VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

New Zealand needs to keep increasing the supply of houses to address housing affordability, which is still a concern, the International Monetary Fund said on Wednesday, adding that land should be freed up to promote investment.

“The cyclical downturn in (house) prices does not imply that the structural housing shortage has been addressed. There is a strong need to expand housing supply, including for social housing to improve affordability,” the IMF said in a statement issued after its "Article IV" review of New Zealand policies

New Zealand house prices have fallen roughly 16% since their peak in November 2021 as the central bank has aggressively hiked the cash rate with the intent of dampening inflation. However, New Zealand still has one of the highest house-price-to-income ratios in the world.

The IMF report said while prices have fallen, financial stability risks appear contained.

It added that achieving long-term affordability depends critically on freeing up land supply and improving planning and zoning, and fostering infrastructure investment to enable fast track housing developments and reduce construction costs and delays.

More broadly, the IMF said that New Zealand’s economic growth is expected to slow to 1% annually both this year and next while inflation will likely gradually decline to be between 1% and 3% by 2025.

“Risks to the outlook stem from the external environment and a potential need for stronger tightening of monetary and financial condition,” it said. (Reuters)

New Zealand is negotiating a new type of partnership with NATO, which will likely cover areas of common interest including the international rules based order, climate change and cyber security, the country's foreign minister said on Wednesday.

Nanaia Mahuta said in an email to Reuters that NATO is shifting all of its partnership arrangements to a new model called an Individually Tailored Partnership Programme and that New Zealand was currently working out the details.

"Our ITPP will record long-standing areas of mutual interest between New Zealand and NATO, and possible opportunities for cooperation over the arrangement period," she said.

"While the exact areas of work are yet to be agreed, we expect it will cover areas of common interest such as support for the international rules based order, climate change, and cyber security," she said.

New Zealand has been a NATO partner since 2012 but is not a member. A NATO statement in February said New Zealand and NATO were strengthening relations to address shared security challenges.

Mahuta said neither New Zealand nor NATO considers the ITPPs to be a new bloc or formal regional grouping.

New Zealand has only one official ally - neighbouring Australia - although both are part of the Five Eyes intelligence and security alliance that includes Britain, Canada and the United States.

New Zealand has a long-standing nuclear free policy and Mahuta said the ITPP would be in line with that policy.

New Zealand's Prime Minister Chris Hipkins earlier this week confirmed he would be attending the NATO summit in Lithuania as well as visiting China at the end of June.

NATO will set up a liaison office in Tokyo in 2024 and use it as a hub for co-operation with Australia, Japan, New Zealand and South Korea, the Nikkei newspaper said on Tuesday, a plan China has previously described as unwelcome. (Reuters)

South Korea sued North Korea on Wednesday for $35 million in compensation for a liaison office that North Korea blew up in 2020, in a case highlighting the breakdown of ties between the neighbours as the North presses on with its weapons programmes.

North Korea blew up the liaison office, set up in 2018 on its side of the border to foster better ties, after threatening retaliation for North Korean defectors in the South waging a propaganda leaflet campaign.

A South Korean official said the suit, lodged with the Seoul Central District Court, was the first the government had ever filed against the North.

The South Korean Unification Ministry, which handles inter-Korean affairs, said the case had to be filed before June 16 to comply with a three-year statue of limitations under South Korean law.

"This action is taken to preserve national claims and interrupt the statute of limitations of the right to claim compensation for damages," the ministry said in a release.

Reclusive North Korea does not accept queries from foreign journalists. A South Korea official, asked about the likelihood of the North engaging with any such legal process, said it was still necessary to file the suit on time.

The liaison office was the first diplomatic mission of its kind between the rivals and was a symbol of reconciliation at a time of optimism over several projects aimed at reducing tension.

North Korea blew it up in front of state media cameras after complaining of the defectors' campaign of floating propaganda leaflets into the North tied to balloons.

South Korea estimated the cost of the destroyed office and a badly damaged 15-storey building nearby to house South Korean officials, was 44.7 billion won ($35 million).

South Korea said the North's demolition was a "violent" and "illegal" act that undermined trust and infringed on the property rights of the South and its people.

North and South Korea remain technically at war because their 1950-53 conflict ended in a truce, not a treaty.

Nuclear-armed North Korea has over the past year or more been testing various weapons, including its biggest intercontinental ballistic missile, ramping up tension with the South and its main ally, the United States. (Reuters)

New Zealand's national radio broadcaster said it has set up an independent review of its editorial processes after it published a range of stories on its website, including on Russia's invasion of Ukraine, that were altered to present "a false account of events".

Radio New Zealand (RNZ), which is government-funded but has editorial independence, had by Wednesday corrected 22 stories on its website dating back to April 2022 because of what it termed "inappropriate editing".

The broadcaster, which first revealed the issues last Friday, said its board decided an independent review was necessary. The panel would review editorial processes and "examine factors and warning signs, which led to international wire stories being subedited with inappropriate content," it said in a statement.

Reuters supplied 21 of the altered stories and one came from Britain's BBC, RNZ's list of stories that have been corrected shows.

Most of the corrections RNZ included in the 22 stories indicate the editing had changed the original stories to present pro-Russian interpretations of some events in Ukraine as fact. Stories on other topics, including on China-Taiwan relations and the Middle East, have also been corrected.

In its statement, RNZ said it would continue to audit stories published on its website and restore copy to its original state where issues are identified.

RNZ is a media client of Reuters.

Reuters said it had addressed the issue with RNZ.

"As stated in our terms and conditions, Reuters content cannot be altered without prior written consent. Reuters is fully committed to covering the war in Ukraine impartially and accurately, in keeping with the Thomson Reuters Trust Principles," a spokesperson said.

The BBC did not immediately respond to a request for comment on RNZ's move to review its internal processes. Earlier in the week, a BBC spokesperson referred Reuters' request for comment back to RNZ.

RNZ Board Chairman Jim Mather said the review, to be conducted by three independent experts, was "in the interest of achieving and protecting the highest standards of journalism at RNZ."

"We are focused on restoring the public’s confidence in us," he said.

The panel includes New Zealand media law expert Willy Akel, public law expert and former journalist Linda Clark and former director of editorial standards at the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Alan Sunderland.

"I am pleased to be asked to be part of the panel on what is a significant review. Issues of trust and integrity in the news media are important, and I look forward to getting to work on this," Sunderland told Reuters.

Clark referred Reuters to the chair of the RNZ board while Akel declined to comment.

Last Friday, RNZ said it had become aware of the editing issue, and had started an "immediate investigation". A staff member had been put on leave while the inquiry took place and was now prevented from accessing RNZ's computer systems, it added. (Reuters)