Builder Uses Its Size To Hammer Out Growth

Investor’s Business Daily
Thursday, January 20, 2005

By Steve Watkins

Given the stellar numbers home builders have put up over the past few
years, you might think the industry is surging.

That’s not the case. Sure, the industry has seen steady growth. Housing
starts were on track to gain 6% in 2004, with December figures still to
come, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association.

But the really big gains have come from large, publicly traded builders
rather than their smaller, independent counterparts.

Earnings for the top players have grown 34% the past five years, says
Banc of America analyst Daniel Oppenheim.

The nation’s ninth largest builder, Hovnanian Enterprises (NYSE:HOV –
News), has seen housing orders rise 35% the past few years — in part
because it’s grabbing business from smaller rivals.

“The industry’s growth hasn’t been spectacular, but the large builders
are taking market share,” said Hovnanian Chief Financial Officer Larry
Sorsby.

Big builders still control only about 25% of the market, says analyst
Craig Kucera of Friedman, Billings, Ramsey & Co. But that’s up from 10%
five years ago.

Consolidation is causing a lot of that change. It’s getting tough for
small builders to compete.

Tight controls on land development now give the big boys a huge
advantage. They have the financial resources and expertise to work their
way through approval processes that in some cases can take years.

In Hovnanian’s home state of New Jersey, the approval process can take
five years. Hovnanian has 15 lawyers on staff whose sole job is to work
through New Jersey’s system, Sorsby says.

The company actually does better in strongly regulated markets such as
New Jersey, California and Washington, D.C., Sorsby says. Once approvals
to develop land are obtained and the houses get built, prices are higher
because demand outstrips supply.

“You have to invest a lot of people, time and money,” Sorsby said.

Hovnanian’s cash flow and balance sheet give it the prowess to do that.
It posted $4.2 million in sales for fiscal 2004, which ended in October.
That was up 30% from the prior year. Earnings gained 36% to $5.35 a share.

Analysts polled by First Call expect earnings this fiscal year to rise
25% to $6.64 a share, then move up 18% to $7.85 in fiscal 2006.

Despite concerns that big home builders are due to hit a wall at some
point, Sorsby sounds optimistic about the future.

“I think we’ll see three, four or five years of very smooth sailing for
home builders,” Sorsby said.

Hovnanian operates in about half of the nation’s major markets. It
builds in 15 states, mostly on the coasts.

It’s the top builder in New Jersey and ranks second in Washington, D.C.,
and North Carolina. It has a top-five share in Southern California.

“They’re well-positioned in some of the best growth markets in the
country,” analyst Kucera said.

Hovnanian holds more than six years’ worth of land. It has 100,000 home
sites.

The company is always on the prowl for more land, especially in new
markets. Hovnanian has been one of the more aggressive acquirers among
home builders in the past few years, Kucera says.

In late 2003 it used acquisitions to establish operations in Phoenix,
Tampa and Ohio.

Hovnanian didn’t do any large deals in the past year, but that didn’t
hamper growth. About 96% of its earnings growth was organic.

Hovnanian will be more likely to do a deal this year, Kucera adds.

“They can use that to offset the slower (projected earnings) growth
rate,” he said.

Though Hovnanian looked at more than 100 potential deals last year, it
shied away from them because of high asking prices.

“We’re committed to doing deals that make economic sense and are a good
cultural fit,” Sorsby said.

The company typically uses acquisitions to get into new markets. By
doing so it picks up managers who know the region. In the past dozen
acquisitions, Sorsby says, Hovnanian kept all the top managers.

Meanwhile, the firm is getting more money for its homes. Its average
selling price in the fiscal fourth quarter was $301,000, up from
$278,000 the prior year.

Price strength could come back to bite Hovnanian, says analyst Ivy
Zelman of Credit Suisse First Boston. She’s concerned that high prices
in Southern California will make homes too costly for most people.

“The company could be challenged to offset rising land costs, implying
that current margins could prove unsustainable,” Zelman wrote in a
recent research report.

She figures Hovnanian gets about 45% of its profit from California.

