Student Loan Fund to deduct more from some debtors

By:
On:
In: South-East Asia

Officials make it clear that only those with late debt repayments can be deducted.

PUBLISHED: 10 Apr 2025 at 08: 30

NEWSPAPER SECTION: News

According to Nanthawan Wongkhachornjit, the manager of the fund, the Student Loan Fund ( SLF ) will begin deducting an additional 3, 000 baht per month from the salaries of borrowers who have overdue their payments.

After word of a notice from the Fund to companies about an additional 3, 000 baht per quarter went viral, she was responding to concerns among consumers. Despite making standard payment, some people questioned why they were subject to the extra exemption.

According to Ms. Nanthawan, the additional deduction will only apply to borrowers who have not paid their outstanding debts by July of each year, so the Fund will have to subtract the remaining amount from their wages starting in April.

She said that SLF mobile users may check the borrower’s actual overdue debt amount. They can likewise change the terms of their money through the bank’s website.

Borrowers can stretch the timeframe for their repayments by up to 15 years, she continued.

Continue Reading

SLF to deduct more from debtors

By:
On:
In: South-East Asia

SLF subtract more money from the lenders.

PUBLISHED: 10 Apr 2025 at 03: 30

NEWSPAPER SECTION: News

According to Nanthawan Wongkhachornjit, the manager of the fund, the Student Loan Fund ( SLF ) will begin deducting an additional 3, 000 baht per month from borrowers whose loans are overdue.

The explanation comes in response to concerns among SLF loans after a letter that mentions an additional 3, 000 ringgit per quarter from the SLF to companies has gone viral. Many people wonder why they are subject to the more deduction despite making regular repayments.

According to Ms. Nanthawan, the SLF may withdraw the remaining balance from their wages starting in April because it only applies to debtors who have failed to live their overdue bill by July of each year.

Borrowers can use the SLF smart program to find out the exact amount of their late debt, she said. They may even change how much of their loans are available through website. studentloan. or. ph.

Consumers can have their charges charges reduced by up to 15 years after the start of their payment period.

Continue Reading

Troubled automaker Nissan has a new CEO – but can he do the job? – Asia Times

By:
On:
In: Asia, Business

Nissan faces a challenging road ahead, including questions about whether its mostly non-automotive board of directors is even remotely qualified to lead the disturbed automaker and whether its new CEO, Ivan Espinosa, is capable of leading the troubled automaker.

As things stand now, a week after the 46-year-old professional actually replaced Makoto Uchida, much is still known about Espinosa other than that he is Mexican-born, one of the youngest CEOs in Chinese vehicle business background, the second-youngest stranger, and worked in product preparing for most of his career at Nissan including the last eight years in Japan.

He appeared friendly and talented in a late-March meeting with Automotive News, but his begin didn’t much help. To job, he uses a Z-car. He’s married with two children, plays tennis and golf, but gave little indication about what his duties were as chief preparing officer, a position he held between April 2024 and April 2025, or why Nissan’s post-Carlos Ghosn restructuring program, Nissan NEXT, failed but significantly.

When Uchida made the announcement in May 2000, he had fiscal 2023 goals for a 5 % operating profit margin, a 6 % global market share, and 4.3 million in global revenue.

Additionally, he established a million electrical and electric vehicle revenue goal.

One year after the program ended, Nissan’s operating&nbsp, profit margin through December had fallen to 0.5 %. Global market share decreased below 4 %. In historical terms, the global market share for Carlos Ghos n’s final full year at Nissan stood at 6.2 % in fiscal 2017.

While Nissan succeeded in cutting manufacturing capability by to 5.4 million products, it failed drastically, by more than a million units, to reach its sales goal. Utilization at the Fiscal plant in 2024 was 60 %, not the goal’s goal of 80 %.

Only one of Nissan’s 15 major crops was operating at 80 % of capacity in governmental 2023, the last year of the Nissan NEXT program, according to former Tokyo scientist Koji Endo.

It is not clear what part Espinosa played in the unsuccessful restructuring program — Ashwani Gupta, Nissan’s past COO, served equally as general planning officer — but his titles since 2017 as a top executive in Nissan’s international product strategy and product planning division indicate that he would have been involved.

One former Nissan executive who has followed Espinosa’s career said,” It’s not clear whether he’s been blocked by others in the organization.” However, it is obvious that he failed to deliver.

Gupta would be caught up in a scandal reportedly involving a female employee and forced to resign in June 2023.

Other important members of the restructuring team are being fired. Asako Hoshino, Kunio Nakaguro, and Hideyuki Sakamoto are just a few of them. Hoshino was Nissan’s chief brand and customer officer, a position she has held since April 2020. Sakamoto was the chief monozukuri ( roughly, manufacturing and supply chain ), and Nagoro was the chief technology officer. &nbsp,

Nakaguro and Sakamoto joined the executive committee with Hoshino in June 2019. In charge of manufacturing and supply chain management, Sakamoto was elevated in 2020 to the board.

