Look at this 8 sets of words and through its form. try to guess out the meaning.
(1)
STAND
____________
I
(2)
_______
READING
______
(3)
SIDE/SIDE
(4)
FEET
FEET
FEET
FEET
FEET
FEET
(5)
NRUT
(6)
SI HE’S SIDE
(7)
OTHER/1
(8)
B lo O ok O ing K
May 03, 2010
Writing an Informal Letter-Format and Exercise
We had an exercise on how to go about writing a formal letter recently. We will now have an exercise to write an informal letter.
Let us review the format of both formal letters and informal letters again. We write informal letters to family members and friends but we write formal letters to organizations, societies, companies and clubs.
Let us look at the format and content of a formal letter once again.
INFORMAL LETTER | FORMAL LETTER |
· Sender’s address on the top right hand corner | · Start with Sender’s name on the first line at the top let hand corner Follow with the address of the sender |
· Date of letter directly below sender’s address | · Draw a line across below the sender’s address · Write the recipient post followed by the address next · At the end of the address, on the right hand side, write the date |
· Friendly salutation, “ Dear….“ | Write the salutation-“Dear Sir/ Madam” |
· Friendly introduction | Write the title for the subject of the letter. Underline it. |
· Purpose of letter | Write purpose of the letter |
· Background information | Next is the body of the letter: Purpose should be briefly spelled out Details |
· Conclusion | · Conclusion · Giving thanks |
· Signing off- “Your loving……” | · Signing off- “Yours faithfully/sincerely……” |
· Signature at the bottom right hand corner | · Signature at bottom of left hand · Write designation below signature |
Let us look at a sample of an informal letter.
Address of Sender Date | 45,Jalan Kemboja 6, Taman Kaya Mewah, 733900 Petaling Jaya, Selangor Darul Ehsan 3 May 2010 |
Salutation | Dear Penny, |
Friendly Introduction | How have you been? I haven’t heard from you for ages since we said goodbye to each other at the Bayan Lepas International Airport last November. How are you? In the pink of health, I hope. How are your parents? I do hope you mother is doing well in her law practice. I know this is an important year for you as you are taking the PMR examinations. Do study hard and you will get what you wish for. |
Main Body: Purpose | . I I am writing to inform you that my family will be migrating to London in October this year.My elder brother who is a cardiologist in Manchester has completed all the documentation needed for our emigration and while we are eager to leave for this new exciting country, we are also sad to leave all our relatives and friends behind. Dad says it is for the better as education is better for me and my brother, Jerome in UK and he himself could find a job quite easily there with a renowned computer software company. I So before I leave for London, I intend to pay you a visit soon. I am quite free during the month of August and if it is no trouble to you, I could fly in on Air Asia on any of the week-end so that we can spend some time together. We had so much fun the last time,remember? |
Conclusion | II hope to receive a reply from you soon. Meanwhile do take care and send my regards to your parents and also to your sister, Sally. |
Signing off | Yours sincerely, |
Signature | Caithlin Jane |
Now by following the format and example above, you too can do an assignment to test your skill in informal letter writing as well.
ASSIGNMENT:
You would like to invite your good friend Corey Lee to come and stay at your house for the long school holidays after the PMR examinations. Francis is your good friend but he is no longer living in Petaling Jaya as his father was transferred to work as the Regional Manager of a Multinational company in Kulim in Kedah in February 2010. In your letter, describe what both of you could do together during the holidays if he should come and stay with you.
A Dividend Bond to Take over all Malaysian Toll Highways?
I do hope these people know what they are talking about.
A company called Asas Serba Sdn Bhd today revealed that they intend to finance a proposed RM50 billion takeover of all toll highways nationwide via the issuance of dividend bonds through a new concession company. Is there a catch somewhere?
Company officials said shareholders could subscribe the required equity value of up to ten per cent of acquisition costs and dividend bonds would be issued with tenures based on projected cash flow statements of the existing toll concessionaires.
“The reason why we opted for dividend bonds is because we are looking at the possibility of allowing the bond holder also to share the upside of what we will gain from the whole operation of the new concession company,” said CEO Ibrahim Bidin.
“The existing lenders can also opt to stay. They may maintain whatever debt they hold against the toll road companies.”
He added that he would let the public decide if this proposed structured was attractive enough.
“We have the structure on how we’re going to finance, how we’re going to do it... let the public judge whether it is viable or not.”
“It’s a PFI (privately funded initiative). There’s no government [funding]... It’s quite straightforward.”,” he added.
Ibrahim, who was the former CEO of Plus Highways, explained that he plans to achieve the proposed 20 per cent reduction in toll rates by making concessionaires operate more efficiently and claims he can keep it frozen at that level until 2038.
