Daily Debrief: What Happened Today (May 26)
Asean must strengthen external ties in new growth areas, even as integration continues: PM Wong
[KUALA LUMPUR] Asean must deepen and expand its external partnerships, especially in new growth areas, even as it steps up its own internal integration, said Prime Minister Lawrence Wong on Monday (May 26).
Asia's rich trim US exposure, head to Europe amid tariff turmoil
[SINGAPORE] Asian private banking clients sprang into action over the past month, refusing to sit idle when faced with the whiplash in global financial markets caused by the tariff turmoil. Individuals have been rebalancing their portfolios, according to some senior private bankers, whose clients each have at least S$2 million in investible assets.
Front-loading drives Singapore's factory output growth, which slows to 5.9% in April but far exceeds estimates
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[SINGAPORE] Front-loading activity amid uncertainty over US President Donald Trump's tariffs supported Singapore's industrial production growth in April, economists said after the latest prints were released on Monday (May 26).
Malaysia's Anwar writes Trump seeking summit with South-east Asia
[KUALA LUMPUR] Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said he has written a letter to United States President Donald Trump to request a meeting between the US and the Association of South-east Asian Nations over Washington's trade policies.
Less than 75% of fresh graduates from private institutions secure jobs within 6 months
[SINGAPORE] Fewer than three in four fresh graduates from private education institutions found employment within six months of graduation, based on the Private Education Institution Graduate Employment Survey 2023/2024 released by SkillsFuture Singapore on Monday.
Park Hotel Management and Allen Law's legal battle results in landmark High Court judgment for insolvency law
[SINGAPORE] Former Park Hotel Management director Allen Law, who is being sued by liquidators of the company, has failed to reduce his potential liabilities by S$6.8 million after the High Court rejected his application to amend his defence and introduce a counterclaim.
Hillcrest Arcadia's S$920 million en bloc tender closes with no bids
[SINGAPORE] The collective sale of Bukit Timah condominium Hillcrest Arcadia has moved into private treaty talks, after a tender closed on Thursday with no bids.
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Straits Times
19 minutes ago
- Straits Times
As Trump pushes international students away, Asian schools scoop them up
Yonsei University campus in Seoul, South Korea. The country wants to have 300,000 international students by 2027. SEOUL – For Mr Jess Concepcion, a microbiology student from the Philippines, obtaining a doctorate from a university in the United States had been a dream. It was where most of his academic mentors had studied and done research, and he wanted to follow in their footsteps. But when the United States, under President Donald Trump, started pausing visa interviews during peak season this spring, threatening to deport international students for political speech and slashing funding for academic research, he quickly changed plans. Applications for doctoral programmes take years and have to be tailored to specific schools, so he is aiming for programmes in Switzerland and Singapore instead. 'That uncertainty made me stop in my tracks and choose another country,' Mr Concepcion, 24, said. 'Immigration policy is quite restrictive, and I'm on a different side of the world. So living in that kind of instability that far away isn't healthy for me.' It's a quandary facing many young people around the world. According to the United Nations, 6.9 million people studied outside their home country in 2022. The United States has long attracted the most foreign students, 1.1 million in the 2023-24 academic year. It's too soon to know whether more foreign students will choose not to attend US schools. But warning signs abound. Major international education search platforms, including IDP and Keystone Education Group, have detected a marked decline in student interest in American programmes. Among academic administrators polled by the Institute for International Education this spring, more than usual reported drops in international applications for the coming year. These are not the first signs that American higher education is losing its dominant position. For years, countries in Asia have been strengthening their universities and marketing them to students around the world. With more appealing alternatives, the Trump administration's hostile stance may hasten the decline in US higher education preeminence. Top stories Swipe. Select. Stay informed. Asia India, Singapore ministers discuss deeper tie-ups in digitalisation, skills, industrial parks Business More seniors remain employed after retirement and re-employment ages raised in 2022: MOM study Singapore To Vers or not to Vers: How will this scheme affect HDB prices? Asia Malaysian MP Rafizi says his son was jabbed with syringe in planned attack, threatened with Aids Singapore askST: Will assets seized in $3b money laundering case be sold at public auctions? Singapore Woman, 68, charged over assaulting maid with scissors and nail clipper Business StarHub first-half profit falls 41.7% to $47.9m; telco eyes 'more aggressive stance' amid competition Singapore From quiet introvert to self-confident student: How this vulnerable, shy teen gets help to develop and discover her strength 'We're shifting from a world in which there were only a few primary target destination countries to a much more multipolar world,' said Mr Clay Harmon, the executive director of the Association of International Enrollment Management, which represents recruitment agencies. 