JAKARTA, 07 June 2022, (TON): Indonesia and Australia expressed hopes and commitments to strengthen relations, as a meeting between their two leaders raised expectations for a refresh in bilateral ties.

Indonesian President Joko Widodo had hosted Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese at the state palace in Bogor, West Java, on the latter’s first bilateral visit since his inauguration last month.

A livestream of the visit showed them riding bamboo bicycles around the compound.

In a joint press statement, Widodo and Albanese addressed the importance of expanding the two countries’ trade and investment relationship and highlighted their ambition to better utilize the Indonesia-Australia Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement.

They also discussed Australia’s $144 million offer for a climate and infrastructure partnership with Indonesia.

KYIV, 07 June 2022, (TON): Local officials said “Ukrainian troops suffered setbacks after retaking parts of flashpoint eastern city Severodonetsk from Russian forces.”

With Russia bringing the weight of its artillery to bear around Severodonetsk, the largest city in the Lugansk region not under Russian control, more help was promised from abroad.

The United Kingdom said it would follow the United States and send long-range missile systems to Ukraine, defying warnings from Russian President Vladimir Putin against supplying Kyiv with the advanced weapons.

Thousands of civilians have been killed and millions forced to flee their homes since Putin ordered Russian troops into Ukraine on February 24.

By TON Research Desk

Since its independence, Myanmar has been troubled by ongoing violence between Myanmar’s ethnic minorities, the majority Bamar and the military regime. The country’s various ethnic minority groups together representing about a third of the population have been sidelined, resulting in roughly 20 EAOs that have conducted periodic rebellions.

Currently, the National Unity Government (NUG) has announced that the Peace Talks of Myanmar Régime with Ethnic Armies is unlawful because the regime has usurped the democratic process and values in Myanmar.

In Myanmar, the ethnic armed organizations (EAOs) are a variety of rebel groups that range in size from minor forces numbering in the hundreds to higher organizations arranging several thousand well-armed fighters.

On Wednesday, Myanmar’s parallel National Unity Government (NUG) announced that any agreements made with the terrorist regime are illegal and warned that they won’t be recognized, as the junta sustained to hold talks with a number of ethnic armed organizations (EAO).

After the regime coup, Myanmar has promptly subverted into widespread protests and haphazard ferocity. Myanmar is still in turmoil with the imprisonment of thousands of civilian deaths and killings since the military (Tatmadaw) overthrew a democratically elected government on 1 February 2021.

The role of Myanmar’s ethnic armed organizations (EAOs) choose to adopt could become key to the country’s long-term stability. As situation descended into outright civil war and having profound implications not only for the people of Myanmar but also for regional stability

After the start of dialogue and political solutions, the role of groups with armed forces became more prominent. The post-coup stances of Myanmar’s nearly two dozen ethnic armed organizations (EAOs) that have fought against the military regime will be a determinant in the country’s future.

Recently, the United Wa State Party (UWSP), the political wing of the United Wa State Army (UWSA), the country’s most powerful EAO, met with the junta chief Senior General. After the meeting, the regime said that the UWSP agreed on the principle of establishing a federal democracy and that it agreed in principle to the UWSP’s demand for an autonomous state for ethnic Wa people.

The eastern Shan State-based UWSP is the fourth EAO to hold talks with the regime, following the Restoration Council of Shan State, the New Mon State Party and the Karen National Union/Karen National Liberation Army – Peace Council. In earlier meetings, the parties were reported to have discussed establishing a federal multi-party democracy and to have reached some general “agreements”.

On Wednesday, the NUG, which has wide public support and backing overseas, said in a categorical statement that the military regime is a terrorist organization that will be tried at the International Court of Justice for committing war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide.

The NUG has also said that regime has no de jure power mandated by the people or de facto power to govern the country. Since last year’s coup, the junta has killed at least 1,878 people and detained around 14,000 more. The NUG declared the regime a terrorist organization in June 2021.

