Cambodia: Fintech development integral to nation-building exercise

Cambodian vendor using her mobile phone at a market in Phnom Penh. October 23, 2018. Source: Tang Chhin Sothy / AFP

By James Sivalingam -23rd November 2018

EVERY country in the Asia Pacific (APAC) region is pursuing digital transformation in its own way, and recognises fintech as one of the critical components that will drive tomorrow’s economy.

In Asia, many of the innovations and developments in the fintech ecosystem are feeding off of the rapid growth of e-commerce platforms in the region.

But not in Cambodia. In the low-lying plains of the Mekong Delta, fintech development is a part of the nation-building exercise.

The country’s financial industry itself is still in its nascent stages, and according to its central bank, the National Bank of Cambodia (NBC), digital finance could be a “game changer” in the nation’s efforts for financial inclusion and poverty alleviation.

SEE ALSO: What is holding back the cashless economy in Asia?

The NBC has iterated that digital finance is vital in reaching the unbanked and under-banked population in Cambodia, which also has 7 million internet users and 8.5 million active smartphones.

The industry players are well aware of this and have responded accordingly. One such player looking to establish itself within Cambodia’s growing fintech ecosystem is Clik.

Based in Phnom Penh, the fintech startup has recently raised US$2 million from its global partners and is expecting to launch a payments aggregator platform in 2019.

Lucrative market

Clik’s CEO and co-founder Matthew Tippetts, in an interview with Tech Wire Asia, said that cash is still the preferred mode of payment in Cambodia but only due to a void in the market.

When the company carried out a large market feasibility study in the country two years ago, it found out that up to 85 percent of the people surveyed were willing to use mobile phones to make payments.

“Considering that now, out of 8.5 million smartphones only 1.5 (million) are used to make payments, is a proof that what is in the market is not answering the demand. Because if they have what they were looking for, 85 percent of the people will be using it, and we’re far from that.

“There is a big market opportunity,” he said.

October 23, 2018 shows a Cambodian vendor using her mobile phone while waiting for customers at a market in Phnom Penh. Source: Tang Chhin Sothy / AFP

Solving the data problem

Clik, which is currently in beta phase is poised to solve the payment fragmentation issue in Cambodia as well as provide valuable insight on consumers to the merchants.

Merchants in Cambodia have multiple payment terminals, accept different wallets that are not interoperable and not integrated. Cash is the mode of payment for up to 70 percent of the transactions in the country.

These transactions, however, do not generate any data.

Tippetts said that Clik will solve this problem by aggregating all payment methods and networks under its platform, as well as collecting transaction data, so it can provide the merchant with valuable information about its consumers.

SEE ALSO: Can tech give retail a new lease of life in Indonesia?

While more than 150 merchants have already signed up, the company expects to onboard more than 500 merchants across different industries by the end of year.

“The merchants have a vested interest in using the platform and getting their customers to the platform as more customers use the platform, the more they can understand who that customer is and how they can get them to shop more with them,” Tippets explained.

Nothing comes without challenges

Cambodia, much like its neighboring countries, has seen a fair amount of saturation in the market. Mobile payment companies such as Wing, Pi Pay, PayGo, and True Money have entered the country, but faced similar problems.

Getting customers to maintain a balance in the online wallet, to ensure regular usage, is a common challenge.

“Most people top-up their wallet specifically to do one transaction. They have to top-up to do the next transaction and that’s an impediment,” said Tippetts.

Giving a reason for consumers to keep a balance on their e-wallets is a critical challenge for the industry players, according to him.

Cambodian couple (L) taking picture with their phone at Aeon Mall in Phnom Penh. December 16, 2015. Source: Tang Chhin Sothy / AFP

e-Commerce a non-factor

At this moment, e-commerce is not at all a driving force for fintech in Cambodia. Tippetts feels that the lack of a legal framework protecting e-commerce players has something to do with it.

However, he added that e-commerce is slowly gaining momentum in the country, and getting more prevalent – along with it driving up the demand for reliable payment gateways.

Progressive governance

Regulations are often seen as standing in the way of innovation, especially in fintech.

