PRAGUE : South Korean carmaker Hyundai Motor is planning to launch production at its new Czech plant in early November, undeterred by the global car industry slowdown.

The Hyundai plant will be the third large car factory in the Czech Republic, a country where car production makes up 18 percent of GDP, after Skoda Auto and TPCA, a joint venture of Toyota and PSA Peugeot Citroen.

“I expect we will launch production in the week starting November 3,” Hyundai Motor Manufacturing Czech spokesman Petr Vanek told AFP on Friday.

The plant has not yet received all the permits it needs, but local building office head Vaclav Kocich expects that everything will be settled on time.

The 1.1-billion-euro factory in Nosovice near the eastern city of Ostrava comprises five plants altogether.

“Some permits may be approved by the end of October, others will follow in November,” Kocich told AFP.

He added the first plant to be approved was the gearbox plant, expected to employ 350 staff and turn out 600,000 gearboxes of five types a year, according to the Hyundai website.

Hyundai will supply half of the gearbox output to its sister Kia Motors factory in western Slovakia.

Hyundai expects to employ a total of 2,000 staff in the Czech plant by the end of the year and to produce 200,000 Hyundai i30 cars a year for European markets in the first phase, with an increase to 300,000 units by 2011.

Vanek waved aside all concerns about the current crisis, which has led other carmakers to cut production and shut plants in Europe and in the United States.

“If Czech car sales grow by 10 percent a year, we cannot talk about a crisis here,” he said.

Czech car sales rose by more than 10 percent to 109,000 units in January-September against a year ago, while output grew by 10 percent to 744,759 cars in the period.

In 2007, Czech factories produced cars worth almost 641 billion koruna (25.6 billion euros, 35.6 billion USD).

“The crisis threatens companies producing big cars with high consumption, carmakers whose products do not comply with the carbon-dioxide emission limits, and morally outdated carmakers, which is not our case,” Vanek said.

- AFP /ls

Channel News Asia

Beautiful and intense, says SU AZIZ of this book on a samurai’s wise words.

ONCE in a while, while browsing in a bookstore, one is compelled to pick up a book not because of its title, story or author, but because of its beautiful and striking cover.

The Art of The Samurai: Yamamoto Tsunetomo’s Hagakure is one such book.

Striking in a silky orange cloth cover, this book is collection of commentaries by a samurai, Yamamoto Tsunetomo. The book was translated into English by Barry D. Steben.

Tsunetomo was a former retainer to Nabeshima Mitsushige, the third ruler of what is now the Saga prefecture in Japan.
A man named Tsuramoto Tashiro, compiled these commentaries from his conversations with Tsunetomo.

Tsunetomo tells “how to foster courage, serve selflessly, become a skilled master of your own destiny, and infuse life in the here and now with beauty while still acknowledging its transience”.

Tsunetomo’s timeless wisdom and profound aphorisms reflect important principles that are applicable even today.

One such example of wisdom and astute comes under the titled “A question of mind over matter”. It tells of a man who had travelled for days on horseback successfully arriving at his destination in one piece.

When one asked the secret of how he managed it, the man replied, “If one doesn’t think that one is riding a horse, but rather feels as if one is sitting on a tatami mat, then one does not get fatigued in the slightest”.

However, the line that has caught my eye and echoed in my head for weeks was, “In this world where everything is false and insincere; Only dying is completely sincere”.

It is intense but one thing is for certain, this is a book that would make anyone’s library shine. It may become a collector’s item.

MPH’s BESTSELLER LIST

Non-Fiction
1. The Secret by Rhonda Byrne
2. A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life’s Purpose by Eckhart Tolle
3. The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch with Jeffrey Zaslow
4. Hot, Flat and Crowded: Why the World Needs a Disruptive Green Revolution by Thomas Friedman
5. How To Win Any Argument: Without Raising Your Voice, Losing Your Cool, Or Coming To Blows by Robert Mayer
6. Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus: A Practical Guide for Improving Communication and Getting What You Want by John Gray
7. What Your Doctor Doesn’t Know About Nutritional Medicine May Be Killing You by Ray D. Strand
8. Why Mars & Venus Collide: Improve Your Relationships by Understanding How Men and Women Cope Differently With Stress by John Gray
9. A History of God: The 4,000-Year Quest of Judaism, Christianity and Islam by Karen Armstrong
10. The Power of Thinking Big by John C. Maxwell

Fiction
1. A Prisoner of Birth by Jeffrey Archer
2. Thanks for the Memories by Cecelia Ahern
3. The Appeal by John Grisham
4. Lords of the Bow by Conn Iggulden
5. The Other Boleyn Girl by Philippa Gregory
6. The Final Reckoning by Sam Bourne
7. Smoke Screen by Sandra Brown
8. The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
9. The Ideal Wife by Mary Balogh
10. Keeping the Dead by Tess Gerritsen

Local Authors
1. Mahathir Mohamad: An Illustrated Biography by E. Yu
2. March 8 the Day Malaysia Woke Up by Kee Thuan Chye
3. May 13: Declassified Documents on the Malaysian Riots 1969 by Kua Kia Soong
4. Biografi Muhammad bin Abdullah: Perjalanan Hidup Seorang Nabi (Siri Sejarah & Tamadun) by Zulkifli Mohd Yusoff
5. Dilema Melayu by Mahathir Bin Mohamad
6. Khadijah: Cinta Abadi, Kekasih Nabi by Dr Muhammad Abduh Yamani
7. Tipping Points: Viewpoints on the Reasons for and Impact of the March 8 Election Earthquake by Oon Yeoh
8. 51 Dalil Anwar Jadi PM by Elias Hj. Idris
9. Sendiri Mau Ingat by Dr HM Tuah Iskandar
10. Eksploitasi Peluang Menjadi Wang: Buka Mata, Buka Minda… Cari dan Cipta Peluang, untuk Menjana Pendapatan Tambahan by Syahril Jani

New Straits Times

IPOH: Anti-narcotics police nabbed two suspects and seized 2,000 pills believed to be Ecstacy with a market value of RM100,000 during a check on a car at the Simpang Pulai toll plaza recently.

Acting on a tip-off, police checked a Kia Spectra at the toll plaza about 7pm on Sept 17 and discovered a black plastic bag of pills on the floorboard of the front passenger seat.

A man and a woman were detained.

New Straits Times