Giant companies such as Apple, Amazon, Disney, Google, Harley Davidson and Hewlett-Packard started out in their garages. Hey, you got to start somewhere. However, the entrepreneurial landscape has changed tremendously in the age of information.

All 10 of the ASEAN member states have officially started to ban the usage of single-use plastics in an effort to move towards addressing the pollution issues caused by plastics and marine debris as a united front.

South Korea’s biggest cosmetics maker is revamping its products to suit Muslims and darker-skinned women in Southeast Asia as it tries to make up business lost because of political tensions with China over a missile-defence system.Amorepacific is pushing harder into Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam with a lineup that takes into account skin tones, the region’s humidity and the need for Muslim women to wash their faces five times a day before prayers.

Southeast Asia is a growing market for business. However, there is still plenty of untapped potential, in terms of both consumer demand and labour markets. With all eyes on the ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) member states, business investors are presented with opportunities to generate lucrative returns on their investments within the region.

Indonesia’s e-commerce market is targeted to grow from 19 billion dollars in 2016 to 130 billion dollars in 2020, according to data obtained from Indonesia’s ICT (Information and Communications Technology) Ministry. This puts Indonesia ahead in terms of digital economy growth against its other ASEAN counterparts – with a year-on-year growth of 51 percent. Indonesia’s growing digital economy is riding on its fast-growing usage of smartphones – which amounted to 71 million users in 2016.

Across much of Asia, foreign currency reserves have never been stronger.India’s foreign currency reserves are set to hit a new high of 400 billion dollars, enough to cover a year of imports, while holdings of international currencies in South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand and Indonesia are all at record levels.

Fuji Electric, which is headquartered in Tokyo, acquires Indonesian vending machine manufacturing and sales company in a move to expand its business in Southeast Asia. A contract has recently been signed between Fuji Electric of Japan and Kubota Corporation in purchasing all shares of Metec Semarang to take on after-sales service operations related to vending machines within Japan and overseas.

Five sailors were missing after their dredger collided with a tanker off Singapore Wednesday, authorities said, just weeks after a deadly accident in the same area involving a US warship.A search effort was launched for the four Chinese members of crew and one Malaysian after the accident around the busy Singapore Strait, the city-state's MPA (Maritime and Port Authority) said.Seven other Chinese sailors were rescued from the Dominican-registered dredger after it capsized following the c

The rally in Indonesian bank stocks may be nearing an end amid sluggish credit growth and tougher regulations for loan quality assessments.Equity analysts are now downgrading banking stocks after the Jakarta Finance Index rallied 21 percent this year – more than double that of the main gauge – as they expect nonperforming loans in the 527 billion dollars industry to creep up again.

A newly released survey conducted by Singaporean based ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute (Institute of Southeast Asian Studies), found that ASEAN (the Association of Southeast Asian Nations) is considered to be most important to Indonesians.Respondents were given a choice of countries to rank in terms of admiration and topping the list was the regional association as well as countries like Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand.