Global business outlook 01 2018

Volume 02 | Issue 01

UK ₤4 | Europe €5.35 | USA $6

www.globalbusinessoutlook.com

“Africa is the continent of the future” A strong energy market Down Under Pg 39 Decoding brand Apple Pg 40

FINANCE | TECHNOLOGY | ENERGY | REALTY | BRANDS | EDUCATION | GBO AWARDS

EDITOR’S NOTE Customers change with the times and they seek new insights each day. The second issue of Global Business Outlook presents relevant information and development across industries such as finance, technology, energy, realty, brands and education.

In this issue, we have Spherus Aviation CEO Sebastian Kester share his views on Africa’s potential in aviation.

The finance section covers Asia’s status in wealth management. Regional rivalry between Hong Kong and

Singapore is responsible for driving its economic growth in more ways than one. Technology is instrumental in improving our quality of life. The feature on Apple is focused on the brand’s significant impact on our lives today and how. However, technological expansion has led to series of cyber attacks in the recent past. The feature on digital education has encouraged schools to introduce cyber education from an early grade.

The increasing technology and industrial advancements have spurred concerns in the energy

sector. There is a feature on how Australia is bridging the gap in the clean energy space and its efforts will inspire nations across the world. Even China has witnessed tremendous growth in real estate market. The feature provides substantial information on the country’s boom in buying and selling of assets.

The features are exclusive and you can look forward to a great read. Our last section on awards are focused on winners for their excelling performance.

Kimberly Rivers Editor kimberly@gbomag.com

Director & Publisher Daivick Bhaskar

Editor Kimberly Rivers

Production & Design Brian Williams David Brenton Ian Hutchinson

Editorial Stanley Rogers Rachel Taylor

Business Analysts

Registered office:

Dominic Lawrence Avinash Nair

Global Business Outlook Magazine

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Business Outlook Media Ltd

Dave Jones

Business Development Mark Mendis Neil Jacob Sarah Parker Martin Adams John Davis Allan Mendes Sandy James

is the trading name of Winston House 349, Regents Park Road London N3 1DH Phone: +44 (0) 207 193 3740 Fax: +44 (0) 203 725 9247 Email: media@gbomag.com

Press & Media Contact Craig Penn Global Business Outlook | Issue 01 2018 | www.globalbusinessoutlook.com

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FINANCE

INDEX Asia’s economic expanse in global wealth

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Norway invests in Asia and Japan

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Wealth Management Institute to sharpen talent

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Indosuez Wealth Management to explore Asia

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Revolutionizing business with blockchain

Vanguard to use smart contracts for business pg 16

REALTY

Australia’s clean energy market

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Nestle to install PV plants in Dubai

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Oman’s power firm to build solar power project

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Asian nations can reshape energy mix

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MENA energy demand to rise at 1.9% 23 Government stalls Chinese real estate growth

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Durham startup uses digital analytics in realty

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U.S. tax bill could negatively impact real estate

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Nigerian real estate to improve in 2018 29

BRANDS

pg 26

pg 30

EDUCATION

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Walmart and JD to use blockchain for food safety 24

pg 20

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22

Blockchain enamours Canadian stock exchange 22

ENERGY

TECHNOLOGY

pg 08

pg 36

Japan pension fund invests in real estate 29 Apple: The face of global brand revolution

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Apple’s ARKit disrupts augmented reality

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Spike in Apple Watch percentage

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Xiaomi tech IPO in Chinese industry

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Google’s latest text-to-speech technology

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Digitisation in education

36

Massachusetts’ digital innovation & learning

38

Cyber defenses as part of NICERC curriculum

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Russia & India to collaborate using digital tech

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Digital tech to reinvent Africa’s right to education

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Global Business Outlook | Issue 01 2018 | www.globalbusinessoutlook.com

p in lo

structural funds. The country has successfully bridged the gap to the old EU countries with GDP per capita rising from 49% of EU-28 SPECIAL FOCUS average in 2003 to 68% in 2014.

Polish contribution in MSCI Emerging Markets Eastern Europe Index amounts to 22.3%

W

W la E m Th fo in th

EUR 86 BN WILL STRENGTHEN POLISH ECONOMY

During the period from 2007 to 2013, 105.000 contracts for EU co-financing were signed for the total amount of EUR 95 billion and the amount of co-founding on the part of EU equalled to EUR 67 billion. But more important is the future of the country. Poland takes Deutsche Bank’s recent expansion Asia pg 11 the biggest share of in 19% in the new perspective of EU Cohesion

BPH TFI knowledge of CEE market is an attractive asset

pg 12

Piotr Karnkowski, CEO 6

Global Business Outlook | Issue 01 2017 | www.globalbusinessoutlook.com

Australian stock exchange embraces blockchain

pg 18

Global Business Outlook | Issue 01 2018 | www.globalbusinessoutlook.com

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FINANCE | Cover Story

“In my eyes, Africa is the continent of the future�

Spherus Aviation CEO Sebastian Kester, in an exclusive interview with Global Business Outlook, tells us how Africa is a high potential market for aviation

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Global Business Outlook | Issue 01 2018 | www.globalbusinessoutlook.com

Cover Story | FINANCE

Africa is a big Continent. Aviation is the fastest and safest transportation from A to B

Why did you launch an aviation company?

Aviation like no other field is fascinating and everybody’s dream is to fly like an eagle. Furthermore, the chance to meet interesting people, listening to their guideline that made them able to own or use this way of transportation woke my enthusiasm to be part of this business.

Why is Africa a core market for you?

In my eyes Africa is the continent of the future. So far up till today people only rely on the site of the so-called first world. What I learned from my father - an economist - is that all global economies have changed over generations and that the first universities were located in Timbuktu and outstanding societies rose pyramids 4000 years ago. Now we are moving towards a change and the human resources that arise will turn the potential into a leading economy. It’s all about focus and opportunities. In all aspects the resources are great. Here I like to mention a little anecdote: A shoe manufacturer from Europe wanted to build a shoe factory on the African continent and sent out two of his researchers. The first researcher returned immediately with his comment: “No chance, everybody is walking barefoot.” The second researcher stayed a little bit longer and wrote in his mail: “The greatest market potential ever seen – here everybody is walking barefoot.” This metaphor of the African market reveals my belief in the continent for the future.

solutions in Business Aviation for our clients. Does someone want to buy or sell his asset? Is someone in the process to install Private Aviation into his core business to support his business? We work tight to create a turnkey solution. We try to help to implement Business Aviation into the structure of the company to create perfect results. Business Aviation with all its challenges requires professional support to be beneficial and not a new aspect of business in the core business.

How is the demand for your business in Africa?

I am sure that the infrastructure demands Aviation to catch up with the speed that we are experiencing today.

Similar to the wideness of the USA, Africa is a big Continent. Aviation is the fastest and safest transportation from A to B.

What are the key markets you fly to and where would like to go next?

Nigeria is one of the main places to go, but there is a potential of 52 countries all together. In my dialogue with many different African governments I learned the demand is very clear. Sudan looks very promising as well as Senegal and we are not limited to them.

What is the biggest challenges the aviation industry faces today?

A lot of projects fail due to lack of financing them.

Can you explain the range of services your company offers?

Africa is a gateway continent for Asia and Europe. How does this affect your business?

Spherus Aviation is an independent Consulting Company in Aviation matters. We try to find the right

As I mentioned already, European and Asian business is used to a certain pace, and the aviation has to catch up at any cost.

What kind of impact do political developments in the region have on your industry?

In terms of safe transfer of knowhow into Africa Aviation will provide secured travel. In another aspect, the political support is necessary to obtain business!

What, according to you, are the most exciting trends in the aviation industry?

According to new generation of navigation possibilities as well as modern avionic equipment, flying gets safer in terms of aircrafts and its cockpit crew to navigate even in areas with weaker infrastructure. This will make flying safer and more efficient.

Can you elaborate on the most disruptive trends in aviation?

One key point is the growing shortness of experienced pilots; this is a problem that has to be taken care of. And we all know it will take quite some time to educate welltrained pilots.

How is the government support for the aviation industry in Africa?

This varies from country to country and has to do with the different systems aviation is controlled in each country. If military government is still in charge, how independent is the civil aviation?

What are your immediate future plans?

To assist to establish more Business Aviation with Governments or Business individuals. To be a get-topoint in Aviation questions. To be a catalytic converter in Business Aviation transaction and negotiations. 

Global Business Outlook | Issue 01 2018 | www.globalbusinessoutlook.com

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FINANCE

Asia’s economic expanse in global wealth

Asia’s role in wealth management has illustrated its presence in serving regional and international investors. In the coming years, the regional rivalry between Hong Kong, Singapore and Shanghai will optimistically drive the future of Asian wealth creation

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sia’s global wealth sprouted in Japan and swiftly expanded to Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore and South Korea. The present Asian wealth markets—Hong Kong and Singapore will magnetise more wealth from within the region and its surroundings. This development will propel Asia Pacific to become the world’s wealthiest region by 2019, according to a study conducted by Boston Consulting Group (BCG).

Asia Pacific saw a rapid increase in gross wealth in 2016: a sign of the region’s growing affluence. The BCG report anticipates the region including Japan to oust North America by 2019 and reach US$77.8tn by 2021.

Mckinsey’s Capturing the investment banking opportunity in ASEAN (2009) features Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and vietnam as the five biggest ASEAN banking sectors. Except vietnam, the

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remaining enjoy greater Capital Market Investment Banking (CMIB) revenue than suggested by their GDP per capita.

The revenues generated from CMIB in the ASEAN region was estimated at US$7.4bn. This signifies 28% of overall wholesale banking revenues in ASEAN by comparison with Asia at 19%.

The exponential growth in wealth has enabled global and regional banks to set-up their wealth management operations in the region. With Asian companies penetrating their business into new regions, the recognised regional incumbent banks are expected to enhance their efforts. The consequences otherwise will allow them to lose an exorbitant share of their investment banking franchise to international banks. The core capabilities to strengthen regional banks’ positioning in the market involve coverage model, account planning, research, cross-border

Global Business Outlook | Issue 01 2018 | www.globalbusinessoutlook.com

capabilities and talent proposition.

The Mckinsey report states that one of India’s leading incumbent bank had invested efforts to establish the five capabilities. This seemed to augur well, and there was a 125% increase over baseline in the average monthly fee income. It is desirable for ASEAN banks to pursue these capabilities in effect to gain competitive advantage over foreign counterparts. Key ASEAN countries are a significant contributor to Asia’s economic rise. By 2009, ASEAN was responsible for nine percent of Asian wholesale banking revenues, 13% of capital markets and investment banking revenues.

The Bank of East Asia will launch the i-Payment Hub in the first half of 2018 in Hong Kong. It is developed in collaboration with Mastercard SendTM and QFPay. The Hub is a seamless integrated payment platform that will support merchant customers to

FINANCE

Singapore’s ASEAN membership and Hong Kong’s standing as a Special Administrative Region of China empowers foreign investors to ingress the more restrictive neighbouring regions

lower operation cost and boost cash management efficiency. Using big data analytics to extract customer footprint and behaviour, it is the first in Hong Kong where adoption of mobile payment methods are growing popular.

Recently, German Deutsche Bank Wealth Management has employed more than 50 new recruits in Hong Kong, Singapore and Dubai. According to the BCG report, “Hong Kong and Singapore remain the fastest-growing offshore centres globally because of both their status as the preferred booking centres for regional clients and the anticipation of strong growth in Asia-Pacific.” Offshore assets in Singapore is said to increase by eight percent and Hong Kong by seven percent through 2021.

Will Hong Kong continue to be Asia’s chief financial centre?

Hong Kong is Asia’s largest asset management centre with its fund management business valued at US$2.22tn. It ranks high globally and frequently rises to the top of Asian investment management—regarded as a growth drive within its financial services. In the first half of 2015 the city’s gross equity fund sales spiked to 55% equivalent of plus US$30bn.

The city had the highest level of IPOs globally in the first half of 2016 and has produced US$5.57bn through Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

Hong Kong is the preferred gateway to China and the largest renminbi offshore centre. The renminbi internationalisation is one of Hong Kong’s defined edge. It has a supporting infrastructure compared to other emerging markets, and is expected to attract a good share of

global investment flow. The rule of law and its judicial independence system provides a greater degree of protection. UBS will be recruiting nearly 100 wealth management client advisors over the next two years in Hong Kong to sharpen its focus in the wealth market. There is a notable rise in the level of intermediaries, which is substantial.

