North Korea has shut down its largest wholesale market because of its apparent concern that big markets spread capitalist influence, a South Korean monitoring group said yesterday.
Authorities closed the Pyongsong market on the outskirts of the capital of Pyongyang in mid-June and set up two smaller markets in nearby districts, the Seoul-based Network for North Korean Democracy and Human Rights said in a newsletter.
"The move is believed to be an attempt by the totalitarian regime to control an excessive spread of markets while still allowing hungry people to seek food on their own at small markets," said Kim Yoon-tae, secretary-general of the group.
Kim said Pyongsong was the North's biggest wholesale market with some 30,000-40,000 stalls.
The group regularly issues a newsletter on developments inside the North, citing information collected from sources it does not identify inside the country.North Korea is one of the world's most closed nations, keeping tight control over its 24 million people without tolerating dissent or independent media.
South Korea's Unification Ministry,which handles Seoul's relations with the North, said it could not confirm the report.
Street markets have been allowed to spring up in communist North Korea in recent years as a way for hungry people to seek food and other necessities at a time when the central government is unable to adequately feed them.
But the regime has grown wary of capitalist influence resulting from the spread of markets where imported goods,including even DVDs of South Korean films and television soap operas, are sold, according to analysts, defectors and news reports.
The two Koreas technically remain at war since their 1950-53 conflict ended in a truce, not a peace treaty, and possession of goods from enemy nations such as the US and South Korea is tightly controlled.
South Korea's mass-circulation Chosun Ilbo newspaper reported in January that North Korean leader Kim Jong Il had ordered a crackdown on street markets, and that all manufactured goods and imported items must be sold at state-run shops.
But analysts and North Korea watchers say the North can't close all markets because its central rationing system is not working."North Korea is in a dilemma," said Kim of the Network for North Korean Democracy and Human Rights."It does not want markets, but can't get rid of them either."
Koh Yu-hwan, an expert on North Korea at Seoul's Dongguk University,also said that the North "sees negative effects of markets, but cannot close them all because it could leave the hungry without any means to seek food or other goods."
North Korea has relied on outside food handouts since the mid-1990s, when the economy collapsed due to natural disasters and mismanagement as aid from the former Soviet Union dried up after its collapse.
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Government to monitor construction materials
The government will closely monitor the prices of construction materials,which are expected to rise due to increasing demand from accelerated statebacked infrastructure and investment programmes.
The stagnant construction industry is expected to receive a much needed shot in the arm in the final quarter from the government's second round of economic stimulus measures.
The 1.45-trillion-baht package, named "Thailand: Investing from Strength to Strength", would drive demand in the last three months of the year, said Commerce Minister Porntiva Nakasai.
Increased demand would cause the price of raw materials to also rise.
Domestic prices of building materials have started to pick up over the last two months,but the increase is yet to pass the ceiling recommended by the Internal Trade Department, according to the ministry's Porntiva: Aiming to latest survey.avoid price hikes.Mixed cement prices as of yesterday had increased to 140 to 145 baht for a 50-kilogramme pack compared with 135 to 142 baht in August. But prices of Portland cement dropped by 5 baht to 145 to 155 baht per pack in the same period.
Nine-millimetre steel bar rose by 2 baht to 109 baht per bar since August,while 100 metres of domestic electric wire increased by 22 baht to 621 baht due to surging global copper prices.
The ITD-recommended cap for mixed cement is 150 baht per 50kg pack, with the prices of Portland cement set at 160 baht, and 9mm steel bar at 136.75 baht.
Construction materials is one of 202 products on the ITD's priority watch list. Officials check the prices of those items twice a week to prevent unwarranted price increases.
Mrs Porntiva said the ministry was due to meet construction material manufacturers and distributors next week to discuss price trends and ask them to maintain the prices until the year-end.
Prices may have to be revised up if raw material costs have increased, she said.
The stagnant construction industry is expected to receive a much needed shot in the arm in the final quarter from the government's second round of economic stimulus measures.
The 1.45-trillion-baht package, named "Thailand: Investing from Strength to Strength", would drive demand in the last three months of the year, said Commerce Minister Porntiva Nakasai.
Increased demand would cause the price of raw materials to also rise.
Domestic prices of building materials have started to pick up over the last two months,but the increase is yet to pass the ceiling recommended by the Internal Trade Department, according to the ministry's Porntiva: Aiming to latest survey.avoid price hikes.Mixed cement prices as of yesterday had increased to 140 to 145 baht for a 50-kilogramme pack compared with 135 to 142 baht in August. But prices of Portland cement dropped by 5 baht to 145 to 155 baht per pack in the same period.
Nine-millimetre steel bar rose by 2 baht to 109 baht per bar since August,while 100 metres of domestic electric wire increased by 22 baht to 621 baht due to surging global copper prices.
The ITD-recommended cap for mixed cement is 150 baht per 50kg pack, with the prices of Portland cement set at 160 baht, and 9mm steel bar at 136.75 baht.
Construction materials is one of 202 products on the ITD's priority watch list. Officials check the prices of those items twice a week to prevent unwarranted price increases.
Mrs Porntiva said the ministry was due to meet construction material manufacturers and distributors next week to discuss price trends and ask them to maintain the prices until the year-end.
Prices may have to be revised up if raw material costs have increased, she said.
IN PURSUIT OF HAPPY ECONOMICS
What is your idea of economics? What good is this branch of social science for the ordinary, non-business people?For many, economics evokes the notion of opportunity, employment and financial security. For others, it's a discipline that suggests Darwinian competition, greed,and simply the egotistical pursuit of self-interests at all costs.
But to Helena Norberg-Hodge, director of the International Society for Ecology and Culture (Isec), economics can bring happiness, and without having to produce a huge sum of monetary profit, or the stresses and strains that are typical of a large-scale economy.
Norberg-Hodge received the 1986 Right Livelihood Award,aka the alternative Nobel Prize, for her dedication in promoting more peaceful, just and sustainable communities worldwide.
It all started from a small project the Swedish woman runs in Ladakh, initially a backwater region in northern India. Norberg-Hodge launched the Ladakh Project in 1978 in a bid to reverse the damaging trends of mass tourism and consumerism through promoting development based on Ladakhi cultural values. The innovative programme soon grew into Isec, where Norberg-Hodge and her colleagues had been initiating campaigns around the world to encourage ways of living that are more de-centralised and land-based.
A globetrotting and extremely busy Norberg-Hodge recently visited Thailand and delivered lectures in Bangkok and Khon Kaen on the theme of "Economics of Happiness".Norberg-Hodge took some time off from her hectic schedule to talk with 'Outlook'.
Could you please tell us what exactly this 'Economics of Happiness' is? It now seems the economics has been a tool for making money and a tool for making disasters,considering the recession we are now facing ...
Well, the 'Economics of Happiness' is essentially an economics of strengthening the local economy. It's a systemic shift away from the current direction of economy,which is going more and more global. At the fundamental level, what I'm arguing is that as economic policies support the globalising path, they support a bigger and bigger distance between production and consumption. And with this distance, structurally, it means pushing business to become bigger and bigger and bigger.with nature. And those therapies are successful. Even prisoners, juvenile delinquents or violent men can be changed if you help them to connect to people with similar situations and to really share and help them to [re]connect with nature.
With the scale of business and the distance, we are getting enormous problems both environmentally, socially and psychologically.
Again, structurally, this globalising path is leading to monoculture. These large businesses inevitably have to impose monoculture; it's not possible to adapt to diversity.It's directly linked to using media and advertisement to foster a human monoculture where children worldwide are made to feel inferior to the standards that are fundamentally Western. But it's also anti-Western, in the sense that there is this image of perfection that the young children feel they cannot live up to. By establishing an unrealistic role model - a global consumer identity this is responsible for massive increases in self-rejection,and even self-hatred.
By subsiding global trade and global businesses, a government is simultaneously subsidising a path that's encouraging businesses to use more fossil fuel and technology and fewer people. So the next result is job insecurity, and very, very intense competitions for scarce jobs. This combination of creating an unrealistic role model, the role model of consumer identity, and at the same time, the job scarcity, the unemployment and the competition is increasing worldwide friction and unhappiness.
What I'm suggesting is that we must shift away from these bigger and more global business activities, and toward supporting local businesses worldwide that spend less fossil, and adapted to the natural-biological-cultural diversity and identities. We need to bring the economy closer to home worldwide. Localising as an economics of happiness at the fundamental level is about reducing the competition for jobs, by establishing cultural and community role models that are realistic. This might sound utopian, or unrealistic, but the fact is that the unrealistic is to go further and further as we have done up until now.
Related to the economics of happiness is an economics of survival. Because subsidising more and more global trade, it literally leads to the import and export of the same products - water, milk, chicken, pigs, live animals. The US imports just as much as it exports. The UK exports as much butter and milk as it imports. This is utter madness on a planet dying from global warming. Oil is scarce and polluting. We want to minimise the use of oil, obviously.So ending a trade in identical products is the most logical and commonsensical way, which is not depriving anybody.But the profits of the giants would decrease, whereas the profits of millions of local businesses would increase. And this is the way of reducing the gap between the rich and the poor while reducing global warming.
The alternative, localisation movement seems to look good, but having witnessed the past economic recession,after the crisis is over, we tend to go back through the same process again and again. Humankind seems to hardly change, why?
I'd argue that it isn't humankind that is deciding what kind of economy that they need. It's a very small number of increasingly powerful people. If you look at who is actively promoting the deregulation of trade and finance,it's maybe point zero one of the human population ...maybe even less than that. I'd estimate that about 10,000 people worldwide. Most people wouldn't even understand the mechanisms. They think it's free trade that allows freedom. I think the main reason that this is happening is ignorance from the top and ignorance from the bottom.
But shall we be able to counter the trend in time,considering the urgency of the situation?
I think we do have enough time right now. I feel too many people in the environmental movement would say,'Oh it's all going to break down,[so] we don't need to worry about the system'. I believe if more people would focus on education for action, awareness, what I call 'economic literacy'. Spread the awareness. If we can't write for the newspaper, then we can write for newsletters.If we can't speak on television, then let's speak on radio programmes. Let's encourage everybody with the idea that there is a solution.
I believe that in theory, in two or three years, there could be enough of a movement to change policies. But I think this economic literacy needs to be understood from a global point of view. We need to have a lot more information shared between the North and the South. I believe in the localisation in the small states.
It seems, though, that the level of the 'immune system'of people in the South has already been drastically eroded ...
I believe in the so-called 'less developed countries' that the structures are much stronger for localisation. The structure of this crucial identity with one another, with the land, with animals, with the sense of belonging to a place,a language, a history and a group - that identity is still here. The sense of identity is what localisation can rebuild.
More importantly, or just as importantly, you have skills, both social and practical skills that we have lost.More people here know how to grow foods, know how to build houses out of natural, local materials. In the West,these skills and the communities are much more destroyed.However, in the West, there is more awareness of the problems with the global consumer culture. Here, people are still not experiencing it as much. Even when they see Bangkok - it's polluted, crowded, they believe if they just get more education, more Western schooling, learn English,get more development, then they will be like this paradise - the paradise of America or Europe. So lack of awareness here is the big problem of this dominant model of progress/development. So this is where I believe a deep dialogue between the North and the South is needed.
How have you seen yourself change over the years since you first set foot in Ladakh in the mid-'70s?
My views of everything [have] changed. I have studied psychology and I thought that cultural differences were not so significant. I thought it had more to do with hereditary [factors]. But what I experienced in Ladakh, a pre-industrial,pre-developed culture, I realised there were huge differences between that and all the industrialised countries that were very similar.
With industrial development, the most important thing that developed was the breakdown of identity through[out]communities, to realise the differences between old and young, male and female, and this role model for the children and sense of belonging.
I believe that community is essential for mental health.It's essential for learning how to be loving and tolerant.And breaking that down is like breaking down the sense of interdependence, which is the teaching of all spiritual traditions. I'd say it is a spiritual and psychological need that is just as important as breathing air is for your lungs.To feel spiritually and psychologically connected, it's something that modernity has destroyed, and that creates self-hatred, self-rejection, which leads to intolerance,violence, unhappiness. That may be the most important thing I have learned from Ladakh.
Having understood that, I also see in the West therapies that are fundamentally about rebuilding communities and the sense of interdependence and spiritual connection with nature. And those therapies are successful. Even prisoners, juvenile delinquents or violent men can be changed if you help them to connect to people with similar situations and to really share and help them to [re]connect with nature.
But how do you feel when you go back to Ladakh and see that it, too,changes year after year to be ... er,just like any other place on Earth?
There have been times when it becomes very depressing and upsetting.The worst was in 1989 when Buddhists and Muslims were killing each other.And year after year, the change has been quite difficult. But each year, with the breakdown of communities and ecological conditions, there were more and more Ladakhis who became interested in looking for alternatives,in assisting our work, particularly in the last 10 or so years. This interest has been going on at the same time as the destruction. So that has given me the strength and the hope to continue.
It seems young children nowadays have been groomed to think that they have to be No.1, and the interdependence has been thus cut off ...
Yes, absolutely. Even explicitly. In Ladakh they have now been taught:'You've got to be more ambitious; you've got to literally be more greedy; you've got to look up to [be] number one'.These are the terrible values that are being taught in the schools. In many journals, they'll talk about community identity as tribalism, and they identify tribalism with friction, with warfare.And the picture is painted that in the past, all of these diverse war-like tribes were fighting each other, and that modernity and homogenising has created peace. Well, let's look at how peaceful America is - look at the teenagers who go to school and kill each other, look at the violent crimes.You don't have group violence in the same way, but you have a complete breakdown. A lot of violence.
When you centralise power and you push people into the big cities, and they have to have a job for survival,then the people in power will give jobs to people of their own kind. If they're Buddhists, then they give the jobs to Buddhists. And if they're Muslims, then to Muslims. And this leads to ethnic friction and violence.
Centralisation is part of globalisation.Decentralisation is what can allow more people to have jobs, and to have interdependence with different groups.
