In western Thailand, bulldozers will soon clear land for a highway into Myanmar. In the Philippines, another Manila-area toll road is getting under way. Indonesian leaders promise more railways and airports. Singapore has unveiled plans for a new subway line.
Across Southeast Asia, public works are being expanded by governments needing to counter a slowdown in global demand and sustain an acceleration in growth that has made the region one of the few bright spots in a volatile world economy.
Spending on big infrastructure projects usually spans many years, and a combined figure for how much Southeast Asia is investing this year compared with in 2011 is not available. But anecdotal evidence indicates infrastructure spending is rising.
One key aspect of Southeast Asia being a global bright spot is that some of its governments have strong enough fiscal positions to jack up such spending -- unlike many in the West and elsewhere at present. Indonesia, Southeast Asia's largest economy, says it will raise capital spending by 15 percent in 2013. The Philippines says next year's infrastructure spending will be more than 19 percent above this year's allocation.
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) estimates that Southeast Asia's 10 countries need at least $60 billion a year to fund ambitious infrastructure work. That's a little bigger than the entire gross domestic product of Myanmar, itself embarking on huge infrastructure projects as it emerges from isolation, another boost to the region.
Big spending on public works, combined with strong domestic demand, partly explains the optimism among many economists in Southeast Asia, a region that has often withered during global downturns due to its reliance on exports.
The Manila-based ADB, for instance, forecasts 5.2 percent economic growth this year across Southeast Asia and 5.6 percent next year, up from 4.6 percent in 2011.
"The increase in economic growth in the Asia Pacific region, amid the global economic downturn, must be supported by infrastructure," Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono told a conference in Jakarta last week. "For Indonesia, infrastructure development is the main priority."
EXECUTION PROBLEMS
Infrastructure projects are not without danger. Execution problems and cost overruns are common. Land acquisition can be thorny -- laws sometimes don't help -- and financing can be complicated.
But the benefits of upgrading a country's infrastructure are clear.
"The short-term impacts of local demand boost and employment generation, for construction and related services, could help create some counter-cyclical effects," said Arjun Goswami, head of regional cooperation in the ADB's Southeast Asia department.
"In the medium- to longer-term, improved infrastructure would contribute to lowered costs of doing business, increased market accessibility and enhanced competitiveness."
The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
Some of the impetus for building roads, rail links, ports and airports is the creation of the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC), which will allow free movement of goods, capital and skilled labour in the region of 600 million people from 2015.
Thailand, for example, is building a 46 billion baht (925 million pounds) highway that will eventually run 160 kms (100 miles) west from Bangkok to the border with Myanmar, providing a fast link to the $50 billion Dawei industrial zone being built in Myanmar by Thailand's Italian-Thai Development Pcl .
Arkhom Termpittayapaisith, secretary-general of the National Economic and Social Development Board (NESDB), told a seminar Thailand planned $80 billion in infrastructure spending over the next 10 years, with up to 50 percent of that going into railways to induce a shift from road to rail transport.
"Half of the investment cost will be shouldered by the government. Around 20 percent will be on a public-private partnership (PPP) basis," he said.
FLOOD WORK
Thailand is also, at massive cost, improving flood defences after inundations in 2011 battered industry, causing the economy to shrink by 10.5 percent in the fourth quarter from the third.
"The decision to invest in longer-term infrastructure and water-management projects is a timely move by the government, with the right strides capable of attracting private investors and leading to positive multiplier effect for the real economy," said Radhika Rao, an economist at Forecast Pte. in Singapore.
But, despite the urgency, out of 120 billion baht earmarked for flood-related work in the budget for the year to September, only 83 billion baht had been disbursed by August 8, the NESDB said.
In February, the government pushed through an emergency decree to borrow another 350 billion baht for flood work. As of August 15, just 463 million baht of that had been spent, according to the NESDB.
The upside to that is the benefit to GDP should be more pronounced in 2013. Economists see a similar picture in the Philippines, where PPPs -- intended to attract significant private investment -- are central to infrastructure projects.
The current government's programme, aimed at improving decrepit roads, ports and airports, is moving slowly, with only one major project, a 4 km toll road from western Cavite province to south of Manila, awarded so far.
'SLOWER-THAN-EXPECTED PACE'
The Philippine government said it would offer eight of 22 PPP projects this year, but only a 16.4 billion peso (245 million pounds) project to build 9,301 rooms for public schools has been put to tender.
"The PPP projects are definitely proceeding at a slower-than-expected pace. Accordingly, infrastructure investment will also lag. There will be a missing boost in the event that external demand falters," said Eugene Leow, an economist at DBS in Singapore. "The PPP story looks to be delayed till 2013."
In all, the government has set aside 339.3 billion pesos for infrastructure expenditure in 2012. Such spending will hit a record 404.6 billion next year, 20 percent of the budget.
Indonesia has its hands tied on capital expenditure to some extent as around 80 percent of its budget is allocated to mandatory spending such as salaries. Next year it will spend as much on fuel subsidies as on capital spending.
But the sprawling archipelago sorely needs to improve its shoddy infrastructure, one of the things holding back firms attracted by its huge domestic market, and the authorities hope a land acquisition law passed in late 2011 will facilitate that.
With the planned 15 percent rise that Yudhoyono announced in August, capital spending will total 193.8 trillion rupiah (12.7 billion pounds) in 2013.
The authorities want to build 559 km of roads, 380 km of rail lines and 15 new airports.
MORE HOMES AND TRANSPORT OPTIONS
In affluent Singapore, the roads are good and public housing is the envy of most other countries, but a jump in the population in the recent years has caused problems.
The government is helping transport firms buy more buses and trains, and Minister of National Development Khaw Boon Wan said at least 20,000 public housing units would be built next year after 50,000 in two years by end-2012.
In another move to improve transport, Singapore on Wednesday announced plans for a new, 30-km subway line. It expects the first phase of the S$18 billion (9 billion pounds) project to open in 2019.
Construction makes up just 5-7 percent of GDP in Singapore but it can still provide support when exports are sliding.
"When you're talking about counter-cyclical effects, it can help a little. It keeps the handful of main and sub-contractors going during those down cycles," said Song Seng Wun, regional economist at CIMB Research.
TRANSFORMATION PROGRAMME
In Malaysia, a $444 billion Economic Transformation Programme launched in 2010 is supposed to be mainly funded by the private sector. So far, state-led spending has been pivotal and the flagship project, a Mass Rapid Transit system for Kuala Lumpur, will probably be publicly funded.
Rahul Bajoria at Barclays in Singapore said in general Malaysia had little room for direct fiscal support to help the economy if the international slowdown bites.
