The Philippine labor minister says over 2,200 Filipinos are ready to take up an offer by President Rodrigo Duterte to repatriate workers from Kuwait amid reports of abuse.

Silvestre Bello III said on Sunday that almost 500 Filipino workers were due to arrive soon.

“We have been informed that as of Friday there were 2,200-plus Filipinos who are willing to go home,” the minister said.

He added that the government would also help repatriated workers find jobs.

“We are into a re-integration programme, we have a programme in place for them,” Bello said, adding, “They will be given a livelihood.”

“We are now in the process of looking for alternative markets. One of them is China and even Russia,” the minister said, without elaborating.

Bello said some of the Filipinos had overstayed their visas in Kuwait and applied for an amnesty.

The minister also stated that the airlines had arranged free charter flights to facilitate the repatriation.

Duterte asked Philippine Airlines and Cebu Pacific on Friday to provide flights for the Filipinos who wanted to leave Kuwait. The president has said that suspension would remain indefinitely.

A body of a Filipino worker was found in a freezer of an abandoned apartment in Kuwait recently.

Last month, the Philippines suspended sending workers to Kuwait after reports came out that abuse by employers had driven several to suicide.

Kuwait’s Deputy Foreign Minister Khaled al-Jarallah expressed “surprise and sorrow” at Duterte’s remarks in January, saying that legal proceedings had been taken in the four suicide cases mentioned by the president.

The Philippine Foreign Ministry estimates more than 250,000 Filipinos work in Kuwait, most of them as domestic helpers. There are also large numbers in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Saudi Arabia and Qatar.

Arab monarchies of the Persian Gulf region have come under criticism by international organizations and rights groups due to mistreatment of foreign workers. Millions of poor Asians are working in the Persian Gulf states. Human rights groups say many of the workers suffer exploitation and abuse, including non-payment of wages.

Human Rights Watch and other rights organizations have also slammed mass deportations of migrant workers, which are fairly common in the kingdoms and sheikhdoms, saying they often involve physical abuse and detention in poor conditions.

Last month, a report by the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) painted a grim picture of the human rights situation in the UAE, raising concern over the torture of prisoners, injustice against foreign workers and discrimination against women in the Persian Gulf state. The report argued that the justice system in the UAE is complex and impedes migrant workers and the stateless from bringing their grievances to justice.

Reports said in February 2017 that Saudi Arabia had expelled nearly 40,000 Pakistani migrant workers over the past four months.

Official statistics in Saudi Arabia indicate that 243,000 Pakistanis were expelled between 2012-2015.

A new study shows that the British economy will suffer a £252bn hit if the UK leaves the European Union without a deal.

The new analysis, which is based on a controversial UK government report, reveals that a no-deal Brexit would see GDP plummet by more than a quarter of a trillion pounds over 15 years.

The study shared with The Independent also shows that the damage would be cut in half if Prime Minister Theresa May strikes a free trade agreement with the bloc.

That agreement would still result in national output being £131bn lower over the same period, according to the analysis.

Even if Britain stays in the European single market, there will still be a loss of 52 billion pounds over this period, shows the research done by the Best for Britain Group.

The research fully exposed the “Brexit black hole at heart of the economy,” said the group.

“Sadly, now we are seeing the economic analysis becoming project fact and it means that we are facing a massive Brexit blow,” said Lord Mark Malloch-Brown, the group’s chairman.

“Losing billions means we will have less cash for the NHS, our schools and our public services. This all shows the best option for communities up and down the country is to stay in and keep the deal we have,” Malloch-Brown added.

Last month, the government released a report depicting the economic damage forecast in the Treasury Brexit analysis.

The new calculation is the most comprehensive attempt yet to put a price on the government report, which showed that Britain’s economy would be worse off, regardless of what the exit scenario is.

Based on the report, a no-deal Brexit, which leaves Britain trading with Europe on World Trade Organisation terms, would reduce growth by 8 percent over the same period.

“This Government are not competent to deal with the challenges ahead. They are going to hit people in the pocket through their hapless handling of Brexit.  Starkly, we are facing a Brexit bombshell for the economy,” Malloch-Brown said.

May has faced growing public calls from across her Conservative party this week to set out her vision for Brexit more clearly, amid media reports of increasing discontent with her leadership.

Negotiations are taking place between the UK and the EU ahead of Britain’s scheduled exit in March 2019.

Source: Presstv

A group of Cameroonian activists demanding secession from the French-speaking regions says it’s considering attacks on foreign companies operating in the central African nation.

