Day: November 21, 2021

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Vietnam Puts High Hopes on RCEP Trade Deal

Vietnam is likely to see near-term benefits from its membership in the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, a free trade agreement to come into force in January, following the Nov. 2 ratification by Australia and New Zealand.

Fifteen Asia-Pacific nations have signed the RCEP, including China, South Korea, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, and the 10 Association of Southeast Asian Nations members – Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam.

It is widely considered the world’s largest free trade deal, accounting for approximately 30% of the world’s population and 30% of global gross domestic product. It is ultimately expected to remove tariffs on more than 90% of goods traded in the region.

Vietnam considers RCEP to be one of a series of successes in international economic integration, especially in the context of COVID-19 and the needs of economic recovery. Along with 14 Vietnamese free trade agreements already in effect, RCEP is expected to allow Vietnamese exports to enter more markets at lower tariff rates.

Steven Okun, senior adviser at geostrategic consultancy McLarty Associates, told VOA that RCEP is a significant agreement, especially when it comes to making trade easier and better integrating supply chains.

“In long term, if RCEP brings greater China, Japan, and Korea closer on trade, this would limit U.S. economic integration in the region but could offer opportunities for countries in Southeast Asia, including Vietnam. It would likely not impact the ongoing shift of supply chains out of China,” he said.

Cheaper imports

For Vietnam, RCEP will also pave the way for cheaper imports, especially of materials needed for production. Within ASEAN alone, Vietnam’s annual imports of raw materials and production equipment exceed $30 billion. In addition, Vietnam still has a trade deficit of several tens of billions of dollars per year with major markets such as China and South Korea, according to the Ministry of Planning and Investment’s newspaper.

Raw materials imported from RCEP countries will be considered as raw materials produced in Vietnam when products are exported to RCEP member countries. This allows the exported product to be labeled as made in Vietnam, lowering tariffs imposed by the importing country. These are also countries that provide a huge amount of raw material for Vietnam’s billion-dollar export industries, such as electronics, components, textiles, footwear, and others.

“Therefore, Vietnam enjoys many benefits from RCEP, when it has strong products such as agriculture and fishery meeting the needs of most RCEP members. Thanks to the harmonization of rules of origin within the RCEP bloc, Vietnamese goods can more easily meet conditions for enjoying preferential tariffs and increase exports in the region, especially Japan, South Korea, Australia, and New Zealand,” the newspaper said.

Phan Thi Thanh Xuan, vice president of Vietnam Leather, Footwear and Handbag Association, said that the industry will benefit from the advantage of importing raw materials from China under RCEP. Vietnam can already import the raw materials under the ASEAN-China FTA, but Vietnamese-manufactured exports to countries other than China or other ASEAN members are not considered to have been made in Vietnam. Under the RCEP, such exports to Japan or other RCEP signatories benefit from lower tariffs as products made in Vietnam.

Concerns about domestic market

From Vietnam’s perspective, participation in RCEP brings both pros and cons. While the prospect of increasing exports would lead to positive economic growth indicators for Vietnam, there are concerns over how the agreement will affect the domestic market, where small and medium-size enterprises, which account for 98% of companies, will expect a flood of goods from elsewhere, especially China.

In the footwear industry, for example, Thanh Xuan said small and medium-size companies must improve to survive as “the inner strength is very weak. In a competitive market, if they don’t improve, they are easily eliminated.”

“In fact, the share of the number of SMEs accounts for 60% [in the footwear industry] but the contribution to exports is low, at less than 20%. In contrast, foreign direct investment and big enterprises in Vietnam account only about 30 to 40%, but their proportion of exports is up to 80 to 90%,” she said.

“There are advantages as well that help Vietnam improve its capacity. In the footwear industry, Vietnam has many additional advantages, and is currently the second-largest source of footwear exports in the world. We also created a fairly long-term supply chain with major markets. Foreign investment in Vietnam is a long-term process, accounting for a fairly large proportion,” Thanh Xuan told VOA.

She added: “In general, the growth potential for this industry is still very good, still competitive, and still earning reputation within big brands – they still maintain orders in Vietnam, and foreign investors are still committed to continue manufacturing in Vietnam, at least for another 10 to 20 years.”

Okun, who is also the former chair of the American Chamber of Commerce in Singapore, said Vietnam has a major advantage over most RCEP members because it has signed the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership, another trade agreement.

He said that agreement goes further in advancing trade in ways such as committing its parties to ensure that state-owned enterprises compete fairly with private companies, without undue advantages from governments. The CPTPP also has “high-quality digital trade rules which, if fully implemented, would strengthen Vietnam’s digital economy and open up new opportunities for the digital economy to be the next engine of growth for Vietnam.”

