Regulators seen moving swiftly on XBRL proposal

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. regulators may soon propose a requirement that companies file financial reports in a machine-readable code, known as Extensible Business Reporting Language or XBRL, a top U.S. regulator said on Tuesday.

Speaking at a Financial Executives International Conference in New York, John White, head of the division of corporate finance at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, said his unit is working on creating a proposal for public comment on how companies should use the computer code.

"The staff has been asked to make a recommendation (on XBRL)," White said. "Translate that to mean a rule proposal on how this would be phased in."

Also speaking at the conference on Tuesday, Conrad Hewitt, the SEC's chief accountant, said the commission plans to expand its staff focusing on XBRL and asked companies to take a closer look at using the technology.

"Stay tuned on XBRL; it's coming down the pipe very fast," Hewitt told the audience of chief financial officers, corporate treasurers and comptrollers.

The SEC, which last month established an Office of Interactive Disclosure, has plans to increase the staff of that office from four people to 12, to help companies with XBRL, Hewitt said.

SEC Chairman Christopher Cox has been encouraging companies to report financial data using XBRL tags that would allow investors to more easily analyze the information in spreadsheet programs.

But many companies have hesitated amid concerns about XBRL's maturity and implementation costs.

Cox said in September that the U.S. XBRL group has completed all its work on developing data tags, or taxonomies, for U.S. Generally Accepted Accounting Principles, removing a major obstacle for companies hoping to use XBRL.

White, who at a separate conference in New York last week said he expected XBRL would eventually be "mandatory," said on Tuesday that he expected the SEC staff would recommend a final rule on XBRL next fall.

"At this point in time I would envision the final recommendation would phase it in," White said. "Before the staff would recommend a final rule in the fall, we would have to see successful, real use of the taxonomies in quarterly filings."

The taxonomies are expected to be made available for public comment and testing in December.
Robert Pozen, chairman of a 17-member committee created by the SEC to make financial reporting less complex, said at the conference on Monday that, while the group aims to come out with its final recommendations in August 2008, it hopes to make a recommendation on XBRL in January.

The group is weighing making suggestions on whether XBRL use should be mandatory or optional, on how the cost of adopting balances with its perceived benefits, and how auditors should be involved in the data-tagging process, Pozen said.

"We were told by (the division of corporate finance) at the SEC that that train is leaving the station -- they are moving very quickly on XBRL," Pozen said.

Yahoo expands mobile carrier deals across Asia

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Yahoo Inc has struck new deals to offer mobile phone Web services through nine network operators across Asia, bolstering its increasing lead in the fastest growing regional market for mobile services by users.

The Silicon Valley-based Internet company also said on Tuesday that it was introducing a mobile service called Yahoo Go in traditional Chinese in Taiwan. These deals build on six earlier Asian carrier partnerships announced in June.

"Those 16 deals will give us roughly 40 percent coverage of all subscribers in those countries," Yahoo's top mobile executive, Marco Boerries, said in a phone interview.

Yahoo is racing to attract subscribers to Internet services delivered via mobile phones rather than computer browsers as rival Google Inc unveiled a plans to offer software to create a new class of Internet-ready phones.

Telecom carriers and Internet service providers are looking to capture a chunk of a market that research firm Gartner Inc sees generating advertising sales of $12.8 billion by 2011.

Boerries said there were more deals coming. "We have a clear goal to lead the market. The goal is to exceed 50 percent."

In Japan and China, Yahoo operates through joint ventures that handle all deal-making with mobile operators, Boerries said. It is working with China's Alibaba.com Corp on deals with carriers in the world's biggest mobile market.

Yahoo Japan is majority-owned by Softbank, the country's No. 3 mobile operator. Yahoo Web services also are offered via No. 1 carrier NTT DoCoMo via a non-exclusive deal.

