Rise of 'nano' flats in Hong Kong

Flats getting smaller as home prices soar, but people have better shot at buying own home
By Joyce Lim, Hong Kong Correspondent, The Sunday Times, 14 May 2017

As property prices spiral upwards in Hong Kong, the race is on to build smaller and smaller homes.

Dubbed "nano" flats by the Hong Kong media, these homes are less than 200 sq ft, cost about HK$4 million (S$725,000) on average, and are popular with young couples.

In comparison, a so-called shoebox apartment in Singapore is usually about 400 sq ft and costs around $500,000.



Last year, 206 nano flats were completed in Hong Kong, up from 81 in 2013, reported the South China Morning Post, citing government figures.

Such flats made up a tiny 1.4 per cent of the 15,595 new homes built in Hong Kong last year. This year, about 5,900 small homes - less than 430 sq ft in size - are expected to be built, making up 41 per cent of all new flats, property consultancy JLL said.

These small flats have made it possible for young couples to own homes in a central area, such as Wan Chai on Hong Kong Island.

However, analysts warned that an oversupply of such flats is likely to disrupt the market in the long run.

"In the future, when these buyers try to trade up, they will not be able to sell them because of market changes. People may have more money and want bigger flats, so nano flats may not be suitable," said Mr David Ji, director and head of research and consultancy (Greater China) at Knight Frank.

Hong Kong has pipped London as the top market for luxury homes, setting records with four deals hitting the US$100 million (S$140 million) mark last year. However, there appears to be no limit to how small a flat can get.

According to Hong Kong Building Department records, the smallest flat in Hong Kong is a 61.4 sq ft flat. The flat comes with no bathroom or kitchen space.

That would make it smaller than a carpark space in Singapore, which has to be at least 124 sq ft, according to Land Transport Authority rules.

Cyber Attack: Ransomware causing chaos globally

'Unprecedented' cyber attack hits 100 countries
Experts warn of more assaults as firms grapple with worm's impact
The Sunday Times, 14 May 2017

FRANKFURT • It may not be over yet, warned security experts, after a devastating cyber attack described as unprecedented in scale caused disruptions in nearly 100 countries from Europe to Asia.

Capitalising on spying tools believed to have been developed by the US National Security Agency (NSA), hackers launched the cyber assault on Friday that infected tens of thousands of computers, with Britain's health system suffering the worst.

Cyber extortionists, using a malicious software called WannaCry, tricked victims into opening attachments to spam e-mails that seemed to contain invoices, job offers, security warnings and other legitimate files. The so-called ransomware encrypted data on infected computers, demanding payments of US$300 to US$600 (S$420 to S$840) to restore access.

Once inside the targeted network, the ransomware made use of recently leaked spy tools to silently infect other out-of-date machines.

This, security experts said, marked a risk of attacks spreading in the coming days and weeks.



Yesterday, finance chiefs from the Group of Seven nations meeting in Bari, Italy, vowed to join forces to fight the growing threat of international cyber attacks.

The ministers said in a statement that cyber incidents represent a growing threat to their economies and that tackling them should be a priority.

In Singapore, the Cyber Security Agency (CSA) yesterday said no government agencies or critical information infrastructure had been affected. The attack took place on the same day that the CSA said hackers had tried to steal data from the networks of the National University of Singapore and Nanyang Technological University.

Europol's European Cybercrime Centre said it was working closely with country investigators and private security firms to combat the threat and help victims. "The recent attack is at an unprecedented level and will require a complex international investigation to identify the culprits," it said.

Researchers with security software maker Avast said they had observed 126,534 ransomware infections in 99 places, with Russia, Ukraine and Taiwan the top targets.

One Belt, One Road: China makes tracks on modern Silk Road

On Sunday, Beijing will host a two-day summit on the Belt and Road Initiative, an ambitious project that incorporates an overland network of highways and railroads as well as a maritime route. This is the first in a series that looks at the mega project spanning China, Central Asia, South-east Asia, South Asia, Africa, the Middle East and Europe.
By Goh Sui Noi, China Bureau Chief In Beijing, The Straits Times, 11 May 2017

That China is holding a mega summit in Beijing this coming week to drum up international support for its Belt and Road Initiative is telling. China may have helped to drive global growth for many years now, but the size and ambition of the project is such that Beijing alone cannot make it happen.

So what is the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) or One Belt, One Road as it is better known?

