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Haze Sends PSI to 2026 High Before Grand Prix

Singapore's 24-hour PSI got as high as 192 in the central region, its the highest report so far this year, before easing to a still unhealthy “108 to 152.” A 28-agency task force is getting ready to hand out N95 masks to eligible Singaporeans if the index goes above 200. The Education Ministry may close schools and postpone national exams if the next day's forecast is in excess of 300. Grand Prix organizers have considered, but decided (at least to date) that they will not change their open-air entertainment program, though the FIA said restrictions are possible if the haze worsens. The race itself will continue in any event.

Read more: CNA (latest PSI readings), CNA (business turnout), Business Times (task force measures), The Independent Singapore (school closures), Business Times (FIA restrictions)

One in Five Retrenched PMETs Jobless After Two Years

One in five retrenched resident PMETs (those working as pofessionals, managers, executives and technicians) is still out of work after two years, according to what acting Manpower Minister Jasmin Lau said to Parliament. About six in 10 who find another job earn at least as much as before, but those who earn less take a median pay cut of about 25 percent. Workers in their 40s and 50s made up more than half of retrenched residents, and older PMETs return to work at lower rates. Retrenchments was up from 3,830 in the first quarter to 4,620 in the second, the highest total since late 2020.

Read more: The Independent Singapore (reemployment by age)

LTA Proposes One COE Category for Cars

LTA wants to merge Categories A and B into a single passenger-car category. The proposal being considered would mean that buyers of mass-market cars could get up to S$15,000 off their COE premium, and buyers of higher-end models could pay that much more. The current split has lost its bite because electric-vehicle makers are able to tune specifications at will in order to meet Category A limits. That category was S$130,001 in the latest tender, nearly the same as Category B. LTA is looking for feedback through Nov 2 on the price bands and whether they should apply to COE renewals.

Read more: Business Times (premium gap), Business Times (tender results)

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Biggest Data Centers Will Need Licenses

Parliament has passed a law that will require licenses for about two-thirds of Singapore's 70 data centers. Operators will be required to meet rules on energy use, physical security and recovery from fires, floods and power cuts. Most will also have to report cyber incidents. The licensing system will cover facilities with at least 10 MW of capacity or that pull in average annual revenue of more than S$100 million from local users over three years. Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud are all likely to qualify for under these conditions.

Read more: Business Times

Clean Power Imports May Miss 2035 Target

Singapore may import only about 3 GW of low-carbon electricity by 2035, which is just half the target. The Energy Market Authority has conditionally approved 9.25 GW of projects in five countries, but none has started construction yet. Export permits, financing and a global cable shortage are some of the mentioned obstacles. Sembcorp's 300 MW floating solar project in Johor has an advantage because it can use an existing interconnector. It’s notable that even the full 6 GW target would provide only about 15 percent of Singapore's power in 2035, so to come up well short of that is missing the mark by a lot.

Read more: Business Times

Investment-Linked Policy Sales Double as Complaints Rise

Sales of investment-linked policies more than doubled over three years to S$2.88 billion in 2025. Alongside the rising sales, claims filed with industry mediator FIDReC rose from 42 in 2022 to 164 last year, with most alleging misrepresentation, poor disclosure or unsuitable advice. Newer policies often require few health questions because they provide minimal death cover. Many also advertise welcome bonuses that customers end up paying for by way of higher early charges (the large print giveth, the small print taketh away…). Those aged 61 and older brought 35 percent of claims in the first half of 2026, five times the share they picked up through 2022.

Read more: CNA

UOB Will Hire 1,000 Graduates Despite Shift to AI

UOB plans to recruit 1,000 graduates in Singapore by this time next year, mostly for permanent jobs in personal banking and anti-money laundering. CEO Wee Ee Cheong said AI can handle many routine tasks that are currently done by new graduates, but the bank isn’t going to stop hiring. Its flexible-work program for older employees and returning mothers will also add sales roles by early next year.

Read more: Business Times

Revolut Bets S$350 Million on Singapore

Revolut says that it will invest S$350 million in Singapore over five years and grow its staff from about 170 to more than 300 within three years. The UK fintech plans to move from co-working spaces into its own Collyer Quay office in early 2027 and will be hiring more staff for engineering, product management, data science and “AI” roles.

Read more: Business Times

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IOI Properties Takes Shenton House for S$1

Malaysia's IOI Properties has agreed to buy Shenton House from its chief executive, Lee Yeow Chor, for S$1 (74 US cents). The company will also take on the shareholder advances Lee put into the deal. He bought the 25-story tower for S$538 million through his own vehicle in 2024, then offered it to IOI two months later. The board declined at first, say8ng that it had “other capital commitments,” but now plans to redevelop the site with offices, a luxury hotel and shops. The transfer still needs to get a green light from Bank Negara Malaysia, the vehicle's lenders and the Singapore Land Authority.

Read more: VnExpress

Temasek Heads to Riyadh and Abu Dhabi

Temasek will open its first Middle East offices in Riyadh and Abu Dhabi in the first half of next year. The S$401 billion state investor said some portfolio companies will use the offices as regional hubs, but did not say how large they expected the offices will be. Europe, the Middle East and Africa together make up 12 percent of the Temasek portfolio.

Read more: Financial Times

Bus and Train Fares to Rise 7% in December

Adult card fares will rise 12 or 13 cents on December 26, the biggest increase under the current review system. The Public Transport Council is, of course, blaming the need to raise fares on higher energy costs. Seniors, students and commuters with disabilities will pay a nickel more for each trip. Monthly pass prices will stay unchanged. The increase is less than half what the formula could have allowed, and about 190,000 low-wage workers who have Workfare concession cards will pay no more than they do today.

Read more: The Independent Singapore (household relief), Business Times (fare formula)

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Ge Zhi Loses Extradition Fight to US

A district judge ordered Ge Zhi held for surrender to the United States after a two-year extradition battle. Ge is on the hook for six securities fraud and money laundering charges in an alleged insider-trading scheme that got tips from investment bankers on companies including Tiffany and Walgreens Boots Alliance. He is in custody and is allowed to ask the High Court to review his detention.

Read more: Business Times

Kroll Steps In at Crystal Jade

Kroll has been appointed receiver of Crystal Jade's Singapore and Hong Kong holding companies as LVMH-backed L Capital Asia looks for an exit. The restaurant group has closed five Singapore outlets this year, leaving 13. Kroll said the receivership doesn’t mean the business is closing, and management will stay in place.

Read more: Business Times

AI-Written Email Code Exposes 95,000 Addresses

A Bee Cheng Hiang employee asked an AI tool to write code for a mass marketing email, then used the result without noticing that recipients could see everyone else’s address. More than 95,000 customers received the email. Singapore's privacy regulator called it the first reported AI-related data breach but blamed the failure on human error, including the lack of supervisory review and a generative AI policy.

Read more: Business Times

Household Electricity Gets 10.4% Cheaper

Households will pay 28.59 cents per kWh from October through December, down from 31.91 cents as a result of easing oil prices. The reduction will trim about S$13 (US$10) from the average monthly bill of a four-room HDB flat. Rystad Energy expects prices to rebound by a single-digit percentage in early 2027 if Middle East tensions lift oil prices again.

Read more: Business Times

Car Importer Jailed for S$11.1 Million Fraud

Karkaunsl Leasing director Mah Chee Wern was sentenced to more than five years in prison for underdeclaring the value of imported cars. Prosecutors said he dodged S$1.2 million (US$890,000) in duty and GST on 866 cars, then underdeclared 876 cars at registration and deprived the Land Transport Authority of another S$9.9 million (US$7.3 million). He is required to repay the registration fees.

Read more: Business Times

Civil Servants Bought Near Unannounced MRT Stops

A working paper found that from 2007 to 2019, civil servants were 60 percent more likely than a control group to buy private apartments within a kilometer of planned (but unannounced) MRT stations. Those who sold after the facts became public made about S$80,000 (US$62,000) more for each year they owned the property than sellers of similar apartments elsewhere. The study doesn’t say how the buyers learned of the plans. We guess it will remain a mystery.

Read more: The Economist

More Healthcare Workers Report Abuse

Reports of abuse and harassment in public hospitals nearly doubled from about 2,200 in 2023 to 4,200 in 2025, according to the Health Ministry. Police referrals rose from 350 to 550. A government-backed workgroup attributed some of the increase to a greater willingness to report abuse, instead of deciding that behavior has been getting worse.

Read more: The Independent Singapore

Disability Employment Goal Rises to 40%

A government taskforce wants 40 percent of people with disabilities to be employed by 2030, up from 34.7 percent this year. It proposed an office under SG Enable that would bring skills training, career advice and job support into one place. The plan focuses on the drop in support after special-education students turn 18 and leave school.

Read more: CNA (employer wage offset), AsiaOne (ESO launch date)

Chan Yeng Kit Takes Charge at SPH Media

Chan Yeng Kit, 61, became executive chairman of SPH Media Trust and SPH Media Holdings on October 1 while keeping his chief executive role. Deputy CEO Kuek Yu Chuang, 47, was promoted to managing director and joined both boards. Chan, a former Health Ministry permanent secretary, said he intends to give up his executive duties within two to three years.

Read more: Business Times (full board names), Business Times (Chan career background)

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Government Floats SG Semiconductor Brand

A new national brand, SG Semiconductor, was launched on Friday, bringing together chip research, manufacturing, infrastructure and talent as a single package/ pitch to global chipmakers. The government is putting up S$800 million ($618 million) to support Singapore’s first research, innovation and enterprise flagship in semiconductors from now though until 2030. Developed by A*Star and the Economic Development Board, the brand will first promote public-sector R&D in seven areas, from advanced packaging to silicon photonics and flat optics. Trade minister Tan See Leng used the launch to remind industry leaders that the country makes about one in 10 of the world's chips and a fifth of global semiconductor manufacturing equipment. A handful of new and expanded tie-ups with Applied Materials, GlobalFoundries, KLA and Stats ChipPac were also announced, the largest being a five-year Phase 4 expansion of the Applied Materials-A*Star joint lab.

Read more: Business Times, Business Times

Output Up as Headcount Down

Second-quarter output was up 12.5 percent in manufacturing, but (or maybe that should be “and”) the sector shed workers. The output improvement was also seen in wholesale trade (up 8.3 percent), finance and insurance (up 6.2 percent) and infocomm (up 5 percent). Retrenchment found the highest level since the pandemic, as vacancies fell from 76,200 in mid-2025 to 73,300 at end-March and 68,600 today. Financial services postings were down 22.4 percent and infocomm was reduced 17 percent Q-on-Q. Companies pointed to reorganization and restructuring for the job losses, but Maybank economist Chua Hak Bin says its AI, claiming that it is "destroying more jobs than creating [them]" in services. The Manpower Ministry's Ang Boon Heng was a bit more circumspect with "We have not yet established how much AI is contributing to this rise in retrenchments. We are still studying [it]."

Read more: Business Times

MAS Stress-Tests the AI Boom

The Monetary Authority ran the numbers on what happens if the AI boom curdles, and found that a third of SGX-listed firms would be in trouble. That’s a group that holds 16 percent of all corporate debt on the exchange. The test simulated exposure to companies of revenue shocks of up to 30 percent and interest-rate shocks of up to 400 basis points, both calibrated to a firm's estimated exposure to the AI supply chain. The casualties skew toward the highly leveraged and capital-heavy firms that rely on working-capital financing, but smaller companies with thinner margins and slimmer cash buffers also faired less-well. The central bank's Financial Stability Review thinks a reassessment of AI-related asset valuations is the main risk, since current equity prices require sustained revenue growth and sizeable (eventual) profits from data centers and advanced semiconductors.

Read more: Business Times

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Civil Servants' Suspiciously Timed Property Buys

In perhaps a discovery of some measure of clairvoyance, a National Bureau of Economic Research working paper found that mid-level civil servants at rail-connected agencies made 113 property purchases worth S$138 million ($107 million) near future MRT stations between 2007 and 2011. Most of the buys happened one to two years before the stations were publicly announced. Some purchases involved relatives, which the paper helpful said was a pattern “consistent with information leakage.” The Public Service Division is now looking at the records to try and identify which of those buyers worked on rail planning at the time, and says it’ll refer cases to police if it finds any officer used non-public information for personal gain. PSD said the statistical pattern is/ was "a concern" but said it doesn’t by itself prove any individual officer had access to inside information. PSD also said that speculation about planned lines often circulates publicly and is used to market new developments. No cases have been referred so far.

Read more: Business Times

Terminal 5 Labor Gets Population Past 6.2 Million

The population was reported to be 6.21 million in June 2026, up 1.6% for the year, and 70,300 of the 97,300 added residents were non-citizens, most of them work permit holders pouring concrete for Changi's Terminal 5, the Marina Bay Sands expansion and new transport lines. The number of non-residents was up 3.7% to 1.98 million, and the pace of “citizens growth” was a bit slower at 0.7% (to 3.68 million). Singapore also crossed the threshold into “super-aged” territory, with 19.5% of citizens and permanent residents now at least 65 years of age, up from 12.4% a decade ago. The government wants to naturalize up to 30,000 people a year for the next five years to try and offset the aging trend. Last year's citizenship grants were 25,094 people in total.

Read more: Reuters (65+ age trend), Business Times

HDB Reviews Jumbo Flat Scheme

A three-room HDB unit in Telok Blangah, doubled in size by knocking out a wall to the flat next door, was listed for resale this month at S$2.18 million ($1.69 million). HDB says three-room flats in the area sold for S$673,000 to S$771,000 ($522,000 to $599,000) over the past six months, so the combined valuation is closer to S$1.54 million ($1.20 million), more than S$600,000 ($466,000) below the asking price. The owners bought the first unit in December 2017 and the neighboring one in August 2021, under a 1993 deal that allows eligible owners to merge adjacent flats and sell the combined unit after five years. A standard three-room flat is normally about 700 sq ft; this combined unit is 1,465 sq ft and has 91 years left on its lease. No resale application has been filed, and HDB is reviewing the deal.

Read more: Business Times

RSAF Shifts Runways in First Move to Paya Lebar

MINDEF has confirmed that the Republic of Singapore Air Force switched runways at Changi Air Base East on September 17, moving operations from 02R/20L to a new 03/21 strip that is off-limits to civilian traffic. It is the first step toward relocating Paya Lebar Air Base, a plan that was first made public at the 2013 National Day Rally and which is now planned for "2030 and beyond." That relocation will free up about 800 hectares, an area bigger than Bishan or Ang Mo Kio, for homes, offices, factories and parks.

Read more: CNA

Balakrishnan Wants ‘IAEA’ for Algorithms

Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan told the UN General Assembly that the world needs a framework convention on AI safeguards, and floated a new institution modeled on the IAEA's verification role or the ITU's technical standards. He highlighted three dangers, saying humans could lose control of autonomous systems, rogue actors could use AI to build biological or other weapons of mass destruction, and the technology could cause economic, social and political upheaval. "The genie is already out of the bottle," he said, arguing against a stop to development and in favor of rigorous pre-deployment testing, limits on what autonomous systems can do, and human override(s) when they misbehave. Any deal, he said, must give all countries a meaningful role, and not be shaped only by states with the most advanced models, deepest pockets or biggest militaries.

Read more: CNA (ASEAN chairmanship), AsiaOne (multilateralism speech)

F-35Bs Train 15,000 Kilometers From Home

As reported previously in the Singapore Weekly, twelve of Singapores new F-35Bs are training at Ebbing Air National Guard Base in Arkansas; the other eight, conventional F-35As, are going to Tengah. The B-model's short takeoff and vertical landing was sold as an answer to a country with few usable runways, especially as military airfields consolidate (see Story above). While no mutual-defense treaty with the United States exists, the jets that were built to battle in a crisis will remain 15,000 kilometers away during peacetime for training purposes. Getting them to Singapore will need transport aircraft, overflight access, and time that a quick strike won’t allow for.