But he added: "We sense the government may try to get some of the government-linked companies to ramp up investment spending." They have the cash and that could prove effective in mitigating growth risks, he said.
Thai budget figures are opaque but the government has no problem selling bonds and Finance Minister Kittirat Na Ranong said last week public debt was 42.5 percent of GDP, well below the 60 percent seen as a danger signal for developing countries.
Whatever the cost now, better infrastructure is crucial for Southeast Asia to further its development.
"Providing effective infrastructure for trade will be critical to help ASEAN economies move progressively into more complex and higher-value manufacturing and production, including meeting rising demand from a growing middle class in the region," the ADB's Goswami said.-Yahoo News (September 03, 2012 5:30AM)
Hundreds of Buddhist monks marched in Myanmar Sunday to support President Thein Sein's suggestion that Muslim Rohingya be deported or held in camps, in the biggest rally since the end of junta rule.
Lines of clerics wearing their traditional deep red robes passed through the streets of Mandalay flanked by crowds of supporters in scenes not witnessed since a monk-led protest in 2007, which was brutally crushed by the country's then military leaders.
"Protect Mother Myanmar by supporting the President," read one banner, while others criticised United Nations human rights envoy Tomas Ojea Quintana, who has faced accusations that he is biased in favour of the Rohingya, following deadly unrest between Buddhists and Muslims in western Rakhine state.
Wirathu, the 45-year-old monk who led the march, claimed that as many as 5,000 monks had joined the procession, with another several thousand people taking to the streets to watch.
He told AFP the protest was to "let the world know that Rohingya are not among Myanmar's ethnic groups at all".
The monk, who goes by one name, said the aim was also to condemn "terrorism of Rohingya Bengalis who cruelly killed ethnic Rakhines".
Speaking a dialect similar to one in neighbouring Bangladesh, the estimated 800,000 Rohingya in Myanmar are seen by the government and many Burmese as illegal immigrants and the violence has stoked a wave of anger across the Buddhist-majority country.
Fighting in Rakhine state has left almost 90 people from both sides dead since June, according to an official estimate, although rights groups fear the real toll is much higher.
New York-based Human Rights Watch has accused Myanmar forces of opening fire on Rohingya Muslims during the violence, prompting concern across the Islamic world over the treatment of the stateless group, described by the UN as one of the world's most persecuted people.
Myanmar has denied a crackdown on Muslims and launched an inquiry into the violence, while Thein Sein has accused Buddhist monks, politicians and other ethnic Rakhine figures of kindling hatred towards the Rohingya in a report sent to parliament last month.
But in comments to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres, published on his official website in July, he suggested it was "impossible to accept the illegally entered Rohingya, who are not our ethnicity" and mooted sending the group to a third country or UN administered camps.
Wirathu said Thein Sein, a former general who has launched a series of reforms after taking power last year, had "stood firmly" in his comments to the UN. Although he added that the Rohingya could become citizens, "if they stay peacefully".
Rallies are expected to continue for two more days, including one in Pakokku town in the Magway region, which was the birthplace of the 2007 mass pro-democracy protests that became known as the Saffron Revolution because of the colour of the monks' robes.-Bangkok Post (September 03, 2012 2:48AM)
Saying that “the ball is in the Philippines’ court,” Japan has revealed that its plan to provide the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) with 12 brand new patrol boats had yet to officially take off.
In a text message to the Philippine Daily Inquirer, the Japanese Embassy-attached Japan Information and Culture Center (JICC) said over the weekend that “the status (of the aid program) has not changed.”
“It remains a plan since we have not yet received any official request from the Philippine side,” said the JICC, which added, “Please contact the Department of Transportation and Communications, the PCG or the National Economic and Development Authority for updates.”
Contacted shortly before he was named interior secretary by President Benigno Aquino, then Transportation Secretary Manuel Roxas said: “We, the DOTC, and the Coast Guard are working with the Japanese government and with the Department of Foreign Affairs on this.”
“I understand the DFA is already requesting formally (for the boats),” Roxas had told the Inquirer.
For its part, the DFA said “the plan of Japan to provide patrol boats to our Coast Guard has already been approved by the Neda.”
“We will formally inform the Japanese authorities as soon as possible,” said Raul Hernandez, the DFA spokesperson.
Minister Shinsuke Shimizu, head of the Japanese Embassy’s chancery, said in an earlier interview that unlike the decades-old and stripped-down ships the Philippines has been getting from the United States, the patrol boats the PCG will get from Japan will be brand new.
Japan, he said, “has yet to decide which of the vessels will be built and transferred to the Philippine government on official development assistance or grants.”
He pointed out that “since 1990, Japan has been helping the Coast Guard in its capacity-building program.”
Fourteen years ago, Tokyo gave Manila a marine accident response and buoy tender ship that the agency named the BRP Corregidor.-Philippine Daily Inquirer (September 03, 2012)
Samsung Electronic Philippines Corp. is confident that the Korean company’s mobile business would continue to do well in Southeast Asia amid the ongoing patent war with Apple in the US.
Coco Domingo, head of the product marketing group of Samsung, said in an interview with reporters that the patent war between Samsung and Apple in the US would have very little impact in the company’s operations in Southeast Asia.
“What is happening in the US will not affect us. We will continue to do well in Southeast Asia,” Domingo stressed.
A US federal jury recently ruled that Samsung copied critical features of the iPhone and awarded Apple $1.05 billion in damages.
Apple is now seeking speedy bans on the sale of eight Samsung phones, moving swiftly to turn legal victory into tangible business gain.
Last Friday, the company launched the Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 for creative people who are always in search of new ways of expressing themselves while career-oriented individuals are in a constant search to be productive anytime and anywhere.
The product offers both the power and portability of a notebook PC married with the creative tools used by most digital artists. The 1.4GHz Quad Core processor combined with 2GB RAM enables the Galaxy Note 10.1 to be, to date, the only truly multi-tasking device.
It’s multiscreen capability allows one to split the screen between different apps and programs at the same time.
The Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1, apart from the already mentioned powerful processor and memory, is equipped with a 10.1” screen with crystal clear 1080p Full HD Playback. And with connectivity features such as an ultra-fast HSPA+ data speed and Wi-Fi Channel Bonding technology (allows for double wifi speeds), going online has never been faster.
Domingo said the product is available at P32,990 and would not compete directly with the Samsung Galaxy Note that has a smaller screen.
Data from Singaporean research firm GfK showed that 32 percent of mobile devices, including phones and tablets, sold in the Philippines as of last November were made by Samsung.
Samsung is targeting a market share of more than 50 percent by the end of this year.
