The growth in Japan’s GDP — 4.0 percent at an annualised rate — blew past market expectations for a 0.6 percent rise, and was well up from a 0.4 percent expansion in the first quarter, according to figures from the Cabinet Office.

The world’s number three economy has been picking up steam, mainly on the back of a surging exports including smartphones parts and memory chips, with investments linked to the Tokyo 2020 Olympics also giving growth a boost.

But the latest GDP figures were driven by robust domestic demand and capital spending, which offset a quarterly decline in exports.

Private consumption picked up 0.9 percent in the second quarter — individual spending accounts for more than a half of Japan’s GDP.

The labour market is tight and business confidence is high but efforts to lift inflation have fallen flat despite years of aggressive monetary easing by Japan’s central bank.

The latest reading nonetheless means Japan’s economy has had its best string of gains since 2006, during the tenure of popular former prime minister Junichiro Koizumi.

Monday’s figures are good news for the current prime minister Shinzo Abe — whose brief and underwhelming first term as Japan’s premier came directly after Koizumi.

A string of short-term leaders followed before Abe swept back to power in late 2012 on a pledge to reignite Japan’s once-booming economy with a plan dubbed Abenomics.

The scheme — a mix of huge monetary easing, government spending and reforms to the economy — stoked a stock market rally and fattened corporate profits.

But critics have cast doubt on the plan, as heavily-indebted Japan grapples with low birthrates and a shrinking labour force.

Abe has seen his public support rating plummet in the past few months over an array of political troubles, including allegations of favouritism to a friend in a business deal.

Japan has been struggling to defeat years of deflation and slow growth that followed the collapse of an equity and property market bubble in the early nineties.

The Bank of Japan, aiming to create two-percent inflation as a key part the growth bid, now expects to reach that goal by sometime in the year to March 2020 — four years later than planned.

Falling prices can discourage spending by consumers, who might postpone purchases until prices drop more or look to save money instead.

That puts pressure on businesses, creating a cycle in which firms then cut back on expanding production, hiring new workers or boosting wages.

After threatening during the campaign to rip up the agreement, Trump has softened his stance a bit and spoken more recently of renegotiating the agreement as the most efficient course for the US, Canada and Mexico.

But talks to redo the controversial 1994 agreement, which eliminated trade barriers among the three countries, are expected to be thorny. The first round takes place from Wednesday to Sunday in the US capital.

Trump made NAFTA a defining issue of his campaign, frequently lambasting the deal as a “disaster” that sold out US workers and dismissing supporters who touted the deal’s benefits.

“For Donald Trump this was so central in his campaign that he felt he has no choice but proceed,” said Edward Alden, a senior fellow at the Council of Foreign Relations, a leading think tank.

“I think at some point the President Trump has to walk away with something that he can call victory. I don’t think he could just walk away.”

Trump’s biggest gripe with NAFTA has been the dramatic shift in the US’ commercial balance with Mexico, which since the treaty’s inception has gone from a surplus of $1.3 billion to a deficit of $64 billion.

NAFTA has been a bedrock of the Mexican economy, with 80 percent of that country’s exports going to its Northern neighbor, an especially impactful relationship for Mexican manufacturers and farmers.

The agreement has significantly boosted Mexico’s auto sector, which has grown because of its supply of cheap labor as US automakers have shuttered some factories in their home country.

“Too many Americans have been hurt by closed factories, exported jobs, and broken political promises,” US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said last month.

The US trade balance with Canada is more even, but that trade relationship also has points of tension in some sectors, including dairy, wine and grains.

– Long road ahead –

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While the US under Trump has been the party to force NAFTA back onto the agenda, all three countries agree there will be benefits to revisiting an agreement nearly a quarter of a century old that was crafted prior to the internet era.

“Each country feels they have a lot to gain from pursuing these negotiations,” said Jeffrey Schott, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, a think tank.

Trump administration officials have said they want a swift outcome to the talks, but experts think a speedy deal is unlikely. Next week’s opening salvo will be followed by a second round of talks beginning September 5 in Mexico.

“The first round is basically to put forward some initial ideas and to explain them and probably the negotiators won’t cover the most controversial issues in the first round,” said Schott, who warned a strident “America first” push by the Trump team could cause problems.

“All three countries are committed to successful negotiations that revise and improve the NAFTA, but there is a risk that if United Stated is pushing the controversial ideas too hard that the talks could run off,” Schott said.

A consideration from the Mexican side will be the 2018 presidential election. But Alden, who predicts the talks will require about two years, noted it also has an experienced negotiating team, as well as a strong consumer market for some US sectors, such as agriculture.

“Mexico has a lot of leverage too,” Alden said.

Singapore’s public transport system is set to go fully cashless within three years, with all bus and train rides to be paid for with travel cards and top-ups with cash no longer available at stations.

