RECORD HIGH STARTUPS

Uncle2 is among a surge of new businesses shaping Hong Kong’s entrepreneurship landscape. 

Last year, the city saw 4,694 new startups, up 40 per cent from about 3,400 in 2020.

These startups employed 17,651 workers, a 65 per cent jump from four years ago, according to a report by InvestHK, a government agency that helps businesses set up in Hong Kong. 

Authorities have touted the city’s strategic location as a gateway to Asia, particularly mainland China, for the record number of startups. 

Other key attractions for investors included a low tax rate, accessibility to funding and an available pool of multilingual talent, the report said.

The top sectors with new ventures were mostly digital – financial technology, information technology and e-commerce. There has also been growth in the health and medical space, as well as the sustainability sector. 

Hong Kong locals made up 72 per cent of the startup founders. Among foreign founders, 40 per cent were from mainland China, followed by the United Kingdom, United States, France and Australia. 

A total of 134 victims had sought medical attention from general practitioners and various hospitals in the country, including Kuala Lumpur Hospital and Ampang Hospital. 

As of Thursday afternoon, 86 have been discharged while 48 people were still admitted, according to the authorities.

Amirudin said that a total of 1,254 people have been impacted by the disaster, with 308 families having registered for assistance with the Community Welfare Department.

Currently, 157 families consisting of 630 victims remain housed in two temporary evacuation centres – namely at the Putra Heights Mosque and the Subang Jaya City Council Multipurpose Hall.

The remaining 624 victims from 151 families have chosen to find their own accommodation, The Star reported. 

On Thursday, some residents called for clearer on-the-ground communication, claiming that they are still in the dark about when they can return home and what comes next for those who have lost their property.

“What is the government going to do? We are in the dark, asking each other (questions). We don’t know what’s next”, said one resident of the affected housing area Taman Putra Harmoni, as quoted by the Malay Mail.

A total of 85 houses have been deemed safe, and residents were allowed to return home, starting from Thursday, according to the Malay Mail. 

The disaster has caused significant damage to homes, with 87 properties destroyed and deemed beyond repair. Another 148 homes were damaged but are still repairable.

Putra Heights is a well-developed residential area and a highly desirable location for those seeking convenience and access to key parts of the Klang Valley.

“SPIRIT OF PRAGMATISM”

Vikram Misri, the secretary of India’s foreign ministry, told reporters that Modi “reiterated India’s support for a democratic, stable, peaceful, progressive and inclusive Bangladesh”.

Modi said he wanted a “positive and constructive relation with Bangladesh based on a spirit of pragmatism”, Misri added, repeating New Delhi’s concerns about alleged “atrocities” against minorities in Bangladesh.

Yunus, according to Alam, also raised with Modi Dhaka’s long-running complaint about what it says are Hasina’s incendiary remarks from exile.

Hasina, who remains in India, has defied extradition requests from Bangladesh to face charges including mass murder.

Dhaka has requested that India allow Hasina’s extradition to face charges of crimes against humanity for the killing of hundreds of protesters during the unrest that toppled her government.

Misri said Modi and Yunus had discussed the extradition order but there was “nothing more to add” at present.

Yunus also raised concerns about border violence along the porous frontier with India, as well as issues of the shared river waters that flow from India as the Ganges and the Brahmaputra wind towards the sea.

Misri said that the “prevention of illegal border crossing” was necessary.

Yunus’s caretaker government is tasked with implementing democratic reforms ahead of fresh elections slated to take place by June 2026.

Modi and Yunus had dinner on Thursday night, sitting next to each other alongside other leaders from the BIMSTEC regional bloc in Bangkok, but the bilateral meeting on Friday was the first since relations frayed between the neighbouring nations.

Indonesian furniture exports, of which 53 per cent ship to the United States, would be badly impacted, local media reported citing Abdul Sobur, head of the Furniture and Craft Association.

“This is significant and can certainly reduce the competitiveness of Indonesian furniture products in the US market,” he said.

The foreign ministry said the tariffs would have a “significant impact” on its exports to the United States, including electronics, textiles, footwear and palm oil.

