Acquire BPO donates over 10,000 vaccines to QC

June 2, 2022 | 7:01 pm

BUSINESS process outsourcing firm Acquire BPO has donated over 10,000 doses of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccines to the Quezon City local government in support of the continuing vaccination campaign.

“Quezon City is home to four of our offices that employ around 1,500 people. It’s a great city of almost 3 million people, and we want to give back and continue to help (Mayor Maria Josefina “Joy” G. Belmonte’s) successful vaccination program,” Acquire BPO Chief Executive Officer Scott Stavretis said in a statement on Thursday.

Acquire BPO is a multinational business outsourcer that has business operations in Australia, the Dominican Republic, the Philippines, and the United States. It employs over 9,000 Filipinos across Metro Manila. — Revin Mikhael D. Ochave

Health agency confirms community spread of monkeypox in England

June 2, 2022 | 5:43 pm

LONDON — Monkeypox appears to be spreading from person to person in England, the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) said on Wednesday.

The usually mild viral disease, which is endemic in west and central Africa, is understood to spread through close contact. Until early May, cases rarely cropped up outside Africa and were typically linked to travel to there.

“The current outbreak is the first time that the virus has been passed from person to person in England where travel links to an endemic country have not been identified,” the agency said.

According to the UKHSA, the majority of cases in the United Kingdom — 132 — are in London, while 111 cases are known to be in gay, bisexual, or other men who have sex with men (GBMSM). Only two cases are in women.

Recent foreign travel to a number of different countries in Europe within 21 days of symptom onset has been reported by 34 confirmed cases, or about 18% of the 190 cases of the disease that have been confirmed by the United Kingdom as of May 31.

So far, the UKHSA has identified links to gay bars, saunas and the use of dating apps in Britain and abroad.

“Investigations continue but currently no single factor or exposure that links the cases has been identified,” the agency cautioned.

Monkeypox can affect anyone, but many of the most recent diagnoses are the GBMSM community -— many of whom live in, or have links to London, said Kevin Fenton, London’s regional director for public health.

“As with any new disease outbreak, the risk of stigma and uncertainty is great,” he said.

The UKHSA is working with groups including the British Association of Sexual Health and HIV and the dating App Grindr to communicate with sexual health services and the GBMSM community. It is also encouraging the LGBT Consortium and Pride event organizers to help with messaging in the coming weeks.

Monkeypox typically causes flu-like symptoms and pus-filled skin lesions that usually resolve on their own within weeks, but can kill a small fraction of those infected.

UK health authorities are offering Bavarian Nordic’s vaccine, Imvanex, to contacts of confirmed or suspected cases.

Cases of monkeypox continue to rise outside Africa, mostly in Europe, and scientists are trying to pin down the reasons behind the spread.

On Wednesday, the World Health Organization said it had so far received reports of more than 550 confirmed cases of the viral disease from 30 countries outside of Africa. — Reuters

No more bambinos? Italian companies tackle birth crisis

June 2, 2022 | 5:37 pm

Italy-Sempione park — A woman watches her baby in a park in Milan, Italy, May 4, 2020. — REUTERS/FLAVIO LO SCALZO

CARTIGLIANO — Businesses in the sleepy Italian town of Cartigliano are so worried about its declining birth rate and lack of workers that they have begun paying families’ nursery school fees and childcare costs to spur them to have more babies.

Cartigliano, a town of 3,800 inhabitants and scores of small businesses in the northeastern Veneto region, is not unique. Similar schemes have sprung up around Italy’s industrial north as exasperated firms of all sizes take matters into their own hands to try to arrest an acute demographic crisis.

Italy is far from alone. Its fertility rate of around 1.2 children per woman is among the lowest in the world, but the trend of declining births and ageing populations is common to many advanced countries.

Veneto is known for its multitude of family-run businesses that form the backbone of the country’s industrial fabric.

It is a model that is threatened not only by globalization and cheap competition from Asia, but also by a lack of young people to work in its factories and workshops.

“When I was a girl there were always kids running around here, now hardly any are born and only the old people stay,” says Ilenia Cappeller, indicating a deserted square under the shade of Cartigliano’s imposing bell tower.

Ms. Cappeller, 44, whose eponymous company makes industrial springs, hinges and other precision mechanical instruments, is leading a drive by around 40 of the town’s businesses to raise cash for schemes intended to boost the birth rate.

They call the initiative the Janus Project, named after the two-headed Roman god of gateways, or new beginnings. In Cartigliano’s case, they hope it will mark the transition from a barren present to a more fertile future.

In the 12 months after the scheme was launched in April 2021 they raised 48,000 euros which was spent on five projects funding families, schools and child-care provision. Ms. Cappeller aims to garner another 100,000 euros over the next year.

“We’re very attached to Cartigliano but this is also about self-interest because we can’t find workers anymore,” she says.

‘NO PEOPLE’
The demographic crunch is not just a problem for firms. Economists warn that unless Italy turns the tide its already weak economic growth will decline and it will become impossible to finance adequate welfare and state pensions.

Italy saw just 399,431 births in 2021, the 13^th straight annual decline and the fewest since its unification in 1861, according to national statistics bureau ISTAT. The population fell by 253,000 to 59 million. ISTAT warned the country is heading for 5 million fewer inhabitants by 2050.

Even Tesla founder Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, commented last week on the dire outlook. “Italy will have no people if these trends continue,” he tweeted.