The group, which hails from the country’s two Anglophone regions, says it wants to “target foreign companies investing in Cameroon” because their revenues sustain “incompetent officials” in President Paul Biya’s government, according to emailed comments from a spokesman, Chris Anu, on Friday. Anu didn’t specify the nature of the attacks.

Ten leaders of the separatist movement, which refers to the two Anglophone regions as the Republic of Ambazonia, have been held in neighboring Nigeria since Jan. 6 at an undisclosed location, according to their Nigerian lawyer, Femi Falana. Nigeria’s State Security Service has denied knowledge of their detention, he said. Nigerian authorities haven’t yet commented on the issue.

“Abducting our leaders isn’t going to deter us, it will only just spur us the more,” the group said in a statement last week.

Thousands of people have crossed the border into Nigeria and more refugees are expected to arrive in the coming weeks as the Cameroonian government intensifies its actions against the pro-independent movement, the United Nations Refugee Agency said in a Jan. 16 statement. The agency and its Nigerian counterpart, the National Commission for Refugees, Migrants and Internally Displaced Persons, officially registered 9,620 asylum seekers by Jan. 12, according to the statement.

www.bloomberg.com

Thousands of cocoa farmers have fled violence between separatists and security forces in Cameroon’s Southwest Region, which grows more than 100,000 tonnes of beans, nearly half of the country’s output, farmers and buyers told Reuters.

They said the clashes could put a dent in output from the world’s fifth largest cocoa producer, which is already seeing production dip compared to last season due to poor weather.

The crisis in Francophone-dominated Cameroon’s minority English-speaking Southwest and Northwest regions has worsened over the past year in reaction to a violent government crackdown on demonstrations by the Anglophones.

The government ordered residents of 16 villages in the region to leave their homes early last month as it launched a military operation against the separatists.

Others have fled on their own, often to larger towns. More than 15,000 have fled to Nigeria, the United Nations refugee agency and Nigerian government officials said on Thursday.

The repression has breathed new life into a once-fringe separatist movement that in October unilaterally declared independence for a breakaway state known as Ambazonia.

“In the beginning, I thought the situation would calm down. But the shooting continued. I abandoned two hectares of cocoa and I fled,” said Peter, a farmer from the village of Kembong who declined to give his surname out of fear of reprisals.

Peter fled Kembong, a stronghold of the independence movement hours after separatists killed four paramilitary gendarmes there last month.

He spoke to Reuters in Mamfe, one of the main towns in the area, where he had sought refuge.

“I’d already dried nine sacks of cocoa. I left everything to flee, even the cocoa pods are still on my plantation,” John Mfor, another farmer, told Reuters.

The Southwest Region is home to Cameroon’s most productive growing zones, producing just under half of the Central African nation’s 230,000 tonnes a year output.

Four farmers, an upcountry buyer and an exporter told Reuters that output from areas affected by the violence had dropped, but gave no figures.

Total cocoa arrivals at the port of Douala, Cameroon’s main export point, were down around 20 percent by mid-December compared to last season, exporters said.

While they said poor weather conditions were largely to blame, they also pointed to the separatist unrest as likely compounding the shortfall.

“Since the start of the crisis, the buyers are afraid to come here. The farmers have fled,” said Etienne Tanyi, an Olam purchasing agent based in the village of Omogoko.

“The cocoa is rotting in the bush.”

Source: Reuters

Chinese investors want to transform the Cameroonian city of Kribi into to the largest seaport in central Africa. But after initial promises of an economic revival in the area, locals feel left out in the cold.

Kribi’s autonomous port is one of the biggestChinese investment projects anywhere in the world. When it finally opens for business, it will be the largest deepwater port in central Africa.

Some 85 percent of the €1.1 billion ($1.3 billion) budget for the new harbor project is financed by the Export-Import Bank of China, with the rest falling to the government of Cameroon. The state-run China Harbor Engineering Corporation (CHEC) has been overseeing construction.

Natural resources for China

Cameroon’s government is hopeful the new port will stimulate its economy and provide relief for the harbor at Duala, the country’s most populous city, while also providing dock space for larger ships. China, meanwhile, has its eye on nearby iron reserves, which are to be connected to new road and rail infrastructure.

Investors and government leaders hope Kribi can become Cameroon’s main port for seaborne trade

To build the port, the village of Lolabe had to be destroyed. Unfortunately for its 300 inhabitants, land law in Cameroon is a gray zone. When Yasa peoples founded Lolabe in the early 20th century, they did so without property deeds or administrative permission. Very few of the villagers possessed papers proving they own property. They were given a small amount of money in damages and were then forced to immediately leave their homes for a CHEC-constructed housing development.

