Tencent’s cloud computing unit has launched a data centre in Silicon Valley and will open another four outside its domestic market, as it looks to expand its portfolio to include cloud and artificial intelligence. The Chinese internet giant said the following four facilities in Mumbai, Seoul, Frankfurt, and Moscow would be operational this year, adding to its global network of data centres that currently include Singapore, Toronto, […]
By Patpicha Tanakasempipat and Panarat Thepgumpanat | BANGKOK BANGKOK A Thai man filmed himself killing his 11-month-old daughter in two video clips posted on Facebook before committing suicide, police said on Tuesday. People could access the videos of the child’s murder on her father’s Facebook page for roughly 24 hours, until they were taken down around 5 p.m. in Bangkok (1000 GMT) on Tuesday, or about a […]
More than half of businesses in Singapore, Japan, and South Korea are among the least prepared for the upcoming European Union’s data privacy laws, with a quarter of their counterparts in Australia and the US fearing a shutdown as a result. With a year to go before the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) would take effect on May 25, 2018, some 56 percent of Singapore-based companies had […]
Dubai Aerospace Enterprise (DAE) Ltd has announced the signing of a definitive agreement to acquire 100 percent of the AWAS group of companies, a global leader in aircraft leasing. The deal has been struck with funds managed by Terra Firma Capital Partners and the Canadian Pension Plan Investment Board. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. AWAS is one of the world’s leading aircraft leasing companies, with […]
By Nichola Saminather | SINGAPORE SINGAPORE Asian equities advanced on Tuesday as the return of risk appetite following a centrist victory in the first round of the French presidential election lifted several regional markets to multi-year highs, while the euro retained most of its overnight gains. Safe-haven assets, including the yen and gold remained under pressure, while the Canadian dollar fell after the U.S. announced new duties […]
InterContinental Hotels Group announces new signings as well as openings across its MEA brand portfolio at the UAE’s Arabian Travel Market and Arabian Hotel Investment Conference 24 April 2017 Dubai, United Arab Emirates – InterContinental Hotels Group® (IHG), one of the world’s leading global hotel companies, announced four new hotel signings as well as six new hotel openings across the GCC in 2017 at the Arabian Travel […]
For Myanmar’s first generation of bank customers, there is little difference between a Visa card and one from China’s state-controlled card-payment monopoly, UnionPay. With only 2 per cent of the Southeast Asian nation’s 53m people carrying plastic in their wallets, UnionPay’s rapid push into the frontier market will make its red, blue and green logo one of the first that Burmese youth see when opening an account […]
Malaysia and Abu Dhabi have reached agreement on a partial debt settlement for embattled government fund 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB), the Straits Times reported, citing financial executives it didn’t identify. Under a deal that could be signed as soon as Friday, Malaysia would pay Abu Dhabi $1.2 billion before the end of this year and negotiate on a further $3.5 billion, the Singapore-based paper said. A proposed […]
LONDON Oil held near $53 a barrel on Friday, but was on course for its biggest weekly drop in a month due to doubts that an OPEC-led production cut will restore balance to an oversupplied market. Brent futures LCOc1 were at $53.01 a barrel at 1107 GMT, up 2 cents from their last close and set for a 5.15 percent weekly drop, their biggest fall since the […]
The construction of Asia-Pacific fibre infrastructure company Superloop’s Indigo subsea cable system has reached a contractually binding status following Alcatel Submarine Networks entering a system supply agreement. The agreement makes the submarine cable system supply and construction binding for all parties, as well as the process of bringing it into operation. The contract was executed between Alcatel Submarine Networks and the Indigo consortium parties including Superloop and […]
Following years of acrimony between OPEC and the hedge fund community, which the cartel dismissed simply as “speculators”, things suddenly changed in 2016 when the two groups got so close, there were outright reports of collusion between the two on various occasions. We documented this last month in “Why OPEC Is Colluding With Hedge Funds.” However, as Reuters’ energy analyst John Kemp pointed out on twitter this […]
Australian telecommunications provider TPG has announced spending a further SG$23.8 million on acquiring more mobile broadband spectrum in the Singaporean market, winning 2x 5MHz in the 2.5GHz band during the general spectrum auction this week. “We are very satisfied with the allocation obtained in the new entrant spectrum auction, and are now very pleased to have successfully taken the opportunity to add to our portfolio of spectrum […]