One reason often cited for the birth dearth is a lack of job security and affordable child care. Pensions absorb most of Italy’s welfare spending and the majority of new jobs are on temporary contracts that offer no financial stability.

Businesses are co-opting themselves into family policy to try to fill the gaps, and local politicians seem happy to pass them the baton.

“When they came to me saying they wanted to put money into local kindergartens and schools I thought ‘where’s the trick?’,” laughs Cartigliano’s mayor Germano Racchella. “I felt like when someone tells you you’ve just won a car.”

Just 30 km (20 miles) from Cartigliano in the town of Zane, Roberto Brazzale is spearheading a similar initiative called “Welcome Stork” involving around 10 local firms.

“Some offer a bonus to employees who have babies, others fund schools, increase parental leave or offer flexible work-time, so it’s anything that helps with procreation,” he says.

His own dairy company Brazzale SpA, which employs 500 people locally, gives an extra month’s pay to every worker who has a new baby.

It also offers the option of an extra year at home after their statutory maternity or paternity leave expires, on 30% of their normal salary, at a cost to the company of 10,000 euros per person who takes up the offer.

‘WE CAN’T GO ON LIKE THIS’
Speaking passionately about Italy’s risk of “extinction”, Mr. Brazzale says he decided to act when a worker told him nervously, she was pregnant, clearly fearful of his reaction.

“Something just hit me, I thought we can’t go on like this, with women scared to tell their bosses they are having a baby.”

A survey this week by Italy’s business lobby Confindustria showed that in the area around the city of Vicenza, which covers both Cartigliano and Zane, around a fifth of firms offer financial help for their workers who have babies, and a quarter offer flexible working hours.

“Either companies club together to take these kind of measures or they will just die out,” said Filiberto Zovico, the head of economic and business think tank ItalyPost.

The corporate push for babies is not limited to small businesses. Italy’s huge shipbuilder Fincantieri, based in Trieste, last month inaugurated the first of a series of nursery schools it is building and funding in towns where it operates.

Back in Cartigliano, the Janus Project is producing results. The local nursery school already has 34 children enrolled for next year, 10 more than this year, as parents take advantage of the 150 euros per month of financing offered by the companies.

Desiree Zonta, a 31-year-old mother of two boys, says thanks to the scheme she could afford to enroll her second son Gabriele at the school this year, meaning she also now has enough time to look for a part time job.

“I think I will find something, there is plenty of work in Cartigliano,” she says. — Reuters

Macau’s casino losses engulf gambling hub as no quick fix in sight

June 2, 2022 | 5:31 pm

China-Macau-Eiffel Tower-replica — Visitors take photos in front of a scale replica of Eiffel Tower in Macau, China, Aug. 16, 2016. — REUTERS/BOBBY YIP

HONG KONG — Plunging casino revenues in Macau, the world’s largest gambling hub, are taking a heavy toll on the wider economy, forcing hundreds of businesses to close down and pushing unemployment to its highest level since 2009.

The former Portuguese colony on Wednesday posted one of its worst monthly gambling revenues since September 2020, a week after Macau’s government warned that rising job losses and financial strains could trigger social conflicts and destabilize the city’s security.

The Chinese special administrative region is the only place in the country where it is legal to gamble in casinos. Heavily reliant on casino taxes, which account for more than 80% of government revenue, Macau has had little success in diversifying its economy.

“We are the most reliant city in the world on tourism. Of course, we didn’t have any other industries to fall back on,” said Glenn McCartney, an associate professor at the University of Macau.

“Given that we didn’t diversify for 20 years. It isn’t going to happen tomorrow. There’s no quick fix.”

Macau’s dependence on gambling has been laid bare since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, with visitation rates in the first quarter dropping more than 80% compared with the same period in 2019 due to COVID-19 travel restrictions.

More than 90% of visitors to Macau typically come from mainland China, which continues to pursue a “zero-COVID” policy.

May gambling revenues dropped 68% year-on-year to 3.3 billion patacas ($400 million), and — while up 25% from April — it remains far off the 26 billion patacas hit in May 2019.

Macau’s six casino operators are facing daily revenue losses and accumulating debt as liquidity continues to dry up.

China’s moves to stem capital outflows and crack down on the opaque junket industry that is tasked with bringing in high-rollers from the mainland have also hampered gambling revenue.

Cost-cutting and mounting economic losses are evident throughout the tiny territory, home to more than 600,000 people, extending to sectors including retail, industrial and commercial services.

The unemployment rate for local residents has risen to 4.5%, according to the latest government figures, up from 1.8% in 2019.

Citing a tough business environment and gloomy outlook for the high-end gaming segment, the Emperor Entertainment Hotel said in April it would close its casino from June 26.

At least seven other casinos are due to stop operations by mid-year, local media reported.

The Macau Economic Association said the local business climate index will remain “poor” for the coming three months.

In an April report, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) warned that it would take several years for Macau’s economy to return to its pre-pandemic level, with the sharp contraction in activity exposing the city’s vulnerability.

Macau’s government has urged casinos, which employ tens of thousands of local people, not to fire workers. Instead, some operators have chosen not to renew contracts, or offered unpaid leave or share bonuses instead of giving full salaries.

Cloee Chan, a labor group activist in Macau, said the lack of gamblers, coupled with the closure of VIP parlors and some casinos, posed a major challenge to the local labor market.

