The Evening Runway with Hongbin Jeong and Chua Tian Tian

Tech companies are quickly shedding jobs, marking a reversal over the last few years. How is this surge in job cuts impacting talent acquisition in organisations in Singapore and the region? In the Spotlight on Prime Time, Bharati Jagdish and Timothy Go speak with Daniel Kolbe, Founder and Group CEO of ITCS Group to talk about the challenges of sourcing tech talent and how to overcome them. Produced and edited by Anthea Ng (nganthea@sph.com.sg)

As we head closer towards the end of the year - let’s have a guess on what's to come for 2023.  On that note, online trading and investment specialist Saxo has released its 10 Outrageous Predictions for 2023. Titled ‘The War Economy’, predictions focus on a series of underappreciated events which, if they were to occur, would send shockwaves across the financial markets as well as political and popular cultures. Saxo said these predictions are a thought experiment in considering the full extent of what is possible. It’s key to note that they do come true occasionally - take Saxo’s prediction of the UK's exit from the European Union for example.  So, in a world where central banks and governments are set to lose their battle with inflation, what are the risks of markets becoming as outrageous as ever in 2023 and beyond? On Market View, Prime Time’s finance presenter Chua Tian Tian chatted with Steen Jakobsen, Chief Investment Officer at Saxo on a series of mind-blowing predictions including an Un-Brexit referendum and a billionaire coalition for energy.

We’ll deep dive into the private equity or PE industry today. According to a report by global law firm Dechert, PE deal values have almost halved from US$1.2 trillion to just US$685 between Q1 and Q3 this year amid a global economic downturn and tightening monetary conditions.  Question is - how concerned should we be about the industry’s performance for the year, and where are the bright spots? Separately, the combined value of the three of the most hyped Southeast Asian tech listings over the past year-and-a-half losing a combined market value of US$51 billion since their debut so far. So can PE firms meet the needs of their investors by investing in such tech startups? On Market View, Prime Time’s finance presenter Chua Tian Tian spoke with Siew Kam Boon, Co-head of Dechert’s global private equity practice and Partner in Dechert’s Singapore office to find out more. They also talked about a growing trend of firms turning to private credit to finance buyouts.

As digital technology takes centre stage in the financial sector, there is a greater need for finance professionals to be proficient in digital finance to keep up with the influx of the digital financial landscape. In the Spotlight on Prime Time, Bharati Jagdish and Timothy Go speak with Phil Waters, Head of APAC and Emerging Markets, Oanda for more insights on retail trading and the need for a digitally ready workforce in finance. Produced and edited by Anthea Ng (nganthea@sph.com.sg)

Mental health at the workplace has come to the fore, especially since the Covid-19 pandemic. An estimated 12 billion workdays are lost annually due to depression and anxiety, costing the global economy nearly US$1 trillion. Now, a new study has found that four in ten workers in Singapore have a high mental health risk. How do we make mental well-being a focus at the workplace? Prime Time’s Timothy Go and Bharati Jagdish find out from Jamie MacLennan, Senior Vice President and General Manager of APAC at LifeWorks.

A week after China began dismantling its tough ‘zero-Covid’ controls, the World Health Organisation is warning of “very tough” times ahead and state media reporting some seriously ill patients at hospitals in Beijing, raising fears of a wave of infections. In The Straits Times’ The Big Story, Multimedia Correspondent Hairianto Diman spoke with China Correspondent Elizabeth Law about the latest on China's Covid-19 situation. 

China’s reopening is on our agenda today, with Covid-19 spreading rapidly through households after an unexpected lifting of pandemic rules.  That sparked confusion on the ground, with hospitals and facilities struggling to deal with the surge in cases. What would China’s reopening path look like after the drastic reopening and how would that drive up economic activity within Asia?  Elsewhere, South Korea’s short-term debt yields fell for the first time since last year yesterday. Could this be the green shoots of recovery from South Korea’s recent bond rout? On Market View, Prime Time’s finance presenter Chua Tian Tian posed these questions to Gary Ng, Senior Economist for Asia Pacific, Natixis. They also talked about Japan’s November wholesale prices, the modern day bank-run and the November’s US CPI expectations.

As it stands today, Singapore is the only country to have given approval for the sale of a cultivated meat product, with GOOD Meat chicken nuggets earning the regulator’s nod in late 2020. Consumers will have another choice next year when Australia’s largest cultivated meat company will launch Morsel - its cultured Japanese Umai Quail here. In the Spotlight on Prime Time, Bharati Jagdish and Timothy Go speak with George Peppou, Co-Founder, Vow on what exactly is that product and how are they tastier, more nutritious and more sustainable than the meat we eat today. Produced and edited by Anthea Ng (nganthea@sph.com.sg) Highlights of the conversation: 1.06 : What is the public acceptance of cell-based meat? 2.33 : What are the challenges of getting cell-based meat approved in other countries apart from Singapore? 5.14 : What is the process of your cell-based products? 8.02 : How environmentally friendly is the process? 11.02 : Craze for plant based meat seemed to have fizzled out, how will it impact your business?

In our increasingly digitised world, where everything from our phones to our televisions is “smart,” it should come as no surprise that virtual reality and augmented reality are starting to play a role in the design industry. So how can VR empower home owners to become designers? Prime Time's Timothy Go and Bharati Jagdish speak with Muzhaffa Kamal, Co-founder and CEO of Luucid to find out. 

In the Spotlight on Prime Time, Bharati Jagdish is joined by Jonathan Frewin, Senior journalist with BBC World Service Partner Hub in London, as theytake a look at some news moving the markets, with focus on oil prices as well as interest rate decisions from major banks, plus US President Joe Biden will be hosting a summit of African leaders in Washington later this week. What’s on the agenda and why it matters.