Malaysian Islamic insurer Great Eastern Takaful will expand to Indonesia and Brunei to tap the Muslim market for sharia-compliant products, its chief executive officer said on Monday.
The company, which is owned by a subsidiary of Singapore’s Great Eastern Holdings (GELA.SI) and Malaysia’s armed forces cooperative, also has Singapore and China on its radar for expansion.
ST Engineering today announced that STSE Engineering Services (STSE) has incorporated a wholly-owned subsidiary, STSE Engineering Services (B) Sdn Bhd (STSEB), in Brunei.
STSE is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Singapore Technologies Marine, the marine arm of ST Engineering.
TEE International says it has won a BND 147.5 million ($146.3 million) contract by Brunei Economic Development Board (BEDB) to build 1,500 houses within 18 months in Tutong District under the National Housing Scheme of Brunei Darussalam.
With this contract, the group’s total outstanding order book for engineering projects currently stands at $388.7 million.
The group expects the Brunei housing contract to contribute significantly and positively to its performance in FY2011 and FY2012.
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Sin Heng Heavy Machinery, one of the leading heavy lifting service providers in Singapore focusing on the mid-to-high lifting capacity segment, has entered into a dealership agreement with Kato Works Co., one of the world’s leading hydraulic crane manufacturers.
Can the world’s best-known holiday resort continue in its current form?
CLUB MED was celebrated in its early days as a socialist paradise where thanks to its villages’ all-inclusive formula, money had no value. Holidaymakers are “all multimillionaires”, exclaimed Paris Match in 1965. Judging by its results, Club Med still has an anti-capitalist philosophy. It has lost about €250m ($310m) on revenues of €13 billion in the past eight years and its share price has fallen from over €120 in 2000 to €14 now. But there is no shortage of interest in the company.
Last year Club Med was the target of Bernard Tapie, a Marseilles businessman, who bought a chunk of shares and pushed for change before selling out last December. In June Fosun Group, a Chinese conglomerate, took a 7% stake. Most recently there have been reports that BMB Group, the sultan of Brunei’s investment company, wants to invest, though it has denied having direct talks with the firm. …
ST Engineering announced today that a consortium formed by its marine arm, Singapore Technologies Marine Ltd (ST Marine) and its Brunei partner QAF Limited, has been awarded a $66.5m contract to design and construct a waste management facility in Sungai Paku, Brunei. The project will comprise an engineered landfill, a transfer station plus three years of operations and maintenance of the facility.
Kesri Singh has been appointed group COO wef May 17
Work experience: Group GM, RSH Ltd, Brunei and Thailand
SIA Engineering Company has signed a $42 million fleet management programme (FMP) contract with Royal Brunei Airlines to provide maintenance and fleet management services for the airline’s fleet of six Boeing B777-200ER aircraft, which it is leasing from Singapore Airlines.
Teledata (Singapore), the IT systems integrator and communications services company, says it has secured the exclusive right, for a period of five weeks, to negotiate with HH Prince Abdul Hakeem from Brunei for the proposed acquisition of a 51% stake in Elektromotive, a provider of technology and engineering solutions for smart electric vehicle recharging stations.
Some of them have a taste for sex slaves, others just don’t know what to do with all of their money; these are 14 of the filthy rich from around the world that belong in the League of Extraordinary International Douchebags.


Sacked By An Imperfect Angel! Paris Hilton has booted from a singing gig after music legend and notorious diva Mariah Carey refused to share the stage with the socialiate.
Paris was supposed to collaborate with MC on an upcoming video for Prince Azim of Brunei. Prince Azim, 27, who is the son of the Sultan [...]
US Senator Richard Lugar said he plans to introduce legislation aimed at negotiating a free-trade agreement with the Association of South East Asian Nations.
Trade restrictions with Myanmar, an Asean member, should not hinder the US from pursuing a trade deal with the rest of the regional group, the Indiana Republican said in an Oct. 9 statement on his website.
The US signed a trade and investment framework with Asean in August 2006, aimed at boosting economic ties with the region and possibly leading to a free-trade deal.
