Almost six out of 10 global companies do not have an anti-sexual harassment policy two years after #MeToo went viral, a survey found on Tuesday, noting controversies in U.S. tech firms.With employees at Google, Facebook and Uber demanding action on sexual harassment, including a mass staff walk out at Google, the tech sector had been through a “turbulent” period, said Equileap, which researches corporate gender equality.”The high costs of sexual harassment are evident not only to individuals in terms of physical and mental stress, but also to businesses in terms of employee turnover, consumer outrage, litigation (and) corporate reputation,” it said.The #MeToo movement began in 2017 in the United States as a response to accusations of sexual assault and harassment in Hollywood and emboldened women around the world to recount their experiences of being verbally abused, groped, molested or raped.Although more of the 3,500 publicly-listed companies surveyed published sexual harassment guidelines – at 42% up from 37% in 2018 – it showed “a clear margin for improvement in a post-MeToo era,” said Netherlands-based Equileap.Eight firms – all U.S.-based – triggered an “alarm bell” for having legal judgments or cases against them linked to gender discrimination or sexual harassment, it said, including CBS television network, Facebook and J.P. Morgan Chase.Companies in 23 developed economies representing 98 million employees were ranked on 19 criteria, including gender balance, pay gap, parental leave and sexual harassment.The average gender equality score for U.S. companies was one of the lowest, although female participation in the workforce, at 39%, was above the global average of 36%.Only 33 chief executives in the Fortune 500 – the largest U.S. companies by revenue – were women, it said.Bank of America was the leading U.S. company for gender equality, ranking third globally, offering employees flexible work arrangements and 16 weeks parental leave, plus policies to support women-owned suppliers.Five of the top 10 firms were Australian, and Australian insurer Suncorp Group was the only company to achieve gender balance at board, executive, senior management and workforce levels.Equileap said Australia’s ranking was likely driven by legislation in place since 2012 requiring companies to publish comprehensive public reports on their gender equality performance each year.”Australia is an example of how enforced transparency can motivate improved performance over time,” it said.
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North Korea has conducted another apparent missile launch, hours after announcing it will hold working-level nuclear talks with the United States on Saturday.The North fired an unknown number of projectiles from the coastal town of Wonsan in Gangwon province early Wednesday, South Korea’s military said in a statement.Japanese officials described the projectile as missiles, saying one landed in Japan’s exclusive economic zone off Shimane Prefecture. The other landed just outside Japan’s EEZ, Tokyo said.If confirmed, it would be the first time in nearly two years that a North Korean rocket has landed in Japan’s exclusive economic zone.No further details about the launch were immediately available.Since MayIt is North Korea’s 11th round of launches since May, suggesting Pyongyang intends to continue its provocations even while engaging in negotiations about its nuclear weapons program.Late Tuesday, North Korea’s vice foreign minister said Pyongyang and Washington have agreed to hold long-delayed, working-level talks on October 5. The two sides will have “preliminary contact” the day before, she said.It’s not clear how the latest launch will impact the talks. U.S. President Donald Trump has said he has “no problem” with Pyongyang’s previous launches, since they were short-range.North Korea has given varying justifications for its previous launches this year. Some of the launches, it says, were aimed at sending a warning to South Korea. Others were simply a test of its military capabilities and should not be seen as a provocation, it insisted.A South Korean fighter pilot, left, stands next to his F-35 stealth fighter during a ceremony to mark the 71st Armed Forces Day at the Air Force Base in Daegu, South Korea, Oct. 1, 2019.Kim Dong-yub, a North Korea expert at Kyungnam University’s Institute for Far Eastern Studies in Seoul, said the latest launch likely has a dual message: to increase leverage ahead of working-level talks with the U.S., and to respond to South Korea’s unveiling Tuesday of advanced weaponry, including the F-35A stealth fighter acquired from the U.S.North Korea has repeatedly criticized South Korea and the U.S. for continuing military exercises and Washington’s sale of advanced weapons to Seoul.Delayed talksThe North’s announcement of talks came almost exactly three months after Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un met at the demilitarized zone separating the two Koreas and agreed to resume working-level talks.The talks have been stalled since February, when a Kim-Trump meeting in Vietnam broke down over how to pace sanctions relief with steps to dismantle North Korea’s nuclear program.It’s not clear if either side has softened their negotiating stance, though recent developments suggest an increased willingness to work toward a deal.President Donald Trump, the self-styled deal-maker, is struggling to close big deals. He heads to the United Nations this coming week with many unresolved foreign policy challenges, including North Korea.Late last month, Trump said a “new method” to the nuclear talks would be “very good.” That is especially relevant since North Korean officials have for months said the only way for the talks to survive is if the U.S. adopts a “new method” or a “new way of calculation” or similar language.Trump also recently dismissed his hawkish National Security Advisor John Bolton, who had disagreed with Trump’s outreach to North Korea.North Korea praised both developments, even while criticizing the U.S. for what it sees as provocative actions, including the continuation of joint military exercises with South Korea and weapons sales to Seoul.