Asia

Langar or community kitchen at Sikh temples is always open to everyone, even during during the pandemic. A Sikh organization Khalsa Aid has started working with Sanctuary Health, a group focused on refugee and migrant health, to provide  family meal hampers.Jatinder Singh, the director of the Canadian chapter of the group, said groceries to thousands of people across the country is being provided. The beneficiaries include undocumented refugees living in isolation without much help.It is in Sikh religion to help anyone irrespective of race or religion. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called for an “all-out effort” against the “tsunami of hate and xenophobia” in the wake of pandemic.  The Sikhs are helping in the wake of right-wing groups and conspiracy theorists blaming various ethni...

Investors are flocking to buy Indonesia dollar bonds with the sales was seen at record level  as the country’s strong fiscal track record in recent years fuels optimism on its ability to weather the COVID-19 crisis. Including the sovereign, note sales in the US currency from Indonesia this year total more than $15 billion, a year-to-date record and almost three-times the tally for the same period in 2019. In one of the most recent offerings, state-owned miner PT Indonesia Asahan Aluminium sold $2.5 billion of notes on Monday, with demand exceeding the issuance size by six times. Indonesia has run a small budget deficit over many years and foreign currency reserves were at a near record level at the start of 2020. That gives it some cushion amid the massive challenges all countries, and eme...

Singapore-based online retailer IUIGA has announced that it has raised US$10 million, which will be invested across IUIGA’s Singaporean and Indonesian operations, with Indonesia being the key focus for 2020. The fresh money was raised in Series A round of funding, led by Konimex Technologies, a subsidiary of Indonesian conglomerate Konimex Group. IUIGA will also invest in Big Data and Artificial Intelligence to deepen its e-commerce personalisation. “Most immediately, we’re intending to grow our Indonesian operations with the target of doubling the office’s headcount in the coming six months. Indonesia’s potential is immense, with its burgeoning tech-savvy demographics. We want to be right in the action and unlock the economic potential in growth by 2025,” said Jaslyn Chan, Chief Growth Of...

China is investing in the EV Charging Infrastructure to offset economic slowdown caused by the coronavirus. China will spend almost $1.5 billion between now and the end of the year,  to install 200,000 EV chargers throughout the country, 20,000 of which will be public chargers, according to the National Development and Reform Commission. It’s all part of a plan to stimulate China’s economy after the coronavirus shutdown with more infrastructure investment in EV charging, ultra high voltage electrical grids, intercity transit systems, and 5G technology. That last part is important because the EV chargers that will be installed can accumulate a large amount of data. Sun Huifeng, president of CCID Consulting, tells China Daily the data can be used to improve the charging experience for EV own...

In a Series B funding round led by existing investor Sequoia Capital, Indonesia’s grab-and-go coffee chain Kopi Kenangan has raised $109 million. The deal marks one of the largest consumer investments in the region. The round was joined by new investors including B Capital, Horizons Ventures, Verlinvest, Kunlun and Sofina as well as return backer Alpha JWC Ventures. DealStreetAsia had earlier on Tuesday reported that the startup had raised around $100 million from investors including Sequoia, Sofina, Verlinvest, B Capital and Horizons Ventures. In its statement, Kopi Kenangan said it plans to use proceeds from the round to strengthen its operations in Indonesia, launch new products, invest in technology to better serve its customers, and protect employees amid the COVID-19 pandemic.     “T...

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...