TED TALKS: Wael Ghonim: Inside the Egyptian revolution

[轉載] 東協崛起 蛻變世界新工廠

  

http://news.chinatimes.com/world/0,5246,11050401x122010120900188,00.html

  

• 2010-12-09
• 工商時報
• 【林俊輝】

    　日本野村總合研究所2008年提出「大湄公河流域經濟圈」概念，強調越南、泰國、柬埔寨、寮國、緬甸等東協國家，將受惠於中國、印度兩個高成長大國經濟發展，成為未來10年亞洲最快速成長區域，尤其2015年東協經濟共同體預計成立，富達證券指出，東協經濟勢力預估將持續坐大，成為名符其實黃金走廊。

    　富達國際亞洲（日本除外）投資總監凱瑟琳．楊恩表示，儘管2011年東協各國漲幅恐無法如今年這般亮麗，但從基本面和題材來看，東協長期相當看好，是繼歐盟和北美兩個自由貿易區之後的世界第三大自由貿易區，也是覆蓋人口最多、完全由發展中國家組成的最大自由貿易區。

    　未來10年將加速與中國、日本、韓國和紐澳進行區域整合，連歐盟都要與東協洽商自由貿易區協定，東協所享有歐洲國家技術移轉的優勢，以及歐洲投資人將東協列入提高新興亞洲股市布局時的考量標的，都是長線投資東協市場不容忽視的重要考量因素。

    　東協國家擁有豐富天然資源、人口年輕化等良好基本面，造就經濟成長率持續穩定成長。在政府政策推動下，觀光產值極為充沛，雖然短期內觀光客造訪泰國意願受泰國政治環境左右，但另一方面，新加坡在賭場營運、樂園開幕、F1方程式賽車的加持下，持續創造觀光人氣。

    　原物料是東協崛起另一個重要推手，擁有豐富天然資源的東協市場成為世界大國竭盡所能示好的目標。世界銀行暨聯合國發展計畫（UNDP）預估，黃金走廊上，越南、緬甸與柬埔寨三國石油蘊藏量，最少有116億桶，若以每桶80美元計算，至少將是9,000億美元產值；印尼是全球第二大液態天然氣出口國，世界最大動力煤出口國，目前更企圖在2025年要成為世界上最大的生質能源國。

    　除豐富天然資源，人口年輕化與低廉的勞動成本，更是東協經濟成長率持續穩定的重要因素。國際大廠，尤其是來自亞洲區的知名企業紛紛至東南亞設廠，包括日本的Sony、UNIQLO、三菱重工、神戶製鋼、札幌啤酒等企業亦有赴東協經濟體設廠規劃，東協勢將成為新的世界工廠。

 

2010/12/15 (Wed) Impromptu Speech Feedback Sheet Results

1.      How much did you learn today?

2.      What did you like about the content today?

3.      Any topics you’d like to have in the future?

      4.      Any other suggestions to make our NTNU MUN better?

               希望熟一點

               多辦Mini MUN

                No…This is my first time here!! =)

                謝謝你們親切的指教，讓我比較不害怕

                More experience and practicing

 

Workshop: More on NarcoTerrorism

Jailed Afghan Drug Lord Was Informer on U.S. Payroll

Published: December 11, 2010

NYTimes

Workshop Xtra: Defeating Narco-Terrorism

Dr. Rachel Ehrenfeld

Narco-terrorists and the international criminal organizations that thrive on the illegal drug trade now threaten the national security of many nations. The nexus between transnational criminal organizations and terrorist groups does not end with illegal drug trafficking. Their partnerships are complex, linking illegal drugs, money, geography and politics. Yet, U.S. and international law-enforcement agencies overlook the connections between them, thereby unwittingly abetting the escalation in terrorism.

Terrorists' and criminals' mutually beneficial activities include: illegal arms trafficking, extortion and protection rackets; kidnapping; prostitution rings and human trafficking; credit card, social security and immigration fraud and identity theft; tax fraud; counterfeiting currencies, pharmaceuticals, cigarettes, alcohol, etc.; pirating videos, compact discs, tapes, and software; and illegal oil trade. The hundreds of billions of dollars in revenues fill the war chests of terrorists and criminals alike. Some of that money is used to undermine the political systems where these groups operate or target.

Workshop Xtra: The Mexican Drug War: Is it "Narcoterrorism?"

17 August 2010

Drug war violence in Mexico is truly horrific. But does it qualify as terrorism?

[Editor's note: The author makes use of the term, "narcoterrorism." This is somewhat of a red herring in that "terrorism" requires no modifier. The term, "narcoterrorism," was invented by American policy makers in order to tie the drug war to terrorism (two rather nebulous and abstract concepts to "wage war" against) in order to justify continued Cold War-era like expenditures on "defense", and neo-colonial policies like Plan Columbia and the occupation of Afghanistan. At best, it's a specious term with a flimsy rationale. ~ CS]

UNHRC Workshop PPT

Dear All,

the following link is the PPT of 10/23 UNHRC Workshop. Feel free to take a look =)

UNHRC Intro PPT

WTO workshop 專有名詞補充

Dear All,

The file provided is from our Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

If you want to check some terms related to the issue, you can use this one.

