Khmer-Cambodia Spy: DAP: The breaking news in Cambodia: “Asian companies prefer to outsource debt collections: study” plus 6 more

DAP: The breaking news in Cambodia: “Asian companies prefer to outsource debt collections: study” plus 6 more

Asian companies prefer to outsource debt collections: study
Economic issues to dominate ASEAN summit
Cambodia, Thailand to keep calm over border row regardless of ICJ's decision
ASEAN leaders expected to boost regional integration at summit
Regional connectivity, maritime CoC expected to be under spotlight at ASEAN Summit
Thailand to continue good ties with Cambodia despite border dispute
Thailand to continue good ties with Cambodia despite border dispute

Asian companies prefer to outsource debt collections: study

Posted: 22 Apr 2013 12:20 AM PDT

MANILA, April 22 (Xinhua) -- Most Asian companies choose to outsource debt collection given the great difficulty involved with settling mounting invoices, according to recently-released study.

According to Global Collections Review, released by international debt collecting firm Atradius Collections, 16 percent of executives in Asia Pacific countries said it is "highly likely" for them to outsource their collections, while 34 percent said it is "likely" for them to do so.

In an interview Monday, Tony Au, senior regional manager for Asia Pacific for Atradius Collections, said debt collecting in the region is "more challenging and tends to take longer to resolve."

Au attributed this to several factors including "the business culture, language barrier, and issues regarding jurisdiction."

"The legal proceedings in Southeast Asia usually takes many years, need multiple hearings before a final judgement is handed down. The solicitors'fees are not cheap and upfront payment is expected," Au said in an interview with Xinhua.

Atradius Collections, an Amsterdam-headquartered company, has several offices worldwide. But it's now strengthening its Southeast Asia office owing to a fast growing demand in the region.

Atradius' Southeast Asian office, which is based in Singapore, handles all collections activities for the region, including Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam.

Raymond van der Loos, managing director of Atradius Collections, said South East Asia-based companies have had to grapple with the difficulty of convincing partners to settle their debts.

"While some companies do it within their organization, outsourcing it to a debt collection agency makes the process smoother for all parties concerned," he said.

This is because collection agencies, such as Atradius, uses negotiation and persuasion techniques to convince a debtor to pay hence avoiding costly legal battles caused by unpaid debts.

This is why, Au said, most creditors will rather assign their debts to a collection agency than to proceed legal actions to pursue their debts.

"Credit information and litigation records are easily available in the region. It's difficult to estimate the creditability and ability to pay of the debtor," he added.

But Atradius officials said outsourcing debt collection will not only benefit homegrown companies. Asia, after all, is home to some of the world's fastest growing economies, luring global firms to establish offices here, tempted by the growing market. In Southeast Asia, in particular, many global companies have set up their regional office in Singapore to serve the South Eastern region.

Despite the market potential that Asia presents to global companies and investors, they are also facing challenges when collecting in the region. They need to know about local taxation and the legal systems. Atradius officials said debt collecting companies will definitely help them handle these challenges.

Economic issues to dominate ASEAN summit

Posted: 22 Apr 2013 12:19 AM PDT

BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN, April 22 (Xinhua) -- Economic concerns are set to top the 22nd Association of Southeast Asian Nations ( ASEAN) summit agenda hosted by Brunei, officials said here on Monday.

Leaders of 10 ASEAN countries will gather on Wednesday to continue discussions on key economic and political issues in the Asia Pacific.

They are expected to push ahead with measures to meet the ASEAN integration target by 2015, which will be a main topic with the title of the summit being "Our People, Our Future Together."

ASEAN has only two more years to become a European Union-like community but has been struggling to align key infrastructure, trade and policy frameworks to achieve the deadline.

Leaders from Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore, Vietnam, Cambodia and Myanmar will head delegations that are expected to hold bilateral discussions along the side-lines of the summit.

Most of the meetings will focus on economic issues with Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines holding a special Summit on 25 April to promote regional trade, the official ASEAN itinerary said.

A separate meeting will also be held between Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand as ASEAN grapples with maintaining regional growth amid a challenging global environment.

Another highlight will be the formation of a growth triangle joining Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand, which will be signed at the conclusion of the 22nd ASEAN summit.

