Apparel Group Calls For End To Cambodian Violence

Source: Advertising Specialty Institute (3/13/2012)

Major apparel and footwear brands have banned together with workers’ rights organizations and the American Apparel & Footwear Association to call for an end to the violent unrest – including a recent shooting – that has caused havoc in Cambodia’s garment industry. What happens in Cambodia is relevant to Western supply chains. In 2011, Cambodia was the sixth-largest supplier of apparel to the United States, accounting for some $2.6 billion.

As such, Puma, Columbia Sportswear, American Eagle Outfitters, Gap and H&M were among the Western brands that joined the Fair Labor Association and the Ethical Trading Initiative in sending a letter to Cambodia’s Minister of Commerce, H.E. Cham Prasidh, expressing concern over the violence. The letter was sent in the wake of a February 20 incident in which three female garment industry workers were shot and injured by a gunman. The incident occurred at a rally in which thousands of workers were calling for better conditions at factories in the eastern Svay Rieng province. Bavet City governor Chhuk Bundith, since named by government officials as the suspected perpetrator, was removed from his post last week and will reportedly be summoned for questioning. However, he remains at large.

“We are alarmed that the state of unrest has become increasingly violent and is continuing across other industrial sites,” the industry coalition's letter said. “We respectfully urge the Royal Government of Cambodia to conduct a full and transparent investigation…and hold those responsible for injuring workers accountable. We hope the government will redouble efforts to create a safe and stable environment for workers and businesses in the country. We will continue to stand by Cambodia through this period and support constructive dialogue between all parties that respect the rule of law and guarantee workers a fair and safe working environment.”

A major source of income for the Cambodian economy, the textile industry employs more than 300,000 people, predominantly women. Conflict between bosses and workers exploded in 2010 when tens of thousands of industry employees went on strike until the government arranged talks with manufacturers.

More information, visit:


Language Choice in a Nation Under Transition: English Language Spread in Cambodia (Language Policy)
c1920 CAMBODIA SAMPOT GARMENT CATAFALQUE MONUMENT
Making the Cut?: Low-Income Countries and the Global Clothing Value Chain in a Post-Quota and Post-Crisis World (World Bank Studies)
Textures of Struggle: The Emergence of Resistance among Garment Workers in Thailand

 

Low pay at clothing factories irks unions

Source: Business Report, 26 March 2012

Small clothing factories cannot afford to pay their workers the legal minimum wage prescribed by the Department of Labour as major clothing retailers exert pressure by demanding low manufacturing rates.

This is according to small companies’ representatives in KwaZulu-Natal after the Southern African Clothing and Textile Workers’ Union (Sactwu) marched last week against factories in the Sithebe area in the north of the province that did not comply with minimum wage agreements for the sector. About 3 500 Sactwu members demanded decent wages.

The minimum wage for a machinist working in the textile industry is about R481 a week. Non-compliant companies are paying about R340.

Alex Liu, a deputy chairman of the United Clothing and Textile Association, said about 128 of its members, mainly from Newcastle, were non-compliant. He complained that they were not given an opportunity to participate in the legal wage agreement. Liu said such businesses could not afford to pay the minimum wages unless the entire clothing industry, including retailers, realigned their price points throughout the value chain.

He said most of the factories operated as cut, make and trim (CMT) businesses that were also receiving outsourced work from complying factories at much lower prices.

“Most of these factories were not given an opportunity to participate in negotiations on the legal wages gazetted by the Labour Department and they cannot afford to pay such salaries unless retailers revise their price demand.”

Chairman of the association Ahmed Paruk said of the 30 factories in the Sithebe area, only five were compliant and the remaining companies could not afford the stated wages.

Paruk said if Sactwu continued to exert pressure on these companies, they would have to shut down and leave hundreds of people without jobs.

Depending on the design, some garments are manufactured for as little as R5 and then passed on to a smaller textile firm to be stitched or buttoned, also at a low rate. The association refused to name factories, saying they would be subject to victimisation.

