SMS scam gang arrested

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Stingray-equipped vehicles used to steal millions from mobile users

National police chief Pol Gen Damrongsak Kittiprapas shows the equipment used by a SMS scammer gang at the Cyber Crime Investigation Bureau (CCIB) on Thursday. (Photo: Nutthawat Wicheanbut)
National police chief Pol Gen Damrongsak Kittiprapas shows the equipment used by a SMS scammer gang at the Cyber Crime Investigation Bureau (CCIB) on Thursday. (Photo: Nutthawat Wicheanbut)

Police have arrested six suspected scammers who drove vehicles equipped with cell-site simulators, known as stingrays, in an effort to steal money from mobile phone users in Bangkok and nearby provinces.

All the suspects were arrested in Bang Waek area of Bangkok, national police chief Pol Gen Damrongsak Kittiprapas during a media briefing on Thursday. Their names were not disclosed.

Cyber Crime Investigation Bureau (CCIB) commissioner Pol Lt Gen Worawat Watnakhonbancha said many people had fallen victim to this scam gang. These scammers tricked their victims into clicking fraudulent links to Kasikornbank (KBank), which gave them control of their bank accounts, he said.

From March to May this year, the CCIB had received complaints over the scam from many victims, with damage estimated at 174.15 million baht. 

The bureau’s investigation found that the suspects had used stingrays while driving their vehicles around many areas of Bangkok, Nonthaburi and Samut Prakan provinces.

The equipment would send SMS messages with fake links of banks, the Revenue Department, utility authorities and other agencies to mobile phones in areas where the vehicles drove.

According to Pol Lt Gen Worawat, stingrays had been used along border areas to send signals to mobile phones in Thailand, which prompted authorities to impose measures to control them. Scammers later took the devices into the country.

People who clicked fake links sent by scammers would be asked to install applications that would remotely control their cell phones and transfer money from their bank accounts, said Pol Lt Gen Worawat.

CCIB investigators tracked down the six suspects and apprehended them on Thursday. Seized from them were vehicles and four sets of the equipment used for scamming.

During questioning, all suspects confessed to all charges. They told police that they had been hired by an individual working from a neighbouring country. The individual paid them a monthly salary of 80,000 baht, and their task was to drive vehicles equipped with stingrays around Bangkok and the surrounding areas. The devices can send up to 20,000 messages a day per device.

In March, the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) alerted the CCIB about a substantial number of stingrays being smuggled into Thailand. Authorities also discovered that these stingrays had been used to disseminate links to online gambling websites.

Secretive surveillance technology known as stingrays seized from scammers are displayed during a media briefing on Thursday. (Photo: Nutthawat Wicheanbut)

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No long queues, no panicking customers: India’s banks start exchanging discontinued 2,000-rupee notes

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Resident Sanjeev Sen Gupta said he would check with a store to see if he could get rid of his notes by buying some jewellery. 

“It totally depends on the understanding between the businessman and the customer. I am sure the jewellery shop owner will think about whether he should accept them,” he added. 

Meanwhile, some businesses are hoping to cash in on the situation by encouraging shoppers to use up their notes by purchasing goods or services.

Another resident, Ms Sangeeta Sehgal, said: “The businesses are giving us options. They are telling us to go to their gyms and to go to their shops. 

“I am also getting these messages on WhatsApp telling me that I can buy all kinds of clothes using 2,000-rupee notes. So, they have now used this to boost their sales, be it jewellers or any other businesses. So a lot of us are spending our 2,000-rupees notes in the market this way.”

As people shop to avoid the hassle of going to a bank, this has reportedly led to an increase in sales for many businesses, said analysts. 

This could benefit gold merchants and real estate companies, they added. 

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US-China trade war as mutually assured destruction

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Analysts at Fitch Ratings aren’t looking out for China as they tiptoe up to downgrading Washington’s AAA credit rating. But written between the lines in bold font is how a US default would give Beijing the big trade war win Xi Jinping has been seeking.

