South East Asia

IFJ to Send Mission as Press Freedom Comes Under Fire in the Philippines

29/11/2004

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), the global organisation representing over 500,000 journalists worldwide, today expressed concern over the brutal murder of photojournalist Allan Dizon in the Philippines. His death raises the journalist death toll to four in November alone.

“The killers appear to be stepping up the violence. It sends a clear message to the Government that their rhetoric about press freedom and justice for journalists is just that - rhetoric, “said IFJ President Christopher Warren.

Allan Dizon, photojournalist of The Freeman and Banat News died at 8:27pm on Saturday 27 November at the Cebu Medical Center from two gunshot wounds to the body. Witnesses reported that Dizon was chased by a lone assailant in a helmet up the back of SM City Mall. He was shot twice before the assailant jumped onto a waiting motorcycle and escaped.

Police are still investigating Dizon’s murder and are yet to determine a motive or make any arrests in connection to the case.

Dizon is the fourth journalist to be killed in a month and the twelfth to be killed in 2004.

The IFJ will be sending a delegation of journalists and officials to the Philippines in early January. The mission will travel to the most affected provinces and will meet with senior government officials to discuss the culture of impunity that appears to be responsible for the rising death toll of journalists.

“How many more journalists have to die before the Philippines Government will put their words into action? The people responsible for these deaths are not being prosecuted and until they do journalists will continue to die. It is well and truly time for this culture of impunity to end.“ said Warren. BDWN

Cause for air crash in north China remains unclear

Beijing: The contents of the blackboxes of the Chinese passenger aircraft, which crashed shortly after take-off in Inner Mongolia on November 21, have been analysed but the cause of the accident is still unclear, state media reported.

American and Chinese experts continue to study the data from the crash of the Canadian-made Bombardier CRJ200 that plunged into a frozen lake in a park in Baotou in north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.

Chinese experts have ruled out terrorism as a possible cause of the crash which killed 53 passengers on the plane and two persons on the ground. Over 90 per cent of the remains of those on the plane have been recovered, the report said. 29 November 2004. BDWN

Mine blast in China traps 187 workers

Published: Monday, Nov. 29, 2004

BEIJING (AP) _ A gas explosion Sunday in a coal mine in central China has left 187 miners trapped, the government said.

The accident occurred at 7:20 a.m. in the state-owned Chenjiashan coal mine in Shaanxi province while more than 200 workers were underground, the official Xinhua News Agency said.

It did not give an exact number of miners in the shaft. BDWN

Advantest Debuts T6372 LCD Driver Test System at Semicon Japan

Parallel Test of Up to Four High-pixel TFT-LCD Source Drivers Yields Major
Reduction in Cost of Test

TOKYO, Nov. 29 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Advantest Corporation

(NYSE: ATE; TSE: 6857), the global leader in semiconductor test systems, today announced the immediate availability of its T6372 liquid-crystal-display (LCD) driver test system. Capable of testing up to four high-pin-count, thin-film-transistor LCD (TFT-LCD) source drivers -- more than any other test system in the industry -- Advantest developed the T6372 for use in mass production of driver ICs used in high-pixel SXGA and UXGA LCDs. The company will exhibit the test system this week during SEMICON Japan, December 1-3, at Chiba's Makuhari Messe.

Driven largely by the rapid adoption of flat-panel digital televisions and large-screen personal computers, demand for large-sized LCDs offering high definition and wide viewing angles is accelerating at a rapid pace. As a result, according to market research firm, IDC, the market for devices using LCDs is expected to grow 15 percent per year over the next 4 years, while the LCD market itself is expected to double in the next four years. Meanwhile, annual growth of approximately 30 percent is anticipated for units shipped, with pricing pressure on devices expected to increase significantly.

The T6372 provides a test solution designed to accommodate this growing demand by accelerating the industry-wide trend toward improving LCD driver IC productivity and helping reduce the cost of test. Advantest's solution offers up to 256 pins for digital test on image signal inputs, and up to 1,536 pins for LCD test on outputs, enabling the tool to parallel-test up to four 384-pin TFT source driver ICs for high-pixel LCDs. Previous testers could only test two devices at a time. Small and mid-sized LCD controller ICs with 768 pins, used in mobile devices like cellular telephones, can also be tested in

parallel, two at a time.

