News

By Nathanael Susanto, Business Manager, Singapore, Dezan Shira & Associates Mar. 13 – The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) framework is fundamentally designed to be identical to the free trade agreement model, and is also known as a “high standard” agreement aiming at emerging trade issues in the 21st Century. The 16th round of the TPP negotiations […]

Mar. 13 – As Internet use in Asia continues to develop thanks to Asia’s seemingly infinitely growing Internet penetration rates and a consistently growing number of web users, methods to go online have evolved from the usual desktop experience into something much more, literally, mobile. Because of Asia’s broadband infrastructure, accessing the Internet has proven […]

By Eunice Ku and Nathanael Susanto, Dezan Shira & Associates Mar. 12 – As a financial and services hub, Singapore is the de facto financial capital of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). For companies interested in doing business with ASEAN, the place to start is Singapore. Companies in Singapore enjoy a low corporate […]

By Sondre Solstad Mar. 8 – Over 600 delegates from 11 countries are currently meeting in Singapore with an aim to continue progress on the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement. “This is the 16th round of negotiations, and a very important one,” stated Malaysia’s Minister of International Trade and Industry, Datuk Seri Mustapa Mohamed. The TPP […]

By Himanshu Joshi, Accounts Associate, Dezan Shira & Associates Mar. 8 – In order to provide small business owners relief from the tedious work of book keeping, auditing and compliance, sections 44AD and 44AE of the Income Tax Act 1961 allows an assessee to determine their income on a presumptive basis. This allows income to […]

Mar. 8 – The General Statistical Office (GSO) announced that total revenues from retail trade and services throughout the first two months of 2013 were estimated at a total of VND422.2 trillion (US$20.59 billion) – 10.9 percent year-on-year gain. In addition, HSBC recently released a report that predicted Vietnam’s GDP to continue to grow in […]

By Sondre Solstad Mar. 7 – Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (Walmart) has announced a “Zero-Tolerance Policy” on unauthorized sub-contracting, affecting all suppliers of Walmart stores and subsidiaries in the United States, United Kingdom and Canada. Effective from March 1, the Zero Tolerance Policy for subcontracting replaces the multinational retail giant’s former three-strike-rule, and indicates that Wal-Mart […]

By Alex Tangkilisan Mar. 7 – In the fourth and final part of our ASEAN-India Free Trade Area analysis, we will examine trade trends and statistics from India to Thailand, Singapore and Malaysia. Thailand, Singapore and Malaysia account for three of ASEAN’s six major economies known as the ASEAN six majors (the other three being […]

Mar. 4 – The Minister for Finance delivered Singapore’s yearly budget to the Singapore Parliament last week. The main focus of the budget was to continue the process of restructuring Singapore’s economy by increasing the productivity of its workforce, reducing Singapore’s dependence on its foreign workforce and providing incentives to encourage local businesses to be […]

Mar. 1 – The Malaysian state of Sabah has been in the headlines after a group of Philippine tribes, lead by the Sultan of Sulu, sailed from their home base in the remote Southern area of the Philippines to stake a claim on the Malaysian territory. The Sultan, now aged 74, has lead a group […]