To be sure, China won’t love the paper losses on its stockpile of US$870 billion of US Treasury securities. Nor will Chinese leader Xi or Premier Li Qiang welcome the ways in which surging US debt yields make China’s 5% growth target less attainable.

But the immediate devastating blow to US leadership and credibility from a default would play right into Xi’s goal of increasing the yuan’s role in finance and trade — and thus giving China a bigger say in global economic affairs.

And yet, it’s not quite that simple. Just as US Congress members play games with the debt ceiling and teeter towards default, Chinese stocks are cratering.

The CSI index has erased all its gains for the year so far as China’s post-Covid recovery disappoints. It’s hard not to wonder if the common link here isn’t the trade war that neither side seems ready to end.

Call it mutually assured economic destruction. In the 855 days of the Joe Biden presidency, his White House continued predecessor Donald Trump’s punitive tariffs against China.

In many ways, Biden has gone after China with even greater verve. Biden is not doing it with blunt taxes and angry tweets, but surgical and steady efforts to deprive China of access to vital technology.

China, of course, has retaliated in kind. But as the two biggest economies face intensifying headwinds, it’s high time US and Chinese officials lowered the temperature and found a way to stop the insanity, many analysts believe.

A widely watched meeting in Vienna earlier this month between US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan and China’s top diplomat Wang Yi generated some muted optimism. Both sides described the discussions as “candid, substantive and constructive.”

Another chance to return to normalcy will come at a dinner planned for May 25 in Washington, where US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo will dine with her Chinese counterpart Wang Wentao, marking the first cabinet-level meeting in Washington between the two sides during the Biden administration.

Yet where Biden or Xi stands on the it’s-time-to-talk continuum is anyone’s guess.

Chinese leader Xi Jinping and US President Joe Biden are locked in a contest for economic supremacy. Photo: Pool / Twitter / Screengrab

It’s time to admit the ongoing “decoupling” drama between the US and China is having an “adverse effect” on the companies of both nations, saysErgys Islamaj, senior economist at the World Bank.

What’s more, Islamaj notes, “the fragmentation of standards, especially between the world’s two largest markets, can not only constitute additional barriers to trade and investment between the two countries.”

The “fragmentation,” he says, “creates additional burdens and diseconomies on exporters and multinational corporations from third countries, as companies need to adjust their products and processes to comply with different regulations.”

All this is creating “additional costs and complexity in sourcing decisions” and it’s not a formula for innovation or economic confidence, Islamaj concludes.

Wang Qi, CEO of MegaTrust Investment, thinks ending what he calls an all-out “investment war” will be hard. As he puts it: “Trump started the trade war. Biden initiated the tech war. Yet they both wanted an investment war with China.”

Worries about heightened US-China tensions have weighed on Chinese stocks since late April. This is just months after the US Public Company Accounting Oversight Board completed its first round of audit inspections on Chinese ADRs, or American depositary receipts, “which reduced the delisting risk,” Wang says.

For now, at least. Many, though, “seriously underestimated the gravity of the so-called investment war, which is still on today,” Wang says. “Trying to limit Chinese companies’ growth by trade or tech sanctions is one thing. Putting an explicit cap on the US investments in Chinese stocks is another. The latter is arguably more direct and detrimental to the share price.”

US officers can, and do, make reciprocal claims about Beijing. Yet neither economy is thriving in this environment. US growth cooled in the first quarter. Gross domestic product (GDP) rose at an annual rate of 1.1% in the January to March period, down from 2.6% in the previous quarter last year.

“Compared to the fourth quarter, the deceleration in real GDP in the first quarter primarily reflected a downturn in private inventory investment and a slowdown in nonresidential fixed investment,” the US Commerce Department said earlier this month.

To Fitch economist Olu Sonola, the downshift is not a fluke. Despite unemployment sitting at a 54-year low, Sonola notes, US labor markets will weaken as aggregate demand stagnates in response to higher interest rates and tightening credit conditions, exacerbated by stress in the banking sector.

