News
Indonesia’s rich list stacked with palm oil billionaires
Forbes’ annual catalog of the country’s wealthiest people reads like a who’s who of the palm oil industry tycoons and represents an example of wealth being unusually concentrated to a few oligarchs. Fourteen of the 32 Indonesian billionaires identified by Forbes magazine are palm oil tycoons, having accumulated ...
LMC can be used as example for China to handle trans-boundary river disputes
With persistent concerns expressed by India about China’s exploitation of the Yarlung Zangbo River, upstream from the Brahmaputra River in India, officials and scholars should study the possibility of borrowing on the experience of the Lancang-Mekong cooperation mechanism to resolve disputes along trans-boundary rivers. The ...
Study maps 187 land conflicts as palm oil expands in Kalimantan
Palm oil production in Indonesia often comes at the expense of traditionally managed lands as well as the livelihoods of indigenous communities, causing widespread conflict in the archipelago country. With oil palm cultivation set to double in Indonesia over the next 10 years, methods for understanding ...
Lessons from the $2 billion coal mining lawsuit against Indonesia
Indonesia cannot be held liable for $2 billion in compensation sought by Churchill Mining for the revocation of a coal-mining concession, the World Bank’s International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes ruled in a Dec. 6 verdict. The tribunal determined that Churchill’s claim to the ...
Patrolling The Mekong ep.2: border control police balance work and life in isolated area
This year marks the fifth anniversary of the Joint Patrol and Law Enforcement initiative on the Mekong River. In December 2011, security authorities in China, Laos, Myanmar and Thailand launched the initiative after around 8 gunmen stormed two Chinese vessels and killed thirteen sailors. In today’s ...
Malaysia calls for ASEAN to coordinate aid for Myanmar's Rohingya
Malaysia said on December 19 the plight of Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar was a regional concern and called for the Association of South East Asian Nations to coordinate humanitarian aid and investigate alleged atrocities committed against them. Malaysian Foreign Minister Anifah Aman was speaking at a ...
China is stepping up its global power play
With US president-elect Donald Trump threatening to build a wall on the Mexican border and force Asian allies to increase defence spending, Beijing is busy luring countries across the eastern hemisphere into its orbit. President Xi Jinping, who is consolidating his power at home, is ...
Indonesia suspends cartel membership to avoid cuts
Indonesia has suspended its membership of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, less than a year after rejoining the cartel, as the net oil importer said it could not agree to the group’s production cuts. The decision came as the cartel agreed its first oil ...
A water war in Asia cannot be ruled out
Asia can build a harmonious, rules-based water management system. But it needs China to get on board. Tensions over water are rising in Asia—and not only because of conflicting maritime claims. While territorial disputes, such as in the South China Sea, attract the most attention—after ...
SCIEX summarizes 2016 food safety milestones and provides a peek into 2017 trends
The past few years have been tumultuous in the food industry. Unfortunate food safety incidents eroded consumer’s trust in the food supply chain, and we saw food governing bodies step up to implement new regulations and update old practices. The China milk scandal and the ...
