Minister of Finance Sri Mulyani Indrawati stressed that Indonesia’s omnibus job creation legislation had attracted praise from a number of multilateral institutions and credit rating agencies as it offered a glimmer of hope for Indonesia’s economic recovery. Moody’s concluded that in the long term, the Job Development Legislation will be able to draw investment for the economic growth of Indonesia. …

MANILA – Beijing and Manila announced that they have reached an agreement on the joint exploration of oil and gas resources in the South China Sea. The announcement came after President Rodrigo Duterte lifted the ban on oil and gas exploration in the contested West Philippine Sea area. According to Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People’s Republic of China …

KUALA LUMPUR – Datuk Seri Najib Razak said today that he will forgive his former mentor despite feeling wronged because he is a person who practices Islam teachings. The former prime minister and Pekan MP said that he was portrayed by Dr. Mahathir as Malaysia’s number one villain amid the 1MDB global financial scandal that resulted to destroying his party …

KUALA LUMPUR – Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim said yesterday that he will be under investigation for the six cases including one on sodomy charges. The federal police initially called in the Opposition leader concerning a purported leaked list of MPs backing him as the next prime minister. According to Anwar, this is an attempt by the police to ‘pressure him …

METRO MANILA – The government is easing more travel restrictions by allowing travel ‘for any purpose’ between GCQ, MGCQ areas. The government’s COVID-19 task force spokesperson Harry Roque said on Friday that people can now travel freely on areas places general community quarantine and modified general community quarantine starting Friday. The travel restriction will be lifted as long as the …

METRO MANILA – The House of Representatives approved on Friday the P4.506 trillion national budget for 2021, paving the way for the for the senate to discussed the bill hopefully in the next session. The lower chamber approved the plan on the third reading with a vote of 257-6. The Senate urged the House to submit the bill to the …

In Indonesia, it’s serious business to be seen as halal. Starbucks and KFC show their halal certification from the top clerical body of the world, even though booze or bacon are seldom associated with the franchises. But Indonesian households and companies are less picky when it comes to banking. According to the Indonesian Financial Services Agency (OJK), less than 10 …

JAKARTA – Indonesia on Thursday (Oct 15) with 4,411 new coronavirus infections reported, The country has taken over Philippines as South-east Asia’s new pandemic hotspot. The world’s fourth most populous nation’s recorded total of 349,160 with 12,268 deaths, also the highest in the South East Region. Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedan announced that Jakarta will start a two-week transitional period in …

METRO MANILA – President Rodrigo Duterte has ended the ban on oil and gas exploration in the West Philippine Sea, the Department of Energy (DOE) confirmed on Thursday. Energy Secretary Alfonso Cusi said that the president approved the department’s recommendation to lift the ban that was placed in 2013. He thanked the President’s approval for the recommendation as they need …

METRO MANILA – One of China’s candidate vaccine for COVID-19 has been cleared by the country for Phase 3 clinical trial that is expected to start by November. According to the Food and Drug Administration director general Eric Domingo the vaccine expert panel from the  Department of Science and Technology (DOST) has given the vaccine the green light to proceed …