Singapore

With a rate of US$13.38 per sq. ft. per year for industrial space, the country joins Hong Kong and Tokyo as the three Asian cities with highest leases for 1H10.

Collective sale transactions in Singapore (y-t-d) amount to S$975.64 million, with over 90% of this total resulting from sale of properties in areas such as Balestier and Serangoon.

Passengers who depart from the airport to take their connecting flights will have to pay a Passenger Service Charge (PSC) or Passenger Security Service Charge (PSSC) of S$9.00 and S$3.00, respectively, starting April 2011.

After receiving an influx of new employees in the first half of 2010, retaining top performers is now the priority of 60% of businesses for the remainder of the year.

The carrier’s revenues for 2Q11 might have risen by 35% yoy, but the bank says the figure could have been higher.

A historically building, designed in the Neo-classical style, is included in the site near Raffles Place and Marina Bay.

Experts urge Singapore to keep open to nuclear energy as policy uncertainties worldwide cast doubt on the pace of energy investments.

That headline manufacturing PMI for October rose to the “expansion” level of 50.7 and electronics PMI rose by 0.8 pts to 49.3 might be news to celebrate about, but we should not get too excited about the numbers.

The budget airline’s revenue for the quarter is a $16.4 million improvement over the $2.3 million loss recorded a year ago. The improvement in Tiger's books can be attributed to higher turnovers, strong passenger growth and strict control of unit costs. Growth in passenger volume outstripped seat capacity growth of 21.9%, while the  total Cost per Available Seat Kilometre (CASK) went down 3.1% compared to the previous year. Tony Davis, President and Group CEO, said: “We are pleased with the second quarter results posted by the Group. Achieving a 10% net profit margin, 35% revenue growth and lower unit costs, on significant capacity growth of 22% is a solid result. “Forward bookings remain strong, particularly for the peak travel period between December and February. To capitalise on this peak period, Tiger Airways Australia is increasing its fleet to 12 aircraft by the financial year-end. “The airlines continue to focus on maximising profitability through the generation of additional ancillary revenue streams. In percentage terms, Tiger Airways is currently the fifth highest generator of ancillary revenue globally, and our aim is to be in the world’s top three airlines. During the quarter, we introduced two new ancillary products – boardmefirstTM, our priority boarding service, and our new flexible ticket option. Both products have been popular with our passengers. In addition, we have recently introduced Stripes, a membership programme that provides members priority access to promotions and the lowest fares. “We continue to work with Thai Airways on the establishment of our low cost business in Thailand, to be called Thai Tiger. “Finally, we are pleased to have recently won two awards; the Low Cost Airline of the Year award from the Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation, and the Most Transparent Award in the New Issues Category from the Securities Investors Association of Singapore” said Tony Davis.

Companies today dangle all sorts of unique ‘carrots’ in a bid to attract the best and brightest. All the more so as the Gen Y workforce grows. These high-performance and high-maintenance multi-taskers increasingly eschew monetary incentives for better Work-Life balance. Employers are realizing that you can’t just make the employee work; they have to want to work.

Apart from receiving the award from Asia Risk magazine, the exchange also announced that its October SDAV reached $2.1 billion, the highest since May 2009.

 Fitch Ratings has assigned a final rating of 'A' to the bank's dollar Non-Cumulative Non-Convertible Non-Voting Preference Shares Callable in 2020. This follows the completion of the issuance of the Preference Shares and the receipt of documents conforming to information previously received. The final rating is the same as the expected rating assigned on 14 October 2010.

The GSTF Digital Library (DL)’s mission is to make its resources available, useful to researchers and professionals worldwide and to sustain and preserve a universal collection of knowledge and creativity for future generations. It will provide 24/7 access to a large volume of online collection of conference proceedings, journal articles, and books in the areas of Computer Science, Information Systems, Electrical and Computer Engineering, Bio Informatics, and Business.

A jump of 56.9 from 54 in the ISM Index might mean good news for the West, but does not bode well for Asia.

While Singapore employees can expect a salary increase by 4% next year, a predicted 2.4% inflation rate will pull down the actual wage increase to just 1.6%.

IEEE is collaborating with A*STAR and the Singapore Economic Development Board to enhance Singapore’s position as a global business center.