The Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) launch their scaled supersonic transport (SSI) plane with a solid rocket booster from Woomera in Australia's center on Monday. (AFP Photo)

SYDNEY, Australia, Oct. 10--Japan on Monday successfully tested a revolutionary design for a supersonic airliner to replace Concorde, three years after the first attempt ended in a fiery crash in the Australian desert, officials said.
A scale model of an airliner that would carry 300 passengers at twice the speed of sound was launched from the Woomera test site in the outback with the aid of a rocket shortly after dawn, Japan’s Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) said. “It went well, it was successful,“ JAXA spokeswoman Mayuni Onodera told AFP by telephone from the test site, which was closed to the media.
In the test, the 11.5-metre (38-foot) scale model of the 104-metre airliner separated from the rocket at around 18,000 meters (59,400 feet) and glided at Mach 2 (2,450 kilometers per hour, 1,522 miles per hour) for about 15 minutes. The multi-million dollar test aircraft landed safely by parachute, Onodera said.
In the first attempt at Woomera in July 2002, the rocket carrying the scale model veered wildly out of control a few seconds after takeoff and crashed in flames.
The trial put to the test the aerodynamic design of an aircraft intended to fly twice the distance and seat three times the number of passengers as Concorde, the iconic Anglo-French jet that was retired in 2003.
“The scaled experimental supersonic transport test has finished successfully,“ Kimio Sakata, director of the flight trial operation at JAXA told a news conference linked to Tokyo from Woomera. “The success this time, I believe, has enabled us to show the world that confidence and trust in Japan’s technology have returned,“ said Sakata.
Designers hope a commercial version of the National Experimental Supersonic Transport (Nexst) will also be less polluting and less noisy than the Concorde, which flew at a similar speed. Greater seating capacity and lower prices would also make it available to ordinary travelers rather than the rich and famous who were regulars on the pricy Concorde.
The aircraft could cut hours off inter-continental travel, halving the flight time between Tokyo and New York.
Data gained from Monday’s test will be used in joint research by Japan and France towards a next-generation supersonic jet.
Monday’s test launch cost roughly $111 million and many times that amount will have to be spent before commercialization, according to a JAXA official.

MANILA, Philippines, Oct. 10--The Asian Development Bank Monday launched its debut yuan-denominated Panda bonds in China’s domestic capital market, the Manila-based bank said in a statement released here.
The issue will have a principal amount of one billion yuan, a bullet maturity of 10 years, and a fixed coupon rate payable annually.
ADB and lead manager BOC International (China) Ltd will undertake roadshows on Tuesday and Wednesday in Shanghai and Beijing, respectively.
Bookbuilding will follow immediately and pricing will take place no later than Thursday, 13 October, the statement said.
The bonds will be issued in the inter-bank market with clearing and settlement through The China Government Securities Depository Trust and Clearing Co, Ltd.
“We are pleased to be able to launch this pioneering transaction soon after receiving the necessary approval from the Peoples Bank of China,“ Mikio Kashiwagi, ADBs Treasurer said in the statement.
The ADB will use the proceeds for funding private sector development projects.
The objective is to help reduce the currency risks for private enterprises who have no foreign exchange earnings, the ADB statement said.
After India and the Philippines, China is the third country where ADB plans to undertake local currency financing.
Since early 2004, ADB has completed three market-opening transactions in the regions local currency bond markets, including India, Malaysia, and Thailand.
China’s bond market has expanded significantly since the late 1990s, the ADB said.
“Early this year China had a total of $600 billion in bonds outstanding, almost five times the amount in 1997,“ the ADB said.

