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We have been expecting for a couple of months now the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meeting which shall be held tomorrow. The government has been prepping more than ever. It is all over the news how the authorities plan the use of the streets to pave the way for the arrival of guests.

Recently, there are movements with various groups advocating for the immediate adjustment of the 19 years old tax reform in the Philippine Tax System. The tax reform movements are lobbying for the bracket on individuals’ earnings and reducing the existing income tax rate both for individuals and businesses to a more reasonable and competitive rate.

Exploring a region of diversity and opportunity Asia-Pacific is a region of huge diversity, not only culturally and geographically, but economically too. Japan is a member of the G7 and a world leader in automotive and technology. Singapore competes with London and New York as a global financial centre. Australia and New Zealand are sometimes treated as a region in their own right due to both geography and culture - it takes over 12 hours to fly from Delhi to Sydney and history ties them more to the UK and US - but they are increasingly connected to Asia through trade.

Almost 20 years since the dot-com era, the Nasdaq is reaching levels last seen during the previous boom. At the same time, we are witnessing business model changes driven by architectural transformations which could disrupt the global technology and media industry. Tomorrow, we can expect new technologies enabling the internet of things to create opportunities for future fast-growth companies. Some will become industry leaders – the Xiaomis and Ubers of tomorrow. Many more will fail – either because their offering wasn’t differentiated enough, or because their management made the wrong decisions

Cyber-attacks are set to grow in their number and nature; those companies that embed security measures into their culture will be most successful at fending them off Type ‘cyber-crime’ into any search engine and you’ll get an array of pictures of shady-looking young men in hoodies, hunched over laptops in dark corners. Today, that stereotype couldn’t be further from the truth.

Companies outsource back-office business processes mainly to boost efficiency and reduce costs. Payroll, HR and accounting processes – the most common to be outsourced – are heavily transactional, and many companies determine that external specialists can execute these far more cost-effectively than they can themselves.

Drawing on data and insight from the Grant Thornton International Business Report (IBR), the Grant Thornton Global Dynamism Index (GDI), the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), this short report considers the outlook for Latin America in 2015.

The European Commission (EC) recently announced plans to explore creating more integrated and deeper capital markets across its 28 Member States. Targeting a 2019 launch, the Capital Markets Union (CMU) aims to streamline financial markets and allow businesses access to more diverse financing sources, regardless of geographic location within the EU. Grant Thornton recently submitted recommendations to the EC on those efforts we believe can most help mid-sized businesses (MSBs) benefit from the proposal.