DHAKA, 10 November 2022, (TON): Two Bangladeshis were shot dead allegedly by members of India's Border Security Force along the border in Lalmonirhat's Kaliganj upazila early.

The deceased are Was Kuruni, 32, and Aynal Haque, 30.

The incident took place around 2:30am in the Lohakuchi border area of Gorol union.

Mohammad Ali, chairman of the local Bhelebari union parishad, said members of the BSF from Koimari Botfor camp of BSF-75 battalion in Gopalpur sector opened fire when several Bangladeshi cattle traders went to the border area to move cattle with the help of Indian traders.

DHAKA, 10 November 2022, (TON): The government and the IMF team have reached a staff-level agreement to support the authorities' reform policies under a new 42-month ECF/EFF arrangement of about $3.2 billion, and a concurrent RSF arrangement of about $1.3 billion.

Reform policies include, creating additional fiscal space, containing inflation and modernising the monetary policy framework, strengthening the financial sector, boosting growth potential and building climate resilience.

The staff-level agreement is subject to IMF management approval and executive board endorsement, which is expected in the coming weeks, the Washington-based multilateral lender said in a press release.

 By TON Maldives

As economic crisis is looming on Maldives an island country. Maldives is in a brittle economic state and slowly inching closer to what Sri Lanka and Pakistan are experiencing. Even as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) have cautioned the Maldivian government on the economic front, the voter mood has sobered owing to the continuing economic and forex crisis in neighboring Sri Lanka, with whom many Maldivians share familial connections. However, steep increases in prices and considerable fall in family incomes, coupled with unclear predictions about mainstay tourism sector recovery, have forced them to look up to the government for more subsidies and tax cuts, which remains a halfway street that is more subsidies but also more taxes.

According to the World Bank  the country had run more extreme budget deficits than sustainable ones and also borrowed heavily, leading to a debt of US$ 6.1 billion by the end of 2021, and  close to MVR 100 billion, an estimated 125 percent of the GDP. Of this, local debts accounted for 65 percent and international market debts, 60 percent.

The country had run more extreme budget deficits than sustainable ones and also borrowed heavily, leading to a debt of US$ 6.1 billion by the end of 2021, or close to MVR 100 billion, an estimated 125 percent of the GDP. According to the Finance Ministry figures, the government had taken a loan of 18.7 million euros from European Investment Bank, 101 million euros from another European bank and US$ 8.7 million from IDB, all adding up to MVR 2.17 billion in a single month. According to reports, the US Fed’s interest rate hike spiked the dollar value when other currencies suffered.

Available data show that external debt averaged US$ 1193.48 million from 2010 up to 2021, touching an all-time high of US$ 2448.60 million that year. Updated official figures of the government show that the nation’s debt rose to MVR 99 billion, or 113 percent of the GDP by the end of Q1 2022.

According World Bank’s report for 2020 the Maldives was among the three South Asian nations, along with Sri Lanka and Pakistan, standing neck-deep in the Chinese debt.  Surprising it is also the fact that as many as 97 countries, or close to half the number of UN member nations, are in debt to China, most of them through the BRI project.

Chinese debt accounted for 31 percent of the country’s Gross National Income (GNI). The projects funded with loans from China including the construction of the Sinamalé Bridge and the airport development project. However, the incumbent administration of President has repeatedly said that they would not default on payment, but without indicating the source for those levels of additional revenue.

This year’s World Bank report pointed out that not all debts acquired during the COVID pandemic were directed toward short-term needs, forced by the pandemic. While much of it has gone into physical and social projects, the returns, over the short, medium, and long terms may not be adequate to service those debts, leave alone repay them in full. As the total debt service costs on existing debt will jump to US$ 900 million or MVR 13.8 billion in 2026, possibly equivalent to 60 percent of 2019 revenues.

At the end of a visit by its delegation in July, when they met with the Parliamentary Committees on Public Accounts and Economic Affairs, the IMF approved the government’s economic measures and told the government and parliament panels how the nation’s economy would improve later this year.  It shows how global trends associated with the Ukraine War had spiked prices, and how the government, through subsidies, had kept inflation at 3 percent lower than the global average. The IMF delegation also commended the government’s decision to hike taxes.

The Finance Ministry has said that the budget deficit this year reached MVR 5.8 billion by the end of August, against an estimated total of MVR 9.8 billion for the whole year —against the total deficit of MVR 11 billion for fiscal 2021, ending 31 December. According to pro-Opposition media reports, the government had anticipated a revenue fall this year but has not tightened the belt enough. Tourism is the nation’s economic mainstay but future predictions of complete recovery to pre-COVID levels are not encouraging, as the current trends indicate.

Tourism is the nation’s economic mainstay but future predictions of complete recovery to pre-COVID levels are not encouraging, as the current trends indicate. The IMF has said as much, linking anticipated short-falls this year to the European winter in the absence of Russian gas to warm up which is Maldives’ peak tourism season. Given that the World Bank has said that state-owned enterprises (SOEs) posed a risk to the Maldivian economy, and efforts may have to be taken to privatize them, it could become a live politico-electoral issue as the economy is still recovering from the COVID shock.,

Rather than cutting down on expenses, the government seems to be using taxation as a means to mop up more funds. In this, the incumbent president has got support from the rival speaker camp in the party. A champion of the ‘free market economy’ in the country, the country speaker group  backed government plans to increase Goods and Services Tax (GST), from 6 to 8 percent and sector-specific Tourism Goods and Services Tax (TGST), from 12 to 16 percent. This may ensure a smooth passage for the government’s taxation drive, as the ruling MDP has a huge lead in Parliament, 65 in a House of 87.