But Cambodia’s NBC is very progressive in spurring the growth of fintech solutions in the country according to Tippetts.

“In 2017, they (NBC) came up with a specific license for payment service providers like us. It is a much clearer framework than it was before, effectively allowing us to apply directly to the central bank, without the need for sponsorship from a bank,” said Tippetts.

SEE ALSO: Southeast Asia digital economy smashes expectation with $240 billion valuation

The process takes, on average six months, and upon completion of the analysis of the applications, vendors are allowed to launch their product on a small scale.

When certain specified milestones are met, the central bank then grants the operating license.

The proliferation of payment service providers may have a chilling effect on consumer interest. However, at the same time, the saturated market will also present a highly competitive environment which might boost innovation.

And with China always seeking to bolster its presence in the Southeast Asia region, an investment, or merger with one of the Chinese giants may, after all, determine the long-term trajectory of fintech in Cambodia.

This article originally appeared on our sister site Tech Wire Asia. 

Hasina – A Daughter’s Tale

A must see telefilm for all

by Anwar A Khan-Nov 26, 2018

( November 26, 2018, Dhaka, Sri Lanka Guardian) My class-mate during the DU days and a close friend Md. Mujibur Rahman, a first batch guerilla trained FF of 1971 from the world renowned Dehradun Military Academy, India, took me to the Star Cineplex at Bashundhara City, a shopping mall in Dhaka on 17th instant to watch this docudrama. With tearful eyes, we saw it; we found Bangabandhu like sky-touching statesman, the other way round of the hard struggling life of Hasina, Rehana… and many more things. It is like a journey for everybody going back into history.

Piplu Khan, the director of this telefilm deserves our high commendation for producing this magnificent docudrama and presenting it before us. It is a brilliant and bold piece of telefilm-making. He is reinventing the documentary… In my view there should be no rules and no boundaries to film-making, and the impact this film has shown us…I think that Piplu is a completely independent voice, and he presents situations and past affairs back to us in a basal way. The docufilm has been carefully crafted tableaux: there’s one continuous shot where two women has a 70-minute lament, telling about aspects of their life, their parents, Bangladesh’s Founding Father Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, their mother, their brothers and other relatives who were brutally put to death by some roughish military men on 15th August 1975.

The filmmaker is so present with them, you can’t help but understand what they are going through, and to understand is to feel empathy and to want to help. There is never a dull moment watching the telefilm. It is so astute and the quality of the film-making is such that it becomes something very beautiful, a meditation on life. We’re having this golden age of documentary right now and it’s being driven by technology. In the past you would need to write a script first because the editing process was so laborious but now you can shoot a whole bunch of stuff and capture life in a way that you couldn’t before and this film shows you just what level of artistry is possible.

You learn not just about the individual but also about the system in which they were living. I can’t think of any other story in our culture that can tell us so much about Bangabandhu, Sheikh Hasina, Sheikh Rehana… in our lifetime and how society is evolving as this body of work. It is illuminating and fascinating and it’s one of the things that inspired the director of the docudrama to do the work that he did.

It is the cruel poetry of detail that is so heartbreaking. It took something so horrible but found a way to go to the heart of the matter through simple details. It’s stunning in its simplicity. It’s powerful both in its observation and its analysis, which is a rare combination. This is maybe the greatest telefilm ever made in Bangladesh. It has wonderful cinema vérité footage of the “Hasina, a daughter’s tale.”

The film shoots some interviews with people like…and through their recollection you also have a sense of analysis and understanding rather than mere observation. So it’s combining those many things in the film that really is magnificent. It is really a film about repressed memory, and the recollection of the hard struggling life of Hasina and Rehana. It really is one of the most poignant films about the trauma of losing their parents, brothers and many others.

It is so candid and affectionate and lovely, and everyone at the screening time loved it. Not many films bear re-watching, but this one does. It is a very timely film, in terms of present political situation in the country. It shows women actively changing their lives and I found that very inspiring. So many documentaries tell you what to think. This one doesn’t – it puts you straight into the story and you get to know the characters just by watching them.

Piplu Khan, director of the film tried to unfold different events with his efficiency upon description of Sheikh Hasina and her sister Sheikh Rehana.

