Daily Briefing: Migrant workers to get monthly access to community under pilot next year; Helicap partners with Credit Saison on $13.34m impact debt pilot

And second stage of Thomson-East Coast Line further delayed to Q3 2021.

From ChannelNewsAsia:

Migrant workers in some dormitories will be able to access the community once a month under a pilot scheme in the first quarter of next year, as Singapore progressively eases restrictions as part of its transition into Phase 3.

Migrant workers account for most of Singapore's COVID-19 cases, with more than 1,000 new cases a day detected in dormitories during the peak of the outbreak in April.

To contain the outbreak, a series of measures were imposed on migrant workers and their movements, including placing all dormitories under isolation and COVID-19 testing.

Currently, migrant workers are only permitted to leave their dormitories for work, errands and to visit recreation centres.

“With the transition into Phase 3, we are preparing to return migrant workers to the community in a controlled manner, with strict measures in place,” the health and manpower ministries said in a news release on 14 December.

Read more here.

From TechinAsia:

Helicap, a Singapore-based alternative lending startup, has teamed up with Japanese financial services group Credit Saison for a pilot $13.34m (US$10m) impact debt pilot in Southeast Asia.

With the tie-up, Credit Saison will be deploying $13.34m (US$10m) in impact debt financing through a pilot to invest in select alternative lending platforms and non-bank financial institutions in Southeast Asia with the intent of bolstering financial inclusion in the region.

Helicap, through its units, provides curated access to alternative debt investments to a wide network of accredited investors, including family offices, high net worth individuals, impact funds, and institutional investors.

The company looks to facilitate lending capital to over 300 million unbanked and underbanked small and medium-sized enterprises and individuals in Southeast Asia.

“Our collaboration with the Credit Saison group – one of Asia’s most prominent financial services companies – will create significant impact, especially for low-income borrowers and microenterprises in Vietnam and Indonesia,” said David Z Wang, co-founder and CEO of Helicap.

Read more here.

From ChannelNewsAsia:

The opening of the second phase of the Thomson-East Coast MRT line has been further delayed and is now expected to open in the third quarter of next year, the Land Transport Authority (LTA) said on Monday 14 December.

The six stations comprising the second phase of the line - stretching from Springleaf to Caldecott - were originally scheduled to open by end-2020.

This was rescheduled to the first quarter of 2021 due to delays caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and measures to contain the outbreak.

A five-hour disruption of the line on 4 December—resulting from a signalling fault—has prompted the authority to review the software of the system “more thoroughly” with the contractor, said the LTA in a Facebook post.

Rail operator SMRT had then attributed the fault to a "software glitch" in a network component of the signalling system developed by French firm Alstom.

“As rail systems are complex, we will try to iron out as many teething issues as possible before opening the next phase,” the LTA said.

Read more here.