Titled "Centre for IMT" the aim of the agreement is to form a seamless, progressive and prosperous sub-region that will contribute to the realization of an ASEAN Economic Community by 2020.

To realize this vision, the IMT-GT aims to accelerate private sector-led economic growth and help facilitate the development of the sub-region as a whole. Its objective, as stated in the Roadmap for Development 2007-2011, is to increase regional trade and investment.

The triangle will cover 72 million people in Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand.

Philippine President Benigno Aquino is expected to raise the South China Sea issue, which is also deeply connected to economic concerns, despite it not being included in the official program.

Aquino will push for the implementation of the Declaration of the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea (DOC) and for the completion of a legally binding code of conduct.

"In the 22nd ASEAN Summit, the Philippines will continue to advocate maritime security and cooperation, to push for the full and effective implementation of the Declaration of the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea, for the early conclusion of a substantive and legally binding Code of Conduct, and to review the ASEAN Charter with the objective of streamlining the work and meetings of ASEAN," Department of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Raul Hernandez said ahead of the summit.

Myanmar President Thein Sein's attendance will be anticipated as ASEAN will be hosted in 2014 by the fast-reforming nation.

During the last ASEAN summit in November Thailand and Myanmar signed a joint agreement to move ahead with the multi-billion dollar Development of Dawei Special Economic Zone (DSEZ).

Cambodia, Thailand to keep calm over border row regardless of ICJ's decision

Posted: 22 Apr 2013 12:17 AM PDT

PHNOM PENH, April 22 (Xinhua) -- Cambodia and Thailand will continue maintaining peace along the border regardless of the forthcoming decision of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in the case concerning the hotly-disputed land of 4.6 square kilometers around Cambodia's Preah Vihear Temple, a senior Cambodian official said Monday.

"Let the ICJ make a judgment in the case," deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Hor Namhong told reporters at Phnom Penh International Airport upon his arrival from the Hague, the Netherlands, where Cambodia and Thailand last week delivered oral statements to the ICJ in the case of the disputed land.

"In recent past, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen had talked with Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, and I had talked with Thai foreign minister (Surapong Tovichakchaikul) that whatever the ICJ's decision on the case would be, we agreed to keep calm and comply with the court's decision quietly," he said.

The Hague-based ICJ awarded Cambodia the Preah Vihear Temple, and its vicinity on June 15, 1962, but Thailand, in 2008, claimed the ownership of 4.6 square kilometers of scrub next to the temple.

Sporadic armed clashes between Cambodian and Thai troops had occurred since July 2008 when the UNESCO listed Preah Vihear Temple as a World Heritage Site and deadly clashes burst out in large scales in February and April 2011 during the rule of former Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva.

However, military tensions have eased since August 2011 when ex- Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra's Pheu Thai Party won a general election and led the current government.

Cambodia asked the ICJ in April 2011 to interpret the judgment of June 15, 1962 in the case concerning the Preah Vihear Temple. In July 2011, the court ordered Cambodia and Thailand to withdraw their military personnel from the court-defined Provisional Demilitarized Zone of 17.3 square kilometers surrounding the temple in order to secure a ceasefire.

Last week, the ICJ began a week of oral hearings in the dispute over ownership of the 4.6 kilometer land adjoining the temple, and the court is expected to issue a decision on who owns the disputed land around the Preah Vihear Temple later this year.

"Let's wait to hear the interpretation of the 1962 judgment -- the exact date is not set by the court yet, but it will be made before the end of this year," Hor Namhong said.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Hun Sen hailed the Cambodian legal team for "job well done" in the Hague.

Cambodia asked the ICJ to interpret the 1962 verdict, while Thailand insisted the court not to interpret the verdict.

The premier predicted that the ICJ would interpret the 1962 judgment based on two points.

One point is that the ICJ ordered Cambodia and Thailand to withdraw military personnel from the court-defined Provisional Demilitarized Zone in July 2011, so the court cannot keep the demilitarized zone for years, and the other is that a judge at the ICJ asked Cambodia and Thailand to define the vicinity of Preah Vihear temple on maps or graphics of the area and show it to the court.

The court required a reply in written form from both sides by April 26, and the parties would have to submit responses to each other's definitions by May 3.

"Whatever the court's decision will be, Cambodia and Thailand will not become enemies to each other because Cambodia and Thailand are like tongue and teeth, it cannot be removed from each other," he said.

