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https://www.nationthailand.com/world/europe/40021347

Sunak declared next leader of UK Conservative Party, to become next PM

MONDAY, OCTOBER 24, 2022

Rishi Sunak will become British prime minister on Monday after other candidates quit the race to lead the Conservative Party, leaving him with the task of steering a deeply divided country through an economic downturn set to leave millions of people poorer.

Sunak, one of the wealthiest politicians in Westminster, will be asked to form a government by King Charles, replacing Liz Truss, the outgoing leader who only lasted 44 days in the job.

He defeated centrist politician Penny Mordaunt, who failed to get enough backing from lawmakers to enter the ballot, while his rival, the former prime minister Boris Johnson, withdrew from the contest saying he could no longer unite the party.

“This decision is an historic one and shows, once again, the diversity and talent of our party. Rishi has my full support,” Mordaunt said in a statement as she withdrew from the race just minutes before the winner was due to be announced.

The pound and British government bond prices jumped briefly on news of Mordaunt’s withdrawal, but soon returned to their previous levels.

Sunak, the 42-year-old former finance minister, becomes Britain’s third prime minister in less than two months, tasked with restoring stability to a country reeling from years of political and economic turmoil.

The multi-millionaire former hedge fund boss would be expected to launch deep spending cuts to try to rebuild Britain’s fiscal reputation, just as the country slides into a recession, dragged down by the surging cost of energy and food.

Britain has been locked in a state of perma-crisis ever since it voted in 2016 to leave the European Union, unleashing a battle at Westminster over the future of the country that remains unresolved to this today.

The latest bout of drama has drawn dismay in foreign capitals and ridicule from the world’s press.

Sunak came to national attention when, aged 39, he became finance minister under Johnson just as the Covid-19 pandemic hit Britain, developing the successful furlough scheme.

The former Goldman Sachs analyst will be the United Kingdom’s first prime minister of Indian origin.

His family migrated to Britain in the 1960s, a period when many people from Britain’s former colonies moved to the country to help it rebuild after the Second World War.

After graduating from Oxford University, he went to Stanford University where he met his wife Akshata Murthy, whose father is Indian billionaire N. R. Narayana Murthy, founder of outsourcing giant Infosys Ltd.

Reuters

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https://www.nationthailand.com/pr-news/world/40021343

Singapore Airlines starts hiring in South Korea, Thailand, Taiwan to tackle staff crunch

MONDAY, OCTOBER 24, 2022

National carrier Singapore Airlines has restarted cabin crew recruitment in South Korea, Thailand and Taiwan, as it seeks to make up for a manpower crunch and meet higher demand for flights.

With border restrictions in key Asian markets such as Hong Kong, Japan and Taiwan easing, hiring staff from overseas is becoming more urgent.

Before September, the only overseas source that SIA could tap was Malaysia. Prior to the pandemic, it also took in applicants from Hong Kong, China, India, Indonesia and Japan. The airline said recruitment drives in these markets will resume progressively.

“SIA has traditionally recruited cabin crew from a wide range of locations to supplement our recruitment intake from Singapore,” it said. “Our recruitment drives are to replace cabin crew who have left for a variety of reasons, as well as to meet SIA’s growth plans. The number of available vacancies varies from time to time, and is dependent on our manpower requirements.”

During the pandemic, SIA froze hiring and put many of its cabin crew on no-pay leave until February this year, when it restarted its local recruitment drive.

It has since hired about 1,200 cabin crew members and wants to take in another 800 new recruits soon.

Last week, it said it is on track to achieve this target, without revealing fresh numbers. Before the pandemic, it had about 11,000 cabin crew members.

As of September, SIA Group’s capacity has reached 67 per cent of pre-Covid-19 levels. Its planes now are about 87 per cent full on average, and with fuller planes, more flights can be expected in the coming months.

The Straits Times recently followed a batch of 20 cabin crew trainees on a 14-week intensive basic training course, with modules such as food and drinks, deportment and safety evacuation.

In the safety module, participants leap into a pool to simulate a scenario where the pilot makes an emergency landing on water.

Once in the pool, they swim backwards. They also practice paddling with one hand while towing a person with another, as well as inflating their life jackets with hairdryers.

To stay warm at sea, they huddle together by linking their arms and legs, while making themselves smaller and minimising movement to conserve energy.

Instructor Irvin Selvam told trainees that they should always be alert and ready to make split-second decisions.

He also recounted a time when he had to tell the pilot about a passenger developing rashes a mere three seconds before take-off.

“The passenger eventually had to be offloaded from the plane. It is much more costly to fly, then land, versus a simple return to the bay,” he said. “Cabin crew need to make decisions fast.”

