Eva Chin writes for RECATOOLS on business and commerce in Southeast Asia: the commercial decisions small businesses actually face, and the markets and regulation around them. She also covers Chinese naming and cultural practice, education and qualifications across the region, and the arithmetic of a tropical home. Coverage of cultural practice is educational — it explains what a tradition holds and where it came from, and does not make predictive claims.

128
Articles
Business
Primary beat
Jul 2026
Writing since
~862 min
Total reading
All 128 Business 101 Chinese Culture 25 Home & Living 2

Articles · Business Showing 1–10 of 101

Machinery on a factory floor with daylight falling through high windows
Business

A Korean Chipmaker Lost $9.3m in Vietnam. That Was the Small Problem.

The subsidiary reported a net loss of KRW85.7 billion on KRW174 billion of revenue, and the parent injected capital two months later.

20 Sep 2026 · 5 min read
Traffic on a multi-lane Singapore expressway at dusk, with a landscaped central divider
Business

Singapore Welcomed Waymo and Capped How Fast It Can Deploy

The transport minister counted the jobs it would create. His own road authority said driverless cars will not arrive faster than displaced drivers can be retrained.

19 Sep 2026 · 5 min read
A rider in a yellow jacket on an electric scooter waits in a busy street as pedestrians pass behind
Business

Grab Paid $1.49bn for a Lending Business It Chose Not to Build

The cash is only half the arrangement. What the remaining 40 per cent will cost has already been fixed by a formula, floor and cap included, years before anyone pays it.

19 Sep 2026 · 6 min read
A shopkeeper in an apron holds out a card terminal while a customer taps a phone against it, shelves of pottery behind them
Business

Ant International's 89.5% AI Adoption Claim Has No Audit

The adoption figures are precise to a decimal place and every one is the company's own. The headline product is an account built for software to spend without a person approving it.

18 Sep 2026 · 6 min read
A hand holding a blank payment card above a card terminal on an orange surface
Business

SBI Group Anchors the Final Round of dtcpay's US$25 Million Series A

Japan's SBI Group takes a position in a licensed Singapore stablecoin payments firm. Volume, merchants, revenue and valuation all went undisclosed.

18 Sep 2026 · 5 min read
Workers in hairnets at sewing machines on a garment factory floor, with stacks of folded fabric on trolleys
Business

Malaysia's minimum wage sets three daily rates, not one

RM1,700 a month is the headline, but the same order sets a daily rate that rises as the working week shortens — RM78.46 for a five-day employee, not the RM65.38 that dividing by 26 produces. Its hourly rate also sits above the one the Employment Act's own formula gives.

18 Sep 2026 · 6 min read
Singapore's Parliament House in front of the central business district towers, a Singapore flag flying behind it
Business

Singapore's Small Claims Tribunals shut two years before your claim expires

The tribunals lose jurisdiction two years after the cause of action accrued, while a contract claim lives for six under the Limitation Act. For four of those years the claim is enforceable and the cheap forum is closed — and the $30,000 ceiling needs the other side's signature.

18 Sep 2026 · 6 min read
A receding row of national flags on poles against a pale sky
Business

Costa Rica Joins the Digital Trade Pact Singapore Started

The fifth party to DEPA, and the second to accede. Six applicants remain outside, including China, whose process opened in 2022 and has not finished.

18 Sep 2026 · 5 min read
The Hanoi skyline at golden hour, high-rise towers above dense low-rise housing
Business

VinFast Is Buying Its Founder's Property Company for $1.2 Billion

The filing says the price is at a discount to an independent valuation. It does not name the valuer, publish the valuation, or say how large the discount is.

17 Sep 2026 · 6 min read
Stacks of silver and two-tone coins on a dark surface.
Business

Thai severance pay now reaches 400 days, and so does the tax exemption

Thailand's severance table stopped at 300 days' wages until 2019. The Labour Protection Act now has a sixth tier of 400 days for twenty years' service, and the income tax exemption on severance covers the last 400 days' wages up to 600,000 baht.

17 Sep 2026 · 5 min read
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