East Asia develop as tourism hub

Everywhere there was panic of financial crisis in Eastern Asia South Korea, Japan to Philippines were the major tourism country affected by the global financial crisis. One of the biggest tourism markets is Philippines; many tourists from South Korea come to that place. But this year rate declined by 9.4 %.. China contribution to the to the Philippines tourism industry is nearly about 15 %.

Global crisis is the main reason for the decline of the tourist inflow which leads to the several damped consumer sentiments leading to the reduction in the tourism. Japan and South Korea are the top markets that represent from were maximum number of tourist arrive to Philippines. Hotel, travel and other industry comprises are the part of Hospitality industry are the most expensive industry of compare to other industry in Asia.

It is very tough phase for Filipino tourism industry as foreign tourist arrives dropped admits unfavorable business condition. As the hotel prices are relatively higher in the Philippines than other Asian countries, the government should encourage construction of new hotels and other tourism-related establishments. Construction of new hotels will spur price competition and increase the availability of rooms, which, in turn, will push the foreign tourist arrivals in the country.”

South East Asia which include India, Pakistan, Nepal and Bhutan. India is now become the largest foreign tourist destination but Indian tourism industry is also affected by terrorism, undeveloped infrastructure facility. Nepal and Bhutan is also not getting the importance among the foreign tourist.

India has big advantage of large number of efficient doctor, surgeon and world class medical facility, and most important is that cost of medical expenses is comes one third in compare to US and any European countries. So, different patients from all part of the world come to India .Indian Govt. also develop different infrastructure facility to become one of the important medical tourism destinations in the world.

China and Thailand are two big competitors in the same field. China has good number of physician but there is not world class facility available second Chinese are not able to speak English as fluently like Indian .Thailand has all the option to attract the new medical tourist.

How big is the sukuki bond market and what are their advantage

The market for sukuk is estimated at $85bn at year2007. The market is divided into two broad categories; on the one hand, global sukuk(which are listed on global markets and usually denominated in international currency, mainly the US dollar), and on the other hand , local or domestic sukuk(which are issued by Muslim issuers on their respective domestic markets, and are denominated in local currencies).

Listed sukuk represent roughly one-third of total sukuk outstanding, or $30 bn. We, at S&P, do rate sukuk for an outstanding, amount at mid-year 2007 in excess of $12 bn, or 30% of listed sukuk.

For issuers of sukuk , one advantage is to have access to alternative sources of funding, while diversifying funding sources. Given the wider appetite for these assets-based (and sometimes assets-backed) securities, issuers a can broaden their investors more inclined to comply with religious rules. Finally, sukuk have upside value embedded in them , reflecting the very begin economic environments from which sukuk are issued, mainly the Gulf region and south East Asia, both growing very fast and where the outlook is positive.

Capitalization in the sukuk market has been substantially increasing over the last seven years. The sukuk market has increasingly grown exponentially since 2000 with an average growth of approximately 805 per annum. It grew at a slower rate in the beginning, but suddenly accelerated in 2003. Initially, the market was limited to the domain of sovereign issues; however, realizing its vast potential , a number of corporation in the Middle East as well as Asia have started to take opportunity.In 2000, there were only three three corporate sukuk worth almost $5.7bn; and in 2006, the figure substantially grew to exceed $27 bn.

The global sukuk market continued its rapid growth in the first half of 2007, edging up 75.1% YoY while the international sukuk market expanded by 83..3%YoY. The first semester of 2007 also saw sovereign sukuk issues rise to total of $4.4 bn as compared the corporate sukuk had risen to a total of $20 bn. In term of currency, as at the end of june 2007, Malaysia ringgit-denominated sukuk represented 70% or $17.2 bn of the total sukuk being issued globally.

In line with the development of Shari’ah banking, the Islamic capital market in Indonesia is also on the rise. The growth of Shari’ah bond issues. Till now, 17 Indonesian corporations have issued Shari’ah bonds woth almost IDR2,209.4bn ($245.5 mn), with two types of Shari’ah bond so far, namely Ijarah, accounting for 63% (IDR 1,394.4 bn) ($155 mn) and Mudharabah for 37% (IDR 815 bn) ($90.5 mn).