Sactwu’s regional secretary in KwaZulu-Natal, Dennis Maluleka, said the non-compliant factories should not operate businesses if they could not afford to pay workers.

Liu disagreed, saying shutting down factories would result in unemployment and would force companies to open operations in Lesotho and Swaziland where there was less compliance.

Maluleka said the 2010 wage agreement between the Labour Department and the textile industry stipulated that companies should pay 70 percent of the minimum wage within a year of the deal. This was expected to increase to 90 percent at the beginning of this year and 100 percent by May.

Maluleka said most of these companies operated as CMT factories which carried out production mainly for big textile companies that were compliant. “These factories are getting a raw deal from the big established textile factories, who receive huge contracts with clothing retailers but do not have the manpower to service the entire contract and then outsource part of it to several of these smaller factories who do the work at a very low rate.”

He added that the big firms sometimes took on too much work with a short deadline.

He said this system had put the smaller factories under enormous pressure as they had to pay rent, electricity and operational costs.

Maluleka said small firms could apply for exemption through the bargaining council but they must be prepared to give valid reasons. Once they met the criteria they could be exempted for at least a year. - Nompumelelo Magwaza .

More information, visit:

Threads of Labour: Garment Industry Supply Chains from the Workers' Perspective (Antipode Book Series)
LESOTHO: Construction plans for proposed $100,000,000 garment factories and denim mill, NIEN HSING TEXTILE CO. LTD. [Taiwan] - Order #: 072001.: An ... Opportunities in Africa & the Middle East
28: Stories of AIDS in Africa
Special Economic Zones in Africa: Comparing Performance and Learning from Global Experiences (Directions in Development)
Yes, Africa Can: Success Stories from a Dynamic Continent

Clean Clothes: A Global Movement to End Sweatshops
Harnessing Foreign Direct Investment for Development: Policies for Developed and Developing Countries

Sierra Leone: 'Country Off-Track in Achieving MDGs 4 and 5' - USAID Country Manager

Source: All Africa
By Patrick J. Kamara, 23 March 2012

Country Manager of USAID has said that while noticeable progress has been made so far by the government to improving health care in the country, Sierra Leone is yet currently "off track" in meeting the Millennium Development Goals 4 and 5 on maternal and child health.

Ms. Jean Benedict was speaking yesterday at the closing ceremony of the implementation of grants awarded to two Sierra Leonean NGOs under the West Africa Ambassador's Fund (WAAF) to implement interventions aimed at improving the health of people in deprived communities across the country.

"The maternal and child mortality figures for Sierra Leone are unacceptably high," she noted, adding that the lifetime risk of a woman dying from complications of pregnancy and child birth is one in eight.

According to Benedict, one in twelve children still die in Sierra Leone before their first birthday and that majority of these deaths are caused by preventable diseases. HIV/AIDS infection, she said, remains considerably higher especially among commercial sex workers and that the rate puts the general population at increased risk of the infection.

Further progress, according to her, is constrained by a health system struggling to cope with the country's needs and that urgent intervention is required to enable Sierra Leone improve its health situation.

Ms. Benedict quoted from a speech made by President Koroma during the state opening of parliament that: "Presently our healthcare system is caught between the structures of a government with limited resources, a people in extreme poverty, and a global recession that is limiting international support for improving access to services".

The USAID Country Manager said the United States government is committed to a strong and reproductive health partnership in Sierra Leone and that they responded to the country's health challenges by awarding two grants to partners under the Action for West Africa Regional Health Program (AWARE). The grants were awarded as part of the West Africa Ambassador's Fund (WAAF), she added.

Over the past twelve months, the WAAF grants have enabled two local organisations - Medical Research Centre (MRC) and the Agency for Community Empowerment, Participation and Transformation (ACEPT) - to implement various interventions to improve the health of the population most in need.

