Singapore’s second- biggest lender, OCBC, unveiled a S$ 1.4 billion ( US$ 1.04 billion ) offer on Friday ( May 10 ) to buy the remaining stake in insurer Great Eastern Holdings and delist the company. OCBC, Great Eastern’s biggest investor, said it would get the 11.56 per share stakeContinue Reading
Yoon Suk Yeol, president of South Korea for two years, is ringing in the vodka, but it’s not quite flowing.
Yoon’s government has no plans to address the stagnant wages and near-record-high household debt that are causing the Korean wo n’s inflation.
Yoon’s Korea has instead accepted the role of a Japan-like squat by allowing the central bank to spur growth and reduce risks.
According to KB Securities economist Gweon Heejin,” the fact that online exports are the main driver of growth with the largest contribution will remain constant as inflation continues to pressure households and their real purchasing power will remain insufficient.”
Yet it’s not Yoon’s second 730 time in strength that worry some of South Korea’s 51 million people. It’s the next 1, 095.
Yoon, who has been plagued by scandals, bickering, and plan paralysis, runs the risk of being remembered as the second government to promise significant socioeconomic change but to achieve much in 20 years.
As China captures more market share in Asia, each has given the impression of necessity. Seoul’s strong activities are rare, even if they are uncommon.
Yoon’s leadership is proving to be equally incompetent in terms of both short- and long-term issues. He has, for instance, been anxious to assist consumers in managing their own spending habits in the face of persistent price pressures. Otherwise, he’s prioritized public loan consolidation.
Yoon has n’t been particularly proactive about low-hanging fruit changes, such as pursuing initiatives to improve workplace gender equality, or providing detailed recommendations for reducing bureaucracy, loosing labour markets, and increasing efficiency.
But the actual problem is how Yoon, like his forebears, is shying apart from curbing the power of the household- owned companies, or chaebols, that tower over Asia’s third- biggest market.
Until he does, much of what Yoon may do on financial revamping is treating the symptoms of Korea’s problems, not the main causes.
Yoon’s first press conference on Thursday ( May 9 ) was held in an effort to resurrect his conservative government on the same day. It comes a few weeks after Yoon’s Citizens Power Party suffered a significant battle in legislative elections, which was a loud and piercing rebuke from the electorate.
For Yoon to “achieve much of its economic reform agenda in the remaining three years of its term,” according to Jeremy Zook, chairman of Asia-Pacific monarchs at Fitch Ratings.
According to Zook, sustained policy gridlock may limit the ability of structural changes to counteract the country’s medium-term development perspective because it reduces its upside potential.
That’s a bigger problem than meets the attention. It’s “among the highest of advanced economies worldwide as a reveal of GDP,” according to Zook, despite a slight decline in new rooms for Korean households.
At the same time, he adds, “elevated interest rates have pushed loan services prices higher, which has weakened the intake outlook”.
Seoul does n’t want it because “domestic demand is likely to remain subdued for much of this year, despite the first quarter GDP showing a positive surprise, as interest rates remain high,” Zook claims.
Higher loan service fees have slowed home use, according to the report. However, headwinds in the property market are likely to inhibit the expense outlook”, he adds.
Yoon’s reported effort to improve the outlook for investment is also unfavorable. In February, his Financial Services Commission unveiled a” Business Worth- Up Program” to nudge Korea Inc to improve efficiency, extend boardrooms and boost shareholder returns.
Yoon’s rapid drive to improve governance came the day after the Nikkei 225 Stock Average reached its highest level in 1989, despite the fact that he did not name-check Japan.
After ten years of attempts by former prime minister Shinzo Abe’s group to encourage CEOs to raise their capital profits and increase shareholder participation, Japan’s property rose.
Yoon’s wish to journey Tokyo’s accomplishments makes eminent sense as he takes a swing at ending the” Korea cheap” that’s plagued Seoul for years. However, just as Japan’s transformation efforts need troops, Yoon’s system lacks specifics or a discernable timetable.
” Given the similarity of Korea’s challenges to those faced by Japan, it is little shock” that the value- up prepare “was part of Yoon’s election pitch to voters]that ] borrows strongly from Japan’s extended- running top- down corporate governance reform campaign”, says Udith Sikand, analyst at Gavekal Research.
