The PAC in a report revealed that the federal government had committed some 5.8 billion ringgit in government-guaranteed loans, standby credit of 950 million ringgit alongside another 13.56 billion ringgit via a letter of support which meant that the government would intervene if 1MDB could not honour its loan payments.

The purpose of this was to raise funds for a 50:50 joint venture (JV) with Aabar Investments PJSC, which is a subsidiary of Abu Dhabi’s International Petroleum Investment Co.

This fund-raising exercise was done through Goldman Sachs.

No specific information on the investment was provided.

A letter of support issued on March 14, 2013 with Cabinet approval stated that 1MDB would step in if its subsidiary – 1MDB Global Investment Ltd (1MDB GIL) – fails to honour the bonds.

1MDB GIL is a British Virgin Islands-registered entity set up on March 8, 2013, to receive the proceeds of the fund-raising exercise, said the report.

“If 1MDB, as a shareholder in 1MDB GIL, fails to provide the funds, the federal government will take over and provide what is necessary,” the report said.

It is stated that 1MDB and Aabar had managed to raise $2.72 billion for this, but the PAC found that $1.75 billion was instead invested in a portfolio with BSI bank in Lugano, Switzerland.

The PAC was informed this was pending finalisation of the JV with Aabar.

In a press statement Thursday, the leading business and financial news magazine said the 50 businesswomen were picked among those “active in the upper echelons of business in Asia, wield significant power and have access to robust financial resources” in this part of the world.

In short, the 5th annual “Asia’s Power Businesswomen” list comprised of women who were “shaking things up across diverse industries.”

The 2016 list, which is available on http://www.forbes.com/asia-women as well as in the latest issue of Forbes Asia, acknowledged the inroads women were making in the business world. Women from 14 countries were represented.

Sy-Coson, 65, is the country’s constant representative to this list. Since joining the Banco de Oro board in 1997, she led the growth of Sy family-led BDO Unibank from a niche player to the largest lender in the country.

A graduate of Assumption College, she is an expert in banking and finance, retail merchandising, mall and real estate development. She is also believed to be the most likely to succeed her father, the SM patriarch Henry Sy Sr. as the captain of the ship.

At present, she is vice chair of SM Investments Corp., the country’s most valuable conglomerate and is adviser to the board of SM Prime Holdings Inc. She also sits on the board of SM Mart Inc. and SM Retail Inc.

Gokongwei-Pe, 54, has joined the list for the first time. She is the president of multiformat retailer RRHI, one of the country’s largest retailers which benefit from growing consumer affluence in the country. She is also a director of JG Summit Holdings Inc., Robinsons Land Corp., Cebu Air Inc. and Robinsons Bank Corp. She is also a trustee of the Gokongwei Brothers Foundation Inc., Immaculate Conception Academy Scholarship Fund and the Ramon Magsaysay Awards Foundation.

The daughter of tycoon John Gokongwei, she attended the University of the Philippines-Diliman from 1978 to 1981 and obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree (Journalism) from New York University in 1984. She joined the group in 1984 as a management trainee.

China and Hong Kong dominated the latest list with 14 women, followed by India with eight, Thailand with five and Japan with four. Singapore, Australia, Indonesia and Vietnam each have three. South Korea and the Philippines each have two while Macau, Taiwan and New Zealand have one each.

The magazine said that despite China’s slowdown, a core group of this year’s listees was creating wealth in the country’s manufacturing sector. They include Ma Xiuhui, cofounder and chief executive officer of Opple Lighting, a company that started out making traditional bulbs and whose LED lighting now illuminates homes around the world; and, Mou Jinxiang, cofounder and chair of Lianhe Chemical Technology, which sells specialty chemicals to giants such as Dow Chemical and BASF. With a 30.5 percent stake in the company, Mou is also a member of the Forbes China Rich list with an estimated net worth of $960 million.

From India, Nita Ambani, director of Reliance Industries and chair of Reliance Foundation, debuted on this year’s list. She is also the wife of billionaire Mukesh Ambani. “Her rising profile in the Reliance empire is unusual and earns her a spot in this year’s ranking,” the magazine said.

Chanda Kochhar, a five-time listee, is at the helm of ICICI Bank, India’s largest private-sector lender.

The other women honored for their achievements include: Wendy Sui Cheng Yap, cofounder, president-director and CEO of Indonesia’s Nippon Indosari; Yuwadee Chirathivat, CEO of Thailand’s Central Department Store Group; Arundhati Bhattacharya, chair and managing director of State Bank of India; Ho Ching, executive director and CEO of Singapore’s Temasek; Susan Lloyd-Hurwitz, CEO and managing director of Australia’s Mirvac; Lee Boo-jin, president and CEO of South Korea’s Hotel Shilla; Pollyanna Chu, CEO of Hong Kong’s Kingston Financial Group; and Nguyen Thi Phuong Thao, cofounder and chair of Vietnam’s Sovico Holdings.

In addition to the power 50 list, 12 women in their early 20s to mid-30s have been singled out as “Women to Watch.” Among them are Nang Lang Kham, executive director of Myanmar’s KBZ Bank; Tan Hooi Ling, cofounder and COO of Grab; Sabrina Ho Chiu Yeng, project manager at the Palazzo Versace and Karl Lagerfeld Hotels in Macau. Lavanya Nalli, the first female vice chair of India’s Nalli Group of Cos., and Anna Fang, partner and CEO of ZhenFund, also made the watch list.

In an April 5 report on the Philippines, Capital Economics said “there are good reasons to think that [Mr. Aquino’s] achievements will outlast his presidency,” hence it “remain[s] optimistic that the Philippines will continue to grow strongly over the coming years.”

