Impact investing on the rise: BNP survey | FinanceAsia

By:
On:
In: Asia, Finance, South-East Asia

Impact investing is gaining in popularity across the globe, but a lack of harmonised environmental, social and governance (ESG) data, regulations and standards pose barriers to its development in Asia, a BNP Paribas survey suggested.

“Asia Pacific (Apac) is behind Europe, which has already integrated broader ESG topics such as inequalities and biodiversity. But it is ahead of North America which is highly fragmented over this topic,” Jules Bottlaender, Apac head of sustainable finance at BNP Paribas, told FinanceAsia.

So far 41% of global investors recognise a net zero commitment as their priority, while in Apac, 43% have set a due date to achieve net zero targets, according to the survey.

The global survey, titled Institutional investors’ progress on the path to sustainability, looked into how institutional investors across the globe are integrating their ESG commitments into implementation.

It gathered data from 420 global hedge funds, private capital firms, asset owners and asset managers between April and July 2023. Among them, 120 (28.6%) are from Asia Pacific (Apac) markets including China, Hong Kong, Singapore and Australia.

Impact investing

Impact investing, a strategy investing in companies, organisations and funds generating social and environmental benefits, in addition to financial returns, is a global trend that in the next few years, is set to overtake ESG integration as the most popular ESG strategy, the report revealed.

Globally, ESG integration dominates 70% of investors’ ESG investment strategies, but the proportion is expected to drop by 18% to 52% over the next two years. In contrast, 54% of respondents reported a plan to incorporate impact investing as their primary strategy by that time.

European investors have the greatest momentum in adopting impact investing at present, with 52% employing impact investing. While in the four markets in Apac, the proportion stood at 38%.

Negative screening took a lead as a major strategy of 62% investors surveyed in Apac. In the next two years, the figure is set to shrink to 47%, overtaken by 58% estimating to commit to impact investing.

“Impact investing is a rather new concept for most people [in Asia]. It is driven by the need to have a clear and tangible positive impact,” Bottlaender said.

An analysis from Invesco in March 2023 pointed out that while impact assessment is key to a measurable outcome of such investments, clear and consistent frameworks are required to avoid greenwashing acts.

“There is no singular standard for impact assessment,” the article noted. On the regulatory side, specific labelling or disclosure requirements dedicated to impact investing have yet to come in Asia.

Private markets, including private debt, private equity and real assets, will take up more sizeable share of impact investing asset under management (AUM), it added.

Bottlaender echoed this view, saying that current regulatory pressure in Asia “is almost all about climate”. As a result, Asian investors’ ESG commitments are mostly around climate issues such as including net zero pledges and coal divestment, before stronger taxonomies and broader ESG regulations which are set to be finalised over the next few years.

Data shortage

A lack of ESG data is one of the greatest barriers to investors’ commitments, as respondents to the survey reported challenges from inconsistent and incomplete data. The concern is shared by 73% of respondents across Apac, slightly higher than a global average of 71%.

Bottlaender explained that although mandatory reporting of climate data is adopted in certain regulations, a majority of ESG data is submitted voluntarily.

This leads to a fragmentation and inconsistency of sources based on the various reporting standards they adhere to. Moreover, the absence of third-party verification results weighs on the accuracy and reliability of the data provided, he continued.

He shared that investors are either engaging directly with companies to encourage standardised reporting practices, or relying on data providers, or leveraging technology to carry out quality control to address the lack of ESG data.

But “significant gaps persist, especially concerning private companies and aspects like scope 3 emissions.”

“As a result, investors must be extremely cautious when advancing any ESG claim or commitment,” he warned.

¬ Haymarket Media Limited. All rights reserved.

Continue Reading

South Korea says 19 citizens held captive in Myanmar rescued

By:
On:
In: South-East Asia

SEOUL (Reuters) – A group of 19 South Koreans have been rescued in Myanmar after being held captive at an unspecified illegal company in the Southeast Asian country, Seoul’s foreign ministry said on Tuesday.

The ministry said it had sought the help of authorities in military ruled Myanmar after receiving a report last month that some of its nationals had been locked up in Tachileik in Shan state, near the border with Thailand.

“Myanmar police raided the company in late October and secured custody of 19 of our citizens,” the ministry said in a statement, adding they were safely transferred to Yangon on Monday.

The ministry declined to elaborate on the nature of the operations at the company or identify the group, but said it was working closely with Myanmar officials to help its citizens and prevent any crimes.

A spokesperson for Myanmar’s junta did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

South Korean broadcaster KBS reported that the group had been lured by the company’s promise of high profits.