“We will streamline the operation. We will make them more cost-effective in their operations,” he said.
“When you consolidate there are savings... I don’t need to have 10 departments, for example, to do the same thing.”
He added that aside from lowering costs he was also looking at options to increase non-toll revenues, which were not subject to government approval.
“We also have to increase the revenue, not only [reductions] on the cost side. We have to look at both.”
However, he declined to comment further on what these non-toll revenues were.
“I cannot tell you exactly where and how because then our ideas will not be our ideas anymore,” he said, but clarified that these revenue streams “will not be away from the business of the toll road operation”.
Ibrahim sidestepped the issue when asked to respond to DAP MP Tony Pua’s claims that Asas Serba represents a return to Mahathir-era cronyism given allegations that the company is linked to Tan Sri Halim Saad and Tun Daim Zainuddin.
“Number one, it’s not going to be owned by any individual. The shareholdings will be open to several entities,” he said.
“As I said earlier, we are talking to institutions. We don’t talk to individuals only. So it’s not [as though] one individual will own the expressway.
“And you have dividend bond holders who will dictate based on the terms and conditions of the bond. So I don’t see that return to cronyism is an issue.
“It’s not going to be Ibrahim Bidin owning the whole expressway. It’s not going to be... my highway.”
Asas Serba sent their proposal to the Prime Minister, the Deputy Prime Minister and the Finance and Works Ministers last year but has yet to receive an official response from the government.
Khazanah managing director Tan Sri Azman Mokhtar poured cold water on sell down speculation in January when he said the state investment arm would keep Plus Highways as one of its core assets.
“The government has not said yes or no,” said Ibrahim.
Datuk Syed Amin Al-Jeffri, chairman and shareholder of Asas Serba, refused to speculate on why the government has not gotten back to them.
“I’m sure PM (Datuk Seri Najib Razak), he must have got his own timetable and how he wants to approach this,” he said.
He did, however, stress that Asas Serba could not proceed without government go-ahead as the highways were a matter of national interest.
“And naturally, when you talk of national interest, the government is the first area that you have got to clear. It is a hurdle. You must clear the hurdle.
“If the government were to tell us [this] has nothing to do with us, you go ahead and talk to operators, we will do so. But that’s not the case.”
So, what else is new with government?
A company called Asas Serba Sdn Bhd today revealed that they intend to finance a proposed RM50 billion takeover of all toll highways nationwide via the issuance of dividend bonds through a new concession company. Is there a catch somewhere?
Company officials said shareholders could subscribe the required equity value of up to ten per cent of acquisition costs and dividend bonds would be issued with tenures based on projected cash flow statements of the existing toll concessionaires.
“The reason why we opted for dividend bonds is because we are looking at the possibility of allowing the bond holder also to share the upside of what we will gain from the whole operation of the new concession company,” said CEO Ibrahim Bidin.
“The existing lenders can also opt to stay. They may maintain whatever debt they hold against the toll road companies.”
He added that he would let the public decide if this proposed structured was attractive enough.
“We have the structure on how we’re going to finance, how we’re going to do it... let the public judge whether it is viable or not.”
“It’s a PFI (privately funded initiative). There’s no government [funding]... It’s quite straightforward.”,” he added.
Ibrahim, who was the former CEO of Plus Highways, explained that he plans to achieve the proposed 20 per cent reduction in toll rates by making concessionaires operate more efficiently and claims he can keep it frozen at that level until 2038.
“We will streamline the operation. We will make them more cost-effective in their operations,” he said.
“When you consolidate there are savings... I don’t need to have 10 departments, for example, to do the same thing.”
He added that aside from lowering costs he was also looking at options to increase non-toll revenues, which were not subject to government approval.
“We also have to increase the revenue, not only [reductions] on the cost side. We have to look at both.”
However, he declined to comment further on what these non-toll revenues were.
“I cannot tell you exactly where and how because then our ideas will not be our ideas anymore,” he said, but clarified that these revenue streams “will not be away from the business of the toll road operation”.
Ibrahim sidestepped the issue when asked to respond to DAP MP Tony Pua’s claims that Asas Serba represents a return to Mahathir-era cronyism given allegations that the company is linked to Tan Sri Halim Saad and Tun Daim Zainuddin.
“Number one, it’s not going to be owned by any individual. The shareholdings will be open to several entities,” he said.
“As I said earlier, we are talking to institutions. We don’t talk to individuals only. So it’s not [as though] one individual will own the expressway.
“And you have dividend bond holders who will dictate based on the terms and conditions of the bond. So I don’t see that return to cronyism is an issue.
