North Korea has asked Moscow for permission to send a mission to next month's Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Russia, Japan's top-selling Yomiuri Shimbun reported Wednesday.
Citing an unnamed source, the report said Pyongyang wants to attend the talks, possibly with "guest" status, and sent an envoy to Russia in mid-July to win permission from the authorities there.
The reclusive Stalinist state is not a member of APEC and the report cast doubt on the likelihood of North Korea attending official meetings at the summit, held in the far eastern city of Vladivostok from September 8.
"But it is still possible that they will be allowed to attend events held on the sidelines of the summit talks," the paper quoted its source as saying.
The 21 members of the economic forum include Russia, Japan, China, South Korea, the United States and Australia.
The report comes as Tokyo and Pyongyang are set to meet Wednesday in their first face-to-face talks in four years.
Analysts have kept a close eye out for clues about the emerging foreign policy of North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un, who took over after his father Kim Jong-Il died in December.-Interaksyon (August 29, 2012 12:18PM)
Eight countries, including China, have requested bilateral meetings with President Benigno Aquino III when he attends the 20th Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Vladivostok from September 7 to 9.
However, Foreign Affairs Undersecretary for International Economic Relations Laura del Rosario said Wednesday that, except for China, Aquino was likely to “prioritize” who else to meet with.
"There are eight requests, but the President has yet to firm up his schedule. He will have about three to four hours for bilateral meetings and each meeting would take about 30 to 40 minutes, so we will have to prioritize," del Rosario said.
"But I am sure the President will say yes (to China)," del Rosario said.
The other countries that have requested bilateral meetings with Aquino are Japan, Chile, Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and Singapore.
Among the matters proposed for the talks are trade and investment liberalization, food security, prevention and mitigation of natural disasters, and improvement of transportation and logistics chains.
The row between the Philippines and China over disputed territory in the South China Sea, which Manila calls the West Philippine Sea, “will definitely be raised” when Aquino meets Chinese President Hu Jintao.
"Definitely we expect that the Spratlys issue or the West Philippine issue to be discussed somewhere in the bilateral meeting," although not in the summit proper, del Rosario said.
"APEC is not the proper forum to put forward a political issue. That will sound like that is off the priority agenda of APEC," she said.
Del Rosario said it is China that will most likely bring the Spratlys up, though
Aquino and Hu “will be assuring each other that we should go back to the starting point where everything was fine ... The nature of diplomatic relations is maintaining (the) status quo of peace."
A meeting with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who will represent President Barack Obama, is still up in the air, del Rosario said.
She said Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert del Rosario will also hold bilateral talks with Hong Kong chief executive Leung Chun-ying.
The Philippines will host APEC in 2015, after Indonesia and China.
At the Vladivostok summit, Aquino will also be joined by Secretaries Gregory Domingo of Trade and Cesar Purisima of Finance.
Aquino will also attend the APEC Business Advisory Council on September 8.
The Philippine delegation to the ABAC are A. Magsaysay Inc. president Doris Magsaysay Ho, Jollibee Foods Corp. chairman Tony Tan Caktiong, and Ayala Corp. chairman Jaime Augusto Zobel de Ayala.-Interaksyon (August 29, 2012 12:16PM)
China and Southeast Asian nations pledged Wednesday to strive for closer economic ties, setting aside regional tensions over a territorial row in the resource-rich South China Sea.
Trade between China and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) jumped to over $200 billion in the first seven months of 2012, up 9 percent year-on-year, Chinese Commerce Minister Chen Deming said during a meeting with regional economic ministers in the Cambodian tourist hub of Siem Reap.
The business relationship between ASEAN and China was "particularly important" amid global economic gloom, he said, adding that both sides have "a solid basis for cooperation" and "bright prospects".
China is ASEAN's largest trading partner, while the 10-nation bloc last year overtook Japan as Beijing's third-biggest trading partner.
"China is willing to be ASEAN's good neighbour, good friend and good partner," Chen said in his opening remarks.
This week's talks between regional economic ministers marks the first high-level gathering of ASEAN members since a foreign ministers' meeting in July ended in acrimony over how to deal with a dispute in the South China Sea, exposing deep divisions within the bloc.
The tension that hung over those meetings appeared absent from the cordial gathering in Siem Reap, suggesting that ASEAN members do not want the maritime row to hurt business.
"It's a completely different ballgame," said Southeast Asia expert Carl Thayer, emeritus professor at the University of New South Wales in Australia.
The foreign and economic ministers have "completely different agendas", he added.
Friction within ASEAN also eased significantly after Indonesia got the bloc to agree on six key points on the South China Sea following intense diplomatic efforts in the days after the failed ASEAN summit, Thayer said.
