https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/rss/323455/feed Aaron is a Singapore-based journalist and a former deputy business editor at the Straits Times. en https://assets-v2.i-scmp.com/production/static/img/icons/scmp-meta-1200x630.png https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg A new book, The Last Fools: The Eight Immortals of Lee Kuan Yew, edited by Peh Shing Huei, puts the spotlight on eight powerful bureaucrats who turned the late Singapore statesman’s ideas into icons. In this excerpt, Aaron Low details J.Y. Pillay’s journey in establishing the city state’s flagship carrier. Wiry, slight of frame and soft-spoken, J.Y. Pillay was not the kind of person you would associate with building an international airline and all the glamour that came with it. Intellectual... https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/week-asia/opinion/article/3181949/how-jy-pillay-helped-lee-kuan-yew-turn-singapore-airlines-global?utm_source=rss_feed https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/week-asia/opinion/article/3181949/how-jy-pillay-helped-lee-kuan-yew-turn-singapore-airlines-global?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 17 Jun 2022 02:15:19 +0000 Singapore accountant David Chew stood in line for almost two hours in the afternoon heat to cast his vote in the city state’s 13th general election. But the wait was worth it. The opposition Workers’ Party that he voted for won in his Sengkang group representation constituency (GRC) – only the second time a multi-seat ward has not gone to the ruling People’s Action Party since independent Singapore’s first elections in 1959. Singapore election: the present and future of the People’s Action... https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/week-asia/politics/article/3092762/singapore-election-5-key-takeaways-voters-deny-ruling-pap-blank?utm_source=rss_feed https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/week-asia/politics/article/3092762/singapore-election-5-key-takeaways-voters-deny-ruling-pap-blank?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 11 Jul 2020 02:43:12 +0000 Before he began his budget speech, Singapore’s Finance Minister Heng Swee Keat sheepishly told parliament that he would speak for a tad longer than usual. In years past, he would confine his speech to two files, said Heng, who is also Singapore’s deputy prime minister – but because of the sudden outbreak of the Covid-19 disease, he had to expand it. “To support the national effort, the budget file grew and grew. So today, I have three files instead of two. So please be patient,” he said to a few... https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/week-asia/politics/article/3051210/singapores-2020-budget-contains-clear-signals-general-election?utm_source=rss_feed https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/week-asia/politics/article/3051210/singapores-2020-budget-contains-clear-signals-general-election?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 19 Feb 2020 00:00:18 +0000 For Singtel’s chief executive officer Chua Sock Koong, 2019 was supposed to be a year to remember. She began working at Singapore’s biggest telecoms company (telco) 30 years ago, but rather than celebrating the anniversary with a bumper bonus, she took a major pay cut that sliced her yearly earnings nearly in half, to S$3.54 million. That rude shock came after Singtel reported its net profits had fallen 43 per cent to S$3.1 billion in the year to March – a 16-year low for the firm. The company... https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/week-asia/politics/article/3018435/asias-digital-economy-booming-so-why-are-singtel-and-co?utm_source=rss_feed https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/week-asia/politics/article/3018435/asias-digital-economy-booming-so-why-are-singtel-and-co?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 13 Jul 2019 00:30:15 +0000 A series of explosive allegations has rocked one of Singapore’s biggest health and beauty companies, wiping more than S$1 billion (US$734.4 million) from its market value over the past three months. Singapore-listed Best World International is locked in a major battle with two short-sellers – traders who bet on a company’s falling stock price – who have alleged that it engages in questionable sales and accounting practices. The company, which was valued at S$1.8 billion on the stock market as... https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/week-asia/economics/article/3009797/singapore-health-and-beauty-giant-best-world-international?utm_source=rss_feed https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/week-asia/economics/article/3009797/singapore-health-and-beauty-giant-best-world-international?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 10 May 2019 14:56:07 +0000 In the weeks leading up to Singapore’s budget, expectations were running high for Finance Minister Heng Swee Keat’s first major policy speech since being designated as the prime minister in waiting. There was intense talk by economists and analysts that he would use this budget as his platform to launch the election campaign for his party, the People’s Action Party (PAP), in some style. Singaporeans were also looking forward to seeing a huge cash bonus in advance of what would be an early... https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/week-asia/economics/article/2186696/what-does-singapore-pm-waiting-heng-swee-keats-2019-budget-say?utm_source=rss_feed https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/week-asia/economics/article/2186696/what-does-singapore-pm-waiting-heng-swee-keats-2019-budget-say?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 18 Feb 2019 13:35:20 +0000 Against the backdrop of rising protectionism and a raging trade war, two stout proponents of free trade have shown there is another way: a free flow of goods and services. The European Union and Singapore signed the EU-Singapore Free Trade Agreement, which will boost services, improve market access, and see tariffs between both parties eliminated in five years. In signing the deal on Friday, Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, President of the European Council Donald Tusk and President... https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/news/asia/southeast-asia/article/2169439/eu-emerges-champion-free-trade-singapore-deal?utm_source=rss_feed https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/news/asia/southeast-asia/article/2169439/eu-emerges-champion-free-trade-singapore-deal?