The grants, according to her, have contributed to significant improvements in the health and quality of life for thousands of people in rural and hard reach communities.

More information, visit:
Population, Health and Development in Ghana. Attaining the Millenium Development Goals The Millennium Development Goals Report 2011 Millennium Development Goals. Achievements and prospects of meeting the targets in Africa Tourism and Millenium Development Goals: Tourism, Local Communities and Development

MDGs at risk as aid shrinks

The Daily Star
23 March 2012
Poor aid flow remains a major hurdle in attaining the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by 2015, said a major government report released yesterday.

Bangladesh required $78.2 billion between 2011 and 2015 for attaining all MDGs, according to the MDG Progress Report 2011. It said even though the country needs foreign assistance of $5 billion a year to achieve the targets, it is getting around $2 billion.

The report shows the official development assistance (ODA) inflow into Bangladesh has gone down significantly--from 5.6 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) in 1990-91 to 2.2 percent in 2009-10.
"The ODA has declined drastically despite Bangladesh's success in some MDGs," Abdur Razzaque, food and disaster management minister, said at the report unwrapping programme.

Citing the example of the agriculture ministry, he said it got 18 percent ODA a few years ago, but now gets only four percent. He urged the development partners to review their aid strategy.

Environment and Forest Minister Hasan Mahmud said though Bangladesh was missing out on economic growth due to the impact of climate change, developed countries were not releasing their promised aid.
Planning Minister AK Khandker, Health Minister AFM Ruhal Haque, members of the Planning Commission, government officials, experts and representatives of development partners also addressed the programme held at the National Economic Council in Dhaka.

"It's unfortunate that the developed countries have so far failed to provide their promised ODA to us," said AK Khandker.

The developed countries promised to give 0.7 percent of their GDP to the least developed countries (LDCs) to help them achieve the MDGs but they were seriously lagging behind.

The planning minister urged the developed countries to come forward and cooperate with the LDCs in exploiting the potential of international trade and accomplish their obligations as signatories to the MDGs.
Stefan Priesner, UNDP country director, however, blamed Bangladesh's poor implementation capacity as a major bottleneck for not getting adequate ODA. Lengthy project approval process was another reason he identified for poor foreign assistance.

Despite all the challenges, the MDG progress report hailed Bangladesh for its notable achievements in poverty reduction, schooling, gender parity in education, and infant and maternal mortality rates.

Bangladesh has done remarkably well in containing the spread and fatality of malaria and tuberculosis, and in the area of reforestation and access to drinking water.

However, the country is struggling to address nutrition and to protect wetlands and bio-diversity, adds the report.

Population, Health and Development in Ghana. Attaining the Millenium Development Goals The Millennium Development Goals Report 2011 Millennium Development Goals. Achievements and prospects of meeting the targets in Africa Tourism and Millenium Development Goals: Tourism, Local Communities and Development

Myanmar: First Steps

Source: Huffington Post
Stephen P. Groff
22 March 2012

The international community is coming together to help Myanmar improve the lives of its 60 million citizens -- one-third of whom are mired in poverty. The challenges are daunting. And with Myanmar's strategic location at the crossroads of trade between India, the People's Republic of China and Southeast Asian nations, the stakes are high.

While its neighbors have prospered over the past half-century, Myanmar's isolation has left the country and its people languishing. In the 1950s, Myanmar was an economic star; nowadays it is the second poorest country in the region, with an estimated per capita GDP of $715.

Today, however, an unexpected and unprecedented period of reform has taken root, offering a unique opportunity for Myanmar to leverage its position as a bridge between Asia's most dynamic and fastest growing economies. While the possibilities seem promising, it is crucial that Myanmar's path to reconciliation be forged in a way that benefits all of the country's people, particularly its poorest.

Several national and international conferences on economic development were convened in recent weeks to establish a starting point. These gatherings identified priority areas for ensuring that the country's poorest communities and varied ethnic groups share in Myanmar's coming prosperity.

