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Friday, 20 March 2009
Turmoil keeps luxury train to Tibet in sidings
The mainland’s first luxury train service, Tangula Luxury Trains, has postponed the launch of its service to Tibet and Yunnan province from April to spring next year, citing the global financial crisis as the reason.
The mainland’s first luxury train service, Tangula Luxury Trains, has postponed the launch of its service to Tibet and Yunnan province from April to spring next year, citing the global financial crisis as the reason.
The situation in Tibet was not noted as a reason for the delay.
The delay has resulted in about US$2 million of advance bookings being forfeited, a Tangula spokeswoman said.
“We had several private charters on our books, which we had to forgo. A number of individual bookings have also been affected. We offered our clients the opportunity to reschedule their bookings, but some of them have decided to cancel,” she said.
Tangula is the first foreign-invested passenger train service in China, with Hong Kong-listed tourism firm Wing On Travel as a key shareholder in the company.
“The financial crisis has had an impact on the level of bookings, as experienced by all sectors across the travel industry. We expect the global financial climate to improve although the recovery may be gradual,” the spokeswoman said.
The change of the official launch was a “very recent decision” taken earlier this month, she said. “I don’t think it has anything to do with the Tibetan unrest. This is a business decision.”
Tibet is the subject of a security clampdown by the mainland authorities, with foreign visitors and journalists facing security checks.
This is the second time the luxury train service has been postponed. The service was earlier held over from September 2008 to April this year.
The reason for the previous postponement was the political instability in Tibet and the suspension of entry visas for foreign tourists, according to a Wing On interim report last year.
Wing On owns a majority stake in Tangula Group, which manages the train service through Tangula Railtours, its joint venture with the Qinghai-Tibet Railway Corp, a Chinese state-owned firm.
In December 2003, when Tangula Group presented its proposal for a luxury train business to Premier Wen Jiabao, he said the project was “good for China” and volunteered to be the first passenger, the spokeswoman said.
To date, US$100 million has been invested in this project.
Tangula offers two routes, one between Beijing and Yunnan province, and one between Beijing and Tibet which traverses the world’s highest railway in Tibet.
Prices range from US$3,300 to US$5,500 per person, depending on the route and season.
It expects about 270 departures per year with three trains, each train containing 48 suites that can accommodate 96 guests. This translates to a capacity of 13,000 bookings a year.
The company is targeting luxury travellers including wealthy Chinese, the spokeswoman said.
“We look at Tangula as a long-term investment, so break even may take a while. Nonetheless, our luxury trains ultimately will be very profitable.”
Kempinski Hotels, a German hotel group, manages the hospitality sector of the service, she said.
By Jeremy Gaunt, European Investment Correspondent Mar 18, 2009
LUXEMBOURG (Reuters) - A U.N. panel will next week recommend that the world ditch the dollar as its reserve currency in favor of a shared basket of currencies, a member of the panel said on Wednesday, adding to pressure on the dollar.
Currency specialist Avinash Persaud, a member of the panel of experts, told a Reuters Funds Summit in Luxembourg that the proposal was to create something like the old Ecu, or European currency unit, that was a hard-traded, weighted basket.
Persaud, chairman of consultants Intelligence Capital and a former currency chief at JPMorgan, said the recommendation would be one of a number delivered to the United Nations on March 25 by the U.N. Commission of Experts on International Financial Reform.
"It is a good moment to move to a shared reserve currency," he said.
Central banks hold their reserves in a variety of currencies and gold, but the dollar has dominated as the most convincing store of value -- though its rate has wavered in recent years as the United States ran up huge twin budget and external deficits.
Some analysts said news of the U.N. panel's recommendation extended dollar losses because it fed into concerns about the future of the greenback as the main global reserve currency, raising the chances of central bank sales of dollar holdings.
"Speculation that major central banks would begin rebalancing their FX reserves has risen since the intensification of the dollar's slide between 2002 and mid-2008," CMC Markets said in a note.
