ASEAN Regional News

[jpdm]

agree!

[bartstrife99]

Yeahh Both of You are right!

[Igsuonnimo]

"It will take a lot of patience, a lot of resolve, to try and unravel this complex web controlled by a few cronies" Malaysia's Opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim on a bid to remove government


China is not a new power but an old power revived --Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew on Beijing Olympics


"Teka hwag na nga lang muna" --FVR on 2010 election

[le Reine]

I have just read the article and I've noticed that the date was wrong. It should be 1994 and not 1944. Heck, Thailand is the only sovereign state at that time.

[RonnieR]

I admire this new PM of Australia. He is a believer of a Union in Asia. I'm just wondering if ASEAN can really emerge as strong and united. Some issues are unresolved and left hanging for so long... Hey, PM Rudd speaks Mandarin.

[icarusrising]

No sign of crisis in the banking and finance sector

RP banks may call on SEA liquidity swap deals

Jun Vallecera
Reporter


IF push comes to shove, banks in the Philippines can depend not just on the repurchase window of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) but also on funds available through central banks in Southeast Asia.

In an e-mail message, BSP Governor Amando Tetangco Jr. said governors of South East Asian Central Bank, or Seacen, have recently reminded themselves in Thailand that while the region’s banks have shown resilience in the ongoing financial turmoil, they can access liquidity through a swap facility forged many years earlier.

The swap facility ensures access to the foreign-exchange reserves of countries within the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, or Asean, hammered out in the form of bilateral deals in the wake of the 1997 financial crisis.

The post-1997 bilateral agreements include the foreign-exchange reserves of China, Japan and South Korea—the so-called Asean +3.

“We don’t think it will come to that, but that fund is still there and available should it become necessary,” Tetangco said.

He flew to Bangkok over the weekend to confer with fellow central bank governors in the region on what had been their policy response to the tumult created by the demise or merger of some of the most powerful names in the world of investment banking and securities trading.

Seacen members concluded the series of meetings in Bangkok unanimous in the policy position that Asean banks do not need to be rescued at all.

“We concluded that most Asian banks are resilient and that’s because of their resources and the sustained good performance of Asian economies. So we are not in crisis mode here,” Tetangco said.

While the central-bank governors have taken on an approach of confidence that their lenders are not under threat in the face of the current credit crisis, each governor pledged “to closely monitor developments so we know immediately how it would affect the region as a whole,” Tetangco said.

So far there are no reports anywhere in the Philippines of banks experiencing a run of depositors that worry about the safety of their money.

“We are monitoring the banks on a daily basis and, thus far, based on reports we released earlier, nothing unusual is happening,” Tetangco said.

“Bank operations are normal; we are stable. There had been no unusual withdrawals nationwide,” he added.

The foreign-currency swap agreements the BSP signed with other central banks in the region are all negotiated on bilateral basis.

Each is renewed every year as a precaution. Since the creation of the bilateral swap deals in the wake of the 1997 financial crisis, there had been no reason for any country, the Philippines included, to make a swap call.

Central banks in Europe and the US fear that banks may refuse to extend credit until the financial fallout from the demise, sale or merger of some of the biggest institutions in global finance has cleared.

US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson Jr. and US Fed chairman Ben Bernanke are chief architects in the US effort to unfreeze that reluctance by proposing to inject American taxpayers’ money worth $700 billion into the world’s financial markets.

That sum represents the cost of repairing the damage estimated to reach between $500 billion to $1 trillion.

[icarusrising]

Dangerous game

THE irony is most telling: the bad news swamping the good.

As reports filtered out of fortress Burma on Tuesday that after 19 years of incarceration, journalist U Win Tin has finally been released from Burma’s notorious Insein prison, came the news also, through the Inter Press Service (IPS), that Nobel Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, in detention for 12 of the past 18 years, has grown weak for refusing food for nearly a month. This casts a shadow on the future of Burma’s democracy movement, given Suu Kyi’s iconic role as the world’s conscience in one of its most authoritarian regimes.

“Journalists across Southeast Asia—indeed, across Asia, around the world—will be cheering U Win Tin’s release. If there has to be just one man to symbolize the struggle for press freedom in Southeast Asia in the past two decades, that man will have to be U Win Tin. We are heartened by initial news that his spirit to fight for democracy remains unbroken. He will remain an important force and inspiration for carrying on the fight for free expression in this region.” That enthusiastic reaction came from Roby Alampay, a veteran Filipino journalist and executive director of the Bangkok-based Southeast Asian Press Alliance.