---

We watched this in the cinema, which was good because it’s very beautifully filmed – a real spectacle. It’s set in a reserve in Bangladesh and India. It has made something very powerful which has shown us what was really then going on in Bangladesh. It is just full of inventive and brilliant formal ideas as well as being a very beautiful film to watch. And it’s informative too. So, the bed of it is factual, and people are responding to it

It shows you the breakdown of a society and the triumph of the greater evil once there’s a political vacuum, so it’s a very strongly political film but it’s also, dare I say it, incredibly exciting. For me, this is the first great example of a film-maker being there while it’s all actually happening and there are moments in it that are utterly heartbreaking. It’s a work of great bravery and definitive historical significance.

The director and his team just observe things and then find a rhythm in his cutting room to show you the reality, usually of an institution, and the human fallibilities of institutions. The telefilm is really about the humans. It is so rare that someone’s life has been so well documented. I absolutely loved the way Hasina and Rehana told their stories using all that footage. As a viewer, you really get to know them and understand what they went through. The film has made me realise how much of their life was not in their hands.

Even without being political, the film is political, because it shows you what life was like inside Bangladesh at a time when the only perspective you got on the country was through a news lens. .This was a landmark film for me because it made documentaries popular – people who didn’t normally watch documentary films watched this. It tells the real story. The director and his team have told the story beautifully. It shows how one extremely powerful documentary can work alongside campaigning and holding demonstrations to bring about change. Lessons of darkness is by the far the most powerful I’ve ever seen. It is completely mesmeric and beautiful. It is so bold.

Piplu always puts himself out to the nth degree; he manages to be in the right place and observe and tell the story through character. I think it’s because of Hasina and Rehana like characters – Hasina is warm, she’s humble, she’s sensible – that she relates to people so well. It’s a brilliant film. The docudrama is a revisit the whole ordeal that the two sisters encountered. It’s a remarkable piece of documentary film-making… This is the one you need to see.

It has been beautifully shot. Based on the life of Sheikh Hasina, 10th Prime Minister of Bangladesh, the film Hasina: A Daughter’s Tale covers and is referring to the assassination of Hasina’s father Bangabandu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman along with most of her family member in 1975. This biography based documentary tries to capture a riveting story of Hasina out of a tragic backdrop. It demonstrates the captivating story of the Premier with a layered interpretation of her tragedies and triumphs. Dramatically, yet honestly, the documentary progresses to portray a daughter, a leader, and ultimately a person along with her multiple facets and her journey associated with the genesis of Bangladesh.

The trailer opens with a monologue from Sheikh Rehana, the sister of the Prime Minister, as she speaks of a dream filled with darkness and sorrow. “Sometimes I wish everything was a dream,” she says, referring to the bloodbath of August 15, 1975, when Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman along with most of his family members was brutally murdered. Here Sheikh Hasina has been depicted as a person who actually connects the most with the history and inceptions of Bangladesh. The filmmaker’s intention throughout the process was to convey the story in an authentic manner, unmarred by any influence which can be open to independent interpretation. Besides the history, the filmmaker sought to showcase as the uncanny and unusual sides of one of the most iconic figures of our time.

It stars Sheikh Hasina herself in the title role, and her sister Sheikh Rehana in the role herself. The film featuring Sheikh Hasina upholds not only the Prime Minister but also the life sketch of an affectionate mother, ideal wife and worthy daughter of a worthy father. Through this 70 minutes heart touching docufilm the new generation can know about Sheikh Hasina’s progress of being a Prime Minister and many unknown events of her life. It is a tale of her coming Dhaka from a remote village Tungipara. Hasian: a daughter’s tale is an unprecedented presentation of history. It is a real story shown of turning into uncommon of a common woman not the Prime Minister.

Piplu Khan, director of the film tried to unfold different events with his efficiency upon description of Sheikh Hasina and her sister Sheikh Rehana. Different matters of Sheikh Hasina’s family life, struggle, politics and other unknown events are manifested in the celluloid. Radwan Mujib Siddiq and Nasrul Hamid Bipu on behalf of Center for Research and Information (CRI) produced the docufilm. Sadik Ahmed was behind the camera. It was edited by Nabanita Sen and Debajyoti Mishra was the music director. He calls his docudrama a “riveting story against a tragic backdrop which infuses universal appeal to the narrative”.