Some border towns in Southeast Asia have emerged as the centre of cyber scam operations including fake romance ploys, illegal casinos and investment pyramid schemes.

In August, a U.N. report said that hundreds of thousands of people were being trafficked by criminal gangs and forced to work in scam centres and other illegal online operations that have sprung up across Southeast Asia in recent years.

(Reporting by Soo-hyang Choi and Hyonhee Shin; Editing by Ed Davies and Raju Gopalakrishnan)

Continue Reading

Beyond profits, GIC considers the impact of its investments: CEO Lim Chow Kiat

By:
On:
In: South-East Asia

“We are quite cautious with regard to short-term hype, there’s lots of enthusiasm. But we would also say actually, it is even more important to be attentive in the long term.”

The CEO said geopolitics has become an important factor in the past few years and is likely to stay for “quite a while”.

“(It is) mostly a risk, even though it also throws up new opportunities,” he said, citing the global reconfiguration of supply chains that has benefited Southeast Asia, Mexico and India.

When reporting its results this year, GIC warned of “challenging” prospects, including sticky inflation and chronic geopolitical risks. The fund’s 20-year annualised real rate of return was 4.6 per cent for the year ended Mar 31, the highest since 2015, when real returns hit 4.9 per cent.

Asked to respond to criticism that the metric is not easy to understand, Mr Lim said: “You underestimate the layman.”

But he explained that the metric best matches GIC’s mandate – to invest Singapore’s reserves for the long term.

“CLEAR AND STABLE PURPOSE”

Mr Lim is the second Singaporean to win a Dwight D. Eisenhower Global Award after Singapore Airlines CEO Goh Choon Phong received one in 2016.

“We’re very proud and honoured that it actually matches really well with (what) GIC is,” Mr Lim said.

The award recognises his and GIC’s efforts to lead with “purpose, vision and responsibility for the benefit of society”.

On a personal level, he also believes living with purpose is important.

“Maybe that’s why I joined the company. This organisation has a very clear and stable purpose – from day one until now, it’s the same purpose,” he said.

That is part of what has kept Mr Lim working in the sovereign wealth fund for over 30 years, through roles ranging from portfolio manager to chief investment officer before he became the CEO.

Continue Reading

Defying the US, Anwar bellows support for Hamas

By:
On:
In: Asia

SINGAPORE – Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s vocal support for the Palestinian cause could blow back on Malaysia as the United States tables legislation to sever funding for Hamas and other Palestinian militant groups through economic and financial sanctions on their foreign supporters. 

Anwar’s administration has played up its resistance to US and Western pressure to review its stance on Hamas, which Malaysia has refused to condemn or label as a terrorist organization.

Malaysian police, meanwhile, have warned of possible economic sabotage, espionage and even security threats to the premier allegedly emanating from Israel’s intelligence agency Mossad.

The Muslim-majority nation has long stood in solidarity with Palestine and long rejected diplomatic relations with Israel even as certain Arab nations have recently pursued normalization with Tel Aviv.

Putrajaya views Hamas as the legitimately elected government of Gaza, according to Anwar, owing to its victory at 2006 parliamentary polls. Hamas members are known to reside in Malaysia to work or attend university and have been alleged targets of Israel’s spy agency.

But Anwar’s unflinching stance is just as much about local politics as he seeks to curry favor with Muslim ethnic Malays who represent a national majority and are thus crucial to his government’s survival and potential re-election.

Analysts say the premier cannot afford to be seen as equivocating on the plight of the Palestinians at a moment when his nearly year-old administration has lost electoral ground to the pro-Islamist Perikatan Nasional (PN) coalition.

Both Anwar’s multiracial government and the conservative opposition bloc have recently staged competing mega-rallies denouncing Israel’s bombardments of Gaza.

“There is a strong domestic imperative for the prime minister to support the Palestinian cause,” said Mustafa Izzuddin, a senior international affairs analyst at consultancy firm Solaris Strategies Singapore.

Anwar seeks to “portray himself as a strong and principled statesman in the eyes of the domestic populace by not bowing to American political pressure,” he said.

Addressing parliament late last month, Anwar said the US Embassy had issued three demarche notes as a “warning” to Malaysia to review its informal ties with Hamas after killed civilians and took hostages in an October 7 surprise attack on Israel. “I said that we, as a policy, have a relationship with Hamas from before and this will continue,” the premier told the legislature.