With much of the country's infrastructure outdated or inadequate, increasing access and "building back better" are critical near-term priorities. Today, barely one-quarter of its population has access to electricity, and more than three in five people lack access to adequate sanitation. Energy supply, water and sanitation services, irrigation systems, roads and railways, and telecommunications are basic requirements that every country needs to prosper and Myanmar is no different in that respect. For an impoverished family living in relative isolation, these building blocks create a pathway out of poverty and measurably enhance quality of life.

During the 20 years since the formation of the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS) Program -- an initiative to promote economic cooperation among the six countries sharing the Mekong River -- maps of Myanmar's neighbors have exploded with new lines showing the rapid development of roads and markets linking its members. By contrast, the situation in Myanmar today is largely unchanged. There is a clear need to complete construction of transport corridors linking Myanmar with markets in neighboring countries to the North, East and West, as well as other, long-planned Asian highway and railway connections. Improved connectivity will particularly benefit Myanmar's poorest and most isolated areas, including its seven states dominated by ethnic minorities who until recently have also shouldered the burden of conflict.

Of course, any transition process must be properly managed to bring meaningful and lasting change. Comprehensive social, economic and administrative structures need to be in place to ensure the poor aren't left behind, and that growth doesn't come at the expense of the environment or Myanmar's rich cultural heritage. The Government's stated desire to focus on the poor, especially the ethnic minorities, and to strengthen its own administrative capacities, should provide a firm foundation for progress.

As Myanmar's pace of change accelerates, more foreign investors and tourists arrive, and development assistance is offered, it is absolutely crucial that this transition is country-owned, well planned and coordinated, and reflects the will and best interests of Myanmar's people. Up-front reforms that are needed include reliable and enforceable measures to solidify the rule of law, strengthen macroeconomic management, promote sustainable tourism, improve the investment climate, unify multiple exchange rates, liberalize agriculture and trade, and generate fiscal resources to expand infrastructure and social spending, including greater funding for education and health -- essential long-term investments in the country and its people.

The road ahead still looks daunting, but the opportunity for Myanmar's people is simply too great to turn back. The Asian Development Bank is making preparations for reengagement with Myanmar and joining other development partners in helping to lay the foundations for a brighter, more prosperous future in the "Land of Golden Pagodas."

Stephen P. Groff is Vice-President of the Asian Development Bank. This article was originally published in the South China Morning Post and in The Nation.

More Info on Myanmar
Lonely Planet Myanmar (Burma) (Country Travel Guide)
Sheila's Guide to Myanmar/Burma

The Weeping Goldsmith: Discoveries in the Secret Land of Myanmar

Letters from Burma

South Asian textile lack social compliance

Source: Fibre2Fashion
March 14, 2012 (Asia)

More and more multinational garment brands and retailers are monitoring supply chains forcing textile units to comply with social and environmental norms. But manufacturers in the South Asian countries targeting a bigger share of the international trade still lack social compliance, says David Horlock of Intertek Testing Services, a firm that provides safety services to the textile industry.


The Hong-Kong-based Vice-President who looks after global inspection and auditing feels the regional export industry is becoming unsustainable. If the Great Industrial Revolution robbed Europe of its natural environment, haphazard industrialisation could spell doom for the ecosystem of East, warns Horlock whose company has partnered with B2B portal fibre2fashion.com to facilitate global sourcing in South Asian countries. He says, it is important for brands to establish the identity of real factories with real machines and real people.


What are the challenges for Western buyers, while sourcing from South-East Asian destinations?

Global retailers need to ask their suppliers four questions: Who are you? Where are you based? What do you make? And (most importantly) can you be trusted? Trust means credentials in terms of product quality, safety, social compliance, and environmental compliance. Organisations have good information on just 15% of their direct suppliers, and therefore, there are reputational risks in international businesses. One needs to know if the direct suppliers are committed to corporate social responsibility, environment, workplace practices and product quality.

