Day: January 26, 2023

Jan 26

Poland and Hungary Are Testing the Limits of the EU’s Liberalism

Before their illiberal turn, Poland and Hungary were lauded as postcommunist poster children. Both nations have combined moderately redistributive welfare states with attacks on civil liberties — but inflation is putting their growth model to the test. Since 2010, Viktor Orbán, the prime minister of Hungary, has been at the head of an illiberal turn in the European Union. While Germany initiated a historical sea change — Olaf Scholtz’s famous “Zeitenwende” — and France abandoned its conciliatory approach toward Russia, Read Full Details…

Jan 26

UK links up with Thailand on digital trade

The UK’s Centre for Digital Trade and Innovation (C4DTI) has kicked off a new project to accelerate trade digitalisation in Thailand, as part of wider plans to strengthen and expand trade ties with Asia. Funded by the Foreign and Commonwealth Development Office, the project will see C4DTI and its legal reform taskforce partner, the Centre for Applied Sustainable Transition Law, provide technical assistance to Thailand’s Electronic Transaction Development Agency (ETDA) to support the removal of legal barriers and the alignment Read Full Details…

Jan 26

China offers Sri Lanka a 2-year debt moratorium

The Export-Import Bank of China has offered Sri Lanka a two-year moratorium on its debt and said it would support the country’s efforts to secure a $2.9 billion loan from the International Monetary Fund, according to a letter reviewed by Reuters. Regional rivals China and India are the biggest bilateral lenders to Sri Lanka, a country of 22 million people that is facing its worst economic crisis in seven decades. India wrote to the IMF earlier this month, saying it Read Full Details…