Mediacorp launches The Big Spark to connect budding entrepreneurs across Southeast Asia with investors

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Beyond the reality show, The Big Spark aims to be a platform to “cement Singapore’s position as a launchpad for innovation and entrepreneurship,” said Mediacorp. 

“In its capacity as Singapore’s national media network, Mediacorp will lend its wide reach and multiple platforms to support the region’s start-up culture, connecting key players across the ecosystem to nurture promising enterprise.” 

The company added that it hopes for The Big Spark to inspire the next generation of entrepreneurs across Singapore and Southeast Asia and give them the support they need to scale up their businesses and soar. 

Mediacorp’s chief commercial and digital officer Parminder Singh said that innovators in Southeast Asia have “never stopped imagining the impossible” despite challenges in recent years. 

“It is with this exciting prospect in mind that we conceived The Big Spark as a platform for them to connect with investors and raise the capital needed for their ideas to lift off,” said Mr Singh.

Executive producer and director of The Big Spark Jonathan Glazier said that he was delighted to be asked to develop the new business reality show with Mediacorp. 

“The Big Spark is very much in the new breed of reality show. Rather than being about conflict and drama, it’s about supportive communities; a series for good, if you will,” he added.

“Unlike other business reality shows, we aim to reflect the reality of the entrepreneurial journey, to support and to inspire.”

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Issuing of gun carry permits suspended nationwide

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Additional measures include suspension of permits for importing blank guns and limiting gun and ammunition permits

PUBLISHED : 16 Nov 2023 at 14:11

Issuing of gun carry permits suspended nationwide
Deputy Prime Minister and Interior Minister Anutin Charnvirakul announces a plan on stricter gun control at Government House on Oct 5. (Photo: Chanat Katanyu)

The issuance of permits for individuals to carry firearms in public has been suspended nationwide to ensure people’s safety, as instructed by Interior Minister Anutin Charnvirakul, interior permanent secretary Suttipong Juljarern said on Thursday.

Mr Suttipong said an order has been sent to the governors of all 76 provinces and he has coordinated with the national police chief (Pol Gen Torsak Sukvimol), who has the authority to issue gun-carrying permits in Bangkok, to suspend the issuance of permits until further notice.

He said Mr Anutin’s instruction came after a fatal shooting between rival student gangs in front of Sacred Heart Convent School in Bangkok’s Klong Toey district on Nov 11. A female schoolteacher was killed by a stray bullet in the incident.

Mr Suttipong said he has also ordered all provincial governors to take action as follows:

• Local gun registration officials are to suspend the issuance of permits for ordering and importing blank guns or imitations that can be easily modified for use as real guns. No licences will be issued to new importers or traders of blank guns or other imitations. Gun shops will no longer receive permits to order or import guns and ammunition until further notice.

• People who have blank guns or imitations in their possession are required to register them with local officials to show that they do not intend to modify them.

• Permits for buying guns, having guns in possession for use and ordering or importing guns and ammunition will now only be issued to shooting sports associations properly registered under the Sport Authority of Thailand Act.

Mr Suttipong said people with information on wrongful acts concerning guns and imitations or materials which may be harmful to people’s lives and property can report to chiefs of villages, tambons and districts in their localities or call the Damrongtham Centre at 1567.

Authorities have stepped up gun control efforts following the shooting in Klong Toey on Nov 11 and the Oct 3 shooting at Siam Paragon shopping mall, where a 14-year-old boy using a modified gun intended to fire blank ammunition fatally shot three people and wounded five others.

– Thailand 13th in gun ownership worldwide –

Around 10.3 million guns — only 6.2 million of them registered — were possessed by Thais, putting the country in 13th place globally for small gun possession, according to the Switzerland-based Small Arms Survey in 2017.

The authors of the survey estimated that Thai people possessed the most guns in Southeast Asia, with an average of 15 firearms per 100 population.

The United States topped the table with 393.3 million guns, followed by India (71.1 million) and China (49.7 million).

Data from the World Population Review in 2022 indicated Thailand was ranked 15th globally in gun deaths with 2,804 people killed, for a rate of 3.91 people per 100,000 population.

The Philippines was the top country in Asean region with 9,267 gun deaths.

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Thailand extradites Japanese scam suspect

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Victims in Japan cheated out of equivalent of B9 billion

PUBLISHED : 15 Nov 2023 at 14:41

Thailand extradites Japanese scam suspect
Investigators question one of four suspects — two Taiwanese and two Japanese — arrested on Nov 8 in connection with cheating Japanese victims out of the equivalent of 9 billion baht. (Police Photo)

A Japanese man accused of defrauding an individual in his homeland over the phone from his base in Thailand has been extradited to Japan and arrested there, investigative sources said on Wednesday.