In a statement on Thursday, the government’s Investor Relations Office (IRO) said the almost $300-billion Philippine economy was expected to grow by 6-7 percent in the medium- to long-term despite a change in administration by midyear, citing Capital Economics’ forecast. The government has projected the gross domestic product (GDP) to grow between 6.6 percent to 8 percent in the next four years.

On Mr. Aquino’s watch, the Philippine economy expanded by an average of 6.2 percent—the fastest average rate since the late 1970s.

According to IRO, Capital Economics noted the Philippines’ solid macroeconomic fundamentals, especially its current account surplus as well as manageable debt burden, which “will help ensure the Philippines avoid crisis situations in the face of global economic challenges.”

“Low levels of government debt and a current account surplus mean that, even if investor sentiment did take a sudden turn for the worse after the election, a crisis is unlikely,” Capital Economics said.

Last year, the Philippines posted a current account surplus of $8.4 billion, sustaining a surplus for 13 straight years. The share of general government debt to GDP, meanwhile, slid

to 36.8 percent as of September last year from 59.2 percent a decade ago, IRO noted.

IRO said Capital Economics “also recognized efforts to boost the manufacturing sector, which economists say has bigger multiplier effects on growth compared with the services sector.”

The manufacturing sector expanded 5.7 percent last year, bringing the average growth to 7.6 percent during the 2010-2015 period. In contrast, the manufacturing sector grew by a mere 3.2 percent from 2000 to 2009, IRO said.

Also, Capital Economics took note of the Philippines’ young population—with an average age of 23.5, which “will help keep the economy on the robust-growth trajectory,” IRO added.

“The Philippines is said to have recently entered the ‘demographic window,’ a period when a majority of the population belongs to the working-age group and, as such, economic production is likely to accelerate with sufficient investments in human capital development,” it noted.

Citing the anti-money laundering regulations under the Manual of Regulations for Banks (MORB), Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) Deputy Governor Nestor A. Espenilla Jr. said banks dealing with foreign exchange dealers, money changers and remittance agents should take extra caution and vigilance and should perform enhanced due diligence consistent with regulations and the bank’s procedures as provided under its Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing Prevention Program (MLPP).

“The bank’s MLPP should contain appropriate risk management practices to ensure that money laundering and terrorist financing risks arising from dealings with foreign exchange dealers, money changers and remittance agents are effectively identified, assessed, monitored, mitigated and controlled,” Espenilla said in an April 5 memorandum.

The memorandum cited that “by the nature of their business, they [foreign exchange dealers, money changers and remittance agents] inherently pose higher money laundering and terrorist financing risk.”

In a meeting last month, the BSP and the Bankers Association of the Philippines (BAP) discussed the possibility of liberalizing, with attendant safeguards, the undocumented foreign exchange limit in order to discourage legitimate foreign exchange deals from going into the “black market” or foreign exchange brokerage and money changers outside the formal banking system.

The BAP had also proposed to raise to $2 million from $120,000 at present the amount of foreign exchange that banks could sell to residents without prior BSP approval. The BSP currently requires banks to secure underlying documents from clients who want to buy more than $120,000 a day from the banking system.

About 85 per cent of foreign exchange transactions in the country were being conducted outside the banking system, industry estimates showed, as foreign exchange and money changing services were not illegal as long as these were registered.

The BAP has also suggested to tighten regulations on money changers.

To ensure that transactions with foreign exchange dealers, money changers and remittance agents are sound as well as in line with risk management policies and practices, the BSP ordered banks to:

Only deal with foreign exchange dealers, money changers and remittance agents registered with the BSP;

Conduct appropriate due diligence when dealing with remittance agents as remittance partners to ensure that such will not be used as channel for money laundering and terrorist financing activities;

Conduct risk assessment of foreign exchange dealers, money changers and remittance agents’ customers, considering relevant factors such as business operations, types of customers, product/service availed, distribution channel, jurisdictions they are exposed to and expected account activity;

Perform enhanced due diligence (including a review of the anti-money laundering and combating the financing of terrorism measures and programs adopted by foreign exchange dealers, money changers and remittance agents, as well as submission of proof of registration with the Anti-Money Laundering Council), an unsatisfactory result of which should be a ground for denying the business relationship, and

Perform continuing account and transaction monitoring.

“Ultimately, the president wants to change the paradigm of the budget,” Cabinet Secretary Pramono Anung said at the State Palace in Jakarta on Monday.

Other issues on the agenda for the meeting were the ease of doing business in Indonesia, the so-called one-map policy and the Indonesian hostage situation in the Philippines, Pramono said.

Regarding the revised state budget, Pramono continued, President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo had urged Cabinet members to increase efficiency in their respective budgets, underlining that the allocation of state funds had to follow ministries’ programs rather than preset allocations.

Finance Minister Bambang Brodjonegoro added that the government had included a cut in government spending in its draft bill for a revised state budget, along with the tax amnesty.

The government, he added, expected the House of Representatives to pass tax amnesty bill in April, so that the revised budget could be submitted in May.

“There will be efficiency programs on spending, both at ministries and regional government, as well as with regard to subsidies. Even if the tax amnesty [bill] is passed, efficiency in spending will be beneficial. It is part of our commitment to maintain a healthy and well-targeted budget,” he explained.

Coordinating Economic Minister Darmin Nasution added that he would report on the progress of simplifying business procedures. Meanwhile, the one-map policy aims to resolve disagreements resulting from the use of different data and maps that often cause land disputes and overlapping permits for plantations and mining operations.

In the World Bank’s 2016 edition of the Doing Business index, Indonesia ranks 109th among 189 countries in terms of the ease of doing business, lagging behind neighbouring economies Singapore (1st), Malaysia (18th), Thailand (49th) and Vietnam