Brasil: Governo revê concessão de ferrovias para privilegiar trechos cobiçados

Em agosto de 2012, a presidente Dilma Rousseff lançou projeto para conceder 10 mil quilômetros de ferrovias, prevendo ter os contratos assinados até setembro de 2013 para iniciar investimentos de R$ 91 bilhões ainda neste ano.
A ideia não deu certo. Nenhuma ferrovia foi concedida. A complexidade do modelo proposto, estudos incipientes, falta de confiança nos órgãos públicos, prazo pequeno e o gigantismo do projeto são fatores apontados dentro e fora do governo para a iniciativa ter naufragado.
 O novo ministro dos Transportes, César Borges, assumiu as rédeas do plano, montado pela gestão anterior. Decidiu, então, priorizar trechos considerados de maior viabilidade e com mais procura.

A primeira licitação será a da ferrovia entre Uruaçu (GO) e Lucas do Rio Verde (MT), a Ferrovia da Soja . Como ela tem estudos mais avançados, não há grandes dúvidas sobre custo.

Ao menos três grandes grupos manifestaram interesse pelo trecho, o melhor caminho para levar ao exterior a soja da maior região produtora.
Para reduzir a resistência do TCU (Tribunal de Contas da União) em aprovar a concessão, o governo decidiu passar à iniciativa privada apenas o trecho novo.

A ideia anterior era conceder essa linha junto com um trecho da Ferrovia Norte-Sul que está praticamente pronto. Mas o tribunal viu possíveis problemas para calcular o pagamento pelo trecho antigo, o que forçou o Planalto a desistir da proposta.

O governo ainda depende da aprovação do novo modelo para marcar o leilão.

Hoje, há estudos incompletos sobre a Ferrovia da Soja no tribunal. O governo promete entregar as últimas análises ainda neste mês.

O outro projeto priorizado é o Ferroanel de São Paulo.

A primeira ideia era conceder dois trechos novos para a iniciativa privada.

Após meses de negociação e nenhum acordo com as concessionárias privadas MRS e ALL, porém, o plano foi mudado. Trechos existentes operados pelas duas empresas na região seriam retomados em uma só concessão.

O governo ainda aposta na solução para o impasse.

Fonte : Fohla de Sao Paulo

Reform of Japan's Government Investment Fund

    According to a report from the Wall Street Journal,"Japan's Government Pension Investment Fund $1.2 trillion , the world's biggest pool of pension money, is under the control of the health ministry, resulting in an ultraconservative investment menu of stocks and bonds. The fund is also bound by strict rules that have limited direct investment to Japanese government bonds, which are currently the lowest-yielding sovereign debt in the world".
'"Since July, a government-appointed panel of seven finance and business experts has been drawing up recommendations for a major revamp to get returns up. Although the panel won't make specific asset-allocation suggestions, the panel's report, which may come out as early as Nov. 20, is seen as the first step in steering the GPIF's bond-heavy portfolio into a much wider range of investments, potentially unleashing a flood of cash into global markets.

"The GPIF making decisions would mean many other pension funds following suit and adopting similar allocations. There would be a big impact for the asset classes into which funds flow," said Takashi Hiratsuka, a trading group leader in the asset management of Resona Bank, a custodian of about ¥17 trillion ($170 billion) in assets.

Just a one percentage point move in the GPIF's allocation to domestic stocks, for instance, could send ¥1.2 trillion into the market.

Freeing the GPIF from the control of the health ministry would let the fund set its own budget, pay more for outside fund management and attract talent from brokerage firms and asset-management companies with higher pay.

Instead of targeting a set investment return, as the fund does now, the panel would likely advise the GPIF to decide how much risk it can take, and then try for the highest returns it can get". 

"We are trying to make [our proposals] more concrete," panel chairman and University of Tokyo professor Takatoshi Ito told The Wall Street Journal in a Thursday interview. "Concrete in portfolio, concrete in governance, and concrete in a road map."

