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BLOW VS PROFITEERING OR INTRUSION INTO BUSINESS SECRETS?

NONIE REYES

DOE’s push for unbundling fuel product pricing meets resistance from oil players

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By Lenie Lectura

PROPOSED policy that would mandate oil firms to unbundle, or itemize, the costs of petro fuel—from the pump to the consumers —just doesn’t sit well for oil firms, who argue that such proposal is no longer necessary in a deregulated market.

The draft policy enables the unbundling of the base prices of petroleum products, namely, gasoline, automotive and industrial diesel, kerosene, jet fuel, bunker fuel oil and household and automotive liquefied petroleum gas.

This is the first time that the government, through Department of Energy (DOE), will require oil companies to make public the breakdown of the costs that go into the pricing of fuel.

Energy Secretary Alfonso G.

Cusi ordered the unbundling of prices of petroleum products recently, and the DOE said the corresponding department circular is now the subject of focus group discussions with the stakeholders.

The DOE’s move to finalize the rules implementing, for the first time, a mandate of the oil deregulation law enacted 20 years ago, came just as concern was rising that there might be an element of profiteering in the spike in local oil prices. The spike was blamed initially on the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (TRAIN) law that imposed higher fuel excise taxes, but was later explained as a result as well of rising global prices.

Thus, the transparency promised by unbundling was seen in some quarters as a timely move by the DOE to precisely eliminate the profiteering angle.

Energy Undersecretary Felix William Fuentebella, in an interview with the BusinessMirror, said the objective of the proposed circular is to mandate industry players to explain to consumers the cost components of petroleum products.

“We already know that the components include peso per barrel of landed cost, taxes, biofuels and industry take. But what are the percentages of these components?

We just want a breakdown of these components from them so that the public may better understand what they are paying for,” he said.

The DOE, in the draft circular, also wants oil companies to provide a weekly notice of the price adjustments—whether decrease, increase or no adjustment— alongside the computation of their products’ components based on the elements involved in the

international price movement, the biofuels cost and the operational cost recovery.

‘Transparency’

CUSI had said the weekly oil pricing updates by oil firms would guide the consumers in making informed decisions in the management of their fuel oil requirements.

“Identification of the costing for the major components of these petroleum products that may affect the pump prices would provide a higher level of transparency for our consumers, particularly the motorists,” he said.

The same policy will require oil companies and retail outlets to submit baseline data every end of the year for the unbundling of their base price and to comply as well with the mandatory price display board.

Unnecessary, confidential

THE Philippine Institute of Petroleum (PIP), composed of Petron Corp., Pilipinas Shell, Chevron, PTT Philippines and Isla LPG, said the extent of information that the government requires from them, and the manner by which it requires to do so, are “inconsistent with the policy of deregulation.”

“The position is that there is no need to unbundle,” said PIP Executive Director Teddy Reyes over the phone. “We felt that since all factors on how prices are arrived at are transparent, since these are published and known to everyone, then it would be ‘nnecessary’ for the unbundling.”

The weekly price adjustment, he said, basically covers increments from previous price, and the reason for that includes changes in Continued on A2

Pending bills give hope of more PhilHealth benefits, lower costs

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By Alladin S. Diega | Correspondent

total health expenditures increased to 34.2 percent in 2016, from 29.7 percent in 2014.

“Sadly, despite significant improvements in PhilHealth’s coverage and benefits, the high burden of financing for health still remains on the households” Diosana said.

OW-EARNING Filipinos continue to shoulder the high cost of health care despite improvements in the benefits package covered by the government’s health program, a nongovernment organization said. program of the government, simplified the current excise tax system on alcohol and tobacco products and fixed longstanding structural weaknesses, and addresses public health issues relating to alcohol and tobacco consumption,” a post on the DOF web site said.

However, a report from the Philippine National Health Accounts (PNHA) reveals that out-of-pocket spending accounted for 54.2 percent of total spending for health in 2016, compared to 55.7 percent in 2014, while the share of the government to

PESO EXCHANGE RATES n US 53.1220

JAMES FRANCIS | DREAMSTIME.COM

According to Jo-An L. Diosana, senior economist of Action for Economic Reforms (AER), expanding the coverage of the Philippine Health Insurance Corp.

(PhilHealth), especially among the poor, was one of the objectives of Republic Act 10351, popularly known as the sin-tax law.

The Department of Finance hails RA 10351 as one of the landmark legislations under the administration of President Benigno S. Aquino III.

“The sin-tax law helps finance the universal health care [UHC]

Ambitious

DIOSANA describes the government’s UHC tack as “ambitious” and “yet in abeyance”, as several related bills remain pending at the Senate.

Those bills “should be able to improve access to quality health care, especially of the underserved citizens,” she explained. However, Diosana said this ambitious goal of UHC could only be reached “if sufficient and sustainable sources of funding are tapped.”

The AER and other health advocates believe the funding could come from taxes on so-called sin products—alcohol and tobacco.

They are also pushing for the increase in the current sin-tax rates to sustain the financial requirements of the UHC.

The pending bills, to note, also eye the funds managed by the Phil-

Health. This government agency is the natural recourse as PhilHealth implements the National Health Insurance Program (NHIP) as mandated by RA 7875.

The bills pending at the Upper House of Congress intend to make all Filipinos as PhilHealth members and expand the benefits that the members will enjoy. Specifically, the bills propose the inclusion of outpatient or primary care, such as consultations, medicines and laboratory tests, in the services that will be covered and paid for by the NHIP.

Gains

LOWERING the costs of health care is good news for Filipinos like Marilyn Asidera, a resident of Baranggay Payatas, Quezon City.

Asidera said she has to spend P3,000 for medicines when her 10-year-old daughter undergoes medication for mild pneumonia.

“Although the medical clinic in Payatas provides free services, we have to spend for the medication and other related costs for a whole week, because my daughter’s case is considered outpatient,” she said Continued on A2

n JAPAN 0.4816 n UK 71.0666 n HK 6.7690 n CHINA 8.2994 n SINGAPORE 39.7828 n AUSTRALIA 40.2452 n EU 62.6468 n SAUDI ARABIA 14.1663

Source: BSP (June 14, 2018 )

News

BusinessMirror

A2 Saturday, June 16, 2018

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DOE’s push for unbundling fuel product pricing meets resistance from oil players Continued from a1

Mean of Platts Singapore (MOPS), foreign-exchange (forex) rate, cost of value component and taxes.

Philippine retail prices are based on the average prices based on the MOPS. This refers to the prices of finished product, not crude. Gasoline and diesel sold at gasoline stations are finished products.

“The movement of Platts is transparent. Forex, also a major component of pricing, is also transparent. The impact of taxes can also be computed. The cost of value component, such as ethanol, is beyond the control of the players,” Reyes said.

Oil firms are required by law to blend 10-percent ethanol for gasoline and 2-percent coco methyl esther to create biodiesel. The biofuels component is priced differently and separately from the fuel products. Ethanol in the Philippines comes from sugar, and sugar prices have increased.

‘Secret fried chicken recipe’

INDEPENDENT Philippine Petroleum Companies Association (Ippca) President Bong Suntay said each oil firm has its own proprietary elements of cost, which should be kept confidential because this allows an oil firm to have a competitive edge over the other.

“It is like asking KFC [Kentucky Fried Chicken] to give out their recipe and divulge the seven secret herbs and spices used in their chicken. Definitely, each one has their own computation, which may differ from each other. Various factors would also have an impact, where the product is sourced, when it was sourced, the amount

purchased, the size of the vessel, among others,” Suntay said.

The Ippca official said if the DOE wants to extrapolate, then it can start from the published MOPS. Suntay also said that feeding the DOE with so much information could be tedious.

“The premium—ocean freight and trader margin—also differs from each company, depending on various factors, such as term of payments, size of vessel and loading origin. Forex also differs depending on cost of purchaser.

Prices now change weekly.

“To require the industry players in a deregulated industry to break down their pricing would put another layer of tedious reportorial requirement, which would really be of no use in a deregulated industry,” Suntay said.

Free choice

EASTERN Petroleum Corp., a member of Ippca, noted that consumers are free to make their own choices in a deregulated environment. “In a deregulated regime, market forces and competition, which is very much alive, is the ultimate price determinator,” according to Eastern Petroleum Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Fernando Martinez in a text message.

Ippca has at least 16 members, mostly the country’s leading independent oil players, such as Eastern Petroleum, Unioil Petroleum Philippines Inc., Seaoil Philippines, Flying V, City Oil, Pryce Gases and LPGMA, among others.

“Based on my observation on the sentiments of industry players, I am inclined to say that they are not amenable to disclosing components of pricing,” Suntay said.

‘I

T is like asking KFC to give out their recipe and divulge the seven secret herbs and spices used in their chicken. Definitely, each one has their own computation, which may differ from each other. Various factors would also have an impact, where the product is sourced, when it was sourced, the amount purchased, the size of the vessel, among others.”— Independent Philippine Petroleum Companies Association President Bong Suntay “Besides, let us define deregulation again if we wish to give a different interpretation,” he added.

“Would it make sense to ask Levi’s jeans to break down their costing so consumers would know how they are pricing their jeans?

What for? Unless the government wants to put in place price controls, then it would no longer be a deregulated industry,” Suntay said.

Must comply

A SENATOR, in a separate interview, stressed that oil firms are mandated by the Downstream Oil Deregulation Act under Section 15b to comply with the DOE. “The power to direct oil firms to submit unbundled prices to the DOE appears to be allowed under the law, in which the secretary has the power to require, by general or special orders, persons and entities engaged in a particular activity of the industry to file an annual or special report, or both in such form as the secretary may prescribe,” said Senate Energy Committee head Sherwin Gatchalian, who

added that “this appears to be the first time that the DOE will require an unbundling of oil prices.”

The senator said the move by the DOE is consistent with the declared policy of the oil deregulation law to ensure a competitive market under a regime of fair prices. “In some of our talks with people from the DOE, even before the passage of the TRAIN law, and the rising oil prices, they have mentioned that they’re not in a position to determine whether there is cartelization or unfair trade practices since they don’t know the breakdown of the oil prices, and where/how much the margins are. With the required unbundling of oil prices, this would provide transparency to the pricing of the oil sector,” Gatchalian said.

Nevertheless, the lawmaker said, the DOE should still take into account that it does not have the authority to make public any trade secret or any commercial or financial information or privileged/ confidential information obtained from the oil companies.

When sought for comment, Cusi said that as DOE chief, he is authorized to ask for any information from the oil companies.

“On my part, I have ordered the unbundling of prices of petroleum products and the corresponding department circular is now subject of focus group discussions with the stakeholders. In a way, the directive for Philippine National Oil Co. Exploration Corp. to import and trade oil will help the DOE in the unbundling of the prices and help us validate the costing submitted to us by the oil companies,” Cusi said.

Power bill

A SIMILAR move for the power sector is, likewise, being pushed. A draft circular adopting the framework for a uniform monthly electricity bill format was recently released. The DOE said the electricity bill should be prepared in a simple and easy-to-understand format.

Section 25 of the Electric Power Industry Reform Act (Epira) requires that every distribution utility identify and segregate in its bills to end users the components of the retail rate.

“Just like in [the] power industry, unbundling is part of our mandate to monitor both international and domestic price movements to provide a higher level of transparency for our consumers. Further, unbundling the price will aid us in developing further policies to help relieve price shocks from the international market, as well as aid us in developing legislative recommendations to Congress,” Cusi said.

The DOE is bent on implementing the proposed unbundling policy, amid concerns raised by oil firms.

However, it is not closing its doors, and said it would conduct another round of discussions to consider some of the oil firms’ concerns.

“The circular must be in accordance with the existing laws.

As a way forward, we are holding another round of discussions with them before the full-blown public consultation,” Fuentebella said.

Earlier, consumer advocacy group Laban Konsyumer Inc. (LKI) called on the energy department to compel oil firms to unbundle retail prices of petroleum products.

This is meant to enable consumers to truly enjoy their right to information, and thereby provide them access to fair and reasonable pricing of petroleum products and electricity, said LKI President and former Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) Undersecretary Atty. Vic Dimagiba.

In a letter to Cusi, LKI said that even under full deregulation, the energy secretary is authorized to ensure fair pricing of the petroleum products for the benefit and information of the consumers.

“The DOE will note that oil companies and the new players have practically uniform prices for diesel.

This situation does not appear [to be] tenable since oil companies and new players procure their products differently,” Dimagiba said.

The DOE acknowledged the concerns raised by LKI. It is now finalizing the circular. The DOE is eyeing to sign the draft circular within the month, with implementation being eyed 15 days after publication.

Given the seeming determined stance of most oil players to oppose unbundling, however, the DOE may need more time than that.

Pending bills give hope of more PhilHealth benefits, lower costs Continued from a1

in the vernacular.

Asked whether she is aware of the low-cost medication for pneumonia, Asidera told the BusinessMirror she is, but to qualify for the program, she has to wait for another week. That time is used to observe her child’s cough, includ-

ing bringing phlegm samples to the clinic.

“I do not want to wait for my child’s cough to get worst as it will not only make her suffer longer than necessary but will also prevent me to report to my work.”

Asidera is an on-call household helper, while her husband works at a construction site.

