Live Streaming
Program Highlight
Company Profile
International News (6889)
May
S.Korea finmin: S.Korea, Japan, China cooperation more important as world economy at inflection point
Written by Nur Yasmin
South Korea's finance minister said on Tuesday that the trilateral cooperation between South Korea, Japan and China has became more important as the global economy stands at an inflection point.
Minister Choo Kyung-ho said such cooperation would not only help the three countries, which account for more than 20% of the world economy, but also the Asian region and the world, during his opening remarks at a trilateral meeting of finance ministers and central bank governors.
The countries' economic leaders met on the sidelines of the Asian Development Bank's annual meeting of the board of governors held in Incheon, South Korea. (Reuters)
May
Thai PM candidate gives birth two weeks before election
Written by Nur Yasmin
Thailand's leading prime ministerial candidate, Paetongtarn Shinawatra, gave birth on Monday to a baby boy two weeks before elections in which she hopes to return to power the populist movement her father and aunt led before army coups ousted them.
Paetongtarn, 36, announced the birth on her official Facebook and Instagram accounts with a photo of the newborn.
"Hi, my name is Prutthasin Sooksawas, nickname Thasin," read the post. "Thanks for all the support. In a few days, wait for my mum to recover first, then I will meet the press."
Paetongtarn, who goes by the nickname Ung Ing, has been first or second in polls for voters' favourite prime ministerial candidate throughout the campaign for the May 14 election, trading places with Pita Limjaroenrat of the progressive opposition Move Forward Party.
The imminent arrival of Paetongtarn's second child had not kept her from the campaign trail until very recently.
Her family's name recognition and her party's enduring popularity that has brought it a string of election victories could again bring it back to power.
Recent polls showing opposition parties with big leads could spell trouble for incumbent Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha, who first came to power in a 2014 coup that ousted an elected government that had been led by Paetongtarn's aunt, Yingluck Shinawatra.
Paetongtarn's father and Yingluck's brother, former telecommunications tycoon Thaksin Shinawatra was himself toppled in a 2006 military coup. Both Thaksin and Yingluck live in self-imposed exile to avoid prison convictions their allies say were designed to prevent their political comebacks.
Prayuth, who became a civilian prime minister after 2019 elections, trailed in fourth place in a mid-April poll for favourite prime ministerial candidate with 13.72%.
However, Prayuth may have help from the 250-seat upper house Senate, whose appointed members were approved by the military junta Prayuth led for five years.
The Senate also votes for prime minister, so it is possible that the leader of the biggest party in the 500-seat elected lower house could be denied the top job if the Senate votes with minority parties. (Reuters)
May
North Korea blasts U.S.-South Korea summit deal for escalating tension
Written by Nur Yasmin
North Korea criticised a recent U.S-South Korea agreement to bolster the deployment of American strategic assets in the region for escalating tension to the "brink of a nuclear war," state media KCNA said on Monday.
U.S. President Joe Biden and South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol held a summit last week, during which Biden pledged to give Seoul more insight into its nuclear planning over any conflict with North Korea as anxiety grows over Pyongyang's weapons programmes and the American nuclear umbrella.
Both leaders agreed to strengthen South Korea's defences and regularly deploy U.S. strategic assets. As part of the efforts, a U.S. Navy nuclear-armed ballistic missile submarine will visit South Korea for the first time since the 1980s.
KCNA said the agreement stipulated the allies' willingness to take "the most hostile and aggressive action" against North Korea, citing Choe Ju Hyon, whom it described as an international security analyst.
The stationing of American strategic assets has placed the situation of the Korean peninsula in a "quagmire of instability," and was intended to build "aggressive and exclusive military blocs" in the region, it said.
"It is just aimed to dodge the responsibility for the worst-ever nuclear-related crimes it has committed by systematically destroying and violating the nuclear non-proliferation system, and in particular, pushing the situation of the Korean Peninsula to the brink of a nuclear war," KCNA said.
"It is the hegemonic sinister aim pursued by the U.S. to turn the whole of South Korea into its biggest nuclear war outpost in the Far East and effectively use it for attaining its strategy for dominating the world."
Pyongyang has reacted angrily to the Yoon-Biden summit, saying it consolidated its conviction to perfect its "nuclear war deterrent." (Reuters)
May
Uzbek leader wins referendum on extending powers
Written by Nur Yasmin
Uzbekistan has passed a package of constitutional amendments in a referendum, preliminary data showed on Monday, which will allow President Shavkat Mirziyoyev to run for two more seven-year terms when his current one ends in 2026.
