Live Streaming
Program Highlight
Company Profile
International News (6891)
March
Top U.S., Japan officials say China's behaviour inconsistent with international order
Written by Nur Yasmin
Mar. 16 - Senior officials from United States and Japan on Tuesday raised concerns about China’s behaviour in Hong Kong, Xinjiang and other areas and said it was inconsistent with the international order.
A joint statement from U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and their Japanese counterparts said they had serious concerns “about recent disruptive developments in the region such as the China Coast Guard Law.”
They said they had discussed Washington’s “unwavering commitment” to defend Japan in the East China Sea, and reiterated their opposition to China’s “unlawful” maritime claims in South China Sea. (Reuters)
March
North Korea warns new U.S. administration if it wants peace it must avoid 'causing a stink': state news agency
Written by Nur Yasmin
Mar. 16 - The sister of North Korean leader, Kim Yo Jong, criticised ongoing military drills in South Korea and warned the new U.S. administration against “causing a stink” if it wants peace, state news reported on Tuesday.
The statement comes a day before America’s top diplomat and defence chief are due to arrive in Seoul for their first talks with South Korean counterparts.
“We take this opportunity to warn the new U.S. administration trying hard to give off powder smell in our land,” Kim said in a statement carried by state news agency KCNA. “If it wants to sleep in peace for coming four years, it had better refrain from causing a stink at its first step.”
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin are travelling in Asia this week for foreign policy and security talks with allies in Japan and South Korea, among other stops.
The timing of Kim’s comments seems designed to ensure that North Korea will be at the top of Blinken and Austin’s agenda when they land in Seoul, said Ramon Pacheco Pardo, a Korea expert at King’s College London.
“Until now, the discussion was focusing on The Quad, dealing with China and the North Korea policy review,” he said. “Now Kim’s statement will be central to discussions.”
North Korea has so far rebuffed entreaties from the United States to engage in dialogue, the White House said on Monday, as a chill in relations that began under then-President Donald Trump has extended into Joe Biden’s presidency.
Leader Kim Jong Un had three high-profile summit meetings with Trump and exchanged a series of letters, but the nuclear-armed state ended talks and said it would not engage further unless the United States drops its hostile policies.
There was no immediate response from the White House and State Department, or South Korea’s government. Biden’s team has been conducting a review of North Korea policy, which it expects to wrap up in coming weeks.
‘WAR DRILLS’
South Korean and American troops began a joint springtime military drill last week, which was limited to computer simulations because of the coronavirus risk as well as the ongoing efforts to engage with the North.
“War drills and hostility can never go with dialogue and cooperation,” said Kim Yo Jong, who has become a vocal critic of Seoul in state media dispatches.
She mocked South Korea for “resorting to shrunken war games, now that they find themselves in the quagmire of political, economic and epidemic crisis.”
The inter-Korean engagement that had improved in 2018 and is sought by South Korea “won’t come easily again” and North Korea will be watching to see if there is further provocations, she said.
North Korea would consider pulling out of an inter-Korean military agreement aimed at reducing tensions along their shared border, and would review whether to dissolve several organisations aimed at cooperation with the South, Kim said.
Kim Yo Jong’s statement, as colourful as it is, is generally consistent with past North Korean statements expressing frustrations at disparities between words and actions, said Jenny Town, director of 38 North, a U.S.-based website that tracks North Korea.
“How despite the agreements in place, positive actions especially on the inter-Korean agenda have been too few while actions that reinforce the ‘old’ adversarial relationship persist,” she said. (Reuters)
March
UAE agritech start-up raises $50 million in bonds to grow tomatoes in the desert
Written by Nur YasminMar. 16 - UAE agriculture technology start-up Pure Harvest Smart Farms has raised $50 million via sukuk, or Islamic bonds, the first time an early-stage company in the region has secured venture capital through debt on the market, its chief executive said on Monday.
It also raised $10 million in equity capital in January, founder and CEO Sky Kurtz told Reuters.
The combined $60 million capital will be used to build two “high-tech hybrid greenhouses” in the United Arab Emirates to produce tomatoes, currently the firm’s main product, and leafy greens in year-round warmth and sunshine.
The financing will also allow the company to retrofit an existing facility for berry production in the UAE and build a tomato production facility in Saudi Arabia in partnership with the National Agricultural Development Company (NADEC), 20% owned by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund.
Pure Harvest’s overall production will be around 75 metric tonnes per week by June, up from between 10 and 14 tonnes now, Kurtz said.