“It was only last Friday that North Korea indicated it would not resume talks unless Trump made a ‘wise choice,’ so between September 27 and today, the Trump administration likely sent Pyongyang a sign that the U.S. would be open to the phase-by-phase approach that North Korea has consistently called for this past year or so,” says Rachel Minyoung Lee, a Seoul-based analyst with NK News.ApproachNorth Korea has repeatedly said it is not willing to unilaterally give up its nuclear weapons. Pyongyang instead prefers a phased approach, in which the U.S. takes simultaneous steps to relieve sanctions and provide security guarantees. Until now, most Trump White House officials have insisted they are not interested in a phased approach, and that North Korea must agree to completely abandon its nuclear weapons before receiving sanctions relief.Kim and Trump have met three times since June 2018. At their first meeting in Singapore, the two men agreed to work toward the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula. But they never agreed on what that means or how to begin working toward it.Trump has said he is open to holding another summit with Kim. But it has long been unclear how the talks can advance without more substantive discussions — including technical experts — about what each side is prepared to offer and how to get there.“I hope this will at minimum reacquaint the substantive negotiators with their counterparts and perhaps lead to some actionable leads,” says Melissa Hanham, a weapons expert and deputy director at the Open Nuclear Network. “Any substantive working-level talks are good. Diplomacy is like a muscle and it needs exercise.”South Korea’s presidential Blue House released a quick statement welcoming the talks, and expressing hope that they will soon result in a process that brings lasting peace and full denuclearization to the peninsula.
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Vietnam has passed a new regulation that details prohibitions against corrupt behavior by state officials, down to the last fruit basket.Decree No. 59/2019/ND-CP requires officials to report all gifts, even small ones, and their relationship to the giver, and requires civil servants refuse to accept “improper gifts,” a term that has not been defined but is interpreted to refer to bribes.A corporate law firm, Baker & McKenzie Vietnam, notes that there used to be a threshold of 500,000 Vietnam dong, or a little more than 20 U.S. dollars, under which officials did not have to report their gifts, often received at special occasions such as weddings, funerals, and public holidays. The new decree gets rid of that threshold.“Public officials must now disclose all gifts received for an improper purpose, regardless of the value of the gift,” the law firm said in a summary of the decree for clients.The decree is the latest change as part of the country’s recent efforts to get rid of corruption, not unlike the campaign next door in China under President Xi Jinping. Vietnam has already sent bankers, city officials, and oil company executives to prison. It is now focusing on the ruling Communist Party, which in September approved another rule, Decision 205, to ban payments for promotions.Analyst Carl Thayer predicts that there will be three priorities as the party gathers in October for the Central Committee’s eleventh plenum: preparations for the next party congress; foreign policy; and anti-corruption.“Secretary General Nguyen Phu Trong is consistently and methodically carrying out a strategy to identify a core of non-corrupt strategic cadres for key party and state appointments after the thirteenth national party congress scheduled for the first quarter of 2021,” said Thayer, emeritus professor at The University of New South Wales at the Australian Defense Force Academy, Canberra. “The Communist Party of Vietnam has already approved a list of what party members cannot do, for example. Decision 205 aims to curtail, if not end, the widespread practice of paying for promotion or assignment to a particular post.”Transparency International, a watchdog organization, ranks Vietnam 117 out of 180 countries on its annual Corruption Perceptions Index. The watchdog group said getting rid of corruption would also help Vietnam meet its broader sustainable development goals as an emerging economy.“Upholding integrity and fighting corruption can play a crucial role in promoting investment and increasing local people’s income,” Nguyen Ngoc Anh and Dang Quang Vinh, two researchers at the organization, said in a report in February.Decree No. 59/2019/ND-CP is part of that effort. Besides new guidelines on illicit payments, it also further empowers police to investigate corruption, as well as holds supervisors liable for potentially corrupt actions by their staff.
