Secretary-General Lim Jock Hoi of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi agreed to further enhance ASEAN-China relations at their meeting in Brunei on January 14.
Thailand's gross domestic product (GDP) growth is forecast at 2.5 percent this year, provided that the government maintains strict measures to contain new COVID-19 infections until February, said Krungthai Compass – a research unit of the Krungthai Bank.
Indonesia received the third bulk of COVID-19 vaccine by Chinese manufacturer Sinovac Biotech one day prior to the start of the national vaccination campaign.
Thailand’s Ministry of Tourism and Sports has gathered input from the tourism and hotel industries on potential measures to aid them in the current COVID-19 crisis, with loan deferments, utility discounts, and a tax deadline postponement among the measures to be proposed to the Prime Minister on January 12.
Figures drawn from 20 airports across Thailand showed that domestic air travel plunged since the start of the year due to COVID-19, announced the Department of Airports (DoA).
Indonesian relevant agencies have identified the first victim of the Sriwijaya Air plane crash on January 9 in which all 62 people on board were killed.
The Vietnamese Embassy in the Switzerland, as Chair of the ASEAN Committee in Bern (ACB), has hosted the fifth meeting of the committee in 2020 to review the working term of Vietnam as the chair of the committee and hand over the role to the Philippine Embassy.
Food security has become more urgent in Thailand as the COVID-19 pandemic has pushed more people into poverty and a new urban farm model seems to be a good solution to this issue.
Indonesia’s Financial Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre (PPATK) has temporarily frozen bank accounts belonging to the recently banned Islam Defenders Front (FPI) and its affiliated groups on suspicion of money laundering.
Indonesia’s budget deficit in 2020 reached 956.3 trillion IDR (68.6 billion USD), equivalent to 6.09 percent of the national gross domestic product (GDP), Minister of Finance Sri Mulyani Indrawati has said.
Indonesia has depended much on imported fossil fuels in recent years, but the country’s Government is working to further reduce the import and phase it out by 2030.
The Indonesian Government will reform the social welfare system with the aim of erasing extreme poverty in 2024, said Minister for National Development Planning Suharso Monoarfa.
More than 100,000 employees in Thailand have lost their jobs or been suspended from work as over 6,000 businesses in 28 red-zone provinces closed in the wake of the new COVID-19 outbreak.
