Tuesday, April 30, 2019

The Irrawaddy Magazine

The Irrawaddy Magazine

Media’s Unfair Coverage Exhausts Military’s Patience: Spokesperson 

Posted: 30 Apr 2019 06:40 AM PDT

The secretary of the military's True News Information Team, Brigadier-General Zaw Min Tun, told a news conference in Naypyitaw on Tuesday that the media had exhausted the military's patience, giving it no option but to take legal action.

"This [the military's series of recent lawsuits against media organizations and critics] is a response to our grievances. If we remained silent, they would just take advantage of that [to commit more offenses]," he said in response to reporters' questions after a "four pillars" meeting of representatives of the media and the legislative, executive and judicial branches of government.

The military recently sued The Irrawaddy News and Radio Free Asia (RFA) for defamation over their coverage of recent clashes between the Myanmar Army and the Arakan Army, an ethnic armed group, in Rakhine State.

The military said the cases were opened because the media organizations' coverage was unfair.

"We will continue with the cases as per the law," Brig-Gen. Zaw Min Tun added.

Asked why the military has resorted to taking action under controversial laws instead of the country's media law, he said the latter only requires offenders to pay a fine, adding that this was not a harsh enough penalty.

The military's ire has not been limited to the news media. Since the second week of this month, senior military officials have opened cases against several critics including an activist, a human rights film director and student activists. The activists and director were detained soon after charges were filed against them.

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ARSA Denies Criminal Activities in Bangladesh Camps

Posted: 30 Apr 2019 06:25 AM PDT

YANGON – The Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) has rebutted the findings of the International Crisis Group (ICG) released on Thursday, which warned that Rohingya refugee camps in Bangladesh are being increasingly operated with impunity by ARSA militants and gangs.

Nearly 1 million Rohingya who were expelled by Myanmar military, or Tatmadaw, operations in 2017 have been in Bangladesh camps now for over 18 months. Returning to where they once lived in western Myanmar's Rakhine State is still but a vague hope for them as fighting has intensified between the Arakan Army (AA) and government troops in northern Rakhine as of this month.

The United Nations has accused the military of acting against the Rohingya with "genocidal intent" and international rights groups are calling for the military chief Sen-Gen Min Aung Hlaing to be prosecuted at the International Criminal Court (ICC) for his role in mishandling the crisis.

Amid numerous challenges for the Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh, threats against camp leaders, civil society groups and political figures have become a major threat. The ICG's recent report "Building a Better Future for Rohingya Refugees in Bangladesh" claims ARSA militants and gangs mostly control the camps and often commit violence against the residents.

The report highlights the safety conditions of the camp's Rohingya community leaders, the likelihood of the repatriation project agreed by Myanmar and Bangladesh authorities being carried out, and encouragements for authorities to lift the ban on the provision of formal education in the camps.

The ICG mentions that groups vying for control in the camps include ARSA, which it says is seeking to "deploy deadly violence to further its aims: informal networks of religious leaders; non-violent political and civil society groups: and a random assortment of criminal gangs."

"Violent groups operate freely in the camps. As evening draws in and humanitarian workers withdraw to their bases in Cox's Bazar town, security is in the hands of untrained and unarmed night watchmen appointed from among the refugees," the report says.

ARSA announced its denial of the report findings via its Twitter account on Tuesday, stating it is based on hearsay and is baseless. It also accuses the ICG of trying "to defame and manipulatively discolor ARSA's legitimate long-running struggle" for the persecuted Rohingya community in Rakhine.

ARSA's Twitter page is used as a communication channel for the group and is where it posts strong English-language statements. It denied "any involvement in the act of intimidation and even likely extra-judicial killings as reported." The post invited credible international organizations to investigate such "perceived crimes," saying they are "ready to cooperate."

ARSA wrote that its own objective is to defend, salvage and protect the innocent Rohingya, an indigenous ethnic community of Rakhine State, and said they have rights to defend themselves under international law. They say that is why their attacks mainly target the Myanmar military.

Despite ARSA's denials, the ICG report stated that ARSA was likely responsible for the killing of Arif Ullah, a camp leader who was hacked to death in June 2018. Death threats against Arif Ullah made by ARSA had been widely circulated on Whatsapp, and accused him of being on good terms with the Bangladeshi army.

The ICG says refugees have expressed "serious concerns about their personal security" as the militants and gangs are "intimidating, kidnapping and killing with impunity." It criticized homicides and other forms of deadly violence that commonly happen at night, saying that the police rarely investigate the cases and the perpetrators have almost never been brought to justice.

The ICG report says, "A determined and often violent struggle is currently underway for de facto control of the camps." It quoted the expression of a prominent refugee leader that he was "unable to sleep at night" for fear of attack by militants and gangs.

The ICG suggested that the Bangladesh government ease restrictions on formal education in the camps, saying that local and international organizations are ready to provide such education. The report recommends the improvement of law and order in the camps by providing a regular and effective Bangladesh police service, investigating crimes and bringing perpetrators to justice.

Currently, Rohingya children largely rely on informal private "tuitions" in dwellings and networks of madrassas that purely teach the "Koran [and] do not adequately fill the formal education gap."

The ICG said that banning education in the camp creates a risk of transnational jihadists groups gaining "a foothold in the camps."