China claims sovereignty over almost all of the resource-rich sea, which is home to vital shipping lanes, but ASEAN members the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia and Brunei have overlapping claims.
Hanoi and Manila have recently accused Beijing of increasingly aggressive behaviour in the disputed waters.-Interaksyon (August 29, 2012 7:54PM)
A new species of fish with a penis on its head has been identified in the Mekong Delta in Vietnam, researchers said on Wednesday.
Phallostethus cuulong is the newest member of the Phallostethidae family — small fish found in Southeast Asian waters that are distinguished primarily by the positioning of the male sexual organ.
Male phallostethids have a copulatory organ, termed the priapium, under the throat for holding or clasping onto females and fertilising their eggs internally, according to conservationists.
“We have scientifically identified a new penis-head fish in Vietnam,” researcher Tran Dac Dinh from Can Tho University told AFP.
The fish was known to Vietnamese people in the Mekong Delta but had not been described scientifically before a team identified the species last year, he said. -Philippine Daily Inquirer/Lifestyle (August 29, 2012 8:20PM)
Russia's Admiralteiskie Verfi shipyard has launched a new Kilo-class Project 636 diesel-electric submarine for Vietnam, a military-industrial complex sources said on Tuesday.
The boat is the first of six ordered by Hanoi.
Vietnam's Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Zung announced the signing of a contract worth almost $2 billion for the six boats in December 2009.
"The first boat will be launched on Tuesday and will begin tests soon after," a shipyard source said earlier today. The boat is due to be delivered to the customer by the end of the year, he added. All six boats are due to be delivered by 2016.
The Project 636 class boats displace 3,100 tons, have a top speed of 20 knots, can dive to 300 meters and have a crew of 52. The boats are armed with 533-mm torpedo tubes and are armed with torpedos, mines, and Kaliber 3M54 (NATO SS-N-27) cruise missiles.-RIANOVOSTI (August 28, 2012)
The six old members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) on Tuesday pledged to support four new members in order to narrow the development gap, said Nam Viyaketh, Laos Minister of Industry and Commerce.
"The ASEAN six gave us-the new ASEAN member states: Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam-the privilege for assistance in order to accelerate our economies and to narrow the gap between the six old ASEAN members and the four new ASEAN members," he told reporters on the sidelines of the 44th ASEAN Economic Ministers Meeting.
The six old ASEAN members include Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand.
Addressing the opening session of the 44th ASEAN Economic Ministers Meeting on Monday, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen said that the development gap among ASEAN members remained huge and the bloc needed to double its efforts to promote further growth and improve equitable distribution of the fruits of growth at both national and regional levels.-The Philippine Star (August 29, 2012)
Australian Foreign Minister Bob Carr Tuesday said regional powers need to get used to China's so-called chequebook diplomacy in the Pacific as it works to shore up support over Taiwan.
Australian think-tank the Lowy Institute estimated last year that China had pledged more than US$600 million since 2005 in "soft loans" offering long interest-free periods to nations such as Tonga, Samoa, and the Cook Islands.
It has also stepped up its aid to Fiji following the 2006 coup in which military leader Voreqe Bainimarama seized power from the elected government.
Australia and the US have previously expressed concern at China resorting to chequebook diplomacy but Carr appeared to soften Canberra's stance in an interview with the Australian Financial Review.
He urged the region to learn to live with Beijing "developing all the accoutrements of a major power."
"That means defense modernization but it also means a big aid budget," he said.
"My message really is that Australia and New Zealand have got to live with the fact that China will want to deliver aid in this part of the world (and) there is nothing we can do to stop it. It's a fact of life."
China's interest in the Pacific stems mainly from a race for diplomatic influence with Taiwan, which Beijing still regards as part of its territory although the two sides split at the end of a civil war in 1949.
The rivalry saw some Pacific nations constantly change allegiance between Taipei and Beijing in return for increased aid, until Taiwan elected the China-friendly President Ma Ying-jeou in 2008.
Since then the diplomatic one-upmanship has cooled.
Carr's comments came on the eve of the Pacific Islands Forum, a grouping of mainly small island states, along with resource-rich Papua New Guinea and the dominant regional powers Australia and New Zealand, both US allies.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is set to make a rare foray to the meeting in the Cook Islands in a move analysts say is aimed at curbing China's growing influence in the region.
On the broader issue of global aid, Carr said he expected that as China developed it would normalize and "reshape its aid budget to resemble that of other OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development) countries".
