Star Trek's Hikaru Sulu coming here, too

Trekkies, take note.

George Takei, 76, best known to Star Trek fans as Hikaru Sulu on the 60s TV series, will be in town for the Social Star Awards on May 23 at Marina Bay Sands.

He will be joined by transgender model Amanda Lepore, international DJ Seb Fontaine and New York nightlife personality Susanne Bartsch at the event, along with stars such as Aerosmith and Psy.

The 24-hour event that honours the biggest stars and brands across the world will be followed by a weekend of concerts at Gardens by the Bay.

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Star Trek"s Hikaru Sulu coming here, too

Migrant Workers" Centre expanding to help more foreign workers

SINGAPORE: The Migrant Workers’ Centre is expanding operations to help more foreign workers in Singapore.

By 2014, it will have a larger head office, a Geylang branch and a help centre for migrant fishermen.

According to the Manpower Ministry, there are close to 1.1 million rank-and-file foreign workers in Singapore as of December 2012, not counting employment pass holders.

The Migrant Workers’ Centre says the number seeking help is growing.

Yeo Guat Kwang, chairman of Migrant Workers’ Centre, said: “We were helping about 1,200 a year in the beginning. Now we help about 1,500 workers. With some of the recent incidents, I think there is greater awareness of some of these dispute resolutions and what we can do to help the workers.”

Cases like the illegal strike by SMRT bus drivers from China last year have highlighted disputes between foreign workers and their employers.

The Migrant Workers’ Centre says its key objective is to make sure those who need help get it early.

By year end, the centre will have a new, larger head office along Serangoon Road, catering to Indian and Bangladeshi workers.

The existing Migrant Workers’ Centre on Rangoon Road will continue operations till early next year.

On top of the services it is already providing, Channel NewsAsia understands the new centre will also have a temporary shelter that can house up to 12 workers.

And in January next year, a second branch will open in Geylang, closer to the workers from China living there.

A Seafarer’s Welfare Centre will open at the Jurong Fishery Port in the second half of 2014 to help migrant fishermen who currently do not have easy access to help on employment-related issues.

The centre is also working with authorities to pilot a job placement scheme for workers who are stranded and jobless in Singapore – either due to pay disputes or pending injury claims.

Mr Yeo said: “It’s important also for us to understand the problem – the problem that workers have to stay here is because they still have disputes pending.

“It is important for us not only to just ask MOM to expedite the process, but at the same time to provide them with shelter and at the same time, see how we can help them have a temporary job for them to tide over the difficult time.”

Mr Yeo said the job placement scheme can start as soon as relevant cases come up.

Currently, only those who are prosecution witnesses in the Manpower Ministry’s investigations are allowed to find work in the country. 

Migrant Workers" Centre expanding to help more foreign workers

Asia"s Best Analyst: Singapore

Backing Asia’s producers of consumer staples was a preferred play last year, and profitable for the most part. But picking a loser against the grain, defying a chorus of optimism, was what set RHB’s Tan Han Meng apart and earned him the Singapore crown in the Asia’s Best Analysts survey.

Mr. Tan had mostly good things to say last year about the firms he reviewed, recommending clients put their money into some of Southeast Asia’s more promising names. Thailand’s Charoen Pokphand Foods PCL


wasn’t one of them.

Courtesy of the analyst

Asia’s Best Analysts: The Winners

The industrial agriculture conglomerate, owned by Thai tycoon Dhanin Chearavanont, won favor from some 20 analysts with buy calls on the stock. But Mr. Tan suspected that his rivals’ high hopes for the Thai food producer were misplaced.

“We worked on our financial model and thought the consensus expectations were too optimistic in view of soft meat prices and high input raw material costs, which would likely result in dismal margins,” said Mr. Tan, adding that his 2012 profit estimate for Charoen Pokphand was among the lowest projections.

In May 2012, he recommended clients sell the stock with a price target of 32 baht ($1.08). From then until the end of the year, Charoen Pokphand’s share price dropped 15%.

Mr. Tan’s only other sell call in 2012—placed on Mr. Dhanin’s CP All PCL


from May to August last year—also helped clients take profits. The convenience-store chain’s share price fell 14% during that period.

The analyst also backed some winning horses. Sensing that falling raw material prices would help instant-coffee maker Super Group Ltd.,


Mr. Tan put a buy call on the Singapore-based firm from February to June, during which time the stock gained 44%.

Looking ahead, Mr. Tan said he believes investing in Asia’s consumption story remains a sound strategy, but warned that “much of the optimism—in particular for Southeast Asia consumer counters—has been priced in.”

With valuations for some stocks reaching all-time highs, investors may turn “their attention toward the risks,” which include rising wage pressures and potential earnings disappointments, he said.

