Grab Indonesia, a ride-hailing application provider, is planning to take measures to increase the income of its drivers in response to their protests last week.

“We will study this. We all agree to make a joint effort to increase the income [of the drivers],” said Grab Indonesia managing director Ridzki Kramadibrata at the Presidential Palace in Jakarta on Wednesday as reported by kontan.co.id.

Ridzki and a representative of Go-Jek, another ride-hailing application provider, were at the palace at the invitation of Presidential chief of staff (KSP) Moeldoko to discuss the issue, following a meeting between President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo and representatives of the protesting drivers last Tuesday.

Jokowi received the drivers’ representatives after thousands of drivers hit the streets on Tuesday morning to demand the tariff increase, which was 1,600 rupiah (Bt3.6) per kilometre.

During the meeting, Jokowi promised mediation between the drivers and the ride-hailing application providers.

Riszki said he would soon announce the results of the study and get ready to talk to government officials.

“The government has shown goodwill by asking us to negotiate [with the drivers]. We have already understood the problem. It is about income. But the drivers have to understand that tariffs are not the only factor in increasing their incomes,” he said.

Meanwhile, Moeldoko said the drivers demanded the tariff be increased to 4,000 rupiah per km from 1,600 rupiah.

He said the Transportation Ministry had also made calculations about the new tariffs that would be proposed in the mediation meeting. – The Jakarta Post

Malaysian importers ordered to dispose of sub-standard appliances

Four importers of home electrical appliances have been ordered to dispose of products for failing to meet safety requirements, including not having a SIRIM label. More than 10 types of microwaves of various brands, cooker hoods, four types of washing machines and dryers worth more than 100,000 ringgit (Bt808,000) were destroyed in Shah Alam and Puchong warehouses.

The Energy Commission of Malaysia issued the orders failure to meet electrical requirements including some without the label of SIRIM, a premier industrial research and technology organisation in Malaysia.

Kosium Trading (M) Ltd Co imported microwave from Italy that failed screening test conducted by SIRIM as one of the parts in the certificate of approval was not listed under a safety test report.

The washing machine and dryer imported by Signature Obicorp Co Ltd also did not meet the requirement as parts used in the products differed from the sample listed in the safety report.

The commission said cooker hoods imported by BSH Home Appliances from Germany failed to secure certification from the importer.

Lee Hin Company was ordered to destroy a total of 174 electrical items including blenders, microwaves, refrigerators, cookers, electrical pots, hot pots, irons, rice cookers, vacuum cleaners and washing machines. The products valued above 30,000 ringgit were imported from China and have since kept in a warehouse in Shah Alam.

The electrical safety monitoring unit under SIRIM said all imported electrical products are to have certificates of approval and abide by relevant requirements. The parts of electrical items are to be similar to those stated in the safety test report.

Electrical items without safety labels are not allowed to be sold in the Malaysian market. They are either sent back to the country that produced the items or disposed of. If those products have been sold to consumers, the importer would have to call back the products through advertisement placed in newspapers. – Sin Chew Daily

VN ranks 7th in world in consumer confidence

Vietnamese consumer confidence finished 2017 on a high note, nudging the country into ranking as the 7th most optimistic country in the world.

According to the Conference Board Global Consumer Confidence survey, consumer confidence in Vietnam in Q4 2017 decreased by one point compared to the previous quarter to 115 points.

“Overall, we saw a stable and high confidence level among the Vietnamese consumers throughout 2017,” said Nguyen Huong Quynh, managing director, Nielsen Vietnam. Nielsen collaborated in the conference board’s survey.

According to Quynh, the optimism of the Vietnamese consumers can be attributed to the good momentum of economic growth across industries, combined with positive signals of foreign investment flows, increasing household income and growth-oriented Government policies.

Besides this, Quynh said, the consistent trend could be influenced by the build-up of positive sentiment towards personal finance status as well as immediate spending intentions in recent years.