I think another very major point is that by destroying communities and then creating job scarcity, these are crimes against humanity. However many people we are, there is more work to be done. Unemployment is a modern product of this economy. It never existed for thousands of years in any society.The artificial constriction of job opportunities is a crime against humanity that must be written about,explaining how and why it could happen.With more people, we need more care,because we have more work. First of all, every plant, every fish, every thing that lives right now is threatened, so we need more people caring for everything that's living. With global warming, we have drought and floods.
We need to protect everything against floods, fire and drought. So that means more people caring for every bit of water,and every little tree, so there's more work than ever. However many people we are, we need proportionate teachers,nurses, doctors ... there is no limit of work. But through this globalising path we are artificially constricting, and we're partly doing it through taxes and subsidies. So we must expose them.
And there's also this artificial scarcity of time ...
The scarcity of time is directly linked to the scarcity of jobs. Because we support businesses when they use technology and fossil fuel, they benefit from scientific research, subsidies and tax breaks. And the more fossil fuel they use, the less they pay. It's more the small businesses that use very little that will be punished because they pay more. This is crazy.
At the same time, if you employ a person, you pay heavy taxes. This should be shifted toward reducing the taxes on employment and increasing the taxes on technology and fossil fuel. The technology is part of speeding everything up. So the few people who have the jobs now in computers, you have to answer with more posts. Whereas when it was by post, in a day, you might have to answer how many letters. And now with emails, you have to answer much more.
It's because we've chosen subsidising technology and subsidising speed, which is linked to unemployment.
What project is your organisation working on right now?
We are working on a film called,"Economics of Happiness", which should be ready in about two months.I've worked on it for more than four years, and I've tried to get people from every continent -Africa, South America, North America, Europe, China,India, Thailand - to basically spell out that the globalisation of consumer culture is creating too much unhappiness in the world, and that localising would solve most of these problems. Localising needs to be pursued with an international and collaborative mindset. It's not about isolation. It's not about no travel, no trade. We actually need more deep,deep dialogue between the North and the South. And we need it now more than ever before.
But to Helena Norberg-Hodge, director of the International Society for Ecology and Culture (Isec), economics can bring happiness, and without having to produce a huge sum of monetary profit, or the stresses and strains that are typical of a large-scale economy.
Norberg-Hodge received the 1986 Right Livelihood Award,aka the alternative Nobel Prize, for her dedication in promoting more peaceful, just and sustainable communities worldwide.
It all started from a small project the Swedish woman runs in Ladakh, initially a backwater region in northern India. Norberg-Hodge launched the Ladakh Project in 1978 in a bid to reverse the damaging trends of mass tourism and consumerism through promoting development based on Ladakhi cultural values. The innovative programme soon grew into Isec, where Norberg-Hodge and her colleagues had been initiating campaigns around the world to encourage ways of living that are more de-centralised and land-based.
A globetrotting and extremely busy Norberg-Hodge recently visited Thailand and delivered lectures in Bangkok and Khon Kaen on the theme of "Economics of Happiness".Norberg-Hodge took some time off from her hectic schedule to talk with 'Outlook'.
Could you please tell us what exactly this 'Economics of Happiness' is? It now seems the economics has been a tool for making money and a tool for making disasters,considering the recession we are now facing ...
Well, the 'Economics of Happiness' is essentially an economics of strengthening the local economy. It's a systemic shift away from the current direction of economy,which is going more and more global. At the fundamental level, what I'm arguing is that as economic policies support the globalising path, they support a bigger and bigger distance between production and consumption. And with this distance, structurally, it means pushing business to become bigger and bigger and bigger.with nature. And those therapies are successful. Even prisoners, juvenile delinquents or violent men can be changed if you help them to connect to people with similar situations and to really share and help them to [re]connect with nature.
With the scale of business and the distance, we are getting enormous problems both environmentally, socially and psychologically.
Again, structurally, this globalising path is leading to monoculture. These large businesses inevitably have to impose monoculture; it's not possible to adapt to diversity.It's directly linked to using media and advertisement to foster a human monoculture where children worldwide are made to feel inferior to the standards that are fundamentally Western. But it's also anti-Western, in the sense that there is this image of perfection that the young children feel they cannot live up to. By establishing an unrealistic role model - a global consumer identity this is responsible for massive increases in self-rejection,and even self-hatred.
By subsiding global trade and global businesses, a government is simultaneously subsidising a path that's encouraging businesses to use more fossil fuel and technology and fewer people. So the next result is job insecurity, and very, very intense competitions for scarce jobs. This combination of creating an unrealistic role model, the role model of consumer identity, and at the same time, the job scarcity, the unemployment and the competition is increasing worldwide friction and unhappiness.
What I'm suggesting is that we must shift away from these bigger and more global business activities, and toward supporting local businesses worldwide that spend less fossil, and adapted to the natural-biological-cultural diversity and identities. We need to bring the economy closer to home worldwide. Localising as an economics of happiness at the fundamental level is about reducing the competition for jobs, by establishing cultural and community role models that are realistic. This might sound utopian, or unrealistic, but the fact is that the unrealistic is to go further and further as we have done up until now.
Related to the economics of happiness is an economics of survival. Because subsidising more and more global trade, it literally leads to the import and export of the same products - water, milk, chicken, pigs, live animals. The US imports just as much as it exports. The UK exports as much butter and milk as it imports. This is utter madness on a planet dying from global warming. Oil is scarce and polluting. We want to minimise the use of oil, obviously.So ending a trade in identical products is the most logical and commonsensical way, which is not depriving anybody.But the profits of the giants would decrease, whereas the profits of millions of local businesses would increase. And this is the way of reducing the gap between the rich and the poor while reducing global warming.
The alternative, localisation movement seems to look good, but having witnessed the past economic recession,after the crisis is over, we tend to go back through the same process again and again. Humankind seems to hardly change, why?
I'd argue that it isn't humankind that is deciding what kind of economy that they need. It's a very small number of increasingly powerful people. If you look at who is actively promoting the deregulation of trade and finance,it's maybe point zero one of the human population ...maybe even less than that. I'd estimate that about 10,000 people worldwide. Most people wouldn't even understand the mechanisms. They think it's free trade that allows freedom. I think the main reason that this is happening is ignorance from the top and ignorance from the bottom.
But shall we be able to counter the trend in time,considering the urgency of the situation?
I think we do have enough time right now. I feel too many people in the environmental movement would say,'Oh it's all going to break down,[so] we don't need to worry about the system'. I believe if more people would focus on education for action, awareness, what I call 'economic literacy'. Spread the awareness. If we can't write for the newspaper, then we can write for newsletters.If we can't speak on television, then let's speak on radio programmes. Let's encourage everybody with the idea that there is a solution.
I believe that in theory, in two or three years, there could be enough of a movement to change policies. But I think this economic literacy needs to be understood from a global point of view. We need to have a lot more information shared between the North and the South. I believe in the localisation in the small states.
It seems, though, that the level of the 'immune system'of people in the South has already been drastically eroded ...
I believe in the so-called 'less developed countries' that the structures are much stronger for localisation. The structure of this crucial identity with one another, with the land, with animals, with the sense of belonging to a place,a language, a history and a group - that identity is still here. The sense of identity is what localisation can rebuild.
More importantly, or just as importantly, you have skills, both social and practical skills that we have lost.More people here know how to grow foods, know how to build houses out of natural, local materials. In the West,these skills and the communities are much more destroyed.However, in the West, there is more awareness of the problems with the global consumer culture. Here, people are still not experiencing it as much. Even when they see Bangkok - it's polluted, crowded, they believe if they just get more education, more Western schooling, learn English,get more development, then they will be like this paradise - the paradise of America or Europe. So lack of awareness here is the big problem of this dominant model of progress/development. So this is where I believe a deep dialogue between the North and the South is needed.
How have you seen yourself change over the years since you first set foot in Ladakh in the mid-'70s?
My views of everything [have] changed. I have studied psychology and I thought that cultural differences were not so significant. I thought it had more to do with hereditary [factors]. But what I experienced in Ladakh, a pre-industrial,pre-developed culture, I realised there were huge differences between that and all the industrialised countries that were very similar.
With industrial development, the most important thing that developed was the breakdown of identity through[out]communities, to realise the differences between old and young, male and female, and this role model for the children and sense of belonging.
I believe that community is essential for mental health.It's essential for learning how to be loving and tolerant.And breaking that down is like breaking down the sense of interdependence, which is the teaching of all spiritual traditions. I'd say it is a spiritual and psychological need that is just as important as breathing air is for your lungs.To feel spiritually and psychologically connected, it's something that modernity has destroyed, and that creates self-hatred, self-rejection, which leads to intolerance,violence, unhappiness. That may be the most important thing I have learned from Ladakh.
Having understood that, I also see in the West therapies that are fundamentally about rebuilding communities and the sense of interdependence and spiritual connection with nature. And those therapies are successful. Even prisoners, juvenile delinquents or violent men can be changed if you help them to connect to people with similar situations and to really share and help them to [re]connect with nature.
But how do you feel when you go back to Ladakh and see that it, too,changes year after year to be ... er,just like any other place on Earth?
There have been times when it becomes very depressing and upsetting.The worst was in 1989 when Buddhists and Muslims were killing each other.And year after year, the change has been quite difficult. But each year, with the breakdown of communities and ecological conditions, there were more and more Ladakhis who became interested in looking for alternatives,in assisting our work, particularly in the last 10 or so years. This interest has been going on at the same time as the destruction. So that has given me the strength and the hope to continue.
It seems young children nowadays have been groomed to think that they have to be No.1, and the interdependence has been thus cut off ...
Yes, absolutely. Even explicitly. In Ladakh they have now been taught:'You've got to be more ambitious; you've got to literally be more greedy; you've got to look up to [be] number one'.These are the terrible values that are being taught in the schools. In many journals, they'll talk about community identity as tribalism, and they identify tribalism with friction, with warfare.And the picture is painted that in the past, all of these diverse war-like tribes were fighting each other, and that modernity and homogenising has created peace. Well, let's look at how peaceful America is - look at the teenagers who go to school and kill each other, look at the violent crimes.You don't have group violence in the same way, but you have a complete breakdown. A lot of violence.
When you centralise power and you push people into the big cities, and they have to have a job for survival,then the people in power will give jobs to people of their own kind. If they're Buddhists, then they give the jobs to Buddhists. And if they're Muslims, then to Muslims. And this leads to ethnic friction and violence.
Centralisation is part of globalisation.Decentralisation is what can allow more people to have jobs, and to have interdependence with different groups.
I think another very major point is that by destroying communities and then creating job scarcity, these are crimes against humanity. However many people we are, there is more work to be done. Unemployment is a modern product of this economy. It never existed for thousands of years in any society.The artificial constriction of job opportunities is a crime against humanity that must be written about,explaining how and why it could happen.With more people, we need more care,because we have more work. First of all, every plant, every fish, every thing that lives right now is threatened, so we need more people caring for everything that's living. With global warming, we have drought and floods.
We need to protect everything against floods, fire and drought. So that means more people caring for every bit of water,and every little tree, so there's more work than ever. However many people we are, we need proportionate teachers,nurses, doctors ... there is no limit of work. But through this globalising path we are artificially constricting, and we're partly doing it through taxes and subsidies. So we must expose them.
And there's also this artificial scarcity of time ...
The scarcity of time is directly linked to the scarcity of jobs. Because we support businesses when they use technology and fossil fuel, they benefit from scientific research, subsidies and tax breaks. And the more fossil fuel they use, the less they pay. It's more the small businesses that use very little that will be punished because they pay more. This is crazy.
At the same time, if you employ a person, you pay heavy taxes. This should be shifted toward reducing the taxes on employment and increasing the taxes on technology and fossil fuel. The technology is part of speeding everything up. So the few people who have the jobs now in computers, you have to answer with more posts. Whereas when it was by post, in a day, you might have to answer how many letters. And now with emails, you have to answer much more.
It's because we've chosen subsidising technology and subsidising speed, which is linked to unemployment.
What project is your organisation working on right now?
We are working on a film called,"Economics of Happiness", which should be ready in about two months.I've worked on it for more than four years, and I've tried to get people from every continent -Africa, South America, North America, Europe, China,India, Thailand - to basically spell out that the globalisation of consumer culture is creating too much unhappiness in the world, and that localising would solve most of these problems. Localising needs to be pursued with an international and collaborative mindset. It's not about isolation. It's not about no travel, no trade. We actually need more deep,deep dialogue between the North and the South. And we need it now more than ever before.
Sunday, September 20, 2009
CHINA'S ECONOMY IS BACK, WHILE THE US STILL FLAILS
Only eight months ago, thousands of Chinese workers rioted outside factories closed by the global economic downturn. Now many of those plants have been reopened and are hiring again. Some executives are even struggling to find enough temporary staff to meet Christmas orders.
The image of laid-off Chinese workers returning to jobs is in sharp contrast to the US, where even as the economy shows signs of improvement, the unemployment rate continues to march toward double digits.
The Chinese government says unemployment is falling, and even the hardest-hit factories - those depending on exports to the US and Europe - are starting to rehire workers. No one is talking about a jobless recovery.
Even the property market is picking up.For instance, in the industrial town of Wuxi,145km from Shanghai, prospective investors queued on one recent Saturday to buy apartments in the still-unfinished Rose Avenue complex. Many of them slept outside the sales office all night.
"The whole country's economy is back on track," said Shi Yingyi, a 34-year-old housewife who joined the throng."I feel more confident now."
The confidence stems from China's threepronged effort - a combination of stimulus,liberal bank lending and broad government support for exports.
The Chinese central bank said the country's economy surged at an annual-equivalent rate of 14.9% in the second quarter. The US economy shrank at an annual rate of 1% in the same period.
"So often China and the US are mixed together as being in the same situation, and that is totally wrong," said Xu Xiaonian, an economist in Beijing with the China Europe International Business School.
That does not mean the two nations are not connected, of course. China's rebound in growth may slow if the US economy does not pick up. China needs the US to buy its goods, and the US needs China to continue to buy its debt.
This mutual dependence makes it harder for either country to let the current dispute over Chinese tyres and US chicken and car parts to grow into a trade war.
China has been able to disburse its stimulus much faster, turning it into new railways and roads.
China's Finance Ministry announced in late June that half the US$173 billion in central government spending had already been allocated to specific projects.
The White House said in early July that a quarter of the spending authority and tax cuts in its $789 billion stimulus package had been allocated or used.