It claims the Chittagong-based Islamist movement Hefazat-e-Islam—which has publicly called for jihad against Myanmar—has considerable influence over the madrassa network in the camps, through the funding and religious scholars that it provides.

This is the second time ARSA has denied a report on the refugee camps following another publication titled "ARSA: End Abductions, Torture, Threats against Rohingya Refugees and Women Aid Employees" launched by Fortify Rights in March.

ARSA carried out a third ambush this year in Myanmar when they targeted a police van transporting officers in northern Maungdaw in Rakhine State last week. Myanmar's state-owned newspapers reported a police officer was wounded during the attack. Footage of the incident, which later went viral on Facebook, was believed to show men wearing ARSA uniforms.

In January, six police officers including a police colonel were wounded in the first ARSA attack of the year near Wat Kyein Village in Maungdaw. The second attack five days later saw three officers wounded in an artillery assault on police outposts near Wai Lar Taung Village.

The post ARSA Denies Criminal Activities in Bangladesh Camps appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

Large Corporations Dominate ‘TiME’ Transparency Ranking

Posted: 30 Apr 2019 06:15 AM PDT

The private sector is leading the way in terms of corporate transparency and disclosure, according to the latest Transparency in Myanmar Enterprises (TiME) report by the Myanmar Center for Responsible Business (MCRB).

In the 2019 report, known in Burmese as "Pwint Thit Sa", seven of the country's leading companies, including its largest retailer City Mart Holdings Co. Ltd (CMHL), First Myanmar Investment (FMI), Max Myanmar Group and Shwe Taung Group, maintained their status from last year's report among the top 10, and all continue to improve their disclosure.

In its fifth report to date, MCRB said the owners of some Myanmar companies clearly understand the business case for corporate governance and transparency and that maintaining an up-to-date website contributes to Myanmar's reform process.

The report assessed the websites of 248 large companies, including listed, public, privately owned and state-owned economic enterprises. The number of companies making information available increased from the 2018 and 2016 transparency surveys in which 182 companies and 100 companies were assessed respectively.

MCRB scored companies based on their online disclosure of information on their corporate profiles, corporate governance, sustainability management and reporting. In its assessment, it used criteria from the ASEAN Corporate Governance Scorecard (ACGS) as well as those linked to the globally respected Integrated Reporting Framework.

The report notes that while the overall disclosure of information by the companies, particularly those in the top 20, is up, the average score of all companies assessed dropped from 7 percent in 2018 to 5 percent this year.

Regarding the private conglomerates' continued dominance of the transparency survey list, MCRB director Vicky Bowman said, "This shows that what motivates their owners and top executives is not regulatory requirements but the business case for transparency, corporate governance and sustainability."

She added, "They see it as a means to attract investors and business partners, and build their social license to operate. But they also see a focus on performance—for example on energy efficiency—as a means of making savings for their bottom line."

Nicolas Delange, managing partner at Yever, a consultancy firm, said, "Most companies and business leaders are embracing transparency because being transparent is the key for them to get access to funding and convince their stakeholders and shareholders that they are doing good and well."

According to Bowman, the criteria are "a way to measure whether the company 'walks the walk' or just 'talks the talk'. It is more challenging, as it requires companies to put in place systems to capture and measure performance data."

"Above all I would like companies and government departments and enterprises to see that maintaining an up-to-date website is a win-win situation, which avoids misunderstanding between them and their stakeholders, whether these are voters, shareholders, journalists or potential investors, and is an important contribution to Myanmar's reform process and SDG16, which concerns effective, accountable and inclusive institutions," she told The Irrawaddy in an email interview. SDG16 is one of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals established by the UN in 2015. It refers to the goal of securing peace, justice and strong institutions.

According to the report, the situation concerning corporate governance, transparency and business integrity in Myanmar "has generally been improving" since political reforms were introduced in 2011 under the administration of former President U Thein Sein. It said the incumbent National League for Democracy (NLD) government continued the regulatory reforms including a new Investment Law in 2016, and a new Companies Law in 2017.

In August 2018, the government adopted the Myanmar Sustainable Development Plan, which outlined steps to improve corporate governance and disclosure rules, and to enforce them, as well as ways to fight corruption and improve sustainability.

This is the second report on the subject of transparency released this month. In early April, the International Finance Corporation in partnership with the Securities and Exchange Commission of Myanmar, the Directorate of Investment and Company Administration (DICA) and the Yangon Stock Exchange published the Myanmar Corporate Governance Scorecard (MCGS), in which 24 large companies were assessed using the ASEAN CG Scorecard criteria.

Bowman explained, "That MCGS study found that the average score of the 24 companies they assessed was 31 percent, compared to an ASEAN average of 69 percent or more. This partly reflects the greater number of publicly listed companies in some ASEAN markets, but also reflects the fact that CG [corporate governance] is a new concept for many Myanmar companies.  Those that are keen to adopt it are pressing ahead."

MCRB said that 108, or 44 percent, of the companies assessed (based on 2017 DICA data) do not have corporate websites and most of those that do publish little or no corporate governance and performance data.

The five companies listed on the Yangon Stock Exchange had an average score of 32 percent based on a total of 143 criteria, and continue to outperform the public and private companies assessed, where the average score in each category was 4 percent.

State-owned enterprises (SOEs) were included in the 2019 report for the first time. Among the 28 SOEs, Construction and Housing Development Bank  and Yangon Electricity Supply Corporation led the way in terms of disclosure. Overall, however SOEs—including the military-owned Myanmar Economic Corporation—had the lowest average score in terms of overall disclosure of corporate governance information.

