Your Way Home with Hongbin Jeong

In a statement just issued by the Palace, Malaysia’s King expresses his "disappointment at current political developments", leaving him with no choice but to assent to the Parliament's dissolution. This, so that the mandate can be returned to the people to "elect a stable government". Sultan Abdullah Ahmad Shah made the statement shortly after Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob dissolved Malaysia'...

The Japanese government encourages firms to let workers take up side gigs, with the hope that the move will help foster greater diversity in the country’s work practices and encourage talent to move into growth areas. In the Spotlight on Prime Time, Bharati Jagdish speaks with one employer here who allows her employees to take on side hustles - Winnie Pua, Managing Director of local creative agenc...

Within Asia, we saw inflation reports out of major economies such as Indonesia, South Korea, Japan and Thailand.  More notably, core consumer prices in Tokyo, a leading indicator of nationwide inflation, hit 2.8% in September from a month ago, marking the biggest gain since 2014. And speaking of inflation, analysts seem to observe an interesting correlation repeatedly occurring in the markets. Whe...

Malaysia has unveiled a smaller budget for 2023, prioritizing fiscal discipline over expectations of populist measures, as it warned of a slowdown in the economy from rising global risks. Prime Time's Bharati Jagdish speaks with Dr Serina Rahman, Lecturer at the Department of Southeast Asian Studies, National University of Singapore to find out what’s most crucial right now in the Malaysian econom...

Singapore is looking to have its emissions reach net zero by or around 2050. So how can power generation companies play a larger role in spearheading newer, more sustainable technology? Prime Time’s Bharati Jagdish speaks with Kazunari Fukui, Decarbonization Leader for Asia at GE Power to find out.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Quiet Quitting has been making the rounds on social media and in the workplace. It's time to talk about the flipside - Quiet Firing. What exactly is Quiet Firing? How can we spot that and how do we know if we are at risk? In the Spotlight on Prime Time, Bharati Jagdish speaks with Alex Hattingh, Chief People Officer, Employment Hero to find out more. Produced and edited by Anthea Ng ( nganthea@sph...

European economies are on our agenda today. In the UK, the British Prime Minister Liz Truss and Finance Minister Kwasi Kwarteng was forced to abandon a move to cut the top rate of tax from 45% to 40% for its top earners, in what’s seen as an embarrassing U-turn 10 days after announcing the new government’s growth plan to stimulate its economy.  Elsewhere, the latest treasury forecasts showed Italy...

A report from Snap has shown that when researching gifts, Augmented Reality (AR) helps shoppers make decisions about what to add to their gifting list. Prime Time’s Bharatii Jagdish speaks with Kathryn Carter, General Manager, APAC at Snap Inc on the evolution of AR Shopping from past to present and how brands can harness the power of AR to engage their customers more effectively to generate growt...

Malaysian Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob said he may discuss the dissolution of Parliament in his audience with Malaysia's King on Thursday evening, but refused to be drawn into whether this would leave the scheduled presentation of next year's budget on Friday. On the Straits Times The Big Story, Multimedia Correspondent Hairianto Diman speaks with Malaysia bureau chief Shannon Teoh on the de...

In land-scarce Singapore, the government has continuously emphasised the importance of space planning in providing a sustainable and high-quality living environment. Through its Space Optimisation business, LHN Group identifies old, unused and under-utilised spaces, converting and enhancing them to maximise the leasable area. They do so by transforming old buildings into co-living spaces and stora...

2021 saw the largest cohort of new directors in five years as STI companies regained their appetite for board refreshment in search of bolder leadership, but compared to Hong Kong’s Hang Seng companies, a higher share of Singapore boards opted for directors who are retired and have previous public board experience. Prime Time’s Bharati Jagdish speaks with Jiat-Hui Wu, Partner in charge at the Heid...

U.S. markets started the month strong, after the broad based S&P 500 and the tech-rich NASDAQ registered their first three-quarter losing streak since the global financial crisis. With October widely seen as a “bear market killer” based on historically strong returns, we’ll find out whether stock movements can keep up with the expectations. On Market View, Prime Time's finance presenter Chua T...

