Low wages will force debt default crisis, says Pakatan

Source: The Malaysian Insider

 

By Shannon Teoh

March 31, 2011

Santiago said inflation has far outstripped salary growth. — file pic

KUALA LUMPUR, March 31 — Malaysia’s sluggish increase in wages is threatening a consumer debt default crisis as the working and middle classes increase their borrowings to deal with surging inflation, Pakatan Rakyat (PR) lawmakers said today.

Citing a World Bank report from last year, Charles Santiago (DAP-Klang) said real wages have only increased at an average annual rate of 2.6 per cent over the past decade, failing to keep pace with overall economic growth of nearly five per cent.

“The middle and working classes have not benefitted from the country’s growth but in fact, are forced to absorb the increasing cost of living through debt,” he said.

He added that with Malaysia’s gross domestic product (GDP) growing by 7.2 per cent last year, it showed that only the rich were benefitting from the economic rebound after 2009’s recession.

Household debt in Malaysia has been at an all-time high, reaching nearly 80 per cent of the GDP at the end of last year.

Santiago said that with inflation, especially of essential items such as food and energy, expected to accelerate this year, widespread default would threaten the entire banking system as 55 per cent of all bank borrowings last year were to private consumers.

“This is a sure way to lead to a default crisis like in the United States, which caused the global financial crisis,” he said.

“The consumer price index was 2.9 per cent last month and is expected to rise further. Those already living in debt will need to borrow even more,” Kuala Selangor MP Dzulkefly Ahmad said.

The PAS central working committee member added that the government’s new scheme to help young workers earning under RM3,000 own their first home without a downpayment, would only increase the pressure on the loans market and the amount of debt owed by low earners.

The lawmakers said the World Bank report showed that three per cent of Malaysian workers earned less than RM700 per month, below the poverty level of RM720 and the National Economic Advisory Council had in 2008 stated that 40 per cent of households earned less than RM1,500 a month and that this segment experienced the slowest growth in income.

The MPs called for a high level government commission to look into the imbalance in income with a view to establish a living wage standard for Malaysian workers.

 

Asean Sec-Gen Expects Member States To Review Nuclear Power Plant Policies

Source :- Bernama    March 25, 2011 20:48 PM

BANGKOK, March 25 (Bernama) — Dr Surin Pitsuwan, secretary-general of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean), said he expected Asean member states to review their nuclear power plant policies following the nuclear plant crisis in Japan.

Surin was speaking to reporters about nuclear power plant policies in Southeast Asia in the wake of the nuclear power plant crisis in Japan.

Thai News Agency (TNA) reported him as saying that Asean member states that had nuclear power plant projects might review their policies.

He added that Asean members might have to review their policies carefully.

Although nuclear power is sustainable and clean, an unanticipated incident may cause serious problems like what is happening in Japan.

At the moment, European countries are reviewing their nuclear power plant policies.

Surin also said that Asean has planned initial assistance for quake-torn Japan and that the earthquake might result in some industries being relocated from Japan to other countries.

In this case, Asean member states must cooperatively work out measures to attract investors from Japan.

 

Nuclear in Japan: Safety Sacrificed on the Altar of Profit

by Rosa Moussaoui

March 20, 2011

Since 2003, the big Japanese private group Tepco has focused on “reduction of costs of maintenance” in order to render profits “secure”

l’Humanite in English, March 16, 2011

Profit at Any Price. This could be the motto of Tokyo Electric Power (Tepco), the multinational that exploits the nuclear power plants at Fukushima. The largest producer of electricity in the world illustrates the excesses of an industrial sector in which neo-liberalism has unfurled to the last extremities of its destructive logic.

