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Mobility priority

PHILIPPINE STAR/ MIGUEL DE GUZMAN

I am not sure if a recent move by the Metro Manila Development Authority (MMDA) is a step in the right direction for decongesting Metro Manila roads. Offhand, while the MMDA order promotes the use of more environment-friendly transportation, its unintended consequences have dire implications particularly on many who are already mobility-challenged.

In a memorandum dated Oct. 5, the MMDA exempted electric vehicles (EVs) from the number coding scheme. The memorandum is not without basis, as Section 31 of the Implementing Rules and Regulations of Republic Act 11697 or the Electric Vehicle Industry Development Act provided for the exemption for eight years.

The MMDA memorandum noted that RA 11697’s IRR specifically provided for EVs “exemption from the mandatory unified vehicular volume reduction program (UVVRP), number-coding scheme, or other similar schemes implemented by the [MMDA], other similar agencies, and LGUs with due consideration on the impact of such exemption on the volume of vehicles.”

It noted that the number coding exemption is among the “non-fiscal incentives” that EV users could “enjoy” under RA 11697 for eight years from the effectivity of the law. And in line with the MMDA memorandum, MMDA traffic enforcers were “directed to refrain from apprehending and issuing UVVRP citations to electric vehicles.”

On one hand, this particular non-fiscal incentive may be seen as a cost-effective effort to push car buyers towards environment-friendly alternatives like EVs. If the shift gains traction, then perhaps we can expect relatively cleaner air in the metropolis in the future. Not to mention the inevitable shift away from imported and costly fossil fuels for internal combustion engines.

However, in terms of improving mobility and decongesting Metro Manila roads, the MMDA order might have the opposite effect. Worse, the order may be seen as a type of selective statute that benefits only a particular segment — the wealthy — to the possible detriment of almost everybody else. This is given the poor state of public transportation infrastructure.

EVs to date, given their prices, can be considered generally only for the wealthy — the same demographic that is most likely to have more than one vehicle in the garage. And if the wealthy can buy additional vehicles just to skirt “coding” days, then they can just as easily buy EVs for the exemption. In this line, the MMDA order gives them the option to put more vehicles on the road at any given time.

Assuming, for the sake of argument, that 20% of vehicles in Metro Manila convert to EVs within the next three years, then that’s 20% more vehicles on the road not covered by UVVRP. How will this impact traffic flow? At what point does the MMDA pull the plug on the exemption? How does the MMDA go about counting how many EVs are on the road?

At this point, one of the unintended consequences of the EV exemption is that those who are already mobility challenged to date are going to have an even more difficult time. This is considering that previous exemptions given to Seniors and Persons with Disabilities (PWDs) were withdrawn just a couple of months ago. If that move was intended to address congestion, then the exemption for EVs does the opposite. In this line, one cannot help but wonder if the EV exemption is at the expense of the elderly and PWDs.

Everybody knows how difficult it is to take public transportation in Metro Manila. If it is hard enough for able-bodied workers, what more for the elderly, especially those with ailments, and PWDs who need to earn a living. But some of the elderly and PWDs have been lucky enough to own cars, making trips to the doctor — or to work, in the case of many PWDs — a little easier. However, their coding exemptions have been taken away.

On the other hand, a relatively young, able-bodied individual lucky enough to afford an EV has unlimited, unrestricted driving privileges around the metropolis. Even for frivolous and unnecessary trips. And while it may be that there is only a small pool of elderly and PWDs in need of mobility that are disadvantaged by the withdrawal of coding exemption, the fact remains that their mobility options are severely limited.

Many of our middle-income retirees rely mostly on their pension for subsistence. Some of them, prior to retiring, were lucky enough to afford a small car. They are no longer in a financial position to buy another. And while coding affects that car only for one day a week, what do we do with seniors who have daily rehabilitation therapy, regular dialysis or chemotherapy, or whose doctors come in only once a week?

Or, take the case of a PWD who needs to travel to Makati from Quezon City daily for work? His or her parents are lucky enough to own a car to drive him or her. However, by withdrawing the exemption for PWDs, that small perk is lost, and the daily grind becomes even more difficult for the PWD. Grab cars and taxis are not affordable options for many working PWDs, while motorcycle taxis are not practical alternatives particularly for those with crutches or are using wheelchairs.

The coding exemption for EVs is set in law, and there is nothing that the MMDA can do but provide for it. However, it should not be at the expense of sectors that are in desperate need of mobility. Simply put, if we are prepared to exempt EVs from coding, regardless of who they service or the urgency of then need, then more so that we should retain the exemptions for the elderly and PWDs, or those with a more urgent need for mobility.

 

Marvin Tort is a former managing editor of BusinessWorld, and a former chairman of the Philippine Press Council

matort@yahoo.com

Smartphone apps bury the case for a pan-Asian currency

NATHAN DUMLAO-UNSPLASH

UNREALISTIC as it was technically, the idea of a pan-Asian currency always had some political support: Since 2005, the Japanese have published the exchange value of something called the Asian Monetary Unit, a precursor to what would one day become the region’s equivalent of the euro. The debt crisis in southern Europe — and the threat it posed to the single currency in the early part of the last decade — ended that pipe dream.

Now there’s a more modest goal: Keep money national, but allow it to jump borders effortlessly. This vision could start becoming a reality in three years and have a far-reaching impact on a continent expected to account for half of the world’s consumption growth in the current decade.

