Asia

China’s two prominent banks that are responsible for offering overseas development finance to o Latin America have gone down, according to new research from Boston University and think tank the Inter-American Dialogue. China Development Bank (CBD) and the Import-Export Bank of China (China Exim) lent US$1.1 billion to the region in 2019, down from $2.1 billion the previous year and the lowest annual amount for a decade. Instead of lending directly to Latin American governments, Chinese banks are investing in energy and infrastructure projects through funds or financing Chinese state-owned companies bidding for projects, the report said. The so-called “commodities super-cycle” ended in 2015. And the oil-for-loans agreements extended to countries such as Ecuador and Venezuela – the recipient...

The Indonesian government has decided to invest 80.5 trillion Rp (5.3 billion USD) to build six toll road projects with an aim to recover the economy after the COVID-19 pandemic. The projects consist of five private toll road projects and an 8.7 trillion Rp government project for highway bridges connecting Batam Island with the nearby islands of Tanjung Sauh, Buau and Bintan in Riau Islands province. The Public Works and Housing Ministry is offering the investment projects in the form of public private partnership (PPP), according to Minister Basuki Hadimulyono. “All projects have great economic and financial value such as the Patimban toll road access, which I think will be highly profitable because Patimban will have a container port for exporting vehicles,” Basuki said on April 30 durin...

Many companies are looking at South-east Asian nations as an alternative to China as a manufacturing and supply engine as the Covid-19 pandemic has become a new factor in risk assessments. "Companies definitely evaluate how countries are managing Covid-19 risk as they make investment decisions in the current environment. In particular, transparency in government response is critical," said Ms Kellie Meiman Hock, managing partner at global consultancy McLarty Associates. For instance, decisions regarding essential versus non-essential industries must be consistent to allow companies to reasonably assess the impact of movement restrictions on their business, she told The Straits Times. Relying on China as the sole source has proved to be an expensive lesson, Bangkok-based Dr Pavida Pananond,...

After constant fluctuations of its currency for past several days, the Indonesian Rupiah eventually reached its highest value in April 2020, when its rate was previously recorded in the range between 15,430 and 15,295 against US dollar. It turned out that rupiah could show its strength when it hit its highest rate of 15,000 to the greenback as recorded on Thursday's closing session of the Jakarta inter-bank market, not until the end of 2020 as expected by the Indonesian central bank's Governor Perry Warjiyo. The Indonesian central bank, Bank Indonesia, was optimistic that rupiah would strengthen to 15,000 per US dollar by the end of this year in line with the lender's policy on efforts to stabilize the value of rupiah against foreign currencies including the US dollar, Warjiyo told journal...

Singapore's Minister of Trade and Industry Chan Chun Sing has said the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) trade deal was still on track and it would be signed by the end of 2020.RCEP brings together the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), China, Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand. The countries have made an offer to India, which pulled out of talks last November, to see if it is prepared to rejoin discussions. "If India is unable to rejoin the discussions in the coming month, then plans will continue to proceed with the legal scrubbing for the preparation for the siging at the end of the year," Chan told reporters. "At this point in time we are still on track for the signing by the RCEP countries at the end of the year," he added. Chan was s...

Tokopedia, Indonesia's largest online store, has been hacked by a hacker, who leaked details of 15 million users registered on. The hacker claims the data was obtained in an intrusion that took place in March 2020 and is just a small part of the site's entire user database that was obtained in the hack. The leaker said he was sharing the 15 million users sample in the hopes someone could help crack the user passwords, so they could be used to access user accounts. ZDNet has obtained a copy of the leaked file with the help of data breach monitoring service Under the Breach. The file was a PostgreSQL database dump, containing user information such as full names, emails, phone numbers, hashed passwords, dates of birth, and Tokopedia profile-related details (account creation date, last login, ...

The Covid-19 has caused the estimated damage of 1 trillion baht to Thailand’s national economy while business confidence for the first quarter has dropped to 47.2%, the lowest in nearly 2 years. This according to the report by the Centre for Economic and Business Forecasts of the University of Thai Chamber of Commerce. The centre did a survey of businesses between March 23 and April 17, asking about confidence in the national economy, currently enduring lockdown measures including suspension of visa-on-arrival facility for tourists and a ban on all incoming flights until at least the end of May. For an economy that derives 12-14% of its gross domestic product from tourism receipts, the impact of the pandemic has been disastrous, putting at least a million workers out of a job in the touris...

There is bad news for the workforce in Myanmar as the Union of Myanmar Travel Association (UMTA) has feared that over 50 percent of the people employed in the hotel and tourism industry may lose their jobs because of COVID-19.UMTA chairman U Naung Naung Han said many have made 50 to 70 percent of their staff redundant while others have reduced salaries as all hotels and tour operators have been forced to suspend operations.“As they are just focusing on survival, some companies have downsized. But some others which only have a workforce of 10 or so can’t further downsize. So they have reduced salaries,” he said. The UMTA estimates that around 800,000 people are directly employed in hospitality and the total number may be between 1.2 million and 1.5 million if indirect employment from servic...

Malaysia has decided to ease lockdown in the country and allow nearly all economic activities to  resume with new plans of lesser restrictions from Monday. Malaysian government will enforce guidelines for companies to ensure there are no large gatherings and people take precautions to reduce risk of infections, Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin said in a televised address. Even so, companies are encouraged to let employees work from home if possible and to consider their childcare obligations, he said. Schools will remain shut, mass gatherings at religious and sports events aren’t allowed, and Malaysians can’t freely travel across states even during the Eid-al Fitr holiday, Muhyiddin said. The moves see Malaysia joining a wave of countries relaxing confinement measures that has hammered glob...

Prime Minister of Nepal K P Oli is found to have made heavy investments in companies located in Thailand and Cambodia, investigation into financial records by the authorities has revealed. According to sources, Dinesh Shresth, who is very close to Oli is the conduit for these investments, which are mainly done in Saha group of Thailand. Saha group, which was established in 1974, is USD 10 billion conglomerate with over 20 listed companies and has business interest in consumer goods, food, beverages and industrial development. The groups also owns a resort.Interestingly, the Saha group is currently headed by Boonsithi Chokwatana, who is Chinese origin Thailand national and is considered to be politically well-connected. Oli’s investment have been kept hidden from the public.The Saha Group, ...