PRESS DIGEST - Singapore newspapers - June 30
SINGAPORE, June 30 (Reuters) - The following are stories from Singapore newspapers on Monday. Reuters has not verified these stories.
THE STRAITS TIMES
- Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim has taken refuge at the Turkish Embassy in Kuala Lumpur even as the government denied it was behind a police report accusing him of sodomy.
- All three telecom firms -- SingTel (STEL.SI), StarHub (STAR.SI) and MobileOne (MONE.SI) -- are slashing prices for even the latest and most-wanted cellphones by as much as S$600, in a bid to woo and retain customers.
- Singapore's Foreign Minister George Yeo has said relationship between Thailand and Singapore is on an upswing, and the fact that it survived an "interruption" under Thailand's military administration underscored its resilience.
BUSINESS TIMES
- Shell Chemicals (RDSa.L)is currently talking to potential partners for a new $500 million styrene monomer/propylene oxide plant in Singapore, according to a senior executive.
- Digital security provider Gemalto (GTO.PA), which last year shipped more than 1.2 billion intelligent devices such as Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) cards for mobile phones, wants to hire more than 100 engineers in Singapore to bolster its research and development centre, said CEO Olivier PiouWith.
- Singapore's Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp's (OCBC.SI) wholly owned China subsidiary will open its second sub-branch in Chengdu on Monday and the bank has also received regulatory approval to offer Chinese renminbi-denominated products to Chinese citizens in Shanghai and Chengdu.
- Singapore has attracted New Zealand's renewable energy company Pure Power Global, which is setting up a base in the city-state.
- Singapore and Hong Kong have the fairest and most transparent tax systems, out of six major developed countries, says an international study of finance professionals.