People who know the trio have been extremely critical of their performance, despite the automaker’s insistence that they are to blame for Nissan’s failures in the marketplace.

Uchida and Sakamoto will formally leave the board at the automaker’s June general shareholders meeting on June 20 to be replaced by Espinosa and some still-to-be-disclosed others.

Who might take Sakamoto’s place on Nissan’s board is still a mystery. According to rumors, Guillaume Cartier, Nissan’s newly appointed chief performance officer, will be one of those chosen to fill a board vacancy. Others, given Nissan’s weak performance globally, will be more difficult to choose.

Can the new team recover from five years of lost time?

Carlos Ghosn. Photo: ABC News

Nissan’s global market share for fiscal 2018 was 6.0 % on yearly sales of 5.5 million units, the year Carlos Ghosn was removed from management and imprisoned in November.

Since then, sales have decreased to 3.2 million and market share has fallen to less than 4 %, with the US, China, and Europe all experiencing significant volume and share losses.

” They’ve had five to six years to fix the problem”, said Chris Richter, managing director in Tokyo at CLSA.

” They can’t say that Carlos Ghosn is to blame for the problems we have today. Too long has passed.

Meanwhile, the three largest credit rating agencies — Fitch, Moody’s and S&amp, P Global — have downgraded Nissan’s credit rating to junk status. &nbsp,

S&P Global Ratings dropped its long-term credit rating for Nissan to’BB’ on March 7, falling short of every major automaker outside of China, including Toyota, Honda, Mitsubishi Motors, Hyundai, Kia, General Motors, Ford, Stellantis, BMW, Mercedes, Volkswagen, and Renault. Toyota received an A rating, Honda, Hyundai and Kia A-, Mitsubishi Motors and Renault BB .

” Prospects for a quick improvement in Nissan’s automotive business are now unknown,” S&amp, P Global, said. Our assessment of the company’s creditworthiness may continue to decline as a challenging operating environment prevents the company’s profitability improvement and free cash flow losses.

” We expect it will take about two years before Nissan can reap the full cost-savings from restructuring. From fiscal 2025 to fiscal 2026, the 400 billion yen cost reduction measures will be in effect. In fiscal 2026, some plant closures and job cuts will be made.

S&amp, P Global&nbsp, expects the competitive environment to remain challenging, costs from inflation to rise. It anticipates pressure on profitability as EV sales rise. Even if cost reduction initiatives are carried out as planned, we do not anticipate the company’s EBITDA margin to increase to 6 % in the next one to two years.

The forecast did not include the impact of US tariffs on Nissan’s Mexican holdings, where the automaker operates two vehicle plants and a large transmission plant.

It did account for the additional$ 5 billion in debt due in 2026.

Could Honda still be a business partner? Not likely, according to our sources. Although discussions between the two automakers were widely reported in December, there was never a feasible way to implement a merger without Nissan shutting down factories and production lines. Their model lineups are overly duplicative, in my opinion. &nbsp,

With only two auto executives on its 12-member board, Nissan has had to have two auto executives. There is also a large gap between the management groups ‘ compositions. Six Honda employees work for Honda on average for 37 years. One of Honda’s outside directors is a former public prosecutor. &nbsp,

They might be able to work together on electric cars, where both are trailing behind industry rivals. Or there might be small projects such as joint truck production in Mississippi and Alabama, where both have assembly plants.

Integrating their global operations is a non-starter because both are virtual non-players in Europe and both are experiencing sales declines in China over the past five years.

We are unsure what a merger of Honda and Nissan would accomplish because both companies appear to be sinking ships, warns Richter. We do not see scale as the solution to their problems in China.”

Given the steep decline in both manufacturers ‘ sales volumes, we wonder if Honda and Nissan might be among the first to consider folding the company in the towel.

On paper, Nissan’s new management team appears to be more effective than it was in the past. Then again, none of them are Carlos Ghosn. None, in fact, have had success in any marketplace. &nbsp,

Christian Meunier, &nbsp, who&nbsp, quit Nissan in April 2019 and was part of the brain drain leaving Nissan after Ghos n’s ouster, joined Jeep as president and CEO of the brand in May 2019. Jeep sales in the US had dropped 30 % by the time he left, in October 2023. In 2024, they dropped another 9 %.

Meunier rejoined Nissan as chairperson of the management committee for the Americas in January. If US President Donald Trump does not reverse his decision to impose 25 % tariffs on Mexican and other foreign-built vehicles, including Japanese ones, there can be no benefit to the automaker’s business. &nbsp,

Of Nissan’s fiscal 2024 sales total in the US, more than 40 % – an estimated 413, 500 units– were imports, two-thirds from Mexico. Sentras, Versas, and Kicks were the most common compact and subcompact vehicles made in Mexico. They will require a lot of time and money to move them to the US.

Nissan earlier had announced plans to cut 9, 000 jobs from its global workforce, including 2, 000 in the US. According to media reports, those plans have now been put off. Additionally, it is unclear how tariffs might affect the timing of Nissan’s new and updated model lineup, which was unveiled in late March.