—Chun Han Wong

Asia"s Best Analyst: Singapore

COMMENT: Should foreigners be allowed to protest in Singapore?

COMMENT

Singapore has been no stranger to non-Singaporean protests; in recent years we have seen migrant workers participate in collective action in response to alleged unfair labour practices.

However, the latest case of non-citizens protesting in Singapore was not about abusive employers or withheld wages. Wednesday evening saw about 100 Malaysians in Singapore gathering at Merlion Park dressed in black to protest electoral irregularities in their recent elections.

The election returned Barisan Nasional to power despite it having lost the popular vote, and the Malaysians’ protest coincided with a massive rally led by the opposition Pakatan Rakyat in Kelana Jaya in Kuala Lumpur.

The peaceful gathering was labelled an “illegal outdoor protest” by the Singapore police, and five Malaysians — thought to be organisers — were called in to assist with investigations. Nine were subsequently issued warnings.

Following this news, I asked people on Facebook and Twitter what they thought about foreigners protesting in Singapore. Click here to read the Storify of the conversations that unfolded.

Many were in favour of allowing non-Singaporeans to protest in Singapore (of course, this could very well be due to the general mindset of my regular social circle, and not representative of the population), but there were others who said that foreigners should not be allowed to participate in protests in Singapore.

“They shouldn’t bring their foreign issues into our country,” was one school of thought.

“They should respect our laws,” was another.

I can see where they’re coming from, but does it really make sense to restrict the right to expression by nationality? People don’t lose their values and beliefs once they leave their home country, and it makes sense that they might want to express support for particular causes or, as we saw on Wednesday evening, show solidarity for their fellow countrymen back home.

If these gatherings are peaceful, I don’t see why people should be excluded from participating (or even organising) them simply on the basis of their citizenship. It’s not about foreign interference, or bringing foreign issues into Singapore. More often than not it is about solidarity – relating to the struggles of others.

Solidarity is nothing new. Movements have emerged around the world in support of struggles in other places such as Myanmar and Tibet. Indeed, one could argue that without the involvement of voices outside of the country, Aung San Suu Kyi could still be under house arrest today.

The importance of solidarity movements cannot be underestimated; at the very least they send a message to those working hard in their home countries, letting them know that they are not alone.

Regardless of nationality, everyone has something to say. Asking someone to remain silent just because he or she is not a Singaporean seems a very silly thing to do. The opinions and experiences of those who have lived outside of our country may be useful to us; their perspectives may allow us to look at our own issues in a different light, and help us find new ways to overcome problems.

By telling them to shut up and not “interfere”, we are losing out on these perspectives.

Kirsten Han is a freelance journalist and multitasker. Although she writes mainly about Singapore, she is interested in social justice and human rights stories from all around the world.

COMMENT: Should foreigners be allowed to protest in Singapore?

Asian Price Comparison Site Save 22 Gets Angel Round Of "Mid Six Figures"

Singaporean price comparison startup Save 22 just got an investment of “mid six figures” in Singapore dollars, according to co-founder, Guyi Shen. S$500,000 translates to about US$400,000, as a reference.

The three-year-old startup indexes prices of goods and displays a price comparison. Its mobile app also allows you to scan a barcode of a product with your phone, and it will display a list of stores that list the same item, organized by price.

Its database covers about 500,000 products, and the listings come from both retailers and mobile app users who submit product and pricing data. The company says it has staff on the ground actively indexing prices of popular goods, as well.

The funding round was led by Crystal Horse Investments, an angel firm in Singapore. Crystal Horse also invested in Singapore-based Dropmyemail and Hong Kong-based Frenzoo.

Other participants in the round are Nuffnang from Malaysia, which operates the largest blog advertising network in Southeast Asia, Strategia Adventures and Little Lights Capital, from Indonesia.

Chun Dong Chau, an investor with Crystal Horse, said the company was picked because of its engineering team. He claims that Save 22′s data engine on the backend mines data collected from retail partners’ catalogs. Compared with other price comparison websites, which just provide lead generation back to retailers, Save 22 is expected to develop an additional revenue stream from offering some data analytics back to third parties.

The investor is pushing Save 22 to continue growing its database within the region, which will improve the quality of its analysis, he said. “Southeast Asia is going in terms of its GDP but also Internet and mobile penetration is growing massively. The market is quite big, and we don’t have plans to go outside yet.”

The company competes with other players Asia like PricePinz. The latter has a pretty similar app that also does barcode scanning, but is a younger firm, and just launched its app at the start of this year. At the start of the year, PricePinz said it had just about 4,000 products cataloged. It also said in an interview with e27 that its focus is restricted to electronic goods for now, but plans to expand to other verticals like groceries and apparel within the year.