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Thousands of Indonesian students resumed protests Monday against a new law they say has crippled the country’s anti-corruption agency, with some clashing with police.Authorities blocked streets leading to the Parliament building in Jakarta, where 560 members of the House of Representatives whose terms ended Monday held their last session. A police officer fires his tear gas launcher during a clash with student protesters in Bandung, West Java, Indonesia, Sept. 30, 2019.Clashes between rock-throwing students and riot police broke out in the evening when police tried to disperse the protesters, ranging from high school to university students, who attempted to reach Parliament after calm had largely returned to the country’s capital over the past four days.Protesters set fires to tires and pelted police with rocks, gasoline bombs and firecrackers near blocked streets. Riot police responded by firing tear gas and water cannons. Similar clashes also occurred in other Indonesian cities, including in West Java’s Bandung city and in Makassar, the capital of South Sulawesi province, where a student was badly injured Friday after being hit by anti-riot armor.A protest also turned violent in President Joko Widodo’s hometown of Solo city in Central Java, where an angry mob threw rocks at police, injuring at least four female officers in the head.Corruption commissionThe demonstrators are enraged that Parliament passed the law reducing the authority of the corruption commission, a key body fighting endemic graft and which has been one of the most credible public institutions in a country where the police and Parliament are seen widely as being corrupt.Student protesters run from tear gas fired by riot police during a clash in Jakarta, Indonesia, Sept. 30, 2019.The protests have grown since last week and turned violent in some cities. At least three people, including two students in Kendari city on Sulawesi island, have died and several hundred were injured. The death of the students sparked a national outcry, prompting Widodo to express his deep condolences and order the National Police chief to conduct a thorough investigation.The protests, which underline Indonesia’s challenge in changing its graft-ridden image, have threatened the credibility of Widodo, who recently was reelected after campaigning for clean governance.He faced down riots in May by supporters of the losing candidate, former Gen. Prabowo Subianto, but those events were seen as partisan politics with limited support.The new protests are not associated with any particular political party or group, and instead are led by students, who historically have driven political change. Student demonstrations in 1998 triggered events that led the country’s longtime strongman leader, Suharto, to step down.The students are demanding Widodo issue a regulation replacing the new law on the corruption commission, known by its Indonesian abbreviation, KPK. Lawmakers frequently attack the anti-graft commission and want to reduce its powers.Widodo reactionWidodo told reporters the government would not forbid student demonstrations and called on protesters to avoid damaging public facilities.”Our constitution guarantees freedom of expression, but the most important, do not be an anarchist who causes harm and violates the law,” Widodo said. A student protester throws a burning stick at riot police officers during a clash in Jakarta, Indonesia, Sept. 30, 2019.He said he has listened deeply to people’s aspirations expressed by students through the protests.Widodo said last week he was considering revoking the new anti-corruption law, but the idea was immediately opposed by members of his coalition in Parliament.Bambang Wuryanto, a lawmaker from the governing Indonesia Democratic Party in Struggle, warned that Widodo’s political image and his ties with coalition parties would be damaged.”That would mean that the president does not respect the House of Representatives,” Wuryanto said.An anti-corruption watchdog, Indonesia Corruption Watch, accused lawmakers of trying to protect themselves after the commission named 23 sitting members of Parliament as corruption suspects, including the former House speaker and leaders of political parties.Bivitri Susanti, a state-law analyst from the Center of Law and Policies Study, urged Widodo to immediately issue a government regulation to annul the revised KPK Law, saying it could give people an overview of some of the articles and procedures in the new KPK Law that are indeed problematic.”We all know that political parties have an aim to make the KPK no longer effective,” Susanti said. “The president should consider widespread people’s aspirations rather than political parties’ interests.”Indonesia, Southeast Asia’s largest economy, ranked 89th out of 175 countries in the 2018 Corruption Perceptions Index compiled by Transparency International.