The arrest of Daisuke Ogawa, 49, is the latest in a series of cases in which scam groups were found to be targeting Japanese victims from locations in Southeast Asia.

Ogawa arrived at Haneda airport in Tokyo around 5.50am on Wednesday after being released from detention in Thailand.

Ogawa is suspected of defrauding a man in his seventies in Gifu Prefecture in central Japan in September by providing false information over the phone and tricking him into sending a cash card via postal mail, according to the sources.

The prefectural police suspect that Ogawa’s role in the scheme was to make phone calls.

Ogawa was one of two Japanese nationals among four individuals arrested by Thai police on Nov 8 for their alleged role in a phone scam targeting people in Japan. The two others arrested were Taiwanese.

The four men allegedly posed as bank staff or police officers to trick individuals in Japan into transferring funds to designated bank accounts with tactics including making false claims about debts.

According to the Japanese embassy in Thailand, more than 17,500 victims in Japan were conned out of 9 billion baht by the gang.

In a separate case, 25 Japanese nationals were arrested in Japan following extradition from Cambodia where they ran a similar phone scam operation.

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The Philippines in a lonely fight with China

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MANILA – “Are you sure you (Filipinos) want to get into a fight where you will be the battleground?”, Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong cautioned at a recent forum in the city-state when asked about rising tensions in the South China Sea.

The leader’s comments came shortly after yet another incident that risked tilting toward violence between Chinese and Philippine coast guard forces.

Manila accused Beijing of conducting “dangerous maneuvers” during its latest resupply mission to the hotly disputed Second Thomas Shoal, a feature which precariously hosts a detachment of Filipino soldiers atop a grounded vessel. Beijing has consistently claimed Manila is the provocateur in recent incidents around the shoal.  

In the event, a Chinese Coast Guard vessel fired a water cannon at a Philippine counterpart after Beijing said it “entered the waters adjacent to [Second Thomas Shoal] Reef in China’s [Spratly] Islands without the permission of the Chinese government.”

China also warned the Philippines against refurbishing its de facto naval base in the area, the largely dilapidated BRP Sierra Madre vessel, lest it risk armed confrontation. 

For its part, Manila has maintained that since the disputed feature is just a low-tide elevation within its continental shelf, as per a 2016 arbitral tribunal ruling under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), the Second Thomas Shoal is not even a territory to be claimed by Beijing.

Western powers, Japan and traditionally neutral nations like India have publicly expressed support for the Philippines amid multiple encounters and near-collisions with Chinese maritime forces in recent months. But most Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) members have remained largely silent on the issue.

“The South China Sea is important, but it is not the only thing at stake,” Singapore’s leader Lee said while expressing his hope that none of the region’s rival claimants “truly want to push it to the brink.”

Malaysia, Vietnam and Indonesia also have rival sea claims with China, but none are pushing back as hard as the Philippines.

Lee’s comments, however, didn’t go down well with many Filipinos who lament the lack of support, if not outright abandonment, from its ASEAN brethren amid its intensifying maritime tussle with the Asian superpower.

Singapore’s Lee Hsien Loong doesn’t think the Philippines should fight with China. Photo: Asia Times Files / Sergey Guneev / Sputnik

Philippine exceptionalism

Home to Asia’s first anti-colonial revolution, the Philippines sees itself as a key member of the Global South. In fact, its voting record at the United Nations has largely tracked with fellow post-colonial nations including among ASEAN members.

At the same time, Manila has aligned with more Western democratic nations during many key UN votes, most notably on the creation of the State of Israel, the recent Ukraine conflict and the current Israel-Hamas war.

Throughout the Cold War period, the Philippines also kept a healthy distance from its more communist-friendly counterparts, most notably Indonesia and India, during the 1955 Bandung Conference.

Although the Philippines is one of the founding members of ASEAN, originally devised as an anti-communist bloc, it has had relatively testy relations with neighbors over the interceding decades. This largely stems from Manila’s geographic and cultural distance from the rest of Southeast Asia.

Geographically, Manila is far closer to Taipei than all ASEAN capitals. Manila is just as close to Guam, Tokyo and Seoul as it is to key Southeast Asian capitals such as Jakarta and Singapore.

This has had major geopolitical implications, namely making Manila historically central to determining the broader order in the Western Pacific and Northeast Asia.

As a former Spanish and American colony, the Philippines’ cultural distance from the rest of ASEAN is just as pronounced. A Catholic-majority nation with a long history of liberal democratic politics, the Philippines has arguably more in common with Latin American nations than some of its immediate neighbors.