Consistent with many past quarters, after covering essential living expenses, the Vietnamese consumers in the fourth quarter of 2017 were eager to spend on big-ticket items to enhance the quality of life. Nearly half of the consumers were willing to spend their spare cash on new clothes (49 per cent) and vacations (44 per cent). Some two in five persons spent on new technology products (40 per cent), out-of-home entertainment (41 per cent) and home improvements (42 per cent).

However, the Vietnamese consumers still had a strong affinity towards saving. Close to three-quarters of the population (72 per cent) put their spare cash into savings (compared to 66 per cent in the previous quarter). The report also revealed that saving was an integral part of Southeast Asian consumer choices, with 66 per cent of the respondents putting their spare cash into savings.

In this quarter, the top five concerns among the Vietnamese consumers remained the same as in the previous quarter. Job security continued to top the list (46 per cent), followed by health (40 per cent), work/life balance (27 per cent), the economy (21 per cent) and parents’ welfare and happiness (19 per cent).

“It is observed that there was a little movement in the concern for job security and state of economy. These concerns slightly strengthened in the last quarter of 2017, which can make consumers cautious about their spending habits and thus motivate them to curb their daily expenses,” Quynh said.

Besides, she noted, as consumers wanted to strive for a better life and had high aspirations of securing their children’s future, owning a house or high-tech products and having more frequent local or overseas holidays, the feeling of cautiousness in spending was likely to continue, which could make them save more and prioritise their spending. — Viet Nam News

In a press statement late on Thursday, the Bank Negara Malaysia said it had detected and stopped “a cybersecurity incident involving attempted unauthorised fund transfers using falsified Swift messages”.

The plot is reminiscent of the $1-billion (Bt31 billion) hack on the Bangladeshi central bank in 2016, of which $81 million found its way into the Philippine financial system.

Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) governor Nestor Espenilla Jr sounded the alarm to the Bankers Association of the Philippines on Wednesday after receiving the alert from his Malaysian counterparts.

He noted parallels in the modus operandi of the foiled hack attempt on the Bank Negara last week and the successful one on the Bangladeshi central bank two years ago.

“Hackers tend to take advantage of long holidays anywhere in the world, similar to the timing when they hit Bangladesh Bank,” he said, referring to the original incident in 2016, which was hit just ahead of a three-day Chinese New Year weekend.

Back then, investigators noted that hackers – now widely suspected to be acting on behalf of North Korea – used the long weekend, when bank transactions are processed with less scrutiny, to move the stolen Bangladeshi funds to the accounts with the Rizal Commercial Banking Corp.

“We now take extra precautions during such long holidays as standard operating procedure,” the BSP chief said. “The Bank Negara Malaysia incident is another reminder of need for vigilance.”

Espenilla said that, based on preliminary reports, there was no indication that the hackers would have laundered any stolen funds in the Philippine financial system had their plot been successful.

“The Bank Negara just sounded general alert to the central banking community,” he said, explaining the BSP’s precautionary alert bulletin to local banks. “In turn we alerted our own banking community. These are all in line with our international cooperation protocol.”

The Malaysian central bank did not disclose how much the hackers tried to steal through the Swift international transaction system – the same method used during the Bangladesh Bank attack. However, it said that “all unauthorised transactions were stopped through prompt action in strong collaboration with Swift, other central banks and financial institutions”.

“The bank did not experience any financial loss in this incident,” the Bank Negara said. “There was also no disruption to other payment and settlement systems that the bank operates.”

It added that it is now conducting a comprehensive investigation in collaboration with local and international law-enforcement agencies into this incident.

“The bank is pleased to note that, to date, all risk-control measures in place are effective to curtail this incident,” the Malaysian financial regulator said.

“However, the bank has taken additional safeguards to protect its stakeholders. The bank will also remain on high alert and always be on a state of readiness as future incidents will likely involve a higher degree of sophistication and design.

“Financial institutions are also advised to be vigilant of the heightened risk in cybersecurity and continue to strengthen their security safeguards against these incidents,” the Malaysian central bank said.