The Indian textile and apparel export industry is on a sticky wicket when it comes to fair trade practices. Child labour and bonded labour Issues often come haunting. Are the brands erring in interpreting the social system?
These are not India-specific problems. Much of the developing world, including China, Bangladesh, Thailand, Philippines and Indonesia have similar problems because there are no strong institutions to take charge of enforcement. Hence, there is no one to check exploitation. But over the years, brands have addressed these problems. Working conditions are much better in factories than they were a decade ago. There is an improvement in health & safety, dormitories, toilets, infrastructure, treatment of employees and better wages.

However, a lot is yet to be done by stakeholders like governments, direct importers, employees and the society. While some export-oriented organisations in these destinations lead on compliance because they know that it is the right thing for their business, there are others who do not comply. Increasingly, more businesses are starting to understand that CSR and environmental compliance are going to be the parameters which are here to stay and shall be important if one aspires to capture the wallets of tomorrow's customers.

The Asian nelghbourhood does have a problem of pollution. The Pearl River in the Chinese town of Xlntang In Guangzhou that sends 40% of its jeans production to the US is polluted. Why are the American brands and retailers turning a blind eye to this issue?
More than 300 mills in China had to be shutdown recently for causing pollution. The western world is imposing rules because they have been through this before. It does not want Asia's 4.5 billion population to make the same mistake that it made during the Great Industrial Revolution.

There is a greater urgency to clamp down on pollution. River Thames in UK took 200 years to get better! In Thailand, where I spent my childhood, I saw the inland water ways turning brackish when industrial revolution happened in late 70s. Fortunately, owing to awareness about environment protection, the water has come back to life.

Factories on their part have to ensure that they do their businesses in a responsible way. The issue is about sustainability and keeping the eco-system alive. Only 3% of our water is fresh, 1% of this is available, so we need to protect it. Dyeing mills are potentially high-risk environmental polluters if not managed in a responsible way. Recently, NGOs have begun to focus heavily on irresponsible polluters of waterways and brands and their manufactures will be held accountable.

Labour rights activists have been demanding implementation of Asia Floor Wage to strike parity in wages. Do you see that happening?
It is difficult to talk about parity across destinations owing to variables like geography, food inflation, exchange rate and different livable wages. This will mean different things to different people. The cost of maintenance is different in different countries. Nevertheless, brands and factories are working to strike a right balance.

Shouldn't brands be shouldering the responsibility of compliance by paying well enough to the factories to ensure that wages are taken care of?
Several retailers and brands have begun to monitor their supply chains and are mitigating risks to make everyone accountable. A decade ago, people worked for an existence. Now, they work for a Iifestyle. With social media and the increasing visibility of supply chains, we see economics of the markets at work. If factories do not look after their workers or protect the environment then they are at risk of losing their employees and community raising the red flag.

Economic Times

Special Report: The Next Golden Age for Cambodia?

Source: Global Report
13 March 2012

Cambodia's prospecting fields remind me of the steppe lands of Mongolia in 2002, the Middle Cauca of Colombia in 2006 and Ghana's Kibi Gold Belt in 2007. That was when those jurisdictions, like Cambodia today, were cheap compared with more developed nations.

Cambodia holds 14 million people and is a former French colony and neighbor of Vietnam, Laos and Thailand. Hiring rates run $300 a month for entry level laborers. A chef costs $400 monthly. Security forces, sometimes rented from the army or local police forces, are in the same salary range. The country is just now starting to get interest from the mining community after decades of civil war left the country littered with land mines. It is now growing at an average of 6% per year and the government is looking for outside investment. Foreign direct investment at a yearly pace here is $5 billion or about double what it was 12 to 18 months ago. Internet, mobile and telecom—largely unregulated—are well above Third World standards. Roads are good to excellent and, in places, on-par with Vietnam.

