Asia Pacific

Creditors of companies that go bust in the Emirates are likely to be paid less than in most other Arab countries, creating a deterrent to investment, says a report from the World Bank, The National reported. Policymakers in the country have been urged to focus their efforts on reforming the UAE’s insolvency framework to lay the foundations for a better business environment. Creditors get an average of 10.2 cents (37 fils) in the dollar if a company in the UAE files for bankruptcy, data from the World Bank’s International Finance Corporation shows.

Authorities in Britain and Australia have requested information from UBS after the Swiss bank agreed in August to disclose some 4,450 client names to settle a U.S. tax case, the bank confirmed on Sunday, Reuters reported. UBS said in a note to its third-quarter financial statement, published last week, that tax and regulatory authorities in a number of jurisdictions had requested information on cross-border wealth management services provided by UBS and other banks.

The closure of four schools in Australia has left at least 400 Chinese students high and dry, prompting China's consulate in Sydney to caution against studying in the land down under, China Daily reported. Meridian International was one of four schools under the Global Campus Management Group in Sydney and Melbourne to be closed on Nov 5 after the group failed to repay debts. There were approximately 400 Chinese students at Meridian International, according to China's consulate general in Sydney in a statement over the weekend.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh pledged on Sunday to spend more on health care and education and make it easier for foreign investors to take part in India’s $1.2 trillion economy, The New York Times reported. At a World Economic Forum meeting, Mr. Singh said that public sector spending on health care would more than double, to 2.5 percent of gross domestic product, and education spending would increase to 6 percent. The government “should have done a lot more in both areas” in recent years, he said. Under Mr.

Tomato processing company Cedenco Foods Australia has been placed into receivership but its processing facility will operate as usual, the Brisbane Times reported. This comes after Cedenco Foods in New Zealand was placed in receivership. The company continues to trade pending a sale of the business. ANZ Banking Group NZ subsidiary, ANZ National Bank, said on Monday that it had put receivers into Cedenco Foods. Announcing the move, ANZ National said it had committed seasonal funding to the receivers to allow Cedenco to continue to trade.

Germany, second only to China as the world's leading exporter of goods, has been particularly hard-hit by the collapse of global markets. But the mass unemployment some had feared has failed to materialize. Labor experts in many countries are wondering how Germany has done it, Spiegel Online reported. Germany currently has 1.1 million workers participating in short-time working programs, known in German as Kurzarbeit. They include people who don't have enough work, but who also are nevertheless not being let go.

New Zealand’s unemployment rate rose to a nine-year high of 6.5 percent in the September quarter, from 6 percent in the previous three months, The National Business Review reported. The number of people unemployed reached its highest level in 15 years, rising 12,000 or 9 percent during the September quarter to reach 150,000. The rise in the unemployment rate was slightly above expectations, with the median forecast in a Reuters poll of economists having been for a rise to 6.4 percent.

Iain Pero, the brother of Mike Pero Mortgages founder Mike, is in the running to pick up the assets of failed flight simulator business Flight Experience Group, The New Zealand Herald reported. Flight Experience was put in receivership last week by its bankers, owed $4 million. The Christchurch startup manufactures and sells flight simulators for pilot training and entertainment. It has six outlets around the country plus sites in Australia, Singapore and Hong Kong. The company was placed in voluntary administration by its owners last month.

Japan set the stage for a huge bailout of Japan Airlines on Thursday, telling the struggling carrier to turn to a state-backed body for assistance, a move that ruled out a tougher stance by a new left-leaning government in Tokyo against the country’s powerful corporations, The New York Times reported. The government said JAL, Japan’s largest carrier by revenue, had been instructed to apply for funds from a state-backed turnaround body, after a special task force said saving the airline was “definitely possible” but would require a “substantial” injection of public money.

Hopes have soared that huge amounts of water from Australia's most famous cotton farm could return to the Murray Darling river system, after administrators were appointed to handle the affairs of Queensland's Cubbie Station, The Sydney Morning Herald reported. After months of trying to sell the huge station and its water entitlement to governments and agricultural businesses, Cubbie chairman Keith De Lacy said the company would be handed to administrators today. ''In the end it was drought that beat us,'' he said.