Indonesia’s China-backed high-speed train sparks concerns of debt trap

Indonesia is starting trial runs for its first high-speed train, which will connect the capital Jakarta to a neighboring city of Bandung, after years of delays and cost overruns plagued the project. Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images A $7.3 billion high-speed electric rail line between Indonesia’s two biggest cities is set to be launched … Read more

ASEAN moves closer to economic unity with new regional payments system

Indonesian President Joko Widodo makes a speech during the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Foreign Minister’s Meeting in Jakarta, Indonesia on July 14, 2023. Murat Gok | Anadolu Agency | Getty Images A new regional cross-border payment system recently implemented by Southeast Asian nations could deepen financial integration among participants, bringing the ASEAN bloc … Read more

Grab cuts 1,000 jobs, its biggest round of layoffs since the pandemic

The headquarters of Grab Holdings Ltd., in Singapore. Grab Holdings Ltd., reported its latest earnings on Feb. 23, 2023. Bryan van der Beek | Bloomberg | Getty Images Singapore-based Grab Holdings is cutting over 1,000 jobs, its CEO said Tuesday, in a bid to manage costs and reorganize the company in a competitive landscape. In … Read more

TikTok to invest billions of dollars in Southeast Asia, CEO says

TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew speaks at the TikTok Southeast Asia Impact Forum in Jakarta on June 15, 2023. Bay Ismoyo | Afp | Getty Images Short video app TikTok, owned by China’s ByteDance, said on Thursday it would invest billions of dollars in Southeast Asia over the next few years, as it doubles down on the … Read more

ASEAN’s digital economy has great potential, but roadblocks remain

ASEAN has a high internet penetration rate of over 70%. Carlina Teteris | Moment | Getty Images Southeast Asia’s digital economy has plenty of growth potential, backed by strong fundamentals including over 460 million digital consumers, young and tech-savvy populations, as well as rising internet penetration. The digital economy across six countries within the Association … Read more

Metaverse could pump $1.4 trillion a year into Asia’s GDP: Deloitte

The impact of the metaverse to GDP in Asia could be between $0.8 and 1.4 trillion per year by 2035, said a new Deloitte report. Weiquan Lin | Moment | Getty Images Meta‘s huge bet on the metaverse may have put the company in dire straits, but a new Deloitte report suggests that virtual realities … Read more

Plastic pollution credits could be the new carbon offsets

Humanity has produced over 9.5 billion metric tons of plastic. That’s over one metric ton, aka 2,200 pounds, per each of the Earth’s 7.9 billion inhabitants. That plastic doesn’t go away. “All the plastic we’ve ever produced since the inception of the material is still here,” said David Katz, Founder and Chairman of Plastic Bank, … Read more

Tips from eFishery founder Gibran Huzaifah on running a profitable start-up

Indonesian Gibran Huzaifah Amsi El Farizy is no stranger to the start-up world. While he was still a college student, Farizy started his own fish-rearing business — and by the time he graduated in 2012, he was managing 76 ponds. Now at 33, Farizy runs Indonesia-based startup eFishery, which developed products such as automatic feeders … Read more

Tech startups trying to fill tech gap

A worker refills a robotic dispenser by eFishery, an agritech startup, at a fish farm in Subang Regency in West Java, Indonesia, in June 2022. The startup helps farmers optimize their processes through automatic feeders and mobile apps. Dimas Ardian | Bloomberg | Getty Images Indonesia’s tech startups are reeling in big money in seafood … Read more

Indonesia’s GoTo reports wider nine-month loss

Motorcyclists travel past a billboard advertising GoTo’s initial public offering in Jakarta, Indonesia, on Friday, April 8, 2022. GoTo, formed through the merger of Gojek with e-commerce pioneer Tokopedia, raised $1.1 billion in one of the worlds biggest stock debuts this year and is slated to list in Jakarta April 11. Dimas Ardian | Bloomberg … Read more