Speaking at the Philippine Agricultural Journalists (PAJ) awarding ceremonies where he was guest speaker, Pinol said that a bond flotation was necessary to complete the agency’s network of FMRs before the end of President Duterte’s term.

He said the agency would need 140 billion pesos (Bt83.66 billion) to finish some 13,000 kilometres of FMRs all over the country, while another 60 billion pesos (Bt35.86 billion) would be required to finance the mechanisation of farms and fishing communities nationwide.

Pinol said the proposed bond issue was already welcomed by Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III and Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas governor Nestor Espenilla, along with Eastern Samar representative Ben P Evardone, who chairs the House of Representatives’ bank and finance committee.

“Both [Dominguez and Espenilla] said that the measure would utilise the vast resources of private and commercial banks that are required by law to lend 25 per cent of their loan funds to the agriculture and fisheries sector,” Pinol said.

“Mechanisation will cut down post-harvest losses especially in rice and corn, and even in the fish catch.

“The country loses 16 per cent of its grains harvest because of the lack of post-harvest facilities while 40 per cent of the fishermen’s catch is spoiled because of the absence of ice-making plants and cold storage,” he added.

Evardone added that the proposed bond flotation would allow banks to comply with the agri-agra law that requires them to set aside 25 per cent of their loanable funds for agricultural and agrarian reform financing.

At present, banks lend little to the farm sector. To comply with the law, financial institutions simply invest in government securities that are eligible as substitutes for agricultural loans.

“I have discussed this concept of bond flotation with Secretary Dominguez and he believes floating bonds to finance the construction of this vital road network is a good investment in the future of our rural areas,” Evardone said.

For 2019, the DA is hoping to get a budget of more than 200 billion pesos. This is on top of the 1.5 billion pesos that will come from the US government as part of its overseas aid scheme known as the Public Law 480 fund.

On March 22, US President Donald Trump signed a memorandum that would impose 25 tariffs on up to US$60 billion (Bt1.87 trillion) in annual imports from China. In retaliation, China announced similar tariffs on about $3 billion of US imports.

Although there is still speculation that China may expand its target to a broader range of US business interests, international experts believed the current trade spat between the two economic powers will be resolved through ongoing negotiations rather than moving toward a full-fledged trade war.

This issue, however, continues to weigh on investor sentiment and raise near-term volatility in global markets.

Vietnam’s securities market has performed im0pressively, with the benchmark VN-Index declining only twice in the past three weeks and actually gaining 4.5 per cent since March 9. The VN-Index has continued setting new record highs last week.

According to Nguyen Duc Hung Linh, head of analysis at Saigon Securities Inc, Vietnam’s stock market is independently strong and that is helping it to offset the short-term impact of the US-China trade spat. Working in its favour are the escalating equitisation process of State-owned enterprises (SOEs), listings of big companies, the quick expansion of the local market and its possible upgrading to emerging market status.

Since early 2017, most of the companies that recently had large IPOs have seen their values increase, bringing profits to both domestic investors and foreign funds.

This trend is expected to continue in 2018 and more good investment opportunities will be offered for foreign investors in the future, Linh told a March 29 cafef.vn online seminar on risks and opportunities for Vietnamese businesses amid the threat of a global trade war.

Exchange-traded funds (ETFs) were net buyers of 5.4 trillion dong (Bt7.39 billion) in the Vietnamese market in January but from early February until now, they have withdrawn about 1 trillion dong.

According to Linh, domestic money inflows have remained strong and together with stable macroeconomic conditions, the market will continue to grow.

Limited impact

Responding to concerns over escalating trade tensions between the US and China and its impact on Vietnam, Tran To?n Thang, head of the World Economic Department of the National Centre for Socio-Economic Information and Forecast (NCIF) under the Ministry of Planning and Investment, said: “No one wins in a trade war. All parties in this war will lose.”