RIYADH,
Saudi Arabia, Oct. 10--The Saudi economy experienced continued growth in 2004, leading to a budget surplus of $28.5 billion and a balance of payments surplus of nearly $52 billion thanks to high oil prices and structural changes, the central bank said Sunday.
“Actual Gross Domestic Product (GDP) grew by 5.3 percent, coupled with a ... surplus of 107 billion riyals ($28.5 billion) in the state budget,“ said Hamad al-Sayari, governor of the Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency (SAMA).
“The balance of payments was in the black for the sixth
consecutive year, posting a record surplus of 194.7 billion riyals (nearly $52 billion) in 2004,“ he said while presenting SAMA’s annual report to King Abdullah in the Red Sea city of Jeddah.
Sayari said money supply reached high levels in 2004 and so far in 2005, helped by increased bank lending to the private sector, “which shows the dynamic role played by the private sector in expanding economic activity.“
At the same time, the cost of living index rose by just 0.3 percent last year, said the central bank chief, whose remarks were reported by the official SPA news agency.
Sayari said 2004 was the third consecutive year of growth for the Saudi economy, which is expected to continue its strong performance as a result of “restructuring and organization,“ in addition to increased oil revenues and “growing investor confidence.“
Sayari praised King Abdullah, who heads the Supreme Economic Council, for “channeling anticipated surpluses to reduce the public debt (of $176 billion), boost development, widen the private sector’s contribution (to the economy) ... and confine increases in spending to long-term investments in vital productive sectors.“
This, in addition to controlled public spending despite higher oil revenues, would help cushion the impact of any unexpected changes in world oil markets, he said.
King Abdullah in turn vowed to press ahead with reforms that promote continued economic growth, improve citizens’ standard of living and remove obstacles to investment, SPA reported.
Saudi Arabia has reaped a windfall from the spectacular surge in crude prices over the past two years. The Persian Gulf kingdom is the world’s top oil producer and exporter, with output currently hovering around 9.6 million barrels per day (bpd).

ZURICH, Geneva, Oct. 10--A proposal by the United States to slash farm subsidies put new impetus into a meeting of leading World Trade Organization countries here on Monday to break deadlock over trade liberalization talks before a December deadline, AFP reported.
The meeting is being hosted by the United States which made a proposal overnight to cut US subsidies to agriculture by 60 percent over the next five years, while insisting that the European Union and Japan also had to make significant new proposals.
US Trade Representative Rob Portman was due to present later in the morning details of his proposals which he had outlined in the online edition of the Financial Times newspaper.
The first reaction came from Canadian Trade Minister Jim Peterson who commented, “I think this is a positive start but there’s a long way to go. We are encouraged by what we’ve seen, but the EU and Japan are important players and we want to see what their positions are.“
The daylong discussions mark yet another attempt to resolve differences and draft a treaty in time for the WTO’s conference in Hong Kong, now just two months away.
Portman is set to meet his EU counterpart Peter Mandelson in Zurich.
Much of the meeting was expected to focus on the positions of the United States and European Union over concessions on customs duties and government aid to farmers.
It was also likely to consider how to satisfy the demands of developing countries, which are pressing rich nations to do more to open their markets to farm goods.
Freeing up the farm trade has been a central stumbling block in talks among the 148 trading nations in the WTO-- although talks on industrial goods and services, such as insurance and banking, are likewise far from a breakthrough.
Before the meeting, Portman said that Washington was proposing to slash its agricultural subsidies by 60 percent by 2010, in what he called a bid to jumpstart the negotiations. But in a sign of the horse-trading ahead, he said that greater cuts must be required by the European Union and Japan, which he said had much larger agricultural subsidies.

Members of the Congress of South African (COSATU) in chains protest outside the country's Parliament in Cape Town to highlight their jobs and Poverty Campaign on Oct. 2. (Reuters Photo)

