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The future of payments in Singapore's Smart Nation

At this year’s National Day Rally on 20 August, when Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong spoke about the most important challenges and opportunities facing Singapore, the Smart Nation initiative was at the top of his agenda. Mr. Lee called on Singaporeans to embrace the unprecedented possibilities that technology has placed at their fingertips; remarking, “[The] Smart Nation is for all of us, young and old…the world is changing. Unless we change with it, we will fall behind.”

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The future of payments in Singapore's Smart Nation

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Singapore business leaders migration to Hybrid IT

Hybrid infrastructures utilising cloud technologies are paramount to Singapore’s continued financial dominance in meeting long-term market demands. With the pressure of newer tech savvy innovations dominating Asia’s markets, top Singapore business leaders are redesigning business models that will combine new data with strong revenue streams.

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Why Singapore's accountants need to embrace the cloud before they can take advantage of AI

Singapore climbed the rankings to be the second most cloud ready environment in Asia, according to the latest edition of the Asia Cloud Computing Association (ACCA) Cloud Readiness Index.

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Ways to digitalise events in Singapore

From AR to VR and everything in between, technology has come a long way beyond a stand alone entertainment technology for future-seeking geeks in Singapore. It now helps create immersive experiences at events that attendees can enjoy and are likely to remember for a long time. After all, who doesn’t want their brand’s event in Singapore to be top of recall and talked about for months on end? Below are three top technologies that I have personally used and enjoyed introducing at events in Singapore to create lasting impressions:

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Approaching the era of e-wallets in Singapore

As in many markets around the globe, retailers in Singapore now face a rapidly shifting landscape. Sales are declining, consumer demands are soaring, and new disrupters are altering the very nature of what it means to be a retail business today. Perhaps no event is more emblematic of these changes than the arrival of Amazon Prime Now earlier this summer. Offering more than 20,000 products, with doorstep delivery in just two hours, shoppers in Singapore are eagerly embracing this new way to shop – while retailers work fast to differentiate their offerings as the competition heats up.

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Why learning is going viral in the digital age

There’s a revolution taking place in Singapore. It’s not one that’s being screamed from rooftops, but it’s catching like wildfire throughout businesses everywhere, cutting costs, increasing productivity and driving employee engagement.

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From USPs to universe: a necessary evolution for Singapore brands

Recently, I was invited to join a speaking panel at a marketing summit in Singapore to deliver on the theme: “Branding: How to make your brand ‘a verb’”. As an avid student of brand building, I leapt at the opportunity to take a stab at what seemed to be the Holy Grail of what all brands should aspire to.

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Why is Singapore the technical analysis capital of the world?

The world of finance is huge and complex. There doesn’t seem to be an easy way to convey how the mechanics of the markets work, much less how the man on the street can profit from it. Or is there? If we were to discount the need to know the mechanics, in order to profit from it, and focus on the resulting price moves, we could actually consider Technical Analysis as the perfect tool for reading the markets.

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Digital transformation drives Singapore businesses in 2017

We are well and truly into the year 2017 and many of my peers have been asked similar questions when chatting at forums and industry conferences: what will drive the technology sector in 2017?

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Top challenges faced by SEA manufacturers today

Forecasted to reach a total of 70 million people by the year 2035, Southeast Asia’s comparatively young population is fuelling a growing consumer economy. According to a McKinsey report, the region’s accelerated young population growth will contribute 34% to consumption growth by 2030, compared to the global figure of 25%.

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50 years of ASEAN and 5 years of Facebook show the expansion path out of Singapore

ASEAN celebrated its 50th anniversary with a grand parade in the Philippines which represented the different cultures of its 10-member states on August 8, 2017. No one expected ASEAN to survive past 10 years, let alone 50, when there was intense conflict between its founding members in 1967.

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Employment shift: who will "go" with Amazon Go?

I would contend that in the context of retail, the aptly named store in Seattle, Amazon Go, means “Go,” not just for the customer but for thousands of people employed in the retail industry. Singapore will not be immune.

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How good interior design helps elevate the hotel experience

In Singapore (and the world), the business strategy of hotels is changing—because the way people use hotels is changing. With the rising popularity of the sharing economy, growth of millennials, and digital disruption, travellers are increasingly savvy today.

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Robots, AI, and VR: pushing the frontiers for Singaporean businesses

As a business, you would need to be highly productive to succeed in Singapore’s competitive environment. Time is money and the less time spent on a task means you can do more work with less employees. The business makes more money and every employee gets paid more. This is a win-win situation that leaves everyone happy.

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Revolutionising Singapore's retail experience: physical stores are not doomed yet

“Physical retail is dead!”—open any news publication and you’re likely to find a similar headline. The reasons for such fears are aplenty.

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Are Singaporean businesses still trapped by past perception of cloud computing?

According to the Infocomm Media Development Authority of Singapore (IMDA), only 30% of Singaporean businesses are on the cloud and they reported higher productivity growth. Over the next 3 to 10 years, IMDA expects to see growing adoption of cloud computing given its elasticity over traditional IT solutions.

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Is the U.S.A. the new tax haven?

What exactly is a tax haven? As far as we are aware, there is no universally accepted definition. Typically, the term is used to describe a jurisdiction that offers favorable tax or other conditions. It is therefore a relative term. So relative to Indonesia, Singapore appears to be a tax haven. Relative to Singapore, the BVI appears to be a tax haven.

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