Park Won Shik will join the board as senior deputy governer on April 8 subject to the approval of the president. Mr. Park will replace Lee Ju Yeol whose term is expiring .

The Bank of Korea has kept its interest rates unchanged for eight straight months as the officials balance inflation risks against threat to Asia’s fourth-biggest economy from an export slowdown.

The changes in the board may make it harder for economists and the investors to make the next move. On February 9, the Bank of Korea has kept the benchmark seven-day repurchase rate unchanged at 3.25%.

Governor Kim Choong Soo said, “Although our economy is in a difficult situation, it will return to a long-term growth trend.” He also added, “We will stay on alert to price gains as inflation expectations are still considerably high.” 

In other moves at the bank, Chief Economist Kim Jun II and director general Kang Juno, Kang Tae Soo and Kim Jong Hwa will become the deputy governers in April, said the central bank.

The Bank of Korea is the central bank of South Korea and issuer of South Korean won. It was established on June 12, 1950 at Seoul in South Korea.

The world’s largest retailer seeks new revenue sources to fend off increasing competition in the world’s fastest growing major economy.

The decision to acquire controlling stake comes two weeks after Wal-Mart declared the appointment of industry veteran Greg Foran as head of its China operations.

According to the statement by Wal-Mart, the fresh investment into Yihaodian will take its stake to around 51% and will be subject to government regulatory nod.

The retailer did not provide any financial details pertaining to the deal and it was not clear how much stake it has now in the Chinese company.  

Wal-Mart had announced in May last year that it plans to buy a minority stake in Yihaodian, a Chinese website selling groceries and consumer items. Yihaodian with 5,400 staff operates a logistics network in Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou, Wuhan and Chengdu.

Neil Ashe, President and CEO of Walmart Global eCommerce said, “Our further investment in Yihaodian demonstrates that we are committed to investing in China in a key growth industry and developing all that goes with it: logistics, infrastructure, innovative talent, and new technologies.”

Walmart serves customers more than 200 million times per week at more than 10,020 retail units under 60 different banners in 28 countries. The company currently employs 2.2 million associates worldwide.

The global automobile company is looking at more luxury car sales in China as it moves to renew its fleet from 2014.

According to Ghosn, “The Chinese government recently said that it is not possible to increase capacities or set up in China without bringing certain innovations.” He added, “We know that we need to bring the electric vehicle to China and this could be done through the Renault brand or another marque.”

The car maker has reported a net profit of 2.09 billion euros. It has sold just 24,000 cars in China, and limited number of 2.72 million vehicles sold across the globe in 2011.

According to media reports, the car maker  is likely to set up production in central China’s Wuhan where Dongfeng has a factory.

Last month, the group’s commercial director Jerome Stoll said he is hoping for a deal this year for production to start in China from 2014.

Renault is a French automobile maker producing cars  and vans. In the past, the company has produced autorail vehicles, trucks, tractors, tanks and coaches. These leading electric car companies Renault and Nissan are investing 4 billion euros in eight electric vehicles over the next 3-4 years.

In September, the global giant Anglo American which owns nearly 82% of the project said it needed $3 billion in capital to build the project. The mine is slated to open in 2015 or 2016 and produce around 225,000 tonne of copper a year.

According to sources in Peru, the agreement will be formally announced today. Mitsuibshi has shown a great interest in South American copper assets, partly to feed the growing Asian demand for the red metal.

Last November, Mitsuibishi had agreed to acquire a 24.5% stake in Anglo’s southern Chilean properties for $4.5 billion.

Mitsubishi Corporation is a global integrated business enterprise that develops and operates businesses across different types of industries like finance, energy, metals, machinery, chemicals, foods and environmental business.The company has over 200 bases of operations in approximately 80 countries worldwide and also has a network of more than 500 group companies. It employs a multi national workforce of nearly 60,000 people.

Benefits of voting

1.       Voting gives the voter the contentment of knowing they have voiced their opinion and played a role in shaping government and policy.

2.       It is the expressive power of voting for or against a candidate, an issue or the direction of government.

3.       Voting is related to health benefits. With voting, you can enjoy both physical and social health. The communities who are aware of the importance of voting can get many benefits from government like less crime, and better health care.

