DAP: The breaking news in Cambodia: “Vietnam's footwear sector seeks ways to increase competitiveness” plus 9 more

HANOI, Nov. 4 (Xinhua) -- A seminar was held in southern Ho Chi Minh City on Friday by the Vietnam Leather and Footwear Association (Lefaso) and Dun and Bradstreet (DNB) to seek ways to increase competitiveness of the Vietnamese footwear exports, reported Vietnam News Agency.

Participants were provided with updated information about the market for their products and challenges if they seek to reach out to foreign markets.

Vietnam is becoming the world's "workshop" for footwear production and gradually joining in the global supply chain and attracting more foreign investors. However, the country's footwear industry is facing ever more pressure and competitiveness from the world market, said Pham Quang Thang, director of the FedEx Vietnam.

According to DNB Business Development Director for the Asia- Pacific Partnership, Emmanuel C. Atienza, the footwear industry is now in a difficult time, hence the enterprises should renew their production and seek more partners to enhance their competitiveness.

Businesses apply e-trade to their transactions more than participating in exhibitions and trade fairs. To ensure the safety of information and transactions, they often seek partners who have been certified by international organizations so as to prevent risks, Atienza added.

In 2011, Vietnam's footwear sector expanded to four new markets including Argentina, Chile, New Zealand and Slovakia. Export turnover is expected to reach 6 billion U.S. dollars this year.

BANGKOK, Nov. 4 (Xinhua) -- Encircled by 3.5-meter-high polder dykes fortified by stone-weighted gabions and concrete sandbags and constantly drained by gigantic water pipes, Suvarnabhumi International Airport, the most important conduit between Bangkok and outside world, is fully confident of staying proof from floods even in the "worst scenario".

In a tent-shaped operation center near a dyke in the north of the airport, workers, experts and airport officials sat around a long table under the scorching sunshine, watching over the flood waters flowing quietly along the dyke.

"Suvarnabhumi is confident of its highly capable flooding prevention system," Somchai Sawasdeepon, senior executive vice president of Airports of Thailand Public Company Limited (AOT), told a group of reporters on the site.

Don Muang Airport, a comparatively older airport in northern Bangkok also run by AOT , has been engulfed by flood waters. As a result, Somchai told Xinhua, two airliners, Nok Air and Orient Thai, which were based in Don Muang, have transferred all their flights to Suvarnabhumi, making the average number of its flights per day rise up to 900 and total passengers around 100,000.

"Suvarnahhumi is pretty stressed right now, but we will pass through it,"he said. "Even in the worst scenario, we will be safe from floods."

Samchai said the polder dyke surrounding the airport had been upgraded to fight flood. It is now 3.5m in height, 37m in width and 23.5km in length. "It is very strong and capable of preventing the penetration of water."

The construction of the airport's dyke system started in 1995 and completed in 2000. It was originally 3 meter high but has been added 50 centimeters for the floods. "We have hired 86 people and rented 46 vehicles from the Department of Highways for the reinforcement of the dyke," said Somchai."In addition, hundreds of gabions are placed for reducing water impaction and concrete is paved to reinforce sandbags."

The flooding prevention system also includes an effective water management system, he said. It is composed of eight gigantic water pumps, drainage canals and four large-volume reservoirs. The pumps can drain 1 million cubic meters of water per day which runs through the canals into the reservoirs which have the capacity to store 4 million cubic meters.

The current volume of water in the reservoirs is around 1 million cubic meters.Apart from an augmented flooding prevention system, the airport also cooperates closely with the Royal Department of Irrigation, Bangkok Metropolitan Administration and other relevant agencies to conduct 24-hour monitoring of the weather forecast and regular checking up of the dykes and water management system, according to Somchai.

Meanwhile, with the flood approaching, many residents near the airport park their cars in its parking lot to make sure that they can stay dry .

Somchai told Xinhua that the parking lot have received more than 2000 cars and is extremely crowded, but it still stays open and free for the public. "In times of difficulty, people should help each other," he said.

JAKARTA, Nov. 4 (Xinhu) -- The European Union (EU) is ready to share its experience on statistics with the Association of Southeast Asia Nations (ASEAN), an official said here on Friday.

Director for Asia, Central Asia and the Pacific of the EU Development Co-operation Office of the European Commission Dirk Meganck said that poor statistics lead to poor policy making, meaning that any improvements in statistics gathering is highly welcome.

