World

SINGAPORE: Singapore is continuing to “invest heavily” in children to give them "the best possible start in life", said Finance Minister Lawrence Wong in his Budget 2022 speech on Friday (Feb 18). “Just as we uplift our vulnerable groups, we will also continue to enhance social mobility,” he added. “The Government is committed to ensuring that all Singaporeans have the opportunities to do well for themselves, no matter their background or starting points.” Support starts early from the pre-school years, especially for children from low-income families, Mr Wong said. “Yet, we know that some vulnerable children fall out of or behind in our education system because of difficult conditions at home. Early intervention in their formative years can make a big difference in their lives.” The ...

BANGKOK: Myanmar military leader Min Aung Hlaing agreed to arrange for an Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) special envoy from Cambodia to meet members of the ousted ruling party on a future visit, a senior Cambodian official said on Monday (Feb 7). The pledge, made in a Jan 26 video call with Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen, represents a small concession in a deadlocked peace process since Myanmar's military seized power a year ago from the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD). Min Aung Hlaing did not identify which members of the NLD might be made available, said Kao Kim Hourn, a minister in Hun Sen's office who was part of the video meeting. "They have said during the video conferencing between our prime minister and senior genera...

Moviegoers line up in front of promotional posters for Chinese Lunar New Year films in Shanghai on Feb. 1, 2022. Costfoto | Future Publishing | Getty Images BEIJING — Chinese consumer spending on movies plunged during the Lunar New Year holiday last week as theaters raised prices to record highs. The seven-day holiday that ended Sunday is typically the biggest week of the year for new movie releases in China, the largest box office in the world. Eight Chinese-made films debuted this year. However, the total holiday box office of 6.04 billion yuan ($951.1 million) marked a drop of 23% compared to 7.84 billion yuan for the same period in 2021, according to online ticketing site Maoyan. Tickets were on average 8% more expensive this year versus last year, the data showed. The average price p...

SINGAPORE: The former executive chairman and director of Kimly, one of Singapore's largest traditional coffee shop operators, were fined by a court on Wednesday (Feb 16) for failing to disclose that its chairman had a 30 per cent stake in a company Kimly was acquiring. Then-executive chairman of the Catalist-listed company Lim Hee Liat, 56, was fined S$150,000. The director of Kimly at the time, 47-year-old Vincent Chia Cher Khiang, was fined S$100,000 for his involvement. They were both disqualified from acting as directors for five years. Both men paid their fines in full on Wednesday. They pleaded guilty to one count each of intentionally failing to notify the Singapore Exchange (SGX) that Kimly's acquisition of Asian Story Corporation (ASC) was an "interested person transaction", as...

The government leader, Chief Executive Carrie Lam, has said Hong Kong "cannot surrender to the virus" and that containing the outbreak "is now of paramount importance", as she seeks the people's understanding for inconveniences caused by the policies. "Elimination was initially the best strategy for Hong Kong," but is no longer appropriate, said Dr David Owens, a founding partner of OT&P clinic. "Once effective vaccinations became available, the negative framing and policy around zero-COVID adversely impacted vaccination rates, especially in the vulnerable," he said. "The messaging was not only unscientific, it paradoxically increased the risk to population health." The government did not respond to a request for comment on whether its zero-COVID policy had contributed to the current pr...

SINGAPORE: Upset by the manner a domestic helper cut some food for him and by her remark that he ate a lot, a man punched the maid thrice in her face, causing fractures. Suriya Krishnan, 25, was sentenced to six months' jail on Tuesday (Feb 8) and ordered to pay the victim S$8,500 in compensation. He pleaded guilty to one count of voluntarily causing hurt to a domestic helper where the hurt was not intended to be grievous but turned out to be so. A second charge of kicking her head, shoulder and thigh was taken into consideration. The court heard that the victim, a 27-year-old Myanmar national, was employed by Suriya's sister. Suriya lived in a flat in Hougang with his sister, his parents and the victim. On the night of May 29, 2020, Suriya's family was celebrating his father's birthda...

As tech titans such as Twitter, Alibaba and ByteDance converge upon Singapore, a metamorphosis for the city is underway – alluded to by some as the making of Asia’s Silicon Valley. Local technology investment is on the rise – driven by both public and private sector support – while pioneering start-ups and groundbreaking solutions seemingly crop up on the daily. In particular, the deep tech scene is seeing a boom amid burgeoning investment and interest in advanced technologies as Singapore carves a path towards the future economy. To help bridge the gap between great ideas and solutions for society at scale, the Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) of Singapore is extending support to local-based tech companies that are on track to realise the future of enterprise technologies. S...

PHNOM PENH: A special Southeast Asian envoy to the crisis in Myanmar on Thursday (Feb 17) said he was seeking to visit the country next month and appealed to its military junta to give its blessing for him to talk with a shadow government it has labelled "terrorists". Prak Sokhonn, Cambodia's foreign minister and new envoy for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), said engaging the National Unity Government (NUG), a group of members of the ousted administration and other military opponents, was complicated because of the junta's objections. "You cannot on one hand try to engage with someone and on the other hand, engage with the one who is considered by the former as terrorists," he told a news conference after a meeting of ASEAN foreign ministers. "We are trying to find a...

SINGAPORE: A chef behind a Michelin Bib Gourmand restaurant was given jail and a driving ban on Friday (Feb 18) for drink driving and careless driving which saw him uproot a light pole at a zebra crossing. Teppei Yamashita, a 41-year-old Japanese national and Singapore permanent resident, was given four weeks' jail and banned from driving for four years. He pleaded guilty to a charge each of drink driving and careless driving. Yamashita is the director of multiple Japanese eateries, and was behind unagi restaurant Man Man, which is on Singapore's Michelin Guide's Bib Gourmand list. The court heard that Yamashita had drunk Suntory beer on the night of Aug 24, 2020 at a restaurant near Tanjong Pagar MRT Station with friends. At about 11pm, he began driving from International Plaza to Tam...

RISING COSTS AND LONG DELAYS Describing logistics hold-ups as “the most pressing issue”, Commune's Mr Koh noted how the cost of shipping a container from China to Singapore has soared to US$3,500 from around US$500 prior to COVID-19. Shipping costs to Europe have also multiplied by about eight times to US$16,000 over the same period. The impact goes beyond costs. Container shortages and port congestion also mean that weeks-long, and sometimes months-long, delays have become increasingly common. “Today may be the day your container is supposed to sail but the vessel is delayed, so it’s pushed to next week. Next week comes but there’s a delay again. Another week comes, the same thing happens,” said Mr Koh, adding that this has led to a “big disruption” in the fulfilment of customer order...