ISDS Platform

CEO, TNI, FOEE and FOEI | 24 June 2019

New research shows public interest damage caused by corporate justice

Amsterdam, Brussels (June 24, 2019) — New research published today reveals the devastating consequences of the controversial Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) system. A common ingredient in international trade and investment agreements, ISDS creates a parallel justice system that rolls out the red carpet for corporations to sue states when they act in the public interest. Red carpet courts: 10 stories of how the rich and powerful hijacked justice, by Corporate Europe Observatory, the Transnational Institute and Friends of the Earth Europe/International, gathers 10 recent cases from around the world that show why ISDS and its copy-paste rebranding pushed by the EU have no place in any international agreement. The research comes one day before EU member states’ likely approval of a new EU-Vietnam investment agreement, which includes ISDS-style courts (25 June).

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SCMP

Even as China turns away from coal-fired power domestically, its financial institutions continue to fund coal plants overseas, including in countries like Vietnam, which have great potential for wind and solar power generation

Published: 4:00pm, 11 Jun, 2019

A a child on a Saigon waterbus brandishes a pinwheel as he passes Landmark 81, Vietnam’s tallest building, in Ho Chi Minh City on June 6. While Vietnam has enormous potential for wind and solar power generation, funding for coal-power electricity plants under China’s Belt and Road Initiative could derail its renewable energy push. Photo: Reuters

scmp

The Greater Mekong Subregion is a 2.6 million sq km area that covers five Asean countries as well as China’s Guangxi region and Yunnan province. Photo: AFP

US officials say Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will “recommit” the United States to supporting the five countries along Southeast Asia’s longest river, the Mekong, when he makes his first duty visit to Bangkok in July.

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TABLE OF CONTENT

AGRICULTURE AND RURAL DEVELOPMENT

• Analysis on Sino-Vietnamese agricultural science and technology cooperation under the belt and road initiative.
• Internet services and the potential for market access for rural agricultural households in Myanmar and Viet Nam.
• Regional Policy Forum: Opportunities for a Climate-Smart Food System in Vietnam.
• Transformation and sources of growth in Southeast Asian agriculture.
• Advancing smallholders’ sustainable livelihood through linkages among stakeholders in the cassava (Manihot esculenta Crantz) value chain: the case of Dak Lak Province, Vietnam.

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