Rampant corruption

By 2013, only €22 million of the €36 million that Prime Minister Philemon Yang approved for compensation back in 2010 had been paid out. The other €14 million is alleged to have been embezzled by corrupt politicians.

“Villagers were very optimistic when they heard about the harbor project. We hoped it would bring jobs and improve our lives,” said Theodore Ivaha, Lolabe’s vice village chief. “But for the last couple of years we have just gotten more angry because we are not profiting at all.”

Cameroon Prime Minister Philemon Yang has worked to strengthen ties with Chinese President Xi Jinping

Although construction has created jobs, they are rarely given to locals, instead going to workers from other parts of Cameroon. Most people in the region, and especially those from villages directly neighboring the harbor, simply do not have the qualifications required to fill them.

Villagers waited in vain for the head of CHEC to visit them in an effort to fill positions — something that is regular practice among French companies operating in the country. But it didn’t happen. Job openings were publicly listed and quickly filled. Many of those Cameroonian workers who relocated to the area are accused by locals of having “stolen” their jobs.

Cultural and physical divide

Cameroonian laborers on the building site have complained about working conditions, while Chinese supervisors have derided the locals’ poor work ethic. Chinese site manager Qiangquang Li likened the endeavor to “looking for gold in the desert.”

Prior to the port project, Kribi was most famous as a beach resort destination

Chinese and local workers at the site are often separated by more than just cultural divides. The roughly 300 Chinese workers in Kribi reside in a closed camp at the harbor, with living quarters, offices, a cafeteria and a Chinese cook. They rarely leave, and there is little if any contact with locals. Local products, contrary to all prior hopes, are largely shunned by the Chinese workers.

“The government should actually mediate between residents and foreign companies, informing them of the wishes and needs of the locals, helping foreign organizations and companies to foster development,” said investigative journalist Christophe Bobiokono. “But many governments in Africa simply fail at that task, so companies cannot count on them.”

That leaves it up to locals and CHEC to create an effective communication platform. The first steps have already been taken. Now locals are hoping that tourism might take off when family members come to visit those Cameroonian workers who relocated here from other parts of the country.

Culled from Deutsche Welle

The Vietnamese Government chief made the point on December 27 in Ha Noi while receiving Cameroon Foreign Minister Lejeune Mbella Mbella.

The host leader said he was convinced that the visit would contribute to accelerating the bilateral ties and opening up a new chapter in the bilateral relationship, especially when the two sides signed important agreements.

PM Phuc hailed the socio-economic achievements which Cameroon has attained, affirming that Viet Nam always treasures  the traditional ties and hopes to broaden economic ties with Cameroon in accordance with the fine political relations.

The PM praised the close coordination of the two countries at international forums and thanked the Cameroon Government for supporting Vietnam-  invested projects there.

Viet Nam always creates favorable ways for foreign investors to do business, he said.

In reply, FM Lejeune Mbella Mbella said that Cameroon’s Government pays special attention to expanding ties with Viet Nam, which is the reason of his visit.

He said that along with agricultural development, Cameroon is focusing on upgrading infrastructure systems such as roads, ports and airports. The country is also keen on developing energy, information technology and digital economy, he said, expressing his hope to promote partnership with Viet Nam in these fields.

Source: News.Chinhphu

Cameroon Foreign Minister Lejeune Mbella Mbella has affirmed that Cameroon hopes to bolster co-operation with Việt Nam in trade, investment, agriculture, education, green energy and telecommunications.

During talks on Wednesday with Deputy Prime Minister and Minister Phạm Bình Minh as part of his on-going visit to Việt Nam from December 27-30, Mbella Mbella said that his country is willing to help bridge collaboration between Việt Nam and members of the Economic and Monetary Community of Central Africa (CEMAC).

He lauded the effectiveness of Vietnamese-invested projects in Cameroon, including a joint venture between the military telecommunications group Viettel and a local firm, which he described as a symbol of successful co-operation between the two countries.

He proposed greater coordination among localities of the two countries, as well as the organisation of trade promotion programmes and the exchange of training courses and scholarships.

The Cameroon Ministry of External Affairs will ask the President to approve the country’s Ambassador to China to also cover relations with Việt Nam. The ministry will also seek the appointment of a honourary ambassador of Việt Nam in Cameroon, and create favourable conditions for the implementation of joint rice development projects in the form of public-private partnerships.

Minh suggested the two foreign ministries work closely together to accelerate a Việt Nam visit by the Cameroon President in 2018 and conclude negotiations for agreements on investment encouragement and protection and double-tax avoidance, and another deal on co-operation in industry and promoting Việt Nam’s exports to Cameroon.

Minh asked Cameroon to back Vietnamese investors in the country.