Interest rates are another concern. Mortgage rates didn’t climb much in
the past year, with 30-year mortgages at 5.74% on Jan. 13, according to
Freddie Mac (NYSE:FRE – News). But the Mortgage Bankers Association
expects 30-year rates to reach 6.4% by year-end.

“That is a concern,” Kucera said. “You might lose some people who would
buy.”

The economy plays a bigger role, however. Fewer jobs would have a
greater impact on builders than rising interest rates, Kucera says.

;u=/ibd/20050121/bs_ibd_ibd/2005120newamer

Azeri diaspora set to discuss Karabakh issue with Swedish premier

Trend news agency
21 Jan 05

BAKU

A group of Azerbaijanis living in Sweden has sent a letter to the
Swedish prime minister, asking him to meet the [Azerbaijani] diaspora
at the government level in order to discuss the Nagornyy Karabakh
conflict and the issue of southern Azerbaijan [northwestern Iran
predominantly populated by ethnic Azerbaijanis], the head of the
Azerbaijan-Sweden Federation, Manaf Sababi, has told Trend.

Stockholm has not responded to the message yet. “We hope that the
Swedish government will show interest in the problems of Azerbaijan
and express its position,” Sababi said.

‘Fidelio’ returns

Lyric, cast rise above flawed Beethoven opera

The Chicago Tribune
January 19, 2005

By John von Rhein, Tribune music critic

“Fidelio” has been missing in action at Lyric Opera for nearly 24 years,
much too long for a flawed masterpiece that once held sway on Wacker
Drive whenever the great tenor Jon Vickers was available to sing the
punishing role of Florestan.

Beethoven’s only opera attempts to translate the high-flown democratic
ideals he later developed in his Ninth Symphony into credible theatrical
form. He didn’t fully succeed despite his heroic labors. But dramatic
awkwardness finally bows to the music itself: a great score driven by
noble sentiment.

Much of that noble sentiment was recognizable in the radiant Finnish
soprano Karita Mattila’s thrilling portrayal of Leonore, the opera’s
courageous, larger-than-life heroine, at the Lyric’s first performance
of the season Tuesday night at the Civic Opera House.

But the Lyric also did itself proud with its casting of the other roles,
all of them strongly filled.

Whatever inconsistencies of concept marred German stage director Jürgen
Flimm’s updated production from the Metropolitan Opera (taken over in
his absence by his assistant, Gina Lapinski) were more than offset by
the splendidly idiomatic conducting of Christoph von Dohnányi, returning
in triumph to the theater that gave him his U.S. operatic debut 36 years
ago.

Flimm sets the opera in a squalid prison in a totalitarian banana
republic, where crates of automatic weapons are unloaded almost within
reach of the caged inmates. Robert Israel’s drab sets, with their
water-stained concrete walls and junk-filled dungeon, emphasize the
oppressive tyranny Leonore (disguised as the youth Fidelio) must
overcome to rescue her husband, the captive Florestan.

The point is made early on: Unjust political imprisonment knows no one
time or place. A cliché, perhaps, but clichés work when there’s keen
dramatic motivation behind them.

Also, it must be noted that some of the director’s more bothersome
revisionist touches were removed soon after his “Fidelio” bowed at the
Met in 2000. Here the villainous Pizarro (Falk Struckmann) is spared the
hangman’s noose, while the deus ex machina governor, Don Fernando (Alan
Held), is back to being a good guy.

One further plus is that the cumbersome spoken dialogue is cut to the bone.

Mattila’s Leonore is no goody-goody “rescue” heroine but a desperate
housewife fully capable of stealing money, packing a firearm and
deceiving the lovesick innocent, Marzelline (the shining soprano Isabel
Bayrakdarian), to get what she wants.

The Finnish diva is Leonore to the life, hair cropped and shoulders
resolute, totally believable as a young man, as opposed to the usual
overweight diva in drag. No wonder poor Marzelline is fooled into
believing she’s a he.

Mattila sang with full, luminous tone, her “Abscheulicher!” quivering
with horror and outrage. Tough yet vulnerable, she made opera’s first
feminist icon a real person, not a singing abstraction.

