Two of Malaysia's largest companies are storming back into capital markets after a drought in offerings.

Petronas, the state energy group, has just sold the biggest Asian international corporate bond issue since 2003 while Maxis, Malaysia's leading mobile operator, is considering an initial public offering that could be among the biggest in south-east Asia this year.

The $4.5bn global bond offering by Petronas included a $3bn, 10-year conventional issue and a $1.5bn five-year Islamic bond, that was the largest international sukuk denominated in US dollars since a $1.5bn Dubai Ports issue in 2007. Both tranches were priced at 162.5 basis points above US Treasuries with similar maturity. Citigroup, Morgan Stanley and CIMB, a Malaysian investment bank, were the bookrunners on the deal.

Strong interest in the issue, with a global order book of about $19bn, could lead to a revival in sukuk offerings after a slowdown last year due to the global financial crisis. Some 60 per cent of the Petronas sukuk issue was sold in Asia, 34 per cent in Europe and 6 per cent in the US

Malaysia has the world's largest sukuk market. And according to Bloomberg data, Islamic issues in Malaysia amounted to M$18bn ($5bn) this year.

Petronas is expected to use the funds for offshore exploration and development of oil and gas fields near Malaysian territory on the island of Borneo.

There has been increased investor appetite for bond offerings by Asian state energy groups on expectations of a recovery in economic growth in the region.

News of the Petronas deal comes as Maxis is believed to be close to selecting advisers for a proposed $2bn initial public offering this year, which would boost the Kuala Lumpur stock exchange. Goldman Sachs, Credit Suisse and CIMB are said to be under consideration as advisers.

Najib Razak, the Malaysian prime minister, recently urged Maxis to return to the Kuala Lumpur exchange after it delisted in 2007, removing one of the most attractive local stocks for international investors.

A renewed listing of Maxis would be watched keenly since it would be one of the first IPOs to be affected by Mr Najib's recent easing of rules requiring that ethnic Malay investors should subscribe to at least 30 per cent of share offerings. Only 12.5 per cent of an IPO is now required to be offered to Malay investors.

The delisting of Maxis, which had a market value of M$40bn in 2007, was made in connection with a deal to sell a 25 per cent stake to Saudi Telecom and plans to expand in India.

July 21 (Bloomberg) -- China’s steel prices will rise further, pushing up the metal’s price in global markets, as government public works spending spurs demand and mills charge more to cover raw material costs, according to UBS AG and Umetal Research Institute.

The CHART OF THE DAY tracks China’s steel output and benchmark prices for imported iron ore and hot-rolled sheets in China and the U.S. Steel production rose to a record 267 million metric tons in the first half. Prices for hot-rolled steel increased 21 percent since April 1, while iron ore for immediate delivery into China surged 43 percent, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

“China continues to surprise on the upside,” UBS analysts led by Andrew Snowdowne said in a report. “Backed by government stimulus measures, the domestic market remains relatively attractive and rising domestic Chinese steel prices add upward support for global steel prices.”

Chinese mills including Baoshan Iron & Steel Co. are enjoying a demand revival because of the government’s $586 billion economic stimulus package, initiated in November. Shanghai-based Baoshan Steel, the largest Chinese mill, and Wuhan Iron & Steel Co. lifted August prices by as much as 14 percent. Capacity-utilization rates at the nation’s mills are greater than 90 percent, similar to 2007 levels, UBS said.

China’s dependence on imports of iron-ore, the main ingredient in steel, has increased to 70 percent of total demand, half-again more than the five-year average since 2003, according to Hu Yanping, an analyst at Beijing-based Umetal. The China Iron & Steel Association forecast 2009 domestic steel output at 460 million metric tons, about 16 percent less than projected production based on the latest data, Hu said.

China sought a 45 percent discount for contract iron-ore prices in talks with suppliers including Rio Tinto Group, more than the 33 percent offered by Rio. China detained four Rio executives, including an Australian national, on July 5, in a criminal probe related to iron-ore price talks, Australia’s foreign minister Stephen Smith said July 19.

 BEIJING, July 20 (Bernama) -- Tourism Malaysia is set to capitalise on this year's 35th anniversary of Sino-Malaysian relations as well as the ethnic ties between the peoples of both countries to draw more Chinese tourists to Malaysia.

The Malaysia Tourism Promotion Board has set a target of one million Chinese tourists for this year alone.

"We will launch attractive tour packages which encourage Chinese tour operators to bring newly-wed couples, diplomatic personnel, intellectuals and professionals to Malaysia," Malaysian Tourism Minister Datuk Seri Ng Yen Yen said at a meeting with Tourism Malaysia officers based in China, Hong Kong and Taiwan Sunday evening soon after arriving here on a five-day visit to promote tourism.