'It's all adding up to this narrative that 'maybe that's not the right destination for me after all',' he said. 'And there are a whole bunch of other countries that are eager to take my money instead.' Jess Concepcion, a microbiology student from the Philippines, at Korea University campus in Seoul on Aug 2. PHOTO: NYTIMES Asia steps up For decades, in the English-speaking world, Oxford and Cambridge in Britain, the Ivy League in the United States, and other name-brand universities in Australia and Canada tended to top application checklists. Gradually, schools in China, Japan, Taiwan and Singapore started showing up in annual rankings of the top universities – with lower price tags. Governments dispatched representatives to college fairs and set goals for the number of students they wanted to bring in every year. So when Mr Trump, soon after starting his second term, began pushing international students away, Asian nations started welcoming students who couldn't continue their studies at American schools. Take South Korea, where Mr Concepcion went for his master's degree after winning a scholarship from the South Korean government that covered living expenses and tuition. He added a year of mandatory language study and enrolled at Korea University in Seoul, where his programme starts in earnest this fall. In the spring, Korea University was among several institutions to offer relief measures as the US government began cancelling some student visas and terminating funding programmes. Another South Korean school, Yonsei University, will open rolling admissions for undergraduate transfers year round starting in 2026 and is planning a customised visiting programme for students whose coursework is interrupted in the United States. Mr Trump has added urgency to such plans, but this effort has been underway in Asia for decades. South Korea has for years sent students to other countries, while attracting few from overseas. In the early 2000s, leaders started to think of that imbalance as a kind of trade deficit and set out to boost their international recruitment. They took guidance from a similar effort in Japan, which had about 337,000 foreign students in 2024 and is aiming for 400,000 by 2033. South Korea's latest target was set in 2023: 300,000 international students by 2027. For 2026, Seoul was named the top city for international students in the closely followed Quacquarelli Symonds World University Rankings. Early on, the South Korean government's work was intended to buoy flagging schools in smaller towns, where low birthrates and emigration to larger cities have shrunk classes of high school graduates. Foreign students are also not subject to tuition caps that apply to domestic students, creating a new revenue stream to keep universities afloat. Ms Shin Mee-kyung, the director of educational globalisation for South Korea's Ministry of Education, said that at first those foreign students were generally expected to return home after their studies. More recently, officials have started to see foreign students as an answer to the nation's labour shortage as well. Seoul established a support centre to help foreign students get jobs, and visa policies have been loosened to help them work after graduation. 'Now we are very interested in how we help them decide to stay here,' she said. For 2026, Seoul was named the top city for international students in the closely followed Quacquarelli Symonds World University Rankings. PHOTO: TINA HSU/NYTIMES There are about 70,000 students in South Korea from China and 50,000 from Vietnam. Myanmar and Nepal send thousands each year. For South Korean companies, the students offer an opportunity: potential hires who could help expand the business into their home countries, or manage overseas factories. Hyundai, for example, makes many of its cars in Vietnam and is trying to sell them in Singapore. Mr Kyle Guadana is a Singaporean student studying at Yonsei University, where he leads the Foreign Student Union. He said Hyundai, among other companies, had reached out directly. 'They are looking for foreigners who will be able to work with them,' Mr Gaudana, 24, said. 'They are specifically targeting South-east Asian students, because they are trying to expand their bases here.' The recruiting drive has had some complications, however. To hit its targets, the government has accepted a wider range of language proficiency tests and lowered the minimum bank balance required to obtain a visa. It has also increased the number of hours students can work in a week. Some students have used university enrollment primarily as a way to earn money in South Korea, which is not otherwise easy to do. But the larger challenge may be making sure that those who come primarily to study are able to work in South Korea when they graduate – and that they want to stay. Ms Keity Rose Mendes, 21, grew up in Mozambique and received the same scholarship granted to Mr Concepcion, studying industrial engineering at Seoul National University. She chose South Korea for its safety and because she wanted to learn about its manufacturing techniques. But after three years of classes, she felt that collaboration wasn't valued and that foreign students weren't well integrated. 'A lot of them, especially non-Asian international students, just want to finish their studies and leave,' said Ms Mendes, who is the president of the school's International Student Association. 