The Yahoo partnership deals to be unveiled on Tuesday at an industry trade fair in Macau include three Indian carriers: Aircel Ltd, BPL Mobile and BSNL; two Malaysian carriers: DiGi Telecommunications Sdn Bhd and PT Excelcomindo Pratama Tbk two Indonesian carriers: Hutch 3 and PT Indosat Tbk, along with PCCW Mobile HK Ltd of Hong Kong and Starhub Ltd of Singapore.

Together with six earlier Asian partnerships set in June, Yahoo now has exclusive or preferred deals to have its Internet services featured on four of India's top eight carriers; all of Indonesia's top four carriers; Malaysia's No. 1 and No. 3 carriers; and the No. 2 and 3 carriers in Hong Kong.
Since introducing OneSearch, its Internet service for mobile phones, Yahoo has struck deals with 20 mobile operators worldwide. Its broadest deal, with Telefonica SA of Spain, covers up to 100 million phone subscribers in several European and Latin American markets.

Other than the Taiwan deal, the Asian partnerships call for carriers to feature Yahoo's mobile search service, OneSearch.

OneSearch lets users search the Web on the first screen they call up, in contrast to browsers designed for computer users that force phone users to navigate through several screens of links to locate the Web information they want.

This Yahoo service was first introduced in the United States earlier this year. It makes mobile Web search faster and more relevant by providing links to local news, financial data, weather conditions, Flickr photos, and other Web sites.

Hours earlier, Yahoo said it had begun offering a similar set of localized Internet services in Spanish or Portuguese to consumers in Latin America's three largest markets -- Brazil, Mexico and Argentina.

In recent weeks, Yahoo also has quietly begun offering Web search via SMS text messaging in Britain, France, Germany, India, Italy, Spain and the United States.

These direct-to-consumer services set the stage for Yahoo to strike deals with the region's mobile phone carriers to feature Yahoo mobile services on phones they offer subscribers, vastly expanding the Internet company's potential audience.

NIA seeks joint ventures

To encourage the expansion of business innovation, the National Innovation Agency (NIA) has partnered with local and international venture capitalists to set up a fund for joint ventures in Thai companies which have product innovation and potential to grow.

The fund is a result of cooperation among NIA, local venture-capital firm Vnet Capital, venture capitalist Japan Asia Investment (JAIC) and SME Bank. The fund has a budget of Bt210 million.
NIA's director Supachai Lorlowhakarn said the move was part of NIA's plans to move into the investment arena by providing funding support through a venture-capital model to help local companies expand.

"For four years we have been laying down basic infrastructure for innovation development by encouraging local companies to do product innovation and increase business. Now it's time to help them expand through new investment," Supachai said.

NIA's board recently approved a Bt50-million budget for the fund. JAIC, as the largest stakeholder in the fund, will contribute Bt100 million while SME Bank and Vnet Capital will provide Bt50 million and Bt10 million to the fund respectively.

As a local venture-capital firm, Vnet Capital will look after the fund management as the fund manager.

Set up under a new company called Thai Food and Innovation VCF, Supachai said the fund would run for 10 years and it hoped to make joint ventures in 16 Thai companies. The fund will focus on the food industry and will invest in at least two companies a year. The fund will invest between Bt20 million and Bt42 million in each project and in the first four years it has to make investments worth 60 per cent of the total fund value.

Potential projects for joint investment include coconut virgin oil, silk powder, O-rice, gara rice, original asparagus products and production of abalone. "We decided that around 60 per cent of investments will be in the food industry while the remaining investments can be in other strategic industries," Supachai said.

He added that the establishment of the fund was hoped to help local companies who had product innovation to expand and encourage them to move towards enterprise innovation, the next level of innovation development.

In the meantime, having a venture-capitalist partner from Japan will also assist local companies to get access to overseas markets, especially Japan, and this is a start for expansion to other countries.

Supachai said that as the fund was venture capitalist, it also aimed to bring business success to every project. The fund targets that each company it invests in will be listed on the Market for Alternative Investment within five years.

