Asia First - Tue 1 Jul 2025
From the opening bell across markets in Southeast Asia and China, to the biggest business interviews and top financial stories, tune in to Asia First to kick-start your business day.
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CNA
2 hours ago
- CNA
Will Bangkok's move to Singapore-style hawker centres kill the city's street food scene?
Will Bangkok's move to Singapore-style hawker centres kill the city's street food scene? By CNA/Jack Board For generations, street food sellers in Bangkok have created a unique culinary scene in the city. In recent years, the local government has stepped up efforts to improve food safety standards and support lower-income citizens. This includes allowing vendors to set up stalls only in designated areas and only Thai citizens on welfare are allowed to take on this work. In the past two years, some 10,000 vendors have been removed from the streets. But even without the new rules to "clean up" the street food scene, several vendors said that it has been increasingly difficult to make a living over the past few years. And for some senior vendors, moving to a new centralised location just seems "unrealistic". 'I'm old so they (the authorities) let me stay here,' said Ms Ponthip Janjamsri, 60, who sells fried meat balls. Next Story
CNA
2 hours ago
- CNA
Asia First - Wed 2 Jul 2025
02:27:35 Min From the opening bell across markets in Southeast Asia and China, to the biggest business interviews and top financial stories, tune in to Asia First to kick-start your business day.
CNA
3 hours ago
- CNA
Sberbank CEO puzzled by Russia's push to create digital rouble
ST PETERSBURG, Russia :German Gref, CEO of Russia's dominant lender Sberbank, on Wednesday said he did not see any potential benefits to Russia's development of the digital rouble beyond the possible exception of cross-border settlements. Russian banks will be required to offer customers the means to make payments using digital roubles from September 1, 2026, the central bank said last week, pushing the project's planned launch back by over a year. More than 130 countries are exploring digital versions of their currencies, according to the Atlantic Council, as the world's financial authorities respond to declining cash usage and the threat to their money-printing powers from the likes of bitcoin. Moscow hopes the digital rouble will simplify foreign trade payments that have been complicated by Western sanctions over the conflict in Ukraine. "I don't see its advantages," Gref told reporters during a financial forum in St Petersburg. "As an individual, I don't understand why digital roubles are needed. As a bank... I don't yet understand it very well either." Russian banks already have strong digital finance capacities, such as cashless settlements, Gref said, reiterating that he saw no possibility for the digital rouble to meaningfully transform Russia's economy. No digital currency has become dominant within any country, he said, but there could be a future in cross-border settlements. "Domestically, I don't see it yet," he said.