Read more: Defence Security Asia

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Waymo Gets a 2028 Slot on Singapore Roads

Alphabet's Waymo is going to start taking paid driverless rides in Singapore in 2028. That will make Singapore the first Asian market after Tokyo sometime next year (London is starting before the end of this year and Munich is expected in late 2027). A fleet of Jaguar I-PACE SUVs is due to arrive over the next few months, but trained specialists will be behind the wheel through 2027 in order to help train the Waymo software how to read monsoon downpours and understand local road geometry. Transport Minister Jeffrey Siow welcomed the company as the country's "newest autonomous vehicle operator," though Waymo still needs to clear a safety assessment before LTA will allow it to run paying passengers. Fleet size, service area and fares are all so far undecided (or at least remain undisclosed). Waymo raised $16 billion in February at a $126 billion valuation and currently runs about 4,000 vehicles in 15 US cities.

Read more: Reuters (Siow), Business Times (crash reduction stat), Waymo (autonomous mileage stats), Theverge (global rollout timeline)

Canada Eyed for Fuel as ME Keeps LNG Limited

Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan says Singapore should expect more energy supply constraints from the Middle East, and that the closure of the Strait of Hormuz is a "major, major impediment" to LNG shipments from Qatar, one of SG’s main suppliers. Diversified sourcing has allowed the lights to stay on until now, and Balakrishnan recently used stops in Doha and Ottawa to source for options. He specifically talked up Canada as an energy "superpower" in addition to being a potential source of food, AI tie-ups, and digital payments deals. He and Canadian Foreign Minister Anita Anand agreed to a joint declaration toward an economic partnership framework, with formal deals expected "within the next two to three months."

Read more: CNA, AsiaOne

Exports Jump 46% on AI Demand

Non-oil domestic exports rose 46.2% year-on-year in August, blowing past the 35.1% consensus estimate and extending July's revised 24.1% climb. AI-related demand did the heavy lifting for a second straight month, with electronics the top contributor, which was enough for OCBC to lift its full-year NODX forecast. Not everyone is fully sold on the pace holding, and several market watchers are flagging the risk that AI orders will normalize and that further US tariff moves will come before year-end.

Read more: Business Times

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SIA Goes Back to Madrid After 22 Years

Singapore Airlines will run more than 2,530 weekly passenger flights by March 2027, which is about 92% of the number of flights SIA and SilkAir were running in January 2020 before Covid hit. In the latest schedule, Europe will be getting the biggest lift, featuring 15-20% more weekly flights than last winter, a return to Madrid for the first time since 2004, and twice-daily Gatwick service for most of the season. Dubai and Riyadh rare also returning after a troubled 2026. Colombo, Johannesburg and Bali all take cuts. Skytrax recently named SIA World's Best Airline for the sixth time, ahead of Qatar Airways and Cathay Pacific.

Read more: Mainlymiles (route-by-route frequencies), Asianaviation (Skytrax award ceremony)

North-South Corridor Slips to 2029

The Land Transport Authority has delayed the North-South Corridor's viaduct opening from 2027 to 2029 and the tunnel section from 2029 to 2031 because of underground rock that is both harder and higher than surveys predicted. The Novena stretch is the worst of it. The tunnel runs within a metre of the currently-active North-South MRT line, and fractured rock with groundwater leaks forced LTA to abandon the normal method of tunnelling for a slower, section-by-section process that will allow the trains running overhead. LTA says it will only be able to calculate cost overruns after the project is finished, but the pain on local businesses who have been hampered by detours and construction hoarding is starting to bite.

Read more: Business Times (project background), The Independent Singapore (rock formation sites), The Independent Singapore (resident commute impact)

ASEAN Pulls Upgraded Pact Forward Six Months

The upgraded ATIGA, originally set to come into force on June 1, 2027, will now kick in by the end of 2026, ASEAN economic ministers agreed at their September 19 meeting in Manila. Deputy Prime Minister Gan Kim Yong, who chaired the talks as Trade Minister, said the bloc would remain united in its commitment to integrate more deeply as global trade remains shaky (our word, not his). The updated pact will tighten customs procedures and supply chain rules for cross-border products. The groundwork was also set for a review of the region's services trade rules, but no timeline was given for that.

Read more: Business Times

Sunway Plants a Hospital in the JS-SEZ

Sunway Medical Centre broke ground on an RM800 million (S$250 million, or about $195 million) hospital in Iskandar Puteri. Its the first major private hospital inside the Johor-Singapore Special Economic Zone. Johor investment committee chairman Lee Ting Han said its a "vote of confidence." While no opening date for the hospital was given, the start of work is timely is as work will come along with completion of the RTS Link, which will reduce the time for Woodlands-Johor Bahru crossing to/from Singapore to minutes, and with Singapore's ongoing review of its overseas MediSave scheme.

Read more: The Independent Singapore

Kusama Bag Sells for S$87K; Condos Get Nothing

A Louis Vuitton x Yayoi Kusama pumpkin bag that was seized in Singapore's S$3 billion ($2.35 billion) money laundering case sold for S$87,000 ($68,000) on Sunday night after a 30-minute bidding war. That’s more than five times its ~S$16,000 estimate. The sale closed the first tranche of 337 handbags and accessories, raking in more than a million Singapore dollars in total. A second Hotlotz auction of 286 fine jewellery pieces is running until September 27. The mood was different at the September 17 property auction, where 26 seized properties, including a S$6.78 million Wallich Residence unit on the 61st floor once owned by convicted launderer Zhang Ruijin, found no buyers (who were willing to bid above the reserve price).

Read more: CNA (all items sold), Business Times (S$2.1B seizure scope)

DBS Expands Vaults in Gold Hub Drive

DBS increased its bullion vaulting space in 2026 to handle incresing demand from private wealth and institutional clients. OCBC and Deutsche Bank are reportedly scouting for more room too. Singapore's private facilities are already able to store at least 2,200 tonnes (1,700 at Le Freeport and 500 at The Reserve), which might usefully be compared with Hong Kong's promise to reach 2,000 tonnes within three years. Part of the reason for the work on getting more space is that Le Freeport's basement, the preferred spot for its security and load-bearing capacity, is nearly full, and some banks may be shut out of it.

Read more: Business Times

Finish a Course, Get Six Months of AI

Connect by SWDA opened its doors on September 16, folding its old Careers Connect and Lifelong Learning Exploration Centre into a single hub to open Prime Minister Lawrence Wong's SkillsFuture Festival. The hook is that anyone 18 or older who enrols in and attends a course from a list of more than 200 (run by 30ish training providers), will get a “free” six-month subscription to ChatGPT Plus, Google AI Pro, Manus AI, Microsoft 365 Personal or Singtel AI Pass.

Read more: Business Times

Haze Returns to Central Singapore

Central Singapore's 24-hour PSI was an unhealthy 113 by 11pm Saturday, which was the second “unhealthy” reading in three days after Tuesday's island-wide choke. Other parts of Singapore remained in “moderate” territory. NEA is blaming dry conditions over Kalimantan and southern Sumatra, as smoke plumes make their was toward Singapore on east-southeast winds.

Read more: CNA

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Wong's Pay Jumps to S$3.6 Million

Prime Minister Lawrence Wong's pay package is going to make a healthy move from S$2.2 million ($1.7 million) to S$3.6 million ($2.8 million) a year after an independent review recommended the first change to ministerial salaries since 2012. The reference salary for entry-level ministers will go up from S$1.1 million ($860,000) to S$1.8 million ($1.4 million), but sitting ministers will receive only a one-off bump of up to 9 percent. The benchmark is tied to the median income of Singapore's top 1,000 earners with a 40 percent discount for public service. MP allowances are also on the rise and will go up to S$18,500 ($14,400) a month from S$13,750 ($10,700). Wong says he plans to donate the increase to charity for five years. Singapore is well known worldwide for the relatively high salaries it pays public officials.

Read more: Financial Times (candidate attraction), Business Times (clean-wage principles), Business Times (cost), Business Times (National Bonus criteria), Business Times (NCMP allowances)

True Fitness Shuts All 10 Outlets Overnight

The plug has been pulled on True Fitness and True Yoga by email. At 10:30pm on September 10, an hour before closing time, the hammer came down. The Hong Kong-based group reported net liabilities of HK$429.3 million ($55 million) and blamed competition from boutique gyms, (in-house) condo facilities and online coaching. Members have so far submitted 241 complaints claiming more than S$609,000 ($473,000) in losses for unused memberships. Hundreds of (former?) staff have turned to the Singapore Fitness Alliance for help finding new work. A creditors' meetings is set for October 7.

Read more: Straits Times (rival gym incentives), CNA (NICA/e2i partnership), Business Times, Yahoo News SG (SFA job support), Business Times (liquidators)

Wong Scolds Over Air India Backlash

PM Wong used the Singapore Kadayanallur Muslim League's 85th anniversary dinner on September 12 to warn that economic frustration is hardening into "us versus them" thinking, and used (what he called) the “racist online backlash” against SIA's $3.7 billion Air India investment and the Nepal-Tibet earthquake as evidence. Police have interviewed five people because of their comments. Wong said that fault lines are opening between foreigners and citizens as well as between local-born and naturalised Singaporeans. Interestingly the PM seems to have drawn an economic lesson from the uproar and said the government would address cost-of-living and jobs pressure before anger hardens along racial lines.

Read more: CNA, Malaysia News Yahoo, UA News

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Parliament Lowers the Bar for En Bloc Sales

Developments that are at least 60 years old now require 65% owner consent to force a collective sale, which is down from 80%. Developments that are 40 to 59 years old will need 70%, under a Bill that was read in Parliament this week. The signature window will also be reduced from 12 months to six, although most successful bids get the bulk of signatures within the first four months anyway. Estates that are in the process already will be allowed to scrap their current agreement and restart under the new, lower thresholds and will be given seven months to get a deal done. Thresholds for newer developments will remain unchanged at 90% for those less that 10 years old and 80% for those 10 to 39 years old.

Read more: Business Times

Haze Hits Unhealthy Levels Again After 3 Years

Singapore's air quality fell once again into unhealthy territory for the first time in nearly three years when the PSI hit 116 on Sep 4 before easing to a moderate 69 by the morning of Sep 8. Contractors aren't waiting to see how bad it gets. Lum Chang Creations, working on a S$32.9 million ($25.7 million) contract at Teck Ghee MRT station since July, is going to rotate workers, cut “strenuous” activity and hand out N95 masks if readings get worse again. Dry weather over Kalimantan and southern Sumatra is forecast to continue.

Read more: AsiaOne (Sept 13 forecast), Business Times (industry outlook)

Cash in Circulation Hits Record S$69.6

Currency in circulation is now S$69.6 billion ($54 billion), a new high, and up from S$60.3 billion ($47 billion) in 2021, according to MAS data. Growth has slowed to an average 3% a year since 2023, which is a reduction from the heady 7% printed during the 2020-2022 period. The S$1,000 bill was discontinued in January 2021 because of money-laundering concerns, and the MAS says the S$100 note is picking up the slack, and is held less for shopping than as a popula hedge against cyberattacks and payment outages.

Read more: Business Times

Gemini Gets Full MAS Licence

Gemini's Singapore arm has finally received a full Major Payment Institution licence from MAS, almost two years after its in-principle approval in October 2024. The licence gets Gemini Digital Payments into the same club as Coinbase, Circle and BitGo on a roster of 37 companies that are allowed to offer digital payment token services in Singapore under the Payment Services Act. Gemini co-founder Cameron Winklevoss said that the news is a validation of the company's investment in Singapore, where it already runs spot trading, custody and OTC services for both retail and institutional clients. The licence will clear the way for stock trading, tokenised equity and prediction market services.

Read more: Yahoo Finance

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Leaders Condemn Racist Posts After Nepal Floods

Nine Singaporeans are still missing after the August 26 Nepal-Tibet flash floods, but some online posts fixated on ethnicity. "I only see Indian faces here. Skip. Rescue cut," read one; another asked "how to AI" while claiming all "ABNNs" look the same. Senior Minister K. Shanmugam called the comments "shameful, nasty, totally unacceptable" and asked police to investigate. The Ministry of Digital Development and Information asked platforms to pull 14 posts. A second thread of posts were directed toward Temasek CEO Dilhan Pillay Sandrasegara (on the grounds of his Indian ethnicity), as he was attacked as likely to favor Air India, which is asking for about $1.5 billion in new money from shareholders including Singapore Airlines. PM Lawrence Wong followed on September 6, warning that unchecked prejudice "can become normalised, deepen mistrust between communities, and pull us apart."

Read more: Straits Times, CNA, Telegraph India, Business Times, Wionews

Singaporeans Detained in Pyramid Sweep

Chinese officials in Guangxi have arrested 52 Singaporeans because they are suspected of being involved in a pyramid scheme. It’s maybe the biggest foreign detention of Singapore citizens ever seen. Recruiters sold newcomers on a "next Shenzhen" pitch built around 2,000-square-foot apartments renting for S$500 ($390) a month and S$2 ($1.55) bowls of wonton noodles, much of it centered around the Nanning Skyfame Asean Maker Town. Foxconn, which once employed 50,000 workers in the city, left town in 2024, leaving developers unable to sell units in nearby towers. One detainee, a public servant in her 30s who arrived in March, told Singapore media she only noticed from her balcony how many of the surrounding buildings looked abandoned after she had already moved in. The Foreign Ministry's Beijing embassy and Guangzhou consulate have each made three welfare visits, and Second Minister Sim Ann has met most of the families.

Read more: Business Times (investment amounts), Business Times (investigation)

F-35 Order Puts Most Jets in Arkansas

This week brought the first public confirmation of the Singapore’s F-35 programme cost. The total price tag will be about $4 billion (S$5.155 billion), and interestingly, the order will split the fleet across the Pacific. All 12 F-35Bs will be permanently based at Ebbing Air National Guard Base in Arkansas, and only eight F-35As will end up at Tengah. So, effectively, 60 percent of the Republic of Singapore Air Force's stealth fighters will be on American soil, where they can trade home-turf numbers for access to US ranges, classified infrastructure and training that the island's airspace can't provide.

Read more: Defence Security Asia

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Economists Raise 2026 Growth Call to 5%

Private-sector economists questioned by the Monetary Authority of Singapore now expect 2026 growth to come in at 5 per cent, up from 3.5 per cent in the previous quarterly survey. The improved sentiment came with a hedge, though, as forty-five per cent of respondents in the September poll thing that MAS will tighten the Singdollar policy band in October. That’s up from 30 per cent three months ago. That still, of course still means that most respondents see no immediate policy change, but it’s interesting to note the trend.

Read more: Business Times

Employers Warmer on 2026, Wallets Shut for 2027

The National Employers Federation polled 320 companies that employ close to 160,000 workers between June and August, and sentiment has brightened. Sixty-five percent expect that they’ll perform “well” through this year, and the share bracing for uncertain prospects fell to 63 percent from 72 percent. That optimism hasn't loosened their purse strings, however. Just over half say they don’t plan to add headcount in 2027, and most of them plan wage freezes or moderation. Small and mid-sized firms, squeezed by weak retail and F&B demand, are doing most of the freezing; larger employers appear to be less likely to be planning wage freezes.

Read more: Business Times

SGX Logs Best IPO Half-Year in a Decade

Singapore Exchange saw just eight IPOs in the first half of 2026 (that’s a fraction of Hong Kong's 85 listings and Malaysia's 36), but bankers are still calling it one of the bourse's best years in a decade. The reason is size, not volume. UI Boustead's real estate investment trust was one of three Southeast Asian listings this year to raise more than US$500 million. SGX had only four IPOs in 2024, the lowest in more than ten years, before the 2025 equity market development programme and simplified listing rules started bringing issuers back. DBS global head of investment banking Clifford Lee said Singapore could see multiple times last year's IPO proceeds if conditions hold. The bourse is on track for 30 listings through the end of this year.