“Many workers in the gaming industry are now either under-represented or fired,” she said. — Reuters

A chance to do better — and move on

June 2, 2022 | 5:27 pm

BBM-Marcos — WWW.FACEBOOK.COM/BONGBONGMARCOS

The energies of the incoming Marcos II regime are better spent on addressing the many problems it is inheriting from its predecessor rather than on “clarifying” what the Marcos Senior martial law regime was all about.

Because remembering the past can prevent its repetition, since “People Power” overthrew it in 1986, human rights groups and martial law victims and survivors have been recalling what characterized that regime. They have been reminding the forgetful of its human rights costs, its impact on the economy and on Philippine culture and society, and overall, its derailment of the democratization process that began more than a century ago.

Through Senator Imee Marcos and her brother, now President-elect Ferdinand Marcos, Jr., the Marcos family has condemned it as a preoccupation with the past, and has urged everyone to “move on.”

During his campaign for the Presidency, Marcos Junior thus refused to participate in the debates and discussions in which he would have had to answer any question related to his father’s 14-year rule. So did his senator sister wave aside any attempt to look into that period.

But it seems that they and their family have been more obsessed with the past than those who fear its repetition. Not only was that obsession evident in Marcos’ campaign slogans and promises, such as his appropriation of his father’s 1969 “this nation can be great again” cry, his promise to revive the “Kadiwa” stores, and his plan to activate the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant, among others.

It was equally obvious in his sister’s remarks about the past, both before and during her brother’s proclamation as this country’s 17^th President. She was apparently unaware that among other implications, Marcos Junior’s election itself suggests that the voters who made him President by a landslide either have skewed memories of, or never knew anything about, the martial law period.

When it seemed certain that Marcos Junior had won last May 9^th’s Presidential elections, Imee Marcos thanked the electorate for giving her family a “second chance” at getting the country’s highest elective post.

She thus implied that they, particularly her brother, would and could do better this time than when they were last in residence in Malacañang Palace. Their “second chance” provides them the opportunity to avoid committing the mistakes of the past.

Interviewed by the media after her brother’s proclamation, she followed up those remarks by saying that the family had been “oppressed” and “mocked” for years since 1986 and that now she hopes they can “clarify” what their late patriarch’s rule was really like.

Never mind the fact that thanks to their billions, they have not exactly been living in poverty since their return to this country in 1990 from exile in Hawaii, USA. Neither have they been oppressed or mocked by the steady rise in their influence and power over the last 30 years. In addition, despite their then 87-year-old matriarch’s conviction in 2017 on seven counts of graft, and Marcos Junior’s alleged non-payment of income taxes from 1982 to 1985, neither has seen the inside of any prison cell.

Not that these don’t matter; they do. But nothing, it seems, can be done about either in these isles of elite privilege, unaccountable power and impunity— unless, however, the Marcos II administration itself does something about it.

“Do something about it” should be the incoming administration’s mantra, if, as Imee Marcos implied, having been given a “second chance,” it indeed intends to do a better job at governance than the first Marcos regime.

The Marcoses can always argue that the family matriarch, Imelda Marcos, is now 92 and that humaneness demands her exemption from imprisonment. So can they say that despite his income tax issues, the courts did not sentence Marcos Junior to any jail time.

But as forgiving of itself as the incoming administration would be, it should be less tolerant of those wrongdoers in both the public and private sectors who have escaped punishment, among them the crooks in the most corruption-ridden government agencies and the human rights violators in the police and military responsible for the abductions, arbitrary arrests and extrajudicial killings that plague the country.

The Marcos II regime could dispel fears that it is leery of free expression and press freedom by welcoming media engagement in government affairs as a democratic imperative; initiating through its allies in Congress the decriminalization of libel; and putting a stop to the red-tagging and other forms of harassment of journalists and activist groups. It would thereby affirm the value of criticism and media independence in exposing corruption and the improvement of governance, and encourage the free discussion needed in forging the sound political, economic, and social policies that can lift the suffering millions out of poverty.

In foreign affairs, it could maintain and strengthen relations with other countries on the basis of mutual respect without compromising Philippine sovereignty and surrendering the country’s territorial waters to foreign intruders. Defending the rights of Filipino fisherfolk in the country’s Exclusive Economic Zone, among other concrete steps, would send them that message.

It could also review some of its initial choices for certain Cabinet posts by re-evaluating their qualifications, track records, and levels of competence as it did in the case of its economic team. The appointments of department secretaries are mostly political, but they can also be based on merit.

Its officials, from the President down, could make it a habit to listen to suggestions and differing points of view without resorting to profanities, misogyny, threats, or hate speech.

To put it plainly, the incoming administration has to review the methods and even some of the policies and political culture of the outgoing regime of Marcos Junior’s reluctant and tentative ally — who, lest we forget, once described him as “a weak leader” and even implied that he was on drugs.

The Duterte regime has so bloated the country’s indebtedness and driven an unprecedented four million-plus workers into the ranks of the unemployed as to make national recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic extremely problematic for any administration. A comprehensive public health reform and economic recovery program, not just reducing the costs of food and electricity, is thus urgently needed and should be among the new regime’s first priorities.

These initiatives would send to the entire country the message that unlike its predecessor, it will respect human rights and adhere to the rule of law as vital conditions for the country’s recovery and progress, while at the same time restoring some civility and reason in political and public discourse.

Not only would such policies help meet the expectations of good government and better lives among the 31 million who voted for Marcos Junior, it could also convince those who thought his election to the Presidency a catastrophe that, having been given a second chance, the Marcoses could themselves move on, and that rather than being hobbled by such concerns as “correcting” “misimpressions” about their late patriarch’s rule, what they’re focused on is enabling this country to move forward.

