Bangkok’s chief of staff, the prime minister’s office, stated on Monday ( Mar 4 ) that Thailand’s economy is in a” critical situation,” stressing the need for stimulus measures to address household debt, boost tourism, and draw in foreign investment. Statistics indicate that we are not in good shape, accordingContinue Reading
PUBLISHED: 4 Mar 2024, 9:27
One-fifth of the fish species in Southeast Asia’s major arteries are threatened by unsustainable growth, according to a report released on Monday by restoration organizations.
The Mekong is a farming and fishing backbone for tens of millions of people in China, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam, stretching roughly 5, 000 kilometers from the Tibetan Plateau to the South China Sea.
According to the report compiled by the World Wildlife Fund and 25 world sea and wildlife conservation organizations, threats to its bass include biodiversity loss, wetlands change for agriculture and fishing, untenable sand mining, the introduction of invasive species, worsening climate change, and hydropower dams severing the flow of the river and its tributaries.
Hydropower growth is currently the biggest threat, according to fish scientist Zeb Hogan, who is one of the organizations behind the report’s release.
According to him, rivers alter the flow of the third-most diverse river in the world, alter the quality of the water, and prevent fish from migrating.
In the Mekong River Delta, a growing number of Chinese-built hydroelectric dams have largely blocked the sand that provides important nutrients to tens of thousands of fields, according to a report from Reuters in 2022.
According to the conservationists ‘ report,” The Mekong’s Forgotten Fishes,” some 19 % of the 1, 148 or more fish species in the Mekong are on the verge of extinction, with some saying that the figure may be higher because no information is available about 38 % of the species ‘ conservation status.
18 types, including two of the world’s largest fish, the largest fish, and the big water shark, are among those facing death that the International Union for Conservation of Nature has labeled as” thoroughly endangered.”
On the Mekong River, Hogan claimed,” Some of the largest and finest seafood… anywhere on earth exist.”
According to the report, the Mekong, which accounts for over 15 % of the world’s inland catch and generates over$ 11 billion annually, could affect food security for at least 40 million people in the Lower Mekong basin whose livelihood depends on the river.
Hogan claimed that coordinated efforts to stop the fish population’s negative effects were” hardly also late” for the river.
There is still hope, he said, “if we take action, cumulatively take action, to create the river responsibly.”
PUBLISHED: 23 Mar 2024 at 19:32
Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin reported on Sunday that Thailand had recently assisted in the exchange of some 900 Chinese citizens who had been stranded in scam centers in a Burmese border town again to China.
According to the United Nations, Southeast Asia, including Myanmar, has become a hotspot for virtual fraud, with hundreds of thousands of people being forced to work in con factories and other illegal activities.
The Chinese nationals were transported from Myanmar’s bond city Myawaddy to an airport in Mae Sot, where they were then flown to Chinese planes, according to Thai authorities, which started next Thursday and was completed on Saturday.
According to Prime Minister Srettha,” This was a mutual volunteer operation between three countries, China, Myanmar, and Thailand.”
According to Srettha,” the process was done deliberately, based on charitable concepts, it was not forced,” adding that Thailand had assisted in the facilitation of the move to the planes at Mae Sot.
According to deputy police chief Surachate Hakparn, the procedure involved 15 planes flying back to China over the course of three weeks.
A Reuters request for comment was not immediately addressed by the Chinese international government. Additionally, Myanmar’s defense director did not respond to a request for comment.
In a mutual effort to combat online scams in Myanmar, Myanmar’s government jointly handed over 31, 000 telecoms fraud suspects to China in November.
More than 200 Thais were trapped in fighting between Myanmar’s defense and military ethnic-minority groups in Laukkaing in Myanmar’s north Shan State, both victims and those connected to telecoms scam criminals.  ,
The mountain will examine ways to enhance and expand cooperation, particularly in the green and electric economies, and reaffirm ASEAN’s long-standing and lasting relationships with Australia, according to PMO.
The rulers will exchange ideas on how to continue working with Australia to create an open, welcoming, and secure location, as well as on regional and global problems of mutual concern.
For his government, Mr. Albanese described strengthening Australia’s ties to Southeast Asia as” a focus.”
