ASEAN

TOKYO — Asia could be as wealthy as Europe by mid-century, but only if it tackles key challenges from inequality and corruption to climate change, an Asian Development Bank (ADB) study said.

Tourism operators say they will suffer and their expenses will rise by as much as 50% if they have to raise minimum wages to 300 baht a day in January.

ASEAN Social Charter

VIENTIANE,July 4 (KPL) — Representatives of Asean member nations met at the first meeting of the drafting group on Asean human rights declaration last Friday to discuss about the draft Asean human rights declaration. A two-day meeting was held at the Plaza Hotel in Vientiane Capital, which hosted by Lao PDR.

MANILA, Philippines—Thousands of women from Southeast Asian countries, including the Philippines, as well as China and India were trafficked to Malaysia for forced labor and prostitution, according to an unclassified 2006 cable from the US Embassy in Kuala Lumpur released by WikiLeaks, the online whistle-blower.

Philippine Foreign affairs secretary Albert Del Rosario renewed decades call for release of all remaining 2,000 political prisoners in Myanmar (Burma). Also, Del Rosario said last year’s release of democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi by Myanmar’s ruling military junta was simply not enough to fulfill the country’s commitment to the Association of Southeast Asian…

MANILA, Philippines – Justice Undersecretary and Inter Agency Council Against Trafficking (IACAT) head Jose Vicente Salazar said the problem of human trafficking extends far beyond the country’s borders and that there is an urgent need for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to discuss and formulate policies to ensure that human trafficking is put…

SINGAPORE should consider legislation that makes employers give their domestic helpers a rest day every week, said Madam Halimah Yacob, the Minister of State for Community Development, Youth and Sports.

SINGAPORE : The International Labour Organisation (ILO) and Singapore Ministry of Manpower (MOM) have signed a two-year agreement to improve labour and workplace practices in the ASEAN region.

Compared to a minimum wage policy which is a short-term remedy, a decent living wage will ensure workers’ wages are on par with current economic reality.

Eight hours a day, seven days a week, a 40-year-old woman in this sweltering capital sweeps the footpaths of the public housing development where she lives. In the afternoon, she returns to her room, where she and four of her children, ages 5 to 15, sleep on a double mattress on the floor.

Asean governments and businesses must continue to stay open and engage their domestic, regional and dialogue partners to maximise gains from the Asean Economic Community, which will be fully effective in 2015, Anangga Roosdiono, chairman of the Asean Business Advisory Council, said last week.

Statement of civil society organisations in Asean to the Asean Senior Labour Officials Meeting and Labour Ministers Meeting in Penang June 23-26 2011. The civil society organisations (CSOs) in Malaysia reaffirming and echoing more than 1,300 civil society organisation delegates who had gathered in Jakarta, Indonesia between 3-5 May 2011 at the Asean Civil Society…

More than six months since Myanmar held its first general elections in 20 years, human rights abuses continue unabated, say activists. “There has been no appreciable change in the human rights situation in Myanmar since the elections,” Benjamin Zawacki, Amnesty Internationals Myanmar researcher, told IRIN in Bangkok.

The political tsunami in Singapore in recent weeks serves as a sounding board for the future political landscape in Southeast Asia.

The real reason Malaysian productivity is low is not because workers are not productive. It is due to the fact that employers have been successful in suppressing wages, and there is no incentive to invest in research and development for productivity improvement.

THE Philippines ranked second to Cambodia in spending the least on education among members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean), it was learned on Tuesday.

ASEAN strategy to deal with climate change has been formulated in ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community (ASCC), one of the three ASEAN pillars.

“At the moment we have meetings and meeting of officials and have firmed up the defense side by moving it from informal to formal, but there has been no [not] anything done jointly by ASEAN…”

MANILA, Philippines – Foreign ministers of Association of Southeast Asian (Asean) member-states will seek to strengthen further the regional and global campaign to combat piracy and violations of intellectual property through the development of multilateral and bilateral arrangements, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said on Sunday.

President Benigno S. Aquino III attended the first day of the 18th Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Summit today, which kicked off with the ASEAN Leaders’ Plenary Session focusing on the implementation of the Roadmap for the ASEAN Community.

The Vice-Chair of the Indonesian National Human Rights Commission, Mr. Nurkholis, today called on the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to support a UN investigation into business and human rights violations in Burma. Mr. Nurkholis made his statement as a member of the experts panel at regional civil society’s first Public Hearing on Corporate…

ASEAN member countries are increasingly accepting the concept of the rule of law for human rights, according to a study conducted by the association`s Human Rights Resource Center (HRRC).

The Burma question seems unresolved within the short-term as Asian leaders have no compassion towards the people of Burma who have been suffering hellish plights underneath an atrocious military dictatorship. Currently, they are collaborating with Thein Sein’s sham civilian government so as to exploit the resource-rich country.

The concepts of people-centered community, people-driven community and people-oriented community were recently coined to demonstrate the new face of ASEAN and the commitment to further deepening ASEAN integration.

The nuclear crisis in Fukushima, Japan, has prompted ASEAN members to rethink their nuclear energy policies. Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam have said they will reassess the future construction of nuclear plants. Be that as it may, these countries, regardless of the potential nuclear risk, have very little choice because of their industrialization plans and energy…

Under the chairmanship of Indonesia, ASEAN is on its course to become a single community with economic, socio-cultural, political and security pillars by 2015.

BANGKOK (Xinhua) – ASEAN economic integration will expand trade and investment opportunities among the regional grouping’s members, but a full-fledged integration is not seen in the next few years, speakers at a regional conference said on Monday.

Jakarta (The Jakarta Post/ANN) – Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei – three ASEAN countries that receive large numbers of migrant workers from their neighbors – will likely remain reluctant to discuss migrant worker issues at ASEAN ministers’ meetings, a senior Indonesian government official says. However, the countries would not rule out discussing the issue altogether, especially…

PARIS (Xinhua) – The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) economies are likely to maintain growth momentum in the first quarter of 2011, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) said Monday.