 
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North Korea said Monday that tensions remain high with the United States and little has been achieved diplomatically, a year after the historic summit between the adversaries.“Relations between the DPRK and the U.S. have made little progress so far and the situation of the Korean Peninsula has not come out of the vicious cycle of increased tension,” North Korean U.N. Ambassador Kim Song told the final day of the U.N. General Assembly annual debate.“We expressed our willingness to sit with the U.S. for [a] comprehensive discussion of the issues we have deliberated so far,” Kim said of resuming bilateral talks.Kim blamed American “political and military provocations” for the stalled talks and urged Washington to find a new approach.Despite what U.S. President Donald Trump says is a positive personal relationship with North Korean leader Kim Jung Un, his administration has maintained a policy of “maximum pressure” on North Korea, supporting tough international economic sanctions until Pyongyang makes progress toward complete, verifiable and irreversible denuclearization.Talks between the U.S. and North Korea broke down after a second summit in February between Kim and Trump ended without a deal. Kim demanded a relaxation of sanctions in exchange for partial steps to dismantle his nuclear program. Trump wanted a more far-reaching deal.North Korea has conducted 10 rounds of short-range missile tests since early May. Trump has shrugged off the tests, saying he has no problem with short-range launches. Many within range of the short-range missiles do not share that assessment.During his speech last week to the U.N. General Assembly, President Trump only briefly touched on North Korea, saying it is a country “full of tremendous untapped potential, but that to realize that promise, North Korea must denuclearize.”His former national security advisor, John Bolton, said Monday that North Korea “has not made a strategic decision to give up its nuclear weapons,” and that “the strategic decision Kim Jong Un is operating through is that he will do whatever he can to keep a deliverable nuclear weapons capability and to develop and enhance it further.”Bolton, who was fired by Trump earlier in September due to policy differences, was speaking to an audience at the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies.On Monday, North Korea’s envoy put the weight of diplomacy on the United States.“It depends on the U.S., whether the DPRK-U.S. negotiation will become a window of opportunity or an occasion that will hasten the crisis,” the envoy said, using the acronym for the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, the country’s official name.He also criticized South Korea for what he said was “double-dealing behavior,” shaking hands in public but behind the scenes introducing new sophisticated weapons and holding joint military exercises with the United States.The envoy said intra-Korean relations would only improve when Seoul ends its “big power worship” and policy of dependence on foreign forces.The United States has maintained some 28,000 troops in South Korea since the end of the Korean War. 
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Thailand’s prime minister urged residents of Bangkok to wear face masks on Monday after smog covered parts of the capital in what some fear is a harbinger of more pollution to come.Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha warned in a statement on his Facebook page that the concentration of tiny dust particles called PM2.5 in the air had reached unsafe levels and said he has ordered government agencies to expedite anti-pollution measures. He also asked the construction and manufacturing sectors to reduce activities that release pollutants.Smog levels are expected to stay high for the next two or three days.The head of the country’s Pollution Control Department, Pralong Damrongthai, said the visibly dirty air was not caused by smoke originating from forest fires in Indonesia. Since last month, haze blown by monsoon winds from fires in Indonesia has affected nearby countries including the Philippines, Singapore, Malaysia and parts of southern Thailand, raising concerns about aviation safety and health.Indonesian officials say they have made progress in containing the fires, including successful efforts at rainmaking, which they say reduced the number of fire “hotspots” from more than 5,000 about two weeks ago to 491 on Sunday.Thailand’s Pralong told Thai PBS television that the problem in Bangkok is due to still air and high humidity becoming loaded with ultrafine dust from vehicle emissions, construction sites and other pollutants. He said it was then trapped close to the ground by a blanket of warm air in what meteorologists call an inversion.Thailand’s government has set a safe level of 50 micrograms of PM2.5 per cubic meter of air, although other countries have lower limits. The Pollution Control Department’s website put Monday’s level as high as 79 micrograms.PM2.5 particulates are small enough to be sucked deep into the lungs and enter the bloodstream, and can cause respiratory problems and may raise risks of cardiovascular disease and cancers.It’s the second time this year Bangkok has been blanketed with a cocktail of pollutants. Smog levels also spiked back in January.Pralong acknowledged the pollution levels might shoot up again in January and February, during the dry season, when farmers burn fields to make way for new planting, another factor that contributes to the problem. He said his department and other units are preparing more stringent measures to better handle the problem than earlier this year.As the noxious smog settled over Bangkok, many residents fished out masks from drawers and went about their business.“A lot of my friends are saying they come to the office, their noses are running. Their eyes really hurt. All of them are really coughing today. It’s not normal anymore,” said Piyavathara Natthadana, an office worker who was wearing a mask.“There’s not much we can do. We have to monitor the news and protect ourselves,” said Chakrapong Sanguanjit, another Bangkok resident walking downtown with a mask on.Some environmentalists blamed the government for failing to act fast enough, despite being well aware of the issues.“The cause of the problem is the same. The sources of the pollution are the same. But measures to control the sources of pollution are not implemented yet because they said that takes time,” said Tara Buakamsri of the environmental group Greenpeace.