Mbella Mbella also met with Prime Minister Nguyễn Xuân Phúc, who affirmed that Việt Nam is willing to share experience in wet rice cultivation and other fields with Cameroon.

Phúc said that Cameroon’s offering of optimal conditions for Vietnamese firms has helped facilitate Vietnamese investment in the country.

Expressing delight at the growing ties between Việt Nam and Cameroon, he declared that Việt Nam always treasures the traditional friendship with the African country and hopes to broaden economic collaboration to match their sound political relations.

For his part, Mbella Mbella said that his country pays special attention to expanding ties with Việt Nam, which is why he visited.

He said that along with agricultural development, Cameroon is focusing on upgrading infrastructure such as roads, ports and airports. The country is also keen on developing energy, information technology and the digital economy, he said, expressing hope that it can partner with Việt Nam in these fields.

Cameroon currently ranks 12th out of 72 destinations for Vietnamese investors, with four projects totalling US$270 million. Two-way trade between the two sides has reached about $200 million, mostly from Việt Nam’s imports.

During Mbella Mbella’s stay, the two countries signed a framework agreement in bilateral co-operation, another on a visa exemption for those holding diplomatic and official passports and a memorandum of understanding on co-operation between the two foreign ministries. — VNS

Source: Vietnam News

Experts say the United States is set to lose its global economic dominance and will be replaced by China that will establish itself as the world’s biggest economy before 2032.

A report released by the London-based Center for Economics and Business Research emphasized that China was already successfully moving ahead based on an economic growth that emerged in 2007.

The report added that four other Asian nations – India, Japan, South Korea, and Indonesia – would also join China it in the top 10 global economies.

The 10 largest economies in the world in the year 2032 would be China at the top, followed by the US, India, Japan, Germany, Brazil, the UK, South Korea, France and Indonesia, the report added as cited by was quoted as saying by Russia’s Sputnik news agency.

“China has maintained its growth resilience and gained reform momentum,” said John Litwack, World Bank lead economist for China, in reference to China’s 6.8 percent gross domestic product growth in 2017.

“The authorities have undertaken a host of policy and regulatory measures aimed at reducing macroeconomic imbalances and limiting financial risks without notable impact on growth,” Litwack was quoted as saying by Sputnik news agency.

Meanwhile, the Institute of Population and Labor Economics at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) also found that the “new” Chinese economy, companies and services based on the internet, grew at an astonishing average 16.1 percent between 2007 and 2017 — twice as fast as the overall Chinese economy.

Chinese economic growth has slowed to counter the excesses that come part and parcel with rapid economic growth: pollution, debt and income inequality, Sputnik added. However, China more than doubled the US’ 2017 GDP growth of 3.2 percent.

Already, China has a higher real GDP than the US, but the US retains a comfortable lead of $7.4 billion in nominal GDP. But the Chinese economy is growing at high speed, so it’s only a matter of time before it outpaces the US, the report added.

Source: Presstv

Cameroon has been a member of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) initiative since it was launched in 2000. AGOA is a preferential trade program which allows a set of eligible products from designated African countries into the US market.

Its main objective is to promote economic development through increased trade and investment between the US and sub-Saharan Africa. Cameroon has benefited a great deal. In 2015, it made USD$133 million in overall export trade. Cameroon’s main exports to the US include petroleum, cocoa, rubber, timber, and coffee, while its main imports from the US include machinery, vehicles and chemicals.

But AGOA is not just a trade pact. It’s also a way of promoting democracy. It comes with strict eligibility criteria which require that countries maintain the rule of law. Countries must also commit to political pluralism, the right to due process, fair trial, and equal protection under the law. They must also cooperate in international efforts to eliminate human rights violations.

The AGOA legislation empowers the American president annually to determine which countries are still eligible for its benefits. If he determines that a country is not making progress towards meeting the criteria he can decide to suspend it from the agreement.

The history of AGOA is replete with cases of ejections and re-admissions. These have often been based on human rights and democracy related issues. For instance, in 2016 former US President Barack Obama ejected Burundi from the AGOA family.

He did this on grounds that the country had failed to establish the rule of law. His reasons included the continuing crackdown on opposition members, assassinations, extra-judicial killings, arbitrary arrests and torture.

South Sudan and The Gambia have also had their memberships terminated. The Democratic Republic of Congo and Swaziland too. Mali, Guinea Bissau and Cote d’Ivoire were ejected and re-admitted after making efforts to strengthen the rule of law.

So far Cameroon has had a stellar record. But given recent developments questions are being asked about whether or not it should still benefit from the scheme.