Jérémie Papin, who became the executive committee’s chief financial officer, was in charge of the US market crash in terms of sales and market share. Nissan’s share in the North American market was 6.9 %, and in the US market, 6.2 %, when Papin was appointed president of Nissan North America Inc. and chairperson of the management committee for the Americas. &nbsp,

Stephen Ma, who will lead Nissan’s China unit, previously held the position of CFO at Dongfeng Motor Corporation, but has little marketing or sales experience.

And Espinosa does not have any practical experience, according to his critics. And there is no one on Nissan’s board who has. &nbsp,

Espinosa wasn’t chosen to succeed Uchida, according to Shukan Diamond, a weekly business magazine, and his nomination was split by the Nissan’s nomination panel.

METI Car Company: Is Nissan’s non-automotive board up to the task?

Nissan might not have any solutions if not for an outside automaker with big pockets that steps in and takes control. This is simpler to say than to do, and it is thought to be one of the reasons Honda backed out of a proposed merger in February.

Talks with Foxconn, reportedly another potential partner, should only be taken seriously if Nissan is making a full-throated move into electric vehicles ( it can’t ) or if it wants to bring back Jun Seki in some capacity. &nbsp,

On November 1, 2019, Nissan announced that Makoto Uchida would lead the company, and Ashwani Gupta would become its CEO. The automaker also named Seki as its deputy COO. Seki left Nissan in December as the odd man out in the post-Carlos Ghosn board restructuring. He is currently 64 years old and head of Hon Hai Technology Group, a Taiwanese electronics company.

There is only one major media article about Nissan’s board, which voted unanimously to promote Uchida in October 2019 and then, with many of the same members, voted unanimously to elevate Espinosa, a largely untested executive, in March of this year, in spite of all the reporting about Uchida’s firing and Ivan Espinosa’s hiring. &nbsp,

If the article in Shukan Diamond is accurate, Nissan’s board is split on how to proceed, including whether to try to form a Honda subsidiary. Yasushi Kimura, a retired executive in the energy sector, is one of at least three directors who appear willing to take the action.

Roger Schreffler is a veteran Japan automotive writer and a former president of the Foreign Correspondents ‘ Club of Japan.

Continue Reading

Big question: Can China or the US endure greater trade war pain? – Asia Times

By:
On:
In: Asia

China continues to fight back against US tariffs, challenging the US to start a complete trade war that was stagnate both of its economies. Which country may experience greater pain, in your opinion?

Contrary to the US, China does not face elections from the president or completely property markets. This enables Beijing to endure months or years of constant pressure, making socioeconomic difficulties the result of American hostility.

In contrast, President Donald Trump’s guidelines could receive probable local support.

China is making a strategic move to protect itself, putting a bet on the US’s unpreparedness for a serious business issue that threatens international commerce. Beijing anticipates that America will struggle to deal with a potential business collapse, rising prices, and recession, which will weaken Trump’s most important technique against China, which is financial decoupling.

The Taiwanese economy is” an sea, not a lake,” according to President Xi Jinping. Premier Li Qiang also asserted that China is prepared to weather the trade war and won’t fall prey to US taxes during a conference with EU President Ursula von der Leyen.

China has been working on a subtle plan B for years that resembles North Korea’s self-sufficiency model. Stopping imports of US soybeans or maize, which are important creature supply, is a part of this strategy, which includes demonstrating willingness to avoid these commodities, at least partially, that some US strategists deemed crucial for China.

complicated web

Additionally, the political landscape is complex. Russia’s involvement in the Ukraine conflict is reportedly being strained by China’s sending of individuals, which could complicate any possible partnerships between President Vladimir Putin and the US.

Because its soldiers haven’t seen combat in 45 years, China’s role in Ukraine gives them valuable combat experience.

Because of political efforts, these tough decisions come with a variety of options. Trump could benefit from an Iranian nuclear deal, which would give him a diplomatic advantage, though one that might strain his ties with Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, who might reject any deal with Tehran.

China presents a défendable place on a global scale. Although tariffs are a response to the country’s trade surplus, Beijing has taken the lead in terms of international perceptions as a result of the US’s extreme tariff policies, which have changed that perception.

Given Putin’s reticence for peace, what are the crucial issues still to be resolved: Is the US willing to support Ukraine? Does China be resisted by an inflationary crisis? Does the US have a long-term plan for navigating this complex geopolitical landscape, which includes both economic and military conflicts, aside from business?

Without preparation, the US could suffer possible disgrace and unexpected consequences, necessitating a prompt reassessment of its position on China.

A chaotic outcome is good if Trump is never prepared. If he is, the ground will be set for a protracted and difficult deal cold war.

China has unwavering policies, but is the West prepared? What course of action does the US intend to take? Was Trump prepared for a shootout, simply carrying a carrot?

Home patterns

This political chess match features important home dynamics. My 30- to 40-year profession, if I had been an assistant to Xi Jinping, may have taught me two points: to defend my place and to second-guess my better.