The $50 million three-year sukuk issue has a coupon of 8%, with 7% payment-in-kind at maturity. It also has embedded warrants that investors can exercise, subject to certain events, to take equity in the company.
The issuance was arranged by Shuaa Capital and anchored by investments from Franklin Templeton and Sancta Capital.
“This is a company that is by far the most advanced agtech player in the region,” said Ahmad Alanani of Sancta Capital, adding it has intellectual property that is “very defensible”.
The company aims eventually to export its produce, but Kurtz said it had a “long way to go” before it covers imports in the Gulf, where around 80-90% of fresh produce is currently imported.
Pure Harvest is planning to return to capital markets in less than three months with an instrument to complete a 39 million euro ($47 million) multi-crop project in Kuwait.
The company has raised total commitments of $216 million, of which $151.5 million is in various forms of debt and the rest is equity, including incentives from the Abu Dhabi Investment Office (ADIO), which Kurtz said were “substantial”, without specifying.
Pure Harvest expects to enter markets outside the region next year or in 2023 and is in discussions to build projects in Southeast Asia in partnership with a wealthy individual from the Philippines, Kurtz said. (Reuters)
March
Australia's Cormann to lead OECD, climate activists dismayed
Written by Nur Yasmin
Mar. 16 - Australia’s former finance minister Mathias Cormann on Friday announced he won the race to lead the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), disappointing climate activists who said he has blocked efforts to reduce emissions.
Cormann takes over as the OECD enters the final stretch of one of its highest profile missions: steering global talks to rewrite rules for taxing cross border commerce for the first time in a generation.
Cormann won a tight race, narrowly beating the Swedish politician and former European Union trade commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom, who went into the final vote with broad support from most European countries.
“Earlier today I learned that the Selection Committee will recommend to the OECD Council that I be appointed as next Secretary-General of the OECD,” Cormann said in a statement.
He said the OECD would stay focused on maximising the strength of the economic recovery from COVID-19, to promote ambitious action on climate change and work on finalising a multilateral approach to digital taxation.
Born in Belgium before migrating to Australia in 1996, Cormann has said the OECD must provide leadership on climate change, adding that the targets set in the 2015 Paris Agreement were a foundation to build upon.
Australia’s Prime Minister Scott Morrison said the election of Cormann demonstrated Canberra’s global standing.
“This is a great honour for Mathias who has worked tirelessly over several months to engage with leaders, senior ministers and officials of OECD member nations from Europe, Asia and the Americas,” Morrison said in an emailed statement.
Environmental activists expressed bitter disappointment at his victory.
Last week, campaign groups sent a letter to OECD noting that as Australia’s finance minister, Cormann abolished the country’s carbon pricing scheme, failed to commit to a net-zero emissions target, and maintained fossil fuel subsidies.
At that time, the Australian government “persistently failed to take effective action to reduce emissions at home and has consistently acted as a blocker within international forums”.
“We have little confidence in Cormann’s ability to ensure the OECD is a leader in tackling the climate crisis, when he has an atrocious record on the issue,” Jennifer Morgan, executive director of Greenpeace International, said. (Reuters)
March
Afghan peace talks should rotate among countries, envoy says amid stall
Written by Nur Yasmin
Mar. 16 - Afghan peace talks, now stalled in Qatar, should be rotated to other venues, Afghanistan’s ambassador to the United Arab Emirates said, indicating the Qatari hosts had not pushed hard enough for the Taliban to reduce violence.
Talks between the Afghan government and the Taliban have been held in Qatar since last year, after the United States agreed to withdraw its troops. But violence has increased and the government accuses the militants of failing to meet obligations to reduce attacks.
Ambassador Javid Ahmad said peace talks should not be held in one fixed location, but rotate among venues in Europe, Asia, the Middle East or Afghanistan itself. He later told Reuters his comments reflected his personal view and not that of the Afghan government.
The Taliban, which opened an office in Qatar in 2013, were too “comfortable” there, he said. “We want the Taliban to get out of their comfort zone.”
“The Qataris could have used its role as a host to play a more active and decisive role in pushing the Taliban to reduce violence or declare a ceasefire,” Ahmad said. “They have not properly used their leverage, as a host to the Taliban ..., to push the group’s leaders to declare a ceasefire or to visibly reduce violence.”
Qatar’s government communications office said Doha was committed to supporting Afghans by hosting the talks, and would like to see a reduction in violence leading “to continued peace and security in the country”.
