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Beijing will bolster Hong Kong’s position as a global financial hub by enhancing openness and cooperation in key sectors, according to senior officials from Chinese regulatory bodies.“We will continue to deepen financial collaboration between the mainland and Hong Kong, promote Hong Kong’s full integration into the nation’s overall development, leverage its strengths, and further consolidate and enhance its status as an international financial centre,” said Zhou Liang, vice-minister of the National Financial Regulatory Administration (NFRA), during the Global Financial Leaders’ Investment Summit on Tuesday.“We will make full use of Hong Kong’s role as a ‘superconnector’.”The NFRA would facilitate mainland insurers…

Beijing will bolster Hong Kong’s position as a global financial hub by enhancing openness and cooperation in key sectors, according to senior officials from Chinese regulatory bodies.“We will continue to deepen financial collaboration between the mainland and Hong Kong, promote Hong Kong’s full integration into the nation’s overall development, leverage its strengths, and further consolidate and enhance its status as an international financial centre,” said Zhou Liang, vice-minister of the National Financial Regulatory Administration (NFRA), during the Global Financial Leaders’ Investment Summit on Tuesday.“We will make full use of Hong Kong’s role as a ‘superconnector’.”The NFRA would facilitate mainland insurers…

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — A nail-biter national election in the Netherlands came down to postal votes from Dutch citizens living abroad, with the centrist D66 party eking out a win over anti-Islam lawmaker Geert Wilders’ far-right Party for Freedom according to a final tally by national news agency ANP. The pair will each have 26 seats in parliament, as the roughly 28,000 vote advantage for D66 was not enough for the party to pick up an additional legislator. Using a nearly complete ballot count and an estimation based on previous patterns, ANP had predicted D66 would receive the most…

Chinese artificial intelligence start-up Zhipu AI, marketed internationally as Z.ai, has seen the number of paid users overseas increase tenfold over the past two months, the head of its global operations said, in a sign of the growing appeal of Chinese AI services among global users.The Beijing-based company now has around 100,000 monthly API – or application programming interface – users, as well as 3 million free chatbot users overseas, following the launch of its flagship GLM-4.6 model, Li Zixuan said in an interview on Friday.“We want to grow in every market because growth overseas is exceeding growth domestically,” he…

Hong Kong stocks rose on Tuesday, riding on a tech rally sparked by Amazon’s US$38 billion partnership with OpenAI, even as investors remained cautious amid lingering uncertainty over the US Federal Reserve’s policy direction.The Hang Seng Index advanced 0.3 per cent to 26,232.57 at 9.50am local time, adding to the 1 per cent gain on Monday. The Hang Seng Tech Index nudged 0.1 per cent higher. On the mainland, both the CSI 300 Index and the Shanghai Composite Index slid 0.1 per cent.Technology firms led the rise. Search-engine Baidu surged 5.4 per cent to HK$124.90, while Chinese home-grown chipmaker SMIC…

Hong Kong stocks rose on Tuesday, riding on a tech rally sparked by Amazon’s US$38 billion partnership with OpenAI, even as investors remained cautious amid lingering uncertainty over the US Federal Reserve’s policy direction.The Hang Seng Index advanced 0.3 per cent to 26,232.57 at 9.50am local time, adding to the 1 per cent gain on Monday. The Hang Seng Tech Index nudged 0.1 per cent higher. On the mainland, both the CSI 300 Index and the Shanghai Composite Index slid 0.1 per cent.Technology firms led the rise. Search-engine Baidu surged 5.4 per cent to HK$124.90, while Chinese home-grown chipmaker SMIC…

The United States and the Philippines have launched a new military task force designed to expand joint operational planning and coordination – a move analysts say underscores both countries’ determination to strengthen deterrence against Beijing’s growing assertiveness in the South China Sea.While the initiative formalises years of expanding defence ties, observers view it as a turning point in how Washington and Manila intend to manage maritime tensions – shifting from symbolic shows of alliance like episodic military exercises to integrated readiness across air, naval and cyber domains.US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth and his Philippine counterpart, Gilberto Teodoro, unveiled the new…

ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Commerce, Jam Kamal Khan, held a meeting with Türkiye’s Minister of Trade, Prof Dr Ömer Bolat, in Istanbul on the sidelines of the 41st Session of the COMCEC. During the meeting, both ministers discussed avenues to further strengthen trade and economic cooperation between the two brotherly nations. The Turkish Trade Minister, Prof Dr Ömer Bolat, expressed his government’s strong desire to enhance trade ties and expand bilateral economic engagement with Pakistan. He assured that Türkiye would review Pakistan’s proposals favourably during the upcoming round of trade negotiations. Federal Minister Jam Kamal Khan briefed his Turkish counterpart…

Singapore’s Leader of the Opposition Pritam Singh on Tuesday launched an appeal against a conviction for lying under oath to a parliamentary committee, for which he was fined S$14,000 (US$10,735).In February, the Workers’ Party (WP) chief, 49, was found guilty of two counts of giving false testimonies to the committee that was scrutinising a lie told by the party’s former member of parliament Raeesah Khan.He pleaded not guilty and received the maximum fine of S$7,000 for each charge following a 13-day trial.On Tuesday, Singh arrived at the Supreme Court dressed in a blue shirt to appeal his case before Justice…

China should more actively pursue the global lead in quantum governance to secure a strategic edge, an influential mainland think tank has urged, as dual-use quantum tech emerges as an increasingly important front in the country’s wide-ranging rivalry with the United States.China could also diversify its technological partnerships by deepening cooperation with EU countries and the United Arab Emirates, according to Grandview Institution, as the country prepares for its next five-year plan.Beijing could exchange expertise to advance quantum computing and actively engage in global rule-setting in the field amid tightening US tech curbs, the Beijing-based think tank said.“The competition in…