Stronger yen may weaken the competitiveness of Japan
As debt crisis last outbreak, investors sell the euro and other risky assets accelerated, prompting increased demand for theyen’s safe-haven assets, while the Fed is likely to introduce a new quantitative easing, the dollar tumbling, the yen exchange rate has continued to rise. This makes Japan’s export industries, particularly in the automotive industry, experience “cold”, in the case of currency fluctuations in disorderly, the Japanese authorities may take decisive measures to intervene in the yenexchange rate.

Asian session Thursday, the yen touched 78.45 against the dollar, the four new high, almost equal to 317 Japanese yen exchange rate reached the highest level since World War II 76.24. Under such circumstances, the strong appreciation of the yen will weigh on the Japanese economy. Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association (Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association) President Toshiyuki Shiga (Toshiyuki Shiga), said the strong yen, the current “unacceptable.” He warned that if the yen continued strength of Japanese companies in overseas weaken the competitiveness of domestic may harm the automobile industry jobs. For more see  

Hard sell to wary industry begins
THE global mining giant Rio Tinto has warned the federal government against imposing "policy experiments" on the economy, and said a plan to impose a carbon price on Australia's highest-emitting businesses would undermine international competitiveness.

THE global mining giant Rio Tinto has warned the federal government against imposing "policy experiments" on the economy, and said a plan to impose a carbon price on Australia's highest-emitting businesses would undermine international competitiveness. Airlines, heavy manufacturers and some of the nation's biggest energy companies are forecast to suffer a hit to earnings from the new $23 a tonne tax on carbon that they emit.But steel makers are in line for hefty compensation to ease the brunt of the new tax.

"We are deeply concerned the proposed carbon tax fails to shield Australia's export sector and leaves it at a disadvantage compared to international competitors," Rio's managing director in Australia, David Peever, said yesterday. For more see

Manufacturers targeted by India's e-waste laws
By Viet Nam News

As demand for computers, iPads and mobile phones sky rockets in India, driven by a buoyant economy and increasing affluence, thousands of tonnes of electronic waste is being created each year. In a bid to tackle this problem the government has enacted legislation that will systematise e-waste recycling and require manufacturers to reduce levels of hazardous chemicals in electronics. And the cost of meeting these new obligations is set to fall on electronics manufacturers.

India produces almost 400,000 tonnes of e-waste each year, according to an assessment conducted by the Manufacturers' Association of Information Technology (MAIT), an Indian hardware trade organisation. But the larger issue at hand is that only 5 per cent of the country's e-waste is recycled, while at least 40 per cent of obsolete and unused computers and electronic products languish in homes and warehouses. After several years of campaigning by environmental groups, India's Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) has introduced E-waste (Management and Handling) Rules 2010, which will come into effect in May 2012. For more see