4.       Since voting is a democratic right for all, you have the opportunity to share issues that need to be considered. Your vote has an impact on how the government implements policies that affect you and your family.

5.       As voting is a democratic right for all, everyone gets an opportunity to share the issues that need to be addressed. Your vote has an impact on how the government implements policies that affect you and your family.

Voting is important to maintain the democracy of the country. It is very important for every member of the population to vote in order to share opinions about the decisions made within the country. Every individual vote counts, specially since some have been determined by just one or a few votes.

The country’s second-biggest retirement fund said Mr. Machin will be the president of CPPIB Asia Inc, the news reports said. Machin, who will be based in Hong Kong joins Canada Pension as as Chief Executive Officer David Denison is expanding the retirement plan’s reach in the emerging markets.

Denison said, “There are compelling long-term growth opportunities in Asia, and Mark’s appointment demonstrates CPPIB’s commitment to investment in this geography.”

The appointment of Machin comes after several senior investment bankers have left Goldman Sachs for the private equity industry in Asia.

Goldman Sach’s co-head of Asia investment banking Richard Ong left in 2008 to join Hopu Investment Management Co, a fund set up by Fang Fenglei, who ran Goldman Sachs’s Chinese securities venture.

Mark Machin is a trained doctor before joining Goldman Sachs. He worked for 20 years until his departure.

CPP Investment is a professional investment management company based in Toronto. It was incorporated as a federal Crown corporation by Act of Parliament in December 1997 and made its first investment in March 1999.

The credit rating agency said it is reviewing the long-term ratings and standalone credit assesments of Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase, Morgan Stanley, and Royal Bank of Canada.

The long-term ratings and stand-alone credit review of European Banks includes Barclays, BNP Paribas, Credit Agricole, HSBC, Deustche Bank, HSBC, Royal Bank of Scotland and Societe Generale.

The credit rating agency also said it is also extending the reviews of the long-term ratings and standalone assessments of Credit Suisse, Nomura, UBS and Macquarie.

The announcement came shortly after Moody’s said it was taking ratings action on 114 financial institutions in 16 European countries to reflect the impact of the continent’s debt crisis and the deteriorating credit worthiness of governments in the region.

Moody’s Investor Service is the bond credit rating business of Moody’s Corporation. It provides international financial research on bonds issued by commercial and government entities.

The 58-year old Mr. Zoellick was appointed as the president in 2007 by then-US president George W Bush. “Under the leadership of Zoellick the bank played an historic role during the global economic crisis, using record replenishments to provide more than $247 billion to help developing countries boost growth and overcome poverty,” the World Bank said in a statement.  

Mr. Zoellick said, “The Bank is now strong, healthy and well positioned for new challenges, and so it’s a natural time for me to move on and support new leadership.”

President Barack Obama said he may nominate Lawrence Summers, his former National Economic Council adviser to replace Zoellick, the reports said.

Meanwhile, some sources said secretary of state Hillary Clinton is also being considered for this role. Treasury Secetary Timothy F Geithner said, “It is very important that we continue to have a strong, effective leadership in this important institution.”

Mr. Geithner also said, “In the coming weeks we plan to put forward a candidate with the experience and requisite qualities to take this institution forward.”

The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans to developing countries for capital programmes.

The Dubai-based real estate company reported the 1.794 billion dirhams net compared with 2.448 billion dirhams ($665.2 million) a year earlier.

The net operating profit was at 2.058 billion dirham ($560 million) in 2011, down 32% from 3.034 billion ($826.7 million).

The net profit in the fourth quarter rose 161% to 716 million dirhams ($195 million) from 274 million dirhams ($74.66 million).

Revenues from Emaar’s hospitality and leisure business surged 22%, contributing 1.22 billion dirhams ($332 million) in 2011, or 15% of total revenues.

Revenues from the international operations doubled to 1.81 billion dirhams from 973 million dirhams, with its share of revenues rising to 22% from 8%.

The real estate company has handed over 350 residential and over 800,000 square feet of commercial space in Dubai and 604 units in other global markets.

