Chinese Premier Li Keqiang will chair the meeting in Sanya on Wednesday, which will also involve the leaders of Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam.

They will discuss the formulation of initiatives and measures under the cooperation.

The Lancang-Mekong Cooperation began in 2014 and its first foreign ministers’ meeting was held in Jinghong, China last November.

At Wednesday’s meeting the discussion will focus on a wide range of issues concerning the Mekong region including political matters, economic cooperation, security, the environment and the cultures of theMekong countries.

“The five countries are lagging behind in Asean, especially Laos, Cambodia and Myanmar,” Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Liu Zhenmin said in a press briefing in Beijing last week. “Cooperation will help narrow the development gaps within Asean, and promote prosperity in the sub-region.”

On Wednesday, the leaders of the six countries will endorse major initiatives including the Sanya Declaration of the First Lancang-Mekong Cooperation, the Joint Statement on Production Capacity Cooperation Among Lancang-Mekong Countries and the Tentative Joint List of the Lancang-Mekong Cooperation Early Harvest Project, according to a Thai government official.

More than 40 projects are listed under the early harvest scheme, which allows countries in the basin to begin projects such as a water utility monitoring system at the Mekong Mainstream and Information Centre.

Mekong countries downstream from China have complained that water levels had been affected by the latter’s Mekong dam projects.

Beijing, in response, agreed to release water from the dams between March 15 and April 10.

Vietnam hailed the decision, as it now has more freshwater to prevent seawater entering the MekongDelta.

But the release of water created new problems for people living along the Mekong, as levels increased too rapidly in a short period.

Prayoon Saen-ae, a local resident in Chiang Khan district in Loei, said that fishing and tourism in the province had been seriously affected by the sudden change in the water level.

He said many river beaches had been inundated by water, and local vendors who earned a living from tourism during summer were suffering.

Environmental academic Chainarong Sretthachau, from Maha Sarakam University, urged the leaders of the six nations to listen to people living along the Mekong and discuss their problems in Hainan.

He said that before leaving for the meeting, Prayut should meet with locals in the eight provinces along the river and listen to their problems.

Many projects along the Mekong have failed to create sustainable development and had caused “inequality and damaged the environment”, he said.

In a draft of the Sanya Declaration seen by The Nation, the leaders said they would encourage sustainable development while enhancing environmental protection and natural resource management.

The leaders said they would also develop and utilise sustainable and efficient clean energy sources, develop the regional power market, and enhance the exchange and transfer of clean energy technologies.

It found that about two in three workers here who are 45 or older would like to retire in the next five years but 48 per cent of them say they would not be able to. The global average is 38 per cent.

Moreover, 30 per cent of pre-retirees predict that they will never be able to retire fully, compared with the global average of 18 per cent.

Respondents here said the main impediment is a lack of savings or the burden of having dependants to look after.

Having a lot of debt was raised by 26 per cent of respondents here, compared with the global average of 22 per cent.

HSBC surveyed 1,008 respondents – people aged 25 and above as well as retirees – here as part of a survey spanning 17 countries.

START SAVING TODAY

Even small amounts saved by starting today can lay the groundwork for a comfortable retirement tomorrow, placing retirement dreams squarely within reach.

MR IAN MARTIN, chief executive of HSBC Insurance (Singapore).

Mr Matthew Colebrook, head of retail banking and wealth management at HSBC Singapore, said: “The HSBC Future of Retirement survey shows that the financial realities of retirement make it an elusive goal for many Singaporeans.

“This can be rectified with early financial planning and by seeking help from professionals who can provide advice on how to protect and grow your wealth.”

Pre-retirees surveyed said they were anxious that events such as bad health and the need to care for elderly parents could interfere with saving for retirement.

In spite of these concerns, retired life still offers much promise for some.

The poll found that 62 per cent of Singapore respondents aged 45 and above who would like to retire in the next five years want to travel or pursue other interests.

Also, 42 per cent of them would like to spend more time with family once they retire.

Pre-retirees also expect relationships with friends, their partner and their children to improve.

