China has approved reform to enable 730m peasant farmers to trade their land use rights more freely and provide greater legal protection for existing landholders. The first land use rights exchange was set up on Oct.13 in Chengdu to allow farmers to sell or rent out the rights to use their land. Land has been owned by the state or by rural collectives since the revolution in 1949. Under current laws, peasant farmers have mostly been given 30-year land use contracts by local party officials, but it is difficult to sell those contracts or use their land as collateral for loans. (Source: ft.com)

Credit unions are originating a lot more business loans this year. Credit unions originated $6.5 billion in business loans in the first six months of 2008, up 36 percent in that period of 07. Credit unions, like micro-lenders are a relatively small source of small business lending, but with many banks in bad shape, it looks like they may be increasingly important. But Entrepreneurs should consider whether they can meet their financing needs through a credit union or micro-lender before turning to potentially high-cost options. (Source: businessweek.com)

Senate had approved the bill on protection of IP Rights and effective enforcement mechanisms. The bill covers patent rights on trademarks and copyrights, and gives creators exclusive rights to their creations thereby providing an incentive for the author or inventor to develop and share the information. The bill also protects inventions, literary and artistic works, and symbols, names, images, and designs. Moreover, the bill establishes the use of IP for commercial use and respect of copyrights. (Source: newtimes.co.rw)

Bush signed a law that would stiffen penalties for movie and music piracy at the federal level. The law creates an IP czar who will report directly to the president on how to better protect copyrights both domestically and internationally. The law also toughens criminal laws against piracy and counterfeiting, although critics have argued that the measure goes too far and risks punishing people who have not infringed. But the advocacy group had argued that the law went too far, especially given that fair use of copyrighted material was already shrinking. Counterfeiting and piracy costs the United States nearly $250 billion annually. (Source: reuters.com)

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. was sued by Nike Inc. for allegedly selling footwear that infringes one of its patented designs. Nike claimed that the Wal-Mart shoe copies its own Shox line that features exposed piston-like cylinders in the heel. Nike's Shox line features four to five cylinders in the heels of its shoes. According to the complaint, Wal-Mart's shoes have five cylinders. Wal-Mart was served with the Nike complaint. The case is Nike Inc. v. Wal-Mart, 08cv5840, U.S. District Court, Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division (Chicago). (Source: bloomberg.com)

The mushrooming of China's patent applications in recent years reflects the country's enhancing innovative capacity, according to the WIPO. The WIPO figures show that between 2000 and 2006, Chinese residents increased their share of total worldwide patent filings from 1.8 percent to 7.3 percent. Patent applications are widely recognized as an indicator, although imperfect, of inventive activities at a country level. Firm government support and favorable policy environment are highlighted factors that lead to China's fast increase in patent applications. (Source: Xinhuanet.com)

Indian approved amendments to the Trust Act of 1882, paving the way for a fund injection from trusts into shares. A bill to amend section 20 of the act will be introduced in the next session of Parliament as investment options provided in the act are no longer relevant. The options mostly refer to securities prior to Independence and issued by British governor-generals, including shares, scrips, bonds and debentures. The amendment will help capital appreciation, mobilization of funds in the economy and the optimum utilization of resources. (Source: telegraphindia.com)

Argentina's government will nationalize private pension funds, worth almost $45 billion, to protect retirees during the global financial crisis. But critics say the government simply needs the cash in the pensions. Argentina has been mostly isolated from the crisis, with the government and local banks largely frozen out of international credit markets because of a government default in 2005. Argentina remains one of the world's largest debtor nations and next year it will need nearly $20 billion to meet interest payments alone. (Source: abc.net)

Up to half of Russian hedge funds could go out of business as the financial crisis sends investors fleeing and the stock market decline. The primary source will be a lack of funding as performance deteriorates and investors redeem their money. The vast majority of hedge funds were equity focused with only minimal hedging. Russian equities have lost 70 percent of their value since the beginning of the year. The Russian hedge fund industry has grown rapidly in recent years and many may prove ill-equipped to cope with the pain currently being inflicted. (Source: reuters.com)

Ireland and China signed an agreement which will allow Chinese investors to invest in Irish domiciled funds, UCITS-compliant and non-UCITS investment products for the first time. Chinese investors can access internationally distributed investment funds, domiciled and serviced in Ireland, through the Qualified Domestic Institutional Investor regime. The investment funds are exempt from Irish tax on their income and gains. Irrespective of where their investors are resident the liability to tax remains in the investors’ home jurisdiction, and there is no tax applied to asset valuation. (Source: wealthbriefing.com)

The High Court of Justice ruled that infidelity by one spouse is not an "exceptional circumstance" that justifies dividing marital assets unequally. The court ruled on an appeal against a ruling by the High Rabbinic Court. The High Rabbinic Court also said the husband would now need to build himself a new household and life. In overruling the rabbinic court, Justice Miriam Naor wrote, "the need to 'build another home' is not unique to couples whose marriage was broken up by infidelity". (Source: haaretz.com)

There is a new working paper that looks at household savings rates in Ireland before and after divorce was legalized in 1996. The authors found a significant bump after 1996 relative to other European households. The increase in saving was higher among nonreligious couples compared with very religious couples and single people. The authors determined that people were able to save more because "both men and women increased their labor supply significantly following the legalization of divorce". (Source: nytimes.com)

