The Evening Runway with Hongbin Jeong and Chua Tian Tian

We’re going to talk all about watches today. According to a new industrial report,, sales of second-hand luxury watches will overtake new models within a decade as buyers seek rate timepieces from brands such as Rolex and Audemars Piguet.  Swiss-based industry analyst and consulting firm LuxeConsult forecast that the market for vintage and pre-owned watches will surge to some 79 billion euros in 2033, more than three times the 25 billion euros sold last year. In anticipation of a hotter secondary market, we want to find out which are the watches investors should resell versus those that they should keep in the long term. Also - should emotions play a part in the decision process?  On Market View, Prime Time’s finance presenter Chua Tian Tian posed these questions to Mr Oliver Muller, Consultant and Advisor at LuxeConsult, as well as Dr Bernard Cheong - he’s one of Singapore’s most prominent watch investors who has been collecting watches since the late 1970s, and also the founding partner of Lifeline Medical Group.

In the Spotlight on Prime Time, Timothy Go and Bharati Jagdish speak with Jonathan Frewin, Senior Journalist with BBC World Service Partner Hub in Londonto talk about some of the top stories they are tracking this week, including a series of strikes in the UK, with teachers being the latest to join the group, what will happen as the European Commission present proposals for the European Union to tackle the energy crisis as well as respond to US and Chinese subsidies, the final 747 jumbo jet to be manufactured by Boeing will be delivered to its customer and finally, what to expect from the US Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s trip to China this weekend. 

Today we’re going to set our sights on a market that may be fairly unique to our listeners - Uzbekistan!  You might be wondering why we are talking about Uzbekistan, and that’s because Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev was here in Singapore recently on his first state visit to the country. During his visit, both countries agreed to work on the promotion of bilateral economic relations.  And on the business side of things, the Singapore Business Federation and the Embassy of the Republic of Uzbekistan also co-organised the Singapore-Uzbekistan Business Forum.  In fact, 18 agreements were signed between Singapore and Uzbekistan companies for collaborations ranging from capacity building in traditional sectors such as transport and logistics, to new areas such as renewable energy. But what exactly are the opportunities within Uzbekistan, where can Singapore businesses come in, and what’s in it for them? On Market View, Prime Time’s Timothy Go –  who’s opening a hotel in Uzbekistan this year – and finance presenter Chua Tian Tian posed these questions to Soo Wei-Chieh, Executive Director of Global Division 3 at the Singapore Business Federation. 

In the Spotlight on Prime Time, we focus on two major economies - the US and China.  Timothy Go is joined by Pushan Dutt, Professor of economics and political sciences at INSEAD who gave his insights on the US GDP data that came in firmer-than-expected, so what will the Fed do next? Plus, with the US hitting its debt ceiling, what’s going to happen next and how will that impact Singapore and the region? Finally, in China, with its population declining, is their period of rapid growth likely over? Produced and edited by Anthea Ng (nganthea@sph.com.sg)

Accounting for about 75% of global primary energy use, cities are by far the biggest producer of greenhouse gas emissions. Given that they are the main source of demand and the owners of municipal infrastructure, how can cities be smarter in the way they design, build and operate infrastructure in ways that encourage greater efficiency and sustainability? Prime TIme's Timothy Go speaks with Caspar Herzberg, Chief Operating Officer & Chief Revenue Officer, AVEVA to find out. He is also the author of the book ‘Smart Cities, Digital Nations’, where he shares his perspective on challenges in smart city projects and shared a vision of why smart cities are essential.

Prices in the Housing Board resale market rose at a slower pace of 2.3 per cent in the last quarter of 2022, compared with 2.6 percent in the third quarter. It was the slowest quarter-to-quarter price growth in 2022. On the Straits Times the Big Story, Multimedia Correspondent, Hairianto Diman speaks withIsmail Gafoor, Chief Executive Officer of PropNex Limited to find out more.

Since the start of the pandemic, the number of digital nomads with traditional jobs has more than tripled. More than 50% of the world’s digital nomads in 2022 were from the US. But one Singaporean is joining this growing trend. In the Spotlight on Prime Time, Timothy Go and Bharati Jagdish speak with Gabriel Wong, CEO of Ascend Marketing, who will be moving his family of 3+1 (2nd child due Feb) to a neighboring country.  Produced and edited by Anthea Ng (nganthea@sph.com.sg) Highlights of the conversation: 01.50 : The main reason for the move to Bali 02.40 : How realistic is remote working? 07.32 : What are the challenges you can foresee, e.g culture and education?  11.18 : What would you say to people who are considering to relocate overseas?

The credit market is in focus today as tightening monetary conditions and trade tensions continue to dampen global market activity.  We’ll start from home in Singapore. Earlier, market reports suggested that Singapore’s three largest banks could see a possible increase in bad loans and softer loan growth this year, but which are the risks to watch and which bank will be best-placed to weather the economic slowdown?  Further away, JP Morgan is expecting to see Thailand’s interest rates peak this quarter at 1.75 per cent, but how would this impact the country’s banking sector amid elevated levels of household debt? And to what extent would higher interest rates make borrowers turn to unsecured retail products? On Market View, Prime Time’s finance presenter Chua Tian Tian posed these questions to Rena Kwok, Credit Analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence.

In May 2022, Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat said that helping SMEs scale up is one of Singapore’s three drivers of economic growth. Unfortunately, SMEs in Singapore face various challenges in the business landscape, which becomes even more difficult in the face of global competition. So how can SMEs in Singapore fight the Goliaths in the online competition both locally and globally? In the Spotlight on Prime Time, Timothy Go and Bharati Jagdish speak with Jesper Broberg, VP Emerging Markets, Optimizely, to find out. Produced and edited Anthea Ng (nganthea@sph.com.sg)

Singapore's core inflation, which excludes costs of private transport and accommodation, came in at 5.1 per cent year on year in December. The measure is projected to stay elevated in the first half of this year before slowing more discernibly in the second half of 2023. In The Straits Times' The Big Story, Multimedia Correspondent Hairianto Diman spoke with Associate Editor Vikram Khanna to delve more into these findings.