Day: September 24, 2022

Malaysia has proposed for the United Nations (UN) member countries to establish an International Monetary Cooperation mechanism to address various economic issues, including the rising global inflation.

 

Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob said such mechanism is necessary, considering that in an interconnected world, the policies and decisions made by some countries can affect other countries too.

 

“For example, in tackling inflation that has become a worldwide phenomenon, the monetary policy and setting of interest rates by one country would also have an impact on other countries,” he said in a speech during the 77th United Nations General Assembly at the UN’s headquarters here on Friday.

 

The proposed establishment of the International Monetary Cooperation mechanism would create a more effective and just system that is capable of balancing the needs of global development, he added.

 

“This is where cooperation and coordination between countries need to be improved to achieve the goal of equitable economic prosperity,” he said.

 

The rising inflation rate has become a global phenomenon due to the increase in production inputs and fuel prices.

 

According to a recent study by the World Bank, as central banks across the world simultaneously hike interest rates in response to inflation, the world may be heading towards a global recession in 2023 and a string of financial crises in emerging markets and developing economies that would have lasting harm.

 

The central banks have been raising interest rates this year with a degree of synchronicity not seen over the past five decades—a trend that is likely to continue well into next year, the report said.

 

“However, the currently expected trajectory of interest-rate increases and other policy actions may not be sufficient to bring global inflation back down to levels seen before the pandemic,” it said.

 

Investors expect central banks to raise the global monetary policy rates to almost four per cent through 2023— a more than two percentage points increase over their 2021 average.

 

In Malaysia, the 109th Laporan Kewangan Rakyat issued earlier this month revealed that the country’s inflation rate has been much lower following the government’s move to increase the allocation for subsidies to RM77.7 billion for 2022 from the original allocation of RM31 billion.

 

The nation’s inflation rate rose by 3.1 per cent for the period of January-August 2022 — which is in line with the market’s expectation of 3.2 per cent this year — driven by the strong domestic demand and high commodity prices, as well as disruptions in the global supply chains.

 

In August 2022, the inflation rate increased to 4.7 per cent compared to 4.4 per cent in July 2022, and the inflation rate remains high — something which is also experienced by many countries due to the rise in production input costs and fuel prices.

 

The phenomenon can be seen in the Eurozone where the inflation rate stood at 9.1 per cent, as well as in the United States (8.3 per cent), Thailand (7.9 per cent), the Philippines (6.3 per cent), and the Republic of Korea (5.7 per cent).

 

Ismail Sabri also highlighted Malaysia’s commitment to the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

 

“The COVID-19 pandemic had hampered our efforts in achieving the SDGs. I stand here on behalf of developing countries in asserting that a successful implementation of a greener and more sustainable socio-economic development can be achieved through a fair and inclusive response to that pledge.

 

“New technologies can encourage countries to shift to renewable energy, but the technologies should be affordable for developing countries,” he said.

 

In this regard, Malaysia is committed to carrying out its responsibilities and roles to ensure environmental conservation and sustainability.

 

This includes implementing various measures such as introducing the Malaysian Sustainable Palm Oil (MSPO) standard and committing to reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 45 per cent based on the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by 2030.

 

“Malaysia has also set a target of achieving 31 per cent renewable energy use by 2025 and is committed to achieving its goal of net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050,” he said, adding that Malaysia has also introduced the National Energy Policy 2022-2040 to improve the country’s macroeconomic resilience and energy security.

 

 

 

Source: NAM NEWS NETWORK

China has vowed to “fight” any United Nations action on human rights abuses against Uyghurs in Xinjiang cited in a damning report by the U.N. human rights chief, while Uyghurs are pressing the world body to move forward with investigations and other concrete follow-up measures.

The report issued on Aug. 30 by U.N. High Commissioner of Human Rights Michelle Bachelet concluded that China’s arbitrary detention and repression of Uyghurs and other Turkic minorities in Xinjiang “may constitute international crimes, in particular crimes against humanity.”

Uyghurs and their supporters want the U.S. and other Western countries to follow up with a U.N. Human Rights Council resolution condemning the alleged violations, an investigation, and a special envoy on Xinjiang.

China, which rejected the Bachelet report as “based on the disinformation and lies fabricated by anti-China forces,” sent a large delegation to the rights council in Geneva this week to condemn the report and present its rebuttal.

“The assessment is based on a presumption of guilt, includes mostly disinformation and lies,” Xu Guixiang, head of the Xinjiang government’s information office, told reporters in Geneva Thursday.

“If some forces in the international community – or even anti-China forces – make so-called ‘Xinjiang-related motions’ or so-called ‘resolutions’, we won’t be afraid,” Xu said. “We will take countermeasures resolutely and fight.”

Bachelet’s report puts a U.N. imprimatur on many findings in investigative reports issued by rights groups, researchers, foreign media and think tanks in the five years since Chinese authorities began detaining up to 1.8 million Uyghurs and other Turkic minorities in internment camps in Xinjiang,

The predominantly Muslim groups have also been subjected to torture, forced sterilizations and forced labor, as well as the eradication of their linguistic, cultural and religious traditions, in what the United States and several Western parliaments have called genocide and crimes against humanity.

Beijing has angrily rejected all charges, insisting it is running vocational training facilities in the region to counter extremism. The Chinese delegation in Geneva this week included large numbers of officials who challenged the reports and a group of Uyghurs who claimed to support Chinese policies.

“The Chinese mission held a side event at the U.N. yesterday featuring five Uyghurs to promote its propaganda that Uyghurs are free and happy in China,” said Zumretay Arkin, program and advocacy manager at the World Uyghur Congress

“Some diplomats from Cuba, Venezuela and Zimbabwe came to support China while some Western diplomats came to hear what China had to say,” said Arkin, who is campaigning for the U.S.-led democracies to introduce a resolution condemning China’s genocide against Uyghurs.

‘Put our words into action’

Group of 7 Foreign Ministers met on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly and welcomed the report, pledging to “address these issues with partners, civil society and the international community.”

The G7 ministers “remained deeply concerned by the serious human rights violations in Xinjiang and took note of the overall assessment of the report that some of these violations may constitute ‘international crimes’ in particular crimes against humanity,’” said a statement by German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, chair of the meeting.

The G7 statement Thursday came after U.S. President Joe Biden and German Chancellor Olaf Sholtz raised rights violations in Xinjiang in their speeches to the U.N. General Assembly.

In Washington this week, the Uyghur American Association has been staging a hunger strike in front of the White House by leaders of the advocacy group and by three internment camp survivors to demand U.S.-led steps to translate the U.N. report into concrete action.

Chris Smith, co-chair of the Bipartisan Congressional Uyghur Caucus, who visited the hunger strikers outside the White House on Wednesday, introduced a bill calling on the Biden Administration to direct the U.S. mission team in Geneva to sponsor a resolution that would establish a UN commission to investigate the issues raised in the Bachelet report.

“The UN’s recent report demonstrates that Communist China is guilty of serious human rights violations that at a minimum constitute crimes against humanity in the eyes of the world community,” said Smith,

“We must speak out forcefully on these atrocities and put our words into action at the United Nations,” she added.

Kellie Currie, former U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for Global Women’s Issues, called on Biden to “not only introduce a resolution in the Human Rights Council, but you personally need to make sure that it passes by doing everything you can, reaching out to other countries, using political capital and influence that you have with other countries that are on the Human Rights Council to make sure that it passes.”

Reporting and translation by Alim Seytoff. Written by Paul Eckert.