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Inshorts

IMF mission travels to Kiev

MOSCOW: An International Monetary Fund IMF delegation travels to Kiev on Monday to discuss the resumption of a 2.6 billion dollar loan to Ukraine, ITAR-TASS news agency reported. This will be the first meeting between the IMF and Ukraine since allegations emerged late January of the country's misuse of 1997 funds.ÑAFP

Moore wants China in WTO

SINGAPORE: World Trade Organisation (WTO) chief Mike Moore said in Singapore on Monday that he wanted China admitted as a fully-fledged member by the end of the year. "It's most possible to do it this year. I want it done this year and I'm encouraging members to focus (on this)," Moore said when asked at a media briefing here for a specific date by which China would enter the WTO.ÑAFP

Wiranto's suspension positive

JAKARTA: The suspension of General Wiranto from his cabinet post as security minister should help boost the Indonesian stock market and the rupiah, Finance Minister Bombing Sudibya said on Monday. "We hope that the political decisions taken by the president (Abdurrahman Wahid) will have a positive result for the stockmarket and that the rupiah can strengthen," Sudibyo told reporters at the presidential palace.ÑAFP

China to up crude oil imports from Mideast, Asia

BEIJING: China will increase crude oil imports from the Middle East and southeast Asia this year, the official China Daily newspaper reported on Monday. The move is an attempt to meet an anticipated four percent hike in domestic oil demand as the country's economy struggles to meet its seven percent economic growth target in 2000, the paper reported.ÑAFP

Mitsui Marine withdraws from merger plan

TOKYO: Japan's Mitsui Marine and Fire Insurance Co. Ltd. said on Monday that it was pulling out of a planned three-way merger due to differences over the new insurance company's management direction.

Japan's third largest non-life insurer said in a statement it was withdrawing from the merger plan with Nippon Fire and Marine Insurance Co. Ltd. and KoaFire and Marine Insurance Co. Ltd.ÑAFP

HK telecom deal deadlocked

SINGAPORE: Talks on a proposed merger between Singapore Telecommunications Ltd (SingTel) and Hong Kong's Cable and Wireless HKT Ltd are deadlocked over the role of the Singapore government in the joint venture, reports said on Monday. The Singapore Business Times quoted unnamed sources here saying the Hongkong telecom giant wanted to cap the voting rights of cash-rch Singapore state investment arm Temasek Holdings, which owns 76 percent of SingTel, in the new entity. If the merger deal to create the 56-billion-dollar pan Asia-Pacific company goes through as proposed, Tamasek would become the biggest shareholder in the entity.ÑAFP

Japan's account surplus down

TOKYO: Japan's current account surplus in 1999 dropped 22.7 percent from the previous year to 12,197.2 billion yen (112 billion dollars), the finance ministry said on Monday. The trade surplus last year narrowed 12.1 percent to 14,054.0 billion yen as exports shrunk 6.3 percent to 45,768.8 billion yen with imports down 3.5 percent at 31,714.8 billion yen.ÑAFP

UN chief backs Expansion of G-8

SINGAPORE: The United Nations secretary General Kofi Annan said on Monday he fully backed a recommendation by the IMF chief Michel Camdessus that the G8 group of major economies must be expanded to include smaller economies.

"I agree 100 percent with Camdessus," he told reporters after his meeting with Singapore Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong. "I have myself repeated time and again that it is no longer acceptable, and it is not going to be acceptable for long, for a group of seven or eight countries come together and take decisions which affect the economies of other parts of the world," he said.ÑAFP

Matsushita's plant in Malaysia

KUALA LUMPUR: Japan's Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. Ltd. is to build a plant in Malaysia this year to make cathode ray tubes for flat-screen televisions, reports said on Monday. The reports in several newspapers, quoting company officials in Tokyo, said it would be the first such plant outside Japan. No cost was given for the plant, to be located within Matsushita Television's existing premises at Shah Alam near the capital. But the New Straits Times quoted company president Yoichi Morishita as referring to a "huge investment".ÑAFP

APEC tries to reach out to layman

BANDAR SERI BAGAWAN: After a decade of existence, APEC is making a conscious effort to be closer to the layman, especially the young, using information technology as a bridge. Officials in the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum, which is more popular for its relentless bid to open up trade, will be the first to admit a lack of effort in getting its aims spread among the public. "We're basically saying we haven't done enough, that's why we have to push it," said Lim Jock Seng, a top foreign ministry official of oil-rich Brunei which holds the APEC chair in 2000.ÑAFP