Silicon Valley Bank’s collapse could yet be the tip of the iceberg for US banks. Image: Screengrab / Twitter / TechCrunch

“Labor demand still exceeds supply, but this imbalance is declining, now at approximately 2.3% of the labor force in first quarter 2023 compared with 3.2% last quarter,” Sonola says. “Job openings have also declined by 1.6 million from peak levels. Wage growth year-over-year has decelerated significantly since last quarter in a number of states.”

Clearly, trade headwinds aren’t doing China any favors either. Retail sales, industrial output and fixed investment expanded much less than hoped in April. The youth unemployment rate hit a record high of 20.4%, raising concerns for social stability.

Economist Jeffrey Currie at Goldman Sachs says deep concerns over the health of the global financial sector, US debt ceiling risks, fears of an impending demand slowdown in the West and a disappointing recovery in China in April have all contributed to “fears of an upcoming US or global recession.”

Those fears will be turned up to 11 or higher as the US flirts with default. Enter Fitch, with a perilously timed downgrade warning as US politicians play with fire. It moved the US to “rating watch negative” the “X-date” when Washington runs out of cash.

In its statement, Fitch said “we believe risks have risen that the debt limit will not be raised or suspended before the X-date and consequently that the government could begin to miss payments on some of its obligations. Prioritization of debt securities over other due payments after the X-date would avoid a default.”

Adding to the uncertainty is where Biden and Xi might take their economic clash next.

Some think Team Biden should be careful what it wishes for. Economist Michael Beckley at the Washington-based Wilson Center says that “most debates on US-China policy focus on the dangers of a rising, confident China. But the United States actually faces a more volatile threat: an insecure China mired in a protracted economic slowdown.”

Chinese growth, he adds, has fallen by half over the past decade and is “likely to plunge in the years ahead as massive debt, foreign protectionism, resource depletion and rapid aging take their toll. Past rising powers that suffered such slowdowns became more repressive at home and aggressive abroad as they struggled to revive their economies and maintain domestic stability and international influence. China already seems to be headed down this ugly path.”

Performers dance during a show as part of the celebration of the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China, at the Bird’s Nest stadium in Beijing on June 28, 2021. Photo: AFP / Noel Celis

The bottom line, Beckley concludes, is that “slowing growth makes China a less competitive long-term rival to the United States, but a more explosive near-term threat. As US policymakers determine how to counter China’s repression and aggression, they should recognize that economic insecurity has spurred great power expansion in the past and is driving China’s belligerence today.”

Clearly, China could make a similar argument about the specter of Trump getting a second shot at power after the November 2024 election. Trump, after all, recently reiterated he favors a US default.

But if the definition of insanity, as Albert Einstein said, is trying the same play over and over expecting a different result, then there’s still too much crazy in US-China relations.

Follow William Pesek on Twitter at @WilliamPesek

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New parliament building: India opposition boycott casts shadow on inauguration

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Political rowGovernment of India
By Cherylann Mollan
BBC News, Mumbai

India’s new parliament is set to be inaugurated this weekend amid a political row as 19 opposition parties say they will boycott the ceremony.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate the building on Sunday.

But opposition leaders say India’s president, the highest constitutional authority, should open the building.

Leaders of the governing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have accused the opposition of “playing political games”.

On Wednesday, 19 parties – including the main opposition Congress – issued a statement announcing their “collective decision” to boycott the inauguration ceremony.

They said that while the opening was “a momentous occasion”, Mr Modi’s “decision to inaugurate the building by himself” was “a grave insult [and] a “direct assault” on India’s democracy.

The statement also mentioned that opposition MPs had been “disqualified, suspended and muted” while “controversial legislations” were passed with little debate.

“When the soul of democracy has been sucked out from the parliament, we find no value in a new building,” the parties added.

India’s Home Minister Amit Shah said that all political parties had been invited for the ceremony, and asked the opposition to not politicise the event.

“The government has requested all to be present. Everyone will act according to their own feelings,” he said in a press conference on Wednesday.

Relations between the governing BJP and most opposition parties are strained, often leading to an impasse during parliament sessions. Recently, opposition leaders protested after Congress leader Rahul Gandhi was disqualified from parliament after he was sentenced to jail in a defamation case.

