KUALA LUMPUR (BERNAMA) – Tan Cheng Hoe has resigned as the head coach of the Harimau Malaya following Malaysia’s failure to qualify for the semi-finals of the AFF Cup 2020 in Singapore last month, the Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) announced yesterday.
FAM secretary-general Mohd Saifuddin Abu Bakar said Cheng Hoe had stated his intention to step down during a meeting with the management of the national football governing body recently.
He said that following the “open-hearted discussion from all angles”, the FAM management in the end respected his decision and agreed to release Cheng Hoe on a mutual agreement basis.
“FAM extends its deepest appreciation to Cheng Hoe who overall had served FAM for 14 years since he was assistant coach of the national Under-20 squad in 2005.
“His services and contributions will always be remembered. Thank you. Good luck also to Cheng Hoe in continuing his coaching career after this,” he said in a statement.
The 53-year-old coach from Alor Setar, Kedah, had served as the assistant coach of the Under-20, Under-23 and Harimau Muda A squads, before his strong partnership as assistant coach to Datuk K Rajagobal saw Malaysia win the 2009 SEA Games gold medal and the 2010 AFF Suzuki Cup.
Head coach of Harimau Malaya Tan Cheng Hoe. PHOTO: BERNAMA
Cheng Hoe, who later took over as Kedah’s head coach from 2014-2017, proved himself to be one of the best coaches in the Malaysia League (M-League) when he helped The Red Eagles win the 2015 Premier League, Malaysia Cup 2016, the FA Cup and Charity Shield in 2017.
He then returned to FAM in 2017 as national assistant coach to Nelo Vingada, before being promoted to head coach at the end of the same year.
Taking charge of the Harimau Malaya, he built up the national squad to emerge runners-up in the 2018 AFF Cup and put the team in the best position in the second round of the 2022 World Cup/2023 Asian Cup qualifiers in 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted the tournament schedule.
In the AFF Cup 2020 from December 5 to January 1, Cheng Hoe’s squad, which lacked preparation due to the pandemic, failed to advance to the semi-finals when they finished the campaign in third place following 3-0 and 4-1 defeats to Vietnam and Indonesia respectively in Group B, apart from recording 3-1 and 4-0 wins over Cambodia and Laos.
DETROIT (AP) – A couple of months ago, a woman paid a visit to Jeff Schrier’s used car lot in Omaha, Nebraska. She was on a tight budget, she said, and was desperate for a vehicle to commute to work.
She was shown three cars priced at her limit, roughly USD7,500. Schrier said the woman was stunned.
“‘That’s what I get for USD7,500?'” he recalled her saying. The vehicles had far more age or mileage on them than she had expected for something to replace a car that had been totaled in a crash.
The woman eventually settled on a 2013 Toyota Scion with a whopping 160,000 miles on it.
Schrier isn’t sure he made any profit on the deal. “We just helped her out,” he said.
As prices for used vehicles blow past any seemingly rational level, it is the kind of scenario playing out at many auto dealerships across the country.
Prices have soared so high, so fast, that buyers are being increasingly priced out of the market.
Consider that the average price of a used vehicle in the United States (US) in November, according to Edmunds.com, was USD29,011 – a dizzying 39 per cent more than just 12 months earlier.
ABOVE & BELOW: Car dealerships in the United States. PHOTOS: AP
And for the first time that anyone can recall, more than half of America’s households have less income than is considered necessary to buy the average-priced used vehicle.
The days when just about anyone with a steady income could wander onto an auto lot and snag a reliable late-model car or buy their kid’s first vehicle for a few thousand dollars have essentially vanished.
“I’ve never seen anything remotely close to this – it’s craziness,” said Schrier, who has been selling autos for 35 years. “It’s quite frustrating for so many people right now.”
When the government reported that consumer inflation rocketed 6.8 per cent in the 12 months that ended in November – the sharpest jump in nearly 40 years – the biggest factor, apart from energy, was used vehicles.
And while the rate of increase is slowing, most experts say the inflated vehicle prices aren’t likely to ease for the foreseeable future.
The blame can be traced directly to the pandemic’s eruption in March of last year. Auto plants suspended production to try to slow the virus’ spread. As sales of new vehicles sank, fewer people traded in used cars and trucks.
