First conceived at the 19th ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) Summit in Bali, Indonesia, way back in 2011, the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) finally came into fruition on November 15 at this year’s 37th ASEAN Summit. In line with these pandemic times, while the ASEAN meeting was nominally held in Hanoi, Vietnam, it […]

While the impact of coronavirus on Indian industry has so far been moderate, India’s extremely high import dependence on China means there are significant ramifications for Indian industry. Of the top 20 products that India imports from around the world, the average Chinese share is close to 30 percent. Sectors in India that have been […]

China is the largest source of imports (2018) for 9 of the 10 Southeast Asian economies and the largest or second largest export market (2018) for seven of the countries in the region, Indeed, as an economic bloc, Southeast Asia is China’s second largest overall trading partner, trailing the EU but ahead of the USA. […]

Singapore is looking to enable an efficient last mile network by developing a single interoperable platform to facilitate e-commerce.

Trade issues, usually of esoteric interest to readers of the business pages, are increasingly and literally becoming front page news, most notably with the current US-China trade spat. Given this rather fraught backdrop, free trade proponents would have been heartened by the long awaited launch of the Asia Pacific FTA known as the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership, or CPTPP, just before the turn of the new year.

Airships. Maybe it’s just me but whenever I hear that word it’s a grainy black & white newsreel of the Hindenburg spectacularly burning up over New Jersey in 1937 at the end of a transatlantic flight that centers in my mind. So I was intrigued when one of my fellow organizing committee members for the […]

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in a speech to American business leaders in New York on September 19 said this: “Japan and the US must each obtain domestic approval of the TPP as soon as possible. Success or failure will sway the direction of the global free trade system, and the strategic environment in the […]

As well as 2015 being the warmest year since records began (in 1850), it was also pretty hot 12 months in the area of business mergers and acquisitions, which hit a new high of $4.3 trillion in deals struck. Specifically in the logistics industry, several so-called mega deals led to a near year-on-year doubling of […]

Ring out the old, ring in the new, so the saying goes. Indeed, because while 2015 was fading out this last December 31, the new ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) was being born. But if you live much beyond the shores of Southeast Asia it is likely news of this particular birth passed you by. So […]

I wrote previously on this blog about how Singapore’s superior infrastructure has helped to make it a stand-out performer in logistics in the Asia region and, indeed, globally. But you don’t have to go very away from the Lion City to find a country that is conversely hampered by inadequate infrastructure and poor logistics performance. […]

5, 4, 3, 2, 1 … Thunderbirds are go! If you have ever seen this British TV puppet animation series or the Hollywood movie spin-off, you’ll know that Thunderbirds is about an organization called International Rescue, which is called into action when a disaster strikes somewhere around the world. From their base in Tracy Island, […]

First-time visitors coming in to Singapore’s Changi Airport often remark on its salubrious surroundings and smooth, efficient processes – a main performance target is to have the first bag on the belt within 12 minutes of aircraft touchdown, for instance. But this is not just for show. Well beyond the airport, world-class infrastructure and high […]

An announcement from DHL a few weeks ago heralding the success of a pilot project in Europe  involving the use of augmented reality for order picking is yet more evidence that when it comes to high technology, the once humble warehouse is not being left behind. For three weeks, 10 workers at a DHL customer […]

The reaction came thick and fast. Logistics service provider Agility referred to it as a tragic failure, no less, citing big losers in developing countries across Africa, Asia and Latin America. DHL, FedEx, TNT and UPS, in the form of the Express Association of America, bemoaned the loss of potentially large gains in world trade, […]