Russia is also planning to propose the creation of a new reserve currency, to be issued by international financial institutions, at the April G20 meeting, according to the text of its proposals published on Monday.
It has significantly reduced the dollar's share in its own reserves in recent years.
GOOD TIME
Persaud said that the United States was concerned that holding the reserve currency made it impossible to run policy, while the rest of world was also unhappy with the generally declining dollar.
"There is a moment that can be grasped for change," he said.
"Today the Americans complain that when the world wants to save, it means a deficit. A shared (reserve) would reduce the possibility of global imbalances."
Persaud said the panel had been looking at using something like an expanded Special Drawing Right, originally created by the International Monetary Fund in 1969 but now used mainly as an accounting unit within similar organizations.
The SDR and the old Ecu are essentially combinations of currencies, weighted to a constituent's economic clout, which can be valued against other currencies and indeed against those inside the basket.
Persaud said there were two main reasons why policymakers might consider such a move, one being the current desire for a change from the dollar.
The other reason, he said, was the success of the euro, which incorporated a number of currencies but roughly speaking held on to the stability of the old German deutschemark compared with, say, the Greek drachma.
Persaud has long argued that the dollar would give way to the Chinese yuan as a global reserve currency within decades.
A shared reserve currency might negate this move, he said, but he believed that China would still like to take on the role.
China backs talks on dollar as reserve -Russian source
By Gleb Bryanski Mar 19, 2009
MOSCOW, March 19 (Reuters) - China and other emerging nations back Russia's call for a discussion on how to replace the dollar as the world's primary reserve currency, a senior Russian government source said on Thursday. Russia has proposed the creation of a new reserve currency, to be issued by international financial institutions, among other measures in the text of its proposals to the April G20 summit published last Monday.
Calls for a rethink of the dollar's status as world's sole benchmark currency come amid concerns about its long-term value as the U.S. Federal Reserve moved to pump more than a trillion dollars of new cash into the ailing economy late Wednesday.
Russia met representatives of China, India and Brazil ahead of the G20 finance ministers meeting last week, as the big emerging powers seek to up their influence on decisionmaking globally. Their first ever joint communique did not mention a new currency but the source said the issue was discussed.
"They (China) did not formally put forward their position for the G20 summit but unofficially they had distributed their paper regarding the same ideas (the need for the new currency)," the source told Reuters, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The source said the Chinese paper envisaged the International Monetary Fund's Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) being first assigned a role of a clearing currency on some transactions and then gradually becoming the main global reserve currency. "They said that the role of reserve currency should be given to SDR," the source said.
A U.N. panel of experts is also looking at using expanded SDRs, originally created by the International Monetary Fund in 1969, but now used mainly as an accounting unit within similar organisations as a new reserve currency instead of the dollar.
Currency specialist Avinash Persaud, a member of the U.N. panel, told a Reuters Funds Summit on Wednesday that the proposal was to create something like the old Ecu, or European currency unit, that was a hard-traded, weighted basket.
The SDR and the old Ecu are essentially combinations of currencies, weighted to a constituent's economic clout, which can be valued against other currencies and against those inside the basket.
The Russian source said Moscow was aware that the emergence of the new global currency would not happen overnight and said its goal was to initiate a discussion about it at the G20 summit in London on April 2.
The source said that India did not object to the discussion but was not prepared to take the lead. The source said South Korea and South Africa backed the idea, while developed nations were not "allergic" to it.
"We are not waiting for everyone to say: 'How beautifully it has all been formulated, let's subscribe to it'," the source said. "The main idea is to start a discussion about it."
Russia holds about half of its reserves, the world's third-largest, in dollars, with the rest in euros and pounds. Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has called on reserve currency issuers to show more financial discipline.
Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin told reporters on the sidelines of the G20 finance ministers meeting that it would take up to 30 years to create a new super-currency, suggesting there was no unity in Russia on the issue.
President Dmitry Medvedev's top economic aide and G20 sherpa Arkady Dvorkovich is behind the Kremlin's G20 proposals, made public one day after Kudrin returned from England.
