What’s the real size of China’s economy?
(Big time) I’m on my way, I’m making it (Big time)
Asian news from Indonesia
Toyota AGM, Thai gay marriage bill, Indonesian policy meeting
Welcome to Your Week in Asia.
Southeast Asia’s peatlands are in crisis. What can be done?
A significant portion of the world’s tropical peatlands are in Southeast Asia. Indonesia and Malaysia are the peatland powerhouses of the region. Indonesia alone is home to more than 30 per cent of the world’s tropical peatlands, while Malaysia contains another 6 per cent. These peatlands are primarily found in Sumatra, Kalimantan and the Malay Peninsula.
If US-China arms build-up continues apace, demons of war will prevail
Days earlier, US forces took part in the Tiger Strike 24 bilateral exercise with Malaysia. The military drills featured joint amphibious operations in the South China Sea, where China has overlapping territorial claims with Malaysia and other neighbours such as Brunei, the Philippines and Vietnam. While Indonesia is not a claimant state, its exclusive economic zone stretches to the edge of the South China Sea, where it has challenged Chinese efforts to fish.
IPEF making economic gains above the naysaying critics
SINGAPORE – While skepticism abounded ahead of last week’s Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF) meetings in Singapore, the results underscored the Biden administration initiative’s potential and need for even greater private sector support.
Indonesia steps up crackdown on online gambling after spate of gruesome deaths
He also asked all public figures, religious leaders and the general public to “monitor each other, and also report if there are any indications of online gambling”, admitting it was not easy to curb gambling due to its “cross-border nature”.
How Southeast Asia’s solar industry can shine in face of US tariff threat
The progress so far is impressive. Southeast Asia has emerged as the world’s second-largest solar module producer, trailing only China. By the end of 2022, the region boasted a total module production capacity of 70 gigawatts, a significant leap from an almost negligible level just a few years ago. This capacity represents roughly 6.4 per cent of the world total of about 1,100GW expected by the end of this year.
Bitcoin mining rigs pop up in Southeast Asia’s abandoned malls, factories after China crackdown
The 6.87-hectare (17-acre) cement slab in the middle of a Borneo industrial area once belonged to a logging company. Long ago that business abandoned the site to the elements, leaving just rudimentary structures and a four-storey-tall concrete birdhouse made to lure swiftlets whose nests, built with saliva, fetch high prices in China.