At the same time, demand for laptops and monitors from people stuck at home led semiconductor makers to shift production from autos, which depend on such chips, to consumer electronics.
When a swifter-than-expected economic rebound boosted demand for vehicles, auto plants tried to restore full production. But chip makers couldn’t respond fast enough. And rental car companies and other fleet buyers, unable to acquire new vehicles, stopped off-loading older ones, thereby compounding the shortage of used vehicles.
Bleak as the market is for used-car buyers, the computer chip shortage has also driven new-vehicle prices higher. The average new vehicle, Edmunds.com says, is edging toward USD46,000.
Even so, prices of used cars are likely to edge closer to new ones.
Since the pandemic started, used vehicle prices have jumped 42 per cent – more than double the increase for new ones.
Last month, the average used vehicle price was 63 per cent of the average new vehicle cost. Before the pandemic, it was 54 per cent.
At this point, Schrier has to tell lower-income buyers that he has very few used vehicles to sell them.
“What used to be a USD5,000 car,” he said, “is now USD8,000. What used to be USD8,000 is now USD11,000 or USD12,000.”
Including taxes, fees, a 10 per cent down payment, and an interest rate of around 7.5 per cent, the average used vehicle now costs USD520 a month, even when financed for the average of nearly six years, Edmunds calculated.
To make that payment and afford such other necessities as housing, food and utilities, a household would have to take home about USD60,000 a year, or USD75,000 before taxes, said a personal finance specialist at NerdWallet Kimberly Palmer.
In 2020, the US median pretax household income was USD67,521, the Census Bureau said.
“The average person,” Palmer said, “can’t afford the average used car right now.”
Senior Manager at Edmunds Ivan Drury said that while he doesn’t track used vehicle prices relative to household income, he thinks November marked a record “in the worst way possible for affordability”.
Monthly payments for the average used vehicle, he noted, were USD413 two years ago, USD382 five years ago and USD365 a decade ago.
The November average payment of USD500-plus for a used vehicle, Drury said, is about the average that was needed five years ago for a brand-new vehicle.
“People are going to have to make hard decisions, maybe cut back in other areas,” Palmer said. “It means that it’s stressful for a lot of families.”
Used vehicle prices are so high that Karl Hogan of Canonsburg, Pennsylvania, near Pittsburgh, was able last month to quickly sell his 2007 Toyota Tacoma small pickup truck, with more than 170,000 miles on it. Even with the vehicle’s age and mileage, a man from Ohio forked over USD6,500 for it.
Hogan didn’t have to budge from the asking price. When some would-be buyers offered him less money, he told them, “I’ve got 12 other guys behind you.”
A week before the sale, when he bought his new Tacoma, Hogan had been on the other side of the equation. The dealer wouldn’t budge from his USD38,000 sticker price.
“If I didn’t take it,” Hogan said, “there were three people waiting. I couldn’t get any off, but I wanted a new truck.”
Senior Manager at JD Power David Paris noted that used vehicle prices are directly tied to the cost of new ones. Though some automakers report that the computer chip supply is gradually improving, prices paid by dealers at used vehicle auctions kept rising through November, Paris said.
“We’re not seeing any softening in prices, which is extremely rare for this time of the year,” he said.
New vehicle dealers have about one million vehicles available nationally – scarcely one-third of the normal supply, Paris said.
And the vast majority have already been sold.
Given pent-up demand from consumers, prices for new vehicles are expected to remain historically high until the supply returns to around two million or 2.5 million and automakers resume discounting, which could take well into 2023.
THIBODAUX (AP) – A wintertime law enforcement fundraiser called ‘No Shave November’ has raised about USD4,000 in two months, proving so popular that a Louisiana sheriff is making it year-round.
“After what we’ve been through in the past two years, I figured there’s plenty of great causes to allow this to continue all year. So, I am changing No Shave November into No Shave Forever,” Sheriff Craig Webre said in a news release.