“Vietnam should act immediately to implement its commitments within the CPTPP and go beyond by establishing new digital trade agreements, such as with key partners such as Singapore and the United States. This would enable Vietnam to maintain its preferential position in developing a foundation for its economic recovery, being one of the few countries to benefit from both RCEP and the CPTPP and maximizing its opportunities for growth through the digital economy,” he told VOA.

 

 

 

Source: Voice of America

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China Reduces Ties with Lithuania in Taiwan Spat

China reduced the level of its diplomatic relations with Lithuania to below ambassador level Sunday in retaliation for the Baltic nation allowing Taiwan, the island democracy claimed by Beijing as part of its territory, to open a representative office.

China earlier expelled the Lithuanian ambassador, reflecting its intense sensitivity over the status of Taiwan, which Beijing says has no right to conduct foreign affairs. China also withdrew its own ambassador from Lithuania.

The Foreign Ministry said relations would be downgraded to the level of charge d’affaires, an embassy’s No. 2 official.

Lithuania’s move reflects growing interest among governments in expanding ties with Taiwan, a major trader and center for high-tech industry, at a time when Beijing has irritated its neighbors and Western governments with an increasingly assertive foreign and military policy.

Taiwan and the mainland have been ruled separately since 1949 following a civil war.

The Foreign Ministry accused Lithuania of “undermining Chinese sovereignty and territorial integrity.” It called on the Lithuanian government to “correct the mistakes immediately.”

Beijing refuses to have official relations with governments that recognize Taiwan as a sovereign country. It has persuaded all but 15 countries, most of them small and poor in Africa and Latin America, to switch recognition to the mainland.

Many governments, including the United States and Japan, have official diplomatic ties with Beijing while maintaining extensive commercial ties with Taiwan. Many maintain relations with the island’s democratically elected government through trade offices that serve as informal embassies.

Lithuania broke with diplomatic custom by agreeing that the Taiwanese office in Vilnius would bear the name Taiwan instead of Chinese Taipei, a term used by other countries to avoid offending Beijing.

Lithuania said earlier it plans to open its own representative office in Taiwan.

 

 

 

Source: Voice of America

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Indonesian Trans Women Leave Streets to Operate Laundry

When an Indonesian American, a recent college graduate, collected a $10,000 peace prize she spent the money as soon as she could to realize her winning plan – providing aging trans women in Jakarta with a steady income from a laundry business, freeing them from sex work and begging.

 

In the fall of 2019, Marhaennia English, known to all as Nia, was a junior at Hood College in Frederick, Maryland, when she entered a competition for a grant from Projects for Peace. The program, based in Middlebury, Vermont, encourages students enrolled in American institutions to develop grassroots projects that promote peace.

For English, a 43-year-old mother of three, peace means living freely without fear of stigma and discrimination. When she looked at the entry requirements, she knew she would design a project to support “socially disadvantaged elderly trans people” and an organization that supports them, an existing nonprofit, the Indonesian Transgender Communication Forum (FKWI).

 

English, whose college classes focused on women’s studies and gender issues, decided a laundromat would be “a suitable business for elderly trans people because they have little to no education.”

 

Scott Pincikowski, coordinator of the Project for Peace at Hood College, said English’s entry showed she understood “how it would make a positive impact upon older trans people, a vulnerable group in Indonesia.”

 

But after winning the prize in March 2020, English could not begin work on her project because of the pandemic, which was making the lives of trans people even more precarious.

 

Even before the coronavirus, “our economic situation is tough,” Yulianus Rettblaut, a 60-year-old trans woman, told VOA Indonesian.

 

Rettblaut, better known as Mami Yuli, has a master’s degree in criminal law from the University of Tama Jagakarsa and heads FKWI. She runs a shelter for more than 825 trans women in Depok, in the outskirts of Jakarta. Most of the women are elderly, poorly educated and lack family support.

Mami Yuli has tallied 27 deaths from COVID-19 in her trans community. In Jakarta, the death toll is closing in on 13,600, according to government statistics, and there have been more than 143,600 deaths nationwide.

 

Edo Kusuma, or Oma Dona as she prefers to be known, is a shelter resident. Originally from West Kalimantan province, Oma Dona, 70, still remembers her parents’ words after 46 years, “‘We don’t want to have a queer son!’”

 

She recalled being locked in a room and tied up, telling VOA Indonesian, “I decided to fight for my own freedom and run away to Jakarta.”