"In other words, not a Chinese port linked by a Chinese road to a Chinese mine, but the more variegated capacity-building assistance that you see today from an OECD country," he told the newspaper.-Interaksyon (August 28, 2012)
In a bid to combat terrorism and other crimes in the high seas, Navy units from Southeast Asian countries opened on Tuesday annual naval exercises dubbed the Southeast Asia Cooperation and Training (SEACAT), to run until September 2.
The exercises, called SEACAT 2012, are being held at the Malacca Strait, Sulu Sea and Subic Bay, and participated in by the Philippines, Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand.
The United States Navy is also expected to join in a scenario-driven fleet training exercise against terrorism, transnational crimes and other maritime threats.
The Philippine Navy's Naval Forces West and Naval Forces Northern Luzon are part of this year's exercises and will deploy four ships and an islander aircraft
In a Training Directive, Navy Flag Officer In Command, Vice Admiral Alexander Pama said: “This activity will involve surface, air, and special operations units in the conduct of surveillance, tracking, and boarding of the Contact of Interest (COI) from the different participating navies within their respective maritime territories.”
As practiced in the yearly SEACAT, several ships from each participating Southeast Asian navy will join the training with one US Navy ship, USS Safeguard, designated as the COI for the participating Southeast Asian Navies.
In the Philippines, one Maritime Interdiction Operations (MIO) scenario with boarding opportunity will be conducted at Subic Bay and another one at the Sulu Sea. At the same time, Coast Watch stations in
the different participating Naval Forces areas will be utilized to exercise their capabilities in surveillance, tracking, communications, and operations.
With this training, the Philippine Navy said it will be able to enhance regional coordination, information sharing, and combined inter-operability capability with participating navies in the region, test its personnel and naval assets operational readiness and ultimately, and improve the maritime security capability of the Armed Forces of the Philippines.-Interaksyon (August 28, 2012 5:21PM)
Myanmar has removed about 2,000 exiles from an immigration blacklist drawn up by the former junta to allow them to return home as part of political reforms, the authorities said Tuesday.
"The people taken off the blacklist are civil servants who fled Myanmar a long time ago," an information ministry official told AFP.
"More than 6,000 former civil servants from government ministries were blacklisted. Some 2,000 were taken off today," he said. "They can come back to the country freely. The authorities will decide later whether to remove the others."
Several million people fled the country to escape the corrupted economy and political repression under army rule which ended last year, leaving a shortage of professionals to help manage economic and political change.
Many government workers and intellectuals left after a student-led uprising in 1988 that was brutally crushed by the military. Journalists who fled to work overseas were also blacklisted.
Since taking office last year, President Thein Sein has overseen a number of dramatic changes such as the release of hundreds of political prisoners and the election of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi to parliament.
The former general -- who came to power following an election marred by widespread complaints of cheating and intimidation -- in May urged the millions who had fled the nation to return.-Interaksyon (August 28, 2012 6:59)
Vietnam is willing to cooperate with Singapore in extradition, judicial assistance, and training of law enforcement officers amidst an increasingly complicated situation in the region.
President Truong Tan Sang made the statement while receiving Singaporean Deputy Prime Minister, Coordinating Minister for National Security and Minister for Home Affairs Teo Chee Hean in Hanoi yesterday, who is visiting Vietnam to sign a cooperation agreement on transnational crime prevention and investigation.
Highly valuing the Singaporean Ministry of Home Affairs' support, the President suggested the ministry continue deepening relations between the two countries and sectors.
In the future, both sides should continue promoting the implementation of commitments in their cooperation documents and proposal studies on cooperation contents, Sang said, before adding that Vietnam was pleased at the results of the socio-economic and political-security cooperation between the two countries.
Sang also said he highly valued Singapore's role in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) and its consistent stance on issues of common concern.
Teo affirmed that the two countries' traditional ties and the recent signing of cooperation agreements between the two security sectors had contributed to strengthening and tightening ties between Singapore and Vietnam, and agreed that the two countries needed to maintain activities to enhance their strategic partnership.
He affirmed Asean's importance for both countries, saying that while facing a rapidly changing world, an Asean of solidarity and unity with a consensus of each member country would make the community in Southeast Asia strong.
The Singaporean leader said his country would commit to making unceasing contributions toward building diplomatic ties with Vietnam.
Earlier in the day, Teo and Vietnam's Minister of Public Security Sen. Lt. Gen. Tran Dai Quang also held talks.
Quang said he hoped Teo's visit would open a new stage of development in relations and cooperation between the Vietnamese Ministry of Public Security and the Singapore Ministry of Home Affairs through the signing of an extension for the cooperation agreement on transnational crime prevention and investigation.