Yet, from the initial TV clips of journalist U Win Tin, the ravages of time and mistreatment, presumably—what Edita Burgos calls the twins of “nature and torture”—have taken quite a toll on the man in the 19 years he has been jailed. That thought—that this junta has the capacity and the brutal will to wear down its enemies—comes to mind when one ponders the future of democracy, given that such people as Mr. U Win Tin and Suu Kyi have been at it for more than it took to unseat Ferdinand Marcos. And, at 62, how long can Suu Kyi continue to inspire the struggle, especially now that her health is affected by her latest protest, though her party mates at the National League of Democracy won’t call it yet a hunger strike.

It is clear that the junta can take forever to wear down Suu Kyi and like-minded Burmese, the loud denunciations in international forums like the United Nations (UN) notwithstanding. But, perhaps, 18 years after winning by landslide the parliamentary elections only to be shunted aside by the junta, Suu Kyi is nearing the end of her patience and decided to up the stakes—especially after the junta decided to extend her five-year, latest jail sentence by another year, in clear violation of law and in mockery of international appeals.

To the wimps in the UN and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, she is, perhaps saying, enough is enough. The game in Burma has reached a dangerous stage, with Suu Kyi making what IPS writer Zin Linn described as a “brave wake-up call.” But, given its track record, there’s little hope the junta could be moved, unless more extreme incidents happen, or it becomes clear to the generals that a patriot like her dead is the last thing they need at this time.

[icarusrising]

PSE to tie up with other Southeast Asian stock markets

Article posted September 25, 2008 - 10:56 AM
MANILA, Philippines - The Philippines and its counterparts in Southeast Asia have agreed to electronically link their stock markets and set up an Asean (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) board.

In a disclosure, the PSE said it will enter into an agreement with five other Asean bourses to link their exchanges.

Those participating are Bursa Malaysia, Hochi Minh Stock Exchange, Indonesia Stock Exchange, Singapore Stock Exchange and the Stock Exchange of Thailand. GMANews.TV

[diz]

That's nice. We're becoming more united as a region, well the richer, larger ones anyway. ASEAN Pride!

[Maxxclip]

di ba may proposal na maging "one region, one curreny" sa isa sa mga naging ASEAN Summit? like euro

[icarusrising]

Australia, Philippines sign tsunami warning deals

Article posted September 12, 2008 - 11:50 PM

VIENNA, Austria - Australia and the Philippines signed agreements Friday enabling them to receive real-time data on any earthquake that could cause a tsunami, information that would come from an organization overseeing a treaty banning nuclear explosions.

The Vienna-based Preparatory Commission for the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty Organization said data it collects at its monitoring facilities, which are set up to detect nuclear explosions, could give authorities two and a half minutes of additional warning. That vital time could be used to alert the public ahead of the devastating waves.

In December 2004, a massive earthquake off Indonesia's Sumatra island triggered a tsunami that killed more than 230,000 people — 131,000 of them in Aceh province alone.

A tsunami off Java island last year killed nearly 5,000.

The Vienna-based organization's executive secretary, Tibor Toth, signed separate agreements with Philippine Foreign Secretary Alberto Romulo and Peter Shannon, Australia's permanent representative to the United Nations in Vienna.

"It is very, very important," Romulo said in a statement.

Shannon said the deal was "part of a network that has developed since the terrible disasters that the Asia-Pacific region experienced."

The organization has been providing real-time and continuous data on a test basis to tsunami warning centers in Australia, Hawaii, Japan and Malaysia since March 2005 in collaboration with UNESCO.

In August, Japan signed a formal agreement for this kind of warning. Indonesia is expected to follow suit in November. - AP

[icarusrising]

RP set as Ultimate Fighting Championship's Southeast Asian hub

By ROY MEDINA, abs-cbnNEWS.com | 09/22/2008 7:08 PM

Chuck "The Iceman" Liddell during question time with Philippine media in Quezon City, Sept. 22, 2008.Filipino mixed martial arts fans will surely have something big to look forward to in 2009 as the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), the world's premiere mixed martial arts (MMA) organization, is planning to expand to Southeast Asia by next year and plans to use the Philippines as its base of operations.

"We're expanding into Southeast Asia, and we wanna use the Philippines and Manila as a springboard to make it happen," Lorenzo Fertitta, chairman and chief executive of Zuffa, LLC, the media and entertainment company that owns UFC, told sports reporters during a media day at ABS-CBN's 9501 restaurant in Quezon City on Monday.