It said it was taking “strategic steps” to mitigate the fallout from the new tariffs.

The United States is one of Indonesia’s top trading partners, and Jakarta enjoyed a US$16.8 billion trade surplus with Washington in 2024, according to Indonesian government data.

Washington appears to have particularly taken aim at countries that the United States has a large trade deficit with.

Data from the US trade representative office shows Washington’s goods trade deficit with Jakarta was US$17.9 billion in 2024, up 5.4 per cent increase on the year prior.

Indonesia’s Southeast Asian neighbours Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam were some of the worst-hit nations, with tariffs of more than 40 per cent imposed.

LONDON: Equities and oil prices extended a global rout for markets on Friday (Apr 4) after China hit back over President Donald Trump’s tariff blitz with its own mammoth levy on United States goods, inflaming global trade war fears.

The dollar was steadier against main rivals having fallen sharply on Thursday on fears of a recession in the US.

“Sentiment is so fragile right now,” Chris Beauchamp, chief market analyst at online trading platform IG, told AFP.

“Investors are firmly in the ‘get me to cash now’ phase, on fears that other nations will follow China’s lead, and of course that the US president will respond to China’s tariffs with even more charges.

“This trade war is like nothing we’ve seen for years, perhaps decades,” Beauchamp added.

Frankfurt’s main DAX index of German blue-chip companies plunged more than 5 per cent moments after the Chinese government said it would slap 34 per cent tariffs on all imports of US goods from Apr 10.

Paris tumbled 4.2 per cent and London gave up 3.9 per cent in early afternoon deals.

Oil futures plummeted around 7 per cent, having already plunged about 6.5 per cent on Thursday on the prospect of weaker demand.

News that OPEC+ had unexpectedly hiked crude supply more than planned added to the steep selling.

The price of traded copper – a vital component for energy storage, electric vehicles, solar panels and wind turbines – tumbled more than 5 per cent.

Beijing on Friday also imposed export controls on seven rare earth elements, its commerce ministry said, including gadolinium – commonly used in MRIs – and yttrium, utilised in consumer electronics.

“Another jolt of fear has shot through markets as China’s threat of retaliation has materialised,” said Susannah Streeter, head of money and markets at Hargreaves Lansdown.

“The big concern is that this is a sign of a sharp escalation of the tariff war which will have major implications for the global economy.”

SNAP ELECTION WILL SHOW IF ANYTHING WAS LEARNT

Whether these lessons are learnt will soon be evident.

Stripped of his presidential powers, Yoon will face more intense criminal investigations. But the investigation must not be an exercise of political purge. 

The key will be how the opposition party shapes the current political atmosphere. South Koreans will depend on it rising above narrow political interests and animosity toward the ousted president and his ruling party to seek a fair and just outcome.

Another test will be the upcoming presidential election, which must be held by Jun 3. We will see how much the Korean public and political parties engage in dialogue and compromise or stick to the past practice of demonising the other side. 

South Koreans have always been proud of their democracy, which they fought for with blood and sweat against an authoritarian military regime. The recent political turmoil has tested the resilience of Korea’s democratic system and exposed its weaknesses.

It would be a waste not to learn from the painful lessons of the last 122 days.

Ryu Yongwook is an Assistant Professor at Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, NUS. He specialises in International Relations, with a focus on East Asia. 

SURABAYA: Indonesian rescuers recovered 10 bodies after a landslide struck vehicles on a hilly road on the country’s main island of Java, police said on Friday (Apr 4).

Torrential rains pushed mud, rocks and trees down the mountainside road on Thursday, burying a van with seven people aboard and a pickup truck with three traders and full of vegetables near Watu Lumpang, a resort area in East Java’s Mojokerto district, said local police chief Andi Yudha Pranata.

Pranata said rescuers pulled out the body of the van’s driver late Thursday and his six family members, including three children, wife and parents, were retrieved on Friday, together with the bodies of the three traders.

MANILA: Family members of people killed during former Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte’s bloody crackdown on drugs demanded an investigation on Friday (Apr 4) into what they say has been a flood of online threats since his arrest.