Mr Ian Martin, chief executive of HSBC Insurance (Singapore), said: “People should consider their personal aspirations when planning for retirement and ensure they are making sufficient financial provisions for this new chapter in life.

“Even small amounts saved by starting today can lay the groundwork for a comfortable retirement tomorrow, placing retirement dreams squarely within reach.”

HSBC also noted that about 56 per cent of pre-retirees here do not know how to predict how much they will spend on healthcare in retirement, even though 74 per cent believe that poor health will make saving for their golden years more difficult.

To help individuals assess financial preparedness in realising their retirement aspirations, HSBC has launched the Retirement Profiler, an online tool to help individuals assess financial preparedness in realising their retirement aspirations.

BI’s economy and monetary policy executive director Juda Agung said the central bank has accumulatively slashed its key rate by 75 bps since November 2015. At the same time, the primary reserve replacement ratio (GWM) has been cut by 150 bps. However, the banking industry has, on average, only cut their deposit rate by 7 bps and loan rate by 4 bps.

“It is not yet effective. Therefore, BI’s focus is to make a more effective transmission of policies by strengthening monetary operations and keeping the term structure [of interest rates] consistent. Currently, a one week term structure is 5.7 per cent; we will cut it,” he said in Jakarta on Thursday.

The term structure of interest rates, also known as a yield curve, is the relationship between the interest rate or bond yield and several different terms of maturities. “For the short-term, one week, 5.5 per cent. The long term, 12 months, 6.75 per cent. Similar to BI’s rate,” Juda said, adding that the change would be effective on March 18.

For this month, the central bank decided not to cut its GWM, since the past GWM cut by 100 bps has just been applied on March 16. With such a cut, Juda expected to see Rp 34 trillion (US$2.59 billion) of liquidity being cashed out and spur the lending growth by 14 per cent year-on-year in 2016.

“Banks are expected to immediately respond by lowering interest rates on both deposits and loans and most importantly credit availability. What is most important to businesses is credit availability,” he explained.

BI executive director of communication Tirta Segara projected the economy to grow at a faster pace in the first quarter of the year, driven by consumption and government investment. The central bank expected Indonesia’s economic to grow 5.1 per cent this year, better than last year’s 4.79 per cent.

“Increased government investment is driven by the acceleration of the government’s capital expenditures, which appeared to be disbursed fast in the first two months of 2016,” he said, adding that the growth in private investment was expected to follow in the next month.

They have created a solar cell with 21.3 per cent efficiency – the highest measured for a cell made completely in Singapore.

“Other solar cells made here usually have an efficiency of between 17 and 18 per cent,” said Professor Tonio Buonassisi from the Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology (Smart), one of two research leads on the project.

The efficiency of a solar cell is the proportion of energy from the sun it turns into electricity.

While there are solar cells made elsewhere with efficiencies of up to 24 per cent, these are usually more expensive. They cost about 50 per cent more than the silicon cells with efficiencies of about 18 per cent, said Professor Armin Aberle, the other research lead. He is the chief executive of the Solar Energy Research Institute of Singapore.

Light is electromagnetic radiation, some of which can be seen and some of which is invisible to the human eye. Infrared and ultraviolet radiation, for example, cannot be seen. They lie at either end of the visible spectrum of light.

Prof Buonassisi said today’s solar cells tend to be made of silicon, and they convert near-infrared light quite efficiently into electricity. But they are less efficient for visible and ultraviolet light.

Scientists in Singapore have discovered that a new material, gallium arsenide, can be incorporated into a solar cell to help it convert the other colours more efficiently.

By layering the gallium arsenide on top of the silicon cell, more of the sun’s energy can be captured and converted into electrical energy, said Prof Buonassisi.

The visible spectrum and ultraviolet light can be tapped in the top layer and the invisible spectrum passes through to be caught in the bottom layer.

The researchers also found that their solar cell had achieved its 21.3 per cent efficiency under more realistic, direct sunlight conditions, as opposed to concentrated sunlight conditions.

Direct sunlight is what a flat panel on a rooftop receives. Concentrated sunlight conditions are created with mirrors or lenses to focus the sunlight, and can be costly.