Oma Dona has not seen her family since 1975, when she arrived in Indonesia’s capital city. She was a sex worker for more than 30 years.

 

Hers is the story of many Indonesian trans women. Even though Indonesia, a majority Muslim country, does not criminalize transgender people, the group faces gender-based discrimination.

 

“Almost 80% of trans women come from rural areas,” said Mami Yuli, who is pursuing a doctoral degree in constitutional law at the University of Jayabaya while also managing her hair salon, among other pursuits.

 

Most trans women arrive in Jakarta without proper documentation, so they cannot obtain health care, social security or jobs other than sex work, she said.

 

In May 2021, English began setting up the laundry remotely from her home in Gaithersburg, Maryland, after pushing through pandemic-related delays and administrative snarls. That same month she graduated magna cum laude and won the Bromer Peace Award from Hood because of her project.

English, who is fluent in Indonesian, found a suitable small space between a motorcycle wash and a building supply store in Depok. She paid a year’s rent in advance, bought a washing machine, a dryer and other equipment, and paid for six months of utilities.

 

“Everything is already set up,” Mami Yuli said of the “miracle” laundromat that opened in August. “We just have to operate the business.”

 

English says she is “happy that I’m in the position to help others. It makes my life more meaningful.”

 

The FKWI Laundry employs three full-time workers, including Oma Dona, and several part-time workers. Each received training for operating the machines so everyone can do everything.

 

“Here, we cooperate. If one of us is not healthy, another takes over,” said Oma Dona.

 

Mami Yuli supervises the operation. “I taught them how to manage basic finances, how to maintain quality and how to deal with customers.”

 

FKWI Laundry charges about 50 cents for each kilogram of clothes, enough for the workers to earn about $35 a month.

 

Although that’s less than the minimum wage, Oma Dona, who once worked as a waiter, said the pay works for her. “I have enough clothing and everything else,” she said. “What else do I need? Now I’m just enjoying the rest of my time in this world.”

 

She, like the others, finds hope and dignity in operating the business.

 

“It has been very positive,” said Mami Yuli. “They can take turns working. … They are no longer busking or begging on the streets, now they can contribute to something useful.”

 

 

 

Source: Voice of America

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Relatives of COVID-19 Dead Question Japan’s Recover-at-Home Policy

Yoshihiko Takeuchi, who ran a small restaurant on the island of Okinawa, told only a few friends he had the coronavirus. When he didn’t answer phone calls from public health workers for three days, police went to his home and found him dead in his bed.

He was among hundreds of people who have died while subject to “jitaku ryoyo,” or a policy of having some COVID-19 patients “recuperate at home.”

In many countries, those with the virus stay home to isolate and recover, but critics say that in Japan, a country with one of the most affordable and accessible health care systems, people have been denied hospital care, and the policy amounted to “jitaku hochi,” or “abandonment at home.”

Takeuchi’s sister and a daughter of another man who died at home of COVID-19 have started an online support group for grieving relatives of such victims.

Japan has seen caseloads fall dramatically in the past two months and the government has drawn up a road map to improve its pandemic response. A plan adopted Nov. 12 aims to have beds for up to 37,000 patients nationwide by the end of November, up from 28,000.

That compares with more than 231,000 coronavirus patients needing hospitalization in late August, according to government data. Many had to recuperate at home.

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida also promised to have health care workers routinely visit COVID-19 patients with mild symptoms at home.

Public anger over inadequate treatment in the country with the world’s largest number of beds per capita is a factor driving such changes. Kishida’s predecessor, Yoshihide Suga, resigned after only a year in office, mainly because of widespread dissatisfaction with the government’s pandemic response.

Speaking up takes courage in a conformist society like Japan, and class action lawsuits are rare. But Kaori Takada, Takeuchi’s sister, and others in her group believe their loved ones were denied the medical care they deserved.

“I had to raise my voice,” she said.

She is not sure what she will do. Thousands are following the group’s Twitter account and others have come forward with similar painful stories.

Takada, who lives in Osaka and runs a small nursery in her home, was Takeuchi’s only remaining relative. They spoke on the phone right before he was diagnosed, but he did not tell her he was sick alone at home. Given widespread phobias in Japan about COVID-19, he didn’t want word to get out.

Takada said he was a gentle man and much loved.

“We are coming together, trying to heal, sharing how people have been treated so cruelly, and perhaps helping each other take that first step forward,” she said in a telephone interview.

Japan’s local public health bureaus, responsible for arranging for the care of COVID-19 patients, struggled to find hospitals that would admit them. In some cases, ambulances were shunted from one hospital to the next.