The close collaboration between Hong Kong Monetary Authority, the Financial Services and the Treasure Bureau intends to establish Hong Kong as a treasury management centre for multinational and mainland corporations. The city’s untapped potential is glowing in the entrepreneur market. Sally Wong, Hong Kong Investment Funds Association chief executive on South China Morning Post, said, “We believe that with initiatives such as open-ended funds and the mutual recognition of funds, more high-valueadded jobs would open up, further bolstering Hong Kong’s role as an asset management hub.”

The emergence of China and its economic growth in the recent past will site Shanghai as the next global economic centre—a potential regional rival to Hong Kong. The Shanghai Free Trade Zone is piloted for a series of economic and social reforms. This even includes exchange of unlimited foreign currency for overseas businesses located there.

Singapore is roughening the competition in wealth management.

The country is continually positioned ahead of Hong Kong by the World Bank’s yearly Ease of Doing Business Index and Z/Yen Group’s Global Financial Centres Index. The Monetary

Authority of Singapore (MAS) will introduce a new establishment to deepen the country’s asset management capabilities and promote it as a major financial centre.

Singapore is working with the financial industry to emerge as an Asian hub for capital raising and enterprise financing. According to the Central Bank, the country is focused on becoming a centre for foreign exchange price discovery and liquidity in the Asian time zone.

Its industry transformation map aims to achieve more than four percent annually in the financial sector; create 3,000 net job opportunities in financial services; and 1,000 net jobs in the fintech sector. To this end, MAS has assiduously stimulated the growth of the banks, and will establish crossborder agreements to set-up a base for foreign fintech startups.

The country’s single regulatory body and transparent legal framework supported by the Singapore International Arbitration centre is trusted for its financial services. For its part, Hong Kong’s financial regulatory policies need further development. But their low tax environment with strong IP protection is conducive to a world business ecosystem.

Both Singapore and Hong Kong represent onshore and offshore banking centres are a buoyant part of Asia’s wealth. It transpired that the four key dimensions: digitisation, data, democratisation and domesticity are relevant to their future. Singapore’s ASEAN membership and Hong Kong’s standing as a Special Administrative Region of China empowers foreign investors to ingress the more restrictive neighbouring regions. 

Global Business Outlook | Issue 01 2018 | www.globalbusinessoutlook.com

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FINANCE | NEWS

Norway invests in Asia and Japan Norway’s US$1tn sovereign wealth fund has made its first Asian real estate investment. The investment is fulfilled by acquiring a 70% stake in five properties located in Tokyo.

The three properties are in the shopping district of Shibuya, and the remaining are in the upmarket area in Omotesando.

Karsten Kallevig, chief executive officer, Norges Bank Real Estate Management told Reuters, “We have looked at Asia, and in Tokyo in particular, for a couple of years.

We looked at transactions and either the asset, the partner or the price ...those boxes have not been ticked. With this one, it is pretty interesting ...It is a fair price.”

Tokyo and Singapore were Norway’s target interest, but the investment plan was stalled until the right offer took place. The investments are sourced from Norway’s oil and gas revenue invested in stocks, bonds and unlisted foreign real estate. The unlisted property is valued at 2.7% of the overall value of the fund. The goal is to raise the bar to 7%.

The fund is said to pay US$823.20mn for its 70% stake. The portfolio is valued at US$1.16bn, and its partner Tokyu Land

Corporation will acquire the remainder stake at 30%.

“I hope we can do more together,” said Kallevig. “I think they (the partner) are of a quality that we would like to do more. Now we still need to find opportunities that fit their strategy and our strategy,” he added.

According to reports on Reuters, the country hopes to further invest in Tokyo.

The fund is also focused on purchasing office and retail properties in 10 global cities. Champs-Elysees in Paris and London’s Regent Street are taken into consideration.

Wealth Management Institute to sharpen industry talent

The Wealth Management Institute, an autonomous institute of Nanyang Te chnological University is s et to devis e a skills upgrading and c ertification programme to develop industry talent.

The c ore fo cus of the programme is to upskill wealth managers in Singap ore to me et future industry challenges.

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The institute of Banking and Financ e has app ointe d the Institute as Singap ore’s private banking lead training provider.

The c ours e will c over areas such as Financ e Te chnology (FinTe ch) and Ass et Management. The training programme is suitable for industry newc omers, team leaders and others with more exp erienc e.

Global Business Outlook | Issue 01 2018 | www.globalbusinessoutlook.com

Foo Mee Har, the institute’s chief executive, said, “We aspire to play a central role in helping wealth managers in Singapore and beyond acquire the skills needed to be best in class.”

The institute intends to grow its student strength by four to five times in the upcoming years. Private banking industry leaders and experts will help to develop and launch the new programmes in 2019.

NEWS | FINANCE

Deutsche Bank’s recent expansion in Asia

New innovations and industry changes has impacted Asia’s wealth management industry. The German-based Deutsche Bank is now developing its Relationship Management (RM) team in Hong Kong and Singapore.

Last year the Bank’s Asian offices shook when two major decisions were made: Ravi Raju, its Asian wealth chief, and Anurag Mahesh, its Singapore-based global head of key client partners announced their shift to UBS. According to efinancial careers, “At the time Deutsche employed about 200 relationship managers in Asia. “There was a mass exodus expected. Rumours were that 20 senior RMs were ready to leave,” says former Merrill Lynch private banker Rahul Sen, now head of wealth management at search firm

The Omerta Group. “But this didn’t happen. The RMs stayed back when they realised that there was quite a lot of client overlaps with UBS.” Human Resources report reads Deutsche Bank has announced its most recent new hires this week. The Bank has dropped hints about its hire in Singapore, Hong Kong and Dubai. The divisions include client coverage, IT, Know-Your-Client, project management, operations and product platforms.

“It’s easier to make bulk hires this way. But more importantly, a team that works well together remains intact and clients are also more likely to move, because there’s no disruption in the investment services they receive,” Sen added

Indosuez Wealth Management considers Asian markets to explore A European based company, Indosuez Wealth Management is optimistic about making investments in Asia because of the valuations and market growth.

The company is performing well across asset classes such as FX, structured products, fixed income and has shown significant increase in their fund penetration this year.

Arjan de Boer, head of markets, investment and structuring, Indosuez Wealth Management Asia, emphasizes on the plan and potential foreseen in the market. According to Boer, Indosuez has upped its game and is expected an increase in demand from the acquired rise in customer database.

The growth of the middle class will cover more than half of Asia in the upcoming years, and will become potential customers for the company.

Regulations such as the MiFID II will impact Indosuez as a business, and not influence its clientele in Asia.

Boer added that regulations such as transparency requirements in Europe’s capital market already exist in Asian markets.

Global Business Outlook | Issue 01 2018 | www.globalbusinessoutlook.com

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FINANCE

BPH TFI’S KNOWLEDGE OF CEE MARKET IS AN ATTRACTIVE ASSET

ECONOMY THAT CONSTANTLY GROWS

Poland is the biggest country amongst other CEE (Central & Eastern Europe) countries. With its population of 38.0 mln citizens Poland is the 6th largest country in the European Union. Between 2005-2015 its economy managed to grow by 45.7% (3.8% CAGR) compared with EU-28 growth of 9.6% (0.9% CAGR). Poland was the only EU country, that avoided recession after the Global Financial Crisis due to resilient private consumption and strong inflows from EU structural funds. The country has successfully bridged the gap to the old EU countries with GDP per capita rising from 49% of EU-28 average in 2003 to 68% in 2014.

Polish contribution in MSCI Emerging Markets Eastern Europe Index amounts to 22.3%

EUR 86 BN WILL STRENGTHEN POLISH ECONOMY

During the period from 2007 to 2013, 105.000 contracts for EU co-financing were signed for the total amount of EUR 95 billion and the amount of co-founding on the part of EU equalled to EUR 67 billion. But more important is the future of the country. Poland takes the biggest share of 19% in the new perspective of EU Cohesion

Policy budget. It means that EUR 85.9 bn funds were allocated to Poland for the period 2014-2020. The funds are mainly allocated to the projects like European Regional Development Fund, Cohesion Fund, European Social Fund, European Agricultural Fund for Rural Developments and some smaller others.

According to estimations by World Bank and by the International Monetary Fund, Polish GDP should grow by 3.1% in 2016, and by 3.4% in 2017 and 3.5% in 2018. On the other hand, recently published report by National Bank of Poland assumes GDP growth in 2016 at the level of 3%, stronger growth by 3.6% in 2017 and lower in 2018 of 3.3%.

WARSAW STOCK EXCHANGE

Warsaw Stock Exchange (WSE) was celebrating its 25th anniversary last year. WSE is the largest equity market in Central & Eastern Europe, measured by market capitalization – (approx. EUR 127 mln), equity turnover (app. EUR 394 mln) and 33 IPOs in 2015.

There are almost 500 listed companies, not only Polish but also some foreign like Ukrainian. Important factor that presents exchange’s investment flexibility is free float that varies from 40% to 48% through last 8 years.

20% 15% 10% 5% 0% -5% -10% -15% -20%

Piotr Karnkowski, CEO 12

Global Business Outlook | Issue 01 2018 | www.globalbusinessoutlook.com

BPH Superior Equity

Benchmark

3 -2

5 -1 20 1

704

0 -1 20 1

702

4 -0 20 1

612

9 -2 20 1

610

3 -2 20 1

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511

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Market Average

FINANCE

Out of number of indices that asses performance of the WSE like WIG (wide index) or WIG20, covering the largest Polish companies representing banks, oil and energy companies, interesting index is MWIG40. The one that truly reflects conditions of Polish economy due to selection of privately-owned Polish small and medium companies. For the last 12 months MWIG40 has grown by almost 33%, while WIG20 increased 24% and WIG was 28% higher.

BPH TFI - ASSET MANAGER FOR POLAND & CEE COUNTRIES BPH Investment Fund Company (BPH TFI), part of GE Group, is an asset management company that has been operating in CEE & Polish capital markets for almost 20 years. This experience gives us and our business-partners great knowledge of local market that

frequently can be perceived as interesting one but due to lack of the expertise and entrance barriers is being omitted.

BPH Investment Fund Company is serving individual as well as institutional clients, having 1.0 bn EUR of assets under management. Since 2009, we have been successfully managing equities investments for sovereign wealth fund (among top 10 global investors in terms of accumulated assets). BPH TFI is also known for pension schemes and savings plans, servicing companies Polish and foreign companies present in Poland.

BPH TFI manages wide variety of funds from money market and fixed-income, to absolute return as well as equities and food & commodities. The company main focus are CEE countries, but it also offers exposure to developed and emerging markets.

4,00%

7%

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BPH Superior Money Market

Benchmark

Market Average

BPH Superior Fixed-Income

23 4-

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Global Business Outlook | Issue 01 2018 | www.globalbusinessoutlook.com

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FINANCE

Marcin Adam Bednarek, CMO & CSO

THE FAIR PLAY STRATEGY

BPH TFI strategy is to be a Fair Play investment company that demonstrates continuous and sustainable growth of assets under management through prudent risk management, operational excellence, effective co-operation with partners & regulators and a strong emphasis on customer care.

The company is aiming at upper affluent consumers and investment businesses focusing on a risk/reward philosophy that seeks funds’ performance above market average combined with strict approach to risk management.

BPH TFI is recognized as reliable business partner implementing innovative solutions and responding promptly to the market expectations.

BPH SUPERIOR

While the capital markets are changing, BPH TFI analyses developments of global and European markets on daily basis in

A brief about the company:

18% 16% 14% 12% 10% 8% 6% 4% 2% 0%

BPH Superior Selective

3 -2

5 -1

-0 4

Name: BPH Investment Fund Company Website: www.bphtfi.pl/en/ Location: Poland HQ: Warsaw Business: Assets management Products: Investment funds, discretionary portfolio management Assets under management: EUR 1 bn Employees: 50 Contact: Marcin Bednarek, CMO& CSO E-mail: marcin.bednarek@bphtfi.pl Mobile: + 48 695 788 693

20

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order to offer our customers worldwide solutions. The recent results encourage us to introduce new fund – BPH Superior. What is so special about the fund? The main competitive advantage of the fund are management fees. Our analysis presents that Polish funds are far more expensive than in case of US or EU markets. Generally, Polish funds are twice more expensive than European funds and four times more expensive when compared to US solutions. BPH Superior offers our customers 0,7% pa management fee for equity fund, while average Polish equity fund charges 4,0% pa. In terms of BPH Superior Money Market fund it means 0,3% pa while market average is 1,0% pa. In our opinion it is a fair play solution due to the fact that we charge success fee only when the benchmark set on the average market level is beaten. Performances of the BPH Superior Funds are presented on the graphs illustrating the text.

