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Kok Xinghui
Correspondent, Asia
Xinghui was an Asia desk journalist based in Singapore.
Soaring inflation, growing rich-poor divide and declining social mobility have left middle-class families feeling the squeeze.
Rents in Singapore’s private residential market rose by double-digits in the first half of this year, a rate not seen since 2007.
Better consumer protection will soon follow, with the new rules also aimed at attracting ‘strong crypto players to be based here’.
The number visiting Australia last month was at pre-pandemic levels; many people are booking extra overseas trips, while others travel less but spend more.
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Singapore’s confident it can keep inflation in check, but the Philippines could tip over into recession, analysts say – as Thailand looks to tourism to save the day.
In his first major policy speech since sealing his status as PM Lee’s successor, Wong said Singapore needed to update its ‘social compact’ given anxieties over income, wealth gap.
The city has tightened its Global Investor Programme rules over the years, such as requiring applicants to manage firms with revenues of S$200 million, but interest continues to be strong.
While there’s strong immunity, government is reminding people, particularly over 60s, that jab number 3 hugely reduces risk of death or serious illness.
Adult Singaporeans earning below S$34,000 (US$24,500) a year will receive S$300 in cash in August, and every household will get S$100 to offset utilities.
Surveys show growing support for abolishing the colonial-era law that makes sex between men illegal, but other policies could be tightened to appease the city state’s conservatives if it is scrapped.
Prices for private and public homes have increased, but high-profile buyers aren’t to blame, observers say, as demand exceeds supply and construction costs rise.
Wong, 49, will become one of Singapore’s two deputy prime ministers and retain his current portfolio as finance minister. But the lack of major movement in Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong’s cabinet suggests the ruling party’s succession process remains ‘delayed’, an analyst said.
Singapore’s loss of one-third of its chicken supply following Malaysia’s export ban has reinforced its vulnerability to shocks in the food supply chain.
The recent moves by Asian governments to save their own food supplies have sent already inflated food prices soaring across the region.
The fully vaccinated can now pack their bags and head off overseas as many Covid-19 restrictions have eased but there are still some dos and don’ts to bear in mind.
From Singapore to Japan, and most everywhere in between, inbound travel protocols are being relaxed. Soaring food prices, inflation and global supply chain disruptions threaten the region’s tourism rebound, however.
Even as the unvaccinated nation faces a collapse of its health system, Pyongyang has rebuffed aid offers from South Korea and the UN.
Sun Haiyan, a longtime member of the International Liaison Department, is China’s 12th ambassador to Singapore.
While the landmark decision is at risk of being rolled back in the US, no such debates have roiled Asia, although a stigma persists in some places.
Asean leaders will review the Asean-US Strategic Partnership, while Biden is expected to pitch his Indo-Pacific Economic Framework during the summit.
Co-founders of the two-year-old start-up Amili have developed five probiotics supplements based on their studies of what Asian guts lack.
Archbishop William Goh apologises on behalf of the Church after a ‘prominent’ man in Singapore’s Catholic community pleads guilty to two charges and is jailed for five years.
The city state’s mosques are once again bustling with worshippers as Eid al-Fitr celebrations return at full scale, after last month’s lifting of capacity limits and social-distancing curbs.
As the city state relaxes its pandemic rules, there has been a flurry of reopening in the F&B sector and operators are on a hiring drive, creating stiff competition for talent.
Nagaenthran K. Dharmalingam had been in prison since 2009 for bringing 42 grams of heroin into Singapore. He was hanged on April 27 after his mother’s last-ditch legal challenge was dismissed.
All residents can now gather in large groups and stop using the TraceTogether app at most places in the city state, which also axed pre-departure Covid tests.
NZ and Singapore both condemn Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, are ‘staunch supporters’ of international rule of law, PM Ardern said on her first trip since the pandemic hit.
From next year, the city state will allow single women aged 21 to 35 to freeze their eggs. But fertility is a complex matter, as South Korea, Malaysia and Thailand’s experience shows.
PM Lee Hsien Loong’s guitar-shredding successor grew up in a public housing flat and went to non-elite schools – and is expected to favour ‘not rocking the boat’ when he takes over the top job.
Singapore’s ruling PAP said an ‘overwhelming majority’ of the party’s younger ministers endorsed Lawrence Wong as the leader of the ‘4G’ group.
