Trade
Imports
ASEAN trade beckons strict food safety measures

Rising income levels combined with an increase in cross-border trade in Southeast Asia has meant many countries in the region have had to begin strengthening food safety measures in order to meet growing consumer awareness. Under new food safety laws revised in July, the maximum punishment for food poisoning and ...
Vietnam seeks deepened ties with Brunei, Singapore

The upcoming State visits to Brunei and Singapore by President Tran Dai Quang aim to realise the foreign policy set forth by the 12th Party Congress and deepen relations with the two ASEAN member countries. Vietnam and Brunei established diplomatic ties on February 29, 1992. Since ...
China, ASEAN ‘need fast RCEP deal’

ASEAN’s trade relationship with China has reached a crucial turning point with the latest 2015 figures showing a 3-per-cent contraction, making it necessary to quickly conclude the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership agreement, according to a top Chinese think-tank. Zhang Yuyan, director of the Institute of World ...
ASEAN community meets in Dubai for future cooperation

The heads of missions of five ASEAN countries based in Dubai met in a networking event for the first time with leaders of their communities on August 22 to discuss future areas of collaboration and cooperation from the Middle East to their home countries. ASEAN was established ...
Southeast Asian countries’ growth to accelerate commodities rebound
China may be slowing, but a commodities rebound is under way and the world’s biggest miner knows where the next growth story is building — emerging economies in Southeast Asia.Combined gross domestic product in the ASEAN-5 nations — Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam ...
Shrimp grown in tanks make a splash, coming to a market near you

Americans love shrimp. We import about $5 billion worth of it from all over the globe, including from India, Thailand and Indonesia. But over the past year, we’ve learned more about the downsides of global shrimp production. The Associated Press uncovered slave labor in Southeast Asia, ...
Targeted strategies to boost exports being devised
The ministry’s International Trade Promotion Department will allocate the largest proportion of its trade-promotion budget for ASEAN markets, focusing on Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam. Malee Choklumlerd, director-general of the department, said it had been allocated a budget of Bt2 billion for the upcoming fiscal year, and ...
Why China’s plan to build a new silk road runs through Singapore

As the son of a man who journeyed from China to Singapore and founded a shipping business a half century ago, Teo Siong Seng sees his life as one immersed in the ancient trading networks of Asia. So the managing director of the Pacific International Lines Group ...
Sihanoukville port IPO rescheduled

The state operator of Sihanoukville’s deep-sea port has pushed back the expected date of its initial public offering to February 2017 in order to give the company more time to resolve land titling and taxation issues, a company official said on August 11. Ty Sakun, ...
Indian pills fuel drug boom in Myanmar
Five years ago, when cold pills first trickled across Myanmar’s untamed border with India, many local officials were baffled. Where was this medicine going, and why were smugglers so interested in it? Today, the cross-border trickle has become a torrent and everyone knows why the Indian-made ...