That’s a $10 trillion opportunity, according to McKinsey & Co. A big chunk of this additional consumption will be fulfilled by small- and medium-sized businesses, and a lot of it will occur online. But credit cards and PayPal are expensive options for small merchants. And while Indonesian sellers can easily accept QR-code-based transfers from local digital banking or fintech apps, they can’t do the same for Singapore banks’ customers. National boundaries get in the way. As Ravi Menon, chief of the Monetary Authority of Singapore, said in a recent speech: “The current state of cross-border payments is not fit for the 21st century.”

Thankfully, an upgrade is at hand. From Singapore and Malaysia to Thailand, Indonesia, and the Philippines, countries in Southeast Asia want a multilateral network of payments by 2025. Their customers already have access to mobile-phone apps for settling claims in real time, but these are restricted to the local market. The next step is to connect them via the so-called Nexus Scheme, which has been conceived by the Bank for International Settlements as a world wide web of payments, a set of rules that any economy can adopt to set up a gateway to the collective.

The rules will harmonize compliance standards and messaging formats — the instructions intermediaries send one another to move money domestically. Once the platform takes off, international banks will be available on it with competitive currency conversion services. The experience for the customer will be no different whether they’re paying someone next door or a thousand miles away.

Using a smartphone app, an individual or business can already collect money instantaneously and nearly free of cost from another participant of the same national banking system. In cross-border remittances, however, the average cost is still as high as 6%, according to the World Bank. The technology of correspondent banking, which involves a lender providing a local account to banks based overseas, has improved vastly from when the practice evolved in the late 1800s. But transfers via the SWIFT messaging system — a matter of minutes on the fastest routes — can still take more than two days on several of the slowest.

International transfers with Nexus won’t be totally free. For one thing, currencies will still have to be exchanged. But it may be possible to squeeze the average cost of paying a business in another country to 1% or less and eliminate any corridor where costs are higher than 3%, which is the Group of 20’s goal for end-2027.

Asia’s policymakers have two other reasons to smash the status quo: One, access to SWIFT is at the discretion of American and European politicians; it could get cut off, as it was for Russian institutions earlier this year as punishment for the war in Ukraine. Two, much of international commerce takes place in dollars, and the US currency is expensive right now. In regional trade, especially where small firms in one country are selling goods and services to retail customers in another, it’s possible to reduce dependence on a surging dollar with technology.

The banking industry’s annual payments revenue pool is dominated by the Asia-Pacific region, which churns out roughly $90 billion from cross-border commerce.* Financial institutions are resigned to the idea that their fees per transaction will fall. What they don’t want is for volumes to disappear, which can happen if blockchain-based private stablecoins or central bank digital currencies become the preferred technology for international transfers. From their standpoint, Nexus’s advantage is that it won’t seek to bypass banks.

A single currency would have transformed Asia’s payments scene — and reduced the dollar’s dominance. Some Chinese state researchers recently called for a single digital token, pegged to a basket of 13 regional currencies. But the euro zone’s troubles have shown that it’s impractical to think about such a monetary arrangement without a fiscal union. Since a sharing of taxpayers’ resources between rich Singapore and poor Myanmar is hard to swallow even as a fantasy, the next best option for reducing the friction caused by different mediums of exchange may be to harness the power of the smartphone. When a Singapore bank app can be used to pay someone in Jakarta in 60 seconds — at a cost of 1% or less — the question of a single currency becomes moot.

*These include business-to-business, business-to-consumer and consumer-to-business transactions as well as consumer-to-consumer remittances.

BLOOMBERG OPINION

Chess is a sport producing genuine sportsmen

RAFAEL REX FELISILDA-UNSPLASH

Three weeks ago we ran a column on chess entitled, “Random chess is the future of chess and Philippine-born Wesley So.” We wrote the column after news came out that reigning world champion Magnus Carlsen explicitly accused 19-year-old American Hans Niemann, on Sept. 29, of cheating in the Sinquefield Cup in St. Louis, Missouri. Carlsen posted his accusation on Twitter and rocked the otherwise generally placid chess world. Carlsen withdrew from the tournament without providing specific evidence of how Niemann cheated. Carlsen however said that Niemann did not appear stressed throughout their match. In short, Niemann’s demeanor was inconsistent with the ordinary behavior of grandmasters when competing against the world’s best.

As expected, the column drew reactions from a mixed bag including plain chess enthusiasts in the corporate world, and credible veteran sports writers and editors. Interestingly, it did not elicit any “profound” reaction from sports writers who have for years commented with some sarcasm that “chess is not a sport.” Perhaps these parties, some of whom appear to serve as propagandists and apologists for pseudo sports leaders and so-called sports associations, will do a 360-degree turn when it is to the interest of their principals to declare chess a sport. More about this issue of chess as a sport or just a “parlor game” further below. But before we leave the topic, it must be pointed out that the Philippine Chess Federation is a member of our national Olympic committee. And so is another “parlor game,” tournament bridge. So, are both chess and bridge sports? Is membership of a sport in our national Olympic committee a basis for calling a game or sport, a sport?