HAMBURG Airbus (AIR.PA) has developed a new, slimmer staircase for its A380 super jumbo to allow for more seats in its latest effort to improve sales of the world’s largest airliner. Reuters reported last month that Airbus was considering doing away with the front “grand staircase” to lower the double-decker’s operating costs and boost fuel efficiency. Airbus cabin marketing executive Ingo Wuggetzer said that introducing a slimmer […]
By Nichola Saminather | SINGAPORE SINGAPORE Asian shares inched lower on Tuesday as caution reigned ahead of a potentially tense meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping later this week. The dollar lost ground after investors sold stocks overnight and looked to safe havens as political uncertainty overshadowed positive U.S. economic data and solid growth in global manufacturing. European markets were also […]
M1 has introduced two mobile plans tailored for business users as it looks to increase its service offerings for the local enterprise market. The Singapore telco announced the M1 Enterprise Mobile 6 and 12 plans, offering unlimited local messaging and voice calls, and 6GB or 12GB data allowance that could be used locally as well as in 56 global markets. These countries were selected based on their […]
People who use or trade personal information obtained illegally can now be charged with an offence even if they did not perform the hacking to retrieve the data, after changes to cyber security laws were passed yesterday. In amending the Computer Misuse and Cybersecurity Act, the Government is moving to keep pace with the evolving nature of cybercrime and criminal acts that target computer systems. Besides criminalising […]
By Aye Win Myint | YANGON YANGON Myanmar is training up hundreds of midwives in an effort to reduce the number of women who die in childbirth, one of many social policy reforms launched by the country as it emerges from decades of military rule. Statistics show childbirth and pregnancy-related complications are the leading causes of death among women in Myanmar, mainly due to delays in reaching […]
DUBAI // Easy recovery of VAT for tourists is required to ensure they continue to come and spend. A tourist refund scheme is provided for in the GCC agreement and is being considered by the UAE, said David Stevens of accountancy firm E Y. He said such a scheme would encourage tourist spending. Marie-Claire Accordino, founder of the The Accounts Dept, which provides bookkeeping services for small and […]
Event will gather together CEOs, CMOs, Presidents and VPs from across the region and beyond Riyadh KSA, April 1 2017: For the first time, Saudi Arabia will host the ‘Top CEO Conference and Awards’ – an event which will see CEOs, CMOs, Presidents and VPs from across the Arabian Gulf region and beyond gather together on 10th and 11th April 2017 at Bay La Sun Hotel & […]
Dubai, UAE, Singapore, March 31, 2017 Takeda Pharmaceuticals Company Limited (“Takeda”),announced today that Ricardo Marek has been appointed as the President of the Emerging Markets Business Unit (EMBU), based in Singapore, effective April 1, 2017. In his new role he will lead allbusiness operations across five geographic Areas that compriseEM BU – Asia Pacific (excluding Japan), China, Latin America, Middle East & Africa and Russia-CIS. Marekwill also […]
SINGAPORE: Former presidential hopeful Tan Cheng Bock has called on the Government to make the upcoming Presidential Election an open election. Speaking to reporters at a press conference on Friday (Mar 31), he asked if it was correct to make the upcoming election, which must be held by August, a reserved one. He pointed out that the Attorney-General’s Chambers (AGC) had advised the Prime Minister to count […]
By Nichola Saminather | SINGAPORE SINGAPORE The dollar extended its overnight gains in early Asian trade on Friday on signs of strong U.S. economic growth, while the euro inched up after sliding overnight on data suggesting slowing growth in Europe. Stock markets in Asia were off a bit despite solid gains on Wall Street as investors awaited China’s official manufacturing purchasing managers index data for March. The […]
The food tour has become one of the great tourism successes of the last decade, and most major cities have some sort of walk and taste tour available. These tours are also diversifying – concentrating on specific cuisines and honing in on certain neighbourhoods. It’s this delving-beyond-the-staple citybreak diet that makes such tours worth their while – and not just as a chance to explore the local […]
The Tasman Global Access (TGA) submarine cable has been switched on, connecting New Zealand with Australia, thanks to a partnership between telecommunications carriers Telstra, Spark, and Vodafone. The $100 million 2,288km submarine cable, which extends from Ngarunui Beach in Raglan to Narrabeen Beach in Sydney, is made up of two fibre pairs with a total capacity of 20Tbps. Following construction, the cable was laid by Alcatel-Lucent Submarine […]