Here was another winning performance to set beside her deeply moving
Donna Anna in Mozart’s “Don Giovanni” earlier this season.

The first sound we heard from Florestan was a soft high G, a cry of
despair rending the subterranean darkness; Kim Begley lofted it like an
arrow to the heart. If this admirable British singer lacked the vocal
amplitude of the Met’s Ben Heppner, his firm, unforced singing made this
notorious tenor-killer role sound almost easy.

The exemplary René Pape brought a robust, sonorous bass to the
bespectacled, bumbling jailer, Rocco. As the evil governor, German
bass-baritone Struckmann ranted and snarled like Mussolini in a
three-piece suit.

Australian tenor Steve Davislim, in his American operatic debut, sang
sweetly and elegantly even when Jaquino had to wield an Uzi.

Once past a somewhat unsettled overture, Dohnányi invested the orchestra
with the rhythmic drive, tensile strength and harmonic depth of
authentic Beethoven. Wisely, he refused to interpolate Beethoven’s third
“Leonore” overture between the dungeon duet and the final scene, which
invariably makes the jubilant final chorus sound anticlimactic.

The orchestra gave of its best, while the male choristers were deeply
moving in the Prisoners Chorus.

Florence von Gerkan’s costumes stressed khakis and charcoal for the
principals, correctional white for the prisoners.

Lyric’s “Fidelio” plays through Feb. 21; phone (312) 332-2244.

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The Messenger, Georgia
Jan 21 2005

A new state in Georgia’s bond market
By M. Alkahzashvili

Finance Minister Zurab Noghaideli has said that Georgia will issue
new state bonds in 2005, and will increase the amount of treasury
liabilities by 60-65 percent by the end of the year.

Currently, Georgia’s Ministry of Finance only issues treasury bonds
with an 18-month maturation date. However, the treasury is planning
to phase in a longer maturation period of 2 years. “This will be a
new state in the development of the bond market in Georgia,” said
Noghaideli in the newspaper Akhali Taoba.

With interest rates dropping dramatically in 2004 – from a peak of
over 40 percent to a year end interest rate of around 13 percent –
T-bills reflected both the new found confidence and reliability of
the government’s economic plan.

During the 2005 fiscal year, the ministry hopes to sell GEL 20
million worth of treasury bonds, currently the only type of bond
issued by the state. Georgia’s use of state-issued bonds to balance
its budget began in 1997. The state plans to use this year’s bond
income to do more than decrease the budget deficit, hoping to use
some of the funds for economic development.

International banks are expected to represent 60 percent of large
buyers in the primary market this year. In 2004, only 10 banks
participated in the primary market sale, according to the newspaper
Rezonansi.

Other papers note that still more can be done to improve the bond
market. Khvalindeli Dge praises changes in the Ministry of Finance
over 2004 for reducing interest payments to 13 percent but points out
this is still higher than the 10 percent annual interest of
neighboring Armenia and Azerbaijan.

Even when the government was at the very limit of its funds, it has
always paid in full when bonds mature. And while corruption remained
in branches of the government tasked with expenditures, it became a
non-factor in the sale and redemption of Georgian treasury bills.

Another question is how the government will perform in the
administration of treasuries. Akhali Taoba reports that in the past,
the Georgian government did not have enough money in the budget to
pay out interest to bond holders, requiring the state to take out
loans, thus increasing rates, from commercial banks to pay the
interest. To date the state has borrowed some GEL 842 million from
the National Bank, according to the newspaper.

But the trend remains encouraging as long as the government can
maintain its revenue collections and wisely manage expenditures. As
long as this is the case, investing in Georgian T-bills will become
an even surer bet, good news for the government and for commercial
borrowers who will see lower private rates as a result.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

PanArmenian News Analysis
Jan 21 2005

ARMENIA IS NO STRANGER IN THE ARABIC WORLD

This is proved by the fact of granting a status to Armenia, as a
country, specially invited to the League of Arab States.