"At first sight, it may seem that statistics are not always relevant or exciting for the average person. But sound policy is based on reliable statistics in such fields as education, health, trade, and investment. Statistics matter for both governments and regional blocks such as the EU and ASEAN and we are happy to share our 50-year experience of economic and political integration with ASEAN to promote regional cooperation in this area," said Meganck during the launch of the ASEAN Community Statistical (ACSS) Committee in ASEAN Secretariat.

Later on, Suryamin, principal secretary of Indonesia's Central Agency of Statistics told reporters that in some cases, Indonesia learned from the EU about statistics.

"For example, they can do surveys without having to meet respondents directly. They use mailing system and they can garner 100 percent of response," said Suryamin.

He also said that as a developed region, the EU has maintained data quality.

However, he said, statistics is universal.

"They have European group and we have ASEAN group, originated from statistical official meetings, that is now formalized," said Suryamin.

KABUL, Nov. 4 (Xinhua) -- The Afghan and NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) had captured multiple anti-Afghan government militants including a leader of Haqqani network on Thursday, a statement of the alliance released here Friday said.

"A combined Afghan and coalition security force captured a Haqqani network leader and detained one suspected insurgent during an operation in Zarghun Shahr district, Paktika province, yesterday," the statement asserted.

However, it did not identify  the name of the arrested leader of Haqqani network and his rank, adding "The leader operated an insurgent fighter cell in Zarghun Shahr district and was responsible for numerous attacks against Afghan forces in western Paktika."

Haqqani network is the military wing of Taliban outfit and has been operating in eastern Afghan provinces along the border with Pakistan's tribal areas and Afghan capital Kabul over the past couple of years.

The statement also said that "Afghan and NATO-led troops during a combined operation in Nawah-ye Barakzai district, Helmand province detained multiple suspected insurgents yesterday."

Taliban militants fighting Afghan and NATO-led troops have yet to make comment.

JAKARTA, Nov. 4 (Xinhua) -- The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) is set to improve and integrate their statistical data to help sharpen policy making and planning, as well as to boost development in the region.

Indonesia's State Minister for National Development Planning Armida Salsiah Alisjahbana, Director for Asia, Central Asia and the Pacific of the EU Development Cooperation Office Dirk Meganck unveiled a plaque and presented it to Deputy Secretary General of ASEAN for ASEAN Economic Community Sundram Puspanathan at an event in the ASEAN Secretariat on Friday to mark a new era in statistical cooperation across the ASEAN region with the launch of the ASEAN Community Statistical (ACSS) Committee.

The new Committee is composed of chief statisticians and heads of National Statistical Offices in ASEAN. This week the committee met for the first time marking an important milestone on the path to enhancing regional cooperation across ASEAN.

"This initiative will help the region to see more accurate and reliable figures and better quality statistical data concerning the trade in goods, trade in services, foreign direct investment and other key factors of development," said Minister Alisjahbana.

Puspanathan said that with the launch of the ACSS Committee, ASEAN is on the right track to establish the ACSS by 2015, a commitment ASEAN leaders made back in Oct. 2010 through the ASEAN Framework of Cooperation in Statistics 2010-2015.

"There is no doubt that a strengthened regional capacity in statistics will help achieve our regional integration objectives," he said.

Suryamin, principal secretary of Indonesia's Central Agency of Statistics said that the ACSS Committee is the concrete outcome of decisions taken by ASEAN to reinforce the contribution of statistics within the ASEAN Community.

HONG KONG, Nov. 4 (Xinhua) -- Hong Kong's Disaster Relief Fund Advisory Committee has approved 3.5 million HK dollars (about 451, 000 U.S. dollars) for flood victims in Thailand and Cambodia, according to a release by the city's Information Service Department.

The money was granted for two agencies to undertake aid projects. World Vision has been allocated 3 million HK dollars for relief efforts in Thailand, while the Adventist Development & Relief Agency will get 500,000 HK dollars for aid work in Cambodia.

The two agencies must submit evaluation reports and audited accounts to the committee to ensure the money is used correctly.

SEOUL, Nov. 4 (Xinhua) -- The global credit rater Standard & Poor's said Friday that the credit rating on LG Electronics would not be affected by its plan to sell new shares.