The first cashless rail line will be the Thomson-East Coast Line, which will open in 2019.

The goal of going fully cashless was announced by the Land Transport Authority (LTA) and subsidiary TransitLink late last week.

To nudge commuters on board, rail operators SMRT and SBS Transit will stop offering cash top-ups at passenger service centres at 11 train stations on September 1 this year. They are: Admiralty, Bedok, Bukit Panjang, Buona Vista, Farrer Park, HarbourFront, Hougang, Lakeside, Pasir Ris, Serangoon and Yew Tee.

Cash top-ups will cease to be available at passenger service centres of other stations sometime next year.

Currently, about 27 per cent of commuters rely on staff at the passenger service centres to help reload their cards with cash. Service agents will be deployed at the 11 stations to help these commuters switch to using the general ticketing machines, which will still accept cash in the short term.

By 2020, however, these and other self-service ticketing machines at stations and bus interchanges will accept only cashless top-ups.

LTA’s group director for technology and industry development, Lam Wee Shann, said: “When we relieve passenger service centre staff from handling cash and doing top-ups, their attention could be more focused on train station operations, which is their core job

“There are also costs that are not small in maintaining cash transactions. By going cashless, cost avoidance can be re-invested into the public transport system, to improve and maintain it.”

LTA and TransitLink said they have been adding payment options at ticketing machines since January to accept credit or debit cards and mobile payment platforms such as Apple Pay and Android Pay.

They assured commuters cash top-ups will continue to be available come 2020, but in limited forms, such as at convenience stores.

While cash is currently accepted at 39 TransitLink ticket offices located at stations and bus interchanges, the agencies said they are working towards removing this, but will study this plan “very carefully”.

As for bus fares, only travel cards will be accepted by 2020. While less than 2 per cent of all bus journeys are paid for in cash, the LTA said it is “still studying” what to do if a commuter comes on board without a travel card.

The LTA said it is also working to extend an ongoing pilot that allows Mastercard holders to use debit and credit cards directly to pay for rides.

Honey Mya Win, co-founder and chief executive officer of Chate Sat, said on Sunday that the start-up recently received six figure funding from three venture capital firms – Singapore’s Vulpes Investment Management Ltd, Theta Capital, and a local investor.

“I am confident they will inject further funding for future rounds. And we have planned to raise Series A funding in the next 18 months,” she said. Honey Mya Win said the funding would help the firm to foster its business activities in Yangon, as well as to expand its services to other major cities including Mandalay, Nay Pyi Taw and Taunggyi.

“We will mainly focus on Yangon and Mandalay in the coming months until 2018. But we will also go to other cities to educate the people about digital services and their strengths,” she said. The start-up now has a team of seven young people. It serves as the simplest medium to engage local freelancers to collaborate with businesses in the homeland and abroad.

“We gather skilled individuals and a constant source of projects in one place while ensuring to avoid unpaid invoices and poor quality works for respective parties. We mainly focus on simplicity so that the experience of hiring and accepting projects on Chate Sat is super quick and easy,” she said. “At first, we aimed to get local freelancers connected with businesses here in Myanmar. As our service gets known, we have welcomed a few foreign companies from Thailand and Singapore. [They] signed up on our website to find suitable freelancers who could translate their projects into the local context to promote their businesses here.”

She said Thai and Singaporean firms are mostly interested in seeking designers for their business expansion. She is confident about securing at least 1,500 projects that will acquire over 8,000 freelancers and 2,000 employers onto the platform by the end of this year.

She said local and international tech investors had long been eyeing Myanmar’s tech and innovation sector. Local tech start-ups could harness the connectivity revolution to accelerate business growth with support from investor communities, she added. “As the economy opens up, we want to continue creating more freelance jobs for the 53-million strong population,” she said.

She said the major challenges as a tech start-up are mainly technical issues and dealing with online payment systems. Other business obstacles include the lack of infrastructure, frequent electricity blackouts and slow Internet speed. She has planned to educate people about the digital ecosystem and develop familiarity with their product.

“If you are a freelancer or would like to hire a freelancer, ours is the right place. It is a community of freelancers who are seeking freelance projects to show their profession and earn money, and employers who are willing to hire freelancers to finish their tasks fast,” she said.

The firm is one of the four alumni from Phandeeyar Accelerator Cohort 1. Phandeeyar, Myanmar’s most popular innovation lab, supported it with US$25,000 (Bt830,000) in pre-seed funding, and will remain an investor in the company going forward.

Jes Kaliebe Petersen, CEO of Phandeeyar, said online job platforms in Myanmar have been growing at an exponential rate.

“With Myanmar’s economy opening up, major local and international companies will get into stiff competition in search of the best talents from the country,” he said.

