Row with Germany goes on as Thailand’s parliament opens – The Irrawaddy

August 1st, 2011

http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=21804

BANGKOK – An old commercial dispute has turned into a new diplomatic row between Germany and Thailand, putting the southeast Asian country’s monarchy in the spotlight as Thailand’s newly-elected parliament is inaugurated today.

A Boeing 737 owned by Thailand’s Crown Prince Maha Vajiralongkorn was impounded at Munich Airport on July 12 on the orders of a German court. The row goes back two decades, when a now-defunct German firm invested in a toll road to Bangkok’s old airport. The company’s liquidator was awarded €36m in damages by an international arbitration court in 2009 after successfully arguing that Bangkok breached the contract. Germany says the aircraft is Thai Government property, while Thailand says it belongs to the Crown Prince.

According to outgoing Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejajjiva, “the German government has no right to pressure Thailand to pay compensation in its dispute with a German contractor”, a brusque response to the impounding, which was followed by a demand by the Germany’s embassy in Bangkok that Thailand pay up and a warning that putative foreign investors might look elsewhere in southeast Asia. The prince has since said he would use his personal assets to settle the dispute, as he does not want to see Thai-German relations deteriorate. (more…)

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Promises and pitfalls with investing in Vietnam – Sunday Business Post/RTÉ World Report

May 29th, 2011

http://www.rte.ie/news/av/2011/0529/worldreport.html#

By Simon Roughneen in Ho Chi Minh City. By the end of 2012 James Galvin hopes to employ 150 staff at Glandore Systems’ Vietnam operation. This will almost double the current 90 web developers working at the company’s office, a 40 minute drive from the centre of Ho Chi Minh City through frenetic motorcycle-addled traffic.

With headquarters in Cork, the company’s operation in the city known informally as Saigon focuses on software development, including iPad/iPhone applications. Part of the attraction is Vietnam’s low salary structure, with an experienced developer paid US$600 month at Glandore – above the local average according to James Galvin. “Unlike most European-based software operations, we can maintain enough staff to be able to to respond quickly to new opportunities and avoid being overstretched”, he added.

Speaking last week at the Ireland-Southeast Asia Business Seminar, Nguyen Trung Tin of the Ho Chi Minh City People’s Committee said that the trade and investment relationship between Ireland and Vietnam is low, when weighed against the potential links between the two countries. (more…)

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Scars from brutal regime still run deep in Cambodia – Sunday Business Post

April 10th, 2011

http://www.sbpost.ie/news/world/scars-from-brutal-regime-still-run-deep-in-cambodia-55599.html

SIMON ROUGHNEEN IN PHNOM PENH – For Norng Sarath, the story about a girl named Chea who was kidnapped by the Khmer Rouge and gang-raped in a woodland outside Phnom Penh brought back memories of similar atrocities in Pursat, where he lived during the KR’s brutal 1975-79 rule.

“They took many people, babies, the young, the old, and shot them in the forest”, he said. “No-one knows how many died there”. Around a quarter of Cambodia’s population were murdered by the Khmer Rouge before the invading Vietnamese Army felled Pol Pot’s regime.

At the end of March, the only man so far convicted of crimes committed during the terror appealed the 18 year sentence handed down last July. Comrade Duch, the head of the S-21 detention centre in Phnom Penh, now a museum, says he was compelled to murder by the Khmer Rouge leaders. Norng Sarath disagrees: “Duch ought to get a life sentence”, he said, speaking just hours after the appeal concluded last Wednesday. (more…)

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Burma’s old wine in new bottles – Sunday Business Post

March 27th, 2011

http://sbpost.ie/news/world/earthquake-adds-to-burmese-woe-55315.html

Simon Roughneen in Bangkok. As Burma comes to terms with an earthquake on Thursday evening that killed at least 75 people, the country’s seemingly never-ending political crisis goes on. Speaking to German media last week, opposition figurehead Aung San Suu Kyi asked European countries not to remove sanctions on the country’s rulers unless significant reforms are undertaken. “Sanctions must remain in place. Sanctions should only be lifted when something has changed here”, said the 1991 Nobel peace laureate.

European Union member-states, including Ireland, will decide whether to retain the measures at the bloc’s annual review of Burma policy next month. Suu Kyi’s comments came days after she met with a group of EU-country diplomats about sanctions on Burma.

Think-tanks such as Chatham House – which is part-funded by Total and Chevron, companies with energy investments in Burma – have spoken against the measures, saying that the establishment of a new parliament signals that there is some hope for reform in Burma, which has been ruled by the Army since 1962. (more…)

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Japan disaster not thwarting nuclear plans – Sunday Business Post

March 20th, 2011

http://www.sbpost.ie/news/world/disaster-not-thwarting-international-nuclear-plans-55172.html

Simon Roughneen in Bangkok and Niall Stanage in New York – While Asian countries say they might revise nuclear energy plans in the wake of the Japanese earthquake and Fukushima crisis last week, planned projects seem likely to go ahead in the longer-term.

China and India both plan to increase their current nuclear energy capacity, and Beijing’s expansion plan, adding 28 reactors to its current 13, is around 40% of the new nuclear facilities being planned globally. China plans an additional fifty reactors further down the line, taking its overall number of plants close to 100. (more…)

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Pakistan murders linked to blasphemy laws – Sunday Business Post

March 6th, 2011

http://www.sbpost.ie/news/world/assassination-threatens-stability-in-pakistan-54913.html

The assassination of Pakistan’s sole Christian government minister has thrown the spotlight on controversial blasphemy laws and again highlighted the difficulties facing religious minorities in the Sunni Muslim-majority country.

