These are the top stories making the front pages of major newspapers from across Southeast Asia today.
Get up to speed with what’s happening in the fastest growing region in the world.
Dr M: More O&G cooperation between Malaysia, Vietnam
Malaysia and Vietnam are poised for fresh cooperation in the oil and gas sector. This would be undertaken through the countries' respective national petroleum companies, Petronas and Vietnam Oil and Gas Group (PetroVietnam), Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad said. The prime minister said this in a joint media conference with his Vietnamese counterpart Nguyen Xuan Phuc at the Presidential Palace in Hanoi yesterday. - New Straits Times
Auditors’ findings weaken Indonesia’s defense of palm oil industry
The Supreme Audit Agency’s (BPK) findings that millions of hectares of oil palm estates in Sumatra and Kalimantan are currently managed under problematic permits will weaken Indonesia’s bid to defend the sustainability of the industry in the international market. Senior BPK auditor Rizal Djalil did not elaborate on the discovery when talking to the media last Friday but revealed that almost all big plantation companies in Sumatra and Kalimantan were implicated in permits that were problematic with regard to the right to cultivation (HGU), overlapping concessions, concessions on protected forests or peatland and companies’ obligations to empower smallholders. - The Jakarta Post
Thailand says further stimulus ready
The Finance Ministry has enough fiscal space available for additional stimulus measures if needed to avert recession, says Finance Minister Uttama Savanayana. "The stimulus measures that were recently approved by the cabinet might not be only one shot, and we're ready to launch an additional stimulus if needed," he said. The government must mobilise to stop the country from entering a recession because it is difficult to pull the economy out of such a condition, Uttama said. - Bangkok Post
Vietnam’s agricultural exports rake in US$26 billion in eight months
The total export turnover of agricultural, forest and seafood products reached more than US$26 billion in the first eight months of this year, marking a year-on-year increase of 1.6 percent. A report recently released by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) showed that eight groups of products reached export value of at least US$1 billion: coffee, rubber, rice, vegetables, shrimp, pangasius, wood and wood products. Exports of coffee, rubber and rice were at least US$2 billion. The US remained the largest export market for Vietnamese agricultural products, accounting for nearly 20.1 percent of the total, followed by China, the EU, ASEAN and Japan. - Vietnam News
More Cambodian kids victims of trafficking
Cambodian authorities rescued 263 people from human trafficking in the first six months of the year – an increase of nearly 150 percent on the same period last year – with a large number of the victims being children, the Ministry of Interior said. Of the 263 victims that were rescued, 101 were under the age of 18, and senior ministry officials and members of civil society voiced concerns over the increase on Tuesday. The ministry has said that some 150,000 tourists a year travel to Cambodia to sexually exploit children. - The Phnom Penh Post