Palestinian fighters from the armed wing of Hamas take part in a military parade to mark the anniversary of the 2014 war with Israel, near the border in the central Gaza Strip, July 19, 2023.
Photo: The Jerusalem Post / Twitter

Critics have accused Anwar of grandstanding by claiming he was “threatened” by the West for speaking up for Palestinian rights. “I was criticized and some even attacked me from Europe, the United States and certainly Israel,” said Anwar at a rally in Kuala Lumpur on October 24. “Don’t even think of threatening us… we are with the Palestinians in their struggle.”

Dennis Ignatius, a former Malaysian diplomat and author, said that while Anwar is “absolutely right to speak out in the strongest possible terms”, Gaza’s violence “shouldn’t be an occasion for politicians to preen their feathers or embellish their credentials. Or worse still, to pretend to be heroes for standing up to the West on behalf of Palestine.

“There has also been much brouhaha over the demarches the US has made in connection with Malaysia’s stand on the issue. It is being made out to be something sinister and unusual; in fact, it is part of the normal diplomatic representation that nations make to each other on important issues,” Ignatius, a former ambassador to Chile and Argentina, wrote in a recent commentary.

Anwar’s government says it is monitoring the passage of the US legislation, known as the Hamas International Financing Prevention Act, which will likely enter force after a Senate vote. 

Once enacted, the law would allow for the imposition of sanctions against foreigners who knowingly provide “significant” financial, material or technological support to Hamas or the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, an Islamist paramilitary group active in Gaza and the West Bank. 

The law would also require the US president to devise a list of nations and individuals that provide such support to Palestinian militant groups for the purpose of imposing sanctions.

Analysts say Malaysia is not likely to be targeted by the law since it is not known to have ever provided arms or ammunition to Hamas and that the government’s verbal support for Hamas’ political struggle would not warrant sanctions.

Putrajaya has been accused of hosting a de facto Hamas embassy in the form of an apparently apolitical cultural office, the Palestinian Cultural Organization Malaysia (PCOM), an accusation it denies. The organization has been accused of propagating Hamas’ messaging and maintaining ties to its leaders.

Malaysia maintains direct communication channels with Hamas, which violently wrested full control of Gaza in 2007 and is designated as a terrorist group by the US, European Union and others.

Former Malaysian premier Najib Razak visited Gaza on a humanitarian mission in 2013, where he was received by Hamas’ political bureau head Ismail Haniyeh, who later met with then-premier Mahathir Mohamad in Kuala Lumpur in 2020.

Malaysian premier Mahathir Mohamad rolled out the red carpet for Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in January 2020. Image: Facebook Screengrab

Malaysia’s Foreign Affairs Ministry manages a humanitarian trust fund for Palestine dedicated to medical aid, food and basic necessities in Gaza and for any Palestinians affected by the war, according to Anwar, who has ruled out any military aid. The fund is reportedly approaching its target of collecting 100 million ringgit (US$21.2 million).

“It is unlikely Malaysia will be sanctioned for not labeling Hamas a terrorist group, as there also other countries, including allies of the US, which have also not labeled Hamas as a terrorist group so why should Malaysia be compelled to do so,” Mustafa told Asia Times. “Malaysia is therefore assuming a principled position of not being externally interfered in its domestic affairs.”

Malaysia’s foreign policy has always been guided by economic pragmatism. Now, some suggest Anwar’s defiant stance could undermine his government’s drive to attract new US investment as more American firms leave China for Southeast Asia. Anwar has acknowledged that the newly proposed US law could impact bilateral investment and trade, which the US Embassy in Malaysia estimates at US$1.6 trillion annually.

“Any sanctions against Malaysia can also affect the assessment of the US government and US companies towards Malaysia, as well as affect US companies’ investment opportunities in Malaysia,” said Anwar in a written reply to parliament on November 7. The Southeast Asian nation has said it will “not recognize” the validity of any unilateral sanctions imposed under the proposed US law.

Julia Lau and Francis E Hutchinson, senior fellows at Singapore’s ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute think tank, wrote in a commentary that “some finesse is needed to ensure that foreign sentiment vis-a-vis Malaysia is not spooked, although Western leaders would understand that Anwar must allow some space for his fellow citizens to vent their feelings.”

Apart from staging massive pro-Palestinian street protests, Malaysians have boycotted American food franchises and international brands that are perceived as linked to or siding with Israel. They include McDonald’s, Burger King, Starbucks, KFC, Coca-Cola and Nestle, with local gig workers reportedly bearing the brunt of reduced sales.

Lau and Hutchinson added that while a strong pro-Palestinian stance is politically expedient, Malaysia’s economy depends on foreign direct investment and trade. As such, “the prime minister will need to draw on his fabled oratorical skills, backing them with nimble diplomacy, in the weeks ahead.”

