Staff Reporters

Fine dining' and ‘five star'. No two phrases exert sphincter-clenching fear quite like these do.

RELYING on investment tips printed in the media is like trying to learn a foreign language using a tourist phrase book.

ONE of Australia's largest and most technologically advanced downstream processing projects, the Murrin Murrin nickel/cobalt project developed by Anaconda Nickel Limited, has placed its stamp on resource history.

MANY businesses are now turning to fleet management companies to take care of their vehicle needs.

Perth-based Victoria Petroleum NL plans to test its New Caledonia gas play in September by drilling a well, subject to a farmout of equity.

AIRLINE access to Broome from Singapore will open the town up to corporate meetings and high yield incentive travel groups from Asia and Europe, says Perth Convention Bureau managing director Anne-Maree Ferguson.

THE two million plus Australians currently using the Internet are some of the world's most active online buyers.

Lafayette Mining NL has increased by 50 per cent the Ungay Malobago resource on the island of Rapu Rapu, located 35 kilometres east of the southern Luzon city of Legaspi in the Philippines.

FRANCHISING motivates high levels of customer service like nothing else, says Colonial group managing director and CEO Peter Smedley.

NEARLY 40 per cent of employers across the nation plan to increase permanent staff numbers in the next three months, according to the latest Morgan & Banks Job Index.

Prospects for the early development of the Balla Balla vanadium project by Tanganyika Gold NL have been enhanced by an injection of $10 million by Cape Bouvard Investments Pty Ltd.

FOLLOWING simple guidelines can help investors avoid trouble with agricultural investments.

SOME might call it a match made in heaven, but on the ground Sipa Resources International NL and EL GAIA Holdings Pty Limited have combined hard cash and considerable expertise.

SMALL businesses could receive the benefits of large scale fleet deals through the pairing of BankWest and leasing company ORIX Australia.

Durban Roodepoort Deep (DRD), which boosted gold production to 170,623 ounces in the June quarter, is pressing ahead with a capital upgrade to expand in South Africa and Australia.

THE Peel Region of Western Australia, which comprises the five local authorities of Boddington, Mandurah, Murray, Serpentine-Jarrahdale and Waroona, has achieved an Australian first with the implementation of the Peel E-Commerce Incubator Project.

THE Australian Stock Exchange has initiated a pilot joint venture with a number of major financial institutions to encourage investment in emerging, potentially high-growth Australian businesses via its Internet-based Enterprise Market.

WESTERN Australians can be justifiably proud at news that the Perth Mint will be producing victory medals for the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games.

ONE of WA's largest privately owned forests has been placed on the market.

Market research companies are coming up with a new vocabulary to describe groups forming among the millions of online consumers.

Stockbroker DJ Carmich-ael Pty Limited has ratedNewcrest Mining Ltd a buy for its “enormous resilience” in the current tough gold mining environment.

MANY of today's jobs will be obsolete in twenty years' time, according to research by the WA Department of Training.

THOUGH the fabrication and heavy industry sector is in the throes of a downturn, some companies are preparing for the inevitable upswing.

THE owner-manager of an expanding Bussel-ton-based tourism business has won a Bank-West scholarship to participate in a management training program.

A PERTH-based personal development practitioner has devised a technique to help shift workers relax.

DESCRIBED as a “dream come true” BHP's newly commissioned $2.45 billion hot briquetted iron processing plant has set an historic precedent.

At this year's annual meeting of the World Economic Forum, a survey conducted by Price Waterhouse Coopers revealed that 97 percent of senior executives believe knowledge management is a critical issue for them.

BUSINESSES intending to enter the South West Small Business Awards should be preparing their applications now, says Leschenault Business Enterprise Centre manager Alison Lannin.

Organisational values will be of paramount importance in the new millennium, says Modal (Measurable Organisational Development and Learning) managing director Neil McGrechan.

THE number of Australians going bankrupt jumped by more than eight per cent last financial year, according to the latest official figures.

THE Northbridge Business Association is back in action after a two year hiatus.

WESTPAC has been named the Online Bank of the Year at the Personal Investor Bank of the Year Awards.