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To support its planned product launch in June 2026, VinFast has continued to partner with leading motorcycle distributors in the Philippines, including Wheeltek Motor Sales Corporation; Gentrade International Phils., Inc. (Transcycle); Superbikes Corporation; Motoxpress Sales Corporation; FMN Industrial Corp.; Eduhome Enterprise, Inc.; Keymotors Incorporated; Motorpro by Abenson Ventures Inc. and Aserco; Moto Atelier Inc.; Ciclo Suerte; HG Motorzone; HGC Main Marketing (Motorboy); BLC Cycle Parts Supply; and Auto Ten Trade & Services Corp. Similar to the partners signed in January 2026, these partners have extensive networks, demonstrate strong operational capabilities, and possess longstanding experience in the motorcycle business, alongside a clear orientation toward the green transition.

VinFast and its partners will collaborate to rapidly roll out a showroom network across the market, with many outlets expected to be launched in parallel at the time of product introduction, laying the foundation for accelerated expansion of nationwide sales and after-sales services. The showrooms will be developed in high-demand areas with strong potential for green transition such as Metro Manila, Metro Davao, Rizal, Laguna, Cavite, Batangas, Metro Cebu, Bulacan, and other major urban provinces, and will adhere to VinFast’s global standards for operations and brand identity.

In the initial phase, the network will distribute a portfolio of swappable-battery e-scooters, including Evo, Feliz II, Viper, and other models expected to be launched in the near future, alongside upcoming models that will be further adapted to local infrastructure conditions and consumer usage patterns in the Philippines.

The Philippines is one of Southeast Asia’s largest motorcycle markets, characterized by strong demand for personal mobility and rapid urbanization. Amid fuel price volatility and a growing shift toward sustainable solutions, e-scooters are emerging as a promising pathway, particularly when supported by an integrated ecosystem.

VinFast is pioneering the development of a comprehensive e-scooter ecosystem in the Philippines, encompassing dealer networks, after-sales services, financing solutions, and energy infrastructure. Notably, the company aims to deploy approximately 30,000 battery-swapping stations nationwide in the near term, in collaboration with infrastructure partners, to deliver a convenient and flexible user experience.

Earlier in 2026, VinFast announced plans to expand its e-scooter business across five key international markets, including the Philippines, Indonesia, India, Thailand, and Malaysia, as part of its global strategy to scale a green mobility ecosystem.

Ms. Vo Thi Cam Tu, Managing Director of VinFast E-Scooters Overseas Market, said: “Our partnerships with 14 major dealers in the Philippines mark an important step in rapidly establishing a strong distribution and service foundation from the outset. We are not only introducing products tailored to local needs, but also developing an integrated ecosystem, from battery-swapping infrastructure to after-sales services, enabling consumers to access and adopt e-scooters in a convenient, efficient, and sustainable manner.”

In recent years, VinFast has steadily built its presence across key Southeast Asian markets, including the Philippines, through a diverse electric vehicle portfolio and strategic partnerships in infrastructure and services. The expansion into e-scooters further completes its green mobility ecosystem in the market and the region, while providing consumers with more flexible options in the transition to sustainable transportation.

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China has launched a new satellite designed to track greenhouse gases with greater precision, adding a fresh layer of space-based monitoring to the country’s climate and environmental data network.

The satellite lifted off aboard a Long March-4C rocket from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre in north-west China at 12:10 pm Beijing time on April 17. State media said the spacecraft entered its planned orbit successfully, marking the 638th mission of the Long March rocket family. Chinese reports described it as a high-precision greenhouse-gas detection satellite intended to strengthen observation of atmospheric conditions from orbit.

Chinese broadcaster CGTN reported that the satellite carries five instruments, including an atmospheric detection lidar, a broad-spectrum hyperspectral greenhouse-gas monitor, ultraviolet and infrared hyperspectral sensors for atmospheric composition, and a cloud-and-aerosol imager. Together, those tools are intended to improve detection of carbon dioxide, methane and related atmospheric variables, while helping scientists separate emissions signals from interference caused by clouds, aerosols and other background conditions. The spacecraft and launcher were developed by the Shanghai Academy of Spaceflight Technology, according to CGTN and other Chinese reports.

The launch gives Beijing a more advanced platform for a task that has become politically and economically important: measuring what is actually entering the atmosphere. Satellite-based observation has become a key part of climate governance because it can provide independent, repeated coverage across large industrial zones, energy corridors and remote terrain where ground-based monitoring is patchier or harder to verify. Methane, in particular, has come under sharper scrutiny because it traps far more heat than carbon dioxide over the short term, while carbon dioxide remains the dominant driver of long-term warming.

