India to cut duty on ASEAN trade items

PTI – August 10, 2008

The sensitive areas which New Delhi will protect from the FTA include textiles and chemicals, the two areas of strength for the ASEAN

New Delhi: India will eliminate or substantially reduce duties on almost 96% of the items it trades with ASEAN but protect the sensitive agriculture sector by keeping over 300 items out of the free trade agreement with the 10-nation bloc.

“The other sensitive areas which New Delhi will protect from the FTA include textiles and chemicals, the two areas of strength for the ASEAN,” a high level official told PTI.

The two sides have resolved their differences on the level of protection and the demand for market access for products mainly palm oil.

Though running late by two years, the formal announcement for conclusion of the talks will be made in Singapore around the month-end by trade ministers from India and other leading ASEAN members.

The agreement will finally be signed at the India-ASEAN summit in December in Bangkok, to be attended by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

While India protected its sensitive industries like textiles and chemicals, the ASEAN shielded its turf on automobiles and steel.

In all, India will keep 489 items out of the tariff cut by putting them in the negative list but the tariff reduction and elimination commitment will cover 95.65% of the country’s $30-billion trade with the south East-Asian trading bloc.

The issue of tariff reduction on palm oil, which became the major stumbling block for the negotiators, has been clinched with India committing duty cut to 37.5% on crude palm oil and 45% on refined palm oil by 2018.

India has also acceded to Malaysia’s demand for binding the duty on petroleum crude oil at zero. “It (duty reduction) is notional, because today it is already zero,” the official said.

Crude oil duty scrapped

India has scrapped import duty on crude petroleum since June this year because of high inflation. While India’s commitment to bind duty at zero on crude petroleum import from Malaysia does not make a difference at present because of unilateral tariff scrapping on the item, the country has a choice to impose duty.

Should the duties be imposed again on crude oil, its imports from Malaysia will come at zero duty.

After the agreement is signed in December, a huge India-ASEAN market of 1.5 billion people will be thrown open either from January or June 2009.

“We are happy with both the dates,” the official said.

Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam make up the 10-nation ASEAN bloc.

World Heritage list grows

Associated Press – August 10, 2008

QUEBEC CITY, Canada

Baha’i holy places in Israel, the Monarch butterfly biosphere reserve of Mexico and the historic center of Camaguey, a Spanish colonial town in Cuba first settled in 1528, are among the new sites added to the UNESCO World Heritage list.

The UNESCO World Heritage Committee met last month in Quebec City to add the 19 cultural sites and eight natural sites to the list, which now numbers 878 sites in 145 countries. Detailed information about each site is available at whc.unesco.org/en/news/453.

In Mexico, in addition to the butterfly reserve, the fortified town of San Miguel and the Sanctuary of Jesus Nazareno de Atotonilco, cited for their architecture, were added to the list.

In Europe, new UNESCO World Heritage sites are the ancient stone walls, shelters and landscape of Stari Grad on the Adriatic island of Hvar in Croatia; 17th-century fortifications along the borders of France; innovatively designed Modernist housing in Berlin, dating from 1910-1933; the Italian towns of Mantua and Sabbioneta, cited for architecture and their role in Renaissance culture; eight wooden churches dating to the 16th through 18th centuries in Slovakia; the Rhaetian Railway, which includes two historic railway lines in Italy and Switzerland that cross the Alps; and the historic center of the republic of San Marino, which dates to the 13th century, and San Marino’s Mount Titano.

In Asia and the South Pacific, new sites added to the World Heritage list are Cambodia’s Temple of Preah Vihear; the “tulou” of China’s Fujian province, which are circular communal earthen houses; Melaka and George Town, historic cities of the Straits of Malacca in Malaysia; the Kuk swamps in New Guinea, which contain archaeological evidence of thousands of years of farming, and three sites on islands in Vanuatu associated with a 17th-century chief, Roi Mata.

In the Middle East, the World Heritage list now includes, in Iran, the Armenian monasteries of St. Thaddeus and St. Stepanos and the Chapel of Dzordzor; Al-Hijr, Saudi Arabia’s first World Heritage property, an archaeological site preserving Nabataean civilization dating to the 1st century B.C., and the Socotra islands in Yemen, cited for their biodiversity.

In Africa, Kenya’s Mijikenda Kaya Forests were recognized for the remains of fortified villages dating back centuries that are now considered sacred sites, and Le Morne, a mountain on the coast of Mauritius, was included for its history as a shelter for runaway slaves.

Natural properties added to the UNESCO list, in addition to the Mexico butterfly reserve, are Canada’s Joggins Fossil Cliffs, a fossil-rich area of Nova Scotia; China’s Mount Sanqingshan National Park, noted for its scenic landscape and “fantastically shaped” granite peaks and pillars; the coral reefs and lagoons of New Caledonia; Surtsey, an Icelandic island formed by volcanic eruptions in the 1960s and which is a pristine laboratory for plant and animal life; two nature reserves in the steppe and lakes of northern Kazakhstan; and a geologically significant mountainous area of Switzerland known as the Glarus Overthrust.

