Known as the “white breed”, about 155 weaner or growers would be imported from Bangkok, Thailand, by the last week of May, National Piggery Development Centre (NDPiC) officials said.

However, it is expected to take about two to three years for the piglet distribution to happen to be able to meet the shortage.

Weighing about 25kg to 30kg each, the new breed will be reared at Yusipang, Thimphu where infrastructure is being developed.

Officials said that to receive the new breed, they have to clear the sheds at Yusipang. By March or April, the sheds will be emptied and disinfected for the new breed. The growing period of the new breed is about a year after which mating will begin and the piglets will be distributed to the Lingmithang and Gelephu farms.

The new breed would produce about 13 to 14 piglets but one to two piglets die despite proper care. However, officials are hopeful that they will be able to sell about 10 piglets of the new breed.

The three piggery farms in the country, in about two to three years, are expected to produce about 9,000 piglets annually.

NDPiC’s programme director Pema Sherab said the demand for piglets has been on the rise every year.

From about 7,000 piglets in 2013, the demand last year shot to 9,000 piglets while the farms were able to provide only about 4,000 to 4,500 piglets.

“We can only fulfill half of the demand,” Pema Sherab said. The southern belt is the priority area from where the centre also gets more demand for piglet.

NDPiC also promotes contract piglet breeder programme among farmers where farmers sell piglets to the farms. The farmers pay Nu 1,500 (US$ 22.7) for each piglet, breed and sell it back to the farms for Nu 3,500 (US$ 53).

“Even under this programme, the existing breed will be replaced by the white breed,” Pema Sherab said.

The farmers are expected to produce about 5,000 white breed piglets with this programme.

NDPiC officials said there is acute shortage of piglets currently. To increase piglet production, officials said there has to be proper infrastructure in place for which there is no budget available.

Currently the parent stock piglet at the piggery farms is the seventh generation of the three breeds- sattlepack, large black and duroc imported from the UK in 2003.

Back then about 82 of these breeds were imported.

“Given the small population, inbreeding occurred which resulted in a high mortality rate of piglets,” Pema Sherab said.

To increase meat self-sufficiency, the livestock department targets to produce 1,000MT of pork by 2018. For this, about 12,500 piglets have to be produced annually.

Pema Sherab said the new breed would help meet the demand.

“For self-sufficiency in pork, piglet is required. There are many people interested in piggery farming given the huge market,” he said. “Given the shortage of piglets, the piglet industry was dying out.”

Last year the country exported about 2,100MT of pork.//Kuensel-Asia News Network

But as attention turned to a candidate from the junta-linked Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP), a heated argument erupted over his track record and suitability for office, a senior NLD official who was present at the meeting said.

The issue of how far to go in reaching out to former foes from nearly half a century of military rule may prove one of the first faultines to emerge within the NLD, with the potential to threaten or even derail Suu Kyi’s ambitious agenda.

“Some rank-and-file members are worried and not happy about the NLD working closely with the military. They never kept their promises so they don’t trust the army,” said Aung Myo, amid-ranking NLD member.

Eventually NLD leaders agreed at the early January meeting to offer the posts of deputy parliament speakers to T Khun Myat from the USDP and Aye Thar Aung from Arakan National Party (ANP), an ethnic party from Myanmar’s restive Rakhine State.

The nominations were made as a token of national reconciliation as Suu Kyi’s party prepares for office after winning about 80 percent of the elected seats in parliament at a historic general election late last year.

That the nomination provoked such heated debate underscores a growing sense of unease among some party members at the speed with which Suu Kyi has sought to build ties with powerful army chief Min Aung Hlaing and former junta leader Than Shwe.

“Breaking down the distrust and convincing everybody to work together represents the single biggest challenge for the incoming administration,” said Myint U, an independent consultant and expert on Myanmar bureaucracy.

“Failure here may slow down or even stop reforms and could cost the country billions of dollars in lost investment.”

“GRASSROOTS DON’T LIKE THEM”

The NLD, which will take office around late March after a drawn-out transition, is a broad church of views united by the shared experience of the decades-long struggle for democracy and held together by Suu Kyi’s charismatic leadership.

