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Online summit seeks to explore esports opportunities

EXPLORING various opportunities in esports and connecting various stakeholders in Asia are at the center of an online summit happening next month.

KK Fund, a venture capital fund investing in seed stage Internet and mobile start-ups across Southeast Asia, will be holding the eSports X Business Asia Summit (EXB Asia Summit) on April 21-22.

The two-day summit, the organizers said, will focus on the business aspect of esports in partnership with Thai start-up Infofed and global media agency dentsu X.

It, too, is geared towards accelerating growth of the Asian esports ecosystem by virtually bringing all stakeholders together to examine the latest industry trends, provide education for endemic and non-endemic brands, network with industry peers, and unlock brand sponsorship opportunities.

“Asia has the world’s largest audience of esports players and fans and has generated nearly half of all global esports revenue thus far. Though there is significant growth potential, the esports industry in the region is still young. The summit is therefore a concerted effort to kick-start better collaboration, communication and education to further develop the ecosystem,” said Koichi Saito, founder and general partner of KK Fund, in a release.

Expected to participate in the summit are major game publishers, game developers, media and broadcasting platforms, esports associations, government agencies, esport businesses and tech brands.

They include renowned industry names such as Tencent Games, SEGA, Garena, ONE Esports and Razer; and government agencies such as the Thailand E-Sports Federation, the Singapore Esports Association and the Japan eSports Union.

For the event, guest speakers are to talk about topics such as in-game monetization, esports sponsorships and mapping brand positioning with professional esports players. They will also examine case studies on building an esports ecosystem, and pioneering esports sponsorships through gaming gear collaborations.

The speakers include Haruki Satomi (chairman and CEO of SEGA Holdings Co.), Andrew Manugian (head of gaming operations at Tencent Thailand), Carlos Alimurung (CEO of ONE Esports), Lance Quek (founder of Gamerforce Ventures), Chandra Firmanto (founder of Indogen Capital), Mr. Saito, Yoshi Nakano (partnership director of dentsu Tokyo), and Om Kaosa-ard, COO of Infofed.

While the summit is a two-day event, it also features single-day activities, including the start-up pitching session happening on April 21.

In the pitching session, five selected esports start-ups will have a chance to pitch their businesses to corporates, venture capitalists and government bodies across Asia to secure potential investment.

EXB Asia Summit will be broadcast through DealRoom and EXB Asia’s social media channels.

Registration for the sessions, which is free of charge, runs until April 2, 2021. For more information, check the EXB Asia Summit website: https://www.exbasia.com/. — Michael Angelo S. Murillo

Brandon Ingram, NO Pelicans too much for depleted Lakers

BRANDON Ingram scored 36 points and Zion Williamson added 27 as the host New Orleans (NO) Pelicans routed the depleted Los Angeles (LA) Lakers (128-111) on Tuesday night.

Nickeil Alexander-Walker scored 18 points, Kira Lewis, Jr. had 16, Jaxson Hayes had 15, and Steven Adams scored 12 as the Pelicans ended a seven-game losing streak against the Lakers.

New Orleans won its second straight game despite the absence of point guard Lonzo Ball (hip flexor strain) for both games.

Lakers was playing its second consecutive full game without LeBron James, who suffered a high ankle sprain in a loss to Atlanta on Saturday. The Lakers lost at Phoenix (111-94) on Sunday.

Former Pelicans forward Anthony Davis has missed the last month because of a calf strain and is expected to be re-evaluated on Friday by the Lakers.

Montrezl Harrell scored 18 points, Kyle Kuzma had 16 points and 10 rebounds, Markieff Morris scored 16, Dennis Schroder had 15, Wesley Matthews 14, and Alex Caruso gained 10 for LA, which shot 42.4%.

Ingram had seven points and an assist, and the Pelicans made their first six shots of the third quarter to take a 72-55 lead.