A few makeshift facilities provided treatment and supplemental oxygen, but calls to set up big field hospitals went unheeded.

In New York, for instance, hospitals were quickly converted, adding thousands of extra beds and ICUs for virus patients. A Navy medical ship and other facilities were turned into makeshift hospitals. At the outbreak’s peak in April 2020, there were more than 1,600 new hospitalizations a day citywide.

In August of this year, when infections in Japan surged with the spread of the delta variant, Japan’s hospital systems were quickly declared “stretched thin,” even though it has had far fewer COVID-19 cases than the U.S., Europe and some other Asian and South American countries. In early September, more than 134,000 people were sick with the virus at home, according to Health Ministry records.

About 18,000 Japanese have died of COVID-19-related causes in a population of 126 million. No one knows exactly how many died at home, though the National Police Agency, which tracks deaths, said 951 people have died at home since March 2020, with 250 of them in August 2021 alone.

Shigeru Omi, a top government adviser on the coronavirus and head of the Japan Community Health Care Organization, or JCHO, has urged the government to set up emergency field hospitals, specifically to avoid deaths from “jitaku ryoyo.”

Japan’s health care system is dominated by small, private hospitals and clinics, and few inpatient facilities are equipped to handle infectious diseases. Many beds are occupied by psychiatric patients and by the chronically ill and elderly, and there are relatively few doctors, intensive care specialists and nurses.

In some places, local authorities arranged for such hospitals to accept patients who were no longer infectious and rehabilitating from serious illness after they were treated at larger hospitals. But overall, caseloads vastly outnumbered the beds available for critical care.

The JCHO runs 57 of Japan’s biggest hospitals. All are heavily subsidized by taxpayer money. The Health Ministry said it provided up to 100,000 yen ($900) per bed for COVID-19 patients.

In October, JCHO said it had prepared 972 beds nationwide for virus patients, or fewer than 7% of its more than 14,000 overall beds, though in August it temporarily made room for about 1,800 patients.

JCHO declined to comment on Kishida’s call for providing thousands more beds.

Dr. Takanori Yamamoto, a critical care physician at Nagoya University, believes hospital care needs to be restructured to focus on seriously ill patients in designated facilities, instead of spreading them across small hospitals that each have a handful of ICU beds.

Resources were improperly managed, including widespread hospitalizations of people who didn’t need it, he said. Public health bureaus are designed for research and are ill-suited to be “gatekeepers” for doling out COVID-19 care, he added.

The problems are deeply rooted in a decades-old system, and Yamamoto worries that even if Japan manages to ride out this pandemic, it will be unprepared for the next one.

“No other nation turned away patients like this, even countries that had far more cases. The idea of doctors not seeing patients should be out of the question. If you are a doctor, you have to take care of the sick,” Yamamoto said.

“Japan has done nothing. There has been no leadership,” he said.

The time to act is now, before another wave of coronavirus infections hits, said Dr. Kenji Shibuya, research director at the Tokyo Foundation for Policy Research, an independent think tank.

“They didn’t act before, even though they knew it’s coming,” said Shibuya, who has experience working in Britain. “It is about a lack of commitment, lack of will, lack of passion to make a change at a time of crisis,” he said.

Back in August, Yuko Nishizato, co-founder of Takada’s group, pleaded with hospitals for her 73-year-old father to be admitted. But he died after testing positive for COVID-19 without ever getting treatment, apart from medication for a fever.

Phone records show he repeatedly called the local public health center right up to his death. It breaks her heart to know all he got were recordings.

“I wanted him to live to see his grandchildren. I wanted him to see a more grown-up me,” Nishizato said. “There are so many who have suffered the same way, and I don’t understand why.”

 

 

 

Source: Voice of America

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IMF: China’s Economic Recovery ‘Well Advanced’

WASHINGTON– China’s economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic is “well advanced,” though momentum is slowing, and its climate strategy is being implemented by all levels of government, the International Monetary Fund said on Friday, days after it concluded its annual consultation mission to the country.

 

An IMF team, led by Helge Berger, mission chief for China, and assistant director of the Asia and Pacific Department, conducted discussions virtually, with senior Chinese government and banking officials, as well as, private business executives, during an Article IV Consultation that ran from Oct 28 to Nov 10.

 

The consultation is based on Article IV of the IMF’s Articles of Agreement. It usually involves bilateral discussions between the IMF and a member, to assess its member’s economic health and to address financial risks.