One of Cambodia’s leading newspaper becomes a daily

Radio Australia – August 09, 2008

One of Cambodia’s leading newspapers, The Phnom Penh Post, has launched its first daily edition Friday.

The management says the new Phnom Penh Post aims to be indispensible to all who wish to know what is happening in Cambodia on day-to-day basis, and from now on it will be published five times a week.

The paper, founded by American journalist Michael Hayes 17 years ago, had published every two weeks.

Post Media, the company behind the paper says the development is a tremendous leap for the paper and another milestone in the development of Cambodia’s media’s sector.

The move increases competition in the country’s growing media market.

Thailand welcomes call for unity by Cambodia’s PM

Bangkok Post – August 09, 2008

THANIDA TANSUBHAPOL

Thailand yesterday welcomed Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen’s statement that the border disputes between the two countries need to be resolved through bilateral mechanisms. Foreign Ministry spokesman Tharit Charungvat said the Cambodian leader’s stance was in line with Thailand’s as Bangkok also wished to find a solution to the Preah Vihear temple issue in a peaceful and amicable manner through bilateral mechanisms.

The existing mechanisms include meetings between the foreign ministers, the Thai-Cambodian Joint Boundary Commission (JBC) and the General Border Committee (GBC).

”Differences of views on boundary issues between two neighbouring countries are not unusual. Thailand and Cambodia have in common a 798-kilometre land border. Thailand shares the Cambodian prime minister’s view that both countries will be able to find a solution by working together,” said Mr Tharit.

Hun Sen on Wednesday said the two countries needed to stay together as good neighbours for tens of thousands of years to come.

Thailand and Cambodia needed to narrow their disputes and maximise bilateral cooperation including trade, he said.

Mr Tharit said the Preah Vihear temple issue was only one small part of their overall relations as the two countries have many common interests and cooperation in the economic, political, social and other dimensions.

Also, the people of both countries living along the Thai-Cambodian border have enjoyed close relations, sharing and celebrating the same traditions and cultures, he said.

”Thailand also agreed with Prime Minister Hun Sen that the second meeting between the two foreign ministers should be able to make good progress and pave the way for both sides to find a solution,” he said.

The second ministerial meeting between Foreign Minister Tej Bunnag and his Cambodian counterpart Hor Nam Hong is tentatively scheduled for August 18-19 at Hua Hin in Prachuap Khiri Khan.

Cambodia’s ruling party win confirmed

August 09, 2008

PHNOM PENH (AFP) — Cambodia’s ruling party took nearly 60 percent of the popular vote in last month’s election, according to figures released by the election committee on Saturday.

The Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) won 58.1 percent of the vote, compared with 21.9 percent for its nearest rival, the main opposition Sam Rainsy party, authorities said.

National Election Committee official Sin Chum Bo said turnout was 75.21 percent — or six million of the 8.1 million eligible voters.

But she declined to say how many parliamentary seats each party had won ahead of a further announcement next month in which full official results will be revealed.

“This is just a temporary election result… while we allow for political parties to make complaints before we can divide the number of seats,” she told reporters.

The CPP earlier claimed it had captured at least 90 of the 123 seats in parliament, with opposition leader Sam Rainsy and three other small parties dividing the rest.

The Sam Rainsy party on Saturday rejected the outcome, saying the election had not been conducted freely and fairly, and demanding a re-run.

International monitors agreed the election was flawed, despite improvements in the electoral process compared to past polls here.

CPP wins 58% votes in 4th general election of Cambodia

PHNOM PENH, Aug. 9 (Xinhua) — The major ruling Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) won around 58.11 percent of the votes in the fourth general election on July 27, according to the preliminary official balloting results declared by the National Election Committee (NEC) here Saturday.

Altogether 3,492,374 out of the 6,010,277 actual voters cast their ballots for CPP, who had already translated the victory into 90 out of the 123 seats at the National Assembly (NA) and claimed to be the landslide winner of the nationwide political showdown.

CPP’s winning rate during the past three general elections respectively stood at 39.63 percent in 1993, 41.67 percent in 1998 and 47.30 percent in 2003, said NEC.

Trailing CPP in this year’s election was the major opposition Sam Rainsy Party (SRP) with 1,316,714 votes, or 21.90 percent of all.

Minor opposition Human Rights Party (HRP) and Norodom Ranariddh Party (NRP) respectively won 397,816 and 337,943 votes, or 6.61 percent and 5.62 percent of all.

The co-ruling Funcinpec Party scored 303,764 votes, or 5.05 percent of all.

Altogether 11 political parties had run for the election this year. A total of 8,125,529 voters were registered to vote at 15,255 polling stations nationwide and 17, 000 local and international observers watched the polling process, according to NEC figures.

The voter turnout rate this year was only 75 percent, lower than 83 percent in 2003, 94 percent in 1998 and 90 percent in 1993, said NEC.

Final official results and allocation of the NA seats can be known at the end of this month and the new government will be established in September.