While many countries across the globe are cutting down on their military expenditure, ASEAN member states are heading in the opposite direction. Over the last 15 years, the total defence spending of Southeast Asian countries has doubled in absolute terms, with Thailand and Indonesia becoming witness to military expenditure growth rates of 10% on a year-by-year basis. Connected to the rise in defence spending is an increase in a procurement of armaments.

Techcombank, the Vietnamese lender backed by Warburg Pincus, is setting a fresh record with its initial public offering.The bank and some existing investors are set to raise about 21 trillion dong ($922 million) in the deal, which would become the country’s biggest-ever initial equity offering, people with knowledge of the matter said Monday.

Indonesia recently concluded the Indonesia-Africa Forum held in Nusa Dua, Bali which saw the attendance of over 500 delegates from Indonesia and Africa. The forum was held to foster a strong economic relationship between Indonesia and Africa.The forum was attended by participants from over 50 African countries, including government officials and diplomats, members of state-owned companies and the private sector.

Although divided by arbitrary physical borders, the ASEAN region is digitally interconnected. In light of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, technological progress should not be deemed a success, rather it is very much a necessity. More people within the ASEAN citizenry now own smartphones and other digital devices that enable them to keep abreast with what is going on in the complex world around them.

Indonesia’s central bank is in no rush to pull the interest rate trigger just yet, thanks in part to the government.While policy makers in Malaysia have started raising rates, Bank Indonesia has refrained from tightening as benign prices allow Governor Agus Martowardojo to focus on supporting economic growth.

Healthcare costs in the region are forecasted to spike in the coming years, according to research carried out by Solidiance, an Asia-focused corporate strategy consulting firm. Titled “The US$320 billion healthcare challenge in ASEAN”, the study focuses on the healthcare economy of six major Southeast Asian countries – Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam and The Philippines – dubbed the ASEAN 6.

Leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) will head to the island republic of Singapore at the end of this month for the 32nd ASEAN Summit and a sempiternal item on the agenda is economic integration. The term is often thrown about without much thought at such meetings but by its very nature, integrating 10 economies of varying shapes and sizes is a monumental task.

With a relentless implementation of new technologies combined with a surge in investment deals, it is not erroneous to say that the automotive industry in Southeast Asia is experiencing a positive transition. Before the proposed introduction of Vietnam’s VinFast, Malaysia was the only Southeast Asian nation that had its own national car, in the form of Proton.

Markets are quivering as fears of a U.S.-China trade war ebb and flow. Thus far, they've mostly been focused on tariffs that President Donald Trump wants to impose on a range of Chinese goods, and China's threats to retaliate. But investors may be overlooking a bigger risk in this dispute.It's true that duties on U.S. imports would hurt – hands are already wringing in farm country – but there's a limit to how much pain they can really inflict.

Singapore Exchange Ltd. has announced a new product that an excited hedge-fund manager described to me as the "most brilliant use of finance."That's an exaggeration, of course, though with a large grain of truth.SGX will launch three derivative products in June: SGX India futures; SGX India options; and SGX India bank futures.