Read more: CNA

Seized Penthouses Go to Auction

Ten luxury apartments, six at Martin Modern in River Valley and four at Wallich Residence in Tanjong Pagar, are going under the hammer on September 23 at indicative prices from S$2.238 million ($1.74 million) to S$6.78 million ($5.27 million). They are the first of more than 80 properties that were seized in Singapore's S$3 billion ($2.33 billion) money laundering case; the rest should be put on the block through May 2027. Proceeds will go to the Consolidated Fund.

Read more: Business Times

Court Blocks Sands China Gambling Debt Claim

Justice Philip Jeyaretnam has refused to let Venetian Macau Ltd (a unit of Sands China), collect on a HK$19.35 million ($2.5 million) gambling debt from Singapore resident Hu Yangning. Hu borrowed up to HK$15 million from the Macau casino in 2023; when he defaulted, Venetian Macau won a default judgment in Hong Kong for the sum plus 18% interest, then tried to register it in Singapore under the Reciprocal Enforcement of Foreign Judgments Act. Jeyaretnam said that the promissory note is inseparable from the underlying wager, and used the Civil Law Act's bar on suing over gambling debts. His decision overturns a 2004 precedent that had allowed enforcement of a foreign casino debt. Hu still owes the money everywhere else, and Venetian Macau can (and surely will!) chase him in other jurisdictions.

Read more: Sccgmanagement (Burswood precedent overturned), Ggrasia (local vs foreign operators)

Wong, Anutin Plan Joint ASEAN Chair Agenda

Wong flew to Bangkok for a one-day visit last Wednesday where he met with Thai PM Anutin Charnvirakul for the first Singapore-Thailand Leaders' Retreat in eleven years. Singapore will be taking the ASEAN chair in 2027 and will hand it over to Thailand for 2028, and the two want a shared multi-year agenda so the bloc's priorities don't get reset in the process. The agenda includes extending the PayNow-PromptPay link (introduced in 2021 as the world's first real-time payments tie-up) into a wider multilateral framework, more Singaporean capital for Thai growth in semiconductors, logistics, and the green/ digital economies, and an MOU between the two welfare ministries. Singapore was Thailand's largest source of FDI last year (US$17.57 billion), and bilateral trade was S$52.4 billion ($39.8 billion) through 2025, up 17.8 percent over 2024.

Read more: Business Times (rice trade deal), Business Times

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Laundering Bags and Jewels to Auction

The hammer will fall September 7, when Hotlotz opens online bidding on more than 300 handbags and 250 pieces of jewelry from the S$3 billion ($2.4 billion) money laundering case. The stuff is expected to fetch to S$3.9 million ($3.1 million). The goods, including Chanel and Dior bags, Graff and Van Cleef jewels, come from a stash of more than 1,000 luxury items stored at Le Freeport in Changi, and are viewable by appointment. Rolex, Patek Philippe and Richard Mille pieces will come in later rounds. Real estate brokers SRI, Edmund Tie and Knight Frank will also be flogging 80 of the more than 200 seized properties, many on Orchard Road and Sentosa, through mid-2027. One Sentosa sea-facing plot has already gone for about S$22 million ($17 million), almost half what the Fujian-connected group paid for it. Deloitte, appointed receiver by the Singapore Police Force in July 2025, says the composition of each phase is still being finalised. The ten offenders, all originally from China, have been already been convicted and deported.

Read more: CNA (auction schedule), Business Times (Sentosa plot price)

Police Raid Radiant World

Radiant World founder Pinkesh Nahar and Tanas Capital managing director Amit Sharma were named as defendants in a High Court suit filed August 24 by trade-finance platform Incomlend, which wants more than US$34 million back in a case listed as "tort of deceit conspiracy by unlawful means." Neither the company nor the two defendants had lawyers on record as of the filing. The next hearing is set for September 29. The suit comes a few days after Singapore police raided the iron ore trader's office and questioned staff in the wake of complaints about invoices its bankers say may have been faked. Mizuho Bank is already in court to get an injunction, and the US Justice Department and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission are working through transactions involving Radiant World and its creditors. Several major commodity traders have also cut ties with the company. Radiant World says it holds itself to "the highest commercial and legal standards" and “won’t litigate through the media.” No criminal charges have been filed as of this morning.

Read more: Business Times (Incomlend lawsuit), Business Times (police raid)

US Sanctions Name Three Firms Tied to Iran Oil

Mansoor Tayabbhai Gandhi, 51, now has three companies under his name on the US Treasury sanctions list. Trans Arctic Global Marine Services was sanctioned in July 2025 for helping the National Iranian Tanker Company move millions of barrels of Iranian crude through the Strait of Malacca into Singapore's eastern outer port limits. Arc Chartering and Hong Kong-based Sky Oil and Gas Asia were added on Aug 24 as fronts allegedly acting on his behalf. A fourth firm, Azure Shipping, was reportedly responsible for ship-to-ship transfers with sanctioned vessels tied to the same Iranian tanker company before Mansoor passed ownership to Muhammad Sidek Mohideen Shahul Hamid last October. Sea-Dragon Marine Services is still chasing Mansoor and Trans Arctic Global in court for more than $1.3 million in unpaid bills tied to services provided to Tag Marine, a firm he directed until it was deregistered in November 2023.

Read more: Business Times

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Bloomberg Drops Ministers Defamation Appeal

Bloomberg's window to appeal the S$230,000 ($178,000) defamation payouts owed each to Home Affairs and Law Minister K Shanmugam and Trade and Industry Minister Tan See Leng closed on August 28, and the news outlet let it pass without making a filing. That means that the July High Court ruling that found "malice, falsehoods and wrongful conduct" in a December 2024 article connecting the ministers' Good Class Bungalow purchases to money laundering concerns will stand. Bloomberg and reporter Low De Wei also owe S$423,000 ($327,000) in legal costs on top of the S$460,000 ($356,000) in damages. Asked how the payout would be split with its reporter, or whether payment had been made, Bloomberg declined to comment.

Read more: CNA

ICSID Opens Office for Tribunal Pitch

ICSID, the World Bank's investment dispute arm, opened its first staffed overseas office on Aug 26. The office, run by chief counsel Frauke Nitschke and three other lawyers is at 10 Marina Boulevard with a second presence at Maxwell Chambers Suites. Law Minister Edwin Tong used the launch to push forward Singapore's bid to host the Multilateral Investment Tribunal that’s being drafted at UNCITRAL's Working Group III.

Read more: Business Times (trade uncertainty), Business Times (MIT bid)

Electronics Output Growth Cools in July

Factory output was up 6.8% year-on-year in July, a softening from June's 7.5%. The electronics cluster grew 11.2%, roughly half June's 21.1% pace, with infocomms and consumer electronics finding themselves up 51.7% and semiconductors up 8%. Electronics output fell 3% month-on-month for a second straight reduction; it was dragged down by softer semiconductor production.

Read more: Business Times

MOM Makes Ice Packs and Cool Water Mandatory

Cool drinking water, emergency ice packs, breathable clothing and heat stress training will get moved from recommended to mandatory for outdoor workers starting December 1, according to the Ministry of Manpower. The rules will apply to every outdoor job site regardless of the temperature, closing a gap that previously left these decisions to employer discretion. Non-compliance will come with stop-work orders and fines. Construction, logistics and manufacturing companies will have three months to install water points, stock ice packs and run training sessions before the December 1 deadline turns (failed) inspections into penalties.

Read more: CNA

Frasers Shareholders Approve S$2.1B Split

Shareholders voted 99.07% to approve Frasers Property's S$2.1 billion ($1.6 billion) reshuffle of Frasers Hospitality Trust, which was taken private in October 2024 and is now being sorted into four categories for divestment, redevelopment, or retention. TCC Assets, the vehicle of Thai magnate Charoen Sirivadhanabhakdi that holds 86.9% of Frasers Property, abstained from the vote, while a related TCC Group Investments entity agreed to buy the S$1.1 billion tranche of mature, lower-yielding stabilised assets. Completion is targeted by the end of FY2026, pending the usual regulatory and third-party approvals.

Read more: Business Times

MUIS Writes Child-Protection Rules for Mosques

MUIS will roll out a child safeguarding rules for all mosques after a 37-year-old self-styled religious mentor, sentenced in mid-August, was convicted of raping one boy and molesting his brother after taking the pair in from a vulnerable family. The framework adds training for mosque staff and volunteers to recognise signs of abuse, standardised reporting and escalation protocols, in addition to a "risk recognition approach.” Periodic audits and spot checks, run with District Offices, will review CCTV coverage, lighting, visibility and signage.

Read more: CNA

Gupta Tells Boards to Ditch 1,000-Page Reports

Piyush Gupta (currently Keppel's non-executive chairman) told the Singapore Institute of Directors' annual conference that boards facing heavier regulatory demands shouldn't "reset" into pure policing mode but ought to "preset" back to their original job of protecting shareholder value. His evidence for overload is bank audit and risk committee reports that he says can run to 1,000 pages, even burying the information that directors need to act on. His fix, borrowed from his DBS days, is an executive summary built on what he called an "open the kimono" (are we allowed to say that?) culture at DBS, where management flagged the important issues instead of drowning the board in paper.

Read more: Business Times

Bank Stocks Drag STI as Rally Cools

The Straits Times Index turns 60 in 2026 having beaten the S&P 500, its 23 per cent total return year-to-date topping Wall Street's 18 per cent and the Nasdaq's 20 per cent. The two ETFs tracking it, SPDR STI and Amova Singapore STI, had pulled in S$5.4 billion ($4 billion) by July 10. On August 26 the index dropped 0.2 per cent to 5,721.59. The drag came from the same tickers that built the index's reputation. DBS slipped to S$76.24, OCBC to S$31.44 and UOB to S$40.95. Each was down no more than 0.4 per cent, but that was enough to outweigh a 1.2 per cent rise in Sembcorp Industries to S$6.12. DBS alone is now worth more than Deutsche Bank, Barclays or BNP Paribas.

Read more: Straits Times (STI 60th history), Business Times (regional index moves)

Singapore and Vietnam Start a Leaders' Club

Chan Chun Sing sat down with Communist Party of Vietnam heavyweight Tran Cam Tu at Conrad Singapore Marina Bay this week for the inaugural Singapore-Vietnam Strategic Dialogue, pitched by Chan as an "enduring platform" for candid talks and for next-generation officials to build ties. The two sides renewed a study-visit agreement between their foreign ministries letting CPV officials train with Singapore's public service. The meeting also identified leadership development as an area to improve exchanges by comparing how each country goes about grooming senior officers.

Read more: Business Times

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Wong Puts S$70,000 on Every Newborn

Every child born from April 2027 will collect close to S$70,000 (US$55,000) in cash, grants and education top-ups by age 17, Prime Minister Lawrence Wong said during his third National Day Rally. The outpouring will replace the tiered Baby Bonus and Large Families Scheme with a flat package that gives a third child no more than a first. The package starts with a S$10,000 baby gift, then adds S$32,000 in Child Credits over 16 years, matched savings and education top-ups, for more than 610,000 children in 380,000 households. Full-day childcare fees will go down to S$150 a month and infant care to S$300 by 2030, compared to as much as S$559 and S$1,256 today. Working parents will get 8 to 12 days of childcare leave depending on family size (that up from six), with the government now covering the full employer bill up to a reimbursement cap. Singapore’s total fertility rate was a low, low 0.87 in 2025.

Read more: Straits Times, CNA (US$ conversion), Straits Times (current fee rates), Straits Times (leave day breakdown), CNA (extra ballot chances)

Every Crate Is Too Much

PM Lawrence Wong also told the United States that Singapore won't trace the origin of every shipment passing through its ports. The statement was a forward answer to Washington's claim that transshipment through third countries is costing it $19 to $26 billion a year in lost tariff revenue. "Goods pass through Singapore from all over the world. We cannot possibly trace and verify the entire supply chain behind every product that passes through our shores," Wong said, even as he said he’d be sure to investigate any evidence of tariff evasion or goods made from forced-labor.

Read more: Business Times (ASEAN chairmanship 2027), Thestandard Com HK (tariff loss), Pmo Gov

MAS Counters Hong Kong on Fund Tax Breaks

MAS told finance executives packed into the Sofitel's Wallich Ballroom that it would exempt profit-related returns for managers running qualifying funds under sections 13D, 13O, 13OA, 13U and 13V of the Income Tax Act, in addition to a new hedge fund investment programme and a work-pass track for foreign talent. The closed-door talk came five hours after a public statement and also followed a July letter from the Alternative Investment Management Association warning that firms were going to be shifting staff to Hong Kong. Hong Kong's June bill scraps a 5 percent cap on incidental profits and cuts levies on carried interest, a change that will be worth millions a year to top earners. Deputy MAS chairman Chee Hong Tat said the rivalry isn’t "zero-sum" and said full details wait for February's Budget. Singapore and Hong Kong each run asset management industries worth more than US$5 trillion.

Read more: Business Times (S$6.7 trillion AUM), Business Times (November announcement)

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CapitaLand Eyes One Raffles Place

CapitaLand Investment and Malaysia's IOI Properties are closing in on a 50:50 joint venture worth about S$2.4 billion ($1.9 billion) for One Raffles Place. A deal is expected to be signed within two weeks. At S$2,790 per square foot, the price would be one of Singapore's largest-ever office deals. The buyers plan to keep the 62-storey tower, which is on an 841-year virtual freehold, but would tear down the newer 38-storey block, whose 99-year lease has only 56 years left, along with the connecting podium and mall. Sellers OUE REIT and UOB have yet to finalise terms. CapitaLand and UOB declined to comment; IOI did not respond.

Read more: Mingtiandi

India Bets Pay Off as Foreign Funds Flee

Shiprocket closed Wednesday at 143 rupees ($1.50), nearly 50% above its IPO price, finishing off a week where Milky Mist, Molbio Diagnostics and Manipal Health all traded 25% to 40% above debut prices. Temasek holds stakes ranging from more than 5% to nearly 9% in the four companies, part of nearly $9 billion it has spent in India over three years over $42 billion in total exposure. That’s about four times what it held a decade ago. Foreign investors pulled $24.7 billion from Indian equities this year through August 19, and a BofA fund manager survey this week ranked India the least favored market in Asia, blaming weak growth, slow reforms, high valuations and a shortage of AI plays. Temasek says India is its best-performing market on a 10-year basis.

Read more: CNBC

New Western Island

Semakau, Bukom and Sudong, home to the offshore landfill, the first refinery and an SAF emergency airstrip, will merge together over the coming decades with a few smaller islands, creating a western island south of Jurong Island, that would be built for advanced manufacturing, power generation and defence. It’s more or less the same strategy that created Jurong Island itself. A second road link to Jurong Island is planned, but once again, no cost or completion date was given. Engineers will study undersea tunnels to Pulau Tekong, currently reachable only by boat. More reclamation at the island's southern end will free about 500ha for civilian use.

Read more: Straits Times (additional islands considered), CNA (nuclear power IAEA), Straits Times (Long Island scale), CNA, Business Times (tunnel vs bridge)

Marina Bay Sands Laps Sentosa

Marina Bay Sands' casino pulled in US$2.1 billion in the first half of 2026, more than triple Resorts World Sentosa's take of less than US$700 million. Singapore's Gambling Regulatory Authority says that RWS's tourism performance was "unsatisfactory" in November 2024 and cut its casino licence renewal to two years instead of the usual three, beginning in February 2025. The regulator is now assessing the renewal application and will decide before the licence expires in February 2027. Genting Singapore says it is "well positioned for the next assessment cycle." MBS's licence was renewed for a full three years in 2025.

