Korea Zinc, whose management is embroiled in a takeover battle for the world's top refined zinc producer, said on Monday that a government panel had found its lithium-ion battery material technology was subject to export controls, Reuters reported. The industry ministry, which has a committee of experts to review and rule on applications for designating "national core technology", also said the panel had recently granted Korea Zinc's case and notified it of the decision without elaborating.

The Philippine central bank announced the launch on Monday of an interest rate swaps market anchored to a newly established benchmark rate to enhance bond market trading and liquidity, Reuters reported. The start of IRS transactions follows the recognition by the International Swaps and Derivatives Association of the benchmark - the overnight reference rate (ORR) - which the Bankers Association of the Philippines helped establish.

A Singapore oil magnate was sentenced Monday to 17.5 years in prison for fraud and forgery in a case that prosecutors said has tarnished the city-state's reputation as Asia’s leading oil trading hub, the Associated Press reported. Lim Oon Kuin was convicted in May on two counts of cheating the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corp. (HSBC) and one of abetting forgery. The court found Lim used forged documents on two bogus oil transactions to deceive HSBC into disbursing credit totaling $111.7 million, in one of the biggest cases of trade financing fraud in Singapore.

China’s beleaguered solar industry, wracked by a glut and fierce price war, is already on the road to recovery, according to one of the country’s largest panel manufacturers, Bloomberg News reported. “We’re at a turning point,” Li Zhenguo, founder and president of Longi Green Energy Technology Co., said in an interview.

In ways big and small, Beijing’s takeover of Hong Kong’s financial sector is looking irreversible. With stunning speed, the world’s pre-eminent East-meets-West investment hub has become more Chinese as international financial institutions, corporations, and expatriates retreat, the Wall Street Journal reported. Foreign banks played major roles in one-fifth of Hong Kong’s initial public offerings this year, compared with roughly half just two years ago. Chinese banks have taken the places of Western ones as top earners in the city’s debt-capital market.

China has made a $1.3 billion bet that a new port in Peru will boost access to South America’s agricultural bounty. Cashing in on the investment may be harder than expected, Bloomberg News reported. China’s President Xi Jinping and Peruvian President Dina Boluarte officially inaugurated Chancay port during a ceremony at Peru’s presidential palace in Lima on Thursday. The move epitomizes Beijing’s ambitions to strengthen commerce with South America as the world braces for more restrictive trade measures under US President-elect Donald Trump.

Thailand is working on a raft of fresh fiscal measures to sustain an economic recovery, foster new foreign investment and lower the near-record household debt, Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra’s top aide said, Bloomberg News reported. The economic stimulus panel chaired by the premier is set to consider the second phase of a cash handout plan and other steps at a meeting next week, according to Paetongtarn’s Secretary-General Prommin Lertsuridej. Easier rules for long-term land leasing and credit restructuring led by government banks are also on the anvil, he said.