One of the most interesting reactions we received was from Grandmaster and The Outstanding Young Men (TOYM) awardee, Eugenio (Eugene) Torre. I met Torre for the first time early in his career and interviewed him for a magazine article in Baguio which the Iloilo-born Torre had then chosen to be his base. Much of the information we have on Torre came from that interview, which we subsequently updated based on conversations with him and articles about him.

Torre, who will turn 71 on Nov. 4, became, at 22, the first Filipino and Asian to qualify for the Grandmaster title after winning the silver medal in the 21st chess Olympiad in 1974 in Nice, France. As Torre turned 30 in the 1980s, he continued to dominate Philippine chess, and did so well into the 1990s playing Board 1 in 17 chess Olympiads. Like Rafael (Paeng) Nepomuceno who was reigning supreme in Philippine 10-pin bowling from the 1970s to the late ’90s, Torre’s name became synonymous with Philippine chess, He eventually made it to the World Chess Hall of Fame. Torre’s best world rating in 1983 was 20.

Torre has a number of achievements, the most pivotal of which was beating world champion Anatoly Karpov in Manila in 1976. That victory gained for Torre a slot in the Candidates’ matches that lead to the world championship. Torre eventually earned a spot in 1992 in the World Chess Championships. He however lost to Hungary’s Zoltan Ribli in their series.

EUGENE TORRE AND BOBBY FISCHER
Torre would develop a solid friendship with the controversial Bobby Fischer. Torre would be Fischer’s second in the latter’s successful world championship match against the then USSR’s Boris Spassky. Torre and Fischer were ranged against the entire Soviet chess structure which had, with state backing, analyzed all openings, variations, moves, and every aspect of the sport. In 1996, Torre got involved with Fischer when the American (turned Icelander) launched Fischer Random chess or chess 960 which stands for its 960 different opening moves.

With respect to the accusations of Carlsen, Torre said: “One in the know here thinks that Carlsen has basis for his accusation [as cheating could have been done] with the aid of a friend by transmitting signals via high tech ways. Hence the games are now 30 minutes delayed when following in the internet. He (Niemann) won his first-round game against a lower ranked opponent. Let’s wait and see his performance for the whole tournament.”

Torre emphasized that “Fischer Random Chess or Chess 960 will completely erase opening memorization and preparation. Right on the first move, players will be forced first to assess the position before making a move. Hence, opening preparation will no longer matter.”

Torre says that “as Bobby mentioned, it will be mano-a-mano right from the start.” Obviously, Fischer was taking potshots at the Russians who had a whole organization studying opening moves and their multiple possible variations. For the USSR, supremacy in chess — in sports for that matter — was a serious political statement. The lengths to which they went to establish supremacy ended in disaster as State-sponsored doping and use of performance enhancing drugs and state-managed cover up led to the suspension of the athletics team and later the entire Olympics delegation.

Torre believes that Chess 960 is part of the struggle of humans against technology being used for the wrong purposes or to create undue advantage. While he believes that Random Chess is a step in the right direction, “in due time though, the computer will overcome man even in Fischer Random. But for human chess struggle (or for human vs. human confrontation), it will always be new and constant in Fischer Random. Hence, the 30-minute delay of live chess might still be needed unless we discover new measures to prevent cheating when shown live.”

IS CHESS A SPORT?
Now, we go back to the question: “Is chess a sport?” For whatever its worth and for the information of misguided purists, chess has been recognized as a sport by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) since 2000. It was an event at the Asian Games in 2006 in Doha and again in Guangzhou in 2010. It is also, according to various reports, considered for inclusion in the Pan-American Games.

In July 2021, the International Chess Federation (FIDE) officially launched a campaign to get chess into the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. Recently reelected FIDE President Arkady Dvorkovich and French Chess Federation President Bachar Kouatly met with French journalists as part of the offensive to include chess in the Paris Olympics.

Advancing the cause of chess as a sport is Chess.com which attempts to answer the question. Chess.com is, among others, an internet chess server and news website. Its response to the question starts with, “chess is both a game and a sport. Here are some ways that chess is a sport. Chess is:

1. Physically demanding — chess players do not compete based on athletic prowess but it is essential for elite chess players to be in excellent physical shape.

2. Competitive — anyone who has played a chess game has felt the drive to win.

3. Demands skill — elite players spend a lifetime honing their craft, practicing openings, studying end games.

4. Players practice sportsmanship — etiquette is extremely important in chess.

5. Is recognized as a sport — the IOC has recognized chess as a sport.

There are several other ways chess is a sport — it is universal, it is a mind sport, the sport inspires national fervor, it has doping controls. All these qualities and more truly make chess a sport.

Eugene Torre, a product of Philippine chess development, and a gentleman, continues to be a model of sportsmanship and decency as he competes in the professional circuit.

 

Philip Ella Juico’s areas of interest include the protection and promotion of democracy, free markets, sustainable development, social responsibility and sports as a tool for social development. He obtained his doctorate in business at De La Salle University. Dr. Juico served as secretary of Agrarian Reform during the Corazon C. Aquino administration.

Just another family business

PHILIPPINE STAR/KRIZ JOHN ROZALES

PART of the frustration of political observers, especially expatriates, in understanding politics and politicians stems from a preconceived idea of what politics should be. Hint: it has nothing to do with ideology or an economic philosophy of how wealth should be redistributed. (Wait, okay that one may be relevant here.)

Local politics needs to be viewed with a different lens.