Such a demonstration of commitment to good governance and respect for the entire citizenry’s rights and welfare would make any attempt to change the established truths about the Marcos Senior martial law regime — already futile to begin with because of the mountain of documents and testimony attesting to them — totally unnecessary. Both the Marcoses and the rest of the country could then move on in the hope and anticipation of better times ahead.

Luis V. Teodoro is on Facebook and Twitter (@luisteodoro).

www.luisteodoro.com

How Elizabethan law once protected the poor from the high cost of living — and led to unrivaled economic prosperity

June 2, 2022 | 5:26 pm

Elizabeth_I,_Procession_Portrait — COMMONS.WIKIMEDIA.ORG

In the closing years of Elizabeth I’s reign, England saw the emergence of arguably the world’s first effective welfare state. Laws were established which successfully protected people from rises in food prices.

More than 400 years later, in the closing years of Elizabeth II’s reign, the United Kingdom once again faces perilous spikes in living costs. Perhaps today’s government could learn something from its legislative ancestors.

Until the end of the 16^th century, it was a given throughout medieval Europe that when food prices rose there would be a consequent surge in mortality rates, as people starved to death and diseases spread among the malnourished.

The Elizabethan Poor Laws of 1598 and 1601 turned the situation in England on its head. Now when food became too expensive, local parishes were obliged to give cash or food to those who could not afford to eat. For the first time in history, it became illegal to let anybody starve.

The laws were clear and simple, and required each of over 10,000 English parishes to set up a continuous relief fund to support the vulnerable. This included the lame, the ill, and the old, as well as orphans, widows, single mothers and their children, and those unable to find work. Occupiers of land (landowners or their tenants) had to pay a tax towards the fund in proportion to the value of their holding.

Overseen by local magistrates, the system’s transparency provided no loopholes for avoiding the tax. In fact, it encouraged a flourishing culture of charitable giving which provided almshouses, apprenticeships, and hospitals for the parish poor to alleviate destitution.

With this proliferation of localized mini-welfare states, England became the first country in Europe by more than 150 years to effectively put an end to widespread famine. And it also enabled England subsequently to enjoy by far the fastest rate of urbanization in Europe.

Between 1600 and 1800, huge numbers of young people left rural parishes to find work in cities, safe in the knowledge that their parents would be supported by the parish in times of need — and that they themselves would receive help if things didn’t work out. Long before the first steam engines arrived, the Poor Laws had created an urban workforce which enabled the industrial revolution to take off.

Then in 1834, everything changed. The cost of this level of welfare support was deemed too high, and replaced with a deliberately harsh new system in which the poorest men and women were separated from each other and their children and provided only with gruel in return for tedious chores in degrading workhouses. The fear of the workhouse was designed to force the poor to prefer work — for whatever abysmal wages the market offered.

It is this version of the Poor Laws which tends to stick in the popular memory, familiar from the books of Charles Dickens, and obscuring the achievements of the Elizabethan original. But extensive recent research has started to highlight how Elizabethan law changed British history — and provides us with urgent lessons for today’s welfare system and the pressures of the cost-of-living crisis.

Just as the old Poor Laws supported an extraordinary period of economic prosperity, so too did the UK’s welfare state after the second world war. Tax-funded investment in education (secondary and higher), and the newly created National Health Service (NHS) saw widened opportunities and living standards take off, as the UK enjoyed over two decades of the fastest productivity growth in its history (1951-73).

Today, people regularly speak of being forced to choose between eating and heating as food and energy prices surge. Yet there is no corresponding compensation for those whose wages and benefits do not stretch far enough. A one-off handout when millions of households are facing both fuel and food poverty is but a temporary sticking plaster.

Until there is a permanent increase in safety net payments to those on universal credit, food banks will continue to proliferate and children will continue to go to school hungry. The link between wealth and taxation was effectively used by the Elizabethans to start to tackle inequality. But today’s globalized economy facilitates offshore profits and ever-rising inequality.

In my new book, After the Virus: Lessons from the Past for a Better Future I explore changes in the sense of moral duty and the carefully legislated collective endeavor that formed the foundation of the UK’s past — and most recent — periods of prosperity.

The Poor Laws were far from a perfect system of welfare. But the fact that protecting the poorest in society has previously led to widespread economic growth is a history lesson that should not be ignored by any government during a cost-of-living crisis.

Simon Szreter is a professor of History and Public Policy, University of Cambridge.

THE CONVERSATION VIA REUTERS

These are the batteries we need to ease the power crunch

June 2, 2022 | 5:25 pm

THE WORLD is struggling with simultaneous energy and climate crises. To solve the first could require undoing all the progress made toward greener power and cleaner air. But it doesn’t have to be that way.

Euphoria for electric cars — and the powerpacks that run them — has obscured a more immediate and distinct need: batteries to run homes and businesses, as countries across the world deal with the repercussions of an ongoing power crisis. Despite the worsening state of energy and rising electricity prices, existing technologies aren’t being put to use. Instead, everyone is just thinking about the steepening cost of generation, paralyzed by the thought of escalating bills and more frequent blackouts.

There’s a simple solution: Store the energy and use it when the need arises. As the market for EV batteries expands and evolves, large industrial-scale powerpacks — energy storage systems, or ESS — are being overlooked as a potential solution to this power crunch. The market for the former, for instance, is expected to grow to $500 billion over the next two decades, while that of ESS won’t even make it past $100 billion, according to Morgan Stanley estimates. The latter is what we need far more urgently.