The reform, passed with 90.21% of Sunday's vote, resets Mirziyoyev's term count, while promising the Central Asian nation's citizens greater social and legal protections.
Mirziyoyev, 65, has opened up the former Soviet republic's economy, greatly improved ties with the West, and curbed the powers of security services whose dominance had in previous decades turned the country of 35 million into a police state.
Although Tashkent's Western partners are unlikely to approve of the extension of presidential powers, Uzbekistan risks little given the West is seeking support from ex-Soviet nations in its efforts to isolate Russia over its war in Ukraine. (Reuters)
May
U.S., Japan, South Korea leaders to meet at G7 Hiroshima Summit - U.S. officials
Written by Nur Yasmin
Leaders from the United States, Japan and South Korea will hold a meeting at the time of the Group of Seven (G7) summit in Hiroshima this month, senior U.S. administration officials said. (Reuters)
May
US says Chinese coast guard harassing Philippine vessels
Written by Nur Yasmin
The United States urged China on Saturday to stop harassing Philippine vessels in the South China Sea, pledging to stand with the Philippines after another maritime confrontation between the two Asian countries.
"We call upon Beijing to desist from its provocative and unsafe conduct," the U.S. State Department said in a statement.
The Philippines on Friday accused China's coast guard of "aggressive tactics" following an incident during a Philippine coast guard patrol close to the Philippines-held Second Thomas Shoal, a flashpoint for previous altercations located 105 nautical miles (195 km) off its coast.
China on Sunday said it was willing to handle maritime differences with countries of concern in the South China Sea through friendly consultations and warned the United States against interference.
"The U.S., as a country outside of the region, must not interfere with the South China Sea matter or use the South China Sea matter to sow discord among regional countries," a Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson said in a written statement.
The Second Thomas Shoal is home to a small military contingent aboard a rusty World War Two-era U.S. ship that was intentionally grounded in 1999 to reinforce the Philippines' territorial claims. In February, the Philippines said a Chinese ship had directed a "military-grade laser" at one of its resupply vessels.
China claims sovereignty over almost the entire South China Sea, with a "nine-dash line" on maps that stretches more than 1,500 km off its mainland and cuts into the exclusive economic zones of Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei and Indonesia. An international arbitral ruling in 2016 dismissed that line as having no legal basis.
China's foreign ministry on Friday said the Philippine vessels had intruded into Chinese waters and made deliberate provocative moves.
The State Department said Washington "stands with our Philippine allies in upholding the rules-based international maritime order."
May
Biden, India's Modi to meet Pacific island leaders, Papua New Guinea PM says
Written by Nur Yasmin
U.S. President Joe Biden and his Indian counterpart, Narendra Modi, will join Pacific Islands leaders next month for a "historic" future-oriented meeting, Papua New Guinea Prime Minister James Marape said on Sunday.
"This is a historic first and at the same time a 'going forward' futuristic meeting of global superpowers, in the biggest country in the Pacific," Marape said in a statement.
Biden's May 22 stopover in the capital Port Moresby would be the first visit by a sitting U.S. president to the resource-rich but largely undeveloped country of 9.4 million people just north of Australia.
Papua New Guinea is being courted by China and by the U.S. and its allies, as Marape seeks to boost foreign investment. Chinese President Xi Jinping visited the nation in 2018.
Washington has stepped up efforts to counter Beijing's growing influence in the region after China struck a security pact with the Solomon Islands last year. China failed to reach a wider security and trade deal with 10 Pacific island countries.
China and Australia have been major aid and infrastructure donors.
Papua New Guinea is negotiating security pacts with the United States and Australia, and Marape has been invited to visit Beijing this year.
"In the Indo-Pacific conversation, PNG and the Pacific cannot be ignored. With our combined forest and sea areas, we have the world's greatest carbon sink, and the biggest sea and air space on earth," Marape said.
The 18 countries and territories in the Pacific Islands Forum cover 30 million square km (10 million square miles) of ocean. The region's leaders say climate change is their greatest security threat, amid worsening cyclones and rising sea levels.
Modi and Biden will stop in Papua New Guinea on the way to Australia for a May 24 summit of the Quad, which also includes Japan and Australia.