“The fact that representatives of the Afghan government and the Taliban are still at the table shows that the negotiations are working,” it said.
Russia will hold a conference on Afghanistan this week, while Turkey hosts talks next month as the United States seeks to shake-up the process, proposing an interim administration.
Ahmad said Afghanistan’s “participatory government” had “the capacity to absorb the Taliban and ex-combatants” but that the only way to achieve a transition of power was through elections.
The Taliban have said they are committed to the peace negotiations.
Former U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration signed a troop withdrawal deal with the Taliban in February 2020 under which all international forces were expected to leave the country by May 1.
However, violence has risen and NATO officials say some conditions of the deal, including the Taliban cutting ties with international militant groups, have not been met, which the Taliban disputes. (Reuters)
March
China eases visa rules for recipients of its vaccines
Written by Nur Yasmin
Mar. 16 - China said on Monday it will simplify visa applications for foreign nationals who have been inoculated with Chinese-made COVID-19 vaccines, its latest small step towards normalising international travel.
Vaccinated passengers travelling to China by air will still need to show negative tests as under current rules, foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said, according to an official transcript of a daily briefing. The transcript did not provide further details on how visa applications would be simplified.
Travellers “should abide by China’s relevant regulations on quarantine and observation after entering China,” Zhao said, adding that China was willing to carry out mutual recognition of vaccination with other nations.
The Chinese embassy in the Philippines said earlier on Monday China would return to pre-pandemic visa requirements for those fully vaccinated with Chinese vaccines. On Saturday China announced streamlined visa procedures for vaccinated foreigners entering Chinese-ruled Hong Kong.
China has been exporting its vaccines mostly to emerging countries. This outreach prompted the United States, Australia, Japan and top global vaccine producer India to announce plans to distribute vaccines in Asia in a competition that has become known as “vaccine diplomacy”.
China has largely brought the coronavirus under control at home since it first emerged in the central Chinese city of Wuhan in late 2019. The country recorded just five new infections on Sunday, all imported cases.
To stave off the risk of imported cases causing a resurgence in local infections, China restricts entry by foreign nationals to certain purposes, such as work, and those that are allowed in still have to undergo quarantine. (Reuters)
March
HK scientist develops retinal scan technology to identify early childhood autism
Written by Nur Yasmin
Mar. 15 - A Hong Kong scientist has developed a method to use machine learning and artificial intelligence to scan retinas of children as young as six to detect early autism or the risk of autism and hopes to develop a commercial product this year.
Retinal eye scanning can help to improve early detection and treatment outcomes for children, said Benny Zee, a professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.
“The importance of starting early intervention is that they are still growing, they are still developing. So there is a bigger chance of success,” Zee said.
His method uses a high-resolution camera with new computer software which analyses a combination of factors including fibre layers and blood vessels in the eye.
The technology can be used to identify children at risk of autism and get them into treatment programmes sooner, said Zee.
Seventy children were tested using the technology, 46 with autism and a control group of 24. The technology was able to identify the children with autism 95.7 percent of the time. The average age tested was 13, with the youngest being six.
Zee’s findings have been published in EClinicalMedicine, a peer-reviewed medical journal.
Autism specialists welcomed his findings but said there remained a huge stigma, with parents often reluctant to believe their children have autism even when there are clear signs.
“Many times, parents will initially be in denial,” said Dr Caleb Knight, who runs a private autism therapy centre.
“If you had a medical test or biological marker like this, it might facilitate parents not going into denial for longer periods and therefore the child would get treatment more quickly.”
Children with autism have to wait around 80 weeks to see a specialist in the public medical sector, according to an emailed statement from Hong Kong’s government.
Zee told Reuters that his research is intended to be a supplemental tool to a professional assessment by licensed healthcare professionals. (Reuters)
March
IMF research shows top firms becoming more dominant during pandemic
Written by Nur Yasmin
Mar. 15 - The coronavirus pandemic has significantly strengthened market power among dominant firms, which could put a drag on medium-term growth and stifle innovation and investment, the International Monetary Fund said on Monday in a new research paper.
The research shows that key indicators of market power are on the rise, including price markups over marginal costs, and the concentration of revenues among the four biggest players in a sector, the IMF said.
