Taking Notice

NEW JOBS

>> David E. Kerr and Ronald E. Prescott have formed The Construction Management Group Ltd. It will provide services including preliminary analysis and feasibility studies, and on-site management. Kerr and Prescott bring a combined 70 years of construction industry experience to the firm.

PROMOTIONS

>> The Hawaii Medical Association has promoted Paula Arcena to executive director. She formerly served as HMA's director of legislative and government affairs.

>> Chris Cook has been named editor at the Maui newspaper The Garden Island. He replaces Pat Jenkins, who has accepted a newspaper job in Washington. Cook previously served as the newspaper's manager of new media. He has also been a reporter at The Garden Island, the Associated Press and United Press International.

>> Carol Souza has been promoted to the newly created position of associate publisher of Aloha Airlines' in-flight magazine Spirit of Aloha. She had been an account manager with the publication since 1997.

ON THE BOARD

>> Karen Lee has been elected chairwoman of the board of directors at the Arthritis Foundation. Cindy Haranda was named past chairwoman. Other board members include: Wesley Fong, Sally Blanchard, Brian Macnish, Sharon Hicks, James McKoy, Donald Person, Rowan Young, John Sutton, Richard Paskalik, Lisa Halvorson, Marcia Klompus, Leonard Klompus, Fran Azeka and Patty Brown-Hofman.

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Foreign investment| in S. Korea surges 52.8%

SEOUL >> Foreign direct investment in South Korea surged by more than half in January as companies such as Japan's YKK Corp. and France's Schneider Electric SA stepped up investment in Asia's third-largest economy.

Investment surged 52.8 percent from a year earlier to $634 million from a year earlier, the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Energy said. That was the third straight increase after slowing global growth cut foreign investment in the country by about a quarter last year.

Korea wants to double the value of overseas investment to a fifth of the nation's gross domestic product, President Kim Dae Jung said last month.

China's unemployment rate rises to 3.6%

BEIJING >> China's official urban jobless rate rose to 3.6 percent at the end of 2001 from 3.1 percent a year earlier, China Daily reported, citing statistics from the Ministry of Labor and Social Security.

Actual unemployment is much higher because the official rate doesn't include about 5.2 million laid-off workers who have been kept on their companies' employment rolls, the paper said.

China's urban areas had about 6.8 million registered jobless people at the end of last year, the report said.

China's economic growth slowed to 7.3 percent last year from 8 percent in 2000 as export growth flagged and consumers trimmed spending.

And its industrial production may grow 9 percent this year, slowing from a 9.9 percent increase in 2001, as rising imports reduce the market share of Chinese companies, the State Economic Trade Commission said.

New Zealand jobless rate climbs to 5.4%

WELLINGTON >> New Zealand's unemployment rate rose for the first time in seven quarters in the three months to December, when more people sought work as companies hired extra workers, according to Bloomberg News.

The unemployment rate rose to 5.4 percent in the fourth quarter from 5.2 percent in the third quarter, Statistics New Zealand said. Economists had expected a 5.3 percent rate. The economy added 16,000 jobs in the three months.

New Zealand has added jobs for six straight quarters thanks to declining interest rates.

Asahi Bank to shrink its its business in China

SHANGHAI >> Japan's Asahi Bank Ltd., which is struggling to deal with ¥1.3 trillion ($10 billion) of problem lending, will shrink its China businesses by July to concentrate on operations at home, an Asahi executive said.

Japan's fifth-largest lender will shut its Beijing representative office, which employs three staff, by April, said Asahi's chief China representative Hiroshi Fujita. Asahi will downgrade its Shanghai branch to a representative office by July, and slash staff to five people from 20, Fujita said. By staying home, Asahi will be able to cut its capital requirement from 8 percent of total risk assets to 4 percent. Asahi in December received approval to close all its overseas operations.

DoCoMo i-mode service expanding to Germany

TOKYO >> NTT DoCoMo Inc., the biggest mobile-phone company by sales, plans to start its first overseas wireless Internet access service in Germany next month, Nikkei English News said.

E-Plus Mobilfunk GmbH, the third-largest German mobile-phone operator by market share, will operate the service, the Nikkei said. The company will market the service under the "i-mode" brand name. It will also provide German and English-language services comparable to those offered in Japan, such as short messages, news, bank transactions and ticket purchases, the Japanese news agency said, without citing sources.

DoCoMo has spent about ¥1.9 trillion ($14.2 billion) buying minority stakes in mobile-phone companies across the world as part of its strategy to promote its i-mode technology as a global standard for wireless Internet services.