Diosana said the expansion of benefits to outpatient care will greatly ease the financial burden of people like Asidera.

“We see how poor households sacrifice time and other basic necessities for the health care of family members,” she said. “The UHC bills hope to end that vicious cycle of the poor getting poorer due to

their lack of access to the very basic health-care services.”

Outpatient

EARLIER this year, a study group composed of local medical practitioners released a series of statements to persuade senators to strengthen the outpatient care in the country by including it in the

UHC bills.

“It is high time we cared for our patients to protect their wellbeing instead of just delaying their trip to the grave, so to speak,” said Dr. Antonio Dans, head of the Philippine Primary Care Studies. The PPCS is a research group under the University of the Philippines system that is helping the Department of Health (DOH), local government units (LGUs), PhilHealth and Congress to prioritize the strengthening of primary care systems as one of the key elements of the UHC. “We need reforms in our health-care delivery system that will focus on preventing ailments and promoting health aside from intervening when people are already sick,” Dans has said in one of the statements that the PPCS issued.

The physician added that “curative care is important but can be more exacting on the resources of the government and of patients and their families.”

“Primary care in its simplest definition is outpatient care,” the physician added. “This is where disease prevention takes place.”

The PPCS is pushing for primary care as the focus of PhilHealth benefits to realize the goal of universal health care.

“Many patients do not have access to hospital facilities but can still go to outpatient facilities near them. Most diseases need outpatient care and not hospitalization,” Dans further said. “And even most patients who have been treated in a hospital would need outpatient care when they are discharged.”

Access

ACCORDING to Dr. Raffy Marfori, assistant program leader of the said study, the current health system in the country works for some, but not for all.

“That’s because a lot of Filipi-

nos do not have access to health services despite the increase in the number of households getting covered by PhilHealth.”

“PhilHealth enrollment has reached up to 92 percent of the population and, in general, more people are now utilizing their health benefits when they are sick,” Marfori added. “But this improvement has been much slower and more difficult for poorer Filipinos.”

Studies conducted by the group show that, while only 33 percent of wealthier Filipinos were able to utilize their PhilHealth benefits in 2003, this improved to 88 percent in 2013. But in the same 10-year period, the utilization of PhilHealth benefits among the poorest segment went up from 18 percent to only 33 percent.

Marfori cited barriers that prevent people from actually claiming their health benefits, even with high-population coverage. These barriers include partial coverage of outpatient care, unavailable services near homes or workplaces, added costs to reach those services—such as transportation and absence from work—and a mismatch between the country’s health work force versus the country’s health needs.

“It takes many things to achieve universal health care, although the single most crucial piece of the puzzle is being able to strengthen primary care systems,” Marfori explained. She believes the UHC bills have the potential to address the problems “our health system is currently facing.”

“We [should aim] for a healthcare system that reaches all Filipinos, connects all Filipinos to needed health services and limits barriers such as but not only cost, to achieve fairly distributed health outcomes for more people.”

The World BusinessMirror

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UK’s May faces Brexit showdown as home-front negotiations sour

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dramatic week in UK politics, full of tragicomic fumbles and accusations of betrayal, has left one thing clear: Parliament’s growing role in Brexit has only added to the obstacles in Prime Minister Theresa May’s path.

In four months’ time Britain is meant to have sealed a deal with the European Union on the terms of a divorce its people voted for two years ago. But the UK is still stuck in negotiations with itself, both inside May’s Cabinet and in parliament, where lawmakers in her Conservative Party are making common cause with Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour Party to block her.

Brussels looks on in horror. Talks are stalled, and this week officials talked privately about the possibility of whether the UK might need to stay in the bloc past March 2019 if Brexit negotiations don’t accelerate over the summer.

It’s becoming increasingly difficult to see how May can deliver the Brexit she promised.

Even if she’s replaced, the parliamentary arithmetic—reflecting a deeply divided country—remains the same. Much of May’s strategy so far has been fudge and delay, but those tricks are working less and less.

There have been an extra set of disappointments to digest in the process, which went largely unnoticed because of the fight at home. The EU has informed the UK that it cannot maintain full participation in the bloc’s foreign policy and has made it harder for UK companies to win contracts for the next stages of the multibillion-euro Galileo satellite navigation program.

The problem is that the domestic drama is all-consuming. So much government time and energy is spent on preventing revolts either from the pro-EU wing of her party or the Brexit supporting one—never mind trying to focus on preparation for worstcase scenarios or active engagement with EU negotiators.

So where do things stand? On the one hand, May’s latest effort to quell a pro-EU mutiny looked to be in trouble. A proposed compromise over a “meaningful vote” amendment—a proxy for whether Parliament can direct the final stage of Brexit negotiations if a chaotic no-deal scenario looks imminent—was furiously rejected within minutes of it being published.

Calling bluff

But the government thinks some rebels are willing to switch sides to support May, according to two people familiar with the negotiations. This should be enough to save the premier from a damaging parliamentary defeat, they said.

At stake is the question of what should happen if negotiations with the EU don’t produce a deal, or if Parliament rejects the

accord the government gets. For business— the risk of a no-deal Brexit is the worst-case chaos scenario, and that’s the situation the rebels are trying to prevent. It’s bad news for business if the pro-Brexit faction gains the upper hand.

In the short term, May faces a knifeedge vote next week over her flagship Brexit legislation in the upper House of Lords on Monday, and then a showdown with rebels in the lower chamber on Wednesday. This week had all been about securing a truce—until talks fell apart, apparently with one side calling the other’s bluff.

A small group of Conservative lawmakers, who argue that Britain needs to stay close to the EU, want Parliament to have the power to tell the government what to do if a no-deal becomes a possibility. The government argues this is giving away too much power. Those in May’s party who want more distance from the EU say it could be used to block Brexit altogether.

May’s problem is that she doesn’t have a majority in either chamber of Parliament, so she can’t pass the bill without making compromises. However any deal has to be acceptable to the pro-Brexit flank of her party, who fear they are losing influence over what Britain’s ultimate relationship with the bloc will be. They suspect the pro-EU lawmakers of trying to reverse the result of the referendum in 2016.

The drama

Two days of negotiations between the government and the two sides to draft an acceptable amendment to the bill had seemed to succeed in finding common ground early Thursday afternoon, with rebels saying they had secured an agreement that would allow them to veto a messy Brexit.

But as the moment for the amendment to be published approached, it became clear there was a hitch, and within minutes of it being tabled, the leading rebel, former Attorney General Dominic Grieve, declared it “unacceptable.”

“We came to a really good agreement,” he said in an interview. “At the very, very last minute a change was introduced. We can’t live with that.”

And as a sign of May’s confidence that she has done enough, her officials are not planning any more compromise talks with the rebels. Nevertheless, offering a deal some of them don’t accept is a gamble.

For weeks, the pro-Brexit wing of the party has been urging her to stand up to the other side, arguing that if she did, she’d win.

If they’re right, she might just emerge more powerful. If they’re wrong, the so-called Brexiteers will have demonstrated their own weakness rather than hers.

Bloomberg News

US economy emerges as world’s bright spot

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he United States economy is sprinting ahead of the rest of the world, at least for now. Spurred by solid consumer spending—including May retail sales that topped forecasts on Thursday—the US is increasingly likely to rack up growth of at least 4 percent in the current quarter after a so-so expansion at the start of the year. In contrast, euro-area central bankers trimmed their outlook for 2018, while China showed signs of slowing, and emerging markets from Brazil to Indonesia have been buckling.

“The US is accelerating, and just about everyone else is decelerating,” said Nariman Behravesh, chief economist at IHS Markit in Cambridge, Massachusetts. “There’s no question in my mind that the US is leading the pack” and “it’s both a consumer and business story here.”

That contrasts with last year’s picture of synchronous growth across the world, which has given way to uneven paths for major economies, amid trade tensions and rising global oil costs. It also comes on the heels of diverging monetary-policy actions by central banks this week.

The Federal Reserve raised interest rates on Wednesday for the second time this year, with Chairman Jerome Powell saying the economy is in “great shape.” Then, on Thursday, the People’s Bank of China kept the cost of reverse-repurchase agreements steady, defying predictions it would track the Fed’s hike.

Hours later, the European Central Bank (ECB) decided to taper bond purchases and pledged to keep interest rates unchanged at current record lows at least through

the summer of 2019, a longer time frame than investors had priced in. ECB President Mario Draghi pointed out that the recent economic “soft patch” may last longer even as he said the economy is in a better situation.

Consumption engine

In the US, the world’s largest economy, l owe r t a xe s e n a c te d by t h e Tru m p administration, a strong labor market and elevated confidence are helping cushion the pinch to shoppers from higher fuel expenses. That’s bolstering prospects for household consumption, which accounts for about 70 percent of the economy.

Retail sales, the latest snapshot of how US households are doing, rose 0.8 percent in May, according to a Commerce Department report on Thursday. That topped forecasts and prompted IHS Markit to boost its projection for second-quarter growth to a 4.4 percent annualized pace from 4.2 percent. JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s chief US economist Michael Feroli pushed up his estimate to what he called a “boomy” 4 percent from 2.75 percent, while also lifting his forecast for annual US growth.

President Donald J. Trump is officially targeting sustained 3-percent growth, but has often talked about an even faster pace.

At the same time, some analysts see the pace of growth cooling in the second half and next year as the effects of tax cuts ebb, and many see the economy’s speed limit as closer to 2 percent.

Bloomberg News

Saturday, June 16, 2018

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Trump okays plan to impose tariffs on $55-B China imports

By Ken Thomas & Paul Wiseman

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The Associated Press

ASHINGTON— President Donald J. Trump has approved a plan to impose “punishing” tariffs on tens of billions of dollars of Chinese goods as early as Friday, a move that could put his trade policies on a collision course with his push to rid the Korean Peninsula of nuclear weapons.

Trump has long vowed to fulfill his campaign pledge to clamp dow n on what he con siders u n fa i r C h i nese trading practices. But his calls for billions in tariffs could complicate his efforts to maintain China’s support i n h i s ne got i at ion s w it h North Korea.

Trump met on Thursday with several Cabinet members and trade advisers and was expected to impose tariffs on at least $35 billion to $40 billion of Chinese imports, according to an industry official and an administration official familiar with the plans.

The amount of goods could reach $55 billion, said the industry official. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity in order to discuss the matter ahead of a formal announcement.

If the president presses forward as expected, it could set the stage for a series of trade actions against China, and lead to retaliation from Beijing. Trump has already slapped tariffs on steel and a lu m i nu m i mp o r t s f r o m Canada, Mexico and European allies, and his proposed tariffs against China risk starting a trade war involving the world’s two biggest economies.

T he decision on the Chinese tariffs comes in the aftermath of Trump’s summit w ith North Korean leader K i m Jong Un. T he president has coordinated closely w it h C h ina on ef for ts to get Pyong yang to eliminate its nuclear arsenal. But he signaled that whatever the implications, “I have to do what I have to do” to address the trade imbalance.

Trump, in his news conference in Singapore on Tuesday, said the US has a “tremendous deficit in trade with China and we have to do something about it. We can’t continue to let that happen.” The US trade deficit with China was $336 billion in 2017.

Administration officials have signaled support for imposing the tariffs in a dispute over allegations that Beijing steals or pressures foreign companies to hand over technology, according to officials briefed on the plans. China has targeted $50 billion in US products for potential retaliation.

Wa l l Street has v iewed t he esc a l at i ng t rade tensions with wariness, fearful that they could strangle the economic growth achieved

during Trump’s watch and undermine the benefits of the tax cuts he signed into law last year.

“If you end up with a tariff battle, you will end up with price inflation, and you could end up with consumer debt.

Those are all historic ingredients for an economic slowdown,” Gary Cohn, Trump’s former top economic adviser, said at an event sponsored by The Washington Post.

But Steve Bannon, Trump’s former White House and campaign adviser, said the crackdown on China’s trade practices was “the central part of Trump’s economic nationalist message. His fundamental commitment to the ‘deplorables’ on the campaign trail was that he was going to bring manufacturing jobs back, particularly from Asia.”

In the trade fight, Bannon said, Trump has converted three major tools that “the American elites considered off the table”—namely, the use of tariffs, the technology investigation of China and penalties on Chinese telecom giant ZTE. “That’s what has gotten us to the situation today where the Chinese are actually at the table,” Bannon said. “It’s really not just tariffs, it’s tariffs on a scale never before considered.”

The Chinese have threatened to counterpunch if the president goes ahead with the plan. Chinese officials have said they would drop agreements reached last month to buy more US soybeans, natural gas and other products. “ We m ade c lea r t h at i f t he US rol ls out trade sanct ions, i nc lud i ng t he i mpo sit ion of t a r i f fs, a l l outcomes reac hed by t he t wo sides i n ter ms of t rade a nd economy w i l l not come into ef fec t,” Foreig n Mi n i st r y Sp ok esm a n G e ng S hu a ng sa id on T hu rsd ay.

Beijing has a lso d raw n up a list of $50 billion in US products that would face

UNITED States President Donald Trump and China’s President Xi Jinping arrive for the state dinner with the first ladies at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China, in this file photo. Trump is closing in on a decision to impose “punishing” tariffs on tens of billions of dollars of Chinese goods as early as Friday. The move could put his trade policies on a collision course with his push to denuclearize Korean Peninsula. AP

retaliator y tariffs, including beef and soybeans—a shot at Trump’s supporters in rural A merica.

