Wednesday, July 15 2020 | ASIA TODAY INTERNATIONAL - Reporting the Business that Matters in Asia
HONG KONG - Because of a significant resurgence of Covid-19 cases in week ending July 12, and the reimposition by the Government of a number of social distancing restrictions on public health grounds, the Hong Kong Trade Development Council (HKTDC) has postponed the Hong Kong Book Fair along with a number of otsher events planned in July.
HONG KONG - The Hong Kong SAR Government has issued a statement accusing Australia of allowing what it terms a "political agenda" to "override legal co-operation in criminal matters" by suspending "the agreement on surrender of fugitive offenders".
"Obviously such unilateral action will not be helpful to the fight against international crime," the statement says.
BEIJING - China's Ministry of Water Resources (MWR) on Sunday raised its emergency response alert for flood control to Level II, the second-highest in the response system, as heavy downpours continued to lash vast stretches of the country.
The State newsagency, Xinhua, said that, since July 4, alert-triggering floods had been observed in 212 rivers nationwide, among which 19 topped previous water level records, according to the MWR.
BEIJING - Weibo, one of China's biggest social media outlets, has said it will start to block user links to all but a select number of websites within weeks "in an effort to fight fraud", according to TechNode, one of China's leading high-tech media groups.
Technode quoted Weibo as saying it made the decision because the free service is heavily abused by scammers, as well as pornography and gambling sites.
BANGKOK- Thailand's Cabinet this week approved a Bill amending the Civil and Commercial Code to allow a merger (Company A + Company B = Company A or Company B) as another method of business integration.
MELBOURNE --The Port of Melbourne today welcomed CMA CGM Ural, the largest container ship by maximum capacity to call at the port. The 299 metre-long vessel is one of six currently deployed on the South-East Asia - Australia trade route, known as the 'AAX1'.
KUALA LUMPUR -- The economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, combined with depressed oil prices and fiscal stimulus, will weaken the Malaysian Government's debt position for the next few years, according to Standard & Poor's, which is revising its outlook on Malaysia to negative. This reflects additional downside risk to the Government's fiscal metrics, owing to the weak global economic climate and heightened policy uncertainty, S&P says.
HONG KONG - S&P Global Ratings today affirmed its 'AA+' long-term and 'A-1+' short-term issuer credit ratings on Hong Kong., and said the outlook remains stable, reflecting the agency's expectation that Hong Kong's strong economic and financial metrics will allow the Government's creditworthiness to withstand fallout from prolonged social tensions and the COVID-19 pandemic over the next one to two years.
HONG KONG - The global finance group Natixis has updated its estimates of debt dynamics in China, finding that total debt, as a percentage of GDP, rose as much as 11 percentage points of GDP in the first quarter of 2020, to 258% of GDP from 247% at the end of 2019. Natixis says most of the increase came from the corporate sector (excluding LGFVs), which resulted in a 7% jump to 129% in corporate debt as a percentage of GDP in Q1 2020.
SEOUL--South Korea's National Security Council held an emergency meeting hours after North Korea demolished an inter-Korean liaison office in the border city of Gaeseong. The council expressed "strong regret" over the North's unilateral destruction of the building, which was established with the signing of the 2018 Panmunjom Declaration.
SEOUL- South Korea has launched a national project to develop self-driving ships by 2025, powered by a smart autonomous system incorporating artificial intelligence (AI), the internet of things (IoT), big data and sensors.
HONG KONG - ANZ Bank has revised its 2020 GDP growth forecasts for Asia to reflect the intensity of the COVID-19 pandemic. The impact of COVID-19 on growth is starting to ease, ANZ says, but the ensuing recovery will be weak, despite an unusually large policy response.
"We expect the output gap to be negative at end-2021 and cannot rule out the possibility that trend growth will be reset at a lower level," ANZ says.
BEIJING - China's State newsagency, Xinhua, is quoting local authorities as saying the city of Beijing has so far built 21,086 5G base stations.
"The number of 5G users in the city has exceeded 3.1 million since the city officially kicked off 5G commercial use in 2019," Xinhua reports.
NEW DELHI - Global ratings agency Standard and Poors has affirmed India's 'BBB-/A-3' rating and says the outlook is stable. "While risks to India's long-term growth rate are rising, ongoing economic reforms, if executed well, should keep the country's growth rate ahead of peers, " S&P says.
BEIJING - China's imports fell more than expected in May. due to shrinking commodity imports and reduced trade flows from its major markets including EU and the US.
BEIJING -- China's Caixin media group is reporting that China's top banking regulator has issued assurances that Hong 's Kong's linked exchange-rate system is stable, and that the city's unique strength as an international financial center will not be weakened under Beijing's pending new national security law.