She said tourists coming under these packages would enjoy gifts and additional services on top of the attractive discounts.

"We will include wedding photo shoots, gifts and gala shows for mass wedding couples to make their honeymoon in Malaysia a most memorable one.

"Former Chinese ambassadors to Malaysia will be engaged to give talks and hold seminars in universities here to relate their sweet experience in Malaysia so as to attract fellow diplomatic personnel, intellectuals and professionals to visit Malaysia," she said.

Dr Ng said the Chinese websites of Tourism Malaysia would carry the stories and photographs of rich and successful Chinese Malaysians to arouse the interest of the Chinese here to visit Malaysia to find out more about the evolution of Chinese Malaysians.

She also said that Tourism Malaysia would introduce special packages for Chinese senior citizens and parents of Chinese students overseas to visit Malaysia.

The Tourism Ministry would also emphasise the "To Know Malaysia is to Love Malaysia" promotion to get tourists to revisit Malaysia, she said.

Ng is scheduled to have dialogue sessions with major tour operators in Beijing at the Westin Beijing Chaoyang Hotel Monday morning and a dinner with Beijing Tourism Administration officials in the evening.

She will head for Shanghai Tuesday morning and also visit Wuhan and Guangzhou city before returning to Kuala Lumpur Friday.

L'AQUILA, Italy - (Free International Trading Company) - Barack Obama is finding that even the reach of a globally popular president goes only so far, leaving him to snatch partial victories as he can. For all his effort, his strategy also banks heavily on the commodity that helped get him elected: hope.

Obama came to a summit of world leaders this week as arguably the most popular politician here, not to mention the leader of the world's chief superpower. But on the dominant issue of global warming, a new deal failed to win over developing countries, weakening its punch.

And earlier in Moscow, Obama got the promise of a pact with Russia to reduce nuclear arms and won help with the war in Afghanistan, but he left knowing that conflicts over missile defense and NATO remain unresolved.

Obama is in his element in these settings. It is his style — getting people together and talking, marking progress, emphasizing unity and victory even if both are modest.

"While we don't expect to solve this problem in one meeting or one summit, I believe we've made some important strides forward," the president said about climate on Thursday.

The message is repeated by his aides. Every time reporters question why more did not get done, Obama's advisers fire back: Look what we've done already.

Like on the climate issue, in which poorer countries agreed that the rise of the planet's temperature should be capped but balked at setting specific targets for doing that.

In L'Aquila, Obama has been trying to build momentum on global warming by reminding world leaders that the House recently passed an energy bill committing the U.S. to serious reductions in greenhouse gases. As a result, said Obama spokesman Robert Gibbs, leaders of China, India and Brazil are going have a hard time returning home and explaining why they "aren't also willing to take those steps."

Perhaps, but for now, those nations are resisting.

Emerging nations say the wealthy ones aren't doing enough to limit heat-trapping gases in the short term. They also worry that major reductions in greenhouse gas emissions could hamper their economies, which look enviously on those of the United States, Germany, Japan and other G-8 members.

The rich and fastest-growing countries did agree on one important goal: Global temperature should be kept from rising by more than 2 degrees Celsius, or 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit, in a bid to avert rising sea levels and other calamities.

But it's unclear whether Obama can budge China, India and other nations on more specific goals before a major climate-change conference in December in Copenhagen.

The president said there's time to bridge the gaps.

Obama embarked on his latest foreign mission riding popularity around the world.

Sixty-one percent of people have confidence in Obama to do the right thing in world affairs, according to a WorldPublicOpinion.org poll of people in 19 countries outside the U.S. No other leader got an average confidence rating of more than 40 percent.

Last year, George W. Bush fared among the worst in this poll.

Yet in Russia, Obama met skepticism. Crowds weren't wooed.

He said change won't happen right away and won't be easy — a line he uses all the time.

If you frame it that way, even a start is always good — and you always have hope.

"It's difficult to forge a lasting partnership between former adversaries," Obama said in Moscow. "It's hard to change habits that have been ingrained."

Obama's agenda is so vast and fast that the White House itself is raising expectations — and then clamoring for perspective if progress is gradual.

"I dare you to think of a summit that was so substantive," Obama's Russia adviser Mike McFaul told reporters when in Moscow.

In L'Aquila, developing countries like China, Mexico and India blasted the big powers for growing protectionism after causing a financial mess. Those three countries, plus Brazil and South Africa, said poorer countries see global warming as an "inordinate burden resulting from a crisis they did not initiate."

The limits to Obama's influence here reflect hurdles on domestic issues back home.

The Democratic-controlled Congress has thwarted him on rather narrow matters, such as refusing to fund the closing of the Guantanamo Bay prison or to curb farm subsidies. And now, even some of his signature issues are running into increasing resistance.

