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Senior Minister K Shanmugam said that Temasek, as a shareholder in SIA, will expect the airline company to make its investment decisions responsibly.

Temasek, portfolio firms need to make commercial decisions without fear of politicisation: Shanmugam

He warns if corporate boards become overly cautious, it will compromise investment returns in the long run

Why Tan Aik Keong of digital solutions specialist Agmo wants to make himself less indispensable

“My job was to build people who could solve problems better than me,” said Agmo’s CEO Tan Aik Keong.

The tech entrepreneur says leadership is about building an organisation that can thrive without him

Asean ‘compelling’ for businesses looking for long-term growth amid tensions: Tan See Leng

Minister for Trade and Industry (Energy and Industry) Tan See Leng noted that Asean has remained a region of growth, stability and resilience.

Asean is collectively the world’s fourth largest economy with a gross domestic product of around US$4 trillion

What Trump’s Venezuela oil grab means for China

Tensions with China over Latin America could increase as President Donald Trump refocuses US attention on its own backyard.

THE Trump administration’s deepening involvement in Venezuela – first with the ouster of longtime leader Nicolas Maduro and now with a deal to take a stake in its oil industry – could complicate China’s strategy in Latin America.

Ella Jia (left), chief financial officer of Sasseur Reit’s manager, with CEO Cheng Hsing Yuen.

TOPLINE

Sasseur Reit eyes South-east Asia for next phase of growth as it looks beyond China

It will explore small to mid-sized opportunities in markets such as Malaysia, Vietnam and Indonesia

Chong Xin Wei

‘An ideal trade’: Investors eye China stock options as South Korea and Japan AI bets grow crowded

The growing importance of tech in Chinese indexes is helping attract investors as the government pushes for the industry’s self-reliance, according to BNP Paribas.

UBS highlights the CSI 500 as an alternative AI bet for investors looking to diversify their exposure

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‘Natural entry point’: Prabowo offers Indonesia as Russia’s gateway to Asean

At the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok, Prabowo urged Russian businesses to use Indonesia to tap Asean’s market of about 680 million people.

His meeting with Putin is the latest sign of increasingly close ties between Jakarta and Moscow

China’s AI catch-up is forcing Silicon Valley to cut prices

OpenAI will cut the prices of GPT-5.6 Luna and Terra by 80% and 20% respectively, while Anthropic has abandoned plans to raise the price of Sonnet 5.

Chinese firms are improving training efficiency and expanding applications while narrowing the gap with advanced models

Inside Evergrande’s unfinished fairytale ‘castle’ and the long shadow of China’s property boom gone bust

An unfinished castle-style building stands at a deserted Evergrande Group resort development in Guiyang, Guizhou province.

The crumbling facades of Evergrande Cultural Tourism City point to the property crisis weighing on the world’s second-largest economy

Opinion

People care about clean air. Climate action starts there

Euston Quah and Eugene Or

Singapore must look beyond AI and build its quantum tech talent now

Paul Griffin

Why healthcare services struggle to count the cost and success of AI

Bryan Chow

Behind The Name

What’s luck got to do with it? Everything, says Malaysian jewellery king Tomei’s chief

“I consider myself lucky. I don’t consider myself successful,” says Ng Yih Pyng, the second-generation leader of Tomei Consolidated.

Failed overseas ventures, painful exits are unexpectedly a blessing in disguise for the jeweller

Scaling Berli Jucker’s retail empire – daughter of Thai beer billionaire seeks growth outside home country

Thapanee Techajareonvikul, CEO and president of Berli Jucker, sees Vietnam as an important growth enginee for BJC, which has traditionally been heavily invested in Thailand.

CEO thinks diversifying its revenue is important for both BJC and TCC Group, which BJC is a part of

Malaysia’s 8th richest man Jeffrey Cheah wants Sunway business to last 10 generations

Sunway Group's founder and chairman Jeffrey Cheah says international expansion will increasingly be driven by the next generation.

Having weathered two crises, the founder pairs professional management with slow-burn succession to keep the business and family intact

Singapore

The need for multidisciplinary talent is becoming more pressing, with artificial intelligence now more widely used in the financial services industry.

Singapore fintechs struggle to find finance and tech talent

Beyond internships to build up the pipeline, observers say the task at hand is to find experienced hires

Singapore’s lawyers, accountants follow businesses abroad, with Jakarta the latest stop

The Jakarta centre joins an existing network spanning Singapore, Ho Chi Minh City, Nanjing and Hongqiao in Shanghai.

A new Professional Services Centre aims to connect businesses with trusted lawyers, accountants, tax specialists and other advisers

Singapore’s nightlife is struggling. Industry chief Danny Loong wants to ‘bring back the energy’

Danny Loong, president of SNBA and co-founder of Timbre Group, recalls how people used to spend longer nights out, moving from one venue to another – an energy he believes has diminished.

A new white paper lays out proposals to build a broader after-dark economy that goes beyond bars and clubs

52 Singaporeans arrested in China over suspected involvement in illegal pyramid scheme

Singapore tax revenue hits record S$97.3 billion, up 9.4% on stronger economy

The Leadership Playbook

Why Tan Aik Keong of digital solutions specialist Agmo wants to make himself less indispensable

The tech entrepreneur says leadership is about building an organisation that can thrive without him

‘Be confident’: Yum Cha second-gen owner’s advice on taking over the family business

Melody Tan thinks second-gen family business owners need to have confidence in themselves when taking over the business.

Building authority is not about inheriting a title, it is about earning trust through actions and results

MedPark’s assistant CEO runs a hospital where patients, physicians precede profits

The real marketing for a hospital is the trust it builds and what is passed on by word of mouth, says Proud Patanavanich, assistant CEO at MedPark Hospital.

The Thai private hospital expects to break even this year

Workers in Singapore are finding their roles reshaped by AI, with some tasks increasingly automated and some positions disappearing altogether.

BRUNCH

Is AI stealing your job?

White-collar workers risk displacement, but mass layoffs aren’t on the table

Asean

KKR has ramped up its drive into South-east Asia’s healthcare sector amid rising investor interest.

KKR buys stake in Malaysia’s Avisena in healthcare push

The investment will drive the healthcare company’s next phase of growth; financial details have not been given

Thailand will establish uniform oversight of data centres in operation as well as those being developed.

Thailand puts 49 data centres on hold over resource strain, community impact

Projects halt to make time to develop new regulations, amid growing concerns about the facilities

The Court of Appeal unanimously ruled to set aside a decision by the High Court to suspend bankruptcy proceedings against Najib Razak (pictured) and his son Nazifuddin Najib.

Malaysia’s ex-PM Najib wins pause on bankruptcy proceedings: report

A large portion of the arrears is related to Najib’s 1MDB cases

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