Hayes converted a three-point play, Lewis made back-to-back 3-pointers, and Alexander-Walker added a 3-pointer to extend the lead to 96-66. — Reuters

Canada ready to take first steps on long road to World Cup

BAYERN Munich’s Alphonso Davies is the standout talent in a Canada squad that takes its first steps on the long road to the 2022 Qatar World Cup this week with CONCACAF region qualifying games against Bermuda and Cayman Islands.

Assembling a team during the COVID-19 pandemic may have proven a bigger challenge than the one 73rd-ranked Canada will face on the pitch on Thursday when they play 169th-ranked Bermuda and on Sunday against 193rd-ranked Cayman Islands.

Both matches will be played in empty stadiums in Florida due to COVID-19 travel restrictions and health and safety protocols in Canada.

In securing the services of Davies and other European-based players, head coach John Herdman said Soccer Canada had to work through a maze of red tape, addressing the concerns of various countries, federations and clubs.

“This has been an interesting period of time for anyone in the sport, but we have got all the players we need for this particular game,” Herdman said during a media conference call.

“The reality is with Canada Soccer it has been a real team effort, to understand quarantine rules to even bring players into the USA.”

To jump start the campaign Canada will look to a mix of experience and youth led by Davies, who will be back in the national team shirt for the first time since helping Bayern Munich to the Champions League and Bundesliga titles last season.

Seven players will have an opportunity to earn their first cap while at the other end of the spectrum, Besiktas midfielder Atiba Hutchinson has made 84 international appearances.

The opening round of CONCACAF World Cup qualifying will see 30 countries divided into six groups of five with only the winner of each advancing.

Joining Canada, Bermuda and Cayman Islands in Group B are Aruba and Suriname.

The winner of Group B will face the Group E winner in a two-legged second round tie on June 12 and 15.

The three second-round winners move to the final round where they join the United States, Mexico, Jamaica, Costa Rica, and Honduras in the fight for three World Cup spots. The fourth-placed team moves into an inter-confederation playoff.

“The reality check now every game is a difference maker,” said Herdman. “It is an opportunity for this group of men to do something special for their country that hasn’t been done for a long time.” Canada has only once before, in 1986, qualified for a World Cup. — Reuters

Expectant father Jon Rahm prepared to leave Masters for son’s birth

SPANIARD Jon Rahm said on Tuesday he would not miss the birth of his first child and was prepared to walk away from the Masters at a moment’s notice to ensure he would be by his wife’s side for the special occasion.

World number three Rahm said his wife was due to give birth between April 10 and 12, a three-day stretch that includes the final two rounds of the year’s first major at Augusta National Golf Club.

“All I can say is if anybody’s thinking of betting on me on the Masters, maybe think about it twice because there’s a chance I have to just turn around and leave that week,” Rahm said from Austin Country Club ahead of this week’s WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play event.

Rahm has five PGA Tour victories, but has yet to triumph at one of golf’s four major tournaments. His best showing at the Masters came in 2018 when he finished fourth.

The 26-year-old Spaniard said his wife and son were doing well and that he was unsure how much he could rely on the due date.

“I hear all kinds of stories, right, from people saying, oh, first one is always late, two people say, well, no, mine were early, this and that,” said Rahm.

“So I don’t know. I’m excited about it. I’m trying to take it one day at a time. And I can tell you I’m ready to go at any moment’s notice.”

Rahm will face Ryan Palmer, former British Open champion Shane Lowry and Sebastian Munoz in round-robin play this week in Austin, where the winner of each group advances to a 16-player knockout phase.

“If I have to leave this week, hopefully, it doesn’t come when I’m in the final and I just have to leave after nine holes. I mean, that would be unfortunate for the winner, but it is what it is,” said Rahm.

“Being a father is much more important than any golf event would ever be, so that’s my head right now.” — Reuters

Canned tuna brands making ‘glacial progress’ in tackling modern slavery

BANGKOK — The world’s top canned tuna firms are making “glacial progress” combating modern slavery in their supply chains, an advocacy group said on Tuesday, warning that the coronavirus pandemic had left fishers in Asia-Pacific more vulnerable to exploitation.