Troubles in Cameroon

Over the past year Cameroon has been engulfed in a crisis that has pitted the Anglophone part of the country against the central government whose policies are decried to favour its Francophone regions. The Anglophone regions to the west are former British mandated territories, while the Francophone regions in the east are former French mandated territories.

The unrest began in October 2016 with a protest against the overwhelming use of French in a country where French and English have equal status under the constitution.

What began as a disagreement over the use of language in courts and in the design of school curricula has slowly became a political battle for Anglophone secession. The calls for secession have been met with brutal repression by state security forces. Whenever the state and the secessionists have clashed state agents have used excessive force.

Multiple human rights abuses have been committed against unarmed civilian populations including killings, mass arrests and detention. Some pro-Anglophone Cameroonians have sought refuge in neighbouring Nigeria while others have been arrested and detained pending prosecution.

In January, the government shut down the internet in some Anglophone regions. The shutdown, which lasted for more than three months, was condemned as a violation of international human rights.

Because of this crisis one could rightly question whether Cameroon is still eligible for the AGOA trade benefits. Cameroon is not alone. Mauritania also faces ejection from the trade agreement for human rights abuses. The issue of modern-day slavery in Mauritania, which was once expelled before being re-admitted, has raised questions about its continued AGOA membership.

Eligibility in question

In October US Trade Representative’s Joseph Lighthizer announced new efforts to ensure that all countries receiving US trade benefits met the eligibility criteria. By creating a more proactive process to assess eligibility the US will ensure that nonperforming countries are excluded from trade preferences. Although Lighthizer was referring to America’s Generalised System of Preferences – which is a different US preferential trade arrangement – it is likely that the review will also be applied to AGOA countries.

When it comes to Cameroon, the international community has called for dialogue before any action is taken. Opposition leaders are demanding the inclusion of all political and civil society stakeholders regardless of their religious beliefs or political opinions, including those who aspire for a return to federalism. Federalism was abolished in 1972 and replaced by a unitary state.

The Cameroonian government has shown its readiness to engage in talks with every stakeholder except the separatists who have been implicated in the November killings of four soldiers in the North-West region, and another four in the South-West region.

Current events have given the Cameroon government an opportunity to address issues of decentralisation which have remained dormant since the promulgation of the 1996 constitution. The constitution was supposed to grant a certain level of autonomy to local governments. Twenty years down the road decentralisation has remained a dead letter. This is why the latest separatist calls have taken root.

The Conversation

Dialogue is needed not only to end the brutal repression of the secessionist movement, but also to address the latent causes of the crisis. If the dialogue doesn’t take place Cameroon’s AGOA membership may be just another casualty of the ongoing Anglophone crisis.

Source: News 24

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has claimed that China risks facing a growing debt-dependency in its banking system, urging Beijing to increase its capital buffers to protect against a possible “financial crisis.”

The Washington-based organization said in a report on Thursday that reforms by Beijing over the past five years had not gone far enough as financial credit in the world’s second-biggest economy had risen high by international standards, and personal debt had also increased in the same period.

“The system’s increasing complexity has sown financial stability risks,” the IMF’s assessment report said. “Credit growth has outpaced GDP growth, leading to a large credit overhang. The credit-to-GDP ratio is now about 25% above the long-term trend, very high by international standards and consistent with a high probability of financial distress.”

The IMF recommended that China prioritize financial stability above development goals as the pursuit of regional growth targets and the protection of failing companies had led to a surge in debt, particularly at local government levels.

“The apparent primary goals of preventing large falls in local jobs and reaching regional growth targets have conflicted with other policy objectives such as financial stability,” the report said. “Regulators should reinforce the primacy of financial stability over development objectives.”

“As a result, corporate debt has reached 165% of GDP, and household debt, while still low, has risen by 15 percentage points of GDP over the past five years and is increasingly linked to asset-price speculation. The buildup of credit in traditional sectors has gone hand-in-hand with a slowdown of productivity growth and pressures on asset quality,” the IMF said.

The report also said that while China has been taking steps to address its debt risks, authorities in Beijing are required to “de-emphasize the GDP” projections to be able to rein in excessive credit growth in national plans that have incentivized local governments to set high growth targets.

Ratna Sahay, the deputy director of the IMF’s Monetary and Capital Markets Department, said during a news conference that China should “incite local governments to strengthen supervision on risks.”

“Risks are large,” Sahay told reporters. “Having said that, the authorities are really aware of risks and they are working proactively to contain these risks.”

The IMF report also highlighted the need for Chinese banks to hold more liquid assets and gradually increase their capital to create buffers to absorb potential losses that could be expected during China’s economic downturn following a credit boom.

Source: Presstv