And as America’s oldest ally in Asia, the Philippines has been a key pivot point of Washington’s grand strategy in the region. Already enjoying a Status of Visiting Forces Agreement with Australia, the Philippines is also the only Southeast Asian nation to have openly backed the Australia-UK-US (AUKUS) defense pact.

It’s also the only regional state pursuing a Visiting Forces Agreement-style deal with Japan.

The Philippines’ distinct geopolitical alignment is not only a reflection of its unique strategic culture but also an upshot of its growing frustration with ASEAN.

For more than three decades, Manila has incessantly pushed for greater regional diplomatic intervention to protect the interests of smaller claimant states in the South China Sea.

During the negotiation of the UNCLOS in the 1970s, the Ferdinand Marcos Sr administration mobilized regional states in order to collectively lobby for the rights and interests of smaller maritime nations in the UNCLOS negotiations.

Shortly after the bloody Sino-Vietnamese skirmish over Johnson South Reef in the late 1980s, Manila started pushing for a regional Code of Conduct (COC) in the South China Sea.

Thanks to incessant diplomatic efforts by multiple Filipino governments, most notably under the Fidel Ramos administration, ASEAN and China finalized a transitional Declaration on the Conduct of Parties (DOC) in the South China Sea in 2002 as a prelude to a legally binding COC.

A Chinese nuclear-powered Type 094A Jin-class ballistic missile submarine takes part in a military display in the South China Sea. Photo: Handout

Two decades later, however, ASEAN has yet to finalize even a final draft of the agreement, with China constantly dragging its feet and sending mixed signals during the protracted negotiations.

Deafening ASEAN silence

With most ASEAN nations deeply dependent on China’s markets and economic largesse, the COC negotiations have been largely pro forma rather than substantive. To the Philippines’ chagrin, some ASEAN neighbors, most notably Cambodia, widely seen as a China satellite, seem uninterested in even discussing the disputes.

In 2012, ASEAN faced a major diplomatic crisis, when Hun Sen, as the regional body’s rotational chairman, tried to block even the mere mention of the disputes just months after Manila lost control over Scarborough Shoal to China. In response, then-Philippine president Benigno Aquino warned, “The ASEAN route is not the only route for us.”

When the Philippines filed an international arbitration case against China at The Hague, no ASEAN nation expressed public support. Once it was clear that the unprecedented legal case was about to bear fruit, Hun Sen lambasted the Philippines by complaining: “It is very unjust for Cambodia, using Cambodia to counter China…this is not about laws, it is totally about politics.”

Nor did ASEAN as an organization even mention, never mind support, the arbitral tribunal award at The Hague, which rejected the bulk of China’s claims to the sea in favor of the Philippines.

The only exception was Vietnam, which informally supported the Philippines’ arbitration case and, once the final ruling was published,  broadly agreed with the precedent and its legal implications for its claims in the South China Sea. Vietnam has since weighed whether to file a parallel case against China over their sea disputes.

In fairness, Singapore, which is not a claimant in the South China Sea, has historically stood for a rules-based order in the region. Ahead of the 2016 arbitral tribunal ruling, Lee also emphasized the importance of UNCLOS as a foundation for managing maritime disputes in the region.

Singaporean leaders, most notably the late Lee Kuan Yew, have also constantly emphasized the importance of America providing a military and economic counterbalance to China in the region.

Although not a US treaty ally, Singapore also has a robust defense relationship with America, including the Memorandum of Understanding in 1990, the Strategic Framework Agreement in 2005 and the 2019 Protocol of Amendment to the 1990 MOU, which granted the Pentagon significant access to the city-state’s naval facilities.

From 2019 to 2021 alone, the United States authorized the permanent export of over US$26.3 billion in defense equipment to Singapore. Significantly, the city-state is the only Southeast Asian nation to gain access to US-made F-35 fighter jets.

Filipino activists march towards the Chinese consulate for a protest in Manila on February 10, 2018, against Beijing’s claims in the South China Sea. Photo: Asia Times Files / AFP / Ted Aljibe

Against this backdrop, the Singaporean leader’s recent statements on the South China Sea disputes were met with a mixture of perplexity and criticism in the Philippines, where a vast majority favor a tougher stance against China in tandem with allied nations.

Philippine Foreign Secretary Enrique Manalo has made it clear in the past that the maritime disputes are “not the sum” of bilateral relations with China. Nevertheless, Manila is determined to draw the line in the South China Sea to protect its core interests after six years of fruitless flirtation with Beijing under the Rodrigo Duterte presidency.

