Chinese President Xi Jinping has pledged to further deepen cooperation and promote a “digital Silk Road” with Southeast Asia as Beijing moves to cement its influence in Asia Pacific just as the new US administration says it wants to pivot towards the region and resume a leadership role.In a recorded message on Friday, Xi also reassured the Asian leaders that China gives top priority to its relationship with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean), a 10-member regional bloc, and that…
Indonesia’s Covid-19 vaccination roll-out challenge could hurt path to immunity
In Indonesia, pressure is building for authorities to get coronavirus vaccines to 270 million people living on 17,000 islands in its vast archipelago.The government has orders with at least four vaccine suppliers, including Sinovac Biotech and AstraZeneca. That access ranks Indonesia second in Asia after China, and on par with Japan and India, for securing much-anticipated immunisations, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.Few countries are relying more fervently on Covid-19 vaccines to…
Building Safety Bill fails to resolve challenges for industry and leaseholders
The House of Commons Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee has “warmly welcomed” the policy intent behind England’s draft Building Safety Bill, but has made some serious criticisms of its content.
South Korean sex ring leader gets 40 years in prison for blackmailing 74 women
A South Korean court on Thursday sentenced the leader of an online sexual blackmail ring to 40 years in prison, the Yonhap news agency reported.Cho Ju-bin, 24, was found guilty of running an online network that blackmailed at least 74 women, including 16 teenagers, into what authorities called “virtual enslavement” by forcing them to send increasingly degrading and sometimes violent sexual imagery of themselves between May 2019 and February 2020.The Seoul Central District Court sentenced Cho…
Anger in Indonesia after trans woman Instagram influencer placed in male jail cell
Activists and the trans community in Indonesia have denounced a decision by law enforcement officials to place a transgender woman in a men’s detention facility, saying their lack of sensitivity highlights the general views about LGBT people in the world’s most populous Muslim-majority nation.The 21-year-old Instagram influencer and model, known as Millen Cyrus, was arrested along with a male friend for alleged drug abuse during a raid on a hotel in Tanjung Priok Port in North Jakarta on Sunday…
France’s foreign investment regime
The original French regulation relating to foreign investment controls (FIC) was implemented by law no 66-1008 dated 28 December 1966.
India’s lavish weddings, sidelined by the coronavirus, are back at the altar
The US$50 billion Indian wedding industry, knocked on its lavish backside during the coronavirus lockdown that started in March, is set to return with a flourish.Known for their opulence, with guest lists running into the thousands for elaborate banquets and ostentatious displays of wealth, most Indian weddings were either postponed or whittled down to small, intimate affairs during the coronavirus lockdown, sometimes turned into online proceedings held over Zoom or otherwise streamed online…
Singapore sticks to digital banking plans despite China, US clampdowns
Singapore’s financial regulator will stick with its plans to award digital banking licences by the end of the year, undeterred by tightening scrutiny in China and the US that is hitting major Chinese applicants.“Regulatory tightening that’s happening in China will not have an impact on the digital banks here,” Ravi Menon, managing director of the Monetary Authority of Singapore, said in a recent interview. “It’s not our job to try to guess what the geopolitical situation might be like, what…
UK government launches bidding process for freeports
The bidding process expected to create up to seven new ‘freeports’ in England has opened after the UK government published a prospectus last week outlining the requirements for designation as a freeport.
China and Japan race to dominate future of high-speed rail
Japan and China are racing to build a new type of ultra-fast, levitating train, seeking to demonstrate their mastery over a technology with big export potential.Magnetic levitation, or maglev, trains use powerful magnets to glide along charged tracks at super fast speeds made possible by the lack of friction. A handful of short distance and experimental maglev trains are already in operation, but Asia’s two biggest economies are vying to develop what would be the world’s first long-distance…