Editor’s Note
by Karen Ysabelle R. David, Lead Editor - Pacific Corridor Desk
In this week’s newsletter, we see the governments of the Pacific Corridor gamble and bet on promises and policies. The die is cast and all bets are off: let the chips fall where they may.
In Vietnam, the government has bargained the historic Hải Vân Pass in exchange for the development of international standard “resort city” Làng Vân. Will the weight of centuries of history withstand the grand promises of profits and jobs?
In Singapore, the government is placing its bet on everyday workplace culture driving up the country’s declining total fertility rate. Will decades of pro-natalist policy finally win when workplace norms change?
And in the Philippines, the government has gambled that the implementation of the 15% Global Minimum Tax could strengthen tax collection from multinational enterprises. Will years of tax reform finally culminate in a balance between attracting foreign investment and protecting government revenues?
Vietnam 🇻🇳
The Green Price of Vietnam's Growth Bargain
by Sophia
For decades, Đèo Hải Vân — the “Ocean Cloud Pass” separating Đà Nẵng from Huế — stood as a historical natural artifact and natural pride of Vietnam. It was a strategic chokepoint once fought over by empires, and up until recently, a scenic view found on locals’ and foreigners’ bucket lists. Yet lately, a third identity has crowded in alongside the other two: Hải Vân is becoming real estate.
Since mid-2025, Vingroup’s Vinpearl has been building Làng Vân, a resort and urban complex covering 512 hectares at the foot of the pass, backed by nearly VND 44 trillion (or roughly US$1.7 billion) in investment. According to an environmental impact assessment that circulated online this summer, forest land has fallen to approximately 79% of the site. When aerial photos comparing the slopes before and after clearing began spreading on social media outlets in July, the reaction was fast and visceral. Phrases like phá rừng (meaning “deforestation”) and tanh bành (roughly “torn to pieces”) started trending, alongside images of rockslides onto the North–South railway that critics tied directly to the earthworks.
The government’s case for the project is not unfamiliar: this industrial development is necessary for national economic prosperity in the long term. Land that was hard to reach and generating little economic value gets converted into tax revenue, jobs, and tourism infrastructure. City officials point to more than 3,400 housing units already cleared for sale and over VND 12 trillion in projected contributions to Đà Nẵng’s budget. Vingroup describes it as an international standard “resort city” finally putting a long-stalled 2016 land grant to use. That is what trade development economics has always proposed: taking a landscape’s unpriced ecological value and converting it into a priced economic one in the hopes of jobs, revenue, and economic value to compensate for the environmental loss. Vietnam has made this same bargain at Phú Quốc, at Bãi Cháy, and along plenty of other coastlines.
Such grand projects receive national media reporting with numbers and profits, but rarely do they show the ecological trade-off, deforestation photos, or address public dissatisfaction regarding the lack of transparency. The general lack of national media coverage decreases the awareness of the locals and the general public, as sharper reporting has come mostly from diaspora outlets that many readers inside the country cannot easily access. As the greenery is plowed into bare land, the increasing risk of vulnerability to natural disasters and storms that annually hit the central region and strip locals of their means of livelihood is inevitably left unaddressed by national authorities or corporate representatives. The environmental concern of a project this size is not being addressed adequately, nor is the misalignment with the national commitment made at COP26 toward Vietnam’s net-zero emissions target by 2050.
The cultural dimension should not be ignored. In August, archaeologists excavating at Nam Chơn station and Chơn Sảng fort uncovered ramparts, gatehouses, and close to a thousand artifacts spanning the Trần, Chăm, and Nguyễn periods. Đà Nẵng’s heritage authority is now moving to list both sites for protection.
Đèo Hải Vân has outlasted dynasties and wars, but it may not outlast this decade of development. What is being cleared at its base is not just forestland; it is a buffer against landslides and storms that Đà Nẵng has long relied on, now being cut down for private profit. Is it economic progress or a bet that a coastline’s safety margin can be sold off without consequence?
Sophia is an external TAF contributor.
Singapore 🇸🇬
Singapore Bets on Workplace Culture to Drive TFR
by Ryan
Singapore’s Marriage and Parenthood Reset Workgroup has spent the months since its April launch listening to citizens describe, in granular and often frustrated detail, why marrying and raising children in the city-state feels harder than it should. Speaking on 15 August at the Pasir Ris-Changi National Day Dinner, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office Indranee Rajah, who chairs the nine-member interagency group, said that consensus had already emerged around a specific cluster of concerns: the cost of raising children, the need for time with family, caregiving arrangements, and housing. Rather than wait for the workgroup’s full report, due in early 2027, Indranee said interim recommendations would be announced by Prime Minister Lawrence Wong at the National Day Rally on 23 August, so as not to, in her words, lose time addressing an issue made more urgent by Singapore’s total fertility rate, which fell to a fresh low of 0.87 in 2025.
What distinguishes this exercise from Singapore’s decades of prior pro-natalist policy — which has leaned heavily on cash incentives, tax rebates, and subsidized fertility treatment since the 1980s — is its explicit focus on workplace culture as a lever alongside financial support. Indranee told reporters on the sidelines of the event that workplace norms were consistently on people’s minds during the workgroup’s consultations, and that officials are chasing a “win-win solution,” balancing employer and employee interests. That, she said, depends on “progressive, enlightened employers” and, crucially, on capable human resources professionals who can translate policy into practice rather than merely administer it on paper. Parents who spoke to The Straits Times ahead of the National Day Rally described wanting more childcare leave allocated per child, subsidies extended to medical bills and enrichment expenses, reduced stigma attached to taking maternity leave, and stronger mental health support in the early years of parenting. Indranee also confirmed that the government is revisiting the costs of raising children and access to affordable infant and child care, building on remarks Wong made in his National Day message on 8 August.