The Straits Times

Asia News Network

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https://www.nationthailand.com/world/china/40021341

Shanghai gets a ‘purrfect’ place for stray cats

MONDAY, OCTOBER 24, 2022

A one-of-a-kind sanctuary opened in Shanghai recently, marking a major breakthrough in efforts by local organisations to control the city’s stray animal population.

The Stray Cat Management Centre and Stray Animal Education Demonstration Base in Pudong New Area’s Laogang town is a 20,000-square-metre haven that comes with an 800-square-meter Cat Island where the pets are ready for adoption.

A venture in which several social organisations are involved, including the Shanghai Yicai Flying Foundation and Pudong New Area Cohesion Foundation, the facility also offers public welfare activities and educational programmes that aim to help the public learn more about topics such as feeding stray animals, disease prevention and control among them, and basic knowledge of the trap-neuter-release (TNR) procedure.

Zha Zhenliang, manager of the stray cat management programme, said TNR is an essential element of cat rescue, as well as an important part of the community management of the animal.

He explains that cats become tamer after they are neutered and that in turn reduces the likelihood of them being abused by humans.

The brainchild of Zha, the base generates revenue through its small zoo and camping site and is also backed by funds from the Shanghai Yicai Flying Foundation and the Shanghai Pudong New Area Cohesion Foundation.

Anyone can bring stray cats they find to the base.

All stray animals are subjected to a seven-day quarantine and a series of examinations before they are released in Cat Island, a zone specifically designed for felines that is surrounded by a river.

The base, which has a dozen staff members and volunteers, will be able to accommodate thousands of stray cats. Presently, it has more than 70 cats that have been vaccinated, neutered, and given the necessary care to become adoptable.

Zha notes that there were nearly 270,000 stray cats in Shanghai last year, and this figure is expected to grow exponentially if control measures are not taken.

He explains that cats are exceptionally fecund and can have dozens of kittens every year.

As such, the new base will be pivotal to efforts of controlling the stray cat population, which has in recent years grown rapidly.

However, the base alone will not be enough to solve the problem. Concerted efforts to convince the public to adopt instead of buying cats, as well as TNR need to be maintained, he added.

Many initiatives to control the population of stray cats in Shanghai have been implemented in recent years.

At the end of 2020, Shanghai Public Service Foundation for Volunteers launched the first surgical vehicle for the sterilisation of stray cats.

Apart from cats, the base also has an area specially reserved for retired police dogs that are available for adoption, which will be determined by a lottery system.

However, the facility does not accept stray dogs and their current population is far lower than that of stray cats, Zha said.

China Daily

Asia News Network

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https://www.nationthailand.com/world/asean/40021335

Drop in demand from US, China to hit Vietnam’s import-export sector

MONDAY, OCTOBER 24, 2022

Vietnam’s import and export sector will suffer many difficulties and challenges in the last months of this year and into the next, said Nguyen Cam Trang, deputy director of the Import-Export Department.

The department comes under the Industry and Trade Ministry.

Supply disruptions and rising production costs are making many major economies in the world, such as the US and EU, forecast challenges and risk falling into recession.

High inflation in markets, especially the main export markets of Vietnam, also reduces the demand for consumer goods.

Vietnam’s key export products are consumer goods like textiles, footwear, and furniture, and the drop in demand will also directly affect the export growth trend of these products, Trang said.

BIDV Securities Joint Stock Company (BSC) has also stated that the growth rate of import and export is slowing down because consumption in the US is showing a downtrend amid a sharp increase in interest rates.

BSC offers two scenarios based on the possibility of a recession in the world’s largest economy.

In the first scenario, if the US has an economic recession in 2022, Vietnam’s exports will rise by 13.1 per cent and imports by 12.6 per cent.

In the second, if the US faces an economic recession in 2023, Vietnam’s exports can rise by 18 per cent and imports by 17.3 per cent.

In the latest report, Rong Viet Securities (VDSC) said there are many concerns about the domestic economy in the fourth quarter because the Federal Reserve has continued tightening monetary policy, leading to increasing discussion about the risks of economic recession in the US.

Meanwhile, the European market is likely to deteriorate as the energy crisis increases in the winter.

Therefore, VDSC experts forecast that industrial production and export growth will slow down in the fourth quarter, but the level of decline will be moderate.

Trang also pointed out that China is both a raw material supply market and a large export market for Vietnam. Therefore, China’s maintenance of strict Covid-19 measures also affects the export activities and the supply of raw materials for Vietnam and its exports to the rest of the world.

However, with participation in bilateral and multilateral free trade agreements (FTAs) and experiences in trade activities, Vietnam may limit risks in exports.