Armenian foreign minister has returned from Cairo. His visit was not
only aimed at holding negotiations with the political leadership of
the friendly country. It was also aimed at creating a contractual
base for improving cooperation with the League of Arab States. Vardan
Oskanyan and the secretary general of the Arab League Amra Musa
signed a memorandum of understanding between Yerevan and the
influential regional organization.

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Armenian foreign minister also had meetings with
his Egyptian colleague and with the representative of
Armenian-Egyptian intergovernmental commission Faiza Abul Naga. The
partnership between Armenia and Egypt has old traditions, but the
same cannot be said about the League of Arab States which was
established only a few years ago. On January 19, Armenian-Arabic
relations gained a new quality. Thanks to the signed memorandum
Armenia obtains the status of a country, specially invited to the
League of Arab States. This will open extensive perspectives for
mutually beneficial economic and cultural cooperation.

The steady interest of Yerevan to the Arab League is very natural.
Armenia strives to stir up cooperation with all the influential
international organizations. The high level of influence of the Arab
League is proved by the fact that among its members there are more
than 20 countries with huge political, economic and military
potential. The population of the League’s member countries reaches 25
million. The ability of Arabic world to speak on important
international issues from a united front gives a lot of influence to
the League of Arab States.
It is the League of Arab States that determines the policy to which
22 capitals adhere.

For Armenia the opportunity of getting nearer to the Arabic world is
conditioned first of all by the presence of certain difficulties in
the relations with the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC)
which often speaks out from openly anti-Armenian positions. Taking
the opportunity of the vote in OIC, official Baku sometimes manages
to persuade its partners in OIC to support UN initiatives against
Yerevan. Things were just like that during the last voting in UN
concerning putting on the agenda of General Assembly the question of
the situation in the security zone around Nagorno Karabakh. 95
percents of the countries supporting the Azerbaijanian project were
members of OIC. However, it is pleasant to realize that several Arab
countries having influence in the Islamic world nevertheless refused
to support Azerbaijan. This is the result of Armenia’s successful
diplomacy in Arabic direction.

Recently, an encouraging tendency is observed in OIC. Disagreements
concerning the purposefulness of absolute support to Azerbaijan in
international structures have emerged between OIC member countries.
This is the consequence of the struggle for the influence in the
Islamic world. As the largest and the most influential Muslim
countries, Turkey, Iran, Pakistan and Malaysia compete for the
influence in the Islamic world. This is not convenient for Arabs who
have enough grounds to make claims for a special role in the Islamic
world. Armenia can benefit from this contradiction, since the three
from the mentioned countries are marked for their pro-Azerbaijanian
policy and have hostility towards Armenia.

Strengthening relations with Arabic countries, Iran and the Muslim
countries of CIS, Yerevan can achieve prohibition of openly
anti-Armenian initiatives in OIC. Besides, the dialogue with the
League of Arab States will help the organization’s member countries
to form an objective idea about the nature of Karabakh conflict. It
will also help to work out a unified approach to our region, to
Armenian-Azerbaijanian confrontation and the problem of genocide. At
the same time Yerevan continues to develop cooperation with separate
Arabic countries. Successful lines of cooperation are already
established with Syria, Lebanon, Egypt, United Arab Emirates, Kuwait
and Qatar. There is a huge potential of developing ties with Iraq and
Palestine.

In Azerbaijan they are extremely worried about the development of
connections between Armenia and Arab states. In the beginning of
December President Ilham Aliev, being very sad to learn that not all
the Islamic countries supported Azerbaijan in UN, went on a tour to
the Arab states. Visiting the headquarters of OIC in Qatar, the Baku
leader appealed to the leadership of the organization to exert
influence on the countries that hadn’t supported Azerbaijan in UN.
The spiritual leader of Azerbaijan also visited the East with the
same aim.

Azerbaijan’s top Muslim cleric, sheikh-ul-islam Allakhshukur
Pashazade had official meetings with the Libyan dictator Moammar
Gadhafi, king of Jordan Abdullah II, the presidents of Maldivian
republic and Sierra Leone, vice president of Philippines, ministers
of Saudi Arabia, Syria, Egypt, Oman and Kuwait. All the meetings had
only one aim – to persuade them not to cooperate with Armenia.

