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Global competitiveness: Pakistan moves ahead
Islamabad: Pakistan has ahead by eight places to 83rd position in global competitiveness during 2005.

The Switzerland-based World Economic Forum (WEF) who issued its 26th Global Competitiveness Report for 2005-06, has assigned scores to nations by looking at factors like government's economic policies, the strength of local institutions, and the degree to which technology has been used to bolster growth.

According to the report, Pakistan stands at 80th position regarding technology, 69th position in macroeconomic environment, while it shown discouraging performance pertaining to strengthening of public institutions and scored 113th position among 117 economies of the world.
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Oil stands at $66 a barrel
Seoul: Oil ruled steady above $66 on Thursday on worries that storm-hit US refineries could stay shut for weeks and extended strikes in France also cut gasoline output.

US crude on the New York Mercantile Exchange was 4 cents higher at $66.39 a barrel by 0334 GMT, after a $1.28 jump on Wednesday. London Brent crude gained 6 cents to $63.99.

More than 3-million barrels per day (bpd) of fuel processing capacity remained shut after hurricanes Rita and Katrina, and the US government said on Wednesday that up to 15 per cent of US capacity could be affected for another couple of weeks.
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Google to partner with NASA for research
San Francisco: Web search company Google Inc will partner with the National Aeronautical and Space Administration (NASA) on space research projects and build a new campus at a NASA research center in Silicon Valley.

Google and the NASA are planning to cooperate on research projects such as large-scale data management, nanotechnology, massively distributed computing and the entrepreneurial space industry.

The deal calls for Google to develop up to 1-million square feet of real estate within the NASA Research Park at Moffett Field, a former Naval air base in the heart of Silicon Valley. The building plan is about double the size of its current headquarters in Mountain View, California.
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Basle II gets EU support
The European Union has moved towards a new regulatory regime for all banks operating in the 25 member states.

The European parliament earlier voted to introduce the Basel II capital requirement standards and to change the way international banks are supervised.

The new regime which has the broad support of banks, companies and supervisors will take effect across the EU from January 2007. European banking officials said they hoped the vote would encourage the US to follow suit, and ensure that US banks applied the regime as foreseen in the Basel accord.

Capital requirement rules set out how much capital a bank or investment firm must hold in reserve to cover possible defaults and other risks. Their aim is to guarantee the stability of the financial system by ensuring that banks always have sufficient funds to avoid collapse in an economic crisis.

The EU directive provides for a more flexible and refined approach to calculating a bank's capital requirements than the past regime, allowing them to tailor their reserves to the real risks they face.

It also forces banks for the first time to make provisions for so-called "operational" risks, such as losses caused by the behaviour of employees or external events.

In a potentially significant step, the new regime will give more powers to a bank's home supervisor, which may now overrule the authorities overseeing the bank's operations in other member states under certain conditions.
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Samsung to invest $33 billion in semiconductors
Seoul: Samsung Electronics plans to spend $33 billion over the next seven years on new production lines and a research centre to meet growing demand for semiconductors.

The investment plan to boost its production capacity of semiconductors, its profitmaking division comes as the technology giant's other businesses such as flat panel and handset production suffer from sliding prices.

Samsung plans to build eight fabrication lines and one research and development line with the new investment. The company expects its semiconductor revenue to more than treble to $61 billion in 2012 from $16.28 billion last year.

Profits at Samsung tumbled by 46 per cent in the second quarter, dragged down by falling prices of handsets and flat-panel displays. Its semiconductor operations posted an operating profit of Won1,100 billion, accounting for almost 70 per cent of its overall operating profit.
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Coca Cola a big success in China
Beijing: American soft drink giant, Coca Cola has attained no small success having sold some 99-billion bottles of coke in China since it entered the country in 1979.

The company has opened yet another bottling plant in Lanzhou, capital of northwest China's Gansu province with a total investment of $12 million according to the company.

The new plant, with an annual capacity of 24-million cases, aims to satisfy the huge market in the northwestern region of 58-million people.
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