Asian smartphone makers hoping to crush Samsung and Apple

Samsung is the world’s – and Asia’s, top smartphone maker. But there are a lot of rival phone-makers out there aiming to dethrone the likes of Samsung and Apple. That competition is especially strong across Asia, where a number of relatively new phone-makers are playing to their strengths in home markets, aiming to get consumers hooked on their own keenly-priced but strongly-specced devices.

Let’s look at  the strongest new contenders across Asia. They’re all – individually and collectively – keen to steal sales from more established phone-makers.                                                                                      

China

1 Xiaomi

This is perhaps the best known of any Asian startup, thanks to the fact that it’s already outselling Apple in China and is on course to sell 20 million smartphones this year.                                                                What’s Xiaomi’s secret? Its smartphones sell for about half the price of Samsung’s and HTC’s flagship phones, yet the strength and versatility of its Android skin (which it calls MIUI) makes them feel like top-quality products. Xiaomi keeps costs low by selling 70 percent of its phones online, and the rest via telco partners. It has no retail business to drain money. It also sells to Hong Kong and Taiwan, and might go global, in select countries, anyway  in 2014.

Lower down in the price range is the Xiaomi Hongmi, which we reckon is the best phone you can get for a mere US$130.

Xiaomi models itself on Amazon, according to its founder. But the company’s minimal product line-up often leads to the media comparing it with Apple. Like Apple, Xiaomi has a streaming media box, and recently adapted that software to put into its own smart TV , the MiTV.

• Flagship phone: Xiaomi Mi3 has a 5-inch 1080p HD screen, 1.8GHz NVIDIA Tegra 4 (WDCDMA version) or 2.3GHz Snapdragon 800 (TD-SCDMA version) processors; 13-megapixel back camera and a 2-megapixel front one; Android 4.2; costs $325 (16GB) or $405 (64GB) unlocked.

2. Coolpad

Here’s another newcomer now outselling Apple in China. Coolpad is China’s third biggest smartphone brand in terms of sales, according to Gartner, thanks to a broad line-up of mostly cheap Android-based smartphones, with lots of special versions made for China’s three telcos. They won’t win any design awards and won’t blow your mind, but only 13 percent of Chinese people will buy smartphones that cost over $330 (that’s the psychologically important RMB 2,000 barrier) so the low-end market is vast.

Coolpad has been an OEM for several telcos around the world (producing stuff like the MetroPCS Quatrro 4G phone for T-Mobile in the US), and that’s still part of its business. But Coolpad wants to stand on its own brand overseas, and it’s targeting Southeast Asia as a first step.

• Flagship phone: Coolpad Magview 4 has a 5.9-inch 1080p HD screen; 1.8GHz Tegra 4 processor; 13-megapixel rear camera; Android 4.2; costs a whopping $650 unlocked

India

3. Micromax

   Of all the firms on our list,Micromax is the closest to its goal of beating Samsung. Micromax shipped two million of its Android-based phones in India from April to June, out of a total of 9.3 million smartphones hitting shelves in the country in that period.

Later this year it will venture overseas by launching in Russia and Romania, two developing markets that it reckons have a strong desire for more affordable smartphones.

• Flagship phone: Micromax A250 has a 5-inch 1080p HD screen; 1.5 GHz MediaTek quad-core processor; 13-megapixel rear camera and 5-megapixel front one; Android 4.2; costs $325 unlocked.

4. Karbonn                                                                                                                                                   In India, local brands like Micromax and Karbonn shipped over half of the smartphones in the country during the second quarter of 2013, representing a massive challenge to Samsung.

Karbonn is a bit smaller than Micromax, but both are growing strongly.

• Flagship phone: Karbonn Titanium S9 has a 5.2-inch 1080p HD screen; 1.2 GHz processor; 13-megapixel rear camera; Android 4.2; costs $295 unlocked.