The 11th century Preah Vihear Temple is located on the top of a 525-meter cliff in the Dangrek Mountains. It is situated about 500 km northwest of Cambodian capital, Phnom Penh.

ASEAN leaders expected to boost regional integration at summit

Posted: 22 Apr 2013 12:16 AM PDT

BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN, April 22 (Xinhua) -- Southeast Asian leaders are expected to put in place more building blocks for regional integration, especially for the ASEAN Economic Community, a key pillar of the ASEAN Community at an upcoming summit here.

Leaders of ASEAN, or the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, have targeted the end of 2015 as the deadline for creating the ASEAN Economic Community with the vision of creating a single market and production base in the region with free flow of goods, services, investments, capital and skilled labor.

The ASEAN leaders insist that they are confident for the economic community to be achieved on time. Surin Pitsuwan, former secretary-general of the regional bloc, said at the last ASEAN summit in November that some 75 percent of the major instruments of cooperation among ASEAN were in place, and the bloc will work on the rest 25 percent before the deadline.

Observers expected the ASEAN leaders would declare the establishment of the ASEAN Economic Community by the said time, but the new-born will be different from a super-state institution like the European Union.

"We will not have the gold standard FTAs. But we will have the ASEAN kind of FTA, with flexibility depending on the countries' standards," said Sanchita Basu Das, lead economic researcher at the ASEAN Study Center, a unit of Singapore's Institute of Southeast Asian Studies.

"For the deadlines they set, I think they will have the framework but they will be adjusted to the different countries. So I think it is achievable in that sense," she added.

Nevertheless, the ambitious integration plan has been helpful.

"It does not force any actions on its member nations. It is flexible and moves ahead not by interfering. This is a different approach. While there may be a long way to go to achieve the higher level of economic community, it is nevertheless a framework that gives you a guiding target," said Zhao Hong, senior research fellow at the East Asian Institute, the National University of Singapore.

ASEAN INTEGRATION

ASEAN ministers have been preparing for the summit recently with a series of meetings covering economic integration, interconnectivity and security. They are obviously aware that they have to make breakthroughs if they are to achieve the goal of establishing the ASEAN Community (AEC) by late 2015.

Sanchita said the major agreements are mostly in place for the AEC, such as the pacts on trade in goods and services, the comprehensive investment agreement, and the connectivity masterplan.

ASEAN member nations signed the ASEAN Free Trade Area agreement in 1992, and agreed in 2003 to establish an ASEAN Economic Community by 2020. The deadline was brought forward by five years to 2015 at the ASEAN Summit in Cebu, the Philippines, in January 2007.

The AEC Blueprint serves as a comprehensive action plan with clear targets and timelines. According to the official scoreboard published last year by the ASEAN Secretariat, its members had achieved 68.2 percent of the target by 2011.

In 2010, the average tariff rates on imports in the first six members of the ASEAN -- Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand, were cut to 0.05 percent, while the rates for the other four -- Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam, were reduced to 2.47 percent.

The ASEAN Trade in Goods Agreement came into effect in 2010.

ASEAN has also completed seven packages of commitments to liberalize services trade under the ASEAN Framework Agreement in Services. They signed the ASEAN Comprehensive Investment Agreement in the aftermath of the regional financial crisis in 1997.

However, Sanchita said while the ASEAN countries may declare the establishment of the AEC by 2015, it may take even longer for the agreements to be fully implemented in reality.

Yang Razali Kassim, senior research fellow at the Rajaratnam School of International Studies, Nanyang Technological University, also believed the commitment to the ASEAN Community by 2015 can be a challenge for some of the member nations.

"Commitment means that they have to not just talk about being committed to the ASEAN Community by 2015, they must also deliver. And that means they must pass legislation, and they must put aside budget for the various programs of ASEAN 2015. And they must implement. Not every ASEAN country has the internal will to implement the idea of 2015," he said.

However, Kishore Mahbubani, dean of the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policies, National University of Singapore, said he is confident.

"My view of ASEAN is that ASEAN never grows in a straight line forward. ASEAN takes two steps forward, one step backward, one step sidewards. Yet eventually it moves forward," he said.

WIDER REGIONAL ECONOMIC COOPERATION

The vision of building an ASEAN Economic Community also calls for the region to be fully integrated into the global economy.