To minimize interchannel deviation, Advantest's latest LCD driver test system can also be equipped with a high-accuracy digitizer unit comprising up to 192 channels. This feature enables the T6372 to perform high-speed testing of a wide variety of devices -- ranging from the eight-bit driver ICs used in products such as digital home appliances, to the 10-bit driver Ics increasingly common in medical equipment and other professional applications.

In addition to these features, the T6372 boasts 125MHz digital test functionality, allowing the system to support high-speed testing, as well as reduced differential swing interfaces typified by RSDS, Mini-LVDS and other specifications. As a result, all LCD driver IC functions can be tested using the T6372 alone.

The T6372 is the next generation of the T6371, a high-speed, high-pin-count tester for current LCD driver ICs. In addition to its software environment and usability, the T6372 backward compatibility, and can therefore be used with existing customer assets including test programs and device interfaces when connected to probers and handlers.

Main Specifications

Devices supported for test: LCD driver IC, MCU, MPU, etc.

Parallel test capacity: 2/3/4 DUTs

LCD test fixture

Pin count: 1,536 pins (max.)

Digitizer: 192 channels (max.)

Reference voltage part

Number of channels: 128 channels (max.)

Digital part

Test speed: 125 MHz (Pin Mux 250MHz)

Pin count: 256 pins (max.)

Software: Viewpoint

About Advantest

Advantest Corporation is the world's leading automatic test equipment supplier to the semiconductor industry, and also produces electronic and optoelectronic instruments and systems. A global company, Advantest has long offered total ATE solutions, and serves the industry in every component of semiconductor test: tester, handler, mechanical and electrical interfaces, and software. Its SoC, logic, memory, mixed-signal and RF testers and device handlers are integrated into the most advanced semiconductor fabrication lines in the world. Founded in Tokyo in 1954, Advantest established its North American subsidiary in 1982. Advantest America, Inc. and Advantest America R&D Center, Inc. are based in Santa Clara, Calif. More information is available at http://www.advantest.com. 29 November 2004. BDWN

Shadows of Vietnam over Iraqi river raids

By John F. Burns The New York Times

Tuesday, November 30, 2004

CHARD DUWAISH, Iraq As marines aboard fast patrol boats roared up the Euphrates on a dawn raid, images pressed in of another American war where troops moved up wide rivers on camouflaged boats, with machine-gunners nervously scanning riverbanks for the hidden enemy.

That war is rarely mentioned among the U.S. troops in Iraq, many of whom were not yet born when the last U.S. combat units withdrew from Vietnam more than 30 years ago. A war that America did not win is considered a bad talisman among those men and women who privately admit to fears that this war could eventually be lost.

But as an orange moon sank below the bulrushes on Sunday morning, thoughts of Vietnam were hard to avoid.

Marines waded ashore through soft silted mud that caused some to sink to their waists, M-16 rifles held skyward as others on solid land held out their rifle barrels as lifelines.

Ashore, sodden and with boots squelching mud, the troops set out on a five-hour tramp through dense palm groves and across paddies crisscrossed by deep irrigation canals.

There were snatches of dialogue from "Apocalypse Now," and a black joke from one marine about the landscape resembling "a Vietnam theme park."

But behind the joshing lay something more serious, even grim: the sense expressed by many of the Americans as they scoured the area for hidden weapon stockpiles that in this war, too, the insurgents might have advantages that could make them a match for any number of highly trained troops, any amount of technological gadgetry, and any accumulation of multibillion-dollar war budgets.

The 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit conducted the river raid as part of a weeklong offensive billed as a sequel to the battle for Falluja, more than 30 kilometers, or about 20 miles, upriver from the village where the marines landed Sunday.

The 12-meter, or 40-foot, river craft they used are called Surcs, for Small Unit Riverine Craft, a high-tech update on the Swift boats used in Vietnam.

