Asia (except ME & Indian SC)

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan must introduce carbon pricing and fiscal incentives for green investment to achieve its goal of becoming carbon-neutral by 2050, private-sector members of a key government panel said on Wednesday.

Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga last December instructed his environment and industry ministries to work on a plan in 2021 to create a carbon pricing scheme, as part of efforts to meet his pledge to make Japan carbon-neutral by 2050.

TOKYO (AP) — Former Nissan Chief Executive Hiroto Saikawa told a Japanese court Wednesday he believed the compensation for his predecessor Carlos Ghosn was too low “by international standards,” and so he supported Ghosn’s retirement packages to prevent him from leaving.

“Mr. Ghosn had outstanding abilities and achievements,” Saikawa said, testifying in Tokyo District Court in the criminal trial of Greg Kelly, a former senior executive at Nissan Motor Co.

BANGKOK (AP) — Amnesty International says it has found that a hacking group known as Ocean Lotus has been staging more spyware attacks on Vietnamese human rights activists in the latest blow to freedom of speech in the communist-ruled country.

The human rights group said Wednesday that Amnesty Tech’s Security Lab found evidence of the hacking attempts in phishing emails sent to two dissidents, one in the Philippines and one in Germany.

BANGKOK (AP) — Shares fell Wednesday in Asia as investors weighed the possibility that inflation might prompt central banks to adjust their ultra-low interest rate policies, despite reassurances from the chair of the Federal Reserve.

Hong Kong led the decline, losing 2.7% to 29,809.43. Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 shed 1.6% to 29,671.70. In Seoul, the Kospi skidded 2.5% to 2,994.98. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 lost 0.9% to 6,777.80. The Shanghai Composite index gave up 2% to 3,564.44.

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — Whether taken from their homes in the middle of the night or grabbed off the streets during protests, hundreds of people have been arrested in the weeks since Myanmar’s military coup, leading human rights groups and experts to fear a sizable expansion in the number of political prisoners in the country.

As of Tuesday, some 696 people — including monks, writers, activists, politicians and others — had been arrested in relation to the coup, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, or AAPP, a Myanmar-based organization.

MANILA (Reuters) - The Philippines will let thousands of its healthcare workers, mostly nurses, take up jobs in Britain and Germany if the two countries agree to donate much-needed coronavirus vaccines, a senior official said on Tuesday.

The Philippines, which has among Asia’s highest number of coronavirus cases, has relaxed a ban on deploying its healthcare workers overseas, but still limits the number of medical professionals leaving the country to 5,000 a year.

JAKARTA (Reuters) - Indonesia does not endorse new elections in Myanmar and is seeking opinions and regional consensus on how best to support the country’s return to democracy, its foreign ministry said on Tuesday.

Indonesia’s Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi has been rallying support in Southeast Asia for a special meeting on Myanmar after a Feb. 1 coup and sources said Jakarta proposed the region sends monitors to ensure the generals hold “fair and inclusive” elections.

BEIJING, Feb. 23 (Xinhua) -- China is exporting COVID-19 vaccines to 27 countries and providing free vaccine aid to 53 countries in need, foreign ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said on Tuesday.

Wang told a press briefing that vaccine aid from China has arrived in Pakistan, Cambodia, Laos, Equatorial Guinea, Zimbabwe, Mongolia and Belarus, and that vaccine exports from China have arrived in Serbia, Hungary, Peru, Chile, Mexico, Colombia, Morocco, Senegal, UAE, and Turkey.

HONG KONG (AP) — Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam gave her clear support Tuesday to electoral reforms that would likely further exclude opposition voices and cement Beijing’s control over the semi-autonomous Chinese city’s politics.

Her comments came a day after a top Beijing official signaled major changes would be coming to ensure Hong Kong is run by “patriots,” a sign that China intends to no longer tolerate dissenting voices, 23 years after the former British colony was handed over to Chinese rule with a promise it could maintain its own rights and freedoms for 50 years.

BEIJING, Feb 22 (APP): On last Saturday (20th), the Green Belt and Road Initiative Center (Green BRI Center) released China BRI Investment Report 2020.

The highlight of this paper is that renewable energy investments (solar, wind, hydro) constitute the majority of Chinese overseas energy investments— increasing their share from 38% in 2019 to 57% in 2020. The report also points out Pakistan has been benefited in eco-friendly and economic respects by BRI investment.