Poof. At the beginning of 2010, Tepco announced net earnings of 157.7 billion yen (1.19 billion euros) for the period from April to December 2009, as compared with a loss of 137.7 billion yen (1.04 billion euros) a year earlier. Miraculous recovery, for a multinational company whose annual turnover decreased, at the same time, by 14%. In order to restore profits, the officers of the company affirm, Tepco had to restrict its “current expenses”, which dropped by 22%. Officially, this was due to a drop in the price of petroleum needed for the functioning of its thermal power plants. The explanation is a bit thin, for an industrial outfit that insisted, in a financial document in August 2003, on the necessity of “a rationalization of the totality of operations, including a reduction of the costs of maintenance” in order to render its profits “secure”.

Has performance of maintenance, and thus the security of equipment, become a variable for adjustment? Tepco has not hesitated to do this in the past. Between September 2002 and April 2003, the multinational was constrained to shut down its 17 nuclear reactors. This was a consequence of revelations concerning the falsifications of some thirty inspection reports on three nuclear power plants in the group. It involved, among other aspects, the electro-nuclear giant’s act of disguising three incidents that had occurred in the nuclear facilities in Fukushima and Kashiwazaki-Kariwa.

This scandal implicating Tepco is not an isolated one. In March 2007, to cite but one example, the company Hokoriku Electric Power admitted having knowingly hidden a nuclear incident that occurred at the plant in Shikamachi eight years earlier, the 18 June 1999.

But who cares about security, when the race for profits takes command? With 28 million clients in Tokyo and in the region, Tepco announced triumphantly last 30 July that it wished to multiply by 5 its projections of profit for 2010-2011. Between April and December 2010, the multinational banked a net profit of 139.8 billion yen (1.27 billion euros). Surfing on the green wave, the group, already in the lead with its parks of wind turbines, planned to invest heavily in renewable energies. Ever so ready to threaten whole countries, the stock and bond rating company Standard and Poors granted Tepco an AA- on its long term debt, which is its fourth highest rating.

At the Heart of the Catastrophe, Tepco Remained Obsessed by Financial Considerations

Even at the heart of the current catastrophe in Fukushima, TEPCO remained obsessed by financial considerations. “It seems the the company waited until the last possible moment to drown the heart of the reactor by pumping sea water. In fact, if you drown the heart of the reactor, it becomes no longer usable,” observes the Energy branch of the CGT [1]. Clearly, public ownership is not an all-risk insurance policy in these matters. But to what horrifying excesses can we be lead by the shameful acts of profit-taking. In 2005, in his essay From Tchernobyl to Tchernobyls [2], the winner of the Nobel Prize for Physics, Georges Charpak put us on our guard: “The problem of security in the nuclear power plants is too crucial to be left only in the hands of financiers, those champions of stock market optimization.” Cruelly premonitory.

 

HIV Protesters Tell India to Defy EU Drug Demands

Source : AFP, Published Wednesday, March 02, 2011
Thousands of HIV-positive protesters called on the Indian government on Wednesday to reject EU trade demands they said would make lifesaving drugs unaffordable to millions of people with the virus.
More than 2,000 demonstrators from India and other Asian countries marched through downtown New Delhi carrying banners reading “Don’t trade away our lives” and staged a lie-in.
The European Union (EU) is seeking provisions in a proposed trade deal that would push prices of generic drugs made in India beyond the reach of people with the HIV virus in developing countries, said the protesters.
“More than 80 percent of the AIDS drugs our medical practitioners use to treat 175,000 people in developing countries are affordable generics from India,” said Paul Cawthorne, a spokesman for Paris-based humanitarian group Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF).
“Beyond AIDS, we rely on producers in India for drugs to treat other illnesses, such as tuberculosis and malaria.  We can not afford to let our patients’ lifeline be cut,” Cawthorne said.
Affordable medicines produced in India have played a major role in scaling up HIV/AIDS treatment to more than five million people in developing countries, MSF said.
Indian-made generics have pushed the average yearly cost of anti-HIV drug treatments down from ๊10,000 per patient in 2000 to ๊70 in 2010.
“We all rely on affordable medicines made here in India to stay alive,” said Nepal-based Rajiv Kafle, of the Asia Pacific Network of Positive People.
“We don’t want to go back in time, to when our friends and loved ones died because they couldn’t afford the medicines they needed,” Kafle said.
The EU is demanding intellectual property provisions in the free trade agreement that exceed what international trade rules require, MSF said.
The most damaging measure is “data exclusivity” which would act like a patent and block more affordable generic medicines from the market, even for drugs that are already off patent, the group said.
“It would be a colossal mistake to introduce data exclusivity in India, when millions of people across the globe depend on the country as the ‘pharmacy of the developing world’,” said Anand Grover, the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Health.
The protest was staged to coincide with “sensitive” negotiations in Brussels between India and the 27-member EU on the market-opening pact, which has been under discussion since 2007, MSF said.