Of the 35 biggest tuna companies and supermarkets surveyed by the UK-based Business and Human Rights Resource Centre (BHRRC), 29 had made public pledges on workers’ human rights.

But most firms had yet to take any action to stop modern slavery by implementing human rights policies—with oversight of recruitment almost non-existent, the report said.

Six companies had policies to protect migrant workers but just one had evidence of having taken direct action, it added.

“The global fishing sector is rife with allegations of abuse—human trafficking, debt bondage … and even murder,” BHRRC’s Pacific representative Amy Sinclair told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

“But despite continued high demand for canned tuna, our research found there had been glacial progress on action by leading brands when it comes to workers trapped in modern slavery in the Pacific,” she added.

The companies and supermarkets—representing more than 80 of the world’s largest canned tuna brands—procure much of their tuna from the Pacific region, which supplies about 60% of the world’s tuna, according to the World Bank.

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has led to increased demand for tuna, as consumers worldwide have stocked-up on the pantry staple, according to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization.

As international borders have closed to curb the pandemic, modern slavery risks have heightened, with many fishers trapped at sea for longer periods—exposing them to heightened exploitation and abuse, the BHRRC report said.

While nearly half of respondents recognized that the pandemic exacerbated modern slavery risks, only a quarter had taken any action in response, it added.

The Seafood Ethics Action Alliance and the Seafood Task Force, a group of seafood buyers and companies, were not immediately available for comment.

BHRRC said only one company—US supermarket chain Kroger Co.—disclosed forced labor in its supply chain, suggesting the others either do not have adequate practices in place to weed it out, or are not disclosing it when found.

“COVID-19 has exacerbated inequality and human misery in the seafood supply chains,” said Art Prapha, a senior advisor for anti-poverty charity Oxfam.

“Investors, workers, and activists have raised these concerns well before the pandemic, yet many companies continue to ignore these critical calls.” — Nanchanok Wongsamuth/Thomson Reuters Foundation

EU to extend vaccine export curbs to cover Britain, backloading — source

BRUSSELS — The European Commission on Wednesday will extend European Union (EU) powers to potentially block coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccine exports to Britain and other areas with much higher vaccination rates, and to cover instances of companies backloading contracted supplies, EU officials said.

The regulation is aimed at making vaccine trade reciprocal and proportional so that other vaccine-making countries sell to Europe and the EU does not export much more than it imports, one EU official said.

With no numerical targets, the change is unlikely to trigger mass export bans of EU-made vaccines, the official with insight into the announcement said on Wednesday.

“I just really, really don’t see that happening because we have our international obligations and we want to keep supply chains going and the global system moving and flowing,” the official said.

The regulation will be the basis for the EU’s 27 governments to decide whether to block vaccine exports or not.

“In practice, all this is, is a piece of paper that says please take this stuff into consideration when you’re looking at approving export authorizations,” the official said.

The move, which EU officials said could hit AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson, is designed to avoid even limited delivery shortfalls to a region whose inoculation program has been beset by delays and supply issues.

Shipments abroad could also be withheld if vaccine-producing countries, such as Britain and the United States, disallow exports to the EU, officials said, confirming comments by commission head Ursula von der Leyen last week.

As London-Brussels tensions rose on Monday over a possible export ban, Britain demanded that EU authorities allow the delivery of vaccines it has ordered.

On Tuesday, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said Britain did not believe in imposing vaccine blockades. “I’m encouraged by some of the things I’ve heard from the continent in the same sense,” he told a news briefing.

Johnson & Johnson has announced delays in its second-quarter supplies to the EU, which a second EU official said could lead to consequences under the Commission amendment covering companies backloading contracted quarterly deliveries.

All vaccine makers could be affected, added the second official, with direct knowledge of the Commission decision. Some on the EU’s list of countries exempt from any vaccine export monitoring, like Israel, are likely to be removed, because of their very high inoculation rates, the first official said.

