ASEAN Tech

Indonesia Sets Child-Safety Fines at 6% of Global Revenue

A foreign platform is measured against its worldwide turnover; an Indonesian medium firm against a fixed ceiling of about US$568,000. The gap is the policy.

19 Sep 2026 · 6 min read

ASEAN Tech

Green SM Calls Jakarta Its First International Market. It Is Not.

The press release went round the world with that claim attached. Underneath it is the part that matters: what Vingroup is willing to pay Jakarta's motorbike drivers to switch.

18 Sep 2026 · 7 min read

ASEAN Tech

The Philippines Froze Its Own Tech Budget to Summon Zuckerberg

Lawmakers deferred their own technology department's 2027 budget to force Meta to answer on child safety. The lever they reached for says a lot about the one they do not have.

18 Sep 2026 · 5 min read

Finance

Thailand's VAT rate is legally 10%, and the 7% expires every year

The Revenue Code sets Thai VAT at 10% and always has. The 7% everyone pays lives in a royal decree with an expiry date — the current one runs to 30 September 2027 — and the story that the 1997 crisis caused the cut has it backwards.

18 Sep 2026 · 6 min read

Finance

Philippine 13th month pay is a wage, and a Christmas bonus can count as it

Thirteenth month pay has been compulsory in the Philippines since 1975, but a December bonus worth at least a twelfth of basic salary satisfies the obligation — the rules define it as an equivalent. The ₱90,000 tax exemption is also shared with those other bonuses, not reserved for the thirteenth month.

18 Sep 2026 · 7 min read

ASEAN Tech

Data Centres Took 4% of Peninsular Malaysia's Power; Moody's Sees 31% by 2035

Meeting that needs 14 to 17 gigawatts of new capacity at up to RM95 billion, while 13 gigawatts of existing plant expires over the same ten years.

18 Sep 2026 · 5 min read

ASEAN Tech

Plaud Bets S$20m That Singapore Can Teach Its AI to Code-Switch

A wearable recorder company put its regional base at Marina Bay because Singapore meetings change language mid-sentence, which is the hardest thing its product has to do.

17 Sep 2026 · 6 min read

Finance

Singapore's core inflation leaves out a third of the price index

MAS Core Inflation drops accommodation and private transport, which together carry 35.6% of the 2024-based CPI. Most of that accommodation weight is rent that home owners never pay, which is MAS's argument for leaving it out — and the gap between the two measures has run in both directions.

17 Sep 2026 · 5 min read

ASEAN Tech

OpenAI Is Funding an NTU Tool That Predicts What People Do With Handouts

Trained on a million people's actual spending records, not surveys. Half the grant is model credits, and the data is South Korean.

17 Sep 2026 · 5 min read

ASEAN Tech

Firmus Wants A$7bn on the ASX, With OpenAI as Its Anchor Tenant

Seven claimed AI factories across Australia, Singapore, Indonesia and Malaysia, 900MW contracted, and a valuation that four reports put at four different numbers.

16 Sep 2026 · 6 min read