Yet, Sikand adds,” the problem is that, like Japan’s initial set of reforms”, it “lacks teeth. The majority of the proposed changes are voluntary and run the risk of becoming box-ticking exercises. Nearly ten years after the start of Abenomics, Japanese policymakers began using more coercive tactics to persuade resolute corporate managers to change their ways.
Of course, Sikand cautions that “hope springs eternal” that Korean policymakers will not have to wait as long as their Japanese counterparts do, because sticking a stick with dangling carrots is best when done simultaneously.
For instance, 2025 Japanese companies that do n’t make announcements to raise their valuations could face delisting.
According to Sikand,” Korea’s equities would enter the kind of bull market that has seen Japan’s Topix rise by 280 % in local currency terms since late 2012,” even if it were to push through effective corporate governance reforms in the near future. Because of its deeper roots than the theme of corporate governance, Japan’s stock market rally is notable.
The yen’s weakness also contributed to Japanese companies becoming more competitive with their global competitors. Meanwhile, Japan’s exit from deflation signals an end to the private sector’s deleveraging pressure.
Plus, monetary policy is set to remain accommodative, despite the Bank of Japan’s exit from negative interest rates and yield curve control.
Can Yoon’s economy fare better? The payoff could be significant. If we assume that the deep-value sectors of Korea lose at least 25 % of their value, HSBC analysts wrote in a client note.
All of this places the pressure on Yoon to increase domestic demand and advance Korea’s competitiveness. With three years left in his term, Yoon’s party appears to be a lame duck due to the shocking defeat they suffered in the parliamentary election.
It will make it even more difficult for his party to pass policies to level the playing field in order to lessen the chaebols ‘ influence.
Over the last two decades, a succession of governments pledged to wrestle power away from Samsung, Daewoo, Hyundai, LG, Lotte, SK and other corporate behemoths.
For young entrepreneurs starting new businesses to have the economic juice to create new, well-paying jobs, it is crucial to reduce their economic stranglehold.
Korea does indeed have a vibrant startup scene. Chaebols can purchase, demolish, or marginalize any new business that they perceive to be a budding threat due to the lack of antitrust enforcement.
Will Yoon’s administration be the most recent to put forth the necessary efforts to remake Korea in response to China‘s resurgence?
What’s needed are bold and take action to reduce red tape, promote innovation and productivity, phase out seniority-based promotions and pay scales, empower women, and lower family conglomerates by a few pegs.
Top-down Korea can find its niche in the new Chinese era only by developing more economic energy from the ground up.
If Yoon is going to increase competitiveness, he’ll need to display a level of gumption and independence he has n’t shown thus far.
Unsurprisingly, if Yoon’s team increases their pace, the corporate reform campaign’s positive stock market momentum could “temporarily weaken for the next several months and only become viable again” in the second half of this year, according to Citigroup strategist Jinwook Kim.
In order to boost domestic demand, the first order of business is to increase domestic demand. Exports accounted for the country’s 1.3 % growth rate in the January-March quarter, which was the fastest rate in more than two years.
According to economist Kelvin Lam of Pantheon Macroeconomics, “part of the reason is that the economic recovery has remained remarkably strong even with stringent interest rate restrictions,”
Dave Chia, economist at Moody’s Analytics, adds that “export growth will likely remain the main driver of growth this quarter amid the strong demand for semiconductors. The main force behind growth is likely to be export growth.
This engine could sputter, though, as Chinese demand disappoints, US bond yields stay high for longer than expected, Japan grows 0.5 % at the most and Europe walks in place. In the months to come, global inflation will overshadow forecasts in the same way.
The solution is to stifle a country’s economic recovery that has avoided it for more than two decades. If Yoon’s is the administration to do it, there’s not a second to waste.
Follow William Pesek on X at @WilliamPesek ,
Following a routine of geographical divergence that began four years ago, China’s imports in April increased toward the Global South while shrinking in established businesses.
Overall, exports rose 1.5 % in dollar terms and 5 % in terms of RMB. The increase in business with developing nations is one of the most notable aspects of China’s business performance in the first four weeks of 2024.
The Persian Gulf and North Africa experienced the most economic development.
China’s growing influence in Western Asia is undoubtedly a political income. China established itself as a negotiator in the most perilous conflict in the Muslim world by facilitating the restoration of diplomatic relations between Saudi Arabia and Iran in January 2023.
