The Star Online: Metro: South & East
The Star Online: Metro: South & East |
- Survey: Asia to have most millionaires
- Australia says Indonesia talks 'productive'
- Pakistan quake death toll surges above 300
| Survey: Asia to have most millionaires Posted: Hong Kong (AFP) - Asia will have the world's largest number of millionaires as early as next year despite the expected tapering of the US Federal Reserve's stimulus programme, according to a report published Wednesday. With strong growth and high saving rates, the wealth of the region's millionaires will grow by an annual average 9.8 percent and reach nearly $16 trillion in 2015, according to the wealth management unit of Royal Bank of Canada. Despite concerns of devaluing asset prices due to capital outflows triggered by Fed tapering, Asia is set to lead the world in the number of millionaires and their total wealth, the bank said in a report prepared with consulting firm Capgemini. "The region's high net worth population and wealth has increased by 31 percent and 27 percent respectively since 2007, far outpacing growth in the rest of the world of 14 percent and nine percent," George Lewis, group head of RBC Wealth Management, said in a statement. The number of millionaires in Asia surged by 9.4 percent year-on-year to 3.68 million in 2012, still trailing North America's 3.73 million. Millionaires in the report are defined as individuals with investable assets of $1 million or more, excluding residence, collectibles and others. Asia's continual population growth, and economic growth expected to continue outperforming the rest of the world, would help it take the lead as early as next year, according to Eric Lascelles, chief economist of RBC Global Asset Management. He said the Fed's tapering plan could create "hiccups" but would not affect the trajectory of growth in the region. The bank said Japan saw the slowest growth in its millionaire population last year among Asian economies, with only a 4.4 percent increase in 2012 compared to the previous year. Hong Kong topped its Asian peers in the growth of both millionaire numbers and their investable assets in 2012. The number of millionaires rose by 35.7 percent year-on-year while their wealth grew by 37.2 percent. The firm said the big jump was largely caused by an influx of capital from mainland China as well as rising asset prices. - AFP |
| Australia says Indonesia talks 'productive' Posted: SYDNEY (AFP) - Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop has declared her meetings with her Indonesian counterpart on the fraught issue of turning back asylum-seeker boats to the sprawling archipelago "very productive". Speaking from New York, Bishop said she had spoken to Indonesia's top diplomat Marty Natalegawa about Australia's military-led operation to shut down people-smugglers by forcing their boats to turn around when safe to do so. "I had a very productive and positive meeting with Foreign Minister Natalegawa," Bishop told reporters, according to a transcript from her office. "I am not going into the operational details of our policy, but I had a very broad-ranging discussion with Minister Natalegawa and I am confident that we will be able to implement our policies." Australia's new conservative government, headed by Prime Minister Tony Abbott who swept to power in national polls earlier this month, hopes to deter asylum-seekers from taking people-smuggling boats with the threat of potential towbacks. Bishop said she told Natalegawa that Australia would be making changes to its laws "so that we take away the product that the people smugglers are currently selling -- and that is permanent residency in Australia". "I also spoke of our support for efforts that not only Indonesia but other nations up the pipeline are making in terms of dismantling the people-smuggling trade," she said. Asked whether Natalegawa had indicated that he was not happy with Australia's plan, Bishop said: "There can be some misunderstanding as to what our policy is, and it is certainly not to, in any way, show disrespect for Indonesian sovereignty." "We had a very productive discussion. We talked about the issue generally, specifically, but I am not going into the details of what essentially are operational issues. But we had a very cordial meeting, I can assure you." Bishop blamed the previous Labor government of leaving "a complete mess in border protection" which encouraged people smuggling, despite the fact that boat arrivals slowed sharply ahead of the elections due to their harsh permanent resettlement deal for refugees with Papua New Guinea and Nauru. Bishop said that she looked forward to meeting with Natalegawa again during Abbott's upcoming visit to Jakarta. |
| Pakistan quake death toll surges above 300 Posted: Awaran (Pakistan) (AFP) - Desperate villagers in southwest Pakistan clawed through the wreckage of their ruined homes Wednesday, a day after a huge earthquake struck, killing more than 300 people and creating a new island off the coast. The 7.7-magnitude quake hit on Tuesday afternoon in Baluchistan province's remote Awaran district -- a dirt-poor expanse of land that is roughly the size of Wales. At least 328 people have been confirmed dead and more than 450 injured, according to the Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA) and the Baluchistan government. In the village of Dalbedi, the earthquake -- Pakistan's deadliest since the devastating Kashmir quake of 2005, which killed 73,000 -- flattened some 250 houses, an AFP photographer said. Bewildered villagers dug with their hands through the rubble of their mud houses in Dalbedi to retrieve what was left of their meagre possessions. Their simple houses destroyed, they used rags, old clothes, sheets and tree branches to shelter their families from the sun. Farmer Noor Ahmed, 45, said the tremors lasted for two minutes and turned buildings in the village into piles of mud. "We have lost everything, even our food is now buried under mud and water from underground channels is now undrinkable because of excessive mud in it due to the earthquake," he told AFP. Jan Muhammad Buledi, spokesman for the Baluchistan government, gave the death toll and told AFP it was likely to rise further as rescue teams reach more villages in the area, which has been shaken by more than a dozen aftershocks. More than 300,000 people had been affected by the quake across six districts -- Awaran, Kech, Gwadar, Panjgur, Chaghi and Khuzdar -- he said. "People are still trapped under the rubble but it is a huge disaster and it will take time to reach and rescue all the people," he said. PDMA official Ahmad Nawaz confirmed the death toll and said the injured numbered 498. The authorities have prioritised finding the injured and getting them to hospital, but the task is hampered by the area's remoteness and the limited infrastructure. They are also trying to provide tents to shelter the thousands left homeless. "It is difficult to estimate the real magnitude of the losses because the area is very vast with small and scattered villages," said Major General Muhammad Saeed Aleem, chairman of the National Disaster Management Authority. "We will receive satellite images tonight and then we will be in a position to analyse the magnitude of the losses." The army has rushed medical staff and troops to the devastated area to help with rescue efforts, along with seven tonnes of food and a tonne of medicine. Six helicopters are taking part in rescue work, the military said. The scale of the territory involved is daunting. Awaran's population is scattered over an area of more than 21,000 square kilometres (8,000 square miles). New island emerges Baluchistan makes up about 45 percent of Pakistan's area but is the country's least populated and least developed province. On top of the difficult terrain, the area is rife with separatist and Islamist militants as well as bandits. Tremors were felt on Tuesday as far away as New Delhi and even Dubai in the Gulf, while people in the Indian city of Ahmedabad, near the border with Pakistan, ran into the streets in panic. Tuesday's quake caused a new island to appear close to the coastline at Gwadar, officials said, prompting astonished locals to rush to the shore to take a look. "It looked very very strange to me and also a bit scary because suddenly a huge thing has emerged from the water," Gwadar resident Muhammad Rustam told AFP. Experts said a similar small island appeared at the same place in the sea after a major quake in 1945 but disappeared after some time. They expect the same to happen this time. In April, a 7.8-magnitude quake in southeast Iran, close to the border with Baluchistan, killed 41 people and affected more than 12,000 on the Pakistan side of the border. Baluchistan, Pakistan's largest province, is believed to have substantial gas and oil reserves. But it is a flashpoint for growing violence against minority Shiite Muslims and has suffered attacks blamed on Taliban militants. It also faces an ongoing separatist insurgency which began in 2004 when Baluch rebels rose up to demand a greater share of profits from the province's mineral resources. - AFP |
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