However, the government does not have the stomach to follow speaker suggestion not to live in self-delusion on the exchange front and peg the US dollar at MVR 17 against the ‘artificially-pegged’ figure of MVR 15.42. As the dollar reserve in the central bank has dwindled to worrying levels, and the black market in US dollars continued unabated. The government’s anxiety is understandable. As steep rise in legal exchanges for families needing to travel or send money to other countries for education and healthcare emergencies. It made the government and the ruling MDP unpopular overnight.

CAIRO, 09 November 2022, (TON): African and Caribbean leaders demanded more funding and technical support from wealthier nations in the battle against global warming in a range of speeches at the UN Climate Change Conference in Egypt, or COP27.

Speaking at COP27 in the Red Sea city of Sharm El-Sheikh, South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa said the entire African continent is now experiencing the effects of climate change.

Ramaphosa said Africa should build its adaptive capacity but also urged multilateral cooperation to achieve sustainability goals.

Ramaphosa said “multilateral support is out of reach for a majority of the world’s population due to lending policies and conditionality. We need a clear road map to deliver on the Glasgow decision to double adaptation financing by 2025.”

RIYADH, 09 November 2022, (TON): Saudi Defense Minister Prince Khalid bin Salman chaired the 19th session of the Joint Defense Council of the Defense Ministers of the Gulf Cooperation Council.

The Riyadh meeting was attended by GCC defense ministers, GCC Secretary-General Nayef Falah Al-Hajraf and Commander of the GCC Unified Military Command Lt. Gen. Eid bin Awad Al-Shalawi.

The meeting discussed topics including joint military action among GCC states.

Prince Khalid said “in his opening speech that strengthening cooperation between GCC countries would preserve their fortunes and enhance their people’s achievements.”

MOSCOW, 09 November 2022, (TON): Russia and the United States are discussing holding talks on strategic nuclear weapons for the first time since Moscow sent troops into Ukraine, Russian newspaper Kommersant said, citing four sources familiar with the discussions.

Talks between the two sides on strategic stability have been frozen since Russia began its military campaign in Ukraine on Feb. 24, even as the New START treaty on nuclear arms reduction stays in effect.

The paper said “the talks may take place in the Middle East,

It added that Moscow no longer saw Switzerland, the traditional venue, as sufficiently neutral after it imposed sanctions on Russia over Ukraine.

RIYADH, 09 November 2022, (TON): “Masam”, a humanitarian landmine clearance project in Yemen, has dismantled 1,119 mines planted by the Houthi militia across the country during the first week of the month.

The work carried out by King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Center (KSRelief), said “the dismantled mines included six anti-personnel mines, 286 anti-tank mines, 816 unexploded ordnance and 11 explosive devices.”

Since the beginning of the project 371,236 mines have been dismantled.

Saudi Arabia, represented by KSRelief, seeks to clear Yemen of mines randomly planted by Houthi militia causing the deaths and injury civilians.

ANKARA, 09 November 2022, (TON): Sweden’s new prime minister, Ulf Kristersson, is meeting Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in a bid to clinch Turkish approval for his country’s bid to join NATO.

Sweden and Finland abandoned their longstanding policies of military nonalignment and applied for membership in the military alliance after Russian forces invaded Ukraine in February, fearing that Russian President Vladimir Putin might target them next.

But Turkey, which joined NATO in 1952, has been holding off on endorsing their bids, accusing Sweden and to a lesser degree Finland of ignoring Ankara’s security concerns. Erdogan’s government is pressing the two countries to crack down on individuals it considers terrorists, including supporters of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party and people suspected of orchestrating a failed 2016 coup in Turkey.

Turkey also has called for the lifting of an arms embargo imposed following its 2019 incursion into northern Syria to combat Kurdish militants.

BANGKOK, 09 November 2022, (TON): Authorities in Thailand proposed a bilateral cooperation plan to strengthen the country’s newly restored relations with Saudi Arabia, a government spokesperson said, as a high-profile investment delegation from Riyadh arrived in Bangkok.

A Saudi delegation of 150 representatives of state-owned and private enterprises led by Investment Minister Khalid Al-Falih participated on Monday in the Thai-Saudi Investment Forum organized in Bangkok by the Thai government.

A similar forum was held by Saudi authorities in Riyadh in May, following the resumption of bilateral relations earlier this year. 

Thai government deputy spokesperson Ratchada Thanadirek said “today, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has proposed a draft of a plan to strengthen bilateral relations between Thailand and Saudi Arabia in 2022 to 2024. The plan was submitted to the Cabinet and the Cabinet approved it.”

LONDON, 09 November 2022, (TON): Human Rights Watch has criticized Italy for refusing entry to two NGO rescue vessels carrying hundreds of people from Libya, labeling the move a “violation” of the European country’s human rights obligations.

Last weekend, the two ships Humanity 1 and Geo Barents docked in the port of Catania in Sicily.

But following the entry refusal, the vessels were ordered to move back to international waters, though large numbers of passengers were allowed to disembark following vulnerability assessments.

In total, 144 people left Humanity 1 and 357 people disembarked Geo Barents.