Also, the group method essentially favors intellectual bias: supporting too far left with a traditional Leninist and anti-American strategy results in few or no penalties.

Leaning too far to the right, with democratic and pro-American perspectives, on the other hand, has risks because it conflicts with the party’s intellectual adversary, the Western capitalist system.

What guidance may I give the Chinese president regarding how to deal with a near-confrontation with the US? Suggesting gentle, right-leaning alternatives carries many risks. In contrast, putting forth difficult, left-leaning solutions may offer a number of advantages.

If my right-leaning plan were to be put to the test, it would be deemed a failure because it posed a threat to my job and was later adopted. In contrast, a left-leaning proposal could also show strength and tenacity for the nation if it were to fail.

An assistant is more likely to recommend robust measures and left-leaning suggestions in these circumstances as opposed to soft ones.

Additionally, if I were in the lower echelons and my communist guidance was successful, I may say credit. If it failed and Xi was in trouble as a result of internal criticism, it does offer the chance to reshape power dynamics.

Mafia economy

Trump has been accused of using a “mob manager” strategy in world markets, according to Gideon Rachman, according to Gideon Rachman. Trump, a bourgeois, was elected with the aid of tycoons who paraded at his opening, in contrast to the crowd manager, who lacks an unruly Congress, an independent press, an independent judiciary, and votes.

The royal mafia struggled to reintegrate into a bourgeois completely market system. Its main strategy involves dividing the place, levying taxes on firms, and imposing royal rules on a market-based program. When a business expands, place and taxes does become burdens rather than producing substantial profits. Capitalists are often tempted to cut corners, part the business, and become aristocratic lords, but capitalism works better than feudalism.

America’s problem lies in having much held the reins of the capitalist system and been in charge of all financial activities. Without adequate tenacity and perseverance in an attempt to cut corners and reform the market, one could lose widespread power and have it transferred to another fingers, like China’s.

As an alternative to SWIFT, China recently introduced a new economic transfer system with nations in Southeast Asia and the Middle East. Re-industrialization and managing loan are the genuine problems facing America. Although some taxes does have a purpose, a general requirement that nations negotiate with the US is misplaced because businesses operate autonomously of any bourgeois world’s power.

The strength of Wall Street is good for the US unless a would-be expert misinterprets the industry. The US has the authority to impose a significant financial and commercial reform, but it also needs a strategy to avoid going through discomfort for a while. Without it, we might be in the dark when the ancient order is no longer in effect but the novel is also possible.

Francesco Sisci, an Italian researcher and political commentator with over 30 years of practice in China and Asia, is the director of the Appia Institute, which was the source of this article’s original publication. With agreement, it can be republished.

Continue Reading

Neither US nor China ready for once-in-a-lifetime trade war – Asia Times

By:
On:
In: Asia

Donald Trump’s trade war with China is producing one of the most tantalizing split screens in the history of global economics.

On one, the US president is going full bore against China and threatening a 104% tariff. This includes Vice President JD Vance dismissing the 1.4 billion-plus people generating the gross domestic product of Asia’s biggest economy as “Chinese peasants.”

On the other is Trump’s apparent willingness to talk to Japan, South Korea, Vietnam and other nations cowering in fear over reciprocal tariffs.

Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba rushed key economic ministers, including Finance Minister Katsunobu Kato, to Washington to try to talk Trump out of tariffs sure to deal a huge blow to Japan’s export-heavy economy. 

As US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told Fox News, “Japan is a very important military ally. They’re a very important economic ally, and the US has a lot of history with them. So I would expect that Japan is going to get priority just because they came forward very quickly.”

South Korea is doing the same. On Tuesday, Korea’s acting President Han Duck-soo said he and Trump had a “great call” about tariffs — Trump slapped a 25% tax on Seoul — and potential deals in energy and shipbuilding.

“We have the confines and probability of a great deal for both countries,” Han says. On social media, Trump said, “things are looking good.”

Trouble is, these two split-screen dramas will collide in short order as the “Tariff Man” attempts to knock China, the center of Asian trade, off its economic axis.

At least one thing seems certain: the odds of a giant US-China “grand bargain” trade deal are falling even faster than Trump’s approval rating.

Trump threatening to add another 50% to China’s already crushing 54% tariff level is the last thing Asia needs.

So far, Chinese leader Xi Jinping is pushing back against the Trumpian onslaught. Along with responding in kind to Trump adding a 34% tariff to the earlier 20% — imposing a 34% tax on US goods — Xi is signaling there will be no backing down.

Xi’s China is calling Trump’s bluff in ways Bessent and Trade Representative Jamieson Green clearly didn’t expect. And upping the odds that a clash of the titans in Washington and Beijing might lay waste to the global financial system.

Here, the US should be careful about what it wishes for. Neither nation is as ready for this economic brawl as their respective policymakers seem to project.

A Fitch Ratings downgrade last week reminded investors that China isn’t in a state-of-the-art financial position. Fitch downgraded China’s sovereign rating to ‘A’ from ‘A+’ amid concerns about shaky public finances.