“It doesn’t mean they won’t get vaccines. It just means they’re not automatically exempted anymore,” the first EU official said.

‘WE DON’T WANT THE SAME DELAYS IN Q2’
The EU this month used an export control mechanism, set up at the end of January, to block an AstraZeneca vaccine shipment to Australia.

That mechanism can be activated only if companies do not meet contracted quarterly delivery targets. The block followed AstraZeneca’s announcement of steep cuts in first-quarter deliveries to the EU.

With the amendments to be adopted on Wednesday, the EU will be able to block exports to cover companies that respect their quarterly contracts but backload supplies to the end of the period, said the official, who asked to remain anonymous.

Johnson & Johnson, which has committed to delivering 55 million doses to the EU between April and June, plans to start deliveries in the second half of April.

The company told EU officials production issues might make it difficult to meet its second-quarter target, but it was striving to do so.

Moderna and Pfizer/BioNTech also had delays in vaccine deliveries to the EU, though they are set to meet their overall first-quarter targets. “We don’t want the same delays to happen in the second quarter,” said the second official. — Francesco Guarascio/Reuters

Wealth managers still in crypto ‘education mode,’ Fidelity says

LONDON — Most wealth managers and financial advisors are still in “education mode” on cryptocurrencies but demand for the emerging asset class among larger investors has grown, the boss of Fidelity Investments’ institutional arm said on Tuesday.

While some advisors and investment firms managing the fortunes of wealthy people have grown “sophisticated” and “comfortable” with cryptocurrencies, most are still getting to grips with the technology, Mike Durbin said.

“They know what they are doing, and more importantly their end investor base also knows what they are doing—but the vast majority are still in the education mode,” he added in an interview at Reuters Digital Assets Week.

Mr. Durbin’s comments give a snapshot of interest in cryptocurrencies at Boston-based Fidelity, whose $9.8 trillion in customer assets as of Dec. 31 make it one of the world’s biggest investment managers, amid heightened interest in digital assets.

BOOMING BITCOIN
Bitcoin powered to an all-time high of nearly $62,000 this month, the latest in a meteoric rise fueled by bigger US investors.

The world’s biggest cryptocurrency has soared eight-fold in the last year, sparking wider interest in digital assets from investors seeking yield in a world of ultra-low interest rates.

Mainstream companies and financial firms from Tesla Inc. to Bank of New York Mellon Corp. have embraced the emerging asset, sparking predictions that bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies will become a regular part of investment portfolios.

In 2018, Fidelity became one of the first mainstream investment firms to embrace cryptocurrencies, setting up a unit that offers cryptocurrency custody and other services for financial firms and corporations.

Interest in bitcoin and other digital assets would likely grow as “alternative investments”—which often includes real estate, private equity and hedge funds—increase in popularity, Mr. Durbin said.

“I think that the growth rate of bitcoin or digital assets will follow in that wake of broader alternative investments.

“There’s still work to be done there to help advisors understand portfolio construction with these kinds of expressions.” — Tom Wilson and Anna Irrera/Reuters

North Korea fires two short-range missiles, US still open to dialogue

REUTERS

WASHINGTON/SEOUL — North Korea fired two short-range missiles at the weekend, US and South Korean officials said, but Washington played down the first such tests under President Joseph R. Biden, Jr., and said it was still open to dialogue with Pyongyang.

The North Korean activity involved weapons systems at the low end of the spectrum that were not covered by United Nations Security Council testing bans, two senior officials of the Biden administration told a briefing call on Tuesday.

South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said two cruise missiles were fired off North Korea’s western coastal town of Onchon on Sunday morning.

Seoul had detected signs a test was imminent and was monitoring it in real time, a JCS official told reporters on Wednesday. The JCS reports North Korea’s testing of advanced weapons such as nuclear bombs and ballistic missiles nearly in real time but not some tests of lower-grade, shorter-range weapons.

