Your next holiday flight will cost a fortune

March 9, 2023 | 5:21 pm

plane-flight — WILLIAM BAYREUTHER-UNSPLASH

DEUTSCHE LUFTHANSA AG boss Carsten Spohr said the quiet part out loud last week, telling analysts the German flag carrier wouldn’t rush to add more aircraft capacity despite surging passenger demand, because high yields — industry jargon for average fares — “are just too much fun.”

Lufthansa isn’t the only airline executive sounding exuberant about soaring ticket prices helping repair their COVID-hit balance sheets. Leisure travel demand is off the charts, and US and European airlines are either unwilling, or unable, to increase capacity sufficiently due to staffing and equipment shortages. These highly advantageous conditions (for them) look set to continue for years.

In the past, airlines tended to quickly add more flights whenever demand increased, causing aircraft occupancy to deteriorate and ticket prices to sink, especially in the more competitive European market. As a result, many investors gave the capital-intensive sector a wide berth.

But for now, the balance of supply and demand has swung in favor of the airlines, who are able to pass on higher fuel costs and other expenses to passengers. Their pricing power has propelled the Bloomberg EMEA Airlines Index to a 78% gain since October.

Among European flag carriers, yields — a measure of average fares paid per passenger and kilometer flown — are around one-fifth higher than before the pandemic, and Lufthansa says they may increase further in the busy spring and summer months. (Industry body IATA is more cautious, predicting passenger yields will soften in 2023 compared to last year’s extreme levels when some short-hops sold for $1,000.)

Leisure travelers are increasingly paying up for a first or business class seat. Air France-KLM’s premium cabins are more full now than before the pandemic. That’s remarkable considering lucrative corporate travel has been slower to recover. Advance bookings for Lufthansa’s first and business class options are also running well ahead of the pre-COVID trend.

But a shortage of capacity is also helping boost fares, particularly on long-haul journeys. Spohr reeled off a list of persistent hindrances he thinks will prevent the industry returning to its old capacity-splurging habits, including Airbus SE and Boeing Co.’s production difficulties, engine and component availability, and pilot and airport personnel shortages. He might have added airline bankruptcies and rising interest rates, which make it harder for new airlines to finance planes. Incumbents are therefore able to redeploy aircraft onto their most profitable routes and limit the availability of cheaper tickets.

“Capacities will remain limited for many years ahead while at the same time demand continues to increase,” Spohr said. “This is something we and the industry have been waiting for.”

His comments echoed those of United Airlines Holdings, Inc. boss Scott Kirby, who said the industry is set for “structurally higher” profit margins. “The system simply can’t handle the volume today, much less the anticipated growth,” he told investors in January. Calling the supply-demand dynamics “different than they’ve ever been in my career,” he declared it a “once in a history of the industry opportunity.”

Capacity is creeping back near pre-pandemic levels but the recovery is uneven. Budget airline Ryanair Holdings Plc is aiming to offer 125% of its pre-COVID capacity this summer, while Air France-KLM targets more than 95% of 2019 levels. In contrast Lufthansa plans to offer just 85% to 90% of pre-pandemic capacity in 2023, up from 72% last year. By being disciplined, it expects to make more money.

Customers would be ill-served if airlines added too many flights too quickly and understaffed airlines or airports were unable to cope as we saw in the UK last summer and at Southwest Airlines Co. in December. Indeed, some executives say that guaranteeing a reliable service may mean airlines need more pilots and aircraft than they had pre-pandemic — the economy is larger now and staff sickness rates are higher. These additional costs are likely to be passed on to customers.

Prior to the pandemic, ticket prices often failed to keep pace with inflation due to competition from low-cost airlines. Passengers often paid less for an airline ticket than they did for their Uber or rail ticket from the airport to their final destination, but this was financially and environmentally unsustainable. Budget carriers such as Norwegian Air Shuttle ASA went bust.

Even Ryanair boss Michael O’Leary has declared the era of €10 ($10.6) plane tickets over, with its average fares some 14% higher in the latest quarter when compared to 2019 levels. He says Europe’s aviation market will end up looking more like the more consolidated North American market in the coming years, with stable capacity and upward pressure on pricing.

Even so, Spohr’s bluntness was inadvisable from a public relations perspective — Lufthansa required a multi-billion dollar state bailout in 2020, air travel remains a hellscape, and customers are none too pleased about paying exorbitant prices. His comments also provide ammunition to budget rivals who accuse Lufthansa of abusing its dominant German market position.

Time and again since the pandemic, events that the general public might reasonably assume would be bad for companies — snarled transport, component shortages, and staffing problems — have padded the profits of those businesses most directly affected. Supply chain bottlenecks are an elixir for corporate profits and a driver of consumer price inflation.

While a recession could yet puncture airlines’ rosy demand outlook and convince some leisure passengers an economy seat will suffice, capacity constraints look harder to resolve. Flying will certainly be no fun for passengers this summer.

BLOOMBERG OPINION

Why DIE must die

March 9, 2023 | 5:20 pm

silhouette-people — PAPAIOANNOU KOSTAS-UNSPLASH

It is not as if businesses today don’t have enough regulatory issues to contend with: from security regulations to the environment, labor, trust, anti-terrorism requirements, and taxation. Now they have to put up with an absolute academic construct that makes no sense whatsoever and positively without any redeeming value.

