World

WASHINGTON: US Secretary of State Antony Blinken will meet virtually with Southeast Asian officials every day next week, a senior state department official said on Saturday (Jul 31), as Washington seeks to show the region it’s a US priority while also addressing the crisis in Myanmar. The top US diplomat will attend virtual meetings for five consecutive days, including annual meetings of the 10 foreign ministers of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and other nations and separate meetings of the Lower Mekong subregion countries Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam and Thailand. "I think it's a clear demonstration of our commitment to the region," said the official, who briefed Reuters on condition of anonymity. In recent years top US officials have not always attended ASEAN meetings...

A pile of U.S. dollar banknotes. Chris Clor | Tetra images | Getty Images In March last year, a top venture capital firm described Covid-19 as the "black swan of 2020." "Private financings could soften significantly, as happened in 2001 and 2009," Sequoia Capital told portfolio company founders and CEOs in a memo reminiscent of its "R.I.P. Good Times" presentation in the 2008 crisis. Fast forward to July 2021, and tech investors are writing bigger checks than ever. According to CB Insights, start-ups have raised $292.4 billion globally so far this year, on track to beat the $302.6 billion raised throughout 2020. The number of so-called "mega rounds" — massive, $100 million-plus venture deals — has climbed to 751 in 2021 year-to-date, already beating the 665 mega rounds that were raised la...

SINGAPORE: At least one of the karaoke lounges linked to a growing cluster of COVID-19 infections has been closed for disinfection and is reviewing its safe management measures. Supreme KTV, which currently operates as a food and beverage outlet, will be closed for the next few days “to make sure everything is disinfected and protocols are in place”, said its manager, who only wanted to be known as Mr Li. “We all along have been following the protocols, but we will be looking into it further,” said Mr Li, referring to the tightening of safe management measures, such as safe distancing and mask-wearing. The establishment at Far East Shopping Centre is one of the three premises that has been linked to infections among Vietnamese social hostesses who frequented KTV lounges or clubs operati...

One week since Robinhood's initial public offering, market analysts are still wary of the stock. Shares of the online trading company have seen double and triple-digit percent swings this week, diving more than 14% on Thursday after a filing revealed that existing Robinhood shareholders planned to sell nearly 97.9 million shares over time. Here's what four market analysts, including CNBC's Jim Cramer, wanted to see from the name. Joe Terranova, senior managing director at Virtus Investment Partners, said the company needs to decide whether it wants to be in the social media spotlight: "Do you want to be a meme stock? And I think ultimately, that has to be the question that needs to be addressed here in the moment. If they don't, the immediate strategy has to be ways to figure out raisi...

SHANGHAI: China's Tencent Holdings said on Tuesday (Aug 3) it would curb minors' access to its flagship video game, hours after its shares were battered by a state media article that described online games as "spiritual opium". Economic Information Daily cited Tencent's Honor Of Kings in an article in which it said minors were addicted to online games and called for more curbs on the industry. The outlet is affiliated with China's biggest state-run news agency, Xinhua. China's largest social media and video game firm saw its stock tumble more than 10 per cent in early trade, wiping almost US$60 billion from its market capitalisation. The stock was on track to fall the most in a decade before trimming losses after the article vanished from the outlet's website and WeChat account. The bro...

JAKARTA: Indonesia's central bank has cut its forecast for 2021 economic growth to 3.8 per cent based on early assessment of the impact of recent coronavirus restrictions, from a previous forecast of 4.6 per cent, its governor said on Monday (Jul 12). Southeast Asia's largest economy has been battling the region's worst COVID-19 epidemic, with cases and deaths climbing at an alarming rate and many hospitals inundated. The archipelago has imposed broad restrictions on Java and Bali islands and added more measures last week in several other regions. Authorities have said the Jul 3 to 20 curbs could be extended if necessary and the finance ministry is using an assumption of 4- to 6-week-long restrictions for its GDP outlook. Bank Indonesia's (BI) new forecast was based on an assumption th...

Youth unemployment skyrocketed during the coronavirus pandemic, prompting some entrepreneurial college students to turn to side hustles to make ends meet. Unemployment for young people (in the 16-24 age range) hit a high of 27.4% in April 2020 — that's nearly 1 in 3 who were unemployed. Meanwhile, Etsy reported that the number of sellers on its platform nearly doubled to 4.4 million by the end of 2020. They don't break it down by age group, but Etsy reports the average age of its sellers is normally 39 but last year when creators started selling goods during the pandemic, the average age dropped to 33. That says a lot of young people were turning to Etsy for a source of income. Face masks, sanitizing kits, homemade household items, care packages and even virtual hugs were some side busines...

Leaders from 21 Pacific-Rim economies including Japan, the United States and China pledged on Friday to beef up the availability of COVID-19 vaccines to tackle the coronavirus pandemic and to provide the necessary ongoing support for their economies to recover. The leaders, struggling to tame outbreaks exacerbated by the delta variant of coronavirus, said they would encourage the voluntary transfer of vaccine production technologies “on mutually agreed terms” as the region prepared for future health shocks. “We will only overcome this health emergency by accelerating equitable access to safe, effective, quality-assured and affordable COVID-19 vaccines,” the leaders of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum said in a statement issued after their informal virtual summit. Emphasizing ...

JAKARTA: Shares in Indonesia's first listed tech unicorn, PT Bukalapak.com, surged 25 per cent on their market debut on Friday (Aug 6) as investors scrambled to get a piece of the country's fourth-largest e-commerce company in a booming sector. Bukalapak shares rose to 1,060 rupiah (US$0.0738) after reaching the 25 per cent limit, with tens of thousands of investors buying shares on online platforms such as Ajaib and Stockbit, after the firm raised US$1.5 billion in Indonesia's biggest IPO, valuing it at US$6 billion. "This event will create a snowballing effect and show the path for more Indonesia listings," said Willson Cuaca, a co-founder and managing partner at East Ventures, an Indonesia-focused venture capital firm. The listing by the decade-old e-commerce platform, whose backers ...

WASHINGTON: US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin will visit Southeast Asia later this month, the Pentagon said, in a trip that will include stops in the Philippines, Singapore and Vietnam, according to the US embassy in Hanoi. "Secretary Austin's visit will demonstrate the importance the Biden-Harris Administration places on Southeast Asia and on ASEAN as an essential part of the Indo-Pacific's architecture," Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said, referring to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations bloc. The US embassy in Hanoi said on Tuesday (Jul 20) that Austin's trip would start on Friday. "This trip will underscore the enduring US commitment to the region, and our interest in upholding the rules-based international order in the region and promoting ASEAN centrality," the embassy said...