The craft were flown into Iraq aboard giant C-5 transport aircraft and were first deployed with five-man crews during the battle for Falluja this month, patrolling the stretch of the Euphrates that runs along the city's western edge to prevent attempts by insurgents to escape that way after U.S. troops had thrown a cordon around the city.

Those patrols were judged a success by U.S. commanders. Now, they are eager to exploit the potential the patrol boats give them for mounting fast, unexpected attacks along the Tigris and the Euphrates, the two big rivers, roughly parallel as they run southward across Iraq toward the Gulf, which more or less define the new war zone.

The rivers run through many of the cities and towns that are rebel strongholds, and the long stretches of verdant riverbank provide ideal hiding places for insurgents and their weapons caches.

The raid gave the Americans a chance to exploit another new dimension of their strategy for winning the war, the twinning of U.S. combat units with newly trained Iraqi troops.

After failures earlier this year, when many Iraqi units deserted or refused to fight, the U.S. command wrote a new blueprint for training tens of thousands of Iraqi fighters and used Falluja as the first, critical testing ground. Judged a qualified success there, the best Iraqi units have been an integral part of every major raid in the follow-up offensive here.

In many raids, they have heavily outnumbered U.S. troops, as they did on Sunday's operation, which included 40 marines and 80 members of a special Iraqi commando unit assigned to the country's powerful Interior Ministry.

As much as they wanted to test their new river boats, U.S. commanders wanted to see how the commandos - many of them drawn from elite units of Saddam Hussein's special forces - would respond to an arduous and potentially risky mission.

This day, long before the five-kilometer sweep through the palm groves and citrus orchards and paddies was ended, the mood among the marines had soured as the Iraqis adopted a mostly dilatory attitude toward the tedious business of spreading out in long lines and moving methodically across the terrain, poking haystacks, running metal detectors over piles of palm fronds, peering into thick clusters of bulrushes, and digging in places of freshly turned earth.

"They've just about given up," Lieutenant Jerman Duarte, 34, of Houston, said at one point, his voice edged with exasperation.

Duarte, a native of Guatemala, led the raid in his capacity as commander of a reconnaissance and surveillance platoon that has honed its skills in many of the marines' toughest raids and stakeouts during their five months in Iraq. Among his men, he is known as "El Guapo," the handsome one, for his fine features and his bristling mustache.

But his sense of urgency and do-it-by-the-book briskness appeared lost on the Iraqi fighters, who used their rest breaks in the morning sunshine to trade quips about the Americans, not all of them friendly.

As in so much else about the U.S. venture in Iraq, cultural differences played their part. At one point, Duarte bridled when some of the Iraqis resisted his repeated urging that they spread out along the line, preferring to cluster together, ineffectively, at one end. A Marine sergeant told him that the Iraqis were officers and didn't feel that they should be asked to work side-by-side with common soldiers.

One of the Iraqi officers, asked if he spoke English, replied snappily, "English no good. Arabic good. Iraq good." The message seemed clear.

Although recruits undergo strict vetting, U.S. officers said that rebel sympathizers have infiltrated some of the new units - some of the soldiers have been caught tipping off rebel groups about raids and U.S. troop movements.

If there were rebel sympathies among the raiders, the area chosen for the sweep would likely have stirred them. One U.S. officer described the stretch of the Euphrates that runs southeast from Falluja as "Saddam's Hamptons" for the clusters of luxurious villas set along the riverbank, mostly built by favored stalwarts of Saddam.

The territory controlled by the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit, across the southernmost reaches of Iraq's Sunni Muslim heartland, served as an arsenal for Saddam, with dozens of weapons research facilities, munitions factories, and vast weapons storage sites, including the one at Al Qaqaa, which made headlines last month when the Americans discovered that more than 350 tons of high explosive had gone missing.

Recent U.S. sweeps in the area have uncovered some of the largest weapons caches found in post-Saddam Iraq. And Sunday's raid here, about eight kilometers from Al Qaqaa, followed a tipoff that more large caches might be found there.

