Asia - South China Morning Post

The Beijing-headquartered Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) aims to marshal resources from governments, private parties and peer institutions to build critical infrastructure across Asia despite geopolitical headwinds, its new president said on Monday.

Zou Jiayi, who took the baton of the multilateral development bank in mid-January from inaugural president Jin Liqun, called for investments to augment country-specific tax revenues and promote industrial development, putting economies...

Myanmar’s military proxy party has claimed a predictable victory in an election widely condemned as a sham, a result likely to hardwire the junta into power indefinitely.

For millions of disenfranchised citizens like May*, who fled to neighbouring Thailand to escape the crackdown, the landslide win holds no credibility.

“None of us voted,” the 38-year-old migrant said.

“The military held the election for themselves and they won. But they have all of the power anyway, so what was the point?”

On...

Thailand’s most popular political figure Pita Limjaroenrat has exhorted the public to fight apathy and vote in droves at a February 8 election for his reformist party, which remains the biggest threat to the power of the country’s entrenched elite.

Pita led the reformist People’s Party – then called Move Forward – to win the last election in 2023 on a record 76 per cent voter turnout, stunning the establishment as it gobbled up seats from political dynasties and surged into the heartlands of...

South Korean former prime minister Lee Hae-chan, a veteran politician and influential fixture on the country’s road to democracy, died during an official visit to Vietnam’s southern hub of Ho Chi Minh City, both governments said.

Lee died on Sunday, after emergency medical aid for a heart attack, a South Korean presidential advisory panel said in a statement.

The 73-year-old reportedly complained of flu-like symptoms before his departure to Vietnam and decided to return home one day after his...

After a brief countdown by conservationists, a young Indo-Pacific leopard shark glided into the blue waters off Maiton Island in southern Thailand, released in the country’s first efforts to “rewild” the endangered species.

Once a familiar sight for snorkellers and divers, the spotted sharks have sharply declined in the wild over the past decade due to overfishing and habitat loss, even as they flourished in private aquariums.

“Why not take the breeding population that is doing well in the...

A ferry with more than 350 people on board sank early Monday morning near an island in the southern Philippines, and rescuers have saved at least 316 passengers and retrieved 18 bodies, according to officials.

The MV Trisha Kerstin 3, an inter-island cargo and passenger ferry, was sailing to southern Jolo island in Sulu province from the port city of Zamboanga with 332 passengers and 27 crew members when it apparently encountered technical problems and sank after midnight, coastguard officials...

Google’s Gemini is rapidly gaining traction in South Korea, which has become the second largest paid subscription market for the generative artificial intelligence service.

South Korea generated 11.4 per cent of Gemini’s global cumulative revenue on Apple’s app store – about US$21 million – ranking second only to the United States at 23.7 per cent, according to digital analytics firm Sensor Tower on Sunday.

While South Korea ranked only 17th in downloads, its revenue per download was the highest...

It will take 10 years to fix the Philippines’ growing learning gap and reform the education sector, a national commission has said, as related groups warn of a deepening proficiency crisis.

Only four in 1,000 senior high school students are proficient in areas such as problem-solving, managing and communicating information and analysing data to form ideas, according to findings by the Second Congressional Commission on Education (EDCOM 2), tasked with assessing the country’s education...

Improved weather on Sunday helped rescuers on Indonesia’s main island of Java recover more bodies as they dug through mud and debris in search of scores of missing in a landslide that killed more than two dozen villagers.

The predawn landslide on the slopes of Mount Burangrang in West Java province on Saturday buried some 34 houses in Pasir Langu village. On Sunday, 72 people remained missing, many feared buried under tons of mud, rocks and uprooted trees. About 230 residents living near the...

South Korea’s president has withdrawn ‌his nomination of Lee Hye-hoon to head ‍the country’s newly created budget ministry after she was accused of unlawful real estate investments and mistreating staff.

The plan to appoint ⁠the former conservative lawmaker from former president Yoon’s People Power Party was viewed as an attempt by President Lee Jae Myung to promote national unity with some cross-party appointments. Lee’s liberal government was elected after ‍his predecessor, Yoon Suk-yeol, was...