After Israel launched its Gaza activity in October, China has established itself as an antipode of American influence in the region.
Imports to Algeria, Qatar, Oman, Morocco, Iraq, Tunisia and Egypt all authorized season- on- time progress in excess of 25 %. The payments made from China by Algeria and Qatar more than doubled.
China’s major Asian and Latin American markets, including Vietnam, Singapore, Indonesia and Brazil, showed growth of about 20 %.
Imports to the US were straight year- on- time in April, by comparison, while exports to the European Union and Japan fell. The biggest reduction was in Chinese imports to Israel, down by 26 % yr- on- time.
The RMB’s loss versus the US dollar over the previous year accounts for the change in China’s dollar and Yuan export growth.
Following David P Goldman on X at @davidpgoldman
Traditional and labor-intensive industries, such as leather and textiles, you, according to analysts, be more effective at tackling employment than technology and services.
In Agra, the aboriginal leather industry is a vital source of employment. It accounts for 30 % of all Indian leather shoes.
Dawar Group, one of the biggest players, employs more than 1,500 people and sells its boots both domestically and internationally.
The firm said it has benefitted from the BJP government’s business- pleasant policies, which include streamlined processes to obtain permits, lower business taxes, and easier insolvency procedures.
However, it is difficult to generate substantial profits because of the labor-intensive sector’s high production costs.
Puran Dawar, the leader of Dawar Group, noted that India has a much higher investment cost than other nations.
” The world is getting it at 0 to 2 per cent. We are working at 8 to 10 per share, but modern development or scaling up … it becomes a little hard”, he said.
Those who have budgets and dream on a tight budget face yet greater difficulties. Mr Naval Kishore, who works in the Dawar stock, said plans like” Make in India” do no use to the poorest.
After working in the field for a long time, he claims to have failed numerous days in trying to launch his own business. The authorities had turned down his mortgage application, claiming that he needed to start a small business to make money and was not creating any jobs.
Small companies in Agra’s well-known leather industry also expressed concern that they were largely cut off from the system because they had failed to gain from it.
However, economists predict that as these guidelines progress, folks like Mr. Naval and small business owners will start to benefit.
According to Dr. Rajat Kathuria, professor of Shiv Nadar University’s School of Humanities and Social Sciences,” this topic is related to how quickly the effects of industry kind of flow down all the way down to the remote areas that you’re seeing.”
” Trickle- along happens on its own, but happens pretty slowly”, he added.
BEIJING: China’s eastern metropolis of Hangzhou, among the country’s most thriving cities, on Thursday ( May 9 ) said it would lift all home purchase restrictions to shore up its real estate market, raising the prospect of other cities following suit. As of May 9, Hangzhou’s state will no longerContinue Reading
President Xi Jinping’s Continental tour, his second in five years, has shown how many EU member states, at least those in the base of Europe, need a real test.
Xi chose to travel to his most fervent Western allies, Serbia and Hungary, as well as his long-awaited neighbors beyond France.
Xi targeted President Emmanuel Macron with a significant amount of attention because he has just criticized Russia’s war in Ukraine and supports the EU’s proper independence and financial security plans. These final two efforts are primarily focused on China.
On the original, China’s established markets with Russia are at a record high. China has consistently abstained from UN resolutions that condemn Russia’s anger against Ukraine.
In addition to offering attractive cut-rate charges, China also offers economic and financial aid for Russia, such as its exports of Russian oil and gas. ( India has also consumed Russian energy that is approved by the West. )
Most important of all, China is officially Russia’s main external vendor of everything, from trucks to cards to drones.
As US Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned during his recent journey to Beijing, for Chinese imports run the risk of being actually classified as “dual-use” or plainly defined as weapons.
Macron warned Xi in a similar way. Just three Chinese firms that have been fined by the EU for supplying dual-use systems to Russia so far, compared to a much longer list of US companies.
When he met Xi at the Elysée, Macron met with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen by his side regarding EU financial security. She reportedly addressed every aspect of China’s economic model, not the least of which is its large industrial policy that has resulted in excessive capacity.
After years of fruitless attempts, EU officials appear to have changed their focus from facilitating market access for EU businesses to preventing overcapacity in China.