 

எகிப்தின் புரட்சி – சரவாக் மக்களுக்கு நல்ல எதிர்ப்பார்ப்பு – சார்லஸ் சந்தியாகோ நம்பிக்கை.

இராணுவப் படைத் தலைவரான அப்துல் தைப் மஹ்முத்தால்  புறக்கணிக்கப் பட்ட சரவாக் மக்களுக்கு, எகிப்திய புரட்சி ஒரு நல்ல எதிர்ப்பார்ப்பை உண்டாகுகின்றது என நம்பிக்கை தெரிவித்துள்ளார் கிள்ளான் நாடாளுமன்ற உறுப்பினர் சார்ல்ஸ் சந்தியாகோ.

தயிப் கடந்த 30 ஆண்டுக் காலமாக, முதிர்வடைந்த அரசியல்வாதியாக அவரும் தேசிய முன்னணியிலுள்ள அவரது குழுவினரும் சேர்ந்து ஏராளமான சொத்துக்களையும் செல்வங்களையும் சேர்த்து குவித்துக் கொண்டிருக்கும் அதே வேளையில் சரவாக் மக்களும் சுதேசி மக்களும் வறுமையிலும் ஏழ்மையிலும் வாடிக் கொண்டிருக்கின்றனர்.

வெட்டுமரத் தொழிலில் தைப் மற்றும் அவரது குடும்பத்தினரின் பங்கேற்ப்பு ஊழலுக்கு இட்டுச் செண்டுள்ளது; ஊழல் மற்றும் விலை மாற்றம் அதாவது  வெட்டுமர நிறுவனத்தின் பொருளாதார மாற்றத்தின் விளக்கங்களை கண்டுபிடிக்க மிகவும் கடினமாக உள்ளது. இதில் மலேசிய நிறுவனங்களும் உள்ளடங்கியுள்ளது.

2007-ல், சரவாக்கிலிருந்து வெட்டு மரங்களை எடுக்கும் மொத்தம் 9 ஜப்பானியக் கடற் பயண நிறுவனங்கள், ஏழு வருடங்களாக 1.1  பில்லியன் யேன் கணக்கை காட்ட முடியவில்லை என ஜெபுன் டைம்ஸ் ( JAPAN TIMES) வெளியிட்டிருந்தது.

அதே அறிக்கை , அப்பணம் தைப் குடும்ப விவகார சந்பந்தமாக சரவாக் அதிகாரிக்கு ஹாங் காங் முகவர் மூலம் லஞ்சமாக வழங்கப்பட்டது  எனவும் தெரிவித்திருந்தது.

வெட்டு மரத்தொழிலில் வருமானத்தைத் தற்காத்துக் கொள்ளவேண்டும் என்பதற்காக, தாய்பின் நிர்வாகம் பேனான் பெண்கள்  வெட்டு மர முதலாளிகளாலும் தொழிலாளிகளாலும் கற்பழிக்கப் பட்டத்தை  கண்டும் காணமல் இருந்தனர்.

அதிக வெட்டு மரக் காரணத்தால், சரவாக் முதன்மை காட்டில் 10 % விழுக்காடு மட்டுமே மிஞ்சியுள்ளது.சுதேசி மக்களின் நிலத்தை அளித்து விட்டது.