EV excitement has, no doubt, pushed development of battery technology overall and therefore helped ESS along as well. However, it hasn’t been driven by active concerns about our energy needs.

ESS are typically large, stationary powerpacks that can store excess energy from grids and other sources for later use, or when demand is peaking. As renewable energy contribution to power supply increases across the globe, the ability to store it and use it when people or businesses need it will become more important.

What’s underappreciated about these systems is that they benefit from all the EV battery developments like better energy density and safety, but don’t have the same problems or constraints. One big issue is size, for instance. Electric car batteries need to be small, high-energy, and safe. It’s been difficult to get all three factors operational at the same time. But for ESS, size isn’t an issue since they don’t need to be housed in a moving vehicle. That reduces one variable.

In addition, factors that worry EV buyers about smaller batteries are different: Energy density doesn’t matter as much, nor does how far they need to take a vehicle, or the range. That’s key: this issue has driven manufacturers to push for other formulations that are expensive and tough to deploy commercially. What matters is charging cycles, battery life, and frequency.

Viable options like lithium iron phosphate, or LFP, powerpacks, are underestimated. Life cycles and other metrics for stationary battery use are improving. Most materials used in this type are abundant, although prices have risen in recent months. They can operate for several thousand cycles of charging and discharging.

All this means that existing technologies have come far enough to make ESS a reality — even for a few hours a day. Several manufacturers are already onto the imminent need for such systems, investing billions in building out these energy storage systems.

The world’s largest battery company, China’s Contemporary Amperex Technology Co., has been actively expanding its work in this area. It’s sold these products at six projects in Texas to an independent power producer.

The looming issue is upfront costs. Analysts often talk about how unviable these systems are, but in reality, there are too many unknowns to make accurate estimates on how steep industrial-scale energy storage projects will be. The running expenses will depend on improvements including the quality of products and the life cycle of powerpacks — and these have both come a long way. Bottom line is, the status quo isn’t sustainable — it’s already cracking, and it’s time to look for solutions.

But are governments and companies willing to put ESS to use and boost adoption? The smart move would be to provide incentives, tax cuts, or consumer awareness programs to push things along. Ultimately, the upfront costs need to be brought down and that requires talking about something less exciting than electric cars.

China, for instance, has been widely deploying LFP chemistry. As part of its goals to have 30 gigawatts of energy storage systems over the next three years, it plans to slash costs to help businesses adopt and deploy these systems. Notably, it will ensure energy security to maintain its global supply chain heft. That’s not been a consideration for many others.

A recent MIT study on energy storage noted that the current policy focusing on short-term decarbonization goals has encouraged both public and private attention toward “relatively mature technologies.” That means markets and money haven’t pushed hard enough on new uses of storage and more effective energy utilization, since they continue to fly under the radar, set apart from mainstream policy.

Until they focus on the future, we should start worrying more about more blackouts and power shortages as climate change and extreme weather combine to put energy supplies at risk.

BLOOMBERG OPINION

AI, hybrid cloud computing to level playing field for Asian MSMEs, says IBM

June 2, 2022 | 5:15 pm

Multinational corporation IBM announced on June 2 several partnerships involving artificial intelligence (AI) and hybrid cloud computing that signal a “rapid reordering of business” in Southeast Asia.

“The cloud is a great leveler,” said IBM general manager for the Asia Pacific Paul Burton, at the IBM Think 2022 conference in Singapore.

“Size doesn’t mean what it used to be in terms of punching power and market reach. What does that mean? It means think bigger. You don’t have to remain local — unless [that’s] your objective,” he said, noting the cloud’s usefulness for micro, small, and medium enterprises.

IBM is partnering with the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (EGAT), a power producer supervised by Thailand’s Ministry of Energy, for the use of AI-powered asset management solutions to its power plants; the Korea Electric Power Corporation (KEPCO), for the establishment of a performance evaluation platform for its assets; Thailand-based Siam Commercial Bank (SCB), for the adoption of IBM’s zSystem to run applications that support customer data and transactions; and Malaysia’s Silverlake Axis, an independent software vendor, for fintech infrastructure.

AI AS BUSINESS DIFFERENTIATOR
Two studies conducted by IBM show that harnessing AI to increase sustainability is a top priority in the business sector.

The Global AI Adoption Index 2022 surveyed 7,502 senior business decision-makers and found that business adoption of AI grew at a steady pace in the last 12 months. Findings from Singapore further found that almost two out of five IT (information technology) professionals in the country report that their organization is using AI in their business (39%). About half also say their company applies AI to accelerate ESG (environmental, social, and governance) initiatives (46%).

These findings support a separate global CEO study on sustainability that found that while about half (48%) of CEOs say increasing sustainability is one of their highest priorities for their organization in the next two to three years, 33% say technological barriers stand in the way of implementing this priority.

Every massive transformation across time has been punctuated by new technology, Mr. Burton said.

“If you go back in time to 0 C.E., the line was flat until the 1800s, and then it started arching up. What happened in the 1800s? Steam power,” he added. The trend continued in the 1950s with intercontinental transportation, in the 1970s with computing enterprises, and in the 1990s with the Internet.