Leaders from the governing National Democratic Alliance, led by the BJP, criticised the opposition statement, calling it “an egregious insult to our democracy and to their elected representatives”. They also asked the opposition to “think about the nation and not individual political gains”.

Opposition leaders have also criticised the government’s choice of date for the ceremony, which coincides with the birth anniversary of Hindutva ideologue VD Savarkar.

Not all opposition parties are on the same page on the matter – some regional parties such as the Biju Janata Dal and the YSR Congress Party will attend the ceremony.

The new parliament building – which is part of the government’s ambitious project to develop the Central Vista power corridor in capital Delhi – has been steeped in controversy from the outset.

Many opposition politicians, environmentalists and civil society groups had criticised the project for its high cost, and alleged that the government had not consulted other lawmakers and the public. They had also questioned the government’s decision to build a new parliament building instead of upgrading the old one.

The government, however, said that the new parliament was necessary as the older building was “showing signs of distress and over utilization”.

The new building – designed by HCP Design, Planning and Management and constructed by Tata Projects – has increased seating capacity and is built at at an estimated cost of 9.7bn rupees ($117.1m, £94.2m).

In 2020, the Congress had also boycotted the foundation stone-laying event of the new parliament, criticising the government for holding it at a time when farmers were protesting against three controversial new laws.

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Indonesia’s economic reform deeper than recognized

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The Covid-19 pandemic posed a tremendous economic challenge, especially for emerging economies such as Indonesia. But it also marked a watershed moment for the country’s economic reform efforts. The crisis enabled Indonesia to reduce its reliance on volatile foreign capital inflows and rethink its growth pathway.

During the pandemic, Indonesia was temporarily set free from its reliance on foreign capital as global investors fled emerging markets bonds and equity. At the same time, slumping domestic demand, which suppressed imports, and relatively large national savings ameliorated Indonesia’s current account deficit problem.

Russia’s war in Ukraine led to a commodity price boom that further boosted the domestic economy while it was still recovering from the pandemic.

Indonesia’s current account deficit problem stems from insufficient foreign direct investment (FDI). In 2021, Indonesia’s FDI inflow was only 1.8% of GDP, compared to Vietnam’s 4.3% and Malaysia’s 5%.

Instead, the economy has depended on volatile commodity-related exports and volatile foreign inflows in bonds and equity markets. The shallow and inadequate domestic financial market has not been able to sufficiently mobilize savings to finance the country’s investment needs.

In previous cycles of global volatility, subsequent outflows of foreign capital have significantly depreciated the Indonesian rupiah and caused liquidity crunches in the financial system.

This negatively impacted the domestic economy by increasing the government and corporate sector’s debt burden, creating inflationary pressure and raising funding costs and non-performing loans in the banking system.

Reform efforts to handle the problem by shrinking the account deficit have faced challenges. In previous years, reducing the current account deficit usually meant slowing down domestic consumption and imports, which inhibits economic growth. Efforts to boost manufacturing exports also have hit a brick wall.

The Indonesia rupiah is near a 20-year low. Photo: AFP / Bay Ismoyo
Stacks of Indonesian rupiah. Photo: AFP / Bay Ismoyo

As Indonesian wages are relatively higher, other Asian exporters — notably Vietnam and Bangladesh — have become more competitive.

Numerous financial scandals have undermined efforts to effectively mobilize savings and deepen financial markets. Despite these setbacks, institutional reforms are making some headway. The Ministry of Finance and Bank Indonesia are increasingly seen as credible institutions that adopt evidence-based policies, defend Western-style central bank independence and are led by respected figures.

Implementing measures to prevent excessive capital flows has proved complicated. Even a hint of capital controls or other regulations that would restrain the country’s relatively free and open capital markets have been met with resistance due to the experience of the Asian financial crisis. Relatively loose global monetary policy and prudent fiscal policies have also led to Indonesia’s rising popularity for foreign portfolio investment.