Xi’s response: The EU does not anticipate any pleasing measures because China simply has a sizable advantage in terms of comparative advantage brought on by innovations and economies of scale.  ,
Macron, however, believes that having Chinese EV producers produce in Europe, which Xi sounded to be in favor of on behalf of Taiwanese businesses, as do many different European leaders.
The agreement is certainly spruced up by the fact that the most recent Chinese EV plant in Spain will come with EU subsidies. However, where the value added will be generated ( since 40 % of EVs ‘ batteries are mostly produced in China ) will need to be questioned.
Notably, China can establish factories in the EU to avoid the anti-subvention duties that would apply to imported Taiwanese EVs if the EU’s continuing anti-subvention investigation so desires.  ,
Macron and Von der Leyen’s European tour will include even more telling stops in Serbia and Hungary during the next leg of Xi’s Western trip. More can be anticipated when Xi meets Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who is friendly with China, at the 25th anniversary of NATO’s attack of the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade.
There is no way Macron may have resolved his meeting or warned Xi, and China’s support for Russia will certainly proceed. Judging by Xi’s opinions, the same is true for what the Union sees as China’s business overcapacity.  ,
Macron’s fact check will likely come from Von der Leyen’s final” I told you so,” but for the time being, Xi’s journey has failed to quell the chorus of concerns about China’s risk.
The EU is in a distinct attach as it eagerly awaits the outcome of the November election between Joe Biden and Donald Trump.  ,
Bruegel’s senior research fellow and Natixis ‘ chief economist for Asia Pacific, Alicia Garca-Herrero.
Economists had a year ago confidently predicted multiple cuts beginning in the late 2023, but it did n’t look that way. There was even a possibility of crisis.
Hopes of such a downturn have considerably diminished. The central bank is concerned that the prices is getting more and more persistent, and that a protracted greenback has weakened Korea’s fought, its currency. This unfortunate outcome of strong economic conditions in America and a decline in the Fed’s willingness to make first cuts have a ripple effect across global markets.
” I would n’t call it starting from scratch”, Bank of Korea Governor Rhee Chang- yong told reporters recently. ” But the situation has changed”.
This financial boom has no benefit to President Yoon Suk Yeol, either. Voters in Yoon’s hard-right laws drew a disproportionate blow to his party in parliamentary elections next month. Social scientists declared his principle over with only a few years left in his name because of how devastating the bloc was.
Investor- pleasant policies championed by Yoon, like strong cuts in funds- gains tax and union busting, may struggle to find traction. The typical Korean has yet to go through a better time. On either side of the divide, a consumer sentiment score that measures the dominance of optimism or pessimism, has remained undetermined.
Not necessarily translating to joy on the streets for Samsung Electronics and Stat Hynix. Higher levels of debt and worries about injustice have accompanied the country’s progress in new decades- and inspired Netflix’s hit Squid Game and, a dozen year’s earlier, the Oscar- successful film Parasite.
When Chinese President Xi Jinping next visited Europe, the world economy is now a much different area than it was five years ago.
Since 2019, a pandemic wreaked havoc, Joe Biden was sworn in as US president, Russia invaded Ukraine ( which Beijing tacitly backed ), German Chancellor Angela Merkel stepped aside, the US Federal Reserve carried out its most aggressive tightening cycle since the mid- 1990s and the European Union ( EU) is threatening new tariffs on Asia’s biggest economy’s exports.
With all of this, Xi has performed one of his most difficult balancing acts in his ten years in power. His swing through France, Serbia and Hungary comes as concerns about Beijing fueling Russia’s war machine collide with Xi’s need to tap Europe’s electric vehicle ( EV ) market, convince the West that Chinese “overcapacity” concerns are overdone and that China’s property crisis wo n’t be the cause of the next global financial crisis.
All of this while avoiding falling into a wider trade dispute with a crucial economic union due to China’s post-Covid recovery’s producing boom.
But there has been a significant change over the past five decades. When Xi last visited, China’s gross domestic product ( GDP ) was roughly the same size as the EU in US dollar terms. Today, it’s about 15 % bigger.
” The cyclical setting of Europe and China items to the business balance turning in China’s prefer”, says Cedric Gemehl, scientist at Gavekal Dragonomics.
At the same time, nevertheless, EU place demand is showing signs of recovery, which could be a benefit for China- made merchandise purchases.