Both the political and the spiritual leaders of Azerbaijan were well
aware that the League of Arab States is going to grant Armenia a
status of a specially invited country. It would be strange if they
didn’t try to intervene since in Baku they realize that the
involvement of Armenia in the structures of the League will allow
Yerevan to actively influence on the processes in the Islamic world.
The memorandum signed on Wednesday in Cairo indicated to the fact
that the efforts of Azerbaijan turned to be useless again.

Reno Gazette Journal, NV
Jan 21 2005

Vegas area teens face deportation to unfamiliar country
Associated Press ASSOCIATED PRESS

LAS VEGAS – If immigration officials have their way, two sisters who
have lived in the United States for more than a decade will be
deported to a country so foreign they don’t even speak its language.

The Las Vegas area teenagers were taken into custody Jan. 14 by
federal agents after authorities determined they didn’t have a right
to stay in the country.

Emma Sarkisian, 18, and, sister Mariam, 17, remain at an undisclosed
location in Los Angeles while awaiting a judge’s decision on whether
to deport them to Armenia, where they were born.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Robert J. Johnston in Las Vegas granted the
sisters a temporary stay Wednesday.

Their lawyer, Jeremiah Wolf Stuchiner, said he intends to immediately
file a motion to have the sisters released.

Stuchiner called the circumstances surrounding the deportation
proceedings `absolutely ridiculous’ and said immigration officials
have refused to release the sisters.

The two came to the United States in 1991 on a tourist visa with
their family. The family sought political asylum but was denied.

After their parents divorced, their father married a U.S. citizen and
became a legal resident.

But the second marriage fell apart, and the father never became a
citizen.

In July, Stuchiner said, the father took the sisters to see
immigration officials in Las Vegas to ask about their legal status,
believing they were U.S. residents. But the sisters were not and
learned they would be deported.

When immigration officials called Armenian authorities, they were
told that technically the sisters had been born in the former Soviet
Union before Armenia became it’s own country and should be considered
Soviet citizens.

After the Armenian government indicated the sisters would not be
accepted, U.S. immigration authorities issued an order of
supervision, requiring them to check-in with federal officials each
month.

Meanwhile, Stuchiner had moved forward with trying to get the
sisters’ father U.S. citizenship. Once that happened, he could then
petition for his daughters to become residents.

But earlier this month, Armenian officials said the sisters could be
deported to the country, and U.S officials began preparing to fly
them out of the country before Johnston intervened.

If a hearing in federal court is granted, Stuchiner said he will
argue U.S. officials should allow the father to obtain his
citizenship and petition for the daughters to remain in the country
on humanitarian grounds.

Los Angeles Daily News
Jan 21 2005

Bread part of romantic tradition

By Naush Boghossian, Staff Writer

Forget the tooth fairy’s measly dollar or that much desired sweater
from Santa. Even Cupid’s got no game when up against St. Sargis.
Those nighttime presents are chump change compared with what St.
Sargis leaves for single women: A vision of the man they are meant to
marry.

Marking the feast day of St. Sargis, the patron saint of young love,
unmarried Armenian women will eat a piece of salty bread tonight,
ideally after fasting all day, in the hope of dreaming about their
future husband. Tradition says the man who brings them water in the
dream will be the man they marry.

“It’s not something I take seriously or will put my hopes on, but
it’s entertaining, and Lord knows that in today’s dating scene, you
need entertainment,” said Talene Kanian, 29, of Burbank.

“After all, aren’t we all hopeful that ‘the one’ exists? As a modern
woman, I will take part in this old wives’ tale, and entertain the
thought that my soul mate will visit me in my dream and quench my
thirst.”

St. Sargis Day is celebrated 63 days before Easter, on a Saturday
falling sometime between Jan. 18 and Feb. 23. Popular and widely
anticipated in Armenia and Middle Eastern countries, where life was
austere and people looked for reasons to celebrate, the tradition is
being kept alive in communities throughout Southern California and
the United States.