While the US may feel slighted over Malaysia’s stance on Hamas, it still recognizes the country’s leverage in the Muslim world. Anwar has said Washington called on his administration to “urge a country to not take advantage of the conflict by using a proxy to get involved in the Gaza conflict,” without specifying the nation but likely a reference to Iran and its backed Hezbollah militant group in Lebanon.

In late October, Anwar traveled to Saudi Arabia where he had a private meeting with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, whose country was weighing formal ties with Israel before the October 7 assault. Anwar also traveled to Egypt and Turkey in a bid to shore up support for Palestinians, which appears to have yielded few tangible results. 

“Anwar’s statesmanship has limited influence as he is dealing with a divided Middle East underpinned by geopolitical complexities and Malaysia has no diplomatic relations with Israel, thereby hampering its ability [to bring] about a ceasefire and humanitarian relief to those affected by the current conflict escalation,” said Mustafa. 

A pro-Palestine rally in Merdeka Square, Kuala Lumpur, October 22, 2023. Image: Twitter

Over 11,000 Palestinians have reportedly been killed in Israel’s bombardment of Gaza in retaliation for Hamas’ rampage on southern Israel in which at least 1,200 Israelis died.

Tel Aviv has vowed to end Hamas’ rule over Gaza and has served notice that it intends to seek and kill Hamas operatives abroad, a threat that has raised antennae in Putrajaya given past cases of Palestinians being targeted while on Malaysian soil.

Razarudin Husain, the country’s Inspector General of Police, all but acknowledged Mossad’s presence in the country in a November 1 press conference. The police, he said, are working to detect foreign intelligence operatives conducting clandestine operations involving local recruits. “We suspect Israelis may have infiltrated the country using foreign passports for their operations,” said the IGP. 

He cited the drive-by shooting and assassination of Palestinian lecturer Fadi al-Batsh, an electrical engineer said to be a drone expert and member of Hamas, in Kuala Lumpur in 2018 and the case of two Palestinian computer programmers believed to be operatives of Hamas’ al-Qassam Brigade who were targets of a snatch-and-grab kidnapping linked to Mossad reported by local media last year. The Israeli spy agency has denied involvement in both incidents.

The police chief has insisted that alleged threats against Anwar not be taken lightly or derided as political maneuvering, saying the premier has been advised to limit his public appearances and travel with more bodyguards. 

“If a software scientist for Hamas can be a target, our prime minister is more of a risk. I am convinced that there is a threat either to his life, to our economy or others,” Razarudin said.

Follow Nile Bowie on X, formerly Twitter, at @NileBowie

Continue Reading

China should treat SE Asia as partner, not irritant

By:
On:
In: Asia

On October 22, 2023, two separate collisions took place near Second Thomas Shoal, an underwater feature that an international tribunal in 2016 ruled is part of the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone and continental shelf. 

A China Coast Guard ship rammed a much smaller civilian vessel contracted by the Philippine Navy to resupply troops stationed aboard the BRP Sierra Madre.

In videos released by both sides, the coastguard vessel can be seen blocking the path of the resupply ship, which attempted to evade the vessel by crossing its bow and was struck. Separate videos show the second collision. 

The Qiong Sansha Yu 00003, a professional maritime militia vessel operated by China’s state-owned Sansha Fisheries Development Company, pulled alongside and then collided with a stationary Philippine Coast Guard ship. The incident appeared to involve no serious damage, and a second Philippine resupply vessel managed to reach the Sierra Madre. 

But these were just the most dangerous interactions in a pattern of unsafe conduct that recurs monthly around Second Thomas Shoal. The situation around Second Thomas highlights a key feature of China’s foreign policy – its refusal to acknowledge that the Philippines or other small states have their own agency in disputes with Beijing. 

This worldview was aptly summed up in a piece by the nationalist Global Times, which concludes “By escalating the tensions, the Philippines likely wants to draw support from the US, or the entire farce was staged by the US in the first place.”

When the Chinese leadership confronts a middle or small power that challenges or offends Beijing, they often accuse the smaller power of working in tandem with the United States or being used by the United States to drive an “anti-China” strategy. 

This is the same sentiment with which Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi infamously shouted down Singaporean counterpart George Yeo at the 2010 ASEAN Regional Forum. “China is a big country and other countries are small countries, and that’s just a fact,” he said.

This sentiment is also the reason that Beijing sought to undermine the arbitration brought by the Philippines from 2013 to 2016 by insisting that it was engineered by the United States and Japan. 

And it is why after every Philippine diplomatic objection over the violence at Second Thomas, Chinese officials ignore the substance of the complaints and lecture their Filipino counterparts about being pawns in a US plot.

