Tep Nimol

26 May 2010  

MORE than 100 ethnic Jarai villagers in Ratanakkiri province on Tuesday filed a complaint with the rights group Adhoc against a Vietnamese company they have accused of illegally clearing 10 hectares of community forest and drilling for iron ore on their farmland.

Rcham Yong, a representative of villagers in Lumchor, Koh and Keschong communes, said the exploration for iron ore deposits on the part of the Vietnamese firm Hor Anh Ratanakkiri, had “caused terrible effects on eight areas of slash-and-burn farmland used by our community”.

He added that the villagers planned to hold “a big non-violent demonstration” on Saturday to demand that the company cease exploration and clearing activities and remove its machinery from their land or “quit investment in the area completely”.

Pen Bonnar, provincial coordinator for the rights group Adhoc, said Tuesday that the company has since late February cleared about 10 hectares of the villagers’ community forest and used drills to explore for iron ore.

Provincial Governor Pav Hamphan said the company had a licence to explore for iron ore in Ratanakkiri, but added that he did not know the exact extent of the designated exploration area. Company representatives could not be reached Tuesday.

Source:Phnom Penh Post

The Jakarta Post

25 May 2010 | National

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono is scheduled to depart for Oslo, Norway, on Tuesday evening, to attend a climate change conference.

“Several Indonesian delegations and I are about to leave for Oslo for a talk on cooperation between the two countries on forestry and climate change issues,” Yudhoyono said Tuesday before taking off at Halim Perdanakusuma in East Jakarta, as quoted by tempointeraktif.com.

Yudhoyono said that Norway would give a donation to the country to support emission reduction efforts. “The amount [of the donation] is quite big,” he added.

Yudhoyono is scheduled to return to Jakarta on Saturday.

Source: The Jakarta Post

By Razak Ahmad and Royce Cheah

26 May 2010

* Malaysia fuel price hike unlikely this year -analyst

* Malaysia fuel subsidy cuts likely to be over five years

* Spike in oil price or inflation could weaken govt support

* Malaysia PM hamstrung by election cycle

KUALA LUMPUR, May 26 (Reuters) - Malaysia's government is unlikely to start unwinding its costly subsidy regime this year ahead of key state polls and risks losing further credibility with investors if a decision is deferred.

A cabinet meeting on Wednesday is to discuss subsidies, which have more than doubled from 2006 and chew up 15.3 percent of federal government spending, according to official data. Officials have told Reuters any cuts are likely to be phased in over five years.

With the National Front government that has ruled Malaysia for 52 years still reeling from record election losses in 2008 and a string of by-election defeats, there is a risk it will flinch on cuts, perhaps until it has a new electoral mandate.

Prime Minister Najib Razak has pledged to reform subsidies and restructure the Malaysian economy, although he has announced few firm details.

"Any increase will become a major political issue so I expect a very gradual hike spread out over a few years," said political analyst Shaharuddin Badaruddin. "Even if Najib chooses to begin fuel price hikes this year before the Sarawak (state) elections, it will be very minimal."

Malaysia posted its biggest budget deficit in more than 20 years at 7 percent of gross domestic product in 2009 as a result of the global economic slowdown as well as subsidy spending on petrol and food which has more than doubled since 2006.

Based on a gradual reduction in subsidies that could see petrol prices hiked by an initial 15 cents a litre hike for the 1.80 ringgit a litre RON95 blend, followed by semi-annual price rises of 10 cents a litre, Bank Islam economist, Azrul Azwar Ahmad Tajuddin said inflation would peak at 3.8 percent in 2011.

"If all the subsidy cuts are made however, I don't rule out the possibility of inflation growth for 2011 hitting not far from 5 percent," he said.

GOVERNMENT'S "FIXED DEPOSIT" ON BORNEO

The prospect of those kind of price hikes would be hard for voters to swallow, especially in Sarawak state which provides 29 of the government's 137 MPs.

Sarawak and Sabah states on Borneo island provided a bulwark against the 2008 political tsunami that saw the opposition win over a third of parliament seats and rule five of Malaysia's 13 states, an unprecedented showing.