But either the tipoff was flawed or the raid missed the target.

Altogether, Duarte's men discovered only three Kalashnikov rifles and an old shotgun, two of them in plastic bags that were clumsily buried in a paddy field. They also found identity documents belonging to a high-ranking member of Saddam's Baath Party, one wrapped in plastic and hidden in an abandoned water pipe, and one wrapped in a T-shirt and left in a palm grove.

CHARD DUWAISH, Iraq As marines aboard fast patrol boats roared up the Euphrates on a dawn raid, images pressed in of another American war where troops moved up wide rivers on camouflaged boats, with machine-gunners nervously scanning riverbanks for the hidden enemy.

That war is rarely mentioned among the U.S. troops in Iraq, many of whom were not yet born when the last U.S. combat units withdrew from Vietnam more than 30 years ago. A war that America did not win is considered a bad talisman among those men and women who privately admit to fears that this war could eventually be lost.

But as an orange moon sank below the bulrushes on Sunday morning, thoughts of Vietnam were hard to avoid.

Marines waded ashore through soft silted mud that caused some to sink to their waists, M-16 rifles held skyward as others on solid land held out their rifle barrels as lifelines.

Ashore, sodden and with boots squelching mud, the troops set out on a five-hour tramp through dense palm groves and across paddies crisscrossed by deep irrigation canals.

There were snatches of dialogue from "Apocalypse Now," and a black joke from one marine about the landscape resembling "a Vietnam theme park."

But behind the joshing lay something more serious, even grim: the sense expressed by many of the Americans as they scoured the area for hidden weapon stockpiles that in this war, too, the insurgents might have advantages that could make them a match for any number of highly trained troops, any amount of technological gadgetry, and any accumulation of multibillion-dollar war budgets.

The 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit conducted the river raid as part of a weeklong offensive billed as a sequel to the battle for Falluja, more than 30 kilometers, or about 20 miles, upriver from the village where the marines landed Sunday.

The 12-meter, or 40-foot, river craft they used are called Surcs, for Small Unit Riverine Craft, a high-tech update on the Swift boats used in Vietnam.

The craft were flown into Iraq aboard giant C-5 transport aircraft and were first deployed with five-man crews during the battle for Falluja this month, patrolling the stretch of the Euphrates that runs along the city's western edge to prevent attempts by insurgents to escape that way after U.S. troops had thrown a cordon around the city.

Those patrols were judged a success by U.S. commanders. Now, they are eager to exploit the potential the patrol boats give them for mounting fast, unexpected attacks along the Tigris and the Euphrates, the two big rivers, roughly parallel as they run southward across Iraq toward the Gulf, which more or less define the new war zone.

The rivers run through many of the cities and towns that are rebel strongholds, and the long stretches of verdant riverbank provide ideal hiding places for insurgents and their weapons caches.

The raid gave the Americans a chance to exploit another new dimension of their strategy for winning the war, the twinning of U.S. combat units with newly trained Iraqi troops.

After failures earlier this year, when many Iraqi units deserted or refused to fight, the U.S. command wrote a new blueprint for training tens of thousands of Iraqi fighters and used Falluja as the first, critical testing ground. Judged a qualified success there, the best Iraqi units have been an integral part of every major raid in the follow-up offensive here.

In many raids, they have heavily outnumbered U.S. troops, as they did on Sunday's operation, which included 40 marines and 80 members of a special Iraqi commando unit assigned to the country's powerful Interior Ministry.

As much as they wanted to test their new river boats, U.S. commanders wanted to see how the commandos - many of them drawn from elite units of Saddam Hussein's special forces - would respond to an arduous and potentially risky mission.

This day, long before the five-kilometer sweep through the palm groves and citrus orchards and paddies was ended, the mood among the marines had soured as the Iraqis adopted a mostly dilatory attitude toward the tedious business of spreading out in long lines and moving methodically across the terrain, poking haystacks, running metal detectors over piles of palm fronds, peering into thick clusters of bulrushes, and digging in places of freshly turned earth.