It has been shot in picturesque but real locations and that makes the actors look all the more attractive. The film has a decent storyline. It is a classy production by … Wish the film to win the National Award for documentary film. It strikes a chord with the audience through his tragic portrayal of Hansina and her family members. It is a docufilm about Bangabandhu’s daughter Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s personal and political life. The new generation should watch this 70-minute docudrama. In short, Hasina – A Daughter’s Tale is a must see telefilm for all.

-The End-

The writer is a senior citizen of Bangladesh, writes on politics, political and human-centred figures, current and international affairs.

Morocco rape victim urges women: never remain silent

Khadija, 17, calls on victims of sexual abuse to speak out after she was allegedly kidnapped and gang-raped
'I will not keep silent': Khadija rape case spurs women into action in Morocco – video

Anais Bremondand Rebecca Ratcliffe-Mon 26 Nov 2018 21.44 GMT

The Moroccan teenager who was allegedly kidnapped and gang-raped has urged women “never to remain silent” about sexual abuse and harassment.

The 17-year-old – identified only as Khadija – spoke publicly this summer about a two-month ordeal in which she claimed she had been abducted, tattooed, burned and raped by at least 12 men.

Her case sent shockwaves through the kingdom and prompted a group of Moroccan women to create the movement #Masaktach – “I will not keep silent” – to campaign against violence.

“For each and every girl or woman, I don’t want this to occur again,” Khadija told the Guardian. “I want this to stop and I want the women to be courageous.”

Since speaking publicly of the attack, she has been accused of lying and of having a “bad reputation”, but Khadija said the support of those close to her and of women campaigners meant she had not lost hope. “I am surrounded by good-hearted, kind people and I trust them a lot.”

Khadija alleges she was abducted from outside a relative’s house in central Morocco during the month of Ramadan, then starved, drugged, burned with cigarettes and tattooed with swastikas. In September, 11 men appeared in court. The case continues.

Khadija said she had been “psychologically crushed” by her ordeal, which has left her and her family unable to leave the home.

She said she was seeing a psychiatrist, adding that she could not bear to look at the tattoos she was left with.

“I wish to take them off as soon as possible, because I cannot go to school or outside while I still have them, while some people can come and see me like that. I can’t stand it and I feel hurt a lot,” she said.
“My father is no longer the same. His life has changed. He no longer works; he no longer goes out.

We all never leave the house. They are all hurting. I no longer go out; I just stay home,” she said.
Khadija added that she has avoided comments from some of the families of the accused, who have claimed that she is lying and questioned her character.

Reading online messages of support gave her joy, she added. “I am grateful for the people standing by my side even those I’ve not met. I thank them for trusting me this much.”

This month, Masaktach campaigners took to the streets of cities across Morocco to raise awareness of violence against women, handing out whistles for women to blow if they face abuse. According to a recent UN Women report (pdf), two-thirds of men believe women should tolerate violence in order to keep the family together.

In February, Morocco adopted a law criminalising some forms of gender-based violence, but critics claim it doesn’t go far enough, failing to define domestic violence or even outlaw marital rape.

Khadija said she had faith in the justice system and hoped to start a new life. She dreams of continuing her education and becoming a lawyer or journalist.

She hopes that other women will speak out. “I don’t want what happened to me to ever take place again. I would never want another girl to be put in the same situation.”

‘These children are barefoot. In diapers. Choking on tear gas.’

A migrant girl from Honduras, part of a caravan of thousands traveling from Central America, cries after running away from tear gas thrown by U.S. border agents. (Kim Kyung-Hoon/Reuters)

By Tim Elfrink and Fred Barbash November 26 at 6:09 AM

A little girl from Honduras stares into the camera, her young features contorted in anguish. She’s barefoot, dusty, and clad only in a diaper and T-shirt. And she’s just had to run from clouds of choking tear gas fired across the border by U.S. agents.

A second photograph, which also circulated widely and rapidly on social media, shows an equally anguished woman frantically trying to drag the same child and a second toddler away from the gas as it spreads.