Marape said he had invited Biden when they met in Washington last year, and was "very honoured that he has fulfilled his promise to me to visit our country". (Reuters)
April
AUKUS nuclear submarine cost includes 50% fund for unexpected overruns
Written by Nur Yasmin
Australia's defence minister said on Friday the government was being "upfront and transparent" about the cost of its AUKUS nuclear submarine programme, after an analysis showed the forecast A$368 billion cost included a 50% contingency fund.
The Greens party, which commissioned the analysis by the Parliamentary Budget Office, said it showed the "huge" uncertainty over the project.
U.S. President Joe Biden, Australia Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak unveiled details in March of a plan to provide Australia with nuclear-powered attack submarines, a major step to counter China's ambitions in the Indo-Pacific.
Under the deal, the United States intends to sell Australia three U.S. Virginia class nuclear-powered submarines, which are built by General Dynamics, in the early 2030s, with an option for two more.
In a second phase, Australia and Britain will build an AUKUS class submarine, with Australia receiving its first submarine in the early 2040s. The vessels will be built by BAE Systems and Rolls-Royce. read more
Australia's Parliamentary Budget Office has reported the cost estimate over three decades includes a contingency of A$123 billion. A contingency is a future cost not currently known due to delays, budget overruns and other factors.
Greens Senator David Shoebridge said in a statement the scale of the contingency fund was "unprecedented" and highlighted "the huge level of uncertainty in the AUKUS submarine deal".
Defence Minister Richard Marles said the plan to build a nuclear powered submarine in Australia by the early 2040s was a "massive challenge for the country" and the government was "prudently budgeting here for the unexpected".
"We have sought to be as upfront and transparent as we possibly can be," he told ABC radio.
The Department of Defence did not release the sale price of the U.S. Virginia Class submarines that Australia will initially purchase, the budget office said.
The report showed most of the cost of the submarine programme will be incurred in the two decades from 2033. (Reuters)
April
World's apparel and sneakers hub Vietnam struggles as US ban on Xinjiang cotton bites
Written by Nur Yasmin
Tighter U.S. rules to ban imports from China's Xinjiang are compounding pressure on Vietnam's apparel and footwear makers, hitting a sector that has already shed nearly 90,000 jobs since October in the global manufacturing hub as demand slowed.
Among garment exporters, Vietnam has faced the worst hit from the the Uyghur Forced Labor Protection Act (UFLPA), a Reuters review of official U.S. data showed. The law, in place since June, requires companies to prove that they do not use raw material or components produced with Xinjiang's forced labor.
The U.S. clampdown hurts as it comes on top of a drop in clothing demand from richer nations that has already dented industrial output and exports from the Southeast Asian manufacturing powerhouse, a major supplier to big brands such as Gap (GPS.N), Nike (NKE.N) and Adidas (ADSGn.DE).
Of the $15 million worth of apparel and footwear shipments held up for UFLPA checks more than 80% were from Vietnam, and only 13% of its cargoes were cleared for entry, U.S. customs data up to April 3 showed.
Vietnamese manufacturers, trade associations and the industry ministry did not reply to Reuters questions about the impact of UFLPA.
The value of shipments from Vietnam that have been denied entry to the U.S. exceeded $2 million, three times more than those from China - with the sanctions having increased exponentially in the first months of this year.
While U.S. controls have been far more frequent for the electronics industry, especially for solar panels which could be made with polysilicon from Xinjiang, only 1% of electronics cargoes checked were denied entry, as opposed to 43% of apparel and footwear shipments.
In total, customs checked nearly 3,600 shipments worth more than $1 billion from a range of countries to ascertain they did not carry goods with input from forced labor in Xinjiang, U.S. customs data showed.
XINJIANG LINKS
While the halted shipments represent a tiny portion of the $27 billion worth of garments and footwear Vietnam exported to the U.S. last year, compliance risks may lead to more painful adjustments for Vietnam.
That, in turn, will hit U.S. consumers as Vietnam is their main source of cotton apparel, according to the U.S. Department of Commerce.
"Vietnam's heavy reliance on cotton textile materials from China poses a significant risk of containing Xinjiang cotton, as the province produces over 90% of China's cotton," Sheng Lu, Director at the Department of Fashion and Apparel Studies at the University of Delaware, told Reuters.
He said it was unlikely Vietnam could drastically reduce this dependence, also because many manufacturers there are owned by Chinese investors.
An industry and a government official familiar with the matter confirmed that some Vietnamese suppliers may find it hard to comply with the new rules, either because they import cotton from Xinjiang or because they are unable to prove they do not.
