Migrants from 12 countries among 600 found in two trucks in Mexico

MEXICO CITY— Migrants from 12 countries were among 600 people found hidden in the back of two trucks in eastern Mexico on Friday, most of them from neighboring Guatemala, the government’s National Migration Institute (INM) said.

The INM said 401 of the people were from Guatemala, 53 from Honduras, 40 from the Dominican Republic, 37 from Bangladesh, 27 from Nicaragua, 18 from El Salvador and eight from Cuba.

There were also six men from Ghana, four people from Venezuela, four men from Ecuador, a man from India and a man from Cameroon in the two trailers discovered in Veracruz state.

The institute said 455 of the migrants were male, and 145 female. The people detained would either be sent home or given the chance to have their stay in Mexico regularized, it added.

Most migrants from Central America and the rest of the world who enter Mexico head for the United States and say they are seeking to escape poverty or violence in their homelands.

Source: NAM NEWS NETWORK

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Source: NAM NEWS NETWORK

Int’l Students Return As Australia Opens Border To Singapore

CANBERRA– The first contingent of international students has arrived in Australia, under its travel bubble with Singapore that came into effect today.

Travellers fully vaccinated against COVID-19, who depart from Singapore can enter Australia without quarantining for the first time, since Mar, 2020.

Two flights of international students landed in Sydney and Melbourne today, the first batch of international students to arrive in Australia since Nov, 2020, according to Catriona Jackson, chief executive of Universities Australia.

The initial batch will be followed by another 500 students that will arrive in Dec.

“Universities have worked closely with the government and health authorities, for more than 18 months, on plans to safely welcome back our international friends,” Jackson said, in a media release today, adding that, around 130,000 international students remain outside Australia.

“We’re confident that today’s arrivals are just the first of many to return, at scale, for the start of the first semester next year.”

Australia’s lucrative international education industry was crippled by the country’s strict border closure, in response to the pandemic.

Universities lost 4.9 percent of their revenue, an estimated 1.8 billion Australian dollars (1.3 billion U.S. dollars) in 2020, and cut 17,000 jobs.

This morning, Australia reported 1,467 new locally-acquired COVID-19 cases and six deaths, as the country continues to battle the third wave of infections.

The majority of new cases were in Victoria, the country’s second-most populous state, with Melbourne as the capital city, where 1,275 cases and four deaths were reported.

As of yesterday, 91.5 percent of Australians aged 16 and over had received one vaccine dose and 85.1 percent were fully vaccinated, according to the Department of Health.

Source: NAM NEWS NETWORK

Vietnam Puts High Hopes on RCEP Trade Deal

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

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

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

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

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

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

Cheaper imports

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

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

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

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

Concerns about domestic market

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Source: Voice of America

IMF: China’s Economic Recovery ‘Well Advanced’

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Source: NAM NEWS NETWORK