When another China Coast Guard vessel nearly collided with a Philippine ship in September 2023, Beijing read from this familiar script. President Ferdinand Marcos Jr aired his frustrations at the annual ASEAN Summit that same week, saying that the Philippines rejected narratives of the South China Sea disputes that revolved around US-China competition. 

Marcos asserted that “this not only denies us our independence and our agency, but it also disregards our own legitimate interests.” 

A month later, after the Philippines complained about another violent incident between itself and China, Global Times ran an editorial cartoon showing the Philippines as nothing more than a stick being used by the United States to stir up the South China Sea.

Beijing is not ready to acknowledge that Manila, or any other Southeast Asian claimant, has legitimate grievances that must be addressed to peacefully manage disputes. 

This increases the risks of escalation as Beijing seems to believe that other states are less committed to their sovereignty and rights, defy China only because of American interference and will eventually buckle in the face of sustained pressure. 

Running the same coercive play over and over at Second Thomas Shoal seems unlikely to change Philippine policy and so will only lead to further collisions and risk escalation.

There are two driving forces behind this forceful aspect of China’s regional foreign policy — Beijing’s vision of regional hierarchy and fear of US containment. In China’s long-embedded view of regional hierarchy, smaller states are historically and necessarily subservient to Beijing in the Asian pecking order. 

Long legacies of traditional tributary state relations with China, as well as the historical dominance of Chinese culture, language and economic power in the region, still linger in the minds of Chinese decision-makers.

Chinese leaders also genuinely see the United States as an architect of a long-term containment strategy that seeks to undermine China’s regional influence or worse, to bring about the collapse of the Communist Party of China. 

This view, which dates to the years just after the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949, now colors much of Beijing’s thinking about its external environment. 

As Chinese President Xi Jinping stated in March, “Western countries led by the United States have implemented all-around containment, encirclement and suppression of China, which has brought unprecedented severe challenges to our country’s development.” 

Beijing’s unwillingness to treat the concerns and grievances of its regional neighbors as legitimate has now become one of the most prominent challenges to its management of external relations. 

As US officials admit privately, the Biden administration’s progress in strengthening relations with countries across the region, from Australia to India to the Philippines, is less a story of diplomatic acumen and more one of Chinese truculence. 

Should Beijing adjust course and begin treating regional actors as partners, not irritants, the United States’ Indo-Pacific strategy may face its greatest challenge yet.

Greg Poling is Senior Fellow and Director of the Southeast Asia Program and the Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), Washington DC.

Jude Blanchette holds the Freeman Chair in China Studies at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), Washington DC.

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

Continue Reading

Questioning Development Banks’ Commitments to Just Transition - Southeast Asia Globe

By:
On:
In: South-East Asia

In Vietnam, however, advocates of environmental, climate, community and workers’ rights are unable to weigh in, instead facing threats, intimidation and arbitrary arrest. Discussions about Vietnam’s $15.5 billion Just Energy Transition Partnership (JETP) are happening behind closed doors – between banks, government officials and corporations.  Concerned members of civil society have no opportunity to provide meaningful feedback or input, or to engage freely with colleagues in other countries where similar plans are moving ahead. 

Six prominent advocates of climate and energy justice have been arrested and detained in Vietnam for their efforts to help wean the country from coal. Among them is environmental justice lawyer Dang Dinh Bach, who is serving a five-year prison sentence. Bach was the founder and director of the Law and Policy of Sustainable Development Research Centre, where he dedicated his life to the public health of marginalised communities. The UN Human Rights Council Working Group on Arbitrary Detention released an opinion earlier this year regarding Bach’s imprisonment, finding it a “violation of international law” and expressing concerns about a “systemic problem with arbitrary detention” of environmental defenders in Vietnam. 

Another leading defender of climate justice in Vietnam, Hoang Thi Minh Hong, founder of the environmental group CHANGE VN, was recently sentenced to three years in prison. To date, the United Nations, United States, United Kingdom and European Union have all released statements condemning her recent conviction and sentencing. 

It is in this context that we urge multilateral development banks like the ADB and World Bank, along with donor governments, not to bulldoze ahead with the plans for implementing the JETP or associated projects. Doing so would mean acting as complicit bystanders in the silencing and reprisals faced by community rights, workers’, environmental and climate advocates.

Elsewhere in the region, including the Philippines and Indonesia, ADB and World Bank Group plans to dole out hundreds of millions of dollars in public funds, to enable coal companies to refurbish or retire their facilities, have been heavily criticised by environmental, climate and social-justice groups. Though these schemes are labelled as contributions to a Just Transition – and are explicitly being considered as part of the JETP arrangements in Indonesia – the reality is that project operators are not being held culpable for the harm and damage wrought by their coal-fired power plants on community livelihoods, workers’ health and the environment. 