MODERN-DAY SILK ROAD

Chinese President Xi Jinping, in two speeches in the space of about a month in 2013, proposed the revival of the Silk Road, ancient land and sea trade routes that linked China to the rest of Asia, as well as Africa and Europe.

In September that year, in Kazakhstan, he spoke about building a Silk Road Economic Belt, an overland network of highways and railroads linking China through Central Asia to Europe. A month later, in Jakarta, he proposed the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road that links China's sea ports to those in South-east Asia, South Asia, Africa, the Middle East and Europe.

Along these routes would be transport nodes and trading and industrial hubs. Building up these routes would mean beefing up infrastructure such as ports and railways, especially in less developed nations along the routes.

In Jakarta, Mr Xi also proposed the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) to help finance the building of infrastructure in the economies along these trade routes.



Together, the land and sea networks came to be known in Chinese as 一带一路, or One Belt, One Road. This was later officially translated as Belt and Road Initiative, but One Belt, One Road is more often used.

In March 2015, the National Development and Reform Commission came up with a blueprint of the BRI that painted a broad vision of its aim - to promote the orderly and free flow of economic factors, efficient allocation of resources and deep integration of markets.

But it is clearly China-centric - it is to enable China to "further expand and deepen its opening up, and to strengthen its mutually beneficial cooperation with countries in Asia, Europe and Africa and the rest of the world", said the blueprint.

It is ambitious in that it encompasses 65 per cent of the world's population, about one-third of the world's gross domestic product and about a quarter of the world's trade.

The initiative would primarily involve more than 60 countries along the routes, but the Chinese have said it is open to all countries that "share the same goals".

So it is that more than 1,200 delegates from 110 countries, including Singapore, and 61 international organisations will attend the forum.

Tommy Koh rebuts view that Singapore has acted against China: 12th China-Singapore Forum

By Lim Yan Liang, The Straits Times, 11 May 2017

Singapore does not take sides in the South China Sea issue, nor is it aligned with or against any of the major powers, Ambassador-at-large Tommy Koh has reiterated at a public forum in China.

Reaffirming the close and mutually beneficial relationship between Singapore and China, he addressed statements made by a high-level Chinese official at the public session of the 12th China-Singapore forum yesterday.

Senior Chinese diplomat Ruan Zongze, the first of four speakers at the forum, said Singapore has taken actions in recent years that adversely affected bilateral ties. These included trying to get other ASEAN countries to release a joint statement after an international tribunal's ruling against Beijing's claims in the South China Sea last year, and saying publicly that the tribunal's award is legally binding and countries should abide by it.

China and four ASEAN states have overlapping claims in the sea.

Dr Ruan added that Singapore has also allowed the United States to deploy military vessels and aircraft meant for "close-in reconnaissance in China's South China Sea" since last year, though it claimed not to be aligned with the US.

Noting that Singapore is one of China's few "all-weather friends", Professor Koh said Singapore acted very carefully after the tribunal's decision: It did not issue a statement supporting the ruling, or call on China to comply with it.

"What did we do? We did the minimum possible without sacrificing our own national interests: We took note of the award," he said.

Dr Ruan's accusation that Singapore tried to mobilise ASEAN states to issue a joint statement against China on the arbitration award was also untrue, he added.

"We asked each of the nine ASEAN countries what is their position, what can they subscribe to in the joint statement, that is all we did," he said.

"We were an honest facilitator, trying to find out whether there is a consensus among the 10 ASEAN countries, but always conscious that our national interest is to promote peace and cooperation between ASEAN and China."

Prof Koh said Singapore's foreign policy is to be close to all the major powers. But he assured his Chinese audience that "the bottom line is this: Singapore will never allow its relationship with any major power to harm China".

Sino-Singapore ties are in good order, he added, with multiple annual high-level meetings, including the apex Joint Council for Bilateral Cooperation meeting co-chaired by Deputy Prime Minister Teo Chee Hean and Chinese Vice-Premier Zhang Gaoli. Singapore is China's top foreign investor, and China is Singapore's largest trading partner, he noted.

When Singapore becomes ASEAN chairman next year, it will think of projects to bring China and ASEAN even closer, he said.

