It tells you something about the priorities of Southeast Asia's largest bank when it announces a hackathon to quickly recruit 100 budding technologists.DBS Group Holdings Ltd. hired the same number last year, but this year its needs are spread over a wider skill set, including user-interface design and mobile-application development, even scrum mastery, which, I understand, has nothing to do with rugby.All banks hire techies to manage back-end applications.

The Singapore Exchange (SGX) entered into the final phase of consultation to allow dual-class share (DCS) structure listings on 28 March. It subsequently launched a public consultation for proposed safeguards to address the risks of expropriation and entrenchment. A DCS structure refers to the issuance of different classes of shares, one class of which carries heavier voting rights than the other.

The Philippines is Asia's worst stock and currency market this year. A 6 percent slump in the benchmark index combined with a 4.6 percent slide in the peso means U.S. dollar-based investors are looking at double-digit losses. Year-to-date, foreigners pulled more than $580 million from shares, after inflows of $1.1 billion in 2017.Analysts aren't telling clients to buy the dip.

The wait is finally over. After weeks of speculation that Uber’s Southeast Asia’s operations would be sold off to Southeast Asian ride-hailing giant Grab, the deal – the largest of its kind in the region – was officially announced earlier today.According to the media release from Grab, Uber’s ridesharing and food delivery business (UberEats) will be integrated into its existing multi-modal transportation and fintech platform.

The concept of a technology park first emerged in the 1950s in the United States, when such parks were first built to accommodate high technology industry occurring at the time.

The European Union (EU) has been a strong partner of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) for many years now. Of the 28 members within the EU, Germany has and is still playing a crucial role in this region to region partnership. ASEAN-Germany ties don’t get much attention but it is important given that many citizens of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations have grown to rely on German goods, services and investments.

Australia has taken steps to get in on the infrastructure boom taking place in Southeast Asia.

Myanmar is expected to begin the long-awaited overhaul of its 60-year old Yangon Central Railway station in mid-2018. The project is estimated to cost around US$2.5 billion, and will also include new developments of office buildings, retail outlets and residential buildings in the area surrounding the station.

Amazon recently announced that it would partner with the Vietnam E-commerce Association (VECOM) to allow local small and medium-sized enterprises to sell and export their goods using the company’s platform there. The e-commerce giant's foray into Vietnam is its second into Southeast Asia thus far.Presented with stiff competition from Lazada, Tiki and Shopee in Vietnam, Amazon is likely to be still testing the market there.

After a turbulent past few months, the performance of the Indonesian rupiah in the exchange market is finally looking up. The Indonesian rupiah was trading at 13,370 rupiah per United States (US) dollar on Wednesday. The central bank, Bank Indonesia expects the rupiah’s performance in the foreign exchange market to be less volatile. The rupiah hit rock bottom at the start of the month with their worst performance in two years. The rupiah hit a two-year low of 13,800 to the US dollar.