Indonesian palm oil farmer Kawal Surbakti says his livelihood is under attack, but the threat is not from insects or hungry orangutans eating his prized crop.Half a world away, the European Parliament is moving to ban the use of palm oil in biofuels, while British grocer Iceland has announced it will stop using the commodity over concerns that it causes widespread environmental destruction.Losing the key European market worries small farmers like Surbakti and millions of others in Indonesia a

All start-ups dream of getting angel investors but what happens if they turn out to be guardian angels, too? Travel booking service Vidi hit that jackpot last year when the AirAsia Group decided to take a 50 percent stake in the company.Vidi joins a growing group comprising TripAdvisor, Klook and KKDay, vying to capture the travel booking industry.

The Education First (EF) 2017 English Proficiency Index does not paint a very good picture for most ASEAN countries with the exception of Singapore which holds fifth place in a study that includes 80 countries. In comparison, Malaysia comes next in 13th place, Philippines in 15th, Vietnam in 34th, Indonesia in 39th, Thailand in 53rd, Cambodia in 77th and Lao PDR in 80th.

While Industry 4.0, also known as the Fourth Industrial Revolution, presents a great many challenges to less developed frontier economies like Cambodia and Lao PDR, more developed countries in the region have not been spared as well.

Last July, Lao witnessed a catastrophe when the Xe-Pian Xe Namnoy dam located on the Xe Kong River in the Bolaven plateau collapsed following heavy monsoon rains. More than 6,000 people were made homeless, hundreds went missing and reports say the official death toll has so far risen to 35.

China is the last bulwark against a deep crisis in emerging economies going fully global, analysts say, although a prolonged trade war could sap Beijing's defences.Emerging countries - loosely defined as having fast growing but volatile economies - have seen their currencies battered in recent weeks, plunging their finances into turmoil, and raising fears of global contagion.But China, the world's second-biggest economy and itself categorized as an emerging market, doesn't shar

The Electronic Transactions Development Agency’s (ETDA) latest report has revealed that the market value of business-to-consumer (B2C) e-commerce in Thailand ranked the highest in Southeast Asia at US$23.3 billion in 2017.

Oil and gas are finite resources. Although they can generate substantial revenue for national coffers, they cannot be relied on indefinitely. As an oil and gas producing country develops, its domestic demand for the commodities will grow and gradually cancel out financial gains.Oil was a big component of Indonesia’s economy ever since it was first discovered in north Sumatra in 1885.

In less than 20 years, almost one in four people – roughly 24 percent of the population – in Thailand would be aged 65 and over, thus making the kingdom a hyper-aged society. The United Nations (UN) defines an ageing society as one where more than seven percent of the population is older than 65. An aged society has more than 14 percent of the population older than 65, and finally, a hyper-aged society is one where upwards of 20 percent of the population is aged over 65.

Oil-rich Brunei is facing a problem: an over-dependence on oil and gas for its revenue. According to the BP World Energy Outlook, Brunei’s oil reserves are projected to run out by 2035. In addressing this issue, one of the sectors the country is looking at to diversify its economy is tourism.Under its 2016-2020 Strategic Plan, Brunei’s Ministry of Primary Resources and Tourism targets increasing tourist arrivals from 218,000 in 2015 to 450,000 in 2020.