The three were part of a much larger group, perhaps 70 or 80 men, women and children, pictured in a wider-angle photo fleeing the tear gas. Reuters photographer Kim Kyung-Hoon shot the images, which provoked outrage and seemed at odds with President Trump’s portrayal of the caravan migrants as “criminals” and “gang members.”

Trump officials said that authorities had to respond with force after hundreds of migrants rushed the border near Tijuana on Sunday, some of them throwing “projectiles” at Customs and Border Protection personnel.

Migrant caravan crisis escalates with tear gas at border fence

U.S. authorities fired tear gas at members of a Central American migrant caravan who had rushed the fencing along the U.S. border with Mexico on Nov. 25. (Video: Drea Cornejo , Blair Guild/Photo: Kim Kyung-Hoon/Reuters/The Washington Post)

The chaos erupted Sunday around the bustling San Ysidro border crossing, which Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen said was closed “to ensure public safety in response to large numbers of migrants seeking to enter the U.S. illegally.”

But Democratic leaders, human rights advocates and others focused on the images of the two children in particular. Many pointed to the children left gagging from the gas attack as evidence that Trump’s push against a caravan of asylum seekers from Central America had gone too far.

“Shooting tear gas at children is not who we are as Americans,” tweeted Tom Perez, chairman of the Democratic National Committee. “Seeking asylum is not a crime. We must be better than this.”
[Why tear gas, lobbed at migrants on the southern border, is banned in warfare]

Gavin Newsom, the Democratic governor-elect of California, argued that images of kids sprinting from tear gas run counter to American ideals.

“These children are barefoot. In diapers. Choking on tear gas,” he tweeted. “Women and children who left their lives behind — seeking peace and asylum — were met with violence and fear. That’s not my America. We’re a land of refuge. Of hope. Of freedom. And we will not stand for this.”

Others, such as Democratic Rep.-elect Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, noted that the families at the border crossing were fleeing violent conditions in Central America and had the right to seek asylum.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

✔@Ocasio2018

Asking to be considered a refugee & applying for status isn’t a crime.

It wasn’t for Jewish families fleeing Germany.
It wasn’t for targeted families fleeing Rwanda.
It wasn’t for communities fleeing war-torn Syria.
And it isn’t for those fleeing violence in Central America.

NBC News

✔@NBCNews

A migrant family, part of a caravan of thousands traveling from Central America en route to the United States, runs away from tear gas in front of the U.S.-Mexico border wall in Tijuana, Mexico.

(: Kim Kyung-Hoon/Reuters)

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Trump’s response in an early-morning tweet on Monday was to call for Mexico to return the migrants to their home countries, and to again threaten to “close the border permanently.”

That’s never been done, and experts interviewed by The Washington Post on Sunday night knew of no provision explicitly allowing Trump to permanently close the borders. Most of the border, with the exception of designated crossings, is already closed, which doesn’t stop migrants from entering.

[Borderline: Navigating the invisible boundary and physical barriers that define the U.S.-Mexico border]

So it probably would not solve Trump’s problems with asylum seekers, who, by law, must be allowed to present their claims if in fact they are able to cross the border anywhere.

“This is yet another of several Trump attempts to change what he disparagingly calls the policy of ‘catch and release’ without or against legal authority,” said Yale Law School’s Harold Hongju Koh, legal adviser to the State Department during the Obama administration. “All have been blocked.
What he does not understand,” Koh said in an email, “is that everyone crossing our Southern border is not illegally present. Those with valid asylum claims have a legal right to assert those claims and remain.”

Closing the border “permanently” or otherwise would conflict with the asylum laws, agreed Peter S. Margulies, an immigration law expert at Roger Williams University School of Law.

Donald J. Trump

✔@realDonaldTrump

Mexico should move the flag waving Migrants, many of whom are stone cold criminals, back to their countries. Do it by plane, do it by bus, do it anyway you want, but they are NOT coming into the U.S.A. We will close the Border permanently if need be. Congress, fund the WALL!

