Indonesian President Joko Widodo has demanded that his cabinet ministers serve foreign investors better, after research by the World Bank revealed Chinese companies choosing to relocate operations to Southeast Asia had bypassed Indonesia in favour of Vietnam, Malaysia, Thailand and Cambodia.Widodo, popularly known as Jokowi, was calm but forceful when he spoke at a cabinet meeting on Wednesday, looking intently at the ministers as he underlined how Indonesia had been slow to take advantage of…
Grab and Gojek vie for Southeast Asia’s booming food delivery market
Nanik Soelistiowati, the owner of a banana fritter stall in West Jakarta, is the unlikely prize in a battle between two of the most valuable technology start-ups in Asia.The 64-year-old woman signed up for Gojek’s new food delivery service in 2015 after hearing about it from her children. Delivery motorbikes slalomed through traffic jams to deliver her delicious snack, which uses honey for a caramelised flavour, to all parts of congestion-choked Jakarta. Sales took off.Then in 2017, rival Grab…
Malaysian court set up to curb human trafficking criticised for low conviction rate
A Malaysian court that promised justice for victims of human trafficking made eight convictions in its first year despite the launch of hundreds of investigations in recent years, data obtained exclusively revealed.Malaysia is a magnet for traffickers due to its heavy reliance on foreign workers, many lured from nearby Indonesia and Bangladesh with promises of honest work but ending up trapped in unpaid labour, debt and facing exploitation.Malaysia is home to an estimated 212,000 of about 40…
1MDB scandal: Jho Low promised Najib Razak’s aides ‘boss will take care’ if they opened foreign bank accounts, court hears
“Boss will take care”. These were the exact words used by fugitive financier Jho Low to convince two of former Malaysian prime minister Najib Razak’s aides to open bank accounts in foreign countries.The accounts with BSI Bank in Singapore that he asked them to open were meant to be “standby accounts” for Najib’s political funds for the 13th General Election, the High Court heard on Wednesday.In 2012, Low sent Najib’s former special officer Amhari Efendi Nazaruddin and the late Azlin Alias, who…
The Philippines has a plastic pollution crisis on its hands and poverty makes it even worse
Armed with gloves, rubber boots and a rake, “Mangrove Warrior” Willer Gualva, 68, comes to Freedom Island in the Philippines almost every day to stop it being engulfed by trash.No one lives on the island, yet each morning its shores are covered in garbage, much of it single-use sachets of shampoo, toothpaste, detergent and coffee that are carried out to sea by the rivers of overcrowded Manila.“We collect mostly plastics here and the number one type are sachets,” said Gualva, one of 17 people…
Singapore will not escape economic impact if Hong Kong unrest persists, trade minister Chan Chun Sing says
Prolonged disruption to Hong Kong’s stability will have a “negative spillover impact” on Singapore and the wider region, the Southeast Asian city state’s trade minister warned on Monday.Chan Chun Sing said close trade and investment ties between the two cities meant Singapore would likely be impacted by the anti-government protests in Hong Kong.The southern Chinese city was Singapore’s fifth largest trading partner last year, Chan said, and its fourth largest investment destination at the end…
Chinese billionaire Huang Xiangmo offered to deliver ‘big bag’ of cash to Australian party HQ, inquiry hears
Chinese billionaire Huang Xiangmo allegedly offered to deliver a bag containing A$100,000 (US$67,300) to the state headquarters of an Australian political party after a 2015 fundraising event, a corruption inquiry has heard.Huang was in February stripped of his Australian residency and barred from returning to the country after his Communist Party ties came under scrutiny. He had been at the centre of several political interference concerns, having donated millions to Australia’s two main…
Drills between US and Asean nations kick off, will extend into South China Sea
Eight warships, four aircraft and more than 1,000 personnel from the US and 10 Southeast Asian countries will join maritime drills kicking off on Monday, as part of a joint exercise extending into the flashpoint South China Sea.The first Asean-US Maritime Exercise (AUMX) between the regional bloc and Washington lasts for five days, starting at the Sattahip Naval Base in Thailand and ending in Singapore.The drills coincide with stepped-up US engagement in the region and tensions between Beijing…
More South Korean women are filing for divorce, taking comfort in celebrity splits
Just days after the harvest festival of Chuseok, one of South Korea’s two major holidays, Kim Jin-ju decided she wanted a divorce.“I was just done living as a punchbag for my husband to let out his frustrations on,” the mother of two said.She is one of a growing number of women walking out of their marriages in the country, which now has the highest divorce rate in East Asia and ranks 14th among Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) states for divorce, with China in 27th…
Half a century after Ho Chi Minh’s death, his embalmed body is guarded around the clock
The task of safeguarding the embalmed corpse of Vietnam’s revolutionary leader Ho Chi Minh is gruelling: carefully selected riflemen work around the clock, watching over the communist nation’s founding father who died 50 years ago on Monday.Protecting him is the ultimate patriotic service for men in stiff white uniforms at Ho’s towering tomb in Hanoi, a monolithic shrine to a man who still pervades public life despite his fading relevance among the youth.The job is a “dream come true” for guard…