But even more of an impetus to China's recovery, economists say, are two other government efforts that are paying big dividends - looser bank lending and government support for exports.
The state-controlled banking system in China - which breezed through the global financial crisis with minimal losses as US financial institutions reeled - unleashed $1.2 trillion in extra lending to Chinese consumers and businesses in the first seven months of this year.
That money is financing everything from a boom in car sales, up 82% in August from
a year earlier, to frenzied factory building.
Beijing also has given huge tax breaks and other assistance to exporters. They include placing broad restrictions on imports and intervening heavily in currency markets to hold down the value of the currency to keep Chinese exports competitive, even in a weakened global economy.
Indeed, subsidies abound at all levels of government. The Wuxi municipal government just offered up to 100,000 yuan (4.95 million baht) to each local business that increases exports in the last three months of this year.
Still, while China's recovery seems well under way, not all the laid-off throughout China have been hired back.
"Some plants reduced worker numbers by 20% to 30%, now they hire back 10%,"said Stanley Lau, deputy chairman of the Federation of Hong Kong Industries, which represents export-oriented factories employing 10 million Chinese workers.
Even so, US trade data shows that imports from China only eroded 14.2% in the first seven months of this year while imports from the rest of the world plunged 32.6%. China's trade surplus, already the world's largest,was $108 billion for the first seven months of this year.
"We definitely see an upswing in sales orders in the second half of this year when compared to the first half," said Gu Fung,the sales manager at the Wuxi Baolai Batteries Company.
China's well-capitalised banking system allowed for rapid investment.
Chinese banks came into the crisis with enormous excess reserves, the result of three years of tight regulatory limits on lending to prevent the economy from overheating. When those limits were removed, and authorities urged bank executives to lend, the total value of loans outstanding shot up more in the first seven months of this year than in the previous 24 months.
By contrast, total loans and leases outstanding at financial institutions insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation actually fell $249 billion, or 3.2%, in the first half of this year.
Though Washington has used taxpayer money to bail out US banks, it does not have Beijing's power to force banks to lend that money to businesses and consumers.
As much as a third of the extra bank lending in China appears to have gone into real estate and stock market speculation. But the bulk has gone into investments by companies and local governments, with tangible results.
China's currency and trade policies, though highly effective, would be hard for the US to emulate.
For instance, government intervention in currency markets has prevented the yuan from moving appreciably against the dollar in more than 14 months, and has pushed the yuan down by 18% against the euro since March.
Government agencies have been told not to buy imported goods with money from economic stimulus programmes unless no domestic alternative is available.
Washington has imposed a less restrictive rule, misleadingly known as "Buy American",that says building materials for the stimulus programme must be bought from any of the 39 countries that have agreed to free trade in government procurement - which China has not.
The image of laid-off Chinese workers returning to jobs is in sharp contrast to the US, where even as the economy shows signs of improvement, the unemployment rate continues to march toward double digits.
The Chinese government says unemployment is falling, and even the hardest-hit factories - those depending on exports to the US and Europe - are starting to rehire workers. No one is talking about a jobless recovery.
Even the property market is picking up.For instance, in the industrial town of Wuxi,145km from Shanghai, prospective investors queued on one recent Saturday to buy apartments in the still-unfinished Rose Avenue complex. Many of them slept outside the sales office all night.
"The whole country's economy is back on track," said Shi Yingyi, a 34-year-old housewife who joined the throng."I feel more confident now."
The confidence stems from China's threepronged effort - a combination of stimulus,liberal bank lending and broad government support for exports.
The Chinese central bank said the country's economy surged at an annual-equivalent rate of 14.9% in the second quarter. The US economy shrank at an annual rate of 1% in the same period.
"So often China and the US are mixed together as being in the same situation, and that is totally wrong," said Xu Xiaonian, an economist in Beijing with the China Europe International Business School.
That does not mean the two nations are not connected, of course. China's rebound in growth may slow if the US economy does not pick up. China needs the US to buy its goods, and the US needs China to continue to buy its debt.
This mutual dependence makes it harder for either country to let the current dispute over Chinese tyres and US chicken and car parts to grow into a trade war.
China has been able to disburse its stimulus much faster, turning it into new railways and roads.
China's Finance Ministry announced in late June that half the US$173 billion in central government spending had already been allocated to specific projects.
The White House said in early July that a quarter of the spending authority and tax cuts in its $789 billion stimulus package had been allocated or used.
But even more of an impetus to China's recovery, economists say, are two other government efforts that are paying big dividends - looser bank lending and government support for exports.
The state-controlled banking system in China - which breezed through the global financial crisis with minimal losses as US financial institutions reeled - unleashed $1.2 trillion in extra lending to Chinese consumers and businesses in the first seven months of this year.
That money is financing everything from a boom in car sales, up 82% in August from
a year earlier, to frenzied factory building.
Beijing also has given huge tax breaks and other assistance to exporters. They include placing broad restrictions on imports and intervening heavily in currency markets to hold down the value of the currency to keep Chinese exports competitive, even in a weakened global economy.
Indeed, subsidies abound at all levels of government. The Wuxi municipal government just offered up to 100,000 yuan (4.95 million baht) to each local business that increases exports in the last three months of this year.
Still, while China's recovery seems well under way, not all the laid-off throughout China have been hired back.
"Some plants reduced worker numbers by 20% to 30%, now they hire back 10%,"said Stanley Lau, deputy chairman of the Federation of Hong Kong Industries, which represents export-oriented factories employing 10 million Chinese workers.
Even so, US trade data shows that imports from China only eroded 14.2% in the first seven months of this year while imports from the rest of the world plunged 32.6%. China's trade surplus, already the world's largest,was $108 billion for the first seven months of this year.
"We definitely see an upswing in sales orders in the second half of this year when compared to the first half," said Gu Fung,the sales manager at the Wuxi Baolai Batteries Company.
China's well-capitalised banking system allowed for rapid investment.
Chinese banks came into the crisis with enormous excess reserves, the result of three years of tight regulatory limits on lending to prevent the economy from overheating. When those limits were removed, and authorities urged bank executives to lend, the total value of loans outstanding shot up more in the first seven months of this year than in the previous 24 months.
By contrast, total loans and leases outstanding at financial institutions insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation actually fell $249 billion, or 3.2%, in the first half of this year.
Though Washington has used taxpayer money to bail out US banks, it does not have Beijing's power to force banks to lend that money to businesses and consumers.
As much as a third of the extra bank lending in China appears to have gone into real estate and stock market speculation. But the bulk has gone into investments by companies and local governments, with tangible results.
China's currency and trade policies, though highly effective, would be hard for the US to emulate.
For instance, government intervention in currency markets has prevented the yuan from moving appreciably against the dollar in more than 14 months, and has pushed the yuan down by 18% against the euro since March.
Government agencies have been told not to buy imported goods with money from economic stimulus programmes unless no domestic alternative is available.
Washington has imposed a less restrictive rule, misleadingly known as "Buy American",that says building materials for the stimulus programme must be bought from any of the 39 countries that have agreed to free trade in government procurement - which China has not.
EMERGING ECONOMIES SEEK CLOUT ON WORLD STAGE
EMERGING POWERS including China, India and Brazil are leading the way out of global recession and they expect the wealthy world to take notice.
As leaders from the Group of 20 (G-20) bloc of leading economies began a two-day summit on Thursday in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvanis, thes countries will be hoping to capitalise on their greater economic clout.
The G-20's own prominence-taking a bigger role in the last year than the Group of Eight (G-8) industrial nations-remains a sign of that new swagger. It will be the third time since November that G-20 leaders have met to consider how to reshape the world financial order.
China and Brazil have said they will push for a greater voice in international financial bodies. Both want the G-20 to make moves toward increasing the voting rights of developing nations to 50 per cent in the International Monetayr Fund (IMF) and the World Bank.
"Developing countries can be vital parts of a global economy with multiple poles of growth," World Bank President Robert Zoellick said this week.
There is some reason to gloat. The big developing economies are growing stronger as welathier nations struggle to recover from their deepest recession in decades. China's economy could grow at 8 per cent this year and India's more than 6 per cent.
Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lala da Silva stressed this week that his country has overcome the financial crisis. Finance Minister Guido Montega noted that Brazil will have the smallest deficit of any country inthe G-20.
"There is no turning back. The road in open for us to be one of the most important countries in teh woeld," Mantega said.
That doesn't mean the emerging powers have not suffered. Chinese exports tumbled as US consumers stopped spending, and China's economy was in part propped up by a massive domestic stimulus package.
Mantega said Brazil suffered a loss equivalent to 2.5 per cent of its gross domestic product as a result of the crisis.
Zhang Xiaojing, an economist with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said that China deserves more input onthe world stage, but he cautioned against pushing too hard. "Though our exonomic weight has dramatically increased in recent years, China is not yet a global economic locomotive and leader," Zhang told the official China Daily newspaper. "Our high dependence on foreign trade has shown our economic fragility."
China was ritht, he said, to call for more input for emerging economies: "The global financial architecture should represent the changing economic geography."
The emerging countries are bringing a whole host of their own concerns to the G-20, as well as to a summit of leaders at the United Nations earlier in the week.
Indian officials said they will be pushing industrial nations to indulge in protectionism or approve far-reaching reforms of financial regulations that could adversely impact the developing world. Many poor countries have suffered from plunging private investment in the last year.
"We are concerned that in the guise of improving regulations, they should not be putting in place rules that end up discriminating against developing nations," India's Planning Commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia said this week.
Ahuwalia, who will be assisting Prime Minister Mannohan Singh at the Pittsburgh summit, said there was a realisation now that the worst was over in the global economy. The issue now was how fast the contagion of the global meltdown could be overturned.
India is expected to make a serious pitch at Pittsburgh for an early and successful conclusion of the Doha round of trade talks, which it feels would greatly help in quickening blobal economic recovery.
Beijing will bring similar trade concerns, especially after the United States imposed a tariff on tyre imports just one week before the G-20 summit.
China's Vice Foreign Minister He Yafei warned on Tuesday that the US tariffs would damage the mutually beneficial trade relationship between the two economic powerhouses.
"The [tariffs] will certainly impact trade between China and the US because we have a huge trade volume," He said. The tyre tariffs were "clear examples of protectionism".
He said that nations participating in the G-20 summit in Pittsburgh should not promise to erect new protectionist trade measures.
As leaders from the Group of 20 (G-20) bloc of leading economies began a two-day summit on Thursday in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvanis, thes countries will be hoping to capitalise on their greater economic clout.
The G-20's own prominence-taking a bigger role in the last year than the Group of Eight (G-8) industrial nations-remains a sign of that new swagger. It will be the third time since November that G-20 leaders have met to consider how to reshape the world financial order.
China and Brazil have said they will push for a greater voice in international financial bodies. Both want the G-20 to make moves toward increasing the voting rights of developing nations to 50 per cent in the International Monetayr Fund (IMF) and the World Bank.
"Developing countries can be vital parts of a global economy with multiple poles of growth," World Bank President Robert Zoellick said this week.
There is some reason to gloat. The big developing economies are growing stronger as welathier nations struggle to recover from their deepest recession in decades. China's economy could grow at 8 per cent this year and India's more than 6 per cent.
Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lala da Silva stressed this week that his country has overcome the financial crisis. Finance Minister Guido Montega noted that Brazil will have the smallest deficit of any country inthe G-20.
"There is no turning back. The road in open for us to be one of the most important countries in teh woeld," Mantega said.
That doesn't mean the emerging powers have not suffered. Chinese exports tumbled as US consumers stopped spending, and China's economy was in part propped up by a massive domestic stimulus package.
Mantega said Brazil suffered a loss equivalent to 2.5 per cent of its gross domestic product as a result of the crisis.
Zhang Xiaojing, an economist with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said that China deserves more input onthe world stage, but he cautioned against pushing too hard. "Though our exonomic weight has dramatically increased in recent years, China is not yet a global economic locomotive and leader," Zhang told the official China Daily newspaper. "Our high dependence on foreign trade has shown our economic fragility."
China was ritht, he said, to call for more input for emerging economies: "The global financial architecture should represent the changing economic geography."
The emerging countries are bringing a whole host of their own concerns to the G-20, as well as to a summit of leaders at the United Nations earlier in the week.
Indian officials said they will be pushing industrial nations to indulge in protectionism or approve far-reaching reforms of financial regulations that could adversely impact the developing world. Many poor countries have suffered from plunging private investment in the last year.
"We are concerned that in the guise of improving regulations, they should not be putting in place rules that end up discriminating against developing nations," India's Planning Commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia said this week.
Ahuwalia, who will be assisting Prime Minister Mannohan Singh at the Pittsburgh summit, said there was a realisation now that the worst was over in the global economy. The issue now was how fast the contagion of the global meltdown could be overturned.
India is expected to make a serious pitch at Pittsburgh for an early and successful conclusion of the Doha round of trade talks, which it feels would greatly help in quickening blobal economic recovery.
Beijing will bring similar trade concerns, especially after the United States imposed a tariff on tyre imports just one week before the G-20 summit.
China's Vice Foreign Minister He Yafei warned on Tuesday that the US tariffs would damage the mutually beneficial trade relationship between the two economic powerhouses.
"The [tariffs] will certainly impact trade between China and the US because we have a huge trade volume," He said. The tyre tariffs were "clear examples of protectionism".
He said that nations participating in the G-20 summit in Pittsburgh should not promise to erect new protectionist trade measures.
CHAVEZ PUMPS $5 BN TO UNFREEZE ECONOMY
Venezuela's government is injecting US$ 5 billion (Bt169 billion) into its domestic market, and will increase the supply of dollars at the official exchange rate, President Hugo Chavez said yesterday.
The steps are being taken as part of a package of 40 economic measures seeking to bolster the country's economy.
"About 40 decisions on the economic fron will be announced to the world in the coming hours," Chavez told reporters at the presidential palace in Miraflores.
Without detailing all the measures, he announced that the government had decided to "speed up the delivery of foreign currency" at the official exchang rate of 2.15 bolivars to the dollar.
He also said liquidity would be injected into domestic market.
"I have signed approval for the injection of 10 billion bolivars, $5 billion, liquidity is very high. It is a country with a strong economy," he said.