The government was quick to implement policy reforms that have partly borne fruit. The first of them is reform in the real economy. The government pushed through the Omnibus law in November 2020, which aims to improve Indonesia’s competitiveness and encourage labor-intensive industries’ growth. But its implementation is yet to be seen due to pushback by special interest groups.

The global energy crisis also inspired the government to enact a series of controversial policies, including “downstreaming” and the prohibition of raw material exports. These policies have partly contributed to increasing exports of nickel derivatives between 2011–2022 and stimulated economic growth in regional provinces.

The second policy group included financial sector reforms. The government passed a new financial omnibus bill to improve the credibility of the financial system, widen and deepen the domestic financial market, support new technologies growth and clarify crisis responses. Plans were also put in place to restructure the entire non-bank financial system after the collapse of a major state-owned insurance company in 2020.

The local bond market has grown substantially since the pandemic. Local banks are inclined to hold a large number of government bonds due to slumping credit demand, significantly boosting local ownership. The Ministry of Finance’s successful campaign to push savvy domestic investors to buy retail government bonds further mobilizes consumer savings and improves market discovery.

Indonesia’s central bank — Bank Indonesia — has also pulled its act in the domestic foreign exchange market. New derivative instruments have succeeded in driving market expectations of local currency movements and relieving pressure on the current exchange rate. The launch of a new time deposit facility for exporters also boosted foreign exchange supply.

A fishing boat is seen near a container terminal in Tanjung Priok , north Jakarta Indonesia November 16, 2016. Photo: Reuters/Darren Whiteside/File Photo
A fishing boat is seen near a container terminal in Tanjung Priok , north Jakarta Indonesia November 16, 2016. Photo: Agencies

In anticipating the sudden global dollar liquidity crunch, the central bank has intensified efforts to proliferate local currency settlements (LCS) — a program that encourages using local currencies to settle bilateral transactions — with Indonesia’s main trade partners.

Its efforts have significantly increased its monthly LCS usage. The central bank has also sought to reduce Indonesia’s reliance on foreign service providers by launching a new national credit card gateway.

Bank Indonesia has also embraced digitalization. The Indonesian QR standard has become widely available, logging over 24 million merchants and daily transactions of more than US$800 million.

It has enabled millions of informal sector vendors to interact with the mainstream financial system via Indonesia’s growing digital banking industry. This could be a potential goldmine for the government to increase fiscal policy effectiveness.

Indonesia has taken advantage of the Covid-19 pandemic and undergone fundamental reforms to address its previous flaws. Its job now is to finish implementing those “structural reforms” by enhancing the ease of doing business, reducing investment barriers and improving labor productivity and financial inclusion.

Suryaputra Wijaksana is an economist at Bank Rakyat Indonesia. The views expressed in this article are the author’s own.

This article was originally published by East Asia Forum and is republished under a Creative Commons license.

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Modi in Australia: Albanese announces migration deal with India

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Prime Minister Narendra Modi (R) with Australia's Prime Minister Anthony Albanese in front of the Sydney Opera HouseGetty Images
By Meryl Sebastian
BBC News

India and Australia have announced a migration deal as they aim to strengthen their economic cooperation.

The announcement came after Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi met his counterpart Anthony Albanese in Sydney on Wednesday.

The deal aims to “promote the two-way mobility of students, graduates, academic researchers and business people”.

They also discussed regional security amid rising tensions in the region.

India and Australia are part of the four-member Quad group, which also includes Japan and the US.

A scheduled meeting of the group in Sydney was cancelled last week after US President Joe Biden had to return to Washington for debt ceiling talks.

Mr Modi, however, continued his planned visit to Sydney after attending the G7 summit in Japan and travelling to Papua New Guinea.

This is Mr Modi’s first visit to Australia since 2014, and comes two months after Mr Albanese visited India in March.

Negotiations for the migration agreement had been going on for a couple of years. Australia already has a significant number of people who have migrated from India – census data shows that of more than a million people who moved to Australia since 2016, almost a quarter were from India.

