Asia-Cast

Asia Cast Monday 22nd October

At the end of the Chinese Communist Party’s five-yearly congress, the party has unveiled the leadership line-up that will steer the country for the next five years.

Both President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao won new terms, while four new faces joined the party’s top body, the Politburo Standing Committee.

They included two men seen as potential successors to Mr Hu in 2012 – Shanghai party chief Xi Jinping and Liaoning province’s Li Keqiang.

The four new additions replace three of the country’s most senior leaders – Vice President Zeng Qinghong and lawmakers Luo Gan and Wu Guanzheng – who are stepping down.

Poland’s voters lodged their ballots on Sunday in a snap parliamentary election that may weaken the grip of the ruling conservative Kaczynski twins and usher in a more business-friendly government.

Opinion polls suggest the Civic Platform, a centre-right opposition party, will attract most support, however, no party is likely to win outright which would lead to negotiations over a coalition in the European Union’s biggest ex-communist country.

If the Civic Platform wins the election it would be a stinging defeat for Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski, whose conservative Law and Justice party was elected two years ago and has since been criticized for its combative approach to the European Union and efforts to purge former communists from positions of influence.

This election was called two years early after the last coalition collapsed.

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Finance officials from the Group of Seven industrialized nations spent the weekend assessing the harm their economies face from a credit crunch sparked by rising defaults in the U.S. sub prime mortgage market.

Up-and-coming nations were quick to highlight their own less-fragile prospects.

Brazilian Finance Minister Guido Mantega, who takes over chairing the Group of 20 emerging countries in November, notes the irony of the situation is that countries, which were examples of good fiscal governance, now face financial challenges.

As a consequence, the fast-growing emerging-market powers, untainted by the reckless lending that has tripped up many rich countries, want their growing economic might recognized with more clout in global councils.

Mantega, who meets with U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson today, said he would push for more representation for emerging economies, in global institutions such as the IMF and the World Bank.

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Pakistan’s former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto has called for foreign help to investigate Thursday’s suicide attacks on her and her supporters in Karachi.

Karachi police have questioned three men arrested in Punjab province in connection with the attacks, but Ms Bhutto said international technical experts could help identify those behind the deaths of 139 people.

A police source said the men were linked to a vehicle that had been used in the attacks – one of the bloodiest Pakistan has ever seen.

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As Asian stocks plunged yesterday, dragged down by last week’s decline on Wall Street and on the yen’s strength against the U.S. dollar, traders pinned hopes on bargain hunting to buoy markets later in the day.

Stocks were also down in Australia, Hong Kong, Indonesia, the Philippines and Taiwan.

The Asian markets took their cue from Wall Street, where the Dow Jones industrial average lost 2.64 percent to 13,522.02 Friday, as lackluster corporate earnings, renewed credit concerns and rising oil prices spooked investors.

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According to the Annual Worldwide Press Freedom Index just released by Reporters without Borders Taiwan has jumped up to rank 32nd, putting it as the leader in press freedom among all countries in Asia, and ranking it higher than both Japan and the United States.

Experts explain that the Taiwanese government allows organizations or individuals to exercise freedom of speech and freedom of belief without living in fear of imprisonment or punishment.

Mainland China ranks near the lowest among all nations in terms of press freedom.

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