Thailand
Europe heatwave boosts Thai tourism, air conditioner exports
Air conditioner exports to Europe climbed 41.3% year-on-year to $130.1mn in May. Shipments during the first five months of the year rose 16.5% to $696.8mn.
Thailand attracts $4.1bn in EV investments
Thailand has secured more than $4.1bn in investment commitments for its electric vehicle industry, reinforcing its position as Southeast Asia's leading automotive manufacturing centre.
Russia's ASEAN summit in Kazan was a diplomatic coup for the Kremlin
The ASEAN summit held in Russia last week was one of the Kremlin’s biggest diplomatic successes since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
From Sapura to Vantris, Malaysia's biggest corporate rescue
Because of the firm's scale, an uncontrolled insolvency was never an option for Malaysian regulators, as the company was too embedded in the domestic O&G ecosystem, supporting over 59,000 jobs in the nation's energy sector.
COMMENT: Iran war shows why Asia must quit fossil fuels
Across Asia, governments are now accelerating approvals for renewable projects and grid modernisation schemes. Battery storage investments are making headlines almost daily.
Malaysia's ringgit under pressure as Fed outlook, Middle East diplomacy unsettle markets
This local depreciation is not an isolated event, as the Malaysian currency has traded lower against a comprehensive basket of major global and regional peers.
Asia welcomes Iran-US breakthrough, but caution remains
The tentative peace agreement between the United States and Iran has been greeted with a mixture of relief and caution across much of East and Southeast Asia, a region that has borne more than its fair share of the economic fallout of late.
Princess Bajrakitiyabha of Thailand dies aged 47
Her death deprives Thailand’s royal family of one of its most accomplished and prominent members, and a figure who many believed could have played an important role in the kingdom’s unresolved succession.
The Singapore to Malaysia migration reshaping Southeast Asia
An industrial migration is quietly shifting the economic landscape of Southeast Asia, particularly that surrounding Singapore and Malaysia.
Asia’s EV race speeds up as China’s champions challenge Tesla
As of mid-2026, China remains the centre of gravity in the EV world.
Malaysia enforces under-16 social media ban
Moving to curb digital harms, the federal government, on June 1, officially began enforcing a blanket prohibition barring children under the age of 16 from creating or operating independent social media accounts.
_1780224367.jpg)
Gulf War III squeezes tourism-dependent economies across Southeast Asia
War-driven fuel costs and ceasefire uncertainty are squeezing tourism across Southeast Asia, with Thailand's Middle Eastern arrivals down 57% and airlines raising surcharges sharply.
Asia’s coal comeback complicates energy transition across region
Taiwan has struggled to secure LNG supplies through May and finalised contracts covering roughly half of June demand, but additional procurement costs are expected to reach into the billions of US dollars to complete.
The baby bust: how a global demographic crisis crept up on everyone
Just a decade ago, the dominant demographic narrative was of "dying Russia" — a population hollowed out by the chaos that followed the Soviet collapse, shrinking through a combination of low birth rates, high mortality and mass emigration.
Fuel prices cast a dark shadow over Asia travel season
There will be no real winners in traditional tourism this summer – only airlines, tourist destinations and central banks left counting the cost.
Malaysia shifts from Singapore overflow hub to regional AI data centre powerhouse
The Malaysian data centre landscape is in the middle of a transformation, in which the country tries to evolve from a secondary destination for Singapore’s overflow demand into a regional leader in high-value Artificial Intelligence infrastructure.
ASEAN’s power gamble will shape the region’s economic future
Electricity demand across the wider ASEAN region is rising rapidly. Manufacturing expansion, electric vehicle adoption and the construction of energy-intensive data centres are driving consumption higher and higher every day.
_3_1778439404.jpg)
Iraq drops out of Thai rice market due to Hormuz blockage
Thailand has not shipped any rice to Iraq in three months as the Middle East war halts deliveries to its largest market, with Bangkok losing more than 200,000 tonnes of regional exports and shipping costs up 20%
Asian trade jitters spark fresh Malacca Strait monetisation push
The collapse of maritime stability in the Middle East has cast a long, overdue shadow over the busiest maritime chokepoint in Asia: the Strait of Malacca.
Why global population collapse will keep the wars coming
Demographers warned for decades that ageing, declining states grow more dangerous, not less. The wars now spreading from Eastern Europe to the Gulf to East Asia look increasingly like the opening engagements of a long contest over who outlasts whom.