Day: January 13, 2023

HONG KONG, 13 January 2023 – InvestHK hosted the first-ever ASEAN Networking Reception at JW Marriot Hotel on 11 January 2023. Officials from the Hong Kong Government, officials of the ten ASEAN Consulates General in Hong Kong, business leaders and entrepreneurs participated in the event.

Dr. Jimmy Chiang, Associate Director-General on InvestHK, graciously welcomed everyone to the event and encouraged ASEAN countries to invest in Hong Kong.

Dr. Bernard Chan, Undersecretary for Commerce and Economic Development, in his remarks, highlighted the many advantages of Hong Kong, such as being the principal gateway to the Mainland market and its business-friendly environment that enticed many multinational companies to set up operations in the city.

Philippine Consul General Raly L. Tejada, in his capacity as the Doyen of the ASEAN Consuls General, emphasized in his own Remarks the robust relationship between Hong Kong and ASEAN countries, which signed in 2018 the ASEAN-Hong Kong, China Free Trade and Investment Agreements.

He added that in 2021, even at the height of the pandemic, ASEAN was Hong Kong’s largest trading partner, after Mainland China, with a total merchandise trade of HKD 1.2 trillion or 12.1% of Hong Kong’s total merchandise trade. ASEAN was also Hong Kong’s 2nd largest supplier of goods, such as electrical machinery and apparatus, office machines, and telecommunications equipment. At the same time, ASEAN was the 2nd largest market of Hong Kong goods, such as metalliferous ores, non-ferrous metals and tobacco.

ASEAN was established more than 50 years ago on 8 August 1967. Its Member States are Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Myanmar, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. It is one of the most successful intergovernmental organizations in the world today.

The largest trading bloc in history, the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), built upon existing ASEAN+1 FTAs, with the aim of further strengthening the economic linkages amongst ASEAN countries and their trading partners Australia, China, Japan, New Zealand and the Republic of Korea.

ASEAN Member countries have been supportive of Hong Kong’s bid to join RCEP.

The Member States of ASEAN—which includes the Philippines—and Hong Kong, China look forward to closer economic ties amongst them and to better people-to-people relations.

Source: Republic of Philippines Department Of Foreign Affairs

KUALA LUMPUR— Bursa Malaysia, the stock exchange of Malaysia, opened higher on Friday on positive sentiment after the latest US Consumer Price Index (CPI) figures showed inflation in the United States has continued to decline, spurring hopes for softer interest rates going forward.

At 9.05 am, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) improved by 2.54 points to 1,491.20 from Thursday’s close of 1,488.66.

The market bellwether opened 0.6 point weaker at 1,488.05.

In the broader market, gainers surpassed decliners 175 to 97, while 211 counters were unchanged, 1,719 untraded, and 20 others suspended.

Turnover amounted to 200.73 million units worth RM85.27 million (US$1=RM4.34).

The US consumer price index fell 0.1 per cent in December, meeting expectations, for the biggest drop since April 2020.

Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd vice-president of equity research Thong Pak Leng noted that the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 217 points while the Nasdaq jumped by almost 70 points as the US 10-year yield eased further to around 3.44 per cent.

Back home, he reckons that buyers should return to the stock market on the back of the cooling US inflation, which also saw the ringgit strengthening against the US dollar Friday.

“As such, we expect consumer product and energy stocks to continue to trend higher as Brent crude continues to rise. It closed at almost US$83.90 per barrel on the back of a weaker US dollar,” he told Bernama.

Among the heavyweights, CIMB edged up three sen to RM5.78, while Tenaga Nasional and Telekom added five sen to RM9.45 and RM5.18, respectively. Sime Darby Bhd rose four sen to RM2.31 and Maybank gained two sen to RM8.82.

As for the actives, Serba Dinamik, Zen Tech International, and Hong Seng perked up half-a-sen to 1.5 sen, three sen, and 15.5 sen, respectively. Nationagate Holdings increased seven sen to RM1.07 while Artroniq declined 2.5 sen to 84 sen.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index expanded 21.42 points to 10,764.18, the FBMT 100 Index strengthened 20.25 points to 10,461.33, and the FBM Emas Shariah Index climbed 28.59 points to 10,973.44.

The FBM 70 Index grew 36.16 points to 13,377.63 and the FBM ACE Index pushed up 39.25 points to 5,467.88.

Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index earned 16.03 points to 16,553.72 and the Industrial Products and Services Index inched up 0.14 of-a-point to 183.95.

The Plantation index ticked up 21.08 points to 6,943.70 and the Energy Index garnered 4.62 points to 820.89.

Source: NAM NEWS NETWORK

LABUAN (Malaysia)— The Labuan International Golf Club (LIGC), in Malaysia’s island of Labuan, is fast becoming a favourite playing field for South Korean golfers.

LIGC president Rithuan Ismail said almost 100 Korean golfers, mostly from the Korea Golf Academy, descended on the 18-hole golf course in December last year for a training-and-playing stint which would run until the end of February.

“We must be thankful for the continuous support from Korean golfers, especially from the Korea Golf Academy, who chose LIGC as their preferred training and playing field,” he told Bernama Friday.

He said LIGC had been serving as a training ground for many professional golfers.

“We received a top five women professional Korean golfer, Seon Woo Bae, in 2019, who chose LIGC as her training field in preparation for an international tournament in Japan,” he said.

He said Woo Bae was with a group of young golfers from the Korea Golf Academy who came for the month-long training.

Woo Bae, a member of the Korea Ladies Professional Golf Association (KLPGA), is ranked 118th in Women’s World Golf.

Rithuan said the par-72 LIGC golf course, owned by the Labuan Corporation (LC), was designed by renowned Australian designer, Parslow and Winter Golf Course Design.

LIGC, the only 18-hole golf course in Labuan, commenced operations in August 2013 and has hosted major tournaments like the Professional Golf Malaysia (PGM) Labuan Championships 2017.

A total of 42 international golfers from 15 countries, including John Catlin, Josh Salah and Blake Snyder of the United States, Martin Dive (Australia), Nattawat Suvanajanakorn (Thailand) and Oscar Arvidsson (Sweden), competed in the tournament.

LIGC also boasts first-class practice facilities with a 16-bay driving range, practice greens and a bunker.

Source: NAM NEWS NETWORK

KUALA LUMPUR– Malaysia’s natural rubber production, decreased by 11.8 percent to 28,048 tonnes in Nov, 2022, from 31,795 tonnes in the previous month, official data showed today.

The year-on-year comparison also showed that, the production of natural rubber fell eight percent from 30,493 tonnes a year ago, the Department of Statistics Malaysia said, in a statement.

Exports of Malaysia’s natural rubber amounted to 51,104 tonnes in Nov, an increase of 23 percent against 41,548 tonnes in Oct, 2022.

China remained the main destination for Malaysia’s natural rubber exports.

The export performance was contributed by natural rubber-based products, such as gloves, tires, tubes, and rubber threads, etc.

Gloves, which were the main exports of rubber-based products, saw its export value decrease by five percent from 1.13 billion ringgit (260 million U.S. dollars) in Oct, to 1.1 billion ringgit (253 million dollars) in Nov.

Total stocks of natural rubber in Nov dropped by 1.4 percent to 195,353 tonnes as compared to 198,181 tonnes in Oct.

Source: NAM NEWS NETWORK

KUALA LUMPUR— All ASEAN Member States (AMS) have enacted specific cybercrime legislation, or adapted their criminal code legislation to criminalise the dissemination of fake news and falsehood over the cyber realm.

Also, existing laws governing defamation have been used against fake news perpetrators. Nonetheless, there is still no clear of common definition for fake news.

However, these legislations could well be double-edged sword where in some AMS there has been accusations that the law to curtail fake news have conveniently been used to silence critics and dissent against the government and political parties. Many are also of the view that laws to counter fake news also curtail civil liberties.

Based from the available resources in the peer-reviewed bi-annual Journal of ASEAN Studies (JAS) below are the specific legislations available in the AMS arsenal in defeating the fake news. Action can be taken under the specific legislation or in combination with other legislations. AMS will continue fine-tuning or introducing new legislations to combat fake news.

Brunei Darussalam.

Spreading fake news is mainly covered by the Public Order Act (1983). The law carries the penalty of a maximum fine of BND 3,000 (USD 2,090.92) and three years’ imprisonment.

Cambodia.

Law on Telecommunications and the Inter-Ministerial Prakas (set of directives) on Publication Controls of Website and Social Media Processing via Internet are deployed to address fake news. Prosecutions against fake news postings have been undertaken under the Criminal Code as well. A cybercrime law is also being drafted to address the menace.

