- Singapore announced a new work visa for foreign executives of technology firms, a sector the low-tax global business hub hopes will power future economic growth.
- In Indonesia, most of the GMV comes from e-commerce services, amounting to $32 billion, followed by transportation & food platforms worth $5 billion, online media $4.4 billion, and online travel $3 billion.
- Malaysia is performing well in the digital journey and has begun to achieve its dreams of becoming the ASEAN Digital Pulse while ensuring that Malaysians are always sensitive in seizing digital opportunities and emerging as the most dominant e-commerce market in the region.
- During the 19th ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) Council Meeting, held as part of the virtual Summit, key areas that were discussed is the promotion on the region’s post-pandemic economic recovery through digitalisation.
- There is no room for complacency when it comes to cybersecurity despite the tapering off in the number of attacks compared to the earlier days of the community quarantine, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) said.
- Indian organisations were worst hit by ransomware attacks among all Asia Pacific (APAC) nation with more than a third paying between $1 million — $2.5 million to hackers for such cyberattacks.
Singapore announces Tech.Pass work visa to attract foreign tech execs
A new work pass will be launched next year for top-tier foreign professionals and experts looking to start businesses, lead corporate teams or teach here, in a bid to woo these people to Singapore and develop its high-potential tech ecosystem. The Economic Development Board announced plans to launch Tech.Pass, which is planned to put Singapore ahead in the global race to attract highly skilled technology professionals in fields such as e-commerce, artificial intelligence and cyber security.
“Tech.Pass will add to the critical mass of established tech talent in Singapore and create a flywheel effect to further strengthen our position as a leading tech hub for the region,” trade minister Chan Chun Sing said, announcing the programme.
Armed with lucrative grants and incentives, Singapore has in recent years been ramping up its efforts to lure tech firms and investors, including global players like Facebook, Alphabet’s Google and Chinese tech giants like Tencent and Alibaba. Tech.Pass will be valid for two years, with a one-time renewal for a subsequent two years that will depend on certain criteria. Applications for the pass will start in January 2021, with 500 places available upon launch.
The tech sector is poised to be a large engine of growth for Singapore, and a study done by Temasek, Google and consultancy Bain & Company published on Tuesday found that the country’s Internet economy – or business conducted online – is on track to reach US$22 billion (S$29.7 billion) by 2025. The same report noted that Singapore houses the highest number of headquarters for companies with a valuation over $1 billion among South-east Asian countries, including e-commerce platform Lazada and Internet platform Shopee owner Sea.
In order to be eligible for Tech.Pass, candidates must meet two of the three criteria: a last drawn monthly salary of at least $20,000 in the past year, at least five years of cumulative experience in a leading role in a tech firm with a valuation or market capitalisation of at least US$500 million or at least US$30 million funding and beyond, or at least five years of cumulative experience in a leading role in the development of a tech product that has at least 100,000 monthly active users or at least US$100 million in revenue.
Indonesia’s Digital Economy Growth in 2020
Google, Temasek, and Bain & Company released their annual report “e-Conomy SEA 2020” to review the development of digital or internet business in Southeast Asia. The headline for this is “At full velocity: Resilient and racing ahead” – indicating how the ambitions of digital players survive and try to maintain growth amid the global economic downturn.
There are 7 highlighted digital sectors. Apart from the existing ones, e-commerce, transport & food, online travel, online media, and financial services; This year the research added two new business landscapes, healthtech and edtech – because both are experiencing significant growth amid the Covid-19 pandemic.
One quite interesting issue is that in Indonesia has 56% of total digital service consumers this year come from outside the metro area, while the remaining 44% are still from around the urban area. It is said, digital development is currently still Jabodetabek-centric; and this cannot be denied because there is a significant gap between metro and non-metro areas in terms of accessibility to infrastructure.
The GMV for the internet economy in Southeast Asia (accumulating value from the 7 highlighted sectors) is projected to exceed $100 billion. Indonesia will contribute $44 billion or the equivalent of 621 trillion Rupiah. In Indonesia, most of our GMV comes from e-commerce services, amounting to $32 billion, followed by transportation & food platforms worth $5 billion, online media $4.4 billion, and online travel $3 billion.
Indonesia’s domination in many of the Google-Temasek-Bain & Company reports has also validated that Indonesia is on the right track in building its digital economy. On the other hand, the pandemic is actually ripening the level of digital adoption in society. The benefits for digital players may be seen at a later time. This momentum certainly needs to be maintained to ensure that the Indonesian startup ecosystem continues to grow, and realize the nation’s vision to lead the Asian digital economy.
Malaysia poised to dominate Southeast Asia’s e-commerce market — MDEC
Malaysia is performing well in the digital journey and has begun to achieve its dreams of becoming the ASEAN Digital Pulse while ensuring that Malaysians are always sensitive in seizing digital opportunities and emerging as the most dominant e-commerce market in the region.
Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC) chief executive officer Surina Shukri said Malaysia had implemented various initiatives to expand the sector and had even shown some initial successes and continued to plan some of the latest strategies.