Deputies and other employees of the Lafourche Parish Sheriff’s Office have been donating USD25 a month to charity to be allowed to grow beards in November and December. Those who don’t grow beards can dress more casually on Fridays if their jobs allow it. Employees raised USD2,595 for the American Cancer Society and USD1,260 for Special Olympics Louisiana, the sheriff’s office said. They could also choose other nonprofit groups, and smaller amounts were given to 22, including Wheelchairs for Warriors and the American Red Cross.
More than 125 of the office’s 350 employees have been participating, and about one-third of the participants were women, Captain Brennan Matherne, spokesman for the sheriff’s office, said last Wednesday in an e-mail.
“The idea of having a casual Friday every Friday with no uniforms is definitely something they are excited about,” he said.
Patrol deputies must wear uniforms, but Webre relaxed policies earlier this year to let them wear short-sleeved shirts – which don’t require neckties – throughout the year rather than only in the spring and summer, Matherne said.
The Fire and Rescue Department (FRD) extinguished a fire which originated from a water dispenser at a building in Jalan Ong Sum Ping yesterday.
Abdul Majid bin Haji Abdul Wah led 13 firefighters from the Bandar Seri Begawan and Beribi fire stations after receiving a distress call at 9.45am.
Smoke was detected on the third floor of the building. The fire originated from a water dispenser and spread to the kitchen, according to the FRD report.
The team promptly put out the fire. No injuries were reported.
The FRD reminded the public to ensure that fire extinguishers and fire blankets are available at the premises while electrical equipment is switched off after use.
The water dispenser which caused the fire. PHOTO: FRD
MANCHESTER, ENGLAND (CNA) – English football treasures the packed programme of action over the festive season and, despite the disruption of COVID-19 and the complaints of some managers, it again delivered in spades.
As so often, the intense spell of games not only provided fans with the chance to get out of the house and leave the leftovers in the fridge but led to real clarity in the title race.
Chelsea and Liverpool produced a Premier League classic on Sunday with an enthralling 2-2 draw at Stamford Bridge, but that only helped Manchester City, who now have a 10-point lead at the top of the table.
City beat Arsenal 2-1 at the Emirates on Saturday, the winning goal coming in the final seconds from midfielder Rodri.
In many ways, those two games encapsulated this title race – City found a way to win for the 11th game in a row, while their rivals entertained in frantic fashion but gave up crucial points. The quality of Chelsea and Liverpool is undeniable. Both have been crowned Europe’s best in the past three years by winning the Champions League, an honour that has evaded City. But both are perhaps better suited to the high-octane challenges of a knockout competition than the long haul of a Premier League season that by its nature rewards consistency.
Liverpool’s James Milner, right, tackles Chelsea’s N’Golo Kante during the English Premier League soccer match between Chelsea and Liverpool at Stamford Bridge in London, on January 2. PHOTOS: AP
Pep Guardiola’s City, on course for their fourth Premier League title in five years, play a style of football in which they usually control games, wearing down opponents with their unmatched ability to keep possession and create openings.
They have evolved in recent seasons but Guardiola’s fundamental approach to the game, honed at Barcelona, is unchanged – the high technical level of his superbly drilled team and their understanding of their approach to games delivers consistently.
The German coaches of Liverpool and Chelsea, Juergen Klopp and Thomas Tuchel, instead prefer a more high-energy game with attacks launched down the flanks by attacking full-backs, intense pressing and fast breaks in transition.
The style imported from the Bundesliga is enthralling to watch and has the potential to sweep aside weaker opponents but feels somewhat anarchic compared with City’s disciplined destruction of opponents.
Liverpool found the consistency needed during their title run in 2020 when they were close to unstoppable, going on an 18-match winning streak mid-season and winning all but one home game.
This year, they have already dropped points at home three times and won only six of 11 away games.
“What Liverpool are lacking now that they had in the title-winning season is control of a football game,” said former Liverpool captain and now Sky Sports pundit Jamie Carragher, who compared the performance at Chelsea to Klopp’s first two seasons at the club.
“That was the best game I’ve seen this season, but in terms of Liverpool winning the title, that’s what’s going to cost them. Five times now, they’ve taken the lead this season and they’ve not won the game. That’s the difference between Liverpool and Man City right now.”
Chelsea may still be a work in progress one year after Tuchel took over from Frank Lampard, and the problems with their big summer signing Romelu Lukaku are hardly helping.