தைப், தனது குடும்பத்தின் அதிகாரத்தில் உள்ள CAHAYA MATA  சரவாக் நிறுவனம் மூலம்  தொடர்ந்து பணத்தை சம்பாத்தித்துக் கொண்டுத்தான் இருக்கிறது. அது சரவாக்கில் சாலை நிர்மாணிப்பு மற்றும் பாதுகாப்பதர்க்கான அரசாங்க ஒப்பந்தம், விமான நிலையங்களை மேம்படுத்துதல் மற்றும் மலிவு வீடுகளுகுண்டான கூரைகளை விநியோகிப்பது மூலம் ஆதாயம் பெறுகின்றது.

அதுமட்டுமின்றி,2037 -க்குள் மொத்தம் 51 அணைக்கட்டுகள்  சுதேசிகளுக்கு பதிலாக கட்டப்படலாம்.

ஆயினும் எவ்வளவுதான் லஞ்சமும் உழலும் பரவி இருந்தாலும், தைப் அதிகாரத்தை துஷ்பிரயோகிப்பதிலிருந்தும் அதிகாரத்திலிருந்து வெளியாகுவதிளிருந்தும் மறுக்கிறார். மலேசியாகினியில் வெளியான செய்தியின்படி, வேறு எவராவது தகுதியானவர் இருந்தால் தாம் விலகி கொள்வேன் எனக் கூறியிருந்ததாக வெளியிட்டிருந்தது.

ஒருவேளை அவரைப்போல் உழல் நிறைந்தவராகவும், தைப்புக்கு விசுவாசமனவரை விலை கொடுத்து வாங்கமுடிபவரையாகவும் தேடுகிறார் போலும்.

அனால் இது இன்னும் முடிவுபெறவில்லை.சரவாக் மாநிலத்தின் தேர்தல் காலம் நெருங்கிக் கொண்டிருக்கின்றது. எகிப்தில் ஏற்பட்ட புரட்சியும் அதன் பலனும் சரவாக் மக்களின் உற்சாகம் மேலோங்க வேண்டும். அதுமட்டுமின்றி தமக்கு இருக்கும் உரிமைகளையும் குறிப்பாக வாக்குரிமையை பயன்படுத்தி தைப்பை எதிர்கொள்ள துணியவேண்டும். நல்லாட்சி மற்றும் கணக்கிவியல் அரசாங்கம் பெற அவர்கள் துணிந்து போராட வேண்டும். மெசிர் மக்கள் பல போராட்டங்களுக்கு பின்பும் 300 பேரின் மரணத்திற்கு பின்பும் மனம் தளராமல் மக்கள் சக்தியை பயன்படுத்தி வலுப்படுத்தி நினைத்ததை சாதித்து விட்டனர்.

அவர்களால் முடியும் என்றால் எகிப்த்தில் பாமர மக்களால் மாற்றம் கொண்டு வர முடியும் என்றால் சரவாக்கிலும் மாற்றம் கொண்டு வர முடியும். அது சரவாக் மக்கள் கையில் தான் உள்ளது என சார்ல்ஸ் சந்தியாகோ  நம்பிக்கை தெரிவித்தார்.

 

சார்ல்ஸ் சந்தியாகோ

கிள்ளான் நாடாளுமன்ற உறுப்பினர்

 

A private estate called Egypt

Source :- guardian.co.uk

Sunday 6 February 2011 19.00 GMT- Salwa Ismail

Only a thousand families count in a country that Mubarak and his cronies regard as their fiefdom

There is a lot more behind Hosni Mubarak digging in his heels and setting his thugs on the peaceful protests in Cairo’s Tahrir Square than pure politics. This is also about money. Mubarak and the clique surrounding him have long treated Egypt as their fiefdom and its resources as spoils to be divided among them.