The Samsung Galaxy SIII (S3) released last June continued to do well in the Philippines. The S3 is the best-selling premium-priced phone in Samsung’s lineup.-The Philippine Star (September 03, 2012 12:00AM)
China’s premier has thanked Cambodia for its support in a Southeast Asian regional bloc amid tensions between Beijing and several nations over territorial disputes in the South China Sea.
The official Xinhua news agency said Wen Jiabao told Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen in a meeting yesterday that China will promote closer cooperation with Cambodia.
In mid-July, foreign ministers of the 10-nation Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) failed to issue a joint statement after their annual meeting in Phnom Penh when host Cambodia rejected a proposal by the Philippines and Vietnam to mention their territorial disputes with China in the document.
Xinhua said Wen thanked Cambodia for its “important role in maintaining the overall situation of friendly relations between China and the ASEAN.”
Last month, Cambodia’s ambassador to the Philippines was recalled, after the envoy accused his host country of playing “dirty politics” in its maritime row with China.
Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario told reporters that Ambassador Hos Sereythonh had been recalled, but he did not give reasons.
The recall came after Del Rosario summoned the
ambassador to explain comments he made in a letter to The STAR blaming the Philippines and Vietnam for a rift at a regional conference in Cambodia.
Foreign affairs department spokesman Raul Hernandez said it was Cambodia’s prerogative to recall its envoy.
Overlapping claims
China has overlapping claims with four ASEAN members in the South China Sea.
At a regular ASEAN meeting hosted by Cambodia last month, the 10-nation bloc for the first time in its 45-year history failed to issue a joint statement because of tensions over the maritime disputes.
Hos accused the Philippines and Vietnam of attempting to “sabotage and hijack the joint communiqué” during the meeting.
In his letter, Hos said he was responding to an article written by an official of the Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs on what happened at the ASEAN meeting.
The Philippines has accused Cambodia, a close ally of China, of blocking any mention of the South China Sea spat.
China lays claim to a U-shaped swathe of the South China Sea, overlapping areas claimed by the Philippines, Vietnam, Taiwan, Brunei and Malaysia.
These are thought to have significant oil and gas reserves below parts of the South China Sea subject to ownership disputes.
In recent years, tensions over the issue have increased amid growing assertiveness from China over its maritime claims.
Ties between China and the Philippines are already strained in the wake of a recent standoff over another disputed area, Panatag (Scarborough) Shoal.-The Philippine Star (September 03, 2012 12:00AM)
One of the founders of the popular file-sharing Pirate Bay website, has been arrested in Cambodia, the local police have announced.
Gottfrid Svartholm Warg was held in Phnom Penh after an international warrant was issued against him in April by his native Sweden.
Sweden acted after he had failed to show up for the start of his one-year jail term for copyright violations.
Warg and three other founders had said the website was within the law.
"His arrest was made at the request of the Swedish government for a crime related to information technology," Cambodia's police spokesman Kirth Chantharith told the AFP news agency.
"We don't have an extradition treaty with Sweden but we'll look into our laws and see how we can handle this case," the spokesman added.
In Sweden, Warg's former defence lawyer Ola Salomonsson confirmed the arrest, the Aftonbladet newspaper reports.
Warg and the site's co-founders - Fredrik Neij and Peter Sunde, as well financier Carl Lundstroem - were convicted by a Swedish court of encouraging copyright violations in 2009.
Neij, Sunde and Lundstroem all had their one-year jail terms reduced to between four and 10 months following an appeal in 2010.
They were also ordered to pay nearly $7m (£4m) in damages for copyright infringement to music and movie companies.
However, Warg did not attend the appeal hearing, with his lawyer saying that he was too ill. The Swedish court then decided to uphold his sentence.
The operations of the Pirate Bay were largely shut down in Sweden six years ago, but the website has continued to function.
The site was founded in 2003, and claims to have more than 30m users worldwide.
No copyright content is hosted on the site's web servers. Instead, it hosts "torrent" links to TV, film and music files held on its users' computers.-British Broadcasting Corporation (September 02, 2012)
Myanmar's new information minister on Sunday predicted newspapers would be able to publish daily from early 2013, heralding fresh reform for a sector recently freed from decades of draconian censorship.
Aung Kyi told the Myanmar Times that state-owned newspapers -- currently the only news publications able to be printed daily -- would also be revamped with private sector involvement in the coming months.
"It is my sincere belief that daily [private sector] newspapers are essential for a democratic country," said Aung Kyi, who replaced a prominent hardliner last week when he was appointed as part of a cabinet reshuffle seen as promoting reformists in Myanmar's government.
The former labor minister, who acted as the liaison between Myanmar's previous junta government and democracy champion Aung San Suu Kyi while she was under house arrest, said a code of practice should be discussed before changes were made to publication rules for private weekly journals.
He declined to give a firm date for the issuing of daily publication licenses to private sector news groups -- many of which have turned to the web to provide up-to-the-minute content for a population hungry for information after years of restrictions -- but estimated it could be "early next year".
"I am sincere in wanting to achieve a comprehensive press media law that meets international standards," he said, suggesting that the new proposed legislation could be delayed to give time for consultation with journalists and experts.
In August Myanmar announced the end of pre-publication censorship, previously applied to everything from newspapers to song lyrics and even fairy tales.
State-owned dailies include the English language New Light of Myanmar, which has shown scant signs of modernising -- except for an increase in celebrity gossip -- since the country began its reforms.
But Aung Kyi said these publications were in line for "significant changes".
Since taking office last year, President Thein Sein has overseen a number of dramatic moves in Myanmar such as the release of hundreds of political prisoners and Suu Kyi's election to parliament.
Reporters jailed under the junta have also been freed from prison and a lighter touch from censors had already seen private weekly journals publish an increasingly bold array of subjects.
But there have been recent signs that it will take time for both newsrooms and the authorities to adjust to the new era of openness.
Two journals were recently suspended for a fortnight for prematurely printing stories without prior approval from the censors, prompting dozens of journalists to take to the streets in protest.
And the mining ministry is suing a weekly publication that reported the auditor-general's office had discovered misappropriations of funds and fraud at the government division.-Interaksyon (September 02, 2012 9:42PM)
Taiwan plans to beef up its cyberwar capabilities to counter a perceived threat from Chinese hackers targeting government and security websites, local media reported Sunday.
Taiwan will expand its cyberwar units next year while scaling back military spending due to budget constraints, the Taipei-based Liberty Times reported, citing a 2013 budget plan submitted by the National Security Bureau to parliament for approval.
In the six months to June, hackers launched more than one million attacks on the bureau's website, making it one of the most heavily targeted government sites, the paper said.
"All the attacks were detected and blocked, and no hackers have ever broken into the bureau's official website," the paper said, without specifying the number of attacks from China.
