Showing 1 - 10 of 240
Rethinking global health finance
Oped, Walter O Ochieng & Tom Achoki, Published on 06/02/2026
» For the past half-century, the economics of global health were straightforward. Under the so-called "grant-based" approach, rich countries donate to poor countries, which use the funds to meet their populations' health needs. Success was measured by services provided or lives saved, rather than by balance sheets. While this model was far from perfect, the latest approach replacing it -- focused on using tools like guarantees and blended finance to crowd in private capital -- threatens to produce even worse outcomes.
Decriminalising sex work needs clarity
Oped, Poramet Tangsathaporn, Published on 04/02/2026
» The world's oldest profession has always been a taboo subject in Thai society, even in our politics so it was encouraging to see at least five political parties -- the Pheu Thai Party, the People's Party, the Movement Party, the Thai Sang Thai Party, and the Democrat Party -- agree that the current Prevention and Suppression of Prostitution Act B.E. 2539 (1996) needs to be repealed.
Future of AI will be written in nuts and bolts
News, Anuj Ranjan, Published on 02/02/2026
» For private equity investors, the real question surrounding artificial intelligence isn't whether it will transform industries. It's how those transformations will translate into real returns.
Artists resist repression in Thailand, US
Oped, Sally Tyler, Published on 08/12/2025
» In late August, two seemingly unrelated events occurred in Thailand and the US. The Bangkok Art and Culture Centre (BACC) altered a major exhibit it had recently opened and, a few weeks later, the comedian Jimmy Kimmel was temporarily taken off the air by the ABC television network. These events are linked as forms of artistic repression and perhaps more concerning, as examples of the growing use of intermediary censorship by authoritarian regimes.
AI as Asia's new growth engine?
Oped, Lee Jong-wha, Published on 27/11/2025
» Two decades after globalisation fuelled a global economic boom, growth has shifted onto a more subdued path, where it is likely to remain for the foreseeable future. Beyond the immediate shock of fragmenting trade and investment ties -- a result of rising geopolitical tensions, particularly between the United States and China -- lie structural headwinds, including population ageing, stagnant productivity, and the growing costs of inequality and natural disaster. These challenges strike at the heart of Asia's growth model.
'Phoney trade war' may be ending
News, Mike Dolan, Published on 18/10/2025
» After a period of relative calm through the Northern summer, businesses are bracing for a nervier winter, a return of trade and economic uncertainty, and higher financial market volatility to boot.
In a world on fire, workers get burned
News, Sally Tyler, Published on 13/10/2025
» In these chaotic times that many characterise in terms of rollback, regression, and retreat, there is one measure that continues to surge ahead -- global temperature. The year 2024 was the hottest ever since worldwide temperature recording began. Though climate occupied a major space in discussions at the UN General Assembly in New York City last month, significant progress did not emerge from the fractured international environment.
The future Asean Economic Community
Oped, Satvinder Singh, Published on 01/10/2025
» This year, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) has launched the bloc's new goal -- New Asean 2045: Our Shared Future and its Strategic Plans. Under this, it is worth reflecting on the words of Vincent Van Gogh: Great things are done by a series of small things brought together.
Lawless state capitalism no answer to China's rise
Oped, Curtis J Milhaupt & Angela Huyue Zhang, Published on 19/09/2025
» It is tempting to frame the Sino-American economic rivalry as a clash between engineering doers and lawyerly naysayers, as the Chinese-Canadian analyst Dan Wang does in his new book Breakneck: China's Quest to Engineer the Future. But this is a false dichotomy, because law is a crucial feature of US capitalism.
Trawlers to get new lease on life
Editorial, Published on 31/08/2025
» Despite the devastation trawlers have caused for decades and the global shame Thailand has suffered from their use of slave labour, trawlers are set to return to ravage the Thai seas with a vengeance.