The Singaporean leader said he wished the two ministries would continue their successful efforts in the fight against crime.-Asia News Network (August 28, 2012)
Hailed as new heroes for bringing in billions of dollars a year to fuel the growth of the Philippine economy, many overseas Filipino workers are, in truth, martyrs for slaving abroad just to help their families survive back home.
As of last count, there are about 12 million Filipinos—more than 10 per cent of the population—working in some 200 countries across the globe. In 2011, they sent home US$20.1 billion to the families they left behind.
In the first half of 2012, OFW remittances amounted to $10.13 billion. The amount for June was the highest on record for any given month at $1.8 billion, which the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (central bank) said was due in part to the high global demand for Filipino workers even as the world economy struggled with the dampening effect of the economic crisis in Europe.
Yet behind these glowing figures are the hardships, exploitation and other sufferings of OFWs whose distressing accounts we are all too familiar with. Remember, for instance, the four Filipinos who were executed in China for allegedly being drug mules, the abused Filipino domestic helpers and many others embroiled in legal difficulties.
The labour export policy was supposed to be a temporary solution to the economic crisis in the 1970s. The dictator Ferdinand Marcos allowed the use of the country’s surplus labour (basically the unemployed) for export to the oil-rich countries in the Middle East. But this became a permanent component of the country’s labour policy with the creation of the Philippine Overseas Employment Agency (POEA) in 1982.
Government data showed that in 1972, the annual deployment of Filipino workers was only 14,366. This grew each year and breached the one-million mark during the time of President Gloria Arroyo, reaching 1.06 million in 2006 and 1.43 million in 2009.
The result is what Professor Mary Lou Alcid of UP’s College of Social Work and Community Development described as “transnational Filipino families”—the father in Saudi Arabia, the mother in Hong Kong, the daughter in Taiwan, the brother in Dubai and the youngest left in the Philippines.
The social cost of the labour-export phenomenon is just enormous. Alcid cited illegal recruitment, trafficking in women and children, contract violations, transgressions of human rights, violence against women and an average of two to three people returning to the country in boxes every year—not to mention its toll on the bodies, minds and spirit of the workers themselves, their families, specially the children who grow up without one or both parents; and of course the continuing loss, by the thousands each year, of teachers, doctors, nurses, engineers and other professionals.
These include the 22 weather forecasters and observers who quit their jobs at the Philippine weather bureau between 2005 and 2011 for better-paying jobs in the Middle East and Australia; the 80 or so geologists who left the Department of Environment and Natural Resources; and the dozens of pilots poached by foreign airlines from the local flag carrier.
More disturbing is the fact that the hazards of labour migration, various studies indicate, are greatest for women, who are mostly relegated to the service sector and areas considered traditional women’s work like housekeeping, caregiving, teaching and nursing.
POEA data showed that in 2010, of the top 10 occupational categories of deployed land-based OFWs, domestic helpers were number one, with women accounting for 98 per cent of those deployed.
“The nature of their jobs is inherently vulnerable. They live in their employers’ homes, work long hours without breaks, and have difficulty accessing their rights. Many are subject to abuse and exploitation as a result of living and working in a space that is so difficult to regulate,” said the centre for Migrant Advocacy in a submission to the UN Committee on Migrant Workers in April this year.
In his inaugural address on June 30, 2010, President Aquino said his administration’s goal “is to create jobs at home so that there will be no need to look for employment abroad.”
Social scientists have found out that the migration phenomenon is common among developing countries transitioning from agricultural economies to industrialisation.
Four decades after the labour export policy was adopted in the 1970s, the POEA is now “seriously considering” a five-year phaseout programme on the deployment of domestic helpers. However, the best expert advice we have found is that the government must start with the understanding that labour exports will end only when the Philippines achieves economic development, as what South Korea and Malaysia did.-Asia News Network (August 28, 2012)
Vietnam and Laos will continue to effectively implement the agreements reached, especially in economic, trade and investment cooperation, bringing two-way trade to record levels in the future, said Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung in Vietnam's capital Hanoi on Tuesday.
Dung made the remarks when receiving Lao Deputy Prime Minister Somsavat Lengsavad during his visit to Vietnam.
During the meeting, Dung expressed his pleasure about witnessing the development of the multi-faceted relations between the two countries and hoped the two sides to further support each other in regional and international forums.
Lao Deputy PM Somsavat Lengsavad, for his part, hailed the achievements Vietnam has gained in the development process.
Lengsavad affirmed that Laos will do its utmost to further strengthen the special relationship between the two countries and hope to receive Vietnam's experiences in national construction and social-economic development process.
