Saturday, April 26 2025 | ASIA TODAY INTERNATIONAL - Reporting the Business that Matters in Asia
In the early 1980s, after witnessing opportunities in Asia, Barry Pearton saw a clear gap in Australia's media market. Without nothing but optimism, courage and a kitchen table as his office, he founded Asia Today International.
A new report by Allianz Commercial highlights growth opportunities, tech innovations, risk trends and loss patterns for the offshore wind industry as the sector prepares for global growth . . .
Markets will need to wait patiently for the Bank of Japan to finally move out of negative interest rates, says Natixis . . .
THE message is mixed, but following a debt restructuring, S&P says it will likely raise its local currency sovereign ratings on Sri Lanka to reflect its post-restructuring creditworthiness . . .
DATA centres have become a major world industry, and Hong Kong and the GBA are strategically-placed to help meet growing demand through the region in a market described by AirTrunk's Robin Khuda as "fantastic" . . .
HAVING recently launched its first facility in Hong Kong, the Sydney-based data centre operator and owner, AirTrunk, is already starting to weigh up expansion opportunities.
Robin Khuda, founder and chief executive officer of AirTrunk, says that, despite a difficult year in 2020, its first data centre in Hong Kong was completed in record time.
INVESTHK in 2015 assisted the offshore development arm of the University of Wollongong (UOW Global Enterprises) into Hong Kong, where it purchased a university college and is now building its second campus. UOW courses are also being delivered into mainland China through UOW twinning arrangements in Beijing, Tianjin and Zhengzhou, with UOW considering expansion of its physical presence into the GBA Mainland . . .
THE second-round effects of the crisis will be profound, with rising unemployment rates, part of the corporate fabric lost, and significantly higher levels of public and private debt, says BBVA . . .
PARIS -- Beyond the human tragedy of COVID-19, 2020 has left the world with a long list of economic consequences for the future - but they are not all negative, says BBVA Bank. "The most obvious consequence is the severe recession, with global GDP expected to decrease by more than 2.5%, which is a bigger decrease than that of the 2009 financial crisis (-1.7%)," BBVA says in a new report.
"We know that this decline is temporary and is not a response to cumulative imbalances of inflation or debt, as is the case with normal recessions," the report says.
"This should mean we are able to quickly return to how the situation was previously."
Standard & Poor's is predicting continuation of a crackdown on shadow banking in China in 2021. The government has moved to take control of Sichuan Trust Co, which reportedly faces an estimated RMB20-30 billion of losses from its trust products under management . . .
HONG KONG -- China's move to take control of Sichuan Trust Co. Ltd. signals a growing assertiveness with the sector, according to global ratings agency Standard and Poor's. Chinese officials said the entity was plagued with governance issues, resulting in a swath of defaulted trust products, but S&P Global Ratings believes the authorities' action on Sichuan Trust demonstrates China's intention to continue its crackdown on trust entities specifically, and China's shadow bank sector generally, in 2021.
THAILAND has announced a raft of new investment rules focussing on digital innovation and genomic medicine. It is also promoting investment into 20 rural SEZs for businesses in 14 target groups . . .
BANGKOK -- Thailand's Board of Investment (BOI) has approved new measures to help accelerate investment and to promote adoption of digital technologies. Lawyers Baker & McKenzie summarise the new incentives as follows:
1. Large investment projects: The BOI offers a corporate income tax reduction of 50% for a period of five years from the expiry of the normal corporate income tax exemption period (which is normally 3-8 years from the time the promoted project first generates income).
A key condition is that there must be an actual investment of at least THB 1 billion within 12 months after being issued with the BOI promotion certificate.
Applications are accepted from January 4, 2021 until the last business day of 2021.
2. Digital upgrade: Additional incentives, including three years of corporate income tax exemption from the time the promoted project first generates income, will be granted to existing companies in order to promote the use of digital technology to improve efficiencies, increase competitiveness and stimulate domestic demand.
WHILE stabilisation of markets seems to be within reach with the introduction of new COVID-19 vaccines and new leadership in the US, investors should expect the process to be gradual and long, Manulife Investment Management says in its regional outlook for the year ahead . . .
HONG KONG -- Structural changes caused by the COVID-19 pandemic will take time to reverse, Manulife Investment Management says in its assessment of the year ahead.
Australian exports of food and agricultural products to China rose 8% in value terms in the 2019/20 season, reaching the highest level in the history of the China-Australia trading relationship.
In a video address to two US-based think tanks, the Hudson Institute and the Centre for American Progress (CAP), Taiwan's President, Tsai Ing-wen, has reiterated her four principles for management of cross-strait relations, mooted a Free Trade Agreement with the United States, and called on the international community to speak out and act against the demise of Hong Kong's freedoms. This is an edited transcript . . .
TAIPEI - People say that the second term is supposed to be easier than the first. They must be people who have not experienced the year 2020 like we have.
We are gathered at a time when billions around the world are reeling from the unprecedented effects of COVID-19. When over half a million people have lost their lives and millions more have been sickened.
There is tremendous economic uncertainty around the world, with soaring unemployment and disruptions to global trade.
While Taiwan has fared relatively well in the current pandemic, we are not immune to its aftershocks. We are also worried about its broader political implications across the region.
When the rest of the world has been distracted in responding to one of the most significant crises in recent history, we have seen a growing effort to pose ever more challenging threats to free and democratic societies.
Nowhere is this more apparent than in Hong Kong.
The United States, now joined by others, wants to reform the WTO's appeal system to correct what have been termed 'egrarious errors'. Has there been over-reach?
The issue of trust may greatly impede any restoration of normalisation, perhaps for decades . . .
THAILAND is planning to spend US$43 billion over five years to embrace the new technologies inherent in Industry 4.0.
Regulatory compliance and institutional-grade security are being built into digital asset solutions developed jointly out of Singapore and Switzerland.