BPH TFI encourages foreign individuals as well as companies to contact the company to consult the investment advantages in CEE & Polish countries as proper portfolio diversification.

Reference Rate

Global Business Outlook | Issue 01 2018 | www.globalbusinessoutlook.com

TECHNOLOGY

Revolutionizing Business With Blockchain Blockchain technology, which powers bitcoin, is finding extensive applications in businesses across the world for its decentralized nature

W

hen bitcoin made a splash in the markets eight years ago, it changed the way currency was perceived.

Following the economic meltdown in 2008, touted to be the worst financial crisis following the Great Depression of the 1930s, there was widespread discontent in the West against banks and financial regulators. It was only obvious that bitcoin – an unregulated cryptocurrency – would catch the collective imagination of the society.

Ever since, the world has been slowly but steadily responding to the bitcoin frenzy. But even as bitcoin’s popularity has been rising as a cryptocurrency, the technology powering it has gained immense traction as a transparent and

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safe technology platform to power any business.

In a Forbes interview, William Mouyagar, author of The Business Blockchain: Promise, Practice and the Application of the Next Internet Technology highlights the many industries that blockchain can revolutionize and radically change in the years to come. The most common use would be financial services, understandably because blockchain can touch upon whatever a bank does – movement of assets and contracts.

In addition, governance, healthcare, energy and real estate are other sectors that Mouyagar believes blockchain can be successfully implemented.

One might wonder how technology

Global Business Outlook | Issue 01 2018 | www.globalbusinessoutlook.com

can democratize the above industries – known to be conventional and not always reliant on technology to function. Some of the major functions of blockchain to power businesses are as follows: Payments and Money Transfers - By using blockchain technology, you’re able to transfer funds directly and securely to anyone you want in the world almost instantly and at ultra-low fees. That’s because there aren’t any intermediaries slowing down the transfer of funds between several banks and charging outrageous transaction fees. This practice is especially useful if you have remote employees or are involved in the global marketplace.

Smart Contracts - Smart contracts are

TECHNOLOGY

self-automated computer programs that can carry out the terms of any contract, says Chris DeRose in American Banker. After the emergence of the Ethereum Project, smart contracts are now associated with blockchain. This project is a decentralized platform that runs smart contracts, which are applications that run without any possibility of downtime, censorship, fraud or third-party interference.

With smart contracts, businesses will be able to bypass regulations and lower the costs for a subset of our most common financial transactions.

Additionally, these contracts will be unbreakable. Companies like Slock, which is an Ethereum-enabled Internetof-Things platform, is already using this application so that customers can rent anything from bicycles to apartments by unlocking a smart lock after both

parties agreed on the terms of the contract. Furthermore, global banks are using “smart contracts” to improve the syndicated loan market.

Notary - Blockchain technology can also be used as a convenient and inexpensive notary service. For instance, apps like Uproov, which is a smartphone multimedia platform, can be notarized instantly after a user creates an image, video, or sound recording. Meanwhile, stampd.io, can actually be used to notarize proof of ownership of digital creation.

Distributed cloud storage – This will be another blockchain application that businesses can take advantage of. Instead of hard drives, users could store the traditional cloud 300 times over, much like how you can rent out a room on Airbnb. Wilkinson added, “Considering the world spends more than US$22bn on cloud storage alone, this could open a revenue stream for average users, while significantly reducing the cost to store data for companies and personal users. This makes distributed cloud storage one of the more interesting blockchain applications — and one for small businesses to keep an eye on.

Digital Identity - Fraud could cost industries around US$18.5bn annually. This has made security a top priority for businesses that want to utilize the blockchain wallet.

Current methods use problematic password-based systems of shared secrets exchanged and stored on insecure systems. Blockchain-based authentication systems are based on irrefutable identity verification using digital signatures based on public key cryptography. With blockchain identity authentication, the only check performed is whether or not the transaction was signed by the correct private key. It is inferred that whoever has access to the private key is the owner and the exact identity of the owner is deemed irrelevant.

Blockchain technology can be applied to identity applications in areas like IDs, online account login, E-Residency, passports, and birth certificates.

Supply Chain Management - By

utilizing blockchain technology “a company could proactively provide digitally permanent, auditable records that show stakeholders the state of the product at each value-added step.”

Gift Cards and Loyalty Programs - The blockchain could also assist retailers that offer gift cards, loyalty programs, and other digital assets by making the process cheaper and more secure by cutting out the middlemen and using the blockchain’s unique verification capabilities.

Networking and IoT - IBM and Samsung have teamed-up for a concept known as ADEPT, or Autonomous Decentralized Peer-to-Peer Telemetry (a type of peer-to-peer network), which uses blockchains “to provide the backbone of the system, utilizing a mix of proofof-work and proof-of-stake to secure transactions.” With ADEPT a blockchain would act as a public ledger for a large amount of devices. This would eliminate the need of a central hub and would “serve as a bridge between many devices at low cost.” Without the need of a central control system, all of these devices could communicate with one another autonomously in order to manage software updates, bugs, or manage energy. This blockchain application is particularly relevant for companies building software that’s compatible with systems such as Google Home and similar IoT devices.

Major concerns The technology, if used the way its intended to, can work marvellously for most industries, and cause a complete turnaround in the way businesses are done across the world. But like Mouyagar says, “Blockchain is about the three T’s — trust, truth and transparency. And that’s what the blockchain will enable us to get better visibility on — knowing what has happened, when something happened and how truthful it is.”

The other drawback that blockchain technology’s business application could suffer from is if companies viewed it as a way to quicken long paper-driven processes. It has to be treated like the innovation it is, and has to enable new service models and technologies. 

TECHNOLOGY | NEWS Canadian blockchain companies keen to get listed on country’s stock exchange After Australia, Canada’s stock exchange seems to be warming up to blockchain. Atleast 50 firms tied to blockchain and cryptocurrencies will likely get listed on Canadian stock exchanges this year, stated Harris Fricker, CEO of GMP Capital Inc in Bloomberg report. He said that the level of activity in the market of quality plays and teams is as high as its been since the Internet age.

Canada is emerging as a bitcoin hub and cryptocurrency stocks amid a circle of experts and businesses, backed by a capital markets ecosystem supporting small companies especially on the TSX Venture Exchange. The report stated that the marijuana industry’s value is around US$17bn ahead of recreational legalization in July and now atleast eight cryptocurrency related stocks are trading in Canada. Fricker said that firms will likely go public by acquiring existing listed companies rather than initial public offerings. The reverse takeover structure has been used for years in Canada’s resource sector as it allows a public listing without having to file a prospectus with regulators or to attract investors. This was also was how crypto miner Hive Blockchain Technologies Inc. listed on the TSX Venture Exchange. The Vancouver-based firm, which is backed

by Canadian mining maverick Frank Giustra and counts GMP as one of its investment banks, has soared more than 200% since it began trading Sept. 18. Hive has a market value of US$824mn, making it the nation’s largest blockchain company. GMP is also helping Hut 8 Mining Corp., a Toronto-based bitcoin miner to join the public markets in January through an RTO. “The reverse takeover structure will prevail for now, until the regulators provide full instruction on where they live on clearing of prospectuses,” Fricker said.

Moreover, Canada has been a blockchain magnet, specifically the universities of Waterloo and Toronto and the levels of technology expertise in the area makes the case stronger for Canada. Fricker is of the firm belief that bitcoin is a rapidly emerging asset class in the country, despite volatility surrounding it.

GMP Capital has targeted focus on blockchain investments now.

In September 2017, it created a dedicated blockchain team with eight investment bankers and two research analysts, led by Fricker who sees the industry becoming more than 25% of its investmentbanking revenue. “I think Blockchain will be 10 times the size of the medical marijuana space.”

Australian stock exchange embraces blockchain

Australia’s main stock exchange ASX has said it will become the first global market to use the technology behind Bitcoin to clear and settle trades. ASX will replace its current clearing system with blockchain technology. The new system has been in development and testing for more than two years and aims to cut the cost of transactions, and make them faster and more secure.

According to BBC, a timeline for the transition to the technology will be given by March. ASX chief executive Dominic Stevens said the move to distributed ledger technology - also known as blockchain - will “put Australia at the forefront of innovation in financial markets”.

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Blockchain is an encrypted ledger that records multiple transactions, distributed across multiple computer networks across the world making it very hard to compromise its security.

The ASX has been working with the US-based blockchain start-up Digital Asset Holdings to develop the new system since January 2016. Experts estimate that tens of millions of dollars could be saved by introducing the new technology. Moreover, lower costs would be a key advantage for traders and investors, as over the long-term it would mean fewer staff in the settlement process.

The success of the ASX system will rely on it being encrypted to be fully secure.

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NEWS | TECHNOLOGY Vanguard to use smart contracts for business

Mutual fund company Vanguard is expected to begin using smart contract technology developed by blockchain startup Symbiont in some of its actual business processes starting early this year. For the last few months, the companies have been testing the technology to simplify the way Vanguard takes in data from the Center for Research in Security Prices (CRSP) at the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business. This information is used to determine the composition of certain index funds managed by Vanguard, and includes things like company names, share counts,

index weighting and corporate actions such as mergers or stock splits.

The three partners found the private blockchain speeds up delivery of the data from CRSP to Vanguard, removes the need for manual intervention and lowers risk.

The project will go into full production in early 2018. Warren Pennington, a principal in Vanguard’s Investment Management Group said in a release, “Using this platform, investment managers will be able to instantly distribute, receive and process index data, resulting in better benchmark tracking and significant cost

savings that results in better returns for our clients.”The partnership will involve 17 index funds totaling $1.15tn in assets, including Vanguard’s largest, the $650bn Total Stock Market Index fund. To be sure, that’s just a portion of Vanguard’s business; it manages 186 index products, with $3.56tn in assets, as part of a total 376 funds containing $4.8tn. It is a noticeable advance for enterprise applications of blockchain technology at a time when most of the industry spotlight has been on the boom in cryptocurrencies and token sales.

Walmart and JD to use blockchain for food safety A series of kiosks called Links will be rolled out on major streets in London, which will provide fast WiFi as well landline and mobile phone calls, mobile device charging, access to maps, directions and other local services. These are all premium services, said BT. Links will also have two 55 inch HD digital displays, able to display public service announcements, as well as neighbourhood advertising for global and local businesses enabling them to reach customers at the right place and right time.

Existing phone boxes across London are going to be replaced by Link kiosks. This is to bolster the move for high-speed innovation and reduce clutter on the streets. The Link kiosks are designed to take up far lesser space on the streets.

Up to 100 Links are expected to be installed in the London Borough of Camden - with the first ones due to appear in 2017. At least 750 Links will be installed across central London and in major cities across the UK over the next few years.

Rajesh Agrawal, deputy mayor for business in London said, “I welcome this exciting new addition to London’s streets. Expanding London’s digital infrastructure is a priority for the Mayor, and LinkUK can play a big part in improving connectivity for Londoners and visitors to our city, while reducing street clutter by upgrading and reducing the number of phone boxes. I look forward to working with BT, Intersection and Primesight to see how we can roll LinkUK across the capital, and to explore its future potential.

In addition to providing premium connectivity, the Link kiosks will be retrofitted with sensors that can capture real-time data such as air and noise pollution, outdoor temperature and traffic conditions.

The new Links will also feature sensors, which can capture realtime data relating to the local environment - including for example air and noise pollution, outdoor temperature and traffic conditions.

This could potentially introduce an exciting new range of smart services to local councils and communities based on the Internet of Things, added BT.

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ENERGY

australia Surprises By Backtracking on CEt But Remains a Promising Clean Energy Market The Australian government is proposing a more structured National Energy Guarantee (NEG) instead of Alan Finkel’s CET. As the nation debates the best course of action, the country’s clean energy potential is only on the rise

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N A SURPRISE move that appears to be a turn away from clean energy goals, Australia has rejected its Clean Energy Target (CET), replacing it with the National Energy Guarantee (NEG) which Prime Minister Malcom Turnbull believes will reduce power prices and prevent repeated blackouts.

Scientist Alan Finkel had recommended the CET in June 2017, based on which electricity companies would have to source some amount of power from low-emission technologies such as renewables and efficient gas. But now, under the

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NEG, some amount of power needs to come from dispatchable sources such as coal and gas, batteries, or pumped hydro. Retailers will ensure that these sources are enough for Australia to fulfil its promise of reducing emissions between 26% and 28% below 2005 levels by 2030.

