Indonesia has unveiled a new vision to transform the holiday island of Bali into a global finance hub inspired by destinations such as Dubai, Hong Kong and Singapore, but the tourist hotspot faces a raft of systemic and infrastructural hurdles before it can attain the lofty goal. Indonesian Chief Economic Minister Airlangga Hartarto earlier this week said the government was finalising regulations to establish a financial hub in the Kura Kura Special Economic Zone (SEZ) on Serangan island, 500...

The European Commission is working on a new trade weapon as the continent struggles to contend with a flood of low-cost imports from China. The tool may be presented at a May 29 gathering of the European Union’s executive branch, the South China Morning Post reported on Tuesday. Plans for a China-focused meeting were delayed from last month after the US-Israeli war on Iran prompted a new agenda focused on energy prices. It’s not clear what form the instrument will take. Business groups have been...

The European Union’s push to bar Chinese suppliers from its critical infrastructure under a proposed new Cybersecurity Act would cost the bloc a jaw-dropping €367.8 billion (US$431.4 billion) over the next five years, a new study has warned. The law’s vast price tag comes from the need to rip out and replace huge amounts of Chinese hardware – a task that alone could cost €146.2 billion – with other losses stemming from resource reallocation, service disruptions, employment adjustments and legal...

Hong Kong’s retail sales jumped by 12.8 per cent in March, bringing first-quarter growth to 9.8 per cent, driven by a spurt in sales of electric cars ahead of the withdrawal of tax breaks. Provisional figures released by the Census and Statistics Department on Wednesday showed that retail sales reached HK$33.9 billion (US$4.32 billion) in March. The March increase was largely fuelled by car sales as buyers raced to make deals before the first registration tax concessions for electric cars ended...

It was the perfect split-screen for the race to succeed Donald Trump – so long as your name is Marco Rubio and not J.D. Vance. In a packed White House briefing room, journalists shouted over each other in a bid to get a question from the US secretary of state. At the same time Vice-President Vance – Rubio’s most likely rival for the 2028 Republican presidential nomination – was hundreds of kilometres away from the action at a political fundraiser in Oklahoma. “Guys, this is chaos,” said Rubio as...

Fewer than 5 per cent of Hong Kong flights have been cancelled for May and June combined, and about 1 per cent during the peak July travel period, the Airport Authority has said, despite a global fuel crisis triggered by the Middle East war, adding it would review charges to ease the industry’s burden. Responding to a lawmaker’s questions, Secretary for Transport and Logistics Mable Chan said on Wednesday that the figures were compiled by the authority, which operates Hong Kong International...

Asia’s next food crisis is under way. After the US-Israeli strikes on Iran, shipping through the Strait of Hormuz collapsed, sending shock waves across energy, fertiliser and food systems. Fuel, freight and fertiliser costs are rising sharply, amplified by skyrocketing insurance premiums – feeding directly into the price of every tonne of fertiliser that still reaches the market. The scale of disruption reflects the strait’s outsize role in global trade. It carries around one-third of globally...