Indonesia announces norms for mining firms

SINGAPORE: Indonesia's Mines & Energy Ministry has announced that mining firms prospecting in the country will soon have to secure government verification of their mineral finds. The move is aimed at preempting the recurrence of a scam like the Busang gold rush — initially projected as the biggest find in the country — which hit the headlines recently after it went bust.

The Indonesian government is planning to introduce legislation on the compulsory verification of mineral finds, said the ministry's newly appointed secretary general Darmoko, who replaced Umar Said, sacked early this week for not having detected l'affaire Busang.Mining firms will now be required to submit quarterly reports on their exploration activities to the ministry, initially during the first year of exploration.

Thai economy looking up

SINGAPORE: Still reeling under the recent currency crisis that sent the baht into a decline, Thailand's economy is now beginning to show signs of recovery, according to the Thai Finance Ministry.

The ministry expects the government's cash surplus to total several billion baht although it is unsure of the exact figure to be announced next week.

The ministry expects the positive trend to continue, and the 1997 fiscal year is projected to end in September with a surplus, reversing the earlier of a cash deficit.

Finance permanent secretary MR Chatumongol Sonakul said this year's budget was likely to be underspent by 19 billion baht and this would also help improve the fiscal position. The fiscal shortfall was likely to have less bearing on economic stability, he said, noting that other basic factors were improving, such as lower inflation, a decline in the trade deficit and an increase in exports.

CitiService launched

SINGAPORE: Citibank Bhd has launched a telephone enquiry line that allows customers to access information on corporate accounts in Malaysia. Its chief executive, Sunil Sreenivasan, said the service, called CitiService, had already been launched in three other countries -- the Philippines, Singapore and South Korea.

Singapore dollar future may flop

SINGAPORE: A Singapore dollar futures contract to be launched in New York is unlikely to take off because currency hedging is already well taken care of in the foreign exchange markets, according to futures traders in the city state.

The New York Cotton Exchange (NYCE) is reported to be all set to launch the Singapore dollar futures contract along with three other regional currencies — the ringgit, the rupiah and the baht — next month. The currencies will be trade against the US dollar. The NYCE is a minor regional exchange and has three main products: orange, potatoes and cotton. Its currency futures and option division Finex offers a range of currencies which attract some interest.

Meanwhile, the NYCE is moving ahead with its proposed link-up with the Malaysia Monetary Exchange (MME) to get its Finex contracts traded on the MME in the Malaysia time zone.

"We are in the midst of discussions with the NYCE on the operational mechanism," MME executive chairman Zyed Jabbar told Singapore's Business Times in a phone interview.-

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.