“Due to the pandemic, we estimate that this concentration could now increase in advanced economies by at least as much as it did in the 15 years to end of 2015,” IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said in a blog post accompanying the paper. “Even in those industries that benefited from the crisis, such as the digital sector, dominant players are among the biggest winners.” (Reuters)
March
South Korea to expand COVID-19 vaccine drive, aims to inoculate quarter of population by June
Written by Nur Yasmin
Mar. 15 - South Korea unveiled on Monday plans to expand its immunisation campaign in the second quarter to include more senior citizens, health workers and other frontline professionals, with an aim to inoculate nearly a quarter of its 52 million people by June.
Starting in April, more priority groups will receive a vaccine, including more people aged 65 or above, other healthcare workers, police, fire officials, soldiers and flight attendants, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) said.
South Korea began inoculating high-risk medical workers and the critically ill at the end of February as it battles a third wave of COVID-19 and seeks to achieve herd immunity by November.
“Our primary goal is to vaccinate up to 12 million people within the first half of this year,” KDCA director Jeong Eun-kyeong told a briefing.
“We’re seeking to focus on protecting high-risk groups, while preventing schools and care places from infection and inoculating more health and medical workers and those who play an essential role in society.”
Nearly 18 million doses of vaccines will arrive in South Korea by June, including the nearly 1.7 million doses that already came into the country last month, Jeong said.
But health authorities have cut their first quarter inoculation target by more than 40% to around 750,000 after delaying the use of AstraZeneca’s vaccine on people aged 65 and older last month, citing a lack of clinical trial data on them. South Korea authorised the use of the AstraZeneca vaccine for that age group last week.
More than 95% of the nearly 590,000 who were inoculated as of midnight on Sunday have received the AstraZeneca vaccine and the remainder the Pfizer vaccine, KDCA data showed.
President Moon Jae-in, aged 68, is scheduled to get an AstraZeneca shot on March 23 as part of preparations to visit the UK for a G7 summit in June, his spokesman told a separate briefing.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has invited South Korea, India and Australia to attend the meeting as guests.
The KDCA has said it would allow those who are on a key public mission to be vaccinated in advance starting later this month.
The government has secured enough supplies to cover 79 million people. It has procured COVID-19 vaccines from Pfizer, Novavax, Moderna, Johnson & Johnson and the COVAX global distribution scheme.
The KDCA reported 382 new cases as of Sunday, raising the total caseload to 96,017, with 1,675 deaths. (Reuters)
March
Papua New Guinea faces coronavirus crisis as infections rise
Written by Nur Yasmin
Mar. 15 - The Pacific island nation of Papua New Guinea (PNG) is facing a fresh wave of COVID-19 infections around the capital Port Moresby, which neighbouring Australia and aid groups fear could overwhelm the country’s small and overstretched health system.
The Pacific Friends of Global Health warned if health services are overwhelmed by COVID-19 the treatment of malaria, HIV and tuberculosis would also collapse.
Half the COVID-19 tests from PNG processed by Australia have been positive, prompting calls for faster vaccine delivery.
“Out of the 500 tests that our health authorities have done for PNG, 250 have come back positive,” Australia’s Queensland state Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk told reporters on Monday.
PNG’s Western Province lies within a few kilometres of Australia’s northern border, and Queensland laboratories are assisting to investigate the worsening outbreak.
Palaszczuk said Papua New Guinea was “on the doorstep” and she held real concern about the rising infection rate there.
Ninety-seven new cases were recorded on Sunday, bringing the total to 2,269 and 26 deaths, PNG Prime Minister James Marape said on Monday. Almost a quarter of those cases were recorded in the past week, a WHO tally shows. COVID infections have been recorded in 19 provinces
The latest outbreak is centred on the National Capital District in Port Moresby, where more than 1,000 cases have been recorded, and comes after the nation mourned the death of its first prime minister, Sir Michael Somare.
“We were already at this absolute crisis point for the country,” Brendan Crabb, chairman of the Pacific Friends of Global Health, told Reuters in a telephone interview.
“Added to that is the Grand Chief Michael Somare’s commemorations over the past week, which if ever there was a super-spreading event in the middle of an already big epidemic, clearly that’s it.”
Somare will be buried on Tuesday. Marape told reporters an isolation strategy would be announced on Wednesday.
The national and supreme courts shut on Monday for two weeks after four court staff including two judges tested positive, the court registrar said in a website statement.
The AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine is not planned to be rolled out until late April, through the COVAX initiative which has allocated one million doses to the Pacific.
“We need Papua New Guinea’s 5,000 or so health care workers vaccinated in the next week or two,” said Crabb.
Australia has pledged to spend $407 million for regional vaccine access covering nine Pacific Island countries. (Reuters)