SEA

About 1.2 billion people in Developing Asia-Pacific remain offline despite near-universal mobile coverage, according to a new report from GSMA Intelligence.

According to the PSA, bad weather was a primary factor causing millions of employed Filipinos to work fewer hours, directly impacting worker take-home pay and creating administrative complexity for employers managing variable shifts, overtime, and statutory reporting.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) projects global growth will slow to 3.1 percent in 2026 before recovering to 3.4 percent in 2027, while within Southeast Asia, Vietnam at 8.4 percent growth and Malaysia at 5.2 percent can lead the region.

The expansion, made through a partnership with Thailand-based market-access and B2B consultancy RevSEA, kicked off last month with the launch of an 18-month gamified marketing campaign for one of Myanmar’s largest e-wallet providers.

The capital will be used to support developing economies in Southeast Asia, including Vietnam, Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia and Thailand, which rely on high-emitting fossil fuel power generation, to transit to a renewables-based future.

Singapore Fashion Council has launched a Sustainability Readiness Intelligence tool to help ASEAN fashion businesses assess regulatory and market readiness.

IFS Capital has signed a S$79 million securitization backed by Singapore MSME loans, with DBS as arranger and CapitaLand Investment taking the senior notes.

Mynt has priced its proposed GCash IPO at PHP 6.60 per share, setting a PHP 53 billion base offer that could rise to PHP 60.9 billion.

Indian fintech firm Pine Labs announced Tuesday a unified platform for merchants in Singapore that combines payment acceptance, acquiring, instalment payments and customer engagement.

A third of semiconductor companies plan to expand manufacturing into Asia-Pacific markets over the next three years as the AI boom drives chip demand, according to global courier FedEx.