LIVE OR LET DIE
DIE or “diversity, inclusion, and equity” is a conceptual framework that ostensibly promotes the fair treatment and greater participation of supposedly underrepresented, even discriminated against, people in the workplace, academe, or even government.

Thus, “diversity” envisions embracing individuals of various backgrounds, whether it be by race, ethnicity, gender or sexual identity, and physical or mental disability (including that of neurodiversity). “Inclusivity” is closely related to diversity, taking into account everyone’s differing backgrounds and then applying policies that take into account those backgrounds. The objective is to identify a desired outcome, allowing each “spaces of participation,” regardless of background, identity, or disability. Finally, “equity” seeks to carry out the promises of inclusion. Not to be confused with “equality,” it is tersely described as a set of policies that purposely intends to result in equality of outcome rather than offer equality of opportunities.

All of which sounds good but that is the point: it’s so ideally attractive on paper that it makes anyone opposed to it seemingly bigoted. And don’t think the advocates of DIE are beyond labeling critics of that. Nevertheless, for all the high-minded words used to advance it, DIE is essentially incoherent and is but a repackaged mishmash of old philosophies that have been proven disastrous every single time they have been implemented.

ZERO SENSE FOR ZERO SUM
Let’s start with “diversity”: the criteria and parameters that enables one to qualify as an underrepresented race, class, religion, sex, and so on has never been clearly and logically made. How would someone with Spanish grandparents on the paternal side but with indigenous people’s as maternal grandparents be classified? What about a previously practicing homosexual who is now in a heterosexual marriage and with children? Inherently, the permutations are endless, which renders the making of a lucid policy quite impossible.

And who makes the call as to which person qualifies for what inclusive policy? If a religious institution, university, or a corporation acting on free exercise, academic freedom, or free speech rights decide that a certain set of characteristics would be necessary for such a person to be accepted for study or work, then who makes the call to override such rights? Congress? But Congress itself (the Senate and the House) is composed of 70% men and most of our legislators come from the higher economic and social class. How then do we impose DIE on this legislative body considering it is the people themselves that elected them there?

When you really think about it: if we accept the nature of human beings as individually independent, distinct, and equally possessed of inherent dignity (as our constitutional system already declares) then diversity is already logically present. Furthermore, let’s even agree for discussion purposes that there is a need for diversity — the very fact that we have a diverse community practically ensures the impossibility of equity. As Thomas Sowell insightfully says: “If there is not equality of outcomes among people born to the same parents and raised under the same roof, why should equality of outcomes be expected — or assumed — when conditions are not nearly so comparable?”

A CONSISTENTLY BAD IDEA
What makes DIE ready for death is it’s a proven failure. Various commentaries or studies show that despite all the costs it imposes on schools, businesses, and communities, it simply does not work. It actually creates a more intolerant, divided society.

A sampling: DIE programs “may have a net negative effect on the outcomes managers claim to care about” (“What if diversity training is doing more harm than good?” New York Times, January 2023); that the “implicit association test” actually “falls far short of the quality-control standards normally expected of psychological instruments” (“Psychology’s Favorite Tool for Measuring Racism Isn’t Up to the Job,” New York Magazine, 2017); in 2022, McKinsey warned its executives: “Don’t train your employees on DE&I. Build their capabilities,” a study found that “the causal effects of many widespread prejudice-reduction interventions, such as workplace diversity training and media campaigns, remain unknown” (“Prejudice Reduction: What Works? A Review and Assessment of Research and Practice,” Paluck and Green, Annual Review of Psychology, 2009); and, finally, the book Splintered: Critical Race Theory and the Progressive War on Truth by Jonathan Butcher, Bombardier Books, 2022 (also “DEI Doesn’t Work — Taxpayers Shouldn’t Pay for It,” by Jonathan Butcher, www.heritage.org, January 2023), which comprehensively and cogently makes the case against DIE.

NO RED-TAGGING HERE
Ultimately, one need only to look at the intellectual (here loosely defined) progeny of DIE: Marxism, particularly that of Gramscian thought, and the critical theorists. As example, gender ideology is traceable from what almost was a throwaway line by Karl Marx in his book The German Ideology:

“There develops the division of labor, which was originally nothing but the division of labor in the sexual act, then that division of labor which develops spontaneously or ‘naturally’ by virtue of natural predisposition.”

In other words, inequality according to Marx is the result of a “division of labor in the sexual act.” This division of labor is implicitly built on the distinction between male and female. This effects later divisions in labor and thus inequality. Thus: “if the sexual act and the division between genders is the very root of all inequality, the only means by which this inequality can be negated is through the androgenization of human nature, wherein the sexual difference between man and woman is abolished. Feminist readers of Marx, like Simone de Beauvoir and Shulamith Firestone, seized on this supposedly profound insight in Marx.” (“Marxism and the Gender Revolution,” Crisis Magazine, November 2021).

Incidentally, it is from the tortured dialectics of the foregoing that the Safe Spaces Act and the currently pending SOGIE bills were born.

