Asia - South China Morning Post

The Hong Kong stock exchange is drawing a growing number of foreign companies from across Asia and North America that are seeking international capital, as the bourse marks progress in its ambition to be a global magnet for fundraising.

The latest firm seeking to join the cohort is Kazakhstan Temir Zholy, the Central Asian nation’s railway operator and owner of the country’s largest fleet of locomotives and rolling stock, which filed for a Hong Kong listing on June 30, according to bourse...

Koo can see Johor changing around him, even if the promised wealth has not reached his bank account.

The 30-year-old service worker has lived for 25 years in Skudai, a busy Johor Bahru suburb anchored by universities, older housing estates and the kind of Chinese shoplot economy that helped make the Democratic Action Party (DAP) a force in Malaysia’s southern state.

He sees cranes, rail works and projects built by Chinese companies. But before Saturday’s state election, and as the China-linked...

Falling durian prices have done little to deter thieves in Malaysia, with a Penang trader losing baskets of prized Black Thorn variety in two break-ins just days apart.

Wenny Ooi, 27, said thieves targeted her family’s stall twice on June 25 and June 29, marking the first break-ins since they started the business six years ago.

In the first incident, two baskets of Black Thorn, also known as Or Chi, were stolen but footage from the surveillance camera shows only one thief leaving with a basket...

The Philippines is preparing to create a military space centre by 2028, a move that could help Manila strengthen surveillance, communications and command across its archipelago and in contested areas of the South China Sea.

But analysts said the ambition would be constrained by the technical, financial and personnel hurdles of turning space assets into military capability.

Philippine military chief General Romeo Brawner Jnr said on Tuesday that the initiative would enhance communications,...

A Singaporean man, hired by his aunt to tutor primary school pupils, instead beat them with a clothes hanger, forced them to hold push-up positions for long periods, punched and starved them.

One of the children, a six-year-old Chinese national, was abused for 18 hours and forced to drink his own urine.

On Thursday, the 31-year-old pleaded guilty to two counts of child abuse, one count of voluntarily causing grievous hurt and one of giving false or misleading information to police, local media...

Reports of sweeping lay-offs at Tokopedia, the Indonesian e-commerce giant majority-owned by China’s ByteDance, have renewed concerns about Southeast Asia’s largest digital economy as analysts warn the country’s tech winter shows few signs of easing.

The cuts have also raised questions over the future of one of Indonesia’s best-known home-grown digital champions, with analysts saying Tokopedia’s deeper integration into ByteDance’s ecosystem could shift more technology, product and strategic...

Indonesia’s attempt to keep children aged under 16 off social media platforms deemed high risk has quickly become one of the world’s biggest tests of online safety regulation, with more than 4.8 million suspected underage accounts removed or deactivated in the first three months of enforcement.

For President Prabowo Subianto’s government, the figures are an early sign that major platforms are falling in line with its policy aimed at making the digital world safer for children. Communications and...

Why are global investors so bearish on the yen? There are good reasons Japan’s currency should be gaining in value. Last month, the Bank of Japan (BOJ) raised interest rates to a 31-year high of 1 per cent and signalled it would continue increasing borrowing costs. Bond markets are currently pricing in a nearly 90 per cent probability of another increase by December.

Nominal wages in Japan have risen by more than 3 per cent for four straight months, the longest streak since 1992. Moreover, the...

The leaders of ⁠Malaysia and Thailand said ⁠on Thursday they would ⁠work on developing a special border economic zone, and had resolved an issue that had disrupted trade in seafood between the neighbours.

In May, Thailand restricted the import of Malaysian-caught sea bass due ‌to concerns over chemical residues, prompting Kuala Lumpur to temporarily ban some varieties of Thai shrimp over food safety controls last month.

“We have resolved this outstanding issue of fisheries … we agree it should...

The United States is turning to South Korea’s world-leading shipbuilding industry to refresh its ageing naval fleet, a move set to expand the bilateral alliance beyond security into defence manufacturing, technology and industrial production.

The approach reflects Washington’s efforts to address long-standing problems in its own industry, according to analysts – chronic construction delays, cost overruns, shortages of skilled workers and supply chain constraints among them. It also signals a...