Thailand’s Prime Minister, Mr. Srettha Thavisin, has issued a directive to address the pressing issue of industrial city planning that is impeding investment opportunities in the country. Under his guidance, Ms. Pimpatra Wichaiyakul, the Minister of Industry, has been tasked with convening executives from the Ministry of Industry to devise solutions. Additionally, discussions with the Department of Public Works and Town Planning, under the Ministry of Interior, are underway to overcome these obstacles.   The urgency of this directive stems from the significant increase in investment figures observed throughout 2023. This surge in investment, evident from the rising number of applications received by the Board of Investment (BOI) and the investment figures in the Eastern Economic Corridor (EEC), underscores Thailand’s attractiveness as an investment destination. However, challenges persist in industrial city planning, as highlighted by feedback from numerous investors.   One such investor of notable interest is Tesla, the renowned electric vehicle manufacturer. Following Prime Minister Srettha’s promotional efforts in the United States, Tesla expressed interest in exploring investment opportunities in Thailand. However, Tesla’s stringent requirement of a 2,000-rai plot

Japanese government bond yields increased on reports suggesting the Bank of Japan (BOJ) might exit negative interest rates. The benchmark 10-year JGB yield reached a one-month high at 0.760%. BOJ policymakers are reportedly considering ending negative rates and revising stimulus programs. The BOJ might replace its bond yield control (YCC) with a new quantitative framework. Big Japanese companies are expected to offer significant pay hikes, influencing the timing of BOJ’s exit. Japan’s economy avoided a technical recession, supporting an earlier exit. Market expectations for ending negative rates in March increased after BOJ officials’ comments on inflation targets. The 20-year and 30-year JGB yields also rose to one-month highs

  Bitcoin was trading at $56,772 The move upward pushed Bitcoin’s market cap up to $1,093.4B, or 51.64% of the total cryptocurrency market cap. At its highest, Bitcoin’s market cap was $1,275.5B. Over the past seven days, Bitcoin has seen a rise in value, as it has 7.78%. The volume of Bitcoin traded in the twenty-four hours to the time of writing was $36.7B. Over the past week, Bitcoin has shown a significant increase in value, rising by 7.78% compared to the previous week. This growth highlights Bitcoin’s strong market performance, catching the interest of both investors and observers.  

A division of Goldman Sachs’ transaction-banking business (TxB) has stopped signing on riskier financial technology clients after a warning from the U.S. According to the Financial Times report on Thursday, the Federal Reserve had a discussion about risk and compliance earlier this year. The Fed has raised concerns about the Goldman division’s insufficient due diligence and monitoring processes when accepting high-risk non-bank clients.  

The Singapore labor market is showing signs of slowing down. Total employment grew at a slower rate, and job vacancies dipped for the fourth straight quarter, according to the Ministry of Manpower labor market report for the first quarter of 2023. Retrenchments rose to 3,820, the highest in nine months, with sectors such as electronics manufacturing and financial services being the hardest hit. 70 percent of retrenched Singapore citizens and permanent residents managed to find a new job within six months. The city-state’s job market is likely to toughen further owing to economic uncertainty and global headwinds.

The market awaits a big interest rate decision from the Fed and ECB next week. And keeping an eye on the decisions of other central banks. The Reserve Bank of Australia surprised yesterday by raising interest rates. And today the focus is on the Federal Reserve Bank of Canada. Here are factors investors should consider before making a decision.   The crypto market moved higher this morning.   Updates from the Crypto Market, gain is in the focus.   Bitcoin is trading at $26,000 and Ethereum at $1,800.  

Most of the Asian currencies retreated on Friday, coming under pressure from uncertainty over U.S. monetary policy following mixed economic readings this week. The Chinese yuan traded at two-month lows after the worse-than-expected trade and inflation data released this week pointed to a slowing economic rebound in Asia’s largest economy. Weakness in the Chinese economy dulled sentiment towards broader Asian markets.  The South Korean won fell 0.2%, while the Malaysian ringgit shed 0.3%, even as data showed that Malaysia’s economy grew more than expected in the first quarter. The Australian dollar shed 0.1% but remained relatively underpinned by expectations of more interest rate hikes by the Reserve Bank. The Japanese yen fell 0.1% and was set for mild weekly gains as fears of a U.S. banking crisis and uncertainty over the debt ceiling made for some safe-haven demand.

Parliament endorsed the first EU rules to trace crypto-asset transfers and prevent money laundering, as well as common rules on supervision and customer protection. On Thursday, MEPs approved with 529 votes in favor to 29 against and 14 abstentions, the first piece of EU legislation for tracing transfers of crypto-assets like bitcoins and electronic money tokens. The text –which was provisionally agreed by Parliament and Council negotiators in June 2022- aims to ensure that crypto transfers, as is the case with any other financial operation, can always be traced and suspicious transactions blocked. The so-called “travel rule”, already used in traditional finance, will in the future cover transfers of crypto assets. Information on the source of the asset and its beneficiary will have to “travel” with the transaction and be stored on both sides of the transfer. The law would also cover transactions above €1000 from so-called self-hosted wallets (a crypto-asset wallet address of a private user) when they interact with hosted wallets managed by crypto-assets service providers. The rules do not apply to person-to-person transfers conducted without a provider or among providers acting

SVG FSA Does Not Oversee FX Activity         First of all, let’s get one thing straight, and that is forex activities do not exist in SVG, theoretically. So, there is no so-called FSA-issued FX Brokerage License in reality, and all FSA licenses are corporate registration.           The FSA was founded in 2012, which is still young. Back then, the SVG authorities wished to promote economic growth by developing offshore finance, hence the founding of the regulator. According to the FSA Act, its role is to regulate financial entities such as non-banks within the country. But no license that authorizes trading businesses related to foreign exchange, brokerage, or a binary option is issued by FSA whatsoever. But the regulator does not prohibit a registered International Business Company (IBC) to engage in such activities, and the fact is, a big portion of financial entities registered in SVG are engaged indeed.             On the other hand, the requirements to obtain an SVG FSA license are minimal. Normally, no business plan is