The Singapore team’s twin-layer cells using gallium arsenide are still at a research phase, and Prof Aberle said there are other teams focusing on other materials, such as perovskites. “It will require a huge R&D effort, but there are good prospects that by 2025, the first prototypes will emerge in the market, with efficiencies of over 25 per cent.

“By 2030, we can expect panel efficiencies of 30 per cent,” he said.

But the researchers added that the challenge is to develop a top cell that is both highly efficient for visible wavelengths and as cost-efficient as bottom silicon cells.

Prof Buonassisi said the team will continue to try and raise the efficiency of their solar cell by experimenting with other materials for the top layer.

He said: “Now that higher-efficiency technology has been developed, the industry, academia and research institutes can work together to come up with ways to manufacture them more cost-efficiently.”

Captain Saiful Bahrin Hj Bahar, the chief pilot and head of flight operations at Royal Brunei (RB) Airlines, said the flag carrier currently has six female pilots.

In an interview, he said another female pilot will join their ranks once she has completed the Cadet Pilot Programme.

He added that currently RB Airlines has 130 pilots, including the six women.

The chief pilot observed that there has been an increase in the number of female applicants seeking to join the Cadet Pilot Programme that was established since the late 1970s.

Captain Saiful attributed the increase in the number of women interested in becoming a pilot to Captain Sharifah Czarena Surainy Syed Hashim, who became the first female pilot in RB Airlines as well as Southeast Asia’s first female captain of a flag carrier line in 2012.

“We (RB) don’t discriminate based on gender, everyone is given equal opportunity, be it male or female because once they have decided to enter this field (being a pilot) they will go through the same process,” he said.

He added that the path towards becoming a pilot is difficult for males and females alike, adding that an individual must have the academic knowledge, physical ability as well as good health to become a pilot.

Captain Saiful said career opportunities for women at RB Airlines are not limited to being a pilot and that there is also an Engineering Apprenticeship Programme open to men and women.

“A word of advice for both men and women out there, the career of being a pilot is a rewarding one, it is challenging and demanding but if they choose to pursue this career, I can guarantee that the rewards are waiting for them,” said Captain Saiful.

Earlier this week, foreign media lauded RB Airlines’ first ever all female flight crew who flew the Boeing 787 Dreamliner to Saudi Arabia.

A photo of the three female pilots, which included Captain Sharifah Czarena, went viral with some foreign media such as BBC News referring to the impressive feat as having “made history”.

“Definitely we are working with everyone to ensure there is transparency and to know what really happened and how to prevent it from happening again,” Communications undersecretary Manolo Quezon said over state-run DZRB, highlighting the actions undertaken by the Anti-Money Laundering Council and the Court of Appeals in freezing the bank accounts involved in the alleged scheme.

“So what does this tell us? First of all, it shows that we are a responsible member of the banking community,” he added.

The Senate is currently conducting an investigation on the cross-border electronic fraud and money laundering scheme where $81 million from the central bank of Bangladesh slipped through the Philippine financial system, with local bank Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. (RCBC) at the center of the controversy.

Despite the heist, Quezon assured the public, especially account holders, that there is nothing to worry about regarding the security and integrity of Philippine banking as all systems are working.

“When the money entered the Philippines as far as we can tell, our system was shown to work because the alarm bells started ringing and and then the other countries also alerted us and in fact, there have been reports that AMLC is working with Federal Bureau of Investigation and United States,” Quezon said.

“We should be aware that the Central Bank of the Philippines is taking this seriously and the AMLC shows that it is doing its job. The Senate is holding hearings in aid of legislation and in fact the Bangko Sentral and the BIR have been giving their recommendations,” he added.

Less than three months before President Benigno Aquino III steps down from office, Quezon said the “groundwork is being laid for future reforms” that would improve the country’s financial system.

“Again, with our countrymen growing apprehensive thinking that this puts the country in a bad light, I think you can see even from media coverage here and abroad that there will be officials held liable, especially from the bank involved, and that’s what’s being investigated now, but on the whole, you can see that the system is working,” he said.