“China, India, Australia, New Zealand and South Korea have already finalized FTAs with Asean and are sharpening a competitive edge over the US in Southeast Asia,” Lugar said. “The United States should proceed to develop a comprehensive strategy toward engaging ASEAN in serious FTA discussions.”
President Barack Obama may meet Asean leaders at an Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in Singapore in November, Lugar said.
Asean includes Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
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The playboy brother of the Sultan of Brunei has made two surprise appearances in the oil-rich nation in recent weeks, triggering speculation that a decade-long family feud is being resolved. Prince Jefri Bolkiah, who has been embroiled in legal action over allegations that billions of
India and the 10-country South East Asian bloc Asean have signed a free trade agreement after more than six years of talks.
Tariffs on electronics, chemicals, machinery and textiles will be reduced and eventually eliminated.
These products make up 80% of goods traded between India and Asean.
But India has been allowed to continue protecting its farm sector, and has excluded 489 products, including rubber, from the trade deal.
Computer software and information technology are also exempt.
A smaller list of products, described as "highly sensitive", such as palm oil and coffee, will see tariffs reduced over about 10 years, but only modestly.
‘Win-win’
The deal was signed in Bangkok at a meeting of economic ministers of the Association of South East Asian Nations – made up of Brunei, Burma, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
Asean is India’s fourth-largest trading partner. The value of trade between the two was $47bn (£28bn) in 2008.
Secretary-general of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry, Amit Mitra, said the agreement, which comes into effect form January next year, was "a win-win for both sides".
"Our minds have met. Of course, a few will lose, but many more will gain."
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
US officials have had a rare meeting with representatives of Burma’s regime.
Unnamed officials told reporters that efforts to improve ties depended partly on the outcome of democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi’s trial.
The US also pressed Burma to enforce a United Nations resolution imposing an arms embargo on North Korea.
The US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has been on the diplomatic offensive ahead of a regional meeting now under way in Thailand.
Earlier in her trip to Thailand, she issued warnings about how a nuclear North Korea was unacceptable to the United States, and expressed concerns about the possible transfer of nuclear technology from North Korea to Burma.
The wrong road
Mrs Clinton called for the release of Ms Suu Kyi from many years of detention.
"If she were released, that would open up opportunities… for my country to expand our relationship with Burma, including investments in Burma," Mrs Clinton said.
This point was reinforced in the face-to-face meeting between US and Burmese officials on Wednesday night, US officials said.
They said they had told Burma that "the outcome of the trial of Aung San Suu Kyi would affect our willingness and ability to take positive steps in our bilateral relationship".
Mrs Clinton was not present at the meeting with Burmese officials, and said she did not intend to appear at a possible meeting with North Korean officials either.
She told reporters that the US is convinced that Burma is taking the wrong road by associating with North Korea.
Mrs Clinton also told reporters that North Korea must completely and irreversibly end its nuclear weapons program or face further isolation and "the unrelenting pressure" of international sanctions.
She said there were more positive ways ahead if the North chooses, and she is expected to announce conditions in which the North will be welcomed back into international discussions later on Thursday.
Symbols matter
Meanwhile, Mrs Clinton signed a symbolically important treaty with members of Asean.
The Treaty of Amity and Co-operation binds the US more closely into the regional security architecture – something previous US administrations had fought shy of.
"I want to send a very clear message that the United States is back, that we are fully engaged and committed to our relationships in South East Asia," she said before the signing the treaty in the resort of Phuket.
Mrs Clinton’s predecessor Condoleezza Rice skipped two Asean forums, leading analysts to remark on how China was gaining friends and influencing people in the perceived US absence.
Mrs Clinton also said the Obama administration would soon appoint a permanent ambassador to Asean headquarters in Jakarta.
Asean comprises Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Burma, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.</p
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
• Co-ordinated attacks on neighbouring buildings
• Killers checked in and made bombs in rooms
The menace of international terrorism returned to Indonesia when explosions ripped through two luxury hotels in Jakarta, killing eight guests and injuring at least 50 others.
Two suicide bombers who had checked in as hotel guests triggered the blasts, which occurred within minutes of each other at the neighbouring JW Marriott and Ritz-Carlton hotels in the Indonesian capital’s business district.