The pillars of DIE — intersectionality (which has significantly permeated several social science faculties in the country), critical race theory, and gender ideology — previously rested on the idea of recruiting workers to spark a revolution. When that didn’t pan out, the workers apparently preferring to retain their emotional and cultural ties to family and church, the Marxists decided such ties must then be rid of.

They also settled on the idea of cultivating various minorities to do the job the workers couldn’t do: upend society as we know it. This thus resulted in a movement, decades in the making, of repackaged Marxists stopping at nothing to get its way: seeking the destruction of the family, marriage, religion, democratic institutions, rights, and even truth and reality itself.

AGAIN: LIVE OR LET DIE?
Because what the proponents of intersectionality, critical race theory, gender ideology, and DIE are after is not fair treatment for minorities or the oppressed. It is all about gaining power.

Thus, half-hearted measures against DIE are ultimately unavailing. Some kind-hearted people try to seek a middle ground but that is a fool’s errand: one side naturally seeks to preserve its existence, the other its destruction. What could possibly be the sensible compromise there? A half destruction?

Some prefer hiding their propensity to avoid offense under the umbrella excuse of “charity.” But to bestow “charity” exclusively on one group of people at the expense of the rights, livelihood, faith, beliefs, morals, and even the lives of everybody else hardly seems charitable at all. It is an act of sheer suicide while simultaneously dragging everyone along.

Which leads to this point that must emphatically be made: DIE is ultimately inutile for being pointless. Considering the cost — increased divisiveness and intolerance, damaged institutions, and a weakened society — it is completely unnecessary as anything remotely reasonable is already within the ambit of and protected by our country’s values, beliefs, and constitutional principles.

And hence why it is tragically ironic for universities, corporations, and even religious institutions to buy into this DIE insanity — they effectively, simply put, are signing their own death warrants.

Jemy Gatdula is a senior fellow of the Philippine Council for Foreign Relations and a Philippine Judicial Academy law lecturer for constitutional philosophy and jurisprudence

https://www.facebook.com/jigatdula/

Twitter @jemygatdula

Biden to urge 25% billionaire tax, levies on rich investors

March 9, 2023 | 5:15 pm

Wall-Street — The Wall Street sign is pictured at the New York Stock exchange (NYSE) in the Manhattan borough of New York City, March 9, 2020. — REUTERS/CARLO ALLEGRI/FILE PHOTO

PRESIDENT Joseph R. Biden is proposing a series of new tax increases on billionaires, rich investors and corporations in his latest proposal for how Congress should prioritize taxes and spending.

Mr. Biden’s budget request to Congress, which is slated to be released Thursday, calls for a 25% minimum tax on billionaires, according to a White House official familiar with the proposal who declined to be named because the plan is not yet public. The plan would also nearly double the capital gains tax rate for investment to 39.6% from 20% and raise income levies on corporations and wealthy Americans.

The proposal, which is largely a reprise of Mr. Biden’s multi-trillion dollar Build Back Better economic package, has little chance of passing Congress, particularly now that Republicans control the House of Representatives. Mr. Biden was unable to pass similar tax increases when Democrats enjoyed control of both chambers of Congress, instead settling for slimmed down legislation focusing on energy and health policy known as the Inflation Reduction Act.

But the White House’s proposal foreshadows both Democrats’ strategy ahead of high-stakes negotiations over the debt ceiling and government spending later this year, as well as the economic platform underpinning an expected Biden reelection campaign.

Administration officials argue that the proposals show a commitment to cutting the deficit — projecting that Mr. Biden’s budget would slash $3 trillion largely through increased revenues over the next decade — and represent a politically popular return to tax levels in place before former President Donald Trump’s tax reform legislation. Taxes on the wealthy and large corporations have been a rallying cry for progressives for years and polls repeatedly show they are favored by a majority of Americans.

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy immediately dismissed Mr. Biden’s plans to increase levies, telling reporters Wednesday “I do not believe raising taxes is the answer.”

The Biden proposal would require that the richest 0.01% of Americans pay at least a 25% tax rate. It would also increase the top tax rate for Americans making $400,000 to 39.6% from 37%, reversing one of Mr. Trump’s tax cuts — though tax rates for those making below that amount would remain untouched. It additionally calls for investors making at least $1 million to pay that 39.6% on their long-term investments, which are currently taxed at a 20% rate.

The proposal would increase the corporate tax rate to 28% from 21%, undoing another signature Trump tax change. It would also eliminate a loophole that business owners and higher-earners can exploit to avoid paying levies for the Medicare Hospital Insurance Trust Fund on more of their income. White House officials so far have not indicated that Mr. Biden’s budget includes new Social Security payroll taxes on wages above $400,000, which some Democrats have proposed to shore up the program.

PRIVATE EQUITY, CRYPTO
Mr. Biden is also calling for an end to valuable industry-specific tax breaks for private equity fund managers, oil companies, as well as investors in crypto and real estate, in his upcoming budget proposal, according to a summary of the plan. Eliminating these would upend the economics of many real estate and investment-fund deals — forcing Wall Street to reinvent the way that many transactions have been done for decades — if they were to become law.