The launch marks North Korea’s first publicly known weapons test since Biden took office in January.

But Mr. Biden downplayed the latest activity, saying “nothing much has changed,” while one senior official said it was “normal” testing and warned against “hyping” it.

“No, according to the Defense Department it’s business as usual. There’s no new wrinkle in what they did,” Mr. Biden told reporters upon his return from a visit to Ohio, when asked if the test was a provocation.

The Pentagon declined to comment on the test, which was first reported by the Washington Post. North Korea’s mission to the United Nations did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

POLICY REVIEW IN ‘FINAL STAGES’
The test came just days after US Secretary of State Antony Blinken vowed to work to denuclearize North Korea and criticized its “systemic and widespread” human rights abuses while in Seoul with the US Defense Secretary.

North Korea has refused to engage with repeated behind-the-scenes US diplomatic overtures since mid-February, calling it a “cheap trick.”

The senior US officials said the administration’s North Korea policy review was in its “final stages” and would host the national security advisers of allies Japan and South Korea next week to discuss that.

The officials said there had been “very little dialogue or interaction” with North Korea since a failed summit between former President Donald J. Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Hanoi in February 2019, but they do not see the latest missile test as “closing the door” for talks.

Ha Tae-keung, a South Korean lawmaker, said Seoul and Washington had agreed not to announce their detection of the missile test, citing a briefing by intelligence officials.

Opposition lawmakers and some experts said the US confirmation indicated a coordination failure between the allies, and suggested Seoul might be trying to cover up a provocation as it seeks to improve cross-border ties.

“It could’ve indeed been a routine, pre-planned activity,” said Kim Dong-yup, a professor at Kyungnam University in Seoul. “But I can’t help asking if the government and the JCS were walking on eggshells so as not to upset North Korea.”

The JCS official said it does not disclose some North Korean activities to protect its reconnaissance assets based on consultations with the US military.

Jenny Town, director of 38 North, a US-based website that tracks North Korea, said the latest action appeared “pretty mild.”

“My guess is that it has more to do with the joint exercises than anything else,” she said.

North Korea has slammed joint US-South Korean military exercises this month even though they were scaled back in an effort to restart nuclear talks.

North Korea has continued to develop its nuclear and missile programs throughout 2020 in violation of UN sanctions dating back to 2006, helping fund them with some $300 million stolen through cyber hacks, according to independent UN sanctions monitors.

North Korea has not tested a nuclear weapon or an ICBM (intercontinental ballistic missile) since 2017, but conducted repeated tests of shorter-ranges missiles after the Hanoi summit broke down. The Trump administration also sought to play down such tests. — Phil Stewart, Idrees Ali, and Hyonhee Shin/Reuters

AstraZeneca to publish full US trial results after rare rebuke over ‘outdated’ data

LONDON/CHICAGO — AstraZeneca will publish up-to-date results from its major US coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccine trial within 48 hours after health officials publicly criticized the drugmaker for using “outdated information” to show how well the immunization worked.

The rare public rebuke marks the latest setback for the vaccine once hailed as a milestone in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic that has since been dogged by questions over its effectiveness and possible side effects.

AstraZeneca said results it published on Monday in which the vaccine had demonstrated 79% efficacy were based on an interim analysis of data through Feb. 17, and it would now “immediately engage” with the independent panel monitoring the trial to share its full analysis.

The British-based drugmaker on Tuesday said it had reviewed the preliminary assessment of its full, or primary, analysis and found it to be consistent with the interim report.

But the Washington Post reported that the data monitoring panel told federal officials they had been working with the company through March, had seen data that showed the vaccine might be 69% to 74% effective, and had “strongly recommended” AstraZeneca include that information in its public statement.

AstraZeneca shares fell 1.8% in London trading.

The US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) said on Monday that the independent monitoring panel had expressed concern the company may have included outdated data that gave an incomplete view of the shot’s effectiveness.

NIAID Director Dr. Anthony Fauci called the whole issue a really unfortunate unforced error.

