Shankaran Nambiar is a senior research fellow at the Malaysian Institute of Economic Research.

Malaysia's handling of the COVID-19 crisis and the resulting lockdown has come under severe criticism.

Adding to the injury is a crisis of political leadership, with frequent claims by opposition politicians that the current government does not command a parliamentary majority.

Still, a more critical and enduring salvo has come from foreign investors. More specifically, from the Japanese, Dutch and German trade associations that represent them.

The Japanese Chamber of Trade and

TAIPEI -- Huawei Technologies on Friday reported its biggest-ever decline in revenue, with its first half figure plunging more than 29% on the year due to a U.S. clampdown on the company's access to key chip supplies.

The Chinese tech champion said revenue for the first half reached 320.4 billion yuan ($49.56 billion). The company's net profit margin, however, improved to 9.8% from 9.2% in the

TOKYO -- The Tokyo Stock Exchange and Nikkei Inc. announced on Friday that they will reshuffle the component issues of the JPX-Nikkei Index 400 and the JPX-Nikkei Mid and Small Cap Index following a periodic review.

The two JPX-Nikkei indexes will be calculated based on the new component issues from Aug. 31.

The TSE and Nikkei also announced that they will conduct an Index Consultation on the proposed revisions of guidebooks for the JPX-Nikkei Index 400 and the JPX-Nikkei Mid

SEOUL -- Kakao Bank shares soared Friday in their debut on South Korea's benchmark stock exchange, rising almost 80% and making the upstart digital lender the country's most valuable listed financial company.

Kakao Bank had raised 2.6 trillion won ($2.3 billion) in its IPO, offering 65 million shares and making it the second-largest stock flotation so far this year. Krafton, a game developer, raised 4.3 trillion won in its IPO earlier this week and will

TOKYO -- Shares in Nintendo took a dive on Friday after investors were left disappointed by the gaming giant's first quarter earnings, which indicated fading demand for its popular Switch console.

Nintendo's stock tumbled 10% at one point, hitting its lowest intraday level in a year before closing down 7%.

The sharp fall comes a day after the company reported a 13% drop in net profit for the April to June period. Operating profit fell 17% to 119 billion yen (

SINGAPORE/SEOUL -- A virtual ASEAN Regional Forum ministerial meeting Friday evening is expected to look at issues including Korean Peninsula security and, if North Korea sends a representative, provide an opportunity for the reclusive country to talk with the international community.

The annual forum, led by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, is a rare international platform in which Pyongyang regularly participates. Among the 27 members are China, Japan, Russia, South Korea, the U.S. and the European Union.

Most members will have

TOKYO -- I suffered one of the most embarrassing moments of my life the other day, when I finished my bowl of noodles at a popular Chinese restaurant in the Japanese capital and was about to pay the bill.

After telling the server I would use my phone to pay for the meal, I received an utterly unexpected response: "We are cash-only."

My mind went blank. I did not have cash on me. When I told the server of my inadvertent faux pas, I was met by

HONG KONG -- State-run China Telecom is set to raise 54.2 billion yuan ($8.4 billion) in its maiden share sale in Shanghai, mere months after being forced to delist from the New York Stock Exchange.

The offering by one of China's three state telecom groups will be the mainland's largest listing in a decade.

China Telecom in a filing on Friday said it will issue up to 11.96 billion shares at 4.53 yuan apiece.

TAIPEI -- China's top contract chipmaker, Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp., said on Friday that strong domestic demand is helping it deliver robust earnings despite a U.S. crackdown that has restricted the company's access to American technologies since last year.

However, SMIC also acknowledged that Washington's trade restrictions have impacted its development of more advanced chips.

SMIC's revenue for the April-June period grew more than 43% on the year to $1.34 billion, while net