Mr. Biden is proposing eliminating the carried-interest tax break, which allows private equity managers and venture capitalists to pay lower rates on their earnings from the investments they make.

The Biden plan also ends a longstanding tax break for real estate investors who can avoid paying capital gains taxes on their profits if they continue to invest the proceeds in other properties.

The administration is also calling to end a break that allows crypto investors to sell their assets at a loss — generating big tax savings — and then immediately repurchase those currencies.

In addition, all special tax preferences for oil and gas companies would be terminated, saving $31 billion. — Bloomberg

Malaysia to summon sultan’s heirs in dispute over Paris properties

March 9, 2023 | 5:13 pm

KUALA LUMPUR — Malaysia said on Wednesday it will summon to court the descendants of a former sultan in a dispute involving three of the government’s properties in Paris, following the heirs’ efforts to enforce a $15-billion arbitration award.

The Filipino heirs of the last Sultan of Sulu won the award in a French arbitration court last year in a dispute over a colonial-era land agreement, which independent Malaysia honored until 2013, paying the descendants a token sum annually.

Malaysia, which did not participate in the arbitration, maintains the process was illegal and has obtained a stay on the ruling in France.

Reuters reported this week that the heirs won approval from a French court to seize the three Malaysian properties in Paris, and that bailiffs tried to assess the properties on Monday as part of an effort to dispose of the assets. Malaysian officials turned them away, the government said.

The Malaysian government said in a statement the bailiffs had approached the Malaysian embassy in Paris and two staff residences to request access to the premises to obtain a description of the properties, but were denied access by diplomatic staff.

“This was not an attempt to seize the properties,” said the Sulu special secretariat, a government department looking into the heirs’ claims.

It said preliminary legal advice given to Malaysia suggested the bailiffs were asked by the claimants to obtain the properties’ description “on the basis of the statutory mortgage registered on the premises” in November.

Malaysia intends to summon the claimants to appear before the same court that authorized the cancellation of the registration of the mortgage, the secretariat said.

Malaysia has previously vowed to take all legal measures to protect its assets worldwide.

Elisabeth Mason, a lawyer for the heirs, said Malaysia was being misleading in suggesting that actions taken by bailiffs on Monday were beyond the seizure-order authorized by the court.

“The court order gave the bailiffs the instruction to enter non-diplomatic property with an eye to their valuation and sale to meet Malaysia’s debt,” Ms. Mason said.

Ms. Mason said the French seizure order was based upon a preliminary award issued in Spain, which was not bound by the stay in France.

The dispute stems from an 1878 agreement that was signed between two European colonists and the Sultan of Sulu for use of his territory in present-day Malaysia.

Independent Malaysia stopped payments in 2013 after a bloody incursion by supporters of the former sultanate who wanted to reclaim land from Malaysia. The heirs of the sultan, who once controlled a territory spanning rainforest-covered islands in the southern Philippines and parts of Borneo island, say they were not involved in the incursion and sought arbitration over the suspension of payments. — Reuters

US spy chiefs see China-Russia ‘love affair’ continuing

March 9, 2023 | 5:12 pm

WASHINGTON — China will deepen its cooperation with Russia to try to challenge the United States despite international condemnation of the invasion of Ukraine, the leaders of US intelligence agencies said on Wednesday.

“Despite global backlash over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, China will maintain its diplomatic, defense, economic, and technology cooperation with Russia to continue trying to challenge the United States, even as it will limit public support,” they said in a threat assessment released as the Senate Intelligence Committee held its annual hearing on worldwide threats to US security.

The report largely focused on threats from China and Russia, assessing that China will continue to intimidate rivals in the South China Sea and that it will build on actions from 2022, which could include more Taiwan Strait crossings or missile overflights of Taiwan.

“Perhaps needless to say, the People’s Republic of China, which is increasingly challenging the United States, economically, technologically, politically and militarily, around the world remains our unparalleled priority,” said Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines, the main intelligence adviser to President Joseph R. Biden.

To fulfill Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s vision of making China a major power, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) “is increasingly convinced that it can only do so at the expense of US power and influence,” Ms. Haines said.

However, she said US intelligence assesses that Beijing believes it benefits from a stable relationship, despite Mr. Xi’s recent sharp criticism of the United States.

Mr. Xi blamed the west for China’s economic difficulties in a speech on Monday in which he accused the United States of leading an international effort to contain China.

During questioning, Senator Angus King, an independent who caucuses with Democrats, asked for Ms. Haines’ view of Beijing’s ties with Moscow. “Is it a temporary marriage of convenience or is it a long-term love affair?” he asked.

“It is continuing to deepen,” Ms. Haines responded, adding that she would hesitate to characterize Beijing-Moscow ties as a love affair. “There are some limitations that we would see on where they would go in that partnership. We don’t see them becoming allies the way we are with allies in NATO, but nevertheless, we do see increasing (cooperation) across every sector,” she said.

The report said Russia probably does not seek conflict with the United States and NATO, but the war in Ukraine carries “great risk” of that, and that there is real potential for Russia’s military failures in Ukraine to hurt Russian President Vladimir Putin’s domestic standing, raising the potential for escalation.