The report outlined a set of recommendations to the government for enforcing regulatory requirements to disclose information and getting companies to abide by the law.

"Regulatory requirements to disclose beneficial ownership data, currently mentioned in several different directives from the Central Bank and others, should be made consistent and the information should be available via MyCo, the companies register. The government regulators—mainly the Securities and Exchange Commission of Myanmar (SECM) and DICA—should start to enforce these requirements, including through fining companies who do not comply," Bowman said.

However, most companies seem unaware of the extensive regulatory disclosure requirements for listed and public companies with more than 100 shareholders.

"Companies should disentangle the finances of their company from their foundations or donation programs, and improve the governance and transparency of these, to reduce the scope for these being used for corruption," Bowman said.

According to DICA, there were 61,631 companies registered as of March this year, but many of them are small and medium-sized enterprises and not included in MCRB's assessment.

The report also highlighted issues such as corruption, environmental impact assessments (EIAs) and beneficial ownership. Of the companies assessed, 52 disclosed their subsidiaries, of which 19 companies disclosed beneficial ownership data.

According to Bowman, "It [information about beneficial ownership] facilitates banks in undertaking customer due diligence, which is why it is already mentioned in CBM [Central Bank of Myanmar] Directive 21/2015, and helps in combating money laundering. For the extractives sector, it will also enable Myanmar to be compliant with the EITI standards, which should encourage more responsible and transparent investment in the sector."

The government formed a beneficial ownership (BO) task force last June to encourage businesses to make more information available to the public as part of implementing the EITI standards. As an EITI candidate country, Myanmar is trying to meet 2016 EITI standards, one of which is having businesses' BO information made available to the public.

According to Delange at consultancy firm Yever, as "Investing is all about trust," investors will shun companies that do not disclose information on governance, strategy, shareholding structures and the like.

"Companies which are able to embrace transparency will have—and already have—a competitive advantage over their peers: we talk more about them, we respect them more, and we are more keen to do business with them. As an employee I may want to join a good company, as a customer I will select a company selling good products, as an investor I will choose a company with a good reputation. Therefore, being able to disclose information about ownership is essential for building trust. Moreover, in certain sectors—finance, extractive, etc.— it can be mandatory," he said.

The post Large Corporations Dominate 'TiME' Transparency Ranking appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

Renewed EU Sanctions Don’t Affect Us: Military Spokesperson

Posted: 30 Apr 2019 04:57 AM PDT

YANGON—Myanmar's military, or Tatmadaw, has said the European Union's (EU's) renewed embargo on arms and equipment wouldn't have any serious impact on it because the majority of its arsenal are of Russian and Chinese origin.

On Monday, the bloc extended sanctions which are already in place for a further year until April 2020.

The sanctions comprise of an embargo on arms and equipment that can be used for internal repression, an export ban on dual-use goods for use by military and border guard police, restrictions on equipment for monitoring communications, and a prohibition on military training and cooperation. Plus, asset freezes and travel bans on 14 people for serious human rights violations against the Rohingya population and civilians in Rakhine, Kachin and Shan states.

Military spokesperson Brig-Gen Zaw Min Tun told the media on Tuesday that a majority of the military's weaponry system doesn't come from the EU, "…..but from Russia and China, so Myanmar will not be affected very much." He added that as the military is trying to develop into a "standard army," it would accept technology from any country.

This was a rare admission by a senior military official about the sources of military weaponry.

Crippled for decades by international sanctions—especially by those imposed by the West—it has long been an open secret that the military relies on Russia and China for hardware. However, they have rarely revealed that. The two powerful countries have been long-time supporters of the military regime, especially since the 1990s and early 2000s during a time when Myanmar was shunned by the international community for its human rights abuses and political oppression. Even now, decades later, military ties between them still appear to be strong.

On April 21, Myanmar's military chief Snr-Gen Min Aung Hlaing left for Russia for his third trip since taking his post in 2011. During the six-day trip, at the invite of Russia's defense minister, he participated in the 8th Moscow Conference on International Security. He also met the government of the Russian Federation and military leaders and visited plants and factories in Ulan-Ude, Irkutsk, Murom, Saint Petersburg and Moscow.

According to the Commander-in-Chief of Defense Services website, in Ulan-Ude, he visited an aviation plant; he viewed the MIG-29 Service Support Center in Moscow while admiring a skills demonstration and the firing of armored vehicles manufactured by the OJSC Muromteplovoz Factory in Murom.

During his trip, Russian news outlets reported that six Sukhoi SU-30SM fighter jets are being assembled for Myanmar under a contract worth about US$204 million (300 billion kyats) which was signed between the two nations last year.

Prior to his Russian trip, also in April, Snr-Gen Min Aung Hlaing was in China for a fifth time since 2011. He visited an armored vehicle training school in Beijing and met with senior officers of China's People's Liberation Army (PLA) on April 11.

It wasn't known if the military chief made any deals on military hardware with China this time, but records show that Myanmar owns a number of Chinese-made aircraft. In June 2017, a Y-8 military tactical transport aircraft crashed into the Andaman Sea, killing 124 people onboard. The plane was made in China. The military later blamed bad weather for the crash.

The post Renewed EU Sanctions Don't Affect Us: Military Spokesperson appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

China to Provide 1 Billion Yuan Socioeconomic Grant to Myanmar

Posted: 30 Apr 2019 02:25 AM PDT

YANGON—China will provide a grant of 1 billion yuan (225.39 billion kyats, or approximately US$148 million) for socioeconomic development projects under an economic and technical cooperation agreement signed in Beijing last week.

Myanmar's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a press release on Monday that the 1 billion yuan would be used to support socio-economic development, particularly projects to improve people's livelihoods, feasibility studies for major projects and humanitarian assistance for IDPs in northern Myanmar.

State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi recently completed a six-day visit to China to attend the 2nd Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation at the invitation of Chinese President Xi Jinping. The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is Xi's signature foreign policy project. Unveiled in 2013, it is also known as the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st-Century Maritime Silk Road. The project aims to build a network of roads, railroads and shipping lanes linking at least 70 countries from China to Europe passing through Central Asia, the Middle East and Russia, fostering trade and investment.

Myanmar officially became a BRI partner country after signing a 15-point MoU establishing the China-Myanmar Economic Corridor (CMEC) in September. The estimated 1,700-kilometer-long corridor will connect Kunming, the capital of China's Yunnan province, to Myanmar's major economic checkpoints—first to Mandalay in central Myanmar, and then east to Yangon and west to the Kyaukphyu Special Economic Zone (SEZ).

More than 5,000 high-level delegates from over 150 countries attended the 2nd BRI Forum, including 37 heads of state and government, and representatives of international organizations.

On Thursday last week, as part of the forum, Myanmar and China signed three agreements: the Agreement on Economic and Technical Cooperation; a Memorandum of Understanding on the China-Myanmar Economic Corridor (CMEC) Cooperation Plan (2019-2030); and a Memorandum of Understanding on the Formulation of the Five-year Development Program for Economic and Trade Cooperation, which aims to enhance cooperation in investment and productivity.

According to the ministry's statement, the MoU on CMEC will promote cooperation in the following areas in line with the Myanmar Sustainable Development Plan: industry, transportation, energy, agriculture, "digital silk road", finance, tourism, environmental protection, people-to-people exchanges, science and technology, personnel training, water resources and flood prevention and control.

China has proposed 30 projects under the CMEC, but Myanmar has only approved nine so far. Under the CMEC agreement, the Myanmar government agrees to build three border economic cooperation zones in Shan and Kachin states.

Amid growing public concern that involvement with BRI projects will incur unsustainable debt to China, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi said at the High-Level Meeting Session 1, which was held under the theme "Belt and Road Cooperation: Shaping a Brighter Shared Future," that all BRI projects "must win the confidence and support of local people".

Myanmar serves as a land bridge between South Asia and Southeast Asia, in close proximity to large economies such as China, India and ASEAN. It has always been Myanmar's policy to maintain close and friendly relations with all nations, especially with its neighbors, she said.

She also expressed her belief that "BRI projects selected in line with Myanmar's national plan and priorities will contribute to its endeavors for the improvement of much needed infrastructure that will not merely enhance domestic connectivity but also improve cross-border connectivity."

The State Counselor held separate bilateral talks with Xi and Chinese Prime Minister Li Keqiang during the trip. The Foreign Ministry statement said the two sides emphasized promoting bilateral cooperation under the BRI framework; continued provision of assistance to Myanmar's efforts for peace and national reconciliation; maintaining peace, stability and rule of law along the border areas, including a successful repatriation process in Rakhine State; and continued support to Myanmar at the UN and in other international forums.

China's recent effort to revive the controversial Myitsone Dam inflamed negative sentiments among the people in Myanmar. It was widely expected that Daw Aung San Suu Kyi would use the Beijing visit to discuss the most controversial China-backed projects in Myanmar including Myitsone. However, the Myanmar President's Office said the dam was not on the agenda in Beijing, while promising that all developments related to the dam would be handled transparently and that nothing would be done without the public's knowledge.

Yangon-based ethnic affairs and China analyst U Maung Maung Soe told The Irrawaddy that the small grant comes at a time when local political tensions over Myitsone are on the rise.

"You could say it is just to soothe the people's feelings [over the Myitsone issue] and to assist border stability. The absence of larger grants at this time means the Myanmar government may need to negotiate [with China on major issues]."

At the 2nd BRI Forum, China signed more than $64 billion in deals with several countries. It repeatedly reassured existing and potential partners that Beijing does not intend to saddle them with unsustainable debts and aimed to benefit all parties involved in the initiative.

The post China to Provide 1 Billion Yuan Socioeconomic Grant to Myanmar appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

Overall Corruption Situation Has Not Improved, Anti-Graft Chief Says

Posted: 30 Apr 2019 01:10 AM PDT

NAYPYITAW—Despite the strenuous efforts that have been made to fight corruption, the practice remains rampant in the country, Anti-Corruption Commission chairman U Aung Kyi said.

The chairman stressed the severity of the situation as he submitted his agency's annual report for 2018 to the Union Parliament on Monday.

To assess the level of corruption and gauge the success of its measures to combat it, the commission hired an independent third party to conduct a nationwide survey. The survey, which did not include Chin State, was conducted from October through December.

"According to the survey, corruption had not declined significantly by the end of 2018, and remained at the usual [level]," U Aung Kyi told Parliament.

Asked for their opinions on the major factors contributing to corruption, survey respondents cited a self-interested mindset, resistance to change, ineffective action against corruption, and poor rule of law in certain places.

Corruption will remain as long as there is vast bureaucracy in government departments, said Lower House lawmaker U Nay Myo Tun of Htantabin Township.

"For example, even the process of applying for a citizenship ID card is not simple. And [departments] ask for a lot of information and people can't present all the documents. So, they choose to pay bribes in order to get things done, which leads to corruption. Unless procedures are streamlined in the departments, this will continue to happen," U Nay Myo Tun told The Irrawaddy.

The commission received 1,054 complaints in 2018, of which only 46 could be handled under the Anti-Corruption Law. The remaining 1,795 complaints were referred to the concerned departments for action according to the code of conduct for civil servants.

Of the 1,795 complaints it handed over to the departments, the commission said action was taken on 536 complaints.

The Education Ministry will establish complaint-handling counters in the basic education sector next academic year, which starts in June, said the deputy director-general of the ministry, U Ko Lay Win.

"For example, people with links to the Education Ministry offered appointments [as basic education teachers] and transfers [to schools in major cities] in exchange for money. They asked that the money be transferred via Wave Money," he said.

Wave Money, a provider of mobile financial services, is a joint venture between Norwegian telecom operator Telenor and local bank Yoma Bank.

"In that case, we asked the Home Affairs Ministry to investigate. We can sue the perpetrators under other laws, but not under the Anti-Corruption Law," he added.

In cases of corruption among education staff and teachers, an internal investigation is done and action is taken against them under the code of conduct for civil servants. Punishments include demotions among other steps.

"Corruption will not die unless and until it is viewed as a sin, as shameful by society. [But what is happening in reality is] that people take pride in getting rich due to corruption. That wrong notion is entrenched in society," said Yangon-based author Zarni Soe Htut.

Fighting corruption will take time, said U Aung Kyi, calling corruption the major obstacle to poverty reduction and development, and a problem that weakens the entire society, with harmful political, administrative, economic and cultural effects.

"It is a long-term process to be carried out with a grand strategy that takes into consideration the structure of the country, strength of institutions, behaviors of citizens, traditions and customs," he said.

The fourth amendment to the Anti-Corruption Law has given the commission a broader mandate. The amended law gives the commission the authority to investigate any civil servant who is seen to be unusually wealthy at its own discretion. Previously, it could only probe allegations of corruption in response to formal complaints filed with strong supporting evidence.

The commission can also take action against bribe givers under the new law. The amendments also expand the anti-graft body's reach, with commission branches to be opened in other states and regions. The new law also focuses on educating the public about combating corruption, starting in primary schools as well as in government departments.

The post Overall Corruption Situation Has Not Improved, Anti-Graft Chief Says appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

Cambodian PM says China Ready to Help if EU Imposes Sanctions

Posted: 29 Apr 2019 11:13 PM PDT

PHNOM PENH—China will help Cambodia if the European Union (EU) withdraws special market access over its rights record, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen said on Monday as he announced a 600 million yuan (US$89 million) Chinese aid package for his military.

Hun Sen, who is on a five-day trip to China to attend a Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) forum in Beijing, held bilateral talks with President Xi Jinping and signed several agreements with Cambodia’s most important ally.

Cambodia benefits from the EU’s “Everything But Arms” trade scheme which allows the world’s least developed countries to export most goods to the EU free of duties.

But Cambodia risks losing the special access to the world’s largest trading bloc over its human rights records.

During a meeting with Chinese Prime Minister Li Keqiang, Li pledged to help Cambodia if the EU withdraws the market access, according to a post on Hun Sen’s official Facebook page.

“In this regard … Prime Minister Li Keqiang also confirmed his efforts to help Cambodia,” the post said.

China is Cambodia’s biggest aid donor and investor, pouring in billions of dollars in development aid and loans through the Belt and Road initiative, which aims to bolster land and sea links with Southeast Asia, Central Asia, the Middle East, Europe and Africa.

Unlike, Western countries, China does not question Cambodia’s record on rights.

The EU, which accounts for more than one-third of Cambodia’s exports, including garments, footwear and bicycles, in February began an 18-month process that could lead to the suspension of the special market access.

Among the agreements Hun Sen struck in China was one for Huawei Technologies to help Cambodia develop a system for 5G technology. The Chinese tech giant has ambitions to build the next generation of data networks across the world and boasts 40 commercial 5G contracts worldwide.

China also agreed to import 400,000 tons of Cambodian rice, according to Hun Sen’s Facebook page.

“China will continue to support the national defense sector in Cambodia, and in this regard, the Chinese president announced that China will provide 600 million yuan to Cambodia’s defense sector,” the post said.

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China’s Xi Appeals to Youth Patriotism on Centenary of Student Protests

Posted: 29 Apr 2019 11:04 PM PDT

BEIJING—President Xi Jinping appealed to China’s youth on Tuesday to love the country and dedicate themselves to the Communist Party, warning on the centenary of student-led protests there was no place for those who ignored the country’s needs.

The May 4 Movement of 1919 started out as anti-imperialist student protests against a decision at the Paris Peace Conference, after World War One, to award Japan control of German concessions in China’s Shandong province.

It soon encompassed a broader debate about how China should modernize, having only just overthrown the emperor and ushered in a republic in 1911.

