Asia Pacific

Several years of encouragement by the Hanoi government for Vietnamese to work abroad are paying off as the country enters the top 10 recipients of remittances.

Last year’s military coup in Thailand, designed to end political and social upheaval dating back to 2006, has so far failed to stimulate the economy. Last year clocked up its slowest growth since 2011. Overall growth was only 0.

In a sign of things to come, China’s Dagong Global Credit Rating Co. Ltd. agency has downgraded France’s sovereign credit rating to A from A+.

Although the visible omens did not look auspicious for International Trade Minister Ed Fast’s 100-strong business delegation visit to South Korea last week, the country’s underlying prospects are strong.

The contest is heating up for a contract to build a high-speed rail link between Malaysia’s main city, Kuala Lumpur, and the city state of Singapore. At the moment, the 307-kilometre trip takes five hours by bus or up to eight hours by train.

Burma’s temple city, Bagan, has been named the world’s second-best city tourist destination by Britain’s Wanderlust travel magazine.

The political honeymoon of Indonesia’s new president, Joko Widodo, has been short and rancorous. Now he finds himself in the middle of a dispute between the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) and the National Police.

China will get a direct opening to the Indian Ocean in May when Gwadar Port on Pakistan’s east coast becomes operational.

Although South Korea looks set to benefit from the dramatic drop in oil prices, there are victims. The country’s top oil refiner, SK Innovation, recorded a deficit last year for the first time since the energy crisis 36 years ago.

Fretful about the dwindling population in its Pacific Far East, the Russian government is preparing to give away free hectare-sized homesteads to encourage an influx of pioneers from the country’s west.