Capital, training and compliance support for small businesses already exist. What is missing is a system that connects them around the same business journey. Every day, we are adopting new technology, learning new skills and starting new businesses. Yet the more I observe this progress, the more it looks like we are collecting useful pieces […] The post MSME development doesn’t need invention, only connection appeared first on e27.

A series of small earthquakes beneath Keningau, an inland district of Sabah in Malaysian Borneo, is drawing attention to a part of the state where scientists say the fault lines are poorly understood and the consequences of a larger quake could be devastating. The latest, a magnitude 3.4 tremor on September 3, was felt in several parts of Keningau, prompting staff at the district office to suspend a meeting and move to a designated safe area. No serious damage was reported. The tremor was one of...

Boston Consulting Group recently found that 94 per cent of organisations planned to keep investing in AI even if it did not deliver returns in 2026. At first glance, that sounds irrational. Companies normally invest because they expect a financial return. If the return is not appearing, investment should slow. But there is another kind […] The post Containerisation explains why AI investment may continue even without returns appeared first on e27.

In January 2026, Singapore’s Minister for Digital Development announced an additional SG$1 billion (US$786 million) over five years for the National AI Research and Development Plan, on top of the SG$500 million (US$393 million) already committed to high-performance compute under Budget 2024. Indonesia is pursuing 9 million skilled digital workers by 2035. Vietnam has elevated […] The post Why Singapore, Indonesia, and Vietnam are losing the AI race they think they are winning appeared first on e27.

More than 170,000 respiratory cases were recorded in regions affected by haze in Indonesia, a health ministry official said on Tuesday, as the country continues its battle to control fires that caused the toxic smog. Blazes in Borneo, Sumatra and Papua have blanketed parts of the vast archipelago of more than 280 million people with haze, as well as neighbouring Malaysia and Singapore, sending air quality indices plummeting. The toxic smog contains pollutants including PM 2.5, a fine particulate...

The Philippines has less than two years to turn its ambitious Pax Silica project from a US-backed plan into a functioning industrial hub before a change of government in Manila – and potentially Washington – puts its future to the test. Pax Silica is an initiative by US President Donald Trump’s administration to diversify US supplies of critical minerals and semiconductors. The Philippines is seeking to position itself as a manufacturing base for companies looking to reduce their dependence on...

The mother of a 15-year-old Thai-Swedish teenager who died after his motorbike crashed into a truck illegally reversing into oncoming traffic has made an emotional appeal for justice, accusing police of failing to execute an arrest warrant for the alleged driver, a Chinese national, seven months after the fatal crash. Tommy Boulanger, an aspiring footballer, was left in a coma following the February 20 crash in the Nongpure district of Chonburi, near the resort city of Pattaya. He never regained...

Indonesia plans to press ahead with discounted Russian crude oil imports to secure domestic energy supplies and manage fiscal pressures, despite the risk of higher US tariffs as Washington moves to tighten economic pressure on Moscow. On Friday, US President Donald Trump signed into law an act that would give him authority to impose sanctions on Russia and slap tariffs of up to 100 per cent on the top five buyers of Russian crude oil, gas and military equipment, or countries that help Moscow...

Vietnam’s car-care market is large, busy and still highly fragmented. For many car owners, booking a wash, detailing job or routine maintenance service remains a matter of phone calls, word-of-mouth recommendations and uneven service standards. Bonbon Mobility wants to put a digital layer over that experience. The Ho Chi Minh City-based startup has entered a […] The post Bonbon Mobility raises US$500K to digitise Vietnam’s car-care market appeared first on e27.

Every mid-sized Asian city with a reformist mayor and a decent airport eventually flirts with calling itself a startup hub. Fukuoka has been making that argument longer than most, and with more institutional backing than a slogan usually gets. Since 2012, the city in southern Japan has layered one startup policy on another: a national […] The post Fukuoka’s RAMEN TECH tests Japan’s startup pitch to Southeast Asia appeared first on e27.