Asia

The award makes AirAsia the first foreign company to attempt to capture the rising demand for services in India’s aviation sector.

AirAsia India will be a joint venture with the well-known Tata Group, based in Chennai in South India. AirAsia, which itself is Asia's largest low-cost carrier, will make an initial investment of 800m rupees and will own 49 percent of the new airline, while Tata Sons will have a 30 percent stake. Arun Bhatia, the owner of investment firm Telestra Tradeplace, will have the remaining share.

The Pakistan Software Houses Association for IT & ITES has a delightful acronym, P@SHA. Now president of the association, Jehan Ara joined about eight years ago, “so I’m not responsible for the name!” she says. P@SHA was founded in 1992 by nine technology companies, but its membership has since grown to include more than 400 of the country’s largest software houses, product development centres, BPO companies, animation and new media studios and consulting and system integration companies.

Six short months can make a big difference: when we last spoke to Ed Rochette, the energetic chairman of Vancouver-based East Asia Minerals (EAS) his burden seemed heavy. Today it is a lot lighter. Let us recap. When Rochette came in as the chairman of the company he was alarmed by the heavy burn rate of capital.

The deal comes at a time when Sharp has been activity trying to restructure its operations.

Analysts have reacted to the news by saying that the investment from Samsung was likely to provide a boost to Sharp's efforts to revive its business.

"For Sharp, this is good news from all fronts," said Gerhard Fasol of Eurotechnology Japan in Tokyo. "Not only can Samsung help Sharp smooth its production and operations, it can also become a key customer of Sharp's products, especially flat screens.”

On a quarter-on-quarter basis, Singapore’s economy grew 3.3 percent, boosted by a rebound in the country’s manufacturing sector.

According to the latest data from the Ministry of Trade and Industry, the sector expanded by an annualised rate of 3.1 percent in the October to December period, compared with the previous three months.

The ministry said the rebound was helped by growth in the biomedical manufacturing and transport engineering sectors, which helped offset a decline in the output of the electronics sector.

In previous articles, we’ve written about the emerging competitors from China, firms that are beginning to expand their reach from that country’s broad middle market to even the well-established markets of North America and Europe.  We have characterized these companies as Second Mouse firms, drawing upon the saying “The early bird gets the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese” in recognition of their strong fast follower and fast learner competencies.  In fact, it has been the ability of these firms to learn best-in-class manufacturing skills from western firms an

The Canadian government’s recent approval of China National Offshore Oil Corporation’s (CNOOC) bid to buy Nexen, Inc. set oil and gas insiders abuzz: is it another smart strategic move in China’s massive chess game to ensure adequate and stable energy supplies for its ever-growing needs, or a calculated effort to gain entry to the North American, and more worrisome, the US energy patch?

Sea traffic round the Indian subcontinent has to skirt the southern tip of Sri Lanka, as does the long haul bulk cargo, tanker and container traffic that plies between east and west. That gives Colombo, Sri Lanka’s commercial capital, a unique advantage that can’t be taken away; but Sri Lanka was racked by internal strife for nearly 30 years. The conflict made shipowners wary of entering service arrangements with the dockyard as insurance premiums were raised, says.

The news sent Bridgestone’s shares surging upwards by as much as nine percent to 2.791 yen on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.

The company’s profits have been helped in part by the production boost at Japan's leading carmakers as they continue to recover from the 2011 natural disasters, while at the same time a recovery in demand from the US car market has also helped boost sales of Japanese carmakers, driving up demand for car parts.

The move comes at a time when SAB is actively trying to boost its market share in what is the world’s largest beet market. Just last year the company said that consolidation in China was a long-term trend that would lead to greater industry profitability. According to SAB, China accounted for 43 percent of the total growth in beer volumes in 2011.