Australia plans to join the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP), a free trade agreement between Brunei Darussalam, New Zealand, Singapore, Chile and the United States. Japan, Vietnam and Peru have also expressed interest in the agreement.

Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry has approved the importation of whale meat from Iceland and Norway. The 65 tonnes of whale meat imported was held in Japanese customs since June as the country tried to establish its legality. Under UN rules whale meat trade is banned, however the three countries involved were able to sign reservations on the treaty making it legal. Iceland and Norway hope that access to the Japanese market will be key to maintaining and expanding their businesses.

in an effort to secure food supplies, South Korea has acquired 1.3m hectares of farmland in Madagascar for the next 99 years in order to grow food crops for Seoul. South Korea plans to harvest maize and palm oil in the African land and ship it back to Seoul. The land represents about half of Madagascar's arable land.

Bulgarian enterprises expressed hopes to strengthen economic cooperation with Vietnamese firms in areas such as investment, trade, footwear, construction and handicrafts. Bilateral trade between the two countries has been strong, reaching a total revenue of $46 million in 2007. Besides boosting economic cooperation between the two countries, Vietnam also aims to become a bridge between Bulgaria and the ASEAN member nations.

Russian President, Dmitry Medvedev, announced yesterday that the global financial crisis has spread to the country's real economy. Medvedev assured the public that all sectors will receive government aid. Russia is currently pushing ahead with a $200 billion state aid package and hopes to spend a total of $182.3 billion on stabilization measures.

Australian Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, unveiled a $300 million plan that is expected to create thousands of jobs and improve infrastructure. The money will be split between councils and shires and will have to be spent on social and cultural infrastructure during the next following year. The plan aims to create jobs, support local companies and avert a recession.

Philippines budget deficit widened in the first 10 months of the year, reaching P62.3 billion. The government stated that the wider deficit was a result of lower tax collections during the period. The country aims to improve revenue collection next year and has programmed a P40 billion budget deficit.

The global economic slowdown can have a negative impact on Sri Lanka's ambitious goal of achieving $2 billion tea exports by 2020. Sri Lanka now aims to seek the support of its neighboring countries by promoting tea exports to maintain price stability. The tea industry accounts for more than two third's of Sri Lanka's agricultural export earnings, contributing about 4 percent to the GDP.

The Singapore based fitness center, True Group, has announced that it is expanding despite the global financial crisis. True Group launched a 36,000 sq ft center in Taiwan last week. The center cost about $2.8 million and is the fifth one in Taiwan. The company plans to open another five fitness centers in the country during the next three years. True group also announced plans to expand to the Middle East and India.

South Korea investors announced plans to expand information and technology ties with Cambodia. The announced was made after the Cambodia-Korea IT forum held in Cambodia last week. South Korea aims to focus on Customer Information systems and mobile phone technology. Both countries also agreed on creating a mobile technology center to facilitate technology transfer between Korea and Cambodia. Cambodia expects that increased competition between ICT investors will boost production, increase innovation, drive down costs and boost labor productivity.