Clear promises to retain or provide dignified retirement packages and redress for health impacts for workers remain nonexistent, and proposals for “green jobs” lack commitments that would ensure core labour rights as per international conventions. Instead, the plans being put in place prioritise “repurposing” rather than decommissioning coal plants – allowing facilities that once burned coal to be refurbished to rely upon burning other resource-intensive, high greenhouse gas-emitting fuels such as woody biomass or waste. Meanwhile, workers and residents in surrounding communities will still be left to face the prospect of working and living in areas where the air, land and water are contaminated.

Alarmingly, it appears the same model of “repurposing” coal facilities will be proposed for financing under the Vietnam JETP.  Plans moving forward in the name of Just Transition are being backed by a powerful set of corporate and financial actors. In response, civil society, community groups and workers’ alliances across the region have consistently called for banks and donor governments to establish clear commitments – to ensure there are safe spaces where people can voice concerns and provide feedback, to inform the planning process before plans move to the implementation phase. 

The high-level political declaration announcing the JETP in Vietnam affirmed the importance of consultation with diverse stakeholders, including NGOs and civil society, to achieve a “broad social consensus” on the country’s energy-transition pathway. But the disabling environment for civil society and community-based groups in Vietnam means it is impossible to engage meaningfully in any consultative processes, free of the fear that another of their representatives may be next in line to be arbitrarily detained, charged and imprisoned. The ADB and the World Bank Group also have clear provisions guaranteeing access to information, transparency and public participation enshrined in policy, none of which is possible in the current context in Vietnam. 

Crucially, the Asia Pacific Climate Week and the gatherings associated with the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation should be a time when both the  ADB and World Bank Group finally “walk the talk” by issuing statements that offer support for the release of these environmental and human-rights defenders. More broadly, they must commit to suspending Just Transition-related planning processes and financing until there are safe, meaningful spaces for community, workers’  and civil-society groups to raise questions, concerns and grievances.

Meanwhile, mobilisation by civil-society groups outside of Vietnam, to secure the release of Bach, Hong and other incarcerated environmental and human-rights defenders, will continue. So, too, will collective efforts to advance processes, principles and practices of equitable, rights-based Just Transitions within, across and beyond the region.

Tanya Lee Roberts Davis is the Just Transitions Advocacy Coordinator at NGO Forum on ADB

Continue Reading

End to decoupling tops China's pre-summit demands

By:
On:
In: Asia

Ahead of a summit in San Francisco next week, Beijing has urged Washington to take immediate actions to stop US decoupling from China, .

Yuyuan Tantian, a social media account of the China Central Television (CCTV), said in a commentary that the US has been trying to decouple from China in the name of “de-risking,” “friend-shoring” and “safeguarding national security.”

“Friend-shoring” refers to the United States’ strategy of encouraging its firms to place orders in like-minded countries so manufacturers will have an incentive to move from China to these places.

That’s an issue that the US side was expecting to come up. “The US has no desire to decouple from China,” US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said in an opening remark during a meeting with Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng in San Francisco on Thursday. 

“A full separation of our economies would be economically disastrous for both our countries, and for the world,” Yellen said. “We seek a healthy economic relationship with China that benefits both countries over time.”

“Beyond our bilateral economic relationship, I look forward to discussing our collaboration on global challenges, from climate change to debt distress in low-income countries and emerging markets,” she said. “As the world’s two largest economies, we have an obligation to lead on these and other issues, for the people in our countries and around the world.”

The Chinese commentary raised, besides decoupling/friendshoring, five additional concerns:

  • the United States’s generalization of “national security” as a justification for changing the rules of commerce,
  • chip export controls,
  • allegedly unfair treatment of Chinese firms in the US,
  • a “smear” campaign against China’s business environment and
  • US criticism that China has set up “debt traps” in developing countries.

The social media account is seen as authoritative as it has access to China’s high-level diplomatic information, including the dialogue during a 90-minute phone call between Chinese President Xi Jinping and US President Joe Biden on September 10, 2021. 

Vice-Premier He said his previous discussions with Yellen has been constructive so both sides will look into more economic and financial topics of China and the US. He said he hopes to use this chance to raise some issues that concerned China the most. 

He did not disclose what issues he would raise in his meetings with Yellen on Thursday and Friday. The six concerns mentioned in Yuyuan Tantian’s article are apparently meant to reveal what He would have said if he had listed them.