Many members, including the Nobel peace laureate Suu Kyi, suffered years of persecution and imprisonment by the junta that had ruled Myanmar for 49 years until a semi-civilian government took power in 2011.

“There’s a history, a past that is hard to forget for many people,” said Lin Htoo Maung, a sales executive at a Yangon-based bank.

Suu Kyi is barred from becoming president by the 2008constitution, which experts say was drafted by the military to entrench its influence on politics.

The charter also gives her little choice but to engage withthe military, despite her huge election win.

The army controls a quarter of the seats in parliament -giving it a constitutional veto – a large number of seats at the security council and three security ministries: defence, border affairs and home affairs.

At the closed-door leadership meeting, it was also agreed to give the powerful post of the lower house speaker to Win Myint, one of the closest party acolytes of Suu Kyi, said the NLD official present at the meeting.

Another NLD leader familiar with the meeting told Reuters that, while Suu Kyi was firmly in charge and led most decisions, the mood among party grassroots was already having an influence on the speed and depth of rapprochement.

“We are worried, or concerned that our people have little or no experience in actual governance,” the NLD leader said, explaining why the party had been discussing who from the outgoing administration might be retained.

“The majority of the cabinet will be NLD. But there will be some technocrats from ethnic parties and other parties,” he said. “It would be difficult for us to keep any current ministers. The rank-and-file, the party grassroots don’t like them.”

Both NLD leaders, who belong to the party’s 15-member Central Executive Committee, spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity.

BITTER LEGACY

One of the areas that arouses most bitterness in dealing with the legacy of junta-rule would likely be land grabs that the military and army-linked enterprises were accused of by rights activists, said Win Min, who runs the NLD office in southern Yangon.

“They tortured villagers, grabbed the land and forced them to move out by setting crops on fire,” said a rank-and-file Yangon-based NLD member who did not want to be identified out of fear of retribution. “I’m not saying that our senior members are making the wrong move, but I think we need to be careful while working with them.”

No one from the military or USDP was available for comment.

To be sure, many political prisoners and the top echelons of the party support Suu Kyi’s reconciliatory approach.

Tin Oo, NLD’s “patron” and one of its most deeply respected leaders, told Reuters that the NLD did not want to put any pressure on the military or push for the constitutional amendment immediately.

“We will agree to anything that would make them feel comfortable to make the transition stable,” said the88-year-old, who served as army chief in 1970s.

“We know that we will win in the end anyway, but we don’t think it’s the right time to prioritise it now.”

– Reuters

Nearly 1,300 members of the Dawn Archipelago Movement (Gafatar)arrived in Semarang in Central Java province from Borneo by ship late Wednesday, local navy base commander Colonel Elka Setiawan said.

The first batch of more than 300 people arrived on Monday. Officials said they would be “re-educated” before being sent back to their hometowns on Java. The controversy over Gafatar erupted this month after a doctor and her young son disappeared in Jakarta, and were later found to have joined more than 100 other families in the movement. Since then more families have come forward with reports of missing relatives, also believed to have joined the sect.

Islamic clerics in the Muslim-majority country said the sect taught deviant teachings mixing Islam, Christianity and Judaism, and a group of locals attacked and torched homes belonging to Gafatar members on January 19. Former Gafatar leader Mahful M. Tumanurung told local media that the group is not part of Islam, but follows the teachings of Abraham, and is loyal to Indonesia.

Indonesia has six state-sanctioned religions: Islam, Catholicism, Protestantism, Confucianism, Buddhism and Hinduism.

– DPA

Taipei insists Taiping Island in the Spratlys is part of its territory, but the chain is also claimed in part or whole by Vietnam, China, the Philippines, Malaysia and Brunei.

In a speech to personnel stationed on Taiping, Ma said the islands were “an inherent part of the Republic of China”, using Taiwan’s official title.

“This is indisputable.”

His trip comes as several other claimants have been beefing up their military presence in the disputed region.

Beijing regards almost the whole of the South China Sea as its territory and other claimants have complained it is become increasingly aggressive in pressing its claim.

Ma, however, adopted a more conciliatory tone, calling for the setting aside of disputes and proposed joint exploration of natural resources the area is believed to harbour.

