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Chemicals are used to produce almost everything in the world today. The chemical and petrochemical industry represents the largest contributor to industrial energy demand worldwide accounting for about 10% of global total final energy consumption and about 7% of greenhouse gas emissions associated with industry according to the International Energy Agency. Yet, as the world […]
Bangladesh rarely comes to mind when thinking about startups but with a population of some 160 million (which makes it the world’s eighth most populous country) over 46% of which belong to the entrepreneurial and tech-savvy “Gen Z” generation of youngsters aged 24 and below (over 50% of the country’s citizens have internet access and […]
Promising growth opportunities for power utilities as increasing global electrification as a result of rising electricity penetration and usage in emerging markets, greater usage of technologies such as IoT and AI, and the electrification of the transport sector could propel electricity demand in the long term. Global electricity demand could be set to increase in […]
Rising internet penetration, a young population, and rising incomes are pushing Southeast Asian shoppers online, thereby opening exciting opportunities for business and investment. Southeast Asia’s 655 million plus population is increasingly migrating towards a digital-centric lifestyle, going online to conduct day-to-day activities such as shopping, entertainment, payments, and transport. Driven by an expanding middle class and a […]
Wielding a collection of renowned brands such as Laura Ashley and Metrojaya in the retail sector, Corus Hotels in the hospitality sector, Kandos and Tudor in the food sector, and Bandar Springhill in the property development sector, could asset-rich Malaysian conglomerate Malayan United Industries prove to be a diamond in the rough? Malayan United Industries […]
Having revolutionized banking, blockchain, the underlying technology behind Bitcoin, is set to bring change to the multi-trillion dollar real estate industry. The global real estate industry, estimated to be worth trillions of dollars, could prove to be a lucrative industry to disrupt considering the current systems related to land titling which involves mountains of documents into which […]
Demand for Malaysian industrial real estate could rise further driven by a resilient manufacturing sector and ASEAN’s growing e-commerce market. Accounting for just 1.8% of Malaysian property transaction volume and 8.3% of transaction value, industrial properties contribute the least to Malaysia’s property transactions by volume and value according to data from Malaysia’s National Valuation and Property […]
With labor costs rising and regulatory requirements increasing in China (the current Factory of the World), Vietnam is rising as a manufacturing hub and is poised to continue doing soas the country’s advantages of being geographically located close to China and relatively lower production costs entice multinationals as well as Chinese manufacturing companies to relocate production facilities to […]
India’s hotel market is a growth market, and the country’s tourism and hospitality industry which contributed about 9.6% to India’s GDP in 2016, has emerged as a key growth driver of India’s service sector and thereby the Indian economy. India’s hotel industry as a whole has been going through a relatively rough patch over the past few […]
President Duterte’s ‘Build, Build, Build’ (BBB) project, an ambitious infrastructure program that will see US$ 180 billion being spent over the next decade towards building much needed roads, dams, bridges, airports, seaports and more in the Philippines is expected to push Philippines’s infrastructure spending from 6.3% of GDP this year to 7.3% by 2022 helping […]
Tourism is booming in India, and the industry is emerging as a key growth driver in India’s service sector. Much of the growth stems from India’s domestic tourism sector which has seen a steady increase in visits from domestic travelers over the past decade; domestic tourist visits (DTVs) increased 12.7% to 1.613 billion in FY 2016, […]
China, the world’s second largest healthcare market in the world after the United States, is growing rapidly driven by an ageing population, government support, and rising urbanization (which is contributing to an increase in lifestyle diseases such as diabetes and cancer. China is currently the fastest growing major healthcare market in the world with a five-year […]
China is aiming be the world’s leading player in artificial intelligence (人工智能) by 2030 and by some measures, the country appears to be on track. According to a report by CB Insights, Chinese companies seem to be overtaking their US counterparts in AI-related patent applications; the number of patents published in China containing the words “artificial intelligence” […]
The agtech startup scene is booming with venture capital funding climbing steadily over the past few years. According to data from PitchBook and US fund Finistere Ventures, the agtech industry raked in US$ 1.5 billion in investments in 2017, most of which were in early stage startups. The flurry of interest in agtech startups is driven […]
The gap between global water demand and global water supply is widening. Already more than half of the people in the MENA region (Middle East and North Africa), live under conditions of “water stress” (i.e., the demand for water exceeds supply) according to the World Bank and a report by the United Nations reveals that the […]
China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) also known as the One Belt and One Road Initiative (OBOR), is an ambitious, trillion-dollar infrastructure project that aims to connect countries along two primary trade routes known as the “Silk Road Economic Belt” and the “Maritime Silk Road” in an effort to enhance connectivity, investment, international trade, and economic […]
The complexity of today’s food chains has resulted in problems such as food fraud (which is estimated to cost US$ 30 – US$ 40 billion a year according to PwC), food waste (which is estimated to cost US$ 750 billion annually to local food producers according to the United Nations), and food safety problems such […]
Venture capital funding into Southeast Asian startups tripled in 2017 from US$ 2.52 billion in 2016 to US$ 7.86 billion in 2017 according to data from Tech in Asia. The flurry of activity in Southeast Asia’s startup scene is not surprising; the 11-country region has a population of about 650 million, about 42% of which […]
Chinese automaker Geely (HKG: 0175) (OTCMKTS: GELYF) is on a hot streak. The company reported record sales in 2017 selling 1.24 million units, a 63% year-on-year increase, emerging as the world’s second-fastest growing automaker by sales volume in 2017. Much of Geely’s sales were concentrated in its home country China, the world’s largest passenger car market, […]
Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) and Alibaba (NYSE:BABA) are two of the world’s biggest e-commerce companies, each boasting a market value of about half a trillion dollars (specifically speaking, Amazon is more than half a trillion dollars while Alibaba is slightly less). Both companies boast top-line figures that surpass the Gross Domestic Product of entire countries – Amazon […]
The global organic food market is growing at a rapid clip and offers significant potential for growth. Currently valued at around US$90 billion according to London-based consultancy firm Ecovia Intelligence (formerly Organic Monitor) the market is poised to expand to over US$ 200 billion by 2020 (representing a CAGR of 15.7% between 2015 and 2020) […]