Under sweeping privatisation policies, they appropriated profitable public enterprises and vast areas of state-owned lands. A small group of businessmen seized public assets and acquired monopoly positions in strategic commodity markets such as iron and steel, cement and wood. While crony capitalism flourished, local industries that were once the backbone of the economy were left to decline. At the same time, private sector industries making environmentally hazardous products like ceramics, marble and fertilisers have expanded without effective regulation at a great cost to the health of the population.

A tiny economic elite controlling consumption-geared production and imports has accumulated great wealth. This elite includes representatives of foreign companies with exclusive import rights in electronics, electric cables and automobiles. It also includes real estate developers who created a construction boom in gated communities and resorts for the super-rich. Much of this development is on public land acquired at very low prices, with no proper tendering or bidding.

It is estimated that around a thousand families maintain control of vast areas of the economy. This business class sought to consolidate itself and protect its wealth through political office. The National Democratic party was their primary vehicle for doing so. This alliance of money and politics became flagrant in recent years when a number of businessmen became government ministers with portfolios that clearly overlapped with their private interests.

Mubarak presided over a process in which the national wealth passed into a few private hands while the majority of the population was impoverished, with 40% living below the poverty line of less than $2 a day, rising rates of unemployment, and job opportunities for the young blocked. In the last few months of 2010, Egyptians protested for an increase of the minimum monthly wage to less than $240, but the now departed Nazif government decreed that less than $100 was sufficient as a basic income. This, at a time when the prices of food staples and utilities tariffs increased at very high rates. Indeed, as one local economist asserted, every single commodity and service cost significantly more under the Nazif government – which is the government of business that ended progressive taxation and replaced it by a single unified income tax.

Additionally, public social services underwent masked privatisation, taking health and education beyond the reach of vast segments of the population. Many poor families were forced to give up the hope of educating children and had to send them to do menial work to contribute to the income of the household. There was little public investment in most services, and in infrastructure such as roads, water and sewerage. In the 2000s, Egypt witnessed numerous demonstrations by ordinary people across the country for the construction of overpass bridges on fast roads and for clean water in towns and villages.

The legitimate social and economic demands of the people were repressed and denied, and the regime used the police to control the population. Under emergency laws, the police acquired extensive powers and engaged in surveillance and monitoring of the population. Torture and abuse in police stations became routine. Police roadblocks and checks were part of the daily reality of Egyptians. Under the generalised corruption, the police engaged in extortion and offered their services to private interests.

Egypt was governed as a private estate. Mubarak’s immediate family is implicated in crony capitalist activities as partners of most of the businessmen who benefited from the regime’s corruption. These beneficiaries do not want to leave their palaces, beaches and resorts, lucrative businesses and extreme riches. These are fixed assets that could not be transferred outside the country – although it should be noted that the ruling elites have siphoned off much capital to foreign banks. Nonetheless, it is the country-turned-private-estate they do not wish to abandon – that’s why they deployed the thugs in Tahrir Square to terrorise the population. This is a tactic that the National Democratic party has used on many previous occasions. In the national elections to the people’s assembly and to the shura council, thugs are hired to intimidate voters and to support rigging the results. At all popular protests, the police set thugs to attack the protesters using all means of intimidation, including the sexual harassment of women participants. Thugs have become an arm of the police and they have been used as informants in popular quarters of the city. They are rewarded with licences to operate kiosks or run minibus services. In a sense, practices of thuggery have been adopted by the regime to maintain itself and protect the interests of the ruling elite for decades now. Facing the growing possibility of losing their illegitimately acquired wealth and power, the regime and its cronies resorted to the techniques and practices that they have previously used with impunity to silence all opposition and resistance. However, the magnitude of popular mobilisation and the resolve to fight for dignity and freedom have rendered the regime’s tactics obsolete.

 

Listen to the cries of the Egyptians

Source :- Free Malaysia Today

January 31, 2011

The world’s super powers should stop taking upon themselves to determine a legitimate government by backing the Mubarak regime.