The decision by the Malcolm Turbull-led government could be an attempt to unite the country on its climate change outlook, especially after contemplating measures such as the proposed Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme, introduction and repeal of the carbon price and

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clean energy targets. However, the NEG lacks adequate detail and needs the validation of lawmakers at the federal and state levels, which is why there is doubts over its success.

Nevertheless, Australia’s potential as a clean energy hub cannot be overlooked. Even as the country debates the best use of its resources for clean purposes, the energy sector holds great potential. A new report from the International Energy Agency has confirmed what is becoming increasingly obvious to many in the Australian market: that the business case for substituting

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grid electricity with self-generated renewable power is proving increasingly persuasive – not just for home owners and businesses, but for major industrial energy users. The newly published IEA report, titled Renewable Energy for Industry, finds that clean energy resources including solar, hydro and wind power have enormous potential for use in industrial processes, offering cheaper sources of power and an opportunity for greater emissions reductions.

Australia, among other regions where renewable energy resources

are especially abundant, offers some of the largest and highest-quality potential for industry to make the switch. “The recent rapid cost reductions in solar photovoltaics (PV) and wind power may enable new options for greening the industry, either directly from electricity or through the production of hydrogen (H)-rich chemicals and fuels,” the report says.

Serge Colle, head of EY Global’s power and utility section told the Sydney Morning Herald that Australia may be one of the first nations to achieve grid parity between renewable energy and electricity generated by fossil fuels.

“As early as 2021, [globally] we reach what we call grid parity. With Australia, the expectation is that this will come one year earlier, as early as 2020,” Mr Colle said.

The arrival of “grid parity” — which has arguably already been reached in most of Australia, California, Hawaii, and various other locations (by certain metrics) — is driven largely by the cost of electricity, which is higher in Australia than in most other countries. The higher the price of conventional power, the easier it is for renewable power to match it or beat it. Colle thinks “smarter” digital grids will be a factor in leveling the playing field between renewables and conventional power.

Australia’s clean energy goals will also aid the rise of renewables over the next few years. Grid defection — more people becoming energy independent and leaving the grid altogether — will also contribute. “There are incentives there around the customer side to provide affordability, but a bigger enabler to make this all work is the right encouragement to make the networks intelligent, to make this whole system work in the future,” says Stuart Hartley of EY Oceania.

“For those in the industry that still believe that [the renewable technologies] we see now will never be technically and economically equal to traditional energy solutions they should reconsider their thinking,”

Colle adds. “The energy transition is accelerating. Grid parity is coming quicker than most of us in the industry expect.”

That statement is buttressed by findings in a new Australian National University study which concludes that, given the current rate of installation of new wind and solar power facilities, renewables can meet all of Australia’s commitments to carbon reduction made at the COP21 climate conference in Paris at a cost that does not exceed the cost of conventional power sources such as coal and natural gas.

“The cost of renewables includes the cost of hourly balancing of the grid to retain the same reliability as at present. Hourly balancing comprises pumped hydro energy storage, stronger interstate high voltage power lines and the cost of PV and wind spillage on windy, sunny days when the energy stores are full.” It predicts the average cost of renewables will fall to under $50 per megawatt-hour within the next 10 years — well below the projected cost of conventional energy by then.

None of this means that coal and gas-powered generating plants will disappear entirely in the next few years. And fluctuations in the price of natural gas may affect the actual time when grid parity is reached. But in the coming years, renewables are expected to cost less while electricity from conventional sources is expected to become more expensive.

Serge Colle believes modernizing the grid and having the right government programs in place will be vital to attracting the sorts of investments that will drive the transition to renewable power forward. “This is going to be crucial to make sure that we continue to have the right behaviors to support and stimulate decarbonization, as well as at the same time make sure that we have an affordable energy system,” he says. “Making sure that those two worlds coexist for the next 15 to 20 years, while supporting the right investments, is going to be extremely crucial.” 

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ENERGY | NEWS Nestle to install PV plants in Dubai Swiss food giant Nestle has signed strategic agreements with Yellow Door Energy, a leading provider of lease-to-own solar power solutions, and Alec Energy, a top solar contractor approved by Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (Dewa), for installation of solar photovoltaic (PV) panels at its plants in Dubai, UAE. The agreements, signed in the presence of Saeed Mohammed Al Tayer, the managing director and chief executive officer of Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (Dewa).

The move is in accordance with Nestlé’s commitment to the RE100 initiative, a global collaborative initiative of influential businesses committed to using 100% renewable energy, said a statement from Yellow Door Energy.

It is also a part of Dewa’s Shams Dubai initiative, which encourages building owners to install photovoltaic solar panels and connect them to its grid. The electricity is used onsite and the surplus is exported to the network, it stated.

On completion, the project will provide renewable energy to three manufacturing sites in Dubai, and contribute to the reduction of 6000 tonnes of CO2 emissions annually.

Lauding the initiative, Al Tayer said that it supports Dewa’s joint efforts with the private sector to protect the environment, and increase the share of clean energy to achieve the objectives of the Shams Dubai initiative.

The lease-to-own model enables Nestlé to benefit from solar power with no upfront capital investment, protect the environment, reduce the carbon footprint, as well as reduce costs.

The contracts are to install, operate and maintain a total of over 7MW of solar power at Nestlé Middle East Manufacturing in Dubai South, Nestlé Dubai Manufacturing, and the

Nestlé Waters factory at National Industries Park.

Yves Manghardt, the chairman and CEO of Nestlé Middle East, said: “One of our commitments to society in the Middle East is to provide climate change leadership and promote resources efficiency. This will further reduce greenhouse gas emissions as we get closer to our ambition to shape sustainable consumption and steward resources for future generations.”

“Everything we do at Nestlé aims to create shared value, and this is an excellent example of how collaboration between several entities positively impacts their business, as well as the environment and society at large,” he added.

Yellow Door Energy CEO Jeremy Crane said: “We help companies like Nestlé leverage solar power through lease-to-own agreements, where we invest in, manage and operate the solar plant in order to maximize the energy generation and align with customers’ energy needs.”

Once fully-operational, the solar power

plants are expected to produce 30,000 kilowatt hours of electricity daily, which would contribute to the reduction of 6000 tonnes of CO2 emissions annually.

It is the equivalent of eliminating the carbon emissions of over 1,500 passenger cars for a year, or the energy consumption of 800 homes annually.

James Stewart, the general manager of Alec Energy, said: “To meet Nestlé’s ambitious renewable energy goals, the Alec Energy team produced an innovative, cost-effective, and efficient design matching Nestlé’s ambitious renewable energy targets.”

Alec Energy has been contracted to carry out the design, engineering, procurement, and construction with a completion target for the end of 2018.

“We will be using the best available technology for the system components, solar panels and inverters, and will enhance the system reliability by connecting it directly to Dewa’s network,” he added.

Oman’s power firm to build first independent solar power project Oman Power and Water Procurement Company (OPWP), Oman’s state-owned utility firm, has unveiled plans to build the country’s first utility-scale solar Independent Power Project (IPP) in Ibri with a capacity to generate 500 megawatt of electricity.

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The project is part of a broader initiative to enhance the contribution of renewable energy in the total energy mix to 10% by 2025.

Addressing the media to announce the mega renewable energy venture, Eng. Yaqoob Saif Hamood Al Kiyumi, chief

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executive officer of OPWP, said that the solar project would meet the electricity demand of 33,000 homes and offset 340,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions a year.

This is one of the largest solar projects in the entire Gulf Cooperation Council region.

The estimated project cost is approximately $500mn, which will be built, owned and operated by the private sector, and the scope of the project includes financing, procurement, engineering, construction, operation and maintenance of a new power plant, which will be located at Ibri — some 300km west from Muscat, according to Times of Oman.

The project will be awarded in the second half of the fourth quarter of 2018, and it will be commercially operational by early 2021. The solar project will be executed based on a build, own and operate (BOO) model.

“By the end of first quarter of 2018, we will be able to finalise the list of prequalified companies and issue tender documents,” said Al Kiyumi.

NEWS | ENERGY Asian nations can reshape energy mix: Linda Yeuh Linda Yueh, author of The Great Economists: The Thinkers Who Changed the World and How Their Ideas Can Help Us Today believes the emerging middle-income countries, notably China and Asia, will also have an opportunity to re-shape the energy mix that underpins these increasingly prosperous economies.

For the first time in 150 years, more of the global middle class will be in Asia rather than the West in the coming years. By 2030, there are projected to be 4.9bn people in the middle class out of an estimated 8.6bn in the world.

Of this, three billion will be in Asia.

This is largely due to China leading the East Asian region in lifting billions of people out of extreme poverty – those living on less than $1.90 per day adjusted for purchasing power parity or what a dollar buys in their country.

The World Bank estimates that East Asia is on the brink of eradicating abject poverty. As poverty falls, the middle class grows in the fastest growing region of the world.

As more people become middle class, they expect a better quality of economic growth.

This is seen prominently in China. In 2014, President Xi Jinping pledged that greenhouse gas emissions would peak in 2030 and committed China to the Paris climate change accord. As China accounts for half of the world’s use of coal, this was an important step towards combating global climate change as well as signalling an even bigger push for China to reorient its energy mix towards renewables.

China plans to rely on renewables for one-fifth of its energy use by 2030, up from around one-tenth at present. Relying on less polluting and more sustainable sources for energy caters better to the needs of its people who desire a better quality environment

to match their middle-income lifestyle.

Consumer preference matters a great deal since the pollution split between consumption and production is 80% to 20% for developed economies versus 20% to 80% in developing countries. So, as China and Asia grow richer, the energy choices of their consumers will increasingly matter.

And China has invested in a range of renewables. It has surpassed the United States, Europe, and other major economies in terms of investment over the past few years. This push began before the 2014 pledge by president Xi. China’s focus on green energy in particular was fuelled by its interest in technological upgrading - a key component of its economic plan to become a prosperous nation. Investing in technologies such as solar panels furthers China’s ambitions to have high-tech industries, which are part of the foundation of a stronger economy. As such, China has become the

world’s largest user and producer of renewable energy technologies. It is also leading in smartgrid technologies, which can foster a new model for energy consumption.

As part of the Belt and Road Initiative, China is investing in high-speed rail and other infrastructure, both at home and overseas, as well as planning to create high-tech, AI-focussed manufacturing by 2025. With such focus on investment and production, fossil fuels are still an important part of China’s energy mix. Its Belt and Road Initiative sees China investing up to $800bn in some 65 countries over the next five years with another $100-200bn in its Silk Road Fund that could be deployed to support this outward investment push.

Part of its rationale for such massive overseas investments in rail, ports and roads, including in the Middle East, is to increase energy security despite criticism by the European Union for possible environmental impact.

World Bank says MENA energy demand to rise at 1.9% Primary energy demand in the MENA region is expected to continue to rise at an annual rate of 1.9 percent through 2035, requiring a significant increase in generating capacity. However, investments have not been rising fast enough to meet that requirement, according to World Bank.

The World Bank study, which covered 67 electricity utilities in 14 economies of the region, including Qatar, noted that the annual electricity investments needed to keep up with demand have been estimated at about three percent of the region’s projected gross domestic product.

The study, Shedding light on electricity utilities in the Middle East and North Africa, offers policy makers, regulators and the managers of electricity utilities an extensive analysis of the current

performance of electricity utilities.

Underpricing is the major source of inefficiencies in the region.

Low tariffs and over-staffing often reflect good intentions, but they are not the most effective practices. Given their present macroeconomic prospects, many MENA economies cannot afford to continue to lavish on average two percent of GDP on poorly targeted electricity subsidies.

Improving the sector’s performance will allow economies to increase the social returns on fiscal resources by allocating savings where they will do the most good, whether within the sector or outside it, the document noted.

Explicit and implicit subsidies of MENA’s power sector impose a very heavy burden on taxpayers and power users. The burden can be measured in the utilities’ hidden costs, or quasi-fiscal deficits (QFDs), which express the cost of not operating in the manner of a well-run utility. The QFD encompasses four types of inefficiencies: collection losses, transmission and distribution losses, underpricing, and over-staffing.

According to World Bank, there is a need for MENA’s power sector to match its technical success with improvements in commercial and financial aspects. The region’s economies tend to perform better than the sample of economies outside MENA. However, the sector needs to increase its revenue or manage its costs better, without which maintaining the current technical level is sustainable. A well-targeted institutional and economic reform would boost MENA’s power sector.

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Chinese Real Estate Soars, But Government Clamps Down The country’s property market is soaring high, with some major cities being ear-marked as high risk regions, but the government is already monitoring this abnormality through stringent checks

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hina’s real estate market is touted to be among the biggest wealth markets in the world now. It is estimated that the net worth of the country’s richest developers has escalated from the beginning of 2017, and has added US$44.3 billion to the fortunes of seven real estate tycoons.

