FOX News : Health

26 August, 2012

Bangladesh garment unrest worries global buyers

Wednesday, July 25th 2012
This article was distributed through the NewsCred Smartwire. Original article © Agence France Presse 2012

Bangladesh has assured international buyers that unrest will be settled, after 300 factories were shut down due to employee riots. Workers were demanding higher wages in the wake of rising food and rent prices.

Bangladesh's government has promised top Western buyers of the country's garments that it will address unrest in the textile sector over soaring living costs, it said Wednesday.

25 August, 2012

Haitian Paint Firm to Begin Operations at Caracol Industrial Park This Year

Source: CJ-Caribbean Journal
July 25, 2012

By the Caribbean Journal staff

Peintures Caraibes, the first Haitian tenant at Haiti’s new Caracol Industrial Park, expects to hire around 160 workers and begin operations there this year.

The paint manufacturer, which will continue operating its factory in Port-au-Prince, was the second tenant to sign on at the park, which is a project financed by the Inter-American Development Bank and the United States government.

24 August, 2012

Vietnam downwardly revises 2012 garment export target


Source: Fibre2Fashion
August 18, 2012 (Vietnam)
Fibre2fashion News Desk - India

Vietnam Textile and Apparel Association (VITAS) has reduced the garment and textile export-value target for the current year from US$ 19 billion to US$ 17-17.5 billion, mainly due to sluggish export growth and a drop in orders.

Although Vietnam’s garment and textile exports grew at a year-on-year rate of 7.5 percent to reach US$ 9.2 billion during the first seven months of the year, the export growth rate was far below the 30 percent growth achieved during the same period last year.

Garment enterprises face obstacles after relocation from city

Source: Saigon GP Daily
Thursday, Aug 23, 2012
By My Hanh - Translated by Uyen Phuong

While the idea of relocating enterprises causing pollution, or employing a huge work force, outside of Ho Chi Minh City limits seems like a healthy policy, actually transferring them to the suburbs or outlying provinces has many obstacles.

18 August, 2012

Thailand must show maturity in handling Preah Vihear

By Supalak Ganjanakhundee
The Nation/Asia News Network
Wednesday, Aug 15, 2012

Time is fast running out.

Maybe Parliament has forgotten it has an urgent task to consider the terms of reference (TOR) for Indonesia's observer team in the demilitarisation process at the disputed Preah Vihear temple, in accordance with the International Court of Justice (ICJ)'s injunction.

17 August, 2012

Vietnam garment sector must explore new markets - Experts


Fibre2Fashion
August 14, 2012 (Vietnam)  

Exploring new markets is the best way to boost the Vietnamese garment industry, said legislators and industry experts while speaking at a seminar held to ponder on the ways to increase the sector’s sales.
The seminar focusing on solutions to access resources and taking the local garment business to the international level was jointly organized by the Vietnam Textile and Apparel Association (VITAS) and Vietinbank, in association with Dun&Bradstreert (D&B) in Ha Noi.
Rising at a steady annual growth rate of seven to eight percent, Vietnam’s textile and garment exports reached US$ 9.3 billion over the past seven months, which is considered to be quite moderate as compared to the 22 percent growth achieved by the economy during the same period.
VITAS Deputy Chairwoman and General Secretary, Dang Phuong Dung, said the US, EU, South Korea and Japan were the key export destinations for Vietnamese apparels during the period. 
She said the country’s exports to South Korea have risen after the inking of a bilateral Free Trade Agreement (FTA) between South Korea and some of the ASEAN countries, including Vietnam.
During 2011, inflation was low and export orders were good, but this year, as the US is grappling against public debt crisis and unemployment problems, consumer demand has reduced, which has impacted Vietnam’s garment exports. In addition, the eurozone crisis has also badly hit Vietnamese garment exports.
In such a situation, exploring new markets would be the best way to boost demand of Vietnamese garments, said Ms. Dung. She said there is a need to enhance trade promotions to enable local apparel producers to better explore and penetrate in new markets.
Speaking at the seminar, Vietinbank’s Nguyen Thi Khanh Phuong said aiming to reduce reliance of garment exporters on foreign currencies, Vietinbank would help them balance their forex demand between garment and textile sectors, while ensuring payment ability and reducing the exchange rate risks.

Fibre2fashion News Desk - India

15 August, 2012

Thai forces 'kill 38 Cambodian loggers in six months'

AFP
14 August 2012

PHNOM PENH — Thai forces shot dead 38 Cambodians in the first half of this year for illegally crossing the border to log for valuable timber, according to the Cambodian authorities.

A further 10 Cambodians were injured in incidents with Thai border forces and 194 were arrested, though not all of them on suspicion of illegal logging, the Cambodia-Thailand Border Relations Office said in a report dated August 12.

13 August, 2012

UN chief launches new initiative to back post-2015 development planning

Source: Xinhua, 10 August 2012


UN Secretary-General Ban Ki- moon on Thursday announced the Sustainable Development Solutions Network to support the work of the post-2015 development planning in order to keep the momentum of spurring global development after 2015, the deadline for the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which represent eight anti-poverty targets.

The new initiative includes the recently-launched High-level Panel of Eminent Persons on the Post-2015 Development Agenda, UN spokesman Martin Nesirky said at a daily news briefing.

01 August, 2012

Garment makers move to right labour wrongs

The Daily Star
Wednesday, August 1, 2012

Share their steps with The Daily Star following international outcry

Against the background of growing concern over labour rights violation in Bangladesh, garment makers yesterday said they had taken the issue seriously and started to improve work environment and maintain compliance in factories.
សារព័ត៌មានអន្តរជាតិInternational News

BBC News - US & Canada

CNN.com - RSS Channel - HP Hero

Top stories - Google News

Southeast Asia Globe

Radio Free Asia

Al Jazeera – Breaking News, World News and Video from Al Jazeera

NYT > Top Stories

AFP.com - AFP News

The Independent

The Guardian

Le Monde.fr - Actualités et Infos en France et dans le monde

Courrier international - Actualités France et Monde