“We are now on the cusp of another disruption, another punctuation — which is AI,” Mr. Burton said. Hybrid cloud and data harnessed by AI “will see an acceleration of the standard of living of everyone living on this planet,” he added. — Patricia B. Mirasol

PDS Group launches live fully DLT-based digital bond, with P11-B oversubscribed UnionBank bond and STACS as technology partner

June 2, 2022 | 4:58 pm

The Philippine Dealing System Holdings Corp. (PDS Group) today announced the launch of a fully digitally native bond, issued on a distributed ledger technology (DLT) network powered by Hashstacs Pte Ltd (STACS), a Singapore-headquartered fintech firm. The digital bond was issued by the Union Bank of the Philippines (UnionBank) for P11 billion or approximately US$210 million and priced at 3.25% p.a. for a tenor of 1.5 years. With more than 895 bondholders for this launch, PDS Group becomes the first Asian national market infrastructure to launch a fully live DLT-based bond.

PDS Group subsidiary Phil. Depository & Trust Corp. (PDTC), the national Central Securities Depository for debt and equities, and STACS embarked on the project, a proof of concept to explore, use, and determine efficiencies of DLT for PDTC’s fixed-income registry and depository operations, with the aim of deploying a viable DLT-powered PDTC Digital Registry & PDTC Digital Depository system to support issuances and servicing (transfers and corporate actions) of a Philippine Digital bond and culminating in the live issuance of a digitally native bond.

The main benefits and features of DLT that underpin the digital bond include immutability, system resilience, and multiple redundancy. The DLT network has multiple nodes, which instantaneously record all transactions, thereby backing up each other while ensuring immutability.

Through the partnership, PDTC and STACS were able to effectively model and optimize the workflows involved, unlocking new efficiencies and strategic opportunities. The new digital processes remain completely seamless for the underwriters, issuers, and bondholders with a paperless submission of issuing documents for listing and registry via the PDS Group’s e-Securities Issue Portal (e-SIP) to create securities onto the PDTC Digital Registry, powered by STACS.

Importantly, these benefits were achieved, while being completely compliant with the existing Philippine securities laws and regulations, as well as the rules of the Phil. Dealing & Exchange Corp. (PDEx), another PDS Group subsidiary that is a Philippine SEC-licensed Fixed Income Market Operator. The UnionBank-issued Digital Bond is listed on the PDEx FI Market and secondary market transactions will occur on existing market infrastructure for trading to clearing and a newly built link from the clearing system to the PDTC Digital Depository to complete Delivery Versus Payment settlement. The project’s feature of interoperability was planned to allow PDEx Trading Participants and PDTC Depository Participants to seamlessly reap the benefits of the new digital market infrastructure while being supported by traditional market infrastructure and compliant with the regulatory framework.

Ramon Monzon, CEO at of the Group’s parent company, PDS Holdings, said: “The digital economy is quickly expanding across the globe, and it promises to be a significant engine for innovation, competitiveness, and economic growth. To be part of the digital economy, financial market infrastructures must ‘digitalize,’ and this has been the impetus for the PDS Group’s digitalization initiatives. In engaging in this POC, the focus on seamless inter-operability of digital with traditional infrastructure and the digital services’ compliance with existing securities laws and regulations foster an evolutionary approach. In that regard, we are pleased to have a like-minded partner in STACS, also looking to use technology to fulfill a vision of corporate issuers and client investors mutually benefiting from the convenience of digitalized funding and investment processes.”

As a leading fintech firm focused on environmental, social, and governance (ESG) fintech, in partnership with the Monetary Authority of Singapore’s (MAS) Project Greenprint, STACS contributed its domain expertise in DLT to power PDS Group’s platform. Earlier in May, STACS officially launched its flagship blockchain-powered platform, ESGpedia, which powers the ESG Registry of Project Greenprint. With over 20 institutional partners from both the financial and non-financial sectors, ESGpedia provides holistic and forward-looking ESG data on a common, standardized registry and, as of today, hosts more than 170,500 certificates.

Benjamin Soh, Managing Director at STACS, said: “We are thrilled to be partnering with the Philippines PDS Group and powering the first national market infrastructure in Asia to launch a fully live DLT-based bond, via our DLT expertise. Technology like DLT provides immutability and ease of access by different users, allowing the benefits to be reaped across borders on an international scale, by PDS and its wider ecosystem of financial institution partners, creating vast value and opportunities for the industry. DLT is also a key enabler of sustainable business models and related finance, and we hope to further enhance PDS Group’s platform.”

Future phases of the partnership include further engagement with the industry, in view of possibly scaling up PDS Group’s platform with more features, including ESG management via holistic ESG data as well as smart contracts to automate the lifecycle management of sustainable financial products.

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Enjoy Lexus vehicle services with a simple swipe of your Metrobank credit card at zero percent interest

June 2, 2022 | 3:45 pm

Lexus believes that creating new standards of luxury is not simply a matter of adding more equipment features and technologies to its vehicles but is also about producing progressive luxury that welcomes and cares for its clients. This approach is inspired by Omotenashi, which encompasses the finest principles of traditional Japanese hospitality.

The Metrobank Credit Card Zero% Interest Installment Promo is a testament to Lexus’ commitment to providing exceptional service and hospitality to its customers. It reflects the excellence in customer service which has been a cornerstone of the Lexus brand since its foundation more than 30 years ago. It centers on the retailer treating the customer as they would a guest in their own home and exceeding service expectations by anticipating their needs.

With the swipe of your Metrobank credit card, you can avail of Lexus’ vehicle services at zero % interest, and easy installments for up to six months. This promo is valid until June 30, 2022.

