India-backed group wins $389 mn Philippine airport project

India-backed group wins $389 mn Philippine airport project
Japan whaling fleet returns from Antarctic
Cabinet wants Esscom to boost level of preparedness, surveillance — DPM
Harvest is great, workers are few
Clouded Leopards seen at Mount Santubong
Chinese ship finds ‘pulse signal’, no confirmation MH370

Posted: 05 Apr 2014 07:10 PM PDT

Philippines: A consortium that includes India's GMR Group has won a 17.52-billion-peso ($389.33-million) contract to upgrade the passenger terminal of the Philippines' second airport, the Filipino government said Saturday.

The GMR-Megawide consortium has been awarded a 25-year concession to the Mactan airport that serves the central city of Cebu, the country's second-largest metropolis after Manila, the transportation and communication department said.

"This project should have been done at least a decade ago, so there is no more time to waste," the department's spokesman Michael Arthur Sagcal said in a statement.

Over the next three to four years, GMR and its local partner will renovate Mactan's passenger terminal, build a separate one for international flights, and then operate the improved facility with an expected annual turnover of eight million passengers.

The existing terminal was built to handle 4.5 million passengers a year, but annual traffic topped six million in 2011, well past its capacity, the department said. Cebu is the country's main tourism hub.

Under the contract terms, the new facility reverts to government ownership and control after 25 years.

GMR Group, an infrastructure company based in Bangalore, has interests in airports, energy and highways.

The tender was held last year but the contract award was delayed as the government said it was investigating allegations by one of the six other bidders over GMR-Megawide's financial capability. -AFP

Japan whaling fleet returns from Antarctic

Posted: 05 Apr 2014 07:05 PM PDT

Tokyo, JAPAN: A whaling fleet anchored at a Japanese port Saturday after Tokyo said it would cancel its annual hunt for the first time in more than 25 years to abide by a UN court ruling.

"The Nisshin Maru and two other whaling ships arrived here today after ending their mission," a port official said, following the fleet's planned arrival at Shimonoseki port in western Japan.

Television footage showed workers unloading a number of boxes labelled as whale meat parts at the port, marking the end of the traditional whaling season.

On Thursday, Japan said it was cancelling its next annual Antarctic whaling hunt, due to begin late 2014, for the first time in a quarter-century.

A "deeply disappointed" Tokyo said it would honour the judgement by the United Nations' Hague-based International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruling that the programme was a commercial activity disguised as science.

During the four-month voyage, the harpoon fleet faced its annual confrontation with environmental activist group Sea Shepherd in the Antarctic Sea.

Australia, backed by New Zealand, hauled Japan before the ICJ in 2010 in a bid to end the annual Southern Ocean hunt.

Tokyo has used a legal loophole in the 1986 whaling ban that allowed it to continue slaughtering the mammals, ostensibly so it could gather scientific data.

However, it has never made a secret of the fact that the whale meat from these hunts often ends up on dining tables. -AFP

Cabinet wants Esscom to boost level of preparedness, surveillance — DPM

Posted: 05 Apr 2014 12:25 PM PDT

LEDANG: The Cabinet has ordered the Eastern Sabah Security Command (Esscom) to boost its level of preparedness, surveillance and intelligence following the kidnapping incident in the waters of Sabah on Wednesday.

Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin said the government viewed seriously the recurrence of the crime, with the latest incident involving the kidnapping of two women, including a Chinese national, at a resort on Pulau Singgahmata, Semporna.

"We view the recurring issue seriously, especially after Esscom was set up, but it continued to take place.

"We are aware the area is not easy to guard because of the long coastline and its close proximity to islands under the Philippines," he told reporters after launching the Lifelong Islamic Education Programme at the Ledang Community College, here, yesterday.

Muhyiddin was asked to comment on the kidnapping incident which occurred despite the existence of Esscom.

Muhyiddin said Esscom would be called to give a special briefing at the coming Cabinet meeting on its capability to face criminal threats.

"The Cabinet yesterday decided that we scrutinise the structure of command at Esscom which has agencies there such as the army and police.

"In addition, we will also look at the military assets such as boats and helicopters. So, we will call Esscom to brief us," he said.

In the meantime, Muhyiddin said Esscom was asked to disseminate information to the public, especially resort operators and tourists, on precautionary measures that must be taken in the areas concerned.

He said the authorities, meanwhile, were still trying to track down the victims.

He hoped they were unharmed and would be released by their captors. — Bernama

Harvest is great, workers are few

Posted: 05 Apr 2014 12:24 PM PDT

by Peter Sibon, reporters@theborneopost.com. Posted on April 6, 2014, Sunday

State's oil palm industry losing RM1 billion annually through uncollected fruits; turns to Bangladesh for workers

KUCHING: The state's oil palm industry loses about RM1 billion annually through fruits left to rot in plantations because there are not enough workers to harvest them.

To stem this wastage, the industry in the state would need to recruit at least 30,000 more workers to harvest all the fruits in the plantations.

Most of the workers are recruited from Indonesia, but the establishment of many oil palm plantations in Indonesia has put a tremendous strain on the labour supply chain.

Minister of Land Development Tan Sri Datuk Amar Dr James Masing said his ministry had to turn to Bangladesh to address this acute labour shortage.