Discussions have started since the last summit on the building blocks of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), with the deadline for the conclusion of the negotiations also set at the end of 2015. The agreements on trade in goods, services and investment are expected to be based on various existing ASEAN+1 agreements between ASEAN and its dialogue partners.

Observers said ASEAN takes an approach of moving by consensus and its characteristic of giving consideration to its member countries' economic development and capabilities of coming to an economic integration process has made it especially successful.

Zhao said the approach of ASEAN and its partner countries to the RCEP is expected to be flexible, too.

Sanchita said the RCEP will be different from the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which involves competition laws, the environment and intellectual property right under one single undertaking.

"The ASEAN agreements are based on adjustment, flexibility and longer time horizons for meeting the requirements," she said. " TPP is going much beyond the trading of goods and services and investment."

Zhao said there have been calls for the ASEAN to nurture more binding cooperative mechanism as the 10-member bloc moves towards a higher level of integration, which would possibly result in making some of the commitments binding.

"As the awareness of the Southeast Asian countries as members of ASEAN continues to be raised, I think they will gradually realize that they may have to concede certain powers. As the awareness grows further, I don't think we can rule out that possibility," he said.

ECONOMIC COOPERATION IS UNDERLYING TREND

The economic pillar has been leading the ASEAN regional integration. Sanchita said she expected the ASEAN to gradually move from the economic pillar to socio-cultural and eventually to include political disputes on its agenda.

ASEAN has been a successful multilateral platform for communications and negotiations. Mahbubani said ASEAN, with its status as a platform convened by a group of smaller countries, has been especially important as a geopolitical platform that has drawn together leaders from not only the ASEAN countries but also their dialogue partners such as China, Japan, South Korea, India, New Zealand and Australia, as well as the United States and Russia.

While issues related to the South China Sea disputes may surface or even looms in the upcoming summit, scholars believe the underlying trend is still economic cooperation and integration.

"I think there could be impact from the South China Sea issue. But it is up to both sides to keep politics and economy separate and prevent the issue from affecting the larger cooperation. China and Vietnam so far have been doing good," Zhao said.

The senior scholar said he expects detailed questions on economic cooperation to be discussed, including perhaps how to help Myanmar speed up its economic development.

"The economy is obviously what matters most to the ASEAN nations. Security issues will be discussed, but I don't think it will overshadow the economic side," he said.

China has taken the lead in signing the free trade agreement with ASEAN, partly thanks to its generous concessions in cutting tariffs for goods including agricultural products.

Zhao said he saw still further huge potential for the cooperation between ASEAN and China, especially in services trade, investment as well as culture and technology.

"The Chinese economy is diverse, with both the high-tech sectors and the labor-intensive industries. It may appear at first that the advanced economies are more complementary to the ASEAN economies, but the truth is you can find cooperation opportunities at almost all levels if you look carefully (into the China-ASEAN cooperation)," he said.

Regional connectivity, maritime CoC expected to be under spotlight at ASEAN Summit

Posted: 21 Apr 2013 09:31 PM PDT

BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN, April 22 (Xinhua) -- The world is watching Brunei to see what and how this tiny, oil-rich Islamic sultanate could fare in the driver's seat as it is set to host the 22nd Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Summit from April 24 to 25 in its capital Bandar Seri Begawan.

The summit under the theme "Our People, Our Future Together" is widely expected to focus on capacity building efforts towards regional integration and to strive to forge a common stance on important regional issues amid anemic global economic recovery and a limited time.

The clock is ticking on the regional bloc to create an ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) by the end of 2015. Doubts are loud that the unsolved challenges, including enormous political, economic and cultural differences, and the subdued will to accelerate existing arrangements in a volatile global economic environment, will prolong the process of establishing the AEC with a population of about 600 million and a combined gross domestic product of over 2 trillion U.S. dollars.

ASEAN officials, however, voiced hope and confidence while admitting that obstacles need to be overcome. "I believe that under the chairmanship of Brunei Darussalam, we can achieve the goals, and we believe strongly that 2015 will be on the way," Hatta Rajasa, Indonesia's coordinating minister for economic affairs has said.

ASEAN trade ministers said the region faces a number of challenges, especially those related to connectivity, in integrating the grouping of 10 diverse economies into a single economic community.