Notably, Indranee was careful to frame policy as necessary but insufficient on its own. She pointed instead to the cumulative weight of everyday gestures — an understanding employer who builds a family-friendly culture, a line supervisor willing to grant flexibility, or simply a friend who checks in — as forces that shape whether Singaporeans feel supported enough to start families in the first place.
The urgency is not abstract, nor is it uniquely Singaporean. Thailand’s fertility rate has converged with Singapore’s own, while Malaysia’s fell to 1.6 in 2022, its lowest in fifty years, driven by a steep drop among its ethnic Chinese population. Vietnam has followed a similar downward path despite remaining a comparatively young country on paper, with nearly 30% of its population projected to be sixty or older by 2050. The Philippines has also fallen below the replacement threshold and faces the same pressures of urbanization, rising living costs, and delayed marriage that have already reshaped fertility elsewhere in the region.
Across the region, it is workplaces, more than parliaments, that will likely determine whether policy actually changes behavior, whether that means a manager approving flexible hours without hesitation, an HR department building a genuine return-to-work pathway rather than a checkbox leave policy, or an employer treating a caregiving pause as ordinary rather than exceptional. In an environment where Singapore’s neighbors are only a decade or two behind its fertility curve, that shift in everyday workplace culture, more than any single subsidy, may prove to be the most transferable lesson of all.
Ryan is a final-year finance student at the Singapore University of Social Sciences (SUSS) with experience across venture capital, venture debt, and business development. He also holds a diploma in Law and Management from Temasek Polytechnic. His interests lie in how emerging technologies and economic trends shape business ecosystems and regional development in Asia.
The Philippines 🇵🇭
Global Minimum Tax (GMT) Could Reshape Philippine Tax Incentives for Multinational Enterprises (MNEs)
by Arianne De Guzman, in Bulacan
The Philippines is moving toward the implementation of the 15% Global Minimum Tax (GMT) as tax collections are projected to increase by 9% annually until 2028, according to the Department of Finance (DOF) on Monday, 17 August. While the country aligns its tax system with the international rules, the Marcos administration will need to balance attracting investments through tax incentives with protecting government tax revenues.
Since November 2023, the Philippines has been a member of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)/G20 Inclusive Framework on Base-Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS). One of its key initiatives is the GMT under the Two-Pillar Solution. Under this framework, the Global Anti-Base Erosion (GloBE) Rules generally apply to large multinational enterprises (MNEs) with annual revenues of at least EUR750 million in at least two of the last four years. The rules establish a 15% effective tax rate (ETR) on a jurisdictional basis.
This does not mean that all Philippine companies will suddenly pay a 15% tax. Instead, when an in-scope MNE’s jurisdictional ETR falls below the 15% after under the GloBE rules, an additional “top-up tax” may be imposed to bring the rate closer to 15%. For the country, this could strengthen tax collection by limiting the ability of MNEs to reduce their ETR through tax incentives and other mechanisms.
This creates a policy trade-off. Higher tax revenues could strengthen government finances, but making incentives less valuable could affect the Philippines’ ability to attract foreign investment. Conversely, maintaining incentives without assessing their economic returns could limit potential revenue gains.
The CREATE MORE Act provides one possible direction through its Enhanced Deductions Regime (EDR). Under the EDR, registered business enterprises are subject to a 20% corporate income tax on income from registered activities while receiving additional deductions for qualified expenses. Compared with other incentives that significantly reduce the ETR, the EDR supports business activity while keeping the ETR above the 15% minimum.
The proposed Qualified Domestic Minimum Top-up Tax (QDMTT) could also allow the Philippines to collect the applicable top-up tax domestically, instead of allowing another jurisdiction to collect it under the GloBE rules. As of July 2026, the DOF convened an interagency technical working group (TWG), with 5 sub-technical groups, to lead the drafting of legislation and prepare the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) systems. The Marcos administration targets implementation to begin on 1 January 2027, with tax collection expected in 2028. Since the legislation has yet to be enacted, the treatment of existing Philippine tax incentives remains an important area to monitor.
Large MNEs should assess whether the GMT could reduce the value of their existing Philippine tax incentives and quantify any potential top-up tax. They should also track policy developments on how incentives can be structured to continue supporting investment while remaining compliant with the GMT.
The DOF and investment promotion agencies, such as the Board of Investments (BOI) and the Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA), should provide clear guidance and outlook on how the GMT will interact with existing tax incentives and whether these incentives will remain effective until their expiration. The Marcos administration should also assess GMT-compatible incentives, including expenditure-based and investment-linked incentives, to preserve the Philippines’ ability to attract MNEs without simply reducing their ETR below 15%.
The GMT is shifting the focus of tax incentives from tax savings toward investment-driven incentives. Tax incentives may still be a key consideration, but GMT implementation may focus on rewarding activities that create economic value in the Philippines.
Arianne has experience in policy research at De La Salle University’s Jesse M. Robredo Institute of Governance, where she contributed to projects on systemic reform. She earned a degree in Political Science from Colegio de San Juan de Letran. Currently, she works in government relations, specializing in advocacy strategy, legislative monitoring, and stakeholder engagement. Beyond her professional work, she is actively involved in youth development and grassroots initiatives through the Rotaract Club of Santa Maria.
Editorial Deadline 18/08/2026 11:59 PM (UTC +8)