Now, investors are betting that smaller companies will be eliminated from the market and large developers will continue to take away the business from the smaller players. Its notable that a majority of these large players in

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the market have major trading assets and engage in multiple investments.

According to a Bloomberg report, Hui Ka Yan’s Hong Kong-listed China Evergrande Group, the country’s largest developer, has risen 534% this year and reported that its revenue more than doubled through June. Sun’s Sunac China Holdings Ltd, a residential and commercial developer based in Tianjin, increased revenue 25.9% and is up 501%. China Evergrande Chairman Hui Ka Yan and Sunac’s Sun Hongbin have collected the vast majority of

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the year’s gains, adding US$42.5bn between them.

Kaisa Group Holdings, which operates in more than 50 cities, has risen 222% following a recovery from a corruption scandal. The rise has added US$648mn to the fortune of Chairman Kwok Ying Shing, 52, who owns 24% of the company and has a net worth of US$94mn, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. Kwok also owns eight percent of watch retailer Hengdeli Holdings and electronic components maker Mega Medical Technology respectively. His

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brother, Kwok Ying Chi, a former director of the company, has a 14% stake valued at US$75mn.

A UBS Wealth Management report released this month said it expects 20% earnings growth for large listed developers in next 12-18 months.

But this market boom has obviously not gone unnoticed. Recently, President Xi Jinping’s statements that houses are for living and not speculation have sent strong indications that measures on the Chinese real estate market will not be eased up anytime soon. This could lead to weakening national sales despite strong demand. According to reports, more than 50 major cities across China have adopted multiple measures ranging from higher mortgage down payments to increased interest rates and price intervention in an attempt to stabilise costs and cool the property market.

Reports state that national new home price growth has continued to slow.

Lower-tier cities in China including Chongqing, Nanning and Nanchang, rolled out stricter housing policies, blocking homebuyers from reselling any newly bought flats for at least two to five years in six of the cities. Different from previous policies at municipal government level, Nicole Wong, CLSA’s regional head of property research, said the latest tightening had apparently been directly ordered by the central government, given the intensity of the policy and the sensitive time of their introduction.

Its interesting to note that the

rocketing real estate prices, which prompted regulatory control, were largely restricted to major cities such as Beijing and Shanghai. Not only is the price of real estate swinging high, there is a greater focus on the overall environment of these cities as well to gauge the impact of pollution and population. There are curbs being put on both these cities to control population already.

Aside from Beijing and Shanghai, the government is monitoring the performance of eight major cities out of 70, based on national relevance and earmarked on the basis of risk factors that could cause inappropriate inflation.

These cities are - Haikou - Wenzhou - Tianjin - Zhengzhou - Xi’an - Shenzhen - Chengdu - Guangzhou Specifically, cities like Haikou, which suffered a housing bubble burst in the 90s, still ranks as a major risk-ridden city for the real estate market. While most of the ten cities have seen a substantial bulge in property loans, which include both mortgages and developers’ debt, Haikou has seen real estate loans jump to more than 100 percent of its 2016 economic output.

The city has a population one-tenth the size of Shanghai’s, and its GDP is 4.5 percent of that of Shanghai, stated Bloomberg.

A research note by Ping An

Securities says that once the home prices tumble, around 40% of Chinese banks will be severely impacted.

However, a crash is far from happening.

Given the stringent controls exercised by the Chinese government that include increasing land supply and curbing demand through property taxes, the market is safe, according to experts.

The Chinese real estate market is now considered as a major asset class, at par with the US dollar, global bond market, oil and even equity markets. According to a New Zealand Herald report, latest statistics suggest China needs to keep building around 800 million sqm of residential real estate each year for the next 25 years to house the more than one billion people projected to be living in modest apartments in Chinese cities by 2040.

Residential construction in 2016 was consistent with this rate, and so in theory, this theme could have decades to run; global financial markets certainly hope so.

Estimates indicate that over half of the private wealth in China is tied up in real estate – meaning a downturn in property prices in China will likely lead to a material cut to demand in all these end markets globally. Wealthy Chinese households are big spenders on travel and overseas education, especially in countries like New Zealand and Canada.

Through wealth, growth in Chinese property prices also gives rise to the demand for luxury goods, hospitality and general retail of every description. 

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REALTY | NEWS

Durham startup uses data analytics in real estate l First, a Durham -based startup that uses data analytics and machine learning to understand seller behaviour better. The SaaS platform combines people and data science to help real estate professionals get more transactions from the relationships they’ve built and avoid the pain of missing opportunities in their personal sphere by analysing an agent’s network - the contact list, the database, the social connections - using complex data science that identifies the people most likely to sell in the next six to twelve months. Since the analysis is done based on more than 700 factors on 215MN people across 100MN households, First can suggest ways to follow up most effectively. First started in 2016, and work extensively with client to network better. The data provided by First helps clients understand who to reach out to in their network and when They spend a lot less time chasing online leads, and a lot less money on spray-and-pray marketing. They take less time hunting for business, and more time building it. The platform tracks attributes and home-selling behaviour of 214 million people in the U.S. in order to calculate its seller scores, which are automatically updated when any factors change. Agents can use these scores as a guide for outreach, theoretically

winning more deals in less time than if they had reached out to their network at random. the First platform is used today by hundreds of agents at real estate companies like Coldwell Banker, Keller Williams, RE/MAX and Century 21. The team at First intends to keep growing this number and are targeting the top-performing 20% of U.S. agents for adoption. Co-founder Schneider reported that the company’s biggest competitors are not other digital tools, but rather real estate coaches, whom agents sometimes hire for help

with prioritizing leads. However, Schneider believes First’s sophisticated, analytics-based platform and US$450/month price point will

give it the edge it needs to keep growing its user base, according to Forbes.

U.S. tax bill could negatively impact real estate

The real estate market will be among the sectors most impacted by the $1.5tn tax bill passed in the U.S. Wednesday, based on a report in Mansion Global. The legislation calls for a significantly lowered corporate tax rate and reduced tax rates for individuals with higher standard deductions but institutes caps on mortgage interest deductions and the deduction of state and local taxes. The individual cuts expire in 2025, but the corporate cuts are permanent.

The Senate passed the bill 51-48 early 28

Wednesday, with Sen. John McCain of Arizona absent. Also Wednesday, the House voted 224-201 for the overhaul.

President Donald Trump is expected to sign it into law in the coming days. How it will shake out in reality is still unknown, but many real estate experts have been up in arms about the changes, with the National Association of Realtors (NAR) initially warning that it could lower home prices by up to 10% in every state.

An oversupply in luxury housing, plus a limited pool of buyers, has already

Global Business Outlook | Issue 01 2018 | www.globalbusinessoutlook.com

slowed sales in that sector. And tax woes have only increased hesitation from buyers. This cap will mean a big difference for homeowners in regions with high local taxes, including New York, California and Connecticut. Of the 12 House Republicans who voted against the tax bill, 11 were from one of these states. Other New Yorkers are also nervous about how the bill will affect the city. Last week, a Moody’s analysis predicted the lower deductions could cause home prices in Manhattan to drop by up to 9.5%..

NEWS | REALTY

Nigerian real estate to improve in 2018

Tom Mundy, Head of Advisory for SubSaharan Africa at JLL (ir.JLL.com) believes 2018 will be a year of consolidation and recovery. “Nigeria is finally coming out of recession. Of course, there will be the usual lag between economic recovery and market recovery, but real estate, which has suffered from a sharp supply demand imbalance, widening vacancy rates and falling realised rents, looks close to bottoming. Yes, it will take time for confidence to return fully but there is sound cause to be bullish on Nigeria going forward.”

This positive take on the region is the

subject of a paper Mundy will publish at the West Africa Property Investment Summit being held at the Eko Atlantic Hotel on the 28th – 29th Novmber 2017. In it he unpacks five key drivers that support the path of improvement.

Firstly, there is increasing optimism as the economy kicks into gear. Mundy says that as the external environment improves, and the government bolsters its fiscal position, so too will sentiment for the Naira. Inflationary pressures are under control and household income outlook is reasonably robust. Add to this the recovery

of the oil price and the picture is looking brighter. Secondly, government policy making is gaining some credibility through coherent plans to support diversification and fiscal consolidation with the backing of external bodies. Thirdly, there is evidence that the decline in rental rates in Lagos is reaching the bottom of the cycle. While the advantage still rests with the occupier in both corporate and retail markets, Mundy believes this will close through 2018 as the economy recovers. Fourth, the legislative framework is in place for real estate pricing to mitigate the impact of a volatile economy. This is vital to support greater liquidity. It will allow for a more efficient mediation of capital between the interests of a growing class of savers and alternative asset classes that can provide annuity income, such as real estate. Lastly, for an economy and population the size of Nigeria’s, Mundy thinks there is a structural under supply of investment grade real estate stock.

This is changing, which will provide increasing opportunities, for both local and international investors. He says JLL’s experience of other heavily pro-cyclical markets with a close tie in to commodity exports, such as Russia, suggests that in high growth markets, large vacancy rates and volatile rental growth are necessary at the early stage of the real estate cycle.

Japan pension fund invests in real estate

Japan’s Government Pension Investment Fund has begun actively investing in the country’s real estate funds in a quest for higher returns. GPIF, the world’s largest pension fund, selected Mitsubishi UFJ Trust and Banking on Tuesday to manage real estate holdings, according to Nikkei Asian Review.

The move comes as part of a broader strategy to diversify away from stocks and bonds into alternative asset classes which also include infrastructure projects and private equity. Mitsubishi UFJ Trust is the first outside asset manager specializing in the areas to be chosen thus far.

The allocation of investments into real estate will target low-yield,

core properties with virtually no risk of dropping in value, according to The Street. That would mean a sizeable chunk of money will be funnelled into investments in prime office buildings in Tokyo. “The long-waited action was made finally,” Yukihiko Ito with the advisory company Asterisk Realty & Placement Agency was quoted as saying.

“We expect their next announcement for managers for overseas real estate will have more impact for the market, and more Japanese investors to follow suit.” GFIP has set a cap of only 5% of assets on alternative exposure, but that compares to the current level of only 0.07%. GPIF manages US$1.35 trillion as of the end of June.

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BRANDS

Apple: The face of global brand revolution Apple represents creative visualisation, and naturally delivers a virtual product experience to stimulate psychological and social gratification. This user-fixation has positioned it to become Forbes: The world’s most valuable brand of 2017 at US$170bn

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BRANDS

M

ost smartphone companies focus on product specs: design aesthetics, memory and display. Apple products evoke a strong connect between product functionality and emotive benefits associated with the brand. Its futuristic design sensibilities glide over to the top as an additional impressive feature. In the fourth quarter of 2016, Apple and the iPhone sold 78mn units, observed Forbes.

Apple has obtained 92% of the gross profit in smartphone category.

Imposing profits year after year despite its fluctuation in market capitalisation has positioned Apple Inc. (AAPL) as world’s most profitable company. WalMart hit US$485bn revenue while Apple reached US$215bn. But the latter’s profit estimates at US$45.7bn and Walmart stands at US$13.6bn. The global market is awestruck by its interchange of position in revenue and profits. Stock owners reap good benefits especially if the stocks were purchased before 2005.

Using an Apple product feels so intuitive that user-dependency has become an integral part of the brand: one Apple product leads to the next because of its ease in use and only-iOS compatibility. The pattern forms a sense of community within loyalists.

Forbes statistics reads “Its brand value is up 10% over last year and represents 21% of the company’s recent market value of US$806bn.”

How does Apple afford to tag a premium on all its products?

Dell and Gateway have offered to design the best make at lowest prices.

Apple products have pioneered niche markets since its inception. The lowest priced Macbook cost US$999: thrice the price of HP cheapest laptop.

It is devised to think out of the box.

This offering makes all Apple products a luxury buy. iOS 11 has introduced a developer kit: ARKit that allows users to create unique augmented reality for the iPhone and the iPad. The iTunes marked a revolutionary period in

Apple products are devised to think out of the box

sales for the company. Being a free music player with built-in store, the craze to own the luxury product soon transformed into a multifunctional usage: with books, movies and music.

Find my iPhone: the activation-lock feature in iPhones adds great value to the brand’s success. The feature allows users to lock, locate and wipe their phones in a stolen situation. The stolen phones become unproductive and their resale value fades. Reports on Computerworld (2015) said iPhone thefts are down 50% in London, 40% in San Francisco and 25% in New York.

