News Brief - 11 Sep 2007, Tuesday

PROPERTY DEVELOPMENT - Property giant CapitaLand and a church-linked business company, Rock Productions, announced yesterday that they will jointly develop an integrated complex in Singapore's one-north science hub at a cost of $660 million. CapitaLand's share of the proposed development will be about $380 million. Rock Productions - the business arm of the 16,000- strong New Creation Church - will invest $280 million.
The project came about after JTC Corporation last Friday awarded Rock Productions the tender to build, lease and operate an integrated civic, cultural, retail and entertainment hub at Vista Xchange on a 60-year lease at a land price of $189 million.
New Creation Church, which now holds its services at The Rock Auditorium at Suntec City, will be the anchor tenant of the theatre, using the space on a large part of Sundays and one mid-week night, said Rock Productions director Matthew Kang.
Rock Productions also owns and manages The Rock Auditorium and Marine Cove, the recreational and dining establishment at East Coast Park.
~ ST, Sep 10, 2007.


QUOTES - The current 21st century tourism trends point towards Singapore as a major Asian destination. The key is to support the idea for a 'prime hub' beyond mere rhetoric. This means physical and social infrastructure support for Singapore as a unique attraction among regional tourists.
I envision Singapore as the 'global city of Asia' - a 'clean and green' masterplanned city-state with world-class infrastructure, strategically managed accommodation, global connectivity, vibrant enterprises, unique and exciting shopping and culinary experiences, and a melting pot for diverse cultures.
It is critical for planners and policy-makers to harness internal and external resources towards sustaining and supporting this positioning with the flood of tourists expected in the days ahead. Most importantly, our continued competitiveness in this area will have to be found in the regional links we can forge to benefit from the flow of tourism in the region.
~ Dora Hoan, Group CEO, Best World International Ltd. Business Times - 10 Sep 2007.


RETAIL - WingTai Asia Group subsidiary Wing Tai Branded Lifestyle has added furniture and home decor stores to its retail offerings.
Making its debut at with a 2,500 sq ft store in Raffles City, Zone Singapore is a one-stop store for home, bathroom, kitchen and office ware - the first franchise store in Asia for a Danish brand founded by Poul Jepsen. The 2,000-plus products are categorised into PersonalZone (bath accessories), LivingZone (living area), FoodZone (kitchen) and WorkZone (office).
Helen Khoo, executive director of Wing Tai Branded Lifestyle, says that Zone is an extension of the group's lifestyle activities. 'Shopping for the home has also become like buying fashion. Home furnishing is an expression of the owner's personality. We had to look for the right partner to bring in - and Zone was just what we were looking for.'
Zone is located at Raffles City, #03-25.
~ Business Times - 08 Sep 2007.


FASHION & DESIGN - Imitations are estimated to represent at least 5 per cent of the US$181 billion US apparel market. Critics of designers even argue that copies are good for fashion because they encourage designers to continuously invent new wares to stay ahead. A reliable estimate of knock-offs cannot be determined because designers and retailers disagree on which clothes are copies and which merely 'inspired' by a trend, a normal part of the fashion food chain.
~ TNP - 08 Sep 2007.


HR & TRAINING - An official survey on staff training shows that big companies are benefiting strongly from their extensive training, even though there are fewer immediate benefits for the staff members themselves.
Larger companies tended to be more likely to provide training for their staff; 96 per cent of companies with 250 or more staff sent people for training, while the percentage came down to 86 per cent for those with 100-249 workers, and 66 per cent for companies with fewer than 100 employees.
By sector, among the highest training participation rate was in construction (91 per cent), hotels (86 per cent), financial services (85 per cent) and companies in professional services (81 per cent). Retailers (50 per cent) and restaurants (39 per cent) were among the least enthusiastic about training, possibly because these sectors have a high reliance on temporary or part-time workers who are trained on the job.
~ Business Times - 08 Sep 2007.


QUOTES - When Singapore was young and poor, its civil servants worked like warriors. 'We spent 10 per cent of our time thinking, and the rest of the time doing - knocking on doors, asking people to invest in Singapore,' said Mr Ngiam Tong Dow, speaking at the Distinguished Speakers Lecture series, organised by the Singapore Chinese Chamber of Commerce and Industry yesterday.
Now that the country is prosperous, its civil servants sometimes behave like scholars. 'More thinking than doing,' said Mr Ngiam. 'If there is a problem, you call in the consultants,' he said, half-jokingly, to laughter from the 150 or so people at the Ritz Carlton ballroom. He observed that Singaporeans today could go into fine dining restaurants and know enough to order the best foods and wines. 'But if I asked you to do something practical, like fry an omelette, could you do it?'
He contrasted the 'warriors' of old with the civil servants of today. 'Scholars and warriors - you've got to be both,' he said.
In the early days, he said, Singapore didn't mind what jobs it was offered - it took them all, 'high-tech, low-tech or no tech'. Today, it is a financial centre that manages billions of dollars for foreign banks. It has high-value manufacturing sectors such as wafer fab. It is also an international hub for oil and other commodities.
Singapore, Mr Ngiam said, had expertise in many areas - from oil rigs to research in life sciences, from nanotechnology to media animation. But most of all, its forte is public administration. While the basics of government are incorruptibility and integrity, he said it is good administration that will 'deliver the public goods and services'.
~ TNP - 09 September 2007.


FASHION & DESIGN - Ermenegildo Zegna stands out from the luxury menswear crowd in its steadfast refusal, so far, to go into ladies' wear.
Paolo Zegna, chairman of the Ermenegildo Zegna Group, who is in Singapore to open the company's Capital Tower store, says, ‘Asia accounting for almost 30 per cent - including Japan - of sales makes us feel great because it's in line with our plan for a third of our business to be Europe, another third to be the Americas and a third to be Asia. We expect Asia to be the market of the future, and what we're doing in both developing and developed countries makes us feel very good about the next year.'
Mr Zegna's sanguine outlook and commitment to aggressive moves in Singapore and the region herald interesting news from the company in the months and years ahead. Stay tuned.
~ Business Times - 08 Sep 2007.