Singapore has set targets to reduce cash and cheque usage as it prepares to allow companies to use its digital payments service in a move towards a digital economy.Cheques will no longer be in use by 2025 while cash withdrawals from automatic telling machines will come down significantly, Education Minister Ong Ye Kung, who sits on the Monetary Authority of Singapore board, said in a speech Wednesday at the annual Association of Banks dinner in the city-state.

On 18 June 2018, the founder of e-commerce conglomerate Alibaba, Jack Ma launched the company’s office in Kuala Lumpur. The office is Alibaba’s first in Southeast Asia and will be the first Electronic World Trade Platform (eWTP) hub outside of China. The eWTP is a concept coined by Jack Ma which involves the creation of digital free-trade zones where small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) can easily plug into global trade via e-commerce.

Google’s latest move of investing in Chinese e-commerce giant JD.com reveals that the company is stepping up its game to make inroads in Asia. On Monday, tech conglomerate Google announced a strategic partnership with JD.com, China’s second-largest e-commerce company. Also known as Jingdong, JD.com generated over US$55 billion in revenue last year and currently boasts over 300 million active users. The company is currently the biggest competitor to Jack Ma’s Alibaba.

Vietnamese lawmakers have just passed a cybersecurity bill which would allow the government there to essentially censor the internet. The bill which was passed with an overwhelming majority by Vietnam’s rubber stamp parliament has come under fire from many quarters.

Twitter Inc. will personalize news for users and send them notifications of events, trying to attract a bigger, broader audience with one of its most comprehensive product updates in years.The changes follow several iterations to make the social-media platform less cumbersome for new users, who may find it hard to decide whose opinions to follow and how to engage in conversations. Now, Twitter will predict relevant topics and send breaking-news notifications based on a person’s interests.

Who would have thought a startup which first began as a taxi-booking app in Kuala Lumpur would end up beating ride-sharing giants Uber at its own game? When Grab first expanded into the e-hailing service industry, many saw it as a carbon-copy of Uber and did not think much of it. Today, Grab’s grip on the regional e-hailing service industry is stronger than ever.Humble BeginningsBefore Grab became the e-hailing behemoth it is today, the startup founded by Anthony Tan was first named MyTeksi.

In the race to deploy driverless public transport, Singapore has built a mini town that could vault it into pole position. The 2-hectare complex, unveiled in November, has intersections, traffic lights, bus stops and pedestrian crossings, all built to the specifications that Singapore uses for its public roads.

The capital of the Philippines; Manila is the world’s most densely populated city with 42,857 people per square kilometre. The Metro Manila population is estimated at 12 million, but the larger urban area has a population of approximately 21.3 million. As such, traffic congestion in Manila is notorious with a report by Waze revealing that drivers in the capital are the most dissatisfied in the world after the Dominican Republic and El Salvador.

Blockchain came into the popular lexicon along with other terms such as cryptocurrency and artificial intelligence as part of the larger movement of new disruptive technologies that has swept the world. Initially seen as a disruptor to traditional banking, many are now starting to understand the appeal of blockchain and its potential to alter the landscape of the financial sector.

ASEAN’s exponential economic growth and social mobility is a double-edged sword. The region’s growing strategic relevance makes it a prime crosshair for cyberattacks, with the rise of intangible threats now becoming more prevalent within the region. Cybersecurity threats are pervasive and create problems in various sectors.