By Charles Santiago

Egyptians have taken to the streets calling for an end to President Hosni Mubarak’s regime which is largely to be blamed to the country’s economic disaster, skyrocketing food prices and spiraling unemployment.

It’s however not a surprise that the US president, Barack Obama, has been passive in responding to calls urging him to ask Mubarak to throw in the towel.

Egypt is a key ally of the US in the Middle East and continues to benefit from billions of dollars of military aid. But in the context of an impending global disaster.

Obama’s lukewarm stance is appalling and beneath a leader who came to power promising a foreign policy which is backed by democratic reforms.

The fall of the Tunisian regime, riots on the streets of Pakistan, Morocco and now Egypt are all fundamentally related to unfair distribution of wealth and income, spiking food and commodity prices and a staggering rise in unemployment.

In short, its the churning of the stomach which has led to the revolt and call for an end to oppressive regimes.

I pledge solidarity with the uprising in the various countries including Egypt where people are braving army tanks and live bullets to make their legitimate demands seen and heard.

At least 100 people have died in the last six days of protest.

I also convey my support to the thousands of Malaysians who would be protesting outside the US embassy, this Friday, condemning Obama’s atrocious support for the Egyptian regime.

Rising food prices

The rising food prices has become a major worldwide threat, with prices in Egypt up 17 percent, primarily due to the speculation on Wall Street.

Leading media organizations have reported and held Wall Street investment banks and firms responsible for the stock market bubble, dot-com bubble and the recent US and UK housing bubbles.

As a result of their speculation on food and commodity prices, media reports say that at a time when there has been no significant change in the global food supply or demand, the average cost of buying food shot up 32 percent from June to December 2010.

And about 40 percent of Egypt’s population live off less than $2 a day!

Obama, meanwhile, is certainly going down on the wrong side of history by not backing the end to Mubarak’s rule. He has instead called for a smooth transition to an orderly government.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has hinted on the possibility of a “faux democracy” if street revolts are backed in Egypt and called for a “real democracy” and not a democracy for six months or a year, which could evolve into a military dictatorship that then replicates what is happening in Iran.

Mrs Clinton, why isn’t it possible for you to understand that there is a legitimate need for democratic reforms and social justice in Egypt?

Down with a dictator

The Egyptians are on the streets to demand the stepping down of a dictator.

The struggle is about their valid need to be able to work and put food on the table for their families.

The revolution in Egypt cannot be about the US or Britain and their allies. These countries have, without any shame, given unlimited support to murdering regimes like Tunisia, Egypt and Iraq before taking up arms against Saddam Hussein.

Therefore, the US, Britain and their allies should stop determining which kind of government works in the Middle East.

The West refused to accept the victory of the Islamic movement in a democratic election in Algeria in 1991.

As a result, the country was ravaged in a decade of civil war where more than 160,000 people were killed.

So the US, UK and their allies should stop taking upon themselves to determine a legitimate government for Egypt. And Obama must speak with a political spine.

Charles Santiago is DAP’s Member of Parliament for Klang

 

Egypt is the new Ground Zero, with the protests in Cairo having far-fetching implications globally.

Egypt is the new Ground Zero, with the protests in Cairo having far-fetching implications globally.

Egyptians have taken to the streets calling for an end to President Hosni Mubarak’s regime which is largely to be blamed to the country’s economic disaster, skyrocketing food prices and spiraling unemployment.

It’s however not a surprise that the US president, Barack Obama, has been passive in responding to calls urging him to ask Mubarak to throw in the towel. c

Egypt is a key ally of the US in the Middle East and continues to benefit from billions of dollars of military aid.But in the context of an impending global disaster.

Obama’s lukewarm stance is appalling and beneath a leader who came to power promising a foreign policy which is backed by democratic reforms.

The fall of the Tunisian regime, riots on the streets of Pakistan, Morocco and now Egypt are all fundamentally related to unfair distribution of wealth and income, spiking food and commodity prices and a staggering rise in unemployment.