5. Xolo                                                                                                                                               Though smaller than its two compatriot rivals, Xolo is also keen for a slice of India’s low-end to mid-range smartphone market. Xolo looks set to be India’s first phone brand to sell  a 4G  phone  in the country.

• Flagship phone: Xolo Q900 has a 4.7-inch 720p HD screen; 1.2 GHz Mediatek processor; 8-megapixel rear camera and 2-megapixel front one; Android 4.2; costs $212 unlocked.

Indonesia

6. Smartfren

   Smartfren is different from the others in this list in that it’s a mobile telco company. It has 12.5 million subscribers, and it’s pushing forward Indonesia's shift to Android with its own competitively-priced smartphones.

In our experience, the cheap components can lead to a laggy and sub-par experience on Smarfren’s phones, but then they do cost well under $200 unlocked. Still, Xiaomi’s cheapest phone is only $130 but has much stronger specs and doesn’t feel laggy, so Smartfren (and many others on this list) have some catching up to do on their sub-$200 phones.

• Flagship phone: Smartren Andromax U 4.5 Limited has a 4.5-inch screen at just 960 x 540 pixels; 1.2 GHz Snapdragon processor; 8-megapixel rear camera and 2-megapixel front one; Android 4.1; costs $153 unlocked.

Malaysia 

7. Ninetology  

 With an emphasis on style and a bit more attention paid to design than is evident in the others on this list, Malaysia’s Ninetology is already, it claims, Malaysia’s second biggest phone-maker (behind, inevitably, Samsung).

• Flagship phone: Ninetology Z1+ has a 5-inch 720p HD screen; 1.2 GHZ quad-core Mediatek processor; 13-megapixel rear camera and 5-megapixel front one; Android 4.2; costs $410 unlocked.

Last week, this Malaysian firm launched in neighboring Indonesia.

Source: TECHINASIA

  

Berlusconi breaks away from Italian government after party splits

Silvio Berlusconi, facing expulsion from parliament over a tax conviction and a revolt which split his centre-right party, said on Saturday he may no longer back Italian Prime Minister Enrico Letta but would not be able to bring down the government.

The 77-year-old billionaire' s comments came after Friday's defection of a group led by Interior Minister Angelino Alfano, former secretary of his People of Freedom party, which defied Berlusconi and formed a group that has pledged to remain in Letta's coalition government.

Berlusconi said his impending expulsion from parliament, with the support of Letta's centre-left Democratic Party (PD), meant the left-right coalition created in the wake of February's deadlocked election could not continue.

"It's very difficult to think you can remain allies in parliament and above all seated at the same table in cabinet with someone who wants to kill your leader politically," Berlusconi said.

"At this moment, after the decision taken by 23 of our senators on October 2, we were not capable and we are not capable of bringing down the government," Berlusconi said.

He said the break with Alfano and the other rebels was down to personal differences rather than deep policy disagreements and he considered the group as potential allies in future.

After weeks of tension in the centre-right between those pressing for a break with Letta and those determined to support the government, the split underlines the instability threatening Italy as it grapples with its worst postwar recession.

Source: Reuters

Merkel ready to cede on minimum wage to secure coalition

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has signalled her readiness to accept the Social Democrats' (SPD) demand for a legal minimum wage in order to secure their agreement to form a governing coalition, as negotiations enter the final stretch.

Merkel began preparing her conservatives for a compromise by telling a Christian Democrats (CDU) youth rally late on Friday that the 8.50 euros per hour pay floor which the SPD demands "will play a role" in future.

"It won't be our vision of a minimum wage," she added, conceding her party was unlikely to get its own way over the SPD on the issue.

The SPD has given up its campaign promise to hike taxes on the rich but will not budge on the minimum wage. Nearly half a million SPD members will vote on the coalition deal by early December, injecting more uncertainty into the whole process.

Merkel's parliamentary leader Volker Kauder also prepared for a compromise by telling the mass-circulation Bild am Sonntag paper, in comments released before publication, that "growth and employment must not suffer" from its introduction. Some businessleaders are worried that it will undermine competitiveness.

