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Working-class communities have been hit hard by the Covid-19 pandemic, with many struggling to feed themselves and pay rent. Catering company Gingko House, which operates several restaurants in Hong Kong, started the fook faan or “fortune meals” programme in 2017. The restaurant emphasises giving people food options…
Shop owners in Kabul said business has been slowed since the Taliban took control of the capital city two weeks ago. Afghanistan’s economy has been pushed towards the brink of collapse. The value of the afghani currency has tumbled, and prices of necessities such as food and fuel have surged every day.
Chinese President Xi Jinping has announced plans to set up a new stock exchange in Beijing. In a short speech at the opening of the China International Fair for Trade in Services on September 2, 2021, Xi said China will support the innovative development of small and medium-sized enterprises. China has two existing …
Sri Lanka’s “organic revolution” is endangering its lucrative tea industry. The country is seeking to become the world’s first 100 per cent organic food producer by banning the use of fertiliser. However, tea plantation owners fear withdrawing the use of agricultural chemicals will significantly affect crop yield an…
Afghanistan has faced rising inflation and a sinking currency since the Taliban took control of the city two weeks ago. Long queues in Kabul were seen waiting outside banks to withdraw cash as a new Taliban regime began.
The once-bustling Hua Ta Khe market in the Thai capital Bangkok is all but deserted as the nation struggles with its worst wave of Covid-19 cases since the start of the pandemic. Video shot on August 24, 2021, showed no customers in the waterside marketplace that is normally a bustling with tourists.
Afghans have been fleeing across the border into neighbouring Pakistan, with many saying the situation in their homeland has become dangerous and unpredictable since the Taliban seized control of Afghanistan’s capital Kabul on August 15, 2021. Pakistanis fear the influx of Afghan refugees may place an additional bur…
Security camera video being widely circulated online shows a burglar in Hong Kong using a bamboo pole fitted with a metal hook to steal a handbag from a 10th-floor flat on the afternoon of August 22, 2021. The masked man appears to be standing on construction scaffolding outside the living room window of the apartme…
After almost 1,000 days of wrangling in Canada, extradition hearings for Huawei Technologies Co executive Meng Wanzhou concluded on August 18, 2021. The verdict regarding whether the court will free the telecoms company’s chief financial officer or send her to stand trial in New York on fraud charges, could take mon…
The explosion of a fuel tank in Lebanon’s northern region of Akkar killed at least 28 people on August 15, 2021. Many of the victims were in a crowd gathered near the tank clamouring for petrol. The military had seized the facility as part of its efforts to curb hoarding in the wake of the central bank scrapping fue…
How China’s new Star Market made Chen Wenyuan a billionaireA freshly-minted billionaire in 2019, Chen is the founder of Suzhou HYC Technology -- a supplier for the likes of Apple and Samsung, selling test equipment for electronic displays. His company was among the first batch to list on China’s Nasdaq-style Star bo…
How China’s new Star Market made Chen Wenyuan a billionaireA freshly-minted billionaire in 2019, Chen is the founder of Suzhou HYC Technology -- a supplier for the likes of Apple and Samsung, selling test equipment for electronic displays. His company was among the first batch to list on China’s Nasdaq-style Star bo…
Canadian businessman Michael Spavor has been sentenced by a Chinese court to 11 years behind bars on espionage charges. Canadian observers criticised the ruling on August 11, 2021, as “hostage diplomacy” in retaliation for the arrest of a top Huawei executive. Spavor is one of two Canadians arrested in 2019, weeks a…
Business owners in China’s central province of Henan are still tallying up their losses following record rainfalls that triggered massive flooding in the provincial capital Zhengzhou. The floods on July 20, 2021, killed at least 99 people, and submerged many underground spaces across the city including some busy com…
The Chinese company Robosea has created a fishlike underwater drone called “Robo-Fish.” The drone was featured at a military expo in July 2021, but the company has another target market in mind. It hopes Robo-Fish will encourage aquarium parks to avoid buying endangered fish, while still making it appealing to touri…
Hong Kong Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po visited low-income families who live in subdivided apartments and public estates in Sham Shui Po on July 24, 2021. He vowed to solve the housing problem by simplifying “tedious” planning procedures and drastically increasing land supply.
In an exclusive interview with the South China Morning Post, Hong Kong financial secretary Paul Chan Mo-po spoke on reopening the border with mainland China and economic forecasts for the city. He said if Hong Kong’s Covid-19 infections are kept under control, the city should achieve higher than expected GDP growth.
In an exclusive interview with the South China Morning Post, Hong Kong financial secretary Paul Chan Mo-po spoke on land and housing issues in the city, including topics such as subdivided housing and the Greater Bay Area. He said the city has enough land for development but the planning processes need to be simplif…
Once central to Hong Kong’s identity, local manufacturing is now increasingly seen as a sunset industry for the city. In its heyday, manufacturing comprised 31 per cent of Hong Kong’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) but today it represents only around 1 per cent of GDP. Only six of nearly two dozen government-subsidise…
China is the world’s largest market for the esports industry and continues to grow at a rapid pace. But esports organisations have been struggling to hire enough talent. To help ease the shortage and better prepare individuals for employment, training institutions have sprung up around the country, offering esports-…
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India's main financial centre, Mumbai, continued to be drenched by heavy rain on July 19, 2021. Monsoon downpours lasted for several days, and one day earlier triggered landslides that collapsed homes, killing at least 30 people.