In short, its the churning of the stomach which has led to the revolt and call for an end to oppressive regimes.

I pledge solidarity with the uprising in the various countries including Egypt where people are braving army tanks and live bullets to make their legitimate demands seen and heard.

At least 100 people have died in the last six days of protest.

I also convey my support to the thousands of Malaysians who would be protesting outside the US embassy, this Friday, condemning Obama’s atrocious support for the Egyptian regime.

The rising food prices has become a major worldwide threat, with prices in Egypt up 17 percent, primarily due to the speculation on Wall Street.

Leading media organizations have reported and held Wall Street investment banks and firms responsible for the stock market bubble, dot-com bubble and the recent US and UK housing bubbles.

As a result of their speculation on food and commodity prices, media reports say that at a time when there has been no significant change in the global food supply or demand, the average cost of buying food shot up 32 percent from June to December 2010.

And about 40 percent of Egypt’s population live off less than $2 a day!Obama, meanwhile, is certainly going down on the wrong side of history by backing the end to Mubarak’s rule. He has instead called for a smooth transition to an orderly government.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has hinted on the possibility of a “faux democracy”   if street revolts are backed in Egypt and called for a “real democracy” and not a democracy for six months or a year, which could evolve into a military dictatorship that then replicates what is happening in Iran.

Mrs Clinton, why isn’t it possible for you to understand that there is a legitimate need for democratic reforms and social justice in Egypt?

The Egyptians are on the streets to demand the stepping down of a dictator.

The struggle is about their valid need to be able to work and put food on the table for their families.

The revolution in Egypt cannot be about the US or Britain and their allies. These countries have, without any shame, given unlimited support to murdering regimes like Tunisia, Egypt and Iraq before taking up arms against Saddam Hussein.

Therefore, the US, Britain and their allies should stop determining which kind of government works in the Middle East.

The West refused to accept the victory of the Islamic movement in a democratic election in Algeria in 1991.

As a result, the country was ravaged in a decade of civil war where more than 160,000 people were killed.

So the US, UK and their allies should stop taking upon themselves to determine a legitimate government for Egypt.

And Obama must speak with a political spine.

Charles Santiago
Member of Parliament, Klang

 

[Video] Perjanjian perdagangan bebas antara negara China dengan ASEAN

Source : Youtube / DAP

 

Hanya Sektor Besi Dan Keluli Risau Impak Acfta, Kata Mustapa

Sumber : Bernama

KUALA LUMPUR, 31 Mac (Bernama) — Hanya sektor besi dan keluli telah melahirkan kerisauan mengenai impak persaingan sengit dari pengimportan produk berkenaan dari China berikutan pelaksanaan Perjanjian Kawasan Perdagangan Bebas ASEAN-China (ACFTA) berperingkat-peringkat mulai Julai 2005.

Menteri Perdagangan Antarabangsa dan Industri Datuk Seri Mustapa Mohamed berkata kementeriannya (MITI) tidak menerima maklum balas negatif dari kebanyakan industri tempatan lain terhadap pelaksanaan ACFTA itu.

“Setakat ini, tidak ada negara ASEAN yang bercadang untuk berunding semula konsesi di bawah ACFTA.”

“Adalah diingatkan bahawa penurunan tarif (duti import) ini bukanlah secara mendadak tetapi dibuat secara berperingkat-peringkat sejak 2005,” katanya semasa menggulung perbahasan usul Menjunjung Kasih Titah Ucapan Yang di-Pertuan Agong Tuanku Mizan Zainal Abidin bagi kementeriannya di Dewan Rakyat di sini hari ini.

Mustapa berkata China merupakan rakan perdagangan terbesar Malaysia sejak 2009 selepas Singapura, Amerika Syarikat dan Jepun dengan jumlah dagangan RM127.9 bilion atau 12.9 peratus daripada perdagangan luar Malaysia pada 2009.

Beliau berkata demikian semasa menjawab soalan Charles Santiago (DAP-Klang) yang membangkitkan mengenai pelaksanaan dan kesan ACFTA kepada peniaga dalam negara.