Scott Kennedy, a specialist on the Chinese economy at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, sa id t he Chinese t hreat was real and helped along by recent strains exhibited among the US and allies. “I don’t think they would cower or immediately run to the negotiating table to throw themselves at the mercy of Don a ld Tr u mp,” K en nedy said. “ T hey see the US is isolated and the president as easily distracted.”

Ron Moore, who far ms 1,800 acres of corn and soybeans in Roseville, Illinois, said soybean prices have already started dropping ahead of what looks like a trade war between the two economic powerhouses. “We have to plan for the worst-case scenario and hope for the best,” said Moore, who is chairman of the American Soybean Association. “If you look back at President Trump’s history, he’s been wildly successful negotiating as a businessman. But it’s different when you’re dea ling w ith other governments.”

The US and China have been holding ongoing negotiations over the trade dispute. The United States has criticized China for the aggressive tactics it uses to develop advanced technologies, including robots and electric cars, under its “Made in China 2025” program. The US tariffs are designed specifically to punish China for forcing American companies to hand over technology in exchange for access to the Chinese market.

The administration is also working on proposed Chinese investment restrictions by June 30. So far, Trump has yet to signal any interest in backing away.

If you look back at President Trump’s history, he’s been wildly successful negotiating as a businessman. But it’s different when you’re dealing with other governments.”—Moore

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The World BusinessMirror

Saturday, June 16, 2018

Halt of ‘war games’ could weaken defenses in Korea

By Robert Burns | The Associated Press

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ASHINGTON—President Donald J. Trump’s decision to suspend major US military exercises in South Korea could weaken allied defenses, depending on the length and scope of the hiatus. But the potential for diplomatic damage seems even greater.

The United States, South Korea and Japan were making a public display of solidarity on Thursday over the outcome of Trump’s summit with North Korea’s Kim Jong Un. But analysts and former officials with experience in US-Asia policy were shaken by Trump’s failure to inform the Asian allies—or even the Pentagon—before mothballing the military maneuvers.

“Those exercises are critically important because they are deterrence,” said Chuck Hagel, a former defense secretary in the Obama administration. He

welcomed Trump’s willingness to talk to Kim, but worried that the president has underestimated the complications he has introduced for the Pentagon by suspending the military drills.

“You don’t just shut them on and off like a water faucet,” he said.

The exercises in question go well beyond routine training, which apparently is unaffected

by Trump’s decision. Large-scale exercises are done to ensure that evolving tactics, procedures and plans can be carried out smoothly and that US and South Korean

forces are in sync. They also are a means of showing allied solidarity, which is part of the psychology of deterring enemy attack.

The US has stationed combat troops in South Korea since the Korean War ended in 1953 with an armistice and no peace treaty.

The more than 28,000 US forces serve as a military tripwire against North Korean aggression. The next major exercise with South Korea is known as Ulchi Freedom Guardian; last year’s version was held for 11 days in August and involved about 17,500 US troops.

T he US has insisted these k inds of dr il ls are defensive measures to demonstrate US and South Korean preparedness to respond promptly to any aggression by the North. But when Trump announced his decision to halt them, he characterized them as “provocative” and as “war games.”

“Those are literally the North Korea n a nd C h inese t a l k ing points,” said Christine Wormuth, the Pentagon’s top policy official from 2014 to 2016.

In further explaining his reasons for suspending major exercises, Trump said they “cost a fortune,” though even the Pentagon,

which foots the bill for US participation in all such maneuvers, has been unable to say what they cost.

Defense Secretary Jim Mattis’s office on Wednesday sent out a request to military commands for cost estimates for the main military exercises held on and around the Korean Peninsula, according to officials who spoke about the request on condition of anonymity to discuss internal communications.

In the past, some estimates for smaller exercises have been about $2 million, while some larger ones have cost $15 million or more— all relatively minor expenses for a department with a budget now exceeding $700 billion.

On Thursday the Pentagon issued a brief statement, saying Mattis had discussed the summit outcome with his South Korean counterpart, including they can work together to “ fulfill the president’s guidance” on military exercises.

Michael Green, who was Asia director on the National Security Council staff during the George W. Bush administration, said the likely damage from suspending drills is multiplied by Trump’s failure to inform South Korean and Japanese officials in advance and his focus on cost-savings. This was then compounded, in Green’s view, by Trump’s dubious assertion on Twitter that North Korea no longer poses a nuclear threat.

“The No. 1 problem with this, geopolitically, is that it suggests to our allies that we are just incompetent, that we don’t recognize the threat,” Green said.

Harry Harris, the retired Navy admiral and former commander of US forces throughout the Pacific, said on Thursday he believes the North’s nuclear weapons still pose a threat, but he endorsed Trump’s decision to suspend US military exercises.

“We should give major exercises a pause to see if Kim Jong Un is serious about his part of the negotiations,” Harris said at a Senate hearing to consider his nomination to be US ambassador in Seoul.

Harris said the suspension of drills provides “breathing space” for progress in negotiating North Korea’s nuclear disarmament.

Without mentioning that South Korea and Japan were not consulted before Trump suspended drills, Harris said such decisions should not be taken unilaterally.

Sen. John McCain, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, called the suspension of drills a mistake, a bad negotiating tactic and a move that undermines US security.

“We must not impose upon ourselves the burden of providing so-called good faith concessions as the price for continued dialogue,” the Arizona Republican said in a statement.

Secretar y of State Mike Pompeo, mea nwh i le, br iefed h i s Sout h Korean, Japanese and Chinese counter par ts on the Singapore summit. At a news conference in Seou l, Pompeo said “stay ing c losely a lig ned w ith our a l lies...w il l be cr itica l ” to success w ith Nor th Korean denuclear ization, but he had nothing to say about the suspension of militar y dr il ls.

The White House has said that the maneuvers were suspended “in a show of good faith,” for as long as productive negotiations with the North continue, and that “regular readiness training and training exchanges” will continue. The Pentagon, however, has remained silent on what Trump meant and hasn’t confirmed it will cancel or postpone the Ulchi Freedom Guardian exercise.

www.businessmirror.com.ph

After summit, NoKor shows Trump in striking new light

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YONGYANG, North Korea—North Koreans are getting a new look at President Donald J. Trump. They see him shaking hands with Kim Jong Un at their historic summit in Singapore, and even awkwardly saluting a three-star general.

It’s a far cry from the “dotard” label their government slapped on him last year.

Previously, even on a good day, the best he might get was “Trump.” No honorifics.

No signs of respect. Now, he’s being called “the president of the United States of America.” Or “President Donald J. Trump.”

Even “supreme leader.”

The post-summit transformation of North Korea’s official version of Trump, who’s now being shown by state media looking serious and almost regal, underscores the carefully choreographed reality show the government has had to perform to keep its people, taught from childhood to hate and distrust the “American imperialists,” ideologically on board with the tectonic shifts under way in their countr y ’s relationship with Washington.

With a time lag that suggests a great deal of care and thought went into the final product, the North’s state-run television aired its first videos and photos of the summit on Thursday, two days after the event and a full day after Kim returned home to Pyongyang, the capital.

To be sure, the star of the show was Kim. Trump’s first appearance and the nowfamous handshake didn’t come until almost 20 minutes into the 42-minute program.

To the dramatic, almost song-like intonations of the nation’s most famous newscaster, the program depicted Kim as statesmanlike beyond his years, confident and polite, quick to smile and firmly in control. He was shown allowing the older American—Trump, in his seventies, is more than twice Kim’s age—to lean in toward him to shake hands, or give a thumbs up, then walking a few steps ahead to a working lunch.

The program also showed an awkward moment of Trump reaching out to shake the hand of a North Korean general, Minister of the People’s Armed Forces No Kwang Chol, who instead saluted the American president. Trump saluted the officer in return, and the two then shook hands. In another scene, he moved a chair with his foot instead of his hands.

Both elicited giggles from North Koreans watching the program.

Before showing Trump and Kim signing their joint statement, the newscaster said Trump made a point of giving Kim a look at his armored Cadillac limousine, and noted that it is known to Americans as “the Beast.”

She also at one point called them the “two supreme leaders” of their countries.

The image -heav y news of Kim’s trip to Singapore was presented like a chronological documentary, starting with the red-carpet sendoff at the Pyongyang airpor t on, interestingly enough, a chartered Air China flight. That was followed

by video of his motorcade making its way to the St. Regis Hotel in Singapore as throngs of well-wishers waved as though awaiting a rock star, and Kim’s night tour of the citystate on the summit’s eve.

The state media’s representation of the summit and Trump is extremely important because it gives the North Korean population, which has only limited access to other news sources, an idea not just of what’s going on but also of how the government expects them to respond.

For the average North Korean, the state media’s coverage of Kim’s diplomatic blitz this year must seem nothing short of astonishing.

After sending a top-level delegation that included his own sister to the Winter Olympics in South Korea in February, Kim has met twice each with South Korean President Moon Jae -in and Chinese President Xi Jinping and the state media have splashed all of the meetings across its front pages and newscasts—though generally a day after the fact to allow time to make sure the ideological tone is right and the images as powerful as possible.

In the run-up to the summit, the North’s media softened its rhetoric so as not to spoil the atmosphere as Kim prepared to sit down with the leader of the country North Korea has maligned and lambasted for decades as the most evil place on Earth, other than perhaps Japan, its former colonial ruler.

It fired a few barrages against hard-line comments by US Vice President Mike Pence and National Security Adviser John Bolton and has stood ever critical of “capitalist values,” but has kept direct references to Trump to a minimum. Bolton, who has been a target of Pyongyang’s ire since his service in the George W. Bush administration, was introduced in the Thursday program deadpan and shown shaking Kim’s hand.

What this all means for the future is a complicated matter.

Nor th Korea has presented Kim’s diplomatic strategy as a logical next step following what he has said is the completion of his plan to develop a credible nuclear deterrent to what Pyongyang has long claimed is a policy of hostility and “nuclear blackmail” by Washington.

That was its message through the news on Thursday, which stressed that the talks with Trump would be focused on forging a relationship that is more in tune with what it called changing times—most likely meaning North Korea’s new status as a nuclear weapons state—and its desire for a mechanism to ensure a lasting peace on the Korean Peninsula and, finally, denuclearization.

Despite the respectful tone, there remains a clear undercurrent of caution.

Kim remains the hero in the official Pyongyang narrative. Whether Trump will be his costar, or once again the villain, is fodder for another episode.

AP/Eric Talmadge

Apple closing iPhone security gap used by law enforcement

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AN FRANCISCO—Apple is closing a security gap that allowed outsiders to pry personal information from locked iPhones without a password, a change that will thwart law-enforcement agencies that have been exploiting the vulnerabilit y to collec t evidence in criminal investigations.

The loophole will be shut down in a forthcoming update to Apple’s iOS software, which powers iPhones.

Once fixed, iPhones will no longer be vulnerable to intrusion via the Lightning port used both to transfer data and to charge iPhones. The port will still function after the update, but will shut off data an hour after a phone is locked if the correct password isn’t entered.

The current flaw has provided a point of entry for authorities across the US since the FBI paid an unidentified third party in 2016 to unlock an iPhone used by a killer in the San Bernardino, California, mass shooting a few months earlier. The FBI sought outside help after Apple rebuffed the agency’s efforts to make the company create a security backdoor into iPhone technology.

Apple’s refusal to cooperate with the FBI at the time became a political hot potato pitting the rights of its customers against

the broader interests of public safety. While waging his successful 2016 campaign, President Donald J. Trump ripped Apple for denying FBI access to the San Bernardino killer’s locked iPhone.

In a Wednesday statement, Apple framed its decision to tighten iPhone security even further as part of its crusade to protect the highly personal information that its customers store on their phones.

Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook has hailed privacy as a “fundamental” right of people and skewered both Facebook and one of Apple’s biggest rivals, Google, for vacuuming up vast amounts of personal information about users of their free services to sell advertising based on their interests.

During Apple’s 2016 battle with the FBI, he called the FBI’s effort to make the company alter its software a “dangerous precedent” in an open letter. “ We’re constantly strengthening the security protections in every Apple product to help customers defend against hackers, identity thieves and intrusions into their personal data,” Apple said.

“We have the greatest respect for law enforcement, and we don’t design our security improvements to frustrate their efforts to do their jobs.” AP

Sports BusinessMirror

Editor: Jun Lomibao • mirror_sports@yahoo.com.ph

Saturday, June 16, 2018

A5

RUSSIA’S Yuri Gazinsky celebrates with teammates after scoring his side’s first goal. AP

Yupaporn Kawinpakorn poses with her trophy.

DUSTIN JOHNSON shares the lead at oneunder 69 in an opening round of strong wind, high anxiety and scores that make this feel like a US Open again. AP

A6 Saturday, June 16, 2018 | Editor: Mike Besa

In late-May we took another important step toward expanding the Asian Tour’s presence in China at our last tournament, which was the Asia-Pacific Classic in Zhengzhou. Following the game-changing strategic partnership we signed with the China Golf Association (CGA) last year, the APC was the third tournament we sanctioned in China during the past six months. This solidifies the East Asia corporate strategy we devised last year which has seen China become our fastestgrowing market!

