Kopi With YP: Your Minimalist Morning Briefing, 24 Feb

Get up to speed and stay smart with the latest business, tech, and local news in under 2 minutes.

Business

This recruitment drive flies you to New Zealand for your job interview. Wellington Regional Economic Development Agency (WREDA) is set to pay for the flight and accommodation of about 100 suitable candidates in light of expanding their international talent pool, especially in the IT sector. More than 700 candidates have already passed the initial stages of interview.

Singapore’s inflation is rising – slow but steadily. Singapore’s consumer inflation has been abseiling steadily for 2 months straight seen in our consumer price index—from 0.2% to 0.6% this month. This is contrary to last year’s negative inflation.

World

Is Malaysia North Korea’s new enemy? North Korea has openly called Malaysia “sinister” after their collaboration with South Korean forces to probing into Kim Jong Nam’s death investigations. Malaysia has reportedly refused to hand over the body, triggering North Korea to see Malaysia in their attempts to politicise a simple handover of the body.

Local

The major talking point from Budget 2017. A fairly more reasonable statement on the 30% increase in price would probably be from Minister of National Development and Second Minister for Finance stating that there is “never an ideal time for price hike”. He also addressed concerns about the implementation of carbon tax in 2019.  

Water is expensive in Singapore. According to CNA, water price hike is simply a reflection of PUB’s increasing maintenance and operational costs. About 20 years ago, it would only cost the government $500 million in terms of water supply operation costs. However, that sum had exponentially increased to at least $1.3 billion in 2015.

Fire at Tuas put out after 4 hours. The ordeal at Tuas yesterday morning resulted in half of Eco Special Waste Management’s plant being affected in the blaze which “emitted chemical waste and flammable materials”. No one was injured. However, this might affect a total of 500 of their clients.

Tech

Nokia makes a nostalgic comeback. The iconic, orginal nokia handphone sets with real buttons is making a comeback – retro style. The revamped Nokia 3310 is expected to have a coloured screen and will cost about €59.