Economy and commerce
Trade
Businesses urged to hedge baht in face of volatility
Business leaders have expressed concerns that the rapidly appreciating baht could dampen exports and suggest business operators hedge foreign exchange risks. The monthly meeting of the Joint Standing Committee on Commerce, Industry and Banking on September 5 heard the disquiet over the increasing volatility of foreign exchange. ...
Jack Ma wants to ship Thai farm exports
Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha has asked Jack Ma to support Thai small and medium-sized enterprises as the Alibaba Group’s founder wants the country to export farm products to China and ASEAN through the group. Referring to their meeting in Hangzhou in the night of September ...
Modern machinery, technical skills needed to improve wood processing
Modern machines and technical skills are required to enhance the competitiveness of the Lao timber processing industry in line with other countries in the region. Chairman of the Okawa Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Japan, Mr Yuji Sonoda made the observation during an interview with Vientiane ...
Cambodian traders test derivatives market
Sitting in a cafe on Phnom Penh’s Sothearos Boulevard in August, a group of young Cambodians gazed at their computer screens, watching the movement of currency around the globe. During their regular weekday trading session in the foreign exchange market, dubbed forex or FX, they anticipate ...
So long to the Asian sweatshop
For 30 years, the word “sweatshop” has conjured up a very specific image: low-wage Asian workers making branded clothes in crowded, unsafe factories for consumers overseas. The power of that image has launched human rights campaigns, altered how major companies source their products and informed ...
ASEAN to become world's No. 4 economy by 2030: Laos PM
A new economic order will emerge by 2030, with Southeast Asia taking on a central role, Laotian Prime Minister Thongloun Sisoulith told business leaders in his nation’s capital on September 5. “Studies have shown that the ASEAN economy is expected to grow at 7% per annum, ...
Thailand 'ready to bridge' G20 and G77
Thailand is ready to serve as a bridge linking the Group of 20’s major industrialised economies and the developing economies in the Group of 77, Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha says. Gen Prayut was speaking on September 4 as he attended the two-day G20 summit in Hangzhou, China ...
Myanmar forest-cutting continues despite government efforts
The hills of northern Myanmar’s Sagaing region were so legendarily thick with forests that in the days of kings, condemned criminals were ordered into the woods as a death sentence. Today illegal logging has left vast swaths of bare patches, with only a handful of old-growth ...
ASEAN and China to focus on RCEP
ASEAN and China intend to cooperate in production capacity as well support the finalisation this year of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership. Commerce Minister Apiradi Tantraporn said last week that a statement on the cooperation will be issued at the ASEAN Summit in Vientiane, which takes place ...
Survey: EU businesses planning to expand in ASEAN
Majority of European businesses are planning to expand their investment and operations in ASEAN, including the Philippines, as the region grows in global importance and increasing profits, but they also said that trade barriers in the region hamper their ability to reach maximum economic potential, ...