” Australia perceives ASEAN as the pinnacle of a steady, contented, and prosperous region. He said,” Strengthening our marriage ensures our shared potential prosperity and security,” adding that he looked forward to welcoming his peers.
Vivian Balakrishnan, the minister of foreign affairs, as well as representatives from PMO and the ministry of foreign affairs, may accompany Mr. Lee.
Acting Prime Minister Lawrence Wong will be in place of Mr. Lee’s lack.
Ahead of the special Australia-ASEAN summit in Melbourne, Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr made a historic state visit Down Under, where he spoke before the Australian Parliament.
“[T]he Philippines now finds itself on the frontline against actions that undermine regional peace, erode regional stability and threaten regional success,” declared Marcos Jr in an impassioned speech before Australian legislators without naming China.
“I will not allow any attempt by any foreign power to take even one square inch of our sovereign territory,” he added, vowing to remain steadfast in defending the Philippines’ sovereign rights in the hotly disputed South China Sea. The area has been the site of multiple encounters between Philippine and Chinese vessels in the past year.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese hailed the Philippines as a “strategic partner” and signed multiple deals with Marcos Jr aimed at cementing “enhanced maritime cooperation” while vowing to “collaborate even more closely to promote our shared vision for the region.”
In response, a state-backed Chinese newspaper slammed Marcos Jr’s address as a cynical ploy “to drag [an] ally into provocative strategy”, arguing that the Philippines is rallying Western powers to keep China’s ambitions in the South China Sea in check.
In many ways, Australia hopes that Marcos Jr’s address sets the tone for the upcoming summit with Southeast Asian leaders. But while Philippine-Australia bilateral relations seem to be on an upward trajectory, if not entering a new “golden era”, it’s unlikely that other ASEAN leaders will follow through.
If anything, the Philippines may, once again, end up as a regional outlier. Eight years earlier, the pro-Beijing Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte was the only no-show ASEAN leader at the inaugural Australia-ASEAN Summit.
This time, the incumbent Philippine president is likely the only Southeast Asian leader fully invested in a full-blown security partnership with Australia with an eye on China.
“Australia remains, and will continue to be, one of our closest friends…we shall forge ahead in fully maximizing the potentials and the gains from this Strategic Partnership between our two forward-looking, law-abiding maritime states,” Marcos said upon his arrival in Australia last week.
The state visit was no trivial matter. The two nations are not only fellow US treaty allies but also among the oldest liberal democracies in the Asia-Pacific region. The two sides fought side-by-side against Imperial Japan, most notably during the Battle of Surigao Strait (1944), where Australian forces were essential to US General Douglas MacArthur’s recapture of the Philippines from Tokyo.
For many reasons, however, Philippine-Australia relations were largely static throughout the second half of the 20th century, with both sides acting as de facto “deputy sheriffs” to America in their respective subregions but without much bilateral economic or strategic interaction.
Over the past decade, however, bilateral relations have taken on greater urgency as the Philippines began implementing its Status of Visiting Forces Agreement (SOVFA) with Australia on the heels of the Scarborough Shoal crisis in 2012, where China seized control of the South China Sea feature after a monthslong standoff.
Australia soon became a vital defense partner for the Philippines by, inter alia, conducting regular drills with and donating defense equipment to the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP). Ties took a dramatic turn under Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, who twice visited the Philippines in the mid-2010s in order to cement a Comprehensive Partnership pact.
The value of the burgeoning alliance was on full display during the Battle of Marawi (2017), when Canberra provided real-time intelligence and training to facilitate the AFP’s counterterrorism operations against so-called Islamic State-affiliated militant groups in the southern Philippines.
The problem, however, was that then-Philippine president Duterte largely shunned tighter security cooperation with Western powers, even if he personally thanked Canberra for its counterterrorism assistance at Malawi. Over the past two years, however, there has been a perfect convergence in the strategic orientation of the two sides.
Fresh into power, the Albanese administration, staffed with several Bahasa-speaking cabinet members, made it clear that Southeast Asia would be a top strategic priority. Accordingly, Deputy Prime Minister and Defense Minister Richard Marles and Australia’s Malaysian-born Foreign Minister Penny Wong made successive visits to key ASEAN states to signal Australia’s commitment to the region.