“To resolve disputes in the South China Sea, the ROC government will work to safeguard sovereignty, shelve disputes, pursue peace and reciprocity, and promote joint development,” he said.

Washington, which has said it does not want to see an escalation of tensions in the region, said Wednesday Ma’s trip was “extremely unhelpful and does not contribute to the peaceful resolution of disputes in the South China Sea.”

Vietnam also protested Thursday.

“We resolutely oppose President Ma’s action of going to Itu Aba,” Tran Duy Hai, representative of the Vietnam Economic and Cultural Office in Taipei, told AFP, using an alternative name for the island.

“The situation is already very tense. Each country shouldn’t take any unilateral action. His action doesn’t contribute to stability in the region.”

The Philippines also warned Taiwan not to increase tensions in the disputed waters.

“We remind all parties concerned of our shared responsibility to refrain from actions that can increase tension in the South China Sea,” foreign ministry spokesman Charles Jose said.

China, which also regards Taiwan as part of its territory awaiting reunification, gave a measured response to Ma’s trip.

“The Nansha (Spratly) islands have been Chinese territory since ancient times. The Chinese people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait all have the responsibility to safeguard the ancestral property of the Chinese nation,” Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying told reporters.

Ma was due to visit a hospital, farm, and solar-power facilities on Taiping, according to an earlier statement from the presidential office.

He was also to send a letter to Taipei via the local postal service and hand out small gifts ahead of the Lunar New Year holiday before returning to Taipei later Thursday.

– AFP

Arts performances will be held as well at Ly Thai To Park, around Ha Dong, Tay Ho centres, and in front of My Dinh national stadium, and at the fireworks points.

Director of Culture and Sports Department To Van Dong said on the occasion, a programme entitled Vietnamese Tet will be held for the first time at the Museum of Hanoi from January 29th to February 3. “If the event is successful, this will be an iconic cultural activity for the capital’s citizens on each lunar New Year,” Dong said.

The attorney-general on Tuesday closed all investigations of Najib, after reviewing reports from the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) on a case that involved the transfer of $681 million into the prime minister’s personal bank account.

Najib has consistently denied any wrongdoing, saying the funds were a political donation and he did not take any money for personal gain. After he was cleared of any offences by the country’s chief law officer on Tuesday, he said the scandal hadbeen “an unnecessary distraction”.

A source at the MACC told Reuters that, when it handed its findings to the attorney-general last month, the agency had recommended that Najib be charged with criminal misappropriation. The source did not specify the grounds or the legal basis for the MACC’s recommendation.

“It’s a pretty straightforward case. We had made recommendations for charges to be filed that the attorney-general has instead chosen to reject,” said the source, who declined to be identified or to elaborate on the MACC’s findings.

The attorney-general’s office declined to comment. Najib’s office said it had no immediate comment.

The MACC said it would not comment on whether it made any recommendation to charge the prime minister.

In a statement on Wednesday, the agency said it would seek a review of the attorney general’s decision to close the investigations, but declined to make any further public comment on his findings.

Najib has been buffeted for months by allegations of graft at the debt-laden state fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB)and by revelations of the transfer of funds, adding to a sense of crisis in a country under economic duress from slumping oil prices and a sliding currency.

– Reuters

Tin said they faced a lot of difficulty in accomplishing the project because it took place at the same time as examinations. In addition to putting in long hours and staying up late, a number of spare parts they needed weren’t available on the market.

Tin and his friends had to share the costs of building the machine, which totaled about VND4 million (USVND3,968,510).

The first condom machine has been placed in front of the office of the Ho Chi Minh Communist Youth Union located at 180 Hoang Dieu Street, Hai Chau District.

Tin said a condom is dispensed into a tray at the push of a button. A screen displays the number of condoms in stock and a small slot for cash donations.

The machine will track the number of condoms dispensed for statistical purposes, Tin said, adding that it also sends a text message to the creators whenever it runs out of condoms.

Up to 20 condoms have been distributed every day since the condom dispenser was installed on December 31, he said.

People often come up to receive condoms between 9.30pm and 5am the following day, he said.

“Our biggest challenge is that we don’t have enough funding to make more condom dispensers, nor donations to help maintain the machine’s operation,” Tin said.

