Category: Asia Focus

Hong Kong has laid out a five-year programme to strengthen its established economic pillars while building new growth engines, with a gold-led commodity trading ecosystem among the centrepieces of its strategy through 2030.

Chief Executive John Lee’s 2026 Policy Address and the city’s first Five-Year Plan for Economic and Social Development set out measures covering finance, trade, shipping, aviation, innovation and technology, alongside efforts to attract capital, companies and skilled workers. The government said the programme is designed to reinforce Hong

Waymo will launch a fully autonomous ride-hailing service in Singapore in 2028, making the city-state its first Southeast Asian market as the Alphabet-owned company accelerates its international expansion.

The company said an initial fleet of all-electric Jaguar I-PACE vehicles will arrive in Singapore over the coming months, with preparations beginning before a phased testing programme in 2027. Trained autonomous specialists will initially drive the vehicles manually while Waymo maps roads and adapts its self-driving system to local conditions.

The programme will expose

Huawei Technologies has laid out plans to launch two new artificial intelligence processors in 2027, strengthening its push to supply the computing power China needs as US export controls restrict access to Nvidia’s most advanced chips.

Rotating chairman David Wang said at Huawei Connect 2026 in Shanghai on Thursday that the company plans to release the 960DT in the first quarter of 2027 and the Ascend 960PR in the third quarter. The roadmap places Huawei’s next generation of accelerators at the

South Korea will not slow its artificial intelligence drive, Deputy Prime Minister and Science and ICT Minister Bae Kyung-hoon said on Wednesday, arguing that the country must pair rapid development with stronger safeguards rather than curb the technology’s advance.

Bae said South Korea was still trying to close the gap with leading AI powers while creating new markets, making its position different from countries or companies at the technological frontier. “We cannot afford to slow down AI right now,” he wrote

Clinicians from Singapore and South Korea have called for more individualised, evidence-based postnatal care as women enter motherhood later, arguing that recovery plans should reflect each mother's health, delivery experience, family support and preferences.

The call emerged from DeRAMA Singapore's Joint Postnatal Recovery Seminar, held at The Singapore EDITION on August 17. Obstetrician and gynaecologist Dr Ho Ping Ling of Ascensus Health @ Mount Alvernia and Dr Park Jeong-mi, founder and medical director of Garden of Her Women's Clinic in South

Hong Kong has placed a global gold trading hub at the centre of its first five-year economic plan, using the market as an entry point to expand commodity trading and broaden international use of the renminbi.

The 2026-2030 plan, released on Wednesday, calls for an integrated gold ecosystem covering storage, trading, clearing, refining and related financial services, while encouraging more renminbi-denominated commodity products. The government said it would strengthen links with mainland exchanges and attract international investors as it develops the

China has pushed back against calls from leading US technology figures to slow frontier artificial intelligence development, sharpening differences over safety, access to advanced chips and technological competition before President Donald Trump and President Xi Jinping meet in Washington next week.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun said on Monday that artificial intelligence was a consequential technology for humanity and should be developed openly and inclusively. Asked about calls from Dario Amodei, Sam Altman and Elon Musk for companies to slow

BRICS leaders have placed development priorities of emerging economies at the centre of their New Delhi agenda, endorsing stronger representation for the Global South while advancing cooperation on trade, technology, finance and sustainable growth.

Chinese President Xi Jinping used the 18th BRICS Summit to argue that countries should pursue development paths suited to their own national conditions, a message that overlapped with the summit’s broader emphasis on policy autonomy, inclusive growth and reform of global institutions.

Addressing the first leaders’ session on

China has showcased a fish-shaped autonomous underwater robot in Beijing, demonstrating biomimetic navigation technology that could support inspection, environmental monitoring, search operations and defence-related missions.

The BG-5 Golden Dragon Fish was demonstrated at the 2026 China International Fair for Trade in Services, held at Shougang Park from September 9 to 13. Developed by Boyagongdao Marine Technology Group, the robot is designed to resemble a golden arowana and propel itself through water with a flexible, multi-joint tail rather than a conventional propeller.

The

China’s online retailers have begun offering the iPhone 18 Pro at discounts of up to 900 yuan only two days after pre-orders opened, cutting the effective price of Apple’s new flagship below its official launch level before retail sales begin.

The 256GB iPhone 18 Pro was listed on Pinduoduo at 9,099 yuan on Monday after platform and store incentives, compared with Apple’s official mainland China price of 9,999 yuan. The reduction is being funded through retailer subsidies and coupons rather than

Beijing will ban the possession, storage and operation of recreational drones across the capital from November 15, tightening low-altitude security controls after a light aircraft crashed into the city’s tallest skyscraper in June.

The revised Beijing Unmanned Aircraft Management Regulations, approved by the municipal legislature this month, designate the entire municipality as controlled airspace and prohibit individuals and organisations from keeping drones or key components unless they fall within specified exemptions. Transporting or carrying such equipment into Beijing will also be

Chinese foreign exchange regulators are stepping up pressure on banks to persuade corporate clients to hedge more of their currency exposure, to reduce companies’ vulnerability to yuan swings.

Some local branches of the State Administration of Foreign Exchange have urged lenders to encourage businesses to increase hedging, extending a campaign that has pushed corporate derivatives use to record levels. The guidance targets companies with sizeable foreign-currency receipts or payments as the yuan trades near three-year highs.