“It’s not going to be Ibrahim Bidin owning the whole expressway. It’s not going to be... my highway.”
Asas Serba sent their proposal to the Prime Minister, the Deputy Prime Minister and the Finance and Works Ministers last year but has yet to receive an official response from the government.
Khazanah managing director Tan Sri Azman Mokhtar poured cold water on sell down speculation in January when he said the state investment arm would keep Plus Highways as one of its core assets.
“The government has not said yes or no,” said Ibrahim.
Datuk Syed Amin Al-Jeffri, chairman and shareholder of Asas Serba, refused to speculate on why the government has not gotten back to them.
“I’m sure PM (Datuk Seri Najib Razak), he must have got his own timetable and how he wants to approach this,” he said.
He did, however, stress that Asas Serba could not proceed without government go-ahead as the highways were a matter of national interest.
“And naturally, when you talk of national interest, the government is the first area that you have got to clear. It is a hurdle. You must clear the hurdle.
“If the government were to tell us [this] has nothing to do with us, you go ahead and talk to operators, we will do so. But that’s not the case.”
So, what else is new with government?
May 02, 2010
China: Cash Mopping
China today raised the proportion of deposits that lenders must keep in reserve at the central bank, another step in its months-old campaign to mop up excess cash in the economy at a time when inflation is on the rise.
The People’s Bank of China said it was raising lenders’ reserve requirement ratio by 50 basis points, effective May 10, its third increase of that magnitude this year.
The move, which will drain about 300 billion yuan (RM140 billion) of cash from the banking system, is bound to fuel speculation that officials are preparing for an influx of capital in anticipation of a long-awaited decision to let the yuan resume its climb, stalled since July 2008.
However, the two increases earlier this year were not linked to any change in currency policy and many economists have stressed that the central bank needs to raise reserve requirements regularly purely to keep a cap on liquidity.
“Starting since March, quite serious price pressures have been flaring up again,” Dong Xian’an, chief economist at Industrial Securities in Shanghai, said.
“But because house prices have been falling in month-on-month terms, we think authorities will push back interest rate increases. Instead, it is very clear that the central bank prefers to use quantitative measures for its monetary controls,” he said.
Along with nudging up required reserves, which now stand at 17.0 per cent for big lenders, Beijing has ordered banks to rein in their credit issuance and the central bank has stepped up its drainage of cash via open market operations.
However, in contrast to regional neighbours such as India, Malaysia, Vietnam and Australia, China has not resorted to the blunter instrument of higher borrowing costs, not least because it harbours doubts about the solidity of the global recovery.
Underlining the technical nature of today’s move, Finance Minister Xie Xuren said just minutes after the announcement that China was committed to maintaining the “appropriately easy monetary policy” that it adopted in late 2008 when the international financial crisis was raging.
In practice, China has been gradually normalising its monetary stance after it pumped an extraordinary flood of cash into the economy last year to power it through the global slump.
In the recent words of deputy central bank governor Hu Xiaolian, the policy emphasis is now on “appropriately”, not “easy”.
As ginger as the central banks’ tightening steps have been, the impact on the stock market has been profound. The main Shanghai index has trended down in a tight range since August of last year.
The central bank announced the latest reserve ratio increase midway through a three-day holiday weekend, a move that may have been intended to help investors digest the news before Chinese markets reopen on Tuesday.
The statement, posted on the central bank’s website, www.pbc.gov.cn, came more than a week before China is scheduled to issue inflation data for April. It reported consumer inflation of 2.4 per cent in the year to March.
An official survey of the country’s manufacturing sector published yesterday pointed to surging input prices in April.
Weekly figures from the commerce ministry have also highlighted rising food prices, which in the past have been key drivers of headline inflation in China.
Together as One At Last
Forget the sloganeering. Forget the concept hard sell of 1Malaysia.
For the first time-Dr Mahathir, Lim Kit Siang and Ibrahim Ali are on the same bench.
The purported loss of two strategic off-shore oil blocks have banded them somewhat together. Politics sure make strange bedfellows of these three.
Now, they all want PM Najib to explain how the two blocks are no longer in Malaysian territory while the Limbang issue still remains unresolved.
Don't you think this is getting very interesting when the Sibu by-election is just around the corner?
May 01, 2010
Global Pick up
Reuters reports that the US economy is strengthening, businesses are spending, and companies are starting to hire again.
In Europe, manufacturing is picking up, the jobless rate is holding steady, and retail sales probably flipped back into positive territory in March after a February slump.