But it was Manila that proved a special case, thanks to Marcos Jr’s dramatic pivot towards traditional Western allies following months of unrequited diplomatic flirtation with Beijing.
Failing to secure any concrete agreements during his visit to China last year, his first major overseas trip, Marcos Jr quickly shifted gears and welcomed expanded security cooperation with traditional allies, most notably the US, Australia and Japan.
The Philippines, which has an American-style liberal democracy, also adopted West-leaning positions on key geopolitical issues, most notably the Ukraine conflict and the Australia-UK-US (AUKUS) nuclear-powered submarine deal.
Moreover, the Philippines welcomed expanded military cooperation and joint drills with Australia, culminating in massive exercises as well as an unprecedented quadrilateral naval patrol in the South China Sea along with the US and Japan.
Encouraged by Marcos Jr’s strategic orientation, Albanese embarked on an official visit to Manila last year, the first by an Australian leader in almost two decades, where he signed a new bilateral strategic partnership pact.
Marcos Jr’s state visit to Australia last week, therefore, was meant to cement this new era of bilateral cooperation, with both sides signing agreements in the realm of maritime and cyber cooperation as well as good governance reforms, green technology, trade and economic development.
“We are ambitious for the future of the Australia-Philippines relationship, which is guided by our historic Strategic Partnership I signed with President Marcos in Manila last year,” declared Albanese during a meeting with his Filipino counterpart.
Marcos Jr’s hope to upgrade bilateral security cooperation with Australia and rally international support for his ongoing tussle with China didn’t go unnoticed in Beijing.
The Communist Party-run Global Times mouthpiece newspaper lambasted the Filipino president in an editorial as playing the “victim card [by] portraying China as ‘bullying’ the Philippines in the South China Sea to garner more international support and exert pressure on China.”
The editorial warned that Marcos Jr was placing his country “in the wrong position” since “no other ASEAN countries are willing to stand behind the Philippines’ South China Sea provocations.”
One Chinese expert quoted in the newspaper openly warned the Southeast Asian nation against “naive and simplistic attempts to rally external forces such as Australia will ultimately fail.”
In fact, ASEAN foreign ministers issued a statement of solidarity with the Philippines last December amid repeated near-collisions between Philippine and Chinese maritime vessels in the South China Sea.
Marcos Jr has also signed several defense deals with Indonesia and Vietnam this year with an eye on counterbalancing China. Nevertheless, no other ASEAN country has openly criticized China in support of the Philippines, with even Vietnam increasingly embracing a pragmatic and conciliatory approach to its giant northern neighbor.
It’s doubtful that ASEAN will echo Marcos Jr’s more forthcoming critique of China’s aggressive actions in adjacent waters. Nor is it clear that Australia, which is grappling with potential mission creep and massive cost overruns with its US$368 billion AUKUS submarine deal, is in a position to provide the Philippines massive military support in the South China Sea.
But after Marco Jr’s visit, Australia can be reassured that at least one key ASEAN nation is firmly on the same page when it comes to its vision of regional security in the Indo-Pacific vis-à-vis China.
Follow Richard Javad Heydarian on X, formerly Twitter, at @Richeyadrian
An artisan in sneaker customisation, Singapore’s very own Mark Ong will also be showcasing his exclusive Kintsugi Air Jordan 1 Highs. Inspired by the Japanese art of kintsugi – the traditional process of repairing ceramics using lacquer and gold, these shoes are given a new life using Hermes scarves and vintage bandanas. There are only 22 pairs of these limited-edition sneakers available, each numbered and personalised with the buyer’s initials.
But that’s not all. Ten pairs will come boxed in luxurious trunks bearing SBTG’s bandana prints while the remaining 12 will be housed in Louis Vuitton Speedy bags.
And in support of the local arts scene, RWS and Mr Sabotage will be auctioning off two pairs during the event, with all proceeds going to Temasek Polytechnic, where Ong studied.
2. ZOOM IN ON COLLABS, LIMITED EDITIONS AND EXCLUSIVE DROPS
Thinking to add to your growing sneaker and streetwear collection? With over 200 international and local brands and collaborations, there’s no better time to browse and shop the latest kicks, limited editions and exclusive drops from hot favourites Nike, Adidas, Puma and Fila.