The push reflects Beijing’s preference for

China’s National Data Administration plans to accelerate standards for embodied artificial intelligence and direct local authorities on implementation, targeting one of the biggest bottlenecks in the fast-growing robotics sector: access to high-quality, diverse and large-scale training data.

The regulator said the work will focus on creating clearer rules for datasets used by embodied AI systems, which combine artificial intelligence with physical machines such as humanoid robots. The effort is intended to support more consistent data collection, processing, evaluation and use as

Thailand has placed 17 strategic industrial projects worth 121 billion baht on an accelerated approval track while introducing added tax incentives intended to encourage technology-focused companies to list on domestic capital markets.

The Board of Investment approved the measures at a meeting chaired by Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Ekniti Nitithanprapas, expanding the Thailand FastPass mechanism and launching a BOI-to-IPO programme with the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Stock Exchange of Thailand.

The 17 projects, submitted by 15 companies,

VinFast has signed memoranda of understanding with 13 dealer groups to develop 27 new showrooms across the Philippines, advancing a plan to build a 60-dealership network in the country during 2026.

The Vietnamese electric-vehicle maker said the proposed outlets would span Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao, extending its reach beyond major centres such as Metro Manila and Cebu into markets including Cagayan de Oro, Tacloban and Subic Bay. The sites are expected to combine vehicle display, customer consultations, sales and after-sales services

Shanghai Enflame Technology nearly tripled in value on its Shanghai trading debut on Friday, extending a wave of listings that has turned founders of loss-making Chinese artificial-intelligence chipmakers into billionaires as investors bet heavily on domestic alternatives to Nvidia.

Enflame’s shares closed 179 per cent above their initial public offering price on the STAR Market, lifting the company’s market value to about 171 billion yuan from 61.2 billion yuan at the offer price. The Tencent-backed company raised 6.12 billion yuan

President Lee Jae Myung’s approval rating has fallen to a new low as opposition hardens against sending South Korean military assets to the Strait of Hormuz, intensifying pressure on his government while Washington urges Seoul to contribute to maritime security.

A National Barometer Survey released Thursday showed 43 per cent of respondents approved of Lee’s handling of state affairs, down seven percentage points from two weeks earlier, while 48 per cent disapproved. It was the first time disapproval exceeded approval in

China exported more passenger cars in the first eight months of 2026 than during all of 2025, underscoring a sharp acceleration in overseas shipments as electric and plug-in hybrid models gain ground abroad.

Passenger-car exports reached more than 6.2 million units between January and August, according to the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, already topping the roughly 6.04 million passenger vehicles exported during 2025. August shipments alone climbed 67.1% from a year earlier to about 890,000 units.

The milestone highlights how overseas

Malone Lam, a 22-year-old Singapore citizen and former Miami resident, has pleaded guilty in Washington to leading an international cybercrime enterprise that stole and laundered cryptocurrency worth more than $245 million.

Lam admitted one count of participating in a racketeering conspiracy before US District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly on Tuesday, September 8. Prosecutors said he organised a network that targeted cryptocurrency holders through social engineering scams, online intrusions and, on some occasions, break-ins at victims’ homes.

The US Attorney’s Office for the District

The yen could surrender part of its sharp September advance and move back towards the upper 150s per dollar if expectations for faster Bank of Japan tightening and large-scale pension-fund repatriation fail to materialise, Barclays has warned.

The caution comes after the Japanese currency surged to its strongest levels since February, helped by mounting conviction that the central bank will lift its policy rate at its September 17-18 meeting and by speculation that major domestic investors will shift more money out

The Philippines has finalised a $34.4 billion artificial intelligence infrastructure masterplan targeting a thirtyfold increase in AI-ready data centre capacity to 1.5 gigawatts by 2033, while two US-headquartered hyperscalers assess potential sites in Luzon.

The Philippines AI+ Infrastructure Masterplan 2026-2033, launched by the Department of Information and Communications Technology on September 8, sets an initial goal of deploying about 400 megawatts by 2030 from a baseline of roughly 50 MW. The programme is designed to combine public infrastructure spending with substantially

China’s oil demand is expected to fall by 600,000 barrels a day, or 8.9%, in 2026, marking a third consecutive annual decline as high crude prices and faster electric-vehicle adoption curb fuel consumption, according to Sinopec Group’s research arm.

The Sinopec Economics & Development Research Institute said petrol and diesel would account for most of the reduction, with petrol demand projected to drop 8.7% from a year earlier to 149 million tonnes and diesel consumption to fall 11.4% to 164 million

Malaysia is considering Huawei’s Ascend 910C processors for a RM2 billion sovereign artificial intelligence project, potentially placing Chinese hardware at the centre of infrastructure designed to keep sensitive national data under domestic control.

The government is seriously evaluating Huawei’s AI accelerators for the initiative, although no final procurement decision has been announced and the number of chips under consideration remains unclear. The project would be operated by state-linked Telekom Malaysia, which was selected through a public tender and already works with

Indonesia suspended flights at airports serving Jakarta and Lampung on Sunday after ash from the erupting Mount Anak Krakatau spread across western Java and southern Sumatra, disrupting hundreds of services and prompting aviation authorities to impose temporary closures.

Soekarno-Hatta International Airport, the country’s busiest gateway, halted operations after volcanic ash was detected around the airport. The suspension, initially imposed during the early hours, was extended as officials monitored changing ash concentrations and wind patterns.

Radin Inten II International Airport in Lampung also