BANGKOK -- The retail arm of Thailand's state-owned energy giant PTT, PTT Oil and Retail Business (PTTOR) plans an overseas expansion for an entirely different kind of fuel, as the group looks to more than triple the number of overseas shops in its Cafe Amazon coffee chain to 1,000 by 2025.

The chain currently has 298 locations outside of Thailand. PTTOR aims to ink franchise a greements with established food and beverage operators to add more coffee shops abroad.

TOKYO -- Imagine you are a policymaker looking to raise your country's low birthrate, what should you do? One important step is to encourage men to do more child care and housework, according to an analysis by Nikkei.

Japan's birthrate came to 1.34 children per woman in 2020, down from 1.36 in 2019 and hitting its lowest point since 2007, while the government's target is 1.8. The "replacement

HO CHI MINH CITY/TAIPEI -- Vietnam's slow reopening this past week was bittersweet for Stanley Furniture, which had been in COVID lockdown along with thousands of other manufacturers, from Netflix supplier ASRock to shoe giant Pou Chen. On the one hand, Stanley employees were glad to go back to making desks and drawers. On the other, their goods are stuck in storage because global shipping costs skyrocketed.

That is just one of many risks hanging over the fragile supply chain even after Ho Chi Minh City and surrounding

TAIPEI -- As China turns up the military heat on Taiwan, former Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott said on a trip to Taipei that global democracies should stand "shoulder to shoulder" with the island.

Speaking at a meeting with Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen, Abbott said he hoped his trip would "help to end the isolation from which Taiwan has been suffering for so many decades" and be the start of many future visits.

"Taiwan is in many respects a model for the wider world, certainly a model

NEW DELHI -- Indian conglomerate Adani Group has signed a deal worth over $700 million to build a container terminal at the strategic Colombo port, a move that observers say will give a boost to Sri Lanka's struggling economy, where the expanding Chinese presence is a matter of concern to Delhi.

The Indian company reached an agreement with the state-run Sri Lanka Ports Authority (SLPA) and private company John Keells Holdings to jointly develop the West Container Terminal (WCT) at the port, a recent

TOKYO -- Roughly eight months since the civilian government was forced out of power in Myanmar, the Southeast Asian country is on the brink of a full-scale civil war as the military cracks down on peaceful protests and the parallel National Unity Government -- formed in exile by democratically elected leaders -- calls for open revolt.

The death toll from military airstrikes and targeted burnings is now growing even among noncombatants. The international community, and in particular Japan, must step up its efforts to prevent the crisis from escalating any

TOKYO -- Asian financial hubs like Singapore and Hong Kong are benefiting from rising demand for cross-border corporate arbitration driven by the coronavirus pandemic, partly thanks to the prevalence of English in those cities.

A total of 2,997 cases were submitted last year to five of the world's largest venues -- London, Paris, Singapore, Hong Kong and Stockholm -- a 35% jump from 2019. The upward trend has continued in 2021, according to the

MANILA -- Vice President Leni Robredo, the Philippines' most powerful opposition figure, said Thursday she would run for president in next year's election.

Robredo, who has slammed President Rodrigo Duterte's bloody drug war and pro-China policies, is so far the only major runner to identify as an opposition candidate.

"I will fight. We will fight. I am offering myself as a candidate for president in the 2022 elections," Robredo said in a televised address on Thursday. She

Nan Li is associate professor of finance at the Antai College of Economics & Management at Shanghai Jiao Tong University. John D. Van Fleet supports industry relations for the Antai College.

It seems that nary a month goes by without some Anglophone media outlet making space for yet more misleading news coverage about Jack Ma's Ant Group and China's financial sector overall.

Last month's eruption was about supposedly new and nefarious regulatory actions infringing on Ant's hard-won entrepreneurial successes and innovations. If only they'