The political party here is driven by individuals and their dynasties. The party is not distracted by ideologies or political platforms. There is no such thing as a conservative party (right of center or far right) that promotes small government and a strong private sector, making life easier for business, including those merging together or putting up new ones. There is just a family that dominates a certain region and exercises its clout with its proven voting machinery, boosted by the pandemic handouts.

Personal qualifications and leadership qualities of a candidate for a position, say Senator, are not relevant. Celebrity status in another field, like entertainment, can get one to the top spot in number of votes.

The preferred method of influencing change is not persuasion or the strength of philosophical ideas. Social pressure, using trolls and fake reports in digital media, leads the charge. This is complimented by more traditional financial approaches, like corporate contributions and leveraging future clout.

The absence of ideology facilitates switching parties to the winning side. This also promotes crony appointments to government positions, by simply surrounding oneself with people one knows rather than what these people know. Loyalty trumps competence, though admittedly allies need not be lightweights. It’s also easy to discard and replace, even when the seats have hardly been warmed.

There are no politically affiliated think tanks promoting a particular ideological view. What we have are economic forecasting groups, polling organizations, investigative reporters, and political analysts dwelling on territorial disputes with another nation. These are always available for interviews, seminars, and rolling out thought pieces for publication. They provide a point of view packaged in articulate and research-based talking points.

Attempts at appealing to a politician’s nationalism are futile. Still, selfish moves that benefit the family business must be cloaked with the rhetoric of democratic ideals, the rule of the majority, due process of law, and sundry sanctimonious claims to putting the country above self, net of commissions.

There are players in the political scene that are not politicians. Some are law firms, business groups, big media, or all three. Once these movers and shakers are identified along with their interests, it is a simple matter of getting out of their way or riding their wave. These political attachments can cause legislative investigations to be unleashed on rivals, without leaving any footprints.

The only refuge for businessmen or any interest group (eligible for party list representation) is to find players whose interests coincide with theirs. While this perpetuates personality politics, it mobilizes cause-oriented groups, including those who advocate private enterprise and the wisdom of markets, to plunge gamely into politics if they mean to change things or protect the status quo.

If politics is a business, does business also have to be political? As John Stuart Mill in his classic Political Economy so well understood, the two branches of study are as intertwined as Siamese twins. The businessmen (especially conglomerates and public utilities) understand that not all decisions are corporate in nature. Too late sometimes comes the realization that one family business can intrude on another.

So, politics has nothing to do with ideology. It drives change or protects the status quo much like a business that deals with competition and the changing market. If business is going online, politics is sure to follow with new media and brand ambassadors, known as influencers. These are for hire and understood to have very variable loyalties, determined by incentives.

Politics is just another family business, just like a grocery or a bank. Hence leaders of the country occasionally share common family names or maternal links. Even the appointments to public office no longer bother with charges of nepotism. (Cousins do not even count.) And this does not even cover informal roles like adviser, whisperer, karaoke mate, and former classmate.

As for succession planning, much enshrined in conglomerates, politics is ahead of the curve here… and the timelines are much shorter.

 

Tony Samson is chairman and CEO of TOUCH xda

ar.samson@yahoo.com

Hong Kong leader prioritizes talent, security in first policy address

LOK YIU CHEUNG-UNSPLASH

HONG KONG — Making his first policy address on Wednesday, Hong Kong Chief Executive John Lee prioritized improving competitiveness and attracting more overseas talent, while also stressing the need to bolster national security in the Chinese ruled city. 

While some Western governments including the United States have said the erosion of rights and freedoms has hurt Hong Kong’s business climate and exacerbated a brain drain, Mr. Lee pledged to tighten control, referencing Chinese President Xi Jinping’s directives for the city in a speech at the start of a major party congress in Beijing. 

“We will further strengthen the legal system and enforcement mechanisms for safeguarding national security,” said Mr. Lee. The proposed new laws would regulate areas including cybersecurity, crowdfunding activities and false information, he added. 

Mr. Lee, who took up his job in July and was sanctioned by the United States in 2020 for his role in the crackdown on Hong Kong’s freedoms, did not give a timeframe for this. 

With limited financial experience, Mr. Lee faces multiple challenges restoring Hong Kong’s fortunes as a financial hub after several years of upheaval that resulted in it losing ground to rivals such as Singapore. 

Hong Kong’s economy contracted 1.3% in the second quarter from the same period a year earlier. 

Over 200,000 foreigners and Hong Kongers, including young people who had been at the forefront of pro-democracy protests, left the city in the past two years, unsettled by China exerting more control over political freedoms and a heavy-handed approach to fighting coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). 

‘TRAWL’ FOR TALENT
Mr. Lee said two-year visas would be made available to individuals earning salaries of HK$2.5 million ($318,475) or more during the past year, and graduates from the world’s top 100 universities with at least three years of work experience 

“Apart from actively nurturing and retaining local talents, the government will proactively trawl the world for talents,” Mr. Lee said in his speech. 

Overseas talent choosing to become permanent residents in Hong Kong would also be given stamp duty refunds for a first residential property purchase. 

Mr. Lee said HK$30 billion ($3.8 billion) would go into a “Co-Investment Fund” to attract enterprises to set up operations. He added the Hong Kong stock exchange would revise its rules next year to make it easier for high technology firms to list. 

During Mr. Lee’s nearly three-hour speech, he mentioned the word “talent” more than 60 times. 