“In other words, it has been exposed, investigated, uncovered and action has been taken to address this disturbing incident and how this money has been taken from a central bank and transmitted to different parts of the world.”

The meeting explored cooperation of companies operating in supporting industries.

About 120 Vietnamese companies, 60 Japanese enterprises operating in Vietnam, and 23 Japanese firms looking for suppliers participated.

Japanese companies want to cooperate with Vietnamese firms to increase the ratio of materials supplied by Vietnamese firms. Success could help Japanese companies reduce production costs.

The local content ratio of products made by Japanese manufacturers in Vietnam last year was 32.1 per cent. This is more than the 26.2 per cent in the Philippines, but less than the 65 per cent in China, 56 per cent in Thailand, and 41 per cent in Indonesia, according to JETRO.

Tran Lê Diem Châu, deputy chief of HEPZA’s investment office, said that 17 export processing and industrial zones in the city attracted 1,387 projects, with total registered capital of around US$9 billion. Of those projects, 559 are foreign investment projects with total investment capital of around $5.4 billion.

According to Nguyen Tuan, vice director of the Investment and Trade Promotion Centre, the development of supporting industries is essential for economic development.

The Ministry of Industry and Trade has an approved support industry master plan, which includes goals through the year 2030. Vietnam will focus on: metal parts and components, plastic-rubber, electrical-electronics, textile-footwear, and high technology to support the industrial sector.

The country should ensure its macroeconomics are stable by using flexible exchange rates to minimise the shocks created by global financial markets, and by using inflation as a decisive factor to develop monetary policies, she said.

Vietnam must increase the Government’s income to reduce public debt, which currently stands at about 60 per cent of the GDP, and to boost investment in critical areas such as infrastructure, health and education, she said.

The Government should also assist banks in resolving non-performing loans and bolster their balance sheets, which will support better credit growth for a more sustainable development of the economy in the medium term, she said.

In addition, the Government should also accelerate the restructuring of State-owned enterprises (SOEs) and boost labour productivity by reforming corporate governance, making divestments from non-core activities and allowing more foreign ownership in the SOEs, she said.

Christine also noted that local SOEs and private companies currently have very low productivity, only about one-fifth that of the foreign-invested firms, she said. She added that this explained why foreign direct investment (FDI) companies accounted for 70 per cent of the country’s total exports.

Vietnam should also invest more in research and development (R&D) for technological innovation, where the country lags behind other nations, she said.

Christine also mentioned that Vietnam needs to boost the quality of education, especially vocational training, to meet international requirements to reduce the high youth unemployment rate.

The IMF’s Managing Director suggested that Vietnamese students lift their creativity and innovation, while trying to build good knowledge and skills in economics related subjects such as math, engineering and finance.

“You will also have a chance to create sustainable ventures that are firmly grounded in mutual trust and strong ethical behavior,” she said, as unethical behavior sometimes appears in highly-competitive industries.

Additionally, Vietnam also has to reduce its poverty rate of 13.5 per cent, and promote gender equality, which aims to provide more opportunities and power for women in the workforce, she said.

Such methods are expected to help Vietnam cope with a slowdown in global economic growth, attract more foreign direct investment, cope with shocks from global financial markets and catch up with other economies, Christine said.

She said that the country has become one of the world’s most open economies in the past 30 years, which benefits from international trade and FDI to drive up growth and reduce poverty.

She said that there will be more opportunities for Vietnam given the current status of the global economy, including the slowdown of China’s economy, the stronger US dollar and the signed Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP).

Those economic events will help Vietnam win market share at the lower end of the value chain, sell more final goods to overseas markets, boost its GDP to 8 per cent and its exports by 30 per cent during the next 15 years, she said.

The Investment Coordinating Board (BKPM) revealed earlier this week that the country had booked Rp 355 trillion (US$27 billion) in total investment commitments throughout last month, with Rp 316 trillion planned for capitalization in areas outside of Java.

“Most of the commitments were made by companies from the US, China, Singapore or South Korea,” BKPM chief Franky Sibarani said.