And with the rest of ASEAN largely silent on the Philippines’ rising struggle teetering toward confrontation, there is a growing perception that Manila should just rely more on its traditional Western allies rather than fellow ASEAN members, many of which seem more keen to please Beijing rather than uphold regional solidarity.

Follow Richard Javad Heydarian on X, formerly Twitter, at @Richeydarian

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Impact investing on the rise: BNP Paribas survey | FinanceAsia

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Impact investing is gaining in popularity across the globe, but a lack of harmonised environmental, social and governance (ESG) data, regulations and standards pose barriers to its development in Asia, a BNP Paribas survey suggested.

“Asia Pacific (Apac) is behind Europe, which has already integrated broader ESG topics such as inequalities and biodiversity. But it is ahead of North America which is highly fragmented over this topic,” Jules Bottlaender, Apac head of sustainable finance at BNP Paribas (securities services), told FinanceAsia.

So far 41% of global investors recognise a net zero commitment as their priority, while in Apac, 43% have set a due date to achieve net zero targets, according to the survey.

The global survey, titled Institutional investors’ progress on the path to sustainability, looked into how institutional investors across the globe are integrating their ESG commitments into implementation.

It gathered data from 420 global hedge funds, private capital firms, asset owners and asset managers between April and July 2023. Among them, 120 (28.6%) are from Asia Pacific (Apac) markets including China, Hong Kong, Singapore and Australia.

Impact investing

Impact investing, a strategy investing in companies, organisations and funds generating social and environmental benefits, in addition to financial returns, is a global trend that in the next few years, is set to overtake ESG integration as the most popular ESG strategy, the report revealed.

Globally, ESG integration dominates 70% of investors’ ESG investment strategies, but the proportion is expected to drop by 18% to 52% over the next two years. In contrast, 54% of respondents reported a plan to incorporate impact investing as their primary strategy by that time.

European investors have the greatest momentum in adopting impact investing at present, with 52% employing impact investing. While in the four markets in Apac, the proportion stood at 38%.

Negative screening took a lead as a major strategy of 62% investors surveyed in Apac. In the next two years, the figure is set to shrink to 47%, overtaken by 58% estimating to commit to impact investing.

“Impact investing is a rather new concept for most people [in Asia]. It is driven by the need to have a clear and tangible positive impact,” Bottlaender said.

An analysis from Invesco in March 2023 pointed out that while impact assessment is key to a measurable outcome of such investments, clear and consistent frameworks are required to avoid greenwashing acts.

“There is no singular standard for impact assessment,” the article noted. On the regulatory side, specific labelling or disclosure requirements dedicated to impact investing have yet to come in Asia.

Private markets, including private debt, private equity and real assets, will take up a more sizeable share of impact investing assets under management (AUM), it added.

Bottlaender echoed this view, saying that current regulatory pressure in Asia “is almost all about climate”. As a result, Asian investors’ ESG commitments are mostly around climate issues such as including net zero pledges and coal divestment. These are coming before stronger taxonomies and broader ESG regulations which are set to be finalised over the next few years.

Data shortage

A lack of ESG data is one of the greatest barriers to investors’ commitments, as respondents to the survey reported challenges from inconsistent and incomplete data. The concern is shared by 73% of respondents across Apac, slightly higher than a global average of 71%.

Bottlaender explained that although mandatory reporting of climate data is adopted in certain regulations, a majority of ESG data is submitted voluntarily.

This leads to a fragmentation and inconsistency of sources based on the various reporting standards they adhere to. Moreover, the absence of third-party verification results weighs on the accuracy and reliability of the data provided, he continued.

He shared that investors are either engaging directly with companies to encourage standardised reporting practices, or relying on data providers, or leveraging technology to carry out quality control to address the lack of ESG data.

But “significant gaps persist, especially concerning private companies and aspects like scope 3 emissions.”

“As a result, investors must be extremely cautious when advancing any ESG claim or commitment,” he warned.

¬ Haymarket Media Limited. All rights reserved.

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Indonesia posts US$3.5 billion trade surplus, above forecast

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JAKARTA: Indonesia booked a US$3.48 billion trade surplus last month, bigger than predicted, as exports and imports fell less than expected, official data showed on Wednesday (Nov 15), bolstering some predictions the central bank could keep rates on hold next week. The October trade surplus, which compares with a US$3Continue Reading

Impact investing on the rise: BNP survey | FinanceAsia

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In: Asia, Finance, South-East Asia

Impact investing is gaining in popularity across the globe, but a lack of harmonised environmental, social and governance (ESG) data, regulations and standards pose barriers to its development in Asia, a BNP Paribas survey suggested.