Call to end formula milk firms' aggressive tactics: Competition Commission of Singapore; KKH rolls out Singapore's first breast milk bank

Competition watchdog flags tie-ups with private hospitals, as high prices cause concern
By Tiffany Fumiko Tay, The Straits Times, 11 May 2017

The authorities are calling for a halt to formula milk companies' aggressive marketing methods, including inducements to hospitals, in response to public concern about the steep rise in prices.

In particular, sponsorship and payment arrangements between manufacturers and private hospitals are "conflict of interest" deals that should be reviewed, they say.

This follows a new report by Singapore's competition watchdog which found that formula milk manufacturers are paying private hospitals to distribute their products to newborns.

Such practices have entrenched brand loyalty and helped propel formula milk prices in Singapore to among the highest in the world, said the Competition Commission of Singapore (CCS).

It released its 87-page report yesterday after a year-long inquiry into prices of infant formula.

The CCS said formula milk companies target hospitals to gain a "first-mover" advantage, given that most parents do not switch brands later.

It recommended that such tie-ups be reviewed.

Currently, only public hospitals are disallowed from entering into such arrangements . They have a rotation system to give different manufacturers equal opportunities.

The Ministry of Health told The Straits Times that it will "strongly encourage" all hospitals providing maternity services to achieve the Baby-friendly Hospital Initiative (BFHI) certification.

This prevents conflicts of interest by prohibiting sponsorship arrangements, and actively encourages breastfeeding.

No private hospital is currently BFHI-certified, although two - Thomson Medical Centre and Mount Alvernia - told ST that they were working towards it.

The aggressive tactics by manufacturers have seen the average price of a 900g tin of formula soar 120 per cent over the last decade.

Much of this, the CCS found, was due to manufacturers hiking their prices after convincing consumers that they were paying for "premium" and improved formulas.

They continually introduce new ingredients that purport to - among other things - boost mental development and vision. Experts have said there is weak scientific evidence to back such claims.

"What consumers face... are the aggressive marketing and 'premiumisation' messages driven by formula milk manufacturers, which perpetuate consumers' belief that the more expensive and the more ingredients there are in the formula milk, the higher quality it is," said the CCS report.

Unwed mother adopts own biological daughter

Some mums do so to protect child's interests, gain benefits given only to legitimate children
By Kok Xing Hui, The Straits Times, 11 May 2017

Within the month, two-year-old Lorraine Tan (not her real name) will be formally adopted.

She and her adoptive mum will then be treated as any mother and daughter - they will be legally recognised as a family nucleus.

The unique thing about this story: Little Lorraine is not an orphan awaiting a new home. She is a child born out of wedlock who is being adopted by her biological mother.

Her mother, who requested anonymity, started the adoption process last August after seeing mentions of it on a Facebook page belonging to a support group for single parents.

"I saw a post talking about adoption. One woman left a comment saying that she did it for less than $1,000. So I sent her a message and asked her how she did it," said Ms Tan, 38, a civil servant.

She also saw mentions of adoption on the Baby Bonus brochure and on the FAQ pages on taxes.

Unwed parents do adopt their biological children. But that usually happens after they marry a partner who is not the child's parent, and they want him or her to become the legal parent of the child.

Cases of unwed parents singly adopting their children are "very few", said the Ministry of Social and Family Development (MSF).

"Our laws do not require them to do so. Some unwed parents may nonetheless choose to do so, for reasons such as to terminate the rights and responsibilities of the other parent," the MSF added.

Singapore trials LED lights on pavements at pedestrian crossings

Floor lights help 'smartphone zombies' keep eye on the road
By Christopher Tan, Senior Transport Correspondent , The Straits Times, 10 May 2017

For a generation that is perpetually looking down at their mobile phones, new LED strips embedded in the pavement of two pedestrian crossings could just be the way forward to get more people aware of road safety.

The Land Transport Authority (LTA) announced yesterday that it will be putting the new road-crossing feature on a six-month trial at two locations before deciding whether to roll it out at other crossings.

The LED strips are at the junction of Buyong Road and Orchard Road, near the Istana; and the Victoria Street crossing outside Bugis Junction. The LEDs - which are visible in bright daylight - will go from steady green to flashing green to steady red, mimicking the sequence of the traditional Walking and Standing Man signals at pedestrian crossings.



The LTA said it picked the two locations because "they are near popular amenities frequented by a high volume of pedestrians across different demographics, such as youth and elderly pedestrians". A pair of strips at each crossing costs $10,000 to $13,000 to install.