According to a study conducted by MasterCard, Malaysia ranks top in e-wallet usage in Southeast Asia, followed by the Philippines, Thailand and Singapore. “This gives the impression that Malaysians are already practising cashless transactions which is one of the elements of e-commerce,” he said on the development of the e-commerce sector in Malaysia and Southeast Asia which was posted on the MDEC Soundbytes blog at https://mdec.my/blog/.
Besides that, Surina said the government has shown a clear commitment to expand the e-commerce sector through an allocation proposed under Budget 2021. Of the RM300 million allocation, she said RM150 million will be set aside for training programme, sales assistance and digital equipment for 100,000 local entrepreneurs to switch to digital services under the e-Commerce Campaign for micro and small and medium enterprises (MSMEs).
She said to emerge as the most dominant e-commerce market in the region, Malaysia not only faces Singapore and Indonesia but also Thailand, the Philippines and Vietnam, while taking into account that ASEAN, home to over 600 million people, is a huge market to take advantage of. “Google and Temasek’s plan to work closely with the Southeast Asian largest economy is certainly related to data findings as projected by McKinsey that Indonesia’s e-commerce buyers are expected to reach 44 million by 2022 with sales of almost US$65 billion (about RM269 billion),” she added.
‘No room for complacency in cybersecurity’
There is no room for complacency when it comes to cybersecurity despite the tapering off in the number of attacks compared to the earlier days of the community quarantine, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) said.
In a virtual press conference, BSP Governor Benjamin Diokno said the central bank continues to strengthen its digital financial supervision by enhancing its regulatory framework, adopting supervisory technology and implementing capacity-building measures.
He said the central bank is transitioning toward the use of the Supervisory Assessment Framework (SAFr) which facilitates risk-focused and calibrated supervision according to a BSP-supervised financial institution (BSFI)’s business model and relative importance to the financial system.
Also in the pipeline are issuances on digital banking, cloud computing, virtual asset service provider and the cybersecurity maturity model. “These reforms aim to support the digital transformation of BSFIs, including financial technology players, while promoting sound cyber risk management,” the BSP chief said.
Diokno said cyberthreats predominantly in the form of phishing emails and malicious websites with a spin on COVID-19 increased during the earlier days of the lockdown. As a result, the BSP and financial institutions launched targeted cybersecurity awareness campaigns to combat phishing and social engineering attacks.
“They have likewise intensified their surveillance monitoring of this cyberthreats, including implementation of tighter network controls such as stringent firewall settings and point protection and whitelisting of websites or applications, among others,” Diokno said.
Digitalisation Key In Driving Regional Economy Forward
Many positives are coming out of the 37th ASEAN Summit, first the much delayed RCEP has finally been signed this is after 8 years, action plans are in place to combat the pandemic in a regional level, inter-cooperation is ever so vibrant then before and with the focus now back on reviving economies, things can only improve.
During the 19th ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) Council Meeting, held as part of the virtual Summit, key areas that were discussed is the promotion on the region’s post-pandemic economic recovery through digitalisation.
ASEAN had established several main strategies, one of which is “Accelerating Inclusive Digital Transformation” to combat the severe impacts from the COVID-19 pandemic. The strategy focuses on expediting the digital transformation in the region by leveraging on the momentum and imperative of digital transformation and seizing the enormous opportunities presented by digital technologies to boost the economy and improve society post-pandemic.
Its clear that digitalisaiton will be the key driver in flattening processes between nations in moving of goods, the pandemic which led to lockdowns highlighted supply chain gaps both domestically and in import-export systems. Vital medical supplies that required immediate export or importation could have been exercised faster if better processes were in place.
Malaysia just like many other countries had a first hand impact on the lack of digital preparedness, its apt that the Senior Minister and his colleagues are driving the “digital transformation” agenda forward as the region steps into a new era of cooperative partnership.
Indian businesses hit by more ransomware attacks than Australia, Japan and Singapore reveals new survey
India has been the worst hit by ransomware in the Asia Pacific (APAC) region, with 74 per cent of organisations having suffered a ransomware attack this year, as compared to 67 per cent in Australia, 52 per cent in Japan and 46 per cent in Singapore, said a survey on Wednesday.
About 34 per cent Indian respondents shared that they have paid between $1 million-$2.5 million as a result of malware attacks in the last 12 months as compared to 21 per cent in Japan, 69 per cent in Singapore and 23 per cent in Australia, showed the survey by US-based cybersecurity company CrowdStrike.
The results showed that 76 per cent respondents feel most threatened by cyberattacks originating from China followed by Pakistan (48 per cent) and Russia (43 per cent). China has been a common threat across regions with 75% in Japan, 72% in Singapore and 72% in Australia. More than half of Indian organisations feel that nation state attacks will be the biggest concern for 2021.
The Covid-19 pandemic catalysed increasing concerns around ransomware attacks, with many organisations resorting to paying the ransom. The global attitude has shifted from a question of if an organisation will experience a ransomware attack to a matter of when an organisation will inevitably pay a ransom.
The study surveyed 2,200 senior IT decision-makers and IT security professionals in the US, the UK, France, Germany, Spain, Italy, the Netherlands, Middle East, India, Japan, Singapore and Australia across major industry sectors.The report details the attitudes and beliefs of those in charge of cybersecurity, and tracks how they are faring against sophisticated and pervasive cyberattacks.
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