Read more: Business Times

Lee Visits Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan

Senior Minister Lee Hsien Loong left for Astana on August 24 on Singapore's first official leadership visit to Central Asia, with Kazakhstan first (Aug 24-27) and Uzbekistan next (Aug 27-31). Kazakhstan is the bigger fish of the two, as it does S$326.6 million ($256.8 million) in goods trade, S$159 million in services, and S$2.1 billion ($1.6 billion) in direct investment. Uzbekistan trails far behind at S$69 million in goods trade and S$390 million in investment stock, but Tashkent is expected to sign a joint statement to get free trade agreement talks underway on this visit. Lee will also collect Kazakhstan's Order of Dostyk, First Class, an honor previously given to Lee Kuan Yew in 2012 and Halimah Yacob in 2023.

Read more: CNA (leaders' meetings), Yahoo News SG (Uzbekistan services trade)

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Chip Boom Forces MTI to Double Growth Forecast

The Ministry of Trade and Industry more than doubled its 2026 growth forecast to 4.5-5.5 per cent (that’s up from as low as 2 per cent, previously), after the economy saw 6.1 per cent year on year growth in the first half. Second-quarter GDP was bumped up to 5.9 per cent from an advance estimate of 5.7 per cent, with manufacturing output seeing a lift of 12.5 per cent as networking and memory chip orders tied to the global AI buildout filled production lines in the electronics and precision engineering sectors. Wholesale trade rose 8.3 per cent on machinery and equipment sales, finance and insurance was up 6.2 per cent on fund management fees and bank credit growth. F&B services was the outlier, contracting 1.5 per cent as residents traveled out faster than tourists came in. Enterprise Singapore has also raised its non-oil domestic exports forecast to 14-16 per cent, from 3-5 per cent. At least one bank has already pushed its full-year forecast above the top of MTI's new range.

Read more: Business Times, Business Times, Business Times

Stocks Reach Fifth Straight Quarter of Gains

The Straits Times Index closed Friday at 5,743.59, up 23% this year after a similar run in 2025, putting Singapore stocks on track for a fifth consecutive quarter of gains, which would be the longest winning streak in a decade. JPMorgan raised its target to 6,500 on August 11, implying about 13% upside, saying the setup was "Goldilocks." DBS, OCBC and UOB have led the rally, all three nailing second-quarter earnings that beat forecasts.

Read more: Bloomberg, Investing.com

White House Flags Tariff Transshipments

Two days after the White House's Aug 13 "Great Transshipment Scam" report put Singapore on the list of more than 40 economies Chinese exporters use to dodge US tariffs, MTI says that the city-state has "zero tolerance for fraud" and "will not hesitate to take firm and decisive action." The report lumped Singapore with the EU, Japan, South Korea and Vietnam as "attractive opportunistic targets" for transshipment because of preferential US market access. There are signs of enforcement - on Aug 15 Singapore Customs charged a company and three people over an alleged scheme to falsely declare the origin of bedding products and other goods shipped to the US to sidestep American import duties. Maybank's Chua Hak Bin expects Singapore to tighten rules-of-origin enforcement and step up checks in response to the US pressure.

Read more: CNA (MTI statement), Business Times (economist forecast)

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ComfortDelGro Taxi Profits Drop 40%

Net profit at ComfortDelGro was down 19.7 per cent to S$85.1 million ($63 million) for H1 2026, even though revenue was up 5.7 per cent to S$2.6 billion ($1.9 billion) on bus and rail contracts in Australia, the UK, France, New Zealand and Sweden. The drag came from taxi and private hire services, where operating profits collapsed more than 40 per cent. CEO Cheng Siak Kian says the group has given up matching ride-hailing platforms on fleet size, focusing instead on niches like hospital transfers and premium travel through UK acquisitions Addison Lee and CMAC. Shares closed at S$1.35 ($1.00) before results, down 9 per cent year-to-date.

Read more: Business Times

AI Lifts Revenue and Hiring, But Not Profits

Companies using AI saw revenue jump 16 percent and headcount grow 8 percent within a year of adoption, but productivity and profit gains mostly haven't shown up yet. The payoff is so far skewing toward workers aged 35 to 44 who earn S$7,000 to S$10,000 a month ($5,400 to $7,700), because that’s the group best placed to offload routine tasks and focus on work requiring human judgment. Finance and insurance was the standout sector, with 21 percent revenue growth and a 73 percent jump in profits, as well as 21 percent growth in average local wages.

Read more: Business Times

Life Insurers Write S$3.63 Billion in New Premiums in H1

Singapore life insurers wrote S$3.63 billion ($2.8 billion) in new premiums in H1 2026, up 21.4 percent from S$2.99 billion a year earlier, with investment-linked policies jumping 24.2 percent to S$1.59 billion. GDP growth of 6.3 percent in Q1 and a revised 5.9 percent in Q2 has savers reaching for longer-dated products, with participating policies also climbing 25.4 percent to S$903 million. Insurers paid out more than S$10.6 billion in claims, maturity benefits and health disbursements in the first half, up from S$6.4 billion a year earlier, largely driven by maturing policies.

Read more: Business Times

Government Sends Checks to 2.4 Million Adults

Payments are going to arrive from September 9, with more than 2.4 million adult citizens getting S$400 ($311) to S$600 ($467) apiece under a nearly S$1 billion ($778 million) package first announced at Budget 2026 and topped-up in April. The payout depends on home annual value. Someone whose home has an annual value up to S$15,000 and assessable income up to S$22,000 should expect to get the full S$600, while those in homes valued above S$31,000 with income up to S$100,000 get S$400. No application is needed.

Read more: Business Times

Baby Bonus Preview Coming to National Day Rally

Ahead of the Marriage and Parenthood Reset Workgroup's full report in early 2027, chair Indranee Rajah says a "first wave" of measures will be pulled forward for PM Lawrence Wong to detail at the August 23 National Day Rally. The interim package targets the cost of raising children and access to affordable infant care and childcare, issues that came up repeatedly in consultations with Singaporeans. Indranee said the early rollout was about not wanting to "lose time" on falling birth rates, with more recommendations to follow once the fuller review wraps.

Read more: CNA

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SG Joins Washington's Forced-Labour Tax List

S$9.5 billion ($7.4 billion) of Singapore's domestic exports to the US, about a third of the total, now get Washington's 12.5% forced-labour tariff. Some of the exceptions include energy goods, some electronics, aerospace parts, and Section 232-covered pharmaceuticals and semiconductors. The rate applies because Singapore neither bans forced-labour imports nor has signed a US Agreement of Reciprocal Trade promising one. Gan said Singapore presented US government data showing no evidence of forced-labour involvement but it doesn’t seem to have done the trick. To be fair, it seems like a tax is par for the course these days. Of the 60 economies the US investigated, none got a full exemption; only about 10, including Mexico, the UK, Canada and India, got a 10% rate.

Read more: Business Times

Banks Earn Record Wealth Fees

Wealth fees reached record highs at Singapore's big three lenders in the second quarter. DBS was up 42 percent to S$919 million ($716 million), OCBC was up 44 percent, and UOB was up more than 29 percent. The revenue is helping protect the banks from tepid lending income as interest rates have been easing. UOB is selling its asset management arm to Allianz Global Investors for S$555 million ($432 million), as it will be booking a capital gain as it shifts toward what it’s calling “open-architecture wealth distribution” instead of running funds itself.

Read more: Taipeitimes (CEO quotes), Business Times (SMID stock picks), Business Times (Allianz deal terms)

GIC Puts $1B of PE Stakes on the Block

GIC is shopping about $1 billion of private equity fund stakes, including holdings in EQT, TPG Asia and KKR. PJT Partners is running the process. Talks are early, and no trade details have been confirmed so far. The sale comes after a less-than-stellar 3.6% five-year annualised return, the sovereign wealth fund's weakest in more than a decade.

Read more: Business Times

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Linggiu Reservoir Moonlights as Solar Farm

The reservoir that supplies much of Singapore's water will now also provide some of its electricity too. The Energy Market Authority gave Sembcorp Utilities conditional approval to import 300 MW from a floating solar and battery project at Johor's Linggiu Reservoir, a 2.2 gigawatt-peak installation with up to 4.3 gigawatt-hours of storage, developed with Malaysian state entity KPRJ Environment and Qua Energy. A second approval was given to Southern Solar Alliance (a unit of Ditrolic Energy), for 600 MW from a different Johor solar/ battery facility. Both developers want to begin commercial operations around 2029, but still need to ink power purchase agreements, get financing, and clear approvals on the Malaysian side. The tally of conditionally approved cross-border clean power projects is now seven (6.25 GW combined).

Read more: Business Times (project specs), Ema Gov (emissions)

Four in Five SMEs Flag Rising Costs

Four in five of 540 firms polled by the Singapore Chinese Chamber of Commerce and Industry said that rising costs were their top worry, up from 65 percent a year ago. Just over half of the respondents are bracing for lower profits in 2026 even as nearly 80% expect to stay in the black. National Development Minister Chee Hong Tat used Wednesday's SME conference to announce two upcoming measures to cut approval red tape, aimed particularly at smaller firms. DBS followed with a bundled SME support programme built on top of the government's July 29 S$900 million ($690 million) relief package.

Read more: Business Times (advisory panel), Business Times (DBS for SMEs)

GovTech Layoffs Skew Toward “Older” Staff

Officers in their 40s made up about two-fifths of the 93 GovTech staff retrenched in July, and another 30 percent were over 50. The cuts, the first of three phases over two years, target contract officers in project and vendor management as the agency makes a change from overseeing outside vendors to building products in-house. The retrenched are still on GovTech's payroll and getting job placement help, and the agency continues to hire software engineers, data specialists, and cybersecurity experts elsewhere. Despite the shift, vendors will remain "a key partner."

Read more: Business Times

SIA Sends A380s to Melbourne

Singapore Airlines will increase flights of the A380 out of Changi. Melbourne gets daily double-decker service after going without any A380 flights in the last seasonal schedule. Auckland and Shanghai will move to daily too. Frankfurt, previously served five times a week, will be removed from the A380 map in the network's only cut. Available seat miles will go up 15.1%. London Heathrow and Sydney will maintain their twice-daily service; Delhi and Mumbai stay daily.

Read more: Simpleflying

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S$900M Relief Package Follows Shipping Delays

The government is pushing S$900 million ($667 million) out the door for the second time this year, raising its Enterprise Financing Scheme loan risk-sharing from 50 percent to 70 percent for SMEs that have been put under the gun by shipping delays and rising energy costs. About a third of the package will go to businesses; households will benefit from roughly two-thirds of the total. April's S$1 billion package came with some hope the Strait of Hormuz would reopen. Three months on, Siow says fighting has flared up again and "a durable ceasefire between the US and Iran is proving difficult."

Read more: Business Times (SME cash grants), Business Times (CDC vouchers rebates)

White-Collar Gets Brunt of Post-Covid Layoffs

Retrenchments numbered 4,500 in the second quarter, up 17.5 percent from Q1 and the highest since the fourth quarter of 2020, when 5,640 workers were given a pink slip. The pain is moving upmarket. Year-on-year, PME and technician layoffs rose from 2,730 in Q1 2025 to 3,320 in Q1 2026, while retrenched production workers, cleaners and labourers fell from 630 to 200 over the same period, a reversal from past downturns that hurt blue-collar workers hardest. Interestingly, though, overall employment grew for a 19th straight quarter, adding 10,700 jobs, and unemployment stayed flat at 2 percent. Precision engineering firms, riding semiconductor equipment orders connected to AI investment, reported the most upbeat outlook among manufacturers; petrochemical firms cited Middle East feedstock supply disruptions as their biggest drag.

Read more: Yahoo News SG (GDP growth), Business Times (sector outlook), Business Times (HR strategy), Business Times (resident unemployment)

Massive Attack Banned for Life

Robert Del Naja and Grant Marshall held up a Palestinian flag near the end of their July 29 show at The Star Theatre, shouted "Free Palestine," and by July 31 had been given, in addition to stern warnings, an entry ban and word that any future applications for the band to perform in Singapore will be rejected. The band says its entire touring party was held after the stunt, questioned, and some members were even subjected to hotel room searches. IMDA is investigating whether promoter Lushington Entertainments breached licence conditions that prohibits the display of flags "in support of any causes," a clause the promoter had admitted before the show. Del Naja said the band "did not imagine that merely holding up the flag of a sovereign state recognised by 157 countries" would break the law, but unfortunately for them, the Foreign National Emblems (Control of Display) Act comes with a fine of up to $500, six months' jail, or both.

Read more: Straits Times (Public Order Act), Bandwagon Asia (detention), Jpost (Singapore demographics), Ca News Yahoo (1949 Act cited), BBC (band reaction)

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State Takes Keys to LKY Bungalow

The Government took possession of 38 Oxley Road on July 31, closing out a long-running dispute that has split Singapore's first family (and many observers) for more than a decade. The National Heritage Board is going to look into how best to turn the pre-war bungalow into a public space (a heritage park is one of the options), but for now the gates will stay shut. Lee Hsien Yang, the property's last owner and Lee Kuan Yew's son, posted on Facebook that "no amount of sophistry" changes his father's wish that the house be demolished, calling the compulsory acquisition "a repudiation of his values and a flagrant disregard for his long-held wish." The site was gazetted a national monument on December 12, 2025, five weeks after the Government first said that intended to acquire it.

Read more: South China Morning Post (redevelopment restrictions), Business Times (minister quotes)

Beauty Chain Escrows S$1M After Trapping Customers in Masks

DNA Brands, which runs Beautique, The Mineral Boutique and five other beauty chains, will park up to S$1 million ($740,000) with an escrow agent after Singapore's competition watchdog found staff kept customers pinned in treatment rooms (with masks freshly applied) even after sessions had already ended, until they agreed to buy more(!?). Employees asked how many credit cards customers held, ostensibly to check promotions, but in reality so that they could get a sense of a victim’s customer’s spending limits. For elderly clients, some staff checked CPF balances, helped raise withdrawal limits, and walked customers to nearby banks or ATMs. More than fifty complaints were lodged between mid 2024 and late 2025 with claims of more than S$980,000. At least 40% of complainants were aged 60+. Wild.

Read more: The Independent Singapore

Workers' Party Drafts Economic Playbook

The Workers' Party, which holds 10 of 97 elected seats, will table a motion in Parliament tomorrow asking MPs to back a "more equal and inclusive economy" less reliant on multinationals, with most of its 12 MPs expected to speak. Aljunied GRC MP Kenneth Tiong, who filed the motion, used a report of Standard Chartered moving jobs to India as a sign the old MNC playbook is fraying. Sengkang GRC MP Jamus Lim said the push is a complement to, not a substitute for, the government's Economic Strategy Review. The WP wants more attention on local companies, in addition to startup R&D and Singaporean capital going abroad, gaps it says the review left unfilled.

Read more: Straits Times (2023 motion precedent), AsiaOne (Tiong)

Renters Gain Ground as Private Car Fleet Shrinks

There were 516,237 private cars on the road at the end of June, the lowest count since 2019, at the same time that rental cars found a record 97,567, 14.9 percent of the fleet compared to 2021’s 10.5 percent. COE premiums this year have run S$102,009 to S$130,889 ($75,700 to $97,100), up from S$65,010 to S$116,002 in 2024, which seems like it’s been enough to make occasional drivers pencil the math on leasing instead. Rental operators aren't chasing the demand hard. Self-drive numbers grew from 33,765 to 36,317 since December, and chauffeured rental cars were reduced from 62,092 to 61,250, partly on a February 2025 rule locking business-owned ride-hail cars into the trade for three years before resale.

Read more: Business Times (ownership share drop), The Independent Singapore (household savings)

Four-Room Flats Lead Million-Dollar HDB Rush

1,002 HDB resale flats traded hands for prices above the million-dollar mark between January 1 and July 16, putting 2025 on pace to beat last year's record of 1,593. Four-room units, not even the bigger five-roomers, are doing most of the work. Of 110 such deals tracked by PropNex agents, 71% went to buyers aged 30 to 49, and roughly seven in ten were PMETs. The modal income band of buyers (35.5%), pulled in between S$10,001 and S$16,000 ($7,700 to $12,300) a month.

