Economy forums

SALEM, Oregon: China’s economy is now gradually recovering from COVID-19 and is entering a reopening phase. But reopening the economy carries the risk of a second wave of outbreaks. While the reopening of China’s economy is positive news for the world economy, the global economic slowdown still poses a great challenge for China’s return to normalcy. There have been hopeful signs of economic recovery in China. From February to March, China’s manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) jumped from 35.7 to 52.0 and the services PMI rose from 29.6 to 52.3 — beating market expectations. Daily coal consumption has now reached about 90 per cent of the level seen in the past three years. The traffic congestion index for 100 cities is now over 90 per cent of that during the same period in 2019. READ: Commentary: Can countries sue China for COVID-19? Should they? READ: Commentary: The strange, lovely sight of clear skies in India amid COVID-19 gloom RECOVERY WILL BE … [Read more...] about Commentary: Restarting the economy in a COVID-19 world sure is hard. China would know

SINGAPORE: A forum letter published in Chinese daily Lianhe Zaobao that links the COVID-19 outbreak in dormitories to the personal hygiene and living habits of foreign workers shows "underlying racism", Law and Home Affairs Minister K Shanmugam said. "I think the letter reveals some underlying racism ... Because it typecasts an entire group - several hundred thousand of them - as lacking in personal hygiene, on the basis of their background, because they all come from backward countries," he said in an interview with Lianhe Zaobao on Friday (Apr 17). Mr Shanmugam also said that the letter is xenophobic and deeply insensitive, and reflected a "lack of understanding of why we have this transmission of COVID-19 amongst our foreign worker population". READ: Top India personalities send COVID-19 messages to Singapore's foreign workers Singapore has seen a spike in its number of COVID-19 cases in recent weeks, with the majority of new cases involving foreign workers from … [Read more...] about COVID-19: Forum letter on foreign worker dormitory cases reveals ‘underlying racism’, says Shanmugam

JOHANNESBURG: South Africa partly lifted a two month-old coronavirus lockdown on Monday (Jun 1), letting people outside for work, worship, exercise or shopping, and allowing mines and factories to run at full capacity to try to revive the economy. President Cyril Ramaphosa was widely praised when he ordered one of the world's strictest lockdowns at the end of March, confining people to their homes, forcing miners and manufacturers to slash operations by half, and banning the sale of alcohol and cigarettes. But the measures have battered the economy of Africa's most industrialised nation, which was already in recession before the virus, owing mostly to power cuts at its dysfunctional state provider, Eskom. The central bank expects it to contract by 7 per cent this year. The government hopes Monday's move to "level 3" lockdown will sputter businesses to a start. It will inevitably increase the number of coronavirus infections, which over the weekend jumped past 30,000. "The … [Read more...] about South Africa partly lifts lockdown to try to fix battered economy

SINGAPORE: Prior to COVID-19, few would have imagined that at least 80 per cent of Singapore’s working population, if not more, need not physically be at the office to do their jobs. Employers – some of whom are my clients - were sceptical about how work could be done remotely, and were resistant to the concept of working from home (WFH). They have since expressed surprise that employees can be just as productive, if not more, while WFH. Conversely, there are others employers who believe that remote working has led to a loss of efficiency and are waiting with bated breath for employees to return to the office. TECHNOLOGY AND PRODUCTIVITY What’s the key differentiator between the extensive WFH measures now, and say, 17 years ago, when we were hit by SARS? Technological advances and digitalisation, for sure. As Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Kiat observed during his recent Fortitude Budget speech, a McKinsey study showed that the world has experienced five years of … [Read more...] about Commentary: Soon you may be competing with talent globally. The Fortitude Budget is a wake-up call

In this first of a three-part series on design innovation, Senior Education Correspondent Sandra Davie talks to Minister for Communications and Information S. Iswaran on how design thinking has been used in formulating government policies and programmes Meet Mr Michael Hon, 63, who has persuaded scores of seniors - who once shunned e-payments - to use them on a daily basis. The semi-retired businessman, who signed on to become a digital ambassador during the circuit breaker period last year, has a special touch when teaching seniors how to use digital tools. He encourages them to take notes which they can refer to. To reinforce the teaching further, he gets them to practise in front of him. "Most of the time, they are worried about security issues when using e-payments, so I tell them how I had the same worries when I started, and what are the ways to protect oneself." He does not just tell the seniors and hawkers that they need to adopt technology. He also explains why they … [Read more...] about Singapore, a nation by design