The issue of student protests is especially sensitive in China this year, which also marks three decades since the bloody suppression of pro-democracy protests on and around Beijing’s Tiananmen Square on June 4.

Speaking to officials and youth delegates at the Great Hall of the People, Xi said China’s young should be grateful to the party, the country, the society and the people.

“Tell every Chinese person that patriotism is one’s duty, is an obligation,” Xi said, in comments carried live on state television.

“For Chinese youth of the new era, ardently loving the motherland is the foundation of building the body and of talent,” he added.

Xi also warned about the need for young people to be morally upstanding and avoid what he termed “mistaken thoughts.”

“In the new era, Chinese youth should consciously establish and practice the core values of socialism, and be good at drawing morality from the traditional virtues of the Chinese people,” he said.

“Consciously resist mistaken thoughts such as the worship of money, hedonism, extreme individualism, and historical nihilism,” Xi added, referring to attempts to reevaluate core events and personalities of the party’s revolutionary past.

Despite the optimism the May 4 Movement brought at the time, the period following it was marked by turmoil and civil war in China, which eventually lead to the overthrow of the Republican government which fled to Taiwan after the Communist revolution in 1949.

Xi said that China had to make achievements on the back of its own work, and not rely on anyone else. “A bright China is not a gift that can be given by anybody,” he said. While May 4 remains widely discussed in China, June 4 is taboo in China and it will not be marked by any officially approved events.

Xi is expected to be outside the country in early June this year, on a state visit to Russia and Central Asia.

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Death by Diet—The Race to Transform the World’s Bad Food Habits

Posted: 29 Apr 2019 10:28 PM PDT

ROME—Half a century ago farmers grew rice, sesame and pulses on the land around Myint Soe’s village in Myanmar. Now only paddy fields remain.

Technology has made farming easier, but government policy and climate change have slashed the variety of foods being produced by villagers, and they fear this is killing them when combined with an explosion of fast-food.

“Now we don’t know where the oils we eat come from because we buy what’s quick and cheap and easy,” said Myint Soe, 59.

He said many people are suffering from cancer, hardening of the arteries and other ailments, likely caused by eating low-quality oil, sugary drinks, salty snacks and instant noodles.

Fellow farmer Kyaw Lin, 47, said younger, thinner people were now having strokes.

What is happening in Thar Yar Su is just a microcosm of one of the world’s biggest problems—deadly diets, which have now overtaken smoking as the world’s biggest killer.

Data shows one in five deaths worldwide in 2017 was linked to unhealthy diets in both poor and rich countries as burgers and soda replaced traditional diets and a warming planet impacted the variety of crops grown.

The Global Burden of Disease study by the U.S.-based Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation said unhealthy eating is killing 11 million people a year, up from 8 million in 1990—while smoking kills about 8 million people a year.

Meanwhile billions of people lack the nutrients their bodies need.

United Nations’ figures show the global population is both hungrier and heavier than it was five years ago, and food and policy experts fear the escalating food crisis could fuel conflicts and migration without action to reverse this trend.

“We cannot only focus on tackling hunger anymore,” Jose Graziano da Silva, head of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), said of the agency’s plans for the next two years. “We are witnessing the globalization of obesity.”

"Tipping point"

Jessica Fanzo, a professor at Johns Hopkins University and co-chair of the annual Global Nutrition Report—described as the world’s most comprehensive report on nutrition—said diets were “the number one cause of disease, disability and death.”

“We’ve already reached the tipping point,” she added, emphasizing that “massive changes” were needed.

Too many children are not growing or developing properly due to a lack of food while obesity is escalating, she said.

After decades of concentrating on how to feed an expanding global population, political leaders are realizing that nutrition—not hunger—is the new frontier, and the focus is shifting from providing enough food to food that is good.

Alan Dangour, professor at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said governments have not thought enough about how environmental change will impact food.

“We could have successful trade policies which enable food to be passed between countries in a sensible way, in a fair way,” he added. “If that doesn’t happen, we could see civil unrest [and] mass migration.”

Gerda Verburg, UN assistant secretary-general and coordinator of the Scaling Up Nutrition Movement, told a public forum in Rome this year that the future of food was “not in the calories … but in the quality and diversity.”

Governments, companies and aid agencies are now racing to shake up the world’s unhealthy food habits, using legislation, educational campaigns, new and reformulated products, and greener ways of farming.

The challenges, however, are huge—not least because climate change threatens to reduce both the quantity and quality of crops, lowering yields.

Nutrition researchers said healthier, plant-based traditional foods and plant species are being shunned for Western fast-food diets laden with sugar, salt and fat.

The fruits and vegetables backed by nutritionists as crucial to good health were expensive for many, while research funding for them was “virtually non-existent,” said Emmy Simmons, senior adviser at the Washington DC-based think-tank Center for Strategic and International Studies.

That is why the farm sector must adapt to make healthier foods accessible to all, said Marie Ruel, director of poverty, health and nutrition for the Washington-based International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).

Fast-food frenzy

The latest Global Burden of Disease study found the world on average ate only 12 percent of the recommended amount of nuts and seeds—but drank 10 times more sugary drinks and consumed nearly twice as much processed meats.

Modern diets are contributing to ballooning overweight and obesity figures, and a rise in non-communicable diseases (NCDs) such as stroke, cancer, diabetes and heart disease.