Under the direction of vice president of exploration Dr. Adrian Mann, Canada-based Angkor Gold Corp. (ANK:TSX.V), pulled 100-meter samples from the ground at Hole 29 while I was there. The samples showed what looked like potassic alteration and secondary feldspar—stockwork ore. Mann and fellow geologist/director Guillermo Salazar, who worked on Copper Fox Metals Inc.'s (CUU:TSX.V) Schaft Creek copper-molybdenum-gold deposit in northwestern British Columbia, Canada, hope to see sheeted B quartz veins. These are suture veins that can carry, figuratively, rivers of gold and copper.

Later, at Hole 31 of the meticulously plotted drill program, the team brought up what looked like copper pyrites and traces of molybdenite and molybdenum, necessary alloys for stainless steel products with more stockworked formations. "Clearly, that suggests a move toward economic grades of both gold and copper," Mann said. "Although we've yet to get assays on the cores." Investors likely will see months of data bursts from the growing company, data that will reveal how much ore is contained across 2,600 square kilometers of polymetallic targets and prospects.

Drill rigs are operating around the clock at concessions in Okalla, located 45 minutes from Banlung headquarters, and in Oyadao, which is one kilometer from the Vietnam border, 45 minutes the opposite direction from Okalla. At Dokyong, yet another prospect near the Oyadao area, Mann has two local geologists identifying targets with the aid of rock-chip geochem, auguring, termite hill examinations and other methodologies. Most promising in my view are scores of Ashanti-type artisanal holes at Phum Syarung, a moonscape of termite hills and abandoned lean-tos at the southern end of the border prospects. Mann says his electromagnetic (EM) surveyors will be there within days. The EM team—Grant Roberts and Francis Thompson of Subsurface Imaging of New Zealand and Austhai Geophysical—is on the ground at Border North at Oyadao as I write this. No airborne magnetics are permitted to cross a no-fly zone that buffers Cambodia and Vietnam. Geochemical and airborne magnetic surveys in the interior of the country will follow.

Photo by Thom Calandra

Angkor has at least four licenses and three memoranda of understanding in Cambodia right now. Mining law here comes straight from the Ministry of Mines and Energy and is modeled along the strictures of Australia's New South Wales. The paths to title and to licensed prospecting and drilling seem to me as plain as the grins on Khmer kids' shining high school faces.

Like some metals equities investors who visit properties, I take notice when geochemists, geologists, geophysicists and others pull fresh cores that indicate grade-worthy mineralization. But the right stuff must emerge across concessions that stretch for miles and miles.

Angkor Gold has no bank debt and about $2 million (M) of funding. I expect the company to seek a few million more Canadian dollars at current stock prices in a friends and family effort. The company now has five working camps by my count and 90-plus local geologists, contractors, logistics personnel and support staff in country. Staff includes Australians, Khmer natives, Canadians and Laotians.

Angkor CEO Mike Weeks and Cambodia Association of Mining and Exploration Companies President Richard Stanger have been active in the area for years as majority owners of the private company Liberty Mining International Pty Ltd.

Other mining companies active in the country include Australia-based OZ Minerals Ltd. (OZL:ASX), which has been exploring there since 2006. In February, it announced that it would be selling its Cambodian properties to Australia-based Renaissance Minerals Ltd. (RNS:ASX) for $40M. This will give investors a metric of $18 to $20 an ounce for compliant Khmer (Cambodian) gold in the ground. That sounds lukewarm, but the OZ transaction will set a template for Angkor Gold both to option some of its own vast property portfolio and to develop the rest all the way to cheaply-funded production.

Risks are legion. Angkor Gold is a highly speculative company in a mostly untested mining jurisdiction. Cambodia and the rivers that course through it still display the scars, and physical landmines, of Pol Pot's gruesome genocide. If the company fails to manage its large property portfolio quickly and ruthlessly and chuck its lesser properties to partners, the shares will lose most of their value. Still, I have no intention of selling my stake before the test results are in. In fact, I plan to return for the Investment Focus Cambodia event in late April to check in on the opportunities here.