ASIAN TOUR CEO BLOG

By Josh Burack Asian Tour CEO

Closer and Stronger

Josh Burack (left) and Fan Zhiqiang

John Catlin

Malcolm Kokocinski

Xiao Bowen

During this period, our team had developed strong camaraderie with CGD Sports, who are the promoter of the China Tour and our cosanctioned tournaments.

Through the success of the APC, the owner of Saint Andrews Golf Club in Zhengzhou, Fan Zhiqiang, committed to help underwrite and host the cosanctioned tournament again in 2019, which is terrific news for both Tours. In the interim, we will return to China next in November for the Asian Golf Championship in Xiamen. We are also in discussions to add at least one additional event in China this season.

States, Chinese Taipei’s Chan Shih-chang, Thailand’s Pavit Tangkamolprasert and Poom Saksansin, as well as Malaysian duo Gavin Green and Nicholas Fung were winners on the ADT before they progressed to become Asian Tour champions.

Welcome to the Asian Tour

Developing Champions

The APC saw some outstanding golf with Asian Development Tour stalwart John Catlin of the United States, breaking through on the bigger stage to capture his maiden Asian Tour title with a two-shot victory over Adam Blyth.

Catlin was the second consecutive ADT player to earn a “Tournament Winner” card following Sweden’s Malcolm Kokocinski’s impressive three-shot victory the week prior at the AB Bank Bangladesh Open.

Eight years after we founded the ADT in 2010, the circuit continues to be an effective feeder to the main tour. In addition to Catlin and Kokocinski, Berry Henson of the United

Burack (right) with KGA officials

The 37th GS Caltex Maekyung Open Golf Championship marked our formal reestablishment of ties with the Korea Golf Association (KGA). It was the first time we cosanctioned an event with the KGA since 2009.

It was truly a momentous occasion for all our stakeholders, as well as everyone who worked hard to make the tournament so successful.

The event was staged at the Namseoul Country Club, saw many of our young Asian Tour stars step up their play to contend for

Sanghyun Park

the title. Yikeun Chang and Gaganjeet Bhullar ended up in a four-way playoff along with Sanghyun Park and Junggon Hwang of the Korean Tour. Eventually, Park secured victory with a par at the third extra hole. After his win, Park took up Asian Tour membership and with that, he’s in contention for the Habitat for Humanity Standings title.

Park is ranked seventh (after the Asia-Pacific Classic), about $400,000 behind the leader, India’s Shubhankar Sharma. With so many lucrative events on the horizon, the race is wide open.

Speaking of which, we are looking forward to the KRW1,200,000,000 (approximately $1,110,000) Kolon Korea Open, popularly known as one of the country’s golf majors, in late-June.

Expanding Horizons

While the first five months of our schedule have been very solid, the remaining seven months are even stronger. The Asian Tour will have a busy schedule all the way to the end of December, highlighted by new events we are announcing that are set in exotic locations across the globe.

The inaugural Sarawak Championship will be happening in early July. It is the first Asian Tour tournament to be held in the East Malaysian state after staging ADT events there from 2012 to 2017. The event will offer a prize purse of $300,000 and will be staged at the Arnold Palmer-designed Damai Golf and Country Club.

Similarly, the Asian Tour will be staging a main tournament in Pakistan in October after an 11- year hiatus. The CNS Open Golf Championship will also offer $300,000 in prize money. We are enthusiastic that our involvement in Pakistan will grow the game in the country, as well as the region.

My thanks to everyone for your continuing support to the Asian Tour!

Best regards, Josh #whereitsAT

T

Story & photo

by Mike Besa

he Philippines has always been a country of just two seasons—hot and wet.

In 2018 the weather has been a bit, well...weird. The cool weather that normally bids adieu in early March stayed until just past Holy Week in the first week of April.

That’s normally when the hot weather is at its peak. Making a grand entrance in almost midApril, the heat made its presence felt and boy, was it hot! It was so hot that a lot of my golf buddies, who are normally quite resilient to fluctuations in temperature and weather, opted to put down their clubs until the weather took a turn toward cooler times.

Then over the weekend without any fanfare, the rains came. Did they ever. It rained so hard that golf games everywhere got rained out.

The city of Tagaytay, normally impassable on weekends due to the sheer volume of day tourists and passersby, was eerily quiet. Bad for business but good for the locals who normally seek refuge in areas away from their home.

It seems ironic that a country that receives as much rainfall as the Philippines would suffer from water shortages, but here we are. The golf courses of Cavite suffered much in the summer of 2018. Normally lush green fairways turned a parched shade of brown. Most golf courses had tough choices to make. Most chose to let the fairways suffer the brunt of the effects of the drought while continuing to water the tee boxes and greens complexes.

The water issues seem confined to the Cavite golf courses. We saw golf courses from Pampanga in the North down to Batangas in the South and none of them were hit as badly as the golf courses in Cavite. The Orchard Golf and Country Club beset by management issues was perhaps the hardest hit. The Riviera Golf and Country Club suffered also but good management was able to mitigate the effects of drought. Not all were so badly hit, as Sherwood Hills came out of it seemingly unscathed. But it begs the question of why the province suffers so while others are seemingly unaffected.

The province of Cavite draws much of its ground water from the six watersheds that feed the aquifers below ground that form the stores of the province’s fresh water. These are the Bacoor River watershed, the Imus River watershed, the San Juan River watershed, the Cañas River watershed, the Labac River watershed and the Maragondon River watershed.

All the watersheds are located in the area just north of the Tagaytay ridgeline. The Bacoor, Imus and San Juan River watersheds all empty into Bacoor Bay and the others into Manila Bay. The watersheds trap a good deal of the rainwater and surface runoff and channel it through the earth into aquifers that store vast quantities of it.

The source that feeds the aquifers is rainfall from the Tagaytay ridge, which receives the greatest amount of rainfall in the province. A lot of the water makes its way into the earth and down to the aquifers while the surface runoff moves downhill, where it makes it to the rivers and empties into the bay. The Tagaytay ridge has been developed quite heavily in the last decade with no end to the process in sight. The development prevents rainfall from seeping into the ground and to the aquifers. Most of it now runs off the surface, into the rivers and out through the bays.

Meanwhile, the population of Cavite is growing at unprecedented rates. The population almost doubled in a span of 15 years between

Cavite’s W

Rain clouds are a welcome sight for the golf course.

2000 and 2015. However, it should be noted that the rate the population is increasing has abated and that the population in Cavite is now in decline. It reached its peak until 2010 and is, on the average, in decline. But that statistic might be deceiving because in certain local government units (LGU), the population is still on the up.

The fastest-growing LGU is Trece Martires City, followed by the city of Imus, the municipality of Carmona and city of General Trias. These areas are still experiencing in-migration due to the continuous development of settlements and industrial areas. Trece Martires City is home to many low-cost housing projects funded by the national government.

The pressures that the sudden increase in population placed upon the province’s resources was great, perhaps too great for the water supply to cope. The unregulated proliferation of deep wells and water-supply businesses continues to do damage. These wells are having to go deeper and deeper into the ground to find supplies of potable water, a sure sign that the aquifers are being depleted. This spells very bad news for the province’s burgeoning population.

This also greatly affects the viability of the province’s golf courses. Cavite is home to 10 golf clubs, many of which have more than 18 holes of golf. A typical golf course requires 100,000 to 1,000,000 gallons (378.5 m3 to 3,785 m3) of water per week in summer to maintain healthy vegetation. Multiply that by the number of 18-hole golf courses in the province and that is roughly

Discovery and PGA Tour to create first-of-its-kind International golf service

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By the PGA Tour

EW YORK and LONDON—Discovery and the PGA Tour today announced plans to form a pioneering strategic alliance to create a new international multiplatform home for golf, delivering the sport’s most exciting moments, players and championships to passionate fans around the world on every screen and device. The alliance will seek to benefit the game worldwide, helping to drive golf’s fan base and grow the sport around the world.

The unprecedented 12-year relationship, to begin in 2019 and carry through 2030, would include global multiplatform live rights, outside the United States, to all PGA Tour media properties totaling nearly 2000 hours of content per year, including the six Tours operating under the PGA Tour umbrella and more than 140 Tournaments annually, including The Players Championship, the FedExCup Playoffs, and the Presidents Cup. In addition to live linear rights in 220 markets and territories, the alliance will include the creation of a dedicated, PGA Tour-branded, OTT video-streaming service that will capitalize on Discovery’s direct-to-consumer product and platform expertise experience as home to the Eurosport Player. Discovery expects to invest more than $2 billion over the course of

David Zaslav (left), president and CEO of Discovery (left) and Jay Monahan, Commissioner of the PGA Tour, celebrate their new partnership.

the alliance, including licensing of the PGA Tour’s international media rights and building a global OTT platform available outside the United States, with a gradual increase of annual investment during the term.

Building on a heritage of world-class coverage and storytelling, Discovery and the PGA Tour will work with leading broadcasters

and distribution platforms to deliver PGA Tour content to viewers globally outside the United States. Opportunities will also be explored within Discovery’s portfolio of pay-TV and free-to-air channels, and digital and short-form platforms, to best utilize the PGA Tour’s extensive nonlive and library rights for all media platforms.

David Zaslav, president and CEO, Discovery, said: “Today is a fantastic day for golf fans around the world as Discovery proudly partners with the PGA Tour to create something that has never been done before. The long-term partnership between the PGA Tour and Discovery will create the new global Home of Golf, including delivering over 2,000 hours of live content year-round and this prestigious sport’s greatest moments, stories and players—50 of the top 100 are international—across all of Discovery and Eurosport’s global distribution channels, including television, mobile and digital platforms. Following our successful first Olympic Games in PyeongChang, Discovery will contribute its strong global reach, in-market

relationships, global sports expertise and strong television and direct-to-consumer platforms and brands to create a valuable new long-term offering in every market outside the US.” Jay Monahan, commissioner, PGA Tour, said: “This is an exciting next step for the PGA Tour, which presents a tremendous opportunity to accelerate and expand our media business outside the United States, better service our international broadcast partners, and drive fan growth with a deeply experienced strategic global partner. This partnership aligns very well with the opening of PGA Tour offices in London, Tokyo and Beijing in recent years, and will support our long-term objectives of growing the game of golf. It also will deliver more value to our sponsors as it presents a tremendous opportunity to engage new and diverse audiences around the world.”

Since 2007, the PGA Tour has negotiated all of its non-US broadcast rights deals on its own.

The alliance between Discovery and the PGA Tour will capitalize on the two organizations’ expertise in managing international multiplatform rights and launching the new digital service. Working together, the parties expect to execute on a robust international distribution and broadcast partner strategy for the portfolio of some of golf’s most prestigious Tournaments featuring the world’s greatest players, optimizing reach

across free-to-air, pay-TV and digital.

The collaboration brings together two highly complementary global brands and storytellers with a rich heritage in sports, uniting the Tour’s rich content, production assets, media rights and worldwide media partner associations with Discovery’s deep expertise and relationships in local media markets worldwide, as well as its proven record in maximizing multiplatform engagement around the biggest and most watched sports events.

The business will be led by Discovery’s Alex Kaplan, president and general manager of the new Discovery and PGA Tour venture. Kaplan previously was EVP, Commercial for Eurosport Digital, where he helped grow the Eurosport D2C business to over 1 million subscribers.

Prior to joining Discovery, Kaplan was senior vice president, Global Media Distribution, for the NBA, responsible for global direct-toconsumer strategy and business operations.

Prior to the NBA, Kaplan spent 10 years at DIRECTV/AT&T, where he led the organization responsible for DIRECTV Sports and oversaw Revenue and Entertainment products and services. The full management team will be announced in due course and include the PGA Tour’s Thierry Pascal as senior vice president and head of distribution.

Kaplan said: “I am incredibly excited to work with David Zaslav and JB Perrette to

16,000,000 gallons of water per week.

While that is a huge number, it must be noted that golf courses make far more efficient use of the water they need for the golf course. All golf courses have water segregation systems of some sort to trap surface runoff and rainfall. This allows them to recycle the runoff by trapping it in ponds for later use. Agriculture, by far, places the greatest demands on the water supply, followed by the human population. Golf courses’ water use pales in significance, but golf courses are very visible and make easy targets for conservationists that are not very well informed.

Make no mistake, this is a crisis in the making of gigantic proportions. Water is the source of all life. Without it the province of Cavite, or any other for that matter, would be nothing but a desert wasteland, uninhabitable by life as we know it.

The golf industry in Cavite needs to start planning for the future. The options are few; reduce the use of water in the club and make plans to be able to sequester enough water for the dry months.

We are fortunate to be in a part of the world where rain still falls in abundance. That makes the situation manageable but only if we act now.

Everyone involved must do their part; the provincial and national governments, the industries that make the province their headquarters, the golf industry and the people of Cavite. Everyone needs to get up to speed on the situation and to do their part to alleviate the water crisis in the making. Water is our lifeblood; the earth would be unlivable without it.

take international coverage of PGA Tour golf to the next level. We can’t wait to get started and build a world-class global platform and long-term distribution strategy to turn the vision of this partnership into a reality. By joining forces with the outstanding PGA Tour team, led by Jay Monahan and Rick Anderson, we have a unique opportunity to build an amazing product that will serve the fans with the golf content they love on every screen.”