Treating these diseases will cost the world more than $30 trillion—about 40 percent of today’s global GDP—between 2010 and 2030, according to a report from the World Economic Forum and Harvard University.

“Today, not a single country has been able to reverse the trend in obesity and NCDs,” said Karel Callens, deputy leader of FAO’s strategic program to end hunger and malnutrition.

“People are starting to suffer from all those chronic diseases at a much earlier age because now they’re getting exposed to poor nutrition, bad diets and lifestyles from a much earlier age.”

This situation could cause life expectancies to fall, experts warned, including in wealthy countries like Spain, home to the famed Mediterranean diet long praised by nutritionists for being rich in olive oil, fish and fresh produce.

For that traditional diet has been abandoned by the younger generation in favor of fast-foods like burgers, sodas and French fries, said Miguel Angel Martinez-Gonzalez, professor of preventive medicine at the University of Navarra in Pamplona.

This was the main reason about 35 percent of Spanish adults are now obese and close to another 35 percent overweight, he said.

“This is a failure and a humiliation for public health,” said Martinez-Gonzalez.

Big food corporations have put a lot of effort and money into thwarting public campaigns and research to improve diets, he said, a charge echoed by other scientists and nutritionists.

For example, in 2016, companies making sugary drinks spent almost $50 million lobbying against U.S. government initiatives to reduce consumption of the beverages, wrote a team of experts led by New Zealand’s University of Auckland in January.

In Africa, the situation looks particularly dire, said IFPRI’s Ruel, as economies, populations and cities are predicted to expand quickly in the coming decades.

Hunger, alongside obesity and an emphasis on calorific staple crops, together with rising incomes and availability of unhealthy foods bode ill for the continent, she said.

Asian nations are fighting similar challenges.

Myanmar hopes to diversify what its people eat and grow to help the 30 percent of adolescent girls now anemic due mainly due iron deficiencies and one-fifth of women who are overweight.

That includes cultivating crops other than the staple rice—such as pulses, vegetables and fruit—using better fertilizers and improving livestock production, said Kyaw Swe Lin, director-general at the agriculture ministry.

Changing climate

Additional threats to diets stem from the world’s failure to rein in carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, the main greenhouse gas that is heating up the planet, according to scientists.

Agriculture, forestry and other uses of land account for nearly a quarter of greenhouse gas emissions, according to the FAO.

Atmospheric concentrations of CO2 emitted by burning fossil fuels, clearing forests and other actions could reach 550 parts per million (ppm) by 2050, reducing iron, zinc and protein levels in staple crops, said Samuel Myers, principal research scientist at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

In 2017 concentrations of CO2 hit a record high of 405.5 ppm, figures from the World Meteorological Organization showed.

Vitamins and minerals are vital to human development, disease prevention and wellbeing, yet more than 2 billion people are estimated to be deficient in micronutrients, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Working with scientists growing six staple foods across three continents, Myers and colleagues estimated that in 2050, emissions would cause zinc-deficiency in an additional 175 million people and protein-deficiency in 122 million more.

South and Southeast Asia, Africa and the Middle East would be most at risk, but the nutrient reductions may be less obvious than a loss of calories, so people may not adapt their diets without a push, they added.

On the other hand, hotter temperatures could actually offset nutrition loss linked to higher CO2 levels, said a study by researchers from the University of Illinois and U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) published in January.

This two-year field study of soybeans found increasing temperatures by about 3 degrees Celsius boosted the amount of iron and zinc in the crop.

They are now trying to understand the causes and whether humidity plays a part, said Carl Bernacchi, a scientist at the USDA’s Agricultural Research Service.

Rising temperatures and erratic rainfall associated with climate change would also exacerbate water scarcity, change the relationships between crops, pests and pathogens, and shrink the size of fish, scientists have warned.

A global review of historical reports by researchers from the University of Sydney and University of Queensland warned that more than 40 percent of insect species were at risk of extinction, mainly because their habitats had become farm land.

Climate change could worsen their decline, further damaging food networks, other scientists have said.

Earlier this year, scientists led by the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and Germany’s Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research unveiled an ideal diet for the health of the planet and its people.

It was dominated by fruit, vegetables, nuts, seeds and legumes, most of which depend on pollinating insects, said Harvard’s Myers.

“I want to shine a spotlight on the need to start embracing more pollinator-friendly practices,” added Myers, who has started studying the demise of insects.

Dangour, from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia—where food demand was expected to rise the most, according to the World Bank—would likely be hit hardest by falling yields.

This could create “a tremendous imbalance in where people live and where food is”, he said.

Old and new

Governments may be slow to react, but scientists, economists and entrepreneurs are coming up with some innovative ideas about how to change agriculture and launching revolutionary products, some based on ancient foods. For example, improved knowledge of the vast community of microbes living inside humans has led to a better understanding of health and disease in the past decade. These microbes, especially in the gut, have been linked to depression, allergies and obesity—and they are affected by diets and exposure to antimicrobials, biologists said.

Antimicrobials are drugs that destroy dangerous pathogens, making them essential for human and animal health, but whose misuse and abuse can lead to drug resistance.

They are used to promote growth in livestock farming and aquaculture—and also in crops—thereby entering the human food supply, said FAO’s Callens.

Research by the U.S.-based University of Georgia found a correlation between obesity rates and the amount of antibiotics prescribed in each U.S. state between 2011 and 2014, linked to the way antibiotics disrupt stomach bacteria.

