Sunday, January 24 2021 | ASIA TODAY INTERNATIONAL - Reporting the Business that Matters in Asia
NEW DELHI -- India has joined the international and multi-stakeholder initiative, the Global Partnership for Artificial Intelligence (GPAI) on artificial intelligence as a founder member. This body is supported by the Paris-based Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).
HANOI - Following ratification by Vietnam of the European Union - Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA) and the European Union, - Vietnam Investment Protection Agreement (EVIPA), expansive preferential markets access for goods traded between Vietnam and the EU will begin from August 1.
HONG KONG -- As Chinese officials step up their rhetoric towards reducing USD reliance, some positive developments can be detected in the international use of RMB, global financial group Natixis says in a new research report.
HONG KONG -- S&P Global Ratings said today that the sudden increase in COVID-19 cases in Hong Kong, leading the Government to re-introduce strict social distancing measures, may reduce local transportation traffic, pressuring the stand-alone credit profile of Hong Kong's Mass Transit Rail Corporation (MTRC), and threatening the recovery of the metro system operator's passenger traffic, already battered by the COVID-19 outbreak and social unrest.
NEW DELHI - ANZ Bank is tipping the Reserve Bank of India to carry on with its easing cycle and to cut the repo rate by 50 basis points at its August meeting.
BEIJING - More than 7,000 army soldiers have been deployed to the eastern part of China for flood control and emergency rescue operations.
HONG KONG - China's effectiveness in containing COVID-19 infections has borne fruit, and economic activity began regaining strength during the second quarter, partly owing to fiscal and monetary stimuli implemented by the authorities, according to a research note from BBVA Bank.
SINGAPORE- Advance Q2 GDP estimates show the Singapore economy contracting by 12.6% y/y, sending the country into its deepest recession on record, but ina research note, ANZ Bank says that as large as the slump in economic activity was in Q2, it also marked the low point. "We expect growth to return to positive in Q3 on a sequential q/q basis," ANZ says.
SEOUL - A cyclical rebound is here, and South Korea is going to be a beneficiary of hard work done during Q2 2020 to flatten the COVID-19 curve without resorting to lockdown, while also implementing aggressive easing to avoid a liquidity squeeze and limit the economic fallout of the pandemic, according to the global financial group, Natixis.
HONG KONG - Because of a significant resurgence of Covid-19 cases in week ending July 12, and the reimposition by the Government of a number of social distancing restrictions on public health grounds, the Hong Kong Trade Development Council (HKTDC) has postponed the Hong Kong Book Fair along with a number of otsher events planned in July.
HONG KONG - The Hong Kong SAR Government has issued a statement accusing Australia of allowing what it terms a "political agenda" to "override legal co-operation in criminal matters" by suspending "the agreement on surrender of fugitive offenders".
"Obviously such unilateral action will not be helpful to the fight against international crime," the statement says.
BEIJING - China's Ministry of Water Resources (MWR) on Sunday raised its emergency response alert for flood control to Level II, the second-highest in the response system, as heavy downpours continued to lash vast stretches of the country.
The State newsagency, Xinhua, said that, since July 4, alert-triggering floods had been observed in 212 rivers nationwide, among which 19 topped previous water level records, according to the MWR.
BEIJING - Weibo, one of China's biggest social media outlets, has said it will start to block user links to all but a select number of websites within weeks "in an effort to fight fraud", according to TechNode, one of China's leading high-tech media groups.
Technode quoted Weibo as saying it made the decision because the free service is heavily abused by scammers, as well as pornography and gambling sites.
BANGKOK- Thailand's Cabinet this week approved a Bill amending the Civil and Commercial Code to allow a merger (Company A + Company B = Company A or Company B) as another method of business integration.
MELBOURNE --The Port of Melbourne today welcomed CMA CGM Ural, the largest container ship by maximum capacity to call at the port. The 299 metre-long vessel is one of six currently deployed on the South-East Asia - Australia trade route, known as the 'AAX1'.
KUALA LUMPUR -- The economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, combined with depressed oil prices and fiscal stimulus, will weaken the Malaysian Government's debt position for the next few years, according to Standard & Poor's, which is revising its outlook on Malaysia to negative. This reflects additional downside risk to the Government's fiscal metrics, owing to the weak global economic climate and heightened policy uncertainty, S&P says.