Tuesday, June 18 2019 | ASIA TODAY INTERNATIONAL - Reporting the Business that Matters in Asia
BEIJING - China's Stater newsagency, Xinhua, is reporting China's Ministry of Commerce as saying it will take more effective measures to strengthen protection of intellectual property rights (IPR) in legislation, the justice system and through law enforcement.
SINGAPORE - Export growth of emerging markets in Asia has slowed sharply in recent months, and the near-term outlook remains challenging, according to a research note from ANZ Bank, which says the export weakness is broad-based across the region and reflects both slower export price and volume growth.
HONG KONG - Potentially higher interest rates, as well as volatile domestic currencies, bond markets, and property prices, will make financing conditions more difficult for Asia-Pacific financial institutions in 2019, according to a report published today by S&P Global Ratings.
TAIPEI - Taiwan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) has strongly condemned Chinese authorities for what it calls "their recent outrageous demand" that 66 multinational companies change their designation for "Taiwan" to "Taiwan, China".
TAIPEI - The annual India-Taiwan Trade Forum in Taipei City has brought together more than 150 business leaders and representatives to explore new and enhanced commercial tie-ups.
BEIJING - China's State planner has given the green light for a 239-metre (784 ft) hydropower dam on the mountainous Tibet-Sichuan border, as plans to dam the Yangtze's upper reaches gather pace, according to a report in Caixin.
BANGKOK - The impending merger of Thailand's Thanachart Bank and TMB Bank, the country's sixth- and seventh-largest lenders by assets, is just the tip of the iceberg as more and more banks look to merge and compete with their larger regional rivals, according to a report by the data and analytics company GlobalData.
BEIJING - A cotton seed, carried to the moon by China's Chang'e-4 probe, is the first ever to sprout on the moon, according to scientists of the mini-biosphere experiment, quoted by China Daly and China's State newsagency, Xinhua.
GUANGZHOU - The capital city of Guangdong Province, Guangzhou, has pledged to co-operate with Hong Kong and Macao to speed up construction of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area in 2019, according to a report in China Daily.
HONGKONG - Real-time polling of delegates to the 12th Asian Financial Forum in Hong Kong has shown that only 15% of respondents were optimistic about the outlook for the global economy in 2019. Another 38% were neutral, while 47% were pessimistic. When asked about the countries and regions that will offer best investment returns in 2019, 39% and 35% of respondents believed it would be Southeast Asia and Mainland China respectively, followed by the United States (16%), Japan (3%) and Western Europe (2%).
BEIJING - The Mayor of Beijing has set the city's GDP growth target at 6 to 6.5% for 2019, compared with last year's target of about 6.5%, according to a report by Xinhua, China's State newsagency.
SINGAPORE - In a research note on China's December trade performance, ANZ Bank says falling sales orders reported in earlier months are beginning to show up in monthly exports data. "We are likely to see a period of contraction in Chinese exports similar to 2015-2016," the note says.
HONG KONG - The Chinese external sector succumbed to trade-war pressure and domestic slowdown, with both exports and imports contracting in December after double-digit growth for most of the year. The wearing-off of trade-war tariff front-loading, a worsening of domestic sentiment and external demand all pushed trade performance downward.
HANOI - The VN-Index ended a volatile year on a negative note amid cautious market sentiment, plunging to 892.54 points at year-end, down 3.7% month-on-month and 9.3% on-year in local currency. Similarly, the HNX-Index tumbled 10.8% YoY to wrap up 2018 at 104.23 points, down 0.6% in December.
SINGAPORE - Data releases since the beginning of 2019 show that the manufacturing PMIs of Asian economies have undershot expectations, as has inflation, says a new research note from ANZ Bank.
SINGAPORE - Portfolio flows into Asia ex-China turned negative in December after a short recovery the previous month, giving the region total net outflows of USD25.9 billion for calendar year 2018 - the first full-year outflow since 2008, says ANZ Bank.