Tuchel’s side have won just once in their last five games – dropping points against Brighton,
Wolverhampton Wanderers and Everton before Sunday’s thriller.
The title race isn’t over, but the fight for Champions League qualification is looking like the bigger battle.
Arsenal currently occupy the fourth slot but West Ham United, Tottenham Hotspur and Manchester United are all in contention with just four points separating them.
A key highlight of PlayStation Plus (PS Plus) – the premium subscription service for Sony’s flagship gaming consoles – is access to a selection of various free games every month.
A new selection of games is made available for free each month, while the previous month’s games are withdrawn. PS Plus members can keep all the games in their collection as long as they are members of the subscription service.
2021 was a year that saw a wide variety of free games made available for subscribers in the Asia region on PlayStation 5 (PS5) and PlayStation 4 (PS4).
PS Plus kicked off the year with Maneater on PS5 as well as Shadow of the Tomb Raider and GreedFall on PS4.
Maneater is a single-player open-world role-playing game in which the player becomes a shark where, “starting as a small shark pup you are tasked with surviving the harsh world while eating your way up the ecosystem”. Action-adventure title Shadow of the Tomb Raider is the final chapter of protagonist Lara Croft’s origin story, while GreedFall is a role-playing game where the player explores a remote island “seeping with magic and filled with riches, lost secrets and fantastic creatures”.
An artwork for ‘Overcooked! All You Can Eat’. PHOTO: GHOST TOWN GAMESA scene from the game ‘Days Gone’. PHOTO: SIE BEND STUDIOA scene from the game ‘Star Wars: Squadrons’. PHOTO: MOTIVE STUDIOSA scene from the game ‘Concrete Genie’. PHOTO: PIXELOPUS
The following month, PS Plus members in the Asia region got Destruction AllStars and Control Ultimate Edition for PS5, along with Concrete Genie for PS4.
Destruction AllStars is described as a “spectacular prime-time sport for dangerous drivers”, in which players engage in vehicle-based combat as well as parkour action in arenas across the globe, while Control is a third-person action-adventure game that has won more over 80 awards, where the Ultimate Edition combines the main game as well as all previously
released expansions.
Meanwhile, Concrete Genie is an action-adventure game that follows the heartwarming journey of a teen named Ash, who surrounded by pollution and pursued by bullies, goes on a heartwarming journey to restore a “once bright and bustling seaside town by harnessing the power of Living Paint to cleanse its streets and alleyways”.
In March, PS Plus featured Maquette for PS5, Final Fantasy VII Remake and Knack II for PS4 as well as PlayStation VR (PSVR) title Farpoint.
Maquette is a first-person recursive puzzle game that takes the player into “a world where every building, plant and object is simultaneously tiny and staggeringly huge”. Critically acclaimed and award-winning title Final Fantasy VII Remake is a re-imagining of the classic 1997 role-playing game Final Fantasy VII. As it is described on the official game page, “The world is under the control of Shinra, a corporation controlling the planet’s life force as mako energy. In the city of Midgar, Cloud Strife, former member of Shinra’s elite SOLDIER unit now turned mercenary lends his aid to the Avalanche resistance group, unaware of the epic consequences that await him.”
Knack II is a family-friendly platforming adventure game centred on Knack, “a little guy with surprising moves and the ability to transform from big to small and back again,” while PS VR title Farpoint is a first-person shooter set on a hostile alien planet, where the player is on a mission to pick up scientists studying an anomaly near Jupiter. April saw PS5 game Oddworld Soulstorm added to PS Plus, along with PS4 titles Days Gone, Lego Worlds and X-Morph: Defense.
Oddworld Soulstorm is a platform game and a sequel to 2014’s Oddworld: New ‘N’ Tasty, continuing the story of protagonist Abe as he becomes an unlikely hero striving to rescue his people.
Days Gone is an action-adventure game set in a post-apocalyptic open-world ravaged by feral creatures known as Freakers, where the player assumes the role of Deacon St John, a former outlaw biker turned bounty hunter “trying to find a reason to live in a land surrounded by death”.
