Debt Management In Zero Cost

Free debt consolidation mechanisms are being most sought out by those who are in deep debt burden. They can easily get to channelize their investments and yet manage their debt proportions while trying to benefit from free debt consolidation mechanisms. A free debt consolidation solution aims at consolidating credit from various credit sources and provides debtors a competitive interest rate schemes on the go.


In fact service providers generally float around free debt consolidation solutions across various zones in order to recover their in-debt money in a seamless manner. They are also at a risk of losing their money proceeds from bad debt situations. Free debt consolidation solutions can also be availed across online channels in a sequential manner.

Online channels are known for offering competitive interest rate schemes to the prospective debtors who wish to offset higher debt propositions with free debt consolidation solutions on the go in a smarter manner. One of the much appreciated aspects about free debt consolidation is its capability to improve the liquidity in an in-debt portfolio in shorter span of time on the go. Free debt consolidation solutions can be benefited by one and all is they are trying to battle out from the uncomfortable situation of pilling up debt in a sequential manner.

At times, third party financial agencies and advisories may also provide best in class free debt consolidation solutions to one and all in no time. However, reliable service partners must essentially be engaged while one is trying to benefit from such solutions in a larger manner. These solutions can back fire at times if not properly implemented. It is important for a debtor to benefit from the services of an expert solution provider on the go under all circumstances.

A reliable partner can not only guide on free debt consolidation but will also ensure in ascertaining that the debt portions are properly managed. A best in class solution is generally implemented by these service enablers depending upon the risk appetite of a debtor. Hence free debt consolidation solutions are preferred by one and all at all times.

Get going and make positive impression in your financial portfolio by opting to go with free debt consolidation solutions at all times. These are highly flexible and scalable solutions which can offer best in class solutions to one and all under all circumstances. Debtors can be at ultimate ease with such solutions.

What to look for when selecting a debt consolidation company

When you are knee deep in debt and are unable to manage your finances, you must look out for debt solutions to pay off your debts. There are many companies ready to help you. But most of the debt consolidation companies charge you a fee that would reduce your savings considerably. Choosing a great company could be difficult considering that the market has a less than honest reputation.

Tips on selecting a debt consolidation company

You can follow this guideline to choose the right debt solution company for yourself:

1. Do your research – It is always advisable to do your homework before you sign with any debt consolidation company. Don’t be impatient or desperate for relief and accept the initial offer. It is better to do your research, shop around and gather information about the company that you intend to select.
2. Check with the BBB – Make sure that the company that you wish to work with has credibility in the market. Check with the Better Business Bureau (BBB) and find out the company reviews.
3. Do not pay for consultation – Make sure that you are not asked to pay for consultation. The company should offer you free consultation before they offer you a debt relief program.
4. Get everything in writing – You must have a written agreement with you for future reference. So, have the plan documented on paper. Any company that will not provide this could mean a danger to your credit score.
5. Make sure that the company has physical address – You must make sure that the company that you intend to work with has a physical address. Most of the online debt consolidation companies may not have a physical address. It might mean danger for you.
6. Match their rates with others – Beware of companies that offer unusually high or even unusually low payment plan.
7. Beware of non-profit companies – There are some companies that offer credit solutions claim to be non-profit organizations. Make sure that you gather proper information about them before you work with them as there could be several hidden costs that might only show up at the end of the program.
8. Beware of false promises – Beware of companies claiming to remove all the negative items from your credit score. They have no authority to do so.

Though there are many debt consolidation companies, with a little bit of homework you’ll be to find the right one for you.

Greg Norman shuts Sydney office, opens in China: report

Australia's richest sportsman Greg Norman has closed his only Australian office as he pursues golfing business interests in China, according to reports.

Greg Norman Golf Course Design shut its Sydney office in recent weeks, with at least three staff made redundant, the Daily Telegraph said on Wednesday.

The Telegraph said the design company has opened a new sales and marketing office in Beijing, signalling Asia as its key area of growth.

The office closure comes a year after Norman's chief Australian course architect for 22 years, Bob Harrison, parted ways with the two-time major winning golfer.

A company spokesman told the Telegraph that Norman's main golf course architects will now be based in the company's West Palm Beach headquarters in Florida.

Norman's spokesman, Bart Collins, told the newspaper that the company had "retrenched two or three executives" in Sydney.

"But we still have people who are full-time employees of us in Australia, who work from home right now," he said

Despite no longer playing golf regularly on the circuit, Norman remains Australia's highest-earning sportsman, with a business magazine recently estimating that he earned 15 million US dollars (12 million US) last year, largely because of his success in golf course design.