Hong Kong scrapped a hotel quarantine requirement for all incoming visitors in September, having kept closely to China’s “zero-COVID” policies over the past two years. The tourism and catering sectors were bruised by prolonged lockdowns, and the closure of the city’s once porous and economically vital border with mainland China. 

Mr. Lee said talks were continuing with mainland authorities on resuming cross-border travel.  

PROPERTY
On housing, long a thorny issue for Hong Kong leaders in one of the world’s most expensive property markets, Mr. Lee pledged to provide enough land for the provision of not less than 72,000 residential units in the next five years. 

“We will enhance quantity, speed, efficiency, and quality in land production, staying on top of things and putting in place a long-term plan to steadily increase supply,” he said. 

Public housing supply will be increased by 50% in the next five years, and over half of the city’s under-utilized, semi-industrial “brownfield” sites converted for housing and other uses. 

Despite an estimated 10% fall in prices this year, Mr. Lee stopped short of announcing any bold moves, such as easing property cooling measures implemented over the past decade. 

The Hang Seng Property Index rose as much as 2.8% before the speech, but had fallen by more than 1% shortly after it ended. — Reuters

ECB to go big again on Oct. 27 with 75 bps rate hike — poll

BW FILE PHOTO

LONDON — The European Central Bank (ECB) will go for another jumbo 75 basis point increase to its deposit and refinancing rates when it meets on Oct. 27 as it tries to contain inflation running at five times its target, a Reuters poll found. 

As in much of the world, euro zone inflation has soared on skyrocketing energy prices and supply chains still healing from the coronavirus pandemic have taken a further hit from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. 

The ECB targets inflation at 2.0%, yet it was 10.0% last month. It will average at a peak of 9.6% this quarter, higher than thought last month, before gradually drifting down but will not reach its target until late 2024, the poll found. 

“Inflation is far too high. Rapid rate rises are needed. However, the ECB also needs to keep an eye on bond spreads, so more than 75bps seems unlikely,” said Brian Martin at ANZ. 

Much of the price pressure is coming from energy costs. With no end in sight to the Russia-Ukraine conflict, nearly 65% of 34 respondents said the cost of living in the euro zone would worsen or worsen significantly. Only 12 said it would improve. 

“The worst impact of the energy crisis on the household sector will develop in Q4 2022 and Q1 2023, when the demand for gas is seasonally higher,” said Luca Mezzomo at Intesa Sanpaolo. 

In the run-up to winter, forecasters are expecting the ECB to be more aggressive in tightening policy. 

The bloc’s central bank will take the deposit rate to 1.50% and the refinancing rate to 2.00% next Thursday, a view held by an overwhelming majority of respondents in the Oct. 12–18 Reuters poll of more than 60 economists. 

Three-quarters of respondents to an additional question, 27 of 36, said the bank ought to choose a 75-basis-point lift to the deposit rate while two said it should go harder with a 100-basis-point increase. Only seven recommended 50 basis points. 

SHORT AND SHALLOW?
The ECB’s first increase did not come until July, when it added 50 basis points to all its rates — taking the deposit rate to zero, its first time not in negative territory since 2014 — and followed that up with a 75-basis-point lift in September. 

That was slow compared to peers like the United States Federal Reserve, which has contributed to a fall in the euro to below parity to the US dollar. 

By year-end the deposit and refinancing rates were forecast to be at 2.00% and 2.50% respectively compared to 1.25% and 2.00% predicted in a September poll. 

The deposit rate was expected to reach a peak of 2.50% next year and the refinancing rate 3.00%, higher than the 1.50% and 2.00% highs given in September. The highest forecast was for them to reach 4.00% and 4.50%. 

The ECB has promised more hikes and begun a debate about unwinding its 3.3 trillion euros ($3.25 trillion) of bond purchases — the legacy of its fight against deflation in the last decade. 

Two hawks on the ECB’s Governing Council called last week for more hikes to fight runaway price rises. But the central bank is also facing a recession in the bloc and economists in the poll gave a median chance of 70% of one within a year. 

Asked what type of recession it would be, 22 of 46 respondents said it would be short and shallow while 15 said it would be long and shallow. Eight said it would be short and deep and only one said it would be long and deep. 

The economy was expected to grow 3.0% this year but flatline in 2023 before returning to growth in 2024 and expanding 1.5%. In September’s poll those forecasts were 2.9%, 0.4% and 1.6%. — Reuters

Nielsen includes YouTube in ad ratings across three APAC markets

PIXABAY

Marketing research firm Nielsen will include YouTube metrics for desktop and mobile in its Total Ad Ratings (TAR) solutions in the Philippines, Thailand, and Indonesia, giving advertisers the ability to measure their cross-media campaigns in these Asia Pacific (APAC) markets, along with Mexico, Italy, US, and France. 

The New York-based company said advertisers want a more holistic view of their audiences to better understand their reach on TV and digital. 

“In a fragmenting media landscape, advertisers need independent cross-media metrics to optimize ad spends and enhance ROI [return on investment] while reaching the right audiences,” said Arnaud Frade, head of commercial growth of Nielsen APAC, in an Oct. 19 press statement. “This is an important milestone and investment toward our global Nielsen ONE strategy, underpinning a strong digital measurement capability which helps with the vision of a true cross-platform that measures across all screens.”  