Lego Worlds is an adventure game featuring procedurally-generated open worlds made entirely of Lego bricks, which the player “can freely manipulate and dynamically populate with Lego models”, while X-Morph: Defense, which is described as a “unique fusion of a top down shooter and tower defence strategy”.
The month of May brought with it PS5 title Wreckfest and PS4 titles Battlefield V and Coffee Talk to PS Plus.
Wreckfest is demolition derby-themed racing game with various modes, where players aim to win a race or be the sole survivor of a demolition derby.
Battlefield V is a first-person shooter title set during World War 2, while visual novel Coffee Talk is “a game about listening to people’s problems and helping them by serving up a warm drink out of the ingredients you have in stock”.
In June, PS Plus games included Operation: Tango on PS5 as well as Star Wars: Squadrons and Virtua Fighter 5: Ultimate Showdown on PS4.
Operation: Tango is an espionage-themed cooperative adventure game where players work together to take on a hi-tech global menace. Star Wars: Squadrons sees players control starfighters from the Star Wars universe to engage in first-person multi-player space dogfights as well as a single-player story, while Virtua Fighter 5: Ultimate Showdown is a re-master of the classic 3D fighter.
To start the second half of the year in July, PS Plus featured a line-up comprising PS5 title A Plague Tale: Innocence alongside PS4 titles Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 and WWE 2K Battlegrounds.
A Plague Tale: Innocence is an action adventure game that follows the tale of a protagonist named Amicia and her little brother Hugo “in a heartrending journey through the darkest hours of history”. Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 is a multi-player first-person shooter title, while WWE 2K Battlegrounds is an arcade wrestling game featuring WWE superstars and legends.
For August, PS Plus included PS5 and PS4 title Hunter’s Arena, a multi-player game set in a mystical world where players become hunters who must fight deadly demons as well as other online players to survive.
For PS4, that month also featured Plants vs Zombies: Battle for Neighborville, a game where players control either plants or zombies to engage in third-person shooter combat, as well as sports game Tennis World Tour 2.
September saw a PS Plus line-up that included Overcooked! All You Can Eat for PS5 together with PS4 titles Hitman 2 and Predator: Hunting Grounds.
Overcooked! All You Can Eat compiles titles Overcooked!, Overcooked! 2 and all their additional content, and features “hundreds of levels of cooperative cooking chaos across increasingly perilous and obscure kitchens”. Hitman 2 is a stealth game that sees the return of “the world’s most creative assassin”, Agent 47, while Predator: Hunting Grounds is an asymmetrical multiplayer shooter that is part of the Predator franchise, and sees players either play as part of a fireteam trying to complete missions or as the Predator hunting them.
The PS Plus monthly games for October 2021 were PS5 title Hell Let Loose and three PS4 games – PGA Tour 2K21, Mortal Kombat X and Castlevania Requiem.
Hell Let Loose is a platoon-based realistic multi-player first-person shooting game set during the Second World War and featuring battles of 100 players. PGA Tour 2K21 is a golf simulation game, Mortal Kombat X is a 2015 release from the long-running Mortal Kombat fighting game series, and Castlevania Requiem is a compilation of two classic side-scrolling titles – Castlevania: Symphony of the Night and Castlevania: Rondo of Blood.
For the penultimate month of the year, among the games included via PS Plus were team-based multi-player dodgeball game Knockout City and social deduction game First Class Trouble, both of which were for PS5 and PS4, as well as PS4 title Kingdoms of Amalur: Re-Reckoning, a re-master of a 2012 action role-playing game. In addition, PS Plus in November also featured bonus PS VR titles in the form of arcade-inspired hack-and-slash roguelite game Until You Fall and survival horror game The Persistence.
Rounding out the year, December’s PS Plus selection featured four titles, including action role-playing game Godfall: Challenger Edition for PS5 and PS4, as well as the following PS4 titles: adventure platform game Lego DC Super-Villains, action role-playing game Mortal Shell and action-adventure title Judgment.
BEIJING (AFP) – New coronavirus cases in China’s locked-down city of Xi’an edged down yesterday, official data showed, while local authorities removed two senior officials to “strengthen” their fight against COVID.
Beijing has pursued a “zero COVID” approach with tight border restrictions and targetted lockdowns since the virus first emerged, but this strategy has come under pressure with recent local outbreaks.