Katanya jumlah eksport Malaysia ke China bernilai RM67.24 bilion dan jumlah import Malaysia dari China pula bernilai RM60.66 bilion, dengan lebihan dagangan RM6.58 bilion yang menyebelahi Malaysia.

Beliau berkata syarikat Malaysia telah mendapat faedah dari peningkatan eksport ke pasaran China melalui FTA itu.

“Penggunaan Sijil Keutamaan Tempasal (Borang E) menunjukkan peningkatan 143 peratus pada tahun 2009. Sebanyak 23,424 Borang E telah dikeluarkan dengan jumlah eksport sebanyak RM8.4 bilion,” katanya.

Menurutnya, produk utama yang dieksport menerusi FTA menggunakan Borang E ialah getah, minyak sayuran, asid stearik, minyak kelapa sawit mentah dan asid asetik.

Mustapa berkata kerajaan sentiasa memantau impak FTA dan akan mengambil langkah bersesuaian bagi memastikan industri tempatan dapat bersaing dengan China.

“Sekiranya industri tempatan terjejas disebabkan ACFTA, kerajaan boleh mengambil langkah strategik lain untuk menanganinya seperti anti-lambakan dan “safeguard,” katanya.

Katanya kerajaan juga memastikan Produk yang diimport mematuhi aspek standard, kesihatan, keselamatan, sanitari dan fito-sanitari (SPS) yang ditetapkan.

“Di bawah ACFTA, produk yang diimport ke Malaysia harus memenuhi elemen di atas seperti yang termaktub di dalam perjanjian tersebut dan juga Peraturan Syarat Tempasal (ROO).

Mengenai soalan Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim (PKR-Permatang Pauh) yang membangkitkan angka pelaburan asing dari Laporan Persidangan Pertubuhan Bangsa Bersatu Mengenai Pembangunan dan Perdagangan (UNCTAD) bertarikh Disember 2009, Mustapa menjelaskan angka yang terkandung dalam laporan tersebut adalah bagi laporan tahun 2008.

Katanya jumlah pelaburan asing untuk Malaysia bagi tahun 2009 adalah AS$2.7 bilion dan bukannya RM2.1 bilion seperti yang dinyatakan Anwar.

Angka pelaburan asing yang dirujuknya dipetik dari laporan interim UNCTAD iaitu Global Investment Trends Monitor bagi tahun 2009 yang diterbitkan pada Januari 2010, katanya.

Oleh itu, angka yang dinyatakannya adalah yang terkini dan lebih tepat berbanding angka pada 2008 yang disebut Anwar, katanya.

Mengenai isu Lesen Import (AP) bahan makanan serta monopoli dalam pemberian AP gula yang dibangkitkan Datuk Bung Mokhtar Radin (BN-Kinabatangan) dan Datuk Seri Shahrir Samad (BN-Johor Baharu), Mustapa berkata kerajaan bersetuju dengan pandangan supaya AP gula tidak dimonopoli atau diberikan kepada individu tertentu sahaja.

Pada masa ini, katanya AP hanya dikeluarkan untuk pengimportan gula mentah kepada para pengilang yang dilesenkan di bawah Akta Penyelarasan Perindustrian 1975 untuk diproses sebagai gula bertapis.

“Sehingga kini, enam Lesen Pengilang telah diluluskan bagi mengeluarkan gula bertapis dan empat daripadanya telah beroperasi. Sistem pemberian AP yang diamalkan bertujuan untuk memastikan bekalan gula bertapis bagi pasaran domestik sentiasa mencukupi dan harganya terkawal,” katanya.

Memandangkan pada masa ini terdapat beberapa permohonan untuk mengimport gula bertapis, katanya kerajaan sedang mengkaji secara mendalam supaya pemberian AP gula bertapis dapat dipertimbangkan kepada pihak industri yang berkaitan.

— BERNAMA