Haines described “a grinding, attritional war” in Ukraine and said U.S. intelligence does not foresee the Russian military recovering enough this year to make major territorial gains. — Reuters

Europe experienced second warmest winter on record — scientists

March 9, 2023 | 5:07 pm

PEOPLE are silhouetted against the setting sun at “El Mirador de la Alemana (The viewpoint of the German)” in Malaga, southern Spain, July 24, 2019. — REUTERS

BRUSSELS — Europe is emerging from its second-warmest winter on record, European Union (EU) scientists said on Wednesday, as climate change continues to intensify.

The average temperature in Europe from December to February was 1.4 degrees Celsius above the 1991-2020 average for the Boreal winter season, according to data published by the EU’s Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S).

That ranks as Europe’s joint-second warmest winter on record, exceeded only by the winter of 2019-2020.

Europe experienced a severe winter heatwave in late December and early January, when record-high winter temperatures hit countries from France to Hungary, forcing ski resorts to close because of lack of snow.

The European Commission said on Jan. 2 hundreds of temperature records had been broken across the continent, including the Swiss town of Altdorf reaching 19.2C, smashing a record standing since 1864.

C3S said temperatures were particularly high in eastern Europe and the north of Nordic countries. While overall temperatures in Europe were above the norm, some regions were below-average, including parts of Russia and Greenland.

Scientists say Europe’s winters are becoming warmer as a result of rising global temperatures, due to human-caused climate change.

The unusually mild winter offered some short-term relief to governments struggling with high gas prices after Russia slashed fuel deliveries to Europe last year, with higher temperatures curbing gas demand for heating in many countries.

But the high temperatures pose risks to wildlife and agriculture. Winter temperature spikes can cause plants to start growing or coax animals out of hibernation prematurely, making them vulnerable to being killed off by later cold snaps.

Tilly Collins, deputy director of Imperial College London’s Centre for Environmental Policy, said the changing climate meant plants and animals were struggling to move to new locations to maintain their ideal temperature.

“For species with small populations or restricted ranges this can easily tip them on a path to extinction,” Collins said.

Copernicus pointed to other climate-linked extremes, including Antarctic sea ice, which last month dropped to its lowest level for any February in the 45-year record of satellite data.

“These low sea ice conditions may have important implications for the stability of Antarctic ice shelves and ultimately for global sea level rise,” said C3S Deputy Director Samantha Burgess. — Reuters

Women seen taking the lead in tech startups

March 9, 2023 | 4:50 pm

By Brontë H. Lacsamana, Reporter.

Women are increasingly leading many startup ventures and companies, making significant contributions to innovation, research, and development, according to an industry leader.

“When I was starting out over a decade ago, as an intern for then-GrabTaxi, it wasn’t like this … Women in startups and tech companies were not as prevalent as they are now,” Natasha Dawn S. Bautista, the program management head of Globe’s venture incubator 917Ventures, told BusinessWorld in a recent Zoom interview.

917Ventures has 12 portfolio companies that have the potential to grow and scale quickly, with seven of them being led by women.

Ms. Bautista said that these companies have had a significant impact, particularly EdVenture, an edutech platform founded and led by Sarah A. Cortes. EdVenture, which was launched less than tow years ago, has already onboarded over 1,000 tutors.

“EdVenture solves problems of both moms and mostly women tutors, especially in this increasingly digital world,” she said. “It’s just one of almost 400 ideas we’ve vetted in the past three years. Ideas come from anywhere and they can be for anyone, whether women or not.”

For 917Ventures, giving women a seat at the table to present their ideas is only natural, and not an overly conscious effort towards gender parity.

Christina Jacinto-Gervasio, entrepreneur-in-residence for EdVenture, told BusinessWorld back in December that the current learning gap is due to a lack of access to technology, which the private sector can help improve.

“We’re trying to step in as much as we can … to provide internet and hardware to students, but it’s not nearly enough,” she said.

Ms. Bautista added: “We are in a very good position to come up with solutions for such problems. And we can’t do that if we’re not well represented across genders.”

LITERACY, ACCESSIBILITY, PROTECTION
Though the pandemic highlighted the importance of digitalization, a large gap between men and women remains when it comes to digital literacy and accessibility.

For Bataan First District Rep. Geraldine B. Roman, the lack of training for women can be addressed by opportunities that focus on improving their digital skills. With this comes the matter of online safety as well.

“We’ve found that electronic violence and cybercrimes are mostly committed against women. That’s why, on a committee level, we’ve already approved the expanded protection of women and children against electronic violence,” said Ms. Roman, who is also the chairperson of the house Committee on women and gender equality.

At a press conference on International Women’s Day, she said that Congress has approved eight bills that provide further clarification on electronic violence.

There are gender sensitivity sessions being developed for police officials and learning modules geared to educate perpetrators of violence against women, according to Maria Kristine Josefina G. Balmes, the Philippine Commission on Women’s (PCW) deputy executive director for operations.

“Gender is a crosscutting concern across government agencies, so PCW monitors all efforts addressing the digital gender divide in various industries,” she said.