Among the favorite areas for investment, according to BKPM data, are those located in Sulawesi and Sumatra, where each booked Rp 235 trillion and Rp 71.9 trillion last month in investment commitments, respectively.

The trend also confirmed recent findings detailed in the “Joint European Business Confidence Index 2015”, which suggest that more than a quarter of European companies operating in Indonesia are planning to expand their businesses, with over half of them eyeing Sulawesi and Sumatra as potential expansion targets.

British Chamber of Commerce (BritCham) Indonesia chairman Adrian Short said earlier that the finding had demonstrated an increased interest for expansion beyond Java.

The Industry Ministry claimed that some 75 per cent of the country’s manufacturers are located in Java, followed by 17 per cent in Sumatra and 3.4 per cent in Kalimantan.

Java, the country’s most populated island, contributes roughly 60 per cent to the nation’s economic growth.

To spread the growth distribution, the government aims to enlarge the portion of realized investment placed outside of Java to 49.1 per cent this year from 45.2 per cent last year.

Data from the BKPM reveal investment commitments in the country increased by 45 per cent year-on-year to Rp 1.8 quadrillion last year.

“Support from local government to turn the commitments into realized investments are very much expected,” said Franky.

The government is now in effort to develop infrastructure outside of Java in order to create evenly distributed economic growth.

Some of the prioritized infrastructure projects outside of Java are the eight segments of the Trans-Sumatra toll road, Kuala Tanjung International Airport in North Sumatra and the light rail transit (LRT) project in South Sumatra.

Investment commitments in the country surged by 167 per cent from Rp 212.6 trillion in February last year to Rp 355 trillion last month, with local commitments reaching Rp 75 trillion and foreign commitments standing at Rp 280 trillion.

In the first two months of this year, meanwhile, cumulative commitments reached Rp 561 trillion.

The government has set an ambitious target of Rp 3.5 quadrillion in investment commitments for the period of 2015-2019.

Franky argued that the rising investment commitments indicated that the government’s economic stimulus packages had started to gain traction with investors. The government had issued 10 stimulus packages in the last six months to simplify doing business in the country and cut through complicated bureaucracy.

One particularly favored stimulus package program, issued by BKPM, is the three-hour licensing service in which investors with total investment of no less than Rp 1 trillion or who employ more than 1,000 workers may obtain a number of permit types in just three hours.

In February alone, seven companies with total investments of Rp 9.1 trillion used the facility, according to BKPM data.

The latest government revision on its “negative investment list”, which covers sectors where foreign ownership restrictions apply, is believed to have had boosted investment commitments by 50 per cent, Franky said previously.

But the anxiety would creep up and paralyse him in the middle of a meal.

Seized by fear, he would sit in silence for more than an hour, worrying about the future, especially for his school-going children, now aged 18 and 15.

The manufacturing company will completely shut its operations later this year and Chua will be without a job for the first time since he started working.

Worse, he is worried he will not be able to get another job paying equivalent pay, given his age.

Chua, who has a degree in chemical engineering from the National University of Singapore and has worked in the plastics industry for over 20 years, was a manager at a plastic production firm earning between S$8,000 to S$10,000 (US$5,911 to US$7,385) a month.

He has not received a single firm offer since he started sending out resumes since October last year.

“I’m not very hopeful about (my) job prospects due to the economic slowdown. I’m just hoping that from June, the economy will be better,” said Chua, who is in his late 40s.

And even though his wife continues to work, earning about S$6,000 on average a month, the family has had to cut down on their expenses.

The family eats out less, spends less on luxury goods, and is not thinking of going for a holiday any time soon. Chua said they have managed to save about $1,000 a month this way.

For the short term, he is open to jobs offering between S$2,000 and S$4,000 a month but is hoping to get one that pays more than S$4,000 a month for the long term.

“I just want to finish my next job peacefully and see my children through their education, that’s all I’m looking for,” he said. “It’s very stressful not be able to find a job these six months. It’s especially so for mature workers who have a home, a car loan to service, children who are still going to school, maybe parents who are sick.

“Imagine you are already 45 and you go for an interview just like a fresh grad and you need to go and sell yourself, the feeling is not nice.”