Thursday, November 14 2019 | ASIA TODAY INTERNATIONAL - Reporting the Business that Matters in Asia
HONG KONG -- China's efforts to exit RMB20 trillion (US$3 trillion) in hidden local government debt has been ineffective, according to S&P Global Ratings. "China's central authorities have tried to force local governments to drag their liabilities into view, and onto balance sheets," S&P Global Ratings credit analyst, Susan Chu, said.
SEOUL - South Korea's President, Moon Jae-in, has emphasised during a visit to SBB Tech in the city of Gimpo that Korea must develop its own technology to stand up to Japan's recent export restrictions.
BEIJING - China's National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) says China's economy 'continued to operate within a reasonable range with steady upward momentum in July, despite mounting challenges at home and abroad".
BEIJING - China's State Council this week has released guidelines specifying individual responsibilities of both central Ministries and local agencies to maintain momentum on improving China's business environment.
HONG KONG - A batch of July economic indicators announced today, together with previously-released trade and credit data, suggest that the growth in China further decelerated due to escalation of US-China trade war and China domestic structural obstacles such, as debt overhang and financial risks.
SEOUL - South Korea is to spend KRW 848.5 billion won (US$718 million) by 2022 to bolster information security, "strengthening the foundation of information protection".
HONG KONG -- With the US continuing to impose additional tariffs of up to 25% on many imported Chinese products, more Hong Kong traders are looking to cushion the impact by actively shifting their production or procurement bases to ASEAN countries -- such as Cambodia, Indonesia, Myanmar, the Philippines and Thailand -- that benefit from the US's Generalised System of Preferences (GSP).
PARIS -- In an update of its Coface Barometer report, the global credit insurer Coface says it expects a majority of countries to see an increase in corporate insolvencies this year. "World economic growth is expected to decrease from 3.1% in 2018 to 2.7% in 2019, and then remain stable in 2020," it says.
MELBOURNE - Australian businesses that are active in Asia generate about a third of their overall revenue from the region, up from 25% in 2016, according to new research from ANZ.
HONG KONG - HSBC Holdings today announced the departure of its CEO, John Flint, alongside its results for the half-year to June 30, 2019. S&P Global Ratings views this high-profile exit as a surprise because we consider the results to be solid.
SEOUL - South Korea's President, Moon Jae-in, has warned that South Korea will resolutely respond to Japan's removal of Korea from a whitelist of preferential trading nations.
SINGAPORE --The outlook for the Chinese renminbi will depend mainly on trade and technology tensions with the U.S., S&P Global Ratings said in a report published today, titled "China's Renminbi Moves Beyond 7".
SHANGHAI - China's State Council has issued a plan for a newly-added area to the six-year-old Shanghai Free Trade Zone, touting preferential tax and supportive policies to attract high-tech companies.
BEIJING - The China Aerospace Science and Technology is working with Yantai city and Shandong province to start construction of a port for sea-based space launches before the end of this year.
TAIPEI - While the global economy is experiencing headwinds and higher uncertainty, rays of optimism are appearing in Taiwan, where external factors have
been putting pressure on the economy for some time.
HANOI - With technology and artificial intelligence gradually taking over the traditional banking and finance market, it is inevitable that Vietnam, a country with a population of 96 million and a 70% internet penetration rate, should be golden ground for fintech investors, says a new report from the international law firm Allens.