Read more: AsiaOne

Bloomberg Owes S$290,000 More in Suit

Bloomberg and reporter Low De Wei must pay an additional S$290,000 ($215,000) in legal costs to K Shanmugam and Tan See Leng, on top of the S$460,000 ($341,000) in damages awarded last month. Justice Audrey Lim split the costs evenly at S$145,000 ($107,000) per minister. The case centered on a December 2024 article about secrecy in “good class bungalow” deals, including the S$88 million ($65 million) sale of Shanmugam's former Queen Astrid Park home to UBS Trustees and Tan's nearly S$27.3 million ($20.2 million) non-caveated purchase in Brizay Park. Lim’s judgement found that Low knew parts of the story were false or published without caring whether they were true, and that Bloomberg's removal of a paywall showed malice by making the article accessible to a wider audience.

Read more: Business Times

MERCOSUR Deal for Brazil, 29th FTA

The MERCOSUR-Singapore pact took effect for Brazil and Singapore on August 1, opening preferential access to a bloc that’s worth almost $3 trillion and is captive to 295 million consumers. More than a quarter of tariff lines dropped immediately, and 96 percent will be gone within 15 years. About 200 Singaporean firms already work in Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay. Brazil, MERCOSUR's largest economy, counts Singapore as its biggest trading partner in Southeast Asia, and the four bloc members together made up more than 30 percent of Singapore's Latin America goods trade in 2025. MTI is also looking to the deal for food security, with Brazilian meat, fruit, vegetables and "superfoods" among the imports it wants to get more of. Argentina's ratification remains pending.

Read more: CNA

US Eggs Return After Two Decades

American chicken eggs are back in Singapore for the first time since the early 2000s, coming in by air in July after US and Singapore agriculture officials agreed on export certification and disease tracing. Greg Tyler of the USA Poultry and Egg Export Council expects 1.2 to 1.5 million eggs a month to start (that’s something like 1 or 2 percent of local consumption), with a longer-term target of 10 percent. Four US producers are signed on so far.

Read more: Straits Times

Transport R&D Budget Doubles for Drones and AI

Singapore's transport R&D budget will more than double to S$800 million ($592 million) over the next five years, with about two-thirds going to autonomy and digital-twin work on land, air and sea, including drones inspecting tracks and AI flagging faults before technicians are able to see personally. No depots have been named, and no timetable has been set.

Read more: Railway Supply

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US Hits Singapore With 12.5% Section 301 Tariff

The US Trade Representative hit Singapore with a 12.5% tariff from July 24, covering about a third of domestic exports to America, after a Section 301 probe found the country failed to "impose and effectively enforce" a ban on forced-labour imports. Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan brought it up with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio at the ASEAN Foreign Ministers' Meeting in Manila, arguing Washington runs a growing trade surplus and has "no technical or economic basis" for the levy. Semiconductors, pharmaceuticals and energy products are exempted. The pain will be felt on non-electronics, non-oil shipments that were already underperforming. MTI says it will “keep engaging the USTR" and share implementation details "when ready." A second Section 301 investigation, into alleged excess manufacturing capacity, is still pending.

Read more: CNA (Section 232 exemptions), Straits Times (Rubio meeting), Business Times (60 economies count), Yahoo Finance (Balakrishnan pushback), Business Times (GDP growth forecast)

Faishal Resigns Over "Inappropriate" Messages

Faishal Ibrahim quit as Minister-in-charge of Muslim Affairs, Senior Minister of State for Home Affairs, MP for Marine Parade-Braddell Heights GRC, and the PAP on July 20, after online exchanges with a woman he met on the sidelines of public events turned into what Home Affairs Minister K Shanmugam said were "objectively, inappropriate and questionable." PM Lawrence Wong learned of it only when the woman e-mailed his office with screenshots that he said left him in "disbelief and shock." Faishal accepted his position was untenable.

Read more: Business Times (acting minister), Business Times (career timeline)

Cabinet Reshuffled, Energy Added to MTI Portfolio

Following Ibrahim's exit, K Shanmugam will join Lee Hsien Loong in the senior minister ranks from Sunday, and Jeffrey Siow, David Neo and Sim Ann will move up to full ministers after more than a year as acting or junior office-holders. NTUC chief Ng Chee Meng comes back to Cabinet as minister in the Prime Minister's Office, ending the "temporary arrangement" Wong granted him after the 2025 election so he could focus on Jalan Kayu and labour. Tan See Leng moves from Manpower to the newly renamed Ministry of Energy, Trade and Industry as of October 1, splitting the energy and industry brief with DPM Gan Kim Yong, who will stay on at trade. Two backbenchers, Foo Cexiang and Shawn Loh, will enter government for the first time as ministers of state.

Read more: Business Times (portfolio assignments), Business Times (Sim Ann promotion), Business Times (clean energy rationale)

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HSBC Sells Life Unit to Allianz, Keeps the Counter

HSBC agreed to sell HSBC Life Singapore to Allianz for S$2.7 billion ($2.09 billion), with the German insurer's Allianz Asia Holding taking 100% of the shares. The insurer posted S$118 million in pretax profit last year. It was also Singapore's top insurer for high-net-worth clients in both 2024 and 2025. The two sides signed a 15-year exclusive bancassurance agreement, with Allianz paying a further S$200 million upfront for the right to keep using HSBC's branches and wealth advisers as a distribution arm. HSBC will book a $1.8 billion pretax gain. Regulators still need to sign off, completion is expected in the first half of next year.

Read more: Yahoo Finance (Elhedery restructuring), Allianz (€2.0B total deal), Yahoo Finance (CET1 ratio), Yahoo Finance (share price reaction)

BYD Claims a Quarter of New Car Sales

BYD registered 6,828 cars in the first half of 2026, up 46.3 percent from a year earlier, pushing its market share to 25.2 percent and keeping it well ahead of Toyota. Tesla doubled its registrations to 2,826 to crack the top three, and Chery's count ballooned from 195 to 1,270. EVs now make up 62.4 percent of new registrations, up from 41 percent last year. BMW and Mercedes-Benz, squeezed by February's rebate cuts, saw sales drop 40.3 percent and 33.8 percent respectively.

Read more: Business Times (brand-by-brand breakdown), Business Times (all COE categories)

Prices Tick Up, MAS Set to Sit Still

Core inflation climbed to 1.6 per cent in June from May's 1.4 per cent on pricier food, services and retail goods. Headline inflation moved up bit to 1.9 per cent (from 1.8), as housing rents pushed harder. MAS and MTI have kept their 2026 full-year band at 1.5 to 2.5 per cent, though they dropped a line about easing global energy prices, and are still saying that risks are "tilted to the upside.” MAS is expected to leave policy untouched at its July meeting.

Read more: Business Times (CPI breakdown), Business Times (outlook)

CSA Makes MINDEF Cyber Tool Mandatory Across CII Sectors

Operators across all 11 critical infrastructure sectors, from banking to water to government, must use a MINDEF-built intrusion detection tool and put cybersecurity on the board's agenda under the new Cybersecurity Code of Practice. The tool, built by MINDEF's Centre for Strategic Infocomm Technologies, already runs in some CII systems and is heading for a wider rollout after state-linked group UNC3886's July 2025 breach of Singtel, StarHub, M1 and Simba Telecom. Announcing the rules on July 22, Minister Josephine Teo said the change is necessary as AI-assisted attacks have outpaced existing defenses.

Read more: Business Times

JPMorgan Moves China Quant Team to Singapore

JPMorgan Chase has moved more than 30 quantitative researchers out of Beijing and Shanghai, sending 25 to 30 to Singapore and about six to Hong Kong. The bank is consolidating its quant trading and research staff in regional hubs that are closer to the business divisions they serve instead of running the function out of mainland offices. No public statement came with the transfers.

Read more: Bloomberg

Grab, Sea and SpaceX Join SGX as First USSDRs

Grab, Sea and SpaceX began trading as SGX's first US-listed depository receipts on Wednesday, taking the exchange's SDR count to 38 across four markets. Retail investors can now buy a piece of Musk's rocket company in Singapore dollars during local trading hours, with no foreign exchange conversion required. SDR assets under management have risen 153 per cent year on year to more than S$280 million ($214 million). Retail investors hold more than 80 per cent of the total.

Read more: Business Times

Ant International Raises $1.2 Billion

Ant International, spun off from Ant Group in 2024 and headquartered in Singapore, raised $1.2 billion in Series A funding from Ant Group, Alibaba and unnamed international institutional investors. The cross-border payments arm runs Alipay+, Antom, WorldFirst and Bettr, and connects 150 million merchants to more than two billion user accounts across 220-plus markets.

Read more: Finovate

Fed Wu's Ferrari Imports Draw 26 Charges

Car dealer Wu Chong, known as Fed Wu, is getting 26 charges over roughly S$1.1 million ($860,000) in evaded duty and GST on 123 cars imported between February 2019 and November 2024 through his firm allmotoring.sg. The haul included 30 Porsches, five Ferraris and five Rolls-Royces, with retail prices on models like the Rolls-Royce Cullinan and Ferrari 488 Pista topping S$1.5 million ($1.17 million). Wu allegedly submitted fraudulent Declaration of Facts forms to Singapore Customs, undervaluing the cars. Fellow dealer Goh Chee Sing of Privilege Motors was also charged with funding the purchases. Combined penalties across all 26 charges total S$22.7 million ($17.7 million). The next hearing is July 31.

Read more: Business Times

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Bloomberg's Bungalow Story Costs S$460,000

A Tuesday ruling found that Bloomberg and reporter Low De Wei maliciously defamed ministers K Shanmugam and Tan See Leng in a December 2024 story on secretive "good class bungalow" deals, and ordered payments of S$230,000 (about $172,000) in damages to each. The article mentioned Shanmugam's S$88 million ($65.5 million) sale of his Queen Astrid Park home to UBS Trustees and Tan's S$27.3 million ($20.3 million) non-caveated Brizay Park purchase as examples of luxury deals that were cloaked from scrutiny, and gave a nod to the S$3 billion ($2.2 billion) money laundering scandal that it placed a few short paragraphs away. The justice decided that Low knew, or didn't care, that non-caveated transactions are searchable through the Singapore Land Authority's integrated land information service, a system he had used himself. She also found malice in Bloomberg's decision to lift the article's paywall after regulators gave a correction direction, saying it was an attempt to get the story in front of more people. Editor-in-chief John Micklethwait said Bloomberg stands by the story and its reporter, and didn’t say if the company would appeal.

Read more: The Guardian (USD conversion), Business Times (paywall timing)

Powertech, Broadcom Bet $400M on SG Chip Packaging

Taiwan's Powertech Technology is putting US$400 million into a Singapore JV with Broadcom to develop a chip packaging method that it says is the replacement for older methods as chips get denser. The board approved the project Thursday, but it’s still pending sign-off from Taiwan's Department of Investment Review and other agencies. It comes as AI-driven chip demand is doing some heavy lifting for Singapore's electronics exports. Powertech says that the packaging work it already does for other clients won't be affected, and its Taiwan operations will keep the "core technologies and critical intellectual properties." No construction timeline was shared.

Read more: Focustaiwan TW (JV approval), Business Times (GDP breakdown), Business Times (export breakdown)

Deloitte Dodges Hin Leong's $2.6B Claim

A Court of Appeal threw out the largest of Hin Leong Trading's claims against Deloitte, the $2.6 billion it wanted to get to make up for trading losses racked up between November 2015 and mid-April 2020. The court ruled that auditors have no duty to weigh creditors' interests when a client is insolvent, and that Hin Leong's trading losses were never reasonably foreseeable to Deloitte, which had no insight into founder Lim Oon Kuin's trading strategies. Two smaller claims survive, however, and will make it to trial. One is $90 million over dividends the Lim family allegedly wrongfully declared, and the other is S$612,000 ($455,000) in audit engagement fees.

Read more: Business Times

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Auditor Finds Ministry’s Undeclared Stash

The Ministry of Health did not declare S$147.96 million ($110 million) in savings from the National Cancer Centre Singapore project, and then it used the money to fund three items, two of which a planning committee had already rejected. The auditor also found approvals were received after works had started or finished, and S$2.2 million ($1.6 million) in loss and expense payments were never properly substantiated. The Auditor-General's latest report also flagged HDB for allocating flats and disbursing housing grants to ineligible applicants. The Ministry of Finance says agencies are investigating and working to claw back overpayments; some cases will be referred to the police.

Read more: Business Times

GovTech Cuts 93 and Brings Work In-House

GovTech announced that 93 of its ~3,900 staff are out, the first phase of a two-year restructuring that will cut up to almost one in ten roles. Chairman Chng Kai Fong told employees the agency is making a move from managing vendor-delivered projects to running products in-house, and was keen to say that the restructuring "is not an AI-driven downsizing exercise" and "began years before the current AI wave." Of the roles under review, 102 staff were kept in place and 110 were sent into apprenticeships to reskill, leaving the 93 as the remainder. Affected staff have been offered a Special Resignation Scheme.

Read more: Business Times (PSD clarification), Business Times (blame debate)

MAS Eyes Tax Cut to Keep Fund Managers From HK

The Monetary Authority of Singapore has been talking with investment firms about cutting the 10% tax rate under a special incentive scheme that’s already well below the standard 17% corporate rate, after fund executives warned that Hong Kong's tax plans could be cause for relocations. Hong Kong is proposing to exempt carried interest from tax calculations, and that’s the share of investment profits that often make up the bulk of a fund manager's pay. HK has also relaxed rules on family offices, embraced crypto and floated looser regulation for mutual funds.

Read more: BreakingtheNews (operating cost cuts), Business Standard (FT July date)

RTS Link's S$290 Million Annual Outflow

The first hard numbers on the RTS Link's cross-border spend have arrived. A study put together by the Singapore Business Federation, Restaurant Association of Singapore, and Singapore Retailers Association projects Singaporeans will spend S$1.05 billion ($781 million) more in Johor Bahru yearly once the link opens in January. That’s versus and expected S$756 million ($562 million) flowing the other way, making a net outflow of S$290 million ($216 million), or 0.4 percent of 2025 retail and F&B sales. The link will mean an additional 11.2 million Singapore-to-JB round trips a year compared with 3.3 million coming in, for about 40k daily crossings. The north, which already leaks spend across the Causeway, is expected to get squeezed hardest.

Read more: Business Times

Gaming and Shopping Lift Tourism Take to S$8.6B

Visitor spending was S$8.6 billion ($6.4 billion) in Q1 ‘26, up 5.8 percent, but arrivals grew by a narrower 2.9 percent to 4.4 million. Sightseeing, entertainment and gaming were up 22.8 percent to S$2 billion and shopping rose 7 percent to S$1.4 billion. F&B slipped 1.9 percent and hotel receipts were pretty much flat. Mainland China was able to keep its position as the top source market at S$1.3 billion (visitors up 9.9 percent to 913,407), and Indonesia's 626,225 arrivals brought in S$719.7 million, down 0.5 percent. Spending had already eased 1.1 percent from the previous quarter.

Read more: Business Times

Menon Hands Over the Robes to Nair in 2027

Chief Justice Sundaresh Menon, 64, retires on February 26, 2027, closing 14 years that saw the launch of the Singapore International Commercial Court, the Appellate Division of the High Court, and the Singapore Judicial College. Court of Appeal Justice Sushil Nair, 62, becomes Singapore's fifth Chief Justice the same day, barely two years after joining the Bench as a Judicial Commissioner on April 1, 2025. Nair spent 35 years in practice before that, most recently as deputy CEO of Drew & Napier.