Fertitta, who arrived with two-time UFC lightweight champion Chuck "The Iceman" Liddell over the weekend, said that the sport has grown so big in America that at times, it has exceeded ratings of other popular sporting events in the US.

"You may or may not know it but the UFC has become one of the largest sports franchises in the United States. The ratings on our TV shows exceeded the NBA, at times exceeded the NFL, exceeded the Major League Baseball, so we've grown tremendously in the United States and Canada," he added.

The next logical step, said Fertitta, is to bring the UFC to the world.

"We're expanding into Europe, we have an office in the UK, we're planning fights in Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Finland, Denmark," the UFC big boss added.

Two guys slugging it out

Fertitta explained how and why the UFC has grown so much in appeal and cult following within the last seven years since it was acquired by Zuffa in 2001.

"One of the things we've found is that the UFC translates very well. Some sports don't necessarily translate very well. People outside America don't necessarily understand football, people in America don't understand cricket," he said.

UFC chief executive and chairman Lorenzo Fertitta.Fertitta said that with this in mind, it would translate to the thinking that " if you dont understand the rules, you don't get it."

The great thing about the UFC, he said, is that it goes everywhere and people can immediately relate to it..

"Fighting is in our DNA. Everyone loves to watch when you put two guys in The Octagon using any martial art they want, and everybody gets it right away," he said.

UFC in Manila by May

Fertitta, meanwhile, has this to say when asked to elaborate on UFC's plan to establish a base in the Philippines:" We're currently working on it right now, there's a lot of planning and a lot of things that have to be put in place to bring in an event of that size and magnitude over here."

He said that the UFC, together with ABS-CBN, plans to organize something by May 2009.

"We're hoping that we can organize something for the summertime, maybe around May," he said.

However, a lot of things will come into play, he added.

Despite these factors, Fertitta assured UFC fans that, "Definitely, we're going to be here in the Philippines as soon as we possibly could."

Huge market

The UFC head honcho said they were surprised at the huge turnout at the SM Mall of Asia in Pasay City on Sunday when Liddell had an open workout there.

"When we went to the Mall of Asia yesterday (Sunday), we had an incredible turnout. Just walking down the street, everybody recognized Chuck Liddell," he said.

Fertitta said that following the warm welcome received on Sunday, they are now more certain of the UFC's chances in the Philippines.

"We love the Philippines, the UFC wants to come here and put on a big show, and become a part of the sports industry here," he said.

He added that the probability of the UFC to establish a Philippine base of operations is "very high."

"I think it's a very high percentage, almost 100 percent," he said, adding that the UFC is already committed to the Filipino market.

"We love the fans here, we think we can build a real business here and we'll be here for sure," he said.

MMA explained; fighter safety on top

A UFC fact sheet explains MMA as "an intense and evolving combat sport in which competitors use interdisciplinary forms of fighting."

These fighting forms include jiu-jitsu, judo, karate, boxing, kickboxing, wrestling and others.

Scoring for MMA events is based on athletic commission-approved definitions for striking (blows with the hands, feet, knees or elbows) and grappling (submission, choke holds, throws or takedowns).

"No single discipline reigns," UFC said.

Despite the intensity and the physical nature of MMA, the UFC as an organization said fighter safety is very important.

"Fighter safety is of paramount concern to UFC owenership and management: it is noteworthy that no competitor has even been seriously injured in a UFC event," it said.

as of 09/23/2008 11:39 AM

[bartstrife99]

aiwan-model technology research proposed for economy to take off
spacer


Melody M. Aguiba

The research agency that virtually turned Taiwan around from an agrarian to an industrialized economy suggests that the Philippines should put up a similar agency that can get technologies take off from the shelves.

The Philippines may derive a model from Taiwan in having established in 1973 the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) which widely bridged the gap needed in technology commercialization.

ITRI President Johnsee Lee told a Congressional Commission on Science, Technology, and Engineering (Comste) forum that the US technology model (of the academe collaborating with industries) may not work in Asian countries like Taiwan and the Philippines. But the ITRI model may work too for the country as much as it did in Taiwan . "I mentioned to Congressman (Mariano) Piamonte that the US model does not work for countries like Philippines and Taiwan. US companies are very big and have the capability to do research through links with the university. ITRI is like something in between to get the universities to work with industries," said Lee. Such institution, he said, should be run like a private enterprise, although it may receive seed money from government.

