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Strategies & Market Trends : Asia Forum -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Thomas Haegin who wrote (1006)	1/16/1998 8:04:00 PM
From: GuinnessGuy	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 9980

Thomas, -you wrote- "Just an idea: Does anybody know if there are steadycams that look down on metro cities in SEA and can be seen on the Internet? I'd really like to see how the streets of Bangkok or KL look these days: More crowds, less crowds, beggars? No more Mercedes? We here in Switzerland have no channel committed to Asia. I noticed that CNBC has a daily Asia feature show. Saw it in Spain." I don't know if you were serious or not, but are sites that have what you are looking for. Right in your own country there is a web site that specializes in this. Right now they don't have anything in Asia but they soon will. Go to: topin.ch to see the specific countries that they will have and go to: topin.ch to see what is now offered. Here's a site that does Tokyo: nttls.co.jp And here's a site that has links to live cameras all over the world(including Antartica!!!): spy-cams.com Craig

To: Thomas Haegin who wrote (1006)	1/16/1998 8:39:00 PM
From: Stitch	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 9980

Thomas; <<I'd really like to see how the streets of Bangkok or KL look these days: >> What you might notice are emptier shops etc. My mother-in-law who is an old fashioned Chinese lady that likes to do her shopping in China Town in K.L. came back from a foray the other day. As you may know we are approaching Chinese New Year here, normally a seasonal buying time. The Chinese like to purchase new clothing this time of year. In fact it is a tradition to greet the New Year in a brand new, head to toe, outfit which is considered good luck. She remarked at how less crowded this year the shops and stalls were. Insofar as traffic I guess it will take more then a recession to lighten the burden on the incredibly jammed roads in K.L. and Bangkok. But we notice things like less crowded restraunts and bars. I have not yet heard of wholesale layoffs (except Seagate) but I have heard of a few here and there so cutbacks are starting. Best, Stitch

To: Thomas Haegin who wrote (1006)	1/17/1998 12:16:00 PM
From: George Papadopoulos	Respond to of 9980

Try rainier.net for web views all over the world. Enjoy!

To: Thomas Haegin who wrote (1006)	1/17/1998 12:23:00 PM
From: Worswick	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 9980

My dear Thomas don't be depressed. I didn't mean to depress you. Things go in cycles you know. I look at this ASian deflationary scenario as a good thing. Part of a cycle. I do wish you could have read the hugely researched and detailed New York Times "expose" of both the Bhutto and the Suharto famlies. My god, Ms. Butto had a Swiss company contract to do a study of how the Pakistani government could collect more efficient customs revenues. The Bhuttos then took 10% of the fees acrued to the Swiss company in fees... as a bribe for giving them the contract. We are living in times of great ingenuity. Looking at the crisis in Asia it is a good thing for the people of Asia that they move out of the banana republic phases of their history. Send the Suhartos off to Palm Beach where they can stay warm. As far as world deflation in concerned it would seems to me that Europe has been in a deflation for 20 years. Think about the huge rates of unemployment in western Eruope and the countries in Europe who have absolutely wrung out any extra margins they could as more and more of the GNP slips into the government's hands via entitlement programs. Europe has practically institutionalized deflation. The same thing has been evident in America since, perhaps, 1990 when we went thorugh the deflationary wringer of the great real estate bubble bursting and then winding down of the S&L crisis. Here in America it is no joke to say that huge numbers of men and women have been layed off from well-paying jobs - they haven't gotten anything like their old jobs back - but in the existing financial boomlet they have watched their children get their jobs instead. Every other year I go to the west and see places that were packed in the 1980's almost completely empty of people. Hotels empty. Restaurants. Think about Texas. I used to go to Houston and ask cab drivers what they once did. Nobody ever said, "Boy. I could hardly wait to grow up so I can drive a cab in Houston." So don't be depressed. Europe, particularly Europe, has been living in deflationary times for decades. Every other year I go climbing in Europe and I am struck how tightly the people are being squeezed. It usedt to Europe and bought quality clothes, climbing equipment, etc. Now what is offered and bought is the absolutely cheapest sort of thing you'd find in the lowere end ofthe retail establishments here. I don't mean for this to sound shirty. It is merely an observation about the price that has been paid in Europe by people in the great unremarked deflation. So. Don't be depressed. It is just Asia's turn. Europe and the US are both well down the road of deflationary contraction despite what the economists say. We are near the bottom and for us it is onwards and upwards. IMHO. This started out to be a short note. Sorry. My usual convoluted thinking leading off into the swampo.

To: Thomas Haegin who wrote (1006)	1/17/1998 5:26:00 PM
From: Thomas Haegin	Respond to of 9980

Repost: Xircom and it's Asian situation (from Reuters) >>I guess one co. doe not make a trend yet. T.<< INTERVIEW-Xircom sees Asia growth resuming Reuters Story - January 15, 1998 03:21 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ By Josephine Ng SINGAPORE, Jan 15 (Reuters) - U.S.-based personal computer card products maker Xircom Inc expects its sales growth in the Asia Pacific region to pick up again in 1998 after a flat last quarter of 1997, a senior company official said on Thursday. Dirk Gates, Xircom's president and chief executive officer, told Reuters in an interview that the Asia Pacific had been the company's fastest growth area until the region's financial crisis slowed demand for its products in late 1997. "We saw virtually flat sales (in Asia Pacific) due to various currency issues, mainly people holding off some purchases," Gates said, referring to quarter-to-quarter growth. But he was confident sales in the region would pick up this quarter. "We are hopeful we will get single digit growth in the region for this year," he said, adding that it was likely to be just under 10 percent quarter to quarter. "In Asia Pacific, sales for fiscal 1998 should be about US$40-50 million, about 20 percent growth over 1997," he added. For its fiscal year ended September 30, 1997, Xircom's sales in the region rose 10 percent to US$31 million, Danny Tan, Asia Pacific director of sales and marketing said. The region contributed 17 percent to its worldwide revenues of US$185 million in fiscal 1997. Overall, Gates said the company would return to the black for the quarter ended December 1997. He said he was comfortable with analyst projection of earnings per share of US$0.09-0.10 for the quarter. For fiscal 1998, Gates said he was also happy with analyst estimates of revenues of about US$260 million. The company recorded a loss of US$12.8 million or operating share loss of US$0.57 in the three months ended September 30, 1997 due mainly to a shift to a faster manufacturing and distribution model. Xircom, which makes products that connect notebooks to networks, was likely to concentrate its manufacturing in Malaysia in the next few years, Gates said. He said another US$17 million would be invested in the plant in Penang this year. The plant started operations in 1995 and Xircom had invested US$10 million in the last two years, Gates said. The new expenditure would help to triple capacity in the next three to five years from the current one to two million PC cards produced every quarter, Gates said. Gates said the company's performance was driven by growth in notebook computers. He said as the technology gap between desktops and notebooks had disappeared and with the price difference shrinking, portable computers would become the main choice of businesses and individuals for productivity reasons. On the push towards simplified computers like the NetPC and network computers, Gates said: "They are glorified dumb terminals that don't take into account the notion of mobility." -- Singapore Newsroom (65) 870-3080; Fax (65) 776-8112 -- Email: singapore.newsroomreuters.com