But in a report also sent to parliament for reference on Beijing's continued military buildup, the bureau highlighted the perceived cyberwar threat from China, the paper said.
"China's cyberwar capabilities were organised by the military and government units, using Internet viruses to attack Taiwan's government, economic and military websites," it cited the military report as saying.
Taiwanese government websites have frequently come under cyberattack from China, usually during disputes between the two sides.
Ties have improved markedly since Ma Ying-jeou of the China-friendly Kuomintang party came to power in 2008 on a platform of ramping up trade and tourism links with the mainland. Ma was reelected in January for a second and the last four-year term.
China still considers Taiwan part of its territory awaiting reunification, by force if necessary, even though the island has ruled itself for more than 60 years after their split in 1949 at the end of a civil war.-Interaksyon (September 02, 2012 5:15PM)
China's ruling Communist Party has announced a reshuffle to a key post, state press said Sunday, a move widely seen as ushering in a once-a-decade leadership transition later this year.
Li Zhanshu, 62, former head of the southwest province of Guizhou, was Saturday named to head the party's powerful Politburo general office, the People's Daily reported, a job that puts Li in charge of the party's day-to-day workings.
Li replaces Ling Jihua, outgoing President Hu Jintao's top aide, who has been named to head the party's United Front Work Department, the paper said.
As part of the leadership transition, Hu will step down as the party's general secretary -- the top party post -- at a Party Congress expected to take place in the coming weeks and resign from the presidency at a parliamentary meeting next March, ending his 10 years as China's top leader.
Current Vice President Xi Jinping is slated to replace Hu in both posts.
"The new guy has good relations with Hu Jintao and also has ties with the new incoming leader," Bill Bishop, a Beijing-based consultant and writer of the Sinocism China Newsletter, told AFP.
"He will be an extremely influential person in Beijing, the party general secretary needs someone like this who is competent and can be trusted."
"More importantly this is really an indication that things are on track and that the next Party Congress is reasonably imminent."
No dates for the congress have been announced, but it is widely expected to take place next month.
China's authoritarian politics largely take place in secret.
Analysts believe the ongoing transition has been badly hampered by the ouster of charismatic politician Bo Xilai, whose wife was given a suspended death sentence last month for the murder of British businessman Neil Heywood.
Before the murder scandal broke in February this year, Bo had been seen as a candidate for promotion to China's top ruling body, the party's Politburo Standing Committee.-Interaksyon (September 02, 2012 1:17PM)
A team of Japanese surveyors Sunday sailed to a group of disputed islands in the East China Sea that the nationalistic governor of Tokyo wants to buy, with Beijing lodging a "serious protest" at the action.
Tokyo Governor Shintaro Ishihara, known for his outspoken views, dispatched the team that arrived at the island chain claimed by both countries, known in China as Diaoyu and in Japan as Senkaku.
Ishihara wants to buy them from their private owners to highlight Japan's claim and build a small harbour for fishing vessels.
The 25-member team remained on their boats to survey the shoreline and waters around the rocky uninhabited isles, Japanese television showed.
The national government rejected the team's request to land on the islands.
"Seeing it with your own eyes is different from seeing them on a map," Seiichiro Sakamaki, the Tokyo official leading the team, told Japanese television networks as he stood aboard a survey ship near the islands.
"The scale and size are very clear to see. The governor has asked what could be done to build a small harbour. We want to check the islands with that in mind," he said.
Ishihara, a vocal critic of China, has previously said he hoped to visit the islands himself in October when he sends another survey mission.
In Beijing a foreign ministry spokesman told AFP that China "has once again lodged a serious protest to the Japanese side" over the surveying mission.
"The Chinese side reiterated that any... actions taken by the Japanese side is illegal and invalid and can never change the fact that the Diaoyu Islands and adjacent islands are part of China's territory."
Chinese state media earlier Sunday also said the surveyors were acting "illegally", describing the mission as the "latest provocative move that infringes on Chinese territory".
"To curb such provocations and ease tensions over the islands, the Japanese government should avoid being crippled by the right-wingers and handle relevant issues from the overall interests of the Sino-Japanese relations," a commentary on Xinhua news agency said.
Testy Japan-China ties turned for the worse in August after pro-Beijing activists landed on one of the islands, which are controlled by Japan. They were arrested by Japanese authorities and deported.
About a dozen Japanese nationalists raised their country's flag on the island days later, prompting protests in cities across China.
The car of the Japanese ambassador was targeted in Beijing when an unidentified man ripped the national flag off the vehicle.
Japan's national government is also considering buying the islands for 2.05 billion yen ($26 million) from the same landowners with whom Ishihara is negotiating, the Nikkei newspaper said Sunday.
By avoiding Ishihara's direct involvement in managing the disputed islands, Japan wants to prevent the dispute with China from heating up further, local media have said.-Interaksyon (September 02, 2012 7:54PM)
The earthquake that struck off the east coast of the Philippines on Friday night packed energy “equivalent to 32 Hiroshima atomic bombs”, but a combination of factors spared the Filipinos destruction from a catastrophe, scientists said yesterday.
Director Renato Solidum of the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) said the 7.6-magnitude quake would have been more strongly felt had its epicentre been on land or if there was more vertical displacement of ocean water, triggering a destructive tsunami, as what happened in the Moro Gulf quake that killed thousands of people in southern Mindanao and Sulu in 1976.
Asked if he considered it a miracle, Solidum replied: “It’s always a blessing when damage from an earthquake is minimal. I believe in God … but there are scientific explanations for what happened.”
“We were lucky,” said University of the Philippines (UP) geologist Alfredo Mahar Lagmay. He said the Philippines was fortunate that the earthquake did not meet the conditions of a larger-scale disaster: power, proximity and the kind of structures in the affected places.
The 7.6-magnitude earthquake struck 106 kilometres east of Guiuan town, Eastern Samar, at a depth of 34.9 km, the US Geological Survey (USGS) said. The Phivolcs placed the epicentre a bit farther at 112 km east of Guiuan, in the Philippine Trench.
The Tsunami Warning centre in Hawaii raised a Pacific-wide tsunami alert, but cancelled the warning shortly after the temblor generated only small waves.
The temblor killed one person in Cagayan de Oro City, knocked out power in several towns, and spurred panic about a tsunami that ended up generating only tiny waves.
Only minor damage
Executive Director Benito Ramos of the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) identified the dead as Emelita Ubalde of Barangay Lapasan, Cagayan de Oro City, whose house was buried in a landslide when the quake, felt at intensity 3 in the city, struck at 8:47pm on Friday.