“This kind of thing does … nothing but really cast some doubt about the vaccines and may contribute to the hesitancy,” he told ABC’s “Good Morning America.”

“The data really are quite good but when they put it into the press release it wasn’t completely accurate,” he said.

In addition to the 79% efficacy in stopping symptomatic illness in the trial conducted in the United States, Chile, and Peru, the data reported on Monday also showed the shot was 100% effective against severe or critical forms of the disease and posed no increased risk of blood clots.

Dr. Larry Corey, co-leader of the US Coronavirus Vaccine Prevention Network, which helped design AstraZeneca’s US trial, said the monitoring panel’s rebuke was something he had not seen before. The virologist at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, praised the panel for speaking up, saying it showed the system of checks and balances worked.

One US-based investigator who was not authorized to speak publicly said AstraZeneca was not wrong to publish an analysis it had described as interim and expressed concern over the public controversy.

“It’s just a little bit like shooting yourself in the foot, because the science is good,” the person said.

‘NEGATIVE REPORTS’

The new questions about the shot’s efficacy coincide with its rollout in dozens of countries and clouds the timeline for its potential emergency use authorization in the United States.

“This is indeed an extraordinary act. The negative reports about this vaccine do not stop, although my assessment is that it is well tolerated and safe, but clearly less effective than the two mRNA vaccines,” said Peter Kremsner, from the University Hospital in Tuebingen, Germany.

Vaccines from Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna that use messenger RNA (mRNA) technology to produce an immune response both had efficacy rates of about 95% in their pivotal clinical trials, far above the 50% benchmark set by global regulators.

AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 shot has faced questions since late last year when the drugmaker and Oxford University published data from an earlier trial with two different efficacy readings as a result of a dosing error.

Confidence in the vaccine took a further hit this month, when more than a dozen countries, mostly in Europe, temporarily suspended giving out the shot after reports linked it to a rare blood clotting disorder in a very small number of people.

The European Union’s drug regulator said last week the vaccine was clearly safe, but an opinion poll on Monday showed Europeans remained skeptical about its safety.

The AstraZeneca vaccine is seen as crucial in tackling the spread of COVID-19 across the globe because it is easier and cheaper to transport than rival shots.

It has been granted conditional marketing or emergency use authorization in more than 70 countries.

Many countries are relying heavily on the shot to end the pandemic, and several state leaders have taken it publicly to boost confidence. — Kate Kelland and Julie Steenhuysen/Reuters

Hong Kong halts Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccines, investigates defective packaging

HONG KONG — Hong Kong on Wednesday temporarily suspended coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccinations using two batches of the treatment developed by Pfizer and BioNTech citing defective packaging, but the government said manufacturers indicated they had no reason to believe safety was at risk, and the move was merely a preventative measure.

The government said it had received notice from Fosun Pharma Industrial (Hong Kong), the distributor of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine in the financial hub and in Macau, that packaging defects had been detected in a vaccine batch—numbered 210102—related to the closure of bottles.

“BioNTech and Fosun Pharma have not found any reason to believe that product safety is at risk,” the government said. It wasn’t immediately clear how many shots would be affected, but it said use of batch 210102 would be suspended, as would that of another batch, numbered 210104, until further notice.

Fosun Pharma didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.

On Wednesday, several centers around the Asian financial hub were told by city authorities to stop using the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine, according to notices seen by residents.

The city began vaccinating residents with doses from China’s Sinovac Biotech Ltd. in February, and began offering the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine in March.

Macau’s Department of Health said on Wednesday it was suspending production of the BioNTech vaccine in the neighboring special administrative region after discovering a packaging flaw. — Farah Master/Reuters

Imagining a world of zero waste

Human progress has grown by leaps and bounds in the past century, owing to social, economic, and technological revolutions that have shaped the world into what it is today. Yet, all of it has been at a cost to the environment; climate change is now one of the biggest problems the world is facing, along with the constant, ever-growing issue of human waste.