YouTube’s audience size in the Philippines as of April 2022 is at 56.5 million users, according to Statista. 

“We are pleased that YouTube measurement within Nielsen’s Total Ads Rating solution is expanding to Indonesia, the Philippines, and Thailand,” Gaurav Kapur, managing director of Google, said in the same release. “With better tools from measurement partners like Nielsen, advertisers can be more strategic about their investments.”  

Mr. Frade previously mentioned that media spend needs to be between 1% and 9% of revenue to stay competitive.  

According to Nielsen’s Ad Intel, the top Philippine advertisers and industry spenders for the first half of 2022 are Unilever Philippines, Inc., with an estimated $1,619.13 million of ad spend; Procter & Gamble Phils., Inc., with $1,011.68 million; and Unilab, Inc., with $756.72 million. 

Media Quest Holdings, Inc., which owns a majority interest in BusinessWorld, is ranked eight with $492.93 million. — Patricia B. Mirasol

World’s biggest private firms lag listed peers in setting emissions targets — study

REUTERS

LONDON — The world’s largest privately owned companies are severely lagging their public market peers when it comes to setting climate targets, according to an analysis by the nonprofit Net Zero Tracker released on Wednesday. 

Just 32 of the 100 biggest private firms have set a target to reach net-zero carbon emissions, compared with 69 of the 100 largest public companies, the study showed. 

In high-emitting sectors such as energy, infrastructure, and manufacturing, only 14% of the private firms’ annual combined revenue is covered by such a target compared with 77% of revenues from listed firms in the same sector. 

The quality of the targets for those that have them is also poorer, the study found, with firms less likely to include shorter-term goals, cover the full scope of their emissions or contain detail about how the firm uses carbon offsets. 

Just four of the private firms with a target actually had a plan to deliver on their pledge, potentially exposing the companies — and the economies in which they operate — to greater risk as the world transitions to a low-carbon economy, the study said. 

“Private firms are falling devastatingly short on net zero compared with their publicly-listed cousins,” said John Lang, project lead of the Net Zero Tracker. 

As listed companies increasingly face mandatory climate-related disclosures, Thomas Hale, professor at Oxford University’s Blavatnik School of Government, said there was a risk private firms escaped scrutiny and gained an unfair advantage. 

“Smart regulation is needed to create a level playing field and close a potentially enormous loophole in corporate climate action,” he said. — Reuters

Japan rushes to rearm with eye on 2027 — and China’s Taiwan ambitions

CHRIS BARBALIS-UNSPLASH

TOKYO — Between China’s 20th Communist Party Congress, that began Sunday, and the next one in 2027, Japan will undertake its biggest arms buildup since World War Two in a race to deter Beijing from war in East Asia, according to Japanese government officials and security analysts. 

Japan identified China as its chief adversary in its 2019 defense white paper, worried that Beijing’s flouting of international norms, pressure on Taiwan and rapid military modernization posed a serious security threat. That anxiety has intensified since Russia invaded Ukraine, weakening Japanese public opposition to rearming, security experts say. 

Japan’s government “has the wind at its back and will use that to do whatever it can,” said Takashi Kawakami, a professor at Takushoku University in Tokyo. By pointing to 2027 as the moment when East Asia’s power balance may tip in China’s favor, Japan’s government can rally support for greater defense spending, he added. 

In addition to being the next time Communist Party delegates gather in Beijing, 2027 is the next major milestone on China’s military modernization roadmap and the centennial of the founding of the People’s Liberation Army. At a congressional hearing last year, US Indo-Pacific commander Admiral Philip Davidson said that China’s threat against Taiwan could “manifest” that year. 

For Japan, losing Taiwan to mainland Chinese control could be a disaster because it would jeopardize key shipping lanes that supply nearly all Japan’s oil and many of the materials it uses for manufacturing. It would also give the Chinese navy unfettered access to the Western Pacific from bases on the island. 

“There are different shades of opinion, but generally, government officials share the same view of the significance of 2027,” said a senior Japanese government official involved in defense buildup plans. 

“This has been discussed internally,” he added, asking not to be identified because of the sensitivity of the issue. 

China’s foreign ministry said Japan was using China as a pretext for a military buildup. 

“Political forces in Japan have repeatedly used China as an excuse to deliberately exaggerate regional tensions. In doing so, the Japanese side is only looking for excuses to strengthen its own military and expand its military,” the ministry said in a written response to Reuters. 

At the congress in Beijing, Chinese leader Xi Jinping called for accelerating China’s plans to build a world-class military and said his country would never renounce the right to use force to resolve the Taiwan issue. 

Japanese defense ministry officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment. 

TAIWAN SCENARIO
Japan’s delicate diplomatic and economic relations with its bigger neighbor mean it is unlikely to commit to directly defending Taiwan. But with Japan’s nearest territory only about 150 kilometers (km) from the island, it could be drawn into conflict with an adversary that spends more than four times as much on its military. 

China could try to capture Japanese islands close to Taiwan to establish air defenses and fend off any counter attack, said another Japanese government official involved in planning, who also asked not to be named because he is not authorized to talk to the media. 

China lobbed missiles into waters less than 160 km from those islands in August during exercises after a visit to Taiwan by US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, which Beijing slammed as American interference. 

