Creative jobs are growing, says Philippine Chamber of Commerce
Investvine sat down with Cris Frianeza, Secretary General of the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industries, to discuss the latest economic developments in the Philippines. Where do you see the...
View ArticleMalaysia: High-debt instead of high-income nation
Malaysia has become the nation with the highest personal debt among 14 Asian economies, according to a new analysis by rating agency Standard & Poor’s. The current official household debt rate has...
View ArticleIndonesia reveals measures for “economic jump forward”
Indonesian President Joko Widodo on September 9 unveiled a series of stimulus measures to boost slowing growth in Southeast Asia’s largest economy and help the country’s plunging currency recover. In a...
View ArticleManila’s tale of two cities: Where rich and poor coexist
When Marc walks out of his Makati neighborhood, a cramped warren of squat slum dwellings in West Rembo, the view he sees could not be more contrasting to where he has just come from. His neighborhood’s...
View ArticleAirAsia aims at creating airport hubs in Southeast Asia
Southeast Asia’s biggest budget airline group AirAsia appears eager to invest or become a joint-venture partner in airport development to serve its burgeoning traffic and drive overall air travel...
View ArticleFive reasons Middle Easterners are looking to ASEAN
Over the past decade, ties between the Middle East and Southeast Asia have strengthened significantly, which has led to an influx of tourists from the Gulf. By Cooper Philip Temple In 2013, based on a...
View ArticlePhilippines, Vietnam have highest tax burden in Southeast Asia
With the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC), the envisaged economic union of the Association of Southeast Asian countries (ASEAN), approaching and member countries eagerly competing for foreign direct...
View ArticleDialogue with Anaplan: The next generation of business planning
Anaplan, a US-based business software company that provides innovative solutions for business planning and challenges established players such as IBM, Oracle, SAP and Microsoft is rapidly expanding in...
View ArticleMyanmar in transition: Minimum wage, credit rating, stock exchange
Ahead of its anxiously awaited general elections slated for November 8, Myanmar is taking big steps forward in closing up to the modern world and making its economy fit for the 21st century. After...
View ArticleZilzar: The world’s digital Muslim marketplace
Investvine talks with chief executive and co-founder of Zilzar, Rushdi Siddiqui, who has led the online platform to a rank and standard all its own. There is an e-commerce trading site, Zilzar.com –...
View ArticleThailand, Indonesia drop in global competitiveness
Thailand and Indonesia were the only two countries in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) that dropped in the new Global Competitiveness Report 2015-2016 released on September 29 by the...
View ArticleCambodia boosts its $2-billion casino industry
The Cambodian government granted licenses for 10 new casinos in the third quarter of this year, raising their number to 75, according to Ros Phearun, a deputy director general of the financial industry...
View ArticleMalaysia, Singapore once again top Muslim travel index
Malaysia and Singapore in the Global Muslim Travel Index 2015 (GMTI) once again made it to the top of the best Muslim travel destinations worldwide in the categories OIC and non-OIC countries,...
View ArticleWorld Bank trims East Asia growth forecast, Thailand’s worst
The World Bank cut its 2015 and 2016 growth forecasts for developing East Asia and Pacific (EAP), saying the outlook was clouded by the risk of a sharp slowdown in China and possible spillovers from...
View ArticleJoseph Stiglitz: The trans-pacific free-trade charade
There’s been a big buzz in the media about the October 5 agreement reached by the US and 11 other countries on the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a free trade pact seen as the biggest trade deal in a...
View ArticleVietnam economy forecast to be 17th-strongest in the world by 2025
Vietnam’s economy, which currently ranks 55th globally by GDP, will grow to rank 17 by 2025, predicts US investment house Goldman Sachs in a recently published forecast, saying that the country’s GDP...
View ArticlePotent Philippine BPO industry aims to lure back overseas workers
Investvine sat down with President and CEO of the IT and Business Process Association of the Philippines (IBPAP) Jomari Mercado to receive an update on training programmes, the industry’s tremendous...
View ArticleMyanmar’s jade mining industry an illicit $31-billion business
A new report by UK-based non-governmental organisation Global Witness reveals that Myanmar’s illicit jade trade is controlled by networks of military officials and their business allies, and had a...
View ArticlePoverty rates in East Asia declining steadily
The World Bank in the latest of its half-yearly East Asia and Pacific Economic Update reports released in October documents a rapid decline in poverty in the region over the past years and is confident...
View ArticleThailand to build its own military equipment
Thailand’s defense sector will start to assemble its own military equipment as the industry has become capable of developing weapons and army gear through partnerships with the private sector, the...
View ArticleEnglish skills in Thailand remain dangerously low
The newest EF English Proficiency Index (EF EPI), the world’s largest ranking of countries by English skills, deals another blow for Thailand’s educational system, placing the country near the bottom...
View ArticleDominica leader offers investment opportunities on rare Asia trip (interview)
Roosevelt Skerrit, Prime Minister of the Caribbean island state of Dominica, is currently touring East Asia in a quest to raise funds for rebuilding and reconstructing the island’s infrastructure after...
View ArticleMyanmar kyat drops further after election
Hopes that the Myanmar elections would prompt the country’s currency to stabilise haven proven false. Although the kyat gradually strengthened for several weeks ahead of the November 8 polls, it began...
View ArticlePhilippines clears streets of the poor ahead of APEC summit
The Philippine government is clearing Manila’s streets of hundreds of homeless Manila residents, including more than 140 street children ahead of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit to...
View ArticleMedical tourism to Asia-Pacific to cross $20bn-mark by 2019
With medical travelers mainly hailing from the Middle East, Africa and Asian countries, and a smaller portion from the US and Europe, health tourism is in strong growth mode in Asia-Pacific. A new...
View ArticleAPEC Summit – Day 1 Highlights
As day one of the APEC summit being held in Manila, the capital of the Philippines wraps up we take a look at some of the highlights of the first day: South China Sea – Even though the arguments over...
View ArticleIndonesia, Malaysia to create OPEC-like palm oil price cartel
Indonesia and Malaysia. the world’s top palm oil producing nations, will create a new joint palm oil body tasked with stabilising prices and managing stock levels, the two countries announced on...
View ArticleASEAN Economic Community formally created – is it real?
Leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, or ASEAN, on November 22 declared the establishment of the long-planned regional economic bloc, the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC), encompassing...
View ArticleRinggit takes a breather after multi-billion 1MDB power deal with China
Malaysia’s battered currency, the ringgit, rose the most among emerging-market currencies on November 24, while stocks and bonds gained after scandal-hit and debt-ridden state investment company struck...
View ArticleMicrosoft strikes deal with shady Myanmar conglomerate
US software giant Microsoft signed a software and service supply agreement with Shwe Taung Group of Companies, a Myanmar business conglomerate that in the past has been linked to laundering drug money...
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