3 comments:
Turmoil keeps luxury train to Tibet in sidings
Toh Han Shih
16 March 2009
The mainland’s first luxury train service, Tangula Luxury Trains, has postponed the launch of its service to Tibet and Yunnan province from April to spring next year, citing the global financial crisis as the reason.
The situation in Tibet was not noted as a reason for the delay.
The delay has resulted in about US$2 million of advance bookings being forfeited, a Tangula spokeswoman said.
“We had several private charters on our books, which we had to forgo. A number of individual bookings have also been affected. We offered our clients the opportunity to reschedule their bookings, but some of them have decided to cancel,” she said.
Tangula is the first foreign-invested passenger train service in China, with Hong Kong-listed tourism firm Wing On Travel as a key shareholder in the company.
“The financial crisis has had an impact on the level of bookings, as experienced by all sectors across the travel industry. We expect the global financial climate to improve although the recovery may be gradual,” the spokeswoman said.
The change of the official launch was a “very recent decision” taken earlier this month, she said. “I don’t think it has anything to do with the Tibetan unrest. This is a business decision.”
Tibet is the subject of a security clampdown by the mainland authorities, with foreign visitors and journalists facing security checks.
This is the second time the luxury train service has been postponed. The service was earlier held over from September 2008 to April this year.
The reason for the previous postponement was the political instability in Tibet and the suspension of entry visas for foreign tourists, according to a Wing On interim report last year.
Wing On owns a majority stake in Tangula Group, which manages the train service through Tangula Railtours, its joint venture with the Qinghai-Tibet Railway Corp, a Chinese state-owned firm.
In December 2003, when Tangula Group presented its proposal for a luxury train business to Premier Wen Jiabao, he said the project was “good for China” and volunteered to be the first passenger, the spokeswoman said.
To date, US$100 million has been invested in this project.
Tangula offers two routes, one between Beijing and Yunnan province, and one between Beijing and Tibet which traverses the world’s highest railway in Tibet.
Prices range from US$3,300 to US$5,500 per person, depending on the route and season.
It expects about 270 departures per year with three trains, each train containing 48 suites that can accommodate 96 guests. This translates to a capacity of 13,000 bookings a year.
The company is targeting luxury travellers including wealthy Chinese, the spokeswoman said.
“We look at Tangula as a long-term investment, so break even may take a while. Nonetheless, our luxury trains ultimately will be very profitable.”
Kempinski Hotels, a German hotel group, manages the hospitality sector of the service, she said.
U.N. panel says world should ditch dollar
By Jeremy Gaunt, European Investment Correspondent
Mar 18, 2009
LUXEMBOURG (Reuters) - A U.N. panel will next week recommend that the world ditch the dollar as its reserve currency in favor of a shared basket of currencies, a member of the panel said on Wednesday, adding to pressure on the dollar.
Currency specialist Avinash Persaud, a member of the panel of experts, told a Reuters Funds Summit in Luxembourg that the proposal was to create something like the old Ecu, or European currency unit, that was a hard-traded, weighted basket.
Persaud, chairman of consultants Intelligence Capital and a former currency chief at JPMorgan, said the recommendation would be one of a number delivered to the United Nations on March 25 by the U.N. Commission of Experts on International Financial Reform.
"It is a good moment to move to a shared reserve currency," he said.
Central banks hold their reserves in a variety of currencies and gold, but the dollar has dominated as the most convincing store of value -- though its rate has wavered in recent years as the United States ran up huge twin budget and external deficits.
Some analysts said news of the U.N. panel's recommendation extended dollar losses because it fed into concerns about the future of the greenback as the main global reserve currency, raising the chances of central bank sales of dollar holdings.
"Speculation that major central banks would begin rebalancing their FX reserves has risen since the intensification of the dollar's slide between 2002 and mid-2008," CMC Markets said in a note.
Russia is also planning to propose the creation of a new reserve currency, to be issued by international financial institutions, at the April G20 meeting, according to the text of its proposals published on Monday.