According to the World Bank, waste generation is set to increase from 2.01 billion tons in 2016 to 3.40 billion tons in 2050, as more nations and cities urbanize, develop economically, and grow in terms of population. At least 33% of this waste is mismanaged globally today through open dumping or burning.

How can nations address this growing problem without compromising their social and economic goals? Is it even possible?

The latest edition of BusinessWorld Insights aimed to tackle this problem. In celebration of Global Recycling Day, the virtual forum, with the theme “Recycling and Proper Waste Management for a Sustainable Future,” gathered two of the country’s top stakeholders in solid waste management to discuss a zero-waste future and what might look like for the Philippines.

“The Philippines generates about 44 thousand tons of waste on a daily basis. In Metro Manila, that’s about 10 thousand tons. If you look at it on a per capita basis, it’s about .4 to .7 depending on where you are,” Crispian Lao, vice-chairman of the National Solid Waste Management Commission and founding president of the Philippine Alliance for Recycling and Materials Sustainability (PARMS), said.

“In a developing country like the Philippines, where we have been ranked as the third biggest contributor to marine litter, we found that the gap really is in the infrastructure,” he added.

Recycling is one of the easiest and most effective methods to reduce waste, conserve the environment, and address climate change. Dubbed as the ‘Seventh Resource’, the use of recyclables saves over 700 million tons in CO2 emissions and this is projected to increase to one billion tons by 2030.

Utilizing such a resource is key. Mr. Lao pointed out that the country already has some of the most comprehensive laws on solid waste management, yet the real challenge is in their implementation. 

“Obviously you need financing for that. And this is where the private sector can pitch in by putting up the necessary infrastructure in partnership with all stakeholders, not only government, including civil society and the general public, so we can actually address waste management and to prevent leakage to the environment,” he said.

Also a representative from the private sector, Atty. Joseph Fabul, country manager for corporate and government affairs of Mondelez Philippines, echoed this sentiment. For its part, Mondelez Philippines has emphasized its commitment to sustainability in its processes in various ways.

“First, we make snacks using sustainable ingredients. Second, we ensure that our manufacturing processes continue to evolve in order to reduce the environmental impact of our operations,” he said, adding that the company’s manufacturing plant in Parañaque is now 100% powered by renewable energy.

“Third, we also make sure that we continue to innovate in terms of packaging material. And that’s why we made a commitment to ensure that 100% of our packaging material is recycle-ready by 2025, and the good news is that to-date we are already 94% compliant with that commitment,” he added.

The problem of single-use plastics

The ban on single-use plastics has become a popular method proposed by environmentalists to curb solid waste. But is the solution really that simple?

Reality is more complicated. Atty. Fabul noted that there is a wide spectrum in the types of plastics society generates, and some of these are absolutely necessary.

“First we need to define the necessary and unnecessary types of plastics. Because there are types of plastics that we need. There are also plastics that have no viable commercial and large-scale alternatives, so how do we replace them?” he said.

As a food manufacturer, there is yet to be a viable alternative to plastic when it comes to preserving and protecting packaged food from spoilage or contamination. In addition, because of its weight making it easy to transport, Mr. Lao pointed out that plastic reduces overall greenhouse gas emissions.

According to Mr. Lao, only 30% of local government units have access to materials recovery facilities, where materials could go for recycling and composting. Only 24% to date have access to sanitary landfills at disposal facilities. This is not to mention that many of the country’s poor communities depend on plastic-packaged food for their daily needs.

“What would be the socio-economic impact of a ban that would affect those who live by the day? Sachets are designed for poor communities, the lower economic brackets. We do need to transition and look for better options. While those options are not yet here, it is important to look for solutions. That’s where we are right now, and that’s where we want to set our targets towards zero waste,” Mr. Lao said.

“There are cities that already banned plastic bags. The substitutes are still alternatives that are disposable. Given that the country lacks infrastructure to properly dispose of waste, it only causes more strain to a system that is lacking. The problem has to be viewed holistically,” he added.