Two Australians and a New Zealander were reportedly among the dead, and the wounded included 18 other foreign nationals from the US, Australia, Canada, India, the Netherlands, Norway and South Korea. The Foreign Office said it had no indication of any British casualties.
The attack forced Manchester United, who are on a pre-season tour of south-east Asia, to cancel a friendly fixture against an Indonesian XI in Jakarta on Monday. The team, currently in the Malaysian capital, Kuala Lumpur, had planned to stay at the Ritz-Carlton this weekend.
Investigators say the bombers had checked in to the Marriott on Wednesday and assembled the bombs in a room on the 18th floor, where an unexploded device was found after the blasts. CCTV cameras recorded the moment of the Marriott blast; grainy images show a man pulling a bag on wheels across the lobby before the flash of the explosion.
The bombs went off in the hotels’ restaurants during breakfast. Witnesses reported seeing bloodied bodies being carried away moments after the explosions, which turned the facades of both hotels into masses of twisted metal. Others said they had seen hundreds of guests, most of whom appeared to be westerners, emerge dazed from the Ritz-Carlton as plumes of thick smoke engulfed nearby buildings and restaurants. “There were bodies on the ground, one of them had no stomach,” said a local man.”
The attacks came as Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim country, appeared to be re-establishing itself as a tourist destination. They were the first in the country since 2005, when 20 people died in blasts on the resort island of Bali.
No group has claimed responsibility, but analysts believe they were the work of Jemaah Islamiyah, an Islamist militant group that advocates an Islamist super-state spanning Indonesia, Malaysia, the southern Philippines, southern Thailand, Singapore and Brunei. The group carried out a bombing at the Marriott in 2003 in which 13 people died, and is blamed for over 50 other attacks in Indonesia in the last decade. They include the October 2002 bombings of two nightclubs in Bali in which 202 died, mainly westerners.
Indonesia’s president, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, condemned the attack as “cruel and inhuman” and vowed to hunt down the perpetrators. Yudhoyono, who was reelected last week, has been credited with bringing peace and stability to a country that had become a target for Islamist militants.”[The bombers] do not have a sense of humanity and do not care about the destruction of our country, because this terror act will have a wide impact on our economy, our business climate, our tourism, our image in the world and many others,” he said.
Australia warned its citizens to reconsider plans to travel to Indonesia, and urged those already there to exercise “extreme caution.” Britons have been advised not to go there unless absolutely necessary.
The Australian prime minister, Kevin Rudd, said he was “sick in the stomach as I think all Australians would feel sick in the stomach. Australians accounted for 88 of the victims in the 2002 attacks on Bali.
“This is an assault on all of us and we are dealing with some very ugly people here,” Rudd said. “Very, very ugly people … and dangerous.”
President Barack Obama said: “These attacks make it clear that extremists remain committed to murdering innocent men, women and children of any faith in all countries.”
Faisal Al Suwaidi has become a victim of his own success in creating a worldwide market for liquid natural gas
RED flames shimmer behind a thick shroud of smoke at the Ras Laffan gas plant in Qatar. Methane from the bottom of the Persian Gulf is part-combusted and filtered in a spaghetti-like tangle of steel pipes. Further along, the gas is cooled in bulbous storage tanks to minus 160°C, turning it into liquid and reducing it to one-six-hundredth of its original volume, ready to be sent across the oceans aboard a new generation of supercarriers. Local officials boast that the plant will be the largest structure made by man in centuries when it is finished next year. Already it produces a quarter of the world’s liquefied natural gas (LNG).
Ras Laffan is a singular industrial success, but that was no foregone conclusion. It would not have been built without one man taking a gamble. Faisal Al Suwaidi, the boss of Qatargas, wagered a decade ago that a massive boost in production would create a market large enough for his country’s main asset, the world’s biggest known gasfield. When it was discovered in 1971, Qataris were dismayed. Mr Suwaidi, who got his first job in the petroleum industry the following year, remembers there being a lingering disappointment that gas, not oil, had been found in the vast offshore North Field. Nobody traded gas then. Later a regional market developed in eastern Asia, with Japan and South Korea buying LNG from gas-rich Indonesia, Malaysia and Brunei, but gas remained oil’s underachieving younger sibling, lacking a global market. …