"They've just about given up," Lieutenant Jerman Duarte, 34, of Houston, said at one point, his voice edged with exasperation.

Duarte, a native of Guatemala, led the raid in his capacity as commander of a reconnaissance and surveillance platoon that has honed its skills in many of the marines' toughest raids and stakeouts during their five months in Iraq. Among his men, he is known as "El Guapo," the handsome one, for his fine features and his bristling mustache.

But his sense of urgency and do-it-by-the-book briskness appeared lost on the Iraqi fighters, who used their rest breaks in the morning sunshine to trade quips about the Americans, not all of them friendly.

As in so much else about the U.S. venture in Iraq, cultural differences played their part. At one point, Duarte bridled when some of the Iraqis resisted his repeated urging that they spread out along the line, preferring to cluster together, ineffectively, at one end. A Marine sergeant told him that the Iraqis were officers and didn't feel that they should be asked to work side-by-side with common soldiers.

One of the Iraqi officers, asked if he spoke English, replied snappily, "English no good. Arabic good. Iraq good." The message seemed clear.

Although recruits undergo strict vetting, U.S. officers said that rebel sympathizers have infiltrated some of the new units - some of the soldiers have been caught tipping off rebel groups about raids and U.S. troop movements.

If there were rebel sympathies among the raiders, the area chosen for the sweep would likely have stirred them. One U.S. officer described the stretch of the Euphrates that runs southeast from Falluja as "Saddam's Hamptons" for the clusters of luxurious villas set along the riverbank, mostly built by favored stalwarts of Saddam.

The territory controlled by the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit, across the southernmost reaches of Iraq's Sunni Muslim heartland, served as an arsenal for Saddam, with dozens of weapons research facilities, munitions factories, and vast weapons storage sites, including the one at Al Qaqaa, which made headlines last month when the Americans discovered that more than 350 tons of high explosive had gone missing.

Recent U.S. sweeps in the area have uncovered some of the largest weapons caches found in post-Saddam Iraq. And Sunday's raid here, about eight kilometers from Al Qaqaa, followed a tipoff that more large caches might be found there.

But either the tipoff was flawed or the raid missed the target.

Altogether, Duarte's men discovered only three Kalashnikov rifles and an old shotgun, two of them in plastic bags that were clumsily buried in a paddy field. They also found identity documents belonging to a high-ranking member of Saddam's Baath Party, one wrapped in plastic and hidden in an abandoned water pipe, and one wrapped in a T-shirt and left in a palm grove. BDWN

Malaysia to Buy U.S.-Made Satellite With Financing From Ex-Im Bank

WASHINGTON, Nov. 29 /PRNewswire/ -- The Export-Import Bank of the United States (Ex-Im Bank) approved a $138 million long-term loan guarantee to help Binariang Satellite Systems Sdn Bhd of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, a unit of MEASAT Global Berhad (BLOOM MGB MK), purchase a telecommunications and broadcasting satellite from Boeing Satellite Systems Inc. of El Segundo, California, and a number of U.S. suppliers.

The Ex-Im Bank guarantee will support a 48-transponder satellite that will be placed in orbit next year. It will also enable MEASAT to purchase launch insurance using the insurance broking services of Willis Inspace of Bethesda, Maryland. A commercial bank syndicate led by Standard Chartered Bank of New York is providing the loan.

"Technology is a driving force of the U.S. economy, and high-tech U.S. exports such as this are second to none," Ex-Im Bank Chairman Philip Merrill said. "Ex-Im Bank is committed to supporting U.S. jobs through exports while helping Malaysia upgrade its telecommunications infrastructure."

MEASAT Global Bhd. is an established supplier of premium satellite communication services to Asia's leading broadcasters, telecommunications providers and "Direct to Home" (DTH) operators.

