Asia News Wrap: Asian economic leaders meet in U.S., and more

Here are a few stories from around Asia you may have missed this week.

The 30th Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Economic Leaders' Meeting opened in San Francisco on Thursday. The meeting aims to build a more interconnected, innovative, and inclusive APEC region. Chinese President Xi Jinping said the Asia-Pacific should not be an arena for geopolitical rivalry and called for unity to achieve better regional cooperation. Xi made the remarks in a written message titled "Meeting challenges with unity of purpose to write a new chapter for Asia-Pacific," which was delivered to the APEC CEO Summit. U.S. President Joe Biden said he would keep working to advance a Pacific trade pact. Earlier in the week, the two leaders met at the Filoli estate, south of San Francisco, for a bilateral summit that lasted four hours. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi later described the meeting as strategic, historic, and one that provides stewardship.

The Bangladesh Election Commission has announced that national polls will be held on January 7, 2024. Chief Election Commissioner Kazi Habibul Awal announced the date on Wednesday in a televised address. The country has seen violent protests, in which hundreds were injured and at least four people, including a policeman, were killed. The protests led by the main opposition, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), have been asking for the next elections be held under a caretaker government. The BNP's top leadership, who have been either jailed or exiled, has already said it will boycott the next national election if Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina does not resign and allow a caretaker government to take over. She has rejected opposition calls to resign, blaming the BNP for the protests.

More than half a million students sat the college entrance exam across the South Korea on Thursday. The exam is seen as life defining. It's the first time in four years that the exam has taken place free of pandemic rules and so test-takers were not required to wear face masks, unlike during the previous three years.

Reuters reported, "The annual exam is widely considered one of the most important tests in the country. Even airline flights are suspended during the listening comprehension portion of the English test. South Korean financial markets opened an hour later than usual at 10 a.m. to ease traffic." Education officials said it would not include the so-called "killer questions" typically drawn from material not covered in the public school curriculum. President Yoon Suk-yeol blamed such questions as the cause of excessive spending in private education, one of the factors behind the country's declining fertility rate.

All adults in Singapore will be eligible to get between 200 and 800 Singapore dollars in December through the Government's Assurance Package which intends to help with the rising cost of living. This will apply to Singaporeans aged 21 and above in 2024. This was announced by the government on Wednesday. Straits Times reported that within this group of about 2.9 million Singaporeans, about 2.5 million will receive an additional payment of up to S$200, according to the Ministry of Finance on Wednesday. This additional sum applies to Singaporeans whose assessable income for year of assessment 2022 is up to S$100,000.

Sri Lanka's top court ruled on Tuesday that former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and his brother, former Prime Minister Mahinda, were among several government officials whose conduct contributed to the country's worst economic crisis in decades. "Their actions, omissions and conduct contributed to the crisis," the ruling said. Sri Lanka's economy collapsed, shrinking 7.8 percent last year, hit hard by long power cuts, soaring inflation, a plunging rupee and record high interest rates caused by the worst financial crisis in over seven decades.

Reuters reported that, "The court was ruling on a petition filed against 13 former officials by rights group Transparency International Sri Lanka which said the Rajapaksa brothers and others were responsible for the crisis." The two Rajapaksa brothers, alongside two former central bank governors and President Ranil Wickremesinghe, were among those named in the landmark TISL petition. Wickremesinghe was prime minister at the time of the crisis.

(Cover: A journalist walks past a poster at the APEC 2023 International Media Center in San Francisco, United States, November 14, 2023. /Xinhua