Read more: Business Times (Menon's judicial reforms), The Independent Singapore (PM Wong's tribute)

Curacao Bookie Bets on HDB Flats

GemBet, a Curacao-registered site claiming Luka Modric as brand ambassador and Athletic Bilbao as its Southeast Asian betting partner, has been sending Singapore punters' World Cup wagers through three Singaporean shell firms that were set up between March and May, all registered to HDB units. PayNow transfers and payouts move through these companies before ending up in punters' GemBet wallets. Visits to the three addresses turned up a man who'd lived at one unit for a decade and didn't recognise the listed owner's name, and a 23-year-old full-time NSman listed at another. The platform, operated by Curacao-incorporated Grand Complications NV with payments handled through Cyprus-based subsidiary Rockman Enterprises, bills itself online as a home-grown operation set up in 2020.

Read more: AsiaOne

Calvin Cheng's Paymonade Clears Europe's Crypto Cull

Liechtenstein's Financial Market Authority granted Paymonade a MiCA licence on July 16, giving a firm founded and led out of Singapore access to the 30-member European Economic Area. The founder is Calvin Cheng, a former nominated MP now serving as Serbia's honorary consul here. Roughly 90 percent of Europe's more than 3,000 crypto firms missed the July 1 compliance deadline, leaving 280 with full EEA authorisation. Paymonade, which handles euro and other fiat settlement for exchanges, fintechs and payment providers, reported an annualised transaction run rate of $1.8 billion in the first half of 2026 and wants to reach 6 billion Swiss francs ($7.4 billion) a year by mid-2027. It plans to double its European headcount in the next 12 months.

Read more: Business Times

Coast Guard Swaps the Gulf for Singapore

Six Sentinel-class fast response cutters that used to patrol the Gulf as PATFORSWA out of Bahrain are now based out of Singapore and Subic Bay, cleared to operate there through September 2026. Singapore handles command and logistics, with the 46.9-meter cutters rotating through the Philippines in support of INDOPACOM missions covering Guam and the Pacific Islands. Asked what prompted the move, a Coast Guard spokesperson said only that it "will not characterize the actions or intentions of other nations."

Read more: Janes

Reform Party's Kenneth Jeyaretnam Dies at 67

Kenneth Jeyaretnam, Reform Party secretary-general since founding the party, died in his sleep on July 18 surrounded by family, his wife Amanda said in a Facebook post. He had been hospitalised after disclosing last year that he was "seriously ill" in London with deep vein thrombosis and bilateral pulmonary embolism, conditions that left him unable to fly home while facing investigation for contempt. His 10th Pofma correction order came in March 2025, over claims about foreign auxiliary police officers, a week after a ninth over land sales and immigration. He last contested a seat in the 2020 general election, when his team lost Ang Mo Kio GRC to the PAP.

Read more: AsiaOne

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Babies Bought in Indonesia, Approved in Singapore

“Marcus” was months old when he arrived in Singapore, cleared by local authorities and handed to adoptive parents who'd been waiting for a child. He is one of at least 20 babies allegedly bought from Indonesian parents and trafficked into Singapore for adoption, part of a case now sending nearly two dozen people to trial in West Java. Neither government has said whether the children will stay with the families who raised them or be sent back to their biological parents in Indonesia. Roughly two-thirds of children adopted in Singapore each year are born abroad, usually in neighboring countries. Marcus's parents, who asked to be called David and Ally to protect their case, paid tens of thousands of dollars in fees they were told covered agency work, legal costs, and expenses for the child. His adoption sailed through Singapore's approval process.

Read more: BBC

Tharman Visits KL as Bilateral Trade Up 14.5%

President Tharman Shanmugaratnam will be in Kuala Lumpur today to being a three-day state visit, reciprocating Sultan Ibrahim's May 2024 trip to the Istana, with a full diplomatic agenda including a welcome ceremony, state banquet and courtesy call from Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim. A six-member delegation has gone along with the president, and their visit includes a business roundtable in KL. In a Bernama interview, Tharman said the relationship was "unique" and said it "has never been, and must never be, a purely transactional" one. Bilateral trade last year was RM402.35 billion ($93.97 billion), and the first five months of 2026 are on pace for a 14.5 percent year-on-year lift.

Read more: CNA (trade fracture), CNA (Amirudin Shari meeting), The Star (DEFA $2T target), AsiaOne (hearts shake hands), Malay Mail (trade partner ranking)

IRAS Claws Back $49M Doctors' Tax Dodge

IRAS, the tax authority, has identified 279 high earners who were funneling salaries through private companies to dodge a 24 percent personal tax rate on income above $1 million, and is clawing back $49 million in 124 cases. All but one involved disguising income as dividends or interest-free shareholder loans, taxed at 17 percent (or often less, after incentives) at the corporate level. One doctor declared a monthly salary of $5,000 to $6,000 while pulling more than $12 million in dividends and shareholder loans over six years. IRAS can now tax the dividends and loans as the doctors' own income.

Read more: AsiaOne

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Crypto Scam Blitz Saves $7 Million

The Anti-Scam Centre and Cyber Investigation Branch spent six weeks, from April 16 to May 31, mining blockchain data in concert with Chainalysis and TRM Labs to identify and catch transfers headed for government-impersonation, investment, romance and job scams. Seven exchanges, Coinbase, Coinhako, Gemini, Independent Reserve, OKX, StraitsX and Upbit, shared customer details fast enough for police to make more than 145 phone and in-person interventions, heading off $4.2 million in losses. A June follow-up safeguarded another $2.9 million from more than 130 victims, so the running total is more than $7 million and nearly 300 people.

Read more: Cryptonews (public-private partnership), Cryptobriefing (real-time tracing)

PDPC Wants Explicit AI-Training Notices

The PDPC wants firms to stop hiding AI training behind fine print like "new product development" and tell users directly when their data will be feeing a generative model. A bank building a chatbot, an insurer training on claims histories, or a social platform improving image generation would each need a specific pop-up, webpage, or email, explaining exactly what the AI does and how to opt out. A text-to-speech feature, for example, would have to disclose that voice recordings will be used to teach the model to recognize speech patterns, not vaguely "improve services." A one-month consultation on the issue was closed July 1.

Read more: Straits Times

Port Tops Maritime Ranking for 13th Straight Year

Singapore held onto the top spot in the Xinhua-Baltic ISCD Index again, scoring 99.32 out of 100, a title it has kept every year since the ranking was introduced in 2014. Shanghai pulled up second at 84.27, London was third with 81.80. The port handled (a record) 44.66 million TEUs in 2025 and sold 56.77 million tonnes of bunker fuel, and is still the world's busiest refueling stop.

Read more: Yahoo Finance

HDB Invokes 1980 Plan to Clear Most of Maju Forest

HDB will clear 15 of Maju Forest's 23 hectares in Clementi's Sunset Way area for new public housing based on residential zoning that dates to the 1980 Master Plan. Eight hectares will remain untouched, including a freshwater stream and land around the former Jurong railway line, where a four-kilometre nature trail is being considered. Nature Society Singapore's Lester Tan says that the retained third is"the minimum compromise," and claims that pangolins could be pushed into the nearby landed enclave and HDB blocks once construction begins. Unit counts and construction timelines haven't been released yet, but public consultation will run through August 6.

Read more: The Independent Singapore (public backlash), Business Times (Clementi Nature Trail)

Temasek Puts 15% on AI by 2031

Temasek plans to more than double the AI slice of its S$518 billion ($383 billion) portfolio, from 6% (roughly S$31 billion) to 15% (roughly S$78 billion), according to Temasek Global Investments CEO Chia Song Hwee. The state investor has been working toward this since 2016, when it decided that digitisation was a structural trend. The organization formed a dedicated AI group in 2019 and then launched Aicadium, which is now a 60-member team of technologists, engineers and researchers in Singapore and the US who are working to push AI tools into portfolio companies including DBS, Singapore Airlines and ST Engineering.

Read more: Business Times (employee AI training), FX Street (GDP breakdown)

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Police Seize Bungalow Behind the Chip Trail

Singapore police have slapped a prohibition order on a S$55 million ($42.5 million) Good Class Bungalow near the Botanic Gardens and charged four people, including Aperia Group CEO Alan Wei Zhaolun, in connection with a server-smuggling scheme that ran from November 2023 through February 2025. The play was to order servers from Dell, Super Micro Computer, and Asus by falsely claiming that Aperia Group companies would be the end-users, then ship the hardware, possibly loaded with Nvidia chips subject to US export controls, to Malaysia. At least two-thirds of the bungalow's purchase price, roughly S$38 million ($29.4 million), allegedly came from proceeds of this activity. Another S$1 million ($772,000) in the bank has been seized on top of the property.

Read more: Yahoo News SG (mansion seizure), Business Times (four firms charged)

Johor's CM Wants the Blueprint Now

Johor caretaker chief minister Onn Hafiz Ghazi publicly admitted last week that the JS-SEZ master plan missed its end-2025 launch target, slipped past the rescheduled March 30, 2026 date, and is now drifting toward a Leaders' Retreat at year-end that Onn Hafiz says it doesn't need to wait for anyway. The zone is intended to bring RM100 billion ($25 billion) of investment and generate 100,000 jobs in its first decade. Economy Minister Akmal Nasir is trying to suggest that investor numbers are still strong and the delays haven't hurt momentum. PM Anwar Ibrahim told everyone to stop politicising the matter.

Read more: CNA

Wong Lands in Jakarta With Half the Cabinet

Singapore invested $17.4 billion into Indonesia in 2025, almost a third of all foreign direct investment entering the country, and has been the top-investor since 2014. PM Wong flew to Jakarta on July 6 for his second annual leaders' retreat with President Prabowo, along with DPM Gan Kim Yong and the defence, foreign affairs, social and family development, and manpower ministers. The last retreat, (Singapore, June 2025), resulted in 19 deliverables in food safety, green economy, cross-border electricity trade and carbon capture. This round will build on agreements inked in the days before the visit, including an environmental sustainability pact, and a nuclear regulatory cooperation deal covering radiation protection and emergency preparedness. The Middle East crisis is also on the agenda.

Read more: Straits Times (acting PM), CNA (sixth-largest trading partner), Business Times (nuclear pact)

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Lawrence Wong Leaves Dili with a Grand Collar

Xanana Gusmao draped the Order of Timor-Leste (Grand Collar) on Lawrence Wong as he finished up the first-ever visit of a Singaporean prime minister to Timor-Leste on July 3. The two of them also signed an MOU on bilateral consultations including specific deliverables. From the second half of 2027, Singapore employers will be able to hire Timorese Work Permit holders in construction, marine, process, and a few other manufacturing jobs, putting Timor-Leste alongside Bhutan, Cambodia, and Laos as approved non-traditional source countries. Wong also promised to expand capacity-building workshops to prepare Timorese officials for the country's 2029 ASEAN chairmanship. The resident embassy in Dili opened in April 2024, and only 50 to 60 Singaporeans currently live in the country, mostly businesspeople and missionaries.

Read more: Business Times (Singapore business push), Business Times (visit timeline), Business Times ($180M remittances)

Tehran Sends Singapore a Power Bill

Household electricity tariffs found a record 31.91 cents/ kWh from July 1, a 17 percent increase on last quarter. Town gas is following at plus 7.1 percent. The blame can go to the “Iran conflict,” and choke in the Strait. The higher prices are now baked into Q3 bills through an EMA's formula which lags a quarter behind cost reality. Businesses are feeling it. Chow Choon Kit, who owns The Patissier cake shop on Tyrwhitt Road, saw his power bill run from around S$1,900 in March to S$3,200 in May on wholesale rates. Almost two-thirds of households are still on SP Group's regulated tariff, and are waiting to see if they should lock into a fixed-price retail plan before Q4 either brings relief or more pain.

Read more: CNA (fixed-plan decision), Business Times (official EMA tariffs), Business Times (business owner stress)

Cloud Giants Meet Their Regulator

The Ministry of Digital Development and Information opened public consultation on July 1 on a proposed Digital Infrastructure Bill that would license data centre operators running 10MW or more of critical IT load, as well as the big cloud service providers serving Singapore users. Both categories would be forced to have security risk management, business continuity, disaster recovery, and incident reporting plans shared with IMDA. The consultation window closes July 22, though MDDI offered no timeline for getting the Bill passed.

Read more: Business Times

Taipei's Rich Pick Raffles Place Over Central

Taiwanese money is moving into Singapore as anxiety about the future builds. The play seems to be the set-up family offices here instead of Hong Kong, to get employment passes, and moving a chunk of their wealth to a place Beijing can’t easily get to. More than two-thirds of the high-net-worth Taiwanese and advisers surveyed by Bloomberg said cross-strait tensions are getting bad enough to force action. Hong Kong spent decades as the default offshore stop for Taiwanese money.

Read more: Business Times

One in Seven Households Now Clears S$30k a Month

The share of Singapore households pulling in at least S$30,000 a month nearly doubled over the past five years, and was reportedly 13.4 percent as of 2025. Median household market income rose above S$12,000 for the first time, and has seen, a real gain of 3.2 percent yearly after inflation since 2020. Dual-income couples were responsible for much of the shift, their share rose from 52.5 percent to 56.6 percent of married couples, while the slice that had only the husband working dropped to just above 1 in 5 households.

Read more: Business Times

Agents First, Then Buyers

Property agents picked up 635 units by way of priority queues at new condo launches between September 2024 and October 2025 - that was about 4.2 percent of all new private homes launched in that stretch. At some projects, like Emerald of Katong, agents took up to 20 percent of units before public sales started. The Council for Estate Agencies has since engaged OrangeTee and Huttons Asia to advise on disclosure protocols, though the practice is legal and how “priority access” is decided is a developer's decision.

Read more: Business Times

Sentosa Plays the Long Game

The Sentosa Development Corporation introduced a 20-year Greater Sentosa Master Plan last week as it pushes to double the island's 16.9 million yearly visitors. The plan folds in neighbouring Pulau Brani, whose port will get progressively decommissioned by 2027, with a new Brani West site set aside as one of the largest attractions hubs in the pipeline. New landmarks won't start opening until the early 2030s, but one card already on the table is Super Nintendo World at Universal Studios Singapore, which will join existing versions at Universal Studios Japan, Hollywood, and Epic Universe. Talks with potential partners for Brani West are underway; SDC isn't saying who.

Read more: South China Morning Post (SDC CEO quotes), Business Times (visitor mix shift), Wdwnt (Super Nintendo World)

BTS Army Marches on Singapore's Treasury

Four BTS concerts at the National Stadium in December are expected to pull in S$200-300 million ($150-230 million) in tourism receipts, with hotel bookings on Trip.com already up more than 18 times when compared to the same period last year for the concert dates. DBS thinks the figure will come in at the lower end (S$200 million), noting that unlike Taylor Swift's exclusive six-night Singapore run in 2024, BTS also has stops in several other Southeast Asian countries on their Arirang world tour.

Read more: Straits Times

MAS Writes Rules and ISCA Trains Humans

MAS published SAFR, a governance framework for autonomous AI agents in finance, built with banks and fintechs to make sure policy checks and audit trails are baked into transactions before they are executed. ISCA and IMDA also launched something they’re calling “AIxAccountancy,” which is part of an effort to make 100,000 non-tech professionals "AI bilingual." ISCA expects to run 60,000 accountancy and corporate finance professionals (and all 4,000 of the Accountant-General’s Department’s public-sector finance and internal audit officers) through the program over the next 36 months .

Read more: Digital Watch (SAFR framework), Business Times (AIxAccountancy phases)

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Pritam Survives the Cadres

Between 79 and 84 (depending on who you ask) of the 107 cadres who showed up voted to keep Pritam Singh as the Workers' Party secretary-general on Sunday. This is a result that’s now buried, at least internally, a saga stretching back to Raeesah Khan's lies to Parliament in 2021 and Singh's own two convictions for lying to a Committee of Privileges. The special conference had been forced by a letter sent last December that demanded Singh account for himself, step down, or face a vote (the same vote that he just won). In this case, however, no one challenged him for the position.

