Southeast Asian nations are close to finalizing the ASEAN Digital Economy Framework Agreement (DEFA), a landmark regional pact designed to govern their digital economy, projected to reach $2 trillion by 2030. This agreement, supported by the World Economic Forum, aims to harmonize digital trade rules, facilitate cross-border data flows, and establish coherent regulations for e-commerce and digital payments across the region.

DEFA seeks to move from fragmentation to integration, fostering a seamless digital ecosystem that benefits businesses of all sizes, including MSMEs, and promotes inclusive growth. The agreement is expected to be signed by the end of 2026, promising significant economic benefits through digital integration.

• Southeast Asian nations have come a step closer to cementing the world’s first regional agreement on digital economy governance.
• The ASEAN Digital Economy Framework Agreement (DEFA), due to be concluded and signed in 2026, aims to bolster a digital economy that could reach $2 trillion by 2030.
• The World Economic Forum’s ASEAN Digital Economy Agreement Leadership project has supported the DEFA negotiation process since its inception.

Southeast Asian nations have reached a critical milestone in negotiations for the world’s first comprehensive regional digital economy agreement, setting the stage for digital integration across a market of nearly 680 million people.

At a gathering in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) announced it reached the “substantial conclusion” in negotiations for the region’s Digital Economy Framework Agreement (DEFA). The announcement marks a major step in more than two years of talks, which included 14 rounds of negotiations.

ASEAN DEFA is now poised to become the world’s first region-wide agreement focused exclusively on digital economy governance. Unlike digital provisions embedded in broader trade agreements, the pact stands out as a dedicated framework designed to harmonize digital trade rules, enable trusted cross-border data flows and establish coherent regulations for paperless trading, e-commerce, cybersecurity and digital payments across ASEAN.

A $2 trillion digital future

The economic stakes involved are significant as ASEAN’s digital economy continues to grow rapidly. Currently valued at around $300 billion, it is projected to reach $1 trillion by 2030, a figure that could potentially double to $2 trillion with DEFA’s successful implementation.

Indonesia, which leads the region’s digital economy with a $90 billion valuation in 2024, could reportedly see its digital economy triple to $360 billion by 2030, with e-commerce contributing $150 billion.​

In 2023, 71% of all venture capital deals across ASEAN were digital economy-related, 11% higher than the global average. Meanwhile, annual announced investments in communication, data processing and hosting services have increased nearly sixfold in the past ten years, from $777 million in 2015 to $4.4 billion in 2024.

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Mumbai: The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has planned a comprehensive review of rules governing IPOs by small and medium companies, its chief, Tuhin Kanta Pandey, said Wednesday. Separately, he said the new system for determining the closing prices of most frequently traded securities detects manipulation much faster than was possible with the earlier mechanism. “Issues such as market making were adding to the cost for small-company IPOs,” Sebi chairman said at an industry event.

The underwriting system is another area that needs attention, he said, adding that it is not working effectively and companies are having to bear significant costs.

A working group formed by Sebi to examine issues related to the SME platform has recently submitted its report to the regulator. Sebi will be coming out with a consultation paper soon on the SME platform. “If someone is on the SME platform, obviously we do not want them to incur higher costs. But the cost is significantly higher compared with the mainboard,” Pandey said.
Read more: Sebi flags manipulative trades during CAS on Sensex expiry day, fines two entities
He added that increasing the trading lot size and application size to control retail participation has not achieved the intended purpose. Sebi is also looking to support global fund management activity from India. The changes to the portfolio management services regulation would enable trading from onshore, Pandey said.

The share of fund managers who said they are overweight equities is at its highest level since November 2021.

When asked what they expected the world economy to do in the next 12 months—a soft landing (a gentle slowdown) or a hard landing (a sharper slowdown)—most respondents chose neither. Instead, a record 56% of fund managers predicted “no landing,” or continued growth.

Some 72% of respondents said they didn’t expect the Fed to hike interest rates before the November midterm elections.

Mumbai: The benchmark Nifty’s estimated price-to-book (P/B) ratio, a key valuation measure that compares a company’s market value with the value of its net assets or book value, has fallen below three times to its lowest level in six years.

The decline partly reflects the index’s large exposure to banks, whose shares have underperformed even as retained earnings have added to their book values.

Nifty’s one-year forward P/B is now below 2.96 times, compared with its five-year average of 3.18 times and 10-year average of 2.99 times. The six-year low suggests the Nifty is trading at a more moderate valuation relative to the book value of its constituents.

The composition of the index has contributed to the decline. Banks and financial services account for around 35% of the Nifty’s weight, the largest sector weight, while earnings growth in the sector has been stronger than rest of the index.

“The composition of the Nifty has been one of the reasons for the lower P/B,” said Siddharth Purohit, fund manager-equity at InvestValue Capital. “While BFSI has a dominant position in Nifty’s weight, their earnings growth in the sector over the past three years has been better than other components,” he said.

Retained earnings at banks have added to their net worth or book value, increasing the denominator used to calculate P/B. With shares of large banks such as HDFC Bank, Axis and Kotak Mahindra underperforming, their stock prices have not kept pace with the increase in book values, contributing to the decline in the Nifty’s P/B.
The Nifty is down 2.64% over the past year and 1.31% over the past two years. The current P/B reading, however, also needs to be viewed in the context of a change in Nifty’s book-value methodology. NSE shifted the calculation from standalone to consolidated financials in September 2023, which lowered the reported P/B from 4.31 times to 3.45 times without any change in share prices. On the earlier standalone basis, the current P/B would be around 3.7 times, slightly above the long-run average of about 3.5 times, according to market experts.Read more: India stocks top Indonesia as Asia’s least-favoured in BofA poll

For investors, the lower P/B suggests valuations have become more moderate relative to companies’ net worth, but it does not by itself mean the market is cheap.

A lower P/B can result from rising book values, falling share prices or a combination of both, and needs to be assessed alongside earnings growth and the outlook for profitability.

Vivek Iyer, partner & CIO at Rational Asset Management, said investors should look beyond the headline valuation multiple and focus on earnings cycle.

President Donald Trump has announced the US will inflict “TREMENDOUS Economic Consequences” on any country that helps or does business with Iran.

He wrote in all capital letters on Truth Social he was launching “the most crushing economic operation ever taken against any country!” He gave no further details, and did not name any other nation.

It comes after a 60-day ceasefire with Iran expired on Monday, with no sign of a diplomatic or military off-ramp to the conflict that the US and Israel began at the end of February.

Trump’s latest move appears to extend the pressure campaign of Operation Economic Fury, launched in April to sanction foreign banks or firms that do business with Tehran.

In Wednesday evening’s socal media post, Trump said he was launching “economic D-Day” on Iran because the Islamic Republic had failed to make a deal with the US.

“ANY country that allows its financial institutions, businesses, airports, or government entities to provide any type of lifeline to Iran will itself face TREMENDOUS Economic Consequences,” Trump said.

He did not specify what punishment countries would face.

Trump continued: “Oil smuggling, swap lines, cash transfers, exchange houses, ship registries, front companies – It all needs to stop NOW. You know who you are.”

The president’s comments come nearly a week after Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the US would impose economic isolation on the country “like the world has never seen before”.

The BBC has asked the White House and US treasury department for comment.

Good morning. The WSJ Leadership Institute’s Katie Deighton reports:

Publicis Sports is teaming up with Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce to tackle the Wild West of college athlete endorsements.

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