It's super useful =)

WTO專有名詞小辭典

WTO workshop 來自Mark 的補充

Big thanks to Mark (銘峰) =)


中國降低人民幣兌美元匯率以促進中國產品出口，但此舉增加了美國對中國的貿易逆差，因此要將中國列入貨幣操縱國。今年美國對中國貿易逆差預計將超過3000億美元。
操縱貨幣和貿易補貼作用相同，美國政府指責中國政府操作匯率，而對於向中西部農民發布補貼的事實卻閉口不談，這很明顯這是“五十步笑百步”。這些補貼涉及玉米、小麥和大豆等作物，數額是如此之大，其中向棉農發送的補貼為38億美元，超過了整個埃及的棉花產量總值。

WTO: More on Currency-- A Debate on China

Hi all!

Economics may seem beyond our comprehension at first sight; it is actually the science of everyday life and human behaviour. Need more effort to make friends with though.

For the workshop today, I would like to share a post: A Debate on China; Two experts' pespectives on the currency issue between the U.S. and China.

Hope it will serve as background knowledge to the big issue as a whole.

Workshop SOCHUM Presentation PPT

Dear All,

The link provided here is our PPT on SOCHUM.

http://cid-7acd4cb81e0e48cb.office.live.com/browse.aspx/.Documents?sa=919692016

If you have any problem viewing or downloading the file, please leave a message to us.

Workshop SOCHUM Presentation Doc

NTNU MUN Society 10.09 SOCHUM Workshop Presentation

Presenter: Sandy

2010/10/09

        I.            The 2010 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate: Liu Xiaubo

Dr. LIU Xiaobo (born on 28 December 1955) is a renowned Chinese writer and human rights activist based in Beijing, is the Honorary President of the Independent Chinese PEN Centre and served as its President from 2003 to 2007.

On 8 December 2008, Dr. Liu was taken into custody once more by the Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau for his role in launching Charter 08, and then held under residential surveillanceat an unknown location in Beijing until he was formally arrested.

On 25 December 2009, he was sentenced by the Beijing Municipal First Intermediate People's Court  to 11 years imprisonment and 2 years deprivation of political rights on "inciting subversion of state power".

    II.            What is Charter 08?

Workshop SOCHUM Topic B- Disabled Persons related news

SOCHUM Topic B- Disabled Persons Related News

做什麼公益？！臉部平權

「臉部平權」是什麼？

「不論顏面外觀如何，每個人在社會上都應擁有平等的機會和公平的對待。」

現今社會上，大多數的人還是會「以貌取人」，在陽光等非營利組織的服務經驗中，不少顏損者都常聽到人們說「一定是你父母做了什麼壞事，才把你生成這樣？」、「你一定是前世做了壞事，今生輪迴造成現在這樣，你要多修行」，或不認為顏損者也可以位居社會的重要職務；這種關於顏損者負面的聯想，可能在不知不覺中剝奪了顏損者嘗試的權益與機會。台灣已經是一個開放自由的社會，但我們是否也有開放的心去接受及尊重每一張差異的臉？

SOCHUM-Topic A-3-news

Here's a recent news relevant to the right of development:

Emerging-market debt

A run for your money

Developing countries in Latin America and Asia can borrow for longer

Aug 26th 2010

PERU is not an obvious investment darling. For much of its existence, the country has been in a state of default. As recently as 1990 the inflation rate was 7,500%. Yet in the past few years Peru has persuaded creditors to lend it money for ever-longer periods in its own currency. It issued its first 20-year local-currency bond in 2006; its debut 30-year bonds followed a year later. Earlier this year Peru was able to issue 300m soles ($105.2m) of 32-year local-currency bonds. Investors in these bonds are compensated for the risk of inflation by yields of just 6.9%, a once unthinkable prospect.

Peru is not alone. Anxious to wean themselves off flighty foreign funding after the crises of the 1990s, many emerging-market governments sought to build up local-currency bond issuance. Extending the maturity of bonds is the next step. In 2007 around 40% of Peru’s local-currency debt was short-term (ie, maturing in less than a year). That had fallen to 30% by 2009, according to the Bank for International Settlements. In Mexico average maturities have gone from 1.5 years in 2000 to seven years a decade later, says Gerardo Rodríguez, who heads the country’s debt office.

Asian countries are also trying to lock in yield-seeking investors. The Philippines is pursuing a number of debt swaps, offering to buy back shorter-dated debt in return for longer-dated issues. It hopes to stretch the country’s average debt maturity from ten years to 25 years. In Indonesia, bonds maturing in 2011-13 were exchanged in July for bonds maturing in 2031.

Improving growth prospects and lower public debt than many rich-world issuers have allowed Asian and Latin American countries to lengthen maturities. (Europe’s emerging markets have proved unable to do the same.) So too has a more professional approach to debt management. For instance, Uruguay created a debt agency in 2005. In the years that followed, it skewed its borrowing to the long end of the yield curve because it expected slower GDP growth, says Carlos Steneri, who heads the country’s public-debt agency.

Domestic savings pools have deepened over the past decade to absorb the supply of local debt issues. The number of retail investors is rising as people become richer. Pension reform has led to the creation of funds that are flush with cash and need assets to match their long-term, local-currency liabilities. Most of Peru’s 32-year bonds were reportedly picked up by local pension funds. Demand from such institutions explains why Latin America, with its more developed social-security net, is ahead of emerging Asia in extending its debt.

But a well-developed local market seems also to attract foreign investors. In Mexico a quarter of the long-dated local debt is held by foreigners. In the year to July, inflows to emerging-market debt funds have more than doubled to $21.6 billion from the previous year, according to EPFR Global, a financial-data firm. Whether investors are getting enough compensation for the risk of holding long-term emerging-market debt is questionable. But for issuers in a crowded sovereign-debt market, it means fewer trips to the well.

For more information go to "Economics":

http://www.economist.com/node/16892023