Fighting piracy by fighting poverty

ASIA appears to be winning the battle against terrorism - at least on the high seas.

Last year saw the lowest number of reported incidents of piracy and armed robbery against ships in the region since 2007 - the 85 reported in 2016 was 58 per cent fewer than in 2015.

But the battle to improve safety of property and, more importantly, crew and passengers on ships is far from over, says Masafumi Kuroki, executive director of the information sharing centre of ReCAAP (ReCAAP ISC), the first government-to-government accord to promote cooperation against piracy and armed robbery against ships in Asia.