Last January 2020, the Philippine Alliance for Recycling and Materials Sustainability (PARMS) and its member companies have committed to build and execute “Zero Waste to Nature Ambisyon 2030,” a strategy and a commitment to manage plastic waste, aiming to ensure that by 2030, none of the members’ plastic packaging waste will end up in nature.   

As part of this commitment, Mondelez Philippines, maker of snacks products like Eden Cheese, Cheez Whiz and Toblerone, pledged that by 2025, it will reduce its global use of virgin plastic for rigid packaging by 25% or reduce virgin plastic use in overall plastic packaging by 5% in 2025. This goes hand in hand with targeting to have 5% recycled content by weight across plastic packaging globally by the same period.

 

This session of BusinessWorld Insights is presented by Mondelez Philippines.

 

Tighter rules eyed for cigarette makers in special ecozones

THE GOVERNMENT will soon require new cigarette manufacturers located in special economic zones (SEZs) to register with the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR), after discovering some companies produced illegal tobacco products while enjoying tax exemptions, the Finance department said in a statement on Tuesday.

The Department of Finance (DoF), quoting a letter sent by Finance Secretary Carlos G. Dominguez III to Trade Secretary Ramon M. Lopez, said the BIR is currently drafting revised taxation rules on operations of cigarette manufacturers in SEZs.

The Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA), DoF, BIR and Customs have agreed to make the BIR registration a requirement before new locators can obtain a certificate of registration from PEZA, it added.

Mr. Dominguez said the BIR will issue the revised rules soon after receiving comments from concerned parties.

“The fact that the alleged illicit activities occurred inside the PEZA ecozone is alarming. Not only did PEZA provide tax breaks to the alleged perpetrators, the government has lost billions of pesos in income taxes, excise taxes, VAT and customs duties when these illicit goods entered the local market,” Mr. Dominguez said in his letter.

Mr. Dominguez attributed the rising illegal activities in some PEZA-registered companies to lax monitoring and weak law implementation.

“We already have an agreement with BIR, BoC (Bureau of Customs), DoF to integrate our systems, processes as far as cigarettes are concerned. It’s a need to integrate our laws, recesses (of) systems, that’s where the gap is,” PEZA Director-General Charito B. Plaza said in a Viber message when asked to comment.

PEZA earlier this month said it was talking to the BIR to integrate their systems to boost tax compliance and monitoring, especially those covering PEZA-registered manufacturers of cigarettes and tobacco products who are exporting all of their products.

It is also coordinating with Customs to align systems and requirements when moving goods of companies in economic zones.

Under PEZA’s rules for registration, companies are not required to comply and obtain secondary licenses or authorization certifications from other state offices such as the BIR, if they want to produce several taxable products like cigarettes, oil and alcohol.

The DoF said this allows locators to manufacture unregistered cigarettes inside an economic zone while enjoying tax perks, and supply to the local market illegally.

House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jose Ma. Clemente S. Salceda told the BIR in a House hearing early this month to revoke Revenue Regulation (RR) No. 9-2015 granting tax exemption on export cigarettes and ordered the agency to put tax stamps on all cigarette packs, whether for export or local market.

Mr. Salceda also asked PEZA to strengthen its police force enforcement and let other regulatory agencies implement their own rules and regulations inside SEZs.

“Keeping a close watch on those engaged in manufacturing regulated goods from the moment the raw materials enter the zones up to the removal from warehouses is consistent with best practices employed to monitor excisable products and goods,” Mr. Dominguez said.

The BIR raided several warehouses of two PEZA-registered locators recently, confiscating unregistered cigarettes and machines to produce them. The companies produce cigarettes for exports but investigations found these were being distributed in Central Luzon.

BusinessWorld reached out to local agriculture industry group Samahang Industriya ng Agrikultura (SINAG) for comment but did not get a response at the deadline time. — Beatrice M. Laforga

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