The shopping malls and retail businesses contributed 2.14 billion dirhams ($583 million) to annual revenues, or 26%  of the total,  and 13% higher than their 1.9 billion dirhams a year earlier.

Emaar Properties is a public joint stock company listed on the Dubai financial market. The company is presently the Persian Gulf region’s largest land and real estate developer.

The automaker reported a rise in its net profit on account of robust sales at its U.K-based Jaguar Land Rover unit and strong vehicle demand in its home market of India.

The automaker reported a net profit of Rs 34.06 billion ($695 million) in the three months ended December 31 compared with Rs 24.24 billion a year earlier.

The automobile maker reported 44% rise in sales to 452.60 billion compared to Rs 314.42 billion. Post announcement of earnings, the shares of Tata Motors rose 5.5% on the Bombay Stock Exchange.

The launch of new models has aided a steady growth in demand of Jaguar Land Rover vehicles specially that of the recently introduced compact sport utility vehicle Evoque.

The automobile company brought the financially beleaguered Jaguar Land Rover brands from Ford Motor Co in 2008 for $2.3 billion.

The vehicle sales at Jaguar Land Rover surged 37% to 86,322 autos, aided by robust demand for the Evoque SUV.

Tata Motors said it sold 32,000 units of Evoque until December. The company’s sales of cars and SUVs in India surged 33% in the October-December quarter to 85,963 autos.

Tata Motors Ltd is a multinational automotive company manufacturing passenger cars, trucks, vans and coaches.

Now, post increase in the bank rate, the bank rate now will be 9.5% with effect from Monday as against 6% earlier.  According to an RBI release, the rate has been hiked to realign it with the MSF or marginal standing facility rate as a one-time technical adjustment to link it with the main policy repo rate. 

RBI also said, hereafter, whenever there is an adjustment of the MSF rate, the Reserve Bank will consider and align the bank rate with the revised MSF rate.

RBI also stated that all the penal interest rates on shortfall in reserve requirements, which are specifically linked to the bank rate, also stand revised.

Earlier, RBI had replaced BR with repo rate as the main monetary tool to manage liquidity and interest rates.  RBI consulted with various companies and stakeholders that rely on bank rates as a reference rate. The repo rate is the rate at which RBI infuses liquidity into the system. It drains liquidity through reverse repo.

At present, the repo rate is 8.5% and reverse repo rate is 7.5%.

The Reserve Bank of India is the central banking institution of India. It controls the monetary policy of the Indian rupee as well as US$30,210 crore of currency reserves. 

RBI plays an important role in development strategy of government. It is also a member bank of Asian Clearing Union.

The joint venture between Japan-based Toshiba Corporation and India’s JSW Group has already invested around Rs 650 crore for the super critical turbine and generator manufacturing facility, the senior company executives said.

The unit which is the second super critical turbine and generator manufacturing plant from Toshiba for super critical thermal power plants will have an annual production capacity of 3,000 MW by end of 2012 fiscal.

Toshiba Corporation holds 75% stake in the joint venture. The remaining is with the JSW Group, 20% shares with JSW Energy and 5% with JSW Steel.

According to Itaru Ishibashi, Managing Director, Toshiba JSW Turbine and Generators Pvt Ltd, “This plant would serve the needs of the Indian power generation market along with exports markets including Southeast Asia, Middle East and Africa,” said Itaru Ishibashi, Managing Director, Toshiba JSW Turbine and Generator Pvt Ltd.

The company will also increase the capacity to 6,000 MW by 2015, stated Norio Sasaki, President and CEO, Toshiba Corporation. It will also increase the employee base in India to 500 over the next three years, from around 200 currently.

Toshiba JSW is also expecting to get the first set of bulk orders from National Thermal Power Corporation for 2 units of 660 MW project in Uttar Pradesh and another three units of 800 MW project in Karnataka.

Between 2009 and 2014, Toshiba JSW will also invest around Rs 800 crore in the project as per the MoU signed between the state government and the company.

Toshiba JSW Turbine and Generators Pvt Ltd is a joint venture between Toshiba Corporation and JSW Group to manufacture and market super-critical steam turbines and generators for thermal power plants in India.