The northern city of Xi’an, home to the world-famous Terracotta Warriors, has become the latest epicentre with authorities ordering all 13 million residents to stay home and several rounds of mass testing in recent weeks.
Xi’an reported 90 new cases yesterday, down from 122 cases a day before. Since December 9, 2021 there have been more than 1,600 virus cases reported in the city.
“We have entered a general state of attack,” said provincial official Liu Guozhong according to an official notice, adding that it was necessary to achieve the goal of clearing society of coronavirus cases as soon as possible.
On Sunday, Xi’an announced that two senior officials from the Yanta district had been removed from their posts, according to local media, in a bid to “strengthen the work of epidemic prevention and control” in the area.
Last month, China’s disciplinary body announced that dozens of officials were punished for “insufficient rigour in preventing and controlling the outbreak”.
Local residents told media in recent days that they were struggling to find enough food, despite Chinese authorities insisting they were working to ensure stable supplies.
Enforcement personnel found five violations during Operasi Peralihan, the movement control measure from 10pm to 4am, on Sunday.
“Five violations of the nationwide directive were issued compound fines, where three were found to have breached the stay-at-home directive,” said Minister of Health Dato Seri Setia Dr Haji Mohd Isham bin Haji Jaafar at the daily press conference yesterday. “The other violations were for not having the BruHealth app and for not wearing a face mask.”
The offenders were local Ali Rahman bin Abdullah, and foreign nationals Mohammad Rasel and Md Masuk Hossain.
The Royal Brunei Police Force said all five violations were found in Brunei-Muara District.
ABOVE & BELOW: Ali Rahman bin Abdullah; Mohammad Rasel; and Md Masuk Hossain. PHOTOS: RBPF
After completing his three-year term as a representative of the Indian government in Brunei Darussalam, outgoing Indian High Commissioner to Brunei Darussalam Ajaneesh Kumar will be leaving the Sultanate mid-January.
He shared some of the milestones in his three-year tenure in the Abode of Peace by first noting the significant ties at ASEAN level, highlighting the special relations between Brunei and India, where Brunei plays an important role in strengthening India’s relations with ASEAN, particularly during 2012-2015 when it was the country coordinator for India.
“I am happy to share that 2022 will be commemorated as ASEAN-India Friendship Year to mark the 30th anniversary of ASEAN-India relations,” he said.
He added that the Sultanate’s role as the Chair of ASEAN for 2021 and as host of the 38th and the 39th ASEAN Summit and Related Summits themed, ‘We Care, We Prepare, We Prosper’, during the COVID-19 pandemic and its focus on highlighting mental health during COVID-19 times was appreciated by ASEAN member states as well as its dialogue partners, including India.
He said Brunei Darussalam, under the wise leadership of His Majesty Sultan Haji Hassanal Bolkiah Mu’izzaddin Waddaulah ibni Al-Marhum Sultan Haji Omar ‘Ali Saifuddien Sa’adul Khairi Waddien, Sultan and Yang Di-Pertuan of Brunei Darussalam, chaired ASEAN in a befitting manner.
As ASEAN Chair 2021, His Majesty appreciated India’s support for ASEAN’s recovery efforts from the pandemic during the 18th ASEAN-India Summit on October 28, 2021 including India’s role in supplying vaccines to the region and its contribution of USD1 million to the COVID-19 ASEAN Response Fund.
Outgoing High Commissioner of India to Brunei Darussalam Ajaneesh Kumar. PHOTO: IZAH AZAHARI
His Majesty also welcomed the decision by ASEAN and India to exchange information on medicine and medical technologies for COVID-19 response while encouraging ASEAN and India to work together on sustainable economic recovery by exploring new opportunities for cooperation under the Blue Economy.
Opportunities include developing key industries that can generate employment and enhance connectivity such as fisheries and maritime transport, said the high commissioner.
Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi highlighted that ASEAN centrality and unity have always been an important priority for India, and is enshrined in India’s Act East Policy and Security and Growth for All in the Region (SAGAR).
“There are numerous avenues for cooperation between India and ASEAN: India’s well-established pharmaceutical industry in promoting human resource development in the health sector as well as strategic research and development of vaccines: digital transformation, digital economy; science, technology and innovation; connectivity; and biodiversity,” he said.