Five demands vs six concerns

Back in July Yellen met with He during her four-day trip to China. After their meeting, the Chinese Finance Ministry said in a statement that the China side had made five demands to the US side.

US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen meets with Chinese Vice Premier He LIfeng in Beijing last July. Photo: Xinhua

It said Beijing was concerned by the extra tariffs, company sanctions, investment restrictions, export controls and Xinjiang product bans imposed by the US on China in recent years. 

Yuyuan Tantian’s latest article, with the title “A new round of China-US dialogues begin,” elaborated these points and stretched them out into six concerns.  

According to the self-description, the author of “Yuyuan Tantian” is a woman, an “experienced political and economic news reporter,” who has a PhD in Economics. 

“Since the Biden administration took office, the terminology of China’s economic policy has been changing, from ‘decoupling’ to ‘recoupling’ to ‘competition,’ from small yard, high fence’ to’ ‘de-risking’ to ‘friend-shoring,’” she said in the article. “No matter how, they still refer to the so-called security issues.”

She added: “In its economic exchanges with China, the US has long generalized and abused the term ‘national security.’ Behind this, the United States’s hegemonic thinking is still at work.”

She said that the “friend-shoring” strategy, which is no different from “decoupling,” allowed China to ship more solar panels to Southeast Asia and auto parts to Mexico in recent years. 

“The US wanted to exclude China from the global industrial and supply chain system. But its actions helped deepen the relationship between China and other countries,” she wrote. 

On October 17, the US Department of Commerce banned Nvidia from shipping its A800 and H800 graphic chips, which can be used to develop artificial intelligence, to China. China’s orders involving US$5 billion of Nvidia chips have then been canceled.

Yuyuan Tantian saidd the US government not only failed to protect its own companies’ interests in China but also used untransparent and unfair administrative means to restrict Chinese firms from raising funds and operating in the US. 

“The US side has so far added 1,300 Chinese firms to its entity list,” she said. “If it wants to work with China, it must trim this list.”

She added that it was wrong for US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo to have said in August that China is “uninvestable.” She said China will continue to open up its economy while American firms must grab the opportunity to invest in it.

She also criticized the US and its allies for promoting the narrative that China’s overseas investments created “debt traps” for developing countries.

It’s official

After Yellen reiterated on Thursday that the US won’t decouple from China, Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Hua Chunying officially announced on Friday that Xi will be in San Francisco from November 14 to 17 for a China-US summit meeting and the 30th APEC Economic Leaders’ Meeting.

The Xi-Biden meeting is expected to be held on November 15, Kyodo News reported on Wednesday. 

Read: Luring investment a high priority for Xi’s US trip

Follow Jeff Pao on Twitter at @jeffpao3

Continue Reading

Indonesian presidential candidates Anies, Ganjar unveil their foreign policy strategies, and they are worlds apart

By:
On:
In: Asia

The presidential election will determine who gets to lead Southeast Asia’s biggest economy for the next five years, and a question flagged by many political and business watchers is whether the new leader will continue or undo the course set by Jokowi, who is barred by Indonesia’s Constitution from running for a third term.

The third presidential candidate for the 2024 polls, Defence Minister Prabowo Subianto, is scheduled to speak on Monday at another CSIS event.

GANJAR: ‘ONLY PARTNER CHINA? OF COURSE NOT’

Mr Ganjar’s foreign policy vision and programmes appear “very similar to Jokowi’s”, noted Mr Bhima Yudhistira, executive director of another think tank, the Centre for Economic and Law Studies (CELIOS).

“Jokowi has been more self-serving in his foreign policy. It’s all about serving the national interest and attracting investment,” he told CNA.

The president has focused heavily on the maritime sector and even created a dedicated coordinating ministry for his vision. Similarly, Ganjar revealed that if elected, guarding the archipelago’s vast waters would be among his top priorities and promised to double the country’s maritime defence budget, which currently stands at US$2 billion per year.

Another key programme, Mr Ganjar continued, would be to increase the power of Indonesia’s passport, which currently allows travel to 75 destinations visa-free. The former Central Java governor said he aims to increase this number to 120 if he is elected president.   

Continue Reading

Digital wallet to start in May, says PM

By:
On:
In: South-East Asia

Srettha clarifies conditions and funding sources, says 50 million people will be eligible for B10,000 handout

Digital wallet to start in May, says PM
Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin explains the criteria for the government’s 10,000-baht digital wallet handout during a press conference at Government House on Friday. (Photo: Government House)

Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin on Friday put an end to weeks of speculation about the government’s digital wallet programme, saying it will begin in May and some 50 million people will be eligible for a 10,000-baht handout.