Thom Calandra's work has appeared in newspapers, newsletters, magazines and across the Web. He is a founder of CBS MarketWatch, now Dow Jones MarketWatch. He also founded Ticker Trax for Stockhouse of Canada. His work can be seen at babybulls.com, which is a Torrey Hills Capital property. Calandra also writes for Cambridge House Café, the publishing arm of Joe Martin's Cambridge House conference presenter. Calandra supports the Gold Antitrust Action Committee at www.gata.org.

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Disclosure:
1) From time to time, Streetwise Reports LLC and its directors, officers, employees or members of their families, as well as persons interviewed for articles on the site, may have a long or short position in securities mentioned and may make purchases and/or sales of those securities in the open market or otherwise. This article is the opinion of the author.

2)The following company mentioned in this article is a sponsor of The Gold Report: Angkor Gold Corp. Streetwise Reports does not accept stock in exchange for services.

3) Thom Calandra owns 312,000 shares of Angkor Gold purchased in the open market. His average is approximately CA$0.43/share. Calandra received nothing in the way of payment or shares from Angkor Gold. Calandra received nothing from Cambodia operating company and predecessor Prairie Pacific Mining Corp., the private company that already has $8 million in the Cambodia dirt. He was not paid by Streetwise Reports for this story.

( Companies Mentioned: ANK:TSX.V, OZL:ASX, RNS:ASX, )

ASEAN chief fears Thai labour drain

Source: Democractic Voice of Burma
By FRANCIS WADE
12 March 2012

Concerns that economic reforms in Burma will catalyse an exodus of millions of Burmese migrant workers from Thailand has prompted the region’s top diplomat, Surin Pitsuwan, to warn that Thai industry reliant on the cheap labour provided by its neighbour “could be in trouble”.

The ASEAN chief told staff of the Administrative Court of Thailand during a talk on Saturday that new technologies should be developed to lessen dependence on manual labour reports the Bangkok Post. The bloc is heading for full economic integration in 2015, but the fear is that migrant workers will begin returning to Burma once new industries open up and the creation of special economic zones (SEZs) gains momentum.

Migrants in Thailand make up about five percent of the county’s workforce, and provide a crucial pool of labour for low-skilled, often dangerous, industries such as fishing and construction. Up to three million people, or about 80 percent of the migrant population, are estimated to come from Burma, with the remainder largely from Laos and Cambodia.

Many occupy a quasi-legal existence in the Kingdom that creates problems when attempting to access healthcare, accident compensation and legal assistance, but Thailand has embarked on a scheme to have them registered and supplied with legitimate ID cards and passports. The deadline to complete the process is set for 14 June.

Still, however, industry is concerned that the once tempting lure of comparatively higher wages than offered in Burma is beginning to lose its potency. A scenario that sees Burmese migrants returning home would compound problems for business in Thailand, which suffered significantly from the loss of labourers who fled last year to escape Thailand’s worst flooding in more than half a century.

The Thai Public Relations Department warned last week that the country’s real estate sector “is facing severe labour shortages, causing delays in several housing construction plans” because many of the migrant workers who left last year have not returned.

But the doomsday feeling is not shared by Jackie Pollock, who runs the Thailand-based Migrant Assistance Programme (MAP) Foundation. Pollock thinks its unlikely that there will be any significant change in the migrant make up of Thailand in the coming years.

“Migrants who are in Thailand are pretty well established there – the wages are not good but they’re still better than what you’ll find in Burma,” said Pollock during an interview with DVB.

Instead the group is predicting a new wave of internal migration in Burma. “If they’re setting up the economic zones on the border and if they’re increasing the industrial zones in Rangoon then there will be new people coming from the rural regions to those economic zones, and of course they’ll eventually probably cross into Thailand anyway.”