If it’s a scramble to catalog more data, Save 22 is the winner for now in the region, but expansion plans will potentially open it up to competition with global giants like ShopSavvy. On the e-commerce front, Amazon’s PriceCheck and eBay’s Redlaser are other barcode scanning apps, and have the backing of large firms with huge product databases.

Save 22 was founded by Shen and Ronald Cheung, in March 2010, and has nine employees, including its two founders. It was renamed from Lobangclub (‘lobang’ translates to ‘deal’ in the Malay language) last year.

Asian Price Comparison Site Save 22 Gets Angel Round Of "Mid Six Figures"

S"pore, Ireland note potential for greater economic collaboration

Ireland and Singapore have expressed satisfaction with friendly bilateral relations and noted the strong potential for greater economic collaboration between the two islands. 

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Grace Fu (file picture)

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DUBLIN: Ireland and Singapore have expressed satisfaction with friendly bilateral relations and noted the strong potential for greater economic collaboration between the two islands.

Singapore’s Foreign Affairs Ministry said Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office Grace Fu met Irish leaders on Friday on the final leg of her three-stop visit to Europe from 5 to 10 May 2013.

Ms Fu, who is also the Second Minister for the Environment Water Resources and Second Minister for Foreign Affairs met Irish Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation Richard Bruton; Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform Brendan Howlin; and Minister of State for European Affairs Lucinda Creighton separately.

The ministry said Ms Fu also had dinner with Chairman of the Joint Committee of Foreign Affairs and Trade (JCFAT) of the Irish National Parliament Pat Breen, together with other Members of Parliament from JCFAT and the Joint Committee on European Union Affairs.   

It said Minister Fu and the Irish leaders expressed satisfaction with the friendly state of bilateral relations and noted the robust ties between Singapore and Ireland, particularly in terms of trade, education, cultural cooperation and people-to-people linkages.

They noted the strong potential for greater economic collaboration between Singapore and Ireland, given the similarities shared by the two countries as small, outward-looking and pro-trade countries.  

All the leaders also expressed Ireland’s enthusiasm for the EU-Singapore Free Trade Agreement which will facilitate greater market access and bring about concrete benefits for the companies and economies of Singapore, Ireland and the EU.

- CNA/al

S"pore, Ireland note potential for greater economic collaboration

Singapore to host WTA Championships

Posted


May 08, 2013 17:49:40

Singapore will host the glittering annual finale of the women’s tennis season from 2014 until 2018, the WTA said on Wednesday.

The south-east Asian city-state beat Tianjin in China and Mexico’s Monterrey for the right to stage the $S6 million ($4.78 million) WTA Championships after Turkey’s Istanbul ends its three-year stint in October.

“Your sensational city, the amazing city of Singapore, has won the right to host the WTA Championships for the next five years from 2014,” WTA chairman and chief executive Stacey Allaster told reporters.

Allaster called the agreement a record breaker and “the largest and most significant WTA partnership in our history”.

The season-ender is the most prestigious women’s tennis event outside the four grand slam tournaments – the Australian, French and US Opens plus Wimbledon.

The top eight singles and doubles pairs over the season qualify for the event which was won last year by American world number one Serena Williams. Russian pair Maria Kirilenko and Nadia Petrova took the doubles title.

The event was first staged in 1972 in the United States but has moved around the world since 2001 with Munich, Madrid and Doha joining New York and Los Angeles in staging it.

The hosting rights are a major coup for Singapore, which has not held a top level tennis event since the 1999 Heineken Cup on the men’s ATP Tour.

Lower ranked challenger events and exhibition tournaments have struggled to attract crowds.

The event will take place at the Sports Hub complex, which is due to be finished by the first quarter of 2014 at a cost of S$1.3 billion.

The impressive complex will feature a 55,000-seater stadium with retractable roof, a 13,000 indoor stadium, aquatics centre and water sports centre.

The venue could be key for sports and entertainment businesses to tap into the lucrative south-east Asian market with Singapore’s low crime rate and overall ease of doing business a rarity amongst nearby nations.

World Sports Group, the commercial partner of the Sports Hub, have talked previously about attracting a Rugby Sevens event and Indian Premier League Twenty20 matches.

WSG chief executive Andrew Georgiou said the WTA Championships was just the start.

“It is also another feather in the cap for Singapore, which continues to prove itself as Asia’s premier events destination. We are really excited about working towards the first event of 2014,” the Australian told reporters.

“We are pretty proud, one of the first of many to be announced over the next couple of months to be hosted at the Singapore sports hub.”

Reuters

Topics:

tennis,

sport,

singapore

Singapore to host WTA Championships