"The challenge is in people-to-people, institutional and infrastructure connectivities. These three structures are what we have to work very hard on," the Indonesian minister stressed.

Philippine Trade Secretary Gregory Domingo said, "all the groups are trying to work now, here on the ASEAN front and the local front, to meet the 2015 deadline."

In a press statement issued after the ninth AEC Council Meeting held at the International Convention Center here on April 10, ASEAN ministers noted that 77.5 percent of measures under the AEC blueprint have already been implemented. It added that based on the decisions of the ASEAN leaders last year, the aim was to redouble efforts to realize the AEC by 2015 through the prioritization of measures that have the greatest impact on the region.

Meanwhile, at a meeting of ASEAN foreign ministers one day later, discussions highlighted security concerns, especially the South China Sea issue.

Simmering tensions over territorial dispute mainly involving Vietnam, the Philippines and China have reached a boiling point in the past two years. The division within the grouping over the issue was laid bare publicly at an ASEAN foreign ministers' meeting held in Cambodia last July, and has been blamed for the lack of progress on a code managing the dispute.

Brunei, which chairs the 10-nation bloc this year, has said it is keen to conclude a Regional Code of Conduct (CoC) in the South China Sea under its watch.

China and the ASEAN signed a broad declaration in 2012 pledging the parties concerned would handle disputes peacefully and not take actions that threaten peace and stability in the region, but efforts toward a legally binding CoC have floundered.

At the foreign ministers' meeting on April 11, the ASEAN reaffirmed its commitment to the Six-Point Principles on the South China Sea and renewed calls for self-restraint of all parties concerned "in the conduct of activities that would complicate or escalate disputes," an official news release said.

Thailand to continue good ties with Cambodia despite border dispute

Posted: 21 Apr 2013 09:29 PM PDT

BANGKOK, April 20 (Xinhua) -- Thai Foreign Minister hailed its testimony at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) successful and said Thailand will maintain good ties with Cambodia after five days of oral statements between Thailand and Cambodia on disputed border area.

The two countries have been on the dispute over 4.6-square- kilometre plot of land where aged-old hindu Pear Vihear Temple located at their border.

The hearings on the border dispute ended Friday with both sides presenting their arguments. The ruling will not be delivered until October this year.

The ICJ had accepted Cambodia's request to reinterpret its 1962 ruling, which awarded ownership of the temple to Cambodia but did not mention the disputed area immediately surrounding it.

Foreign Minister Surapong Tovichakchaikul said via video- conference from the Hague, the Netherlands, on "Yingluck Government meets the People," weekly TV program on Saturday that he was satisfied with Thai legal team's performance as Thai legal team did good job at the court.

Surapong also reiterated the point made by Yingluck when she met with Cambodia Prime Minister Hun Sen earlier in which she told her counterpart that regardless of the ICJ's ruling, Thailand would continue its good relations with Cambodia and join hands with Cambodia in developing the area around the temple.

"We will not let the outcome of the case worsen our good relations with Cambodia," Thai foreign minister said.

Yingluck late Friday night phoned to the team at the Hague to thank for their tireless effort in the court, he said, adding that the premier also satisfied and acclaimed the team performance.

Meanwhile, poll revealed on Saturday that almost half of the people worry that the Thai-Cambodian border dispute could lead to a war.

The pollsters at Assumption University, also known as "Abac poll" based the conclusion on interviews with 2,232 people between April 15 and 19.

According to the survey, about 48 percent of the respondents said they were very concerned that the dispute would trigger war between Thailand and Cambodia.

25 percent of the respondents said they were moderately concerned while about 27 percent expressed little concern or none at all.

Asked about ties between Thailand and Cambodia, about 52 percent of the respondents said they were not worried that the border dispute would erode the two countries' relationship, but about 48 percent said they had concerns.

Suriyan Boonthae, assistant director of Abac Poll, said the results showed that the Thai people polled wanted the government to maintain good relations with Cambodia, even though the border dispute is a serious issue for them.

They did not want to see the dispute worsen and affect border trade, the investment climate between the two countries and the migration of Cambodian workers into Thailand, he added.

The respondents wanted both the Thai and Cambodian governments to come up with a constructive way to resolve the border area dispute for mutual benefit, said the academic.