She also said that agencies like the Department of Trade and Industry and the Department of Science and Technology have supported 831 women micro-entrepreneurs by providing them with capacity building and business development opportunities.

NOT NECESSARILY A QUOTA
Regarding the participation of women in the tech and startup industry, the numbers are not the most crucial factor.

Ms. Bautista of 917Ventures said: “It’s already a big deal seeing people like Martha Sazon, the president of GCash, representing the Philippines in a fintech conference. That’s finance, and it’s usually seen as a male-dominated industry, and women leaders are there.”

SM Supermalls has a similar mindset on gender parity, said its president Steven T. Tan, although women make up 63% of SM’s employees and 60% of SM’s senior management.

“True parity is about erasing gender biases. The key is to create safe spaces for everyone,” he said at the press conference. “That’s why we have financial literacy workshops, programs that help employees interested in small and medium enterprises, programs that support working moms.”

PCW’s Ms. Balmes said that both public and private sectors must understand that such initiatives are vital, and that a gender quota is only used as a temporary special measure.

“It’s never the permanent solution. It’s the culture we have to elevate. Aside from having more women, we have to upskill them, listen to them, support them,” she said.

CONVERGENCE 2023: Collabera Digital’s first-ever CIO Summit 2023 to drive innovation and collaboration in Asia-Pacific

March 9, 2023 | 2:00 pm

Collabera Digital, the leading global digital engineering solutions firm, proudly announces its first-ever event in Asia-Pacific: “CONVERGENCE, Collabera Digital CIO Summit 2023,” which will occur on March 16, 2023 at Shangri-la The Fort, BGC.

Hosted by well-known business news correspondent Mimi Ong, the summit will include keynotes and panel discussions on topics such as the Tech Talent Paradigm, Data-Driven CX, the Future of Fintech, and Cloud Adoption & Economics.

The summit will be exclusively attended by top CIOs, CTOs, and C-level executives of notable companies from the Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore & Australia. This will open the window for collaboration, networking, and exchanging of business strategies that can lead to innovative solutions.

CONVERGENCE 2023 marks a significant milestone for Collabera Digital as it transitions from virtual events to a face-to-face format. It opens the opportunity for executives to meet and engage with their peers and Collabera Digital team.

Collabera Digital Founder & Managing Director Mehul Shah said, “I’m excited to be hosting our very first CIO summit, CONVERGENCE 2023. With collaboration, innovation, and driving business growth becoming the bedrock of every CIO’s initiative, I am looking forward to interacting and gaining insights from business leaders, as we embark together in our digital transformation journeys.”

“It is a pleasure for us to welcome & host forward-thinking leaders. With interactive and collaborative sessions, CONVERGENCE 2023 has been thoughtfully designed and curated to explore and exchange the latest thinking on business strategies that drive value throughout our organizations,” said Collabera Digital SVP & Country Head – Philippines Manan Mehta.

About Collabera Digital

Collabera Digital engineers the next generation of solutions to power tech-forward organizations accelerate their digital journeys. Our digital engineering capabilities in data, analytics, cloud, automation and cybersecurity, coupled with a strong foundation in talent transformation and advisory and architecture, fosters continuous innovation and transformation, helping clients stay ahead in the digital curve. With our client-first and collaborative approach, we deliver solutions that are tailor-made, through speed and agility.

Established in 2010 and with 25 offices in 11+ countries across Asia-Pacific & Europe, we cater to 300+ clients, including Fortune 500 companies. Supported by over 10,000 professionals, we are a team of innovators and thinkers who chase excellence as much in the process as we do in the result.

For more information, visit www.collaberadigital.com.

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Emerging market central bank pivot plans face a Fedache

March 9, 2023 | 1:02 pm

LONDON – Having beaten the Fed & Co off the blocks when it came to raising interest rates, parts of the developing world will be the front runners again when it comes cutting them, although the timing now looks increasingly in flux.

With the United States threatening to push its borrowing costs as high as 6%, economists are watching to see what happens in the emerging market countries that have lifted rates faster and further than anyone else.

Financial market expectations compiled by JPMorgan, for example, point to Hungary and Chile — which have hiked by more than 12- and almost 11 percentage points respectively over the last two years — starting major easing cycles as soon as this month.

Poland and Peru could also turn by June, followed by Czech Republic, Colombia and Brazil in Q3 and possibly India, Mexico and South Africa towards the end of the year or early in 2024.

“I do think it (an EM easing wave) is coming but it might not be coming as soon as the market expected,” said Pictet portfolio manager Guido Chamorro. “It is very difficult to go much before the Fed.”

While rate cuts might signal economic deterioration in the developing world, they could bring relief to investors who have regularly lost money on EM local currency debt since the so-called ‘taper tantrum’ – triggered by hints of Fed stimulus withdrawal – a decade ago.

Mirabaud’s head of emerging markets debt Daniel Moreno explained that rate cuts tend to lift prices of EM bonds as buyers try to cram into them before the interest rates they offer drops.

Between 2013 and 2015, after the taper tantrum and then Russia’s first invasion of Ukraine, EM local debt lost nearly 27% in total.