The eu economy ultimately experienced some significant development in the first quarter of 2024, according to ING Bank economist Bert Colijn, following a long period of stagnation since the power crisis first started in the second quarter of 2022. A more robust power source and a significantly lower cost of ownership, which in turn lower inflation, make up the economy. Pay growth, in turn, has accelerated to make up for lost buying energy, which is now benefiting consumers”.
The EU has the upper hand, according to some economists, as China is under more US force, including restrictions on investments in island companies.
One great disclaimer: the EU’s 27 people are all over the place on China relationships. Some people complain about Beijing supporting Russia’s military business, people about China’s subsidies for EVs and clean energy industries, and still others about human rights concerns. All of the above are irritable to some.
It’s no accident that Xi’s timetable begins in France. Xi met with French President Emmanuel Macron, who may appear to be a fellow traveller, three days after German Chancellor Olaf Scholz made a trip to China.
Macron’s need for Europe not to become a “vassal position” of the US makes him Xi’s best guess for cajoling the legislation course in Brussels. A significant overlap in the Venn diagram for Beijing and Paris is the argument that Macron made frequently and first for” proper freedom” from Biden’s Washington.
But challenges abound. One is Macron’s desire to protect France’s economy from a wave of low island products and exports of EVs and other natural products, which Brussels claims are funded by “unfair” authorities subsidies.
Another: Xi’s attempts to downplay China’s support for Vladimir Putin’s exploits in Ukraine ( Macron has floated the possibility of a French deployment there ).
” Xi will use his day with Macron to downplay China’s continued support for Putin’s war machine”, said Matt Geraci, an associate producer at the Atlantic Council’s Global China Hub.
Macron also is n’t thrilled by Xi’s choice of stops after France. According to reports from Western media outlets, Macron hoped to maintain the focus on Franco-Chinese ties rather than Serbia and Hungary, which are Russia-friendly.
Eastern European powers, including Macron and Scholz, are concerned that Xi’s time spent in pro-Kremlin lines, which he claims, violates broader EU legislation signals. The problem, of course, is the extent to which those prevents squander any kindness Xi may acquire in Paris.
Of course, Xi can be quite talented at pitting Western countries against one another in front of the wider EU union. Take, for example, the Germanic party’s April trip to China, notes Rolf Langhammer, top scientist at the Kiel Institute. ” Scholz largely followed the quarrels of European business”, Langhammer says.
” For instance, that low-cost Chinese upstream items offer both cost advantages for domestic business and encourage European consumers and processors to get environmentally friendly goods,” for instance. European businesses worry about reprisal if China is subject to import tariffs from the EU, he added.
These arguments, according to Langhammer, are natural from a macro perspective. However, they disregard the well-founded issues raised by the EU Commission regarding the anticipated surge of Chinese imports into the EU’s single market, which is currently the only available market in the world.
Of Xi’s vacation this year, Mathieu Duchatel, senior colleague at the Institut Montaigne, observes that “diplomacy only is unlikely to produce substantial outcomes in EU- China relations, as this explore may once again underscore. Those looking for a more realistic way to address trade, technology, and investment relations between the EU and China should turn their attention to the EU’s evolving economic security agenda.
According to Duchatel,” a lot still needs to be done.” Without economic intelligence, the difficulty of developing a European economic security agenda is demonstrated by the difficulty of establishing a supply chain resilience challenge. Successive crises have exposed weaknesses in Europe’s supply chains. Private companies and individual member states have primarily taken steps to reduce these risks, though.
The European Union’s efforts to address supply chain flaws have not yet produced significant results, according to Duchatel, despite its own economic intelligence capability. The European Commission must combine and analyze strategic information on a scale greater than that of individual member states and private entities in order to effectively address this challenge. The Commission would gain from all EU countries and European businesses by becoming a key player in supply chain resilience decisions.
In the interim, EU President , Ursula von der Leyen is , raising the temperature with a slew of trade restrictions against Xi’s Communist Party. In part, the effort aims to fulfill her commitment to improve Brussels ‘ impact on the world. Part is aimed at assessing the broader costs of China’s subsidies for EVs and its support for wind parks, solar manufacturers, railway firms and medical devices.
” We recognize what we see as the Chinese playbook” , , Margrethe Vestager, the EU’s competition chief, tells Bloomberg. Knowing that you have been played teaches you to be much more watchful and take better actions.
Vestager says that” we are fully utilizing our trade tools and our tools that come with the foreign subsidies regulation to restore fair competition.”