'I wish that the same effort that they're putting into bringing international students, they also tried to put into creating facilities to maintain them here.' Ms Keity Rose Mendes, who is studying industrial engineering at Seoul National University, chose South Korea for its safety. PHOTO: TINA HSU/NYTIMES Hedging their bets For millions of students deciding where to study, the United States is still the leading destination. Degrees from top American universities command societal respect – and lucrative job offers – in countries like South Korea. But even that shine has been dulled by new obstacles since Trump took office, said Mr Pierre Huguet, the CEO of the global admissions consulting firm H&C Education. 'Many saw the US as offering more freedom and an escape from rigid social pressures in Korea,' he said. 'Now they fear visa revocations, invasive online presence reviews and a chilled campus climate, which is the opposite of what they were hoping for.' Mr Huguet said his clients were focusing on Britain and Australia. The number of South Korean students studying abroad overall has been dropping as the country's own universities climb the rankings. And the United States isn't the only developed country to push back against international students. Canada and Australia limited international student visas in 2024, while Britain raised visa fees and was contemplating shortening postgraduate work visas. 'No country is being extremely welcoming at this stage,' said Mr Yash Sharma, who runs an admissions consultancy called Longshore Education focused on the market in India. 'Everywhere in the English-speaking world there is anti-immigration sentiment going around.' NYTIMES
Straits Times
an hour ago
- Straits Times
Bitcoin hits fresh record above US$124,000 as Fed easing bets add to tailwinds
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox Bitcoin has risen nearly 32 per cent so far in 2025 on the back of regulatory wins for crypto following President Donald Trump's return to the White House. TOKYO - Bitcoin hit a record high on Aug 14 as increasing expectations for easier monetary policy from the Federal Reserve added to tailwinds from recently announced financial reforms. The world's largest crypto-asset by market value climbed as much as 0.9 per cent to US$124,002.49 in early Asia trading, surpassing its previous peak hit in July. Ether, the second largest crypto token, hit US$4,780.04, its highest level since late 2021. Bitcoin's rally is being powered by increasing certainty of Fed rate cuts, sustained institutional buying and moves by the Trump administration to ease investment in crypto assets, said IG market analyst Tony Sycamore. 'Technically a sustained break above US$125k could propel BTC to US$150,000,' he wrote in a note. Bitcoin has risen nearly 32 per cent so far in 2025 on the back of long-sought regulatory wins for the sector following President Donald Trump's return to the White House. Mr Trump has called himself the 'crypto president' and his family has made a series of forays into the sector over the past year. An executive order last week paved the way to allow crypto assets in 401(k) retirement accounts, highlighting an increasingly favorable regulatory environment in the United States. Crypto has scored multiple regulatory wins in the US over 2025, including the passage of stablecoin regulations and the US securities regulator's move to overhaul regulations in order to accommodate the asset class. Top stories Swipe. Select. Stay informed. Asia India, Singapore ministers discuss deeper tie-ups in digitalisation, skills, industrial parks Business More seniors remain employed after retirement and re-employment ages raised in 2022: MOM study Singapore To Vers or not to Vers: How will this scheme affect HDB prices? Asia Malaysia's ex-economy minister says his son was jabbed with syringe in planned attack Singapore askST: Will assets seized in $3b money laundering case be sold at public auctions? Singapore Woman, 68, charged over assaulting maid with scissors and nail clipper Business StarHub first-half profit falls 41.7% to $47.9m; telco eyes 'more aggressive stance' amid competition Singapore From quiet introvert to self-confident student: How this vulnerable, shy teen gets help to develop and discover her strength Bitcoin's surge has also sparked a broader rally in the asset class over the past few months, shrugging off the tremors of Mr Trump's wide-ranging tariff policies. According to data from CoinMarketCap, the crypto sector's overall market capitalisation has ballooned to over US$4.18 trillion (S$5.35 trillion), up from about US$2.5 trillion in November 2024, when Mr Trump won the US presidential election. The latest push for crypto adoption in the US came via an executive order on Thursday last week, which would ease access to the asset class in 401(k) retirement accounts. The executive order could also be a boost for asset managers such as BlackRock and Fidelity, which operate crypto exchange-traded funds (ETFs). Crypto's push into retirement savings can also be peppered with risks, as the asset class tends to experience much more volatility than stocks and bonds, which asset managers had typically relied on for such accounts. REUTERS
Business Times
an hour ago
- Business Times
Trump's 50% tariff threatens India's manufacturing ambitions
