the world, palm oil and palm kernel oil make up close to 60%. Malaysia contributed nearly 11% to the global oils and fats output through 17.7 million tonnes of palm oil. It also maintained dominance of the palm oil trade, holding 45% of the market share.[1]
 
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Why Singapore never invest Sugarcane Plantation and create job for Singaporean in plantation in Laos, Myanmar, Cambodia, Vietnam and Philipine. We can do the refinery in Singapore.

Sugarcane, or sugar cane, is any of six to thirty-seven species (depending on taxonomic system) of tall perennial grasses of the genus, Saccharum, (family Poaceae, tribe Andropogoneae). Native to warm temperate to tropical regions of Asia, they have stout, jointed, fibrous stalks that are rich in sugar and measure two to six meters (six to nineteen feet) tall. All sugar cane species interbreed, and the major commercial cultivars are complex hybrids.

Sugarcane cultivation requires a tropical or subtropical climate, with a minimum of 600 mm (24 in) of annual moisture. It is one of the most efficient photosynthesizers in the plant kingdom. It is a C-4 plant, able to convert up to 2 percent of incident solar energy into biomass.[citation needed] In prime growing regions, such as Peru, Brazil, Bolivia, Colombia, Australia, Ecuador, Cuba, the Philippines and Hawaii, sugarcane can produce 20 kg for each square meter exposed to the sun.[citation needed]

Although certain types of sugarcane still produce seeds, modern methods of stem cuttings have become the most common method of reproduction. Each cutting must contain at least one bud, and the cuttings are usually planted by hand. Once planted, a stand of cane can be harvested several times; after each harvest, the cane sends up new stalks, called ratoons. Usually, each successive harvest gives a smaller yield, and eventually the declining yields justify replanting. Depending on agricultural practice, two to ten harvests may be possible between plantings.[citation needed]

Sugarcane is harvested mostly by hand and sometimes mechanically. Hand harvesting accounts for more than half of the world's production, and is especially dominant in the developing world. When harvested by hand, the field is first set on fire. The fire spreads rapidly, burning away dry dead leaves, and killing any venomous snakes hiding in the crop, but leaving the water-rich stalks and roots unharmed. With cane knives or machetes, harvesters then cut the standing cane just above the ground. A skilled harvester can cut 500 kg of sugarcane in an hour.[citation needed]


Sugarcane mechanical harvest in Jaboticabal, São Paulo state, Brazil.With mechanical harvesting, a sugarcane combine (or chopper harvester), a harvesting machine originally developed in Australia, is used. The Austoft 7000 series was the original design for the modern harvester and has now been copied by other companies including Cameco and John Deere. The machine cuts the cane at the base of the stalk, separates the cane from its leaves, and deposits the cane into a haulout transporter while blowing the thrash back onto the field. Such machines can harvest 100 tonnes of cane each hour, but cane harvested using these machines must be transported to the processing plant rapidly; once cut, sugarcane begins to lose its sugar content, and damage inflicted on the cane during mechanical harvesting accelerates this decay.

Sugar cane is cultivated in almost all the world only for some months of the year.
 

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Why Singapore never invest Paper Plantation and create job for Singaporean in plantation in Loas, Myanmar, Cambodia, Vietnam and Philipine. We can do the paper plant in Singapore.

Paper is thin material mainly used for writing upon, printing upon or for packaging. It is produced by pressing together moist fibers, typically cellulose pulp derived from wood, rags or grasses, and drying them into flexible sheets.

Paper is a versatile material with many uses. Whilst the most common is for writing and printing upon, it is also widely used as a packaging material, in many cleaning products, in a number of industrial and construction processes, and occasionally as a food ingredient, particularly in Asian cultures.

