The Singapore government has earmarked another 48 billion Singapore dollars ($33.2billion) to support its businesses and households after official preliminary estimates showed the Southeast Asian economy shrinking by more than expected in the first quarter of this year as a result of the coronavirus crisis.

A growing number of Southeast Asia airlines are suspending flights or even completely grounding their planes as multiple governments have decided to introduce strict immigration regulations in an effort to combat the spread of the coronavirus pandemic.

The latest to announce a tough measure was Singapore...

The Faculty of Medicine at The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CU Medicine) analysed more than 300 specimens (including sputum, nasopharyngeal swabs, deep throat saliva, blood, urine and stool) from 14 Hong Kong patients confirmed with COVID-19 and discovered that the virus was detectable in the fecal samples of...

The coronavirus pandemic is throwing entire Southeast Asia in turmoil as travel restrictions and business closures are getting more extreme and widespread and tourism has almost come to a standstill.

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte from March 17 has put the entire Philippine island of Luzon under an “...

The coronavirus crisis could cost economies in the Asia-Pacific region $211 billion this year, sending growth to its lowest level in more than a decade as governments struggle to combat the disease, S&P Global Ratings warned on March 6 in a report.

In a worst-case scenario, China could see growth of less...

Mar 06, 2020 (China Knowledge) - Every imaginary biological warfare has surfaced in Hollywood’s movies; simply by searching the web, such stories are over a hundred in movies and documentary. Though most of the findings of COVID-19 which spread on a large scale are considered by medical experts to be the natural...

SINGAPORE, 1 March 2020 --( ASIA TODAY )-- Changi Airport Group (CAG) and the National Heritage Board (NHB) announced today that one of the two remaining iconic analogue flight information display boards at Changi Airport Terminal 2, which was retired earlier in the month, will be donated to NHB to form part of...

Singapore-based ride-hailing and e-commerce company Grab partnered with German aviation startup Volocopter to explore the opportunity of deploying air taxi services in selected cities in Southeast Asia.

In a first step, the firms will conduct a joint feasibility study which will look into the most suitable...

Feb 20, 2020 (China Knowledge) - Extracts from “China Computer Weekly” – published on Feb 18. Online demand generated by epidemic has greatly boosted the cloud computing industry, with upstream server shipments increasing and downstream enterprises reaching unprecedented level of usage.

Feb 20, 2020 (China Knowledge) - Affected by the epidemic outbreak, primary and secondary schools in Shanghai are closed for the longest period to restrict students’ physical contact in schools, and during their travelling. This unprecedented homestay quarantine which is expected to last for about three months, not...

Speaking multiple languages is essential to the modern world and key to understanding and accessing the viewpoints of a wider cross-section of the population, says Dr. Amanda Murphy, Assistant Professor from the School of Sciences and Humanities at Nazarbayev University.

Feb 19, 2020 (China Knowledge) - Coronavirus outbreak in China has resulted in the government’s extreme measures shutting down all showrooms to reduce human interaction. In matters of days, the country’s intelligent hi-tech housing agencies rapidly adopted Virtual Reality (VR) to offer the close up and surreal...

Fighting tradition and stigma, there are now more fathers in Singapore who are primary caregivers to their children.

The number of stay-at-home fathers is growing slowly but steadily, according to a study by Ms Yvonne Arivalagan, Research Associate with the Institute of Policy Studies at the Lee Kuan Yew...

Singapore could see a decline of up to 30 per cent in both tourist arrivals and receipts this year because of the coronavirus outbreak, Keith Tan, chief executive of the Singapore Tourism Board, said in an interview with Bloomberg TV.

The decline would be from last year’s record arrivals of 19.1 million and...

Feb 11, 2020 (China Knowledge) - Due to coronavirus outbreak; office and industrial properties will be hardest hit. There is no appearance sign of bottoming out in coming weeks; severity could extend till mid-year.

Industry Highlights：

Real estate developers closed sales offices to avoid spreading of...

In the past, young people looking to moonlight or take a part-time job alongside their studies used to work in restaurants and fast food chains near their schools. But food delivery services have begun to offer an attractive alternative due to low entry thresholds and comparably good pay. Over the past two years...

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia---Malaysia’s Prime Minister Dr. Tun Mahathir Mohammad convened a briefing session with the Malaysian Technology Development Corporation (“MTDC”) and the Global Coalition for Efficient Logistics (“GCEL”) to discuss how the Digital Economy Platform (DEP) can assist to achieve Malaysia’s Shared...

Poppy cultivation in Myanmar registered an 11-per cent decline in 2019, while the acreage under the opium crop came down by 33,100 hectares over the previous year, the new Myanmar Opium Survey just released by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) revealed.

According to the UNODC’s report 2019...

The ban on distributing free single-use plastic bags in shops, malls and convenience stores in Thailand put into force on January 1 this year has not only positive effects. Dozens of plastic bag manufacturers are now at risk of closing their businesses altogether if they get no support from the government,...

Booming Vietnam has become Southeast Asia’s top receiver of foreign direct investment (FDI), with ten consecutive years of increase in FDI to a record of more than $38 billion in 2019, up from the previous record figure of $35.4 billion on 2018.

Ministry of Planning and Investment officials in Hanoi on...