What more could the head of the US Federal Reserve, Ben Bernanke, and the head of the European Central Bank, Jean-Claude Trichet, want to convince them that it is safe to start lifting benchmark interest rates from record lows?
For starters, resolving Greece’s debt troubles and assuring that fiscal strains won’t be allowed to destabilize larger European economies such as Spain would help to neutralize the latest source of global financial unrest.
Some reassurance may come this week as European leaders and the International Monetary Fund race to finalize a Greek aid package expected to be worth as much as US$160 billion (RM509 billion).
That probably won’t be enough to embolden Trichet when the ECB holds its policy-setting meeting on Thursday. Economists polled by Reuters see virtually no chance that the ECB will hike its benchmark interest rate from the current 1 percent, where its stood since May 2009.
Of more interest is how Trichet responds to questions about the ECB’s role in stabilizing Greece. ECB Executive Board member Lorenzo Bini Smaghi said talk of the central bank providing more liquidity or buying government bonds was “just speculation.”
Even if Greece’s debt troubles are cleaned up quickly, most other advanced economies -- particularly in Europe — are shouldering heavy fiscal burdens as well. Restoring debt to sustainable levels will likely slow growth, giving central bankers another reason for caution.
“Heavy-duty fiscal medicine is rapidly coming Europe’s way, and well beyond Greece. This will keep growth in Europe in the slowest lane, with implications far and wide,” said Douglas Porter, an economist with BMO Capital Markets in Toronto.
“The lesson from the Asian crisis in the late 1990s and the financial crisis a decade later is that real trauma in seemingly minor markets can quickly cascade around the globe.”
Payrolls perking up
For the United States, which has its own fiscal cleanup project looming, Greece’s impact has been limited to some stock market volatility, a jump in the value of the dollar against the euro, and a decline in Treasury debt yields as investors looked for safer havens.
Greece’s repercussions, so far, have amounted to nothing more than a “gentle cross breeze for the near-term outlook here,” said Citigroup economist Robert DiClemente.
Still, some economists suspect Bernanke’s reluctance to significantly upgrade the economic outlook at the Fed’s policy-setting meeting last week reflected some uncertainty over Europe.
The Fed also wants to see more evidence that companies are hiring, and it will probably get some in the April employment report the government will release on Friday. Economists polled by Reuters think it will show a gain approaching 200,000, which would be the largest monthly rise since March 2007.
Still, neither the Fed nor the Obama administration thinks the economy will come charging back to pre-recession levels any time soon, even though it has recorded three straight quarters of growth. A monthly gain of 200,000 jobs would put only a small dent in the 8 million jobs lost since the start of the US recession in December 2007.
“In the work of preventing Armageddon, we’ve made a lot of progress on that agenda,” White House economic adviser Lawrence Summers said on Friday. “But the work of assuring strong and robust recovery is not yet complete.”
My Take:
Looks good. The world is coming back on its feet,so it seems.
In Europe, manufacturing is picking up, the jobless rate is holding steady, and retail sales probably flipped back into positive territory in March after a February slump.
What more could the head of the US Federal Reserve, Ben Bernanke, and the head of the European Central Bank, Jean-Claude Trichet, want to convince them that it is safe to start lifting benchmark interest rates from record lows?
For starters, resolving Greece’s debt troubles and assuring that fiscal strains won’t be allowed to destabilize larger European economies such as Spain would help to neutralize the latest source of global financial unrest.
Some reassurance may come this week as European leaders and the International Monetary Fund race to finalize a Greek aid package expected to be worth as much as US$160 billion (RM509 billion).
That probably won’t be enough to embolden Trichet when the ECB holds its policy-setting meeting on Thursday. Economists polled by Reuters see virtually no chance that the ECB will hike its benchmark interest rate from the current 1 percent, where its stood since May 2009.
Of more interest is how Trichet responds to questions about the ECB’s role in stabilizing Greece. ECB Executive Board member Lorenzo Bini Smaghi said talk of the central bank providing more liquidity or buying government bonds was “just speculation.”
Even if Greece’s debt troubles are cleaned up quickly, most other advanced economies -- particularly in Europe — are shouldering heavy fiscal burdens as well. Restoring debt to sustainable levels will likely slow growth, giving central bankers another reason for caution.
“Heavy-duty fiscal medicine is rapidly coming Europe’s way, and well beyond Greece. This will keep growth in Europe in the slowest lane, with implications far and wide,” said Douglas Porter, an economist with BMO Capital Markets in Toronto.
“The lesson from the Asian crisis in the late 1990s and the financial crisis a decade later is that real trauma in seemingly minor markets can quickly cascade around the globe.”
