(Source: Asia Tech News) New information from the International Finance Corporation and the World Bank confirms what we’ve been talking about on this blog for some time now. Singapore is one of the friendliest environments on the planet for entrepreneurs. The latest Doing Business report ranks Singapore at the top of its ‘ease of doing business’ rankings for the sixth …

The Alibaba Group offers up to $2.5 billion to take its Hong Kong-listed B2B trading platform private, four years after the company went public. The market gave a thumbs up yesterday to Alibaba Group’s proposal to privatise its Hong Kong listed business-to-business (B2B) unit Alibaba.com a little more than four years after it went public. Or how else does one …

BEIJING: China’s manufacturing activity continued to contract in February as export orders weakened, HSBC said, in a further sign that the eurozone crisis and US weakness are hurting demand. HSBC’s preliminary purchasing managers index rose to 49.7, the highest level in four months, from a final reading of 48.8 in January, the British banking giant said in a statement, released …

SHANGHAI: One of China’s biggest train makers said Wednesday it plans to raise 7.1 billion yuan (US$1.1 billion) through a rights issue, after a fatal crash last year starved the sector of funds. State-owned China North Locomotive and Rolling Stock Industry Corporation (CNR), which makes trains for the Beijing-Shanghai high-speed rail line, will use the funds to upgrade technology and …

Singapore is poised to become the Asian centre for synthetic exchange-traded funds, stealing the spotlight from Hong Kong as regulators there become increasingly stringent, according to a report by advisory firm Celent. The report, published Thursday, highlighted the changing regulatory landscape in Hong Kong and said tougher rules governing synthetic funds in Asia could stunt continued ETF growth in the …

NEW DELHI: The economy is expected to grow in the range of 7.5% to 8% in the fiscal year ending March 2013, the Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council said on Wednesday, but cautioned that the government must unveil steps to repair public finances and rein in subsidies to bring the economy to a high growth path. The council also said …

NEW DELHI: India, China, the US, Russia, Brazil and another 21 nations have decided to retaliate against the EU decision to collect billions of dollars every year by unilaterally imposing a carbon tax on flights landing in Eurozone. The retaliatory measures decided include reviewing or abrogating the bilateral service agreements and open skies’ agreements with each European country, suspending all …

The central bank’s anti-inflationary stance has hurt the country’s economic growth, the government said on Tuesday, but it exuded confidence that the current deceleration was a temporary blip. The economy should soon clock a double-digit growth, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee said here. The comments come less than a month ahead of the Reserve Bank of India’s monetary review and the …

Swire Pacific, Sun Hung Kai Properties and DBS rush to issue as Greek rescue package buoys credit markets. It was another hectic day in Asia’s debt markets yesterday as the news of a second rescue package for Greece helped boost credit markets. While Greece is far from being out of the woods — and bondholders have agreed to take a …

Iran offered India extra crude supplies on revised terms as international sanctions tighten the Middle East producer’s circle of oil customers, according to three people with knowledge of the talks. Indian refiners have yet to decide on whether they will take up Iran’s offer of additional shipments, the people said, declining to be identified because they aren’t authorized to speak …