The National Unity Government (NUG) further said that regime has no moral and legal right to negotiate with contracting parties like a union government. Therefore any negotiations with the terrorist regime are illegal and won’t be recognized by the NUG and any of its successors.

Overwhelmed by increasing equipped confrontation across the country, coup leader invited leaders of ethnic armed organizations (EAO) who are both signatories and non-signatories to the Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement (NCA) for talks in late May “to finish equipped fight”.

Seven of the ten signatories to the NCA accepted the invitation and the non-signatories the Shan State Progress Party, the UWSP, and the National Democratic Alliance Army. Other major EAOs are currently fighting the regime and rejected the junta’s offer of peace talks by calling it non genuine. However, peace and harmony looks faded unless and until the participation of National Unity Government (NUG) in this whole process.

LONDON, 07 June 2022, (TON): British Prime Minister Boris Johnson faces a crunch Conservative Party confidence vote later after 54 of his Tory MPs triggered a contest following a string of scandals that have shattered confidence in his leadership.

The beleaguered UK leader has spent months battling to maintain his grip on power after the so-called “Partygate” controversy saw him become the first serving UK prime minister found to have broken the law.

If he loses, he will be forced to step down as Conservative party leader and prime minister.

A scathing internal probe into the scandal said last month that he had presided over a culture of lockdown-breaking parties in Downing Street that ran late into the night and featured a drunken fight among staff.

BEIRUT, 07 June 2022, (TON): Lebanon warned Israel against any aggressive action in disputed waters where both states hope to develop offshore energy, after a ship arrived off the coast to produce gas for Israel.

President Michel Aoun said “any activity in the disputed area would amount to an act of aggression and a provocation, after the arrival of the natural gas storage and production ship operated by London-based Energean.”

Israel says “the field in question is within its exclusive economic zone, not in disputed waters.”

But in a statement, the Lebanese presidency said “Michel Aoun discussed with caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati the vessel’s entry into the disputed maritime area with Israel.”

DHAKA, 07 June 2022, (TON): Expatriates' Welfare and Overseas Employment Minister Imran Ahmad has urged Japan to create more employment opportunities for skilled Bangladeshi workers.

According to a press release of the ministry “the minister made the call in a meeting with Japanese Ambassador to Bangladesh Ito Naoki at the ministry in the capital.”

The release added “they discussed about how Bangladesh can send more skilled workers to Japan.”

Imran Ahmad said “Bangladeshi workers have been working with a good reputation in infrastructure and other sectors in different countries.”

DHAKA, 07 June 2022, (TON): British High Commissioner to Bangladesh Robert Chatterton Dicks condoled the loss of lives in the deadly fire at BM Container Depot at Sitakunda in Chittagong.

UK Minister of State for Foreign Commonwealth and Development Affairs Tariq Ahmad, who is of Bangladeshi origin, also extended his deepest condolences to all those affected by the blaze.

He tweeted "shocked and saddened to see reports of the tragic container depot fire in Chittagong in Bangladesh.”

Robert Chatterton Dickson said “he was shocked to see reports of the impact of the fire and hear of the lives lost and people injured.”

DHAKA, 07 June 2022, (TON): A bill titled Bangladesh Atomic Energy Commission Bill 2022 was placed in the parliament.

The bill placed by science and technology minister Yeafesh Osman in Jatiya Sangsad aiming to change the names of two posts in the Bangladesh Atomic Energy Commission.

The bill has been sent to the parliamentary standing committee concerned.

The committee was asked to submit its report within 30 days.

According to the bill “there are two deputy-secretary ranked posts, finance advisor and secretary, in the commission posted by public administration ministry.”

As per the Cabinet Division directives issued on October 23, 2019, if there is any post called assistant secretary, deputy secretary, additional secretary and secretary in any office under any ministry or division, that name of the post has to be changed.

