Asia - South China Morning Post

Tax breaks used to be enough. Not any more. Analysts say a new generation of investors is prioritising legal certainty and regulatory stability over incentives – and Asia’s most successful international financial centres will be those that successfully secure trust.

All of which carries repercussions for Indonesia’s plans to build its first international finance centre, after lawmakers passed a law on Tuesday giving the project the green light.

Enforceable contracts, predictable regulation and...

A centuries-old monastery in southern Thailand is the country’s latest cultural landmark to be inscribed on Unesco’s World Heritage List, which will aid in the site’s conservation, the government said on Sunday.

Wat Phra Mahathat Woramahawihan in Nakhon Si Thammarat province is Thailand’s ninth World Heritage site, but its first in the nation’s southern region, the Thai foreign ministry said in a statement.

“Its inscription will further strengthen cooperation at both the national and local...

Each year on July 27, North Korea commemorates “Victory Day”, marking what it presents as its triumph in the Korean war. While few outside the country accept that characterisation, the date underscores a reality: the war never formally ended. The 1953 agreement was an armistice that left the peninsula in a state of suspended conflict.

Responsibility for the resulting instability is widely distributed. North Korea’s missile tests, expanding nuclear arsenal and escalatory rhetoric have undermined...

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky has said that Russia has sought an extra 30,000 troops and missile launchers from North Korea to fight his country.

Preparations for the extra troops are being made in Russia’s Voronezh region near the frontier with Ukraine, Zelensky said in a social media post late on Saturday.

North Korea sent thousands of troops to help Russia fight off a Ukrainian counteroffensive in the Kursk region in 2024. It has also provided arms to help Russia’s invasion since...

India’s ambition to grow its navy past 200 ships within the next decade has taken on fresh urgency as China expands the world’s largest naval fleet and Pakistan adds advanced Chinese-built attack submarines, heightening New Delhi’s anxieties in the Indian Ocean.

Analysts see this month’s commissioning of the stealth frigate INS Mahendragiri and submarine hunter INS Malvan as a symbol of that effort: both domestically built warships presented as evidence that New Delhi can scale up its fleet...

Unesco decided on Sunday to add a group of ancient sites in Nara prefecture that show the formation of Japan’s centralised state to the World Heritage list, marking the country’s 27th such site.

The decision on the Asuka-Fujiwara: Archaeological sites of Japan’s Ancient Capitals and Related Properties was made during a meeting of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation World Heritage Committee held in Busan, South Korea.

The ruins are highly regarded for showing the...

In recent years, Southeast Asian governments have viewed the “China plus one” strategy as their best chance to escape the middle-income trap. As global manufacturers looked to diversify away from China because of rising costs, trade tensions and supply-chain vulnerabilities, Indonesia, Thailand and Malaysia seemed perfectly placed to benefit.

The promise was simple and compelling: new factories would arrive, more formal jobs would be created, wages would rise in tandem with higher productivity...

As India picks up the pieces in the aftermath of a youth protest that deposed an education minister, questions linger over the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) failure to connect with younger generations.

Analysts say the scale of youth participation in the protest suggests a loss of faith in Prime Minister Narendra Modi, with the real test coming at the ballot box in key state elections next year.

Thousands of young people joined the Cockroach Janta Party’s (CJP) march to parliament on...

A new wave of US tariffs that hit seven Southeast Asian countries is set to reinforce perceptions of Washington as an unreliable partner to the region, according to analysts.

Citing what it said were forced labour practices uncovered in its latest investigations, the US on Thursday imposed levies ranging from 10 to 12.5 per cent on 60 economies – with the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam the hardest hit among Association of Southeast Asian Nations members.

Malaysia, Indonesia and...

Malaysian police have received a report against Perikatan Nasional election director Muhammad Sanusi Md Nor over remarks allegedly made during a speech while campaigning for the Negeri Sembilan election.

Negeri Sembilan police chief Alzafny Ahmad said the report was lodged by a 40-year-old man at the Bandar Seri Jempol police station on Friday.

“The complainant was ­unhappy with a news report published by an online portal regarding a ­speech by the Kedah chief minister,” he said in a statement...