Amazon data centres under construction in the US. Its cloud computing platform expects its latest investment to support an estimated average of 12,300 full-time equivalent jobs in local Singapore businesses each year. PHOTO: EPA-EFE
Dear BT reader,
Remember last week when we talked about how Microsoft is dialling up the heat on South-east Asia, as its chief executive embarked on a three-nation tour bearing gifts in the form of big-ticket investments?
Well, headlining the newsletter this week is Amazon Web Services' (AWS) bolt-from-the-blue announcement on Tuesday (May 7) that it will commit S$12 billion to its existing Singapore cloud infrastructure. AWS had previously invested a total of S$11.5 billion in the Republic from 2010 to 2023 alone. More such investments are expected to follow as the artificial intelligence and cloud race in Asean intensifies. Do keep an eye out for our upcoming piece on what these announcements mean for the region and why tech behemoths are upping the ante here.
Now, these billion-dollar investments paint a rosy picture for South-east Asia’s cloud landscape, much like how growth forecasts for Asean earlier in the year posit an era of strong economic expansion. And indeed, Indonesia recorded its highest Q1 growth in five years, beating economists’ expectations, reports our Indonesia correspondent Elisa Valenta.
Advance estimates from Malaysia also project robust Q1 growth of 3.9 per cent, up from 3 per cent in Q4 last year. True as this may be, not everyone seems to be getting an equal slice of the pie. Our Malaysia correspondent Tan Ai Leng discovers that small local businesses are experiencing a slowdown in sales as consumers spend cautiously, and spoke to business owners and economists to find out why.
Not necessarily feeling the pinch is Malaysia’s durian sector, as local farmers and exporters could soon be shipping fresh durians to China. Ai Leng speaks to economists who point out that after Vietnam entered the Chinese market, it has cut in on about 30 per cent of Thailand’s stake. History could very well repeat itself with Malaysia, the second-largest exporter of durian in the world.
A bit more on Malaysia: Bursa Malaysia hit 2 trillion ringgit (S$572.3 billion) in market capitalisation for the first time on May 7, on the back of local support and renewed interest from foreign funds on heavyweight counters, reports Ai Leng. She speaks to economists, who say this stock rally may not necessarily last.
I’m ending off today’s newsletter with a more visual piece for you to unwind to. Five minutes is all you need for a quick refresher on the Suzhou Industrial Park, aka the crown jewel of Sino-Singapore relations, as our regional journalist Zhao Yifan puts it. Chock-full of pictures, graphics and charts, this piece tracks the three decades of partnership and is one you’ve got to, at the very least, give a look-see.
Keep scrolling for more good reads and we appreciate your support for The Business Times. Have a good weekend.
Trending
What I’m watching: The Philippine central bank will be holding its next monetary policy meeting on Thursday (May 16), where it will announce its decision for the nation’s benchmark interest rate.
Why you should care: The central bank is expected to hold rates. At its previous April meeting, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas kept its benchmark interest rate unchanged at a 17-year-high of 6.5 per cent for a fourth consecutive meeting, as per expectations. The Philippine peso is currently trading at around 57.3 to the US dollar as at 7 pm on May 9, after it fell to a fresh 17-month low in end-April, hovering dangerously close to the key 58 threshold.
Evidence has surfaced to show that countries in South-east Asia are being used by the likes of Russia and Iran, and their proxies, for illicit money flows and terrorist financing, a senior official from the US Treasury Department said on May 7.
Proceeds rose to US$5.1 billion in the first quarter of the year, a 27.4 per cent increase from US$4 billion in the same period a year ago, according to data compiled by LSEG.
Another suggestion that the minister put forth was for Asean to boost its green value chain – by building an integrated feedstock pathway for biofuels in the region.
Malaysia’s central bank maintained its benchmark interest rate at 3 per cent on May 9, choosing not to follow the recent rate hikes by other South-east Asian countries.
The plan, likened to China’s “panda diplomacy” by the commodities minister, has prompted concerns among wildlife advocacy groups who called for alternative measures to protect the orangutan’s habitat and improve the sustainable production of palm oil.
The unprofitable company has lost more than 90 per cent of its market value since a spectacular US market debut in August, when the stock had in the span of two weeks soared 700 per cent.
Philippine inflation quickened for a third straight month in April, although at a pace that was slower than anticipated and one that’s likely to keep the central bank on guard in terms of the policy interest rate.
Amazon data centres under construction in the US. Its cloud computing platform expects its latest investment to support an estimated average of 12,300 full-time equivalent jobs in local Singapore businesses each year. PHOTO: EPA-EFE
