Breakfast with Ryan Huang, Emaad Akhtar and Audrey Siek

Back in March, the Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) approved local telco StarHub's proposal to buy a majority 50.1 percent stake in rival Internet service provider MyRepublic's fibre broadband business for residential and enterprise customers in Singapore. Rakesh Malani, CFO, MyRepublic shares with us the details of the deal and the behind-the-scenes story of how the deal was engineered. 

With the discussion about emerging technologies and platforms like Metaverse and Web3 gaining attention, questions are being asked about their impact across various industries, especially the marketing scene. Our next guest predicts that the Metaverse will unleash creativity on a scale never seen before since the platform is not constrained by the laws of physics. So what will Marketing 4.0 look like? And what would the new marketing paradigm potentially look like? Prashant Kumar, Founder, Entropia shares more with us. 

Synopsis: This podcast series is based on selected chapters from a book detailing Singapore’s experience battling the Covid-19 pandemic. The book - written by journalists of The Straits Times and edited by ST’s executive editor Sumiko Tan - is titled In This Together: Singapore's Covid-19 Story and is available in major bookstores. Details online: https://www.stbooks.sg/ In this fifth of six instalments, ST's executive editor Sumiko Tan looks back at how the government communicated its Covid 19 strategy in the first two years of the pandemic. This included bringing back the 1990s sitcom character Phua Chu Kang to persuade people to get vaccinated, and setting up a hotline call centre during the hurried switch to home recovery in late 2021 when the Delta variant raged.  Highlights (click/tap above): (Headphones recommended) 01:13 Snippet from viral music video featuring actor Gurmit Singh playing Phua Chu Kang; Mr Daniel Lee, an officer from the Ministry of Communications and Information, explains how the video was meant to target those in their 40s and 50s 02:50 Mr Janadas Devan, Chief of Government Communications, on the importance of maintaining public trust 06:54 Learning and adapting: The biggest comms mistake?  08:21 In 2021, the challenge was to get the elderly vaccinated; more music video campaigns rolled out in Chinese dialects, Malay and Tamil 11:25 Ms Lam Wy-Ning, deputy director of the Case Management Contact Centre, on setting up and manning the Covid-19 hotline during the difficult Delta variant period; dealing with widespread fear, anxiety, confusion 14:25 Minister for Communications and Information Mrs Josephine Teo in Parliament in March 2022 Produced by: Sumiko Tan (sumiko@sph.com.sg), Ernest Luis and Hadyu Rahim Edited by: Hadyu Rahim Audio snippets: Courtesy of MCI SINGAPORE, GOVSG YOUTUBE Follow Singapore's War On Covid podcast series here: Channel: https://str.sg/wuJa Apple Podcasts: https://str.sg/wu3n Spotify: https://str.sg/wuJy SPH Awedio app: https://www.awedio.sg/ Website: http://str.sg/stpodcasts Feedback to: podcast@sph.com.sg  Read Sumiko Tan's stories: https://str.sg/Jbhe  --- Follow more ST podcast channels: All-in-one ST Podcasts channel: https://str.sg/wvz7 ST Podcasts website: http://str.sg/stpodcasts The Usual Place Podcast YouTube: https://str.sg/4Vwsa --- Get The Straits Times app, which has a dedicated podcast player section: The App Store: https://str.sg/icyB Google Play: https://str.sg/icyX --- #stcovidbook

In this week's Weekly Wrap Up, we discussDeputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister, Lawrence Wong's announcement of a S$1.5 billion support package. One of the support is for eligible taxi main hirers and private hire car drivers who will get a one-off relief of S$150 in August. But, how much help can this support be for taxi and private hire drivers?                                                                                                                                                            Yeo Wan Ling, Advisor to the National Taxi Association, National Private Hire Vehicles Association, National Delivery Champions Association discusses with us.  

In today's The Breakfast Brief, we discuss US central bank chief, Jeremy Powell's  "unconditional" commitment to reining in 40-year-high inflation and economists polled by Reuters forecasting that the Fed would deliver another 75-basis-point rate hike next month. 

Have you ever wondered why shops are not using biodegradable plastic bags? Maybe it is simply because such bags are not easily available. But now companies can soon find such alternatives at a "one-stop eco-solutions" manufacturing plant that has been launched in Singapore. Muralikrishnan Rangan, Founder of Green Lab & Group CEO, Print Lab tell us more about the new 200,000 square feet facility and the processes in Singapore's first eco-solutions manufacturing plant

Fears are building up around stagflation and a potential recession. Francis Tan, Senior Investment Strategist, UOB Private Bank shares his views on the likelihood of this happening next year and the some indicators he is watching closely that will be the impact on markets, 

The GrowHub together with the FIPWA is looking at contributing to a ‘food bowl’ for consumers in Southeast Asia as well as contributing to addressing Singapore’s ‘30 by 30’ food security goal.  Christopher Vas, Country Manager Australia, The Growhub & General Manager, FIPWA gives us an overview of the agri-food business in the region and its current food security situation. 

Kelvin Wong, Analyst, CMC Markets, discusses how the support from Chinese policymakers will help prop up the sector, which will also get a lift potentially from a rebound in broader Chinese markets.

In this episode of Stocks to Watch, we are joined by Thilan Wickramasinghe,  Regional Head of Banks & Financials Research, Maybank Securities to discuss the likelihood of banks' share prices to continue to not do well, Raffles Medical's potential growth areas and how ST Engineering has been benefitting from the volatile global security climate.