Sunday, April 22 2018 | ASIA TODAY INTERNATIONAL - Reporting the Business that Matters in Asia
BEIJING - China will continue to promote its reform and opening up drive, and improve the investment environment for foreign companies, Premier Li Keqiang said on Monday, speaking to a group of chief executives of Fortune 500 companies and renowned scholars at the China Development Forum.
BEIJING – China’s Vice Premier, Liu He, has called for rationality and joint efforts by China and the United States to safeguard the stability of China-U.S. trade relations. He made the remarks at two symposia, addressing representatives from international organizations, entrepreneurs and scholars attending the China Development Forum 2018 in Beijing.
BEIJING - There would be no winner in a trade war should one happen between China and the United States, Premier Li Keqiang told a press conference after the conclusion of the annual legislative session of the National People’s Congress.
NEW DELHI - Indian tea exports were the highest for 36 years at 240.68 million kg in 2017. The previous record, of 241.3 million kg, was achieved in 1981.
BEIJING – China has approved plans to amalgamate three separate agencies currently responsible for antitrust enforcement into a single department. In a Client Alert, lawyers Baker McKenzie list a number of potential benefits for businesses active in China.
CANBERRA - A CSIRO study has identified the top seven emerging industries within ASEAN and neighbouring nations that will fuel future regional growth, international collaboration and job creation.
JAKARTA -Alibaba Cloud, the cloud computing arm of Alibaba Group, has opened its first data centre in Indonesia, offering a comprehensive suite of cloud products and services ranging from elastic computing, database service, networking, security and middleware to analytics and big data.
PARIS - Rapid growth in free trade zones – where economic activity is driven by reduced taxes and customs controls, light regulation and limited oversight – is unintentionally fostering growth in counterfeit goods trafficking, according to a new report by the OECD and the EU’s Intellectual Property Office.
HONG KONG - The confidence level among Hong Kong exporters continues to rise, in line with strengthening of global economic activity, according to the latest HKTDC Export Index, which found that, for the first quarter of 2018, the Index stood at 49.4, up 4.8 compared to the fourth quarter of 2017.
HONG KONG - A consumer survey commissioned by the HKTDC on mainland wine consumption found an increasingly demanding market that prefers red wine. Surveying 2,400 consumers in 10 mainland cities: Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Chengdu, Wuhan, Shenyang, Nanjing, Harbin, Suzhou and Yantai, the study found that other types of wine remain a niche market on the mainland.
BEIJING - China's draft supervision law was submitted for its third reading at the national legislature today, aiming at a centralised, unified, authoritative and efficient supervisory network under the Party's leadership.
BEIJING - President Xi Jinping yesterday stressed practical efforts to further deepen military-civilian integration to provide impetus and support for realising the Chinese dream and the goal to build a strong military, China’s State newsagency, Xinhua, reports.
SINGAPORE - A majority of information security professionals in Asia expect to see major, cross-border compromises in enterprise networks and critical infrastructure in the next year or two, and most do not feel confident in their ability to defend against these impending threats.
SINGAPORE - ASEAN as a group is Australia’s third biggest trading partner after China and Europe, but there is immense potential to grow, says ANZ Bank in a special report released ahead of the 2018 ASEAN Summit, being hosted by Australia in Sydney. “Although existing trade in goods and services is strong, much of it is concentrated in four of the 10 ASEAN countries,” the report says.
SINGAPORE - Asset quality in Indonesian banks will continue recovering this year, but nonperforming loans (NPLs) in the mining sector remain elevated, S&P Global Ratings said in a report published today. Indonesian banks have also been more cautious in disbursing loans to companies in the riskier segments, primarily those related to commodities, it says.
JAKARTA - Indonesia’s pent-up demand for infrastructure is finally getting the support it needs, says Natixis in a new report card on the Indonesian economy. The report analyses Indonesia’s infrastructure demand and supply from a bottom-up perspective to examine the macroeconomic implications of the archipelagos’ building push, compiling a comprehensive list of the Government’s priority infrastructure projects and their financing needs.