When you want to leave an inheritance to your children, in order to avoid outright distributions, you may set up a trust which has staggered distributions, to protect your children from making inappropriate decisions during their youth. However, there is no protection for the distributions after they are made. You may consider lifetime trusts. By this way, your children would have access to those funds at any time for any needs. You can have creditor and predator protection for the assets. You can put generation-skipping transfer tax provisions in these lifetime trusts to get additional tax exemptions to allow these assets to be transferred down to your grandchildren without any estate tax assessments. (Source: thetimesherald.com)

China decided to cancel the share trading stamp tax on stock purchase while the stamp tax on share selling remained unchanged at 0.1 percent. The cancellation came several hours after Chinese stocks tumble, amid the current global financial turmoil. It was the first time since 1991 authorities had levied a unilateral stamp tax on stocks trading and the second time this year they had adjusted the stock trading stamp tax.(Source: civillaw.com)

BVI and Australia have signed a tax information exchange agreement, expanding on existing co-operation between the jurisdictions. The agreement provides for "full exchange of information on request" in both criminal and civil tax matters. The countries said they are committed to eliminating what they called "harmful tax practices". As a part of the deal, Australia's government will cease to refer to BVI as a "tax haven". BVI residents can pay lower withholding tax rates on distributions of certain income they may receive from Australian managed investment trusts. (Source: wealthbriefing.com)

The ministry of corporate affairs has sought details from the Income-Tax department of companies against whom tax-evasion charges have been framed. The move could unearth cases of violation of company law. Experts find that tax evasion often results in distortion of numbers in the company's financial results, an activity which constitutes an offence under the company law. While tax evaders in most cases shell out a penalty to move out of a prosecution, officials feel the present move might deter them from effecting similar offences. (Source: The Economic Times)

Taiwan's central bank cut its benchmark discount rate by 12.5 basis points to 3.5 percent, the first cut since June 2003. While the bank had been expected to end a tightening cycle in which it had raised rates for 16 consecutive quarters since September 2004. The decision follows the move to lower deposit reserve requirements to increase liquidity in the banking system. The government forecasts Taiwan’s year-on-year economic growth to slow to 3.4 per cent in the second half from 5.3 per cent in the first six months of this year. (Source: ft.com)

Market uncertainties forced the Asia-Pacific region's wealthy shift to safer investments in 2007, with 46 percent of their holdings allocated to cash/deposits and fixed-income securities, 7 percent increase from 2006, says a new Merrill Lynch report. Chinese high net worth individuals have a combined wealth of US$2.12 trillion, 22.3 percent of the combined high net worth individuals' wealth in the Asia-Pacific region, trailing only Japan. The report defines a high net worth individual as a person with more than $1 million in net assets, excluding his or her primary residence and consumables. (Source: China Daily)

South Korea allow exporters from October to book estimated foreign exchange gains from overseas orders before receiving the money, so that they can offset losses from currency-related derivatives contracts. The latest fluctuations in foreign exchange rates have increased unrealized valuation losses, slashed capital at some companies. The regulator also allows unlisted small-and-medium-sized companies not to reflect valuation losses from off-the-market derivatives products. Instead, they can report the losses in notes to their balance sheets. (Source: afxnews.com)

Hong Kong continues to be the top choice location for overseas and Chinese companies to manage their regional businesses. The city is host to 6,612 overseas and mainland Chinese firms representing parent companies outside Hong Kong, up 2.7% on last year. The figure is an all-time high with 3,882 of these companies serving as regional headquarters or offices. The factors affecting the choice of Hong Kong include a simple tax system; low tax rate; free flow of information; availability of business and professional support services. (Source: Tax-News.com)

Dubai Financial Market (DFM) and Deutsche Bank have signed a Depository Participant Agreement (DPA) that enables Deutsche Bank to provide custody of DFM-listed securities to institutional and international clients, thus helping to broaden the Market's investor base. Deutsche Bank is now able to offer custody services across the UAE's on-shore and off-shore exchanges, as well as custodial services in the market for DFM listed securities. (Source: InvestorsOffshore.com)

China Netcom Group Corporation (Hong Kong) Limited was fully incorporated into China Unicom Limited on Oct.15, creating the new China Unicom (Hong Kong) Limited. Netcom's shares on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange and its American Depositary Shares (ADS) on the New York Stock Exchange were delisted. The merger marked the end of the country's telecom restructuring. The merger was also the country's biggest, as the trade value stood at $24 billion. (Source: China Daily)

The Fed had approved the request of Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc. to acquire up to 24.9 percent of the voting shares of Morgan Stanley. Both Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs, the last two major independent investment banks in the U.S., won approval to convert to bank holding companies in an effort to withstand the financial storms. Waren Buffet's Berskhire Hathaway Inc. invested at least $5 billion in Goldman Sachs while Morgan Stanley sold a stake to Mitsubishi for more than $8 billion. (Source: msnbc.com)

Hong Kong has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on cooperation in Wine-Related Businesses with Bordeaux, making it the city's first official pact with a wine-growing region. The MoU will cover cooperation in wine-related tourism, trade and investment promotion, the transfer of technologies, some unique and specific deliverables particular to Bordeaux. Hong Kong became the first free wine port among major economies with the abolition of wine duty. In the first five months after the duty reduction wine imports have grown 116% in value from France. (Source: Tax-News.com)

The BVI's continued placement among the top 30 jurisdictions in the fourth Global Financial Centres Index (GFCI4) reaffirms its status as a leading international financial centre. The BVI's individual rating has increased by ten points since the last index in March, showing the improved overall perception of the BVI. The jurisdiction is now ranked 29th out of 59 centres. GFCI4 is based on nearly 24,000 assessments from business professionals worldwide. (Source: investorsoffshore.com)

【Chief Editors: Lillian & Cynthia 】

Advertisement