All Lexus customers with applicable Metrobank Credit Cards can enjoy this promotion with the required minimum spend at any the following dealers for their vehicle servicing needs with the following terms:

• 3 months 0% installment: Php 20,000 minimum spend
• 6 months 0% installment: Php 40,000 minimum spend.

This promo is offered at Lexus Manila and Lexus accredited dealerships: Toyota Mandaue-South, Cebu; Toyota Davao City, Toyota San Fernando, Pampanga; Toyota Santa Rosa; and Toyota La Union.

This promo is applicable to all Metrobank Peso Visa/Mastercard, Metrobank Vantage Visa/Mastercard, M Mastercard, Titanium Mastercard, Platinum Mastercard, World Mastercard, NCCC Mastercard, PSBank Credit Mastercard, Toyota Mastercard, Rewards Plus Visa, Femme Visa, Femme Signature Visa, Cashback Platinum Visa, and Travel Platinum Visa credit cardholders in good standing.

However, this promo is not applicable with: ON Internet Mastercard, Metrobank Dollar Mastercard, Metrobank PRIME, Elite, Premier + Debit, Prepaid cards and YAZZ Prepaid Visa. The full installment amount purchased shall be deducted from the cardholder’s available limit. All installment items and corresponding installment terms are subject governing the issuance and use of Metrobank credit card and all related provisions of the Metrobank credit card 0% installment programs. All 0% installment purchase/s are subject to Metrobank credit card’s approval and only valid if monthly dues are paid in full.

This promo is not applicable in conjunction with other Lexus promos or discounts.

Per DTI-FTEB Permit Number 134948, Series of 2022.
Supervised by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas
Email Address: consumeraffairs@bsp.gov.ph
SEC Registration No. 0000127904. SEC Certificate of Authority No. 994 (2008)

To learn more, visit the Lexus website at lexus.com.ph or visit our social media pages on Facebook and Instagram @lexusmanila.

To arrange a consultation with your personal sales consultant, visit the Lexus Remote page.

You may also download the MyLEXUS App available on both Android and iOS users to receive live updates and access other premium services.

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India’s new VPN rules spark fresh fears over online privacy

June 2, 2022 | 3:31 pm

Virtual private networks (VPNs) that encrypt data and provide users with anonymity online have seen a surge in use in India in recent years as the government tightened its grip on the internet to curb dissent, and as more people worked from home.

Now, some VPN providers are leaving India while others are considering doing so ahead of new rules that the government says are aimed at improving cybersecurity, but that the firms argue are vulnerable to abuse and could put users’ data at risk.

Under legislation scheduled to take effect this month, VPN providers are required to retain user data and IP addresses for at least five years — even after clients stop using the service.

“VPNs are central to online privacy, anonymity, and freedom of speech, so these restrictions represent an attack on digital rights,” Harold Li, vice president of ExpressVPN, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

“The new laws are overreaching and are so broad as to open up the window for potential abuse. We refuse to put our users’ data at risk … as such, we have made the very straightforward decision to remove our India-based VPN servers,” he said.

India ranks among the top 20 countries in VPN adoption, according to AtlasVPN’s global index, with users surging in 2020 and 2021 — as they did worldwide — as companies secured their networks with more people working from home amid the pandemic.

Many are corporate users but there are also, activists, journalists, lawyers and whistleblowers who use them to access blocked websites, secure their data and protect their identity.

With increasing digitisation of data and services, security is a major issue: India ranked third among countries with the most data breaches last year, according to estimates by Surfshark VPN, with nearly 87 million users affected.

The new order, issued by the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) in April, also requires companies to report data breaches within six hours of noticing them, and maintain IT and communications logs for six months.

Failing to do so could be punishable with prison sentences.

Tech firms and digital rights organizations have raised concerns about the compliance burden and reporting timeline, but officials have said there will be no changes to the rules.

“If you don’t want to go by these rules, and if you want to pull out, then frankly … you have to pull out,” India’s junior IT minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar told reporters last month.

MICROSCOPE OF SURVEILLANCE
Governments worldwide are imposing greater control on the flow of information online with a slew of regulations, as well as firewalls, internet shutdowns and social media blocks.

India has tightened regulation of Big Tech firms in recent years, and ordered content takedowns. Dozens of lawyers, journalists and activists were also found to have been hacked by the Pegasus spyware last year.

Indian authorities have declined to say whether the government had purchased Pegasus spyware for surveillance.

Now, the new CERT-In rules can be used to keep close tabs on more citizens, said Ranjana Kumari, an activist and director of the Centre for Social Research in New Delhi.

“The government has already been increasing its control of the internet to clamp down on any dissent, and people are already under increasing surveillance,” she said.

“These new rules make it even worse.”

While authorities have clarified that the rules do not apply to corporate VPNs, ProtonVPN said they are “are an assault on privacy and threaten to put citizens under a microscope of surveillance,” adding that it would maintain its no-logs policy.

Surfshark also has a “strict no-logs policy, which means that we don’t collect or share our customer browsing data or any usage information,” said Gytis Malinauskas, its legal head.

“Even technically, we would not be able to comply with the logging requirements,” he added.

A spokesperson for NordVPN, one of the world’s largest providers, said that while they welcomed the government’s “intentions to improve the state of cybersecurity … we believe that the discussion period should be extended.”

“If it comes to it — we will consider removing (our) presence from India.”