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Protesters and police clashed in Hong Kong for a second straight day on Sunday, throwing the semiautonomous Chinese territory’s business and shopping belt into chaos and sparking fears of more ugly scenes leading up to China’s National Day holiday this week.Riot police repeatedly fired blue liquid – used to identify protesters – from a water cannon truck and multiple volleys of tear gas after demonstrators hurled Molotov cocktails at officers and targeted the city’s government office complex.It was a repeat of Saturday’s clashes and part of a familiar cycle since pro-democracy protests began in early June. The protests were sparked by a now-shelved extradition bill and have since snowballed into an anti-China movement.”We know that in the face of the world’s largest totalitarian regime – to quote Captain America, ‘Whatever it takes,'” Justin Leung, a 21-year-old demonstrator who covered his mouth with a black scarf, said of the violent methods deployed by hard-line protesters. “The consensus right now is that everyone’s methods are valid and we all do our part.”Protesters are planning to march again Tuesday despite a police ban, raising fears of more violent confrontations that would embarrass Chinese President Xi Jinping as his ruling Communist Party marks 70 years since taking power. Posters are calling for Oct. 1 to be marked as “A Day of Grief.””So many youngsters feel that they’re going to have no future because of the power of China,” Andy Yeung, 40, said as he pushed his toddler in a stroller. “It’s hopeless for Hong Kong. If we don’t stand up, there will be no hope.”Hong Kong’s government has already scaled down the city’s National Day celebrations, canceling an annual fireworks display and moving a reception indoors.Despite security concerns, the government said Sunday that Chief Executive Carrie Lam, Hong Kong’s leader, will lead a delegation of over 240 people to Beijing on Monday to participate in National Day festivities.Sunday’s turmoil started in the early afternoon when police fired tear gas to disperse a large crowd that had amassed in the popular Causeway Bay shopping district. But thousands of people regrouped and defiantly marched along a main thoroughfare toward government offices, crippling traffic.Protesters, many clad in black with umbrellas and carrying pro-democracy posters and foreign flags, sang songs and chanted “Stand with Hong Kong, fight for freedom.” Some defaced, tore down and burned National Day congratulatory signs, setting off a huge blaze on the street. Others smashed windows and lobbed gasoline bombs into subway exits that had been shuttered.Police then fired a water cannon and tear gas as the crowd approached the government office complex. Most fled but hundreds returned, hurling objects into the complex.Members of an elite police squad, commonly known as raptors, then charged out suddenly from behind barricades, taking many protesters by surprise. Several who failed to flee in time were subdued and detained in a scene of chaos.The raptors, backed by scores of riot police, pursued protesters down roads to nearby areas. Officers continued to fire a water cannon and more tear gas, and the cat-and-mouse clashes lasted late into the night. Streets were left littered with graffiti on walls and debris.The demonstration was part of global “anti-totalitarianism” rallies to denounce “Chinese tyranny.” Thousands rallied in Taipei, Taiwan’s capital, while more than 1,000 took part in a rally in Sydney.The protracted unrest, approaching four months long, has battered Hong Kong’s economy, with businesses and tourism plunging.Chief Executive Lam held her first community dialogue with the public on Thursday in a bid to defuse tensions but failed to persuade protesters, who vowed to press on until their demands are met, including direct elections for the city’s leaders and police accountability.Earlier Sunday, hundreds of pro-Beijing Hong Kong residents sang the Chinese national anthem and waved red flags at the Victoria Peak hilltop and a waterfront cultural center in a show of support for Chinese rule.”We want to take this time for the people to express our love for our country, China. We want to show the international community that there is another voice to Hong Kong” apart from the protests, said organizer Innes Tang.Mobs of Beijing supporters have appeared in malls and on the streets in recent weeks to counter pro-democracy protesters, leading to brawls between the rival camps.Many people view the extradition bill, which would have sent criminal suspects to mainlandChina for trial, as a glaring example of the erosion of Hong Kong’s autonomy when the former British colony returned to Chinese rule in 1997.China has denied chipping away at Hong Kong’s freedoms and accused the U.S. and other foreign powers of fomenting the unrest to weaken its dominance. 