These types of marriage traditions are prevalent in other cultures in
different forms. Assyrians, for example, celebrate a variation of St.
Sargis, where the dreams of unmarried women are believed to be
prophetic.

“It’s a celebration of the continuity of Armenian life and Armenian
traditions,” said Richard Hovannisian, chairman of Armenian history
at the University of California, Los Angeles.

“They were maintained pretty strongly down through the centuries,
even though now they wane in the secular society and in the rapid
pace of life here.”

Although St. Sargis is said to visit the dreams of both sexes, the
tradition is more popular among girls and women. And most Armenian
women either have a story to tell about their own St. Sargis dream or
know someone with a story.

Hrachik Hovanessian, 81, can still envision the dream she had when
she was 16.

“My girlfriends were standing by a stream and called me over. From
far away I saw a man approaching who was tall and thin, wearing
light-colored clothes, a coffee-colored shirt and tie,” she recalled.

“A few months later, a man visited our home to meet me, and I was
startled when I saw him because I immediately knew he was the man in
my dreams.”

The two wed less than a year later, and were married 61 years, until
his death three years ago.

This year, her granddaughter Helena Gregorian, 31, is going to taste
St. Sargis’ bread for the first time.

“It’s passing down a tradition. Though you know it’s not really true
and it’s like folklore, you kind of do it to keep it going so you
don’t forget where you came from,” said Gregorian of Sherman Oaks.

“It’s almost like when you have somebody read your coffee cup. Do you
really believe it? You never know, but you keep an open mind to the
possibilities.”

Gregorian’s paternal grandmother, Valik Khodaverdian, 80, is baking
the salty bread for her three single granddaughters and their friends
this year, hoping it will reveal for them the man of their dreams.

“Have an open mind and open heart when you go to sleep,” she
cautioned. “Don’t go to bed thinking you’ll dream of your husband.”

When girls wake up the following morning, they share their dreams
with their mothers and grandmothers, and the experience becomes a
bonding one, tying the generations together.

If a man does not appear, single women should not be discouraged, the
elderly Armenian women advise: Dreams are open to interpretation and
everybody can glean meaning out of what they see.

Newlywed Maral Sultanian, 29, had the dream four years ago before she
met her future husband. She saw herself as a little girl at her old
elementary school pouring water into a big bowl from the water
fountain.

“The bowl was overflowing, like, wow, does this mean there is going
to be a cornucopia of men to choose from? I immediately saw it as I
would have many suitors to choose from,” Sultanian said.

“I found someone who nurtures me and brings me water in real life,
not in a dream. It was a dream come true in this case.”

The Messenger, Georgia
Jan 21 2005

Opposition complains to Americans

As the Armenian newspaper Aravot (Morning) reports, experts of the
U.S.-based Marshal Fund met with the representatives of the political
and economic circles of Armenia. Within the framework of the Marshal
Fund program, a delegation of U.S. political experts is Armenia on a
fact-finding visit.
Late last week, the members of the delegation held several meetings.
As the paper writes, “If pro-imperial MPs stated during the meeting
that Armenia is the most democratic country in the Caucasus region,
than the opposition MPs expressed the opposite views, pointing at the
violation of elementary democratic norms.”
The only thing in which the sides agreed, the paper states, is that
the United States and the West should pay more serious attention to
the region, particularly, to the democratic processes in the South
Caucasus republics.
The representatives of the Marshal Fund were interested in two
issues, the paper states, the democratic situation in Armenia and the
attitude of Armenian opposition toward the introduction of European
and Western value systems in the country.
Opposition representatives assessed the level of the democracy in
Armenia as “very low”. The representatives of the “Marshal Fund” were
also interested in the supporter of which valuable system is Armenian
opposition. As for the relations with Iran, according to the
opposition representatives, this is neighboring country of Armenia
and that it is necessary to have some normal deal with them.

On pain of progress

Asia

Herald Sun
January 18, 2005

Well-preserved Georgetown is now in danger of being lost to
developers, writes Tom Cockrem

IT DOESN’T take long to fall in love with Georgetown, capital of
Penang. The old Chinese shop-houses catch my eye, with their
cloud-shaped vents and florid stucco decorations.