"If Najib can hold off any sharp increases in the prices of goods and services, then it would be to his advantage to hold off major subsidy cuts until after the next general election," said Ibrahim Suffian, director at pollster the Merdeka Center.

But Ibrahim added that a long-drawn out reduction in the pace of subsidy reform poses its own risks due to the possibility of discontent festering toward the ruling coalition in the event of a sudden surge in global oil prices or inflation.

Barclays Capital forecasts that U.S. crude oil will average $85 a barrel this year, $97 in 2011, $106 in 2012 and $137 in the long term.

In June 2008, annual inflation accelerated to a record 8.5 percent after the government implemented its biggest one-time petrol price hike of 40 percent as oil prices surged beyond $140 per barrel.

NOT AS BRAVE AS INDONESIA

Fuel takes up the biggest chunk of Malaysia's subsidy spending at 47.8 percent of the 20.9 billion ringgit for this year and is the most politically sensitive.

Najib's predecessor Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, who led the government to a record win at the 2004 general election, raised fuel prices four times with RON-97 gasoline prices (then the benchmark) rising 90 percent from May 2005 to June 2008.

Despite mitigating measures such as cuts in vehicle road taxes, Abdullah's approval ratings dipped, leading to the historic poll losses in 2008.

Even though Abdullah cut prices a total of seven times, the damage was already done and he was forced from office in April last year to be replaced by Najib, who has consistently sounded a reformist economic agenda.

While Malaysia dithered, in 2005, Indonesian president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono hiked petrol prices by 125 percent in one go to stem the country's huge subsidy bill and although it retains some element of susbidies plans to curb them.

Despite a backlash in the world's fourth largest country, Yudhoyono was re-elected in 2009, turning Indonesia into a magnet for foreign direct and portfolio investors.

"It was well-socialised and there was an effective and equitable transfer to the poorer segments of society," said JPMorgan economist Sin Beng Ong. "If Indonesia can do it, I don't see why Malaysia can't."

Najib has already delayed a planned fuel hike in May due to fears of upsetting voters, especially poorer majority Malays who form a critical votebank.

With three years left to the expiry of the government's five-year term, the key factor in Najib's fuel subsidy reduction strategy could be his election timetable.

Analysts say Najib could call for polls as early as next year to ride on a recovering economy that grew by 10.1 percent in the first quarter of this year.

"If Najib really wants to show fiscal responsibility, then it would be best to bite the bullet once rather than hold it off only to find out that its too late in the electoral cycle," said Merdeka's Ibrahim.

(Editing by David Chance and xxx)

Source: The Forexyard News

26 May 2010

VietNamNet Bridge – Porcine Reproductive and Respiratory Syndrome (PRRS), commonly dubbed blue-ear disease, is suspected as the culprit behind the death of a man in the central province of Quang Ngai on Monday.

Blue-ear disease spreads in northern, central regions

Blue-ear pig disease confuses the market

Nguyen Xuan Men, deputy director of the provincial Department of Health; confirmed with the online newspaper Vnexpress that the young man was suspected to be the first to succumb to the deadly pig disease that is spreading to pig herds in the north.

According to Men, the young man suffered from diarrhea, high fever, convulsion, and skin hemorrhage after eating fresh pig blood pudding. He was not hospitalized in time and lost consciousness.

The man, who was transferred to the Central Hospital of Hue from Quang Ngai, died on Monday.

Health workers immediately disinfected where he was living and examined people who had been in contact with the deceased. Health workers said the virus of PRRS has a particular affinity for the macrophages particularly those found in the lung.

Macrophages are part of the body defenses. Those present in the lung are called alveolar macrophages. They ingest and remove invading bacteria and viruses but not in the case of the PRRS virus. Instead, the virus multiplies inside them producing more viruses and kills the macrophages.

Once it has entered a herd the virus tends to remain present and active indefinitely. The fatality rate is at 7%, thus, it can do harm if patients are not timely hospitalized.