First established in 1987, Greg Norman Golf Course Design says on its website that it has completed more than 70 golf courses on six continents.

Norman, 55, formerly ranked number one in the world, won the British Open in 1986 and 1993.
The company was unavailable for comment Wednesday.

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© 2010 AFP
This story is sourced direct from an overseas news agency as an additional service to readers. Spelling follows North American usage, along with foreign currency and measurement units.

China, US to build cooperative relations

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As China and the U.S. conclude their second round of Strategic and Economic Dialogue, bilateral ties are back on track. After months of tensions between the two, China and the US are seeking ways of building positive and cooperative relations under long term strategies.

The China-US Strategic and Economic Dialogue has come at a time of strained relations between the two sides.

Last December, the US and some western countries blamed China for the Copenhagen Conference failing to reach a tougher consensus on climate change.

Trade and economics are also causing disputes.

From punitive tariffs on Chinese tires and steel pipes, to an anti-dumping probe into American auto part exports, a tit-for-tat dispute is being waged across the Pacific.

On the issue of RMB exchange rate, China is resisting US pressure to appreciate its currency.

Obama's meeting with the Dalai Lama and US arms sales to Taiwan received a strong backlash from China.

Professor Yuan Peng of Inst. of Contemporary Int'l Relations, said, "One of the key reasons for the tensions in the past year is that China and the US haven't got used to the new situation between the two. China is growing confident yet the US is losing ground to some extent. The old mechanism between the two needs to be adjusted."

Despite the global financial crisis, the Chinese economy grew by 8.7 per cent in 2009.

With the Greek debt crisis hanging over Europe, the world economic recovery remains fragile.

Analysts say China and US relations require a long term plan to deal with many problems.

"Bilateral relations between China and the US involves many global issues. The global financial crisis hasn't gone. The fight against climate change and the regional and global security issues all require cooperation between China and the US. The two sides should face up to the differences between them and develop a long term strategy in dealing with global challenges." Said Yuan Peng.

China and the US have become inter-dependent to a striking extent.

Analysts say although the future of bilateral relations could be complicated, the best way to face challenges is to stand together.

China-US S&ED attracts US media attention

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The China-US Strategic and Economic Dialogue is making headlines in the US. The talks made the front page of the Monday edition of all major newspapers and their websites.

An article posted on the Wall Street Journal website says the American public has welcomed the speech by Chinese President Hu Jintao at the opening ceremony. It says the two sides will proactively overcome their differences without harming ties. The US delegation has already made it clear that they will not pressure China on the issue of exchange rate of the yuan.

The website of the New York Times published a report that hails the significance of the dialogue in strengthening the relationship between two of the world's biggest economic powers. But a list of problems is waiting to be solved by Beijing and Washington to achieve a mutually beneficial solution.

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Penang's capital is eighth most liveable city in Asia, on par with KL and Bangkok

George Town is living it all up

GEORGE TOWN: The state capital has moved up a notch to become the eighth most liveable city in Asia in an international survey involving 254 cities.

The survey, which was carried out by ECA International, now puts George Town on par with Kuala Lumpur and Bangkok.

In a press release posted on its website www.eca-international.com, the survey also ranks Singapore as Asia's most liveable city for the 11th consecutive year.

Three cities in Japan - Kobe, Yokohama and Tokyo - occupy the second, third and fourth placings.
Hong Kong is in fifth place, followed by Taipei and Macau.

The rating for the cities was based on an analysis of living standards, including climate, health services, housing and utilities, social network, leisure facilities, infrastructure, personal safety, political tension and air quality.

ECA International regional director for Asia Lee Quane also said the least liveable cities in Asia were Islamabad and Karachi in Pakistan, Pyongyang in North Korea and Kabul in Afghanistan.

George Town also moved up a spot in the ranking for the world's most liveable cities at 62nd place.

Five Asian cities made it to the top 10 in the global ranking as the best places for Asians to live in - Singapore (1st), Kobe (3rd), Yokohama (4th), Tokyo (5th) and Hong Kong (8th).

ECA International is a membership organisation for international human resources professionals. It serves a global network of over 4,000 human resource professionals in 71 countries.

By TAN SIN CHOW
sctan@thestar.com.my

Malaysia among most competitive nations

It has benefited from strong demand in Asia and efficient policies

FOR the first time since Malaysia participated in the World Competitiveness Yearbook (WCY) study by the Swiss-based Institute for Management Development (IMD) since 1999, the country has been ranked one of the top 10 most competitive nations among 58 economies.