Ex-Im Bank, the official U.S. export credit agency, has approximately $1.4 billion in financial exposure in Malaysia. This year, the Bank marks its 71^st year of helping finance the sale of U.S. exports, primarily to emerging markets throughout the world, by providing loan guarantees, export credit insurance, and direct loans. In fiscal year 2003, the Bank authorized financing to support more than $14 billion of U.S. exports worldwide. For more information on Ex-Im Bank, visit http://www.exim.gov. 29/11/2004 BDWN

IN THE JUNGLE FOR 25 YEARS

A group of people lived wild in the remote jungles of Cambodia for 25 years because they thought war was continuing in southeast Asia.

The society of 40 refused to return home for fear of being murdered by Vietnamese troops.

Vietnamese soldiers had left Cambodia more than 15 years ago after invading the country to depose of Pol Pot and his murderous Khmer Rouge regime.

The group was found wandering the jungle near Cambodia's northeastern border with Laos last week.

Officials have been sent on a two-day trip on foot to try and find them.

"They told the villagers that they decided not to return to their village because they were afraid the Vietnamese would cut their throats," police chief Long Lim said.

It is not the first time people have been found living in isolation in the region in the aftermath of the Vietnam war.

Seven Cambodian families, living off wild plants and animals and wearing clothes made of tree bark and leaves, were found earlier this month in another part of the country.

They had hidden from Vietnamese troops they believed were still occupying the country.

Several hundred Hmong are believed to be hiding out in the jungles of Laos.

They were used by the CIA against communists during the war but were largely forgotten by the US once the conflict ended.

The Hmong are being hunted by the Laos government, which accuses them of fighting a low level campaign against it. Monday 29 November 2004. BDWN

Platinum Hello Kitty Sells for $102,000

Mon Nov 29, 2004

TOKYO (Reuters) - A platinum, diamond-studded figurine of Hello Kitty, the hugely popular feline character, has been sold for the equivalent of $102,000 by a department store in the Japanese city of Osaka.

The 4.1 cm (1.6 in.) tall figurine, dressed in a queen's outfit and studded with 250 diamonds, was produced to celebrate the 30th birthday of the famous white cat with no mouth.

"It was sold to a customer from Osaka," said a spokesman at the Mitsukoshi department store, declining to give details.

The face of Hello Kitty, who has devotees of all ages around the world, is featured on everything from kids lunch boxes to pop-up toasters and bicycles.

Things are not purring for the owner of the Hello Kitty brand, however. Sanrio Co. Ltd. said last week it would fall into the red this year and is seeking $187 million in financial aid. BDWN

Vietnam signs in ASEAN judicial assistance agreement

11/29/2004 -- Ha Noi (VNA) - Viet Nam, together with Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Singapore officially signed an agreement on judicial assistance in criminals among countries in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).

The signing took place at the third Meeting of ASEAN Attorneys-General in Kuala Lumpur on Monday.

The agreement was put together under the initiative of Malaysia and was discussed at negotiations held in October 2003 and May 2004 in Kotta Kinabalu and Kuala Lumpur, respectively.

The agreement is aimed at creating a legal instrument for ASEAN countries to prevent and fight crime, especially trans-national crime in Southeast Asia.

It comprises 32 articles, stipulating the fields and forms of assistance and cooperation in collecting evidence, conveying documents, and verifying and blockading property sourced from crime.

The agreement will not apply to cases involving the extradition of criminals, transmission of criminal judgments and recognition and execution of criminal convicts.

Deputy Public Security Minister Lieut. Gen. Le The Tiem led a Vietnamese delegation of officials from the Ministries of Public Security, Justice and Foreign Affairs and the Supreme People's Procuracy, to the meeting. BDWN

CHINA/HONG KONG - Entrepreneurs must cut through red tape

Paloma Khan

While the world watches the manufacturing boom sweeping China in awe, there are concerns over whether its logistics industry, and indeed its infrastructure, is advanced enough to operate an efficient supply chain.

"Tremendous economic growth has put pressure not only on China's infrastructure, but also on regulations and government agencies, " says David Cunningham, president AsiaPacific for FedEx.

He acknowledges that China has come a long way in a short time. Fifteen years ago, there were just 105km of motorway. Today, that figure has grown to more than 11,000km. "The target, according to the ministry of communications, is 32,000km by 2008, " says Cunningham.

