Asia (except ME & Indian SC)

HANOI, May 30 (NNN-VNA) – Vietnam’s fruit and vegetable exports rose 29 percent to 1.9 billion U.S. dollars, in the first five months from a year ago, mainly due to expanded exports of durian, dragon fruit and banana, VnExpress reported, yesterday.

China remained the biggest market for Vietnamese fruit and vegetables, in the Jan-May period with 805 million U.S. dollars worth of shipments, according to the Vietnam Fruit & Vegetable Association.

HANOI, May 30 (Reuters) - Samsung and other foreign companies are pushing Vietnam to introduce a multi-million-dollar reform that would compensate them for higher levies they face from next year under a global overhaul of tax rules, a source involved in the talks said.

The discussions precede the introduction from January of a minimum tax rate of 15% for large multinationals under a landmark global reform led by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

PHNOM PENH, May 30 (Xinhua) -- The National Assembly of Cambodia on Tuesday ratified the ASEAN Trade in Services Agreement (ATISA) to boost trade and investment in the area of services.

Some 98 lawmakers in attendance unanimously ratified the pact, which was signed by ASEAN economic ministers in Jakarta, Indonesia in October 2020.

ASEAN (the Association of Southeast Asian Nations) groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

BEIJING, May 29 (APP): China on Monday felicitated Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan following his victory in a historic runoff vote.

“China expresses its congratulations to President Erdogan on his re-election and attaches great importance to its relations with Turkiye,” Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Mao Ning said during her regular briefing held at IPC.

BEIJING, May 29 (APP): Pakistan’s Ambassador to China, Moin ul Haque has congratulated China on the successful inaugural flight of C919, the country’s first domestically-made large passenger aircraft.

C919, China’s self-developed large passenger aircraft, completed its inaugural commercial flight from Shanghai to Beijing on Sunday, creating a milestone in China’s aviation industry, which aims to compete with global players such as Boeing.

MANILA, May 29 (NNN-PNA) – Typhoon Mawar slightly weakened, as it moved towards the Philippines, but heavy rain will still threaten some parts of the country in the next three days, the state weather bureau warned.

In its latest advisory, the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration said, Mawar will dump rain in the provinces on the northern Luzon Island and the central Philippine regions.

SEOUL, May 29 (Reuters) - South Korea is using a $13.7 billion arms deal with Poland - Seoul's biggest ever - to lay the groundwork for a military-industrial juggernaut that the two nations' defence companies hope will feed Europe's hunger for weapons far into the future.

South Korea's arms sales jumped to more than $17 billion in 2022 from $7.25 billion the year before, according to its defence ministry, as Western countries scrambled to arm Ukraine and tensions rose in other hot spots such as North Korea and the South China Sea.

TOKYO/SEOUL, May 29 (Reuters) - Japan put its ballistic missile defences on alert on Monday and vowed to shoot down any projectile that threatens its territory, after North Korea notified it of a planned satellite launch between May 31 and June 11.

The nuclear-armed North says it has completed its first military spy satellite and leader Kim Jong Un has approved final preparations for the launch.

It would be the North's latest step in a series of missile launches and weapons tests in recent months, including one of a new, solid-fuel intercontinental ballistic missile.

BEIJING, May 29 (Reuters) - Shanghai saw its hottest day in May for more than 100 years on Monday with temperatures hitting 36.1 degrees Celsius (97 degrees Fahrenheit), continuing a brutal trend of unusually hot weather in the country since March.

Several southern Chinese provinces are expected to swelter under extreme heat over the next few days and weather experts have already predicted another blistering summer, a repeat of last year's record-breaking more than two-month stretch.

JAKARTA, May 29 (Xinhua) -- After 20 years of ban, Indonesia has now issued a regulation that reopens the export of marine sediment in the form of sea sand, local media reported on Monday.

The regulation about sea sand export is stipulated under the Government Regulation about Management of Marine Sedimentation Products, which briefly states that sea sand can be used for domestic reclamation, infrastructure development for government businesses, infrastructure development by actors, and exports.