Industries

Apr. 22 – Scientists at the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) near Manila are currently in the process of perfecting a strain of salt-tolerant rice for wider field testing. The scientists have successfully bred a variety of rice that is salt-tolerant, which could enable farmers to reclaim coastal areas rendered useless by sea water and […]

Mar. 19 – Sri Lanka recently unveiled its second international airport in the southeast region of Hambantota. The main focus of opening this new international airport is to promote Sri Lanka’s growing tourism industry along with its southeast coast, and to also assist with freight traffic coming from Sri Lanka’s new Hambantota Port facility that is currently […]

Mar. 19 – In a sure sign that the battle for Asian air passengers is heating up, Indonesia-based budget air carrier Lion Air recently signed a US$24 billion deal with Airbus to purchase 234 A320 aircraft over the next decade. Included in the purchase are the current A320 aircraft and the soon to be introduced […]

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 […]

Feb. 5 – Qantas, Australia’s largest airline, is currently overhauling its Asian strategy by featuring Singapore, Hong Kong and Bangkok as prominent regional hubs as part of its rescheduling of flight times. The strategy is initially aimed to boost Qantas’ penetration of Asia with better connections to flights on partner airlines, but has long term […]

Opinion Commentary: Yao Lu Dec. 20 – The U.S. International Trade Commission (USITC) issued a final ruling on November 7 stating that the U.S. solar industry was “materially hurt” by cheap crystalline silicon photovoltaic cells imported from China, thus allowing Washington to impose an anti-dumping duty ranging from 18.32 percent to 249.96 percent and an […]

Dec. 9 – Within India’s dynamic business environment, the creation of new town centers requires not only sufficient road and rail networks, but should also include proper planning and policy making, the insertion of stakeholders, and the leveraging of available strengths. Mahindra World City (MWC) in Jaipur is one such concept promoted by one of […]

By Nicholas Hopper Aug. 20 – China’s restaurant and food retail market is a difficult one to break into. Competition is fierce and prices are low. Nevertheless, the prospect of getting a share of the most populous market in the world outweighs the associated risks for many foreign restaurant chains. Guillermo García is one of […]

Philippines taking over call-centers, but India looks to retain lead in overall BPO industry By Ian Bhullar Jul. 10 – India is traditionally seen as the choice destination for companies looking to outsource English-language call centers. However, the growth of the Philippines’ business process outsourcing (BPO) industry over the past decade is challenging this position, […]

By Jochen Schanbacher Jun. 27 – Not many foreigners are brave enough to start a company in China, especially an internet business. Willing to try are the people of Yunio (云诺), who have created a cloud storage service much like Dropbox, but with an advantage the competition doesn’t have: access to the Chinese market. I […]