It lost nearly 12% last year too when global inflation, interest rates and the dollar surged against the backdrop of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and as the world recovered from COVID.

BofA’s analysts totted up that there were a staggering 167 EM rate hikes last year, which averages out at one every 1.5 days that financial markets were open.

“The rebound in the market is usually the strongest where the falls were the biggest,” Mirabaud’s Moreno said, adding Hungary’s local currency debt, which still offers as much as 15% interest, plummeted 27.5% last year.

This year it has rebounded almost 8% and market pricing points to a whopping 6 percentage point reduction in central bank rates over the next 12 months. Brazil is priced for a 1.25 percentage point cut, Chile for 3.5 percentage points and Poland and Czech Republic around 1 percentage point.

AHEAD OF THE FED

Despite 6% US rates now looking possible, Oxford Economics’ head of EM research Gabriel Sterne has done analysis suggesting that EM central banks will press on with policy “pivots” as long as domestic inflation rates are dropping sufficiently.

Nearly a third of EMs launched cutting cycles 12 months ahead of the Fed’s last seven ‘pivots’ since 1980, his data show, and in the last two decades there have been no instances where a major EM was forced to quickly reverse a cut.

“It is the domestic conditions that will really determine what the central banks do,” Mr. Sterne said. “They won’t hesitate because the Fed isn’t pivoting just yet.”

Not everyone is convinced it will be trouble-free though.

Morgan Stanley Investment Management’s Patrick Campbell thinks that while EM local debt looks “screamingly attractive” due to some of the best interest rate ‘risk premia’ since the financial crisis, US high-yield debt is also offering 9%.

UBS analysts have cautioned, meanwhile, that China, Indonesia, Chile and the Philippines could all see their currencies fall another 4-5% if the Fed goes all the way to 6%, and even more if markets started freaking out about recessions.

“The Fed is priced for no easing over the next year now whereas Hungary and Chile and Mexico are still priced for pretty hefty easing cycles,” UBS’ head of EM Cross Asset Strategy Manik Narain said. “That might be premature if the Fed is going to 6%.” – Reuters

Women’s Day protesters rally for rights, with focus on Iran and Afghanistan

March 9, 2023 | 12:58 pm

international-womens-day-4887650_1280 — STOCK IMAGE | Image by HANSUAN FABREGAS from Pixabay

MEXICO CITY/ISTANBUL – Rallies marking International Women’s Day took place around the world on Wednesday with a focus on Afghanistan, where girls are denied the right to education, and Iran, which has seen mass protests on women’s rights in recent months.

Activists donned purple and held demonstrations from Jakarta and Singapore to Istanbul, Berlin, Caracas and Montevideo.

In the Americas, reproductive rights were a key theme after the landmark Roe v. Wade U.S. abortion ruling was overturned last year and with abortion tightly restricted in much of Latin America. Women have also demanded action on high rates of unsolved killings of women and girls.

In Mexico City, 67-year-old Silvia Vargas said she had been attending demonstrations since her daughter Maria Fernanda, who was lesbian, was killed in 2014.

“Not everyone gets human rights, governments and institutions determine them,” she said, saying authorities had made her feel her daughter’s sexuality and murder were shameful. “I’m going home to an absence that has marked me for life.”

Across South America, from Montevideo on the Atlantic coast to the Andean city of Quito, thousands took to the streets, including indigenous people, students and workers.

In Brazil’s Rio de Janeiro, women demanded the legalization of abortion and action on femicides, while in Chile’s Santiago protesters, dancers, artists and even pets crammed the streets.

In Manila, activists calling for equal rights and better wages scuffled with police blocking their protest. “Girls just want to have fun…damental rights”, read one poster. Turkish police fired pepper spray to disperse protesters in Istanbul.

In Paris, demonstrators marched to demand better pensions for women who work part-time and in Tel Aviv women formed human chains to protest against a judicial overhaul that they fear will harm civil liberties.

Protesters flooded the streets of several Spanish cities to demand equal rights and the rooting out of “machismo” but divisions in the feminist movement over issues such as transgender rights and prostitution led to competing rallies.

Many protests included calls for solidarity with women in Iran and Afghanistan.

“Afghanistan under the Taliban remains the most repressive country in the world regarding women’s rights, and it has been distressing to witness their methodical, deliberate, and systematic efforts to push Afghan women and girls out of the public sphere,” Roza Otunbayeva, head of the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, said in a statement marking the day.

In London, protesters marched to the Iranian embassy in costumes inspired by the novel and television series “The Handmaid’s Tale”, while in Valencia, Spain, women cut their hair in support of Iranian women.

The death last September of 23-year-old Mahsa Amini while in the custody of morality police in Tehran unleashed the biggest anti-government protests in Iran in years.

In recent days, Iran’s clerical rulers have faced renewed pressure as public anger was compounded by a wave of poisonings affecting girls in dozens of schools. Iran has arrested several people it said were linked to the poisonings and accused some of connections to “foreign-based dissident media”.

As Washington marked International Women’s Day, the United States imposed sanctions on two senior Iranian prison officials it accused of being responsible for serious rights abuses against women and girls.