The Information Technology Industry Council, a global coalition, said the new directives — including the “overbroad” definition of reportable incidents and six-hour reporting timeline — could “actually undermine cybersecurity.”

The risk of surveillance for millions of people is exacerbated by the data retention mandate in CERT-In’s directive, said Raman Jit Singh Chima, Asia Pacific policy director at Access Now, in an open letter on Jun. 1.

“Requiring service providers, including VPN providers, to log information that they may otherwise not collect, for five years or more, violates the right to privacy protected by the Indian Constitution,” he said.

India’s information technology ministry could not be reached for comment.

Authorities have declined requests from tech firms and digital rights groups to delay implementation, and have said the reporting timeline is “very generous.”

EVERYONE AT RISK
India is not the only country cracking down on VPNs.

Russia banned several VPN services last year as part of a wider campaign that critics say curbs internet freedom, although it has failed to block them entirely.

Russia’s moves to block global news sites and social media platforms after its invasion of Ukraine — similar to China’s “Great Firewall” — have led to concerns that the internet is splitting along geopolitical lines, digitally isolating people.

India’s new directive was drawn up with little consultation with the tech industry or with civil society organizations, said Prateek Waghre, policy director at Internet Freedom Foundation, a digital rights advocacy group in Delhi.

“Because of that there are now a bunch of directions that are ambiguous, with a tremendous compliance burden, including potential imprisonment for non-compliance,” he said.

The rules have the potential to cause a great deal of harm, particularly in the absence of a data protection law, he added.

“While there is a clear need for enhanced cybersecurity, when you ask for indiscriminate data collection, everyone is at risk — and there is greater risk for people already at risk, such as activists, journalists, dissenters, minorities.” — Rina Chandran/Thomson Reuters Foundation

Dimon says brace for US economic ‘hurricane’ due to inflation

June 2, 2022 | 3:03 pm

Jamie Dimon, Chairman and Chief Executive of JPMorgan Chase & Co. described the challenges facing the US economy akin to an “hurricane” down the road and urged the Federal Reserve to take forceful measures to avoid tipping the world’s biggest economy into a recession.

Mr. Dimon’s comments come a day after President Joseph R. Biden, Jr., met with Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell to discuss inflation, which is hovering at 40-year highs.

“It’s a hurricane,” Mr. Dimon told a banking conference, adding that the current situation is unprecedented. “Right now, it’s kind of sunny, things are doing fine. Everyone thinks the Fed can handle this. That hurricane is right out there down the road coming our way. We just don’t know if it’s a minor one or Superstorm Sandy,” he added.

The Fed is under pressure to decisively make a dent in an inflation rate that is running at more than three times its 2% goal and has caused a jump in the cost of living for Americans. It faces a difficult task in dampening demand enough to curb inflation while not causing a recession.

“The Fed has to meet this now with raising rates and QT (quantitative tightening). In my view, they have to do QT. They do not have a choice because there’s so much liquidity in the system,” Mr. Dimon said.

Major central banks, already plotting interest rate hikes in a fight against inflation, are also preparing a common pullback from key financial markets in a first-ever round of global quantitative tightening expected to restrict credit and add stress to an already-slowing world economy.

The inflation battle has become the focal point of Biden’s June agenda amidst his sagging opinion polls and before November’s congressional election.

Uncertainty about the US central bank’s policy move, the war in Ukraine, prolonged supply-chain snarls due to coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and higher Treasury yields have rocked global stock markets, with the benchmark S&P 500 index falling 13.3% year-to-date.

“You gotta brace yourself. JPMorgan is bracing ourselves, and we’re going to be very conservative in our balance sheet,” Mr. Dimon added.

SOFT LANDING?
Wells Fargo & Co’s CEO warned that the Federal Reserve would find it “extremely difficult” to manage a soft landing of the economy as the central bank seeks to douse the inflation fire with interest rate hikes.

The CEO of the fourth-largest US lender also said that Wells Fargo is seeing a direct impact from inflation on consumers’ spending, particularly on fuel and food.

“The scenario of a soft landing is … extremely difficult to achieve in the environment that we’re in today,” Wells Fargo Chief Executive Officer Charlie Scharf said at the conference.

“If there is a short recession, that’s not all that deep… there will be some pain as you go through it, overall, everyone will be just fine coming out of it,” he added.

Mr. Scharf said while the overall consumer spending is strong, growth is slowing.

“Corporations are still spending, where they can, they’re increasing inventories … we do expect the consumer and ultimately businesses to weaken, which is part of what the Fed is trying to engineer but hopefully in a constructive way,” he added.

Recent Fed reports and surveys reported households on average in a strong financial position, with working families doing well, and unemployment at levels more akin to the boom years of the 1950s and 1960s. Wages for many lower-skilled occupations are rising, and bank accounts, on average, are still flush with cash from coronavirus support programs.

But confidence has waned, and in a recent Reuters/Ipsos poll the economy topped respondents’ list of concerns.

“I don’t think our crystal ball relative to the macro later this year, 2023, 2024 is necessarily any better than others. Clearly, we’re going to see with the Fed actions different impacts in different businesses,” GE CEO Larry Culp, told the conference.

Still, not everyone in corporate America is seeing slowdown.

“Of the vast majority of the markets we serve are still quite strong,” Caterpillar Inc CEO Jim Umplebly said.

“And our challenge at the moment, quite frankly, is supply chain, our ability to supply enough equipment to meet all the demand that’s out there,” he added. — Elizabeth Dilts Marshall and Niket Nishant/Reuters

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