The purpose of a chemical pulping process is to break down the chemical structure of lignin and render it soluble in the cooking liquor, so that it may be washed from the cellulose fibers. Because lignin holds the plant cells together, chemical pulping frees the fibres and makes pulp. The pulp can also be bleached to produce white paper for printing, painting and writing. Chemical pulps tend to cost more than mechanical pulps, largely due to the low yield, 40–50% of the original wood. Since the process preserves fibre length, however, chemical pulps tend to make stronger paper. Another advantage of chemical pulping is that the majority of the heat and electricity needed to run the process is produced by burning the lignin removed during pulping.

Papers made from chemical wood-based pulps are also known as woodfree papers.

The Kraft process is the most commonly practiced strategy for pulp manufacturing and produces especially strong, unbleached papers that can be used directly for bags and boxes but are often processed further, e.g. to make corrugated cardboard.

There are two major mechanical pulps, thermomechanical pulp (TMP) and mechanical pulp. The latter is known in the USA as groundwood pulp. In the TMP process, wood is chipped and then fed into large steam-heated refiners where the chips are squeezed and fibreized between two steel discs. In the groundwood process, debarked logs are fed into grinders where they are pressed against rotating stones and fibreized. Mechanical pulping does not remove the lignin, so the yield is very high, >95%, but also causes paper made from this pulp to yellow and become brittle over time. Mechanical pulps have rather short fibre lengths and produce weak paper. Although large amounts of electrical energy are required to produce mechanical pulp, it costs less than chemical pulp.

Paper recycling processes can use either chemical or mechanical pulp. By mixing with water and applying mechanical action the hydrogen bonds in the paper can be broken and fibres separated again. Most recycled paper contains a proportion of virgin fibre in the interests of quality.

There are three main classifications of recycled fibre:.

Mill Broke or Internal Mill Waste — this incorporates any substandard or grade-change paper made within the paper mill which then goes back into the manufacturing system to be repulped back into paper. Such out-of-specification paper is not sold and is therefore often not classified as genuine reclaimed recycled fibre. However, most paper mills have been recycling their own waste fibre for many years, long before recycling become popular.
Preconsumer Waste — this is offcuts and processing waste, such as guillotine trims and envelope blank waste. This waste is generated outside the paper mill and could potentially go to landfill, and is a genuine recycled fibre source. Also includes de-inked preconsumer (recycled material that has been printed but did not reach its intended end use, such as waste from printers and unsold publications). [2]
Postconsumer waste — this is fibre from paper which has been used for its intended end use and would include office waste, magazine papers and newsprint. As the vast majority of this paper has been printed (either digitally or by more conventional means such as litho or gravure), it will either be recycled as printed paper or go through a de-inking process first.
Recycled papers can be made from 100% recycled materials or blended with virgin pulp. Recycled papers are (generally) not as strong nor as bright as papers made from virgin pulp.

After the paper web is produced, the water must be removed from it by pressing and drying.

Pressing the sheet removes the water by force. Once the water is forced from the sheet, felt (not to be confused with the traditional felt) is used to collect the water. When making paper by hand, a blotter sheet is used.

Drying involves using air and or heat to remove water from the paper sheet. In the earliest days of papermaking this was done by hanging the paper sheets like laundry. In more modern times, various forms of heated drying mechanisms are used. On the paper machine, the most common is the steam-heated can dryer. These dryers can heat to temperatures above 200°F (93°C) and are used in long sequences of more than 40 cans. The heat produced by these can easily dry the paper to less than 6% moisture.

The paper may then undergo sizing to alter its physical properties for use in various applications.

Paper at this point is uncoated. Coated paper has a thin layer of material such as calcium carbonate or china clay applied to one or both sides in order to create a surface more suitable for high-resolution halftone screens. (Uncoated papers are rarely suitable for screens above 150 lpi.) Coated or uncoated papers may have their surfaces polished by calendering. Coated papers are divided into matte, semi-matte or silk, and gloss. Gloss papers give the highest optical density in the printed image.

