Asia Pacific’s (APAC) population, at almost 3.5 billion, is twice that of Europe and the Americas combined. The tremendous speed of migration from rural to urban locations has led to the creation of many large, densely populated cities, such as Hong Kong and Singapore.
China’s economy continued to improve in the second quarter, with corporate profits rising and hiring up, a private survey showed, but it suggested the Asian giant may have to brace for tougher times ahead even though firms have been able to weather a tighter financing environment.
To provide a more accurate read on China’s economy, Leland Miller and his team at China Beige Book International (CBB) interview thousands of companies and hundreds of bankers on the ground in China each quarter. They collect data and perform in-depth interviews with Chinese executives. The quarterly survey showed that while the property sector slowed, manufacturing improved further and the retail and services industries bounced back after a difficult first quarter.
MSCI announced it would add China A-shares to its MSCI Emerging Markets Index after rejecting China’s previous three attempts. MSCI plans to add 222 Chinese shares to its Emerging Markets Index, with an initial weighting of 0.73 percent.
The full inclusion of domestic Chinese stocks in the widely tracked MSCI Emerging Markets Index could pull more than $400 billion of funds from asset managers, pension funds and insurers into mainland China’s equity markets over the next decade, according to analysts.
According to the Boston Consulting Group (BCG), Singapore’s stringent bank secrecy laws have attracted $1.1 trillion in foreign capital, and its growth rate is bypassing that of Switzerland. Singapore will become the world’s largest multinational financial center by 2028, according the report. For foreign capital, Singapore’s management is relatively lenient. Singapore immigration authorities only generally check "the first pot of gold" of the immigrant applicants.
Novartis expects growth in China’s pharmaceuticals market to accelerate as the nation’s health authorities expedite approvals for new medicines and increase reimbursement. The Chinese pharmaceutical market may exceed $300 billion in sales by 2020, Chief Executive Officer Joe Jimenez said in an interview in Geneva on Tuesday. That will happen as regulators in the country push to offer new drugs to sick patients who’ve traditionally not had access to the world’s groundbreaking meds. The country is now the world’s second-biggest pharmaceutical market, behind the U.S.
Japanese transportation service group Yamato said Tuesday it will pay about 47,000 employees 19 billion yen ($175 million) in unpaid overtime for the past two years.
The delivery company admitted that many of its drivers had to work long hours, including overtime without pay, a chronic situation due to a surge in parcel delivery demand in line with rapid growth in the e-commerce industry.
China has granted preliminary approval for 31 Trump trademarks for businesses ranging from hotels and spas to animal training and weather forecasting, reopening a debate about the potential for conflicts of interest under his presidency.
Democrats in Congress were critical of Trump after The Associated Press reported Wednesday that the potentially valuable trademarks had been granted, raising questions of conflict of interest and political favoritism. One senator said the issue "merits investigation." There were also seven trademark applications that were rejected.
A senior executive at Credit Suisse Taiwan Elsa Chiu and her husband were released on bail early Wednesday after being interrogate about alleged insider trading in the takeover of Hermes Microvision by ASML of the Netherlands, Taipei District Prosecutors Office spokesman Chang Chieh-Chin told Reuters.
"During the merger and acquisition activities, there were some trading irregularities, and the stock exchange regulator detected this irregular trading," said Chang, who is also a deputy chief prosecutor.