The authority said the trial will allow it to gauge whether they are suitable for Singapore's weather conditions. It will also be seeking the public's opinion on their effectiveness.

Singapore University of Social Sciences to champion lifelong learning

Its experience in adult education ties in with need to hone skills throughout lifetime: Ong Ye Kung
By Sandra Davie, Senior Education Correspondent, The Straits Times, 9 May 2017

A significant piece of the higher education puzzle fell in place yesterday, when Singapore officially welcomed its sixth university - an institution very unlike the other five.

With its background in adult education and its partnerships with industry, the Singapore University of Social Sciences (SUSS) will be a champion of lifelong learning.

Previously called SIM University, SUSS will be "clearly differentiated" from the other universities, said Minister for Education (Higher Education and Skills) Ong Ye Kung in Parliament yesterday.

Setting out the backdrop under which SUSS was being brought under the ambit of his ministry, Mr Ong said the Government would stick by its pledge to raise the university participation rate of each age group to 40 per cent by 2020.

This would be a further rise from the current situation, when the Ministry of Education expects to admit about 15,900 Singaporean students into publicly funded universities in August , with a cohort participation rate of about 35 per cent.

But he stressed that the ability to keep pace with the economy's needs, and not just having a degree, is "what helps a person earn a living".

At a time when information can be Googled, he said, "skills are what carry a premium, and skills need to be honed throughout our lifetime".

This played directly to the strengths of SUSS, which Mr Ong said has been providing quality education to adult learners for years. Many of them had to juggle studies with other commitments.

The university used technology to deliver its programmes to students. The change in its status could take it to another level.

SUSS will be able to expand its annual intake of full-time degree students from 580 to 1,000 in a few years, its president Cheong Hee Kiat told The Straits Times. It will also increase offerings for its 13,200 part-time students.

As a publicly funded university, SUSS will be able to tap more resources from the Government, which in turn will guide its strategic development to meet national objectives in education.

SUSS will also set itself apart through its strong social focus.

Helping with jobs 'best way to tackle unemployment' not redundancy insurance

Josephine Teo rejects call for redundancy insurance by WP's Daniel Goh, citing the cons
By Toh Yong Chuan, Manpower Correspondent, The Straits Times, 9 May 2017

Singapore's focus on helping workers to keep their jobs and assisting those who have lost their jobs to find new ones remains the best approach to tackle unemployment, Second Minister for Manpower Josephine Teo said yesterday.



She was responding to a proposal by Workers' Party (WP) Non-Constituency MP Daniel Goh that workers who are laid off should be covered by some form of insurance funded by premiums they and their employers pay when employed.

Dr Goh said such a scheme will provide workers with a safety net as structural unemployment rises due to economic restructuring. He was reviving the party's long-held idea of redundancy insurance.



Rejecting the call, Mrs Teo said unemployment insurance and redundancy insurance are "not crazy ideas, and neither are they new".

Several MPs from both sides of the House have raised the idea.

But it is not easy or cheap to implement, she said, in her maiden speech in the House as a full Cabinet minister. The best way to guard against unemployment is to create jobs and help unemployed workers get back to work, she added.

Singapore to enforce death penalty for nuclear terrorism acts; Terrorism (Suppression of Misuse of Radioactive Material) Act to come into force on 1 Sep 2017

Bill passed to impose death penalty for nuclear terror
By Chong Zi Liang, The Straits Times, 9 May 2017

The threat of a nuclear and radioactive terror attack in Singapore must be taken seriously, even if the likelihood is currently remote, Second Minister for Home Affairs Desmond Lee said.

This is why a mandatory death sentence will be imposed on those who carry out a lethal radioactive attack, Mr Lee added yesterday, when Parliament passed the Terrorism (Suppression of Misuse of Radioactive Material) Bill.

He also said the chances of a nuclear terrorist attack in South-east Asia are low as regional terror elements are not known to have the capability to build nuclear devices and are more likely to use conventional explosives.

But the rise of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) has heightened the global threat of nuclear or radioactive devices, he added.

ISIS had said in 2015 that it intended to attack the US with a nuclear device or explosives.

It also has access to funds and a global network of supporters that conceivably can build a crude improvised nuclear device, he said.

"As such, we cannot discount the possibility of ISIS or its supporters getting hold of nuclear material to carry out a terror attack against us or other countries," he added.

This is especially so when many countries, including those in this region, use or are actively exploring the use of nuclear energy, he added.