Other noteworthy collabs to check out, according to Tan, include the Sabotage and Def Jam SEA (of Def Jam Recordings, the multinational record label) capsule collection. The collection features old-school hip-hop culture with 1990s boxy fitted single stitched T-shirts, football jerseys and caps.
Chinese EV makers have been counting on Southeast Asia, the Middle East and Europe as their largest exporting markets. BYD, the world’s largest EV maker by sales, has repeatedly said it has no plan to sell its cars in the US market, but on Wednesday said it was looking forContinue Reading
The agency is also looking into large language models that have led to an increase in “potency and proliferation of phishing scams”, said Ms Cheryl Tan, deputy director of sense-making and surveillance centre of expertise at HTX.
Cybersecurity firms CNA spoke to have also adopted AI to defend against increasingly sophisticated cyber attacks.
An example is the analysis of behaviour patterns to detect anomalies that can indicate potential attacks, said Mr Johan Fantenberg, a Principal Solutions Architect APJ at Ping Identity.
Another cybersecurity firm, Infoblox, also makes use of AI to help security teams detect threats.
“On an average day, security teams could look at anywhere from 500,000 to a million security reports, varying from false positives to serious threats,” said Mr Paul Wilcox, Vice President of Infoblox Asia Pacific and Japan.
Infoblox uses AI-driven analytics to help distil the number to a much more manageable figure, allowing security teams to concentrate their attention on these.
AI in cybersecurity is “increasingly critical” to protecting online systems, said cybersecurity form Fortinet. If used correctly, AI systems can be trained to detect threats automatically, identify new strands of malware and protect sensitive data, it added.
“However, organisations also need to be aware that cyber criminals adjust their methods to resist new AI cybersecurity tools,” said Fortinet in an article on its website.
While some governments in the region are establishing rules to deal with the potential misuse of AI, these may not be enough to deter criminals, Mr Wilcox from Infoblox noted.
“Proactive early detection for crime prevention is far more effective than responding to cyber threats only when it happens,” he added.
Still, having AI rules is still better than none, analysts pointed out, highlighting a regional guide on AI governance and ethics that was launched this month.
Despite being voluntary, the guidelines by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) are likely to be influential on organisations as well as policy makers, pointed out Mr Benjamin Wong, a lecturer at the National University of Singapore’s Faculty of Law.
Mr Wong added that the endorsement of the AI guidelines by ASEAN member states shows that governments are aware of the risks, and are aligned on principles including transparency, security, privacy and data governance.
History is repeating in Southeast Asia. Filipinos and now Indonesians have elected leaders with links to their countries dark pasts, raising questions about whether strongman politics is back in the region and whether it is here to stay. Its return could risk hard-won progress on democracy and human rights.
When Indonesians went to the polls this month, Prabowo Subianto was the overwhelming victor, winning in the first round with 58% of the vote. While the General Elections Commission has until March 20 to announce the final tally, it is widely recognized that Subianto will become the next Indonesian president.
The victory is third time lucky for Subianto, 72, having lost to Joko Widodo in 2014 and 2019. Subianto told supporters the win was “the victory of all Indonesians.”
The difference from outgoing President Widodo could not be starker. While Widodo was seen as an outsider to Indonesian politics, Subianto is firmly part of the old guard. He is a former lieutenant-general and special-forces commander and a close ally of the late president Suharto, even marrying his daughter.
Subianto modeled himself on his former patron in his 2014 and 2019 election campaigns, building a strongman image based on his military service. But it is his military background that has caused controversy.
Subianto has been accused of serious human-rights abuses, including atrocities in East Timor and Papua and the abduction and disappearance of democracy activists in 1997. He was controversially dismissed from the military after storming the presidential palace to threaten Suharto’s successor, B J Habibie, in 1998.
Subianto sought to distance himself from his strongman persona in the lead-up to this election to attract young voters. This included styling himself as a “cuddly grandpa,” dancing onstage and having Widodo’s 40-year-old son Gibran as a running mate.
Subianto also outspent all other candidates online, spending more than US$500,000 on his social-media campaign. The change in strategy clearly worked.