The paper is then fed onto reels if it is to be used on web printing presses, or cut into sheets for other printing processes or other purposes. The fibres in the paper basically run in the machine direction. Sheets are usually cut "long-grain", i.e. with the grain parallel to the longer dimension of the sheet.

All paper produced by paper machines as the Fourdrinier machine are wove paper, i.e. the wire mesh that transports the web leaves a pattern that has the same density along the paper grain and across the grain. Textured finishes, watermarks and wire patterns imitating hand-made laid paper can be created by the use of appropriate rollers in the later stages of the machine.

Wove paper does not exhibit "laidlines", which are small regular lines left behind on paper when it was handmade in a mould made from rows of metal wires or bamboo. Laidlines are very close together. They run perpendicular to the "chainlines", which are further apart. Handmade paper similarly exhibits "deckle edges", or rough and feathery borders.[3]
 

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Why must use our saving to purchase currency, property and share?

Why must we find easy money at West (Arab, EU, Affica) and East (Canada, USA, Latin America, South America)
 

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Financial instruments usually carry three main types of risk.

■Credit risk: the risk that a debtor will not pay
■Liquidity risk: the risk that the asset cannot be sold as a buyer cannot be found.
■Market risk: the risk that the price will fall due to a change in market conditions.
Gold is unique in that it does not carry a credit risk. Gold is no one's liability. There is no risk that a coupon or a redemption payment will not be made, as for a bond, or that a company will go out of business, as for an equity. And unlike a currency, the value of gold cannot be affected by the economic policies of the issuing country or undermined by inflation in that country. At the same time, 24-hour trading, a wide range of buyers - from the jewellery sector to financial institutions to manufacturers of industrial products - and the wide range of investment channels available, including coins and bars, jewellery, futures and options, exchange-traded funds, certificates and structured products, make liquidity risk very low. The gold market is deep and liquid, as demonstrated by the fact that gold can be traded at narrower spreads and more rapidly than many competing diversifiers or even mainstream investments.

Gold is of course subject to market risk, as is clear from the experience of the 1980s when the gold price declined sharply. But many of the downside risks associated with the gold price are very different to the risks associated with other assets, a factor which enhances gold's attractiveness as a portfolio diversifier. For example, should a central bank announce its intention to engage in substantial sales of gold, as happened prior to the Central Bank Gold Agreement in 1999, this would be unlikely to have an impact on equity returns but could reasonably be expected to affect the gold price in the short run. Similarly, the specific risks to which bonds and equities are exposed, including pressure on the health of the government and corporate sector during an economic downturn, are not shared by gold.

One measure of market risk is volatility, which measures the dispersion of returns for a given security or market index. The more volatile an asset, usually the riskier it is. The gold price is typically less volatile than other commodity prices. This is because of the depth and liquidity of the gold market, which are supported by the availability of large above-ground stocks of gold. Because gold is virtually indestructible, nearly all of the gold which has ever been mined still exists, much of it in near market form. This means that sudden excess demand for gold can usually be satisfied with relative ease. As a result, gold is generally slightly less volatile than heavily traded blue-chip stock market indices such as the FTSE 100 or the S&P 500.
 

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Gold has long been regarded by investors as a good protection against depreciation in a currency's value, both internally (i.e. against inflation) and externally (against other currencies). In the latter case, gold is widely considered to be a particularly effective hedge against fluctuations in the US dollar, the world's main trading currency.
 

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In financial markets, a share is a unit of account for various financial instruments including stocks (ordinary or preferential), and investments in limited partnerships, and REIT's. The common feature of all these is equity participation (limited in the case of preference shares).

In American English, the plural stocks is widely used instead of shares, in other words to refer to the stock (or perhaps originally stock certificates) of even a single company. Traditionalist demands that the plural stocks be used only when referring to stock of more than one company are rarely heard nowadays..

Shares are valued according to various principles in different markets, but a basic premise is that a share is worth the price at which a transaction would be likely to occur were the shares to be sold. The liquidity of markets is a major consideration as to whether a share is able to be sold at any given time. An actual sale transaction of shares between buyer and seller is usually considered to provide the best prima-facie market indicator as to the 'true value' of shares at that particular moment.
 