For China, the mission also carries strategic weight. The country has pledged to peak carbon dioxide emissions before 2030 and reach carbon neutrality before 2060, goals that require more dependable measurement of emissions trends and sector-by-sector performance. Yet that transition remains uneven. Reuters reported in February 2025 that China cut carbon intensity by 3.4 per cent in 2024, but still lagged behind its five-year target, underscoring the tension between climate pledges, industrial growth and energy security. More precise atmospheric data can help narrow that gap between policy targets and real-world measurement.

The new mission also builds on a longer Chinese effort to monitor greenhouse gases from space. In 2016, China launched TanSat, a carbon-tracking satellite aimed at taking global carbon dioxide readings roughly every 16 days, with accuracy of at least four parts per million, according to Reuters and the China National Space Administration. That earlier satellite was presented as a step towards giving policymakers more independent climate data. The new spacecraft appears to signal a move from pioneering measurement capability towards a more operational and higher-resolution system.

That matters beyond China. Space-based emissions tracking has gained prominence as governments, investors and campaigners press for more transparent climate accounting. The loss last year of MethaneSAT, a privately backed satellite funded in part by Jeff Bezos and operated by the Environmental Defense Fund, highlighted both the promise and fragility of this new monitoring architecture. At the same time, political pressure on some United States climate-observation programmes has raised concerns among scientists about the continuity of global emissions data. Against that backdrop, China’s launch adds capacity to a field in which international coverage remains valuable but uneven.

The timing is notable because climate data has become more than a scientific matter. It now feeds into carbon markets, industrial regulation, trade pressure and diplomatic claims over who is cutting emissions and who is not. Better satellite detection could strengthen verification of methane leaks from coal mines, oil and gas facilities, and large industrial sites, while also improving broader atmospheric modelling. Chinese researchers are already working on ever finer emissions datasets for the country, and the addition of a new orbital platform could help tighten links between satellite observation, ground measurements and policy enforcement.

The dispute sits inside a broader U. S. tariff reset. In March, the USTR opened Section 301 investigations into structural excess capacity in manufacturing across 16 economies, including Singapore, and launched another set of probes into whether about 60 economies have failed to prohibit or effectively enforce bans on imports made with forced labour. Reuters reported that the Trump administration moved down this route after a Supreme Court ruling in February struck at the legal basis of a large part of its earlier tariff framework, prompting Washington to search for narrower but still forceful trade instruments. USTR said comments were due by April 15, with hearings on forced labour beginning on April 28 and on overcapacity from May 5.

Singapore’s central argument is that the U. S. portrayal of the bilateral trade balance is flawed. In its submission, the Ministry of Trade and Industry said the United States has run a consistent overall trade surplus with Singapore for more than two decades. Data cited by Singapore from U. S. agencies show America posted a goods trade surplus of US$1.9 billion and a services trade surplus of US$25.1 billion with Singapore in 2024, with those surpluses rising in 2025 to US$3.6 billion and US$29.6 billion respectively. Singapore also said the U. S. recorded sectoral surpluses in semiconductors and electrical equipment as well as petrochemicals, undercutting the suggestion that exports from Singapore into the American market are being fuelled by a broad pattern of manufacturing distortion.

That matters because Washington’s overcapacity inquiry is built around the idea that some trading partners maintain large or persistent surpluses, idle production or both, allowing them to push artificially cheap goods into world markets. Singapore’s reply does not deny that the U. S. is entitled to examine trade imbalances, but it says its own industrial base does not fit that template. Officials pointed to manufacturing-space occupancy holding around 90 per cent over the past five years, which they said is consistent with advanced-economy norms and inconsistent with the claim of large underused capacity. Singapore further argued that, given land scarcity, it would run against policy and economic logic for industrial land to be left substantially idle.

On the labour side, Singapore’s response is equally direct. The government said it does not condone forced labour in supply chains and has legal and enforcement mechanisms to address such practices. Channel NewsAsia reported that Singapore told U. S. investigators it has a comprehensive domestic framework against forced labour and against the importation of goods produced through it. That is an important distinction, because the U. S. probe is not confined to labour abuses inside a country’s own factories; it is also examining whether governments adequately prevent tainted goods from entering their markets and then moving through global trade channels.