Through its years as a hub of inter-Asian trade, Georgetown has
managed to retain much of its original 19th-century character and
style.

The survival of the historic row and shop-houses has owed much to the
existence of one civil law: the Rent Controls Act. It ensured original
rents could not be raised. But the Rent Controls Act has now been
repealed.

This might see the original occupants having to vacate, leaving
Georgetown at the mercy of developers. They have already knocked down
the classic Metropole Hotel, all but the facade of the Eastern &
Oriental Hotel (the Raffles of Penang) and many of the finest
bungalows and villas that graced millionaire’s row, Northam Rd.

Armed with Streets of George Town by local resident Khoo Su Nin and a
copy of Jejak Warisan Penang heritage trail map, I’m off to get to
know my new love better.

The trail takes me to the substantial remains of Fort Cornwallis,
built in 1793 by the original settlement’s founder, Francis
Light. Down Light St, the town’s first thoroughfare, I pass the
gleaming Municipal Buildings, then the Court and State Museum. All are
original and immaculate.

I also visit early 19th-century Christian churches, Chinese temples
and mosques and, most intriguingly, two of the town’s famous (or
infamous) clan headquarters – Khoo Kongsi and Cheah Kongsi – which
house fabulously ornate ancestral shrines.

The walk also brings me into the city’s ethnic quarters, or kapitans,
which Light set up: Chinatown, Little India and the Armenian St-Acheen
St enclave. The shop-house at 120 Armenian St served from 1909-11 as
the operational base for Sun Yet Sen, leader of the Chinese
nationalist revolution. It is now occupied by the office of the Penang
Heritage Trust.

The door is answered by none other than Su Nin, who is here to do some
research.

The house is furnished with gorgeous antiques and ornate wooden
screens. The former warehouse was restored by Su Nin’s family. She has
lived here, as did her grandparents in the 1920s. From Su Nin I learn
more about the architectural splendour the Penang Heritage Trust is
endeavouring to preserve, and the island’s history.

Originally called Pulau Pinang, Penang was annexed by the East India
Company largely through the urgings of Captain Francis Light. Once
settled, the colony boomed.

Georgetown soon became a prosperous haven for Chinese traders from
Malacca, Indian Muslims, Bugis from Sulawesi, as well as Armenians,
Persians and Arabs from Acheh. It was only the establishment of
Singapore in 1819 that eventually undermined Penang’s commercial
importance. British interests were supplanted by those of the resident
Chinese, Indians, Malays and Indonesians.

The repeal of the Rent Controls Act suggests the Heritage Trust’s
worst fears may soon be realised.

– MUST KNOW Malaysia Airlines flies to Kuala Lumpur 14
times a week from Melbourne, 11 times from Sydney, 11
from Perth, six from Brisbane and four from Adelaide.
Daily flights from KL to Penang.
– Best time to visit is in the dry season
(non-monsoon) from March to October.
– Visas are not required for holders of Australian
passports with more than six months until expiry.
– Contacts: Golden Holidays, ph: 1300 656 566
– Penang Heritage Trust, pht.org.my (with a petition
to save Penang’s heritage).

,9142,11796977-27983,00.html

Jerusalem Post
Jan 21 2005

Armenian GDP up 10.1% in 2004

Yerevan. (Interfax) – Armenia’s GDP increased 10.1% year- on-year to
1.89 trillion dram in 2004, a source in the Armenian National
Statistics Service told Interfax.

Industrial production in the republic last year amounted to 530.2
billion dram – up 2.1% year-on-year. Agricultural output was up 14.5%
from 2003 to 504.1 billion dram.

By the end of December foreign trade was at over $2 billion (up
5.1%), including exports – up 4.3% to $715 million, and imports – up
5.6% to $1.351 billion.

The average-weighted exchange rate of the dram to the dollar in 2004
was 533.45 dram to the dollar.

The official exchange rate on January 20 was 493.43 dram to the
dollar.