The Asia Business Council annual survey of members found business optimism for the year ahead has plunged to the lowest level since the global financial crisis in 2008. The overwhelming reason cited was the U.S.-China trade conflict. Other reasons included concerns about a trade war-induced recession, Japan-South Korea trade disputes, and the impact of Persian …

Driven by a proliferation of emerging, connected, and converging technologies, the economic future for China and the U.S will be one of immense change. Currently, a nation’s ability to innovate is closely linked to perception of national mastery, extending national hegemony into ecosystems of business infrastructure such as those created by large technology companies. Increasingly, …

Typhoons, terrorism, the threat of war, tsunamis, earthquakes, and epidemic disease. These are but a few of the challenges Asian companies have confronted since the century began. Risk is not new. What’s new is that ever-more-complex business models make companies vulnerable to risk as never before. What’s new, too, is that we are running up …

Look for more geopolitical tensions and new technologies to continue a period of great disruption in supply chains, business models, and consumer behavior. By Asia Business Council Executive Director Mark Clifford.

It is unfortunate that North Korea plays with foreign relations–and Korean lives–as if it were just another mass-game spectacle. By Asia Business Council Executive Director Mark Clifford.

The panic is past. But the pandemic is still with us. Businesses are preparing for a world in which the Covid-19 virus and other pandemic diseases are a recurring feature. What will this new landscape look like? By Asia Business Council Executive Director Mark Clifford.

With solar and wind power now cheaper than coal and technical problems such as intermittency being solved, investing in renewable energy makes economic sense. By Asia Business Council Adjunct Fellow Jill Baker.

Asia’s business leaders now start almost every discussion by talking about digital transformation. Human labour is a business risk, given the possibility of a future outbreak. Factories may become more automated, with fewer workers. By Program Associate Colleen Howe.

Hiro Mizuno rocked the world of traditional pension finance by putting environmental, social, and governance (ESG) at the heart of investments during his tenure as head of the world’s largest pension fund. Adjunct Fellow Jill Baker spoke with Mizuno about his crusade for ESG investing in his first interview since leaving Japan’s Global Pension Investment …

South Korea has tested a larger percentage of its citizens for COVID-19 than any nation on Earth. Densely packed Hong Kong, despite its proximity to the rest of China, has seen only four novel coronavirus deaths to date. Singapore, long-known for its focus on cleanliness and its police-state mentality, had been doing an exemplary job …