By Farzana Tamannur (TON Bangladesh)

Prime minister Sheikh Hasina repeated her call for the global help to ensure dignified and peaceful repatriation of over 1.1 million Rohingyas, as she addressed the IX Moscow Conference on International Security.

She said, ‘You are attentive that Bangladesh has been hosting more than 1.1 million forcibly displaced Myanmar nationals-Rohingyas for about four years. They are posing huge security threat to Bangladesh in addition to the region. We have sheltered them on humanitarian ground but such a huge population cannot be lodged for indefinite period,’

The prime minster show gratitude the government of Russian Federation for hosting this event and expected that this conference would permit all to deal with the most convincing and urgent global and local security issues.

Sheikh Hasina also put importance on confirming vaccination to all to fight Covid-19, stopping financing and supply of arms to terrorists, humanitarian assistance to the marginalized people, safe return of all Rohingyas to Myanmar, and increasing cooperation among military agencies to ensure global security.

In this connection, she said, ‘I appreciate the recent ceasefire between Israel and Palestine. I hope peace and stability will prevail in the Middle East as well as in other parts of the world.’

Stating that conflicts among states give rise to intrastate security problems, she said that the concept of security now includes, along with military threats, the socio-economic and political needs of individuals, mass involuntary migration, environmental security and other non-traditional security threats.

Even, new challenges and concerns of international security arise because of terrorism, separatism, weapons of mass destruction, extremism, cyber crimes, regional conflicts and ecological catastrophes, she said, referring to Bangladesh’s zero tolerance policy toward extremism and terrorism.

Mentioning that the COVID pandemic is one of the most pressing international issues of the present time, the prime minster said that it has not only taken a heavy toll on lives, but also worn out the economies and affected the livelihood of millions of people across the world.

Sheikh Hasina said that her government had shown flexibility in fighting the pandemic by confirming available healthcare support for all and providing suitable incentives to different sectors.

The prime minister uttered her firm belief that this forum would stress on finding out efficient solutions to the problems to reinforce international security.

She added that Bangladesh had been maintaining its guiding principle of the foreign policy ‘friendship to all, malevolence towards none’ as postulated by Sheikh Mujib.

The prime minister said being a democratic and peace-loving country, Bangladesh trusts in resolving all local and international disputes throughout peaceful means as it knows the pains of losing near and dear ones as it lost 3 million lives in the country’s liberation war in 1971.

Since December 2020, Bangladesh has been rearranging Rohingya refugees from Cox’s Bazar to a remote island called Bhashan Char. Since then, some 20,000 Rohingyas have been repositioned to the island so far. These are the part of 100,000 Rohingyas that the government of Bangladesh plans to reposition in its move to decongest the refugee camps in Cox’s Bazar. While the Bangladesh government has been determined on the rearrangement plan, which started in 2015, others have been skeptical of the move concerning safety and concerns over forcible rearrangement and violation of global human rights obligations. International agencies including the United Nations, Human Rights Watch, along with Refugees International, have called for a stop to the relocation procedure saying the island, which came out from the sea 20 years ago and has never been populated, is flood-prone and susceptible to cyclones. 

On May 31, thousands of frustrated Rohingya refugees staged demonstration against the living situation in the island camp during a visit by U.N. officials. A section of protester allegedly became “disorderly” and conflicted with police; some refugees were injured. While the U.N. refugee agency (UNHCR) issued a statement raising worries over the event, Bangladesh’s Foreign Ministry said that global media and civil society organizations were campaigning against Bhasan Char and Rohingya rearrangement with “unclear information misrepresenting the facts.” Amid such situation, the Rohingya find them caught between the perpetual limbo of the refugee camps as well as an insecure homeland in Myanmar.

At a time while repatriation is still a distant dream for most Rohingya refugees, their extended and indefinite stay continues to pose a challenge to Bangladesh’s inner stability. The world community must distinguish Bangladesh’s concern and make intensive efforts to address the challenges contiguous the complex state.

