PHUKETWAN recognises the importance of Asean with the Economic Community approaching and marks what's happening around the region with a new column, Asean Today.



reuters A record 30.3 million tourists are expected to visit Thailand this year, with more than a quarter coming from China, the tourism council said as the country rebounds from political unrest in 2014 and a bomb attack in August.



channelnewsasia.com What is billed as the world's largest eco-park resort being built in Indonesian waters will be only accessible via ferry service from Singapore, developers of Funtasy Island said. There will be a 25-minute ferry service shuttling to HarbourFront, Funtasy Island Development (FID) said. FID Director Michael Yong said that he expects a few schools of wild dolphins to be in the area.

straitstimes.com Singapore has signed an international agreement committing to eliminate discrimination on the basis of race. Ambassador Karen Tan, Singapore's Permanent Representative to the UN in New York, signed the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD) on behalf of Singapore.



bbc.com The Indonesian health ministry says hundreds of thousands of people are now suffering from respiratory illnesses after breathing in hazardous smoke caused by peatland fires. The fires, often started to clear forest for plantations, have been burning for weeks, sending heavy haze across the region.

asiaone.com Forest fires in Sumatra and Kalimantan, which are shrouding parts of South-east Asia in haze, are unlikely to disappear until next year despite international effort to put them out, experts said.

independent.co.uk Fires engulfing Indonesia have been emitting more emissions in one day than is generated from all US economic activity, according to new figures. Writing on the Global Fire Data website, University of Amsterdam professor Guido Van der Werf said that on October 21 emissions would surpass 2006 levels, one of the country's worst years for fires and carbon emissions.



reuters Seventy percent of Cambodia's 15 million population are under 30 years of age, while nine million of its citizens use the Internet. PM Hun Sen's Facebook, which how has 1.2 million ''likes,'' carries images and videos of new infrastructure and credits him with Cambodia's speedy economic development.



weather.com The Philippine government is warning its citizens that the deadly impacts from Typhoon Koppu (Lando), now a tropical storm, will persist for days. For days, massive rainfall totals have been reported in the northern Philippines, where water has flowed down the mountains and into villages, the BBC reported. The floods left many residents stranded on the roofs of their homes, awaiting rescue, the report added.



bloomberg Malaysia's government will explain to parliament how US$700 million of political donations ended up in Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak's personal bank as the administration seeks to diffuse an attempt by opposition lawmakers to bring a no-confidence vote against him.



reuters China is eyeing total investment of more than 200 billion yuan (S$43.67 billion) in 240 projects in a pilot economic zone on the border with Laos, the government of the southwestern province of Yunnan said.



wsj.com Vietnam expects higher economic growth over the next five years, driven by strong exports and foreign investment as the Southeast Asian nation integrates further into the global economy. The country targets an economic growth rate of between 6.5pc and 7.0pc a year during the 2016-2020 period, up from an average annual growth rate of around 5.9pc for the past five years, Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung said.



freemalaysiatoday.com Malaysia wants Myanmar to play a big role and take concrete action in resolving the Rohingya issue, the Dewan Rakyat was told. Foreign Minister Anifah Aman said although Malaysia believed in non-interference, the Rohingya issue was serious and had to be addressed together.

nst.com.my Malaysia has taken proactive measures to address the Rohingya migrants issue, including having frequent meetings with Myanmar and raising the matter on different platforms such as Asean, the OIC and the United Nations.



reuters China does not seek to change the existing status of territorial claims in the South China Sea with its newly built lighthouses, the Foreign Ministry said, arguing that Beijing already had ''indisputable sovereignty'' in the contested waters.