Thousands of villagers who fled their coastal homes after Friday night’s quake returned home on Saturday, but hundreds more still jittery from the temblor remained in evacuation centres, disaster officials said.
Ramos said the quake generated no large tsunamis and caused only minor damage, including cracks on buildings and several bridges.
Certainly strong
The temblor was certainly strong enough, Solidum told the Inquirer. He said “a magnitude 7 quake has energy equivalent to 32 Hiroshima atomic bombs, while magnitude 8 would be equivalent to 1,024 Hiroshima atomic bombs.”
Magnitude is a measure of the energy released at the source of an earthquake. It is different from intensity, which gauges the strength of tremors in specific places, and is determined according to its effects on people, structures and the environment, according to the USGS.
“Typically, a large-magnitude earthquake should generate a large-scale tsunami,” Solidum said. “That was also the prediction of the US Pacific Tsunami Warning centre. So when [it did not happen], we did a review and analysed the earthquake, we found that there was also a horizontal movement, so the tsunami it generated was not that much,” he said.
Varying intensities
On Friday, the Phivolcs reported earthquake intensities ranging from 5 to 7 mostly in coastal areas facing the Pacific Ocean. Intensity 7 was registered in the towns of Guiuan, Oras, Sulat, Gen. MacArthur and Llorente, and Borongan City, in Eastern Samar; and Tacloban City in Leyte.
According to the Phivolcs, people would feel an intensity 7 quake strongly, with considerable damage to poorly built structures, cracks on roads and dikes, heavy objects and furniture falling, and “most people are frightened and run outdoors.”
This could have been the scenario if Friday night’s earthquake had originated on land, Solidum said. Instead, “what happened was it hit off shore, 112 km east of Guiuan, Eastern Samar, so the shaking was not felt very much,” he said.
On the other hand, an undersea quake also entailed its own set of considerable dangers, especially that of a tsunami, Solidum said.
Immediate evacuation
Expecting a giant tsunami, Phivolcs urged immediate evacuation of residents in coastal towns in the Visayas for three hours after the earthquake struck, but lifted the warning at past midnight, about an hour after the US Pacific Tsunami Warning centre cancelled its own alert.
The quake generated tsunami waves of less than half a meter off Siargao Island, and 19-centimetre waves off Surigao, heights that Solidum said he considered “nonthreatening”, or, at most, only posed some danger to the beach.
From their seismic readings of the quake, which was tectonic in origin, Solidum said Phivolcs scientists could explain why.
“The motion of the quake was not fully vertical. There were some horizontal elements to the motion,” he said. “This means there was not much rising of the seabed, so the vertical displacement of the water was not significant,” Solidum said.
Solidum said the closest example of an earthquake approximating the characteristics of Friday’s temblor he could think of was the Moro Gulf earthquake of 1976. But that was much more destructive.
The 7.9-magnitude quake, of tectonic origin, struck in August 1976, with the epicentre in the Celebes Sea near the islands of Mindanao and Sulu. The quake generated a powerful tsunami that killed more than 5,000 people.
Nearly unscathed
UP’s Lagmay said the Philippines escaped, nearly unscathed, from seven types of earthquake-wrought hazards: tsunami, ground shaking, liquefaction (of soil), ground rupture, ground subsidence (sinking), landslides and fires.
“But as you can see, even though we had intensity 6 to 7, which is already strong, there wasn’t much shaking of the ground because the epicentre was too far away,” Lagmay, also executive director of the government’s Project Noah (Nationwide Operational Assessment of Hazards), told the Inquirer.
Lagmay said the heavily hit areas—in Samar, Leyte and Surigao—were not densely populated and did not have clusters of tall buildings and other structures, unlike urban centres. “If this happened in the Manila Trench, there would have been a much bigger effect,” he said.
Echoing Solidum’s explanation, he said a giant tsunami did not materialise because of the “sideways” movement of the quake. Thus, there was not enough displacement of water that could send walls of water crashing on the shores, as in the earthquake and tsunami disasters in Japan in March 2011.
But Lagmay said the decision of the Phivolcs to issue a tsunami warning and advise the immediate evacuation of coastal residents in affected areas was justified, as there was no surefire way of predicting the impact of an earthquake.
“While the event is occurring, it is just right to issue a tsunami alert, because at that point, you still don’t know what’s going to be the [effects] of the earthquake,” he said.
“Just because we were lucky this time does not mean we should be complacent,” Lagmay said. The Philippines, one of the countries sitting on the Pacific Ring of Fire, remains a place where big earthquakes can strike at any time, he said.
Other big quakes
The last big quakes to hit the Philippines were the 7.1-magnitude earthquake in Mindoro in November 1994 and the 7.9-magnitude earthquake in Baguio in July 1990, the Phivolcs’ Solidum said.
In the meantime, Solidum said residents of the coastal villages affected by Friday night’s quake should prepare for aftershocks, which could be felt “for weeks, or even months after the earthquake.”
He said the strongest aftershocks, so far, were two that immediately followed the main seismic event, one 6.4 in magnitude and the other 6.8 in magnitude, at 9:14pm and 9:27pm on Friday, respectively.
As of Saturday morning, more than 150 aftershocks have been felt in the quake-affected places, most of them mild, Solidum said. “In general, most seismic events will be followed by smaller events,” he said, meaning weaker aftershocks.-Asia News Network (September 02, 2012)
The plan of Japan to provide patrol ships to our Coast Guard has already been approved by NEDA.
According to DOTC Secretary Mar Roxas, the DFA is formally requesting the 12 brand new patrol vessels from Japan.
“We will formally inform the Japanese authorities as soon as possible,” said DFA spokesperson Raul Hernandez.
Japan has yet to decide of what vessels will be built and transferred to the Philippine government on official development assistance or grants.
“The 12 patrol boats will be fitted with modern equipment when they are transferred to the Philippine Coast Guard,” said Minister Shinsuke Shimizu, head of the Japanese Embassy’s chancery.-AFP Modernization (September 02, 2012)
Maritime relations between Southeast Asian nations is characterised by an ongoing trend of a tense but stable build up of naval armament throughout the region, military experts say.
“The good news is that all of the countries involved [in Southeast Asia] support freedom of the seas, and they all recognise the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea,” Ralph Cossa, president of the Centre for Strategic and International Studies’ (CSIS) Pacific Forum, said on Thursday.
Cossa added that no Southeast Asian country wanted to have conflict in the region and that all states within it respect ideas like sovereignty and international law.
“The bad news is that quite a few countries have different interpretations of what it [international law] means and what it doesn’t mean. So everybody believes that what they do is in complete accordance with it, but somehow their definitions vary,” he added.
Adding to the problem of misunderstandings among nations is the way Southeast Asian countries have constantly expanded their naval armaments.
