Investing Curiouscatblog

Tag: Asia

  • Japan to Add Personal Solar Subsidies

    Japan to Cut the Cost of Solar 50% Creating Greater Self-sufficiency (site broke the link so I removed it, sigh, sites can’t even manage to avoid breaking 10 year old web usability guidelines, when will they learn?)

    The country however is the 2nd largest global market for solar energy, and is home to some of the largest solar component manufacturers, including Sanyo, Kyocera, and Sharp. The Japanese government will introduce tax credits and subsidies to encourage household use of solar energy starting next year.
    …
    The incentive will decrease the cost of a solar photovoltaic system by an estimated 50% within 3 to 5 years. This initiative will make solar energy especially appealing because the cost of electricity in Japan is already over $.20 a kWh. This is roughly double the rate of electricity found in many areas of the US.

    Germany is the largest solar market (due to government policy encouraging solar development).

    Related: Large-Scale, Cheap Solar Electricity – Solar Energy: Economics, Government and Technology – Wind Power Potential to Produce 20% of Electricity Supply by 2030 – solar energy posts on the Curious Cat Science and Engineering blog

  • Giving People the Opportunity to Succeed

    Singapore’s Social Entrepreneur Diana Saw makes things Bloom in Cambodia

    You started Bloom in September 2006, how long was that after your Cambodia holiday which shocked you into action?

    The decision was swift as it was simple: move to Cambodia to provide jobs for poor women. I first
    visited Phnom Penh in April 2006 and was back the next month to look for a house.
    …
    I approached the job placement arm of an NGO in Phnom Penh (PP). There are many NGOs who train poor Cambodians, but what this country needs is jobs. You can train people all you like, but if no one employs them, you’ll have frustrated skilled people who are unable to use their
    skills.
    …
    Bloom has a savings plan for staff. Every month staff are encouraged to put away a percentage of their income which goes towards buying a sewing machine. Bloom will then subsidize the cost of the machine. With the machine, workers will be able to become small business owners, supplying bags not only to Bloom, but to other sellers, like small shops in the tourist markets.

    Related: Bloom Bags Blog – Using Capitalism to Make the World Better – Make the World a Better Place – Kiva – Provide a Helping Hand – Aim for everybody to gain: workers, customers, suppliers, shareholders… – Obscene CEO Pay

    The Bloom Manifesto

    • We believe in the right of all people to a decent life, free of poverty, and with access to education
    • We believe you can be rich by helping the poor

      • (more…)

  • South Korea To Invest $22 Billion in Overseas Energy Projects

    South Korea to Start $22 Billion Fund for Oil, Gas Projects

    South Korea will start a 20 trillion won ($22 billion) fund to invest in overseas oil and gas projects, vying with China and India for resources as prices soar. National Pension Service, South Korea’s biggest institutional investor with $235 billion in assets, is in talks with the commerce ministry and government agencies to start the fund by year end, the pension fund’s chief said.

    South Korea needs to catch up to China and India, who have scoured the globe to lock in resources to fuel economic growth. Korea, the world’s fifth-largest importer of oil, buys in 97 percent of its energy and resource needs.

    This sounds like the type of news that 3 years later everyone says was the sign of a bubble. Today it is hard to tell whether the boom in oil and commodity prices are a bubble or a sign of a huge demand increase that the cannot be supplied at current costs (combined with the plunging dollar which exaggerates the trends – and maybe by a decrease in supply too). I would have to say I am leaning toward a bubble signal but to what extent? Is the average price over the next 5 years going to be $50 a barrel (versus $93 today) versus say $25 a few years ago? Or is that price $100 or $150? In a few years people will say it was obvious today – what are they saying today?

    Related: MIT’s Energy ‘Manhattan Project’ – 10 Stocks for 10 Years Update (Feb 2007)