There is a burning question mark on the impact of the dry weather, brought about by the El Nino phenomena on palm oil plantation companies palm oil trees output. Dry weather still continues to affect all households around South East Asia especially Malaysia and Indonesia. There is a consensus among plantation research analysts that expects production for palm oil to increase and effectively bidding farewell to the longest dry spell ever witnessed around South East Asia. Average sale prices (ASP) for crude palm oil will see a short term boost until production output recovers to normalized levels and inventories being restored.

UOB KayHian, a Singapore based brokerage firm, published a report on plantations with the report detailing analysis on expected production recovery for 2016. The dry spell caused a lagged impact to production output in 2nd quarter of 2016. As the dry spell ended, production witnessed a recovery. In the western and central parts of Kalimantan, rainfall is still happening regularly where conditions are viable for palm oil trees to bloom and less stress on the flowers.

Total production output accelerated marginally in 2016. Plantations firms have varied tree profiles. Younger age trees will see higher production recovery while older age trees will be severely affected by the dryness. Those with older trees will witness slower rally in output volume. The average sale price for Crude Palm Oil (CPO) creeped up slowly from 2nd quarter of 2016 onwards. In actual fact, palm oil prices started its uptrend.

One must note that zero export duty was imposed for the same quarter in year 2015, hence any price increments were not  felt in 2nd quarter of 2016. Only on Q2 for 2016 can one see the impact of higher palm prices. The new Indonesia's export duty rates kicked in for palm oil production since July 15 2015. This minimized any impact on financial results. The duty collected will be utilized for its ambitious biodiesel mandate, assisting plantation smallholder with replanting exercises and facilitating deeper research for new palm seed discovery.

Another side of the plantation equation is export figures. Palm prices have not rallied hard as usually happens during severe El Nino scenarios as there is a marked slowdown of palm oil exports to top consuming countries China and India. Prices for palm oil may see a boost which will draw down stockpiles. Should there be continued production cuts, prices will definitely be well supported. For the first time CPO output will actually witness a year on year negative growth due to the severe dry spell hitting main plantation countries Indonesia and Malaysia. These 2 countries combines produces almost 90% of the whole global output for palm oil and weather patterns have immense impact on the palm tree yield and oil extraction rates.

There is still a lot of uncertainty in the outlook for CPO production. Lagged impact may be felt in the coming months but production may recover fast. La Nina has been widely speculated to follow suit which has historically been a production output booster to palm oil output. Plantations firms are closely watching the weather forecasts and patterns in the coming months to better manage their production operations.

Most of the world's palm oil is currently being produced in Malaysia and Indonesia but now The Guardian news reports

Brazil's ambition to become a palm oil commodity giant. Palm oils is used in toothpastes, soaps, and detergents and many packaged foods. There are some ethical questions around deforestation for palm oil profit, so we hope the companies involved are responsible for sustainable cultivation. The non-profit World Wildlife Fund (WWF) launched a new alliance in Singapore that aims to boost demand for sustainable palm. The vision of the Alliance is to make CSPO the norm to stop the haze as well as deforestation and habitat loss in the region. It aims to provide a platform for companies to come on a sustainable journey towards producing, trading and using certified sustainable palm oil. The Singapore Alliance for Sustainable Palm Oil is supported by five founding members, who together produce some of the most popular everyday brands used by Singaporeans. The five founding members are Unilever, Danone, Ayam Brand, IKEA and Wildlife Reserves Singapore.

Owning a global business, with a highly lucrative market in regions such as China and Hong Kong exposes you to world diversities and people from all walks of life. In the way of business, some of stakeholders one comes across will prefer some cities more compared to some.

Some of the clients, business gurus and associates expresses more liking for the Far East cities as Hong Kong and Shanghai as compared to extent of consideration for Singapore as an option. These business associates will want to travel, make trips and stop by at their own pleasure in Singapore but not startup businesses or run their business from there.

As different people have different tastes and preferences when it comes to where they would love to base their businesses, some will express their total confidence in cities such as Hong Kong and Shanghai while the latter will hold their total confidence in Singapore.

Discussed below are some of the factors to consider when deciding on the location on their business hub in pacific Asia.

1. Connection to the internet

With the digitalization in the world of business, the speed, accessibility and reliability of an internet connection is paramount. Some business hold their core to the power of the social media, while keeping in touch with staff and other clients from any part of the globe. Internet is important to entrepreneurs as much of research work, sending and receiving emails as well as international calls are all dependent on it. With that into consideration, some cities such as Singapore will offer any entrepreneur with the most efficient internet connection as compared to other cities as Hong Kong and Shanghai.

2. Censorship

When it comes to the rule of the law, different states view different aspects of the social media different from the other. For some states, all search engines such as Google, Bing, Yahoo amongst others are all accessible for use at any one given time. For some other states, it is a subject of scrutiny and might find out that some of the online sites are inaccessible while in the said states. For this case, there are technological break through that might help you bypass such restriction and access your sites such as using the virtual private network. Such restrictions will give some cities in the pacific Asia more credit such as Singapore than Shanghai and Hong Kong.

3. Coworking

Space gives the best platform for business people to network, connect and share ideas with ease. It is therefore of essence to have buildings that reflect the best designs , are well managed , spacious , giving ample room for social and business oriented Coworking space. This is a very vital consideration for all entrepreneurs across board. Entrepreneurs will consider cities in pacific Asia that offer spaces that give them productive working spaces. The consideration for cities such as Singapore being more ecstatic is because it has better entrepreneurial space as compared to Hong Kong and Shanghai.