The National Department of Health reported that no new blue ear disease outbreaks were reported in recent days. However, the epidemic remained active in 15 provinces nationwide, mostly in northern provinces including Hanoi.

Since April this year, four positive cases of Porcine Reproductive and Respiratory Syndrome have been detected.

Source: VietnamNet

Malaysia’s farmers were not being provided with adequate training, said Mitin. — Reuters pic

KUALA LUMPUR, May 19 — Malaysia must reform its approach towards farming if its new national agriculture policy is to succeed, says food security council Seacon.

This comes as the third National Agriculture Policy (NAP) expires this year and the country grapples with the vulnerability of its food supply.

Figures from the Ministry of Agriculture and Agro-Based Industries show that Malaysia was far from being self sufficient in food, and imports exceeded exports by RM9.61 billion in 2007 as compared with RM7.06 billion in 2005.

Anni Mitin, executive director of Seacon (the Southeast Asian Council for Food Security and Fair Trade) said farmers were key to food production but were not getting enough training and support in Malaysia, without which many exit the business and opt to plant oil palm instead.

“There is no allocation for training in the NAP,” she said.

David Boyle and Meas Sokchea

“We just banned them in our country. Vietnam is their own business.”

A BAN on pigs and pork imports from Vietnam is not likely to affect Takeo province, Governor Srey Ben said Sunday, and added that he has not been made aware of the health concerns that led his Svay Rieng counterpart to halt Vietnamese imports earlier this month.

“I have not yet received any notification from the Ministry of Agriculture about the banning of pork imported from neighbouring Vietnam,” Srey Ben said.

Governors and other officials from provinces bordering Vietnam were unavailable or unwilling to comment Sunday on whether they intended to impose similar bans, and officials at the Agriculture Ministry could not be reached.

Svay Rieng Governor Chheang Am issued a statement on May 4 instructing all relevant authorities, including those operating border checkpoints, to “immediately cease all imports of pork and live pigs” from Vietnam, in order to prevent a potential “epidemic” of diseases including foot-and-mouth disease and porcine respiratory and reproductive syndrome (PRRD).

Last Thursday, he said both of those diseases had been detected in Vietnam. “So the authority decided to ban their pigs until the situation is better,” he said.

On Sunday, Chheang Am said he had imposed the ban on the advice of the Agriculture Ministry.

“I instituted the ban using the provincial framework, but the Ministry of Agriculture also gave me the advice to do so,” he said.

He added that he had not communicated with Vietnamese officials to alert them to the ban, nor had he taken steps to cooperate with them to curb the illegal importation of pigs. “We just banned them in our country. Vietnam is their own business; it’s not related to them,” he said.

Several outbreaks of foot-and-mouth disease have been reported in Cambodia, Thailand and Vietnam in the past few years. In 2007, Prime Minister Hun Sen imposed an eight-month ban on all Thai and Vietnamese pigs because of outbreaks of foot-and-mouth and PRRD, or blue ear.

Source: http://www.phnompenhpost.com/

Sunday, May 16, 2010

Jakarta (ANTARA News) - World`s major palm oil producers Indonesia and Malaysia will be cooperating in the exploration of oil palm seeds in Angola, Africa, a senior official said.

Director General for Plantations of the Ministry Agriculture, Achmad Mangga Barani said here on Sunday that the efforts would be made in the African country to find quality seeds for to be raised at home.

He said that oil palm hailed from Africa and Angola was one of the countries which owned high quality seeds so that Indonesia and Malaysia were willing to explore oil palm`s germ plasm in the western African country.

"Last year, Indonesia conducted oil palm germ plasm exploration in Cameroon. This year we will explore it in Angola in cooperation with Malaysia," the director general said.

He said that the exploration efforts would be facilitated by the government but be financed by the private sector, among others PT London Sumatera, PT Sofindo, PT Sampoerna, PT BTN and PPKS.