“The downgrade reflects our expectations of a continued weakening of China’s public finances and a rapidly rising public debt trajectory during the country’s economic transition,” says Fitch analyst Jeremy Zook.

Zook adds that “in our view, sustained fiscal stimulus will be deployed to support growth, amid subdued domestic demand, rising tariffs and deflationary pressures. This support, along with a structural erosion in the revenue base, will likely keep fiscal deficits high.”

At the same time, Zook notes, “we expect the government debt/GDP to continue its sharp upward trend over the next few years, driven by these high deficits, ongoing crystallization of contingent liabilities and subdued nominal GDP growth.”

In other words, China has fiscal space to protect its 5% growth. But it’s not unlimited and deploying the stimulus “bazooka” yet again could come at a high cost in the long run.

The US, meanwhile, is carrying a US$36 trillion-plus national debt into this fight as recession talk heats up. Even worse is the self-inflicted nature of the US reckoning to come, one punctuated by a $10 trillion stock market loss so far.

As Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics, notes, it “feels like we’re being pushed into recession – it’s recession by design.”

Hedge fund manager Bill Ackman, meanwhile, warns of a self-inflicted “economic nuclear winter” in Trump’s America.

“By placing massive and disproportionate tariffs on our friends and our enemies alike and thereby launching a global economic war against the whole world at once, we’re in the process of destroying confidence in our country as a trading partner,” says the Trump-supporting billionaire founder of Pershing Square.

Ackman adds that “business is a confidence game. The president is losing the confidence of business leaders around the globe. The consequences for our country and the millions of our citizens who have supported the president — in particular low-income consumers who are already under a huge amount of economic stress — are going to be severely negative. This is not what we voted for.”

Larry Fink, head of BlackRock, the globe’s largest asset manager, notes that “most CEOs I talk to would say we are probably in a recession right now.”

Over the weekend, economists at Goldman Sachs assigned a 45% probability of the US falling into a formal recession within the year, up from 35% a week earlier.

Nobel economics prize laureate, Paul Krugman, observes that “Donald Trump burned it all down,” adding that “Trump isn’t really trying to accomplish economic goals. This should all be seen as a dominance display, intended to shock and awe people and make them grovel.”

Only China is not bending the knee, much to Trump’s surprise. The People’s Daily, the Communist Party’s official newspaper, reports that Beijing is no longer “clinging to illusions” of striking a giant trade deal with the US.

Ray Dalio, the billionaire founder of Bridgewater Associates, warned that investors are too narrowly fixated on tariffs and not paying enough attention to the bigger “once-in-a-lifetime” breakdown occurring in major monetary, political and geopolitical orders.

“It is obviously incongruous to have both large trade imbalances and large capital imbalances in a deglobalizing world in which the major players can’t trust that the other major players won’t cut them off from the items they need (which is an American worry) or pay them the money they are owed (which is a Chinese worry),” he wrote on X.

On Tuesday (April 8), China’s commerce ministry criticized the “blackmail nature of the US” trade war and vowed Beijing will “fight till the end.” It called Trump’s threat to layer another 50% tariff on China “a mistake on top of a mistake.”

Hong Kong’s leader John Lee calls Trump’s trade war “reckless” and representative of “ruthless behavior” that’s imperiling the city’s economy.

“The reckless imposition of tariffs affects many countries and regions around the world with huge tax rate increases and covering a wide range of goods, disrupting the world’s economic and trade order, bringing great risks and uncertainties to the world,” Lee says.

These provocations, he adds, have Hong Kong pivoting toward increasing trade with Southeast Asia and the Middle East.

All this has President Xi ramping up moves to bolster the domestic economy. The People’s Bank of China has been cautious about rate cuts this year amid concerns about yuan weakness.

The PBOC has latitude to ease amid weak pricing power in the $18 trillion economy. Especially with China suffering from deflationary forces and fending off rampant “Japanification” talk as China lowers its inflation target to 2% from 3% in 2024.

Fears of sending the yuan tumbling have dominated PBOC discussions. The central bank also wants to safeguard the progress Beijing has made in deleveraging the financial system in recent years. PBOC Governor Pan Gongsheng worries that cutting rates might incentivize bad lending and borrowing decisions.

At the same time, a weaker yuan might trigger defaults among property developers as it becomes more expensive to make bond payments on offshore debt. Already, global investors are keeping close tabs on liquidity problems at major Chinese developers.

Putting yuan internationalization in jeopardy is another concern. For nearly a decade now, Xi’s government has been working to increase the yuan’s use in trade and finance.

Beijing stepped up cooperation with the BRICS — Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa — and Global South nations to pivot away from the dollar-centric world order.

Pivoting back to the beggar-thy-neighbor policies of the past might alarm international funds and tarnish the yuan’s chances of securing global reserve currency status.

A weaker yuan might have Japan, South Korea and other top Asian economies believing they have a green light to weaken exchange rates, too.

That would not go unnoticed by the Trump White House, which is escalating the biggest trade war in world history. If the White House concludes Beijing is manipulating the exchange rate, Trump might target China with even bigger tariffs.