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Had the migrants made it to the border and presented themselves as asylum seekers, U.S. officials would have been required by federal law to consider their claim before sending them back to Mexico. Indeed, they are required to do so whether the migrants cross at a designated point of entry or anywhere else.

U.S. District Judge Jon S. Tigar forcefully reminded Trump of that law last week when he issued a nationwide restraining order against the president’s plan to consider asylum requests only from migrants who cross at legal checkpoints. It was Tigar’s ruling that prompted Trump to lash out last week against the “Obama judge” and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit, which in turn brought a rare rebuke from Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr.

Trump’s legal options appear limited. “The border is very long,” Margulies told The Post. But if the administration can “stop people just short of the border, there’s a better argument that those people are not entitled to asylum. I think it would be terrible policy and I think it would be morally repugnant,” he said, “but the administration would be on better legal footing.”

Attempting to stop them short of the border appears to be just what Trump may be planning.

The Post’s Joshua Partlow and Nick Miroff, citing Mexican officials and senior members of President-elect Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s transition team, reported that the administration is working with the incoming government of Mexico on a plan that would require asylum seekers to wait in that country while their claims moved through U.S. courts.

While Trump hinted at such a possibility in a tweet Saturday, he did not offer any detail. He could try to invoke an exception to the law called “safe third country,” which permits the government to keep asylum seekers in another country, in this case Mexico, under a bilateral agreement while their claims are being considered in the United States.

However, there are several catches to that provision, American Civil Liberties Union immigration attorney Lee Gelernt told The Post on Sunday night. If and when an agreement is worked out, the law says, “there needs to be an assurance that individuals waiting on the Mexican side are safe, not just from the Mexican government but from gangs” and others.

"We believe it would be impossible for the U.S.” to make that assurance, he added.

Can Vietnam achieve its vision of a ‘green transformation’?

This picture taken on May 2, 2014 shows the first wind turbine towers from Vietnam's first wind power plant along a sea coast at the southern coastal province of Bac Lieu. Up until 2014 Southeast Asian communist nation had been relying mainly on power produced from thermo and hydro power plants. Source: AFP /Duy Khoi

By Policy Forum -26th November 2018

VIETNAM is facing a number of environmental pitfalls and policy hurdles on its path towards a sustainable energy sector, Frauke Urban, Giuseppina Siciliano, Linda Wallbott, Markus Lederer and Dang Nguyen Anh write.

Vietnam has experienced rapid economic growth over the past two decades, making it one of the strongest and fastest growing economies in Southeast Asia.

At the same time, the country has experienced increasing levels of urbanisation, industrialisation and high population growth.

While millions of people have been lifted out of poverty, Vietnam’s recent development trajectory has also resulted in increasing environmental pressures.

The country has seen a steady growth in demand for energy on account of this development, resulting in a steep increase in carbon dioxide emissions among other environmental pressures, such as air, water, and soil pollution, deforestation, the destruction of natural habitats, and biodiversity loss.

To combat these environmental risks, Vietnam is among a number of countries that have put in place green transformation policies.

The concept of ‘green transformations’ refers to the process of re-structuring economies and societies within sustainable planetary boundaries. Green transformations can, therefore, be interpreted as practices of radical economic, societal and institutional change.

SEE ALSO: Will Vietnam follow China down the pollution path? 

Vietnam took its first steps in a greener direction by introducing its Strategy for Sustainable Development 2011-2020, which was followed by the National Strategy on Climate Change in 2011, and the Green Growth Strategy in 2012. These strategies accompany a range of policies and programs to increase energy efficiency, promote renewable energy, introduce carbon trading and reduce emissions. They also form part of Vietnam’s Nationally Determined Contributions under the Paris Agreement on climate change.

Vietnam already benefits from various energy-related Clean Development Mechanism projects and has reduced its greenhouse gas emission intensity over the last few years. It also invests heavily in renewable energy, most importantly wind power and hydropower, which accounts for nearly seven per cent of the country’s total primary energy supply. Energy, therefore, plays a central role in Vietnam’s green transformation strategy.

Vietnam is actively pursuing opportunities for green transformations in the energy sector to achieve three key goals: green growth, sustainable development, and progress on tackling climate change.