 

“After strong containment efforts last year, to keep the outbreak under control, a successful vaccination campaign inoculated the vast majority of Chinese citizens,” Geoffrey Okamoto, IMF first deputy managing director, said on Friday.

 

However, Okamoto cautioned, as elsewhere, more contagious variants are posing challenges.

 

China’s economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic is well advanced, but momentum is slowing down, partly due to withdrawal of policy support and the lagging recovery of consumption, amid recurrent COVID-19 outbreaks, according to a release from the IMF.

 

The IMF predicted China’s economy will grow eight percent this year, and 5.6 percent in 2022, and the pandemic and consumption could again pose short-term risks to the forecast, the 190-member global lender said, in the release.

 

On Tuesday, Premier Li Keqiang said, China’s economy has, in general, sustained the momentum of steady recovery this year, while facing new downward pressure, but the fundamentals of China’s long-term economic development remain unchanged.

 

Li said, China will introduce a mix of tax and fee reductions at an appropriate time, to keep economic performance within a “reasonable range.”

 

Okamoto said, securing “high-quality” growth-growth that is balanced, inclusive and green, will require supportive macroeconomic policies, including fiscal policy, which should temporarily shift to focusing on strengthening social protection and green investment, over traditional infrastructure spending.

 

“China also plays an important role in the global fight against climate change. Implementation of China’s 2030 carbon peaking and 2060 carbon neutrality goals has begun in all key ministries, as well as, local and central governments,” he said.

 

That approach will be most successful, if based on an early start and a comprehensive strategy that combines economic rebalancing towards a more consumption-based growth model, with the use of carbon-pricing tools to help achieve climate goals, while supporting high-quality growth, Okamoto added.

 

The IMF official also said, China plays a key role in multilateral efforts to address global challenges.

 

For example, he said, China can help end the pandemic and secure an inclusive and green recovery by continuing its COVID-19 vaccine distribution, greening the Belt and Road Initiative, aiding efforts to put the debt of low-income countries on a sustainable footing, and contributing to building a more open, stable and rules-based international trading system.

 

 

Source: NAM NEWS NETWORK

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Thai Gov’t To Deepen Collaboration With China’s Huawei In Post-Pandemic Era

BANGKOK – The Thai government intends to further deepen its digital cooperation with Chinese technology company, Huawei, senior Thai officials said, at a cloud event held in Bangkok this week.

 

During the ‘Powering Digital Thailand 2022’ on Nov 17-19, Thai Deputy Prime Minister, Prawit Wongsuwon said, digital infrastructure, such as 5G, is crucial to Thailand’s economic and social development, especially for the country’s post-pandemic economic revival.

 

Badly hit by the COVID-19 pandemic, the tourism-reliant nation registered an economic contraction of 6.1 percent last year, the worst in more than 20 years. However, the pandemic has significantly accelerated the adoption of digital technologies in Thailand, where Chinese tech companies have competitive advantages.

 

During the pandemic, Huawei used its technology to help local hospitals implement systems for automated medical supply, AI-backed diagnosis and remote treatment, which greatly improved the efficiency of hospitals and made healthcare more accessible.

 

Fueled by Thailand’s digital roadmap, Huawei focused on helping the country build 20,000 5G stations, in the past two years. Currently, Thailand has more than 4.2 million 5G subscribers, leading in 5G adoption among ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) countries.

 

Another strength of Huawei has been its cloud capabilities. Deng Feng, general manager of Huawei Thailand, said, Huawei Cloud is the only cloud service provider with local data centres in Thailand, considering that data localisation is a key trend of global enterprises due to government regulations as well as security concerns.

 

He emphasised, Huawei will support Thailand’s low-carbon and digital development in the future, in four areas, including expanding 5G coverage and usage, providing cloud services, creating low-carbon development with digital energy, and cultivating industry talents.

 

Thai Minister of Digital Economy and Society, Chaiwut Thanakamanusorn, expressed his hopes for comprehensive collaboration between the Thai government and Huawei, to facilitate the country’s digital economy, which is targeted to account for 30 percent of the GDP by 2030.

 

According to a joint report, released by Google, Temasek and Bain & Company earlier this month, Thailand’s digital economy is expected to exceed 30 billion U.S. dollars this year, up 51 percent, making it the second-largest market in Southeast Asia after Indonesia.

 

Huawei’s Rotating Chairman, Guo Ping, said, the company will continue innovating and building a tech ecosystem, to facilitate faster digitalisation in Asia-Pacific, and invest 100 million U.S. dollars over the next three years, to build a startup ecosystem in the region.

 

Source: NAM NEWS NETWORK