Malaysia’s government is under fire as the country’s daily Covid-19 caseload remains at record highs despite multiple lockdowns, with citizens and businesses complaining of haphazard and inadequate financial aid. To compound matters, Prime MInister Muhyiddin Yassin’s government is also facing pressure from coalition…
The Bank of England has kept UK interest rates unchanged at 3.75% for a sixth time in a row, keeping them at the lowest level since February 2023.
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China’s economy grew 7.9 per cent year on year in the second quarter of 2021 according to economic data released on July 15, 2021, by the National Bureau of Statistics. The figures released, including gross domestic product (GDP), industrial output, retail sales and disposable income, meant that the country posted 1…
Five years since The Hague’s Permanent Court of Arbitration ruled China had no historic claims on the South China Sea, Philippine fishermen say they are still being harassed by Chinese coastguards in the disputed waters. The international tribunal also ruled that China had interfered with the Philippines’ traditiona…
Once dubbed the “richest village” in China, Huaxi in the nation’s eastern Jiangsu province, was the pinnacle of what one analyst calls “capitalism with Chinese characteristics”. As China started to adopt market reforms in the 1980s, local Communist Party secretary Wu Renbao switched the village economy from agricult…
During Hong Kong’s first black rainstorm of the year on June 28, 2021, a landslide took place on South Lantau Road, near Upper Cheung Sha Beach, as the city was inundated with rain. The severe weather led to the suspension of classes and vaccine services as well as delayed the opening of the stock market. More than …
Hong Kong’s first black rainstorm warning was issued at 8.20am on June 28, 2021. The severe weather led to the suspension of classes and vaccine services and delayed the opening of the stock market. The government said coronavirus jabs will resume if the weather warning is cancelled before the end of operating hours…
The world’s tallest luxury hotel, located in China’s financial hub, welcomed its first guest on June 19, 2021. The high-end accommodation occupies the top floors of the Shanghai Tower – China’s tallest building and the second-tallest in the world, after Dubai's Burj Khalifa. Designed for luxury, the hotel boasts a r…
China has become the world's fastest-growing market for electric vehicles. The country has set a target of having 40 per cent of all passenger vehicles on the market to be EVs by 2030, up from the current five per cent. To entice China’s growing middle class, top EV makers have turned to upscale shopping centres to …
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North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has called his country’s food situation “tense”. The admission, made during a plenary meeting of North Korea’s Workers’ Party central committee on June 15, 2021, came as Kim maintained that the overall economy had improved from last year. He blamed the coronavirus pandemic and last ye…
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Although Hong Kong is now largely a service-based economy, the city was once a global manufacturing hub. Star Industrial, founded by the Leung family in 1949, is one of only a few businesses in Hong Kong that still manufactures products in the city. Jessica Leung, the third-generation owner of the family business, s…
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At least a dozen people were reportedly killed in a gas explosion early on June 13, 2021, at a market in the Zhangwan district of Shiyan city in China’s central province of Hubei. Chinese state media reports showed images of collapsed buildings and rescuers searching for survivors after the blast. More than 138 peop…
Chinese smartphone maker Huawei has released its very own operating system, Harmony OS, which can be installed across an array of devices, and work as an alternative to Google's Android OS. Huawei started hyping the new system for its smartphones after losing access to Google services on the official version of Andr…
Francis Belin, Christie's Asia Pacific President, speaks to SCMP arts editor Enid Tsui about how NFTs are transforming the art market and why Asian collectors are so hungry for Jean-Michel Basquiat's street-art style paintings.
Myanmar’s economy has been paralysed since the ousting of elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi in a military coup on February 1, 2021, worsening the plight of the country’s poor. With soaring food prices and rising unemployment, up to 3.4 million more people in Myanmar are predicted to go hungry in the coming six months,…
China’s wedding industry is on the road to financial recovery. Pent-up demand for weddings caused by the coronavirus pandemic, combined with the country’s traditional peak wedding season, led to an increase in people tying the knot in May 2021. Chinese state media reported that more than 400,000 couples were married…
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The FT’s 2026 Masters in Finance Ranking. Plus: tough jobs market drives applications; ‘near-peer’ mentoring; skills for the AI era; calls for more private markets teaching; why soft skills matter in hard times; studying full- or part-time
For more than a decade, huge fortunes have been made and lost in the world of cryptocurrency. While China has played a big role in the cryptocurrency boom, Beijing has been tightening its grip on the volatile market in recent years because of concerns it could disrupt the economy. Raymond Yeung, economist, and autho…
The price of bitcoin bounced back to around US$40,000 on May 20, 2021, one day after China announced new regulatory restrictions that sparked a massive meltdown in cryptocurrencies. The latest volatility in the digital coins was triggered by a joint warning issued by three Chinese state-backed financial associations…