On Wednesday, Shabhaz Bhatti, Pakistan’s Minorities Affairs minister, was shot dead in Islamabad by attackers claiming links to al-Qaeda. Mr. Bhatti, a Catholic, was an outspoken critic of the blasphemy code, which in some cases makes it a capital offence to insult the Prophet Mohammed.

Three days national mourning were declared by Prime Minister Yousef Raza Gilani, who attended Bhatti’s funeral service on Friday, held at Islamabad’s main Catholic church. In front of a crowd estimated at around one thousand, Gilani pledged to catch Bhatti’s killers. “Today is a very sad day, I consider it a black day. We are mourning the death of Shahbaz Bhatti. It’s a great loss to the nation. He was working for inter-faith harmony,” he said. (more…)

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The General’s Election in Burma – Sunday Business Post

November 7th, 2010

http://www.sbpost.ie/news/world/little-hope-for-change-in-burma-elections-52677.html

Simon Roughneen in Bangkok – Today Burma goes to polls in what most observers are dismissing as a sham aimed at putting a civilian varnish on continued military dictatorship. Most of the candidates taking part are recently-resigned soldiers, or are backed by the military, which in any case has a reserved quota of 25% of parliamentary seats. Key ministries are ring-fenced for the army, while the commander-in-chief will have the option to annul the civilian government based on an arbitrary assessment of national security.

In total, genuine opposition parties will contest only one-third of the remainder 75% of seats which are up for grabs. To illustrate, the army’s Union Solidarity and Development Party will field candidates for almost all 1,158 seats at regional, lower and upper house levels. However, the largest opposition party, the National Democratic Front, can muster a meagre 163, hampered by restrictive electoral laws and campaign curbs. The onerous US$500 registration per candidate is more than the average GDP per capita in one of the few Asian countries where poverty equals or exceeds sub-Saharan Africa, despite billions earned in oil and gas revenues from sales to Thailand, China and India.

In recent days, undercover Burmese reporters have relayed details of massive pre-election ballot-rigging and forced voting to colleagues here in Thailand. The end of the week saw internet and mobile phone connections closed down, an apparent attempt to prevent the type of citizen reporting that saw footage of the 2007 monk-led Saffron protests leaked out to international news networks. Foreign media cannot enter Burma to cover the elections, though many have tried, with this correspondent among the many denied a visa recently. (more…)

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Intel’s new Vietnam plant showcases Asia’s rise – Sunday Business Post

October 31st, 2010

http://www.sbpost.ie/news/world/intel-deal-highlights-vietnams-rise-52584.html

Simon Roughneen in Hanoi – Like much of Asia, Vietnam’s economy is vaulting clear of the global slowdown, with growth for 2010 projected to beat the 5% recorded last year, and the opening of what is computer chip maker Intel’s largest plant highlights the country’s emergence as an investment target for multinationals.

Intel president and chief executive Paul Otellini joined Vietnam’s Deputy Prime Minister Hoang Trung Hai at the opening, with Hai saying the new facility “supports our goal of accelerating economic transformation led by technology-intensive industries”.

While the new Vietnam operation will not directly affect Intel’s Irish base in Leixlip, it highlights the longer-term challenges posed to smaller, inward-investment oriented western economies, by lower-cost emerging economies in rapidly-growing Asia, particularly as education and income levels increase. Intel recently announced record global quarterly revenues of €7.95billion, driven partly by growth in emerging markets, the company said. (more…)

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Bangkok’s Referendum on Protests & Crackdown – The Irrawaddy/Sunday Business Post

July 23rd, 2010

http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=19042

http://www.sbpost.ie/news/world/thai-byelection-set-to-test-waters-50717.html

BANGKOK – With a Government party candidate facing off against a jailed member of the red shirt linked opposition, Sunday’s Bangkok by-election is being viewed by some as a part-referendum on the recent anti-Government red shirt protests and the army crackdown that ultimately dispersed the protestors, amid gunfire, grenade explosions and the burning of almost thirty buildings around Bangkok. Over eighty died and around 2000 people were injured during the two month rally that successively occupied two landmark areas of capital’s downtown.

The Government has retained emergency laws in 16 provinces – including in Bangkok – over two months after the protests ended. Fending off criticism that the laws, which allow for detention without trial, widespread censorship and ban public gatherings of more than five people, are unnecessary now, the Government says that underground redshirt activity is possible in certain parts of the country, but adds that it will review the emergency law implementation as soon as possible. (more…)

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Tensions remain despite pledge to ease Gaza blockade – Sunday Business Post/RTÉ World Report

June 20th, 2010

http://www.thepost.ie/news/world/coloniser-israel-relaxes-gaza-blockade-49972.html

http://www.rte.ie/news/2010/0620/worldreport.html

SIMON ROUGHNEEN IN JERUSALEM – Israel’s Government last week agreed to relax its 4-year long blockade on the

Gaza Strip, but the fallout from the recent flotilla incident lingers. With Israeli-US relations somewhat-frayed of late, US President Barack Obama called the move “ a step in the right direction”. Israel has come under intense international criticism for the deaths of nine Turks onboard the Mavi Marmara, one of six boats that tried to breach the naval blockade on May 31 last. Former Ulster Unionist leader David Trimble is one of two foreign observers to a committee set up to look into the clash, but described as a diversion by critics such as Turkey who want an international investigation.

Israel maintains that its soldiers were set upon first by members of a controversial Turkish group known in English acronym form as the IHH. Israeli Defence Force (IDF) spokeswoman Lt Col Avital Liebovich told a press conference that video evidence proves that the fourth Israeli soldier to land on the boat was the first to open fire on the IHH contingent, after three colleagues were already attacked with iron bars. (more…)

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