The Thai finance ministry plans a comprehensive restructuring of the benefits and bonus system used for 300,000 state enterprise employees to improve transparency and reduce expenses, reports Bangkok Post.

deputy finance minister Pisit Leeahtham has instructed officials to gather data on all bonuses and benefits offered by the various state enterprises. Incentive and performance assessment systems used by the 72 state enterprises will also be examined, with a restructuring scheduled to be completed by the year end.

It remains uncertain what changes, if any, will be made to the current benefit system. But officials say that at the very least, state enterprises would have to clarify what benefits are offered to staff, the conditions attached and reasons for doing so.

Employee benefits, which include health care, pension funds and scholarships, cost state enterprises 18.79 billion baht in 1998, or 22 per cent of total staff expenses. No ceilings are nowset on the benefit structure. The ministry believes definitive limits are needed to prevent costs from escalating and undermining efficiency.

House prices at a low

Potential homebuyers in Thailand should not hesitate much longer as prices are as low as they can possibly go, most real-estate developers say, writes Bangkok Post.

But bankers are less certain, saying that housing prices could fall a bit further until the end of the year. ``I can swear that prices now have bottomed out,'' Atip Bijanonda, deputy managing director of Supalai Plc, told the Post Roundtable. ``No developers now want to keep houses unsold. They want to get them off their shoulders. We are like a farmer who grows rice to feed the crows. All the proceeds earned will be returned to pay debts and interest costs.''

Money laundering

Legislation to combat money laundering is being discussed to protect Bahrain's reputation as the region's banking and finance centre. Bahrain Monetary Agency (BMA) sources said recentlythat the proposed law is expected to take effect this year, according to a report published in Gulf News.

The new law will strengthen the existing penal code and place added emphasis on dealing with all crimes related to money laundering. It will also clearly define various aspects of these crimes with what has been agreed internationally and define the appropriate punishment.

The BMA, which has intensified its drive against money laundering, has emphasised the importance of this law to bolster investor confidence. A recent report on the United Nations' global programme against money laundering showed that an estimated $300-$500 billion is laundered every year for drug trafficking, arms smuggling and financial crimes which affect free markets and the development of national economies.

Internet banking is also a growing source of worry, it said, and it has already proven that fraudulent banking business can be conducted via cyberspace. For example, in one case an Internet bank was domiciled in anoffshore centre, with the server located in another jurisdiction and operational management located in a third.

Sincere attempt fails

The Sincere Company, Hong Kong's historic department store operator, has become the latest victim of sluggish consumer spending and cut-throat competition in Shanghai, closing down a store that it opened less than two years ago, writes Hongkong Standard.

``The major factor behind the closure was the fierce competition,'' a company spokesman said. Managing director Philip Ma had made clear the company's ambition to re-establish itself in the mainland's most cosmopolitan city, where it thrived before the Communists took over in 1949.The shop, Sincere's second in the city, was located in a new shopping mall in Huai Hai Middle Road, at the heart of the city's former French concession. This area, where gleaming new shops have opened as foreign companies rushed in, is one of Shanghai's most opulent.