All told, the government will inject 600 billion baht into the economy — 500 billion via the digital wallet scheme and another 100-billion-baht fund to enhance the country’s economic potential, Mr Srettha said at a press conference that was televised nationwide.

The government will give 10,000 baht in digital money to every Thai aged 16 and older, as long as they have an income of less than 70,000 baht per month and less than 500,000 baht in bank deposits. Based on these criteria, an estimated 50 million people will be eligible — down from the 56 million intended originally.

People who earn more than 70,000 baht a month but have less than 500,000 baht in bank deposits, as well as those who earn less than 70,000 baht a month but have more than 500,000 baht in the bank will not be eligible.

Mr Srettha has said the cash handout “will act as a trigger to revitalise the economy”, which has grown by less than 2% per year on average in the past decade, among the weakest in Southeast Asia.

Under the programme, 10,000 baht in digital money will be transferred into a digital wallet on the Pao Tang mobile app, which is already used by millions of people. The transfers will begin in May, three months later than previously planned.

The money must be spent within six months in the district where the recipient’s home is registered. It cannot be transferred to other people or converted into cash.

The handout can be used to buy food and consumer goods only. It cannot be used to buy goods online, cigarettes or liquor; cash vouchers and such valuables as diamonds, gems or gold; and cannot be used to pay off debts or pay for water or electricity bills, fuel, natural gas or tuition fees.

Shops are required to register to join the programme and they must be in the tax system.

The new 100-billion-baht fund, meanwhile, will be used to enhance the country’s competitiveness in various fields, said Mr Srettha. This could include investing in new technologies and development of human resources. The fund is intended to draw people with capabilities in various fields to join in building economic growth.

“I would like to emphasise that this (digital money handout) is not welfare to help the needy, but it is about injecting money into the economy through spending rights to enable people to be partners with the government in reviving the country’s economy while maintaining the state’s fiscal discipline in all aspects,” the prime minister said.

“I want all people who are entitled for it to spend it with pride. Everyone is a contributor to the economic growth and stability of our country.”

The source of funding for the programme has been the subject of heated debate, with critics saying that borrowing would push up public debt to an unsustainable level.

However, Mr Srettha said the most practical approach for the government is to propose a bill to seek a special loan of 500 billion baht. The draft bill will go to the Council of State by the end of this year to make sure it does not contravene any laws and will be forwarded to parliament for debate early next year.

The 11-party coalition led by the Pheu Thai Party has a comfortable majority in parliament and no parties in the coalition oppose the digital wallet programme, according to local media reports.

Mr Srettha expressed confidence that the bill would be passed by parliament in line with Section 53 of the State Fiscal and Financial Discipline Act of 2018, so that the programme can start next May.

The other 100 billion baht for economic enhancement projects would be from state budgets, he said.

Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin tells the public that some 50 million Thais aged over 16 will receive 10,000 baht in digital money. Recipients must earn less than 70,000 baht per month and have less than 500,000 baht in bank deposits. (Photo: Government House)

Continue Reading

Chikungunya vaccine: US approves first shot against mosquito-borne virus

By:
On:
In: Asia
An Aedes mosquito perches on a fingerGetty Images
By Nicholas Yong
BBC News, Singapore

The US Food and Drug Administration has approved the world’s first vaccine for chikungunya, which it sees as an “emerging global health threat”.

The mosquito-borne disease causes fever and joint pains and can be fatal to newborns.

The FDA’s approval is expected to speed up the vaccine’s global rollout.

This year, about 440,000 chikungunya cases, including 350 deaths, have been reported as of September.

There is currently no specific drug to treat chikungunya. South America and South Asia have seen the most number of cases this year.

The vaccine named Ixchiq has been approved for those aged 18 and above and are at high risk of contracting the disease, the FDA said on Friday. It was developed by Europe’s Valneva and will be administered in a single shot.

“Infection with chikungunya virus can lead to severe disease and prolonged health problems, particularly for older adults and individuals with underlying medical conditions,” senior FDA official Peter Marks said.

At least five million chikungunya cases have been reported since 2008, the FDA said. Other symptoms include rashes, headaches and muscle pain. Joint pains can persist for months or even years.

People in tropical and subtropical regions of Africa, Southeast Asia, and parts of the Americas are at the highest risk of infection because mosquitos carrying the chikungunya virus are endemic in these areas.

“However, chikungunya virus has spread to new geographical areas causing a rise in global prevalence of the disease,” the FDA said.

Data from the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control showed that Brazil has had the highest number of cases so far this year with 218,613.

More than 93,000 cases have also been reported in India, where the capital Delhi saw a large outbreak in 2016.

Related Topics

More on this story

Continue Reading