ASEAN News

President Joko Widodo has set up a national team to speed up the development of a possible Covid-19 vaccine and enhance the country’s resilience to the pandemic.   The team was established on the National Team by Presidential Decree No. 18/2020 to accelerate the development of Covid-19 vaccines, which the President signed on Sept. 3. While the Chair is set …

In a time when the cinema trade is searching for good news, the Disney Period drama Mulan has provided some cheer by squeaking past the one million dollar mark in its opening weekend at the Singapore box office. Mulan’s tale combines themes from the 1998 film and the inspiring ancient Chinese text, The Ballad of Mulan. The 2020 film follows …

Here’s an unexpected strong typhoon that lashed South Korea after crashing into southern Japan with record winds and heavy rains that left four people missing in a landslide. Half a million people were powerless after Typhoon Haishen roared past the southernmost main island of Kyushu in Japan, ripping off the roofs and dumping half a meter of water in just …

Chinese President Xi Jinping said nothing could come between the Chinese people and the Communist Party that has controlled them for over 70 years, setting a combative tone at a challenging moment in relations between the United States and China. Speaking at an event commemorating the anniversary of China’s World War II victory over Japan, President Xi described areas where …

Singapore’s banks and finance firms would have access to more funds if they face liquidity issues due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The Singapore Monetary Authority (MAS) is carrying out a pre-emptive Singdollar term facility to handle liquidity constraints before they become severe challenges. Although Singapore’s banks and finance companies maintain healthy liquidity buffers, MAS is preemptively implementing this facility to …

The Indian economy, which contracted 23.9 percent in the first quarter of this year on the back of astringent lockdown that resulted in job losses and consumption fell, is in even greater trouble, the latest growth figures showed.Analysts say there is a need for a fresh stimulus package to drive growth in the Indian economy once the world’s fastest growing …

A senior Indian official said Indian troops had deployed on four strategic hilltops after what New Delhi called an attempted Chinese incursion along the disputed Himalayan border, underlining the tensions between the Asian giants. China denied that it had first moved with an embassy spokeswoman in New Delhi accusing Indian troops of crossing the Line of Actual Control (LAC) the …

For the first time, private tuition centers shut down and traffic was lighter in the capital of South Korea, the first working day of stricter social-distancing laws intended to avoid a second wave of coronavirus outbreaks. South Korea took the unusual step of limiting the activity of restaurants , coffee shops and so-called cram schools in the metropolitan area of …

China said it will limit exports of such artificial intelligence ( AI ) technology to safeguard national economic security and demand government licenses for transfers to other countries. AI interface technologies such as speech and text recognition and those analyzing data for customized content recommendations have been added to a revised list of items for export control released late on …

When Indian Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla was trying to mend a frayed relationship with Bangladesh in Dhaka last week, one of the offers that he made was that of a possible Covid-19 vaccine. Bangladesh, he said, would gain priority access to an Indian-produced vaccine. India’s vaccine diplomacy comes at a time when Bangladesh has made a similar bid to …