Vietnam and Laos have established diplomatic ties since 1962.-SINA English (August 28, 2012)
The Department of Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office (DPMO) announced today that the remains of three servicemen, missing in action from the Vietnam War, were recently identified and are being returned to their families for burial with full military honors.
Army Sgt. 1st Class William T. Brown of La Habra, Calif., Sgt. 1st Class Donald M. Shue of Kannapolis, N.C., and Sgt. 1st Class Gunther H. Wald of Palisades Park, N.J., will be buried as a group on Aug. 30, in a single casket representing the three soldiers, in Arlington National Cemetery. Brown and Shue were each individually buried on Sept. 26, 2011, at Arlington and May 1 in Kannapolis, N.C.
On Nov. 3, 1969, the menand six Vietnamese soldiers were part of a Special Forces reconnaissance patrol operating in Quang Tri Province, near the Vietnam-Laos border. The patrol was ambushed by enemy forces and all three Americans were wounded. Brown was reported to have suffered a gunshot wound to his side. Due to heavy enemy presence and poor weather conditions, the search-and-rescue team was not able to reach the site until eight days later. At that time, they found military equipment belonging to Shue, but no other signs of the men.
Between 1993 and 2010, joint United States/Socialist Republic of Vietnam (S.R.V.) teams, led by the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC), conducted multiple interviews on nine different occasions in Quang Tri Province. Additionally, the S.R.V. teams unilaterally investigated this case, but were unable to develop new leads. Among those interviewed by the joint teams were former Vietnamese militiamen who claimed in 1969 they ambushed three Americans in the area near the Laos-Vietnam border. In 2007, a Vietnamese citizen led investigators to human remains that he had discovered and buried near the site of the ambush. In 2008, a military identification tag for Brown was turned over to the U.S. Government from a U.S. citizen with ties to Vietnam. Finally, in April 2010, joint teams excavated a hilltop area near Huong Lap Village, recovering additional human remains, military equipment, another military identification tag for Brown, and a “Zippo” lighter bearing the name ”Donald M. Shue” and the date “1969.”
Scientists from the JPAC and the Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory used circumstantial and material evidence, along with mitochondrial DNA—which matched that of some of the soldiers’ family members—in the identification of the remains.-U.S Defense Department (August 27, 2012)
Remittances from overseas are expected to be less important to the Philippine economy “in the coming years” as improving job prospects in the country may dissuade Filipinos from leaving, according to DBS Group.
The financial services provider said in a research note that the domestic economy had been performing “very well” and that investment-led growth may be forthcoming.
The Singapore-based firm cited government reforms, low debt levels and steps taken to address the high birth rate as “all positive steps” that point to faster economic growth.
“Working domestically may become more attractive to locals as employment opportunities grow,” DBS said. “We suspect that remittances will slowly diminish in importance in the coming years.”
The group also noted that the sluggish economy in Europe and the Middle East pulled down the growth of remittances to the Philippines to a 15-month low of 4.2 per cent year on year in June.
“Accordingly, this also implies that full-year remittance growth will be around 5 per cent to 6 per cent this year, a continued deceleration from 7.2 per cent and 8.2 per cent in 2011 and 2010, respectively,” DBS said.
“In the short term, there are considerable headwinds to remittance growth amid a lackluster global economy,” it added.
Further, DBS said that the strong peso also mitigates the effectiveness of each dollar of remittance inflows, resulting in less support for the domestic economy.
The group said that the growth of remittances to the Philippines was unlikely to return to the double-digit growth rates seen from 2002 to 2008 when growth was strong in the developed economies including the United States and Europe.
Together, these two major markets accounted for a combined 58 per cent of total remittances in 2011.
“The heavy debt load in the two regions implies that economic growth will be constrained over the medium term,” DBS said.
“Asia remains a bright spot, but the region only accounts for 12.8 per cent of (global) total remittance and is unlikely to negate the remittance slowdown in the developed economies,” it added.-Asia News Network (August 27, 2012)
Malaysian consumers will be the prime beneficiaries of a strengthening ringgit, standing to gain from lowered imported inflation to increased affordability of goods and services reflective of the capital inflows into the capital markets.
CIMB Investment head of interest rates and foreign exchange strategy Suresh Kumar Ramanathan told StarBiz that a stronger ringgit would shield the country from imported inflation and helped increase affordability of some goods and services.
“Consumers will stand to benefit from a stronger currency in terms of cheaper cost of imported goods and this will be reflected in terms of better lifestyle and extra disposable income for the people. Importers will gain because there will be more demand for imported products,” he said.
“In countries such as Singapore and Switzerland, a stronger currency is synonymous with better and more affluent lifestyle with increased purchasing power. Consumers in these countries also benefit because companies tend to pass down these currency gains to their customers and this will eventually be the case in Malaysia,” Suresh added.
