ASEAN News

SINGAPORE: In some Western cultures, gender identity concerns have become fiercely disputed sources of division, and Singapore should not import these cultural wars, Education Minister Lawrence Wong said on Monday (Feb 1). Mr. Wong responded to a parliamentary question from Sengkang Workers’ Party MP He Tingru about the policies and guidelines of the Ministry of Education (MOE) on students with …

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 …

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. …

SINGAPORE: The Singaporean teenager detained for attempting to commit terrorist acts in two local mosques under the Internal Security Act will have a lawyer and attend a hearing to establish his status. Under the rubric of the Internal Security Act, he will have a hearing and he will have a lawyer, and his stance will be communicated. “His parents are …

SINGAPORE: In Singapore, four cases of COVID-19 have so far tested positive for the more virulent coronavirus strain B117. Three of these cases were identified earlier this month as community infections, and MOH confirmed they had tested positive for the new variant on Tuesday night (Jan 26). The other case known to have tested positive for the B117 strain is …

IBM has named Martin Chee as ASEAN‘s general manager, immediately expanding responsibilities beyond Singapore to the broader region. As part of the change, the long-time Big Blue veteran will also retain his current role as Singapore’s general manager, holding a dual position in the city-state from the vendor’s regional headquarters. Chee succeeds Patricia Yim, who was named to lead the …

In order to sustain its competitiveness, Singapore aims to expand its manufacturing sector by 50 percent over the next 10 years, with the pandemic highlighting its importance to the economy of the trade-reliant city-state. But the target is unrealistic because it will become more difficult to rely on foreign labor to complement the local workforce, Minister of Trade and Industry …

SINGAPORE: On Friday (January 22) cargo drivers from Malaysia transporting critical goods to Singapore said they faced delays at land entry checkpoints, on the first day mandatory COVID-19 tests were enforced by the Singapore government. On Thursday, the Ministry of Trade and Industry of Singapore (MTI) announced that COVID-19 antigen rapid testing would be gradually rolled out for cargo drivers …

Singapore’s government aims to establish urgent legislation in order to formalize the use of contact-tracing virus data in serious crime investigations. Legislation to restrict the use of data to prosecute seven types of serious crimes will be implemented at the next parliamentary sitting in February, the Smart Nation and Digital Government Office said in a statement on Friday. Murder, terrorism, …

Kuala Lumpur – The Ministry of Communications and Multimedia of Malaysia announced on 14 December that its Minister, Saifuddin Abdullah, would chair the first ASEAN Digital Ministers’ Meeting (ADGMIN1) by teleconference from 21-22 January 2021.The meeting, entitled ‘ASEAN: A Digitally Linked Society,’ aims to deepen cooperation between ASEAN countries to create digital ecosystems as a pillar of the post-COVID-19 development …