Chinese big spenders return to Hong Kong

More Chinese tourists have visited Hong Kong following the cancellation Monday of the quota system for cross-border travel and pre-departure Covid test requirements. A total of 273,000 people arrived in or departed from Hong Kong on Tuesday, compared with about 3,500 on the year-earlier day, according to the Immigration Department. The Tuesday number is about […]Continue Reading

Serious matter – but check out our great balloons!

On Monday, after the government in Beijing had expressed its displeasure over news that the US had shot a Chinese balloon out of the sky, some in China’s media took a different tack: boasting that the country produces affordable meteorological balloons of a world-class standard. Media said the concerned balloon was made by ChemChina’s Zhuzhou […]Continue Reading

Digital infrastructure propels new SE Asian Tigers

China’s exports to Southeast Asia jumped by 20% in 2022, despite a year-on-year decline in China’s total exports driven by a 19% drop in exports to the US and a 17% drop in exports to the European Union. Southeast Asia’s 700 million people stand at the cusp of an economic transformation comparable to the rise […]Continue Reading

Desperate Vietnamese draining social insurance accounts

At the end of 2022, there were reports of long queues of employees in Ho Chi Minh City who had been waiting since dawn at several local offices to claim lump sum payments from their social insurance premiums. Many Vietnamese workers view their social insurance premiums as a kind of savings mechanism and are inclined to seek early access […]Continue Reading

HK sells reopening with half a million free air tickets

Hong Kong’s government will give away 500,000 free air tickets to international travelers starting next month as part of a free-spending plan to promote Hong Kong tourism after the pandemic and as mainland China reopens from its strict “zero-Covid” policy. Most of the air tickets, bought by the Airport Authority in 2020, will be distributed […]Continue Reading

Fed slows rate hikes but signals more to come

To anyone wondering how high interest rates will go and when they will start coming down, the Federal Reserve has just provided an answer: “We still don’t know.” That’s the real meaning of the quarter-point interest rate increase the Fed announced Wednesday and the signals it sent in making the announcement. Financial markets read those […]Continue Reading

Sanctions starting to bite Huawei 4G chips sourcing

Telecommunication equipment maker Huawei Technologies will have to source 4G chips elsewhere to make its smartphones as it cannot purchase more processors from the United States. The Biden administration has stopped approving licenses for US companies to ship items to Huawei over national security concerns, Reuters reported. US officials have told Qualcomm Inc and Intel […]Continue Reading

Stress tests ahead for Vietnam’s post-Covid boom

People move past a clothing boutique selling locally made products in downtown Hanoi on October 29, 2014. A EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement promises to boost Vietnamese exports and growth. AFP / Hoang Dinh Nam

In 2022, the geopolitical tensions caused by the war in Ukraine, slowing growth in the Chinese economy and sharp rises in energy and food prices led to a significantly higher inflationary outlook globally. These factors all added to the risks confronting Vietnam as its economy recovered from its lengthy Covid-19 lockdowns. Communist Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu […]Continue Reading