Category: Singapore

Singapore airport offering free bike rentals to transit passengers – dpa international

The Gardens By The Bay are one of Singapore's main tourist attractions (Simon Roughneen)

Travellers no longer just have to just lounge around the plush terminals while waiting for connecting flights: the airport has started offering 2 hours’ worth of free bicycle rentals for transit passengers, enabling them, after a hopefully quick dart through immigration, to get out and about. According to an airport statement, “passengers will be spoilt for choice when it comes to Instagram-worthy photo opportunities, authentic hawker food and chill-out spots.”

Trip.com announces AI travel app addition – dpa international

Trip.com has become the latest industry player to hop on the artificial intelligence bandwagon with TripGenie, a travel planning upgrade for its mobile app. The Singapore-based travel company said TripGenie, “an advanced AI assistant,” would be incorporated into its app as a replacement for TripGen, an AI travel planning tool which had been consulted by app users in around 200 countries since February. “Leveraging large language model technologies, TripGenie covers all aspects of travel, from detailed itinerary crafting to immediate bookings,” Trip said.

Singapore airport gets ‘refresh pods’ for cooling off in blazing heat – dpa international

It might be the world’s best airport, going by a survey of passengers published by Skytrax, but workers at Changi in Singapore still need a bit of extra help cooling off inside the sprawling five-terminal hub. Changi’s management is providing “refresh pods” for the 30,000 workers at the airport, some of whom have to operate outdoors in the scorching south-east Asian heat, where temperatures are usually in the 30s and where the weather veers from scorching sun to muggy grey to epic thunderstorm. “Cool air is blown and circulated within the pod, at the easy touch of a button”, the airport announced, adding that patrons “may use it to cool down or dry themselves when caught in wet weather conditions.”

Singapore scientists float ‘airborne surveillance’ kit for coronavirus – dpa international

Singapore-based scientists have come up with a device that detects coronavirus in the air of indoor spaces, raising the prospect of “airborne surveillance” of the virus to supplement testing of individuals. The air-sampling method means “early warning of infection risks” could be possible in hospital wards and nursing homes, and could boost virus-monitoring capabilities in public places where people gather indoors, such as restaurants and cinemas.

Singapore aiming to live with flu-like ‘endemic’ Covid-19 – dpa international

DUBLIN — Singapore’s government on Thursday said it should be possible “to live normally” with Covid-19, which it expects to become “endemic” like influenza.  The three ministers responsible for the government’s coronavirus response announced “a broad plan” to “turn the pandemic into something much less threatening.” Pointing to the example of influenza, Trade Minister Gan Kim Yong, Finance Minister Lawrence Wong and Health Minister Ong Ye Kung said that “we can work towards a similar outcome for Covid-19.” 

Singapore cedes top spot to Switzerland in competitiveness index – dpa international

Singapore harbour seen from Marina Bay, a popular vantage point for visitors (Simon Roughneen)

DUBLIN — Wealthy city-state Singapore is no longer the world’s most competitive economy, according to the Institute for Management Development (IMD), which on Thursday put Switzerland top of its 2021 World Competitiveness Ranking. Singapore topped the list for the previous two years and was the sole Asian representative in the top five, which was rounded out by Sweden, Denmark and the Netherlands. Though most European countries were hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic, measured by lives lost and case numbers, the Lausanne-based IMD said the continent’s economies “weather[ed] the health crisis better than most other regions,” with Switzerland ranked highest after it “kept a disciplined financial strategy.” Singapore’s fall from first to fifth came despite being it being relatively lightly hit by the pandemic – and was down to “problems with job losses, lack of productivity and the economic impact of the pandemic,” the IMD said.

Most Asian economies do not innovate in line with growth levels – dpa international

DUBLIN — Most East Asian countries “innovate less than would be expected given their per capita income levels” and could therefore struggle to sustain recent economic growth, according to the World Bank. Countries in the region are dogged by “insufficient staff skills and limited financing options,” the bank said in a report published late Tuesday, with firms often seeming wary of investing in innovation because “policies and institutions are often not aligned with firms’ capabilities and needs.” Lower-than-expected innovation could lead to questions about “whether the region’s past model of development can continue to deliver rapid growth and poverty reduction,” the bank said.

Singapore team develops one-minute coronavirus test – dpa international

DUBLIN — Mention of a breathalyzer typically evokes images of a bedraggled five o’clock shadow peering bloodshot-eyed through a driver’s window after being pulled over by police. That could change if a new test for the novel coronavirus gets a second wind after successful first-round trials.. According to a Tuesday statement by the National University of Singapore (NUS), the device, which resembles a drink-driving breathalyzer, generates a result in around 60 seconds. The outcomes, which NUS reports as having proven 90 per cent accurate among the 180 people tested, “are generated in real-time” by analysis of “Volatile Organic Compounds” in a person’s breath. Jia Zhunan, doctor and chief executive officer of NUS spin-off company Breathonix, said the test is “is easy to administer,” needing neither trained staff nor laboratory processing.

Singapore PM warns of impact on Asia of US-China power rivalry – dpa international

KUALA LUMPUR — Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong fears rising tensions between the US and China could undermine security and economic growth across Asia and called on both sides to pull back from confrontation. Lee flagged his concerns in an article titled “The Endangered Asian Century” published  in the US journal Foreign Affairs, which has a history of running watershed essays by policymakers involved international relations.Fearing that smaller Asian countries could be forced to take sides if intransigence grows between the world’s two biggest economies, Lee called for cooperation between the US and China, even as tensions rise over the coronavirus pandemic, trade, the disputed South China Sea, Taiwan and Hong Kong. “The two powers must work out a modus vivendi that will be competitive in some areas without allowing rivalry to poison cooperation in others,” Lee implored.

Singapore sees record business slump in May due to lockdowns dpa international

Singapore skyline over Marina Bay (Simon Roughneen)

KUALA LUMPUR — Commerce in Singapore hit a new low in May due to the coronavirus pandemic and worldwide lockdowns, going by a widely-cited business yardstick published on Wednesday. The IHS Markit Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) – based on a survey of 400 businesses about new orders, output, employment, suppliers’ delivery times and stocks of purchases – dropped to 27.1 during May. Any reading below 50 suggests economic contraction.  IHS Markit said that the decline was because “demand for goods and services plummeted at an unprecedented rate” due to the pandemic. The impact of a lockdown that ran from April 7 until Tuesday saw new orders collapse in May – when “firms remained firmly in retrenchment mode, reducing staff numbers and input purchasing.”