Wednesday, 21 April 2010 15:01
The Phnom Penh Post
Ellie Dyer
MULTI-NATIONAL technology infrastructure firm EMC hopes to invest in Cambodia in order to make the most of emerging market opportunities, the company’s Asia Pacific president said Tuesday.
Steven Leonard told the Post, via phone from Singapore, that the US-based business has put US$2 billion aside to invest in the Asia-Pacific region by 2014.
He said the company, which competes with brands such as IBM and HP, is now looking to Cambodia for potential opportunities.
A group representative added via email that the Kingdom “has been identified as one of EMC’s fast-emerging growth markets across the Southeast Asian region”.
“We need to be in Cambodia and we want to do that in a more meaningful and substantial way,” said Leonard on Tuesday.
He added that EMC is working with a number of Cambodian telcos, which he declined to name.
"We need to be in cambodia and want to do that in a more meaningful way."
EMC provides businesses with both hardware and software to secure or encrypt data such as billing records, bank systems and archives. It has 43,000 employees across the world and earned $14 billion in revenue in 2009. Around 12 percent of revenue is currently derived from the Asia-Pacific region.
On Sunday, 400 representatives of the company completed a two-day event detailing their achievements in Siem Reap. Leonard, who returned from the Kingdom to Singapore days ago, has carried out several fact-finding missions to see where potential opportunities may lie and has met with government officials.
He added that EMC as yet has no permanent presence in the Kingdom, an issue they are currently considering.
“Cambodia is at a real transition intersection. There are so many opportunities. The country is rising up from a difficult past.
“A lot of companies have been here since the 1990s, but in terms of multi-nationals there is still an opportunity to get in early. I hope we can be a part of Cambodian growth,” said Leonard, before adding that software provision is “at the ground floor” of development in Cambodia.
The president added that, to his knowledge, no similar firms yet have a presence in the Kingdom. He said he believes that multinational entry into Cambodia has “an important part to play” in creating a diverse business community.
“It’s a foundation for Cambodia, or any other country, to continue to develop IT to help give opportunities to citizens,” he said, citing the benefits for education and knowledge expansion that technology can bring.
He was unable to say how much money EMC is set to invest in the Kingdom.
EMC has already announced investment in India, where it is expanding infrastructure at the India Center of Excellence, and Singapore, where it is opening its first technology development lab outside of North America. It has also sought out investment opportunities in China.
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Finance officials come up with work-habit ideas
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
The Japan Times
By KAZUAKI NAGATA
Staff writer
A Finance Ministry project team compiled a set of proposals Monday to reform the ministry, focusing on achieving a more efficient working style and better work-life balance for its bureaucrats.
The ministry's officials are generally considered the elite of the nation's bureaucrats, but they also have a policy-wonk image.
Some of the 50 proposals encourage officials to use their paid vacation, take parental leave and have family members visit the ministry once in a while.
"In our ministry, not many male workers have had child-care leave, but I think if the situation is right they should take it more," said Hidenori Sakota, director of the ministry's policy planning and research division.
Sakota is part of the project team that has 20 members from various sections of the ministry.
The workload for central government bureaucrats is notoriously heavy. For instance, when budget-related bills are deliberated in the Diet, some Finance Ministry officials often have to work all night to prepare notes so Cabinet ministers can answer questions during committee sessions.
When Naoto Kan became finance minister in January, he instructed the bureaucrats under his sway to create an in-house project team to come up with suggestions for reforming the ministry and its work style, with the catch phrase "bureaucrats can go out on dates on weekdays."
The team's report calls for other reforms as well, such as more interaction with the private sector and other ministries.
Kan said that while the report is well-written, it should have addressed more specific issues.
"I'd give it a 77" out of 100, he said.
The Japan Times
By KAZUAKI NAGATA
Staff writer
A Finance Ministry project team compiled a set of proposals Monday to reform the ministry, focusing on achieving a more efficient working style and better work-life balance for its bureaucrats.
The ministry's officials are generally considered the elite of the nation's bureaucrats, but they also have a policy-wonk image.
Some of the 50 proposals encourage officials to use their paid vacation, take parental leave and have family members visit the ministry once in a while.
"In our ministry, not many male workers have had child-care leave, but I think if the situation is right they should take it more," said Hidenori Sakota, director of the ministry's policy planning and research division.
Sakota is part of the project team that has 20 members from various sections of the ministry.
The workload for central government bureaucrats is notoriously heavy. For instance, when budget-related bills are deliberated in the Diet, some Finance Ministry officials often have to work all night to prepare notes so Cabinet ministers can answer questions during committee sessions.