But despite the change, Indonesians might be in for a rude shock. Subianto’s victory signals a return to an older, more brutal Indonesia, where the country is run by military strongmen and family-dynasty politics. The incoming president represents both of these things.
His poor record on human rights is also a nod to Indonesia’s dark history of atrocities against political opponents, protesters and minority groups.
But the re-emergence of strongmen is not isolated to Indonesia, with Subianto’s victory having close parallels to the 2022 presidential election in the Philippines.
Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr was elected president of the Philippines in a landslide in May 2022, gathering almost 40 million votes, making it the country’s first majority win in decades.
While Bongbong is not a military man like Subianto, the Marcos name is infamous in the Philippines. Marcos Jr’s father, Ferdinand Sr, brutally ran the country as president – and then dictator – from 1965 to 1986.
Marcos Sr’s regime oversaw severe human-rights abuses, including arrests, forced disappearances, torture and extrajudicial killings. The Philippine Human Rights Violations Victims Memorial Commission estimates more 11,000 people were victims of human-rights violations under the regime, while Amnesty International claims the number is well over 100,000.
The family was also notorious for corruption, allegedly stealing US$10 billion while in power before Marcos Sr was ousted in a popular uprising in 1986, known as the People Power Revolution, which saw the family flee into exile.
Like Subianto, Marcos Jr distanced himself from his family’s dark history during the election campaign to attract young voters. This included an attempt to rehabilitate his father’s image, labeling it a “golden age.” Marcos Jr also used social media to reach young voters and spread misinformation about his father and allegations over the family’s stolen fortune.
While Marcos Jr has also tried to portray himself as a supporter of human rights, events on the ground tell a different story. Human Rights Watch reports that despite promises to the contrary, Marcos Jr has continued the infamous drug war of his predecessor Rodrigo Duterte, which led to the killing of 342 people in his first year in power.
There have also been cases of extrajudicial killings and forced disappearances against politicians, journalists and human-rights advocates.
Admittedly, the attraction of strongmen isn’t new in the Philippines, with former president Duterte infamous for inciting violence and damaging the country’s reputation on human rights.
But like Subianto – and unlike Duterte – Marcos Jr is a return to the old guard. His presidency both revises and legitimizes his father’s brutal rule and the country’s dark history. His return is a dangerous moment for the Philippines.
So is history repeating in Indonesia and the Philippines?
There is certainly a disconnect between the region’s dark past and what attracts voters today. Voters in both countries – particularly young people – were attracted to older candidates and a nostalgia for what they claimed were better times.
Both men have taken advantage of modern election strategies, including using social media to attract young voters and spread misinformation. This has enabled both to reinvent themselves and to deflect away from their country’s difficult past or to reinvent that as well.
This is not helped by a lack of knowledge or misunderstanding of the past by young people, who did not live through the atrocities and corruption under Suharto or Marcos Sr.
Both countries have a proud recent history of democracy and – while Subianto and Marcos Jr were elected democratically – they put this progress at risk. Their return represents and legitimizes a darker time of dictators, corruption and atrocities, which many older Indonesians and Filipinos hoped they had consigned to history. It is undoubtedly a step back.
This is a dangerous moment for Indonesia and the Philippines. Instead of a break from history, they may be seeing it return.
Data from Alipay+ and PayNet shows a robust rebound of consumer spending during the first back-to-normal Chinese New Year (CNY) travel season after the Covid-19 pandemic, especially in cross-border tourism in Malaysia.
For CNY 2024, data from Alipay+ shows that Malaysia is the fifth most popular destination globally for Chinese tourists, with spending in Malaysia in the first seven days of CNY at two times that of CNY 2019 and more than ten times compared to 2023
Growing Alipay+ ecosystem in Malaysia to welcome tourists
Since Nov 2023, Alipay+ has been accepted by more than 1.9 million DuitNow QR merchants (Alipay has an 80 million merchant network in China). At the same time Alipay+ has enabled 13 international e-wallets and bank apps that can now be used in Malaysia: Alipay (Chinese mainland), AlipayHK (Hong Kong SAR, China), Kakao Pay, Naver Pay and Toss Pay (South Korea), Changi Pay and OCBC Digital (Singapore), GCash and HelloMoney by AUB (Philippines), Hipay (Mongolia), MPay (Macao SAR, China), TrueMoney (Thailand) and Tinaba (Italy).