Making investments is another way NIA can encourage local companies to not only continue working on new innovation but also keep business and entrepreneurship in mind while opening for new investment from outside.

"It's necessary to put more focus on business and investment aspects so each innovative project attracts investors and this will move innovation development from product level to enterprise level," he said.

During the past three years, NIA has provided Bt241 million to support 218 innovation projects and this created around Bt6.1 billion of investment in the country.

An evaluation done by the Centre for Applied Economics Research at Chulalongkorn University found that each project supported by NIA could offer a higher internal rate of return.

By calculating the internal rate of return over 10 years, the report estimated that NIA projects could give an return of between 17 and 290 per cent while they also had net social benefit of 19 to 317 per cent.

Pongpen Sutharoj

The Nation

Thailand: Parties' economic policies risky, say experts

From adnkronos.com (13 Nov 2007)

Bangkok, 13 Nov. (AKI) – Thailand's political parties have adopted policies that could contribute to an economic downturn in the leadup to the parliamentary elections in December.Several economists have said that the Thai economy is already slowing and could slip further with a slowdown in the US and higher oil prices. Exports contribute to 70 percent of Thailand’s gross domestic product and it is the largest oil importer in Asia when measured as a percentage of GDP.One of the country's leading investment banks, Phatra Securities, has warned that “more populist spending by the next government could seriously affect the country's fiscal position over the medium term."Thanong Khanthong, writing in the Thai newspaper ‘The Nation,’ stressed that Thailand needs "fiscal prudence" to assure economic stability.”“This is a dangerous way of thinking. Once we are hooked on populist spending, we can't stop. And the amount spent is going to become even greater in the future,” he added, referring to various parties’ plans. Experts said former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra’s populist policies have been adopted by every major political party and could lead to fiscal problems for the country, whose economy is struggling, experts have recently noted. The Asia Times, a political and financial portal, warned that “the spending could be unsustainable, although Thailand currently presents some financial space for more government spending.” Thailand’s official public debt stands at 37 percent of gross domestic product, or GDP, but, the Asia Times said that it rises to nearly 44 percent when including off-balance sheet liabilities. Thaksin’s direct populist legacy is guaranteed by the People's Power Party (PPP), now considered the front runner in the December 23 vote. Nevertheless, research conducted by Phatra Securities shows that the Democrats stand a good chance of forming the next coalition government even if they win fewer seats than the PPP."Still neither is likely to form a strong coalition government," said Phatra. "Both would be reliant on the loyalty of medium-sized political parties."It said a defection by any one of the medium-sized coalition partners could bring the coalition government down.The PPP wants to maintain the populist policies introduced by Thaksin, which include a village fund, a debt moratorium for farmers, and virtual universal health care.The party also aims to go ahead with the ambitious infrastructure spending plans first proposed by Thaksin and valued at some 44 billion dollars over five years. Following in the footsteps of Thaksin is the Democrat Party, which used to criticise Thaksin’s populist economic policies If elected, the Democrats have promised mandatory free education for 12 years, free medical care, more financial benefits for retirees and debt restructuring for the poor. They have also promised “to restore the country's neo-liberal credentials” and launch an impressive infrastructure plan that includes at least three new mass transit train lines in Bangkok, a major renovation of the country's railway system and an expansion of irrigation systems in rural areas.Other parties have also pledged several spending initiatives.

AIS offers free services to UTCC students

The Nation (13 November 2007)

Students at the University of Thai Chamber of Commerce (UTCC) who use the Advanced Info Service (AIS) network will be able to call other AIS network users for free from the UTCC campus for two months.

The service was launched yesterday between AIS and UTCC.

The AIS launch of Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) on the UTCC campus covering 29 rais will enable the students to call other users through the wi-fi system.

AIS CEO Vikrom Sriprataks said that UTCC students who use the AIS network can contact others who use AIS service through the wi-fi system for free.