According to a statement, the finalised migration agreement will also lead to the creation of a new scheme called MATES (Mobility Arrangement for Talented Early Professionals Scheme), which has been “specifically created for India”.

On Tuesday, the Indian prime minister said the two countries had also discussed increasing cooperation on mining and critical minerals and made progress in establishing an Australia-India Green Hydrogen Taskforce.

India and Australia are also working towards a comprehensive economic cooperation deal for which negotiations began more than a decade ago.

On Tuesday, thousands of people from the country’s Indian diaspora had turned up at one of Sydney’s biggest indoor stadiums, where Mr Modi was speaking at a rally.

“The last time I saw someone on this stage was Bruce Springsteen and he did not get the welcome that Prime Minister Modi has got,” Mr Albanese said at the event.

Mr Modi called the Indian community in Australia “a living bridge” between the two countries.

“The relationship between India and Australia is based on mutual trust and respect,” he said.

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Indian banks start exchanging withdrawn 2,000-rupee notes

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In this photograph taken on November 28, 2016, Indian visually impaired teacher from the Kendriya Vidhyalaya School, Dilipbhai Chauhan demonstrates how to identify a new 2000 rupee note at the Blind People's Association in Ahmedabad. The new 500 and 2000 rupee notes carry improved identification marks, including angular bleed lines - elevated markings - on the left and right of the notes, so that visually impaired people can identify the denomination.Getty Images
By Cherylann Mollan
BBC News, Mumbai

Indians are exchanging 2,000-rupee ($24 ;£19) notes at banks as the country aims to withdraw the currency from circulation.

The note was introduced in 2016 after the Indian government withdrew 500 and 1,000 rupee notes.

PM Narendra Modi’s decision was seen as an attempt to curb black money, but opposition parties say it failed to achieved its goal.

The notes can be exchanged until 30 September.

India’s central bank on Friday said that though 2,000-rupee notes – India’s highest denomination currency note – would be removed from circulation, they would still be legal.

This means that the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) wants most such notes to be exchanged or deposited into banks by 30 September and gradually removed from circulation.

But they don’t lose their legal status, allowing people to use them for transactions even after the deadline.

Banks have also been told to not issue 2,000-rupee notes. They have been asked to add more staff and counters to deal with an anticipated high volume of transactions.

The announcement has sparked some panic among people, who say it is reminiscent of the “demonetisation” move by the government.

On 8 November, Mr Modi gave only four hours’ notice to announce that all 500 and 1,000 rupee notes – effectively 86% of India’s cash – would no longer be valid. The 2,000 rupee notes were introduced to quickly replenish the amount currency in circulation after the move – termed “demonetisation” in the media.

Long queues were seen outside banks as people rushed to exchange 500 and 1,000 rupee notes before the deadline. There were reports of people fainting or dying as they waited in endless ATM queues.

The government has reassured people that the latest move is not “demonetisation”.

But it has received mixed responses.

Some BJP lawmakers have praised it by calling it a “second surgical strike on black money“, while some leaders from opposition parties said that the decision of withdrawing the notes in 2016 was flawed as the economy suffered due to it and the latest move was “an admission of that mistake”.

After the government’s announcement, there were reports of people making payments at petrol stations and shops using 2,000-rupee notes in a bid to get rid of them.

However, on Monday RBI governor Shaktikanta Das appealed to people to not rush to banks as there was “more than the required notes already available, already printed” for exchange.

He also said the withdrawal of the currency notes would have a marginal impact on the economy as they were “hardly used”.

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As Laos develops, can it make space for wild elephants?

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Mae Sengchan and Mae Kham meandered down the banks of the Mekong River in Laos, munching on bunches of bananas and piles of sugarcane.

In their mid-to-late-fifties, the rescued pair of endangered Asian elephants are far past their logging days. The two are now in the care of the Mandalao Elephant Conservation centre, a “friendly interactive tourism” company that is trying to balance business and conservation.