This pursuit is motivated by multiple domestic policy goals, including restructuring the economy, enhancing employment opportunities, improving energy security, accessing international finance to overcome the phasing-out of conventional development aid, and accessing climate-relevant technology.

However, there are several major barriers to green transformation in the country.

First, Vietnam has no overall integration when it comes to its overlapping strategies for green growth, sustainable development and climate change.

Motorcycles are seen on a street in Hanoi, Vietnam June 30, 2016. Source: Reuters/Kham

Second, the country has competing implementation strategies and ambivalent policy approaches. It’s not clear, for instance, how the country intends to balance between policies that favour industrial development and economic growth, policies that favour environmental protection, and policies that favour a reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.

There is also the issue of energy justice, particularly when it comes to land use and the implementation of energy projects. There have been cases where the government has seized land for hydropower projects, as it remains the owner of land in Socialist Vietnam and may withdraw land certificates rather easily. However, it should be noted that authorities are apparently making an effort to follow due processes, to be transparent and accountable and to reduce these negative impacts.

Other trade-offs are related to deforestation, as forests sometimes need to be cleared for energy projects. For example, the construction of dams often requires forested areas to be flooded to create a reservoir. Down-stream flooding, erosion, sedimentation, loss of biodiversity, habitat destruction, and harm to fish and other aquatic species can be some of the direct impacts of large hydropower facilities, particularly large dams.

In the future, it would be useful for the Vietnamese government to develop better-coordinated policies that span across its green transformation goals.

SEE ALSO: Will Vietnam really adhere to its clean timber deal with Europe?  

Adopting a more ambitious renewable energy strategy to increase the country’s share of renewable energy, particularly wind and solar, would be another way to further promote green transformations. This could be linked to technology transfer and cooperation from developed countries under the Paris Agreement.

The ‘Nationally Determined Contributions for Vietnam’ plan aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by eight per cent by 2030 compared to 2010 levels. However, if the international community provides financial and technical support, this aim could be increased to 25 percent by 2030.

International support could be further negotiated to gain access to climate-relevant technology and financial support in exchange for further increasing the share of renewable energy.

Vietnam is well on its way to promoting a green transformation in its energy sector. However, there’s a long path ahead when it comes to resolving the various trade-offs and energy justice concerns that come with this transformation – and it’s one the country has only just begun.

This piece was first published at Policy Forum, Asia and the Pacific’s platform for public policy analysis and opinion. 

Patients given unsafe medical implants

Maureen McCleave was fitted with a new type of pacemaker

25 November 2018

Medical devices that are unsafe and have not been adequately tested are ending up inside patients' bodies, an investigation has revealed.

The devices include heart pacemakers, rods to correct spines, and artificial knees and hips.

The investigation found implants that had failed in baboons, or were tested only on pigs and dead bodies, were coming onto the market.

The industry says it has transformed millions of lives for the better.

BBC Panorama has been working with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists and 58 media organisations around the world including The Guardian newspaper and the British Medical Journal.

• The therapy tested on pigs and corpses

The investigation found a lax system of regulation in Europe that allows companies to "shop around" dozens of safety organisations until one of them approves their product.

It also found that doctors can be left in the dark about the true risk of treatments they are recommending to their patients.

Maureen 'the good guinea pig'?

Maureen McCleave, 82 from Essex, was the first person in the UK to be fitted with the "Nanostim" pacemaker because of an irregular heartbeat.

Pacemakers are life-saving implants that deliver electrical pulses to the heart to keep them beating regularly.

Traditional ones have leads from a battery to the heart that deliver the electrical pulse, but the cables can break.

The Nanostim was the first leadless pacemaker that sat inside the heart.

Maureen said she was "over the moon" to be the first and felt like a "good guinea pig" when she was implanted with the device at Bart's hospital in London.

"I was so grateful that I'd been chosen, because it sounded too good to be true."

But three years after it was fitted, the battery in Maureen's Nanostim failed and surgeons could not get it out.

She now has a traditional pacemaker keeping her alive. The Nanostim is still sitting inside her heart.

She says: "I don't like the thought I've got a piece of metal or whatever in my heart that's doing nothing and it's just laying there."

