Breakfast with Ryan Huang, Emaad Akhtar and Audrey Siek

In this morning's The Breakfast Brief, we discuss the upcoming busy week for China, New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern's visit to Singapore and what to expect from the G-20 finance ministers and central bank governors meeting later in the week. 

Synopsis: This podcast series is based on selected chapters from a book, detailing Singapore’s experience battling the Covid-19 pandemic. The book - written by journalists of The Straits Times and edited by ST’s executive editor Sumiko Tan - is titled In This Together: Singapore's Covid-19 Story and is available in major bookstores now. Details online: https://www.stbooks.sg/ In this third episode of six instalments, ST's executive editor Sumiko Tan tells the exclusive story of how the decision-makers in Singapore's Covid-19 "war room" managed the pandemic and why it decided to be as transparent as they could with the public. Highlights (click/tap above): (Headphones recommended) 01:25 Singapore's then-Health Minister Gan Kim Yong on how he realised back in January 2020, that the new coronavirus outbreak was beyond the efforts of one ministry 03:53 How a high-powered group of civil servants led by permanent secretary of the Home Affairs Ministry - Mr Pang Kin Keong - worked to support the ministers 05:06 Mr Gan on why the multi-ministry task force (MTF) decided to be as transparent as possible about how it dealt with Covid-19 06:44 Senior Minister Teo Chee Hean on his role in creating a structure in how the crisis was managed 08:22 PM Lee Hsien Loong on the aim to be transparent, a chain of command, making decisions guided by data, and differing views in Cabinet 14:37 PM Lee reflects on painful national decisions, such as the closure of Changi Airport and Singapore's "circuit-breaker" lockdown in April 2020 19:50 PM Lee addresses a weary nation to explain the decision to move from a strategy of zero-Covid to living with Covid  Produced by: Sumiko Tan (sumiko@sph.com.sg), Ernest Luis and Hadyu Rahim Edited by: Hadyu Rahim Follow Singapore's War On Covid podcast series here: Channel: https://str.sg/wuJa Apple Podcasts: https://str.sg/wu3n Spotify: https://str.sg/wuJy SPH Awedio app: https://www.awedio.sg/ Website: http://str.sg/stpodcasts Feedback to: podcast@sph.com.sg Read Sumiko Tan's stories: https://str.sg/Jbhe --- Discover more ST podcast channels: All-in-one ST Podcasts channel: https://str.sg/wvz7 The Usual Place: https://str.sg/wEr7u In Your Opinion: https://str.sg/w7Qt COE Watch: https://str.sg/iTtE Asian Insider: https://str.sg/JWa7 Health Check: https://str.sg/JWaN Green Pulse: https://str.sg/JWaf Your Money & Career: https://str.sg/wB2m Hard Tackle: https://str.sg/JWRE #PopVultures: https://str.sg/JWad Music Lab: https://str.sg/w9TX --- ST Podcast website: http://str.sg/stpodcasts ST Podcasts YouTube: https://str.sg/4Vwsa --- Special edition series: True Crimes Of Asia (6 eps): https://str.sg/i44T The Unsolved Mysteries of South-east Asia (5 eps): https://str.sg/wuZ2 Invisible Asia (9 eps): https://str.sg/wuZn Stop Scams (10 eps): https://str.sg/wuZB Singapore's War On Covid (5 eps): https://str.sg/wuJa --- Get The Straits Times' app, which has a dedicated podcast player section: The App Store: https://str.sg/icyB Google Play: https://str.sg/icyX #stcovidbook

Barnabas Gan, Economist, UOB, discusses how aggressive Singapore's central bank is positioning its policy, and breaks down the trajectory of the country's growth following Q1 GDP estimates of 3.4 percent yoy, which moderates from Q4's 6.1% yoy.

A study by SAP titled, ‘Transformational Talent: The impact of the Great Resignation on Digital Transformation in APJ’s SMEs’ has found that 49 percent of Singapore SMEs say they are not finding it easy to deal with the Great Resignation. About 62 percent of SMEs here have also seen more staff resigning compared to a year ago. Eileen Chua, Managing Director, SAP Singapore shares how The Great Resignation has impacted SMEs' ability to digitally transform and some of the key strategies SMEs have highlighted and are prioritizing for the next 12 months.

Singapore has been found to be the top country in the emerging market section to reflect an increase in interest for wine investment. However, in order to make sound and calculated investments, one needs to understand wine, the vineyard and even the way the wines are stored to ensure the integrity of the wine. Anthony Zhang, CEO & Co-Founder, Vinovest shares an overview of the current market’s investment trends on wine and how Vinovest - the world's first ever AI-powered wine investment platform - is helping investors of all risk appetites and skill levels to invest. 

This week on Stocks to Watch, Willie Keng, Founder, Dividend Titan joins us to discuss the sustainability of Elite Commercial Reit as Singapore's first UK-focused REIT, how much potential upside there is to CapitaLand Investment Management as an 'asset-light' property investment firm, and how much more  consumers are willing to pay for coffee at Starbucks, especially in the face of rising inflation. 

In this morning's The Breakfast Brief, we discuss the overnight rally in the US market after corporate earnings season kicked off with mostly positive earnings, expectations for MAS to tighten its monetary policy stance today, TraceTogether token maker iWOW Technology's market debut today, and more. 

Aninda Mitra, Head of Asia Macro & Investment Strategy, BNY Mellon Investment Management, discusses what are the likely scenarios to pan out from the Ukraine war that will impact markets, and whether inflation has peaked, going by the US CPI reading showing a moderation in March's month-on-month reading.

The global supply chain crisis has been centre stage for the past two years, with no signs of slowing down as one of the biggest focuses for companies around the world. But as we move forward, can technology be the answer to tackle the world’s supply chain issues? Ryan Petersen, Founder & CEO, Flexport shares how the Ukraine/Russia conflict and China lockdown have affected the supply chain globally and regionally in Asia, and how Flexport's software can help the world address this issue. Highlights of the conversation:  02:19 - Helping business make strategic supply chain decisions  04:23 - Challenges Flexport faced due to Covid-19 07:32 - How Flexport is managing the Russia-Ukraine conflict 09:44 - Addressing the issue of supply chain disruption 13:01 - Singapore's position in the global supply chain