Trade

Thailand has clinched several deals to sell 765,000 tonnes of rice worth US$313 million to African countries. Commerce Minister Chatchai Sarikulya said during a five-day visit to South Africa that Thai exporters had signed 11 memorandums of understanding with African importers for the rice, worth 10.9 ...

A government ban, fines and the confiscation of goods has not stopped Chinese opportunists seeking to make a quick buck in Laos stone, reports the Shanghai-based China Business News. The popularity of Laos stone has investors betting that it could step up next to the greats ...

With the Obama administration pushing to conclude a vast Asian trade pact, the State Department on 27 July upgraded its assessment of Malaysia’s efforts to combat human trafficking, a move that could ease the country’s inclusion in the trade deal. Though the human trafficking report from the State ...

Vietnam’s Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development has said resumed permission for importing three Australian fruits including oranges, tangerines and grapes is expected to be given on 1 August. Keep reading ...

At a time when little is going right for Southeast Asia’s second-largest economy, Thailand is being hit hard by weak global demand for its major agricultural exports. Among the people most affected are the country’s rubber producers, suffering depressed prices since January 2014. After surging to more ...

Vietnam’s economic growth has continued to firm up in 2015 with gross domestic product forecast to expand 6.3 per cent in the first half of this year, according to the World Bank’s latest Taking Stock report. The bank’s semi-annual review of Vietnam’s economic performance said the ...

Burma’s export volume rose slightly in the first quarter of the 2015-16 fiscal year compared with the same period last year, but failed to keep pace with increasing imports in an indication that the weakening of the country’s currency in recent months has failed to ...

The arrest of several Chinese buyers for tax evasion and the weakening Chinese economy is hurting trade with Myanmar’s largest rice export market, said U Soe Tun, vice chair of the Myanmar Rice Federation. China is the destination for over half of Myanmar’s rice exports. This ...

Cambodia has moved to formalise its ill-regulated derivatives sector by launching a key regulation earlier this month. On July 2, the Securities and Exchange Commission of Cambodia (SECC) approved the prakas on the “Licensing and Supervision of Derivative Trading”. The prakas regulates the sector by allowing individuals ...

China’s economic slowdown may widen Vietnam’s trade deficit as the Southeast Asian nation counts on its largest trading partner to buy commodities, according to a government official.   “It would hurt our exports to China, especially with agricultural products,” Nguyen Duc Kien, deputy head of the National ...