“These elephants are a member of my family. At times they are like my daughters, other times like my wife,” said Yot Jouttiphong, a mahout, an elephant handler or caretaker, for Mandalao just outside Luang Prabang in northern Laos. He’s worked with the species for more than two decades but has concerns for their future. 

“Elephants in Laos are getting fewer and fewer,” he said. “I hope we can find a good solution to increase the number of elephants.”

Modern Laos is built on the ancient kingdom of LanXang, which translates to “Land of a million elephants”. But much has changed since then. The most recent statistics, which are more than a decade old, estimate fewer than 1,000 elephants remain in the Laos wild with approximately 500 more in captivity.

Elephant entertainment in Laos reopened this year, just a few months after the country lifted all pandemic restrictions. Animal welfare experts worry the expected resurgence of visitors may add pressure to the country’s captive elephant business, which could in turn affect the survival of wild herds – a growing concern in Southeast Asia, where the massive animals run the risk of becoming simply a tourist commodity.

Asian elephants are considered “endangered” on the Red List of Threatened Species, which lists a web of pressures from deforestation and habitat loss to poaching for ivory.

“Conservationists can’t control government land clearings … which are out of our control,” said Ingrid Suter, co-founder of Asian Captive Elephant Standards, an animal welfare advocacy group. “That’s why the wild population has been shrinking for decades.”

The historic range of the species spanned the entire continent, according to a WWF report, which found that Asian elephants today are restricted to just 15% of that range. Half of the 100,000-strong wild elephant population in Asia at the start of the 20th century is reportedly gone.

“There is nothing wrong with riding an elephant if it is done properly. I am not going to tell a culture what they can and can’t do with their cultural traditions,” said Suter “But nobody wants an elephant hurt for tourism, for human gain. Things need updating and tweaking in modern times.”

‘The wild is not a safe place for elephants’

The quaint streets of Luang Prabang flowed with a single jostling crowd as visitors ran to keep up with the Lao New Year elephant parade on 13 April. Some tourists dashed to the front of the procession for selfies, while many more scrambled onto sidewalks to feed the trio of elephants being ridden through the historic town.

Tourists rush ahead of the new year elephant procession in the historic town of Luang Prabang, one of the largest tourism magnets in Laos, to take pictures and selfies with the animals. Photo: Anton L. Delgado for Southeast Asia Globe and Mekong Eye.

Celebrations for Buddhist New Year, known in Laos as pi mai, were in full swing for the first time since the outbreak of the pandemic. This brought the return of the elephant parade, an annual event that can walk a tightrope between celebration and conservation.

“I live in Luang Prabang but I never come for the elephant parade. This time I did and I was a parade member. I am so happy to see many people here. It means that Luang Prabang tourism lives again,” said Ting Thammavong, wearing a traditional Lao outfit as crowds began to disperse after the event.

Benedikt Göller, the chief operating officer of Mandalao, was less enthusiastic about the parade.

“I don’t want to say anything negative about cultural events,” said Göller the day after, pausing before answering as he navigated the potholed road to the elephant centre.

Thousands of visitors and locals fill the streets of Luang Prabang to take part in the Lao New Year elephant parade. Photo: Anton L. Delgado for Southeast Asia Globe and Mekong Eye.

Mandalao offers visitors casual elephant interactions such as forest walks, avoiding more debated rides on the giant animals or other debated practices. 

“People are really happy nowadays to support a conservation project by just observing elephants in their natural habitat,” said Göller, explaining the centre’s elephants are rescues from work camps. “If we can get more guests, it means we potentially have more funds to do more conservation.”

Nine of Mandalao’s 10 rescued elephants are older females – including Mae Sengchan and Mae Kham – who can’t be as easily released into the wild.

Mae Sengchan, a 58-year-old rescued Asian elephant, munches on a bunch of bananas in a forest reservation managed by Mandalao in Luang Prabang, Laos. Photo by Anton L. Delgado for Southeast Asia Globe and Mekong Eye.

The decline of wild herds is creating an elephant-sized hole in forest ecosystems across Southeast Asia, according to Prasop Tipprasert, project director for Mandalo. Elephants are indicators of a healthy forest, he explained, “if your environment is good enough to support elephant life, any life can stay.”