The business implications extend beyond Singapore. The U. S. investigations cover major manufacturing and export economies across Asia and Europe, and any eventual remedies could include new duties or other restrictions before temporary tariffs expire in July, according to Reuters and trade-law analyses tracking the dockets. For companies, that raises the prospect of higher compliance costs, closer supply-chain screening and a wider blending of trade policy with labour-rights enforcement. Singapore’s case is being watched because it is a high-value manufacturing and logistics hub with deep exposure to electronics, pharmaceuticals, petrochemicals and re-export trade, sectors where even modest tariff changes can alter sourcing decisions.

Politically, the row is awkward for both sides. Singapore is not only a long-standing U. S. economic partner; its free-trade agreement with Washington remains America’s only such pact with a South-east Asian trading partner. Singapore has said bilateral trade and investment support around 350,000 jobs in the United States, while its direct investment stock there reached US$71.7 billion in 2025. That does not shield it from a more aggressive U. S. trade climate, but it does give Singapore a stronger basis than many others to argue that the relationship is balanced, rules-based and mutually beneficial.

China’s economy expanded faster than expected in the first quarter, giving Beijing a firmer platform as it confronts the fallout from the war involving Iran, but the details beneath the headline number pointed to a recovery still leaning heavily on industry and exports while households remain cautious. Official data released on Thursday showed gross domestic product grew 5.0% from a year earlier in January to March, above the 4.8% forecast in a Reuters poll and up from 4.5% in the final quarter of 2025. Quarterly growth came in at 1.3%, slightly ahead of the previous quarter.

The stronger reading suggested that the first shockwaves from the conflict in the Middle East have not yet knocked China off course. Markets took the figures as a sign of resilience. Mainland share indices rose after the release and the yuan held near its strongest levels in three years, reflecting confidence that the world’s second-largest economy has, for now, absorbed higher energy risks better than some had feared.

Yet the composition of growth was less reassuring. March industrial output rose 5.7% from a year earlier, beating expectations, but retail sales slowed to 1.7%, well below forecasts and down from 2.8% in the first two months of the year. Fixed-asset investment in the first quarter rose 1.7%, also missing expectations, while property investment fell 11.2%. Those figures reinforced a pattern that has defined China’s economy for months: factories, infrastructure and technology manufacturing are carrying more of the load than domestic consumption or housing.

That imbalance matters because Beijing has repeatedly signalled that stronger household demand is essential to putting growth on a steadier footing. Economists cited in the reporting on Thursday said the first-quarter strength was driven largely by momentum built in January and February, especially through exports and industrial activity, while March showed signs of softer conditions. The slowdown in shop spending is particularly sensitive because consumer confidence has remained fragile even as policymakers talk up support for incomes, jobs and services-led demand.

The war has complicated that task without yet derailing it. Since hostilities erupted on 28 February, China has faced a familiar vulnerability: it is the world’s largest energy importer and still relies on stable global shipping and manageable oil prices to protect factory margins and household purchasing power. Reuters reported that economists believe China has so far weathered the shock because of large oil reserves, a diversified energy mix and price controls, but they also warned that persistently higher oil costs are beginning to filter through supply chains and squeeze profits.

Evidence of that pressure is already visible. Reuters noted this week that factory-gate prices in March rose for the first time in more than three years, a signal that energy-driven cost increases are feeding into production. Export growth, which had been one of the brighter spots, also lost momentum in March after a very strong start to the year, raising the possibility that manufacturers will find it harder to sustain their pace if shipping costs stay elevated and overseas demand weakens.

Beijing’s response is likely to stay measured unless the conflict worsens. Policymakers have already set a budget deficit of about 4% of GDP for 2026 and planned heavy bond issuance to support activity. Analysts polled by Reuters expect the central bank to keep the one-year loan prime rate steady through the year, with only a modest cut to reserve requirements anticipated later on. A stronger first quarter gives officials more room to avoid large-scale stimulus at this month’s Politburo meeting, though that calculus could change if oil prices climb further or exports weaken more sharply.

The broader international backdrop is not especially forgiving. The IMF said in its April World Economic Outlook material that the Middle East conflict is lowering growth expectations for advanced economies in 2026, even if the aggregate effect is described as modest. For China, that matters less through direct battlefield exposure than through energy costs, shipping uncertainty and the health of major overseas markets. A prolonged conflict would test the durability of China’s export-led strength at the same time as its consumer recovery remains incomplete.