It has significantly reduced the dollar's share in its own reserves in recent years.
GOOD TIME
Persaud said that the United States was concerned that holding the reserve currency made it impossible to run policy, while the rest of world was also unhappy with the generally declining dollar.
"There is a moment that can be grasped for change," he said.
"Today the Americans complain that when the world wants to save, it means a deficit. A shared (reserve) would reduce the possibility of global imbalances."
Persaud said the panel had been looking at using something like an expanded Special Drawing Right, originally created by the International Monetary Fund in 1969 but now used mainly as an accounting unit within similar organizations.
The SDR and the old Ecu are essentially combinations of currencies, weighted to a constituent's economic clout, which can be valued against other currencies and indeed against those inside the basket.
Persaud said there were two main reasons why policymakers might consider such a move, one being the current desire for a change from the dollar.
The other reason, he said, was the success of the euro, which incorporated a number of currencies but roughly speaking held on to the stability of the old German deutschemark compared with, say, the Greek drachma.
Persaud has long argued that the dollar would give way to the Chinese yuan as a global reserve currency within decades.
A shared reserve currency might negate this move, he said, but he believed that China would still like to take on the role.
China backs talks on dollar as reserve -Russian source
By Gleb Bryanski
Mar 19, 2009
MOSCOW, March 19 (Reuters) - China and other emerging nations back Russia's call for a discussion on how to replace the dollar as the world's primary reserve currency, a senior Russian government source said on Thursday. Russia has proposed the creation of a new reserve currency, to be issued by international financial institutions, among other measures in the text of its proposals to the April G20 summit published last Monday.
Calls for a rethink of the dollar's status as world's sole benchmark currency come amid concerns about its long-term value as the U.S. Federal Reserve moved to pump more than a trillion dollars of new cash into the ailing economy late Wednesday.
Russia met representatives of China, India and Brazil ahead of the G20 finance ministers meeting last week, as the big emerging powers seek to up their influence on decisionmaking globally. Their first ever joint communique did not mention a new currency but the source said the issue was discussed.
"They (China) did not formally put forward their position for the G20 summit but unofficially they had distributed their paper regarding the same ideas (the need for the new currency)," the source told Reuters, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The source said the Chinese paper envisaged the International Monetary Fund's Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) being first assigned a role of a clearing currency on some transactions and then gradually becoming the main global reserve currency. "They said that the role of reserve currency should be given to SDR," the source said.
A U.N. panel of experts is also looking at using expanded SDRs, originally created by the International Monetary Fund in 1969, but now used mainly as an accounting unit within similar organisations as a new reserve currency instead of the dollar.
Currency specialist Avinash Persaud, a member of the U.N. panel, told a Reuters Funds Summit on Wednesday that the proposal was to create something like the old Ecu, or European currency unit, that was a hard-traded, weighted basket.
The SDR and the old Ecu are essentially combinations of currencies, weighted to a constituent's economic clout, which can be valued against other currencies and against those inside the basket.
The Russian source said Moscow was aware that the emergence of the new global currency would not happen overnight and said its goal was to initiate a discussion about it at the G20 summit in London on April 2.
The source said that India did not object to the discussion but was not prepared to take the lead. The source said South Korea and South Africa backed the idea, while developed nations were not "allergic" to it.
"We are not waiting for everyone to say: 'How beautifully it has all been formulated, let's subscribe to it'," the source said. "The main idea is to start a discussion about it."
Russia holds about half of its reserves, the world's third-largest, in dollars, with the rest in euros and pounds. Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has called on reserve currency issuers to show more financial discipline.
Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin told reporters on the sidelines of the G20 finance ministers meeting that it would take up to 30 years to create a new super-currency, suggesting there was no unity in Russia on the issue.
President Dmitry Medvedev's top economic aide and G20 sherpa Arkady Dvorkovich is behind the Kremlin's G20 proposals, made public one day after Kudrin returned from England.
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