When Naoto Kan became finance minister in January, he instructed the bureaucrats under his sway to create an in-house project team to come up with suggestions for reforming the ministry and its work style, with the catch phrase "bureaucrats can go out on dates on weekdays."
The team's report calls for other reforms as well, such as more interaction with the private sector and other ministries.
Kan said that while the report is well-written, it should have addressed more specific issues.
"I'd give it a 77" out of 100, he said.
Saturday, April 17, 2010
Population shrank by record 183,000 in '09
Saturday, April 17, 2010
Kyodo News
Japan's population has entered full-scale decline and shrank by a record 183,000 people over the past year, government data showed Friday.
As of Oct. 1, the population stood at an estimated 127,510,000 after shrinking by a record 0.14 percent, contracting for the second year in a row.
The year-on-year drop is the third to strike Japan since 1950, when comparable data first became available, the Internal Affairs and Communications Ministry said in the report. The other two shrinkages occurred in 2005, when it fell by 19,000, or 0.01 percent, and in 2008, when it contracted by 79,000, or 0.06 percent.
The ministry said its estimate was based on the results of the 2005 national census, annual data on births and deaths, and immigration data on entries and departures.
The female population stood at 65,380,000, down 61,000, or 0.09 percent, as deaths outnumbered births by 5,000, marking the first natural decline.
The male population stood at 62,130,000, down 121,000, or 0.20 percent, for the fifth consecutive annual decline as deaths exceeded births by 54,000.
Japan's population has entered a stage of full-scale decline as both men and women recorded natural decreases, ministry officials said.
The figures in the latest report included foreigners who stayed in Japan for 91 days or more and foreign students. The number of Japanese came to 125,820,000, revealing a decline of 127,000, or 0.10 percent.
The number of people who entered Japan totaled 3,114,000, up 250,000 from the previous year, while those who left the country stood at 3,237,000, up 329,000, meaning that social factors caused the total population to shrink by 124,000.
Of the 124,000, foreigners accounted for 47,000, marking the first decline in 15 years linked to social factors.
The officials attributed the decline in the foreign population to the recession triggered by the collapse of trading house Lehman Brothers in the fall of 2008.
Many foreigners lost their jobs and returned to their home countries as the financial crisis unfolded, the officials said.
The number of people aged 65 and older came to 29,005,000, up by 789,000 and accounting for 22.7 percent of the population.
In contrast, those aged 14 or younger fell by 165,000 to 17,011,000. The productive segment of the population, or those between the ages of 15 and 64, came to an estimated total of 81,493,000, shrinking by 806,000.
Kyodo News
Japan's population has entered full-scale decline and shrank by a record 183,000 people over the past year, government data showed Friday.
As of Oct. 1, the population stood at an estimated 127,510,000 after shrinking by a record 0.14 percent, contracting for the second year in a row.
The year-on-year drop is the third to strike Japan since 1950, when comparable data first became available, the Internal Affairs and Communications Ministry said in the report. The other two shrinkages occurred in 2005, when it fell by 19,000, or 0.01 percent, and in 2008, when it contracted by 79,000, or 0.06 percent.
The ministry said its estimate was based on the results of the 2005 national census, annual data on births and deaths, and immigration data on entries and departures.
The female population stood at 65,380,000, down 61,000, or 0.09 percent, as deaths outnumbered births by 5,000, marking the first natural decline.
The male population stood at 62,130,000, down 121,000, or 0.20 percent, for the fifth consecutive annual decline as deaths exceeded births by 54,000.
Japan's population has entered a stage of full-scale decline as both men and women recorded natural decreases, ministry officials said.
The figures in the latest report included foreigners who stayed in Japan for 91 days or more and foreign students. The number of Japanese came to 125,820,000, revealing a decline of 127,000, or 0.10 percent.
The number of people who entered Japan totaled 3,114,000, up 250,000 from the previous year, while those who left the country stood at 3,237,000, up 329,000, meaning that social factors caused the total population to shrink by 124,000.
Of the 124,000, foreigners accounted for 47,000, marking the first decline in 15 years linked to social factors.
The officials attributed the decline in the foreign population to the recession triggered by the collapse of trading house Lehman Brothers in the fall of 2008.
Many foreigners lost their jobs and returned to their home countries as the financial crisis unfolded, the officials said.
The number of people aged 65 and older came to 29,005,000, up by 789,000 and accounting for 22.7 percent of the population.
In contrast, those aged 14 or younger fell by 165,000 to 17,011,000. The productive segment of the population, or those between the ages of 15 and 64, came to an estimated total of 81,493,000, shrinking by 806,000.
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