Discovery has demonstrable experience in managing global sports rights, optimizing viewership and engagement on its own and partner platforms. For example, Discovery is the Home of the Olympics in Europe and, through its leading sports brand Eurosport, shows premium and fully localized sports coverage all-year-round on TV and Europe’s No. 1 OTT streaming service, Eurosport Player in 54 markets. Discovery provides world-class expertise in the international sports rights and distribution and is the European gatekeeper for all TV and multimedia rights for four Olympic Games (2018-2024).

For the Olympic Winter Games PyeongChang 2018, Discovery established more than 40 freeto-air broadcast partnerships, delivering every minute of the Olympic Games via OTT for the first time across Europe. It also struck innovative social-media partnerships to reach younger audiences, such as establishing Snapchat’s first Olympics collaboration in Europe.

Discovery delivered record-breaking TV and digital viewership for the Games, including 63 percent of the population in Europe interacting on Discovery’s own free-to-air, pay-TV and digital platforms and those of its broadcaster partners.

www.pinoygolfer.com | Saturday, June 16, 2018 A7

Water Crisis

The mother of all showdowns

Presidents Cup Captains Tiger Woods and Ernie Els Getty Images

By Chuah Choo Chiang

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ineteen months out, the 2019 Presidents Cup is being billed as the mother of all showdowns and Asia’s golf stars are already dreaming of being in the heart of the action at The Royal Melbourne Golf Club in Australia.

Two of the game’s icons, Tiger Woods and Ernie Els, will captain the United States and International teams, respectively, from December 9 to 15, 2019, setting the stage for a match unlike any other considering their historic playoff duel in the dark in South Africa in 2003, which concluded with the only draw in the storied competition.

The race to make the International team (excluding European golfers) will begin in earnest from August 27, 2018, where Official World Golf Ranking points accumulated during a 12-month period will see the leading eight international golfers qualifying for the team, with another four to be picked by Els. In eight previous editions since the inaugural match in 1994, the International team has featured a sprinkling of Japanese and Korean golfers, including Jumbo Ozaki, Shigeki Maruyama, K.J. Choi and Y.E. Yang, and it wasn’t until 2015 the International team welcomed their first team members from India (Anirban Lahiri) and Thailand (Thongchai Jaidee).

A captain’s pick last year, Lahiri expects a greater spread of Asia’s golfing stalwarts to challenge for a place in Els’s team, considering their success in

recent times. “It’ll be a tantalizing contest [in 2019],” said Lahiri. “Tiger and Ernie have played arguably the most exciting moments in the Presidents Cup history. I don’t think there’s a Presidents Cup where I want to be more a part of, so I’ll be working really hard to get into the team again.”

Lahiri, Asia’s No. 1 in 2015, reckons the new breed of stars from China, India, Thailand and Malaysia, who are all in their 20s, could feature prominently for the International team, who will be eager to secure a second victory at Royal Melbourne, coincidently the site of the team’s lone triumph in the competition in 1998.

“We’ve had K.J, Y.E. and Hideki [Matsuyama] being stalwarts over the years but you can see that trend changing with guys from the other countries emerging as the strength of golf in Asia is improving dramatically. We’ve got Haotong Li and Shubhankar Sharma now and more will follow. Someone like Phachara [Khongwatmai] has the potential and Kiradech [Aphibarnrat] has played out of his skin this year. I definitely think over the next few years, more Asians will be in the Presidents Cup teams,” he said.

Following two impressive top-5 finishes at the World Golf Championships this season, Kiradech, 28, hopes to emulate Thongchai’s feat by getting into Els’s team. The burly Thai came close three years ago but with his career trending upward, the Thai star, now ranked 30th in the world, is upbeat. He said: “It’ll be an honor to be in the Presidents Cup. Everyone wants to be on that team. My form has been good and hopefully I will be able to keep it going.”

At the time of writing, seven Asians currently feature in the world’s top-100 ranking, including the 45th-ranked Haotong Li from China. The 22-yearold narrowly missed qualifying for the Presidents Cup last year but hopes to maintain his push in 2019. “Yeah, for sure [I want to play] since the last time I was nearly there but I didn’t get in. I just need to keep playing well and then hopefully get in next year. As no Chinese has played in the event before, I want to be the first,” said Li, who shot a final-round 63 in the company of Els at The Open Championship where he finished third last July.

Malaysia’s Gavin Green, the reigning Asian Tour Order of Merit winner, is potentially another contender. The 24-year-old is keen to throw his name in the hat. “There are not too many people who will get the opportunity to play in the Presidents Cup, so it’s definitely on my radar, it’s on my goal list. The Presidents Cup is a big deal,” said Green.

Japan’s world No. 10 Hideki Matsuyama and Satoshi Kodaira, who won his first PGA Tour title in April, are tipped to also jostle for a spot in the International team alongside South Korea’s Si-woo Kim, The Players champion in 2017, and India’s Shubhankar Sharma, 21. The Indian has taken the golfing world by storm following two victories in South Africa and Malaysia over the past seven months, which he followed up with an eye-catching tied ninth performance at the WGC-Mexico Championship in March.

Interestingly, Sharma caught Els’s eye as a 10-year-old during a golf clinic in India over a decade ago.

“It would be fantastic if I can make it to the Presidents Cup. It’ll be a dream come true,” said Sharma. “When I attended his clinic in the 2008 Indian Masters, he [Els] said I’ll be a great player one day if I kept practicing. And for a kid like me who was only 10 at that time, it just made my day.”

It would certainly be a shot in the arm for golf in the Philippines if local golf stars Miguel Tabuena or Angelo Que, now a regular on the Japan Golf Tour, can force their way into Els’s team next year. And it’ll certainly make Asia’s day if a bunch of the continent’s stars tee up at Royal Melbourne and feature in an International team victory over the US.

Note: Chuah is senior director, communications of the PGA Tour and is based in TPC Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia.

OurTime BusinessMirror

A8 Saturday, June 16, 2018 • Editor: Efleda P. Campos

www.businessmirror.com.ph

400 Zambo senior citizens fail to claim Q2 social pension

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AMBOANGA CITY— The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) is searching the whereabouts of 400 social pensioners in this city.

Ivan Eric Salvador, DSWD regional information officer, told the Philippine News Agency on Monday these senior citizens failed to claim their social pension for the June payout.

The June payout covers the second quarter of the year as the DSWD releases the social pension on a quarterly basis.

Salvador said they tapped the assis-

tance of the village officials to hasten the search of these social pensioners.

Salvador said there are several possible reasons they have not yet claimed their pension, and these are: they are sick; they have moved to another place; and they have died.

Salvador said those who are sick or on vacation may still claim their pension for the second quarter, but it

the monthly social pension is P500.

Salvador said there are 16,971 social pensioners in this city.

Salvador said those qualified to avail themselves of the social pension must be indigent; at least 60 years old and those who do not have Social Security System and Government Service Insurance System pensions. PNA

Is there a doctor aboard?

Airlines often hope not

Skyping the doctor?

Poll shows it’s not just for the young

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A SH I NGT ON — Eve r y morning, 92-year-old Sidney Kramer wraps a bloodpressure cuff around his arm and steps on a scale, and readings of his heart health beam to a team of nurses—and to his daughter’s smartphone—miles from his Maryland home.

Red flags? A nurse immediately calls, a form of telemedicine helping Kramer live independently by keeping his congestive heart failure under tight control.

“It’s reassuring both psychologically and physically. The way he’s put it to me, it’s like having a doctor appointment every morning,” said Miriam Dubin, Kramer’s daughter.

The vast majority of older Americans and their caregivers are ready to give virtual health care a try: Nearly nine in 10 adults ages 40 and over would be comfortable using at least one type of telemedicine for themselves or an aging loved one, said a new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. But they want to make sure an e-visit or other remote care is just as good as they’d get in person, and that their health information stays private, according to the survey released on Thursday.

Long considered an option mainly for improving access to health care in rural areas with few doctors, telemedicine is gaining ground with tech-savvy younger consumers— they text their physician with questions or Skype with a mild complaint. For seniors with chronic illnesses or mobility problems that make simply reaching a doctor’s office an ordeal, telehealth could be more than a convenience.

The graying population is raising serious questions about how the nation will provide enough quality long-term care.

But while private insurance increasingly covers certain services, such as a video visit, seniors have had a harder time because Medicare tightly restricts what it will pay for.

That’s starting to change, with a law Congress passed last winter that expands Medicare coverage for such options as video visits to diagnose stroke symptoms or check on home dialysis patients. Also, Medicare Advantage programs used by a third of beneficiaries can start offering additional telehealth options. AP

will be released in October, the next payout schedule.

He said they have to locate the beneficiaries’ whereabouts for the agency to properly liquidate the funds and to determine whether they have to be delisted from the social pensioners’ list.

Each of the beneficiaries receive P1,500 pension each quarter, since

I

GRANDMA’S MOBILE BANANAS Teodora Mateo, 65, sells ripe bananas of the saba variety on a mobile cart she pushes around the city.

She claims selling the bananas on a cart provides her exercise while she earns an income. SUZANNE JUNE G. PERANTE

Old-fashioned concept is Japan’s secret weapon

By Nobuko Kobayashi Bloomberg Opinion

L

IKE gemutlich (a German adjective describing fireside coziness), the Japanese word omotenashi is hard to define but easy to picture. It’s a cashier greeting you nicely rather than chatting with colleagues and tossing your purchase across the counter—an all-encompassing focus on service and caring professionalism.

Long hailed as the epitome of Japanese quality, the concept is, for the first time, coming in for a beating.

More and more Japanese are wondering whether human-scale omotenashi makes sense in an age when Alexa, Siri and Japan’s own robotics are seeking to provide a frictionless experience through technology. I’d argue that the term belongs in our vocabulary and, in fact, offers a key to growth and prosperity.

Skeptics make a persuasive case. While the spirit of omotenashi contributes to high service quality, it requires higher labor intensity per output, fueling low productivity both in the service sector and in white-collar work overall. According to the Japan Productivity Center, the per-hour productivity of Japanese workers is only about

two-thirds that of their American counterparts. Japan ranked 20th of 35 Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries in 2017 and has been stuck at the lowest level in the Group of Seven (G-7) ever since the statistics became available in 1970.

Omotenashi can a lso work against transparency and good governance. Directed toward an internal customer—in other words, one’s boss—an excessive emphasis on omotenashi may lead to organizational collusion. The raft of Japanese corporate scandals shows how hard executives find it to put principles before what are seen as the firm’s interests, and to fight back against corporate malfeasance.

And finally, the concept of omotenashi seems awfully inward-looking at a time when Japanese companies need to grow more comfortable operating globally. If omotenashi grew out of a homogenous, high-context environment such as Japan where citizens can easily relate to one another, can it really work as well outside the country?

In fact, deployed wisely, omotenashi can help Japanese companies set themselves apart. For one thing, the concept can help rationalize

how Japanese firms deploy their workers. Nowadays, many jobs can be divided into two buckets—mundane tasks that can be automated and people-to-people tasks that require communication. The latter are designed for rich omotenashi.

For example, at a commercial bank, AI-enabled technology could screen mortgage applications, while highly trained employees could perform complicated financial planning for customers who want their needs understood in detail and by another human being.

A focus on omotenashi could also increase diversity and help mitigate Japan’s labor shortages.

Despite a shrinking population, the productive labor force in Japan is expected to remain flat over the next five years, according to recent research by Mitsubishi UFJ Research and Consulting. This is due to an inflow of women and elderly workers compensating for the decrease of men between the ages of 15 and 64. Instead of assigning those women and senior citizens to back-office operations or support roles as was traditionally the case, companies could enhance their omotenashi by moving them to frontline tasks, such as sales and customer service.

N May 2016 Lewis Christman was flying from Chicago to Rome when he suffered a bout of acute pancreatitis. He curled into a fetal position on the floor. He spent the next seven hours in agony while the plane flew on. The next three months, he spent in hospitals.

This month Christman sued, accusing United Continental Holdings Inc. of ignoring a recommendation from a doctor on board to divert the flight and failing to contact medical consultants on the ground. It was another round of bad publicity for United and one that draws scrutiny to how United States air carriers treat passengers in distress and the pressure to keep flights in the air.

“Obviously, there is a significant cost to landing the plane,” said David Axelrod, Christman’s lawyer.

“We’re looking for all the information about this incident, where my poor client is doubled over in pain, and he’s vomiting, and they’re not landing this plane.”

A medical emergency sets in motion a high-altitude calculation with human lives in the balance. While pilots are the ultimate decisionmakers, airlines have earth-bound medical consultants that help bypass on-board volunteers—reducing expensive emergency landings, but with the potential of providing expert decisions in real time.

Christman’s suit seeks information about the incident from Phoenix-based MedAire Inc., which provides in-flight medical advice to more than 100 airlines. Company Spokesman Mandy Eddington declined to comment on the lawsuit or any relationship with United.