Read more: CNA (CEC composition), CNA (Low endorsement), CNA (succession planning), South China Morning Post (84 of 107), Bloomberg (Gerald Giam)

Singapore Internet Gets a Hall Monitor

The Online Safety Commission started operations on Monday with teeth and a growl. The 40-person agency has the power to order platforms to remove “harmful” content, block access to users in Singapore, or force app stores to pull apps. Platforms that drag their feet on harassment or stalking complaints will be allowed 24 hours before the OSC steps in; for doxxing, intimate image abuse, and image-based child abuse, victims are now able to file directly. The legal basis, the Online Safety (Relief and Accountability) Act passed in Parliament in November, covers 13 sorts of online harm, though the OSC is beginning with the five it considers most serious.

Read more: CNA (free filing, named platforms), CNA (app store removal), Business Times ($5,000 minimum damages), AsiaOne ($500,000 maximum damages)

Boss Comes Home but Loses Passport

Ramu Palani Velu, the permanent resident who allegedly left 407 workers from India and Bangladesh unpaid for months, flew back to Singapore on Friday and promptly had his passport impounded. Minister of State for Manpower Dinesh Vasu Dash gave the news in person to about 280 of the stranded workers. About 40 construction firms have offered 150-or-so jobs to the workers. Twenty have been placed so far, and the rest are expected to get roles over the next two or three weeks.

Read more: AsiaOne (MWC, NTUC support), Firstpost (SGD 200 assistance), Economic Times (TADM contact)

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Singapore Flag Meets Iranian Projectile

The Ever Lovely was leaving the Strait of Hormuz on the night of June 25 when it got hit. Evergreen Marine says the Taiwan-operated, Singapore-registered container ship was following the UK navy's recommended route off Oman when an "unidentified object" damaged the bridge superstructure, shattering windows. All 21 crew have been accounted for, the engines kept running, and the ship completed its transit. Two US officials told Reuters that Iran fired the projectile. Tehran's Persian Gulf Strait Authority, set up to manage transit requests through the strait, was more circumspect, saying that vessels using unauthorised routes do so at their owners' risk. At least four tankers, including three crude carriers each capable of hauling two million barrels, entered the Gulf on Friday despite the misfortune of the Ever Lovely.

Read more: CNA (MPA condemnation), South China Morning Post (tanker movements)

MAS Cuts Queue for Fund Approvals

DPM Gan Kim Yong used the Association of Banks in Singapore dinner on June 25 to announce that Singapore is getting a new Protected Cell Company framework for insurers, as well as faster approvals for new fund categories. The PCC structure, conceptually similar to the existing Variable Capital Company setup, will allow assets and liabilities to sit in ring-fenced cells under a single core entity, making captive insurance more accessible for corporates and insurance-linked securities faster and cheaper to issue. MAS is expected to publish a consultation on the framework shortly. Gan said that by his reckoning, Asia is still "markedly underinsured.”

Read more: Business Times

Goh's Nine-Point-Seven Million Smiles

Singapore Airlines CEO Goh Choon Phong took home nearly S$9.7 million ($7.3 million) for the year ended March 31, up from about S$7 million ($5.3 million) the year prior, as the carrier reported record revenue of S$20.5 billion ($15.4 billion) and flew 42.2 million passengers, a 7.7 percent increase. Operating profit was up 39 percent, but net profit fell 57.4 percent (the previous year was padded by a S$1.1 billion ($825 million) non-cash gain from the Air India-Vistara merger). The board's compensation committee said the package was both "appropriate and not excessive." About half of Goh's pay was in the form of shares, partly because the sixth and final tranche of a Covid-era retention scheme, disbursed in July 2025, overlapped with grants under SIA's ongoing share plans. Base salary was about S$1.5 million ($1.1 million); bonuses made up another 35 percent.

Read more: Business Times

Telcos Talk MAS Out of Moving

Core inflation was 1.4 percent in May, flat from April and a smidge below the 1.6 percent economists had penciled in, as cheaper telecoms reduced services prices. MAS and MTI have kept their full-year forecast at 1.5 to 2.5 percent and warned that energy costs working their way through global supply chains could still push prices up. Private-sector economists now think MAS will hold policy at its July meeting.

Read more: Business Times (CPI breakdown), Business Times (MAS July hold)

Ghosts in the Strait of Malacca

RSS Invincible and RSS Impeccable are in service, the first two of a fleet of Type 218SG submarines built by Germany's ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems and tuned by Singapore's DSTA for shallow tropical waters. The Invincible-class runs on fuel-cell air-independent propulsion, letting it stay submerged far longer than conventional diesel-electrics. Singapore retired its last Cold War-era Swedish Challenger-class boat in late 2024, and the move from refurbished relics to bespoke German hulls is considerable.

Read more: Defencesecurityasia

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Chips Are Up

Electronics exports nearly doubled year on year in May, pushing NODX growth to 38.4 percent, the fastest clip since December 2003 and well clear of the 30.5 percent economists had figured on. Integrated circuits added S$1.6 billion ($1.2 billion) to the tally, and shipments to Taiwan more than doubled as Singapore becomes more deeply tied into AI supply chains centered on Taipei and Seoul. Maybank has lifted its full-year NODX forecast to 15 percent. The wrinkle is that the MAS quarterly survey that absorbed this data also showed professional forecasters nudging the 2026 growth estimate down to 3.5 percent while pushing median inflation forecasts to 2.3 percent headline and 2.0 percent core, both up from 1.5 percent in March. Headline inflation expectations are now running more than half a point above the March read.

Read more: Business Times (pharma, trade totals), Business Times (economist outlook), Business Times (MAS tightening odds)

Swiss Miss

Singapore is back on top of the 2026 IMD World Competitiveness Ranking, published June 18, displacing Switzerland at the head of a 70-economy table it last led in 2024. The move was driven by a seven-place jump in business efficiency, enough to overtake Switzerland, which slipped two spots to third as US tariffs and a strong franc weighed on investment flows. Hong Kong moved up one place to second, with government efficiency still its calling card.

Read more: Bloomberg (Swiss franc impact), Business Times (Singapore sub-rankings)

Peace Won’t Cut the Power Bill

The Iran ceasefire won’t show up on July power bills, unfortunately. The regulated tariff, currently 29.72 cents per kWh, is set for a 20 to 30 percent increase next quarter because electricity prices are based on fuel costs from April through mid-June, when energy markets were rattled by disruptions around the Strait of Hormuz after February strikes on Iranian energy infrastructure. For a four-room HDB flat, that could mean roughly S$30 (~$22) extra a month on top of an average bill already close to S$88 (~$65). Nearly two-thirds of households pay the regulated rate, and they have no long-term contract to soften the blow. Natural gas is used for 95 percent of Singapore’s electricity generation, and more than half of it comes as LNG from suppliers including the Middle East.

Read more: Business Times

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The Circle Finally Closes

Three new MRT stations, Keppel, Cantonment and Prince Edward Road, open July 12 to complete the Circle Line loop that's been incomplete since the line first opened in 2009. The Land Transport Authority estimates station-to-station travel time along the new stretch at roughly two minutes, but the real benefit is found in what can now disappear. A 19-year-old national serviceman's Pasir Panjang to City Hall run drops from 45 minutes to 18; a Clementi student's weekly trip to Bras Basah Complex gets cut from more than an hour to 38 minutes. Fares on affected routes will also fall, because the Public Transport Council calculates costs on the shortest available path, and the shortest path is now a lot shorter.

Read more: Straits Times

Chips Are Thirsty

PUB is getting S$12 million ($9 million) to tackle a problem chip fabs and data centres have been sweating over. They are among the most water-intensive sectors in the economy, and both are growing fast. At UMC’s Pasir Ris wafer fab, about 10,000 cubic metres of NEWater move through daily, passing through about 1,000 manufacturing steps before much of it is collected, re-treated, and sent back into the system. The plant recovers nearly 70 percent of the water, about 3.9 million cubic metres a year, or 1,560 Olympic pools. OVHcloud, which pipes chilled water directly to its processors instead of cooling entire server rooms, says the approach can reduce water use by up to 30 percent. The S$85 million ($63 million) R&D envelope, announced June 16 at Singapore International Water Week, is going to come in under the RIE2030 plan.

Read more: CNA (PUB funding), CNA (UMC and OVHcloud water use)

MAS Flags the Exchange Next Door

MAS added Bybit to its investor alert list on June 17, without explanation. The crypto exchange handles more than $20 billion in daily trading and was co-founded by Singapore-based CEO Ben Zhou, who holds passports from Singapore, Vanuatu, and China. Bybit says it has been blocking local IP addresses and does not serve users in Singapore.

Read more: Business Times

Why the Dub?

Filmmakers Eric Khoo and Jack Neo went public on June 19 with a blunt question. If dialect films play freely on streaming, home video, and in-flight entertainment, why do cinemas alone have to enforce a language policy from another era? Their target is the handling of Dear You, a Teochew-language film that received a one-night premiere at Sands Theatre on June 17. The original version will also be shown at festivals and select screenings, and the Mandarin-dubbed cut is getting a general theatrical release. Director Boo Junfeng, who has seen the Teochew version, says the dub reduces the film's authenticity and he won't watch it. Royston Tan plans to drive to Malaysia to watch it as intended. The Infocomm Media Development Authority says the arrangement aligns with the bilingual policy promoting Mandarin as the main language for Chinese Singaporeans.

Read more: Straits Times

A Familiar Russian Argument

Vladimir Putin met PM Lawrence Wong in Kazan on the sidelines of a Russia-ASEAN summit to celebrate 35 years of ties. Putin used the meeting to revive an old claim, saying Western sanctions had kept the economic relationship between the two countries from reaching its full potential. The remarks were directed at a government that continues to maintain its own sanctions on Russia over Ukraine. Putin showed up with a delegation of more than a dozen officials, including Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, Roscosmos chief Dmitry Bakanov, and Kirill Dmitriev of the Russian Direct Investment Fund. The most recent Russia-Singapore Business Dialogue was held in Singapore in April.

Read more: Kremlin RU (Russian delegation roster), Malay Mail (Singapore sanctions stance)

AI Money Keeps Coming

OpenAI, Google DeepMind, Anthropic, and Tencent have all opened up or expanded shop here in the past year, and Plaud, a San Francisco AI notetaker, has committed S$10 million ($7.8 million) to expand local operations. Companies are attracted by Singapore’s political neutrality, world-class universities, and predictable regulatory environment. Less encouraging is a 2026 Gallup finding that only 14 percent of Singapore’s workforce is engaged at work, well below the Southeast Asian average of 25 percent and the global average of 20 percent. The figure has barely moved in three years.

Read more: Straits Times (manager engagement drop), Fortune (OpenAI investment)

Brothers Bet on Unbreakable Math

Lim Meng Liang, 38, spent years solving equations that have no solutions. Now he's turned that uselessness into a feature. Aires Applied Quantum Technology, the startup he founded in 2023 with older brother Ken Lin, a 15-year finance veteran, has raised more than US$2 million (S$2.6 million) from private investors and Enterprise Singapore for LionGuard, a quantum-resistant encryption app built on Diophantine equations. The beta app has more than 100 subscribers at US$388 per user per month including oil and gas, commodities, banking and other sectors, and the brothers are hunting an eight-figure IPO in the US, Singapore or Japan to take it global.

Read more: Straits Times

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All the Eggs in a Single Silicon Basket

Electronics exports from Singapore grew 57.8 percent year-on-year in Q1, which is more than double the 23.4 percent result seen in the last quarter of 2025. Chips, by themselves, made up S$1.7 billion ($1.3 billion) of March's S$3.1 billion ($2.3 billion) of electronics shipments. The rest of the export economy didn't keep pace, though. Non-electronics exports were down 3.5 percent over the same period, as US tariff pressure took a bite. Throughout the region the story is broadening, with non-tech exports from China, India, South Korea and Taiwan rising at an annualized 27 percent pace so far in the six months to April. Singapore produces one in 10 chips made globally and one in five pieces of semiconductor equipment. The sector makes up close to 6 percent of Singapore GDP.

Read more: Business Times

The AI Talent Race

AI salaries in Singapore are going up 15 to 25 percent yearly, which is a pace five times that of overall wages. New graduates are walking out of university into starting packages of S$70,000 to S$90,000 ($53,000 to $68,000). The hottest role nobody knew of three years ago, the forward deployed engineer (a hybrid of coder, consultant, and client whisperer), now makes at least S$120,000 ($91,000) at mid-career. US based semiconductor equipment supplier Applied Materials has opened a US$500 million campus in Tampines that more than doubles its advanced cleanroom capacity and is expected to add 1,000 jobs over the next twelve months. The company has been in Singapore since 1991; Asia already makes up more than 80 percent of its revenue, and it is betting the next AI chip wave is going to run, at least partly, through the Lion City.

Read more: Straits Times (forward deployed engineers), Business Times (talent shortage), Business Times (Applied Materials campus)

Changi's Hormuz Dividend Comes With an Expiry

More than 400 additional flights connecting Singapore to cities including Frankfurt, London, Munich, Paris, Perth, and Sydney ran out of Changi between March and May, making up for reduced Gulf carrier services that were hammered by the crisis in the Gulf. Singapore Airlines moved fast, adding capacity and increasing the pace of flights on its European routes for the rest of 2026. The success came with a warning from IATA director-general Willie Walsh who, while being complimentary about SIA's speed, also kept his praise capped. He said that once stability returns, the Gulf hubs will be quick to rebound. He said that Etihad CEO Antonoaldo Neves has already told him the airline expects July capacity to run higher than a year ago.

Read more: Business Times

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S$500 Vouchers Come Early on Inflation Risks

The government pushed S$500 ($390) of CDC vouchers to 1.38 million households on June 11, bringing the payout forward six months from January 2027. DPM Gan Kim Yong was candid about the reasons when he said that cost pressures from outside of Singapore haven't fully been felt, and inflation is likely to climb in coming months as higher energy and input costs work through supply chains. Core inflation did ease to 1.4 percent in April from 1.7 percent in March, but Gan reminded us that the Middle East situation is "fluid."

Read more: Business Times

Allianz Leads Race for HSBC Singapore

Allianz is now considered to be the front runner to take over HSBC Life Singapore, outbidding Sumitomo Life and Daiichi Life in a deal HSBC has valued at $2 billion. HSBC kicked off the review in January under CEO Georges Elhedery, who has been working to streamline the bank’s portfolio of businesses picked up by his predecessor Noel Quinn, including the $529 million AXA Singapore buy (in 2022). Allianz's last attempt at growing its presence in Singapore, a roughly S$2.2 billion ($1.7 billion) bid for a majority stake in Income Insurance, was withdrawn in 2024 after Singapore regulators squawked. Nothing is final, as of yet, and other bidders remain in contention.

Read more: Business Times (UOB asset management), Seekingalpha (tickers)

Resale Condo Market Slows

Resale condo listings are currently sitting on the market for an average of 81 days, which is almost double the 45-day median during the 2022 post-Covid peak. The stalemate appears fairly uniformly across both central and outside central regions. Sellers are holding firm partly because rising land costs mean replacing what they sell will cost more over the next 12 to 18 months, making price reductions less attractive. Buyers also seem to be in no hurry, however. Four in ten PropertyGuru listings have been up for more than 90 days.

Read more: Straits Times

The Birth Rate Challenge

Singapore's total fertility rate fell to 0.87 in 2025, the lowest on record, and the government has formed a Marriage & Parenthood Reset workgroup to figure out why. Any reader of Reddit probably already has a pretty good sense to the real reasons. A parent logging 45 to 48 hours a week isn't coming home with much gas left in the tank for family life. One post referenced Mexico's new 40-hour work cap, (no salary cuts attached) and got broad endorsement. Plenty of workers in Singapore are still on 6-day weeks.

Read more: The Independent Singapore

Seletar's Hangar Rush

Gulfstream has opened its first dedicated Asia-Pacific customer support facility at Seletar, staffed by eight. The office runs in partnership with Jet Aviation, one of six authorized Gulfstream service centers. It follows Bombardier's June 9 announcement of a $100 million, 250,000 sq ft build-out at Seletar Aerospace Park. WingsOverAsia broke ground on its own MRO and innovation facility there earlier this year, hoping to handle larger jets like the G700 by 2027.

