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VSIP has now grown to 22 parks spanning nearly 12,000 hectares across 15 provinces and cities, with a plan to raise the total to 30 in 2026.

From farmland to factory floor: Vietnam-Singapore industrial parks gear up for next chapter

Facilities under the joint venture are moving from labour-intensive growth to high-tech, green goals

DeeperDive is a beta AI feature. Refer to full articles for the facts.

Trump says US to attack any boats laying mines in Strait of Hormuz

Trump says minesweepers are working at a "tripled-up level" to clear any mines from the waters.

He has ordered the United States navy ‘to shoot and kill’

Inside Indonesia’s trial of Gojek founder: How a Google laptop deal became a multi-billion-rupiah case

Prosecutors allege that former education minister and Gojek co-founder Nadiem Makarim carried out the procurement of laptops in a manner that violated established public procurement principles.

Nadiem Makarim has consistently denied any wrongdoing

Not-so-sweet deal for Singapore’s refineries as they shift to US, alternative crudes

Base oil and bitumen production will be affected by the shifting crude oil mix, while diesel and fuel oil yields will be driven lower, analysts say.

Variations in density and sulphur content present compatibility challenges

Ho Ren Yung at the Mandai Rainforest Resort by Banyan Tree, a project that reflects her focus on sustainability and regeneration.

NEW-GEN HOTELIERS

Banyan Group heir Ho Ren Yung: ‘Better to be useful than happy’

The luxury hotelier on balancing inheritance, purpose and expansion

Helmi Yusof

The Asian healthcare gold rush: Vietnam’s reforms are attracting foreign investors

FV Hospital in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, is owned by Thomson Medical Group.

The changing landscape is fuelled by rapid urbanisation, income growth and an expanding middle class

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BT Plus

The best insights across SPH Media

Is Trump’s indefinite ceasefire with Iran the prelude to peace?

Iran, facing both existential stakes and internal divisions, remains unlikely to capitulate.

Why Asean has yet to step on the gas in regional energy cooperation

Analysts say that for Asean, considerable challenges to energy cooperation remain.

Evergrande’s Hui Ka Yan: From rags to empire to prison

From a poor rural boy to a property tycoon and China’s richest man, and ultimately to a prisoner, Hui Ka Yan once built an empire from nothing and rose to extraordinary heights.

Opinion

Singapore Airlines faces a tough test over Air India’s record losses

Jude Chan

Closing the gap to boost Asean resilience against novel risks

Julia Bingler

AI’s future at work looks more like OpenClaw than OpenAI

Sumeet Vaidya

Singapore

The three banks have not said whether temporary or permanent staff were more affected by the headcount reductions.

DBS, OCBC, UOB shed nearly 3,000 jobs in 2025 amid restructuring, productivity push

Combined, the three lenders employed 104,266 people at end-2025, down 2.6% from the year before

Economists expect broader price hikes amid Gulf war, as Singapore’s core inflation rises in March

In a joint statement on Apr 23, MAS and MTI flagged that Singapore’s imported cost pressures are expected to pick up and broaden in the months ahead.

More sectors to be hit by higher energy and input costs, with firms to pass them down to consumers

Singapore billionaire population more than doubles as Apac wealth surges: Knight Frank

Singapore minted 35 new billionaires between 2021 and 2026, Knight Frank's Wealth Report showed on Thursday (Apr 23).

The number of ultra-high-net-worth individuals has grown by 54.5% in 2021 to 7,171 this year

MBS profit jumps 30.2% to new Q1 high of US$788 million on ‘high-quality investment’, ‘high-value tourism’

Three directors linked to Kweks’ father-son feud quit Millennium & Copthorne board

The Leadership Playbook

In IHH’s hospitals, leadership starts with the people no one sees

Group CEO of IHH Healthcare Dr Nair says: "In a hospital, even cleaners are critical – without them, the system simply cannot function."

Every role matters – empathy, not strategy alone, determines success, says group CEO

From intern to C-suite: JPMorgan’s Teresa Heitsenrether on building a fully AI-powered ‘megabank’

Heitsenrether, on how AI will impact the world, says: “The ability to connect with people (will not) go away with technology, especially in our business. It’s a business that’s about trust and relationships."

There are plans to more than double the company’s data and AI talent in the Asia-Pacific region, with ‘meaningful addition’ in Singapore

‘We’ve seen the worst-case scenario’: How Indonesia’s Cinema XXI navigated crisis and change

Suryo Suherman, president director of Indonesia Cinema XXI, maintains that Indonesia remains one of the world’s most attractive cinema markets.

Caution, not aggression, defines how president director Suherman runs South-east Asia’s largest cinema operator by screen count

Iran has blockaded the Strait of Hormuz – a critical chokepoint for global energy supplies – sending energy price shocks rippling through the global economy.

HOCK LOCK SIEW

Decarbonisation is making a comeback thanks to the Iran war. The test is whether it can be sustained

Efforts to accelerate renewable energy deployment across South-east Asia have been slow

Asean

State-owned banks have been encouraged to expand subsidised lending to support economic activity, as the country targets growth of about 5.6% this year.

Fitch flags risks from Indonesia’s reliance on state banks to fund government programmes

This could have an impact on such lenders’ asset quality and the country’s policy framework over the long term, says analyst

“The inflation outlook has deteriorated amid the ongoing conflict in the Middle East,” the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas said.

Philippine central bank hikes rate as war sends inflation past target

The latest move officially ends a lengthy easing cycle that began in August 2024

The measures reflect mounting fiscal pressure from higher energy costs and weaker economic activity.

Oil shock pushes Thailand to rework spending to contain deficit

The government plans to rely on spending cuts and reallocations of its 3.79 trillion baht outlay

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