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LG Electronics said this year it would cut smartphone production at home in South Korea and move it to Vietnam, according to Korean news reports. Meanwhile in Vietnam, the domestic conglomerate Vingroup is hawking its four Vsmart phone models to a growing domestic middle class, sending what the Vietnam Investment Review calls “ripples” through the market.These vignettes suggest that Vietnam is no longer just a world-renowned hot spot for making shoes, garments and textiles for export. The Southeast Asian country that has attracted investment in export manufacturing because of cheap labor is shifting toward higher-value goods, a boon to the economy and a challenge to China’s status as the go-to country for making items such as consumer electronics.Women work at Maxport garment factory in Thai Binh province, Vietnam, June 13, 2019.“The structure of exports has already seen a big transformation in terms of value adding,” market research firm IHS Markit’s Asia-Pacific chief economist Rajiv Biswas said, comparing 2010 to 2019.Investment in factories that make phones, computers and accessories such as earphones is leading Vietnam’s climb up the value chain, analysts say. Exports of phones, the top grossing export type, totaled $45.1 billion in 2017 and the category of computers plus other electronic goods took third place after textiles at $25.9 billion.Electronics overall make up Vietnam’s top export category, business consultancy Dezan Shira & Associates says. “There has already been a shift toward higher value adding in electronics,” Biswas said.How Vietnam is adding valueWhen Vietnam joined the World Trade Organization in 2007, textiles, garments and footwear commanded the largest share of exports, said Maxfield Brown, senior associate with Dezan Shira & Associates in Ho Chi Minh City. But electronics began to take off around that time, he said.FILE – A man presents the Vietnamese smartphones Bphones at BKAV factory in Hanoi, Vietnam, July 5, 2017.Labor in Vietnam costs 50% of what employers pay in China, the consultancy says. That edge has helped Vietnam turn itself from a war-torn country in the 1970s to one of Asia’s fastest-growing economies today.Universities and company training programs have raised the skills of Vietnamese workers to where they can make parts for electronics as well assemble finished goods, analysts in the country say. China traditionally leads in workforce education.Now Vietnam is a “clear leader as an alternative” in electronics, Biswas said, especially as China loses competitiveness to the Sino-U.S. trade war.Vietnam’s growing middle class helps it move up the value chain, too, he said. If per capita GDP, which was $2,587 last year, eventually reaches $5,000, automotive purchases will rise and attract automotive factories, Biswas said. Their cars could sell to some of Vietnam’s 95.5 million people as well as overseas. Investors that make automotive peripherals such as tires and leather seats would come in behind the manufacturers of vehicles, Biswas said.A man works at an assembly line of Vinfast Auto factory in Hai Phong city, Vietnam, June 14, 2019.One third of Vietnamese will be middle class or higher by next year, the Boston Consulting Group forecasts.Who’s who in electronicsFor now, analysts agree, electronics is the top source of higher-value exports in Vietnam.“What I’m starting to see is a specialization between different countries in particular industries, and I think that Vietnam has now become pretty widely recognized as an electronics production hub, and I would imagine that in the coming years it will continue to double down on that industry so that local companies can participate more and more,” Brown said.LG plans to move smartphone production to the Vietnamese port city of Haiphong after losing money for 15 straight quarters, Korean news outlet Hankyoreh said in April. LG declined comment for this report.The electronics giant would follow Korean peer Samsung Electronics, which has allocated more than $17 billion to its Vietnam factories and R&D. Samsung is Vietnam’s largest exporter. It joins microprocessor developer Intel as one of the first major foreign tech firms to locate in Vietnam.Vingroup started selling Vsmart phones in December and has earned a name for specs that are “quite good” compared to other low-end devices, said Thanh Vo, senior market analyst with the tech research firm IDC.The tech sector still has room to grow into higher-end gear, Biswas said.Government refocusThe Vietnamese government encourages foreign factory investment by working on its legal framework, improving infrastructure and developing a “quality” workforce, the state Foreign Investment Agency says on its website. In 2011 Vietnam began encouraging development of industries that support the tech sector.But Vietnam is holding back incentives to lower-end manufacturers now, a sign that it prefers higher-value ones, said Frederick Burke, partner with the law firm Baker McKenzie in Ho Chi Minh City.“They see the world beating a path to their door and they don’t have to give away the barn,” Burke said. “I think they’re not giving away a lot of incentives for lower-end manufacturing and that’s how they’re trying to boost in the higher-end area.”