Japan also is in Trumpian harm’s way. Corporate Japan was already reeling over Trump’s 25% import tax on all foreign-made automobiles when he hit the nation with a 24% import tax.

Hence Ishiba dispatching a trade negotiation team to Washington to secure a lower levy or buy Japan some time. Korea, too.

For Seoul, “it’s clear that major export products such as automobiles will be hit hard, and exports to the US through production bases in Vietnam will also be hit hard,” says Park Sang-hyun, an economist at iM Securities.

Late last month, trade ministers for China, Japan and Korea met for the first high-level economic dialogue in five years. The theme: beefing up regional trade as Trump’s White House supersizes its tariffs regime.

The nations’ trade ministers pledged to “closely cooperate for a comprehensive and high-level” process to create a three-way free trade agreement centered on “regional and global trade.”

Trump tossing new tariffs at the global trading system has officials in Seoul and Tokyo so worried that they’re talking despite historical enmities. 

Ishiba’s Liberal Democratic Party is turning to Beijing as the US, once Japan’s most reliable partner, becomes wildly unpredictable. Ditto for Seoul, which has had a decidedly rocky relationship with the Xi era.

Yet Trump’s apparent determination to hit China Inc harder and harder will send shockwaves through Tokyo, Seoul and beyond. In Asia, the collateral damage zone is growing as we speak.

Follow William Pesek on X at @WilliamPesek

Continue Reading

How the East Coast Rail Link could boost Malaysia’s economy and connectivity – CNA

By:
On:
In: Asia

Progress, but at what cost? span.highlight]:bg-brand-red/80 mx-auto max-w-screen-sm px-4 [&>span.highlight]:rounded-sm [&>span.highlight]:box-decoration-clone [&>span.highlight]:px-1 [&>span.highlight]:py-0.5 [&>span.highlight]:text-white”> span.highlight]:bg-brand-red/80 mx-auto max-w-screen-sm px-4 [&>span.highlight]:rounded-sm [&>span.highlight]:box-decoration-clone [&>span.highlight]:px-1 [&>span.highlight]:py-0.5 [&>span.highlight]:text-white”> span.highlight]:bg-brand-red/80 mx-auto max-w-screen-sm px-4 [&>span.highlight]:rounded-sm [&>span.highlight]:box-decoration-clone [&>span.highlight]:px-1 [&>span.highlight]:py-0.5 [&>span.highlight]:text-white”> span.highlight]:bg-brand-red/80 mx-auto max-w-screen-sm px-4 [&>span.highlight]:rounded-sm [&>span.highlight]:box-decoration-clone [&>span.highlight]:px-1 [&>span.highlight]:py-0.5 [&>span.highlight]:text-white”> span.highlight]:bg-brand-red/80 mx-auto max-w-screen-sm px-4 [&>span.highlight]:rounded-sm [&>span.highlight]:box-decoration-clone [&>span.highlight]:px-1 [&>span.highlight]:py-0.5 [&>span.highlight]:text-white”>Continue Reading

China Power: White elephants or lifelines? Southeast Asia weighs Beijing’s investments and intentions

By:
On:
In: Asia

China has a better track record than the US for building system in the area, according to political scientist Oh Ei Sun, senior fellow at the Singapore Institute of International Affairs, and is therefore more likely to win people’s trust and goodwill.

” As most South Asian countries are still plagued by fiscal problems, they welcome any kind of investment and are not able to make their own decisions. They don’t have any cards to play, Oh said. &nbsp,

For instance, Indonesia is in discussions with China about expanding its high-speed rail system to join Jakarta and Surabaya. &nbsp,

With the exception of the Philippines,” Almost all the states in ASEAN will continue to pursue structural cooperation,” he added. &nbsp,

However, Oh maintained that the US is unlikely to invest in international projects with its recent protectionist stance under Trump in spite of Rubio’s latest remarks. This may cause more people in the area to “favorably” China’s development. &nbsp,

” Seattle in Southeast Asia ( will be more ) susceptible to high-tech from China because they hope their current economic conditions can be improved both quantitatively and subjectively,” he added.

Moreover, according to reports, China has switched to BRI leasing in favor of a more reasonable approach.

Compared to earlier years, it pledged 780 billion yuan ( US$ 106.6 billion ) in new funding for the Belt and Road Initiative, according to observers.

This signals a shift from expensive, enormous megaprojects like rail lines to” small yet intelligent” tasks like schools and hospitals, according to Grace Stanhope, a study connect with the Lowy Institute’s Indo-Pacific Development Centre. &nbsp, &nbsp,

They are using significantly less debts than they did before 2016,” she said. And then, she added, less Belt and Road jobs are being signed in Southeast Asia. &nbsp,

She continued, nevertheless, that Beijing will continue with the cash strategy for the region’s infrastructure, citing how plans for a Vietnam-China railway were completed in February. She also argued that the region’s infrastructure strategy is undoubtedly no dead in the water. &nbsp,

” The emphasis on infrastructure is unquestionably also present. So it’s not gone ahead, it’s not even dead, she said. &nbsp, &nbsp,

The Philippines will be a “laggard” if it does not employ China in the economic sphere according to sea concerns, according to political scientist Lucio Blanco Pitlo III, whose analysis includes the current tense relations with China that have affected equipment projects and negatively impacted fruit exports and hospitality. &nbsp,

The Philippines won’t be able to draw on China’s advantages, he said, not to mention the development of electric vehicles, tourism, natural technologies, offshore wind, solar, and infrastructure investment.