Venezuela has since 2003 had strict exchange controls and Chavez acknowledged that the government body that deals with the administrationof foreign currencey has slowed delivery of dollars at the official rate " a little bit, because of the global crisis".
That has forced many importers to change dollars at black market rates that are significantly higher than the government official rate.
Chavez said his government had "sought in recent weeks to reduce the gap between the official dollar rate and the black market rate."
The government is also fighting to lower the inflation rate, which was at an accumulated rate of 15.6 per cent in August, but Chavez said had been significantly reduced from the 30.9-per-cent rate at the end of last year. Venezuela's GDP contracted by 2.4 per cent in the second quarter after 22 consecutive quarters of growth.
The second package of measures will be implemented "on October 1 and will seek to produce a reactivation of the economy in the final quarter", Chavez said.
In March, Chavez announced a series of budget cuts and a raise in the country's VAT, but ruled out devaluing the bolivar, or raising the price of petrol (gasoline), which is the lowes inthe world and has not been adjusted in 10 years.
Separately Chavez said the government would expropriate coffee companies that are not functioning "in the state's interest".
"Either they get in step with what the Constitution stes out, with a socialist initiative, or we will expropriate them, no problem," Chavez warned. "If they give me excuses, I will expropriate them and we will turn them into property of society in workers' hands."
The president stressed the constitutiion "does not deny anyone's right to private property, it just says that it must be subordinate to the interest of the State... One of the things that is banned here by law are monopolies."
The steps are being taken as part of a package of 40 economic measures seeking to bolster the country's economy.
"About 40 decisions on the economic fron will be announced to the world in the coming hours," Chavez told reporters at the presidential palace in Miraflores.
Without detailing all the measures, he announced that the government had decided to "speed up the delivery of foreign currency" at the official exchang rate of 2.15 bolivars to the dollar.
He also said liquidity would be injected into domestic market.
"I have signed approval for the injection of 10 billion bolivars, $5 billion, liquidity is very high. It is a country with a strong economy," he said.
Venezuela has since 2003 had strict exchange controls and Chavez acknowledged that the government body that deals with the administrationof foreign currencey has slowed delivery of dollars at the official rate " a little bit, because of the global crisis".
That has forced many importers to change dollars at black market rates that are significantly higher than the government official rate.
Chavez said his government had "sought in recent weeks to reduce the gap between the official dollar rate and the black market rate."
The government is also fighting to lower the inflation rate, which was at an accumulated rate of 15.6 per cent in August, but Chavez said had been significantly reduced from the 30.9-per-cent rate at the end of last year. Venezuela's GDP contracted by 2.4 per cent in the second quarter after 22 consecutive quarters of growth.
The second package of measures will be implemented "on October 1 and will seek to produce a reactivation of the economy in the final quarter", Chavez said.
In March, Chavez announced a series of budget cuts and a raise in the country's VAT, but ruled out devaluing the bolivar, or raising the price of petrol (gasoline), which is the lowes inthe world and has not been adjusted in 10 years.
Separately Chavez said the government would expropriate coffee companies that are not functioning "in the state's interest".
"Either they get in step with what the Constitution stes out, with a socialist initiative, or we will expropriate them, no problem," Chavez warned. "If they give me excuses, I will expropriate them and we will turn them into property of society in workers' hands."
The president stressed the constitutiion "does not deny anyone's right to private property, it just says that it must be subordinate to the interest of the State... One of the things that is banned here by law are monopolies."
US RECOVERY WILL BE WEAK, SAYS BUFFETT
Bilionaire investor Warren Buffett says the economy appears to have levelled fof at the bottom of the recession over the summer, but Berkshire Hathaway's CEO stillis not seeing much improvement.
Buffett talked about the economy during an interview with CNBC recently. "I think the odds are very much against getting significantly worse. It's sort of plateaued at the-at the bottom right now," Buffett said. He said things could get worse if there were some new catastrophe like a terrorist attacks.
The Oracle of Omahas' comments followed Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke's statement that the worst recession since the 1930s is "very likely over". Buffeett was among the first in March 2008 to say the economy was in a recession.
Buffett said at that point the economy had entered a recession in common sense terms even if it had not met the technical definition economists use of two consecutive quarters of negative growth in the gross domestic product.
Buffett keeps a close eye on the economy through all the reports he sees from Berkshire's retail, real estate brokerages, manufacturing and utility businesses.
Buffet said he cannot predict exactly when the economy will recover party because he expects there will still be additional problems in the commercial real estate market, but he believes the economy has passed the critical point.
"I've never been able to tell whether it's going to be a week or a month or-six months. But we are on the mend," he said.
Buffett's Berkshire owns more than 60 subsidiaries including insurance, clothing, furniture, jewerlly and candy companies, restaurants, natural gas and corporate jet firms.
Buffett talked about the economy during an interview with CNBC recently. "I think the odds are very much against getting significantly worse. It's sort of plateaued at the-at the bottom right now," Buffett said. He said things could get worse if there were some new catastrophe like a terrorist attacks.
The Oracle of Omahas' comments followed Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke's statement that the worst recession since the 1930s is "very likely over". Buffeett was among the first in March 2008 to say the economy was in a recession.
Buffett said at that point the economy had entered a recession in common sense terms even if it had not met the technical definition economists use of two consecutive quarters of negative growth in the gross domestic product.
Buffett keeps a close eye on the economy through all the reports he sees from Berkshire's retail, real estate brokerages, manufacturing and utility businesses.
Buffet said he cannot predict exactly when the economy will recover party because he expects there will still be additional problems in the commercial real estate market, but he believes the economy has passed the critical point.
"I've never been able to tell whether it's going to be a week or a month or-six months. But we are on the mend," he said.
Buffett's Berkshire owns more than 60 subsidiaries including insurance, clothing, furniture, jewerlly and candy companies, restaurants, natural gas and corporate jet firms.
Savings fund office due in 2010
The legal framework for a new nationwide savings fund should be approved by the cabinet and the Parliament in 2010, according to the Finance Ministry.
Assuming Parliament's approval, a fund office to oversee the programme could be established by mid-2010, said Somchai Sujjapongse, the directorgeneral of the Fiscal Policy Office.
The national savings programme is aimed at the 24-25 million people nationwide estimated to lack any form of formal, long-term retirement savings.
Retirement savings programmes include the Social Security Fund, which is mandatory for workers at registered companies and currently covers 10 million people. Another 2 million civil ser-vants participate in the Government Pension Fund, while many employees may opt for additional coverage through voluntary provident funds, long-term equity and retirement mutual funds.
The new voluntary savings programme is aimed primarily at lowincome workers, with participants able to set their monthly contributions from 100 to 1,000 baht. Contributions are then matched by the government.
The fund could raise 56 billion baht per year if 25 million people participate at the minimum contribution of 100 baht per month, said Dr Somchai.
Authorities say supplementing longterm savings will be critical considering the country's ageing demographics and longer lifespans.
Within two or three decades, the cost of social and health services for the elderly could consume up to two-thirds of public spending unless people set aside more funds for their retirement.
Currently 70% of the workforce lacks any formal retirement savings plan.Thailand's elderly now total more than 7.42 million.
But while in 2007, the elderly accounted for just 9% of the population,with seven workers for every person in retirement, authorities estimate that by 2027, the elderly will increase to 18% of the population, with four workers for every one person in retirement.
By 2047, those over 60 are expected to make up 28% of the population, with only two workers in the labour force for every retired person.
Participation in the new savings programme will be open to those under the age of 60 and currently not covered by any formal retirement plan.
The government will contribute to accounts according to their holder's age, with members aged 20-30 receiving monthly public contributions of 50 baht,those aged 30 to 60 receiving 80 baht and those over 50 receiving 100 baht.
A member saving since their twenties would receive a monthly pension of 2,210 baht upon retirement, including separate payments already offered by the government to the elderly.
Economists attending a conference on the savings programme said monthly contributions should be set lower to encourage participation.
Patamawadee Suzuki, dean of economics at Thammasat University, said setting contribution rates at just 50 baht per month instead of 100 would help,based on surveys of the savings capacity of low-income rural residents.
Thaworn Sakunphanit, a senior expert at the National Health Security Office,noted that the draft law guaranteed returns for savers equivalent to oneyear deposit rates quoted by the country's five largest banks.
But he said an even better step would be for the fund to offer guarantees on the safety of members' contributions,to help reassure participants that their principal savings are not at risk.
Assuming Parliament's approval, a fund office to oversee the programme could be established by mid-2010, said Somchai Sujjapongse, the directorgeneral of the Fiscal Policy Office.
The national savings programme is aimed at the 24-25 million people nationwide estimated to lack any form of formal, long-term retirement savings.
Retirement savings programmes include the Social Security Fund, which is mandatory for workers at registered companies and currently covers 10 million people. Another 2 million civil ser-vants participate in the Government Pension Fund, while many employees may opt for additional coverage through voluntary provident funds, long-term equity and retirement mutual funds.
The new voluntary savings programme is aimed primarily at lowincome workers, with participants able to set their monthly contributions from 100 to 1,000 baht. Contributions are then matched by the government.
The fund could raise 56 billion baht per year if 25 million people participate at the minimum contribution of 100 baht per month, said Dr Somchai.
Authorities say supplementing longterm savings will be critical considering the country's ageing demographics and longer lifespans.
Within two or three decades, the cost of social and health services for the elderly could consume up to two-thirds of public spending unless people set aside more funds for their retirement.
Currently 70% of the workforce lacks any formal retirement savings plan.Thailand's elderly now total more than 7.42 million.
But while in 2007, the elderly accounted for just 9% of the population,with seven workers for every person in retirement, authorities estimate that by 2027, the elderly will increase to 18% of the population, with four workers for every one person in retirement.
By 2047, those over 60 are expected to make up 28% of the population, with only two workers in the labour force for every retired person.
Participation in the new savings programme will be open to those under the age of 60 and currently not covered by any formal retirement plan.
The government will contribute to accounts according to their holder's age, with members aged 20-30 receiving monthly public contributions of 50 baht,those aged 30 to 60 receiving 80 baht and those over 50 receiving 100 baht.
A member saving since their twenties would receive a monthly pension of 2,210 baht upon retirement, including separate payments already offered by the government to the elderly.
Economists attending a conference on the savings programme said monthly contributions should be set lower to encourage participation.
Patamawadee Suzuki, dean of economics at Thammasat University, said setting contribution rates at just 50 baht per month instead of 100 would help,based on surveys of the savings capacity of low-income rural residents.
Thaworn Sakunphanit, a senior expert at the National Health Security Office,noted that the draft law guaranteed returns for savers equivalent to oneyear deposit rates quoted by the country's five largest banks.
But he said an even better step would be for the fund to offer guarantees on the safety of members' contributions,to help reassure participants that their principal savings are not at risk.
RENEWED DEMAND FOR WORKERS SIGNALS RECOVERY
Northeastern Thailand is gearing up for economic recovery, as reflected in recent demand for 10,000-20,000 new factory workers in the region, Somchai Kijmeratsameeyothin, chairman of the Federation of Thai Industries chapter for that region, said yesterday.
He told a seminar here entitled "Tackling the Global Crisis: Thailand's Future", held in commemoration of the 41st anniversary of the central bank's northeastern office, that foreign orders for electronics, garments and textiles had rebounded in the third quarter.
"The economic crisis has bottomed out in the Northeast. Many manufacturers laid off workers in the first quarter but have rehired them to cope with the increasing orders. The region should show improvement in the third and fourth quarters," Somchai said.
Still, he warned the resumption of orders might not hold steady and that manufacturers needed to be prudent in their hiring.
Importantly, they must lower costs, particularly for logistics. Industrial manufacturers are advised to band together for long-term survival, because then if orders exceed capacity, the larger players can pass on some of them to smaller players within the group.
Bank of Thailand (BOT) Governor Tarisa Watanagase told the seminar that the Kingdom's economy remained fragile even though the crisis had touched bottom.
She said while the economy had shown signs of recovery, with improvements in industrial production and domestic spending and a smaller contraction in private investment, sustainability depended on both internal and external factors.
"The Thai and the global economies remain volatile. Private companies must strengthen risk management and emphasise sufficiency," Tarisa said.
The Bank of Thailand expects the Thai economy to grow 3-5 per cent next year, with inflation at 1-2.5 per cent.
However, much depends on the recovery in the US, Europe and Japan, which together account for 32 per cent of Thailand's exports.
The Kasikorn Research Centre said employment figures had been improving each month since June, while the National Statistical Office said the unemployment rate fell from 1.4 per cent in June to 1.2 per cent in July.
He told a seminar here entitled "Tackling the Global Crisis: Thailand's Future", held in commemoration of the 41st anniversary of the central bank's northeastern office, that foreign orders for electronics, garments and textiles had rebounded in the third quarter.
"The economic crisis has bottomed out in the Northeast. Many manufacturers laid off workers in the first quarter but have rehired them to cope with the increasing orders. The region should show improvement in the third and fourth quarters," Somchai said.
Still, he warned the resumption of orders might not hold steady and that manufacturers needed to be prudent in their hiring.
Importantly, they must lower costs, particularly for logistics. Industrial manufacturers are advised to band together for long-term survival, because then if orders exceed capacity, the larger players can pass on some of them to smaller players within the group.
Bank of Thailand (BOT) Governor Tarisa Watanagase told the seminar that the Kingdom's economy remained fragile even though the crisis had touched bottom.
She said while the economy had shown signs of recovery, with improvements in industrial production and domestic spending and a smaller contraction in private investment, sustainability depended on both internal and external factors.
"The Thai and the global economies remain volatile. Private companies must strengthen risk management and emphasise sufficiency," Tarisa said.
The Bank of Thailand expects the Thai economy to grow 3-5 per cent next year, with inflation at 1-2.5 per cent.
However, much depends on the recovery in the US, Europe and Japan, which together account for 32 per cent of Thailand's exports.
The Kasikorn Research Centre said employment figures had been improving each month since June, while the National Statistical Office said the unemployment rate fell from 1.4 per cent in June to 1.2 per cent in July.
FUNDS EASING BACK INTO CHINA
Fund managers recommend investors to gradually invest in China's stock market after its key index has fallen more than 20 per cent since August.
