A planned travel bubble between Hong Kong and Singapore was scrapped a day before its launch on Saturday after the southern Chinese city announced a sudden spike in coronavirus cases.The decision is both a blow to the two cities' battered tourist industries but also for other countries who had been hoping the scheme might be a model to replicate during the pandemic.The two financial hubs have both suffered comparatively mild outbreaks with strict social distancing and border measures imp

Electric Vehicles (EVs), including hybrid electric cars, can drastically reduce carbon emissions released into the environment.

Online shopping is not entirely a new phenomenon in Southeast Asia. Nevertheless, more people are buying daily necessities, gadgets and luxury purchases online now, especially amid the pandemic.

The Fourth Industrial Revolution is a train that you either get on or you’ll find yourself being left far, far behind. The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) is aware of this. We’ve seen countries like Indonesia and Thailand take lessons from Germany’s model of a 4.0 economy.

Two years ago, global research and development (R&D) spending grew by 5.2 percent, significantly faster than global gross domestic product (GDP) growth, after rebounding strongly from the 2008-2009 financial crisis. Venture capital (VC) and the use of intellectual property (IP) were also at an all-time high. However, the coronavirus pandemic has hit the innovation landscape at a time when innovation was flourishing.

Among the first sectors sent reeling by COVID-19 were tourism and hospitality. According to the United Nations’ (UN) agency, the World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO), international tourist numbers could plunge by as much as 80 percent in 2020.

Yesterday, The ASEAN Post published an article titled, “The Future Of Consumption In ASEAN” that discussed the four “mega-forces” identified by the World Economic Forum (WEF) that will determine the pace and scale of the region’s growth.As ASEAN as a bloc is expected to become the world’s fourth-largest economy by 2030, the region’s consumer habits are also expected to change in that period.

ASEAN is the world’s third most populous economy and is projected to become the fourth largest economy by 2030. By then, domestic consumption, which powers roughly around 60 percent of ASEAN’s gross domestic product (GDP) today, is expected to double to US$4 trillion. The population too will reach 723 million from the current 648 million people.As a bloc, ASEAN is facing uncertainty from disruptions caused by the current COVID-19 pandemic.

As of 25 October, over 800,000 cases of the coronavirus disease have been reported across ASEAN, inching closer towards the 900,000 mark. The deadly virus has also taken some 21,000 lives in the region.

ASEAN is set to become the world’s fourth largest economy by 2030, and it is a transition that will be championed by an increasingly tech-savvy younger population which is rapidly rising up the socio-economic ladder. ASEAN’s digital economy – a collective term for all economic transactions that occur online – will progress in hand with this, and is expected to expand 6.4 times from US$31 billion in 2015 to US$197 billion by 2025 according to the Economic Research Institute for ASEAN