He said the strong currency will lead to increase in demand for products and services as they are cheaper.
“Companies usually say that they will face foreign exchange risks as an excuse for not passing on these gains but they can hedge it and purchase raw materials from the futures market instead of the spot market. These can be dealt with appropriate risk management strategies in place,” he said.
He added that exporters may experience some short-term drawbacks but they can choose to offset these by also hedging these risks.
A fund analyst with a foreign research arm said that a strong currency was needed to hedge against an eventual weakening of currencies in the West. This could benefit companies such as Tenaga Nasional Bhd which had foreign currency denominated debts, the analyst said.
Asia, which today has become the growth engine of the world, will benefit from a rise in their currencies as the continent will drive global growth as economies in the eurozone, US and Japan falters.
Suresh said the ringgit had strengthened and was poised to strengthen to 2.50 ringgit per US dollar in the longer term which was the consensus estimates today.-Asia News Network (August 27, 2012)
Consumer confidence has picked up across Asia Pacific markets as concerns about slow growth lessen in the region, according to the latest MasterCard Worldwide Index for Consumer Confidence.
Consumers in the region remain most optimistic in the markets of India (82.1 Index points), mainland China (77.4), Vietnam (77.2) and Thailand (75.8), while the least optimistic markets are Japan (23.6), Taiwan (25.7) and Australia (39.2).
Hong Kong, which dropped 38.7 points in the last Index, improved by 21.9 points to lead the region, followed closely by South Korea (up 21.4 points), Malaysia (up 17.1 points) and New Zealand (up 15.3 points).
Indonesia recorded the single largest fall in consumer confidence (down 18.7 points) followed by the Philippines (down 11.8 points). Consumer confidence in the economy plummeted in Indonesia (from 74.9 to 33.3 points), with employment also falling from 70.6 to 40.8 points.
"The latest reading of consumer confidence in the Asia Pacific reflects the increasingly complex mix of key influences affecting the region," said Dr. Yuwa Hedrick-Wong, global economic advisor at MasterCard Worldwide.
"The first is the global environment, which continues to be weak and riddled with uncertainty, especially in Europe. The second is the slowdown in China, which has been affecting many key regional markets that are China-centric in their exports. The third is the strength of the domestic markets in sustaining growth with home-grown demand."
He said that while the global environment affects all markets in the Asia Pacific region, the slowdown in mainland China has had a more severe impact on Australia, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan.
"On the other hand, Vietnam has been a major beneficiary of low-end manufacturing relocating from China in the recent past," he said.
India, being the least dependent on either global or China demand, is by far the most domestic oriented among the key markets in the region.
"It's relative optimism reflects the perception that the economy has become more stable after growth declining for two years."
Overall, nine out of 14 Asia Pacific markets polled recorded positive improvements when compared to the second half of 2011, with a regional rise from 52.1 points in the second half of 2011 to 57.2 points in the first half of 2012. The last MasterCard Index of Consumer Confidence showed an improvement in sentiment for only 5 out of the 14 markets. For the region as a whole increases were recorded across all key indicators of regular income (from 64.5 to 71.9 points), employment (49.3 to 54.0 points), economy (49.3 to 51.8 points), quality of life (49.6 to 51.7 points) and stock market (47.9 to 56.5 points).
The index is based on a survey conducted between Apr. 24 and June 10, 2012 on 11,376 respondents aged 18-64 in 25 countries within the Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa. This is the 39th survey of consumer confidence conducted since 1993. Now in its 20th year the index is the Asia Pacific's most comprehensive and longest running consumer confidence survey. The index score is calculated with zero as the most pessimistic, 100 as most optimistic and 50 as neutral.-Asia News Network (August 27, 2012)
Just last month I made my first visit to Myanmar, a place Rudyard Kipling referred to as "quite unlike any land you know about". While decades of isolation have helped this century-old observation hold true, on arrival in July I was immediately struck by the vibrancy and a palpable sense of change in the air. The country's immense potential is reflected in the Asian Development Bank's most recent analysis, which shows that Myanmar has the potential to follow Asia's fast growing economies and expand at 7 per cent to 8 per cent if it continues on the path of across-the-board reforms initiated earlier this year.
If Myanmar stays true to these reforms - and I was impressed by the resolve of many officials I met last month - the country should become a middle-income nation, and could more than triple per capita income by 2030.
Half a century ago Myanmar was the pearl of Asia, one of the region's leading economies with a per capita income more than twice that of its neighbour, Thailand. While most other regional economies have skyrocketed since that time, Myanmar has languished, and today has Southeast Asia's lowest per capita gorss domestic product (GDP).
After decades of stagnation, Myanmar has an enormous amount of catching up to do on almost every imaginable front. The recent experiences of Asia's fast-growing economies are instructive. For Myanmar to effectively capitalise on its potential, the country will need to maintain low inflation - under 6 per cent - and better ensure sustainable budgets. It will also need to encourage greater savings, dramatically bolster the skills of its people, invest heavily in infrastructure, modernise its financial sector, foster job creation, and continue with its reform of the foreign exchange regime.
No small order, to be sure, but Myanmar's neighbours have shown dramatic economic transformations are possible in relatively short amounts of time if reforms remain on track.
Nearly everyone I spoke with in July emphasised that maintaining social stability will be crucial as Myanmar embarks on this new course. While economic growth has been the most effective tool for reducing poverty in Asia, it has become less equitable in many fast-growing regional economies in recent decades. As the economy grows it will be essential for the country to ensure that its poorest and most vulnerable share the benefits of Myanmar's growing prosperity. Such inclusiveness will enhance and help maintain growth by strengthening social cohesion and contributing to human capital development.
Investment in education, healthcare and other social services is fundamental for building Myanmar's human capital. Today, one in four primary school children never move on to middle school, limiting their prospects as the country's next generation of workers. Encouragingly, the government has already increased its social sector spending, with the country's nominal education budget doubling for 2012/13. It is critical that this trend continue.
More opportunities also need to be created for people living in rural areas, where 84 per cent of the country's poor reside. NGOs I met last month highlighted that rural isolation is exacerbated by poor access to electricity, water and transportation. Only one in four people have electricity access, and the country's core road network is limited. Bringing rural communities into the fold and providing them with better transportation, electricity, and telecommunications will give Myanmar's poorest a better chance at grasping the opportunities that recent economic reforms can bring.
Myanmar's economic potential is immense given its rich endowments and geographic advantages. To maximise this potential, however, businesspeople I met with stressed the need for more freedom to create jobs and innovate. A further reduction of government ownership and control over certain economic sectors will help level the playing field, spurring competition and bolstering investment.
This is particularly important, as Myanmar is uniquely positioned to tap into Asia's growing economic strength and prosperity. Better connectivity with other South and Southeast Asian nations will also unleash incredible opportunities for trade and commerce.
With the region's consumption expected to reach US$32 trillion by 2030, accounting for 43 per cent of the global total, Myanmar's affluent neighbours offer vast new markets for a country with abundant natural assets, agricultural resources and low-cost manufacturing potential.
Integration with global and regional markets will also help promote accountability, transparency and respect for the rule of law, fostering an enabling environment for business and foreign investment as the nation finds its place in the Asian Century.
Myanmar's growth will not come without risks, and it is important for the country not to repeat the mistakes of other resource-rich developing nations - allowing resource revenues to exacerbate inflation and impact international competitiveness through effects on the exchange rates - a vicious cycle that can hinder the country's development in other productive sectors.
Sound macroeconomic management, economic diversification, greater transparency, the development of capable institutions, and a strong political commitment to equitably distributing benefits will all be needed to ensure Myanmar avoids the "resource curse".
While Kipling's sentiment may still be accurate, there is much Myanmar can learn from its neighbours - lessons that could make the country Asia's next rising star. There will be countless challenges along the way, but if the country makes the right moves at the right times, and maintains its strong commitment to reforms, a more prosperous future undoubtedly awaits Myanmar's people.-Asia News Network (August 27, 2012)
The Burmese President Thein Sein has announced a reshuffle of ministers in his cabinet.
In a statement on his website, the president said he had changed nine of the 29 cabinet posts.
The ministries of information, industry and national planning and economic development are among those affected.
The reshuffle is the largest since Thein Sein's government took office in March 2011 after the military junta ceded power.
Rumours about a possible government shake-up have circulated for months.
The dominance of Burma's military is entrenched in its parliament and political system, with a total of 25% of its MPs coming from the armed forces.
But the BBC's Jonathan Head, in Bangkok, says that the president seems to be doing what he can to keep the promised reforms on course.
One of the most prominent hardliners, former Information Minister Kyaw Hsan, is among those who have been moved, our correspondent explains.
He has been shifted to a more minor ministry, which may eventually be shrunk or abolished.
The new information minister is the more moderate Aung Kyi, who was the military's negotiator with opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi while she was under house arrest.-British Broadcasting Corporation (August 27, 2012)
Indonesian police say they have detained 21 Vietnamese who illegally logged a rare type of wood in a protected forest.
