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Japanese and European car manufacturers are now facing the worst effects of the recession, while the industry in the US is beginning to recover. In the US, the market has been boosted by demand for light trucks, and manufacturers are confident about future prospects. In Japan and Europe, considerable restructuring has become necessary, and Japanese manufacturers are reducing costs by measures including cutting down their ranges. All manufacturers must now look at the best ways to improve their competitiveness.

We had arranged to meet in his friend's shoe shop in the opulent Taj Mahal Palace and Tower hotel in downtown Mumbai - which was somewhat ironic since M.F. Husain [...]

There is a mystery and a mismatch concerning the record flows of foreign direct investment surging into China - more than Dollars 50bn (Pounds 29bn) in each of the past [...]

NOT QUITE THE DIPLOMAT: Home Truths About World Affairs by Chris Patten Allen Lane Pounds 20, 304 pages Few public figures have seen and shaped the inner workings of international [...]

A few weeks ago, I was in a taxi heading from the Path of the Spirits, a graceful tree-lined stretch running up to the Ming tombs on the outskirts of [...]

TOKYO -- Junichiro Koizumi, Japan's prime minister, will visit the controversial Yasukuni shrine this year, in the face of demands from China's leaders to stay away, according to Shinzo Abe, [...]

History, travel and emotional returns are all trademark themes in the novels of Shirley Hazzard, and all hang in the Hong Kong air as she looks down from the island's [...]

It has become a rite of passage - and generally a curse - for dynamic Asian economies to attract the label 'Inc' in books that predict how they will transform [...]

The prospect of lunch with one of India's wealthiest men brought an enticing vision of a Bollywood-style banquet - a notion enhanced by the sound of Sufi music and shadows [...]

Some dismiss Mani Shankar Aiyar, India's hyperactive petroleum minister, as a pipe-dreamer. But if only a third of the transnational gas pipelines he is talking about were completed, Mr Aiyar [...]

It is unusual,if notunprecedented, for a central bank governor, particularly a Japanese one, to describe monetary policy as 'laid back'. Yet that isthe phrase employed by Toshi-hiko Fukuias he describes [...]

TOKYO -- Japan's recovery is 'qualitatively different' from previous, short-lived upturns, Toshihiko Fukui, governor of the Bank of Japan, told the Financial Times, as he moved to ease concerns that [...]

TOKYO -- Japan's recovery is 'qualitatively different' from previous, short-lived upturns, Toshihiko Fukui, governor of the Bank of Japan, told the Financial Times, as he moved to ease concerns that [...]

Dear Reader, The Financial Times this week became the first international newspaper to print in Australia. This is an important step in our global expansion and reflects our belief in [...]

In spite of being knownfor his quiet demeanour, Abdullah Badawi has stampedhis authority on Malaysia since becoming prime minister just nine months ago. He has embarked on widespread reforms of [...]

Abdullah Badawi said he would not scale back his anti-corruption campaign 'in any way' in spite of signs that it could trigger opposition at a crucial ruling party meeting in [...]

The Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping, so the rumour goes, used a secret passage to travel from the Great Hall of the People to his favourite Sichuan restaurant, now the site [...]

The forecaster's equivalent of Donald Rumsfeld's 'unknown unknowns' are the events no one could have predicted, writes John Willman. There were plenty of these in 2003, including the failure to [...]

In an economy that is moving as fast as China's, it is vital to keep pace. Just ask Beijing Jeep Corporation, the first automotive joint venture in China. Formed in [...]

NEW DELHI -- The Indian government is planning to introduce a bill that would permit the creation of 26 special economic zones more than two decades after neighbouring China pioneered [...]

The rest of the world believes that India's economic growth model is largely based on its booming information technology and outsourcing sector. But Jaswant Singh, India's finance minister, sees agriculture [...]

NEW DELHI -- India's economy is poisedfor rapid, broad-basedexpansion and a second revolutionin agricultural productivity, according to Jaswant Singh, finance minister. 'My belief is that India stands on the edge [...]

Those guilty of carrying out atrocities during riots in the Indian state of Gujarat last year will be punished and 'justice will be seen to be done', Atal Behari Vajpayee, [...]

The speed of India's 12-year-old economic reformprocess has often been compared unfavourably with that of neighbouring China. But Atal Behari Vajpayee, the 78-year-old prime minister, vehemently rejects any suggestion that [...]

In his 22 years as Malaysian prime minister, Mahathir Mohamad has never been shy of picking fights. With characteristic verve he has verbally abused whites, western liberals, homosexuals, Europeans, Jews, [...]

KUALA LUMPUR -- Detaining terrorists without trial was defended yesterday by Mahathir Mohamad, Malaysia's prime minister, who said Malaysian Islamic terrorists, although few, were so dangerous they justified the practice. [...]

Roh Moo-hyun admits his first seven months as South Korean president have not been easy. 'They're calling me a powerless president who can't even dominate his own party,' he says. [...]

SINGAPORE -- South-east Asian nations, faced with growing competition from China and India, are likely to endorse plans for a regional common market at their annual summit in Bali next [...]

The lanky figure of Goh Chok Tong, Singapore's prime minister, seems remarkably relaxed for a man grappling with the twin challenges of a political transition and a drive to refashion [...]

In the six weeks since its inauguration, the administration of President Roh Moo-Hyun has had to deal with war in Iraq, a soar- ing oil price and a weak global [...]

The recent success of Everton, now near the top of English football's premier league, is causing much satisfaction in the dressing room, among the team's Merseyside supporters - and, perhaps [...]

Many companies have faced an assault on their market by Microsoft. Most have come off second best. And for Kingsoft, China's biggest software company, the US giant is not the [...]

As China's economic expansion continues at spectacular pace, its neighbours and governments beyond are confronted with a burning issue. 'With power comes influence,' says one diplomat in the region. 'And [...]

All the world is drunk, And I alone am sober Qu Yuan - 340BC-277BC I have just drunk the waters of Changsha And come to eat the fish of Wuchang [...]

Lee Hsien Loong is already studying how to change Singapore, even before he becomes the city-state's next leader. In December, Singapore's deputy prime minister launched a national commission to examine [...]

YICHANG -- China plans to resolve funding problems for its Rmb 180bn (Pounds 15bn) Three Gorges hydropower dam by offering shares on the domestic stock market and through a Hong [...]