Posts from — January 2008

About 400 youths are taking part in the three-day event which will focus on over 100 activities ranging from education to fashion at the Malaysian Youth ’08 convention with themed “We Are The Trendsetters”. The convention is jointly organised by online companies YouthMalaysia, VoiceMedia and The Youth Inteligence.

“I believe youths today should feel empowered with a drive to be successful, hence the theme for the convention,” Joel Neoh, 24, who set up YouthMalaysia, said.

“We have well-known personalities who represent many activities such as sports, but none for young entrepreneurs, so this convention will hopefully spur the young into making a name for themselves,” he added. The convention was opened by Youth and Sports Deputy Minister Datuk Liow Tiong Lai on behalf of Sports Minister Datuk Seri Azalina Othman Said yesterday.

In her speech read by Liow, Azalina said the younger generation was a crucial segment for the basis of future development. zalina said her ministry’s youth economic fund scheme was helping young entrepreneurs to start their own business. Speakers at the convention included Internet marketing entrepreneur Ng Khai Lee, 23, and entrepreneur Ganesh Kumar Bangah, 29.

The new Proton Saga finally revealed, the car that put Malaysia on the roadmap as a country that manufactures automobiles. The Saga Proton’s had captured 43% of the market share in its debut year. And by the following year, the car accounted for 60% of sales in the domestic passenger car sales. For the next two decades, the pioneer continued to ply its trade, from flag-bearer to workhorse, selling more than one million examples along the way.

For the prices, the new Saga line-up begins at RM31,500 for the E-Line (manual only). The B-Line manual is priced at RM34,998, while the auto goes for RM37,998. The M-Line manual and auto versions go for RM37,498 and RM39,998 respectively (all on-the-road, with insurance).

Seven colour choices are available, these being Solid White, Metallic Black, Granite Gray, Genetic Silver, Chilli Red, Mountain Blue and Zircon Green. These are featured across the range for the B- and M-Line versions; the E-Line variant is available only in Solid White.

China’s online population has rised to 210 million people and could surpass the United States population on 2008 to become the world’s biggest internet users, the China government said. The figure reported by the official China Internet Network Information Center was a 53 percent jump from 137 million Chinese Internet users reported at this time last year.

“Currently China’s online population is about 50 million less than that of the United States and is the world’s second-largest,” the agency, also known as CNNIC, said on its Web site. “CNNIC forecasts that (China) will become the largest online country in 2008,” it said.

The U.S. Census Bureau said last year that about 218 million of the country’s 310 million people used the Internet. China promotes Internet use for education and business but tries to block the public from seeing material deemed pornographic or that opposes communist rule in China.

The ringgit go into its highest level against the US dollar in more than a decade following increased demand for the local currency and in line with the bullish market sentiment.

It extended its two-week gain against the greenback amid expectations that the Federal Reserve would cut interest rates in the US to curb a slowdown in the world’s largest economy. As at 5pm 4 January 2008, the ringgit was quoted at 3.2800/2840 compared with Thursday’s 3 January 2008 3.2885/2915. It rose earlier in the day to 3.281 – its strongest level since November 1997.

Earlier in the week, data indicating a slowdown in US manufacturing helped fuel speculation that the Fed would cut rates to help spur economic growth. The steady gains of the ringgit also follow a rally in China’s yuan and The wire agency noted that the ringgit and yuan had posted annual gains each year since they were de-pegged from the US dollar in 2005.

On a micro level, the ringgit’s appreciation could be attributed to Malaysia’s “uniqueness” in terms of commodity play, said the OSK Investment Bank economist Sia Ket Ee.

Sia, also cited three factors which would ensure fundamental support for the currency, moving forward – the country’ stable trade surplus, continued inflow of foreign direct investment and Malaysia’s “still favourable” growth story. The ringgit also was 2.2868/2914 against the Singapore dollar compared with Thursday’s 3 January 2008 closing of 2.2918/2952. It was also higher against the yen at 2.9987/3.0038 from 3.0026/0065 and strengthened against the British pound at 6.4642/4731 from 6.5010/5083. The ringgit also appreciated against the euro, at 4.8299/8361 from 4.8311/8382.