He expected that they would get support from the Government or organisations in the future to better serve those who were in need.

As soon as the image of the condom dispenser spread on social media, it immediately caught the attention of local residents. Many people praised the students’ initiative, which was simple but creative. They said it showed young people’s awareness of safe sex.

Nguyen Thi Xuan, head of Da Nang City’s Department of Population and Family Planning, said that while automatic condom machines are common in many countries, the students’ machine is the first of its kind in Vietnam.

“This is a good idea that helps the youth learn how to protect themselves, control STDs and prevent unplanned pregnancies,” she told Gia dinh va Xa hoi (Family and Society) newspaper.

Xuan said the department has provided 2,000 condoms to support the students’ work.

If the machine proves to be effective, the department will work with the students to install similar ones near fishing harbours or markets in coastal areas, she said.

Nguyen Phu Trong, who stays party chief, pledged to maintain a pro-growth status quo that balances foreign ties and cements a consensus leadership that analysts say was strained by Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung’s assertiveness in the latter years of his administration.

Trong, 71, said he was a reluctant leader of a party that would move Vietnam towards modernisation.

“My age is high, health is limited, knowledge is limited. I asked to step down, but because of the responsibility assigned by the party I have to perform my duty,” Trong told reporters.

“I’m also worried because the upcoming work is heavy.”

The 19-member politburo contains conservative and progressive elements, although uncertainty hangs over the outlook for economic reforms rolled out at an unusually fast rate under Dung, whose exit has caused some jitters.

Those might be assuaged by the inclusion of Nguyen Van Binh,the governor of a central bank praised for its stable monetary policy and tackling of bad debt that swamped a beleaguered banking sector.

Joining him is U.S.-educated foreign minister and Dung’s deputy, Pham Binh Minh, seen by some experts as a signal of the party’s pursuit of even ties between competing superpowers China and United States.

Fred Burke, a board member of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in Vietnam and managing partner at law firm Baker & McKenzie,said the lineup was reassuring for business and would pick up where Dung left off.

“It’s positive,” he said. “It’s continuity, but continuity with a 21st century bent, a professional bent, with people whoare pragmatists who want to roll up their sleeves and get on with it.”

Vietnam-U.S. relations have warmed dramatically as tensions between Communist neighbours Hanoi and Beijing have increased over South China Sea sovereignty.

While Trong has been less critical of China’s expansionism,Dung was the party’s strongest voice in denouncing Beijing andwas credited with Vietnam’s smooth accession to a U.S.-ledTrans-Pacific Partnership.

Trong was the politburo’s sole candidate for party chief,running unopposed despite rumours of a fierce showdown with Dung for the top post.

Adding some personality to a traditionally arcane politburois Dinh La Thang, a media-savvy transport minister who has wonpopularity for brash comments, rebukes of officials and Facebookaccounts carrying his name.

The politburo retains an authoritarian streak, however, withfour members hailing from a police force criticised by rightsgroups for crushing the party’s detractors.

Nominations for president, prime minister and legislativechair were included. They are Tran Dai Quang, Nguyen Xuan Phucand Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan, respectively.//Reuters

High-ranking leaders and delegates at all levels have exchanged visits, while the two Asean member countries have also extended mutual support in the regional and international arenas.

The ministers briefed each other on their political and security situations, socio-economic development and foreign affairs matters in their respective countries.

Laos and Indonesia are both members of Asean, the 10-member regional bloc which Laos chairs this year.

The ministers discussed ways to deepen and broaden relations and cooperation between Laos and Indonesia, which has the largest economy in Asean.

Both sides agreed to hold the 5th Laos-Indonesia Joint Cooperation Commission meeting in the near future, to be hosted by Indonesia.

The Lao minister said it was essential for the two countries to provide further mutual assistance, and support and broaden their cooperation to contribute to efforts towards achieving the goals set under the three pillars of the Asean Community.

The Asean Community was officially established on December 31, 2015.

The three pillars are the Political-Security Community, the Economic Community, and the Socio-Cultural Community.

The two ministers expressed their satisfaction over the long-standing friendly relations between their two nations and peoples.

Marsudi and her delegation are scheduled to call on Prime Minister Thongsing Thammavong today.