The high commissioner also shared some of the major outcomes in the bilateral relations between Brunei and India.
India has been appreciative of Brunei’s support for India’s candidatures to various positions and posts in the United Nations (UN) and other international organisations and India looks forward to a continuous support.
A memorandum of under-standing (MoU) on defence cooperation, signed in February 2016, valid for five years, was renewed for another five years in May 2021.
Over the past several years, the relations and cooperation between the two countries in the area of defence have been expanding, which include regular official level defence exchanges, visit of naval and coast guard ships, training and joint exercises and participation in each other’s defence exhibitions and expositions.
There have also been several visits by Indian naval ships including Indian Coast Guard Ship ICGS Shaunak that made a logistic stop at Muara Port in January 2019; Indian naval ship INS Jalashwa’s visit in May 2021 to ferry humanitarian aid donated by the Indian community in Brunei; and Indian Naval Ships INS Shivalik and INS Kadmatt making a port call at Muara Port in August 2021 for PASSEX.
A three-member delegation from the Royal Brunei Armed Forces and Ministry of Defence participated in the DEFEXPO-2018 at Chennai. Sqn Ldr Kunal Simpi participated in the staff and command course in 2021 and another officer will attend command course for the 2021-22 session, said the high commissioner.
“The foreign office consultations (FOC) between our two countries have given us an opportunity to take stock of our bilateral relations and plan the road map for the future.”
In the 7th round of FOC between both countries held in June 2019 in New Delhi, the meeting reviewed cooperation in political, economic, defence, commercial, energy, space, culture and tourism, human resource development and health and so forth. Various areas for cooperation were also identified including in agriculture, education, energy, healthcare, investments and IT.
During a Bilateral Relations Review Meeting on virtual platform between India’s External Affairs Minister Dr S Jaishankar and Brunei’s Minister of Foreign Affairs II Dato Seri Setia Awang Haji Erywan bin Pehin Datu Pekerma Jaya Haji Mohd Yusof in February last year, the two ministers reviewed the entire spectrum of bilateral relations as well as exchanged views on regional and global issues of mutual interests.
Brunei played host to the 1st Joint Trade Committee (JTC) meeting in September 2018 and the two sides are working on convening the second meeting of the JTC this month.
A number of events and conferences were organised to encourage interaction between the business communities of the two countries including a virtual meeting between India’s Agricultural Products Export Development Authority (APEDA) and Brunei’s Department of Agriculture and Agrifood in April 2021. Additionally, the Federation of Indian Export Organization (FIEO) held a virtual meeting with local trade chambers/bodies in the following month. In August 2021, a “country session with Brunei on engineering partnership” virtual platform hosted by the Engineering Exports Promotion Council of India (EEPC) was well received and saw the attendance of representatives of prominent businesses and trade bodies and engineering companies located in Brunei. At the session, a number of companies expressed a keen interest in collaborating and developing linkages with Indian companies in specific engineering sectors.
Minister at the Prime Minister’s Office and Minister of Finance and Economy II Dato Seri Setia Dr Awang Haji Mohd Amin Liew bin Abdullah participated in the Confederation of Indian Industry (CIl) Summit and Expo 2021, where the minister joined the Special Plenary with ASEAN Trade Ministers – ‘Building Vibrant Supply Chains Through Deeper Trade and Investment Relations’ on October 8, 2021.
The Indian High Commission has also taken some other initiatives to promote economic engagements to develop collaboration in the pharmaceutical industry and facilitate development of linkages between local and Indian companies.
“Similarly, the mission is also in contact with relevant authorities for resumption of import of meat products (buffalo meat) from India, which has been hampered by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Another area, which offers good potential for collaboration is e-vehicles, where renewable energy offers great potential for collaboration and India’s expertise in the field, especially in solar energy, can be utilised by Brunei to develop the Sultanate’s renewable energy sector.
National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC), India’s largest power utility company, has proposed to initiate a project for joint development of 30 MW solar PV project development and the proposal for Brunei to join the International Solar Alliance.
The Indian High Commission has also been working on facilitating linkages between relevant agencies of the two countries for collaboration in the field of digital payment and financial technology.