AIS launched the service at the university campus to compete with True Move, which currently dominates the younger market, said Prathana Leelapanang, AIS assistant vice president for Wireless Business.

He added that the company is targeting at least 1,000 UTCC students to use this service for two months for free. After two months, AIS will reconsider how to charge the users.

Although the service is likely to become popular, especially among 23 million AIS users, it has some limitation. At present, only 12 mobile-phone models can accommodate the VoIP system and each model is pricey at no less than Bt10,000 each, said Prathana.

Nonetheless, AIS is prepared to expand the service. AIS recently set up a subsidiary called "Super Broadband Network" to oversee the VoIP service. The new subsidiary will invest an additional US$60 million (Bt2 billion) next year on VoIP and Internet application services.

After tapping the campus market, the company plans to expand into the corporate sector and the mass market.

Porames Songsaengterm, vice president for IT, UTCC, said the university has invested Bt15 million on IT on the 29-rai campus to enable students to make the best use of new information technology.

At present, the university has 21,000 students, and around 30 per cent should access the VoIP system over the next six months. He said the university also welcomes other networks. He said it will not limit itself only to AIS if it receives offers from other networks.

CAT set to introduce its own two-SIM-card handset brand

Bangkok Post (13 November 2007)

CAT Telecom is diversifying into the mobile-handset market by producing its own ''CAT Phone'' brand equipped with two SIM cards, in an effort to offset its plunging core international direct dialling (IDD) revenue.

The state telecom enterprise is also preparing to tap into the fast-growing broadband power line business as another new revenue source.

Piriya Siriboon, a board spokesman, said the CAT Phone featured SIM cards for the CDMA and GSM mobile systems, enabling users to automatically switch to the system with the best signal.
The state agency is in talks with Chinese handset makers to produce its CAT Phone brand. It plans to place the first order for 1,000 handsets to test the market before distributing them commercially.

Mr Piriya said the diversification was part of CAT Telecom's strategy to seek new revenue sources in order to offset the effects of greater availability of privately run IDD operators.

CAT Telecom has suffered a sharp drop in IDD revenue, which generates about 50% of total earnings excluding concession revenues.

The state enterprise posted contract revenue of 651 million baht in the first nine months of this year. Even though CAT had an increase of 56% in overall revenue to 34.84 billion baht in the period, only 15.67 billion baht came from its own business operations.

CAT Telecom's core revenue _ 55% of its total _ now is concession fees from Total Access Communication (DTAC), True Move and Digital Phone.

''Without concession earnings, we cannot stand by ourselves if we could not establish other businesses, given the shrinking revenues,'' Mr Piriya said.

CEO Phisal Jorphochaudom said CAT Telecom was preparing for a broadband power line trial _ delivering IP-based broadband services on electric power lines _ at Parkland President Tower.

AIS subsidiary invests in VOIP

Bangkok Post (13 November 2007)

Super Broadband Network, an affiliate of mobile leader Advanced Info Service, planned to invest US$60 million to provide voice-over-internet-protocol (VOIP) service on its Wi-Fi wireless internet access network, targeting university and business communities. AIS chief executive Vikrom Sriprataks said SBN, which was licensed by the National Telecommunications Commission to provide internet access service and applications on the internet, had joined University of the Thai Chamber of Commerce (UTCC) to test its VOIP service, called AIS Net Call.

Commercial operations will be launched next year.

With the aim of providing integrated telecom services through technological convergence, AIS hopes the service will be an answer to all solutions for all groups of customers.

The UTCC has invested in a Wi-Fi network, with coverage now almost 100%, indicating its determination to be a leader in wireless high-speed internet access technology, Mr Vikrom said.
Students who join the test of the new VOIP service on the Wi-Fi network would be allowed to make calls from their GSM/Wi-Fi dual-mode phones to all numbers on the AIS network free of charge until the end of the year.

The rates for the new service will be determined before the commercial launch, he said.