Thailand and Cambodia plunged into their deadliest border clashes in decades in July 2025, leaving dozens dead and displacing more than 300,000 people.

Indonesia’s handling of the potential Grab–GoTo merger highlights growing tensions between industrial policy ambitions and competition law in the digital economy.

East Asia and the Pacific’s economic momentum is softening as global growth slows, trade restrictions rise, and domestic uncertainties persist, though the region still outperforms global averages. Industrial output and retail activity remain resilient, yet weak business confidence and fading export orders signal headwinds ahead.

Thailand’s firm-level trade data suggest that regional trade agreements (RTAs) play only a modest role in advancing global value chain development, as imports under RTA regimes show a weak and often insignificant correlation with exports—implying that firms using RTAs tend to focus mainly on domestic markets.

Generation Z, born between 1997 and 2009, are not just stepping into the workforce but rewriting the rules. Over half of them are already harnessing AI tools on the job, giving companies a chance to turbocharge productivity and innovation like never before but there is a flip side. workplace?

As the 47th ASEAN Summit convenes, the region finds itself navigating through global uncertainty— yet the bloc remains remarkably steady.

Southeast Asia is charging ahead in 2025, with the region’s economy powering up on the back of a pre-tariff surge in trade and production. According to McKinsey’s latest Southeast Asia Quarterly Economic Review, Vietnam led the pack with nearly 8 % year-on-year growth—the country’s fastest pace in more than a decade—while other major markets saw solid gains driven by strong exports, industrial output, and resilient consumer spending.

Thailand has introduced the Thailand Taxonomy, a national framework launched in 2025 to classify economic activities based on environmental sustainability and guide the country’s transition toward its 2065 net-zero emissions target.

Thailand’s introduction of the Thai ESG Fund in late 2023 — a tax-incentivized retail investment program — has reshaped the country’s corporate bond market by driving strong investor demand for newly issued ESG bonds.