Kauder said it might be wise to introduce the minimum wage more gradually in the former East Germany- where pay is lower and unemployment higher - to avoid putting jobs at risk. But trade unions who back the SPD might find that hard to accept.

Source:  Reuters

EU Comissioner Germany won't be sanctioned in surplus probe

Germany's European Commissioner Guenther Oettinger ruled out on Saturday his country being sanctioned by Brussels as a result of a new investigation into its current account surplus.

The European Union's executive body decided this week to analyse the persistently high surplus on Germany's current account - which is largely due to it exporting far more than it imports - to gauge whether criticisms from the United States and elsewhere in the EU that it causes economic imbalances are justified.

But European Energy Commissioner Oettinger, a senior figure in German Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democratic Union (CDU), told the party's youth congress in the city of Erfurt: "It certainly will not come down to sanctions."

Oettinger said the EU probe would demonstrate clearly that German exports are increasing to the rest of the world rather than Europe and that other EU manufacturers benefit when Germany sells cars to China, for example.

"This is a success for the whole EU, not for Germany at the expense of the EU," said Oettinger.

The Commission runs a scoreboard of economic indicators for member states with warning signs that include a current account deficit larger than 4 percent of GDP or a persistent surplus of over 6 percent.

But whereas there is a mechanism for fining states running excessive deficits - the penalty can be 0.1 percent of GDP - it is not currently foreseen to fine member states for a surplus.

Aid flows to typhoon survivors as Philippines struggles to rebuild

Long-delayed emergency supplies flowed into the typhoon-ravaged central Philippines on Saturday, reaching desperate families who had to fend for themselves for days, as the United Nations more than doubled its estimate of homeless to nearly two million.

The aid effort was still patchy, with relief officials reporting a surge in desperate, hungry survivors trying to leave the coastal city of Ormoc, 105 km (65 miles) west of Tacloban, the worst-affected major city.

More than a week after Typhoon Haiyan killed at least 3,633 with tree-snapping winds and tsunami-like waves, hundreds of international aid workers set up makeshift hospitals and trucked in supplies.

At least 800 people died in the district of Palo, which lies between Tanauan and Tacloban, national authorities said.

In Tacloban, work crews and heavy equipment cleared debris from roadsides, but side streets remained piled with the sodden, tangled remains of homes which city officials fear could reveal hundreds more bodies when they are eventually cleared.

There are 1,179 people missing, according to the national count. The official death toll only rose by 12 on Saturday, giving hope that initial local estimates of 10,000 dead were overblown.

The number of people made homeless by the storm rose to 1.9 million, up from 900,000, the United Nations' humanitarian agency said. In Tacloban, at least 56,000 people face unsanitary conditions, according to the United Nations' migration agency.

Source: Reuters

Jack Ma, Alibaba's culture priorities 1st Customers,2nd Employees and 3rd Shareholders

"My goal for creating a company is not for making money but to build a culture, Alibaba's
goal is to help other people.
  I run my businesses,with  different values with respect to US companies, for them
shareholders are first,customers are second and employees are last.

  Alibaba's culture priorities are,customers are number one,employees are number two and
shareholder's are number 3.
  Customers are our top priority because they pay for our products and brings us money.
  Employee's are second because they led innovation.
  And shareholders are third in our priorities,because whenever a crisis happens, they sell our shares and run away, customer's and employees's  always remain.

  XX'th century was for the big companies,   XX'st century is for small and medium sized companies.
  US is to big company driven.
 
  We focus on small business,small is beautiful.
   I have seen people making fortunes catching shrimps,but not catching sharks or whales.

   My mission from now own is not to make fortunes, but help people, encourage entrepeneurship
and build values,solve social problems

   Human brains run the machines.

   Markets drive the tech innovation, the culture to innovate".

   Source: Interview of Jack Ma by Charlie Rose