Catahum, the town main in Tagum, agrees. &nbsp,

He wants both places to put their differences away and returning to the table of negotiations for the infrastructure projects, even though he is frustrated that China has pulled funding for the Mindanao railroad and is perceived by Filipinos as the enemy in the sea debate. &nbsp,

We are Filipinos, and our attitudes are shared by our fellow countrymen. However, I believe that the only way to stop them is to combat them. At the negotiating table, they may talk about it,” Catahum said. &nbsp,

” We hope that these issues will be resolved by our rulers. Engage in conversation with China, he said. &nbsp,

Kiki Siregar provided further monitoring.

Continue Reading

Abhisit sees entertainment complexes as slippery slope

By:
On:
In: South-East Asia

Former prime minister inquires as to who will actually benefit and who will experience.

Abhisit: Fears gambling spike
Abhisit: Playing fears rise.

Abhisit Vejjajiva, a former prime minister, has criticized the act that calls for the construction of included leisure complexes that include gambling, citing concerns about the social and economic effects.

Before the draft bill was scheduled to be read in legislature, Mr. Abhisit spoke with the Bangkok Post. That was initially scheduled for today but was afterwards put off.

He issued a warning about the potential for a rise in gambling addiction as a result of growing cultural issues like crime and debts. His opinion was that promoting playing both online and in brick-and-mortar games was sending the wrong message to the general public.

He claimed that playing frequently adds to the overall economic issue by creating a lack of fiscal discipline and mounting debt.

A state that has already instituted a policy of giving out money without condition also ran the risk of enticing more people to gamble, according to Mr. Abhisit.

The bill, according to the government, may increase tourism and draw more people to man-made sights. However, Mr. Abhisit claimed that when the government made its policy speech to congress, it never made any explicit notice of casinos.

Rather, it used the term “integrated entertainment difficult” as a tactical move to conceal the real intention of establishing legal casinos because officials knew the majority of the general public would object, he said.

Any game may be excluded from any such complex, but the proposed law requires that it be included, according to Mr. Abhisit.

He claimed that the lack of games has not discouraged international visitors from visiting the nation so much.

Because there are no casinos in Thailand, he said,” I don’t think there are many international visitors who have chosen to stay there.”

He questioned how much money casinos had put into the business on other purchases and said it was improbable that they would become a great tourist magnet.

While gambling generate jobs and tax profits, they also carry risks, such as money laundering and international crime, which Thailand has already struggled to manage, according to Mr. Abhisit.

We recently stepped up our crackdown on call center gangs along the border ( with Myanmar and Cambodia ) and gambling websites. All of them “have some sort of network to casinos,” he claimed.

” I cannot see what the new document act may bring about.” I can only see the drawbacks, he said.

He even criticized the policy for skipping other crucial social issues, like focusing on rehabilitation or gambling prevention.

Additionally, he expressed worry over the lack of transparency with regard to the game costs.

He claimed that a government-appointed committee would have too little authority over zoning, tax collection, and licensing matters, which could lead to corruption and simply benefit a select few people.

Mr. Abhisit said he believes legalizing gambling may only make things worse despite the government’s says that it would reduce improper gambling.

There are signs that society may be a wonderful danger from online gambling, he said.

He cited the Singapore case, which is frequently used as a case study of successful blackjack management, saying that perhaps developed nations have experienced damaging social effects from gambling.

He warned that China, which has a strong anti-gambling policy among its members, was apologise for a visit to Thailand, which would have a significant impact on the country’s economy.

He also questioned the president’s sense of urgency in passing the act, citing the possibility that vested interests were to blame.

” I don’t really understand why this coverage seems so rushed in comparison to other problems,” I said.

When questioned about whether the probable bill would be passed and put into effect, he claimed the public’s opposition and scrutiny from the Senate and political parties could put it off.

” Yet the revised draft returned by the Council of State includes new requirements requiring public hearings and affect assessments. He claimed that these procedures may slow the passage of the bill while the current administration is in power.

The previous premier said that while coalition parties have certainly opposed the costs, they have never actively supported it.

He speculated that the decision might be to wait and see, depending on how the common reacts or what will be said during the first reading of the first reading political discussion.

Further adjustments are anticipated after that, he said, if or when the document costs is approved.

Mr. Abhisit claimed that a 30-year maximum on the licence’s duration, which is already set at 30 years, may help lessen any bad effects it might have on society, even if the draft bill is ultimately passed into law.