The positive export results of the first nine months will support Vietnam to reach the target on import and export in 2022 and even exceed the set targets.

In this context, Trang has recommended that businesses proactively update information about the world and import markets. Since then, they have changed management policies, production and business plans. At the same time, they should plan to diversify export and import markets.

“With many solutions, the Industry and Trade Ministry always accompanies businesses, especially the system of Vietnam trade offices abroad and the early warning system. They will promptly provide information on the market, helping the enterprises to soon diversify export and import markets towards the sustainable development of exports and imports,” Trang said.

She said that import and export continued to be a bright spot in Vietnam’s economic picture in the first nine months of 2022, with export value rising 17.2 per cent to US$282 billion. As a result, the nation gained a trade surplus of over $6.8 billion.

The export growth of product groups, enterprise sectors, and markets was similar and stable. For example, the group of agriculture, forestry and fishery increased by nearly 15 per cent, while the group of processing industry rose by 17 per cent.

Meanwhile, export growth also reached 15 per cent for domestic enterprises and 17 per cent for foreign direct investment (FDI) enterprises.

Notably, in the first nine months of 2022, Vietnam’s exports recorded double-digit growth in many markets, especially those with free trade agreements (FTAs) with Vietnam, such as Canada, South Korea and Japan.

In the first nine months of 2022, the nation saw a trade surplus of $6.8 billion, and some major export markets still recorded positive growth figures against the same period of last year.

However, in September, export growth slowed and the growth rate decreased by 14 per cent compared to the previous month, mainly in electronics, computers and phones. Therefore, the growth rate in the third quarter also decreased against the previous quarter.

It should be noted that the third quarter is usually a quarter with a high trade surplus and contributes most to the trade surplus.

Viet Nam News

Asia News Network

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https://www.nationthailand.com/world/asia-pacific/40021328

Koreans ditch camping for hotels as tourism rebounds from Covid

MONDAY, OCTOBER 24, 2022

South Korean accommodation bookings soared 142.5 per cent in the third quarter from the same period in 2020 when the Covid-19 pandemic was at its peak, according to hospitality tech firm Onda.

Bookings continue to rise as Covid recedes, with third-quarter sales increasing 75 per cent on-year and 54.4 per cent on-quarter.

Among business types, hotels and resorts showed the highest rise.

Hotels showed a 200.1 per cent increase in turnover during the July-September period from the same period last year, while resorts’ turnover rose 207.2 per cent.

However, bookings for camping, caravanning and glamping fell 4.7 per cent, according to Onda’s survey of its 51,000-plus accommodation businesses with 500,000 rooms.

Onda said consumer choices have shifted from camping, where social distancing was possible, to more traditional hotels and resorts amid easing Covid-19 restrictions.

Online bookings are also on the rise, with turnover at popular portals including Naver rising by 130.9 per cent from last year, and bookings through online domestic and foreign travel agencies surging by 79 per cent and 77 per cent respectively.

Onda attributed the upward trends to society’s return to normalcy and the resumption of economic activity.

“[We expect] sales to recover to 2019 levels by the end of next year when travel will become easier,” it said.

The Korea Herald

Asia News Network

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https://www.nationthailand.com/world/europe/40021327

Britain waits for a new PM as Johnson drops out of race

MONDAY, OCTOBER 24, 2022

Former prime minister Boris Johnson pulled out of the contest to replace Liz Truss as Britain’s leader on Sunday, saying “you can’t govern effectively unless you have a united party in parliament”. His departure from the race leaves two candidates in the running to become the fifth British premier in six years:

RISHI SUNAK

Britain’s former finance minister is the front-runner to replace Truss, who lasted just 45 days in office before announcing her pending resignation.

Sunak was the most popular candidate among Conservative MPs before being beaten by Truss in a vote last month by some 170,000 party members to decide the next leader.

Many party members were angry that Sunak quit as finance minister in July, helping to trigger a rebellion that eventually brought down Johnson. They also ignored his warning that markets could lose confidence in Britain if Truss delivered her unfunded tax cuts.

Betting exchange Betfair puts Sunak as the favourite to replace Truss, but lawmakers who remain loyal to Johnson would likely oppose that move.

PENNY MORDAUNT

A former defence minister and passionate supporter of leaving the EU, Mordaunt only just missed out on the final two-place run-off in the recent leadership challenge.

Mordaunt won plaudits for her performance in parliament last Monday, when she defended Truss’s government even as it reversed most of its policies.

One lawmaker described Mordaunt as having “broad appeal”, referring to her ability to find friends in the various tribes of the party.

Reuters