The men, clad in elaborate black and yellow traditional costumes, sat in neat rows, clapping their hands on their shoulders and laps and moving in an increasingly fast-paced rhythm to a traditional song.

The saman, or “the dance of a thousand hands”, is one of the country’s most popular. In 2011 it was included in the UNESCO list of items of intangible cultural heritage.

The event was aimed at attracting more visitors to the province, the head of the local tourism agency, Syafruddin, told AFP.

The men, mostly from the ethnic Gayo community, made occasional wave-like movements without breaking formation.

Their song focused on the importance of protecting the province’s Mount Leuser National Park, home to rare Sumatran tigers and elephants, which is threatened by rampant poaching and rainforest destruction due to the expansion of palmoil plantations.

Thousands of spectators flocked to an open field tucked amid lush green hills in Gayo Lues district to watch the performance.

The Indonesian Museum of Record certified it as breaking a national record with 10,001 participants — beating last year’s record of 6,600.

The dance is usually accompanied by a song performed in unison. It emphasises teamwork, a symbol of unity.

“In the old days the lyrics were usually about spreading Islamic teachings. These days we can adjust the lyrics to deliver any message we wish to convey to the audience,” Syafruddin said.

Aceh’s international image has been tarnished by its public punishments under Sharia law, such as caning for homosexuality.

“I am very impressed with the performance, the dancers synchronised very well and it makes me proud as an Indonesian. It was incredible,” Sarah, a visitor from Jakarta, told AFP.//AFP

Bolt received the baton with Jamaica in third, but halfway down the finishing straight the towering sprinter pulled up clutching his left thigh, eventually doing a forward somersault to the ground, to gasps from the 60,000 sell out London Stadium.

The British quartet of Chijindu Ujah, Adam Gemili, Daniel Talbot and Nethaneel Mitchell-Blake claimed gold in 37.47 seconds, with the Justin Gatlin-led US four taking silver at 0.05sec and Japan a surprise bronze (38.04).

Jamaican team doctor Dr Kevin Jones said Bolt had suffered from “cramp in his left hamstring.”

“But a lot of pain is from disappointment from losing the race,” Jones said.

Medical staff attends to Jamaica’s Usain Bolt after injuring himself during the final of the men’s 4x100m relay athletics event at the 2017 IAAF World Championships at the London Stadium in London on August 12, 2017. / AFP PHOTO / Antonin THUILLIER

“The last three weeks have been hard for him, you know. We hope for the best for him.”

Second leg runner Julian Forte added: “He didn’t tell us exactly what happened but from what I saw, it looked like a strain or a cramp of some sort.

“He kept apologizing to us but we told him there was no need to apologize — injuries are part of the sport.”

Newly-crowned 110m hurdles champion Omar McLeod, Jamaica’s lead-off runner, added: “Everybody was jelly, everybody was pumped. (Bolt’s injury) just happened. Usain Bolt’s name will always live on.”

Bolt missed out on his bid to retain his 100m title earlier in the week, losing out to Gatlin and silver medalist Christian Coleman, who ran relay anchor for the Americans on Saturday.

But hopes were high for Bolt’s final competitive race, with Jamaica also boasting McLeod, Forte and 2011 world champion Yohan Blake in their line-up.

Jamaica were afforded a rousing welcome from the crowd, a relaxed-looking Bolt applauding the stands, with pictures of him constantly shown on the stadium’s big screens.

Gatlin, who has served two doping bans, and the US team also including another convicted doping cheat, Mike Rodgers, and Jaylen Bacon were booed when introduced although the jeering was less pronounced than for the individual 100m event.

A close first three legs saw Britain, the United States and Jamaica, seeking a fifth consecutive world title, level-pegged for the final leg.

High drama

But there was to be high drama as a visibly swearing Bolt pulled up in obvious pain, allowing the Japanese quartet to edge in for third.

The result means Bolt, 100 and 200m world record holder, finishes his career with 14 world career medals, one behind American Allyson Felix, to go with eight Olympic golds.

Amid wild home celebrations, Bolt was attended to by medics, but refused a ride in a wheelchair off the track, instead finally getting up and limping alongside his teammates through to the finish line and then off into the bowels of the stadium for treatment.

It was a sad exit for an athlete who has lit up the track when the sport has been dragged through its worst-ever crisis, racked by doping and corruption scandals that went to the very heart of athletics’ governing body.

And what a gaping hole his absence will leave, no matter how brave a face the IAAF try to put on it.

Since confirming his sprinting dominance with triple gold at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, Bolt spent nine seasons amassing 19 global golds, 13 of which have come in individual events.

Allied with a charismatic personality, it has guaranteed Bolt recognition as one of the world’s most successful sportsmen. Last year alone he earned $34.2 million, according to Forbes.//AFP