Minister for Sustainability and the Environment Grace Fu has recently said that businesses must embrace sustainability to keep up with the effects of climate change on supply chains and rising consumer demand for greener goods and services. But not all consumers or businesses are able or ready to go green. In the Spotlight on Prime Time, Bharati Jagdish speaks with Christopher Ong, Managing Direct...

Trading volumes in non-fungible tokens or NFTs for short, have tumbled 97% from a record high in January this year, as part of a wipeout in the crypto sector.  Despite the ongoing headwinds in the NFT scene, one company making toy collectibles believes that opportunities do exist in the industry. It says the key is to mix digital assets like NFTs with real-life privileges that benefits us in our r...

With uncertainties over renewed lockdowns and a worsening debt crisis in China, dealmakers in Asia are increasingly shifting their focus to Southeast Asia. There is also a growing group of affluent and emerging affluent Asians that are looking to invest in the region. But yet some financial services firms believe the group is underserved at this point in time, and that digital advisory services ar...

The UK government has done an abrupt U-turn by dropping its plan to cut taxes for the highest earners just 10 days after announcing it. This comes after widespread criticism and a growing backlash. In the Spotlight on Prime Time, Bharati Jagdish speaks with Pete Ross,   Producer/Presenter at the BBC, on what's next for Liz Truss and her team, plus the latest developments in Ukraine's accession to...

How can companies leverage new technologies amid the continued decoupling of US-China relations, persistent semiconductor shortages and increased adoption of new technologies? Prime Time’s Bharati Jagdish speaks with Ravi Vijayaraghavan, head of Bain & Company’s APAC Technology & Cloud Services to find out. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Synopsis: Every Tuesday, The Straits Times analyses Singapore's latest news and announcements.  The Straits Times' Zakir Hussain, Singapore editor at The Straits Times, speaks with Money FM 89.3's Bharati Jagdish. Amid the rush to secure global talent, Singapore faces a juggling act in the hunt for world's best. In what has been coined as the ‘global war for talent’ - many countries including Sing...

Is Britain in a self-inflicted financial crisis that threatens to accelerate the economy’s dive into recession?  Can Liz Truss and her team restore its credibility with its people and investors? In the Spotlight on Prime Time, Bharati Jagdish speaks wtih  Pushan Dutt, Professor of economics and political sciences at INSEAD to look at what’s next for the UK economy, what will the spillover effect b...

Singapore's electric vehicle revolution is coming. With Singapore aiming to phase out petrol and diesel vehicles by 2040, should there be a ban on petrol or diesel-based vehicle sales? Will there be sufficient charging stations? How will the government ensure affordability for the average driver? Prime Time's Bharati Jagdish speaks with Satya Ramamurthy, Partner, Global Co-Head of Public Transport...

The maximum amount of money home buyers in Singapore can borrow to purchase their homes has been tightened so that borrowers avoid future difficulties in servicing those loans. The authorities have also put in place several measures to ensure home buyers borrow within their means and to moderate demand in the property market. In The Straits Times’ The Big Story, Multimedia Correspondent Cheow Sue-...

Credit markets and the performance of banks in Asia are on our list today after recent jumbo rate hikes by the US Federal Reserve rattled markets and hurt demand for homes and mortgages.  Just look at Hong Kong - the city’s home prices, for one, fell 2.3% in August from a month ago, the lowest in over three years.  In Singapore, major banks such as UOB and DBS Bank have temporarily ceased their fi...

With an increasing adoption in supply chain diversification strategies, companies need to incorporate integrated systems and end-to-end visibility to adapt and react to supply chain shocks and avoid major disruptions down the line. In the Spotlight on Prime Time, Bharati Jagdish speaks with Ajit Melarkode, Vice President of Asia Pacific & Japan at Boomi about what can be done to mitigate suppl...

Malaysia’s Budget will be tabled next Friday on the 7 October. Given that this budget will be out before the next general election, economists are expecting it to be election friendly with a slew of expansionary measures. At the same time, observers are also expecting the government to remain committed to consolidating its fiscal position and focus on its recovery post-pandemic.  So what can we ex...

As modes of payment continue to evolve with the many digital payment platforms, so do fraudulent activities. Mass quantities of transactions going in and out of said platforms renders manual fraud detection largely unscalable, and money laundering across online platforms has become that much harder to detect. Regionally, the topic of anti-money laundering is making tremendous progress in the techn...