According to Thang, a large-scale trade war will not likely occur as all parties are aware of the consequences but minor conflicts can happen.

If the conflict occurred only between the US and China, Vietnam would have a good chance to export to the US, Thang said. He added that on the other hand, if China could not export to the US, it would boost its exports to other countries, including Vietnam.

However, as Vietnam’s economic openness as measured by its import-export rate is rather high, Thang warned that the country might find it difficult to achieve growth targets if a real trade war broke out.

According to Nguyen Huy Do, marketing director at Vietnam-Italy Steel Co, Vietnam can increase exports to other markets when the Comprehensive Progressive Trans Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) takes effect in the near future.

The CPTPP has 11 member countries. Vietnam has the most favourable conditions for exporting garments and steel, said, adding that through the CPTPP Vietnam will gain a good opportunity to export without challenge from its biggest competitor, China.

In addition, Vietnam is a developing country, so the demand for construction steel is rising and the industry is less reliant on exports.

The steel industry witnessed a growth rate of 18 per cent in 2016 and 12-13 per cent in 2017.

The region, comprising Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and China – particularly Yunnan province and the Guangxi Autonomous Region – is a young and developing region, Vietnamese Minister of Transport Nguyen Van The told economic experts, representatives of international organisations and local and international businesses at a sideline conference on regional infrastructure and financing of the 6th GMS Summit on Friday.

“Apart from China or Thailand, other countries like Vietnam are yet to modernise and fully develop their infrastructure,” he said.

The said that Vietnam planned to build up to 8,500 kilometres of expressway to catch up with other countries in Asia. However, less than 10 per cent was completed so far with about 3,000km pending and no plans in the near future for more than 6,500km of roads.

“Vietnam is calling for more transport investment in public-private partnerships (PPP),” the minister said, adding that the National Assembly is expected to pass a law this year which will serve as a legal basis for PPP investors.

The Asia Developmnent Bank (ADB) estimated that the GMS would need at least US$33 billion (about Bt1 trillion) for infrastructure investment between 2014 and 2020, with only 80 per cent able to be mobilised from the budget of the countries and development banks, leaving them about $6.4 billion short, mostly in transport and energy infrastructure investment.

“Mobilising private capital will be absolutely needed to bridge this gap,” said Supee Teravaninthorn, general director of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank’s Investment Operation Department I.

“But the private sector doesn’t invest for charity. They need fair competition to invest.”

A report by the ADB showed that infrastructure investment in Asia during 2010-2014 heavily depended on the public sector, which funded more than 90 per cent of the region’s overall investment.

That translated to about 5.1 per cent of annual GDP, while merely 0.4 per cent came from the private sector.

There were always concerns over how to find a reliable private company and let it invest in infrastructure, which resulted in a reluctant attitude from the government to open the playing field for the private sector, said Vietnam-Oman Investment JSC Co chief executive officer Nguyen Hong Son.

“But we need local private companies for partnerships, as we don’t know what the situation is in Vietnam – for example, the land clearance process, licensing and changing tariffs,” he said.

“Take the solar energy sector, for example. There have been 50 licences granted for solar projects. But how many have had land cleared?”

Some companies came to domestic banks for financial support to carry out their projects, Son added, but what the banks offered was basically “impossible” for an infrastructure project.

The private sector was waiting for a whole package of policies that would open the path for them to invest in infrastructure, and the government should take this into account if they want to mobilise funding from the private sector, the CEO said.

While stressing the need for more infrastructure investment, particularly in transport, energy and information communications and technology – known as “hard infrastructure” – Teravaninthorn also urged regional governments to work more on soft infrastructure.

For example, she said, Vietnam built a $200-million expressway that leads to the border of China which saved travel time by one or two days.

“But with the cargo sat at the border, that time saving amounts to nothing,” she said.

“In terms of transport connectivity, don’t underestimate soft infrastructure like the customs and the one-stop border mechanisms. We have to be more efficient and effective for economic development,” she said.