Japanese military bases, airports, seaports, and other logistical hubs could also be tempting targets for Chinese missile strikes because they would be staging grounds for US forces. 

In crafting its defense plans, Japan needs to consider a scenario in which Washington does not respond to a Chinese attack on Taiwan, said Yasuhiro Matsuda, an international politics professor at Tokyo University and former Ministry of Defense senior researcher. 

“If Japan can strengthen its defense capability … then China’s calculation to attack US forces on Japan will be quite different, the cost and risk of a Taiwan operation will be quite high,” Mr. Matsuda said this month during an online discussion hosted by the Rand Corporation think tank. 

ARMS RACE
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which it calls a “special operation,” has helped shift public opinion in Japan away from the postwar pacifism that has dominated defense policy for decades. 

In an opinion poll published by public broadcaster NHK this month, 55% of 1,247 people surveyed said they supported increased defense spending, compared with 29% who opposed it. Of those backing a stronger military, 61% said Japan should pay for it with public spending cuts. 

In July, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida won national upper house elections with a pledge to “substantially” increase defense spending. His ruling Liberal Democratic Party promised to double the military budget to about 10 trillion yen ($68 billion) within five years. 

That extra money will pay for longer-range missiles — improved Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) Type 12s, Kongsberg Joint Strike Missiles and Lockheed Martin Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missiles — that can strike distant warships and land targets in China or North Korea. 

Big projects include a new jet fighter for deployment in the 2030s that will most likely be merged with Britain’s proposed Tempest stealth plane into a program led by MHI and BAE Systems. The splurge of defense spending should also benefit US suppliers such as Lockheed, Boeing Co., and Northrop Grumman Corp. 

More immediately, it will help Japan increase stockpiles of spare parts and ammunition that its untested military would need to sustain any fight. 

“We will need to give priority to things that we can deploy within five years,” the first government official said. 

Mr. Kishida will unveil details of military spending plans in December along with a revamped security strategy. That strategy is expected to give Japan a bigger regional security role alongside the United States, which has thousands of troops, hundreds of aircraft, and dozens of warships deployed in Japan. 

Japan’s focus on China is unlikely to waver, analysts say, even as its former top adversary, North Korea, is in the midst of a fresh cycle of missile tests, the latest on Friday, including the first flight over Japan since 2017. After the Chinese Communist Party congress, the Kim Jong Un regime is widely expected to follow up with a nuclear test. 

Japan wants to let South Korea take the lead in tackling its belligerent northern neighbor, a senior Japanese Self Defense Force commander said, speaking anonymously because of the sensitivity of the matter. 

“I don’t see North Korea’s actions leading to any significant change” to Japan’s China focus,” said Bonji Ohara, senior fellow at the Sasakawa Peace Foundation and a former military attaché at Japan’s embassy in China. North Korea’s latest actions may even help solidify public support for it, he added. — Reuters

Coronavirus pandemic prompts Biden to focus on biological threats

WASHINGTON — US President Joseph R. Biden, Jr., on Tuesday set in motion a plan to counter biological threats and prepare for the next pandemic after coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused more than 1 million deaths in the United States.

Mr. Biden signed three documents on biodefense security aimed at establishing a strategy and an implementation plan to gird for the next time a virus spreads widely in the United States.

The National Biodefense Strategy, released by the White House, said the United States must address the “accidental release of biological agents, and threats posed by terrorist groups or adversaries seeking to use biological weapons.”

A memorandum signed by Mr. Biden sets up a policy coordination structure for biodefense among government agencies with oversight by the White House.

It directs the US intelligence community to monitor for threats and ensure the United States “continuously adapts to this evolving threat landscape” by holding annual exercises, a senior administration official said in describing the new plan.

The plan calls for Congress to approve an $88 billion request over five years for pandemic preparedness and biodefense. The request has been stalled in Congress as lawmakers bicker over government spending.

The goal is to “prevent epidemics and biological incidents before they happen, whether they’re naturally occurring, deliberate or accidental,” the official said.

Questions about the origin of the coronavirus have never been fully resolved. The United States has suspicions that the virus originated in China despite Beijing’s denials.

The plan establishes a goal of “recruiting, training and sustaining a robust, permanent cadre of health workers in all 50 states” to confront biological threats, the official said. — Reuters

[B-SIDE Podcast] Architecture and computational design

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In this B-Side episode, Gordon Gn, an award-winning architect and the office director of architecture firm HKS Singapore, explains what computational design is, and how it can benefit all stakeholders before, during, and after the construction of a building. 

“To put it simply, computational design is really the workflow that enables us to enhance project design outcomes and performance through the use of digital models,” Mr. Gn tells BusinessWorld reporter Brontë H. Lacsamana.  

Nustar Resort and Casino, Robinsons Hotels and Resorts’ (RHR) new five-star integrated resort in Cebu that Mr. Gn helped design, is the first development in the Philippines that uses computational design to respond to climate factors. 

TAKEAWAYS 

Nustar Resort

The computer is not just a tool, but a co-designer. 

“The design approach practiced by architecture studios has gone beyond manually sketching and drawing,” Mr. Gn said. “But in some ways, we are still quite traditional, with digital models as a direct visual translation of what the architect has in mind.” 

“This new methodology of having the computer as a kind of co-designer, it really starts to introduce new ways of thinking, of making, and of producing.” 

