Reuters Asia

South Korea to drop mandatory 7-day quarantine for COVID patients from June

By Hyonhee Shin SEOUL (Reuters) – South Korea on Thursday lowered its crisis level for COVID-19 and will from June no longer require infected people to quarantine for seven days, dropping one of the country’s few remaining pandemic-related restrictions. Health authorities will still recommend five days of self-isolation for infected people but it will not …

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Cluster of Chinese vessels spotted near Russian rig off Vietnam – ship monitors

By Francesco Guarascio (Reuters) -A Chinese research vessel flanked by coast guard and nearly a dozen boats on Wednesday entered a gas block operated by Russian and Vietnamese state firms, two monitoring groups said, another potential flashpoint in the South China Sea. It follows a pattern of assertive moves of late by Beijing in its …

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Philippines Q1 GDP slows to 6.4%, but faster than forecast

MANILA (Reuters) – The Philippine economy expanded 6.4% in the first quarter from a year earlier, the statistics agency said on Thursday, topping expectations. On a quarter-on-quarter basis, growth slowed to 1.1% from the earlier reported 2.4% expansion in the previous three-month period. Analysts polled by Reuters had expected first quarter gross domestic product (GDP) …

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Chinese brokerages urged to tighten scrutiny over sensitive info -Securities Times

SHANGHAI (Reuters) – Chinese regulators have told securities firms to strengthen compliance over controlling the spread of sensitive information as well as expert invitation and interviews, the official Securities Times reported on Thursday, citing brokerage sources. The securities regulator notice, following an onsite inspection of 300 research reports from 45 brokerages, comes amid Beijing’s anti-espionage …

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Chinese baby product firms seek to age up, sell more abroad as population falls

By Farah Master HONG KONG (Reuters) – For many of China’s manufacturers of baby and children’s products, painful reverberations from last year’s historic decline in the country’s population are already upon them. Domestic sales are shrinking and the scramble is on to develop new streams of revenue, whether that be diversifying into products for adults …

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GM, VW face idled capacity risk in China without faster EV transition -Greenpeace

SHANGHAI/BERLIN (Reuters) – Automakers including Volkswagen and General Motors could have considerable unused production capacity for conventionally powered vehicles in China by 2030 if they do not speed up their transition to electric vehicles (EV), Greenpeace said on Thursday. As demand for new energy vehicles (NEV) – including fully electric and plug-in hybrid cars – …

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ASEAN must show unity to tackle Myanmar’s escalating crisis, Indonesia president says

By Kate Lamb and Ananda Teresia LABUAN BAJO, Indonesia (Reuters) – Myanmar’s ruling military has made no significant progress on implementing a peace plan agreed with ASEAN two years ago and the bloc must show unity in deciding how to address the escalating crisis, Indonesia’s president said on Thursday. Joko Widodo, who is chair of …

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