Payrolls perking up
For the United States, which has its own fiscal cleanup project looming, Greece’s impact has been limited to some stock market volatility, a jump in the value of the dollar against the euro, and a decline in Treasury debt yields as investors looked for safer havens.
Greece’s repercussions, so far, have amounted to nothing more than a “gentle cross breeze for the near-term outlook here,” said Citigroup economist Robert DiClemente.
Still, some economists suspect Bernanke’s reluctance to significantly upgrade the economic outlook at the Fed’s policy-setting meeting last week reflected some uncertainty over Europe.
The Fed also wants to see more evidence that companies are hiring, and it will probably get some in the April employment report the government will release on Friday. Economists polled by Reuters think it will show a gain approaching 200,000, which would be the largest monthly rise since March 2007.
Still, neither the Fed nor the Obama administration thinks the economy will come charging back to pre-recession levels any time soon, even though it has recorded three straight quarters of growth. A monthly gain of 200,000 jobs would put only a small dent in the 8 million jobs lost since the start of the US recession in December 2007.
“In the work of preventing Armageddon, we’ve made a lot of progress on that agenda,” White House economic adviser Lawrence Summers said on Friday. “But the work of assuring strong and robust recovery is not yet complete.”
My Take:
Looks good. The world is coming back on its feet,so it seems.
April 30, 2010
UK: Bracing for Limited Growth Upside
This Reuters report highlights the concerns of the British banking system.
Let us read it.
"British banks warn that upcoming banking regulation could shave two percentage points off the country’s economic growth," said Sky News today, citing an unpublished report by PriceWaterhouseCoopers.
Forcing banks to keep more capital on their balance sheets would stymie bank lending and prevent credit flowing into the economy, the report quoted Sky.
In a statement, the British Bankers’ Association confirmed PwC was carrying out an analysis on behalf of the banks on the economic effects of capital, liquidity and other proposals being considered for the industry.
“The analysis is yet to be completed but we will at all times be discussing with the various authorities the issues that arise from the study,” BBA said.
Sky said the report looked at measures being proposed by the financial regulator, the Financial Services Authority, and at the international level, but did not include the bank taxes recently proposed by the International Monetary Fund.
The broadcaster said the banks — including Barclays, HSBC and the Royal Bank of Scotland — and the BBA had wanted to delay publication until after the UK’s May 6 general election.
On the campaign trail, Prime Minister Gordon Brown told reporters: “We have got to reform the banks, the banks have got to serve the public.
“The recapitalisation of the banks and a proper system of remuneration and dealing with liquidity ratios is absolutely crucial to the future of British industry and the future of everybody who is a homeowner in this country.”
Barclays earlier on Friday followed other banks in reporting a fall in bad debts as Britain and other economies pulled out of recession.
In a statement at the bank’s AGM, Chairman Marcus Agius told shareholders: “We fully recognise that changes to regulation need to be made.
“But there are important and difficult trade-offs to be made between improving the stability of the financial system, reducing the risk of a recurrence of a financial crisis and stimulating and supporting economic growth.”
Let us read it.
"British banks warn that upcoming banking regulation could shave two percentage points off the country’s economic growth," said Sky News today, citing an unpublished report by PriceWaterhouseCoopers.
Forcing banks to keep more capital on their balance sheets would stymie bank lending and prevent credit flowing into the economy, the report quoted Sky.
In a statement, the British Bankers’ Association confirmed PwC was carrying out an analysis on behalf of the banks on the economic effects of capital, liquidity and other proposals being considered for the industry.
“The analysis is yet to be completed but we will at all times be discussing with the various authorities the issues that arise from the study,” BBA said.
Sky said the report looked at measures being proposed by the financial regulator, the Financial Services Authority, and at the international level, but did not include the bank taxes recently proposed by the International Monetary Fund.
The broadcaster said the banks — including Barclays, HSBC and the Royal Bank of Scotland — and the BBA had wanted to delay publication until after the UK’s May 6 general election.
On the campaign trail, Prime Minister Gordon Brown told reporters: “We have got to reform the banks, the banks have got to serve the public.
“The recapitalisation of the banks and a proper system of remuneration and dealing with liquidity ratios is absolutely crucial to the future of British industry and the future of everybody who is a homeowner in this country.”
Barclays earlier on Friday followed other banks in reporting a fall in bad debts as Britain and other economies pulled out of recession.
In a statement at the bank’s AGM, Chairman Marcus Agius told shareholders: “We fully recognise that changes to regulation need to be made.
“But there are important and difficult trade-offs to be made between improving the stability of the financial system, reducing the risk of a recurrence of a financial crisis and stimulating and supporting economic growth.”
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