A fund manager from TMB Asset Management who asked not to be named said the movement of the Shanghai Composite Index, which is widely used by fund managers as a benchmark in China's equity market, has been very volatile over the past few months. The market return has fallen more than 20 per cent from the yeartodate return of 87 per cent earlier to 68 per cent as of yesterday.
"China's stock market is in its correction period after it surged hugely during the first seven months of the year. That made its stock prices stay above the fundamental level. There was profittaking for all of August," he said.
He added that TMB Asset Management has recommended its customers to gradually sell shares in China as the market has rallied significantly.
However, the recent correction was partly due to capital outflow into the US stock market as investors believe all the negative news has already been absorbed, while US stocks are not so expensive.
But after the US stocks rallied and started to be too expensive, capital flows would start to go back to China again. China's GDP growth this year is expected to be around 8 per cent, while some economists forecast the Mainland GDP growth will reach 10 per cent or double digits next year.
A senior government researcher was quoted by Bloomberg as saying that China's economic growth may quicken to 10 per cent or more in the fourth quarter because of stimulus spending and a recovery in exports, said Chen Dongqi.
"Economic growth may accelerate from the third quarter until the first quarter," Chen, a researcher at the country's top planning agency, the National Development and Reform Commission, said at a conference in Shanghai yesterday. He sees "doubledigit growth because of the stimulus plan, recovering exports and domestic consumption."
The world's thirdbiggest economy will expand 9.9 percent in the fourth quarter from a year earlier and 10 percent in the first three months of 2010 as the recovery strengthens, according to a Bloomberg News survey of economists last month. Premier Wen Jiabao said last Friday that China "cannot and will not" pull back from stimulus measures.
The fund manager also added that investors should start gradually investing in the China market to diversify investment risk. After the correction, there will be a chance to generate return.
Another fund manager, from Primavest Asset Management, said the correction in the China market was a good opportunity to invest, but investors are strongly recommended to diversify their investments rather than putting all their money into China. The mainland, he said, still needs economic drive from the world economy.
In addition, there is also risk that China's performance could affect the market
The investment should also be gradual. In a 100 per-cent investment portfolio, 5-10 per cent should be allocated to China. As of July, most funds investing in China generated satisfactory returns. The return of the TMB China Equity Index Fund was at 85.08 per cent, while Tisco China India Dividend Fund generated 56.49 per cent. Tisco China India Retirement Fund got 52.32 per cent, while UOB Smart Greater China recorded 43.11 per cent of return. Manulife Strength-Emering Eastern Europe FIF got 43.25 per cent of return. Also as of July, funds that invest in Asia focusing in China also record good return.
PrimaVest-AllianzGI BRIC Stars recorded 58.79 per cent of return, while MFC Invest Asian Equity recorded 58.22 per cent. SCB Asian Emerging Markets Open End could generate 62.12 per cent, while ING Thai BRIC 40 Fund got 39.04 per cent of return, while Asset Plus BRIC got 39.84 per cent. Aberdeen Asia Pacific Equity recorded 43.19 per cent of return, ING Thai All Asia Equity Fund got 13.36 per cent of return.
A fund manager from TMB Asset Management who asked not to be named said the movement of the Shanghai Composite Index, which is widely used by fund managers as a benchmark in China's equity market, has been very volatile over the past few months. The market return has fallen more than 20 per cent from the yeartodate return of 87 per cent earlier to 68 per cent as of yesterday.
"China's stock market is in its correction period after it surged hugely during the first seven months of the year. That made its stock prices stay above the fundamental level. There was profittaking for all of August," he said.
He added that TMB Asset Management has recommended its customers to gradually sell shares in China as the market has rallied significantly.
However, the recent correction was partly due to capital outflow into the US stock market as investors believe all the negative news has already been absorbed, while US stocks are not so expensive.
But after the US stocks rallied and started to be too expensive, capital flows would start to go back to China again. China's GDP growth this year is expected to be around 8 per cent, while some economists forecast the Mainland GDP growth will reach 10 per cent or double digits next year.
A senior government researcher was quoted by Bloomberg as saying that China's economic growth may quicken to 10 per cent or more in the fourth quarter because of stimulus spending and a recovery in exports, said Chen Dongqi.
"Economic growth may accelerate from the third quarter until the first quarter," Chen, a researcher at the country's top planning agency, the National Development and Reform Commission, said at a conference in Shanghai yesterday. He sees "doubledigit growth because of the stimulus plan, recovering exports and domestic consumption."
The world's thirdbiggest economy will expand 9.9 percent in the fourth quarter from a year earlier and 10 percent in the first three months of 2010 as the recovery strengthens, according to a Bloomberg News survey of economists last month. Premier Wen Jiabao said last Friday that China "cannot and will not" pull back from stimulus measures.
The fund manager also added that investors should start gradually investing in the China market to diversify investment risk. After the correction, there will be a chance to generate return.
Another fund manager, from Primavest Asset Management, said the correction in the China market was a good opportunity to invest, but investors are strongly recommended to diversify their investments rather than putting all their money into China. The mainland, he said, still needs economic drive from the world economy.
In addition, there is also risk that China's performance could affect the market
The investment should also be gradual. In a 100 per-cent investment portfolio, 5-10 per cent should be allocated to China. As of July, most funds investing in China generated satisfactory returns. The return of the TMB China Equity Index Fund was at 85.08 per cent, while Tisco China India Dividend Fund generated 56.49 per cent. Tisco China India Retirement Fund got 52.32 per cent, while UOB Smart Greater China recorded 43.11 per cent of return. Manulife Strength-Emering Eastern Europe FIF got 43.25 per cent of return. Also as of July, funds that invest in Asia focusing in China also record good return.
PrimaVest-AllianzGI BRIC Stars recorded 58.79 per cent of return, while MFC Invest Asian Equity recorded 58.22 per cent. SCB Asian Emerging Markets Open End could generate 62.12 per cent, while ING Thai BRIC 40 Fund got 39.04 per cent of return, while Asset Plus BRIC got 39.84 per cent. Aberdeen Asia Pacific Equity recorded 43.19 per cent of return, ING Thai All Asia Equity Fund got 13.36 per cent of return.
Friday, September 18, 2009
CONCERTED MOVE AGAINST PIRACY, COPYING, ILLEGAL USE
The Commerce Ministry has begun a large-scale crackdown on intellectual property violations in the software industry.
The Ministry has been directed to protect both local software companies and overseas companies whose products are sold here from piracy, illegal use and copying. It is moving to fully protect intellectual property (IP), legal software, copyright and software developers' authority of ownership.
It is also reviewing a draft of new copyright laws, developing an Asean Database on Patent Design and setting up a Patent Cooperation Treaty office for local businesses that want to apply for international patents.
Deputy Commerce Minister Alongkorn Ponlaboot said the ministry had formed a National IP Policy Committee. Its function will be to protect IP of all kinds and promote this protection as a business benefit to companies operating in all fields, from traditional businesses to those operating on the Internet. Specifically, it will be fighting illegal operators who flout copyright laws.
The committee's responsibilities are divided into two main areas: promoting and protecting intellectual property.
In promoting IP, the committee will help individuals and businesses to develop products and services behind the shield of IP protection, so that these products and services can contribute to the government's creative-economy mission. It will work in 15 industrial sectors, including automotive, manufacturing and software.
It also plans to set up a subcommittee on the creative economy, to encourage local businesses to become involved in the Creative Thailand initiative and to support the government's Thai Khemkhaeng (TKK) project.
Meanwhile, in its role of protecting IP, the national committee is in the process of submitting draft changes to copyright laws for Cabinet approval. The draft law sets out to extend IP protection to businesses operating on the Internet or conducting e-commerce.
The draft also proposes to punish Internet service providers involved in IP violations, landlords who provide locations and space to illegal Internet services and Internet Cafes that provide illegal services.
Alongkorn said the committee had also set up three subcommittees and working groups to investigate individuals and businesses believed to be operating in violation of IP laws. These included a subcommittee on prevention and suspicion of IP violation, a working group on investigation and suspicion and a working group on education and publications related to IP.
The deputy minister said his ministry was also planning to separate its IP Department and transform it into a service delivery unit, or intellectual property centre.
The IP Department has also developed various strategies to support the creative-economy mission. The protection of intellectual property is seen as a vital part of the foundation on which a creative economy will be built. In the next two years, the department plans not only to raise the country's competitiveness by encouraging the use of IP protection and enforcing the laws, but also to protect local wisdom as intellectual property and to provide funding to allow individuals and businesses to use IP to develop commercial products and services.
IP Department director-general Puangrat Asawaphisit said his department was also cooperating with authorities in the Philippines, Malaysia and Singapore to set up a prototype Asean Database on Patent Design so that participating countries will be able to search patent design in the region. The department plans to set up a trial of a local patent-design database early next year.
Puangrat said the department would also set up a Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) office by the end of this month. The office will act as an agent, preparing the necessary translations and paying national fees for local people and businesses applying for international patent protection. It aims to encourage Thai inventors to seek international protection for their innovations. The services of the PCT office will be available early next year.
The department will also allow individuals and businesses to register and apply for local patents by Internet in the near future.
Meanwhile, the Business Software Alliance says illegal software and software piracy in Thailand has been reduced by 76 per cent, compared with levels three years ago, when 80 per cent of software was the product of piracy.
The Ministry has been directed to protect both local software companies and overseas companies whose products are sold here from piracy, illegal use and copying. It is moving to fully protect intellectual property (IP), legal software, copyright and software developers' authority of ownership.
It is also reviewing a draft of new copyright laws, developing an Asean Database on Patent Design and setting up a Patent Cooperation Treaty office for local businesses that want to apply for international patents.
Deputy Commerce Minister Alongkorn Ponlaboot said the ministry had formed a National IP Policy Committee. Its function will be to protect IP of all kinds and promote this protection as a business benefit to companies operating in all fields, from traditional businesses to those operating on the Internet. Specifically, it will be fighting illegal operators who flout copyright laws.
The committee's responsibilities are divided into two main areas: promoting and protecting intellectual property.
In promoting IP, the committee will help individuals and businesses to develop products and services behind the shield of IP protection, so that these products and services can contribute to the government's creative-economy mission. It will work in 15 industrial sectors, including automotive, manufacturing and software.
It also plans to set up a subcommittee on the creative economy, to encourage local businesses to become involved in the Creative Thailand initiative and to support the government's Thai Khemkhaeng (TKK) project.
Meanwhile, in its role of protecting IP, the national committee is in the process of submitting draft changes to copyright laws for Cabinet approval. The draft law sets out to extend IP protection to businesses operating on the Internet or conducting e-commerce.
The draft also proposes to punish Internet service providers involved in IP violations, landlords who provide locations and space to illegal Internet services and Internet Cafes that provide illegal services.
Alongkorn said the committee had also set up three subcommittees and working groups to investigate individuals and businesses believed to be operating in violation of IP laws. These included a subcommittee on prevention and suspicion of IP violation, a working group on investigation and suspicion and a working group on education and publications related to IP.
The deputy minister said his ministry was also planning to separate its IP Department and transform it into a service delivery unit, or intellectual property centre.
The IP Department has also developed various strategies to support the creative-economy mission. The protection of intellectual property is seen as a vital part of the foundation on which a creative economy will be built. In the next two years, the department plans not only to raise the country's competitiveness by encouraging the use of IP protection and enforcing the laws, but also to protect local wisdom as intellectual property and to provide funding to allow individuals and businesses to use IP to develop commercial products and services.
IP Department director-general Puangrat Asawaphisit said his department was also cooperating with authorities in the Philippines, Malaysia and Singapore to set up a prototype Asean Database on Patent Design so that participating countries will be able to search patent design in the region. The department plans to set up a trial of a local patent-design database early next year.
Puangrat said the department would also set up a Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) office by the end of this month. The office will act as an agent, preparing the necessary translations and paying national fees for local people and businesses applying for international patent protection. It aims to encourage Thai inventors to seek international protection for their innovations. The services of the PCT office will be available early next year.
The department will also allow individuals and businesses to register and apply for local patents by Internet in the near future.
Meanwhile, the Business Software Alliance says illegal software and software piracy in Thailand has been reduced by 76 per cent, compared with levels three years ago, when 80 per cent of software was the product of piracy.
Sasin study assesses firms' sustainability
The sufficiency economy concept promoted by His Majesty the King has been touted as a philosophy for daily life, of living within one's means and striving for balance and sustainable growth.
But the concept is applicable to companies as well, argue researchers from the Sasin Graduate Institute of Business Administration.
Their project focuses on best practices in the application of the sufficiency economy philosophy by six companies, all winners in a sufficiency economy contest hosted by the Royal Development Projects Board: Nithi Foods, Bathroom Design, Chumphon Cabana, Somapas Engineering, Phiboonchai Mae Pranom and Nopadol Panich.
Nick Pisalyaput, head of special projects at Sasin, said standard financial tools such as debt-to-equity ratios and turnover in account receivables were used to analyse small and medium-sized companies.
"None of the six companies selected can be considered perfect," he said.
The Sasin team has developed a questionnaire on corporate sustainability under the sufficiency economy philosophy to assess the concept in terms of business.
Researchers, who expect the report to be completed within the next two months, examined company practices based on the three pillars of the sufficiency economy philosophy: reasonableness, or corporate governance; moderation, or sustainability; and selfimmunity, or risk management.
For the concept of reasonableness,each of the companies had their governance practices, pricing, employee pay and community-development efforts screened. Moderation was assessed based on profitability ratios, debt-to-equity and time-interest expense to assess use of available resources. Self-immunity assessments were based on the company's risk management policies and product and customer diversification.
He said he hoped that the assessment criteria could be used with listed companies on the Stock Exchange of Thailand.
"Listed companies should have higher standards based on these principles than small and medium-sized companies,given that listed companies are already regulated under numerous rules," he said.
Suvit Maesincee, director of the Sasin Institute for Global Affairs, said a commitment to the sufficiency economy could help achieve a sustainable, responsible model for global capitalism.
The application of the sufficiency economy principles by local companies could be a lesson for global firms, he said.
