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November 7, 2000 

SINGAPORE (UNB/AP) - Most large Singapore companies reported a loss in profits in the third quarter of 2000 compared to the same period last year, but small and foreign firms enjoyed higher earnings, a survey showed Monday.

The number of firms that posted a fall in profits was 4 percent higher than the number of businesses with higher earnings, according to the quarterly joint survey by the Business Times newspaper and the National University of Singapore.

In the third quarter of 1999, by contrast, 14 percent of the companies surveyed registered higher earnings.

A total 138 local and foreign firms were surveyed. The poll had a margin of error of less than 5 percentage points.

Foreign and small companies did much better than large ones. The numbers of foreign firms and small companies reporting higher earnings were 23 percent and 1 percent higher respectively than those reporting losses, the survey said.

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KATMANDU, Nepal (AP) - Hotel workers in Nepal have threatened an indefinite strike from Nov. 19 unless their demand is met for an additional 10 percent service charge on top of 12 percent government taxes, union representatives said Monday.

The Independent Hotel Worker's Union and the General Federation of Nepali Trade Unions have set Nov. 18 as the deadline for the hotels to begin charging their customers 10 percent more.

"If the government and the hotel industry does not solve our problem by then, we will be forced to organize a nationwide strike that will cost hugely to the whole economy," said Mukund Newpane, president of the union.

The Hotel Association of Nepal has strongly opposed the demand, saying it would hurt the tourism industry that has already slumped in recent years.

The hotel industry employs about 200,000 people and tourists spent dlrs 168 million in 1999. Tourism is the biggest source of foreign currency for Nepal.

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MANILA, Philippines (AP) - Philippine exports declined in September for the first time in nearly six years, dragged down by a large drop in shipments of electronics and components, the government said Monday.

Economists fear an extended period of weak exports will lower growth in an already faltering economy.

But while growth in electronics exports has been declining in recent months, analysts attributed much of September's drop to unusually high exports late last year caused by Taiwanese companies shifting production to the Philippines after a severe earthquake in Taiwan.

Exports declined 5.2 percent to dlrs 3.502 billion in September from dlrs 3.693 billion a year earlier, the statistics office said.

While export growth has been sagging in recent months, this is the first actual decline in exports since November 1994.

Orion Squire Capital Inc. research head Hazel Flores said September's export performance was "alarming" as it signals a slowdown in the economy.

Other economists believe another quarter of weak exports will make it highly likely that the government will miss its 4 percent to 5 percent economic growth target for the year as growth is heavily dependent on the export sector.

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TOKYO (AP) - Some of the biggest names in corporate Japan on Monday urged Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori to open the telecommunications industry to wider competition as part of a five-year plan to make the country into an Internet superpower.

A council of business leaders chaired by Sony Corp. Chief Executive Nobuyuki Idei made the proposal in a draft report that also called for bringing high-speed Internet access to all Japanese homes by 2005.

The IT Strategy Council was formed in September in a highly touted effort to draw up a long-term national Internet strategy for Prime Minister Mori, an avowed computer novice who has seized upon information technology as one of the pet themes of his seven-month-old administration.

The council's provisional five-year-plan, presented to Mori and members of his Cabinet on Monday morning, said Internet usage in Japan has lagged far behind other advanced countries because of "high access charges caused by a de facto monopoly in the telecommunication business."

Communications giant Nippon Telephone & Telegraph Corp. continues to dominate the market for local calls in this country and has been slow to introduce Internet-friendly rates and services.