The so-called “external subsidies regulations” are intended to protect against state funding that causes unfair competition for public tenders and deals to the detriment of European businesses.
Last month, Vestager’s team unveiled a subsidy investigation into China’s involvement in wind parks in Bulgaria, France, Greece, Romania and Spain.
The extreme uncertainty surrounding geopolitical tensions, according to economist Maartje Wijffelaars of Rabobank International, has made the year 2024 even more precarious.
” The main question is”, says Wijffelaars, “where will it end? Solar panels, wind turbines and medical devices have also’ recently’ caught Europe’s attention”. China is essential for its desperately needed energy transition, but also because it needs both as an export market and as a resource.
Yet Xi’s real challenge, let’s not forget, is China’s economy back home. At a time when youth unemployment is at its highest level, the cratering property sector is still putting downward pressure on deflation. Municipalities, meanwhile, face crushing debt loads, including US$ 9 trillion of so- called local government financing vehicles ( LGFVs ). That’s double the size of Germany’s economy.
The trade concerns will “undoubtedly” be a key discussion point, particularly since China is grappling with a slowing economy, says Leonie Allard, a visiting fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Europe Center.
The weak yen also makes Xi’s 2024 difficult to read. The currency’s 10 % drop this year is affording Tokyo a trade advantage that China is n’t enjoying. Xi’s economy could, of course, embolden the People’s Bank of China to push the exchange rate lower.
It would be a risky gambit, triggering a broader currency war. A decade of efforts to increase the yuan’s use in trade and finance may be slowed down by doing so.
Property developers who have a lot of offshore debt might face higher default risks as a result of a weaker yuan. In the run-up to November 5, China might become a bigger issue in the US election.
The key is addressing the real estate crisis, strengthening capital markets, boosting private sector size in comparison to state-owned companies, and creating bigger social safety nets to encourage more money and saving it.
Premier Li Qiang is back in Beijing as Xi rounds the European markets, leading efforts to improve China’s economic standing. and overcoming difficulties, albeit temporarily, that Xi might find appealing because of his isolation.
Follow William Pesek on X at @WilliamPesek
On the American marketplace, long-stored pledged grain may be sold.
PUBLISHED: 7 Perhaps 2024 at 14: 27
Phumtham Wechayachai, the minister of commerce, stated on Tuesday that his decision to sell decade-old grain pledged and stored under former prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra’s management and to make a show of eating it was not intended to get her a retrial.
On Monday, Mr. Phumtham responded to reporters ‘ inquiries at Government House regarding his journey to two wheat stores in Surin province.
” That is not my goal. I am responsibility- bound to buy the stored grain… The]Yingluck ] case is not part of my job”, Mr Phumtham said.
The business minister, who is also a deputy prime minister, showed up on Monday at two rice warehouses in Surin, showing that the rice that was kept it for ten years under the Yingluck government, has continued to be edible. In front of investigators who were with him, he consumed cooked wheat from the stores.
Mr Phumtham, a deputy head of the decision Pheu Thai Party, admitted the color of the corn had changed , and it was full of dust. But, it could be washed in waters up to 15 days before cooking and then it would be ready for use.
He claimed that after eating the grains the day before, he had no stomach issues and that the design of the particles remained wonderful.
He planned auctions of the pledged corn within the next month, and said the corn could provide the older- rice , markets in Africa.
The largest wheat market treatment program in Thai past was the Yingluck rice-pledging system, which ran from 2011 to 2014.
The state purchased grain from farmers for the first time ever for an unlimitable amount of rice at an all-time high price throughout the plan. It , resulted in losses , totalling hundreds of billions of ringgit.
Yingluck fled the nation in 2017, just before the Supreme Court handed her a five-year prison sentence for failing to stop the government’s sale of corn through her rice-pledging system, which is plagued by fraudulent and corrupt government practices.
Her elder brother, who was once perfect minister, said last month that he believed Yingluck would be able to make a national appearance this time.
Thaksin returned , in August next month. In February, he was given a new prison expression and released on parole.
A senior US Treasury official stated on Tuesday ( May 7 ) that the country relies on Malaysian service providers to move its oil, with oil being moved near Singapore and throughout the region. The US Treasury is placing a greater emphasis on financing militant groups operating in Southeast Asia,Continue Reading