"We are losing some RM1 billion a year from uncollected FFBs (fresh fruit bunches). The estimated number of workers needed to collect these FFBs is about 30,000. Because of that, we are sourcing workers from Bangladesh to work here for the purpose," Masing told thesundaypost here Friday.

To expedite the recruitment, Masing said his ministry was working out an arrangement for plantation owners to recruit the workers directly from Bangladesh on a business-to-business (B2B) basis.

He said he had discussed the mechanism on how to recruit these workers for the state with Home Minister Datuk Seri Dr Zahid Hamidi during their recent trip to that country.

Masing said because Sarawak had autonomy on immigration, Zahid agreed that these workers could be flown directly from Dhaka, Bangladesh, to Kuching without stopping in Kuala Lumpur to process their work permits.

"To prevent workers from jumping from one sector to another, the government has come up with 'colour-coding' passes for the workers so that they will stay in one particular sector while they are employed here. By doing so, we will also ensure they will not overstay in the country."

During the visit, Masing said Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheik Hasina Wazed's only request of Malaysia was that the workers' welfare be well taken care of.

Bangladesh, on the other hand, was ready to supply between three to four million workers to Malaysia to work in the critical sectors such as plantations, construction and manufacturing.

Masing said the state needed some 150,000 foreign workers in the three sectors.

Meanwhile, Masing, who is also PRS president, said the state had cultivated some 1.2 million hectares of land for oil palm.

"Our target is to plant two million hectares of oil palm by 2020. To achieve a developed-state status by 2020, the state has to be private-sector driven. Oil palm has been identified as one of the major sectors to propel the state to that goal."

Last year, the sector contributed some RM425 mil in sales tax to the state.

Clouded Leopards seen at Mount Santubong

Posted: 05 Apr 2014 12:23 PM PDT

KUCHING: Malaysian Nature Society has called for an immediate evaluation study of Mount Santubong as a home for Sarawak's largest cat, the Bornean Clouded Leopard.

In February, there was a reported sighting of three Clouded Leopards on Mount Santubong.

The Bornean Clouded Leopard or 'Neofelis diardi' is an endemic medium-sized cat found only in Borneo, known locally as Entulu.

It is the smallest of the "large cats", which is the general term used for the large members of the Felidae, like the tiger, lion and leopard. At over 2 metres in length, and weighing up to 25kg, this highly endangered cat in Sarawak is severely threatened by hunting and loss of its forest habitat.

In a press release issued yesterday, the Malaysia Nature Society Kuching Branch (MNSKB) chairman Anthony Sebastian said the sightings of three clouded leopards on Santubong, Sarawak's newest gazetted National Park, is of great significance.

"MNSKB has been highlighting the biodiversity and historical importance of Gunung Santubong for many years. With more and more attention paid to Kuching's iconic mountain, new discoveries are being made," he said.

"Previously thought to have no hornbills, Santubong is now known to have four species of hornbills. Previously thought to have one otter species, we now know there are possibly three species of otters on Santubong," he added.

This discovery of Clouded Leopards on Santubong, Sebastian pointed out, was yet another addition to Santubong's increasingly rich wildlife, and not just another wild cat.

"This is Borneo's top predator, and largest cat," he emphasised.

The sightings of these Clouded Leopards were made by surveyors up on the mountain, doing preliminary work for the cable car project, revealed Sebastian.

Unlike hornbills, which are flying birds, and will only be affected by the disturbance caused by infrastructure development on the higher parts of the mountain, he said Clouded Leopards will be adversely affected by such projects.

Before any further plans to be made on Santubong, Sebastian stressed that it would be only prudent that a comprehensive study was commissioned to determine the requirements for Clouded Leopards on this isolated mountain, and what measures need to be put in place to ensure their continued, and permanent survival.

"Sarawak cannot afford to lose a population of a highly endangered large endemic cat living so close to Kuching. As arguably the most beautiful of the world's wild cats, because of its exquisite bold markings, the opportunities are enormous for Sarawak's, and Kuching's tourism industry."

He hopes that surveyors who sighted the big cats may withhold information on the animals' exact location for their safety and survival.

The MNS, in its continuing efforts to highlight Santubong cultural, archaeological and biological richness, organised the first ever Santubong Nature Festival in 2013.

This year, the second edition of the Festival will be held in November.

Contact MNS atmnskuching@gmail.com for more information.

Chinese ship finds ‘pulse signal’, no confirmation MH370

Posted: 05 Apr 2014 12:22 PM PDT

BEIJING: A Chinese ship searching for Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 detected a "pulse signal" in the southern Indian Ocean yesterday, state media said, but it was not yet clear whether it was linked to the missing plane.

The signal had a frequency of 37.5kHz per second — identical to the beacon signal emitted by flight recorders.

A black box detector deployed by the Chinese search ship Haixun 01 picked up the signal at about 25 degrees south latitude and 101 degrees east longitude, the official Xinhua news agency said.

It is yet to be established whether the signal detected by Haixun 01 was related to the missing jet.

Malaysian authorities believe satellite readings indicate MH370 crashed in the Indian Ocean, far off Australia's western coast, after veering dramatically off course during a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.

But no proof has yet been found that would indicate a crash site.

Authorities still have no idea how or why the plane vanished, and warn that unless the black box is found, the mystery may never be solved. — AFP

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