Singapore Morning News For July 11

Business travel spending in Singapore to grow faster than world average
BUSINESS travel spending for Singapore is projected to grow by 4.3 per cent this year – slightly above the global average – to S$17.2 billion, according to a report.
— The Business Times

Singapore has a new venture fund run by students that invests only in student-founded startups
New Singapore-based venture fund Protégé Ventures has two distinct characteristics: it is run by students and only invests in startups with at least one student co-founder.
— e27

Tower Transit raises bus drivers’ basic pay to more than S$2,000
Public bus operator Tower Transit Singapore said on Monday (Jul 10) it will raise the salaries of its bus drivers and other staff by 3.7 per cent – bumping up the basic pay for its new bus drivers to more than S$2,000 for the first time.
— Channel NewsAsia

Singapore seeks public feedback on proposed Cybersecurity Bill
In light of the increasing cyberattacks in the city-state, the Ministry of Communications and Information (MCI) and the Cyber Security Agency of Singapore (CSA) are encouraging the public to provide feedback on the proposed Cybersecurity Bill.
— International Business Times

Exclusive: East Ventures partners IBM to grow portfolio startups
IBM and Southeast Asian venture capital firm East Ventures are partnering to help startups develop and commercialise new solutions for the market. The IT major will also provide the VC’s portfolio startups access to its technology offerings, including its full suite of Cloud services.
— DealStreetAsia

Singtel’s Unit Launches Singapore’s Biggest IPO in Six Years
A unit of Singapore Telecommunications Ltd. (Z74.SG) Monday priced its proposed initial public offering, seeking to raise 2.35 billion Singapore dollars (US$1.7 billion).
— Fox Business

SG Realty: Wee Hur student hostel trust; Natural Cool purchase; UrWork expansion
Realty developer Wee Hur is expanding its student accommodation footprint in Australia while Natural Cool has purchased the lease of a property. Also, Chinese co-working space provider URWork has expanded to Singapore.
— DealStreetAsia

Durian prices up by 40% in Singapore
With lower supplies of durian in the country consumers can expect to pay substantially more for the fruit this season. Popular durian varieties such as the Mao Shan Wang are currently priced at about $29 per kilogram, compared with about $18 to $20 last year. Mao Shan Wang is also known as Musang King or Civet Cat King.
— Fresh Plaza

OCBC launches S$100,000 fund to support environmental sustainability projects
Groups and individuals who have ideas on promoting environmental sustainability in Singapore now have a new source of funding to implement their projects.
— Channel NewsAsia (video)

Singapore millennial entrepreneurs focus on personal development in business pursuits: HSBC report
Singapore Millennials’ entrepreneurial spirit is now being driven more by personal development than personal wealth and family expectations, departing from the previous generations and other Asian markets.
— International Business Times

Highlights from Singapore’s HR Industry Manpower Plan
With 23 Industry Transformation Maps (ITMs) in the pipeline, Singapore’s Ministry of Manpower (MOM) has unveiled the HR Industry Manpower Plan (HRIMP).
— Human Resources Online

HR industry manpower plan aims to strengthen capabilities of professionals
A new industry manpower plan to strengthen the capabilities of those in the human resource (HR) sector was unveiled by Second Manpower Minister Josephine Teo on Monday (Jul 10).
— Channel NewsAsia (video)

Cyber laws ramped up around the globe as attacks increase
Several countries have beefed up their cyber security laws in recent years amid an ever-increasing spate of cyber attacks.
— Today Online

Intensive testing among reasons for delay in new signalling system: SMRT
The need to customise the system hardware and software alongside intensive testing needed are some of the reasons behind the delay in the full roll-out of the new signalling system for the North-South Line (NSL), SMRT’s chief executive officer Lee Ling Wee laid out in a blog post on Monday (July 10).
— Today Online

US$6.3b Cosco-OOCL deal will see power shift: analysts
THE US$6.3 billion merger and acquisition (M&A) deal between China’s Cosco Shipping Holdings Co and its Hong Kong-based shipping rival, Orient Overseas Container Line Co (OOCL), will create the world’s third-largest container line by shipping capacity, which spells a rebalancing of power in the vessel-sharing Ocean Alliance.
— The Business Times

Why Singapore is struggling to reinvent itself
Paul Krugman once compared the city-state to the Soviet Union under Stalin, and the Nobel laureate had a point. He was not referring to communism or to mass killings, of course — but the art of observing, deducing and obsessing over a secretive organization is again consuming the nation of 5.5 million people.
— Nikkei Asian Review

Why telcos should be more wary of MyRepublic than TPG
MyRepublic’s bid to become a mobile virtual network operator is seen to exacerbate the competitive headwinds in the telco market ahead of TPG’s rollout.
— Singapore Business Review

Why Singapore’s construction industry needs to keep pace with game-changing technologies
A recent study released by accounting firm KPMG found that the construction industry is yet to fully embrace technology as about 60-70% of firms across the globe are struggling to make sense of increasing volumes of available data. FINALCAD managing director Pierre Vauthrin commented that the study suggests that the construction industry’s innate conservatism towards technology explains why the sector is widely considered a digital laggard. Most businesses, he said, tend to adopt a “wait and see” approach, and this especially rings true in Southeast Asia.
— Singapore Business Review

3,700 Australian sheep offered for this year’s Korban
A total of 3,700 sheep from Australia will be available at 25 mosques island-wide for Muslims performing the act of Korban this year, the Singapore Mosques Korban Committee (JKMS) announced on Monday (Jul 10).
— Channel NewsAsia

EDB appoints 3 more economic ambassadors
The Economic Development Board (EDB) has appointed three business leaders from Germany and Austria to coax their countrymen into investing more in Singapore.
— The New Paper

Feature photo Tiberiu Ana
Find our previous morning news feature photos in the AEC News Today Morning News Feature Photos gallery where you will find a pictorial display of daily life throughout the Asean Economic Community (AEC).

Singapore morning news by AEC News Today is your one stop source for Singapore news on matters of governance and policies affecting Asean business communities. It is published M-F by AEC News Today: Governance, not government; policies not politics.

Singapore Morning News For July 11 added by Leakhena Khat on July 11, 2017
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Leakhena Khat

Leakhena is a junior journalist at AEC News Today who is also currently studying International Relations, which she finds adds perspective to her work reporting on the Asean Community.

“I love what I am doing so much as it gives me a lot of great experience and provides challenges to my mind.