Asia Pacific

Australia's new prime minister, Tony Abbott, says one of his government's main aims is to conclude a free trade agreement with China within a year.

Canadian business travellers may soon be on the fast track to Asia.

The majority of Canadian companies with operations in Southeast Asia are optimistic about business and investment prospects in the region, according to the results of an Asia Pacific Foundation (APF) Canada survey released October 8.

Perhaps it was the atmosphere of incipient chumminess between United States President Barack Obama and his Iranian counterpart Hasan Rouhani spreading throughout the United Nations in New York last week. At any rate, Pakistan's new prime minister Nawaz Sharif felt emboldened to assert that his government will proceed with plans for a pipeline bringing natural gas from Iran's South Pars field, the world's largest.

As Laos' economy is beginning to develop and grow, the government is facing a problem common to countries whose administrations are still designed for a simpler age.

Singapore’s prime minister Lee Hsien Loong has added his cautionary views to the pessimistic judgment expressed by former Malaysian leader Mahathir Mohammed about the prospects for a European-style economic community among the 10 countries of Southeast Asia, and reported here last week.

The B.C. government has announced that Minister of Natural Gas Development Rich Coleman will depart for Asia October 11 to promote B.C.’s burgeoning natural gas industry, just after Malaysia’s Petronas Energy announced it would be investing $36 billion in its B.C. LNG project.

Singapore is well known as the Asian nirvana for would-be expatriate workers, especially in banking, finance, information technology and the communications sectors. But there's a backlash in the Lion City among locals who think they're being kept out of jobs in favour of the foreigners.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper and two key federal government ministers are currently working their way through Asia on a trade mission aimed at advancing partnerships between Canada and Asia-Pacific countries.

Norihiro Okuda, Japan’s recently appointed Ambassador to Canada, is scheduled to pay his first official visit to British Columbia from this Sunday (October 6) until Wednesday.