For instance, Malaysia arrested eight people in February for the theft of iridium-192, a radioactive material that can be used to make dirty bombs.

Mr Lee said Singapore is a signatory of the United Nations' International Convention for the Suppression of Acts of Nuclear Terrorism, which seeks to prevent nuclear terrorism by making such acts a crime.

Political Islam's changing face in South-east Asia

With exclusivist sentiments seeping into the region's majority-Muslim countries, there is an urgent need to preserve pluralism
By Joseph Liow Chin Yong, Published The Straits Times, 9 May 2017

The Arab Spring of 2011 offered up the prospect of Islamist political parties gaining a foothold in the Middle East and North Africa as part of a wider tide of political transformation. Six years later, the record of these parties, which are intent on organising society according to their interpretations of Islamic law, has been mixed.

The fortunes of political Islam in South-east Asia, however, appear to be changing in different ways. About 65 per cent of the global Muslim population resides in South-east Asia. The region is home to the most populous Muslim country in the world, Indonesia, which incidentally also supplies the largest contingent to the annual haj pilgrimage (around 200,000).

Volumes have been produced documenting the rich cultural inheritance and diverse historical tapestry of South-east Asian Islam, in many ways unique to the Indo-Malay archipelago. South-east Asian Islam also enjoys a long intellectual tradition.

From the efforts of stalwarts like Daud Abdullah Fatoni and Zayn al-Abidin Fatoni of southern Thailand and other ulama jawi (as South-east Asian Islamic scholars were called in the Arabian peninsula) who taught in the storied halqah (study circles) of the Masjid al-Haram in Mecca during the 19th and early 20th centuries, to renowned Indonesian scholars of Islam such as Nurcholish Madjid, Abdurrahman Wahid, and Syafii Ma'arif in the more recent past, South-east Asian Muslims have always had among their ranks thinkers and scholars who have made major contributions to the advancement of Islamic thought.

Yet while these are important aspects of Islam's place in South-east Asian society, they are not the whole story. In part because of the rich and heterogeneous heritage of South-east Asian Islam, the region's Muslims today subscribe to different interpretations of doctrine even as they have acquired diverse social outlooks. This diversity is reflected in Islam's growing role in the public sphere.

Tan Cheng Bock files High Court application challenging reserved Presidential Election; Legal challenge to reserved election fails

Tan Cheng Bock goes to court to ask why Elected Presidency starts from Wee Kim Wee
By Nur Asyiqin Mohamad Salleh, The Straits Times, 9 May 2017

Former presidential candidate Tan Cheng Bock has filed an application in the High Court to question the Government's decision to reserve the upcoming presidential election for Malay candidates.

He wants the court to decide if the Government's counting of the five presidential terms needed to trigger a reserved election is consistent with constitutional amendments to the elected presidency.

In his application, which includes a statement from top British constitutional lawyer David Pannick, Dr Tan contends that the counting of five terms should start with Mr Ong Teng Cheong. The Government had started counting from the term of Mr Wee Kim Wee, the first president vested with the powers of the elected presidency.

A Supreme Court spokesman said yesterday that the High Court had accepted Dr Tan's filings on Section 22 of the Presidential Elections (Amendment) Act 2017.

In a Facebook post last night, Dr Tan, 77, said he filed the application last Friday, and a pre-trial conference has been fixed for May 22.

His legal challenge follows a press conference in March, when he spoke on the Government's decision to implement changes to the elected presidency this year.

Last November, Parliament passed changes to the Constitution to ensure the presidency reflects Singapore's multiracial society. A provision was included for presidential elections to be reserved for candidates from a racial group that has not been represented in the office for five continuous terms.

In January, the Presidential Elections Act was amended. The Government, on the advice of the Attorney-General (A-G), started counting the five terms from Mr Wee, who was in office when the elected presidency took effect in 1991. After him were Mr Ong; Mr S R Nathan, who served two terms; and current President Tony Tan Keng Yam.

At the March press conference, Dr Tan called on the Government to refer its decision to the courts, saying: "I am concerned that the changes were introduced to prevent my candidacy."

He had announced his second bid last year, while a review of the elected presidency was ongoing.

Yesterday, he said he had not heard from the Government about the points he raised.

"Since this is a matter of national importance, I sought to find the legal answer and consulted the best constitutional lawyer I could find," he added.