Foreign Investment, Duterte Drug War Victim
Unlike poor, defenseless Philippine teenagers , foreign investors have successfully avoided Duterte's Philippines. Philippine strongman Rodrigo Duterte has elicited international condemnation ove…
Showing posts with the label Southeast Asia
One Belt, One Baloney? PRC's Silk Road Revival Doubts
Over the weekend, Chinese President Xi Jinping hosted an elaborate event in Beijing concerning the PRC's idea of reviving the historical Silk Road. Spanning much of Asia and the Middle East besi…
UK Delusions of Becoming Singapore 2.0 Post-Brexit
By leaving the EU, the UK is making itself less --not more --like Singapore. It strikes me as very odd that the architects of Brexit--which many voters supported to do away with economic integration …
Proton's End? (Malaysia's Failed Auto Nat'l Champion)
It's time to let Proton go, Mahathir Mohamad. Proton is the archetypal "infant industry" that never grew up. The pet project of former Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, Proton …
Can Singapore Land Saudi Aramco (Mother of All IPOs)?
Make it big: Singapore competes for Saudi Aramco's $100B IPO listing. Us Southeast Asians have been closely following the possibility--however remote--of the Singapore Exchange [SGX] landing the …
Did Trump Finish Off Asian Export-Led Development?
Is it really a whole new world? If there's any such thing as a premature call, then it's probably to label Asian export-led development "dead" because of anticipated Trump-led US pr…
Life at Samsung's Vietnam Factory After Galaxy Note 7
No thanks to Galaxy Note 7, it won't be a very merry Christmas in these parts. The recall of Samsung's Galaxy Note 7 worldwide for its battery catching fire has damaged any number of things i…
Economic Folly: Thai Rice Subsidies Never Die
The importance of rice production to the Thai economy cannot be overstated. In the past, I have discussed [ 1 , 2 ] the current ruling junta's efforts to punish the overthrown Yingluck Shinawatra…
Duterte and the "People's Republic of the Philippines"
Duterte claims the Philippines is now in the PRC's ideological flow. Take it with a whole heaping of salt. Friends abroad have asked me how to make sense of the bombastic and oafish Philippine Pr…
Worst Branding Deal Ever? "Trump Tower Manila"
Is getting your private parts groped part of the deal if you buy a unit at this Trump-branded Manila condo? In psychology, there is a term " colonial mentality " referring to those living …
Philippines' Duterte: Killer of Druggies...& Foreign Investment
Damage control surpasses the realm of art into science when the person whose offensiveness you're trying to contain is the Philippine President Rodrigo "Digong" Duterte. Despite the woe…
Turf & Japan Shifting Investment from PRC to SE Asia
Here is an interesting article concerning how geopolitical concerns affect foreign direct investment (FDI). Despite China being one of if not the largest recipient of Japanese FDI in past years, ris…
The End: Thailand Dumps Yingluck-Era Rice Hoard
Getting rid of Thailand's massive Yingluck-era rice stockpiles. Although political polarization has been a constant feature of Thai politics, the Shinawatra clan--big brother Thaksin and little s…
Malaysian PM Razak and the $4.2B Missing From 1MDB
80,000 protesters and Razak is still there: can the international financial community oust him, though? A few months ago, I wrote about the goings-on in Malaysia with Prime Minister Najib Razak's…
Fighting PRC Illegal Fishers in Argentina, Indonesia
PRC "fishing" boat headed for Davy Jones' Locker . The PRC's fisher militia strikes again, destroying goodwill as it poaches throughout the world. I have previously written about h…
Counting Down to Myanmar's Stock Market Opening
First the grand opening; come March it's live trading. One good turn deserves another: following discussions of a much-anticipated IPO on Vietnam's stock exchange, we should discuss the immi…
Can 'Bikini Airline' VietJet Dominate Cheap Flights?
I'll bet you don't get this in Emirates marketing materials: VietJet as a Southeast Asian force in budget carriers. Here's a rather unexpected love letter to the positives of both market…
Why Cheap Oil Hurts Its Net Importer, the Philippines
There's an interesting story in Bloomberg about how a largely oil-importing nation, the Philippines, can be negatively affected overall by lower oil prices. Sure, the country benefits from lowe…
Me Too! Do S Korea & Indonesia Want to Join TPP?
Indonesia and S Korea apparently seek a seat at this table now. It appears as though the United States is gaining the upper hand in signing FTAs in the Asia-Pacific after the TPP enlargement. With Ch…
Early Winners and Losers From TPP Enlargement
Get ready to see lots more of these sorts of plants in Vietnam (read why below). Bloomberg has an initial rundown of countries expected to win and lose from the conclusion of the Trans-Pacific Partn…