Indonesia and Malaysia as two world`s major palm oil producers were willing to improve the quality of their products, the director general said.(*)

Source: http://www.antaranews.com/

ASEAN Trade in Goods Agreement Enters into Force
ASEAN Secretariat, 17 May 2010

Press Release

The cost of doing business in ASEAN will be lower and trade-related transactions simpler as the ASEAN Trade in Goods Agreement (ATIGA), one of the region’s landmark economic agreements, entered into force today.

The ATIGA, which is comprehensive in its scope and brings transparency to regional trade liberalisation, consolidates all commitments related to trade in goods. It focuses on not only tariff liberalisation and non-tariff measures, but it also includes matters related to simplification of rules of origin and its implementation. Various agencies and regulatory bodies dealing with entry of goods, such as the Customs, and health and agricultural authorities, will jointly operate in ensuring smoother operations at the Customs entry points.

“The ATIGA is a major achievement towards the establishment of a single market and production base under the ASEAN Economic Community 2015,” said the Secretary-General of ASEAN, Dr Surin Pitsuwan. The entry into force of the ATIGA will help facilitate trade by simplifying processes and procedures thereby reducing transaction time and cost of doing business hence benefitting the business community and the public, he said upon the deposit of Thailand’s instrument of ratification with his office in Jakarta. All ASEAN Member States have now ratified the ATIGA.

The ATIGA contains the full import duty liberalisation schedule among ASEAN Member States and spells out the tariff rates to be applied on products. This provides businesses with transparency and certainty in making business and investment decisions. Dr Surin also urged the ASEAN Member States to implement the ATIGA through timely incorporation of the ATIGA commitments into domestic legislation to meet the agreed tariff reduction schedules.

With the coming into force of ATIGA, Brunei Darussalam, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore and Thailand will issue their legal enactments in 90 days, while Cambodia, Lao PDR, Myanmar, and Viet Nam will do so in 180 days. Thereafter, tariff liberalisation commitments under the ATIGA will be implemented retroactively from 1 January 2010.

*****

17 May 2010

HA NOI — As the dry season prolongs into drought, residents in Ba Vi District on the outskirts of Ha Noi are suffering from water shortages.

Out of 109 households, home to 502 people in Cao Linh Hamlet, Phu Son Commune, only 10 have enough water, only made possible by them building their own water storage containers.

"From November to the end of March, there was serious lack of water here, and this year it has worsened due to the long-lasting drought," said Phung Tien Truong, a local official.

The communal People's Committee and residents have asked for water supplies many times but not received a response.

"Besides the weather, Cao Linh is located 600 metres up Phu Huu Hill meaning underground water is scarce. Previously, the hamlet relied on water from the Yen Ngua canal, but that has been gradually filled up by landslides," added Chu Ba Trang from Phu Son Commune's People's Committee.

In order to sort out the problem, Phu Son has built three public wells and water containers.

However, the wells, costing an estimated VND15-20 million (US$790-1,050), remain empty.

"In 2008, my family invested in building one well, but that hasn't provided any water at the moment. Instead, we have to buy water at VND100,000 per 4cu.m.

Despite being located at a lower position compared to Phu Son, Phu An Hamlet in Thai Hoa Commune, the poorest area of Ba Vi District, is also suffering. Out of 86 households, 56 live below the poverty line. They all suffer from water shortages from October to April every year.

"We have to take water from the irrigation canals which have no water in dry season.

The water we take from wells is yellow and very muddy," said Chu Van Cho, Phu An Hamlet's Party Secretary.

According to a report from the Ha Noi clean water trading company, 38.5 per cent of residents in Ha Noi get water from urban water systems. In the five districts of Dong Anh, Soc Son, Gia Lam, Thanh Tri and Tu Liem, the rate is 15 per cent and only 1 per cent for the districts of Hoai Duc, Dan Phuong, Ba Vi, Quoc Oai, Thanh Oai, Ung Hoa, My Duc, Phu Xuyen and Me Linh.

Suburban residents haven't got tap water yet. Instead, they still use water from wells, irrigation canals or rain. Out of 101 water supply stations with capacity of 400-1,600cu.m per day, 89 are currently in operation. — VNS

http://vietnamnews.vnagency.com.vn/