Duterte was detained on Mar 11 and put on a plane to the International Criminal Court in the Netherlands the same day to face a charge of crimes against humanity tied to his drug war, in which thousands of mostly poor were killed.

On Friday, the relatives of four of those slain and their lawyer, Kristina Conti, filed complaints asking the National Bureau of Investigation “to identify the names, addresses and IP addresses” of alleged Duterte supporters responsible for online threats and disinformation targeting them.

Conti said her own social media pages had been bombarded with “hate speech, expletives and misogynistic remarks”.

“People might think that if the victims are gone, the case against Duterte will be dissolved too. So we are taking these threats seriously,” she told reporters after filing the complaints, warning that online threats can escalate into physical harm.

Sheerah Escudero, whose brother was found dead in 2017 with his head wrapped in packaging tape at the height of the bloody crackdown, was among the complainants.

Escudero said people on social media had accused her of being a liar and a drug addict, with some even sending personal messages telling her she deserved to be killed and beheaded.

“We are just calling for justice, but they are twisting our narratives and accusing us of spreading fake news,” an emotional Escudero said.

BANGKOK: Protesters displayed a banner calling Myanmar’s junta chief a “murderer” as he joined a regional summit in Bangkok on Friday (Apr 4), a week after a huge earthquake killed thousands, leaving desperate survivors pleading for food and shelter.

More than 3,000 people are confirmed dead after the 7.7-magnitude quake, and the United Nations estimates that up to three million may have been affected in some way – many left without shelter after their homes were destroyed.

Many nations have sent aid and rescue teams, but on the ground in some of the worst-hit areas, there is little sign of Myanmar’s ruling military helping survivors.

Junta leader Min Aung Hlaing held talks with leaders from Bay of Bengal littoral nations at a plush Bangkok hotel on Friday.

The decision to invite him drew criticism, and outside the venue, protesters hung a banner from a bridge reading: “We do not welcome murderer Min Aung Hlaing.”

The latest death toll in Myanmar stands at 3,145, with 4,589 injured and 221 missing, according to state media. In Bangkok, 22 people were killed, most of them crushed when a tower block under construction collapsed.

In Sagaing, the Myanmar city close to the epicentre of last week’s quake and where an estimated 80 per cent of buildings have been damaged, AFP journalists witnessed desperate scenes in recent days as hundreds of exhausted, hungry survivors scrambled for supplies.

Teams of citizen volunteers from around Myanmar piled into Sagaing in trucks laden with water, oil, rice and other basic necessities.

With so many homes in Sagaing and neighbouring Mandalay left uninhabitable by the quake, survivors have been sleeping in the streets for a week, and are badly in need of proper shelter.

JAKARTA: Indonesian activists on Thursday (Apr 3) decried a new regulation allowing police to monitor foreign journalists and researchers working in the country, a move they say would limit press freedom.

The new rule, issued on Mar 10 but recently published online, said a police letter is needed for foreigners doing their work “on certain locations”, though it does not specify which sites.

The National Police said the new rule was necessary to “maintain state sovereignty over Indonesian territory and to provide protection for foreigners in Indonesian territory”.

But the executive director of an advocacy group Legal Aid Institute for the Press said on Thursday it could make it more difficult for people doing journalism or research work in Indonesia.

“There is a potential for all activities for foreign journalists or researchers to be considered illegal when they do not have the letter,” Mustafa Layong told AFP.

He added that “there is no authority from the police to grant permits for journalistic or research activities”.

Andreas Harsono of Human Rights Watch also slammed the regulation, saying it would further limit press freedom and restrict information on sensitive topics about Indonesia.

“In Indonesia, I think there will be many things that will be hidden, probably palm oil, oppression of sexual, gender, religious minorities,” Andreas told AFP.

“It will make Indonesia become more underreported.”

National Police spokesman Sandi Nugroho reiterated that the new regulation was “to provide services and protections to foreign citizens”, including those working in “conflict-prone areas”.

He added that the police letter was “not mandatory”.