Paulo Alves, MedAire’s global medical director of aviation health, said in an interview before the suit was filed that his company provides help from doctors with extensive experience. Just 1.6 percent of flights in which MedAire is called are diverted. He said airlines see the value in bypassing medicos who happen to be aboard.

“If the model was not financially interesting for them, then they wouldn’t hire us,” Alves said.

“Doctors tend to recommend diversions more than we do, because of course they don’t want to assume the long-term responsibility.”

A medical emergency occurs once

every 604 flights, and 7.3 percent led to diversions, according to a 2013 New England Journal of Medicine study. It also found that 0.3 percent of emergencies on planes end in deaths.

“It’s fairly expensive to divert an aircraft, and so a captain has to take into account a whole host of issues,” said Jose Nable, an assistant professor of emergency medicine at MedStar Georgetown University Hospital and coauthor of a 2017 paper on in-flight emergencies. Perry Flint, a spokesman for the International Air Transport Association airline trade group, said his organization estimates that a diversion can cost anywhere from $10,000 to $200,000.

Erin Benson Scharra, a United Airlines spokesman, said the company is investigating Christman’s claims, but declined to speak further about medical diversions or consultants it employs.

Companies like MedAire, housed in the emergency unit of the BannerUniversity Medical Center Phoenix, play a key role in diversion decisions.

STAT-MD Inc., which offers a similar service and uses doctors from the University of Pittsburgh, works with around 20 national and international air carriers. It says it reduces landings that would otherwise be recommended by nervous and outof-their-element doctors in the sky.

“They’re going to revert to divert,” said TJ Doyle, the medical director for STAT-MD. “The medical volunteer should be a data-gatherer and a procedure-doer. They should not be a decision-maker.”

The emergencies encountered by medical professionals on flights vary in severity. Internal medicine doctor Gina Jabbour of New York revived an elderly woman who fainted after using the bathroom. The flight continued on schedule and Jabbour was rewarded by a flight attendant with “secret cookies.”

Scott Schoifet, an orthopedic surgeon, was dozing on a flight from Japan to New York in 2006 when he was awakened to help a fellow passenger with chest pain. Flight attendants asked Schoifet whether it was safe to continue flying.

“It was stressful first because they’re looking at me like, ‘What do you want to do?”’ Schoifet said. “I can’t make this decision. There are 350 people on the plane.” Bloomberg News

Housing and Urban Devt plan in US would raise rents for poor by 20%

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HARLESTON, South Carolina—Housing Secretary Ben Carson said his latest proposal to raise rents would mean a path toward self-sufficiency for more than 4 million low-income households across the United States by pushing more people to find work. For Ebony Morris and her four small children, it could mean homelessness.

Morris lives in Charleston, South Carolina, where most households receiving federal housing assistance would see rents rise an average 26 percent, according to an analysis done by Center on Budget and Policy Priorities for The Associated Press.

Her increase would be nearly double that.

Overall, the analysis shows that

in the 100 largest US metropolitan areas, low-income tenants—many of whom have jobs—would have to pay roughly 20 percent more each year for rent under the plan. That’s about six times greater than the growth in average hourly earnings, putting poor workers at an increased risk of homelessness because wages haven’t kept pace with housing expenses.

“I saw public housing as an option to get on my feet, to pay 30 percent of my income and get myself out of debt and eventually become a homeowner,” said Morris, whose rent would jump from $403 to $600. “But this would put us in a homeless state.”

The proposal, which needs congressional approval, is the latest attempt by the Trump administra-

tion to scale back the social safety net, under the belief that being less generous will prompt those receiving federal assistance to enter the work force.

“It’s our attempt to give poor people a way out of poverty,” Carson said in a recent interview with Fox News.

The analysis shows families would be disproportionately impacted. Of the 8.3 million people affected, more than 3 million are children.

Morris, a pediatric nurse, said she sometimes works 50 hours a week just to get by. Her four young children would be hit hard if her rent increases, she said.

“Food, electricity, bills, school uniforms,” she said. “Internet for homework assignments and report

cards. All of their reading modules at school require the Internet. Without it, they’ll be behind their classmates.

The kids are in extracurriculars, those would be scrapped. I would struggle just to pay my bills.”

The impact of the plan would be felt everywhere.

Rent for the poorest tenants in Baltimore, where Carson was a neurosurgeon at Johns Hopkins Hospital, and where his own story of overcoming poverty inspired generations of children, could go up by 19 percent or $800 a year. In Detroit where Carson’s mother, a single parent, raised him by working two jobs, rents could increase by $710, or 21 percent. Households in Washington, D.C., one of the richest regions in

the country, would see the largest increases: $980 per year on average, a 20-percent hike.

“This proposal to raise rents on low-income people doesn’t magically create well-paying jobs needed to lift people out of poverty,” said Diane Yentel, CEO of the National Low Income Housing Coalition. “Instead it just makes it harder for struggling families to get ahead by potentially cutting them off from the very services that make it possible for them to find and keep jobs.”

While the Department of Housing and Urban Development says elderly or disabled households would be exempt, about 314,000 households could lose their elderly or disabled status and see higher rents, according

to the analysis by the policy center, which advocates for the poor.

Carson’s “Make Affordable Housing Work Act,” announced on April 25, would allow housing authorities to impose work requirements, would increase the percentage of income that tenants are required to pay, from 30 percent to 35 percent, and would raise the minimum rent from $50 to $150. It would eliminate deductions, for medical care and child care, and for each child in a home: Currently, families can deduct $480 per child, significantly lowering rent.

Donald Cameron, president and CEO of the Charleston Housing Authority, calls the proposal catastrophic. Bloomberg News

BusinessMirror

Editor: Gerard S. Ramos • lifestylebusinessmirror@gmail.com

Dell pushes boundaries with new Dell XPS 13 DELL Philippines unveiled recently the new Dell XPS 13, the world’s smallest and most powerful 13-inch laptop in its class. In addition to revealing one of the world’s most beautiful devices, Dell also highlighted the incredible hidden innovation within this product, designed to improve performance, functionality and the overall user experience.

“At Dell, innovation never sleeps. We’re passionate about creating technology that expands the boundaries of what’s possible,” said Jay Ranola, consumer head of Dell Philippines (dell.to/1Ab4VmM).

“With Dell, beauty and brawn lurk beneath all our devices. The incredible product design that makes up the exteriors complements the striking innovation that comes from within.”

The latest XPS 13 is improved in every conceivable way and was named a CES 2018 Innovation Award honoree in the last CES event earlier this year.

Along with its next-generation InfinityEdge 4K Ultra HD display, the XPS 13 adds a dazzling Rose Gold with Alpine White woven glass fiber interior as an option to traditional silver and black carbon fiber interior. This new system comes with narrower borders and up to 80 percent more thermal headroom.

Inside its thinner, lighter design, the Dell Power Manager delivers power just when you need it. And GORE Thermal Insulation, the same silica aerogels used in the Mars Rover to diffuse and dissipate heat, introduces an innovative material into the thermal design to keep the system cool while it works hard.

The new Dell XPS 13 comes with the new Dell Cinema suite of entertainment-enhancing technologies and next-generation InfinityEdge 4K display to create the ideal viewing experience.

Complete with Windows 10 Pro and powered by the latest Intel Eighth Generation Quad Core processor, XPS 13 delivers superior mobile performance with fast booting SSDs up to 1TB. It delivers the longest battery life of any 13-inch laptop, with almost 20 hours on FHD and up to 11 on UHD (Mobile Mark 14). So, in addition to making the system smaller and lighter, Dell has also been able to double the performance on the new XPS 13, making it as twice as powerful from its previous version. In fact, it is the most powerful 13-inch laptop in the class.

Power efficient, designed with smarter materials, sustainably packaged and recycle-friendly, the XPS 13 is one of Dell’s most environmentally sensitive products. The silver aluminum model includes Dell’s Ocean Plastics Packaging—plastic trash that has been recovered from waterways and remade into useful materials. And the rose gold model is wrapped in the bamboo packaging tray that is 100-percent recyclable.

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DELL XPS 13, the world’s smallest and most powerful 13-inch laptop

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LIVECAM, a new application in Surveillance Station 8.2, can turn your spare smartphone into an IP camera.

Saturday, June 16, 2018 A9

Korean dramas and where to watch them (apart from free TV) PRIMETIME

DINNA CHAN VASQUEZ @dinnachanvasquez luckydinna@gmail.com

A

CCESS to Korean dramas have long improved since we bought DVDs from Metrowalk, Greenhills and, sometimes, our officemates in the early-2000s. From DVDs, people moved to downloads and streaming. I remember how my friend Gianna would walk around with her HP Mini open just because she couldn’t interrupt the streaming of her favorite Korean drama.

The first-ever Korean drama that I watched was Autumn in My Heart, which starred a beautiful young actress named Song He-kyo and actor Song Seunghon. GMA aired the show’s tagalized version and it was, I believe, how many Filipinos got hooked on Korean dramas. Autumn in My Heart ended in a tragedy and we soon realized that with Korean dramas, you should expect the unexpected.

Other Korean dramas that were popular during that time were Winter Sonata (which, like Autumn in My Heart, was part of the Endless Love series), Stairway to Heaven, All About Eve and Roo�top Room Cat. It was so difficult to watch these dramas, if you wanted to catch them before they were tagalized by the local networks. Not all DVDs were clear (this was before HD became everyone’s birthright) and had subtitles.

I used to love the tagalized versions because I was too lazy to read subtitles. But now, I realize it has more impact if you hear the characters talking in Korean.

All that is in the past. These days, it’s so easy to watch Korean and other Asian dramas, thanks to video on demand services.

So how and where can you watch?

Here are three of the most popular services.

Disclaimer: I’m not an expert and I don’t claim to be, so my choices are more mainstream: ■ NETFLIX. For less than P400, you have access to Netflix’s extensive Korean library, which includes Something in the Rain, Love in The Moonlight, Hyori’s Bed and Breakfast, Bad Guys, The Producers, Uncontrollably Fond, A Korean Odyssey, Strong Girl Bong-Soon and Prison

Playbook. Despite being the most expensive among the streaming options, Netflix offers the most seamless experience. You won’t experience lags or glitches such as the absence of subtitles. Netflix also allows you to download a lot of titles so you can watch videos online.

■ iFLIX. iFlix doesn’t have most extensive collection of Korean shows but it has some of best titles.

They only have around 50, including international blockbusters, such as Descendants of the Sun, While You Were Sleeping, Moon Lovers: Scarlet Heart Ryeo, What’s Wrong With Secretary Kim, Temperature Of Love, The Inheritors (which was aired in the Philippines as The Heirs), Goblin and My Love From The Star. The subscription rate is around P149 a month but you can also get it for free from a Smart subscription or using your Grab points. iFlix doesn’t offer the most seamless experience when it comes to streaming. Sometimes, the subtitles disappear or

the scenes play over and over. I also don’t like how little content you’re allowed to download and how you get the “you’ve already downloaded 10 titles, you need to chill” warning. That’s not polite or respectful at all, and I don’t understand why that should be so. Netflix can tell you that without making you sound like a criminal.

■ VIU. In terms of content, Viu is the best. Its library is an extensive collection of dramas and variety shows currently showing in Korea. You can get Viu for free or the premium version for less than P200.

Viu content that are currently airing in Korea include What’s Wrong With Secretary Kim, Suits, Come and Hug Me, About Time, Investigation Couple and Come On and Hug Me. But after downloading Viu and getting the premium version, my Huawei phone died. It was repaired at a Huawei service center but died again. So I didn’t get the chance to test Viu properly and I am too scared to download it on my work phone. ■

Smart claims lead in overall mobile data download speeds ACCORDING to a just-released analysis by independent mobile analytics company OpenSignal, PLDT wireless subsidiary Smart Communications Inc. has almost doubled its overall mobile data download speeds over the past year largely because of improved LTE availability and speeds.

The analysis report, which covers the months of May 2017 to April 2018, and is available on OpenSignal’s blog, noted the country’s “phenomenal growth in overall download speed.”

“Overall download speed” is an OpenSignal metric that takes into account 4G and 3G download speeds, and the level of access consumers have to each type of network, which is referred to as “availability.” “From our March to May 2017 test period to our most recent February to April test period...Smart’s overall speed almost doubled in our measurements. That’s amazing growth for

any operator,” OpenSignal Lead Analyst Kevin Fitchard said.

The mobile analytics firm noted the increase in Smart LTE speeds starting September last year.

“After September [2017], Smart’s speeds really began to take off,” Fitchard said, adding that OpenSignal’s data showed that this can be attributed to Smart beginning to close the once huge gap between itself and its competitor in 4G/LTE availability, and Smart’s LTE speeds beginning to increase at a faster rate.

“These OpenSignal test results show that our sustained investments in upgrading our network are paying off and enabling us to deliver world-class mobile data service to more customers in more areas of the country,” said Mario G. Tamayo, PLDT and Smart senior vice president for Network Planning and Engineering.

“As we continue to deploy LTE, LTE-Advanced and carrier aggregation technology to more areas like Batanes, Baguio, Puerto Princesa, Quezon City and Sarangani, we are on track

to meet our commitment to the National Telecommunications Commission to achieve 90-percent municipality coverage for 3G and 4G mobile broadband by this year,” Tamayo added.