Comste Deputy Executive Director Dennis Ramon B. Posadas said that government has been studying the setting up of an institution that will enable the country to develop niche products that have high commercial potential. And ITRI may just lead the way. "We may set up an R&D institute that’s partly government and partly private. This may need a legislation. The role of government is basically to set incentives, maybe give some grants, some tax breaks," he said in an interview. Essential to making research institutions meet private enterprises’ needs for technology is a law that allows government-funded R&D works to be owned and patented by researchers themselves. "There should be a law that is like the (US’s) Bayh Dole Act. We have this in Taiwan, the Basic Law for Science and Technology approved 10 years ago. Before that, (selling the technology) was very difficult," said Lee.

Comste Executive Director Fortunato Dela Pena said that to start off with a similar ITRI agency, government may pass a law converting the Advanced Science and Technology Institute (ASTI) into a profit-earning corporation. ASTI at present is one of the Department of Science and Technology’s (DoST) seven research institutes. While earning a small profit, ASTI remits much of its earnings to government. "In my own personal view, I would probably start small and consider ASTI which is now focused on ICT (Information Communication Technology) and electronics to corporatize. Their mandate can cover many areas, not only ICT. Because it is advanced science and technology, it can also be on biotechnology and nanotechnology," he said. As Taiwan has been beefing up its R&D budget which is now approaching three percent of gross domestic product (GDP), the country should devote more budget for this from its present minuscule 0.12 percent of GDP, many times less than that of Taiwan, a lot smaller country of 23 million people. Lee noted that in the 1950s-1960s, the Philippines had a higher per capita income at 0 per person than Taiwan at 5. But with its investments in R&D, ninth biggest in the world at .372 billion as of 2004, it has experienced an economic miracle that has made it sixteenth in rank in global trade with a per capita income of ,790 and foreign exchange reserve as of August 2008 of 2.090 billion or fifth in the world. Lee said the Philippines still has an edge in being an English speaking-country and in having many natural resources, unlike Taiwan that only has its people as resource. However, its sole wealth in people, he stressed, enabled Taiwan to tap its greatest potential in developing high-technology industries. ITRI, an agency with more than 5,000 researchers and more than 1,000 Ph.Ds, has enabled the spin-off of many technology companies. The emergence of world’s biggest wafer foundry Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. is partly attributed to it. ITRI has invested more than NT billion and has helped growth and birth of 255 companies under its Open Lab. These are Taiwan’s world market share in technology products: soho router, 93 percent; WLAN, 90 percent; Ethernet LAN switch, 84 percent; and cable CPE, 80 percent.

http://www.mb.com.ph/BSNS20080929136551.html

[crappypants]

Originally Posted by jpdm

This is the 21st century..

...we dont need to understand rocket science to come up with our own economic development strategies....

...These guys who keep on telling us that we should do this and do that specially foreign "experts" dont even know our history....

...they assumed that what worked for them will work for us....

...just like when they keep on ramming to our throats that the Philippines can develop economically if we convert our economy into a service oriented one with no manufacturing industry or agriculture to speak of...

...This is the most stupid, idiotic, chicken shit, jackass economic idea that I ever heard...

...No country can attain economic development without agriculture and industrialization!!

...Yung Singapore and Hong kong are special cases because they are mere cities....

....in the next 100 years..they better look for other economic strategies because the amount of energy and food will determine the survival of countries...

...Yung mga consumer electronics or industrial goods will lose their importance in the near future when basic needs for survival will be the priority of governments....

...If you read between the lines these a-holes global experts just want to maintain a market for their benefactors (industrialized countries) with a declining population, overproduction and shrinking domestic market..So ang Pinas gigisahin...

..Yang demonyong JPEPA na yan ay example ng panloloko sa atin...With a shrinking population comes a shrinking market so Japan needs a new market..tayo yun..

...So that they can maintain their lifestyles and economic status at the expense of poor countries like ours...


...we need to have our own strategy fit for Philippine needs and settings and not models of any country..

...Since, we became Philippines...we have already tried all strategies dictated to us by foreigners and yet we failed to effectively solve our economic woes such as poverty...its time to determine our own path of development....

100 % correct.

[FlashCollider]

Originally Posted by jpdm

This is the 21st century..

...we dont need to understand rocket science to come up with our own economic development strategies....