Local police chief Lt. Col. Trisno Rianto says the Vietnamese were caught as they left the forest in Aceh province on Sunday with a vehicle filled with agarwood.
Rianto said Monday that six of the suspects will be arrested for illegal logging while the 15 others will be handed over to immigration officials for violating their tourist visas.
He says the Vietnamese had been collecting agarwood in the forest since early last month.
Agarwood is relatively rare and is highly valued for its dark aromatic resin, which is used in incense and perfumes.-Canada .com (August 27, 2012)
In the upscale business district of Manila, a midweek crowd spills out into the street. The New York-themed Borough restaurant is pulsating to the beat of a Bon Jovi song, while young, hip Filipinos take shots of tequila from a passing tray and sing in unison.
“Whoa-oh, we’re halfway there!” the crowd sings. “Whoa-oh, livin’ on a prayer!”
The revelers have reason to celebrate. Times are pretty good in the Philippines if you are young, skilled and live in the city. Indeed, young urban workers are helping give the country its brightest prospects in decades, economists say.
In fact, with $70 billion in reserves and lower interest payments on its debt after recent credit rating upgrades, the Philippines pledged $1 billion to the International Monetary Fund to help shore up the struggling economies of Europe.
“This is the same rescue fund that saved the Philippines when our country was in deep financial trouble in the early ’80s,” said Representative Mel Senen Sarmiento, a congressman from Western Samar.
The Philippines has certainly seen a steady flow of positive economic news recently. On July 4, Standard & Poor’s raised the country’s debt rating to just below investment grade, the highest rating for the country since 2003 and equivalent to that of Indonesia.
The Philippines is the 112th-largest economy in the world today, according to HSBC estimates. But if current trends hold, it can expect to leap to the No. 16 spot by 2050. The Philippine stock market, meanwhile, one of the best performers in the region, closed at a record high after the recent S.&P. rating upgrade, and the country’s currency, the peso, reached a four-year high against the dollar at about the same time.
The gross domestic product of the Philippines grew 6.4 percent in the first quarter of 2012, according to the country’s central bank, outperforming all other growth rates in the region except China’s. Economists expect similarly strong growth in the second quarter.
“We have made a very bold forecast for the Philippines, but I think justifiably so,” said Frederic Neumann, a senior economist at HSBC in Hong Kong.
A high population growth rate, long considered a hindrance to prosperity, is now often seen as a driving force for economic growth. About 61 percent of the population in the Philippines is of working age, between 15 and 64. That figure is expected to continue increasing, which is not the case for many of its Asian neighbors, whose populations are aging.
“There are a number of countries in Asia that will see their working-age populations decline in the coming years,” Mr. Neumann said. “The Philippines stands out as the youngest population. As other countries see their labor costs go up, the Philippines will remain competitive due to the sheer abundance of workers joining the labor force.”
Many of those workers are feeding the country’s robust outsourcing industry. The Philippines, where English is widely spoken, surpassed India last year as the world’s leading provider of voice-based outsourcing services like customer service call centers.
According to the country’s Board of Investments, offshore call centers employed 683,000 Filipinos in 2011 and generated about $11 billion in revenue, a 24 percent increase from the previous year. The government is seeking to expand the industry and has said it hopes it will generate $25 billion in revenue by 2016.
The Philippines’ growing prosperity has also been driven by the 9.5 million Filipinos — almost 10 percent of the population — who work outside the country and who sent home about $20 billion inremittances in 2011. That is up from $7.5 billion in 2003.
Trinh D. Nguyen, an economist with HSBC in Hong Kong, said the Philippines had benefited from an increase in government efficiency and revenue collection, as well as aggressive actions to address corruption, like the impeachment of the chief justice of the Supreme Court and the arrest of former President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo on suspicion of accepting kickbacks and of misusing government lottery money.
“It is not only short-term growth that draws investors to the Philippines,” Ms. Nguyen said. “The fundamentals are there.”
But there are also real weaknesses in the country. Recent flooding , which by some estimates submerged 50 percent of Manila, illustrates a shortage of modern infrastructure that makes the Philippines highly vulnerable to disasters.
“The Philippines is hit with several deadly and devastating natural disasters every year,” Ms. Nguyen said.
But government officials have said that the recent flooding might actually help economic growth, because reconstruction will require an increase in public spending and the country will have to put into place programs to make it more resistant to the effects of natural disasters.
Another hurdle is the fact that the Philippines has traditionally underexploited its natural resources. The government estimates that there are 21.5 billion tons of metal deposits in the country, including large deposits of nickel, iron, copper and gold. But they have never been a significant driver of economic growth because extraction has been mismanaged, Mr. Neumann said.-The New York Times (August 27, 2012)