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At least 36 people died and 36 others were injured in east China when a packed coach with a flat tire collided with a truck, authorities said Sunday.The bus was carrying 69 people, its maximum capacity, when it crossed into oncoming traffic and hit the freight truck on an expressway in eastern Jiangsu province Saturday morning, the Yixing public security bureau said.A preliminary investigation determined the accident was caused by a flat tire on the left front wheel of the bus, the bureau said in a statement.Nine people were seriously injured, 26 were slightly hurt and one was discharged from the hospital.The Changchun-Shenzhen expressway reopened after eight hours of rescue work.Deadly road accidents are common in China, where traffic regulations are often flouted or go unenforced.According to authorities 58,000 people were killed in accidents across the country in 2015, the last available figures.Violations of traffic laws were blamed for nearly 90 percent of accidents that caused deaths or injuries that year. 
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At 5:30 p.m. sharp, six days a week, the Pit Stop Community Café rolls up its metal shop door on a quiet street in central Kuala Lumpur and welcomes in some of the Malaysian capital’s most needy for a warm, hearty meal, free of charge.Some of the café’s regulars who count on the soup kitchen to make it through each day, though, earn too much to meet the government’s definition of the poor.  A growing number of experts, most recently from the U.N., say that the official numbers miss millions of people who would qualify as poor almost anywhere else, leaving them cut off from critical state benefits and with too few of others to make a difference.Having made only modest adjustments to its official poverty line since the 1970s, the government can claim to have all but routed poverty among its 32 million people, and at 0.4% Malaysia has the lowest self-reported poverty rate of any country for which the World Bank has figures. Neighboring Thailand claims an 8.6% poverty rate.The latest rebuke of Malaysia’s figures came from U.N. Special Rapporteur on Extreme Poverty and Human Rights Philip Alston. After wrapping up an 11-day visit last month, he praised the government for “huge strides” in reducing poverty but called the current poverty line of about $234 a month “ridiculous.” That sum would leave each person in a family of four living on less than $2 a day.A man sleeps on a sidewalk in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. (Z. Peter/VOA)”It can’t be done, except under really dire circumstances,” Alston told a news conference in Kuala Lumpur.Many Malaysians above the line “are living in conditions that are extremely difficult, extremely tough, conditions that by any international standard would have them classified as living in poverty,” he added.In a report that followed, Alston said the country’s “highly unrealistic” poverty line has fostered a misunderstanding of who is poor that has left the country’s social safety net underfunded and overstretched. He said the Malaysian government also stood out for its extreme hoarding of household survey data, stifling research that might help solve the problem.A poverty line is meant to mark the minimum a person or household needs to earn to afford the bare essentials of a healthy life, including food and shelter.’Not enough’The Pit Stop is one of dozens of soup kitchens across Malaysia’s capital on the front line of the country’s problem, where the promise of the country’s poverty line meets stark reality.”It’s not enough. It’s very simple; it’s not enough,” Pit Stop cofounder Joycelyn Lee told VOA before closing shop for the night, surrounded by upturned chairs and supplies for the next day’s meals.At the same time, though, she’s not sure raising the poverty line would do much good. Like Alston and others, she says the government’s reluctance to release detailed data makes it hard to know what the consequences might be.One worry she says she has is that raising the poverty line might boost inflation, which would hit everyone, especially the poor.  She said that in the past the government has linked the poverty line and minimum wage, so that increasing one increases the other.Pit Stop co-founder Andrea Tan says the issue “is a political hot potato, because we are still a manufacturing country.”FILE – A homeless woman sits with her children outside closed shops in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Feb. 17, 2016.Government officials “are very worried that if you increase wages high enough, a lot of factories, a lot of companies will run away to cheaper places like Vietnam,” she said.At the same time, Lee and Tan place the responsibility for the country’s low poverty line and wages as much on foreign companies and consumers as the government.If they rise, Lee said, multinational companies will turn to the government, “and they will threaten to leave.””So it’s a hot seat,” she said, “What are you going to do? Are those companies willing to pay more? Are people that buy the products from these companies willing to pay more?”The ‘B40’Christopher Choong Weng Wai, deputy director of research at Malaysia’s Khazanah Research Institute, favors raising the poverty line, as long as the government uses it to target social assistance more effectively.Because Malaysia’s official poverty rate is so low, the government has shifted its social assistance efforts to the bottom 40% of income earners, referred to here as the B40, the vast majority of whom are officially not poor.   “But the problem is that the allocation for subsidies and social assistance for the B40 has not kept up. So it is not so much underinvestment, but rather spreading out subsidies and social assistance to a larger target group. So breadth of coverage improves, but depth of coverage deteriorates,” the research director said.FILE – People eat near a public housing complex in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia April 21, 2018.In his report, Alston raised the example of cash transfers to the B40. Because they go to so many, he said, “the payments are so small as to make little difference.” A report UNICEF Malaysia prepared for Alston in June also found that the country’s tax and social protection systems “have virtually no redistributive or poverty reduction impact.”