Britain also announced a package of sanctions against what it described as “global violators of women’s rights”, while the EU announced new sanctions on Tuesday.

NEW PLEDGES

Some governments marked Wednesday with domestic legislative changes or pledges.

Canada repealed historic indecency and anti-abortion laws, French President Emmanuel Macron said he backed the inclusion of the right to abortion in the constitution, and Ireland announced a referendum to remove outmoded references to women in its constitution.

Italy’s first female prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, said state-controlled companies should have at least one leader who is a woman.

In Japan, which ranked 116 out of 146 countries on gender parity in a World Economic Forum global report last year, chief cabinet secretary Hirokazu Matsuno said progress had been made on improving women’s working conditions but more had to be done.

“The situation for women, who are trying to balance household and workplace responsibilities, is quite difficult,” he said. “Measures to tackle this are still just halfway complete.”

In Russia, where International Women’s Day is one of the most celebrated public holidays, the head of its upper house of parliament used the occasion to launch a vehement attack on LGBT lifestyles.

“Men and women are the biological, social and cultural backbones of communities,” Valentina Matviyenko wrote in a blog on the Federation Council’s website.

“Therefore, there are no dangerous gender games in our country and never will be. Let us leave it to the West to conduct this dangerous experiment on itself.”

In the Colombian capital of Bogota, 45-year-old psychologist Paulina, who did not give a surname, said “invisible violence” was a problem for women everywhere.

“Even as we are victims of abuse, they say ‘You had a skirt on, a shirt showing cleavage, you were looking for it, right?’.” – Reuters

US, EU to launch talks on free-trade-like status, easing EV trade dispute -sources

March 9, 2023 | 12:55 pm

WASHINGTON – US President Joe Biden and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen are expected to agree on Friday to begin negotiations on ensuring free–trade agreement-like status for the European Union, two sources familiar with the plans said on Wednesday.

The leaders are set to meet in Washington on Friday.

Reuters reported last week that the United States and EU were working to make European minerals eligible for tax credits under the $430 billion US Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), citing a senior EU official.

That law requires rising percentages of battery minerals to come from the United States or a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) partner.

A US Treasury spokesperson said the department, which oversees the electric vehicle (EV) tax credits at the heart of the dispute, would evaluate any newly negotiated agreements to ensure they meet the critical minerals requirement of the tax credit during the rulemaking process.

“Given the extremely high concentration of Chinese control over critical mineral extraction globally, strengthening our supply chains for critical minerals along with like-minded partners is vital for the growth of the clean energy economy,” the spokesperson said.

Working with allies to reduce US reliance on China for critical minerals would aid US energy and economic security, the spokesperson added.

Up to $3,750 per vehicle of the available tax credits relate to critical minerals for batteries, taking effect when the US Treasury issues guidance, which is expected later this month.

The EU, South Korea, Japan and other US allies have harshly criticized the IRA’s provision requiring EVs to be assembled in North America to qualify for consumer EV tax credits.

But the EU in December praised a US Treasury Department decision to allow EVs leased by consumers to qualify for up to $7,500 in commercial clean vehicle tax credits. – Reuters

Bankman-Fried’s lawyers say October trial may need to be delayed

March 9, 2023 | 12:51 pm

NEW YORK – Sam Bankman-Fried’s lawyers said on Wednesday it may be necessary to delay the FTX cryptocurrency exchange founder’s scheduled Oct. 2 criminal trial, arguing it may take more time than expected to review the evidence and prepare a defense.

In a letter to US District Judge Lewis Kaplan, the 31-year-old former billionaire’s lawyers said federal prosecutors in Manhattan had not yet turned over evidence collected from electronic devices belonging to Caroline Ellison and Gary Wang, previously two of their client’s closest associates.

Both have since pleaded guilty and agreed to cooperate with prosecutors.

The lawyers also noted that prosecutors added new fraud and conspiracy charges late last month, boosting the number of counts to twelve, following the November collapse of Mr. Bankman-Fried’s now-bankrupt exchange and his arrest the next month.

In January, Bankman-Fried pleaded not guilty to the original eight counts that he cheated investors and caused billions of dollars in losses, in what prosecutors have called an “epic” fraud.

“While we are not making such an application at this time, we wanted to note this issue for the Court now,” Christian Everdell, one of Mr. Bankman-Fried’s lawyers, wrote in the letter.

A spokesman for the US Attorney’s office in Manhattan declined to comment.

Mr. Bankman-Fried rode a boom in the values of bitcoin and other digital assets to an estimated $26 billion net worth, and became an influential donor to US political campaigns.

But his fortune evaporated after concerns about commingling of funds between FTX and Alameda Research, a hedge fund he also owned, spurred the cryptocurrency equivalent of a run on the bank at FTX.

Bankman-Fried was released on $250 million bond and has been under house arrest at his parents’ Palo Alto, California home.

Kaplan has suggested his bail could be revoked after prosecutors said he may have tried to tamper with witnesses. Prosecutors over the weekend proposed Bankman-Fried remain free with strict limits on his use of technology.

The trial schedule and Mr. Bankman-Fried’s bail conditions are expected to be discussed at a court hearing on Friday. – Reuters

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