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[Pook Ah Lek] The dilemma of a bloated foreign workforce

ViewpointsSept 22, 2016

This is the 12th article in a series of columns on global affairs written by top editors from members of the Asia News Network and published in newspapers across the region. -- Ed.No one can tell for sure how many migrant workers we actually have in this country. Even the authorities and individual officials offer their own variable numbers, not so much because they have something to hide from the public but simply no one knows exactly how many of them are here.　According to the human resources
Give Libor Some Competition

ViewpointsSept 22, 2016

In 2012, the London interbank offered rate -- Libor -- gained worldwide notoriety when it emerged that traders had conspired to manipulate this vital financial benchmark. Clearly, the system was broken and would have to be mended. Four years later, the repairs aren‘t finished.　Given the stakes, regulators are right to tread carefully. That said, they need to start making progress -- not so much toward mending Libor as toward creating an alternative.　Libor is constructed by polling banks on the i
[Park Sang-seek] Culture clashes in and between states　

ViewpointsSept 22, 2016

After the cold war was over, most people thought the age of conflict had finally ended. But humanity is faced with more conflicts than ever before: Violent conflicts between states have greatly decreased, but nonviolent conflicts between them have not. Within states, regardless of West or the non-West, all kinds of primordial conflicts have increased – perhaps more than ever before. They are racial, religious or sectarian, ethnic, tribal and regional conflicts and disputes. These domestic disput
[Editorial] Ailing competitiveness

EditorialSept 21, 2016

A council on the international finance sector development kicked off with its first meeting convened this week, including panels composed of government officials, professors and economists. It aims to increase the nation’s ability to cope with rapidly changing global indices.Its establishment is laudable amid the volatility of global indexes, a series of negative external factors and mounting uncertainties in financial markets.Local market participants are pinning hopes on the council in terms o
[Editorial] Strike season

EditorialSept 21, 2016

Concerns are mounting as workers in the financial industry are poised to stage an all-out protest. Employees from some other public sectors including railways, subway lines and hospitals will follow suit in the form of a general strike against the government’s scheduled introduction of performance-based pay scheme.The Korea Financial Industry Union has already publicized its strike plan in which a dominant portion of its unionized workers will participate in the walkout this Friday.As about 100,
Everyone needs the oceans to be protected

ViewpointsSept 21, 2016

Most people will never glimpse the vast underwater mountains and canyons off Cape Cod that President Barack Obama designated as a national monument Thursday. The same goes for the hundreds of thousands of submerged square kilometers that the UK, Ecuador, Costa Rica and other countries have just protected, and for the million square kilometers near Hawaii that Obama recently set aside.But everyone benefits when underwater tracts are put off limits to commercial fishing and mining, because doing s
[Joseph E. Stiglitz] A better economic plan for Japan

ViewpointsSept 21, 2016

It has been a quarter-century since Japan’s asset bubble burst -- and a quarter-century of malaise as one “Lost Decade” has followed another. Some of the criticism of its economic policies is unwarranted.Growth is not an objective in itself. We should be concerned with standards of living. Japan is ahead of the curve in curbing population growth and productivity has been increasing. Growth in output per working-age person, especially since 2008, has been higher than in the United States, and muc
[Kim Myong-sik] NK’s useless arms for ‘survival’　

ViewpointsSept 21, 2016

Hundreds of men and women were sweating in railroad repair work in a flooded area of North Korea’s northeastern Hamgyong Province. They were moving big rocks and wooden poles manually to repair a railway that was washed away last week in what was described as the heaviest rainfall in 60 years. An excavator standing idle with its scoop resting on the ground, apparently out of fuel, was the only machine shown in the Pyongyang TV footage relayed by South Korean networks.　Some in the crowd were in f
Cleaning up image of dictator Marcos

ViewpointsSept 21, 2016

On Sept. 11, the Official Gazette of the Philippines decided to mark the 99th birth anniversary of the late dictator Ferdinand E. Marcos, by releasing a graphic. What could possibly go wrong? As it turns out: Almost everything.The graphic produced by the Gazette carried a photo, a quote, and a caption. Under sustained social media criticism, the caption went through three editions -- each one deeply problematic both because of what was included and what was left out.The first version stirred con
[Sheikh Hasina] Getting migration governance right

ViewpointsSept 21, 2016

At last year’s United Nations General Assembly summit, world leaders promised to cooperate on ensuring safe, orderly, regular, and responsible migration. This year, they need to do more to realize that pledge.UN member states have acknowledged migration’s many benefits, including its role in stabilizing global labor markets, spreading knowledge and ideas, creating diasporas that spur increased trade and investment, and sustaining economies worldwide through remittances, which pay for family memb
[Editorial] Construction-led growth

EditorialSept 20, 2016

With exports on a downward spiral, Korea’s economic growth is increasingly being led by the construction industry. Policymakers need to take action to correct this abnormal growth pattern.A report released by the Korea Institute for Industrial Economics and Trade showed that the construction sector accounted for 51.5 percent of the country’s economic growth in the second quarter. Of the economy’s 3.3 percent expansion in the April-June period, 1.7 percentage points came from brisk construction i
[Editorial] Fight against cancer

EditorialSept 20, 2016

The Ministry of Health and Welfare has recently finalized the third five-year National Cancer Management Plan, which is aimed at improving the quality of life of cancer patients and expanding the government’s role in fighting cancer.　The survival rate of cancer patients in Korea has dramatically improved in recent years thanks to increased efforts for early detection of cancer and advances in cancer treatment. 　The five-year survival rate for people diagnosed with cancer between 2009 and 2013 wa
‘Anti-China forces’ emerge in Hong Kong

ViewpointsSept 20, 2016

The heavy-handed posture of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s administration appears to have led to the rise of “anti-China” forces in Hong Kong.Continuing progress in democratization and political reforms is essential to maintaining Hong Kong’s stability and prosperity, rather than reinforcing a clampdown.In the recent elections for Hong Kong’s Legislative Council, newly emerging, anti-Beijing forces making such radical calls as “independence” from China have made headway.For the 70-member legisla
[Kim Seong-Kon] Importance of good advice

ViewpointsSept 20, 2016

While I was having my hair cut 20 years ago, my barber advised me to wash my hair with soap, not with shampoo. He told me, “You are losing your hair here and there. You’d better stop using shampoo because it’s full of chemicals. Try soap instead.” From that day on, I began washing my hair with a bar of soap. Strangely, however, I noticed a bunch of hair was clogging the sink every time I shampooed with soap. Recently, I switched back from soap to shampoo and I noticed I no longer lost my hair. O
[Lee Jae-min] Our ocean, our future

ViewpointsSept 20, 2016

While not well known in South Korea, the Our Ocean conference was held on Thursday and Friday in Washington where representatives from almost 90 counties presented a vivid account of the current status of the global marine environment. This was the largest meeting aimed at discussing conservation of the marine environment and the depleting fish stocks. It showed why global action is needed immediately. For the past several decades, numerous suggestions have been made and projects undertaken in o