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A security is a fungible, negotiable instrument representing financial value. Securities are broadly categorized into debt securities (such as banknotes, bonds and debentures); equity securities, e.g., common stocks; and derivative contracts, such as forwards, futures, options and swaps. The company or other entity issuing the security is called the issuer. A country's regulatory structure determines what qualifies as a security. For example, private investment pools may have some features of securities, but they may not be registered or regulated as such if they meet various restrictions.

Securities may be represented by a certificate or, more typically, "non-certificated", that is in electronic or "book entry" only form. Certificates may be bearer, meaning they entitle the holder to rights under the security merely by holding the security, or registered, meaning they entitle the holder to rights only if he or she appears on a security register maintained by the issuer or an intermediary. They include shares of corporate stock or mutual funds, bonds issued by corporations or governmental agencies, stock options or other options, limited partnership units, and various other formal investment instruments that are negotiable and fungible.
 

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In economics, a financial market is a mechanism that allows people to easily buy and sell (trade) financial securities (such as stocks and bonds), commodities (such as precious metals or agricultural goods), and other fungible items of value at low transaction costs and at prices that reflect the efficient-market hypothesis.

Financial markets have evolved significantly over several hundred years and are undergoing constant innovation to improve liquidity.

Both general markets (where many commodities are traded) and specialized markets (where only one commodity is traded) exist. Markets work by placing many interested buyers and sellers in one "place", thus making it easier for them to find each other. An economy which relies primarily on interactions between buyers and sellers to allocate resources is known as a market economy in contrast either to a command economy or to a non-market economy such as a gift economy.

In finance, financial markets facilitate –

The raising of capital (in the capital markets);
The transfer of risk (in the derivatives markets);
International trade (in the currency markets)
– and are used to match those who want capital to those who have it.

Typically a borrower issues a receipt to the lender promising to pay back the capital. These receipts are securities which may be freely bought or sold. In return for lending money to the borrower, the lender will expect some compensation in the form of interest or dividends.

In mathematical finance, the concept of a financial market is defined in terms of a continuous-time Brownian motion stochastic process.
 

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Real estate is a legal term (in some jurisdictions, notably in the USA, United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia) that encompasses land along with anything permanently affixed to the land, such as buildings, specifically property that is fixed in location.[1] Real estate law is the body of regulations and legal codes which pertain to such matters under a particular jurisdiction and include things such as commercial and residential real property transactions. Real estate is often considered synonymous with real property (also sometimes called realty), in contrast with personal property (also sometimes called chattel or personalty under chattel law or personal property law).

However, in some situations the term "real estate" refers to the land and fixtures together, as distinguished from "real property," referring to ownership of land and appurtenances, including anything of a permanent nature such as structures, trees, minerals, and the interest, benefits, and inherent rights thereof. Real property is typically considered to be Immovable property[2] The terms real estate and real property are used primarily in common law, while civil law jurisdictions refer instead to immovable property.
 

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The financial markets can be divided into different subtypes:

Capital markets which consist of:
Stock markets, which provide financing through the issuance of shares or common stock, and enable the subsequent trading thereof.
Bond markets, which provide financing through the issuance of bonds, and enable the subsequent trading thereof.
Commodity markets, which facilitate the trading of commodities.
Money markets, which provide short term debt financing and investment.
Derivatives markets, which provide instruments for the management of financial risk.
Futures markets, which provide standardized forward contracts for trading products at some future date; see also forward market.
Insurance markets, which facilitate the redistribution of various risks.
Foreign exchange markets, which facilitate the trading of foreign exchange.
The capital markets consist of primary markets and secondary markets. Newly formed (issued) securities are bought or sold in primary markets. Secondary markets allow investors to sell securities that they hold or buy existing securities.
 
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