Tokyo Electric Power has agreed to a collaboration with AGL valuing the stake at less than half the A$326.7 million at which AGL  values its 32.5% stake in the state of Victoria’s largest power station, said the Australian Financial Review.

TEPCO needs to sell assets to help raise funds for a massive clean-up and compensation bill stemming up from last year’s Fukushima nuclear disaster, the reports said.

The sale of the Loy Yang stake has to be approved by all the shareholders in the plant, including Thailand’s Ratchaburi Electricity and Australian superannuation funds that are likely to decide in the next week.

AGL Energy is the largest Australian gas and electricity retailer. It has major investments in the supply of gas and electricity and has also invested in sustainable energy businesses like wind farms and a hydroelectric power station in Victoria’s High Country.

Tokyo Electric Power is an electric utility servicing Japan’s Kantoregion, Yamanashi Prefecture and the eastern portion of Shizuoka Prefecture.

The company reported a fall in its net profits as the weak results from Bharti Airtel and gains in the Singapore dollar versus regional currencies hurt earnings.

The Southeast Asia’s biggest telecom company reported a net profit of $902 million for the quarter ended December, compared with $998 million reported a year ago.

The underlying net profit stood at $895 million, down 7.6% below the S$968 million reported a year ago. The pretax profit from Singtel’s regional mobile associates fell 7.9% to S$449 million.

The contribution from India’s Bharti Airtel Ltd which is about 32% owned by SingTel fell 30.3% to S$128 million as a result of its acquisition of South Africa’s Zain telecom. Meanwhile, Indonesia’s Telkomsel reported a 5.6% rise to S$226 million. 

The company’s operating revenue rose 2.7% on  year to S$4.83 billion from S$4.70 billion on growth from its Singapore and Australia operations.

The Southeast Asia’s biggest telecom company said its mobile communications revenue in Singapore rose 6% to S$491 million with market share gains in the prepaid and postpaid segments.

SingTel added a total of 61,000 mobile customers in the quarter, bringing the total customer base to 3.55 million. Singapore Telecommunications Ltd is a Singaporean telecommunications company. It has a combined mobile subscriber base of 416 million customers from its own operations and regional associates in 25 countries.

It has stakes in six foreign mobile operators namely India’s Bharti Airtel, Indonesia’s Telkomsel, Thailand’s Advanced Info Service PCL, Pakistan’s Warid Telecom, the Philippines Globe Telecom Inc and the Pacific Bangladesh Telecom.

Opec said the world oil demand will increase more slowly than expected this year, hit by the euro-zone debt crisis and high retail prices.

Opec also stated, “Worries about the economy, along with EU debt issue, are adding more uncertainty to world oil needs over the next 12 months.”

Opec is the second of the three most closely watched oil forecasters to issue monthly reports this week.

The U.S. Energy Information Administration raised its estimate of global demand growth by 50,000 bpd to 1.32 million bpd.

Meanwhile, Opec also said its crude oil production rose in January to 30.90 million bpd, the highest since October 2008. The International Energy Agency released its report on Friday.

OPEC is an intergovernmental company of 12 oil-producing countries made up of Algeria, Angola, Ecuador, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Libya, Nigeria, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Venezuela.

The company is based in Vienna since 1965. It conducts meetings among the oil ministers of its member countries.

The company reported losses as the increased expenses, including write-offs and the cost of starting new channels, offset revenue gains.

The publishing and broadcasting company reported a profit of Rs 78.61 crore in the year-ago period. Its administration, production and distribution costs rose 56% to Rs 447.68 crore.

Network18’s staff expense stood at Rs 130.98 crore, an increase of 56%. It reported 24% surge in revenues to Rs 503.81 crore.

It made an operating loss of Rs 81.3 crore in the quarter compared with an operating profit of Rs 30 crore a year ago.

Raghav Bahl, Managing Director of Network18 said, “Notwithstanding a challenging economic environment, Network18 has kept up a steady performance in the quarter and business continued to consolidate and grow.” 

He also said, “Over the next few quarters, we will work towards a successful consummation of the acquisition while we continue to build and consolidate our existing business.”

Network18 Media is an Indian media company engaged in businesses like print, television, internet, film, mobile content and other businesses. The company is owned by Raghav Bahl who has 51% stake in Network18.