Richard Bitzinger, a senior fellow at the Singapore-based S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, said that these build-ups, while not necessarily the same as the Cold War’s idea of an arms race, have had the effect of creating an atmosphere of tension between states.
He said that there is “a certain mutual aspect to armaments”, but warned that weapons can be procured in ways that increase uncertainties on the part of a country about the intentions of its neighbours.
“If you already don’t think your neighbour is a very nice person and he goes out and buys a gun, then you probably will have more concerns about your neighbour,” Bitzinger said.
This uncertainty makes it hard for Southeast Asian nations to find the common ground necessary to lead the way to collective security.
One military analyst, Yoji Koda, a retired vice admiral from the Japan Maritime Self-Defence Force, went so far as to say that there was no “key ingredient” that could bind the nations of Southeast Asia together.
Instead, the region is arguing over common definitions of who owns what.
“You can’t commonly defend a certain area if two different people are claiming the same area,” Cossa said.
At the same time, Southeast Asian nations are trying to come together through organisations like the Asean Defence Ministers’ Meeting - Plus, which brings defence officials from all member countries together.
Cossa said that this organisation is a promising example of nations moving forward collectively.
“But I think we have a long ways to go before we actually have that type of meaningful [collective security] cooperation, but at least a mechanism is now being created which may help us work on this.”-Asia News Network (September 01, 2012)
The Aquino administration said the Philippines was up for a “promising future” that investors should take advantage of, saying there was a good chance the economy would grow more than 7 per cent a year for at least 10 years after 2015.
On top of the country’s favourable economic fundamentals, the administration said the so-called “demographic window” that the Philippines would enjoy by 2015 could make the country a good investment destination.
“A promising future lies ahead,” the government said in its latest economic presentation distributed online to foreign sub scribers, which included businessmen, bankers and economists.
The “demographic window” is the period when the bulk of an economy’s population is of working age. In particular, it is the time when the proportion of the population aged 15 years old and younger falls below 30 per cent and when the proportion of the population aged at least 65 years old drops to less than 15 per cent.
Such a period should be enticing to businesses because it is when labour supply and income-earning consumers are abundant and an economy becomes more productive.
The Aquino administration said the demographic window would add icing to the cake for investors, citing the favourable macroeconomic indicators, including low inflation, sustained economic growth, a healthy banking sector, and strong remittances from overseas Filipinos that help fuel household consumption.
Citing a study by the United Nations, the government said the Philippines would follow the lead of strong Asian economies that previously entered the demographic window.
“The Philippines is the last major Asian economy to benefit from this demographic dividend, which is typically associated with accelerated economic growth,” the government said.
The country is expected to enjoy a robust growth rate of more than 7 per cent over the long term starting 2015, saying some Asian countries, led by Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea and China, experienced fast growth rates in the long term following their entry to the demographic window.
Japan entered the demographic window in 1965, Hong Kong and Singapore in 1980, South Korea in 1985, China in 1990 and Thailand in 1995.
Other neighbouring countries have entered this window fairly recently. Indonesia and Vietnam did so in 2005, and Malaysia and India in 2010.
The average economic growth rate of selected countries for 10 years following their entry to the demographic window was 7.3 per cent, the government said.
The Aquino administration aims to woo more long-term foreign investors into the country in the belief that investments from abroad were necessary to help create more jobs and reduce poverty.
The Philippines continues to lag behind other emerging Asian economies in terms of cornering foreign direct investments (FDIs).
Documents from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas showed that the net inflow of FDIs amounted to US$844 million in the first five months of the year. This was up by about 10 per cent from $766 million in the same period last year, but was one of the smallest among emerging Asian economies.-Asia News Network (September 01, 2012)
Asean, and Thailand in particular, has been highlighted as a key investment zone for American companies, thanks to the region's economic strength and integration, as well as the reopening of Myanmar.
According to a survey of Asean American Chambers of Commerce (Amcham) conducted in cooperation with Amcham in Washington and released in the presence of Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra yesterday, 92 per cent of members are positive or very positive about the outlook for Thailand and Asean.
"The economic resilience makes US companies continue to regard Thailand as one of the world's top investment locations," said Joe Mannix, president of Amcham Thailand, who acknowledged the country's speedy recovery from the 2011 floods.
While 65 per cent of the 700 members in Thailand plan to expand investment here over the next year thanks to the country's economic strength, members throughout Asean are upbeat on the regional grouping's integration and the reopening of Myanmar, Mannix said.
In the Asean survey, two-thirds of members said they plan to invest in the region, though they expressed some scepticism over the region's ability to achieve integration by 2015. In this regard, Mannix hoped that Thailand could play a role in pushing its fellow Asean members to achieve the goal.
One-third of US companies in Thailand currently export or are considering exporting products to Myanmar, Mannix said, adding that at the close of 2012 these companies' investments in Thailand would reach US$40 billion.
Asean is now the fourth-largest export market to the US and the fifth-largest supplier. The US is now Thailand's third-largest partner in terms of trade and investment.
At the event, hosted to demonstrate US companies' appreciation to the prime minister, Yingluck promised to improve the investment environment through a reduction of corruption and red tape, and by providing "the best protection against natural disasters". She encouraged the companies to grow their business in Thailand to boost the ranking in terms of trade and investment to No 1.
Overall, the Amcham survey showed that Asean countries provide a comfortable environment for foreign companies.
A total of 90 per cent of respondents expected their trade and investment in Asean to increase over the next five years. The rise in trade and investment is good news for Asean workers. Sixty per cent of surveyed companies expect their Asean workforce to increase over the next two years.
The reason for increasing business activities include the availability of market access, available credit, infrastructure improvements, improved political stability, personal security and positive sentiments towards the US.
Overall, the survey showed that Asean countries provide a comfortable environment for foreign companies.
Yet, corruption remains the biggest concern for American business operating in Asean.-Asia News Network (September 01, 2012)
US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on Friday pledged renewed American commitment to security in the Asia-Pacific, where tensions are rising between China and its smaller neighbors over territorial disputes and many nations face threats from climate change.
Speaking at a meeting of leaders of South Pacific island nations, Clinton said the United States would not abandon its long history of protecting maritime commerce in the region and serving as a counterbalance to domination by any single world power.
However, she played down the idea that the U.S was acting "perhaps as a hedge against particular countries." She said America wants to cooperate with China in the vast Pacific and encouraged other countries, including those in the region, to do the same.
"The Pacific is big enough for all of us," she told reporters at a news conference with New Zealand's Prime Minister John Key, whose country handles defense and foreign relations for the Cook Islands.