Democratic lawmakers are starting to splinter in the health care reform debate and jobless numbers are still rising and raising new questions about the effectiveness of his stimulus package.

Meanwhile, Gallup's daily tracking poll had Obama's approval rating at the lowest point of his presidency this week, 57 percent. Polling shows his popularity still high for new presidents, even though he may be losing some support among self-described independents.

Obama keeps reminding everyone that his agenda will take time, even as he continues to hurry.

Less than six months into his presidency, he already has been through summits of the G-20, NATO, Western Hemisphere leaders, Russian leaders and now the G-8 plus other nations.

And that doesn't count the ones he's held at the White House on the nation's financial health and on health care reform.

"It's not that I've got summititis here," he said in February.

One of the big White House announcements from the Italy summit: another summit, to be hosted by Obama next March in Washington, on nuclear security.

KUALA LUMPUR (Free International Trading Company) - P.S. Han, a teacher in Kuala Lumpur, has been using English to teach math and physics to 17-year-olds for the past six years.

From 2012, he will be forced to return to using the national language, Bahasa Malaysia, after the government decided to abandon English for the two subjects in a decision some consider to be motivated by politics rather than education.

“English has been used as the language of science for 300 years,” said Mr. Han, a teacher at St. John’s Institution. “You cannot really convey the scientific concepts to the students in Bahasa Malaysia at a very high level.”

“We have to face the fact that science knowledge is in English.”

The announcement on Wednesday, which came after months of lobbying by Malay nationalists, has raised concerns about whether English standards in the former British colony will slide and whether Malaysia’s competitiveness as a destination for multinational companies may suffer.

English has been the language of instruction for math and science in Malaysia since 2003, when former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad introduced the policy amid concerns that poor English skills were hindering students’ job opportunities.

Mr. Mahathir expressed sadness over the decision to revert to Bahasa Malaysia, saying that the decision would adversely affect children and make it difficult for them to keep abreast of scientific developments, the national news agency Bernama quoted him as saying.

The government cited a decline in students’ math and science grades, particularly in rural areas, as one of the reasons behind the switch.

However, Khoo Kay Kim, emeritus professor of Malaysian history at the University of Malaysia, said that teachers had not been adequately trained before the policy was introduced.

He described Malaysia’s English standards as “pathetic.”

“Fewer and fewer of our professors can now write in English,” he said. “We used to lead Asia in terms of English, and now we have allowed ourselves to slip below other Asian countries.”

Mr. Khoo said it was a “national shame” that the country’s oldest university, the University of Malaysia, had fallen behind other Asian universities in international rankings, a trend he attributed to declining English standards.

He also raised concerns that poor English standards may affect Malaysia’s international competitiveness, saying that multinational companies may struggle to find graduates with good English.

“If less and less Malaysians know English, how are multinational companies going to come into this country?” he said. “If we don’t have the workforce who can fit into multinational companies, how are they going to come here?”

Malaysia’s business community has long been concerned about the reported decline in English standards in schools. “The business community feels that English is imperative for Malaysia’s international competitiveness,” said Michael Yeoh, chief executive the Asian Strategy and Leadership Institute, an independent research organization.

Mr. Yeoh said that more needed to be done to improve English standards, but questions remained over whether teaching science and math in English was the best method.

“We don’t really know exactly how this could impede on the study of English,” he said.

The Malaysian International Chamber of Commerce and Industry welcomed the government’s decision to increase the number of English teachers and teaching hours.

Its executive director, Stewart Forbes, said that the need to emphasize English must continue to be part of the government’s policy.

“Private sector companies in Malaysia continue to complain about graduates’ communication skills in general, and English skills in particular, and the government’s efforts to raise the level of English expertise are very worthwhile,” he said.

Some educators from Malaysia’s two largest minority groups, the Chinese and Indian communities, welcomed the decision to revert to using Chinese and Tamil for science and math in vernacular schools, local media reported.

However, many parents and the National Union of the Teaching Profession have expressed concern over the decision to scrap English.

Shazlin Aidani, a mother of three, said she wanted her children to learn math and science in English.

TEHRAN, Dec. 23 (Free International Trading Company)-Iran and Malaysia signed three Memorandums of Understanding (MoU) in Tehran to boost cooperation on scientific and technological fields, campaign against drug trafficking and production of joint cars by Iranian Zagros Khodro and Malaysian Proton car manufacturing companies.

TEHRAN, Dec 22 (Free International Trading Company) - Much of Iran has been gripped by cold weather over the past few weeks with snow capping the mountains that ring its capital, Tehran, where Malaysian Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi is scheduled to begin his four-day official visit to this country.