The Federal Maritime Commission, the U.S. agency responsible for international ocean transportation, warned earlier this month of potential supply chain disruptions caused by UFLPA checks.
In a survey last year, nearly 60% of U.S. fashion industry managers said they were exploring countries outside Asia for their supplies as a reaction to the forced labor law.
Sheng Lu said it would be hard for U.S. firms to rapidly find alternative suppliers, therefore more checks on Vietnamese cargoes are to be expected.
Western companies should "make more significant efforts to map their supply chain, figure out where production at each stage happens and demonstrate adequate due diligence", he said.
SHEDDING JOBS
Weaker demand has forced the industry, Vietnam's biggest employer after agriculture, to shed nearly 3% of its 3.4 million workers since October, and contributed to an 11.9% drop in the country's exports and a 2.3% decline in output in the first quarter of this year from a year earlier, slowing growth.
Roughly one in every three pairs of shoes that Nike and Adidas sell globally and 26% and 17% of their clothing, respectively, is made in Vietnam.
However Nike has significantly reduced its output of apparel and footwear in Vietnam despite the country remaining its main manufacturing hub, according to its latest annual report updated to May 2022. It did not reply to questions about UFLPA.
Adidas did not comment on UFLPA either, but said downsizing at its Vietnamese suppliers would respect local law.
"Vietnam continues to be among our major sourcing countries," an Adidas spokesperson said.
Gap said it had no shipments detained.
Two officials from U.S. footwear and apparel industry trade associations said the new rules have had no major impact so far on Vietnam and blamed recent job cuts on lower global demand.
Major job cuts in Vietnam were under way at Pou Chen (9904.TW), a major supplier to Nike and Adidas, Reuters reported in February, at a time when it is planning a big manufacturing investment in India.
People were fired at a contractor of U.S. sportswear company Under Armour, and workers had their hours slashed at Regina Miracle International, a supplier of U.S. lingerie giant Victoria's Secret, workers and executives told Reuters.
Those companies did not reply to Reuters' questions.
"Normally, firms recruit new workers after Tet (Lunar New Year), but this year everything has gone the opposite," said Nguyen Thi Huong, 45, who worked for Pou Chen for ten years and recently lost her job. (Reuters)
April
Asian Nations To debate Japan's bid to beef up market safeguards
Written by Nur Yasmin
Asian finance leaders gathering in South Korea next week will likely debate ways to beef up safeguards against market turbulence, as global banking sector woes and fears of recession in advanced economies cloud the economic outlook.
The impact of U.S. interest rate hikes on the region's capital flows may also be discussed when finance ministers and central bank chiefs of ASEAN+3 - which groups the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) plus Japan, China and South Korea - meet on Tuesday.
Japan, which co-chairs with Indonesia this year's meeting of ASEAN+3 nations, hopes to discuss the idea of strengthening currency swap lines known as Chiang Mai Initiative Multilateralisation (CMIM), Finance Minister Shunichi Suzuki told a news conference on Friday.
"It's not as if we're heading into a major crisis now," Suzuki said. "Even so, we must prepare for the worst."
Japan is keen to propose a facility that enhances usage of existing currency swap lines, and allows members to tap funds in times of emergencies such as pandemics and natural disasters, said three sources with direct knowledge of the matter.
Suzuki said he plans to attend the ASEAN+3 meeting on Tuesday, to be held on the sidelines of the Asian Development Bank's (ADB) annual meeting in Incheon in South Korea next week.
The Bank of Japan also said its Governor Kazuo Ueda will travel to Incheon on May 1-4 to attend the meetings.
The recent failures of two U.S. banks have heightened alarm among policymakers about vulnerabilities in the global banking system and potential market turbulence that could re-emerge from aggressive U.S. interest rate hikes.
While Asian policymakers stress their countries have sufficient foreign reserves and buffers to fend of another crises, they may see scope to make enhancements to existing arrangements to combat potential market upheaval, analysts say.
In a report released earlier this month, the ADB projected developing Asia to achieve economic growth of 4.8% in 2023, more than its pervious estimate of 4.6% in December and faster than a 4.2% growth in 2022, thanks to China's projected rebound.
But some central banks in the region, such as Australia, have begun pausing interest rate hikes as they saw their economies and jobs growth moderate from the impact of global headwinds and past monetary tightening.
The International Monetary Fund has urged Asian central banks to keep monetary policy "tighter for longer" to combat still substantial inflation risks. (Reuters)