“Elephants are one of the keys of a balanced ecosystem,” he said. Laughing, he called elephants the “best seed dispersers” because of how much they eat and defecate.

Prasop is often referred to as the “elephant master” because of his experiences in the field that date back to 1989, when he co-founded the Thai Elephant Conservation Center.  A firm advocate of transboundary conservation, he sees the forests of Laos as an elephant oasis, calling the country “the best place in the world” for reintroductions.

“I had to come to my Lao friends to help save Lao elephants because when Lao elephants are healthy, Thai elephants are saved,” said Prasop.

Mae Kham, a 53-year-old Asian elephant, bathes in the Mekong River outside of Luang Prabang in Laos. Photo: Anton L. Delgado for Southeast Asia Globe and Mekong Eye.
Yot Jouttiphong, an elephant mahout for Mandalao, laughs as his charge, Mae Kham, a 58-year-old Asian elephant, eagerly reaches out for a bunch of bananas. Photo: Anton L. Delgado for Southeast Asia Globe and Mekong Eye.

With wild herds so decimated in Laos and across Southeast Asia, Suter believes captive populations will play a larger and larger role in saving the species.

“The wild is not a safe place for elephants. You can’t rely on wild elephants to prop up the entire region’s Asian elephant population,” she said “From an endangered species breeding scenario, you don’t put all your eggs in one basket.”

Suter explained captive populations are easier to manage and learn from, especially as with the current lack of funding, capacity and will for governments to track wild herds. Even with hundreds of elephants in captivity in Laos and elsewhere across Southeast Asia, Suter doesn’t know if she’ll ever say that Asian elephants have been saved.

“We are future-proofing Asian elephant populations by having a captive elephant population,” Suter said. “But I don’t think we will stabilise the species within our lifetime.”

Additional reporting by a veteran Lao freelance journalist, who requested not to be named because of livelihood and safety concerns.
This story was produced in collaboration with The Mekong Eye and supported by Internews’ Earth Journalism Network.

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Even as returns dip, investors still flocking to less risky bets like T-bills

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In: South-East Asia

SAVINGS BONDS, FIXED DEPOSITS AND ROBO-ADVISERS

Also influenced by the Fed’s interest rate decisions, returns on the Singapore Savings Bonds and banks’ fixed deposits are headed lower as well, analysts said.

Already, interest rates for fixed deposits have fallen. Banks are now paying 3.2 to 3.55 per cent for six-month fixed deposits, down from a range of 3.5 to 3.88 per cent in February.

This is much lower than the recent cut-off yields for T-bills but for investors who prefer to know how much they are getting in return before deciding, fixed deposits remain a viable option.

As bank promotions often come with conditions such as fresh deposits or minimum placements, robo-adviser StashAway has rolled out a cash management portfolio that allows its users to park any amount into fixed deposits.

For now, fixed deposits from Citibank Singapore form the underlying funds for the new portfolio called StashAway Simple Guaranteed.

Similar to taking up a bank fixed deposit, StashAway users will receive their principal amount and guaranteed returns after a lock-in period. The return rate is currently 3.4 per cent per annum for a six-month tenor.

Other robo-advisers and online trading platforms have also added new cash management accounts that tout higher returns.

Syfe, in partnership with bond giant Pimco, launched two new portfolios last month comprising global bond funds and targeting monthly payouts from 4 to 6 per cent a year.

However, the payouts are subject to market movements and not guaranteed. A minimum investment sum of S$5,000 is also required.

Investors should also consider the fees involved when placing money with robo-advisers. 

Syfe charges management fees between 0.35 and 0.65 per cent a year. Its new bond portfolios also come with fees charged by the fund manager, at about 0.7 per cent a year. 

For now, StashAway’s Simple Guaranteed does not have management fees. But the robo-adviser’s other cash management tools – Simple and Simple Plus – charge annual fees that will be raised to 0.15 per cent and 0.2 per cent respectively from Jul 1.

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