APR News

The Cabinet Office’s coincident index of business conditions for January was down 2.7 points from the previous month at 97.9 against the 2015 base of 100. It was the index’s third consecutive decline, prompting the office to say that it was “signaling a possible turning point.” Prior to that, the office had said conditions were “weakening.”

Information on The Japan Times

Indexes of Business Conditions on the Cabinet Office website

Two of the largest Japanese firms with operations in the Kingdom are planning to build new facilities at Phnom Penh Special Economic Zone (PPSEZ). 

Indonesia’s economic growth continued to accelerate in 2018. Based on data from Statistics Indonesia (Badan Pusat Statistik, or BPS), which were released in early February 2019, the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) expanded 5.17 percent year-on-year (y/y) in full-year 2018, up from a growth rate of 5.07 percent in the preceding year.

United Overseas Bank (UOB) and OctoRocket.asia (OctoRocket), a business to the business e-commerce platform, announced on February, 28 that they have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to enable small businesses in ASEAN on OctoRocket to apply for financing quickly and easily.       

Manufacturing activity in Singapore shrank for the sixth consecutive month in February, as demand for made-in-Singapore goods as well as employment levels slowed, amid an uncertain economic and trade environment at home and abroad.

Japan logged a current account surplus in January, the government said in a report. According to the Finance Ministry, the current account surplus here stood at 600.4 billion yen (5.4 billion U.S. dollars) in the recording month, with Japan logging a surplus for the 55th straight month.

The Japan Patent Office (JPO) announced that the Cabinet has approved the Bill for the Act of Partial Revision of the Patent Act. 

SEOUL, March 7 (Yonhap) - Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy of South Korea and the state-run Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency (KOTRA) said they will take part in a startup festival in Texas and get more U.S. businesses to invest in the country.

Korea's per capita gross national income (GNI) exceeded a record USD 30,000 last year, 12 years after breaking the USD 20,000 mark in 2006, the Bank of Korea said on March 5.

The B20 members handed over the business community’s recommendations to Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe at the closing session of the Business 20 (B20) summit, a key event of the Japan Business Federation (Keidanren) Presidency in the B20.