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 19 Oct 2018 23:35:31 +0000 The threat of terrorism is a real and present danger in Myanmar’s Rakhine state, a problem that has serious consequences for the entire region if left unchecked, said Myanmar’s unofficial leader Aung San Suu Kyi. She said unless the security challenge was addressed, the risk of violence in the country would remain. “The danger of terrorist activities, which was the initial cause of events leading to the humanitarian crisis in Rakhine, remains real and present today,” she said, in a lecture in... https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/week-asia/politics/article/2160716/rohingya-crisis-terrorism-may-spread-beyond-myanmar-suu-kyi-warns?utm_source=rss_feed https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/week-asia/politics/article/2160716/rohingya-crisis-terrorism-may-spread-beyond-myanmar-suu-kyi-warns?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 21 Aug 2018 11:30:00 +0000 When Singaporean businessman Patrick Soh first arrived in North Korea in 2008, his minders whispered to him that everyone was forbidden even to utter the word “burger”. After all, the hermit kingdom had the gogigyeopbbang, “invented” by the country’s second leader Kim Jong-il in 2000 and described as “double bread with meat”.   “Under the previous leader, Kim Jong-il, the burgers could not be called burgers. But now, everyone knows what they are,” Soh says. If peace is coming, nobody told North... https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/week-asia/geopolitics/article/2148894/other-time-singapore-gave-north-korea-taste-america?utm_source=rss_feed https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/week-asia/geopolitics/article/2148894/other-time-singapore-gave-north-korea-taste-america?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 03 Jun 2018 00:00:46 +0000 The new office of Singapore’s strongest opposition party sits on the fourth floor of a nondescript building, just streets away from the country’s infamous red-light district in Geylang. Neat and well-lit, the unit is more humble than haughty. At just 110 square metres – roughly the size of a large public housing flat – it cost the Workers’ Party (WP) about S$900,000 (US$685,000) last year. The purchase alone is hardly significant in property-mad Singapore. But in a political scene where... https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/week-asia/politics/article/2140635/will-singapores-politics-change-its-parties-shift-gen-next-winds?utm_source=rss_feed https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/week-asia/politics/article/2140635/will-singapores-politics-change-its-parties-shift-gen-next-winds?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 07 Apr 2018 01:15:30 +0000 The Chinese believe that during Lunar New Year, rice jars should not be left empty, lest this should lead to barren and starving days ahead. Singapore seems to be following this notion, at least in regards to its government coffers. The country’s Finance Minister Heng Swee Keat made it clear during the annual budget that he has no intention of allowing funds to run out any time soon. On the fourth day of the Lunar New Year, he gave advance notice that the goods and services tax (GST) will most... https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/news/asia/southeast-asia/article/2134606/can-lion-city-continue-roar-its-population-ages?utm_source=rss_feed https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/news/asia/southeast-asia/article/2134606/can-lion-city-continue-roar-its-population-ages?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 25 Feb 2018 04:30:45 +0000 Qatar Airways is hoping to have an even bigger share in Cathay Pacific Airways, just days after it reached a deal to buy a minority stake in one of Asia’s biggest international airlines. Akbar Al Baker, the Doha-based carrier’s group CEO, said he had wanted to buy more than the 9.6 per cent that he acquired for HK$5.16 billion (US$662 million) but “that was all that was on offer”. “Yes we would have like to have bought more. But unfortunately nothing more was available,” he said. Qatar Airways... https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/news/hong-kong/economy/article/2118826/qatar-airways-boss-eyes-bigger-investment-cathay-pacific?utm_source=rss_feed https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/news/hong-kong/economy/article/2118826/qatar-airways-boss-eyes-bigger-investment-cathay-pacific?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 07 Nov 2017 15:30:30 +0000 For more than a decade, a plot of land roughly the size of three football fields sat empty at the heart of Singapore’s oldest public housing estates. As property developers snatched up parcel after parcel in the Queenstown estate, named after Queen Elizabeth II, the plot of empty land that sat beside Stirling Road remained untouched. Until April this year. On April 10, the Singapore government said it had received an application by a property developer to launch the site for tender, with the... https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/week-asia/business/article/2105294/targeting-singapores-property-market-chinese-developers-leave?utm_source=rss_feed https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/week-asia/business/article/2105294/targeting-singapores-property-market-chinese-developers-leave?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 06 Aug 2017 03:30:15 +0000 Singapore sovereign wealth fund GIC is selling part of its stake in Swiss lender UBS at a loss, nearly a decade after it first invested in the bank at the height of the financial crisis. GIC sold 93 million UBS shares, effectively halving its stake in the Swiss lender from 5.1 per cent to 2.7 per cent. “GIC made the UBS sale despite the loss because conditions have changed fundamentally since GIC invested in UBS in February 2008, as have UBS’ strategy and business. It makes sense now for GIC to... https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/week-asia/business/article/2094493/singapore-sovereign-wealth-fund-gic-sells-ubs-stake-loss?utm_source=rss_feed https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/week-asia/business/article/2094493/singapore-sovereign-wealth-fund-gic-sells-ubs-stake-loss?