Surprisingly, Indonesian lenders are buying up Sea Ltd and Gojek, hoping they will make progress in one of the largest unbanked markets in the world. As financial technology companies set their sights on the nation’s more than 175 million Internet users, many of whom rely on online banking services, the buying spree is set to continue. This year, Sea acquired …

SINGAPORE-The special annual meeting of the World Economic Forum will only go ahead in May if it can be conducted in a secure manner, Singapore’s Minister of Trade and Industry said on Friday. For that to occur, vaccines, monitoring, and touch tracing will come into play. “Our own working assumption with the World Economic Forum in this: If we are …

JOHOR BARU – Tourism and trade groups in Malaysia hope that talks with Singapore can begin with the Malaysian government to allow those who have been vaccinated in the island republic to enter the country without the need for quarantine. Jimmy Leong, President of the Malaysia Tourist Guides Council, said it is important for the government to kick-start this discussion …

SINGAPORE — On Friday, Finance Minister Zafrul Aziz said that the ongoing lockdown of Malaysia to contain Covid-19 would hit the economy much less than the previous one when more economic activity was limited. The new round of steps cost Malaysia a lost economic production or GDP of an estimated 700 million ringgit ($172.7 million) a day, the minister said. …

At last, a medico-legal investigation was forwarded to the Makati prosecutor’s office by the Philippine National Police, which ruled out murder as the cause of her death, flight attendant Christine Dacera died of natural causes. The PNP Crime Laboratory’s two-page study on Jan. 11 reported that Dacera died of a ruptured aortic aneurysm caused by increased blood pressure. As seen …

The State-run Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP) supported the local shipbuilder with a P4.17 billion loan to finance the expansion of the company’s Albuera, Leyte, shipyard. Emmanuel Herbosa the president and chief executive officer of DBP shared that the bank had signed a term loan agreement with Megaship Builders Inc. to upgrade and improve its shipbuilding complex’s capacity. In …

The Covid-19 task force of Thailand agreed to loosen restrictions across the country to allow companies and schools to restart operations in most regions as the largest coronavirus wave to reach the nation eased. A panel meeting, chaired by Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha, welcomed a proposal to reduce the number of provinces designated as high-risk areas to five from 28 …

The Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries shared that Indonesian yellow fin tuna and skipjack tuna fishery products have been accredited as meeting the global standard for sustainable fisheries set by the Marine Stewardship Council which is a great start for this year. In view of this, Zaini credited this Indonesian accomplishment to the efforts of the KKP and the …

SINGAPORE: The first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine was received by more than 113,000 people, the Ministry of Health (MOH) said in an update on Thursday (Jan 28). More than 50 were also given their second dose and completed the complete vaccination regimen. As of 27 Jan, more than 113,000 individuals have received their first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. …

KUALA LUMPUR: In the Transparency International (TI) Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) for 2020, Malaysia dropped six spots to 57th position among 180 countries. Dr Muhammad Mohan, president of Transparency International Malaysia (TI-M), said Malaysia’s score also worsened to 51 out of 100 points in the CPI survey.“We may have dropped by two points which are statistically insignificant, but the drop …