Yet she pointed out that China's interests in the region are not necessarily the same as others, a point she also made clear earlier this month on a trip to Africa when she contrasted US goals for that continent as aimed at adding rather than extracting value. The comment was a veiled shot at China, which some complain is using its overseas investments to exploit resources at the expense of local populations.
"Here in the Pacific, we want to see China act in a fair and transparent way," Clinton said. "We want them to play a positive role in navigation and maritime security issues. We want to see them contribute to sustainable development for the people of the Pacific, to protect the precious environment, including the ocean and to pursue economic activity that will benefit the people."
Earlier, at the meeting, China's Vice Foreign Minister Cui Tiankai said China was already engaged with the region in a positive way.
"The thrust of China's policy toward the Pacific is to achieve peace, stability and development," the Chinese government's Xinhua News Agency quoted him as saying. "China has done many concrete things to support the economic and social development of Pacific island countries, always in light of the needs and interests of the countries concerned."
In her speech to the meeting, Clinton said the US would remain a big player in the region and pointed to past accomplishments.
"We have underwritten the security that has made it possible for the people of this region to trade and travel freely," she said, noting nearly a century of American military presence in the Asia-Pacific.
"We have consistently protected the Pacific sea lanes through which a great deal of the world's commerce passes. And now we look to the Pacific nations in a spirit of partnership for your leadership on some of the most urgent and complex issues of our time."
She noted that hundreds of US naval, Coast Guard and commercial vessels ply the Pacific and called for them to play an enhanced role in maintaining free trade and combatting crime, such as human trafficking and illegal fishing.
Clinton is the first secretary of state to participate in the Pacific Island Forum and the first to visit the sprawling but sparsely populated Cook Islands.
Her visit to the main island, population 10,000, in the remote Cook chain has created a buzz of excitement and she was welcomed on arrival by dozens of colorfully clad local traditional dancers and dignitaries amid lots of drumming.
Signs of greeting dotted the main street of Rarotonga, which runs around the 26-kilometer (16-mile) circumference of the island. And well-wishers waved American flags outside the beachfront restaurant where Clinton ate breakfast with other leaders before the meeting that was held in the partly enclosed National Auditorium that doubles as a basketball court.
Her speech, as well as those of other participants, was occasionally punctuated by the crows of roosters, which run freely through the island's small communities and main town.
Clinton also announced a new contribution of more than $32 million for programs throughout the region aimed at boosting economic development while protecting biodiversity in the face of rising waters attributed to climate change. The US already spends $330 million a year on development in the Asia-Pacific.
Clinton is on the first leg of an 11-day, six-nation tour that keep her half a world away from US politics at the height of the presidential conventions but put her at the center of maritime disputes between China and its neighbors.
Clinton will visit Beijing at the midpoint of the trip, which will take her from the Cook Islands next to Indonesia, the seat of the secretariat of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, whose members are sharply divided over how to deal with China's expansion of influence and increasingly aggressive claims on disputed territory.
A summit of ASEAN leaders in July failed to reach consensus on how to handle the disputes. Clinton will press them to find common ground and hash out a framework for negotiating with China, US officials said.
China has bristled at the US claiming to have a national security interest in the resolution of the disputes and maintains that they should be resolved between it and each of the other claimants individually, a position that American officials and others say puts the smaller nations at a disadvantage.
Later yesterday, Tokyo city officials intending to buy tiny islands at the center of a longtime territorial dispute with China left by boat to survey the area ahead of the purchase they hope will bolster Japan's claim.
The five uninhabited islands in the East China Sea that are controlled by Japan but also claimed by China and Taiwan have become a major symbol of patriotic pride for some people in China and Japan. They are near key sea lanes and are surrounded by rich fishing grounds and untapped natural resources.-The Philippine Star (September 02, 2012)
China has used its ongoing territorial row with the Philippines as an example of its "adherence" to peaceful development in the region.
Defense Minister Liang Guanglie mentioned the row in Sri Lanka while illustrating China's national defense policy, China's government portal reported.
"Take the recent Huangyan Island incident as an example, it is obvious that China's military strength is stronger than that of the Philippines, but we didn't use force or threat to use force, on the contrary, we have been committed to seeking solution of the dispute through diplomatic means," he said, according to the report.
While Liang made the statement last Thursday, it was only on Saturday that the report was posted.
Huangyan Island is China's name for the shoal that the Philippines refers to as Panatag (Scarborough) Shoal.
The Philippines and China had been locked in a dispute over the area since April, after Philippine forces spotted Chinese fishermen taking marine species from the area but were blocked by Chinese ships when trying to make arrests.
Liang is now in Sri Lanka for an official goodwill visit, according to Saturday's report.
During his visit, he briefed the Defense Services Command and Staff College of Sri Lanka on China's national defense policy featured with peaceful development.
He said that since the beginning of its reform and opening-up, China's overall national strength and international influence have grown remarkably, but some people in the international community suspect that China would take the road of expansion with force.
"On this point, the Chinese government issued a whitepaper China's Peaceful Development in 2011, solemnly declaring to the world that China will unswervingly follow the path of peaceful development. The core idea of this path is that China will develop itself through upholding world peace and contribute to world peace through its own development," he said.
Liang, China's first defense minister to Sri Lanka, added China's adherence to the path of peaceful development is determined by its history, culture and traditions, which center on the idea of peace and harmony.
He also China's adherence to the path of peaceful development is also a choice necessitated by its national conditions as China was plagued by invasions and wars brought by foreign powers in history.
The Chinese people know the value of peace and the importance of accelerated development, he added.
Also, he said China's adherence to the path of peaceful development conforms with the trend of peaceful development in the world.
He added China has realized that its development "must conform with the trend of history, must stick to peaceful development and common development and prosperity with the rest of the world."
Relations with South Asian neighbors
Liang said that of China's 14 land neighbors, five are in South Asia, and China attaches great importance to its relations with the South Asian nations.
He said the Chinese army conducts friendly exchanges and cooperation with its counterparts in the South Asian nations to maintain regional security and stability, and are not targeted at any third party.
Also, he said China's national defense policy is subject to and in service of national development strategy and security strategy.
China's adherence to a peaceful development path determines that China will pursue a national defense policy that is defensive in nature, he added.
Coordinated development
He said China pursues a coordinated development of its national defense and economy.
"China's defense spending in 2010 and 2011 took 1.4 percent and 1.28 percent of its GDP respectively. Compared with the developed countries, and some developing countries, China's defense spending stays at a very low level," he said.
But he said China exercises a military strategy of active defense, with the basic principle of adhering to a self-defense position.
The report quoted him as saying the policy seeks "not to take the initiative to offend others, stand for non- military means to solve disputes, take defensive posture strategically, conduct self-defense and attack only after being attacked."