Malaysia achieved an index score of 87.228 compared with 77.162 in the previous year. This has propelled us to 10th place from 18th place last year. The country has benefited from strong demand in Asia and the implementation of efficient government policies.

The top 10 countries and their respective scores are shown in Table 1.

Malaysia has overtaken several developed countries such as Denmark, 13th (2009: 5th), the Netherlands, 12th (2009: 10th) and Luxembourg which was ranked 11th (2009: 12th).

Datuk Seri Mustapa Mohamed

 

Malaysia continues to be ahead of Britain, ranked 22nd position (2009: 21st), South Korea 23rd position (2009: 27th) and Thailand 26th (2009: 26th).

Higher Confidence

The improvements have been largely due to the performance of both the statistical and perception data. This reflects the strong fundamentals in the Malaysian economy as well as a positive change in perception among respondents.

The rakyat’s higher confidence level is testimony that the people-friendly initiatives as depicted in the “One Malaysia, People First, Performance Now” have been successful.

Malaysia’s performance according to the four competitiveness factors showed that the country recorded remarkable improvement in rankings for government efficiency at 9th position (2009: 19th) and business efficiency at 4th (2009: 13th). The economic performance and the infrastructure factors improved to 8th (2009: 9th) and 25th (2009: 26th) respectively. (See Table 2)

Initiatives

Since the last quarter of 2009, the economy has been growing at a faster pace than expected. This was due to a combination of government spending, lower inflation rate and accommodative monetary policy that helped boost domestic demand.

Gross domestic product (GDP) expanded by 4.5% in the fourth quarter, higher than the expected 3.2%. The growth momentum continued into the first quarter this year with gross exports rising by 30.7%, contributing to GDP growth of 10.1%.

Malaysia’s export recorded a new high for the month of March this year. This registered a significant growth of 36.4% year-on-year. Given the robust performance and the government’s economic initiatives, Malaysia is expected to achieve its target of 6% growth this year.

Besides the surge in exports, there was a marked improvement in private spending. Automotive sales surged 25% year-on-year in March to 56,139 units up from 44,896 units in the same month last year. Recent high-value investments by foreign companies are indicative of investor confidence on Malaysia.

Coca-Cola is investing RM1bil in a bottling plant and Hong Kong-based Sun Bear Solar Ltd is spending RM5.2bil in a solar glass-manufacturing plant.

For the first time since Malaysia participated in the WCY, both the government efficiency and business efficiency factors achieved remarkable top 10 rankings. This indicates a clear link between public and private sector engagement, which has resulted in a change in the way both sectors regard and work with each other.

Since the establishment of Pemudah (Government’s Special Task Force to Facilitate Business) in February 2007, which was aimed at enhancing transparency and streamlining processes and procedures, tangible results have been evident.

This ease of doing business in Malaysia has impacted positively on the rankings for government efficiency and business efficiency input factors.

For instance, the number of start-up days in Malaysia, an indicator of the ease of doing business, has improved. Currently, the number of start-up days is three compared with 11 previously. The aim is to further improve this to one day.

Continuous Government reforms have also resulted in improvement in several national key areas:

Street crime has dropped by 32% in the first quarter of 2010.

The number of hardcore families listed in the eKasih system has reduced to 32,271 from 44,643.

The perception on bribing and corruption has improved in ranking to 26 from 31 last year.

Bureaucracy in business activity has improved to 4th place from 16th previously.

The New Key Economic Activities, as outlined in the New Economic Model, are expected to further accelerate Malaysia’s economic transformation.

Infrastructure was ranked 25th (2009: 26th). The investment on the country’s infrastructure is for the long term. Hence, this will only show results over time. In 2001, Malaysia’s infrastructure was ranked at 38th position. This has improved over the years to 25th in this latest study.

The report also indicated that the innovative capacity of firms in generating new products and processes is high, with a ranking of 12, despite this being a new criteria.

This is in line with our emphasis on innovation and creativity to achieve quantum-leap growth. The declaration of 2010 as the Innovation Year has been an impetus towards this end.

In addition, the National Broadband Initiative is expected to further narrow the digital divide between the rural and urban areas.

Forging Ahead

Although Malaysia is now among the top 10 nations, we need to strive to maintain this achievement. This is important if we are to achieve high-income status by 2020.

Malaysia has the following challenges:

To continuously improve government delivery system to facilitate business

To strengthen the economy through high quality investment

To groom small and medium-sized enterprises for global competition

To continue to intensify life-long learning and nurture talented workforce; and

To drive productivity and competitiveness through a creative and innovative mindset.

By DATUK SERI MUSTAPA MOHAMED 

Datuk Seri Mustapa Mohamed is International Trade and Industry Minister.