RUSSIA
Investors quit with US$36bn
Foreign investors who left the country after selling their businesses in the year prior to March withdrew about US$36 billion from the country, state news agency RIA Novosti reported yesterday, citing analysis of data from the central bank. Scores of the world’s biggest companies have left or scaled back their operations in the country in response to Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine in February last year. Last week, the central bank played down the effect of foreign company exits, saying that about 200 sale deals had been completed in the year through March, with just 20 percent involving large asset sales, or those in excess of US$100 million.
VIETNAM
Exports shrink for 4th month
Exports contracted for a fourth month this year, adding to risks of a growth slowdown in an economy already battling a crisis in the local property sector. Exports declined 5.9 percent and imports shrank 18.4 percent from a year earlier, data released by General Statistics Office in Hanoi said. While the drop in exports was slower than a 10.3 percent fall seen in a Bloomberg survey, the imports performed worse than expected. Headline inflation this month quickened 2.43 percent from a year earlier, the lowest level in 14 months, other data showed. Meanwhile, core inflation came in at 4.54 percent.
AIRLINES
Asia carriers boost ties
Singapore Airlines Ltd and PT Garuda Indonesia are seeking to deepen ties with a commercial pact to coordinate on fares and flight schedules, the carriers announced yesterday. Singapore’s flag carrier and Indonesia’s main airline said the arrangement, which expands on a memorandum of understanding the two signed in November 2021, would likely cover routes between Singapore and Denpasar in Bali, Jakarta, and Surabaya, a port city in Java. The arrangement also envisages the implementation of new initiatives, including joint fare products and corporate programs, they added.
AIRLINES
Go raises pay to save itself
Go Airlines India Ltd plans to raise salaries of captains by 100,000 rupees (US$1,210) a month and by 50,000 rupees for first officers as it tries to salvage its operations after filing for insolvency on May 2. The additional pay, which the airline calls a retention allowance, would come into effect on Thursday, according to an e-mail to pilots seen by Bloomberg News. It would also be offered to those who have left the company but are willing to withdraw their resignations by June 15. The airline said it would also soon reintroduce a “longevity bonus” for long-serving staff.
CEMENT
Firm fined over cave art risk
Norway’s wealth fund has placed an Indonesian state-controlled cement maker, in which it has a stake, under observation for three years for what it calls “risk of damage” from the firm’s activities to prehistoric cave paintings on Sulawesi island. A Semen Indonesia subsidiary operates a mine near 18 caves in South Sulawesi that house some of the world’s oldest paintings, said Norges Bank, which manages the world’s biggest sovereign wealth fund Norges Bank Investment Management. “The background for the decision is unacceptable risk of damage on prehistoric and irreplaceable culture heritage,” Norges Bank said on Thursday.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) would not produce its most advanced technologies in the US next year, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) said yesterday. Kuo made the comment during an appearance at the legislature, hours after the chipmaker announced that it would invest an additional US$100 billion to expand its manufacturing operations in the US. Asked by Taiwan People’s Party Legislator-at-large Chang Chi-kai (張啟楷) if TSMC would allow its most advanced technologies, the yet-to-be-released 2-nanometer and 1.6-nanometer processes, to go to the US in the near term, Kuo denied it. TSMC recently opened its first US factory, which produces 4-nanometer
PROTECTION: The investigation, which takes aim at exporters such as Canada, Germany and Brazil, came days after Trump unveiled tariff hikes on steel and aluminum products US President Donald Trump on Saturday ordered a probe into potential tariffs on lumber imports — a move threatening to stoke trade tensions — while also pushing for a domestic supply boost. Trump signed an executive order instructing US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick to begin an investigation “to determine the effects on the national security of imports of timber, lumber and their derivative products.” The study might result in new tariffs being imposed, which would pile on top of existing levies. The investigation takes aim at exporters like Canada, Germany and Brazil, with White House officials earlier accusing these economies of
Teleperformance SE, the largest call-center operator in the world, is rolling out an artificial intelligence (AI) system that softens English-speaking Indian workers’ accents in real time in a move the company claims would make them more understandable. The technology, called accent translation, coupled with background noise cancelation, is being deployed in call centers in India, where workers provide customer support to some of Teleperformance’s international clients. The company provides outsourced customer support and content moderation to global companies including Apple Inc, ByteDance Ltd’s (字節跳動) TikTok and Samsung Electronics Co Ltd. “When you have an Indian agent on the line, sometimes it’s hard
PROBE CONTINUES: Those accused falsely represented that the chips would not be transferred to a person other than the authorized end users, court papers said Singapore charged three men with fraud in a case local media have linked to the movement of Nvidia’s advanced chips from the city-state to Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) firm DeepSeek (深度求索). The US is investigating if DeepSeek, the Chinese company whose AI model’s performance rocked the tech world in January, has been using US chips that are not allowed to be shipped to China, Reuters reported earlier. The Singapore case is part of a broader police investigation of 22 individuals and companies suspected of false representation, amid concerns that organized AI chip smuggling to China has been tracked out of nations such
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