07/04/2026

BIZ & FINANCE TUESDAY | APR 7, 2026

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China issues guidance for e-commerce sector

Thailand plans reforms to boost growth and cut business costs BANGKOK: Thailand will pursue broad economic and administrative reforms, aim for faster growth and cut business costs through the use of technology, according to a draft policy statement set to be delivered by the prime minister later this week. The draft, seen and verified by Reuters yesterday, also emphasises support for small and medium-sized enterprises, easier access to finance and investments in artificial intelligence, semiconductors and clean energy. The statement also called for the fast-tracking of an omnibus law within the year to scrap outdated regulations that have held back businesses and growth. This also included a “super license” to be enacted within 180 days to digitise state services and reduce bureaucracy. The government is also planning to use big data and AI in the agricultural sector to align supply and demand and raise farmer income and food exports. The policy statement also pledged education reforms centred on online access, job skills and AI-era training, alongside broader welfare measures including healthcare reform, social security updates and expanded support for an ageing society. The government also promised enhanced domestic security, tougher curbs against drugs and action on transnational crime through a review of free-visa entry rules. Tourism, a key driver of the economy, would be promoted through flexible visas to attract longer stays. Foreign tourist arrivals dropped 2.3% year on-year to 9.17 million from Jan 1 to March 29. Thailand’s leading business group said last week that it expects around 32 million foreign arrivals this year, well below the pre-pandemic record of nearly 40 million. The group cut its GDP forecast for 2026 to 1.2%-1.6% last week, down from 1.6% to 2.0%. Last year, the Thai economy grew 2.4%. – Reuters Wipro rises after deal to acquire Olam Group’s IT business MUMBAI: Shares of Wipro rose as much as 3.2% yesterday after the Indian IT services firm agreed to buy the IT services business of Singapore-based Olam Group for an enterprise value of US$375 million. The stock was last up 1.9% at 9:34 a.m. IST, making it the top gainer on the IT index, which was trading 0.5% higher. It was also the second-biggest gainer on the benchmark Nifty 50, which was down 0.2%. Olam Holdings, a unit of the Singapore food and agribusiness conglomerate, will sell 200 million ordinary shares of Mindsprint, its IT and digital services arm, to Wipro Networks, a unit of Wipro, Olam said in a statement yesterday. Mindsprint provides technology, cybersecurity and digital services across sectors including food and agribusiness, manufacturing, retail and consumer packaged goods, as well as healthcare and life sciences. Analysts at ICICI Securities said the transaction is Wipro’s largest acquisition to date and improves revenue visibility while strengthening Wipro’s consulting, platform and industry-specific capabilities in the food and agribusiness vertical. The deal would add domain expertise, IP led platforms and a captive delivery relationship, making the engagement more strategic and sticky than a traditional outsourcing arrangement, the brokerage said. Olam has also awarded Wipro an eight-year services contract with a committed annual spend of US$100 million, which Wipro said is expected to exceed US$1 billion in total contract value. – Reuters

o Beijing seeks to coordinate domestic development with international markets

Asian Institute played down the chances of a full institutional settlement, but said a stopgap deal that evolves into a broader agreement could still be achievable. “(This policy) actually shows the Chinese commitment to promote its e-commerce in the world, because the EU concern is quite representative. It is also the concerns from other leading or developed economies,” Chen added. The guidance, which did not address China’s e-commerce trade with any specific region, was jointly released by the Chinese commerce ministry, the ministries of industry, agriculture and tourism and the cyberspace and market regulators. China’s foreign ministry has said the EU delegation’s visit could improve the bloc’s understanding of China and support stable bilateral ties. The visit signalled a cautious re-engagement after strains over trade imbalances, Beijing’s ties with Russia in the wake of the Ukraine war and tensions surrounding rare-earth export controls. – Reuters

could face fines if they sold illegal or unsafe products in the bloc. China’s new guidance for its sector, jointly issued by various ministries and regulators, called for striking a balance between promotion and regulation and efficiency and fairness, while integrating the digital and real economies. It also mentioned forming pilot zones for cross-border e-commerce activities that would be used for special initiatives, establishing rules and standards and expanding platforms into overseas markets. “We will encourage e-commerce enterprises to establish direct procurement bases overseas, expand imports of high quality and distinctive products and create an e-commerce ‘express lane’ for global goods to enter the Chinese market,” the statement said. The policy move is a constructive step toward easing China–EU e-commerce problems, but it is unlikely to resolve the dispute outright, said Chen Bo of the National University of Singapore. The senior research fellow at the East

BEIJING: China has issued guidance yesterday for its e-commerce sector that seeks to coordinate domestic development with international markets, a week after a delegation of European lawmakers visited to discuss related challenges and competition. European Union lawmakers had pressed China about a surge of dangerous products that entered the bloc and limited access to the Chinese market in what was the first European parliamentary visit to the world’s second-largest economy in eight years. Last month, the EU agreed to overhaul its customs system, including a crackdown on mainly Chinese e-commerce platforms that tightening of foreign exchange rules will help shield the rupee from pressures emanating from offshore markets, but traders may continue drawing pricing signals from those markets, a senior Axis Bank official said. A 4.5% fall in the Indian rupee since the breakout of the Iran war prompted the central bank to impose a cap on banks’ net open FX positions in the onshore markets in late March. The RBI also barred lenders from offering non-deliverable forward contracts to clients and stopped firms from re-booking canceled FX contracts in order to curb speculation. The rupee gained 2% last Thursday and traded 0.3% higher at 92.81 per dollar yesterday. “RBI has effectively broken the direct link between the onshore market and the offshore market,” said Neeraj Gambhir, executive director for treasury, markets and wholesale banking products at Axis Bank, on Thursday. “If there is a lot of speculative activity in the offshore market against the INR, it will no longer translate into the onshore dollar demand and will not deplete RBI’s FX reserves.” The RBI first opened the NDF market to Indian banks in June 2020 and to resident Indians in June 2023, to deepen participation. The central bank opened up local access to the market despite reservations among a committee headed by a former deputy governor. Since opening the NDF market to local participants, the central bank has placed both informal and formal restrictions on accessibility. “If we recall the FX market before the integration of offshore and onshore, the onshore pricing used to be heavily influenced by offshore,“ Gambhir said. Gambhir reckons that if the RBI’s measures do not end up delivering the desired outcomes, the central bank mayturn to direct measures for shoring up dollar supply or curtailing some dollar demand. In the past, the central bank has used dedicated dollar-buying windows for oil companies and facilities to mobilise foreign currency deposits from non-resident

India FX curbs soften pressure on rupee MUMBAI: The Reserve Bank of India’s

A man speaks on his mobile phone next to an installation of the Rupee logo and Indian currency coins outside the Reserve Bank of India headquarters in Mumbai. – REUTERSPIC Indians when the rupee came under sustained pressure. monetary policy decision on April 8. All but two out of 71 economists polled by Reuters expect the RBI to hold rates.

The rupee’s recent weak run against the dollar does not pose a financial stability risk, according to Gambhir. “The level of depreciation is not in any way out of sync with what is happening in the rest of the world, particularly when you compare against other Asian and emerging markets which are also large importers of crude oil.” India’s central bank is slated to announce its

Gambhir shares that view, adding that the central bank should ensure surplus liquidity in the banking system. The central bank is also due to present its first forecasts for growth and inflation for the 2026-27 financial year, that will likely account forspillover impact from the war in the Middle East. – Reuters