June 18, 2013 Edition

Indonesia’s parliament has paved the way for a rise in petrol and diesel prices after months of debate and political haggling. The average 33% hike will reduce the government’s ballooning fuel subsidy which has been a major drain on resources. The move will likely stoke inflation and has sparked protests in recent days. The revised budget, passed late Monday, has a cash handout for poor families. A proposed increase of 33% in fuel prices last year led to violent demonstrations around the country. Opposition parties in parliament vehemently opposed a hike, despite economists saying a rise in fuel prices was critical for this country’s future. Although the decision to raise fuel prices and cut the subsidy bill will be applauded by the international investment community, Indonesians aren’t thrilled by the move.


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A key leg of growth for Philippines — overseas Filipino worker remittances — in cash and in kind, grew 7% in April 2013 to $2 billion from $1.9 billion a year ago, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas reported. The growth was faster than March’s 3.7% increase, BSP data showed. The April figure brought total remittances in the first 4 months of 2013 to $7.7 billion, up 6.4% from $7.2 billion the previous year. Cash remittances, or those coursed through banks, rose 5.7% to $6.9 billion in January to April from $6.5 billion in the same months of 2012.


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Airbus has secured more orders than rival Boeing on the opening day of the world’s biggest air show in Paris. Airbus announced orders worth $18.3bn to Boeing’s $6.1 billion. The largest of these was a provisional order of 20 A380 double-decker superjumbos by aircraft financing group Doric. Airbus is looking for buyers for its A350 aircraft, which had its maiden flight in France on 14 June. After several years of success for their smaller models, the world’s leading plane makers are hoping to get orders for the bigger, more expensive long-haul jets. Airbus heavily promoted the A350 — its first all-new plane in eight years. The A350 seats up to 440 and is Airbus‘ best chance to catch up with Boeing’s 787 and 777, which carry up to 300 and 365 passengers, respectively, in the race to sell planes used on long-haul flights. Airbus hoped that the A350’s short test flight last week would bring in potential customers at the show — especially after recent problems with Boeing’s competing 787, dubbed the Dreamliner.


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Singapore urged Indonesia to take “urgent measures” to tackle its forest fires as severe air pollution blown from Sumatra island choked the densely populated city-state. The city-state’s Pollutant Standards Index soared to 152 at 9:00pm (1300 GMT) June 17, well past the officially designated “unhealthy” threshold of 100. It was Singapore’s worst haze reading since 2006 when the PSI reached 150, statistics from the Ministry of the Environment and Water Resources showed. Parts of neighboring Malaysia were also suffering from the smoky haze, a recurring problem Southeast Asian governments have failed to solve despite repeated calls for action.


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At the end of May, Ethiopia began to change the course of the Nile river, displacing it by several hundred meters, in a move that has outraged Egypt and generated near panic over future water supplies. Long-standing animosities between the two countries has flared up with renewed bitterness. The Egyptians see the river as a gift from God – to them. Without the Nile there would have been no Ancient Egypt and its great heritage, only desert. The Nile remains a vital artery. But Ethiopia, where most of the river’s water originates, also wants to make use of it and has been planning a huge dam for years. Egypt depends on the Nile for 98% of its water – and water is in increasingly short supply.


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The talks between the government and former rebel group Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) are still a conversation, not new negotiations . This was stressed by Peace Adviser Secretary Teresita Deles when responding to  comments by a representative of the breakaway group Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), which was in its own peace talks with the government that has reached a deadlock due to contentious issues on dividing wealth and power between the proposed Bangsamoro region and the national government. Deles said the planned meeting with the MNLF was only meant as a “tripartite review” of the status of the implementation of the 1996 Final Peace Agreement to be facilitated by the Organization of Islamic Conference, which has brokered the talks between the two parties since the ’70s.


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It will be a rainy week ahead for many parts of the country, due to the combined effects of tropical storm Emong and the Southwest Monsoon. Emong has been upgraded to a tropical storm as it moves just east of Luzon state weather bureau PAGASA said Tuesday, June 18. Emong was spotted 460 km east of Isabela, Cagayan (17.3°N, 126.5°E) as of 10 am Tuesday, carrying maximum sustained winds of 65 km/h and gusts of 80 km/h, and moving north northwest at a speed of 19 km/h. Fishermen are warned of big waves in the seas in northern and eastern parts of Luzon, and in western parts of Southern Luzon. The tropical depression is still far to directly affect any part of the country. However, it is enhancing the effects of the monsoon, commonly called the ‘habagat,’ bringin moderate to occasionally heavy rain and thunderstorms to southern Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao.


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The late Steve Jobs took center stage Monday, June 17, in the latest twist in the Apple antitrust trial on ebooks. A federal court attempted to plumb the meaning of a series of unsent emails Jobs addressed to Eddy Cue, an Apple senior vice president assigned with negotiating ebook contracts with major publishers in late 2009 and early 2010 before the launch of the iPad. Even though the emails were never sent, government prosecutors argue that they help establish a pattern of Apple serving as a “ringleader” in a conspiracy with the publishers to force the retail book industry to adopt higher prices of ebooks. The government contends that Apple forced publishers to change their pricing system with Amazon, resulting in higher ebook prices across the industry and costing consumers hundreds of millions of dollars.


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The Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) has signed a contract with Korean-owned Resom Resort Phils. (Resom) for the development a P20-billion world-class tourism resort complex in the freeport. Resom committed to invest P1.2 billion in the first phase for a luxury hotel with around 300 rooms, convention facilities, pool, spa, restaurants and other support facilities in a prime 2-hectare waterfront property. SBMA said this phase would be ready by the time the Philippine hosts the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Conference in November 2015. A neighboring freeport, Clark, is also developing a 35,000-hectare location inside the economic zone. Called the Green City, the proposed development is patterned to South Korea’s Songdo, a smart city which is located in Incheon near the airport.


Read more about the Subic project here.
Read more about the Clark project here 

DreamWorks Animation will release new original shows exclusively on Netflix, under a deal announced June 17 by the video service and the studio behind blockbusters “Shrek” and “Kung Fu Panda.” The multi-year deal is the largest content agreement in the history of the California-based on-demand video provider. It is expected to include more than 300 hours of original programming, with shows inspired by past and future DreamWorks films. The first DreamWorks series is set to debut next year. “This is an unprecedented commitment to original content in the Internet television space,” said the studio’s boss Jeffrey Katzenberg, hailing the “visionary” Netflix.


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