"Ratings on LG Electronics would be not affected by a capital increase. The company's financial standing is expected to mildly benefit from the rights offering, if the deal goes through," S&P said in an e-mailed statement.

The rater noted that the key rating driver for the tech firm remained its ability to improve operating performance over the next several quarters.

The world's third-largest mobile phone maker said Thursday that it would raise 1.06 trillion won (940 million U.S. dollars) in capital through a rights offering in a bid to secure funds to invest in key businesses, including smartphones.

The 19 million new shares would be sold at 55,900 won per share, a discount to Friday's closing price of 61,100 won. The shares would be offered to existing holders from Dec. 20 to Dec. 21 before forfeited stocks would be sold in a public offering. The new equities were scheduled to be listed on the main bourse on Jan. 9.

S&P downgraded last month the long-term corporate credit rating on LG Electronics by one notch to BBB-minus, citing operating underperformance in handset and display panel units. Moody's also revised down the outlook for the company's Baa2 issuer rating to negative from stable.

LG has suffered from weak earnings for a long time due to late response to the smartphone boom and soft demand for TVs globally. The handset unit posted operating losses since the second quarter of 2010, and the liquid-crystal-display business recorded losses since the fourth quarter of last year.

SEOUL, Nov. 4 (Xinhua) -- South Korea and the United States will hold a joint military drill next week to improve the allies' deterrence strategies against the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), South Korea's defense ministry said Friday.

The two-day tabletop exercise (TTX) drill will be launched next Tuesday at the U.S. Strategic Command, with Lim Kwan-bin, South Korean deputy minister for policy, and Michael Schiffer, deputy assistant secretary of defense for East Asia, in attendance.

The drill comes after the allies agreed at their annual security talks to expand the Extended Deterrence Policy Committee (EDPC), which organizes the TTX exercise, according to the ministry.

Through the exercise, South Korea and the U.S. will strengthen information-sharing and deepen their understanding of potential responses to a nuclear crisis, thus enhancing deterrence against the DPRK's "nuclear and weapons of mass destruction threats," the ministry said.

BANGKOK, Nov. 4 (Xinhua) -- A Bangkokian was wouded after he was attacked by a fugitive crocodile, escaped during flooding, Thai media reported on Friday.

A Thai man was attacked on Friday in Lak Si district in northern Bangkok.

INN news agency reported that while the victim, whose home was flooded and is now an evacueee, was sitting in a flooded area as a 1-metre long crocodile attacked him. He was bitten at his right leg.

Fortunately, a resident nearby saw the incedent and pulled him out from the crocodile. He was later sent to hospital nearby. He needed more than 100 stitches.

The crocodile escaped from the scene and is reported to still be seen in Lak Si area, INN reported.

Dozens of crocodiles have escaped from a farm in Ayutthaya provinces since the province was flooded last month. The authorities are still working to catch fugitive crodociles back before they attack more people.

The country's worst floods, caused by heavy monsoon and overflow from several dams in upper part of the country, in nearly 60 years has claimed more than 400 lives and affected almost 10 million people since mid July.

JAKARTA, Nov. 4 (Xinhua) -- Following the unperformed rice import from Thailand, Indonesia is considering to import rice from India to fulfill rice import quota this year, an Indonesian official said on Friday.

Foreign Trade Director General at Trade Ministry Deddy Saleh said that India has offered 500,000 tons of rice to be exported to Indonesia amid the government's rice import search following the flood that had halted rice export from Thailand to Indonesia.

"India has offered 500,000 tons of rice, but we have yet discussing the trade scheme regarding the offer. They demanded it to be conducted on business to business (b to b) scheme. So we would support the Bulog to comply with the scheme they asked for," Deddy said here, referring to the country's logistic agency of Bulog.

He said that Indonesia is also seeking rice imports from Cambodia and Pakistan to comply with its rice import allocation this year. Indonesia would weigh importing rice from exporters who provide best offering price.

Indonesia initially planned to import 1.6 million tons of rice this year that would come from Vietnam and Thailand.

The Bulog has settled imports of 536,000 tons of rice as of early October this year from Vietnam. Those imports were parts of rice import commitment with Vietnam at an amount of 1.2 million tons.

Indonesia has aborted rice import from Thailand that initially set at 300,000 tons due to the flooding in that country.