Quickbites

Others are from the 200,000 Malaysians working in Singapore, of whom at least 50,000 are daily commuters, he said.

Many Singaporeans have been taking advantage of their stronger currency to shop in Malaysia, which has reacted by slapping limits on the amount of household commodities people are allowed to buy.

The main causeway linking the state capital of Johore Baru to Singapore is often jammedwith motorists going to and coming back from shopping and leisure trips.

The Singapore dollar, which fetched about 1.70 ringgit before the regional currency crisis erupted in July, is now worth more than 2.30 ringgit.

Getting poorer in Japan

Japan’s corporate bankruptcy liabilities surged 55. 5 percent from a year earlier to 780.7 billion yen (5.4 billion dollars) in May, a private credit research agency said Friday. It was the worst showing for the month of May in the post-war era, Teikoku Databank said in a monthly survey. The number of bankruptcy cases rose 37.5 percent to 1,791, the 12th straight monthly rise, reaching the second highest post-war level for the month, the agency said. The survey covered corporate failures involving liabilities of more than 10 million yen. As in the previous months, the agency attributed the high number of failures to a credit crunch and growing debt problems. There were 71 corporate failures attributed to a credit crunch. "Bankruptcies caused by the creditcrunch (were at) the second highest level since such data were first compiled in January 1997," it said.

More brewing at Coors

US brewer Coors Brewing Co. Ltd. has offered to take over the Jinro-Coors Brewing Co. Ltd. for 100 million dollars, Korea Development Bank said Friday. Coors previously had a one third stake in Jinro-Coors, its venture here with the localJinro group. KDB said Coors had offered a letter of intent to major local creditor banks. "The US company seeks to take over all assets and a part of liabilities of Jinro- Coors, with the rest of (the) debt hoped to be written off," the official said. Jinro Coors’ debt stands at about 650 billion won (464 millon dollars). "However, we (creditors) should discuss detailed terms before accepting the offer," the KDB official said.