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa, Oct. 10--South Africa’s main labor federation was expected to take a series of strikes against unemployment and poverty to the country’s industrial heartland on Monday, with union leaders saying that business was the main target.
COSATU expected thousands of workers to join the one-day stoppage in Gauteng, South Africa’s richest and fastest growing province--and the North West province, home to the lucrative platinum mining industry.
“It’s part of our overall program to keep the issue of jobs and poverty at the top of the national agenda--we still don’t believe that enough progress has been made,“ COSATU spokesman Patrick Craven told Reuters.
“We feel the main target has to be business--the government can do more but it has responded to our campaign,“ he added.
COSATU is officially an ally of the ruling African National Congress but there have been divisions between the two over economic policy, which has boosted growth but only made narrow inroads into steep unemployment, which stands at 26 percent.
Last week the ANC gave tacit support to COSATU’s campaign, describing its strikes in the Western and Eastern Cape on October 4 as a demonstration of the union’s “hard-won right“ to act in pursuit of their interests and those of society.
“The ANC share workers’ concerns about unemployment and job losses,“ it said in a statement.
The stoppages caused limited disruptions in Eastern Cape province, where production was hit at some carmakers, while thousands of textile workers in Cape Town failed to turn up for work.
Analysts said the series of strikes--also scheduled for other provinces during the month--were being taken in stride by South Africa’s business community and would do little to dent improved perceptions of the continent’s biggest economy.
“The union movement does not have the profile or support it used to ... but what it does show is an ideological rift between government and the labor movement on labor policy,“ said Reg Rumney, director at local think-tank Business Map.
“Local business is not particularly perturbed about it.“

PARIS, Oct. 10--The French government has set the end of 2005 as the deadline for the completion of its controversial privatizations of the country’s motorway companies, Transport Minister Dominique Perben said Sunday, AFP reported.
The minister, speaking on national television, said the second round of tenders was launched on Friday and the candidates must make binding offers by November 7.
“The objective is to complete the operation before the end of 2005,“ Perben said.
The French government has received 18 offers for majority stakes in three of the country’s motorway companies--evidence that the 11 billion euro ($13 billion) price tag for the three holding companies is too low, according to opponents of the plan.
The French finance ministry said in August it was pleased by the “high“ number of bids for a 50.3 percent stake in Autoroutes du Sud de la France (ASF), a 70 percent stake in Autoroutes Paris-Rhin-Rhone (APRR) and a 75 percent stake in the Societe des Autoroutes du Nord et de l’Est de la France (Sanef).
Opposition to the privatization process has been led by the leader of the opposition UDF party, Francois Bayrou, whose party has accused the government of “flogging off the family silver“.
Parliament will debate the privatization of the motorway companies on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Asked about possible foreign ownership Perben said Sunday that future “European capital“ in the French motorway companies “does not pose a major problem“.
Companies that have declared their bids included Italian motorway operator Autostrade, French construction companies Vinci and Eiffage, and a number of Spanish companies.

WIESBADEN, Germany, Oct. 10--Germany’s trade surplus fell in August when imports grew faster than exports, official data showed on Monday, AFP reported.
The German trade surplus amounted to 11.6 billion euros ($14 billion) in August, down from 14.5 billion euros in July, the federal statistics office, Destatis, calculated in preliminary figures.
On a 12-month basis, however, the August trade surplus was up slightly compared with the same month last year when it amounted to 11.0 billion euros.
The statisticians calculated that Germany, the biggest eurozone economy, exported goods worth 63.4 billion euros in August.
That represented an increase of 3.5 percent in calendar and seasonally adjusted terms from the figure for July.
But imports grew faster, rising by 6.0 percent to 51.9 billion euros, the statisticians said.

BEIJING--More than 400 officials in a booming southern Chinese province have embezzled or misused $11 billion of government funds over a five-year period, the China Daily said on Monday.

BRUSSELS--The European Commission announced Monday EU plans to ban imports of poultry and feathers from Turkey after an outbreak of avian influenza.

MANILA--Foreign direct investments in the Philippines doubled to $499 million in the seven months to July, the central bank said Monday, citing preliminary data.
The figure stood at $241 million in the same period last year.

SINGAPORE--Singapore’s economy accelerated by 6.0 percent in the third quarter from a year ago, putting the city-state in a strong position to outpace its 2005 growth target of 3.5-4.5 percent, analysts said Monday.