The addition of new e-wallets provides added convenience to tourists while bringing more growth opportunities to Malaysian merchants where Alipay+ has also partnered with top merchants across multiple tourism-focused industries in retail, F&B and everyday conveniences.
“With its use spreading across age and income groups, mobile payment is increasingly becoming an important promoter of local and cross-border commerce in Asia and beyond,” said Dr Cherry Huang (pic), General Manager of Alipay+ Offline Merchant Services, Ant International. “Particularly through our partnership with PayNet, we have seen a significant increase in Alipay+ transactions on the DuitNow QR network, which shows that it not only provides great convenience to tourists but also brings more opportunities to local businesses, both big and small. We look forward to strengthening our collaborations with local partners to contribute to the vibrant tourism sector in Malaysia.”
Besides Chinese tourists, Malaysia ranks as the sixth most popular destination amongst Asian tourists (ex-Chinese). Via transactions from Alipay+ payment partner apps, tourists from Hong Kong SAR, the Philippines and Thailand are the top spenders in Malaysia, aside from tourists from the Chinese mainland.
Additionally, in Nov 2023, Alipay+ and PayNet enabled travellers with 8 Alipay+ supported e-wallets to make QR payments seamlessly at DuitNow QR merchants’ touchpoints across Malaysia. The impact has been clear. In the four-month period since launch, compared to Dec 2023, in Feb 2024, the number of average daily transactions via Alipay+ on DuitNow QR has increased by 2.5 times, while spending via Alipay+ partner users at DuitNow QR merchants has also increased 2.5 times.
As Malaysian marks 50 years of partnership between Malaysia and China, various initiatives have been introduced to promote tourism in Malaysia, including visa-free travel and ongoing discussions about establishing direct flights between smaller provinces in China and Malaysia.
With the government working to boost tourism, particularly in preparation for Visit Malaysia 2026, PayNet’s focus remains on enhancing travellers’ cashless experiences.
“Looking ahead, PayNet is committed to innovating and expanding our services to support the dynamic needs of tourists and merchants alike, reinforcing Malaysia’s position as a top-tier global destination,” Yeoh said.
Robust recovery, diversified destinations for outbound Chinese tourists using Alipay
Hong Kong SAR, Japan, Macao SAR, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea, France, Australia and Canada are the top destinations for Chinese travellers by their Alipay spending. Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore combined saw a 7.5% increase over 2019 and a 580% leap over 2023, with Thailand leading in total volume and Malaysia showing the most significant growth. New visa-free policies from major Southeast Asia destinations, including Malaysia, are critical enablers of the cross-border travel boom.
A global campaign to attract Chinese tourists has been in full swing on the Alipay+ merchant network since Dec 2023. In the CNY holiday week between Feb 9th and 12th, the number of transactions made by Alipay users overseas surpassed 2019 by 7%, while consumer spending recovered to 82% of the 2019 level, or 2.4 times that of 2023.
Promoting outbound travel among Alipay+ partner e-wallets and bank apps
With new partnerships in 2023 and increased travel, total cross-border spending on the region’s leading e-wallets powered by Alipay+ increased by 252% year-on-year. Daily average transactions increased by 304%. Japan, South Korea, Macao SAR, Thailand and Singapore are the top 5 most popular destinations for Alipay+ consumers besides the Chinese mainland.
International e-wallets and cards-enabled Alipay accounts in the Chinese mainland saw multi-fold expansion. During CNY 2024, international travellers to China spent 500% more on their international card-enabled Alipay accounts at merchants in the Chinese mainland compared to 2023. Chinese restaurants, tourist attractions and public transportation are the most popular use cases for international visitors travelling in China and experiencing the festival. Since Sept 2023, Alipay+ has supported ten leading e-wallets and payment apps in Asia, including Touch ‘n Go eWallet, to serve their roaming users across Alipay’s 80-million merchant network in China.
PayNet. “This partnership, exemplifying how strategic collaborations can drive economic growth and enhance the tourism experience, has facilitated easy payment for international visitors and opened up a world of opportunities for local merchants.”