In the State of Mobile Network-Philippines report released by OpenSignal in March 2018, data showed Smart strengthening its lead in LTE download speeds nationwide and dominating in all major regions, noting that Smart’s nationwide LTE speeds were at 12.5 Mbps, compared to the competition’s 7.7 Mbps. Between the March 2017 and March 2018, OpenSignal reports, Smart’s 4G/LTE availability also increased from 40 percent to 60 percent.

The report states, “With tested speeds of 12.5 Mbps, Smart won the OpenSignal award for 4G download speeds, making it the third time it has done so. The operator is pulling away from its sole competitor in this category too.

We found Smart’s 4G speeds increased by 2 Mbps in the last six months while [the competitor’s] speeds remained steady at just over 7 Mbps.”

new innovations, thanks to our strong software development team. At the Synology Solution Exhibition, we were excited to receive user and partner feedback for us to continue delivering products that best satisfy user needs,” said Derren Lu, CEO of Synology Inc. Among its new products is the MR2200ac, Synology’s first mesh router which comes with Qualcomm IPQ4019 quad-core CPU and tri-band Wi-Fi, allowing users to expand Wi-Fi coverage through flexible deployment. All Wi-Fi connections and devices can be managed via one platform— SRM. Additionally, settings and remote management can be operated through both a Web interface and a dedicated mobile app—DS router. SRM 1.2 comes with more granular configurations, such as user profile creation, detailed traffic

management, advanced Web filters and whitelisting features.

With the integration of third party databases, such as Google Safe Browsing and DNS/IP threat intelligence, home users and IT admins can enjoy a hassle-free yet powerful network management experience.

Synology creates network-attached storage, IP surveillance solutions, and network equipment that transform the way users manage data, conduct surveillance and manage networks in the cloud era. By taking full advantage of the latest technologies, the company aims to help users centralize data storage and backup, share files on-the-go, implement professional surveillance solutions, and manage networks in reliable and affordable ways.

For details, visit www.synology.com/en-global.

Synology unveils new range of products SYNOLOGY launched recently its Solution Exhibition at the Xin-Yi Eslite store in Taipei during Computex 2018, showcasing its first mesh Wi-Fi router, MR2200ac, along with the updated Synology Router Manager (SRM) 1.2.

Also unveiled at the exhibition were enterprise-level data protection solution Active Backup for Business, Virtual Machine Manager (VMM) Pro with advanced features, the latest Surveillance Station 8.2, DiskStation Manager (DSM) 6.2, with many software feature updates. In addition, a series of new DiskStation and RackStation models was introduced to the public for the first time.

“Users have been the driving force behind all development efforts at Synology. Through extensive communication with our users, we uncover their needs and respond swiftly with

BusinessMirror

A10 Saturday, June 16, 2018

www.businessmirror.com.ph

Shi�ting to 5th gear: How Globe is preparing for its 5G-technology rollout next year

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BY JT NISAY

LOBE Telecom Inc. last week announced its 5G wireless technology adoption in the Philippines that will be made commercially available by the middle of next year via its home broadband services.

Globe President and CEO Ernest Cu said at the launch that the company, together with its existing vendor partners including Huawei Technologies, has been preparing “for sometime now” for the rollout of the fifth-generation network that promises higher speed, lower latency and better capacity.

“We have been deploying 4.5G Massive Mimo [MM] antennas since 2016 because we want to increase our capacity network and make it future-proof,” he said. MM is the fundamental radio access technology for 5G, and Globe has one of the largest deployments of it in Asia as part of the company’s strategic technology road map, according to a media release.

Globe already has more than 200 sites using MM that are starting to deliver, according to Lim Chee Siong, Huawei Southern Pacific Region chief strategy and marketing officer.

“The Philippines and Globe are 5G-ready,” Siong said, adding that the country’s spectrum band is all lined up as well, being one of the largest across the whole Asia-Pacific region.

Earlier at the launch, Gil Genio, Globe chief technology and information officer, underscored Globe’s investment on its network infrastructure by spending 31 percent of its annual total revenues to upgrade and expand its telecommunication and information-technology infrastructure.

“We are spending about a third of our gross revenue on capital spending, which is way higher than what most telcos around the world are spending,” he said. “I think it’s evident that we take our job as a service provider seriously.”

According to the release, Globe increased its capital spend from P21.1 billion in 2012 to P36.7 billion in 2016 and P42.5 billion in 2017, to provide subscribers with better broadband services. Gil said that the company will further accelerate its capital spend to north of

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Fitbit ships more than a million Fitbit Versa devices

GLOBE President and CEO Ernest Cu (center), together with Globe Chief Technology and Information Officer Gil Genio (right) and Huawei Southern Pacific Region Chief Strategy and Marketing Officer Lim Chee Siong, at Globe Telecom’s recent announcement that it will bring 5G technology to the Philippines.

P43.5 billion this year.

“What Globe wants to do is to redefine what we have defined as high speed,” Cu said.

Globe’s first 5G service will be deployed for its home broadband service, called Globe At Home, that will use so-called Air Fiber. Cu said that the technology makes use of fixed location wireless radios instead of fiber, and could provide speeds ranging from 50 Mbps to 100 Mbps. The technology, according to the release, will also enable Globe to go over the

circuitous approval process of deploying a fiber optic cable, which involves multiple permits from local government units.

“The right of process can sometimes take years to obtain delaying fiber optic roll-out completion,” Cu said. “We can bring Internet to more homes by deploying 5G compared to a typical fiber optic rollout.

“Together,” the Globe executive added, “we continue to do one thing: To create the future of Filipino digital lifestyle.” ■

Microsoft embraces collaboration in $7.5-B deal for GitHub

BY MATT O’BRIEN The Associated Press

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MICROSOFT says it’s paying $7.5 billion in stock for the popular coder hangout GitHub. AP

MICROSOFT is paying $7.5 billion for the popular coder hangout GitHub as the maker of Windows further embraces the types of open-source projects it used to shun.

CEO Satya Nadella said the all-stock deal pairs Microsoft with the “world’s leading software

development platform,” a destination where developers around the world go to share and review each other’s code.

As Microsoft built its business on proprietary software such as the Windows operating system, it came to be seen as an antagonist to the open-source philosophy of free software written by a collaborative community of developers. The company has been working for years to shed that reputation, especially after Nadella took over in 2014.

“Developers will be at the center of solving the world’s most pressing challenges,” Nadella said in a recent blog post. “However, the real power comes when every developer can create together, collaborate, share code and build on each other’s work.”

This is not the first time Microsoft has bought into a community. Its biggest-ever deal was its $27-billion acquisition of LinkedIn in 2016.

GitHub, a San Francisco start-up, was founded in 2008 and has grown sharply since announcing its first outside investment in 2012. It now counts about 28 million software developers around the world who use it to share code and build businesses. Microsoft said GitHub will retain its “developer-first ethos,” operate independently and remain an open platform.

The deal is expected to close this year.

It’s free to use GitHub for open-source projects, but some developers and businesses pay a monthly fee to access private code repositories and other services.

Nadella said developers can still use whatever programming languages and operating systems they

choose for their projects.

GitHub’s cofounder and current CEO, Chris Wanstrath, will join Microsoft as a technical fellow to work on software initiatives. Wanstrath will be replaced as CEO by Nat Friedman, the former CEO of Xamarin, which Microsoft acquired in 2016.

Wanstrath said in a blog post that he could never have imagined this deal a decade ago, when “Git was a powerful but niche tool, clouds were just things in the sky, and Microsoft was a very different company.” Now, he said, “Microsoft is the most active organization on GitHub in the world.”

Moody’s analyst Richard Lane said the deal reflects Microsoft’s “ongoing pivot to open source software, seeking to further broaden its large and growing development community.” It also reflects the increasing importance of cloud computing software and the development of Internet-connected devices, Lane said. The deal sparked some fears in the GitHub community that Microsoft’s corporate takeover could ruin the experience. Some developers say they are planning to look for alternatives. But Julie Lerman, a GitHub user who works as a Microsoft liaison with freelance developers, cautiously welcomed the partnership.

“It’s a logical and rational step for Microsoft,” she said. “GitHub has been looking for leadership and help for a while now. Microsoft has already made a huge investment in GitHub with so much of their development platform and tooling and even their docs on GitHub. They are in a position to help GitHub.” ■

FITBIT Inc., the leading global wearables brand, announced refently that it has shipped more than 1 million Fitbit Versa devices since general availability began on April 16, demonstrating strong consumer demand for a well-designed, health- and fitnessfocused smartwatch with long battery life and broad compatibility, at an affordable price point.

Additionally, Fitbit announced that more than 2.4 million users have already used its new female health tracking feature, which became available to all Fitbit users last month.

“With Fitbit Versa, we are delivering on our promise to offer a true mass appeal smartwatch with engaging new features. The positive response to Versa shows that we are filling this void and well positions us to gain share of the fast-growing smartwatch market,” said James Park, Fitbit cofounder and CEO. “The engagement we’ve seen with our new female health tracking feature further demonstrates the value our users see in being able to get a more comprehensive look at their overall health and wellness, in a single place, in a way that other available cycle tracking tools cannot.”

Within the first two weeks that female health tracking was first made available to iOS and Windows users, more than 1 million women began using this feature. Now there’s cross platform availability for Android users, as well: ■ More than 2.4 million users have added the feature to their Fitbit app; ■ 1.8 million users have added at least one period to the calendar; ■ More than 500,000 users have added two or more retrospective periods; and ■ Nearly 700,000 users have logged one or more symptoms.

With female health tracking, Fitbit users can better understand their overall health and wellness by accessing their data all in one place. Combined with the user’s sleep and activity data, Fitbit is providing a way for its users to gain a better understanding of how their cycle impacts other aspects of their health and wellness, while also potentially creating one of the largest databases of female health.

Fitbit continues to see growth in apps and clock faces built for Fitbit OS. Through its software development kit, more than 18,000 developers have joined the Fitbit developer community and over 900 apps and clock faces have been built.

A modern, full-featured and competitively priced smartwatch that helps empower you to take action, Fitbit Versa is available across leading retail stores, including Digital Walker, Globe, Liberty, Runnr and Lazada, for P13,890 in black with a black aluminum case, gray with a silver aluminum case, or peach with a rose gold aluminum case.

Fitbit Versa Special Edition is available for P15,590 in a lavender woven band with rose gold aluminum case or charcoal woven band with graphite aluminum case, each with an extra black classic band.

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BusinessMirror

Saturday, June 16, 2018 A11

Don’t trust the tech giants?

You likely rely on them anyway

BY ANICK JESDANUN & RYAN NAKASHIMA The Associated Press

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EW YORK—If technology giants like Facebook, Google and Amazon face a common threat to their dominance, it probably lies in a single word: trust.

In some respects, these companies are riding high. They have woven themselves into the fabric of our daily lives, making their services indispensable for daily tasks like keeping in touch with family and friends, watching TV and buying cat food. Revenues are up and profits are soaring.

But they’ve also drawn the attention of regulators in Europe and the US, thanks to carelessness with consumer data and other problems. Facebook’s leaky data controls, for instance, let Cambridge Analytica mine the profiles of up to 87 million people in an attempt to swing elections. The social network has also had to beef up manual oversight to clamp down on the spread of fake news.

Google’s YouTube has, likewise, been implicated in the spread of political conspiracy theories. Not long ago, Amazon’s always-listening Echo speaker inadvertently recorded a family’s conversation at home—and then sent the recording to someone else.

Some of these issues are systemic; others may be little more than the growing pains of new technologies. What they all fuel, though, is a sense that technology may not always warrant the implicit

faith we place in it.

Companies have to realize “that trust isn’t digital,” says Gerd Leonhard, a futurist and author of Technology vs. Humanity. “Trust is not something that you download. Trust is a feeling. It’s a perception.”

Trust looms large in modern life. We still get on airplanes even though they sometimes come apart in flight. We go to hospitals even though medical errors sometimes kill patients. These services are too important to live without, despite the occasional disastrous error.

But those industries are also heavily regulated because of the risks involved. Technology companies, by comparison, are largely unconstrained.

Trust issues could be especially acute for technology companies, since their services are effectively omnipresent yet largely inscrutable. You can’t audit Google’s algorithm to see why it’s giving you certain search results the way you can watch your bank balance. You just have to trust that the company is upholding its promises. Yet so far, such concerns don’t loom large for most consumers. “That trust is eroded, but the uncomfortable thing is no one really cares,” says Scott Galloway, a New York University marketing professor. “As long as they trust that technology will improve their lives, they don’t appear to care about the other stuff.”

A 2016 survey from the Pew Research Center, for instance, found that only 9 percent of users were “very confident” that social-media companies could protect

their data. More than half had little or no confidence.

Yet a January survey from Pew found that 69 percent of US adults use social-media, unchanged from 2016.

Shaky consumer confidence can still limit the time people spend on Facebook or curb their enthusiasm for new boundary-pushing services. Amazon, for instance, now wants its delivery people to leave packages inside your home or car. That’s not going to fly if you’re worried about Amazon exploiting its access to your private spaces.

But tech giants have fewer worries about consumers defecting to their rivals, in part because they each do their best to lock users into their array of complementary apps and services. That doesn’t stop them from sniping at one another, of course. Apple, for instance, has emphasized its privacy protections to highlight its differences with Facebook and Google.