The question is what Malaysia’s real poverty rate is.Lee, Tan and Choong Weng Wai were all wary of offering ideas without more data and research. Alston also refrained from making his own suggestion.A recent study by economist and former World Bank research department director Martin Ravallion found that, when compared to other countries with a similar average income to Malaysia’s, about 20% of the population — 6.4 million people — should be considered to be in poverty. Research by Khazanah found that setting the poverty line at 60% of the country’s median income would put 22.2% of Malaysians below it.When asked for comment on the barrage of criticism of the poverty line, Malaysia’s Economic Affairs Ministry referred VOA to a statement it issued responding to Alston’s remarks and report.In it, the ministry stands by its numbers. It says it derived them using internationally accepted standards and calls Alston’s accusation of statistical deception “wholly unacceptable and irresponsible.” However, the ministry says it is reviewing the way it sets the poverty line to account for the rising cost of living while also taking into account more than just income. 
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The Trump administration is reportedly considering delisting Chinese companies from American stock exchanges as a way to limit U.S. investment in China.The move, first reported by Bloomberg News, would further escalate the ongoing trade war between the world’s two largest economies.Delisting the companies is part of a broader administration plan to limit U.S. investment in China, according to the report, which cited a U.S. government official.Administration officials are also exploring how the U.S. could place limits on the Chinese firms that are included in U.S. stock indexes, the report said.The mechanisms for how to execute delisting the companies has yet to be determined and any plan that is developed must be approved by U.S. President Donald Trump.The report surfaced as trade talks between the U.S. and China are set to resume in Washington October 10.Both countries have already imposed billions of dollars of tariffs on each other’s goods.There was no immediate comment from the White House.
 
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Indonesia’s anti-graft commission on Friday arrested a former sports minister accused of stealing public money, as students across the country protested a new law that critics say will cripple the commission.Youth and Sports Minister Imam Nahrawi faces graft charges related to a National Sports Committee grant which he allegedly used for himself. He faces up to 20 years’ imprisonment if found guilty.Nahrawi resigned last week after the Corruption Eradication Commission announced that he was suspected of personally using the 26.5 billion rupiah ($1.8 million) grant.”I am ready to undergo my destiny,” Nahrawi told reporters before entering a car to be taken to a holding cell after being questioned by investigators. “Please pray for me in facing this destiny.”Commissioner Alexander Marwata earlier said Nahrawi is suspected of receiving about $1 million in bribes through his personal assistant, Miftahul Ulum, who was also named a suspect, between 2014 and 2018. He said Nahrawi allegedly asked for an additional $830,000 between 2016 and 2018.FILE – Plain-clothed police officers arrest a student protester during a rally in Makassar, South Sulawesi province, Indonesia, Sept. 26, 2019.His arrest came during a week of violent demonstrations by thousands of students across the country against the new law. At least three people, including two students, died and several hundred others were injured.The demonstrators are enraged that Parliament passed the law reducing the authority of the corruption commission, a key body fighting endemic graft in the country.The death of the students sparked a national outcry, prompting President Joko Widodo to express his deep condolences and order the National Police chief to conduct a thorough investigation.Clashes between protesters and police continued Friday in various cities, including in Makassar and Medan, as calm largely returned to Jakarta after three straight days of violent protests.The anti-graft commission, one of the few effective institutions in the country of nearly 270 million people, is frequently under attack by lawmakers who want to reduce its powers.Previous casesNahrawi is the second minister in Widodo’s Cabinet to be arrested for alleged graft after former social affairs minister Idrus Marham, who was sentenced to five years in prison for involvement in a bribery case related to a coal-fired power plant project on Sumatra island.Nahrawi is also the second sports and youth minister to resign after being accused of corruption after Andi Mallarangeng, who served under former President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.Mallarangeng was sentenced in 2014 to four years in jail and fined $17,000 for accepting $720,000 from a contractor for a $122 million sports complex in the West Java village of Hambalang.The cases, which underline Indonesia’s challenge in reducing graft, have threatened the credibility of Widodo, who recently won reelection after campaigning for clean governance.
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