[NEW DELHI] India's largest shoemaker Farida Group had already staked out the land, a 150-acre plot in southern Tamil Nadu, for a sprawling new export plant. Then came a blow from Washington: US President Donald Trump announced he was doubling tariffs on Indian exports to 50 per cent. For Farida, which supplies brands such as Cole Haan and Clarks and depends on the US for about 60 per cent of its business, the impact was immediate. New orders stopped. The 10 billion rupee (S$146 million) project froze. 'With 25 per cent tariffs, you can still work, you can give some discount, negotiate with the buyer and make some adjustments in your profits,' Rafeeque Ahmed, the company's chairman, said. 'At 50 per cent, you don't have anything.' Farida is hardly alone. Trump's move would give India the highest tariff rate in Asia, threatening a manufacturing sector that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has spent a decade trying to build to take on the likes of China. The 'Make in India' campaign was supposed to lift manufacturing to 25 per cent of the economy. Last year, it stood at just 13 per cent – lower than the 16 per cent in 2015, according to World Bank data. The last few years did offer glimmers of the future Modi had envisioned. Apple scaled up iPhone assembly in India, making the country the second-largest smartphone producer after China. Pharmaceuticals and green tech have also gained ground. The US, whose policies and actions accelerated companies' adoption of a 'China Plus One' strategy to diversify supply chains, is now India's biggest export market and one of its top sources of foreign investment. BT in your inbox Start and end each day with the latest news stories and analyses delivered straight to your inbox. Sign Up Sign Up That progress is suddenly vulnerable. While the tariff hike spares smartphones and pharmaceuticals for now, it puts the rest of India's US$87 billion in US-bound exports on the line. 'Forget China Plus One right now. Companies are thinking India Plus One,' Ahmed said. 'They are making plans to move out of India.' India's Ministry of Commerce and Industry did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Trump says the tariff hike is punishment for India's purchase of discounted oil from Russia, which he argues helps fund President Vladimir Putin's war on Ukraine. But India was the only major economy to be hit with such 'secondary tariffs', even though China is the largest overall buyer of Moscow's crude. If the 50 per cent rate holds, Bloomberg Economics estimates US-bound exports from India could fall by 60 per cent and put nearly 1 per cent of gross domestic product at risk. Without exemptions for pharmaceuticals and electronics, the decline could reach 80 per cent. Even the earlier 25 per cent rate – already higher than in Vietnam, Malaysia or Bangladesh – was enough to threaten a 30 per cent drop in exports. For comparison, Chinese goods face about a 30 per cent US tariff. 'In addition to the economic challenge, politically it's difficult for Prime Minister Modi that India now pays a higher blanket rate than China,' said Alexander Slater, head of the India practice at consulting firm Capstone. China is pressing on other fronts as well. Beijing wants to limit tech transfers and equipment exports to India and South-east Asia, aiming to deter companies from relocating production, Bloomberg previously reported. China's rare earth curbs also hit Indian automakers earlier this year. At the same time, Trump's tariffs have opened the door for closer India-China ties. Direct flights may resume as soon as next month, and Beijing has eased restrictions on urea exports to India. On the factory floor, anxiety over the US tariff is palpable. Ajay Sahai, chief executive officer of the Federation of Indian Export Organisations, said that exporters could see demand fall 20 per cent in the short term. The timing could not be worse: summer 2026 orders are being placed right now, but with tariffs sitting at 50 per cent, buyers are baulking. 'I have been getting 80 to 90 calls every day concerning these issues from exporters seeking solutions and ways out,' he said. 'It's difficult to do business in such a tariff environment.' Some factories are slashing prices to hold on to customers. The only way to retain buyers is by giving huge discounts, said Sudhir Sekhri, managing director at apparel maker Trend Setters Group. Spring and summer orders account for roughly 65 per cent of his firm's revenue. In Mumbai, Sharad Kumar Saraf, managing director of Technocraft Group, which produces scaffolding, textiles and other goods, is running the numbers to reduce costs for buyers. About a third of its sales are headed for the US. 'Additional tariffs is unwarranted and uncalled for and will impact our trade severely,' he said. There's still the possibility for a reprieve. US and Indian officials are continuing trade talks, with the hopes of landing the first tranche of a bilateral trade deal this fall that could dial back tariffs. Trump will also meet Putin in Alaska this week to discuss Ukraine, any breakthrough there could strengthen the case for dropping America's oil-related levies. But time is not on India's side. The longer the uncertainty drags on, the more companies will start looking elsewhere. India's share in many of these product categories is small and US brands can shift their supply chains quickly if they decide to, said P Senthilkumar, partner at Vector Consulting Group. The tariff threat feels personal for Farida Group, whose shoe plants employ about 23,000 people, with over half producing for the US. Every paused shipment or cancelled order brings painful choices, whether to halt or slow production, or let go of staff who have spent years honing their craft. 'You can't take business decisions in such uncertainty,' said Ahmed. 'What will happen to workers? Shall I send them back? They have been with me for years, they are skilled workers, I can't just send them back.' 'Workers would be one of the biggest sufferers,' he added. BLOOMBERG