Maureen was not alone - a number of batteries failed and parts fell off inside patients.

The pacemaker was withdrawn for safety reasons. At least two people died and ninety events were recorded in which patients were seriously harmed by the device.

The Nanostim heart pacemaker was turned down by safety bodies in Germany because of a lack of evidence. Yet it was approved by the British Standards Institute in the UK.

How big a problem is this?

Not all medical devices are dangerous. Many save lives or dramatically improve quality of life.

But the investigation has found that some devices are failing patients including:

• implants that cracked inside people's backs and had failed in baboon tests
• birth control implants that caused internal damage and bleeding
• misfiring implantable defibrillators
• mesh implants for incontinence that caused abdominal pain

The BBC also uncovered a treatment for children with a severely curved spine, or scoliosis, which was allowed on to the market following tests only on pigs and dead bodies.

Yet, due to a lack of transparency and data collection, the scale of any problem across the medical device industry remains a mystery to both patients and doctors.

I have an implant, what should I do?

If you are worried, a panel of experts put together by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists has put together some advice.

It recommends: "Your first point of call should be the medical team that performed the operation.

"If you cannot go back to them for whatever reason, you should consult your primary care doctor.

"The doctor should be able to refer you to a specialist who is familiar with the device and the surgery you had."

• International Consortium of Investigative Journalists: The Implant Files

Patients in the UK can also report problems to the regulator.

How is all this allowed to happen?

Europe does not have a governmental body that checks medical devices before they are put onto the market.

Instead a series of companies called notified bodies issue CE marks - the same mark of approval given to devices like toasters and kettles.

There are 58 of them in Europe and approval by one means a product can be used anywhere in the European Economic Area (the EU plus Iceland, Liechtenstein, and Norway).

But if one body says no, a company can shop around and ask another.

But surely you need evidence?

Less than patients might think.

And there is so much secrecy that even surgeons implanting these devices do not always see the evidence upon which a device has been approved for its safety and effectiveness.

The British Standards Institution said it could not discuss the evidence for Nanostim due to "confidentiality requirements".

Even the UK's regulator, the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency, says it is "bound by confidentiality when it comes to some of the actions that we've taken around individual devices".

But the investigation discovered there was only one clinical study before Nanostim was approved for use on the public.

It followed just 33 patients for 90 days.

Prof Rita Redberg

Prof Rita Redberg, one of the world's leading cardiologists and from the University of California, San Francisco, said: "We're talking about a permanently implanted pacemaker, so I think that's a very tiny study.

"They're supposed to last 10, 20 years. A 90-day follow up is not enough to learn much about the pacemaker."

What does the industry say?

MedTech Europe, the body the represents the medical devices industry, said: "Millions of people have safely benefited from medical devices and can now live healthier, more productive and more independent lives.

"Life is unimaginable today without the hundreds of thousands of medical devices in our hospitals and in our homes."

And it defended the system of notified bodies which were "selected for the expertise, impartiality, transparency and independence of their staff".

Abbott, which manufactured Nanostim, says that many patients have been helped by leadless pacemakers and many more will benefit from this technology in the future.

It said: "In accordance with the European CE Mark approval process, the Nanostim leadless pacing system was approved based on strong performance and safety data.

"In addition, upon CE Mark approval Nanostim was further assessed through a European post market clinical follow-up study."

What is the solution?

The UK's Royal College of Surgeons has called for "drastic regulatory changes".

Prof Derek Alderson, president of the Royal College of Surgeons, said: "All implantable devices should be registered and tracked to monitor efficacy and patient safety in the long-term."

But when the European Union suggested tightening the rules, the industry ran a campaign called "Don't lose the 3".

It referred to the fact that manufacturers can get new products to patients three years quicker in Europe then they can in the United States.

New medical device regulation will come into force in Europe in 2020, but campaigners say the new rules do not go far enough.

German MEP Dagmar Roth Behrendt told Panorama that an intensive lobbying campaign by the industry undermined the proposed reforms.

"It's a success for them and a failure for the European parliament and for European patients, I have no doubt about it.

"It is like an open wound for me, that we could not do more for European patients and for the safety of European patients hurts."