He added China sticks to improving the quality of its military with informationalization as the main objective and it firmly upholds world peace and stability.
"Up to now, China has dispatched around 21,000 person/times to 30 UN Peace-keeping missions, making it the largest personnel contributor among the 5 permanent members of the UN Security Council. We have sent rescue teams for 18 times to conduct humanitarian rescue operations. Since 2008, China has sent 12 batches of naval task forces to conduct escort missions in the Gulf of Aden and off the coast of Somalia. With the further modernization of China's national defense, China will make greater contributions to world peace as a responsible member of the international community," he said.-Interaksyon (September 01, 2012 4:43PM)
An American surveillance aircraft will be participating in inter-agency naval exercises in Mindanao this week, the Davao City-based Naval Forces Eastern Mindanao said.
The NFM said a US Navy P3C Orion will be joining the second phase of Coast Watch South Capability Exercise 2012, which will involve the Philippine Navy and 10 local government agencies in Davao City (Region 11) and General Santos City (Region 12).
The P3C Orion is described as a "land-based, long-range, anti-submarine warfare patrol aircraft" by the website of the US Naval Air Systems Command.
CAPEX 2012 will simulate actual operations of the Coast Watch System and coastal watch stations in addressing maritime security in Eastern Mindanao.
The exercise will be conducted in the vicinity of Maasim Point, Sarangani Bay.
The Philippine Navy hopes to enhance information sharing and combined inter-operability capability with the participating agencies, among them the Philippine Coast Guard, Philippine National Police, Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency, Bureau of Immigration, Department of Environment and Natural Resources and Bureau of Customs, among others.-Interaksyon (September 01, 2012 4:52PM)
A prominent Burmese student leader, who was sentenced to death in his absence, has returned to Burma - the latest in a series of leading exiles to do so.
Moe Thee Zun was cheered by hundreds of supporters at Rangoon airport.
He headed student protests that were crushed by the military in 1988.
Several dissident leaders have returned recently, after Burma removed 2,082 people from its blacklist. The move is the latest reformist step taken by the military-backed government.
During nearly five decades of military rule, thousands of people - foreigners and Burmese - were blacklisted by the authorities.
They are thought to include government critics, foreign journalists and public sector workers who were forced to go abroad.
'Benefit of the doubt'
Moe Thee Zun and some of his supporters fled Rangoon in 1988. They went to the remote border regions and fought alongside ethnic rebels against the junta.
The student leader later went into exile in the US.
Moe Thee Zun said he decided to return to Burma to discuss national reconciliation.
He said he hoped to hold talks with the government of President Thein Sein in the coming days.
Moe Thee Zun's last encounter with Thein Sein was in New York in 2009. The student leader threw his shoes at the cars carrying the then prime minister, who was visiting the UN.
He also argued that Thein Sein could not represent the people of Burma.
But former sceptics are increasingly prepared to give the president the benefit of the doubt as he distances himself from the repressive policies of the past, the BBC's Charles Scanlon says.-British Broadcasting Corporation (September 02, 2012)
Sixteen nations home to roughly half the world's population have agreed "in principle" to create a free trade area spanning Asia, the secretary-general of ASEAN said Friday.
Trade ministers from the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and their counterparts from China, Japan, South Korea, India, Australia and New Zealand will press their leaders to start talks on the trade zone at a regional summit in November, Surin Pitsuwan told AFP.
The move towards establishing the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), made during a meeting in the Cambodian tourist town of Siem Reap on Thursday, was hailed by Surin as "a big achievement".
The proposal could transform the region - containing around 3.5 billion people - into an integrated market with a combined Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of $23 trillion, a third of the world's current annual GDP, he said.
ASEAN - which groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam - already has five separate free trade agreements (FTAs) governing economic cooperation with the six partner countries.
"This idea of trying to string together all these FTAs in existence into one, in principle now it's been agreed," Surin said on the final day of a week-long gathering of ASEAN economic ministers.
The pact will aim to eliminate trade barriers, create a liberal investment environment and protect intellectual property rights, according to the negotiation guidelines.
"This is a bold move to deepen integration in the most dynamic region in the world," New Zealand Trade Minister Tim Groser said in a statement on his government's website.
"It shows that despite the economic difficulties in other parts of the world, Asia is actively pursuing trade liberalisation."
Progress on the proposed RCEP trade deal, where China will be a dominant power, comes as the United States is leading a push to create a vast trans-Pacific pact with at least 10 other economies, including four ASEAN members.
The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) has emerged as a trade priority for US President Barack Obama, who has cast the mooted pact as a way to boost US exports and jobs while preserving labor and environmental standards.
US Trade Representative Ron Kirk, who attended this week's trade talks in Cambodia, said there was room for both trade initiatives.
"We seem them as complementary, not necessarily competition," he told reporters.-Interaksyon (September 01, 2012)Sixteen nations home to roughly half the world's population have agreed "in principle" to create a free trade area spanning Asia, the secretary-general of ASEAN said Friday.
Trade ministers from the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and their counterparts from China, Japan, South Korea, India, Australia and New Zealand will press their leaders to start talks on the trade zone at a regional summit in November, Surin Pitsuwan told AFP.
The move towards establishing the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), made during a meeting in the Cambodian tourist town of Siem Reap on Thursday, was hailed by Surin as "a big achievement".
The proposal could transform the region - containing around 3.5 billion people - into an integrated market with a combined Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of $23 trillion, a third of the world's current annual GDP, he said.
ASEAN - which groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam - already has five separate free trade agreements (FTAs) governing economic cooperation with the six partner countries.
"This idea of trying to string together all these FTAs in existence into one, in principle now it's been agreed," Surin said on the final day of a week-long gathering of ASEAN economic ministers.
The pact will aim to eliminate trade barriers, create a liberal investment environment and protect intellectual property rights, according to the negotiation guidelines.
"This is a bold move to deepen integration in the most dynamic region in the world," New Zealand Trade Minister Tim Groser said in a statement on his government's website.
"It shows that despite the economic difficulties in other parts of the world, Asia is actively pursuing trade liberalisation."
Progress on the proposed RCEP trade deal, where China will be a dominant power, comes as the United States is leading a push to create a vast trans-Pacific pact with at least 10 other economies, including four ASEAN members.
The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) has emerged as a trade priority for US President Barack Obama, who has cast the mooted pact as a way to boost US exports and jobs while preserving labor and environmental standards.
US Trade Representative Ron Kirk, who attended this week's trade talks in Cambodia, said there was room for both trade initiatives.
"We seem them as complementary, not necessarily competition," he told reporters.-Interaksyon (September 01, 2012)