...These guys who keep on telling us that we should do this and do that specially foreign "experts" dont even know our history....

...they assumed that what worked for them will work for us....

...just like when they keep on ramming to our throats that the Philippines can develop economically if we convert our economy into a service oriented one with no manufacturing industry or agriculture to speak of...

...This is the most stupid, idiotic, chicken shit, jackass economic idea that I ever heard...

...No country can attain economic development without agriculture and industrialization!!

...Yung Singapore and Hong kong are special cases because they are mere cities....

....in the next 100 years..they better look for other economic strategies because the amount of energy and food will determine the survival of countries...

...Yung mga consumer electronics or industrial goods will lose their importance in the near future when basic needs for survival will be the priority of governments....

...If you read between the lines these a-holes global experts just want to maintain a market for their benefactors (industrialized countries) with a declining population, overproduction and shrinking domestic market..So ang Pinas gigisahin...

..Yang demonyong JPEPA na yan ay example ng panloloko sa atin...With a shrinking population comes a shrinking market so Japan needs a new market..tayo yun..

...So that they can maintain their lifestyles and economic status at the expense of poor countries like ours...


...we need to have our own strategy fit for Philippine needs and settings and not models of any country..

...Since, we became Philippines...we have already tried all strategies dictated to us by foreigners and yet we failed to effectively solve our economic woes such as poverty...its time to determine our own path of development....

Couldn't agree more.

[Maxxclip]

Originally Posted by jpdm

...So that they can maintain their lifestyles and economic status at the expense of poor countries like ours...


...we need to have our own strategy fit for Philippine needs and settings and not models of any country..

[mAiNsTrEaMhunter]

how i wish we were newly industrialized or something! like were even named the sick man of the SHITHOLE.... so i guess we were being taught always to believe in miracles, so let it be! anywayz, if that happens, its everyday prophecy that life is just a spinnning wheel, sometimes your up, sometimes your down...but until now, we're still down, not even in the surface of it!

[barukdok]

Just this hour: Singapore-based Channel News Asia reported that the PHILIPPINES is the HOTTEST REAL ESTATE MARKET in SOUTHEAST ASIA!

[icarusrising]

Asean bourses to set up trading linkage

By Honey Madrilejos-Reyes
Reporter

THE Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) will participate in a trading linkage project among bourses within the Southeast Asian region.

The move, said PSE president Francis Lim, has been approved by the bourse’s board of directors.

The Asean (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) stock exchange linkage is primarily a technology link that will allow investors from other countries in the region to buy or sell Asean-listed securities through their local brokers.

“We anticipate with much enthusiasm to finally forge a tie-up for the Asean exchanges linkage. Not only will the project mean a more meaningful partnership with our counterparts but it will also lay the foundation for an integrated and stronger Asean stock market,” said Lim.

The PSE said the urgency of developing linkages among Asean exchanges arises mainly from global pressures that could make small exchanges irrelevant in the global financial market arena.

Over the past years, various exchanges have been consolidating through direct buyouts, exchanges taking a stake in another, or through the creation of various forms of alliances, including trading linkages.

The linkage will be implemented through a common exchange gateway, which is a decentralized entry point to be set up in each exchange for brokers and investors to trade securities listed on any of the Asean exchanges.

In another development, the PSE board also approved the proposal to require trading participants to increase the minimum amount of the surety bond posted by brokers and conditioned upon the faithful compliance with securities laws, rules and regulations.

The said plan was recommended by broker-directors of the PSE board.

The board has backed up the brokers’ initiative to raise the surety bond required under the securities law from P5 million to P10 million for brokers and P1 million to P2 million for dealers. This will be made applicable to all brokers and/or dealers who have deferred compliance with the P100 million minimum unimpaired capital requirement.

Under the existing rules, the amount of the surety bonds required to be filed pursuant to SRC Rule by broker dealers who have elected to defer compliance with the P100 million unimpaired paid up capital requirements is fixed at not les than P5 million for brokers and not less than P1 million for dealers. Such bonds shall be conditioned upon the faithful compliance with the provisions of the Code and rules and regulations adopted by the broker dealer or of any salesman or associated person while acting for him.

“We are confident that we will get the full support of the Securities and Exchange Commission for the approval of this measure because we in the PSE believe that it will safeguard investors’ rights,” Lim said.

[Khem]

Philippine senate just ratified few hours ago the ASEAN charter, 16 senators voting for ratification, no abstention, with only Sen. Pimentel voting "NO"....