By TON Research Desk

The plague and the pandemic have severely affected the Bhutanese economy, impacting all segments of societal parity, and the national debt of the country stands at 130.9 percent at Nu 247.68 billion of its gross national product (GDP) in the first quarter of 2022.

An economy with one or few resources tends to be volatile and vulnerable. The productivity-led growth is more resilient, inclusive, and equitable which Bhutan needs to prioritize and pursue a fresh economic policy to overcome the financial debt.

Industrious growth can be encouraged by adding labor, money, and more competence to the economy. Bhutan should have policy and deliberations to classify productivity-led sectors to realize and endure firm financial progress.

Bhutan saw economic growth of 6 percent on average over the last three decades which is slow compared to the countries of similar economic structures and size. Bhutan’s financial growth is unstable because having a standard deviation of growth over regular growth, the capriciousness of 0.76 is meaningfully higher than other countries of the same economy size.

The swaying growth for a small economy is not a very stable economic growth. Bhutan’s economy shrank by 10.1 percent in 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The economy of least developed countries grew in 2020, while the South Asian economy contracted by 5.7 percent, India by 7.5 percent, and the global economy by 3 percent, but Bhutan’s contraction was by a large margin. Bhutan faced more global shocks because of the tourism and trade sector in 2020.

The high external debt, he said, is an additional source of vulnerability. According to him, if the growth rate averages 5 percent during the next decade, the debt to GDP ratio would exceed 200 percent by 2030 and at that point, it will slow the economic growth and sudden shocks will exacerbate debt sustainability risks.

Hydropower’s share in total exports saw a significant increase from 33 percent in 2011 to 57 percent in 2020, but the share of non-hydro power export decreased from 25 percent to 11 percent which deteriorated the country’s balance of payments.

The in GDP calculation, the net exports are a major contributor to economic growth. However, it has not developed while imports have increased significantly. On the other hand, the agricultural sector employs nearly half of the workforce and is the smallest industrious sector in the Bhutanese economy. The hydropower sector employing about 4,000 people generated over USD 300 million of gross value added in 2020.

The productivity also decayed in the tourism and hospitality sector and was low in the wholesale, retail, industrial, and conveyance sector. Another challenge is that Bhutan has a small and remarkably slow-growing population and is one of the slowest rising populace groups in the world.

One of the tasks is that nearly 60 percent of Bhutanese living in the countryside areas produced 15.8 percent of its GDP-estimated GDP per capita in the rural economy compared with the national GDP per capita of about USD 3,200. GDP per capita in the urban sector is over USD 8,000. There is a large rural-urban revenue disparity, which will upsurge if rural efficiency growth continues to decay.

Bhutan requisite to detect new development areas to engross labor stuck in low productivity agriculture and tourism sectors and without hydropower, the economy would have contracted much lower than 10.1 percent and the central bank projected at -25 percent.

The Bhutanese economy faces challenges being an import-driven economy and faces the same deficit problems, which are highly present account deficit and internal deficit and Bhutanese Ngultrum being pegged with the Indian currency.

However, the government is trying to engrave monetary rules and options to push the driving factors of growth. The three triggers of the Bhutanese economy are the government’s capital expenditure, hydropower, and private investment.

As a fiscal-dominated economy, the private sector has very limited space for economic growth and the government has to be the driver until the private sector takes over the economy. The private sector is at a nascent state and the bureaucratic and licensing processes make it tighter and even deprive access to finance since banks find it risky.

Economic change is one of the solutions but it is very important to know the other sources of growth besides hydropower. More than 60 percent of the sectorial loans comprise the imports and consumption loans, which would be not helpful. However, these resources have to channel to productivity growth sectors to produce occupation.

At the moment, the central bank does not have money control and cannot pump as much liquidity into the economy because of the currency being pegged. “If the peg is distorted, we might have to pay more for hydropower debt.

However, financial inclusion, literacy planning, and policy considerations could play a significant role which will make the Bhutanese public and country monetarily independent and prosperous.