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With the trade squabble between the world’s two largest economies showing no signs of abating, and worse – with US President Donald Trump further ratcheting up the rhetoric of ordering American companies to start pulling out of China – American companies are scrambling to shift operations to other Asian nations and beyond.
India is seeking to capitalize on the situation, hoping to lure multinationals out of China to set up shop and take advantage of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ‘Make in India’ initiative that got underway in 2014. But there are questions whether the country’s stumbling bureaucracy can get its act together to do so.
India’s deficient infrastructure scenario, complex labor laws, and bureaucratic approach scupper its emergence as a global manufacturing hub, an industry economist who declined to be named told Asia Sentinel.
BANGKOK, THAILAND—Energy Secretary Alfonso G. Cusi headed the Philippine Delegation for the 37th Asean Ministers on Energy Meeting (Amem 37) and Associated Meetings being held from September 2 to 6, 2019.
Slated for the event is a series of Ministerial Meetings, which includes the Amem-International Energy Agency Dialogue, Amem-International Renewable Energy Agency Dialogue, 13th East Asia Summit Energy Ministers Meeting and the 16th Amem+3 Meeting. In addition, the Ministers-CEO Dialogue under the 2019 Asean Energy Business Forum, which highlights various energy-related concerns within the region and its dialogue partners, would, likewise, take place.
The Department of Science and Technology signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the US-ASEAN Business Council (US-ABC) to promote the development and implementation of science, technology and innovation initiatives of the government in the private sector.
According to a recent press release, the MOU between DOST and the Council will enable the Department to fast-track and strengthen collaboration between industry and government.
The Partnership
DOST Secretary Fortunato T. De La Peña shared that the Department welcomes dialogue and partnership with US firms.
Doing so will drive and enhance research and innovation across all sectors and build S&T capacities in the Philippines.
The forms of cooperation under the MOU were enumerated. These are:
Investors have set their eyes on “seriously looking at Thailand ” as the U.S.-China trade war ramps up, according to the president and CEO of U.S.-ASEAN Business Council, Alexander Feldman.
Vietnam has frequently been cited as one of the largest beneficiaries in the trade war as companies shift their production out of China to avoid tariffs.
However, Vietnam’s labor market is tightening, and businesses are now looking to move manufacturing into other Asian countries instead — and that includes Thailand, Feldman told CNBC on Tuesday.
The U.S.-China trade war, which has lasted over a year, has seen both countries impose duties on billions of dollars worth of imports from each other. In a tweet last Friday, after announcing more tariffs on Beijing, U.S. President Donald Trump “ordered” American companies to “immediately start looking for an alternative to China.”
The prolonged trade fight between the United States and China is reordering the global supply chain and Vietnam could stand to be a winner for investors, according to a senior executive at U.S. investment firm General Atlantic.
As American companies plan to move their manufacturing bases outside China, countries in Southeast Asia could be the biggest beneficiaries, Sandeep Naik, head of India and Southeast Asia at General Atlantic, told CNBC’s “Street Signs ” on Tuesday.
“If you look at certain sectors like auto and chemicals, you see a large outflow of those manufacturing opportunities moving to Vietnam,” he said, adding that the investor community is closely watching for new investment destinations in the region.
General Atlantic has about $35 billion assets under management. The company invests in start-ups with high growth potential in four main areas: consumers, financial services, health care and technology.
The US and China won’t be the only ones affected in the trade war raging between the two countries. As companies scramble to find ways around the ever-increasing tariffs that the world’s two largest economies impose on each other’s goods, other countries are being drawn into a conflict that might have no winners.
The world could only watch as the latest developments played out online heading into the weekend. “Our great American companies are hereby ordered to immediately start looking for an alternative to China, including bringing our companies HOME and making your products in the USA,” President Trump tweeted Friday in response to Chinese president Xi Jinping's threat to impose tariffs on $75 billion worth of US goods. Speaking to reporters at the G7 summit in Biarritz, France Sunday, Trump claimed that he could use emergency powers to force private companies to relocate out of China, but said he has no current plans to do so.
The US-Asean Business Council is is calling for the Thai government to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), the successor to the 11-country pact that President Donald Trump pulled his country out of in 2017.
Commerce Minister Jurin Laksanawisit, who met representatives from the council on Thursday, said US businesses also urged the government to settle negotiations — now nearly four years behind schedule — for the 16-country Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP).
They remarked that Thailand joining the CPTPP would greatly benefit US investors in Thailand, Mr Jurin said.
"American investors would like to know about the government's policies for a modern and digital economy, e-commerce and foreign direct investment promotion," he said.
KUALA LUMPUR: International Trade and Industry Minister, Datuk Darell Leiking is leading a trade and investment mission to Washington DC, New York, Seattle, San Jose and San Francisco in the United States, beginning yesterday until April 6.
The ministry said accompanying Leiking are the ministry’s deputy secretary general for trade and senior officials of Malaysian Investment Development Authority (Mida), Malaysia External Trade Development Corporation (Matrade) and InvestKL Corporation.
During the mission, Leiking is scheduled to meet with top officials in the US Trade Representative Office, Department of Commerce and the White House.
“These meetings are aimed to further cement Malaysia’s trade and investment relations with the US.
KUALA LUMPUR: International Trade and Industry Minister, Datuk Darell Leiking will lead a trade and investment mission to Washington DC, New York, Seattle, San Jose and San Francisco in the United States, beginning from today until April 6, 2019.
The ministry said he would be joined by the ministry’s deputy secretary general for trade and senior officials of Malaysian Investment Development Authority (MIDA), Malaysia External Trade Development Corporation (MATRADE) and InvestKL Corporation.
During the mission, Leiking is scheduled to meet with top officials in the US Trade Representative Office, Department of Commerce and the White House.
“These meetings are aimed to further cement Malaysia’s trade and investment relations with the US.
WASHINGTON - The results of several key elections in Asia this year will determine whether negotiations over an Asean-led mega trade pact can be wrapped up this year, said Minister for Trade and Industry Chan Chun Sing on Wednesday (March 20).
Australia, India, Indonesia and Thailand, which form a quarter of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership’s (RCEP) 16 members, are due to hold national elections from March to May.
“All these elections will be done by May, and then we will have clearer sight of the political will by new or existing governments to complete the task ahead. The gaps are narrowing and we have a fair chance of getting it done by this year,” Mr Chan told more than 50 business leaders and diplomats at a lunch event in Washington DC, where he is on an official visit until Thursday.