A 3.29 trillion baht budget bill for the 2021 fiscal year beginning in October was approved by the House of Representatives at reviving an economy battered by the global effects of the coronavirus pandemic. Budget planners have predicted the second-largest economy in Southeast Asia would contract 5-6 per cent this year until it will rise 4-5 per cent in 2021. …

The opposition would seek to scale back funds earmarked for non-essential construction projects as well as defense spending during the review of the Fiscal 2021 budget bill of 3.3 trillion baht that passed its first reading in the House on Friday evening. A 72-member committee was created to review the budget package following the referendum, where the legislation approved with …

MANILA – The Philippines has secured the top spot of the most fiscally transparent budget in Southeast Asia in in the 2019 Open Budget Survey (OBS) transparency index released on April 29. The country’s score exceeded its South east asian neighbor with Indonesia’s score at 70, Thailand’s 61, Malaysia’s 47, Timor-Leste’s 40, Vietnam’s 38, Cambodia’s 32 and Myanmar’s 28. Philippines …

Malaysia’s Parliament will be convened for only one day on May 18. A 10-week pushback from the original date (March 9), the May 18 seating has to happen for one reason. If not reconvened, the Parliament will stand dissolved by June 5, six months from Dec 5, 2019 when it was last in session. That’s the constitutional mechanism in Article …

In battling COVID-19, the Philippines approach has been very sensitive and more in population management, rather than emphasizing going to experiments to find and isolate the virus from further spread. In fact, the increasing number of COVID cases and the number of deaths was due to unavailability of testing and validation of the cases during this time. Some would consider …

Thai Airways International Plc may permanently reduce the number of aircraft types it deploys once the coronavirus outbreak that has caused the company to ground most of its fleet ends, said a senior government official on Monday. Thai Airways is grounding 69 of its 82 jets following a drop in passenger volume and route cancellations from the increased border restrictions …

The Department of Health requested a supplementary budget of P3 billion from the House of Representatives to combat the spread of coronavirus disease by 2019 or COVID-19 in the country. At the hearing of the House Committee on Appropriations, Health Secretary Francisco Duque said that P2.35 billion of the budget would be used to buy personal protective equipment — headgear, …

Mr Chuan said on Tuesday there is no law barring the opposition from re-debating the bill, “But people watching will know what its intentions are,” he said. The opposition is free to debate the budget bill again following a Constitutional Court ruling on the status of the legislation although its plan to do so could be called into question, parliament …

Health Secretary Francisco Duque III said Tuesday that the government would allocate more than P2 billion for the procurement of protective gear for health workers and an additional P10 million for face mask supplies in the country. Advertisement During a Senate hearing on the government’s readiness for the possible spread of 2019 novel coronavirus acute respiratory disease in the Philippines, …