As an industry, the limitless thinking that comes as a collaborative effort is bringing about an innovation of the profession, and a paradigm shift, he added. 

Digital models can simulate climate scenarios that will inform design solutions. 

Nustar Resort and Casino — with its three hotels, gaming floors, 1,700-seat movie theater, and luxury retail mall — is set to be a mega development located along the coastal front of Kawit Island, east of Cebu City. 

“If you look at the base of the building, it’s reminiscent of the kind of Western ships and galleons that explored this region of the seas,” he said. “The three towers are designed as sails. It’s bringing back the idea of shipping and explorative culture.” 

The digital models that simulated climate scenarios generated and tuned the design of the towers to the environment to minimize the heat gain for occupants’ comfort as well as maximize the daylight.  

Computational tools optimize a building’s life cycle from design to occupancy. 

“It can go from wind to daylight to heat gain to physical components like structure or sensing how many people will use the building or move within it,” Mr. Gn said. 

By recreating all sorts of scenarios within a virtual environment, carbon footprint and productivity optimization can be calculated, even taking into account the finite resources available, he added. 

“If we can start to be more socially and environmentally conscious through technology, I think this leads to much greater outcomes for the community and the world at large.” 

Recorded remotely in September 2022. Produced by Joseph Emmanuel L. Garcia, and Sam L. Marcelo.

Follow us on Spotify BusinessWorld B-Side

Cisco Philippines: Serving and securing Filipino businesses through innovations

In navigating the new digital world, Cisco Philippines affirms its presence in serving and securing Filipino businesses. As today’s business environment is predictably unpredictable, business resilience and agility is borne out of unified solutions that bridge an organization’s technologies, locations, teams, and devices.

IT environments have become overwhelmingly complex, especially with the move to hybrid work and cloud.

“The last two years have shown us that work is no longer where we go, but what we do. In a hybrid normal, employees and employers in the Philippines are experiencing tangible benefits from improved employee well-being to better productivity and work performance,” said Cisco Philippines Managing Director Zaza Soriano-Nicart.

Unified solutions for organizations

As businesses continue leveraging digital abilities for workforce productivity and meeting customer and partner expectations, Cisco is innovating with simpler and smarter unified solutions that connect a company’s technologies, locations, teams, and devices for developing business agility and resiliency.

Cisco believes that unified IT experiences are critical in empowering organizations to adapt to the ever-changing environment expedited by the increased adoption of digital solutions post pandemic.

For its customers’ secure and seamless transition to more cloud-based operating models, Cisco has improved its networking platforms.

“Our customers choose to run their businesses on Cisco technology because we sit at the intersection of networking, security and cloud,” said Todd Nightingale, EVP and GM, Cisco Enterprise Networking & Cloud in a Cisco Live event earlier this year. “We believe the network is the foundation for the modern enterprise and must deliver agility through simplicity. Cisco is addressing our customers’ most important concern, which is managing complexity through smart, data-driven platforms that power a digital business.”

 The Cloud Management for Cisco Catalyst now enables customers to monitor Catalyst Switches and manage new Catalyst Wireless devices via the Meraki dashboard, thus providing better visibility and flexibility to the customer experience. Meanwhile, the new Cisco Nexus Cloud SaaS offer will simplify the deployment, management, and operation of cloud networking.

Additionally, Cisco SD-WAN customers can soon utilize ThousandEyes WAN Insights, which is the first pivotal step towards delivering on the Cisco Predictive Networks vision.

Cisco has also recently launched a new cybersecurity assessment tool for small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) in the country. As SMBs have also been accelerating their digitalization, they can utilize the assessment tool to better understand their cybersecurity preparedness and know the solutions they need to protect their business.

Apart from the rapid digitalization, the Philippines is also seeing the rise of hybrid work. And hence, there is a need for solutions to support and secure the business in this work setup.

According to Cisco’s Hybrid Work Study 2022, the hybrid work arrangement has improved the total employee well-being, work-life balance, and performance of the majority of Filipino respondents. However, only 29% of the surveyed employees think their company is ‘very prepared’ for a future in hybrid work.

Technology would remain vital to empower a hybrid workplace, and therefore must be secured. The Cisco study showed that 85% of Filipino respondents consider cybersecurity as critical for a safe hybrid working.

Cisco offers a security model critical to a long-term hybrid work arrangement through Secure Access Service Edge (SASE), which integrates networking and security functions into a unified, cloud-native service or solution.

The company also puts in place a flexible consumption model “pay-as-you-grow” for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to reduce their upfront costs and get the technology they need. This is part of Cisco’s commitment to supporting all customers, including SMEs, in accelerating their digital agility.

Towards inclusive digitalization

Beyond empowering businesses in their operations, Cisco has been supporting the Philippines for its inclusive and sustainable digitalization through its Country Digital Acceleration (CDA) program, UGNAYAN 2030. The CDA program aims to address the skills shortage and the digital divide.

Among the outcomes of the UGNAYAN 2030 was the deployment of the Konektado Strategic Emergency Response Vehicle (SERV) to Bohol and Cebu, which has helped provide connectivity in the areas after the onslaught of Typhoon Odette.

Currently in 44 countries, with over 1,200 completed and active projects worldwide, Cisco’s CDA program leverages collaboration with industry partners, academia, and government leadership to develop sustainable communities and resilient economies through digital solutions and innovation.

 

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