Sumet Tantivejkul, a former secretarygeneral of the National Economic and Social Development Board and now chairman of a development institute to promote the sufficiency economy philosophy, said large and small companies were in search of a new development model in the wake of the crisis. He urged business schools such as Sasin to apply the concepts to their curriculum in educating future business leaders.
"Whether it be Western or Eastern countries, when the global economy collapses, it affects us all," said Dr Sumet.
Dipak Jain, dean of the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University in Chicago, said business schools should pay more attention to the concepts of sufficiency economy, corporate social responsibility and governance.
The global economic crisis was in part rooted in an excessive focus on performance, whether it be executive compensation or quarterly profits.
"Personal success should not be the sole goal of MBA graduates," he said.
But the concept is applicable to companies as well, argue researchers from the Sasin Graduate Institute of Business Administration.
Their project focuses on best practices in the application of the sufficiency economy philosophy by six companies, all winners in a sufficiency economy contest hosted by the Royal Development Projects Board: Nithi Foods, Bathroom Design, Chumphon Cabana, Somapas Engineering, Phiboonchai Mae Pranom and Nopadol Panich.
Nick Pisalyaput, head of special projects at Sasin, said standard financial tools such as debt-to-equity ratios and turnover in account receivables were used to analyse small and medium-sized companies.
"None of the six companies selected can be considered perfect," he said.
The Sasin team has developed a questionnaire on corporate sustainability under the sufficiency economy philosophy to assess the concept in terms of business.
Researchers, who expect the report to be completed within the next two months, examined company practices based on the three pillars of the sufficiency economy philosophy: reasonableness, or corporate governance; moderation, or sustainability; and selfimmunity, or risk management.
For the concept of reasonableness,each of the companies had their governance practices, pricing, employee pay and community-development efforts screened. Moderation was assessed based on profitability ratios, debt-to-equity and time-interest expense to assess use of available resources. Self-immunity assessments were based on the company's risk management policies and product and customer diversification.
He said he hoped that the assessment criteria could be used with listed companies on the Stock Exchange of Thailand.
"Listed companies should have higher standards based on these principles than small and medium-sized companies,given that listed companies are already regulated under numerous rules," he said.
Suvit Maesincee, director of the Sasin Institute for Global Affairs, said a commitment to the sufficiency economy could help achieve a sustainable, responsible model for global capitalism.
The application of the sufficiency economy principles by local companies could be a lesson for global firms, he said.
Sumet Tantivejkul, a former secretarygeneral of the National Economic and Social Development Board and now chairman of a development institute to promote the sufficiency economy philosophy, said large and small companies were in search of a new development model in the wake of the crisis. He urged business schools such as Sasin to apply the concepts to their curriculum in educating future business leaders.
"Whether it be Western or Eastern countries, when the global economy collapses, it affects us all," said Dr Sumet.
Dipak Jain, dean of the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University in Chicago, said business schools should pay more attention to the concepts of sufficiency economy, corporate social responsibility and governance.
The global economic crisis was in part rooted in an excessive focus on performance, whether it be executive compensation or quarterly profits.
"Personal success should not be the sole goal of MBA graduates," he said.
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
Vietnamese think tank folds
Vietnam's first independent policy think tank, which brought together former government advisers and reformminded scholars, has decided to close in the face of a state directive that would have sharply curtailed its activities.
That ends a two-year run during which the pioneering Institute for Development Studies (IDS) tested the communist government's tolerance of opposing views on economic and social policy, and analysts say it signals that space for public discourse is being squeezed ahead of a major party meeting.
"We are not happy at all," said IDS president and founding member Nguyen Quang A."We are very sad and it took a lot of consideration to make a very hard decision."
IDS's board decided on Monday to dissolve the Hanoi-based think tank, a day before a directive from Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung known as "Decision 97" was to take effect.
Dung's decision, promulgated on July 24, set out a tight list of areas of research approved for private organisations, which did not include macroeconomics, and outlawed the public airing of opinions by private groups that ran counter to the party.
Views "opposing the line, objectives and policies of the party and state must be sent to the relevant authorities within the party or state and may not be announced publicly," it stated.
Many in Vietnam have voiced opposition to Decision 97, and IDS quietly lobbied the government to reverse the decision, without success.
The group had argued Decision 97 itself was illegal and that banning opposition views would have "unforeseeable consequences."
"The act of banning open opposition is unscientific, unprogressive and undemocratic," it said in a statement.
IDS members and others have speculated that Decision 97 was designed specifically to kill the think tank, the only one of its kind in Vietnam.
Its research had taken aim at issues like rural development policy and had been sharply critical of the government's approach towards state-owned enterprises. Analysts and IDS members said many in the Party were opposed to the group's existence.
IDS had faced periodic pressure to close over the course of its two-year existence.
More broadly, Decision 97 and the demise of IDS signalled that "the appetite for constructive criticism has virtually disappeared" in the run-up to the 11th Communist Party Congress scheduled for early 2011, said a Vietnam-based Western scholar.
He said the arrests, detentions and other steps to put pressure on bloggers,online commentators and newspapers in recent weeks were part of the same effort to silence dissent before the Congress, at which many top leaders will be replaced or reshuffled.
That ends a two-year run during which the pioneering Institute for Development Studies (IDS) tested the communist government's tolerance of opposing views on economic and social policy, and analysts say it signals that space for public discourse is being squeezed ahead of a major party meeting.
"We are not happy at all," said IDS president and founding member Nguyen Quang A."We are very sad and it took a lot of consideration to make a very hard decision."
IDS's board decided on Monday to dissolve the Hanoi-based think tank, a day before a directive from Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung known as "Decision 97" was to take effect.
Dung's decision, promulgated on July 24, set out a tight list of areas of research approved for private organisations, which did not include macroeconomics, and outlawed the public airing of opinions by private groups that ran counter to the party.
Views "opposing the line, objectives and policies of the party and state must be sent to the relevant authorities within the party or state and may not be announced publicly," it stated.
Many in Vietnam have voiced opposition to Decision 97, and IDS quietly lobbied the government to reverse the decision, without success.
The group had argued Decision 97 itself was illegal and that banning opposition views would have "unforeseeable consequences."
"The act of banning open opposition is unscientific, unprogressive and undemocratic," it said in a statement.
IDS members and others have speculated that Decision 97 was designed specifically to kill the think tank, the only one of its kind in Vietnam.
Its research had taken aim at issues like rural development policy and had been sharply critical of the government's approach towards state-owned enterprises. Analysts and IDS members said many in the Party were opposed to the group's existence.
IDS had faced periodic pressure to close over the course of its two-year existence.
More broadly, Decision 97 and the demise of IDS signalled that "the appetite for constructive criticism has virtually disappeared" in the run-up to the 11th Communist Party Congress scheduled for early 2011, said a Vietnam-based Western scholar.
He said the arrests, detentions and other steps to put pressure on bloggers,online commentators and newspapers in recent weeks were part of the same effort to silence dissent before the Congress, at which many top leaders will be replaced or reshuffled.
Monday, September 14, 2009
IDEAL OF A WELFARE STATE IS WORTH EXPLORING
Improvement in the current social structure is called for and could help avoid political chaos Over the weekend, the Thailand Development Research Institute (TDRI) released a comprehensive report at a conference held by the King Prajadhipok Institute on how Thailand might transform itself into a welfare state. The TDRI believes that a welfare-state strategy would help improve social equity and strengthen the democratic foundation of Thailand.
The TDRI is quite concerned about the growing tendency towards economic populism. The Thaksin government began this trend by offering handouts to the poor. Subsequent governments, including the current Abhisit government, have followed suit.
The populist policies, in which the state aims to pump money into the grassroots, might win votes for politicians but in the long run they are not sustainable. Evidence does not support an assumption that populist policies help improve income distribution.
Much worse, populist policies will end up increasing public-sector debt, which leads to an economic crisis like many South American countries have experienced. But populist policies are like an addictive drug. Once everybody tries it, it is difficult to let go.
The TDRI has instead proposed a welfare-state strategy as an alternative to populist handouts. This would help address the root cause of the current political conflict and social inequity. Dr Nipon Poapongsakorn, head of TDRI, believes that if the disparities in income and assets are not tackled, Thailand could plunge into yet another political crisis. The TDRI has gone to great lengths to propose that a welfare state would help close the gap between rich and poor, and thus reduce social and political conflicts.
The research findings showed that the richest had 69 times more assets than the poorest.
In addition to 10 per cent of the poorest people, about half the country's population, lacks job security. The current market economic system fails to bridge inequality.
The state also adds salt to the injuries by failing to provide equal opportunity to everyone to access financial credit, knowledge, natural resources because the state represents a large business conglomerate that monopolises businesses.
Only a handful of politicians and businessmen access the business privileges and benefit from the monopoly.
The current tax structure does not help reduce concentration of assets and wealth in the hands of a few. Concentration of wealth has a significant correlation to political power as the country has seen business tycoons enter the political arena.
The TDRI believes without equal economic opportunities and social equity, chances of Thailand developing a democratic system will diminish. At present, the social structure of Thailand is very vulnerable. Most of the poor and middle-class do not enjoy job security. The elderly are also vulnerable to being left out and become poorer when they get older. The Thai society is inching towards an ageing society. Most of the Thai workers do not have social-security coverage.
The elements of a welfare state are that all Thais must have basic protection and rights and get appropriate assistance when they are in trouble. Yet Thailand's spending on welfare is very low. About Bt252 billion, or 2.8 per cent, of the gross domestic product is being allocated to welfare, compared with 20-31 per cent in countries belonging to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development.
We support the concept of a welfare state. But further discussion is needed over how we can finance the welfare state. Most developed countries, with strong welfare protection, are facing unsustainable public debt.
Once the welfare state is adopted, it is difficult to stop the skyrocketing |cost, which does not match tax revenue. We should move in this direction cautiously.
The TDRI is quite concerned about the growing tendency towards economic populism. The Thaksin government began this trend by offering handouts to the poor. Subsequent governments, including the current Abhisit government, have followed suit.
The populist policies, in which the state aims to pump money into the grassroots, might win votes for politicians but in the long run they are not sustainable. Evidence does not support an assumption that populist policies help improve income distribution.
Much worse, populist policies will end up increasing public-sector debt, which leads to an economic crisis like many South American countries have experienced. But populist policies are like an addictive drug. Once everybody tries it, it is difficult to let go.
The TDRI has instead proposed a welfare-state strategy as an alternative to populist handouts. This would help address the root cause of the current political conflict and social inequity. Dr Nipon Poapongsakorn, head of TDRI, believes that if the disparities in income and assets are not tackled, Thailand could plunge into yet another political crisis. The TDRI has gone to great lengths to propose that a welfare state would help close the gap between rich and poor, and thus reduce social and political conflicts.
The research findings showed that the richest had 69 times more assets than the poorest.
In addition to 10 per cent of the poorest people, about half the country's population, lacks job security. The current market economic system fails to bridge inequality.
The state also adds salt to the injuries by failing to provide equal opportunity to everyone to access financial credit, knowledge, natural resources because the state represents a large business conglomerate that monopolises businesses.
Only a handful of politicians and businessmen access the business privileges and benefit from the monopoly.
The current tax structure does not help reduce concentration of assets and wealth in the hands of a few. Concentration of wealth has a significant correlation to political power as the country has seen business tycoons enter the political arena.
The TDRI believes without equal economic opportunities and social equity, chances of Thailand developing a democratic system will diminish. At present, the social structure of Thailand is very vulnerable. Most of the poor and middle-class do not enjoy job security. The elderly are also vulnerable to being left out and become poorer when they get older. The Thai society is inching towards an ageing society. Most of the Thai workers do not have social-security coverage.
The elements of a welfare state are that all Thais must have basic protection and rights and get appropriate assistance when they are in trouble. Yet Thailand's spending on welfare is very low. About Bt252 billion, or 2.8 per cent, of the gross domestic product is being allocated to welfare, compared with 20-31 per cent in countries belonging to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development.
We support the concept of a welfare state. But further discussion is needed over how we can finance the welfare state. Most developed countries, with strong welfare protection, are facing unsustainable public debt.
Once the welfare state is adopted, it is difficult to stop the skyrocketing |cost, which does not match tax revenue. We should move in this direction cautiously.
Sunday, September 13, 2009
Welfare state "key to future"
Academics yesterday suggested the political rift among Thais could be healed if the country created a viable welfare system.
Nipon Puapongsakorn, vice-chairman of the Thailand Development Research Institute (TDRI), and Somkiat Tangkitvanich, TDRI research director, made the proposal at a seminar called "The Way Out For Thailand".
The seminar was hosted by the King Prajadhipok's Institute (KPI), the Thai Journalists Association and TDRI.
Mr Nipon said unfair distribution of wealth had led to poor distribution of political power.
He suggested a better basic welfare system should be put in place to reduce the income gap.
Successive governments had not tried to narrow the income gap. Instead, they had all widened the gap.
With such a wide gap, the rich have tried to consolidate their wealth through politics, according to Mr Nipon.
This has prompted governments to implement populist policies which could cause damage to the country in the long run.
Governments should create more wealth to finance welfare schemes for people through tax reform, cutting government expenses, improving concession bidding procedures to ensure the utmost benefit to the state, and overhauling the medical welfare scheme for state officials, which consumed huge amounts of money each year, said Mr Nipon.
Mr Somkiat said unfair income distribution among Thais had led to major political disruptions such as the Sept 19, 2006, coup which occurred because the government had tried to improve income distribution via extreme populist policies.
The government's alternative now was to improve income distribution and put in place a basic welfare system, said Mr Somkiat.
Welfare would provide a safety net for the poor, helping close the income gap.
Borwornsak Uwanno, KPI secretary-general, said the think-tank would help push forward the academics' idea, by proposing it to the government and the parliament.
"I believe Thailand will go through a major change. If we're not prepared, the situation could go the same way as it did in the May 1992 or the October 1973 uprisings," added Mr Borwornsak.
Nipon Puapongsakorn, vice-chairman of the Thailand Development Research Institute (TDRI), and Somkiat Tangkitvanich, TDRI research director, made the proposal at a seminar called "The Way Out For Thailand".
The seminar was hosted by the King Prajadhipok's Institute (KPI), the Thai Journalists Association and TDRI.
