| RMB hits new high against US dollar after breaking 7.8 mark
The value of the Renminbi (RMB) yuan against the U.S. dollar hit a new high on Monday with a central parity rate of 7.7938 yuan to one dollar, according to the Chinese Foreign Exchange Trade System. The new high follows a previous record of 7.7977 yuan to one dollar last Thursday, breaking the 7.8 mark for the first time. Monday's exchange rate also marked a new high of 0.99945 yuan per Hong Kong dollar. "The new appreciation of the RMB resulted from a temporary peak of personal foreign exchange settlements from overseas Chinese, such as students studying abroad, who remit money to relatives or friends in China as the traditional Spring Festival approaches," said Ye Yaoting, a forex analyst with the Bank of Communications. China's growing trade surplus and foreign exchange reserves had contributed to boosting the yuan's appreciation, Ye said.
Get a fix on use of forex, first
The need for massive investments -- $320 billion, or more over the next five years -- in infrastructure to support the 8-10% growth envisaged for the economy is no longer a matter of debate. If we assume that all our public agencies are able to quickly prepare properly structured and designed infrastructure investments of this magnitude (and that is indeed a big assumption, as the capacity required to prepare many projects -- particularly of the PPP type -- is indeed a major constraint within the public sector), one of the big concerns is the ability to finance such massive investment. The massive financing of infrastructure projects assumes an extra dimension since a significant part of it (perhaps $75-100 billion) is to be executed through public partnerships. Even in public investment projects, financing issues need to be critically examined as the government has accepted a fiscal responsibility framework.
Edwards Lifesciences Reports Solid Fourth Quarter and Full Year ...
IRVINE, Calif., Feb. 5, 2007 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Edwards Lifesciences Corporation , a world leader in products and technologies to treat advanced cardiovascular disease, today reported net income for the quarter ended December 31, 2006 of $20.7 million, or $0.34 per diluted share, compared to net income of $38.6 million, or $0.61 per diluted share for the same period in 2005. Non-GAAP net income, which excludes special items and the impact of option expense under FAS 123R detailed in the reconciliation table below, grew to $37.4 million compared to $33.6 million for the same period last year. Non-GAAP earnings per diluted share, on this same basis, grew 15.1 percent to $0.61, compared to $0.53 for the same period in the prior year. Non-GAAP earnings per diluted share, excluding only the special items, were $0.55.
NGOs selling the nation and their souls to foreigners
In an incredible twist of events, leading members of the Sri Lankan civil society went all out to suppress the publication of Dr. Susantha Goonatilake's book Recolonisation, Foreign Funded NGOs in Sri Lanka without even sighting or reading the contents. They jointly petitioned SAGE, India's outstanding publishers of academic titles, shortly after they read a pre-publication advertisement in SAGE's catalogue. That brief ad was enough for the members of "the civil society"(they are inseparable from NGOs) who are supposed to be the champions of freedom, liberty, democracy, to launch a concerted campaign to suppress Dr. Goonatilake's book. Kumari Jayawardena, a civil society activist from the Colombo University, Kumar Rupesinghe, a top NGO mudalali who refused to reveal his dollar income in public, Jayadeva Uyangoda who theorises on dividing Sri Lanka and the rest of the world into micro states based on his half-baked, pseudo-Marxist political science, are some of the signatories who had no qualms in suppressing the publication of a book that exposed their uncivil society.
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