The election of Indonesia's new president dominated an economics conference in neighboring Singapore yesterday, where economists and government leaders from around the world expressed hope that the Southeast Asian nation's new leader would restore stability in the region.
However, despite optimism over the election of Indonesia's new president, economic experts continued to express caution over the fragility of the economic recovery in Asia. They warned that East Asia and Japan must stimulate domestic demand to ward off a threat to the region's recovery in case of a demand slowdown from the US.
Clyde Pirestowitz, president of the Economic Strategy Institute, said much of the rebound is financed by massive deficit spending by governments kick-starting their economies by creating demand.
Such deficit financing is possible only in the short term, he said, noting most of the countries are trying to achieve export-led recovery by selling to the US.
"The US cannot possibly continue as the great market for goods from all over the world indefinitely," Pirestowitz said at the East Asia Summit. "At some point in time, it will have to consume less and save more."
He proposed that Asia boost domestic demand by pruning the high domestic savings rates.
"Promoting domestic demand in both East Asia and Japan would fuel optimism by supporting production at home and in the region," said Pirestowitz, whose institute specializes in trade policy issues.
Other economic experts proposed closer ties between Europe and Asia. According to Tommy Koh, executive director of Singapore's Asia-Europe Foundation and ambassador-at-large, said Asia shares Europe's desire for closer ties as part of creating a balance between its relations with North America and the Continent.
"The US represents a greater source of trade and investment for Asia than Europe, underscoring the potential for closer links," Koh said at a session addressing Europe's potential for competing with the US in Asia.
Greater transparency afforded by its union and a wave of company mergers would make Europe more confident about expansion into Asia, Koh said.
"The bottom line is this," Koh said. "Europe cannot compete with the US in East Asia unless its companies are competitive at home."
Charming US President Donald Trump one week, angering China the next, Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi has had a busy start and is riding high in the polls, all on a few hours of sleep a night. However, the honeymoon might end soon for the Margaret Thatcher-admiring leader if a spat with China escalates further and she fails to keep inflation in check. “I believe Prime Minister Takaichi will surely do what she needs to do, so I trust her,” Kozue Otsuka, 50, told reporters at a festival this week for business owners seeking good fortune. While buying a lucky kumade rake featuring
TECH TITANS: Amazon’s latest chip joins Google in competing for the 90 percent market share held by Nvidia, which claims it is ‘a generation ahead of the industry’ Amazon Web Services (AWS) on Tuesday launched its in-house-built Trainium3 artificial intelligence (AI) chip, marking a significant push to compete with Nvidia Corp in the lucrative market for AI computing power. The move intensifies competition in the AI chip market, where Nvidia dominates with an estimated 80 to 90 percent market share for products used in training large language models that power the likes of ChatGPT. Google last week caused tremors in the industry when it was reported that Facebook-parent Meta Platforms Inc would employ Google AI chips in data centers, signaling new competition for Nvidia. This followed the release last month of
INSULATED: The company said it is less exposed to global complications, as it has built a strong footprint worldwide, and has multiple sources of rare earths and raw minerals Merck Group yesterday said it would ramp up production next year at its new flagship facility in Kaohsiung’s Lujhu District (路竹) to satisfy growing demand for advanced semiconductor materials and specialty gases, and to address supply resilience issues amid mounting geopolitical risks. Merck made the remarks during a news conference before the inauguration of its 500 million euros (US$582.1 million) facility, which is also to supply other markets in the Asia-Pacific region, it said. Merck executive board deputy chair and electronics CEO Kai Beckmann told reporters the company adopted a “local-for-local” strategy about seven years ago to address the cycle time of
Two companies wholly owned by the daughter of the founder of Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) on Monday reported to the Taiwan Stock Exchange that they would dispose of all of the Hon Hai shares they hold. In filings with the exchange, Hong Wei Investment Co (鋐維) said it would sell the 2.771 million Hon Hai shares it holds and Frontier Investment Corp (承鋒投資) said it would sell its 2.409 million Hon Hai shares from tomorrow until Jan. 3 next year. The two companies are wholly owned and chaired by Shirley Gou (郭曉玲), the eldest daughter of Hon Hai founder Terry
RSS