Indonesia

Indonesia has the Law on Electronic Information and Transactions as amended in 2016 and Government Regulation on Trading Through Electronic Systems. Article 207 of the Criminal Code could also easily be applied to anyone who makes a false claim against a public authority.

LAOS PDR

Publication and spreading of fake news are regulated by the Law on Resistance and Prevention of Cybercrime 2015.

Malaysia.

The Communications and Multimedia Act (1998) regulates, amongst other actions, the transmission of false information.

Myanmar

Myanmar is largely dependent on its broad based Telecommunications Law of 2013 in the war against fake news. Two further laws are also used to prosecute offences, namely criminal defamation law and the Electronic Transaction Law.

The Philippines

The Philippines is charging persons suspected of propagating fake news under s 4(c)4 of the Cybercrime Prevention Act and article of the 154 of the Revised Penal Code.

Singapore

Singapore responds to fake news with the Protection from Online Falsehoods and Manipulation Act 2019 (POFMA). Singapore is the most strict in dealing with the problem.

Thailand

Thailand regulates fake news under the Computer Crime Act 2017, as amended, and the Criminal Code.

Vietnam

Vietnam’s Cybersecurity Law has a number of articles that can be used to prosecute those who are considered to be communicating fake news.

Apart from laws to stop fake news, there are many institutions especially related to the media that help verify whether the information spreading fast is true of false. In Malaysia, the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) and Bernama play an active role in putting to a stop the fake news by providing fact-checking platform.

Indonesia’s Checkfakta fact checking platform, based on collaboration of media organisations, is now infact the world’s biggest fact checking network. Other ASEAN government, media and organisations also provide some form of fact checking to help counter fake news.

AMS also educating their citizens in being more responsible over cyber realm and if unsure of the fact its best don’t share the information.

Source: NAM NEWS NETWORK

KUALA LUMPUR— Fake news have existed since time immemorial, but with the advent of internet and social media, it now has taken a new dimension as fake news can easily transcend borders and impact negatively on whole nations and societies.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, with lockdowns in force, fake news itself appeared as a “pandemic” that aggravated the misery and fear that gripped the public. The rise of the so-called citizen journalism also contributed to the rise in fake news, as there is no verification of the news disseminated.

Even before the pandemic, in 2017, the ASEAN Ministers Responsible for Information (AMRI) who met in Manila, the Philippines, expressed concerns that the proliferation of fake news could cause alarm, panic, hate, distress and conflict that potentially can undermine the society and nation.

Hence, the nascent cooperation on fighting fake news across the region began with the ASEAN Member States (AMS) enacting or strengthening their respective legislations that will serve as the first step in stopping fake news before it transcends across borders.

Also, at the same meeting, in countering fake news, ASEAN member states voiced their commitment in implementing programmes to enhance media literacy among the youths to enable them to better discern the information they received.

On Oct 11, 2022, in conjunction with Vietnam’s International Digital Week 2022 hosted by the Vietnamese Ministry of Information and Communications, the newly-created ASEAN task force on fake news met in Hanoi where AMS presented their respective policies and shared experiences in dealing with fake news.

During the meeting AMS strengthened their resolve in preventing the spread of online falsehood and strengthen national capacity to detect and respond to fake news amongst member states.

The task force was envisaged by Vietnam following the ASEAN Senior Officials Meeting Responsible for Information (SOMRI) in 2019 and the AMRI in 2021. Kudos for Vietnam for leading the way for the region in tackling the fake news menace.

The task force’s role is to mitigate the effects of fake news in the ASEAN region and cooperate in responding to online fake news in a timely manner.

Hence, the task force will develop and propose measures for the grouping in establishing a reliable Internet environment for ASEAN citizens, and provide capacity building for member-states in dealing with fake news, and subsequently disinformation.

The task force will develop guidelines for AMS in verifying, reporting, and tackling fake news and related online falsehoods, along with a cross border platform to empower cross-border fact checking activities through the exchange of information, cross-promoting trusted platforms to each member state.

The above tells ASEAN is serious in tackling fake news collectively. However, there is no common law shared by AMS in tackling the problem, hence legal action on perpetrators still hinges on the laws enacted by the respective countries.

ASEAN in future could take a leaf from the European Commission’s 2022 Code of Practice on Disinformation, a guidance that provides self-regulatory standards for signatory member states to fight disinformation

Source: NAM NEWS NETWORK