In spite of the disruptions caused by the pandemic, a lot of importance has been placed on bilateral interaction between the two countries on the virtual mode.
The first meeting of the Joint Working Group (JWG) on Health was held virtually in June 2021 where, adding to issues of mutual interest, the two sides also discussed the renewal of the MoU on health for another three years.
Indian Technical and Economic Cooperation (ITEC) programme is one of the major programmes for South-South cooperation and provides technical assistance and capacity building programmes to its partner countries; and Brunei has been an important partner for India.
To date, 51 Bruneians have attended various ITEC courses in India. In October 2020 alone, 14 officials from the Ministry of Development participated in a three-day e-ITEC course on housing.
In order to facilitate the repatriation of stranded Indian nationals in the Sultanate, the High Commission organised 15 chartered flights from Brunei to Coimbatore in India, operated by Royal Brunei Airlines (RB).
Moving on to the achievements in the cultural and social milieu, the Indian community in Brunei contributed for the dispatch of 1,050 cylinders (45-50 L) filled with compressed medical oxygen as humanitarian aid to strengthen India’s fight against the second wave of the pandemic in August 2021.
The high commission also handed over 44 boxes of COVID-19 relief material to the Ministry of Health comprising scrubs, face masks and sanitisers during the second wave.
As a token of appreciation for the contribution of the frontline workers’ COVID-19 fight, the high commission delivered 200 packed meals for frontline staff at Raja Isteri Pengiran Anak Saleha (RIPAS) Hospital.
To further foster cultural relations between the two countries and increase people-to-people linkages, an Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR)-sponsored cultural troupe, comprising an eight-member Punjabi folk music and dance group ‘Punjabi Sabhyachar Kender’ visited Brunei and had five performances during India’s Independence Day celebrations in August 2019.
The high commission, in association with the Indian community associations in Brunei, also organised a cultural event, ‘Utsav…. The Celebration’, under the government of India’s initiative of ‘Promotion of Cultural Ties with Indian Diaspora’ to commemorate the 72nd Republic Day of India.
The Indian High Commission participated in the Brunei Darussalam from the Eyes of Foreign Diplomats and their Families photo exhibition, organised by the Diplomatic Corps in December 2020, and collaborated with Mahakarya Institute of the Arts Asia to facilitate the screening of four widely acclaimed movies during the 4th Brunei Film Blitz.
The celebration of World Hindi Day in partnership with Yayasan Sultan Haji Hassanal Bolkiah School (YSHHBS), meanwhile is an important event in the calendar.
Following the launch of the Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav – India@75 on March 12, 2021, which is a series of cultural events and digital initiatives undertaken by the Government of India to commemorate the 75th anniversary of India’s independence, the high commission has been organising various events including blood donation drives, beach cleaning campaigns, drive, free health camps, book donations and painting competitions.
The high commission will soon have its own property in the Diplomatic Enclave with the project work first commenced on December 17, 2020 and is scheduled to complete this in June.
“The list is long and points only in one direction – the strengthening of our bilateral relations for the mutual benefit of our two peoples,” the outgoing envoy said.
JAKARTA (CNA) – Indonesia will begin giving COVID-19 booster shots to the general public from January 12, Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin said yesterday, as the Omicron variant spreads in the country.
Health workers were given booster doses in July and the plan now is to cover all adults who took their second shots over six months ago. About 21 million people will be covered under the booster programme this month, Budi said.
“It has been decided by the president that (the programme) will begin on January 12,”
he said.
Indonesia has fully vaccinated 42 per cent of its 270 million population, using shots produced by China’s Sinovac Biotech, Pfizer/BioNTech or Moderna.
Budi told a news conference that the country will need about 230 million doses for boosters and has secured nearly half of them. The Omicron variant has infected over 150 people in Indonesia since its detection last month, the majority of whom were international travellers.
Budi said six of the cases stemmed from local transmission in the capital Jakarta, Surabaya, Medan and Bali island.
Indonesia grappled with a devastating second wave of infections in July, but case numbers have plummetted since then.
A healthcare worker takes a swab sample to test for COVID-19 in Jakarta, Indonesia. PHOTO: CNA
