News
Health care, mobility to take center stage in ASEAN region: experts
Southeast Asia is expected to see greater demand for health care services, for services that increase the mobility of its populations, and for entertainment, experts said Wednesday, attributing these trends to the rise of the middle class in the region and to its relatively young ...
ASEAN: Working toward resilience and sustainability
In the last regular meeting of the ASEAN Committee in Washington (ACW) with the Philippines as chair, I hosted a forum on environmental policy and public-private cooperation that would, hopefully, provide a deeper understanding of the priorities and initiatives toward sustainable and resilient development. Keep reading ...
Rohingya exodus: 132 Asean MPs seek probe
More than 130 Members of Parliament from Asean nations, including two from Singapore, have demanded that Myanmar be investigated by the International Criminal Court (ICC), the most united condemnation from the region since the violence began against the Rohingya a year ago. In a joint statement ...
Illegal migrant workers rounded up – employers fined
The government’s Department of Employment has started rounding up illegal foreign workers following last year’s amnesty. Checks on nearly 50,000 foreign workers at establishments in the past month had led to the arrest of 1,162 illegal workers and the prosecution of 204 law-breaking employers. Keep reading ...
EU firms in Asean see region as having greatest potential
A GROWING majority of European firms in South-east Asia believe further Asean economic integration will be important to their business, with many finding the current pace too slow, the fourth EU-Asean Business Sentiment Survey has found. Keep reading ...
ASEAN faces test in handling China: ex-Indonesian FM
How ASEAN handles China’s rise will be a crucial test for a block which has failed to find its voice as a community on critical issues, a former Indonesian foreign minister said earlier this week. The Association of Southeast Asian Nations, or ASEAN, has shown “perfect ...
Seizing Opportunity In Southeast Asia's Energy Market
There has been an almost never-ending stream of negative news about Southeast Asia’s energy market, once one of the globe’s most active. A decade of political unrest in Thailand, creeping nationalization in Indonesia, conflict in Myanmar’s Rakhine state, and territorial disputes in Vietnam’s offshore market ...
Civil society groups to boycott Prior Consultation on new Mekong dam
Save the Mekong, a coalition of non-governmental organizations, community-based groups and concerned citizens within the Mekong region, issued a statement on Friday announcing their intention to boycott the Mekong River Commission’s (MRC’s) Prior Consultation for the proposed Pak Lay dam. Pak Lay is the fourth dam planned ...
CIMB becomes first bank from Asean to join United Nations' initiative for responsible banking
CIMB Group Holdings has become a member of the United Nations’ (UN) Environment Programme Finance Initiative Principles for Responsible Banking (UNEP-FI), making it the only banking group in Asean to be a founding member of the sustainable initiative. Keep reading ...
China’s Risky Play for Global Power
Over the past year, Chinese officials reportedly have been surprised by how quickly the Trump administration has undermined U.S. influence in East Asia, creating a leadership void that could potentially be filled—by China. But even before Trump alienated many Asian partners with a mix of ...