George GascA3n, district attorney, San Francisco has encouraged smartphone makers to develop a similar feature for their make. Later, Samsung installed a security app on its devices, which can be used after an annual activation fee. The lock feature initiated by Apple has in some ways diminished the overall incentive for threat.

Apple’s global value of US$15.98bn in 2006 has reached US$234.67bn in 2017. However, the annual ranking from Brand Finance suggests Google is now the world’s most valuable brand. The review stems from Google’s monetary value that rose to US$109.5bn last year; and Apple’s value in the previous year that dropped from US$145.9bn to US$107.1bn. This has presented Google with an opportunity to ace Apple by US$2.4bn.

Will Apple stay on top of its rivals?

Samsung is notably the biggest smartphone maker in the world. That said, Apple’s profits are equal to: the profits of its biggest competition plus the profits of world’s most famous brands: Google, Coca-Cola and McDonald’s.

MBLM, the brand intimacy agency generated a Brand Intimacy 2017 Report, which is a study on brands dictated by emotions. The study infers that strong user-brand connection fosters greater loyalty and ends high on profits. The analysis says Apple is the world’s most intimate company because it carries the highest score

BRANDS

in enhancement, ritual, identity and frequency of use. The brand scores high on the category: can’t live without, which ascribes to customer loyalty.

Its technological advantage and core business values are unwavering.

Apple attaches ‘i’ in front of all its one syllable product names: iPad, iPod, iMac, and more to lend a distinctive feel to the brand. This phenomenon is Apple-specific and creates synergy between all its products.

From a design perspective, the company has held onto its Chief Design Officer, Jonathan Ive for a very long time. Its consistency in product design decodes the brand.

The brand’s intuitive response and relevant-marketing is simple. The interface is clean. For example: the iPod. The product’s concept of portable Mp3 player is not the first of its kind in innovation. But the transparency of the technology integrated with visually appealing advertisements has built brand intimacy.

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Apple’s late tagline “think different” has established a unified vision across the platform. The early ads for the iPad depict the character relaxing on the sofa while using the product. The script is away from the usual product focus which is in stark contrast to Blackberry, Samsung and Nokia ads.

The ads speak of seamless product interaction and not product definition.

The shot with iPhone ad campaign

“The chance to make a memory is the essence of brand marketing”

- Steve Jobs

Global Business Outlook | Issue 01 2018 | www.globalbusinessoutlook.com

is a cult, which allows users to capture shots using their iPhone and is displayed on billboards. As a distinct marketing quality the brand follows less is more.

The Unboxing trend has become a slice of Apple’s popular repute: when customers record the process of unwrapping the newly purchased Apple product. It was not told by the brand but self-developed by users after a feel-good experience with Apple.

Carrying forward a legacy, the company has weaved a metaphorical concept: a town square retail store. The new reimagined Stores are an interesting combination of a retail set-up and an education center, and will be erected in popular cities. The end goal is to encourage collaboration.

Steve Jobs has, indeed, set the right direction to forge user-brand connection that has become an indispensable part of Apple’s iconic history and for years to come. 

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BRANDS | NEWS

Apple’s developer kit poised to disrupt augmented reality

Apple is set to innovate the augmented reality market with its developer kit: ARKit launched at the WWDC event. App store editors say Augmented Reality (AR) on iPhone was an innovation breakthrough this year.

AR has become a competitor differentiator between tech giants. According to Apple, “AR has the potential to fundamentally change how we interact with the world around us by blending digitally rendered objects with our environment. The screen of your iOS device becomes a window into the AR world, where you interact with virtual objects in ways never before possible.”

The company’s mix of hardware, support for third-party frameworks, natural language and vision APIs is an upheaval in innovations. Craig Federighi, senior vice president of software engineering, Apple, said, “When you bring the software together with these devices, we have hundreds of millions of iPhones and iPads capable of AR. Overnight will make ARKit the largest AR

platform in the world.”

ARKit is designed to be a part of iOS 11, and its focus is to use Apple’s base to support developers to design augmented reality apps. The demos held at the event were mainly focused on games. However, the ARKit is effective for enterprise uses as well.

David Nedohin, co-founder and president of Scope AR, said, “ARK it has been a dream to work with,” however, there are some limitations, “it only provides plane finding for horizontal surfaces (which is a little buggy), and storing the tracked scene with some kind of scene serialization (for example, HoloLens and Tango have this functionality).”

Apple’s iPhone X is embedded with new design elements and futuristic features like infrared camera capabilities and 4K video support. This could enable the product to become a craze in the AR market.

Apple Watch percentage spikes for third consecutive quarter The U.S. mobile giant Apple is back in the market with its gen-three version of Apple Watch, released in September.

According to new data from Canalys, the latest wearable took to 3.9mn shipments in the third quarter of 2017.

However, owing to supply issues, the company calculates only around 800,000 shipments of the wearable.

Apple Watch will continue to grow at a good pace. The wearable hit the top in the first quarter of 2017. Its capability to connect to the internet without being tethered is appealing to its product users. Industry watchers say the third generation Watch is significant to Apple’s share in the market, especially in health care.

A report on CNBC reads, “Apple didn’t break out Apple Watch sales, but the company said sales of the wearable grew 34

more than 50 percent year over year for the third consecutive quarter. Wall Street

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was only looking for 20 percent growth, so that’s a win for Apple.”

NEWS | BRANDS

Xiaomi tech IPO is a watershed moment for Chinese industry

The largest-ever Initial Public Offering (IPO) will be introduced into the market by Xiaomi: one of China’s largest smartphone makers.

The brand is yet to gain popularity in the U.S. But there is a possibility for change if the IPO penetrates into the market as suggested.

The mobile phone market in China is big. The country has 1.39bn mobile telephone subscribers. Its dense population and market size is

an advantage for many players to explore. There are several mobile phone manufacturers in China, which include Xiaomi, ZTE, Vivo, Oppo, Huawei, Meizu, and Haier. However, the Americans are familiar only with the U.S. market leaders such as Apple, Samsung, LG and Motorola.

Apple is a player in the Chinese market, but is not positioned as a leader.

A company would have to acquire 20% of the market to become a player in the U.S. China would require only 2% of

market acquisition to reach efficiency in ranking. This makes it difficult for brands to enter or maintain their position.

Xiaomi’s highly anticipated IPO will suit China’s economic policy initiatives.

Most domestic Chinese companies are dominated by non-Chinese brands and don’t enjoy global presence like Samsung. In an effort to change that Xiaomi’s IPO will redefine China’s relevance in the global market.

Google’s text-to-speech mimics human articulation At Google I/O 2017 developers conference, Sundar Pichai, Google CEO announced the company’s transit from mobile to AI. Features and products such as Google Lens, Smart Reply for Gmail and Google Assistant for iPhone were launched at the event.

Google has improvised the concept of Artificial Intelligence with its text-to-speech technology—Tacotron 2 that matches human communication.

The technology is an AI generated computer speech, reported Inc.com. The news report reads “According to a paper published in arXiv.org, the system first creates a spectrogram of the text, a visual representation of how the speech should sound. That image is put through Google’s existing WaveNet algorithm, which uses the image and brings AI closer than ever to indiscernible mimicking human speech. The algorithm can easily learn different voices and even generates artificial breaths.”

The technology can emphasize on capitalised words and modulate the

tone when a question is asked. Google’s engineers are yet to disclose significant information about the model. However,

they have provided a hint for developers to understand the advancements in the system.

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EDUCATION

Is digitisation the way forward in education?

Digitisation is calling the biggest transformation in education system. The transition from traditional learning to digital learning has become a ubiquitous practice in today’s classrooms: to create digital citizenship is the path to responsible, relevant and intelligent schooling. But will this revelation erode the essence of pedagogy?

T

he digital age schools seek to educate students about the holistic use of technology and how it should be integrated into their lives. This is important because the web can certainly distort children’s view of the digital world as they don’t always understand the nuances of technology. Their influence is intrinsically based on assumptions, advertising and word-of-mouth.

Dana Boyd, principal researcher at Microsoft research writes in her book It’s complicated: The secret lives of networked teens that teens engrossed in social media don’t necessarily “have the knowledge or skills to make the

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most of their online experiences.”

Educational schools are embracing digital literacy, which forms an integral part of some interdisciplinary highschool curriculums. An interactive experiment conducted by Argos and Intel involved reading a scene from Macbeth using traditional and digital learning methods. The traditional method saw the teacher read and explain the scene followed by student analysis, and the digital method played a series of video clips interpreting the scene. The second method was more compelling than the first.

Practicing the use of digital technologies in classrooms allow

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children to hone their digital skills with greater appreciation. According to the House of Lords Report 2017, “Digital literacy should be the fourth pillar of a child’s education alongside reading, writing and mathematics and be resourced and taught accordingly.”

However, the notion is highly abstract. It requires critical thinking in online circumstances and deep understanding of social issues derived from digital technologies.

Online learning has reshaped the American education system. A report generated by Kaiser Foundation said children between the age group of eight to 18 invest nearly 7 hours and

EDUCATION

38 minutes in digital media each day.

This necessitates content monitoring, which is strenuous for parents.

For this reason, adoption of cutting-edge classroom technology is a precondition to employ digital safety and fundamentally prepare students about the gruesome realities of the web. The Internet is consumed with cyber bullies and paedophiles are based on fearmongering and deceit. A Pew Research (2012) findings show that eight in 10 U.S. parents are concerned about activities on the web. The National Association of School Psychologist, an organisation to support learning helped to devise a curriculum to exclusively raise awareness on critical cyber issues.

The act of phishing and malware attacks has encouraged schools to factor in cybersecurity from an early grade. Modules on the transient nature of information available on the web and how to preserve their digital identity will be the most effectual protection against the

current digital climate. Cybersecurity has fastened the crime rate in the industry. However, good security will distance the breach in the cyberspace.

To facilitate this understanding, it is salient to define the dynamics of it.

Even courseworks specific to the perils and importance of cybersecurity are conducted. Password security should be the next key element in the curriculum.

The National Initiative for Cybersecurity Education has created a report, which states that 50% of schools in the U.S. will diligently follow computer science program, and 25% of states will embed cybersecurity education standards for grades K-12 by 2018.

Concept learning and knowledge maps induce deep learning in subject matter such as cybersecurity practices. For example: Ethical hacking in education provides a greater insight on computers and their security. Teachers can assign students to hack into the institution’s database in order to identify flaws in the security system. These prolific hackers and savvy coders of tomorrow imbibed with ethical practices will reinforce the industry’s defendable environment.

Teachers and staff at La Cañada Unified School District have established digital citizenship as a core concept: fostering students to become more responsible while using digital technology. The School has embraced

The act of phishing and malware attacks has encouraged schools to factor in cybersecurity from an early grade

initiatives such as interactive games and worksheets to separate safe content from perilous information.

Gary Brantley, chief information officer at DeKalb County School District emphasizes the importance of introducing cyber safety as a compulsory course for all students.

But the use of an iPad in a classroom, and professors walking down the hallway with elaborate titles like Director of Innovative Learning could throw academics off the grid. One-third of students in the U.S. use mobile phones provided by the school to support coursework, observed a 2014 report by the nonprofit Project Tomorrow.

Conventional learning like note-taking and research have a substantial positive effect on academic performance. The study conducted by Massachusetts Institute of Technology examined three groups: the control group was subjected to technologyfree learning, while the second group used computers and the third group had limited access to tablets. The result suggest that students free of any digital learning performed well in exams.

Schools displacing physical textbooks with digital learning are a revelation and not a conclusion.

In fact, there is a downside to this revelation: the academic world is anxious about the exposure to a digital classroom that causes distracting behaviour. So far, the dichotomy of this issue has only persuaded schools to bypass technology and miss fine opportunities one way or another.

The experience of digital versus conventional methods of learning is progressive yet unbalanced.

The two fundamental elements of learning can be a fruitful source of information if educators aim to equalize their application. The idea is to not detract from mainstream academics, but to explain the appropriate utilisation of digital technology. 

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EDUCATION | NEWS

Massachusetts’ Digital Innovation and Lifelong Learning

Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker announced his plans to establish a Commission on Digital Innovation and Lifelong Learning. The announcement was made during the Governor’s Online Digital Learning Summit, hosted by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The Commission will provide insights on how to ensure better education and workforce training in upcoming industries.

According to Sampan, Governor Baker said, “These partnerships represents another opportunity to capitalize on innovation and deliver an affordable education for people across the Commonwealth. We appreciate

our local employers and higher education institutions creating more online programming to help address the diverse and changing needs of employers and students, including nontraditional learners and young people.”