Mr Nipon said unfair distribution of wealth had led to poor distribution of political power.
He suggested a better basic welfare system should be put in place to reduce the income gap.
Successive governments had not tried to narrow the income gap. Instead, they had all widened the gap.
With such a wide gap, the rich have tried to consolidate their wealth through politics, according to Mr Nipon.
This has prompted governments to implement populist policies which could cause damage to the country in the long run.
Governments should create more wealth to finance welfare schemes for people through tax reform, cutting government expenses, improving concession bidding procedures to ensure the utmost benefit to the state, and overhauling the medical welfare scheme for state officials, which consumed huge amounts of money each year, said Mr Nipon.
Mr Somkiat said unfair income distribution among Thais had led to major political disruptions such as the Sept 19, 2006, coup which occurred because the government had tried to improve income distribution via extreme populist policies.
The government's alternative now was to improve income distribution and put in place a basic welfare system, said Mr Somkiat.
Welfare would provide a safety net for the poor, helping close the income gap.
Borwornsak Uwanno, KPI secretary-general, said the think-tank would help push forward the academics' idea, by proposing it to the government and the parliament.
"I believe Thailand will go through a major change. If we're not prepared, the situation could go the same way as it did in the May 1992 or the October 1973 uprisings," added Mr Borwornsak.
Friday, September 11, 2009
COMPANIES TOLD TO THINK OUT OF THE BOX
It is great time for the business community to apply corporate sustainability in their business plans at this time of economic downturn, Donald Fisher, executive director and CEO of Mid-South Quality/Productivity Centre, based in Memphis, Tennessee, said yesterday.
"Corporate sustainability will give them strategic direction to win back the business. It helps you focus the way you do business and improve your competitiveness globally," he said.
By implementing a corporate sustainability plan, businesses need to think out of the box and be creative. The plan also allows enterprises to develop their strategic direction and plan for the organisation to cope with the new world economy.
Corporate sustainability for an organisation is the practice of measuring, disclosing and being accountable to internal and external shareholders for organisational performance to wards the goal of sustainable development.
Sustainability reporting is a broad term considered synonymous with others used to describe reporting on economic, environmental and social impacts. A corporate sustainability report should provide a balanced and reasonable representation of the organisation's sustainability performance-including both positive and negative contributions and results.
Corporate sustainability reporting can be used by any organisation for benchmarking and assessing its sustainability performance against notable global organisations with respect to laws, norms, codes, performance standards and voluntary initiatives.
Fisher said corporate sustain-ability is gathering a lot of interest globally. Many businesses around the world have already merged their corporate sustainability plan into their annual report.
Corporate sustainability has to be a aligned with the way they do business, he said.
"Corporate sustainability is the trend of the future. It is not only helping companies to increase sales and reduce operating costs, but also to enhance their brand reputation and market value. It helps increase profit margins by operating better," ha said.
To cope with the trend of global station, entrepreneurs need to apply a corporate sustainability plan by addressing the "triple bottom line," which includes paying close attention to their economic (financial factors), environmental (risk/requirement factors) and social (human factors) issues.
SMEs would clearly benefit by developing corporate sustainability plans for their organisations. They will strategically benefit when they self-assess their organisation internally and identify critical economic, environmental and social issues.
Their key bottom-line economic, environmental and social benefits and impacts will be realised when they use their findings to identify and develop short-and longer term strategic plans and directions for their enterprise that will provide both the data and information bedded to map out a strategic vision and plan that addresses both short-and longer-term directions that will ensure ongoing corporate sustain-ability withing their operations.
"The corporate sustain-ability/social responbitity global initiative is much more than a fad. Corporate sustainability is of utmost importance for the survival of organisations and future generations worldwide.
"Organisations' product/service offerings and vendor networks are globally interconnected and are being recognised by such groups as the World Economic Forum, which holds an annual global conference in Davos, Switzerland and recognises the Global Most Sustainable Corporations in the world," he added.
"Corporate sustainability will give them strategic direction to win back the business. It helps you focus the way you do business and improve your competitiveness globally," he said.
By implementing a corporate sustainability plan, businesses need to think out of the box and be creative. The plan also allows enterprises to develop their strategic direction and plan for the organisation to cope with the new world economy.
Corporate sustainability for an organisation is the practice of measuring, disclosing and being accountable to internal and external shareholders for organisational performance to wards the goal of sustainable development.
Sustainability reporting is a broad term considered synonymous with others used to describe reporting on economic, environmental and social impacts. A corporate sustainability report should provide a balanced and reasonable representation of the organisation's sustainability performance-including both positive and negative contributions and results.
Corporate sustainability reporting can be used by any organisation for benchmarking and assessing its sustainability performance against notable global organisations with respect to laws, norms, codes, performance standards and voluntary initiatives.
Fisher said corporate sustain-ability is gathering a lot of interest globally. Many businesses around the world have already merged their corporate sustainability plan into their annual report.
Corporate sustainability has to be a aligned with the way they do business, he said.
"Corporate sustainability is the trend of the future. It is not only helping companies to increase sales and reduce operating costs, but also to enhance their brand reputation and market value. It helps increase profit margins by operating better," ha said.
To cope with the trend of global station, entrepreneurs need to apply a corporate sustainability plan by addressing the "triple bottom line," which includes paying close attention to their economic (financial factors), environmental (risk/requirement factors) and social (human factors) issues.
SMEs would clearly benefit by developing corporate sustainability plans for their organisations. They will strategically benefit when they self-assess their organisation internally and identify critical economic, environmental and social issues.
Their key bottom-line economic, environmental and social benefits and impacts will be realised when they use their findings to identify and develop short-and longer term strategic plans and directions for their enterprise that will provide both the data and information bedded to map out a strategic vision and plan that addresses both short-and longer-term directions that will ensure ongoing corporate sustain-ability withing their operations.
"The corporate sustain-ability/social responbitity global initiative is much more than a fad. Corporate sustainability is of utmost importance for the survival of organisations and future generations worldwide.
"Organisations' product/service offerings and vendor networks are globally interconnected and are being recognised by such groups as the World Economic Forum, which holds an annual global conference in Davos, Switzerland and recognises the Global Most Sustainable Corporations in the world," he added.
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
GOLD SHINES AT 18-MONTH HIGH
Gold hit US$1,000 an ounce yesterday, a 18-month high, on inflation fears and dollar weakening causing investors to gravitate to safe haven assets, with last year's all-time record of $1,034 appearing within reach this year.Yesterday was the third time bullion has passed $1,000 after peaking this year at $1,005 in February and lifting the bar to $1,034 in March last year.
Silver climbed to a 13month high as a weaker dollar and concern that inflation may accelerate boosted the appeal of precious metals.
Bullion for immediate delivery surged to $1,007.70 in London, taking this year's increase to 14 per cent. Gold, which reached a record $1,032.70 in March 2008, is set for a ninth yearly gain.
Crudeoil futures and all six industrial metals on the London Metal Exchange rallied as the Dollar Index lost as much as 0.8 per cent. Raw materials typically move inversely to the US currency.
Governments have cut interest rates and boosted spending to fight the worst recession since World War II, spurring investors to buy bullion as a hedge against potential inflation and debasement of currencies.
Gold, silver and palladium holdings in exchangetraded funds have advanced to records.
"We don't see any immediate recovery in the dollar and gold is one of the better alternatives," said Bernard Sin, head of currency and metals trading at bullion refiner MKS Finance in Geneva. "From here, the next technical level is $1,040, and at the rate it's going it might not be difficult. There's a lot of new money coming into gold."
the local market, gold continued soaring with an increase of Bt750 per baht weight over one week after bouncing around in the past few weeks.
Fundamental factors still support the bullion rally with the US dollar drooping, while technical factors also support gold prices, experts said.
They predict that if gold can completely break through $1,000 per ounce, the next peak is expected at $1,030. But some believe this rally might be shortlived, as demand for jewellery is not strong.
Bloomberg quoted UBS AG analyst John Reade as writing in an emailed note yesterday that gold's rally to more than $1,000 an ounce is a "profittaking opportunity rather than a signal to buy". UBS maintained its one and threemonth forecasts for the metal at $950 and $1,000 an ounce respectively.
Yesterday, the domestic gold price had to be adjusted four times in line with the global market. The last adjustment was made at 2:24pm when gold bullion traded at Bt16,100 per ounce for selling and Bt16,000 for buying, while gold ornaments were pegged at Bt16,500 for selling and Bt15,766.40 for buying.
The gold price recently has been adjusted several times a day, such as three times on Monday, and two a day from Wednesday to Friday last week. Most of the changes are an increase of Bt50-Bt100.
Since last Wednesday gold has gained Bt750 per onebaht weight, with a sharp jump on Thursday of Bt350, while the US currency traded in a narrow range of Bt34.02-34.06 from September 1 to yesterday.
Jitti Tangsithpakdi, president of the Gold Traders Association, said gold had continued rising since last week, because funds were shifted to the gold market for speculation. However the gold price might swing slightly in the next period, the same as equity investment.
Currently the price of gold bars was at Bt16,100 per baht for selling, which increased from last Tuesday by Bt750 and was the highest in six to seven months.
Jitti predicts that gold may tag a new high at $1,034 per ounce this year, because the economy has not completely recovered yet. Investors are still not confident in the global economy and allocate money for gold investment, which will push gold prices up.
Investors should sell half of their gold for profit, while keeping the other half, because the gold price might rise further, he said.
Kritcharat Hirunyasiri, deputy general-secretary of the Gold Traders Association, said fundamental factors still support the rise in gold prices.
The US dollar was still weak, while technical factors also supported the gold price as the current gold price stood above the average price in every market.
Last week gold shot through the $960perounce level and zoomed to $997 per ounce on Friday. The gold price could stay above $990 per ounce, which means that the gold price had turned to an uptrend in the medium and long term, he said.
The oil price, which generally goes in the opposition direction to gold, fell from $70 per barrel to $67 and US equities were still retreating overall, so funds should give gold a greater weighting. The gold price was supposed to continue increasing at least one week, he said.
If gold can crack $1,000 per ounce, the next target is expected at $1,030 per ounce.
Silver climbed to a 13month high as a weaker dollar and concern that inflation may accelerate boosted the appeal of precious metals.
Bullion for immediate delivery surged to $1,007.70 in London, taking this year's increase to 14 per cent. Gold, which reached a record $1,032.70 in March 2008, is set for a ninth yearly gain.
Crudeoil futures and all six industrial metals on the London Metal Exchange rallied as the Dollar Index lost as much as 0.8 per cent. Raw materials typically move inversely to the US currency.
Governments have cut interest rates and boosted spending to fight the worst recession since World War II, spurring investors to buy bullion as a hedge against potential inflation and debasement of currencies.
Gold, silver and palladium holdings in exchangetraded funds have advanced to records.
"We don't see any immediate recovery in the dollar and gold is one of the better alternatives," said Bernard Sin, head of currency and metals trading at bullion refiner MKS Finance in Geneva. "From here, the next technical level is $1,040, and at the rate it's going it might not be difficult. There's a lot of new money coming into gold."
the local market, gold continued soaring with an increase of Bt750 per baht weight over one week after bouncing around in the past few weeks.
Fundamental factors still support the bullion rally with the US dollar drooping, while technical factors also support gold prices, experts said.
They predict that if gold can completely break through $1,000 per ounce, the next peak is expected at $1,030. But some believe this rally might be shortlived, as demand for jewellery is not strong.
Bloomberg quoted UBS AG analyst John Reade as writing in an emailed note yesterday that gold's rally to more than $1,000 an ounce is a "profittaking opportunity rather than a signal to buy". UBS maintained its one and threemonth forecasts for the metal at $950 and $1,000 an ounce respectively.
Yesterday, the domestic gold price had to be adjusted four times in line with the global market. The last adjustment was made at 2:24pm when gold bullion traded at Bt16,100 per ounce for selling and Bt16,000 for buying, while gold ornaments were pegged at Bt16,500 for selling and Bt15,766.40 for buying.
The gold price recently has been adjusted several times a day, such as three times on Monday, and two a day from Wednesday to Friday last week. Most of the changes are an increase of Bt50-Bt100.
Since last Wednesday gold has gained Bt750 per onebaht weight, with a sharp jump on Thursday of Bt350, while the US currency traded in a narrow range of Bt34.02-34.06 from September 1 to yesterday.
Jitti Tangsithpakdi, president of the Gold Traders Association, said gold had continued rising since last week, because funds were shifted to the gold market for speculation. However the gold price might swing slightly in the next period, the same as equity investment.
Currently the price of gold bars was at Bt16,100 per baht for selling, which increased from last Tuesday by Bt750 and was the highest in six to seven months.
Jitti predicts that gold may tag a new high at $1,034 per ounce this year, because the economy has not completely recovered yet. Investors are still not confident in the global economy and allocate money for gold investment, which will push gold prices up.
Investors should sell half of their gold for profit, while keeping the other half, because the gold price might rise further, he said.
Kritcharat Hirunyasiri, deputy general-secretary of the Gold Traders Association, said fundamental factors still support the rise in gold prices.
The US dollar was still weak, while technical factors also supported the gold price as the current gold price stood above the average price in every market.
Last week gold shot through the $960perounce level and zoomed to $997 per ounce on Friday. The gold price could stay above $990 per ounce, which means that the gold price had turned to an uptrend in the medium and long term, he said.
The oil price, which generally goes in the opposition direction to gold, fell from $70 per barrel to $67 and US equities were still retreating overall, so funds should give gold a greater weighting. The gold price was supposed to continue increasing at least one week, he said.
If gold can crack $1,000 per ounce, the next target is expected at $1,030 per ounce.
Monday, September 7, 2009
PRIVATE SECTOR URGES APEC LEADERS TO PUSH FOR FREE TRADE AGREEMENTS
Business leaders have urged the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperaion forum, a grouping of 21 economies, to push for free-trade agreements as a means of rvitalising the global economy.
This will be akey proposal from Apec's private sector during the November summit of Apec leaders in Singapore.
Apec's business leaders believe more FTAs will help ensure sustainable economic growth following the recovery of the global economy, because trade and investment barriers will be lowered among the members.
This could be a new engine of would economic growth in the wake of the longdelayed conclusion of the World Trade Organisation's Doha Round of trade talks.