This points to how the industrialization of agriculture, while allowing the world to feed a growing population, is having unintentional consequences for human health, Callens said.

“We really need to rethink, not just what and how we eat as people, but how we actually produce and process food,” he said.

In the Asia-Pacific region, home to the largest number of hungry and malnourished people and where obesity is rising, businesses are coming up with ways to keep weight down and diseases at bay.

These include seafood grown in a lab, plant-based alternatives to meat to suit the Asian palate, and fiber and sugars that can lower the glycemic index of food, a measure of how quickly it raises blood sugar levels.

This could help reduce the incidence of diabetes, which affects 422 million people globally and killed about 1.6 million in 2016, according to the World Health Organization.

In India, confectionery giant Mars Inc. and charity Tata Trusts recently launched a snack made from yellow peas, targeting people like Chhaya Sunil Jadhav, a local health worker whose daughter fell ill from eating cheap, salty chips. “If it is nutritious, I will buy this,” said Jadhav, trying the new crunchy squares, which cost 10 rupees ($0.15) per pack and are high in iron, protein and vitamins.

Other food aficionados are rediscovering local, often forgotten, grains and plants that are inexpensive and easily available, such as moringa from which Cameroonian mother and entrepreneur Rosette Fien makes organic cereals for children.

Brazilian chef Bela Gil uses babassu coconut flour, rich in iron, fiber and vitamins, from the Amazon to make healthy cookies, while Indian chef Anahita Dhondy is popularizing traditional cereals such as millet and sorghum.

Planet veggie?

Healthier diets could also require consumers in rich countries to reduce their meat intake.

So scientists and vegetarian advocates are turning to more subtle ways and an understanding of human nature to shift behavior, instead of relying on laws and food taxes.

Those measures include tweaking the names of dishes to make them sound indulgent and tasty, like “slow-roasted caramelized zucchini bites” instead of “lighter-choice zucchini.”

At the other end of the spectrum are millions of refugees and people forced from their homes whose health and nutrition are highly dependent on food from governments and aid agencies.

As seen in camps for families who have fled violence in Burkina Faso, most had to leave their animals behind, and have no land to grow their own fresh food.

With U.N. figures showing wars, persecution and other violence have driven a record 68.5 million people from their homes, more people than ever are dependent on food aid—and for longer periods, making it critical for rations to be nutritious.

But the majority must survive on cereals, beans and oil, because it is too expensive for humanitarian agencies to distribute meat, milk and vegetables, aid workers said.

“We’re covering the basics. If we could do more, we would want to do more,” said David Bulman, the U.N. World Food Programme representative for Burkina Faso, citing funding as the main constraint.

Providing a wholesome diet in refugee camps, remote areas and places with few resources is a logistical and cost challenge, especially when some residents are there for decades.

“The modern-day crises are not short-term,” said Corinna Hawkes, director of the food policy center at City, University of London and co-chair of the Global Nutrition Report.

“There’s no question that the current world of food aid is not fully caught up with that.”

Even for those not trapped in a crisis, nutritious foods like fruit and vegetables are often costly and out of reach.

This is partly because they are in short supply—a situation that is unlikely to change, according to a study by researchers, led by the University of Illinois, published last December.

If the world wants more healthy food, producing fruit and vegetables has to be profitable but is hampered by a lack of reliable water supply, land tenure and labor, said Christopher Barrett, a professor at New York’s Cornell University.

Part of the problem is agricultural subsidies focused on grains and cereals, which Barrett said amounted to more than $1 billion a day in high-income countries.

“It’s absolutely absurd. And it’s not at all aligned with what’s most necessary for good human health,” he said.

While the knowledge already exists to feed the world’s population well without destroying the planet, using it effectively is a matter of political and personal will, nutritionists and scientists said.

“If we can employ very sophisticated technology to send people into space, why can’t we tackle something very basic, which is how to feed ourselves and stay healthy?” asked FAO’s Callens.

The post Death by Diet—The Race to Transform the World’s Bad Food Habits appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

The Day the British Blew Up the Sagaing Bridge

Posted: 29 Apr 2019 06:58 PM PDT

Seventy-seven years ago today, retreating British forces destroyed the Sagaing Bridge to prevent invading Japanese troops from pursuing them. Also known as the Ava Bridge, the span linking Mandalay and Sagaing had been built by the British during the colonial period.

The center of the structure finally collapsed after being dynamited by British troops around 18 times.

The 3,948-ft-long road, rail and pedestrian bridge boosted the flow of trade in the country after it was opened in 1934 by Governor Sir Hugh Lansdown Stephenson.

It was built by India's Braithwaite Co. at a cost of 14.3 million rupiahs. The company imported cement from India and had the quality of the bricks and stones used to build the bridge tested at Rangoon University.

The bridge was not renovated during Japanese rule. Authorities attempted to repair the bridge in 1946, but at that time it was difficult to order the trusses needed from abroad, and the bridge was not repaired until 1953.

Myanmar President Dr. Ba Oo re-opened the bridge the following year. The historic structure is now a tourist attraction in Sagaing. A new span, the Ayeyawady Bridge (Yadanabon), was built in 2008 and both bridges are in use at present.

The post The Day the British Blew Up the Sagaing Bridge appeared first on The Irrawaddy.
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