But it’s also reportedly seeking ways to expand its ad business, which would bring it into more direct competition with its two rivals.

History does offer a cautionary tale for tech companies that grow too complacent. Roughly a decade ago, Microsoft’s dominance in personal computers seemed impregnable, even after a bruising antitrust fight over its Windows monopoly. Then came the iPhone, which Microsoft ridiculed—at least until the mobile computing wave it unleashed swamped the Windows PC. Could a similar shift today tap into underlying consumer discontent and topple today’s tech giants?

Perhaps, although it’s not clear exactly how.

One possibility could involve blockchain, the technology that underlies bitcoin and similar cryptocurrencies. Some enthusiasts have begun to talk about blockchain-based social networks that could operate without central authorities such as Facebook, which in theory could also minimize privacy risks. But that could take years, if it comes to pass at all.

In the meantime, developments in artificial intelligence could make things even worse on the trust front. Some researchers are using AI systems to create realistic—but wholly fabricated—videos of famous people. In one, former President Barack Obama is made to “talk” about a shooting; in another, President Donald J. Trump gestures in front of a fake photograph. Google recently unveiled a digital voice assistant called Duplex that can sound convincingly human while booking appointments over the phone.

Google says that bot will identify itself as nonhuman when making such calls—but it’s not hard to imagine robocallers developing similar, but less scrupulous, technology.

Others are pitting AI networks against each other to hone their abilities to deceive and detect deception—for the moment, primarily in digital images. Applied to other uses, however, this technology could fundamentally test our trust in one another and society’s institutions, says Matthew Griffin, a UK consultant and futurist. ■

5G is coming. Should you be excited for the arrival of the Megatech era?

CONTINUED FROM A12 and Customer Solution Innovation & Integration Experience Center (CSIC); ■ Facilitating communication between scientists, scholars, innovators and other researchers; and ■ Conducting research into ICT basic theories.

James Wu, president of Huawei’s Southeast Asia Region, unveiled Huawei’s Developer Enablement Plan for the region that aims to support digital economy and ecosystem building in the region.

Over the next three years, Huawei will invest $81 million in building OpenLabs, enabling cloud developers and cultivating ICT talent in the Southeast Asia region. “In particular, Huawei aims to empower developers and young talent in Southeast Asia. We have over 30 years of ICT capabilities and experience.

Through APIs and development platforms, we will open up our capabilities to our dev partners in the region. It’s a huge opportunity for developers to create targeted solutions for industry digitization and grow their own businesses. Working together, we can dream bigger and fly higher,” Wu said.

I will be talking more about the other applications, as well as how cities in the world are transforming into Smart Cities, and are making full use of their ICT infrastructure and 5G technology in my succeeding columns.

5GPHL WHILE it’s a bit unfortunate that the Philippines is behind in terms of ICT infrastructure compared to other Asian countries, the good news is that both Globe and Smart have announced their plans of adopting 5G wireless technology and making it available as early as next year.

Globe President and CEO Ernest Cu said the 5G technology would enable Globe to use Air Fiber technology in relation to the deployment of fixed wireless broadband that would benefit individual customers at home and business clients alike. “Air Fiber Internet, which makes use of fixed location wireless radios instead of fiber, could provide speeds ranging from 50 Mbps to 100 Mbps,” Cu added.

Globe will start rolling out 5G services commercially in the Philippines in mid-2019. “We have been preparing our network for some time now with our existing vendor partners, including Huawei Technologies. We are happy to bring the Philippines in line with other countries that are early adopters of 5G,” Cu said.

The technology will also enable the company to go over the circuitous approval process of deploying a fiber optic cable, which involves multiple permits from local government units (LGUs). The right of

process can sometimes take years to obtain, thus delaying fiber optic rollout completion. “We can bring Internet to more homes by deploying 5G compared to a typical fiber optic rollout,” Cu said.

The 5G technology is expected to accelerate the adoption of Internet of Things (IoT) in the country.

Globe earlier announced it is enabling its network by utilizing its spectrum assets, particularly the 700-megahertz band.

Globe is currently piloting the Narrow BandInternet of Things (NB-IoT) technology while enhancing its mobile data services. Due to its inherent advantage of long reach, this spectrum is ideal to support NB-IoT services. NB-IoT is one of the three 3GPP standards-based low power wide area (LPWA) technologies developed to enable a wide range of new IoT devices and services. NB-IoT, as a standard, is more developed as compared to other defined 3GPP standards. Globe and Huawei are collaborating in this journey, ensuring network readiness to support these services.

The Globe network has one of the largest deployment of Massive Mimo (MM) in Asia as part of its strategic technology roadmap since 2016. MM is the fundamental radio access technology for 5G. Globe has been spending over 31 percent of its

annual total revenues to upgrade and expand its telecommunication and IT infrastructure. For years, Globe has been ramping up its capital spend from P21.1 billion in 2012 to P36.7 billion in 2016 and P42.5 billion in 2017, in order to provide its subscribers of better broadband services. Globe recently disclosed that it will further accelerate its capital spend to over P43.5 billion this year.

Back in November 2015, Globe extended its partnership with Huawei, signing a five-year contract involving the planning and design of a wireless broadband network, as well as the creation of a wireless innovation center. Huawei was also the technology partner of Globe when it implemented a $700-million network modernization program that began in 2011.

5G Technolabs SMART Communications, on the other hand, launched its 5G Technolab, a facility that will focus on the research and development, standardization and testing of 5G, or fifth-generation wireless broadband technologies and services.

“Even as 5G network technology is still at its early stages, and keeping in mind that it may take some time before 5G can be available commercially, we are

already investing in pilot testing our 5G system and paving the way toward having a ‘5G-ready’ network by 2020,” said Ernesto R. Alberto, PLDT and Smart executive vice president and chief revenue officer, adding that 5G-compatible devices have yet to be available in the market.

“Our vision for 5G is to be able to provide services that are relevant for our customers. There is more to what 5G can do, which includes enhanced mobile broadband services, massive machine type communications, and ultra-reliable and low-latency communications. Smart says they are investing not only in radio access, but also in upgrading the core and transport elements of their network to be able to address the needs of the future. Part of these efforts toward future-proofing the network is Smart’s ramped-up rollout of Long Term Evolution (LTE), LTEAdvanced (LTE-A) and carrier aggregation technology across the country.

Last year PLDT and Smart announced that it has signed a memorandum of understanding with Huawei Philippines “to shape the strategic and commercial development of the 5G ecosystem in the Philippines.”

In particular, the two parties were looking to identify and develop the areas of technological innovation needed to deliver 5G, which is expected to provide the foundation for the digital connected society.

As part of its continuing efforts to improve and evolve its services, Smart made the first voice over LTE (VoLTE) mobile call last year. Enabled by the improved LTE network, VoLTE uses LTE to transmit voice calls, unlike the current practice where calls go through 2G or 3G networks. With VoLTE, customers with VoLTE-capable devices can stay on the 4G/LTE network when making and receiving calls, which makes call setup time in LTE faster. Call setup time is the amount of time it takes for the voice call to connect. And because LTE is very efficient in carrying data traffic, a voice call made over LTE is crystal-clear quality, with almost no background noise.

Earlier this year, Smart also made the first Voice over WiFi (VoWiFi) mobile call with technology partner Huawei. With WiFi Calling, customers can make voice and video calls wherever there is Wi-Fi connection, using the native dialer of their Wi-Fi calling-capable handsets and without the need for third-party applications.

Parent company PLDT has committed historic levels of resources for network transformation.

For 2018 PLDT capex is expected to reach P58 billion, which includes allocations for the aggressive rollout of its fiber broadband service, which also supports the stepped-up deployment of the mobile network by providing high-capacity links for cellular base stations. ■

Editor: Gerard S. Ramos • lifestylebusinessmirror@gmail.com

BusinessMirror

Saturday, June 16, 2018 A12

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AT today’s event, Thailand’s Deputy Prime Minister, Dr. Somkid Jatusripitak (sixth from right), and Huawei Rotating Chairman, Guo Ping (sixth from left), witnessed the signing of this strategic MOU together.

5G is coming. Should you be excited for the arrival of the Megatech era?

THE TECHNIVORE ED UY

whereiseduy@gmail.com

“5G will have an impact similar to the introduction of electricity or the car, a�fecting entire economies and bene�iting entire societies.”—STEVE MOLLENKOPF

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AST week, as both Smart and Globe announced their plans for the next evolution of mobile wireless technology, I was in Bangkok, Thailand, attending the fourth Huawei Asia-Pacific Innovation Day, where ICT experts discussed and showcased some of the amazing applications that will make full use of 5G. From even faster connection speeds, self-driving cars, health-care applications, smart cities and even “smart cows,” there’s no doubt that 5G has enormous potential for enterprises and the government. But in a hyper-connected society where everything can be available instantly, how will it benefit us, the ordinary consumer? And in a country where consistent 4G speeds is still a bit elusive, is it even possible to make the shift in the next couple of years?

The GSM journey YOU might be too young to remember, but cell phones already existed way back in the 1980s, and they used the very first generation of wireless mobile technology called—you guessed it—1G.

1G was an analog technology and those brick phones were “voice only.” The phones generally had poor battery life and voice quality was large without much security, and we would sometimes experience dropped calls. The maximum speed of 1G? 2.4 Kbps.

In 1991 cell phones received their first major upgrade when they went from 1G to 2G—from analog to digital. The 2G telephone technology introduced call and text, plus data services like SMS, picture messages, and MMS. The max speed of 2G with General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) was 50 Kbps or 1 Mbps with Enhanced Data Rates for GSM Evolution (EDGE).

Data video calling and mobile Internet became possible with the introduction of 3G networks in 1998. The max speed of 3G was estimated to be around 2 Mbps for nonmoving devices, and 384 Kbps in moving vehicles.

The current standard we use is called 4G, which was released back in 2008. Not only did it support mobile Web access like 3G, but also allowed gaming services, HD mobile TV, video conferencing, 3D TV and other things that demand even higher speeds. The max speed of a 4G network when the device is around 100 Mbps or 1 Gbps.

Now, everyone is talking about 5G, which promises significantly faster data rates, higher connection density and much-lower latency, among other improvements. If the first two generations allowed people to talk to each, and the following two connected man and machine, 5G will allow machines to communicate with one another and make use of artificial intelligence to augment their functions.

ASIA-PACIFIC INNOVATION DAY COHOSTED by Huawei Technologies and the Thai Ministry of Science and Technology, this year’s theme was “Innovate for a Digital Asia-Pacific.”

Huawei Asia-Pacific Innovation Day has become a high-end dialogue platform for key stakeholders in Southeast Asia’s digital ecosystem. This year’s event gathered representatives from governments, industry and academia to explore how digital infrastructure accelerates the growth of the digital economy, enriches life, drives innovation and helps cultivate an ecosystem of shared success. As one of the most vibrant emerging markets in the world, the Asia-Pacific region faces a tidal wave of industry digitization, with a digital economy that’s progressing by leaps and bounds every day.

In his keynote speech Dr. Somkid Jatusripitak, Deputy Prime Minister of Thailand, delved into Thailand’s strategy of “going digital” and how it is driving the transformation and modernization of the Thai economy. ICT-enabled innovation is becoming an important engine of Thailand 4.0.

The effects of digitization are spilling over into vertical industries, helping companies boost productivity, reduce costs and roll out new products and services. This ultimately paves the way for new business models and markets, and brings new development opportunities to all.

Guo Ping, rotating chairman of Huawei, followed with a keynote highlighting the importance of the digital ecosystem. “Many economies in the Asia-Pacific region have set out on their digital transformation journey,” he said. “But growth has been uneven. The gap between developed and developing economies is widening, and we see the emergence of a “Matthew effect” (summarized by the adage “the rich get richer and the poor get poorer”); where digitally advanced economies produce greater returns on their infrastructure than less-developed economies. However, we together to get ahead of this trend.”

Ping compared a country’s digital needs to

Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. “Digital needs can be broken down into different layers: infrastructure, security assurance, industry digitization and the development of a ‘digital brain.’ The higher the level within the hierarchy, the more resources governments need to integrate across governmental departments, and the more industries and partners they need to work with.”

He said having an ecosystem is critical and governments need to take the lead, industries need to proactively do their part, and individuals need to work to improve their digital skills. Huawei is ready and willing to work with Asia-Pacific countries to build this digital ecosystem. “We will collaborate openly and extensively, and happily share our own slice of the market with others. Together, we can grow the industry and make the pie bigger for everyone involved,” he stressed.

Thailand’s National Science and Technology Development Agency and National Innovation Agency later signed a memorandum of understanding with Huawei Technologies (Thailand) that outlines a series of joint research and innovation objectives aimed at stimulating Thailand’s digital transformation process and bringing Thai innovation to the global market. Specific initiatives include: ■ Developing deeper technological insights to advance the Thailand 4.0 agenda; ■ Strengthening communications and coordination throughout the innovation and planning processes, and enhancing collaboration in existing areas of cooperation; ■ Fostering a start-up-friendly ecosystem in Thailand; ■ Promoting public-private collaboration and cultivating talent through Huawei’s OpenLab

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