Continue Reading

Man who participated in illegal arrangement to convert money into cryptocurrency jailed

By:
On:
In: South-East Asia

SINGAPORE: A man who participated in an arrangement to convert money into cryptocurrency was sentenced to 19 months’ jail on Tuesday (Apr 8).

Huang Wei-Ru, 37, pleaded guilty to two counts of assisting another to retain benefits from criminal conduct and one count of unauthorised access to computer material.

Another three charges were taken into consideration for his sentencing. 

His co-accused, Yen Hsiao-Chuan, 42, faces four charges – two counts of assisting another to retain benefits from criminal conduct and two counts of unauthorised access to computer material. Yen’s case is ongoing.

WHAT HAPPENED 

The court heard that Huang and Yen had been friends with each other from around 2017.

Sometime in March 2024, while Yen was on a business trip in China, he met a person known to him as “Jiao Shui”.

Jiao Shui informed Yen that he had a lot of money in China, and that he required assistance to convert his money to cryptocurrency.

He offered Yen a commission of 5 per cent if he assisted him in the matter. 

As Yen was heavily in debt at the time, he agreed to do so.

Under the arrangement, Yen would collect various bank cards following instructions and travel to Singapore with them.

After arriving in Singapore, he would purchase gold using the bank cards and sell it to various individuals in exchange for cryptocurrency – United States Dollar Tether (USDT) – which would be credited into his cryptocurrency wallet.

He would retain 5 per cent of the cryptocurrency and transfer the remaining amount to Jiao Sui’s cryptocurrency wallet.

During one of their meetups, Yen told Huang about his arrangement with Jiao Shui and asked if Huang could travel to Singapore to carry out Jiao Shui’s instructions as he was unable to do so in May 2024. 

As Yen owed Huang money at the time, Huang agreed as he thought that Yen would repay his debt through the commission earned.

Yen then introduced Huang to Jiao Shui over WeChat and Telegram.

According to court documents, both Huang and Yen did not take steps to ascertain the identities or physical location of the lawful owners of the bank cards which Jiao Shui delivered to them, as well as the stored funds associated with the said bank cards.

Huang has also never met Jiao Shui in person, and his Telegram conversation logs with Jiao Shui were automatically deleted after one day.

HUANG’S ENTRIES TO SINGAPORE 

On May 4, 2024, at about 10pm, Huang entered Singapore with a bank card that Jiao Shui had arranged to be delivered to him by mail.

Around this time, Yen introduced Huang to a person named “Sheng Jie” and told him that Sheng Jie would be able to convert gold into USDT in Singapore.

Yen also added Huang to a Telegram chat group comprising Yen, Huang and Sheng Jie.

On May 6, 2024, Huang went to a Maxi Cash outlet in the Bedok area and purchased about S$50,000 worth of gold using the funds stored inside the bank card. 

He then contacted Sheng Jie to arrange for an exchange of gold to USDT.

About an hour later, an unknown person with the Telegram username “Jin” contacted Huang, requesting him to provide details of his location and that he would be coming in a red car to collect the gold from Huang.  

The exchange was done sometime after 9.11pm. Subsequently, an amount of USDT agreed between Jin and Huang was credited into Yen’s cryptocurrency wallet.

After deducting his commission and additional sums for his personal expenses, Yen then transferred the remaining USDT to Jiao Shui’s cryptocurrency wallet.

Huang left Singapore on May 7, 2024. Following Jiao Shui’s instructions, he also threw away the bank card. 

A week later, Huang returned to Singapore with another bank card delivered by Jiao Shui and purchased about S$250,000 worth of gold using the funds stored inside the card. 

Sheng Jie told Huang and Yen that he would transfer 157,667 USDT to Yen’s cryptocurrency wallet in exchange for the gold items. 

Huang handed over the gold he had purchased to Jin however, Sheng Jie did not transfer the cryptocurrency to Yen’s wallet and became uncontactable. 

Discovering that he had been cheated by Sheng Jie, Huang subsequently lodged a police report in Singapore. 

Huang left Singapore on May 16, 2024, and disposed of the bank card.  

According to court documents, Huang entered Singapore two more times in July 2024 to carry out the arrangement. 

He was also involved in an arrangement to convert scam money into cryptocurrency.

DETERRING MONEY LAUNDERING 

Given Singapore’s significant private banking and asset management sector, as well as its standing as a major international financial centre in the Asia-Pacific region, Deputy Public Prosecutor Darren Ang said there is a compelling need to deter money laundering offences.

“Money laundering is an indivisible part of international criminal activity and is detrimental to society. The unimpeded circulation of proceeds from crime will have a prejudicial effect on the fabric of society and the economy,” he said in his written submission.

Mr Ang sought an aggregate sentence of 30 to 36 months’ imprisonment, while defence lawyer Chooi Jing Yen sought an aggregate imprisonment sentence of not more than 10 months’ imprisonment. 

For assisting another to retain benefits from criminal conduct, Huang could have been fined up to S$50,000 and/or jailed up to three years.

Continue Reading