"China is building roads so fast that last year it used 40% of the world's cement production.

"The danger is that China's entrepreneurial new businesses in areas such as fashion, technology and pharmaceuticals may not make the profits they deserve because of inefficiencies in China's supply chains." He says regulations governing transport are fragmented. "There are different rules and regulators for various modes of transport, and these are different again for foreign logistics firms and local businesses, and also depend on which part of China you are operating in." In two years'time, under WTO rules, China will be an open market for 3PLs able to operate under their own name and without the assistance of local companies.

Currently, all foreignowned logistics operators operate under an Aor B licence. The former requires a JV with a local company, entitling foreign operators to a 70%. B licence operators have to use local agencies to carry out all logistics activities, including transportation and booking cargo space. It is thought, however, that some 3PLs, like GAC, will be permitted to undertake its own forwarding and warehousing activities next year.

In 2003, China replaced the US as the number one recipient of foreign direct investment and has become the world's third-largest exporter after the US and Germany. The Chinese government has supported this with a Go West policy to encourage foreign investment in cities other than those on the coast, providing employment and closing the gap between the wealthy east and poverty-stricken west of the country.

This policy has worked, with multinationals manufacturing hi-end products from automotive – particularly in Wuhan, which is fast becoming the automotive centre of the country – to electronics and textiles in more remote, cheaper cities.

New roads are opening up the poorer interior provinces.

"Cities that were once isolated are being given the opportunity to take part in trade and development. Busy areas such as the Pearl River Delta are being criss-crossed with fast highways, " says Cunningham.

In the past few years, foreign operators have worked hard to expand their presence in China, capitalizing on the vast opportunities it presents.

Hellmann Logistics opened a new facility at Shanghai's Pudong airport. The next step for this Alicence operator is to strengthen its network countrywide, opening offices in Chengdu, Chongquing, Hanzhou and Wuhan in the near future, according to a spokesman.

GAC currently operates through 12 agencies in China but is looking forward to next year when it should be able to take over it own handling, transportation and clearance.

"For us, it's imperative that clients have one central point of contact, " says Claus Schensema, MD of GAC's Shanghai operation.

He believes running his own operation will inevitably cut costs, because rate negotiations with airlines and shipping lines will be done directly. "It's about not having to use third parties.

It's a cost-saving exercise for us and our clients."

Until now, the 3PLs' fastest-growing sector had been automotive and eyewear, but Schensema has recently seen an increase in shipments used to build microscopes. "This has been motivated by three main clients in both sea and air. We are handling imports of raw materials and then distributing the finished product throughout China.

We deliver to the wholesaler, who then sells on to the retailer." Despite a quieter-thanusual Q2, 2004 revenue overall is up 30% on last year.

"October was very busy, so too is November. The only concern we have is capacity.

It's tight, particularly to the US west coast because the ports there are still congested. Goods that would normally be moved by sea are having to go by air and, subsequently, rates have gone through the roof.

"Space is certainly at a premium and rates are higher than we have seen for five years, " says Schensema.

He believes competition, too, is at an all-time high with forwarders undercutting each other on price. "It's now an auctioneer's market.

Rates we would have agreed to during low season we just can't during this peak." This perhaps explains why GAC is pushing sea/air, cheaper than pure air, as an alternative for customers.

There are two options for shippers to Europe. The seven-day service uses sailings from Shanghai to Pusan, south Korea, where shipments are loaded onto aircraft at Inchon. The alternative sees shipments go by sea to Dubai for onward transit to Europe by air.

"As the Chinese population has become wealthier, consumer demand has boomed, making domestic transport an increasingly important part of the supply chain. GAC is asset-light so we will use subcontracted haulage in the shape of a few dedicated partners, " Schensema says.

GAC is in the final stages of completing its new facility at Shanghai's Waigaoqiao logistics park, which Schensema believes is essential, given the amount of manufacturers located within 300km of Shanghai.

Posted: 29/11/2004 BDWN