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 16 May 2017 05:00:00 +0000 Hangzhou Traffic jams that clog up roads and slow down travel are the biggest problems many cities face. Rising incomes and growing aspirations convince many middle-income households to yearn for cars, which adds to the problem. Hangzhou, one of the most connected cities in China, intends to solve traffic woes with the help of artificial intelligence. The city is teaming up with Alibaba Cloud, the cloud computing arm of Alibaba Group, to install a new smart-traffic management system. Using its... https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/native/tech/topics/tech-trends/article/2077387/smart-cities-digital-world-unlocks-door-future?utm_source=rss_feed https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/native/tech/topics/tech-trends/article/2077387/smart-cities-digital-world-unlocks-door-future?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 13 Mar 2017 01:50:58 +0000 Firms are inundated by data every day, from product sales to clicks on websites and the number of people entering a shop. Individually, the data points may seem random,  but, with the right tools, the millions of data points may tell a story, or predict a trend that few research methodologies are able to discern. Companies now realise they have a treasure trove of valuable insights and information about  customers at their fingertips. Many are investing in big data, recognising that it is a... https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/native/tech/topics/tech-trends/article/2071109/treasure-trove-big-data-plays-crucial-role-modern?utm_source=rss_feed https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/native/tech/topics/tech-trends/article/2071109/treasure-trove-big-data-plays-crucial-role-modern?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 20 Feb 2017 01:42:58 +0000 Having waited a year for some of Singapore’s brightest minds to distil their wisdom on how to reverse a rut of slowing economic growth, observers could be forgiven if they felt a nagging sense of disappointment this week. Soundbites such as “loosen regulation”, “embrace risk” and “strengthen free-trade deals” caused some initial excitement when the report by the Committee on the Future Economy (CFE) was finally released to the public on Thursday. Looser regulation, more risk: how Singapore plans... https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/week-asia/business/article/2069929/how-far-can-singapores-grand-plan-economy-really-go?utm_source=rss_feed https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/week-asia/business/article/2069929/how-far-can-singapores-grand-plan-economy-really-go?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 13 Feb 2017 03:48:33 +0000 Loosen regulation, embrace risk and strengthen free-trade deals. That was the advice of a long-awaited report by a Singapore government-appointed economic committee on Thursday. Companies and public services in the Southeast Asian city state, already known as one of the most competitive and open economies in the world, should prioritise innovation; workers should reinvent themselves with new skills; and the government should give more support to emerging industries and smaller firms, urged the... https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/week-asia/business/article/2069437/looser-regulation-more-risk-how-singapore-plans-boost-economy?utm_source=rss_feed https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/week-asia/business/article/2069437/looser-regulation-more-risk-how-singapore-plans-boost-economy?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 09 Feb 2017 05:22:43 +0000 WITH REVENUES GROWING 50 per cent a year for the past three years, Cryoviva Singapore – a company that specialises in cord blood banking – has enjoyed the kind of success most companies would envy. But its chief executive officer, Ashish Munjal, expects growth to be even better this year. “Definitely. We are positive about our prospects this year and have plans to expand into Indonesia and the Philippines,” he said, adding that the company was looking to add 15 to 20 employees to its 40-strong... https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/week-asia/business/article/2067919/why-singapores-economic-slowdown-may-be-coming-end?utm_source=rss_feed https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/week-asia/business/article/2067919/why-singapores-economic-slowdown-may-be-coming-end?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 06 Feb 2017 01:00:30 +0000 Ask Singaporeans whether they prefer to invite a billionaire tycoon or a long-serving politician into their homes and chances are the vote might be split down the middle. But not if the tycoon is Donald Trump and the politician Hillary Clinton. In fact, eight in 10 Singaporeans would prefer to invite the former Secretary of State into their homes, leaving Trump to sweat it out in the tropical heat, according to a new survey by the South China Morning Post. It’s not that surprising: the... https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/week-asia/politics/article/2042741/why-clinton-not-trump-singaporeans-choice-dinner-date?utm_source=rss_feed https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/week-asia/politics/article/2042741/why-clinton-not-trump-singaporeans-choice-dinner-date?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 06 Nov 2016 01:02:27 +0000 After 16 years of running a small machine parts business, Singaporean businessman Leong Chan Wee finally decided to close shop earlier this year. Business has been bad for two years, with sales trickling to a standstill but Leong held on because he didn’t know what else to do. “We bought parts from China and sold them to precision engineering companies in the region. It was good in the late 1990s but these days it is very hard to survive,” said the 61-year-old. “Luckily my kids have grown up, or... https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/week-asia/business/article/2028084/no-recession-heres-why-singapore-faces-bigger-worries-ahead?utm_source=rss_feed https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/week-asia/business/article/2028084/no-recession-heres-why-singapore-faces-bigger-worries-ahead?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 14 Oct 2016 04:30:15 +0000