“Asia Pacific (Apac) is behind Europe, which has already integrated broader ESG topics such as inequalities and biodiversity. But it is ahead of North America which is highly fragmented over this topic,” Jules Bottlaender, Apac head of sustainable finance at BNP Paribas, told FinanceAsia.

So far 41% of global investors recognise a net zero commitment as their priority, while in Apac, 43% have set a due date to achieve net zero targets, according to the survey.

The global survey, titled Institutional investors’ progress on the path to sustainability, looked into how institutional investors across the globe are integrating their ESG commitments into implementation.

It gathered data from 420 global hedge funds, private capital firms, asset owners and asset managers between April and July 2023. Among them, 120 (28.6%) are from Asia Pacific (Apac) markets including China, Hong Kong, Singapore and Australia.

Impact investing

Impact investing, a strategy investing in companies, organisations and funds generating social and environmental benefits, in addition to financial returns, is a global trend that in the next few years, is set to overtake ESG integration as the most popular ESG strategy, the report revealed.

Globally, ESG integration dominates 70% of investors’ ESG investment strategies, but the proportion is expected to drop by 18% to 52% over the next two years. In contrast, 54% of respondents reported a plan to incorporate impact investing as their primary strategy by that time.

European investors have the greatest momentum in adopting impact investing at present, with 52% employing impact investing. While in the four markets in Apac, the proportion stood at 38%.

Negative screening took a lead as a major strategy of 62% investors surveyed in Apac. In the next two years, the figure is set to shrink to 47%, overtaken by 58% estimating to commit to impact investing.

“Impact investing is a rather new concept for most people [in Asia]. It is driven by the need to have a clear and tangible positive impact,” Bottlaender said.

An analysis from Invesco in March 2023 pointed out that while impact assessment is key to a measurable outcome of such investments, clear and consistent frameworks are required to avoid greenwashing acts.

“There is no singular standard for impact assessment,” the article noted. On the regulatory side, specific labelling or disclosure requirements dedicated to impact investing have yet to come in Asia.

Private markets, including private debt, private equity and real assets, will take up more sizeable share of impact investing asset under management (AUM), it added.

Bottlaender echoed this view, saying that current regulatory pressure in Asia “is almost all about climate”. As a result, Asian investors’ ESG commitments are mostly around climate issues such as including net zero pledges and coal divestment, before stronger taxonomies and broader ESG regulations which are set to be finalised over the next few years.

Data shortage

A lack of ESG data is one of the greatest barriers to investors’ commitments, as respondents to the survey reported challenges from inconsistent and incomplete data. The concern is shared by 73% of respondents across Apac, slightly higher than a global average of 71%.

Bottlaender explained that although mandatory reporting of climate data is adopted in certain regulations, a majority of ESG data is submitted voluntarily.

This leads to a fragmentation and inconsistency of sources based on the various reporting standards they adhere to. Moreover, the absence of third-party verification results weighs on the accuracy and reliability of the data provided, he continued.

He shared that investors are either engaging directly with companies to encourage standardised reporting practices, or relying on data providers, or leveraging technology to carry out quality control to address the lack of ESG data.

But “significant gaps persist, especially concerning private companies and aspects like scope 3 emissions.”

“As a result, investors must be extremely cautious when advancing any ESG claim or commitment,” he warned.

¬ Haymarket Media Limited. All rights reserved.

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South Korea says 19 citizens held captive in Myanmar rescued

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In: South-East Asia

SEOUL (Reuters) – A group of 19 South Koreans have been rescued in Myanmar after being held captive at an unspecified illegal company in the Southeast Asian country, Seoul’s foreign ministry said on Tuesday.

The ministry said it had sought the help of authorities in military ruled Myanmar after receiving a report last month that some of its nationals had been locked up in Tachileik in Shan state, near the border with Thailand.

“Myanmar police raided the company in late October and secured custody of 19 of our citizens,” the ministry said in a statement, adding they were safely transferred to Yangon on Monday.

The ministry declined to elaborate on the nature of the operations at the company or identify the group, but said it was working closely with Myanmar officials to help its citizens and prevent any crimes.

A spokesperson for Myanmar’s junta did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

South Korean broadcaster KBS reported that the group had been lured by the company’s promise of high profits.

Some border towns in Southeast Asia have emerged as the centre of cyber scam operations including fake romance ploys, illegal casinos and investment pyramid schemes.

In August, a U.N. report said that hundreds of thousands of people were being trafficked by criminal gangs and forced to work in scam centres and other illegal online operations that have sprung up across Southeast Asia in recent years.

(Reporting by Soo-hyang Choi and Hyonhee Shin; Editing by Ed Davies and Raju Gopalakrishnan)

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