The new Commission will comprise of 15 to 20 members including higher education experts, employers, online education providers, K-12 representatives, students and entrepreneurs. The Commonwealth Corporation created by the Massachusetts State Legislation will organise the Commission.

James Peyser, Massachusetts Education Secretary, said, “Notwithstanding the

proliferation of technology on college campuses, the basic delivery model for the vast majority of courses and programs remains stuck in the 20th Century. We need innovative approaches to serve students who have long been left out by traditional higher education models.”

The Commission is expected to do their research by July 2018, and generate a report

by September. The focus will be on effective practices such as competency-based education, stackable credentials, education based on industry need, higher education training initiatives, and prior learning assessments.

Cyber defenses as part of NICERC curriculum The growing cyberattacks has set a precedent for understanding the importance of trained professionals in cyber defenses.

Industry, governments and institutions seek to introduce online security in the curriculum from an early age.

At the NICE K-12 Cybersecurity Education Conference, Sheila Boyington, president, Thinking Media, said, “If you’re in high school, it’s almost too late.”

The Conference was supported by the National Initiative for Cybersecurity Education (NICE): a program of the National Institute of Standards and Technology in the U.S. Department of Commerce. The event focused on creating opportunities for students at a young age to learn the basics of networks, cryptography and cyberethics.

According to Kevin Nolten, director of academic outreach, National Integrated Cyber Education Research Center, the Center devises elementary and secondary curriculum, which includes cyber security 38

principles in its core academic subjects.

The Center is backed by the Department of Homeland Security.

Students are given regular education on the properties of electricity and how to

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rewire the lights. In addition, they are asked to recover the system damage in a pretext of cyberattack on the nation’s power grid.

This will help them to acquire necessary experience in the occurrence of an attack

NEWS | EDUCATION

Russia and India to collaborate using modern digital technology The Russian Federation seeks to collaborate with India and explore the potential opportunities to establish joint education programmes using modern digital technology.

Alexander Sobolev, director, Department of State Policy in Higher Education of the Ministry told IANS, “I think modern technologies are one of the visible areas where we may envisage further development of higher education cooperation. In India, there is a growing interest in such technologies and it appears that modern digital technologies are what India is going to base its economy on.”

The Higher School of Economics is embracing digital technology to economic and life sciences. Even the Moscow State University is focused on mathematics and IT. Bangalore’s Indian Institute of Science assigned the ITMO University to design a system using multi-agent model technologies to secure global mass gatherings. The model can predict crowd behaviour and is designed based on data gathered from Kumbh Mela. This was also known as the Kumbh-Mela experiment.

“ITMO University (in St. Petersburg) is the Russian leader in IT, providing training and research in advanced science, humanities, engineering and modern information technology, developing translational IT, which means applying the university’s expertise in computer technologies, for example, to health care, urban and social studies, blending the culture of innovation in IT and discovery with world-class education,” Sobolev added.

The Russian government has mapped a list of critical projects that are being carried

out by Ministry of Education and Science.

“We have 243,000 international students altogether attending universities in Russia.

This figure has approximately doubled since 2010. The target for 2025 is an increase in the number of international students to 750,000.”

Launched in 2013, the Russian Academic Excellence Project 5-100 targets five Russian universities in the top 100 universities worldwide by 2020. The count suggests 21 Russian universities are

participating in the project.

The quota given by Ministry of Education includes undergraduate and postgraduate students. Sobolev said, “Russia is one of the few countries in the world that provide foreign applicants with the right to study free of charge in universities on par with Russian students.

There are 9,300 students from India. In 2017, 15,000 such spots were granted in Russian higher education institutions. For India, there were 102.”

Digital technology to reinvent basic right to education in Africa Africa’s pressing issue on education can be addressed using modern technology. At present, 32.6mn children of primary-school age and 25.7mn adolescents lack schooling in subSaharan Africa.

The French Development Agency (FED), the Agence Universitaire de la Francophonie (AUF), Orange and Unesco carried out a study, which suggest that ICT in education, and mobile learning especially ensures substantial benefits. The benefits include low-cost teaching resources, offer relevant content and provide a complementary teacher training solution. The acquired knowledge and skills will be effectual compared to traditional learning system.

Mass communication technology has been introduced in African

countries since the 1960s. M-learning has become the centre for growth in educational information and communication technology. This can

be used for teacher training, learnercentred teaching and tests or make up for the lack of content in education system management.

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ABOUT AWARDS

Global Business Outlook aims to recognize and reward business excellence across all public and private sectors.

These awards are open to companies regardless of their size and individuals, based anywhere in the world, entries are invited from those that feel they have performed exceptionally well than their competitors to create a business edge and market recognition.

Global Business Outlook Awards nominees need not have to be conducting business globally; organizations operating nationally or regionally in just one county are also invited to participate. Such nominees can compete against organisations or individuals based out of the same country. Kindly be specific about the region of your operations office when applying for these awards.

The jury considers all entries during the first two weeks of the month and winners are notified personally within six weeks. We pride ourselves on an efficient and prompt judging process as we intend to announce the outcome of these results as soon as possible. All award winners are entitled to their winnings for a period of 12 months.

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Global Business Outlook | Issue 01 2018 | www.globalbusinessoutlook.com

AWARD WINNERS 2017

Best Customer Service Bank Vietnam 2017

Best Takaful Provider Oman 2017

Sai Gon Joint Stock Commercial Bank

Takaful Oman Insurance SAOG Takaful Oman Insurance SAOG was incorporated in 2014 and is headquartered in Muscat, Sultanate of Oman. It operates as an Islamic insurance provider in Oman through two segments, General and Family Takaful. Our mission is to promote Takaful awareness through offering innovative Islamic products and services that deliver exceptional value and are tailored to the specific needs of customers through a highly dedicated professional team.

Saigon Commercial Bank is the strongest bank in Vietnam, based on its financial results in FY2014. Some of its performance highlights include its strong balance sheet growth and significant improvement in asset quality. Our vision is to gather and mobilize resources, creating sustainable values for our Shareholders, Customers, Partners and Employees in order to improve life quality, bring prosperity to families and businesses in Vietnam and practically contribute to the reviving and the wealth of our nation.

Best Internet Bank Portugal 2017

Best Customer Service Retail Bank Vietnam 2017

Banco BNI Europa

Nam A Commercial Joint Stock Bank

We are an independent global bank with 29 years of experience in two key business areas: • Private Banking: Our goal is to help the private clients to attain their investment and savings objectives, based on a sustained and balanced growth of their assets.

• Corporate & Investment Banking: Free of any conflict of interest, we hold a vast international track record of successful operations (corporate banking and capital markets), uniquely-experienced management and an extensive network.

Nam A Commercial Joint Stock Bank was officially put into operation on October 21st, 1992 and was one of the first commercial banks to be established after the Banking Ordinance was issued in 1990 in the context of economic reform in Vietnam. After 23 years of development, facilities, technologies, sciences, techniques and network of Nam A Bank have been expanded and enhanced more and more in association with great improvements in living standard of employees and prestige of Nam A Bank.

Most Innovative Retail Credit Product Russia 2017

Best Customer Service Bank Afghanistan 2017

Touch Bank Touch Bank is a digital-first retail banking platform founded by OTP Group, the leading financial institution in Eastern Europe. Launched in Russia in 2014, Touch Bank challenges traditional banking landscape by building an all-digital retail bank with customized PFM-solutions as the core advantage. The bank started to serve Russian clients in April 2015, targeting the young generation of professionals and active city residents.

Ghazanfar Bank Ghazanfar Bank, a full fledged licensed commercial Bank, commenced its operations in March 2009. The Share Holders of the Bank belongs to one of the leading business groups of Afghanistan. As a leading business house Ghazanfar Group is involved in various key businesses sectors as a front runner such as import and distribution of Petroleum/Gas and other various important industrial sectors.

Best Life Insurance Company Taiwan 2017

Best SME Bank Laos 2017

Nan Shan Life Insurance

Banque Franco-Lao Ltd

Incorporated in July 1963, Nan Shan Life Insurance Co., Ltd. has been running its business in Taiwan for half a century. Nan Shan is highly regarded for its professional management and financial soundness and is well recognized for its leadership role in quality agents, professional training and education, technology solutions, and customer services.

is a joint venture between BRED Banque Populaire SA, the second largest bank in France and BCEL, the largest bank in Lao PDR. Established in 2008, the partnership brings considerable expertise to the banking industry in this country. We offer to our customers a high level of banking services and products, in line with our international identity and values

Most Innovative Retail Bank Vietnam 2017

Best Family Takaful Provider Indonesia 2017

PT Sun Life Financial Indonesia SeABank Founded in 1994, SeABank has possessed a heritage of 22 years of development to build up its today great shape with charter capital of approximately VND 5,500 billion, total assets of nearly VND 100 trillion and a network of 160 branches and transaction points in 25 big cities and provinces across the country.

PT Sun Life Financial Indonesia is a wholly owned subsidiary of Sun Life Financial Inc. It offers a wide range of protection and wealth management products, including life insurance, education insurance, health insurance, and retirement plans. It also partners with leading national and multinational financial institutions as part of its multi-distribution channel strategy to provide Indonesians wider access to its insurance solutions.

Global Business Outlook | Issue 01 2018 | www.globalbusinessoutlook.com

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AWARD WINNERS 2017

Best Life Insurance Company Vietnam 2017

Manulife Vietnam

Best Private Bank Oman 2017

Bank Muscat

As a member of Manulife Financial, Manulife Vietnam is proud to be the first foreign life insurance company to be present in Vietnam since 1999 and owns its own headquarter building with an investment of over $ 10 million. With experience and global reputation, Manulife aims to become the most professional life insurance company in Vietnam.

With assets worth over USD 27 billion, bank muscat is the leading financial services provider in Oman with a strong presence in Corporate Banking, Retail Banking, Investment Banking, Islamic Banking, Treasury, Private Banking and Asset Management. The Bank has the largest network of 149 branches, 645 ATMs & CDMs and more than 10,000 PoS terminals.The international operations consist of a branch each in Riyadh (Kingdom of Saudi Arabia), Kuwait and a Representative Office each in Dubai (UAE) and Singapore.

Best Credit Card Payroll Business Provider Brazil 2017

Best Agri Business Bank Philippines 2017

Banco BMG With 87 years of tradition, Banco BMG is now one of the largest and most important financial institutions in the country, focusing on retirees, pensioners and public servants. Among the main products are credit solutions, such as paycheck credit card (BMG Card) and personal credit with debit (account) credit. In addition, it operates in the corporate segment, with BMG Empresas, which offers financing for medium and large corporations, and BMG Invest Digital, which offers the best fixed income investment opportunities in the market.

LANDBANK of the Philippines

Most Innovative Retail Bank Brazil 2017

Best Cash Management Bank Philippines 2017

Banco Bradesco

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The Land Bank of the Philippines is a government financial institution that strikes a balance in fulfilling its social mandate of promoting countryside development while remaining financially viable.This dual function makes LANDBANK unique.

The profits derived from its commercial banking operations are used to finance the Bank’s developmental programs and initiatives.

Metropolitan Bank & Trust Company

We founded in 1943 as a commercial bank under the name of “Banco Brasileiro de Descontos S.A.In 1988, it merged with their real estate finance, investment bank and consumer credit subsidiaries to become a multiple service bank and changed our name to Banco Bradesco S.A.

Founded in September 5, 1962, Metropolitan Bank & Trust Co. (Metrobank) has since become the premier universal bank and among the foremost financial institutions in the Philippines. It offers a full range of banking and other financial products and services, including corporate, commercial and consumer banking, as well as credit card, remittances, leasing, investment banking and trust banking.

Fastest Growing Life Insurance Company Cambodia 2017

Best Savings Bank Philippines 2017

Prudential (Cambodia) Life Assurance PLC

Philippine Savings Bank

Prudential has a long history in Asia, having maintained a presence in the region for over eighty years. In 1923, Prudential launched its first overseas life operation in Calcutta, India. General Insurance agencies were appointed throughout the commonwealth during 1920s, and our insurance business expanded soon after in Malaysia (1924), Singapore (1931) and Hong Kong (1964).

PSBank has gone a long way from its humble beginnings as a neighborhood bank since it first opened its doors to its clients on September 26, 1960. Its head office was located at Plaza Miranda, Quiapo, Manila, then the heart of the country’s commercial and business district, while its first four branches were in Divisoria, Carriedo, Blumentritt and C. M. Recto.