Whether the concerns over an exodus will fuel an overhaul of the often dire conditions that migrants in Thailand are forced to work in is questionable.

“I would have hoped that Surin would push for improvement in working conditions in Thailand as a means to keep migrants here but he didn’t,” said Pollock.

Given the poor enforcement of already flimsy labour laws, employers have faced little pressure to offer the workplace rights conferred on Thai citizens to migrant workers. Moreover, there is substantial resistance among the Thai population towards implementing equal rights for migrants, despite the importance of their role for the Thai economy.

A report by the International Labour Organisation last year found that 84 percent of the 1,000 Thais surveyed felt that unauthorised migrants have broken the law. The majority also said that even authorised migrants “cannot expect the same working conditions as nationals when carrying out the same job”.
From time to time horrific accounts emerge of migrants being forced to live and work in squalid conditions: in April last year a police raid on a garment factory in Bangkok discovered 60 Burmese migrants who had been locked inside, some for up to eight months, and forced to work.

Millenium Development Goals hard to achieve: UN

Source: Deccan Herald
Anil Sinha, New Delhi, Feb 17, DHNS:

 Though it has gained remarkably in spreading primary education and containing AIDS, India is unlikely to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) for reduction of hunger as well as chid mortality, says the latest United Nations report.

The Asia-Pacific Regional MDG Report 2011-12 that was released by Union Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh on Friday has pointed out that the progress towards achieving these goals are too slow to reach the target.

One-hundred-and-eighty-nine nations in the year 2000 took a pledge to free their people from extreme poverty and multiple deprivations. This aim became the eight Millennium Development Goals to be achieved by 2015. In September 2010, the world recommitted itself to accelerating progress towards these goals.

The recent report has been jointly launched by United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific, the Asian Development Bank and the United Nations Development Programme.

It has categorised countries progressing towards achieving development goals as on-track countries and those not progressing in doing so as off-track countries.

India is on-track or early achiever on goals on education, forestry, containing AIDS or providing safe drinking water to its population, it is lagging behind on hunger, child mortality, and maternal mortality and expanding access to basic sanitation.

“A key failure has been to ensure that children in Asia and the Pacific are well nourished,” the report has noted.  However, unlike India, as the data provided in the report show, countries like Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Cambodia and Vietnam has made “heartening progress”.

The lack of infrastructure like roads and hospitals add to the worsening situation in maternal mortality, says the report. “Bangladesh, Nepal, India and Pakistan fall below the regression line, performing worse than might have been expected, possibly as a result of other factors  such as low health expenditures which reduce the supply of skilled birth attendants,” it points out.

The report also mentioned that countries like India show rural-urban disparities.

Cambodia Hands Document on Disputed Area with Thailand

Source:  Xinhua,  2012-03-09 , Web Editor: sunwanming

As ordered by the International Court of Justice last year, Cambodia has submitted additional document on disputed area with Thailand to the world's top court at The Hague in Netherlands, a senior Cambodian official said Friday.

Koy Kuong, spokesman of Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation said that Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Hor Namhong had already submitted the additional document, the follow-up papers required by the ICJ after oral arguments were made by both Thailand and Cambodia last year.

He said Cambodia was given time to present the additional document by March 8 this year while Thailand was given time to do so late last year.

Hor Namhong left Cambodia on Monday and will return home on Saturday, Koy Kuong said.

Thailand and Cambodia had fierce military conflicts following Cambodia's ancient Temple of Preah Vihear was listed as World Heritage Site in 2008. Thailand has claimed 4.6 square km of land near the temple.

The conflicts resulted in many deaths and injuries, mostly soldiers from both sides.

Following the fighting, Cambodia has sought interventions from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, and the United Nations Security Council and as well as the ICJ.

Cambodia was requesting for ICJ interpretation of the 1962 verdict that ruled in favor to Cambodia.

The ICJ, however, has not yet set any date when the interpretation will be pronounced, but government sources said that it will be within this year.