China has set its sights on becoming a global biomedicine powerhouse by 2030, targeting key technological breakthroughs and at least a quarter of the world’s first-in-class drugs market under a new five-year plan for the sector. By the end of the decade, China would “firmly rank at the global forefront” in biopharmaceutical research and development and applications, with its “core competitiveness” and international influence making a significant leap, authorities said on Friday. The biomedical...

The US Federal Reserve raised its benchmark interest rate by a quarter of a percentage point this week, followed by the Hong Kong Monetary Authority and the Bank of Japan, while the 10-year US Treasury yield fell back below 5 per cent. Here are some of the figures that have drawn the most market attention this week. Fed raises interest rates for first time since 2023 The US Federal Open Market Committee voted unanimously on Thursday to raise rates by 25 basis points to a target range of 3.75 to...

Senior bankers at HSBC are facing a double blow of losing a key employment benefit while also confronting potential job losses as the lender carries out a range of measures to cut costs and achieve fair treatment for all staff, according to sources. HSBC, the biggest lender in Hong Kong, will scrap an education subsidy programme for all newly hired or newly promoted senior executives from Friday, according to an internal memo seen by the South China Morning Post. Employees who were already in...

The Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) on Friday announced an increase in its emergency loan assistance for members and pensioners affected by the recent typhoons and the enhanced Southwest Monsoon, or Habagat, to nearly P8 billion.

The planned maiden listing of fintech giant Mynt Inc., the parent company of GCash, on the local bourse is now all set after it secured the nod of the Philippine Stock Exchange Inc. (PSE).

Thailand's health ministry plans to establish a central healthcare marketplace, attract foreign patients through flexible medical visas, and partner with global pharmaceutical companies for clinical research and manufacturing investments to strengthen its healthcare system and economy.

The scheduled initial public offering (IPO) of GCash parent Mynt Inc. could give the Philippine capital market a significant boost, Galing sa Puso (GP) Party-list Rep. Jan “JP” Padiernos

Amid continuing geopolitical tensions and market uncertainty, greater use of the yuan for international trade settlements, raising funds, managing liquidity and allocating investments is a logical strategy for executives overseeing treasury and finance functions. At the end of 2025, the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) had bilateral currency-swap agreements with more than 30 countries and regions, with an aggregate value in excess of 4.3 trillion yuan (US$641 billion), confirming ever-wider...

Yesterday in Shanghai, more than 30 business leaders and investors from mainland China and Hong Kong gathered at a South China Morning Post C-Suite roundtable on “The Capital Lifecycle of the Healthcare Sector: From Seed to Post-Listing” held alongside BioShanghai Week 2026. The event, supported by IHH Healthcare North Asia, featured guest speakers Nisa Leung, founding managing partner of Aulis Capital, and Dr Kenneth Tsang, regional chief executive officer of IHH Healthcare North Asia. One...

Real estate developer Golden TW Realty and Development Corp. has opened the first hotel-casino in the popular island destination Boracay.

The government is launching a national disaster insurance scheme to aid households in quicker recovery from major natural calamities.

China is seeing a fresh fundraising boom for artificial intelligence-powered drug developers, with start-ups including a ByteDance spin-off raising hundreds of millions of dollars this week as investors rush to back domestic challengers to Anthropic and Isomorphic Labs. Anew Labs, a Shanghai-based AI drug discovery firm and former unit of Chinese tech giant ByteDance, has raised US$290 million at a valuation of US$1.5 billion, according to an informed source. Investors included prominent venture...

MANILA, Philippines — The Marcos-led Economy and Development (ED) Council has approved changes to five development projects, including two public-private partnerships (PPPs) for the North-South Commuter Railway (NSCR) and Mactan-Cebu International Airport (MCIA). According to the Department of Economy, Planning, and Development (DepDev), which co-chairs the council, the NSCR revisions cover its parameters, terms and conditions

MANILA, Philippines — The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas is expected to take a measured approach to raising interest rates despite the US Federal Reserve’s (Fed) first increase since 2023, analysts said, as a more aggressive tightening campaign could unsettle markets and add to financial volatility. Leonardo Lanzona, an economist at Ateneo de Manila University, said the

MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Budget and Management (DBM) has approved more than 26,000 positions in the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), including about 5,703 posts to strengthen operations of the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps). The latest staffing action covers 5,711 regular positions in DSWD, of which 5,703 are for the institutionalization