Best Commercial Bank Laos 2017

Best Home Loans Provider Philippines 2017

Maybank Laos

China Banking Corp

Maybank Lao Branch obtained its license from Bank of Laos (BOL) on 26 October 2012 and officially opened on 5th November 2012. Maybank has expanded its network in Lao PDR with a second branch, Maybank Nongduang Branch on 7 March 2016.The services offered by the two Maybank branches in Lao PDR include retail and business banking, foreign exchange, remittances, treasury services as well as ATMs.

Founded in 1920 by entrepreneurs who understood the value of a peso, the importance of keeping one’s word, and how crucial a bank’s support is for a businessman, China Bank has been on a mission to be a catalyst of wealth creation for its clients—men and women, who, like the founders Dee C. Chuan, Albino Sycip, and the other visionaries of the era, have integrity, business savvy, discipline, humility, and an appetite for hard work.

Global Business Outlook | Issue 01 2018 | www.globalbusinessoutlook.com

AWARD WINNERS 2017

Best Life Insurance Company Philippines 2017

Best Healthcare Insurance Provider Saudi Arabia 2017

Philam Life Insurance At Philam Life, we know that real life never stops changing, and that people need a partner who understands and supports them through life’s challenges and opportunities.That is why we are committed to genuinely engage with our customers through meaningful dialogue. By talking to them, we know that we can better provide them with the right solutions and the right plans that turn struggles into success, fears into peace of mind and dreams into reality.

Best Wholesale Banking Portugal 2017

Bupa Arabia Bupa Arabia is one of the largest health insurers in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, meeting the insurance needs of both individual clients as well as some of the Kingdom’s largest companies. Bupa Arabia has put all its resources and efforts on providing the highest quality services in the Saudi Arabian health insurance market, keeping its promise as the best healthcare partner to its members.

Most Innovative Islamic Brokerage House Saudi Arabia 2017

Aljazira Capital ING has a long association with Portugal through Barings, which was Portugal’s principal banker in the 19th century, later acting as more of an advisor on the privatisations in the 1990s. Established in 1998, ING Portugal has one wholesale banking branch in Lisbon. With a strong profile in real estate and infrastructure lending, our principal focus today is corporate banking.

Aljazira Capital is a Saudi closed joint stock company owned by Bank Al Jazira operating under the regulatory supervision of the Capital Market Authority, specialized in securities business and providing the services of dealing, underwriting, managing, arranging, advisory, and custody. AlJazira Capital is the continuation of a long success story in the Saudi Stock Market. Having been the market leaders for several years, we intend to maintain and defend the same position.

Best Investment Bank Portugal 2017

Best Customer Service Bank Saudi Arabia 2017

ING Portugal

Arab National Bank

Caixabi Based in Lisbon, CaixaBI has a Venture Capital unit, and also a branch in Madrid.

The development of an accurate and transparent architecture has placed CaixaBI in an effectively controlled environment ensured by a compliance system and a proper corporate governance structure.Its close relationship with the most important Portuguese Companies proves the recognition of CaixaBI’s strong commitment in terms of quality, innovation and performance

Arab National Bank was established in 1979, by Royal Decree M/38, taking over the existing operations of Arab Bank in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. ANB, a Saudi Listed Joint Stock Company, now ranks amongst the 10-15 largest banks in the Middle East. Headquartered in the capital city of Riyadh, the Bank is supported by Regional Offices in Jeddah and Khobar, and has a branch in London. Over the past 38 years, ANB has been committed to live up to its brand promise of being “A Friend Indeed”.

Best Customer Service Bank Russia 2017

Best Private Bank Taiwan 2017

Chinatrust Commercial Bank Limited Bank Saint-Petersburg Bank Saint Petersburg is the largest Russian regional bank with a strong and positive brand that has won the trust and support of its customers: today, the Bank provides services to 1 770 000 individuals and 52 000 corporates, including major companies located in St. Petersburg. As of January 1, 2017, the Bank’s customer service network comprises 61 outlets (52 in St. Petersburg), 8 mortgage lending centres, 3 car lending centres and 781 ATMs.

Established in 1966, CTBC Bank Co., Ltd. has been through three major stages of development. It started out as China Securities Investment Corporation and was later changed into China Investment and Trust Corporation. In 1992, it was converted to a commercial bank with business scopes covering deposits, loans, guarantees, foreign exchange services, offshore banking unit (OBU), trust business, credit cards, securities, bonds, derivatives, e-banking, and the national lottery agent business. Since May 17, 2002, it has become one subsidiary of CTBC Financial Holding Co., Ltd.

Best Corporate Governance Bank Russia 2017

Best Non-Life Insurance Company Taiwan 2017

Fubon Insurance

Vozrozhdenie Bank Vozrozhdenie Bank is a personal bank for corporate and retail clients operating all across Russia. Its regional network comprises 119 sales offices and about 2000 ATMs including partners’ ATMs. The Bank services more than 1,300,000 clients providing them with the full scope of services, such as loan programmes, deposits, settlement operations, wide range of bank cards, etc.We believe that the most valuable asset of Vozrozhdenie Bank is its clients.

Committed to becoming one of Asia’s first-class financial institutions, Fubon Financial Holdings has built a strong lineup of financial service companies. Its major subsidiaries include Fubon Life, Taipei Fubon Bank, Fubon Bank (HK), Fubon Bank (China), Fubon Insurance, Fubon Securities. As of the end of December 2016, Fubon Financial Holdings had total assets of US$196.75 billion, ranking second among of Taiwan’ s financial holding companies and the most profitable financial holding company in Taiwan.

Global Business Outlook | Issue 01 2018 | www.globalbusinessoutlook.com

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AWARD WINNERS 2017

Best New Takaful Company Turkey 2017

Best Payment Solutions Provider Company Denmark 2017

Katılım Emeklilik ve Hayat A.Ş

Coinify

Katılım Emeklilik ve Hayat A.Ş. is established and registered at the relevant Trade Registry on 17.12.2013 upon permission letter No.18631 dated 27.11.2013 by Undersecretariat of Treasury Directorate General Of Insurance and permission letter No.8659 dated 13.12.2013 by the Ministry of Customs and Trade and announced in Trade Registry Journal No.8470 on 23.12.2013.

Coinify works to spread the use of digital currencies. With experience in working with digital currencies since 2010, the Coinify team have strong backgrounds with decades of experience in software, e-commerce and compliance. We have secured a strong network - including our board and advisors. We view them as an extension of our core team, all playing an integral role in our development and growth.

Best New Forex Research Provider Turkey 2017

Fastest Growing Payment Solutions Provider Estonia 2017

AHL FX

Maksekeskus AS

Ahlatcı Corporate group is operating in 5 main sectors and 49 companies in year 2016. With 1,810 personnel and existing powerful human resource, Ahlatcı group has a important position on gold production and export in Turkey. Foremost, the United Arab Emirates, the group exports 17 different countiries. For the year 2015, annual return is 8,5 Billion dolar. The group also has 35 percent of bracelet, 25 percent of diamond jewelry and 20 percent of spot gold market shares.

Make Commerce is a trademark of the payment facilitator Maksekeskus AS operating since 2013 with over 1200 B2B customers. Our aim is to offer seamless and innovative services, enabling e-merchants to save money and time through automated payment systems and making purchases easier for clients.Maksekeskus AS is a subsidiary company of Eesti Post AS (Omniva) and under the supervision of the Estonian Financial Supervision Authority.

Best Factoring Company Turkey 2017

Best Payment Solutions Provider Latvia 2017

Garanti Factoring A.S. Garanti Factoring, together with trade financing and receivable-based financing concentration, provides financing, guarantee and collection products required both for domestic and foreign trade. Garanti Factoring offers quality and speedy solutions to its customers with its diversified products for both domestic and international transactions, while the need for standardized banking products as well as receivable financing methods is rapidly increasing in Turkey.

Best SME Service Bank Vietnam 2017

RegularPay RegularPay is European payment service provider (PSP) that builds business upon high-quality service and customers’ trust. More than 8 years of successful experience proved that individual and attentive approach, immediate reaction to enquiries, readiness to provide nothing but the best possible service are the qualities to focus on, because they make us reliable.

Most Innovative Mobile Payment Solutions Provider Luxembourg 2017

NCB Bank

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National Citizen Bank - NCB was established in 1995 under License No. 00057 / NH-CP dated 18/09/1995 of the State Bank of Vietnam under the name Bank of Kien River, then, from a rural bank, NCB has transformed the scale of urban bank, renamed Viet Nam Joint Stock Commercial Bank - NCB. By 2014, NCB was officially renamed the National Citizen Bank. Over 18 years, NCB has gradually asserted its position brands in the financial markets - the currency of Vietnam.

YAPITAL GmbH

Best Mobile Payment Solution Provider Colombia 2017

Best Payment Solutions Provider Philippines 2017

Veritran

Omnipay

VeriTran is a pioneer company and Omni-Chanelled solution leader focused on the users experience for the Financial and Retail industry. For 10 years the company has been focused on facilitating the transition to digital banking, bringing the costs of attention down, transforming payments and enabling financial inclusion.Its solutions, VeriTran Internet Banking, VeriTran Mobile Payments, VeriTran Soft Token and VeriTran Mobile Banking have been implemented in over 30 banks and retail leaders which run safely more than 1 billion transactions annually.

Incorporated in 2009, OmniPay, Incorporated (formerly PVB Card Corporation) is a Bangko Sentral Ng Pilipinas (BSP)-approved entity and regulated as a Non-Bank Financial Institution (NBFI). It is also a BSP-approved Electronic Money Issuer (EMINBFI) and a direct member of UnionPay International, JCB International and BancNet as Electronic Money Issuer Affiliate.OmniPay’s Board of Directors and Management has aggressively sourced ways to expand their client base while continuously providing the best services and product offerings to its existing partners.

Yapital is Europe’s first cashless cross-channel payment solution, offering in-store, mobile, online and invoice payment. Yapital is easy to use, fast and secure. After registering online, consumers will be able to use Yapital for sending and receiving money, as well as for making payments across all channels.

Global Business Outlook | Issue 01 2018 | www.globalbusinessoutlook.com

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Nan Shan Life.......................................................................................................................................... 2 BPH TFI...............................................................................................................................................12-14 ForexMart................................................................................................................................................ 15 Argon Asset Management........................................................................................................24-25 AIK Banka.............................................................................................................................................. 47 Kenanga....................................................................................................................................................48

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Global Business Outlook | Issue 01 2018 | www.globalbusinessoutlook.com

AIK Banka has been founded in 1976 and has a long tradition of a stable, reliable and safe Serbian private bank. Following the trends of modern banking, the bank has adapted its traditional economically oriented strategy to the prevailing market needs. The scope of services expanded from year to year, and business focus shifted to products intended for population, agriculture, as well as the segment of small and medium enterprises. Today, with a tradition of more than 40 years, AIK Banka is firmly positioned as a leader in providing a wide range of banking services aimed at all segments of clients, especially in the area of Mobile and Electronic Banking. As one of the leaders in Digital Banking, the bank is continuously investing in the development of its Digital Platform, to more effectively offer its products to a wide range of users, all aimed at boosting satisfaction and strengthening the safety of its clients.

AIK Banka continuously achieves good business performance, well above the average of the banking sector in Serbia and the region. With a market share of about six percent in terms of Net Balance Sheet Total, AIK Banka is positioned among the top five banks in the Serbian market, according to the profit before tax and is among the first three banks in terms of operational efficiency. At the end of 2016 the Net Balance Sheet Total amounted to around EUR 1.5 billion, the pre-tax profit around EUR 40 million, the C / I ratio is at about 37%, so the ROE of 9% and ROA of 3% rank among the top performers not only in the Serbian banking market, but also in the region.

Furthermore, the bank has a high amount of liquid assets, which are available for financing selected projects, and on the other hand the amount of tier one and the total capital of EUR 450 million have a high level of capital base that provides additional support and stability. Due to its liquidity, solvency and profitability, as well as the capacity of its own capital, the bank is now positioned as one of the most important banks in the Serbian banking market, that excels compared to other banks with the level of capital adequacy of more than 30%.

Additional diversification of the bank's operations will depend on actual conditions, both on domestic Serbian and on individual regional markets, considering that the bank has, as one of its strategic goals, the continued expansion of market presence, including markets beyond the country borders.The realization of the stated goal has commenced with the acquisition of 20% stake in the Slovenian Gorenjska banka, which at the end of 2016, has net assets of EUR 1.5 billion and total capital of over EUR 200 million. By participation in the capital of Gorenjska Banka, AIK Banka aspires to expand its business, its impact, and client and partner base in the region, i.e. to the EU market.