Editorial Board

S&P has upgraded its projection for the Philippines – despite the threat posed by the new Omicron coronavirus variant – after the country posted better-than-expected Q3 results. While successive waves of Covid-19 have put Southeast Asian economies on the back foot, the global ratings agency...

Moody’s Analytics has once again slashed its economic growth forecast for the Philippines to four percent, pointing to the country’s prolonged pandemic shutdown combined with lean government support. Moody’s revised projection is even lower than last month’s 4.9% growth outlook, and far below the...

Even as its national team’s 28 athletes arrived in Tokyo for the pandemic-delayed 2020 Olympic Games last month, Indonesia’s Olympic Committee (KOI) had already set its sights on a different Olympic prize: the 2036 Games. Despite losing out on its bid for the 2032...

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees sounded the alarm at the beginning of this month on the rapidly deteriorating circumstances of refugees and asylum seekers in Asia. As outbreaks surge following the spread of the new Delta strain first detected in India, displaced...

Singapore and Hong Kong halted the opening of a long-awaited travel bubble between the two financial hubs, just days before it was slated to begin on May 26, after an uptick in community transmission in the Lion City believed to have been driven by...

Indonesia has seen a sharp uptick in Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) to the tune of 14% in the first three months of 2021. FDI in the country now stands at 111.7 trillion rupiah ($7.72 billion) which is an almost 5% increase on last year’s...

When news broke of two separate crimes in Southern Vietnam within days of one another - the rape and murder of a five-year old by a middle-aged neighbor, followed two days later by the rape of a two-year old child by its family’s housekeeper-...

With international attention trained on environmental protection and water supplies in the wake of World Forest Day (21 March) and World Water Day (22 March), it is clearer than ever that these two burning issues are intricately interlinked. In order to protect dwindling water...

Last week brought the positively heart-warming news that the world’s oldest living person—118 year-old Kane Tanaka, who has survived two bouts with cancer, two world wars and two global pandemics—will carry the Olympic torch as Tokyo inaugurates the 2021 Olympic Games. In many ways,...

Recently-released data makes clear the cost of coronavirus for Thailand, despite the Kingdom’s overall successful management of the pandemic: the no-show of some 40 million expected tourists in 2020 has caused the country’s worst economic downturn since the Asian financial crisis in 1997. Sadly,...