Commentary

Digital transformation is essentially at the top of every organisation’s priority. As organisations look for ways to stay competitive in a landscape of disruptive technologies, having a well-thought-out strategic plan is crucial. And a crucial part of the strategic plan includes finding and retaining the right technical talent. However, according to the Harvey Nash Group’s 2021 Digital Leadership report, tech skills shortages are now at its highest, especially in cybersecurity, big data, and architecture. If not addressed, this gap will only widen. 

The newly tabled Electric Vehicle (EV) Charging Bill in Parliament is a much-welcome step in the right direction as mobility in Singapore continues to evolve. By ensuring the reliability and accessibility of the EV charging network and services in Singapore, we’re already advancing the conversation on EV adoption – from talking about increasing the number of EV charging points to discussing the quality of such infrastructure that will spur the adoption of EVs.

Singapore’s inflation rate may have eased slightly in October, but Singapore consumers will continue to be mindful of budgets and spending priorities, in the face of economic uncertainties and geopolitical tensions. While Singapore retailers are not immune to the pressure brought about by consumers’ spending habits, the holiday season provides a window of opportunity for brands hoping to recover from the sales slump in past quarters  – if they know how to connect and engage with consumers the right way. 

The move to a new era of banking is underway in Singapore. 

Cooling is critical to our modern society. It provides comfort for buildings and essential temperature controls for mission critical infrastructure like data centres and pharmaceutical manufacturing. While cooling technologies keep us comfortable and safe, they also impact the climate. According to the World Green Building Council, the cooling, heating and lighting of buildings is responsible for around 28% of global CO2 emissions. In Singapore, buildings make up over 20% of carbon emissions. 

For employers, attracting talent is critical to remaining competitive, but nurturing the talent you have is the key to winning the war for talent.

Tax authorities and legislators all over the globe have been actively working to prevent tax evasion and promote global tax transparency for almost a decade now. As core components of the global financial ecosystem, FATCA (Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act) and CRS (Common Reporting Standard) legislation aim to prevent tax evasion by compelling financial institutions to transmit certain information about certain account holders to their country(s) of tax domicile. Ultimately, their objective is to identify and discourage tax evasion by tax residents of countries using offshore banks and other Financial Accounts. 

By Pat Patel, Executive Director, Elevandi

Many businesses in Singapore have been forced to rethink their customer engagement and business strategy. In short, the pandemic provided an on-ramp for brands to transform their business models to address shifting consumer habits to set them up for success for the next couple of years. 

Worldwide, one-third of all food produced is wasted every year. That 1.3 billion tonnes of food is enough to feed 2 billion people – enough to feed the world’s hungry twice, with plenty of leftovers. This wasted food is worth US$1 trillion annually, and with each kilogram of food creating carbon dioxide emissions equivalent to the production of 25,000 plastic bottles, this waste is greatly costing the environment too.

The banking and capital markets industry has seen a monumental shift in how money is created, transferred, stored and owned. With the phenomenal growth of digitalisation - from the rise of cryptocurrency and blockchain, to new developments in open banking, businesses have what seems like endless opportunities at their feet. Despite this, Baker McKenzie’s digital transformation report revealed that 79% of executives in APAC still identify as digital laggards rather than digital leaders within their industry.

Digitalisation shouldn’t just be limited to processing automation – it can significantly  improve customer experience.  

The Pink Pandemic has taken an incredible toll around the world. According to the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report, at our current trajectory, East Asia and the Pacific (including A/NZ) will take another 168 years to close the gender gap — which means we will not see gender parity in our lifetimes.

Thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic, hybrid work arrangements have become the norm globally for organizations across industries. Locally, a strong majority of Singapore companies (78%) are leaning towards maintaining a hybrid schedule, according to recent data from Milieu Insight. At the same time, employees are far less enthusiastic about going all-in on one work environment, with only 12% prefer working from the office all the time and only 10% wanting to work remotely full-time.

Technology-based investment solutions can crunch numbers faster than any human, are less prone to emotion-driven decisions and they never sleep. And in many cases, they don’t charge as much as their human competition.