Read more: Aerospace Global News

SIA Hitches a Ride on Southwest

Singapore Airlines and Southwest launched an interline partnership on June 8, giving SIA passengers single-ticket access to nearly 120 US domestic destinations via Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Seattle. KrisFlyer miles will neither accrue no be able to be redeemed however. Southwest has, until now, remained out of the major global alliances, so this is a way for SIA to extend its US reach without the usual entanglements. SIA is now the eighth interline partner for Southwest, joining the likes of ANA, EVA Air, and Turkish Airlines.

Read more: CNA

That's all for this week, thanks for reading. Your voice matters to us. Feel we're missing something? Have additional sources to suggest? Don't hold back - hit reply and tell us what you think.

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Washington Calls Its Best Customer a Cheat

The US Trade Representative published a 98-page report this week proposing a 12.5% tariff on roughly a third of Singapore's exports to the United States, the final chapter of a Section 301 forced labor investigation that MTI rejected, saying there is "no evidence" of Singapore's role in supply chains tied to forced labor. The US runs a goods trade surplus with Singapore, and Changi Naval Base hosts the US warships Washington would need if things go sideways in the Taiwan Strait. Carve-outs for semiconductors, pharmaceuticals, certain electronics, energy and aerospace products will soften the blow, but the label is still going to sting (probably more than the levy, truth be told). Bilateral trade was S$139.2 billion ($106 billion) in 2025, with S$27 billion ($20.6 billion) of that Singapore's non-oil domestic exports to the US, its largest NODX market. The proposed rates would replace the baseline 10% reciprocal tariff that will expire July 24; USTR panel hearings are scheduled to begin in July.

Read more: Foreign Policy (PM Wong), Business Times (exemption list)

Chinese Curry Concentrate Gets Cut Off

Singapore used the Online Criminal Harms Act on June 6 to order YouTube, Facebook, and X to block 14 posts traced to a China-based platform, accusing them of trying to fracture the city-state's multiracial society with claims it was being "overrun" by Indians. The content, which started circulating in Chinese-language online spaces in May, used footage of busy Little India streets and a religious procession on Pagoda Street to dress up claims that the Indian presence had reached a "concentration of curry." Law Minister Edwin Tong, Home Affairs Minister K Shanmugam, and Digital Development Minister Josephine Teo all went on record Saturday, an unusually thick ministerial response for 14 posts that in some cases had only a few thousand views. Tong was careful to say there is no evidence of a coordinated state campaign, saying it was likely the work of foreign netizens acting organically.

Read more: CNA (Josephine Teo), CNA (May timeline), Business Times (Edwin Tong), NDTV (OCHA legal basis), Times of India (racial demographics)

Factories Keep Growing as Finished Goods Slip

Factory activity was 51.0 in May, the highest reading since December 2024 and the tenth straight month of expansion. The electronics PMI ticking up to 51.9 for its twelfth month of growth in a row. AI demand is still doing the heavy lifting, but finished goods are sliding into contraction as inventory drawdowns outpace restocking activity. With the Iran war grinding into its fourth month, Strait of Hormuz issues continue to push input prices up and slow down supplier deliveries.

Read more: Business Times

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Temasek Chair Wants Risk on the Spreadsheet

Temasek chairman Teo Chee Hean used his first full press interview since taking the top job in October 2025 to say that the numbers on a spreadsheet aren’t enough anymore. The 71-year-old former coordinating minister for national security said geopolitical risk now needs to be measured alongside financial analysis before any major bet, because circumstances can "change fundamentally" even after a deal closes. He also addressed a question about value creation by making it clear that pumping money into the system can’t manufacture value that isn't inherently there. Temasek's net portfolio value was a record S$434 billion ($339 billion) as at Mar 31, 2025.

Read more: Business Times (portfolio restructuring), Business Times (geopolitical risk)

Singaporeans Are Richer, but Deeper in Hock

Household net wealth was S$3.3 trillion ($2.5 trillion) in Q1 2026, up 6.7% from a year earlier, but liabilities grew faster at 8.2%. That’s 10 consecutive quarters of accelerating borrowing. It's the second quarter in a row in which debt’s outpaced wealth-building. Mortgages, which are at least 70% of total household liabilities, grew 5.8% year on year, up from 5.4% the quarter prior. Personal loans, including those for autos, credit cards, education, and renovations, were increased for the ninth quarter running and now stand at S$118.6 billion ($88 billion). Total liabilities are S$415 billion ($309 billion). Net worth still works out to roughly 8.7 times annual take-home pay, which a Fitch Solutions unit reckons keeps widespread risk "very low."

Read more: Straits Times

Beijing Fines Brokers, Singapore Users Shrug

Chinese regulators fined Futu (which owns Moomoo), Tiger Brokers and Longbridge a combined US$330 million (S$425 million) in late May for serving mainland clients without required licenses. Singapore users don’t appear to care. MAS said the local entities are "financially independent" of the penalized group companies, and client money is in segregated trust or custody accounts that can't be touched to cover the brokers' liabilities. Longbridge's custodian is DBS. Singapore made up 41 percent of paying clients at Tiger's US-listed parent UP Fintech in 2025, according to Bloomberg Intelligence estimates, and Moomoo claimed more than 1.5 million local users as of July last year.

Read more: Straits Times

New Hands on the Reserves

Tan Chong Meng, Temasek's deputy chairman, took over as chair of the Council of Presidential Advisers on June 2, succeeding Eddie Teo, who spent more than seven years steering the body that advises the President. Piyush Gupta, who ran DBS before moving to become chair at Keppel, will step up from alternate to full member, alongside the re-appointment of former Singtel group CEO Chua Sock Koong and the elevation of Singapore LNG chairman Gan Seow Kee from alternate to member. Teo, 79, joined the council in 2018 and chaired it from January 2019, a stretch President Tharman Shanmugaratnam said had been "exceptionally demanding."

Read more: Business Times

Safran and SIAEC Take a Leap of Faith at Changi

SIA Engineering and France's Safran Aircraft Engines are putting US$118 million into a joint venture to build a full-service shop for CFM Leap engines in Changi North. Safran holds 51% and SIAEC the remaining 49%. The JV subsumes SIAEC's existing quick-turn Leap work and will expand to cover both the Leap-1A and Leap-1B, the engines powering the A320neo family and 737 Max fleets that are doing especially well these days throughout Asia-Pacific. SIAEC is chipping in up to US$57.8 million (including US$13.7 million in-kind), Safran up to US$60.2 million, with room for more if needed. The tie-up extends a 10-year Leap maintenance agreement the two signed in 2019.

Read more: Business Times

Fraud Charges Can't Dislodge the Kitchen CEO

Sally Chua Chwee Choo, CEO and executive director of SGX-listed Singapore Kitchen Equipment, was (along with senior manager Charlene Koh Sai Eng and former CFO Chow Mei Ling) charged this week with fraud by false representation and falsification of accounts. The charges are concerning eight payments totalling S$1.4 million ($1.1 million) made by majority shareholder QKE Holdings on behalf of main operating subsidiary Q'son Kitchen Equipment. QKE employees are said to have altered documents without the executive directors' knowledge. All three remain free on bail. The board, excluding Chua and her co-founder husband Alan Lee, has decided it is in the "best interest of the company" for Chua and Koh to stay in their jobs pending the results of the next court hearing on July 1.

Read more: Business Times

Commercial COE Closes in on Six Figures

The Category C COE was S$94,000 ($70,500) at the June 4 tender, another new record over the previous high-water mark that had been found two weeks before. EcoSwift CEO Ryan Woon thinks that S$100,000 is a lock before year's end, with EV demand, high diesel prices, and tight supply all pushing the same way.

Read more: Business Times (all COE premiums), Business Times (S$100K forecast)

Lion City Joins the Startup Big Leagues

StartupBlink's 2026 index put Singapore at #10 globally, the first time the city has cracked that tier in the 1,500 ranked. The fintech ranking is coming in ever better still. Singapore was listed as #2 in the world, with only the San Francisco Bay Area coming in ahead. At the country level Singapore sits in fourth place, on the back of a startup sector that’s valued at $292.1 billion (S$375.4 billion) and growing at a 24.4 percent clip (yoy).

Read more: The Independent Singapore

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Hegseth's Roll Call Skips Taipei, Singapore Builds Plan B

Pete Hegseth read out the names of the Indo-Pacific partners stepping up to Washington’s 3.5 percent of GDP defence spending benchmark at the Shangri-La Dialogue on May 30. The list included Australia, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, the Philippines, South Korea, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam. Defence Minister Chan Chun Sing used the same conference to launch GUIDE, a 17-country plan to protect undersea cables and pipelines. Signatories include the like of Estonia and Latvia to the Philippines and Qatar. Over breakfast on May 31, the five FPDA members re-committed to the 55-year-old pact. Chan said the agreement were "coalitions of the able and willing."

Read more: CNA (GUIDE signatories), CNA (FPDA reaffirmation), Business Times (FPDA attendees), Business Times (Hegseth omission), AsiaOne (Chan AI governance)

AI Money Floods In and Electronics Roar To Life

Singapore's AI bet is starting to pay off on (at least) a couple of fronts. Venture funding got to nearly S$6 billion ($4.5 billion) in 472 deals throughout last year and AI made up nearly a third of the total deal value, which is nearly double its share the year before. AI funding rose 28 percent to $1.4 billion even though the number of transactions fell marginally from 224 to 202, which is probably more selectivity than retreat. April factory output then climbed 17.6 percent year on year, blowing past the 12 percent average forecast from a Bloomberg poll, with the surprise number being electronics up 44 percent on AI-related demand. That’s the quickest pace since mid-2024. Singapore also continued to dominate SEA, taking up almost 75 cents of every dollar of ASEAN-6 deal value. Indonesia was a distant second at ~15%.

Read more: Business Times (fintech breakdown), Business Times (chemicals disruption)

The Bot Broke Is But Who Pays?

IMDA's May 2026 discussion paper, drafted by a working group of more than 20 lawyers in government, academia, and private firms, is one of the first systematic efforts by any government body to try and figure out civil liability over the agentic AI value chain. Model developers, tooling providers, and platform operators are all getting scrutiy. The 36-page paper doesn't hand down any verdicts yet, but it’s interesting to see that moves are being made at the regulatory level about apportioning blame for when things (inevitably) go wrong.

Read more: PPC Land

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One VSIP Per Province

Vietnam’s To Lam spent Saturday in Singapore meeting bigwigs from CapitaLand, Sembcorp, SATS, SEA Limited, Keppel and UOB, collecting expressions of interest for industrial parks, data centres, logistics and finance. The Communist Party General Secretary made it clear that future parks in Vietnam will be expected to be green, smart, and wired into innovation centres and low-emission manufacturing. CapitaLand, with three decades of VN experience, is looking at green housing, smart urban projects, industrial real estate, logistics and green data centres.

Read more: The Investor

Chaos Pays, If You're Big Enough to Survive It

Vitol told banks it pulled in about $2 billion in Q1 profits, after the world's largest independent energy trader entered Q2 nursing losses from the February 28 US-Israel strike on Iran. The strike upended Middle Eastern supply and wrong-footed traders who had bet on falling energy prices. Because traders were able to begin trading into the volatility, Singapore-based Trafigura said it one of its best-ever quarters. Gunvor made more in the quarter than it did in all of 2025. The catch, which can uncomfortably found in Agrocorp's numbers, is that smaller traders that were locked into fixed-price contracts before the conflict simply had to eat the cost increases with few places to hide.

Read more: Business Times

Workers Win the Math and Lose the Raise

Real wages were up 4 percent through 2025, the fastest pace in at least two years, but the heavy lifting was done by a fall in inflation of 0.9 percent, not by employers getting generous. Nominal wage growth slowed to 4.9 percent from 2024’s 5.6 percent, and the share of firms that gave raises dropped to 72.4 percent from 78.3 percent. The Ministry of Manpower is taking it as a win. Administrative and support services led all sectors at 7.5 percent, propped up by Progressive Wage Model floors and Local Qualifying Salary rules. Accommodation cost increase moderated to 3.9 percent from 5.5 percent as the post-pandemic hiring rush is moving into the past.

Read more: Business Times

Ron Sim's Supplements Saga Sours

Singapore's Court of Appeal gave GNC Holdings a clean win on May 25, upholding rights to LAC Global's retail leases and confirming more than $18.9 million in damages against V3 Group (the holding company of Osim founder Ron Sim). The dispute goes back to 2022, when LAC rebranded its 54 GNC franchise stores and tore up the agreements, betting that GNC's own prior contract breaches in Malaysia and Taiwan would release it from the obligation to return the stores. A Pittsburgh tribunal disagreed in 2024, and the Court of Appeal has backed the tribunal. LAC's 64 current outlets are going to have an unclear future now because lease handovers require landlord consent, and the company isn’t yet wiling to say whether stores will be rebranded or even who will run them.

Read more: Business Times

Ascott Cashes Out, Shanghai Cashes In

CapitaLand Ascott Trust is selling the 336-key Robertson House to a mainland Chinese shipping investor for S$360 million ($282 million), close to S$1.1 million per key, at an exit EBITDA yield of 2.3 percent. The Temasek-linked REIT will pocket a handsome S$38.1 million gain and a 4 percent premium to book value. They plan to take net proceeds of S$341.7 million toward higher-yielding plays. The buyer, reportedly a mainland individual with shipping industry ties, is apparently making his or her first bet on Singapore commercial property with the play. After the deal closes in the Q3, CLAS will be down to four lodging assets in the city, including the Somerset Clarke Quay redevelopment inside Canninghill Piers, which is expected to start contributing income in early 2027.

Read more: Mingtiandi

Singtel Lines Up S$1.5 Billion for the AI Bill

Singtel's treasury unit has signed a three-year revolving credit facility of S$1.5 billion ($1.1 billion) with 11 banks, including ANZ, Bank of America, ICBC, Standard Chartered, Westpac, HSBC, OCBC and UOB, to help fund a S$3 billion capex plan thorough 2027. Of the total, S$1.2 billion is planned for data centres and “AI.” The group is also shopping a minority stake in its Australian unit Optus.

Read more: Business Times

Bread and Blazers Head North

Gardenia is the latest company to move its production from Singapore to Johor Bahru, laying off 141 workers at its bakery. As previously reported in the Singapore Weekly, H&M is also moving its Southeast Asian headquarters north - in that case to Kuala Lumpur, in a move that will result in the loss of about 80 positions. Gardenia announced the move on May 20, calling it part of an ongoing push for "operational efficiency" in a tougher global environment. H&M's relocation surfaced in Malaysian media earlier in the month. That company didn’t bother to give much in the way of explanation.

Read more: South China Morning Post

The Storm Was Right There on the Radar

Singapore's Transport Safety Investigation Bureau published its final report on flight SQ321 last week, two years after the May 2024 disaster left one passenger dead and dozens seriously injured in the skies of Myanmar. The report concludes that the Boeing 777 flew into a developing thunderstorm, not the clear air turbulence initially claimed. The fasten seatbelt sign came on after 11 seconds of light turbulence; pandemonium ensued a further eight seconds later. Richard Woodward, a former Air Force test pilot who flew Qantas jets for more than three decades, reviewed the report and said he thought it pulled punches. "If it'd been another carrier," he said, "I suspect the report might have been a bit more damning of the pilots."

Read more: Nine

That's all for this week, thanks for reading. Your voice matters to us. Feel we're missing something? Have additional sources to suggest? Don't hold back - hit reply and tell us what you think.

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If you value Singapore Weekly, please consider buying (or gifting!) a paid subscription, sharing it on social media or forwarding this email to someone who might enjoy it. Please also “like” this newsletter by clicking the ❤️ below (or sometimes above, depending on the platform), which helps us get visibility on the Substack network.