Chong Siak Ching, Chairman of the Apec CEO Summit 2009's organising committee, yesterday said some businessmen were hopeless, due to the slowness of the Doha talks.
"The Apec summit should therefore go for an emergency agenda by initiating the FTA talk as an alternative to help boost the world's economy," she said.
An Apec FTA would create the world's largest free trade zone, accounting for 54 per cent of the world's GDP.
It could be tentatively called the Trans-Pacific Strategic Partnership Agreement.
The Apec leader's summit will be held on November 14, while the annual Apce CEO Summit will take place two days earlier, with more than 800 business leaders in attendance.
Chong said an Apec FTA was expected to ensure trade openness, to lessen the protectionist trend in some of the member economies.
The Apec CEO meeting will focus on the economic recovery and rebuilding following the US financial crisis, he said.
It will be a great platform for network policy-makers and takers. It will increase collaboration between governments and the private sector not only among the 21 members, but also around the world, including observers like the Middle East and India.
The meeting will address climate change and global warming. It will also take up some issues, including rising oil prices, the move to develop alternative energy, capacity building of small and medium-sized enterprises and increasing logistics and supply chains.
As some countries have changed their leaders this year, the meeting will also act as a showcase for the world to learn the new agendas and prospects of those leaders, including US President Barack Obama and Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama.
President Hu Jintao of China will be a keynote speaker for the Apec CEO event, because his country has played a major role in driving global ecomic growth.
This will be akey proposal from Apec's private sector during the November summit of Apec leaders in Singapore.
Apec's business leaders believe more FTAs will help ensure sustainable economic growth following the recovery of the global economy, because trade and investment barriers will be lowered among the members.
This could be a new engine of would economic growth in the wake of the longdelayed conclusion of the World Trade Organisation's Doha Round of trade talks.
Chong Siak Ching, Chairman of the Apec CEO Summit 2009's organising committee, yesterday said some businessmen were hopeless, due to the slowness of the Doha talks.
"The Apec summit should therefore go for an emergency agenda by initiating the FTA talk as an alternative to help boost the world's economy," she said.
An Apec FTA would create the world's largest free trade zone, accounting for 54 per cent of the world's GDP.
It could be tentatively called the Trans-Pacific Strategic Partnership Agreement.
The Apec leader's summit will be held on November 14, while the annual Apce CEO Summit will take place two days earlier, with more than 800 business leaders in attendance.
Chong said an Apec FTA was expected to ensure trade openness, to lessen the protectionist trend in some of the member economies.
The Apec CEO meeting will focus on the economic recovery and rebuilding following the US financial crisis, he said.
It will be a great platform for network policy-makers and takers. It will increase collaboration between governments and the private sector not only among the 21 members, but also around the world, including observers like the Middle East and India.
The meeting will address climate change and global warming. It will also take up some issues, including rising oil prices, the move to develop alternative energy, capacity building of small and medium-sized enterprises and increasing logistics and supply chains.
As some countries have changed their leaders this year, the meeting will also act as a showcase for the world to learn the new agendas and prospects of those leaders, including US President Barack Obama and Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama.
President Hu Jintao of China will be a keynote speaker for the Apec CEO event, because his country has played a major role in driving global ecomic growth.
Sunday, September 6, 2009
IMF CHIEF URGES NATIONS TO MOP UP SEA OF CASH
The global economy "appears to be emerging" from a steep slump and countries should plan to wind down stimulus efforts, International Monetary Fund chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn said yesterday. "The global economy appears to be emerging at last from the worst economic downturn in our lifetimes," Strauss-Kahn said in a speech in Berlin.
The risks of the fragile recovery stalling appeared to be dominishing, as several advanced economies-including France and Germany-had already returned to growth and emerging economies were "recovering even more strongly",he said.
But the warned that problems in the financial sector could persist or even intensify,particularly if efforts to restore banks to health are not completed.
In light of the fragility of recovery, Strauss-Kahn cautioned there was "a real danger" countries may end their extraordinary monetary and fiscal crisis measures prematurely.
"Having said this, the time is right for policy-makers to formulate their exit strategies," he added.
The former French finance minister said international coordimation of exit strategies would perhaps be even "more important" than the well-coordinated crisis response.
"Greater clarity in communicating policy intentions to the public is also essential to shore up confidence," he said.
Strauss-Kahn was due to trave to London for a two-day meeting of finance chiefs from the Group of 20 developed and developing countries in advance of a September 24-25 summit in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
The global recovery Strauss-Kahn said, would likely be "relatively sluggish", with unemployment continuing to rise through next year.
"A jobless recovery remains a risk.Having so many people out of work has significant economic costs, ranging from lower private demand to a decline in potential growth if structural unemployment rises," he said. "The social consequences are potentially even more worrisome."
Regulatory reform momentum was lacklustre, he noted, urging countries to avoid "complacency" as financial markets improve.
"The reform effort is not proceeding as quickly as is necessary to address the problems raised by the crisis," he said.
The IMF managing director addressed concerns about the international monetary system and the dollar's role as the world's reserve currency in the wake of the financial crisis.
Critics have noted the role of the dollar may have been "undermined" by US economic and financial troubles, he acknowledged.
The risks of the fragile recovery stalling appeared to be dominishing, as several advanced economies-including France and Germany-had already returned to growth and emerging economies were "recovering even more strongly",he said.
But the warned that problems in the financial sector could persist or even intensify,particularly if efforts to restore banks to health are not completed.
In light of the fragility of recovery, Strauss-Kahn cautioned there was "a real danger" countries may end their extraordinary monetary and fiscal crisis measures prematurely.
"Having said this, the time is right for policy-makers to formulate their exit strategies," he added.
The former French finance minister said international coordimation of exit strategies would perhaps be even "more important" than the well-coordinated crisis response.
"Greater clarity in communicating policy intentions to the public is also essential to shore up confidence," he said.
Strauss-Kahn was due to trave to London for a two-day meeting of finance chiefs from the Group of 20 developed and developing countries in advance of a September 24-25 summit in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
The global recovery Strauss-Kahn said, would likely be "relatively sluggish", with unemployment continuing to rise through next year.
"A jobless recovery remains a risk.Having so many people out of work has significant economic costs, ranging from lower private demand to a decline in potential growth if structural unemployment rises," he said. "The social consequences are potentially even more worrisome."
Regulatory reform momentum was lacklustre, he noted, urging countries to avoid "complacency" as financial markets improve.
"The reform effort is not proceeding as quickly as is necessary to address the problems raised by the crisis," he said.
The IMF managing director addressed concerns about the international monetary system and the dollar's role as the world's reserve currency in the wake of the financial crisis.
Critics have noted the role of the dollar may have been "undermined" by US economic and financial troubles, he acknowledged.
Friday, September 4, 2009
FTI HEAD FEARS LOSS OF COMPETITIVENESS
The chairman of the Federation of Thai Industries yesterday expressed concern about Thai industries' possible loss of competitiveness within Asean.
Santi Vilassakdanont said some member countries might not implement tariff reductions after the Asean Economic Community (AEC) came into force next year.
He said he had spoken with the Commerce Ministry several times about setting up a team to follow the movements of all free-trade agreements relevant to local operators.
However, there has been no progress on this issue by the ministry.
"If we remove our tariffs while other countries continue to maintain theirs at a low level, it will be difficult for us to remain competitive in exports. In addition, we may face a problem with other Asean countries dumping cheaper-priced products here," he said.
This issue will be brought up during a meeting of the Joint Private Committee on Commerce, Industries and Banking (JCCIB) on Monday and will probably be a subject of debate at an upcoming Public-Private Partnership (PPP) meeting.
Meanwhile, FTI deputy secretary-general Sommat Khunset said the JCCIB would discuss solutions for a shortage of financial support for small and medium-sized enterprises.
This issue was already proposed at the previous PPP meeting, he said. However, there will likely be no change in the banks' criteria for loan approval.
"We shall negotiate with the banks to get them to place greater consideration on loan approvals for companies that can show advance invoice orders. At present, banks usually consider a company's account for the past year. That's unfair during times of economic crisis," Sommat said.
In addition, the JCCIB will propose the government appoint a relevant agency to continue providing low-interest loans for hard-hit operators, since the Bank of Thailand is not allowed to do so.
"In some areas, such as the three southernmost provinces, operators still need low-interest loans to survive tough competition. Soft-loan approvals will last until 2011, with a combined value of Bt30 billion to Bt40 billion, then we'll have to look for a new solution," he said.
Santi Vilassakdanont said some member countries might not implement tariff reductions after the Asean Economic Community (AEC) came into force next year.
He said he had spoken with the Commerce Ministry several times about setting up a team to follow the movements of all free-trade agreements relevant to local operators.
However, there has been no progress on this issue by the ministry.
"If we remove our tariffs while other countries continue to maintain theirs at a low level, it will be difficult for us to remain competitive in exports. In addition, we may face a problem with other Asean countries dumping cheaper-priced products here," he said.
This issue will be brought up during a meeting of the Joint Private Committee on Commerce, Industries and Banking (JCCIB) on Monday and will probably be a subject of debate at an upcoming Public-Private Partnership (PPP) meeting.
Meanwhile, FTI deputy secretary-general Sommat Khunset said the JCCIB would discuss solutions for a shortage of financial support for small and medium-sized enterprises.
This issue was already proposed at the previous PPP meeting, he said. However, there will likely be no change in the banks' criteria for loan approval.
"We shall negotiate with the banks to get them to place greater consideration on loan approvals for companies that can show advance invoice orders. At present, banks usually consider a company's account for the past year. That's unfair during times of economic crisis," Sommat said.
In addition, the JCCIB will propose the government appoint a relevant agency to continue providing low-interest loans for hard-hit operators, since the Bank of Thailand is not allowed to do so.
"In some areas, such as the three southernmost provinces, operators still need low-interest loans to survive tough competition. Soft-loan approvals will last until 2011, with a combined value of Bt30 billion to Bt40 billion, then we'll have to look for a new solution," he said.
NO CHANGE TO POLICY RATE, GIVEN INFLATION STAYS WITHIN RANGE
The core inflation rate was expected to stay within target, so monetary policy did not need to be changed unless there were some persistent factors pushing prices out of range, the Bank of Thailand said yesterday. "We will consider whether there is any additional pressure or not. If there is nothing to keep inflation out of the target range, an interest rate adjustment would bring about unnecessary volatility," said Paiboon Kittisrikangwan, an assistant governor.
Core inflation would be about 1.4 per cent for the entire year and 1.75 per cent next year when the government's five measures to lower the cost of living expire.
Current economic figures indicate that price stability and economic adjustments have been satisfactory, so the central bank did not need to touch the policy interest rate, he said.
If there was any pressure to make core inflation stray out of the target band, it was the Monetary Policy Committee's duty to address the issue, he said.
Finance Minister Korn Chatikavanij said he did not want to shepherd the central bank into cutting the policy interest rate after it officially changed its inflation target from 03.5 per cent to 0.53 per cent.
The central bank, however, should steer its monetary policy to support the target.
"The inflation target is proposed by the central bank so the MPC has to pursue monetary policy in accordance with its target," Korn said.
The central bank forecasts that core inflation would be at the low end of 0.5 per cent in the third quarter if the calculation excluded the government's measures. It was 3.1 per cent and 1.7 per cent in the first and second quarters, respectively.
Core inflation was a negative 0.2 per cent in August after prices dropped 1.2 per cent in July. Stripping out the government's measures for cashstrapped consumers introduced in February last year, core inflation was 0.5 per cent and 0.9 per cent in August and July.
Paiboon said monetary policy would be effected based on economic conditions over the next eight quarters and the trend of persistent factors. The government's five costofliving measures were not a persistent factor.
Kobsak Pootrakool, a central bank division executive, said core inflation would be 0.3 per cent in the fourth quarter, out of the low range of the target, due to the highbase effect as well as weak demand.
"It's not necessary that core inflation must be 100 per cent in target. The point is that it must be back to midtarget in a proper period," he said.
The central bank, however, had made aggressive moves since the end of last year by cutting the key interest rate. This would help guide inflation back on track.
The central bank would refrain from making frequent adjustments to its inflation targeting policy in order to restore market confidence in price stability, which would contribute to economic sustainability in the long run.
"There is no tradeoff between inflation and economic growth in the medium term," he said.
Core inflation would be about 1.4 per cent for the entire year and 1.75 per cent next year when the government's five measures to lower the cost of living expire.
Current economic figures indicate that price stability and economic adjustments have been satisfactory, so the central bank did not need to touch the policy interest rate, he said.
If there was any pressure to make core inflation stray out of the target band, it was the Monetary Policy Committee's duty to address the issue, he said.
Finance Minister Korn Chatikavanij said he did not want to shepherd the central bank into cutting the policy interest rate after it officially changed its inflation target from 03.5 per cent to 0.53 per cent.
The central bank, however, should steer its monetary policy to support the target.
"The inflation target is proposed by the central bank so the MPC has to pursue monetary policy in accordance with its target," Korn said.
The central bank forecasts that core inflation would be at the low end of 0.5 per cent in the third quarter if the calculation excluded the government's measures. It was 3.1 per cent and 1.7 per cent in the first and second quarters, respectively.
Core inflation was a negative 0.2 per cent in August after prices dropped 1.2 per cent in July. Stripping out the government's measures for cashstrapped consumers introduced in February last year, core inflation was 0.5 per cent and 0.9 per cent in August and July.
Paiboon said monetary policy would be effected based on economic conditions over the next eight quarters and the trend of persistent factors. The government's five costofliving measures were not a persistent factor.
Kobsak Pootrakool, a central bank division executive, said core inflation would be 0.3 per cent in the fourth quarter, out of the low range of the target, due to the highbase effect as well as weak demand.
"It's not necessary that core inflation must be 100 per cent in target. The point is that it must be back to midtarget in a proper period," he said.
The central bank, however, had made aggressive moves since the end of last year by cutting the key interest rate. This would help guide inflation back on track.
The central bank would refrain from making frequent adjustments to its inflation targeting policy in order to restore market confidence in price stability, which would contribute to economic sustainability in the long run.
"There is no tradeoff between inflation and economic growth in the medium term," he said.
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