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippine government has ditched plans to bid out coal contracts this year as it overhauls awarding rules, a development that further fuels the anxiety gripping Consunji-led Semirara Mining and Power Corp. (SMPC). In an advisory dated Sept. 15, the Department of Energgy (DOE) scrapped the 2026 coal bid round covering three predetermined

MANILA, Philippines — Manila will make a push to anchor Southeast Asia’s $300-billion creative economy when the region’s heads of state troop to the Philippines in November, where it will pitch a center of excellence dedicated to the sector. That center, planned for the 21,000-square-meter Likhang Filipino site in Pasay, would be just the second Asean

Are customers returning because they choose you or because they have not found a reason to leave? A few times each month, I return to the same beef noodle shop in Opus Mall. It is only a kilometer from my home, making it convenient. Sometimes my wife, Chiqui, joins me and we share a simple

MANILA, Philippines — Once seemingly a distant vision of the future, electrified vehicles are becoming an increasingly common sight on Philippine roads, especially among Filipinos who can afford to ditch their fuel-guzzling cars as an oil crisis drives up the cost of getting around. Since the year began, electrified vehicle sales in the country have more

In 2007, I wrote an article entitled “BP 22 Defanged,” where I observed that Batas Pambansa Blg. 22, the Bouncing Checks Law (BP 22), had been weakened by two developments: the Supreme Court’s policy preference for a fine rather than imprisonment (SC Administrative Circular Nos. 12-2000 and 13-01) and decisions requiring the prosecution to prove

Motorists should brace for another round of big-time increases in pump prices to be implemented in the coming week, as the Middle East crisis continues to disrupt the global petroleum market.

Japan is adding a fresh layer of uncertainty to global financial markets by potentially triggering a new bout of turmoil in bond markets and dampening the appetite for risk assets, as Tokyo’s pursuit of bigger government spending stokes concerns about fiscal discipline and sends sovereign bond yields to multi-year highs. The nation’s 10-year bond yield hit 3.03 per cent this week, a level not seen in three decades, while 30-year bond yields traded at 4.1 per cent, also nearing a 30-year high....

TAT's Nihao Month 2026 targets Chinese tourists with Meituan promotions, cultural events, and KOL trips to boost engagement.

Hong Kong shopping mall operators are extending a strategy used during this year’s Fifa World Cup into the Asian Games, leveraging major sporting events to draw visitors and support tenant sales as retailers face competition from Shenzhen, overseas shopping and online spending. Sino Group is among the landlords expanding the strategy beyond tournament broadcasts. It has projected foot traffic across its four malls to increase during its Asian Games campaign, with selected merchants forecast to...

MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Agriculture (DA) has opened a new P74.4-million rice processing facility in Cabanatuan to improve postharvest processing in Nueva Ecija, the country’s top rice-producing province. The facility, inaugurated on Thursday, includes a multi-stage rice mill that can process 4 to 5 tons per hour, along with three recirculating dryers, each

MANILA, Philippines — Philippine production at Japanese automotive giant Toyota may slow in 2026 as weak demand weighs on vehicle sales, putting the automaker on track to fall short of its banner production year in 2025. According to Toyota Motor Philippines senior vice president Sherwin Chua-Lim, output from the company’s Santa Rosa plant in Laguna may

MANILA, Philippines — Philippine meat importers are pushing back against the Department of Agriculture’s (DA) bid to reclassify frozen pork jowls as swine meat, a move that would raise the tariff on the imported cut to up to 40 percent. In a June petition to the Tariff Commission, the DA noted that retailers and food

MANILA, Philippines — Philippine Stock Exchange director Ma. Vivian Yuchengco urged the Securities and Exchange Commisison (SEC) to revoke term-limit rules for broker-directors, asserting that shareholders should determine the tenure of their elected representatives on the board. In a statement, Yuchengco reiterated her opposition to SEC Memorandum Circular No. 17, Series of 2026, which caps broker-directors’

MANILA, Philippines — The National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) is on track to activate P23.5 billion worth of transmission projects this year as it works to strengthen the country’s grid network further. Breaking it down, NGCP assistant vice president Leonor Felipa Cynthia Alabanza said the grid operator is spending around P11 billion to finish

MANILA, Philippines — Philippine debt could climb to as much as 70.7 percent of gross domestic product by 2027 under a severe downside economic scenario, according to a sensitivity test that flagged the government’s growth assumptions as still too optimistic. The estimate is not a forecast but forms part of the alternative growth scenarios developed by