4. Government support

Support for entrepreneurial growth is paramount to the growth of any business. The ability and willingness of the government to give entrepreneurs incentives to favor their growth is very important. From one city to another, the policies set out by the government are different. In shanghai for example, most of the high profile entrepreneurs will have an issue with the free trade zones. In Hong Kong, businesses are run in family cartels that are very hard core when it comes to policy making policies that might jeopardize them unfavorably. In Singapore, government support, incentives is overwhelming.

5. Weather

Different cities around Asia pacific experience different weather patterns and seasons. If the type of business is not in any way affected by the type of weather or season present, then there no worries whatsoever. It is only a factor to consider if the productivity of the business will be influenced in any way. Shanghai and Hong Kong experiences such seasons and might affect some of the business associates as well as their business. If so, Singapore, does not experience such and might be more suitable for them

ST Telemedia and Tata Communications complete the Singapore data centre joint venture transaction. Both partners to power ahead to grow and strengthen the Singapore and India data centre business.

Tata Communications announced in Feb 2017 the successful completion of the Singapore data centre joint venture transaction with ST Telemedia (STT), a global investor in communications, media and technology businesses.

In May 2016, both companies announced their entry into definitive agreements whereby STT, through its wholly owned subsidiary, ST Telemedia Global Data Centres (STT GDC), agreed to acquire a 74% majority stake in Tata Communications' data centre business in India and Singapore, with Tata Communications holding the remaining stake as a minority shareholder. The India data centre joint venture transaction was successfully completed on October 19th, 2016.

The completion of both Singapore and India transactions reinforces the strategic partnership between the two dynamic companies, working closely and drawing on each other's complementary capabilities and experience to accelerate growth in the vibrant data centre markets in Singapore and India.

Since the May announcement, both companies' management teams have been working closely to identify areas for business integration to enhance customer service and realise the full potential of the business partnership. Both partners remain committed to ensuring a smooth transition for existing customers and employees of Tata Communications' India and Singapore data centres into the broader STT GDC platform.

The Tata Communications Global Network reaches more than 240 countries and territories, 99.7% of the world's GDP, millions of businesses, and billions of people. It includes the world's only fibre ring around the world ST Telemedia is an active investor igniting growth opportunities emerging from the digital convergence of users, communities, content and services. Focused on four business segments – Communication & Media Services, Enterprise Services, Data Centres, and Emerging Technologies.

In the special series part seven staring at the growing start up prospects at Singapore, Michael Stoss from Voice2Choice start up explains the confrontation during the development and practical implementation of new technology to the extent where it can be introduced in the market. SINGAPORE: It has been initiated by the means of bedtime stories and soft toys. During 2007, Mr. Michael Stoss had been working in the Kuala Lumpur situated in Malaysia. He was intending to tell the stories of bedtime to godson who was situated in Germany, but time difference was a big hurdle and very difficult to cope with. On a bright day, Stoss was thinking about the transformation of his original voice as the speaker of fairy tales or bedtime stories. He found that there was no evident solution in form of software.

He again stuck with an idea to create an application in form of soft toys for those children who are hospitalized and enable those toys to speak the in voices of their grandparents and parents. Children who are admitted in the hospital find the soft toys comfortable, but if they hear the toys speaking in familiar voice, it would enable them to speed up their recovery process. Mr. Stoss began to work on the development of application and this technology further evolved Voice2Choice.

WONDERFUL POTENTIAL

Beyond soft toys and bedtime stories, Mr. Stoss further determined the other potential benefits of the application in other areas. He further proclaimed that this software can be used in movie dubbing. He told that the TV shows and movies that run in Germany are mostly dubbed by Actors. Suppose, your movie has a lot of characters, for instance you need 20 to complete your dubbing, you will be requiring 20 while with the Stoss's technology, you will not require so many.

With Stoss's application, you will only need a child, women and a man. With the combination of these three voices, you will be able to make the other voices of characters as well. This will further save the movie company from expenditure of extra money and time. The scenario will be the same with the industry of gaming as well. With the advent technology developed by Stoss, game producers can be offered with the variety of voice variations.

SLIPPING BLOCKS

The theories and ideas can progress the product to the money making road where it can get the assistance from the external agencies. In case of Voic2Choice, a number of sources were offered by the Singapore for help. Technology & Research (A*STAR), the Agency for Science is helping the company under the T-UP proposals. Furthermore, it is the part of the scheme that is offered by the A*STAR to provide the funds in partial as salaries along with the seconding of engineers and scientists to medium and small enterprises. It has further acquired the grant under Technology Enterprise Commercialisation Scheme starting SPRING Singapore.

Under Private zone, the application is being tested by the means of different media and trials along with the videogame producers.

Mediacorp programme for Mediapreneur is also supporting Voice2Choice that further offers seed funding for startups along with the networking, mentoring and working spaced along with the packages comprising attractive media to boost their development and growth.

Mr. Stoss further stated that they have big players behind them such as largest companies of media and Government of Singapore shows sheer trust on the company and it will further help to find the potential partners and investors. But, there exist slippery blocks.

After past 10 years, Mr. Stoss still remain unable to fulfill his dream to make his bedtime stories audiobook for his godson. First challenge that have faced is in the technology as voice has complex nature and shows uniqueness, it can be resembled to the fingerprint. Stoss further added that the elements like accents, rhythm and intonation along with the pronunciation are the core things which are unchangeable.

He further added that he is unable to change the Australian or Scottish accent and convert their voice to be speaking in English. With the underlying technology, pitch is another problem along with the possibilities with limits in order to create high-pitched deep voices. The company also requires the potential investors along with another underlying challenge. Investors are more interested in the profits, the technology is under the further development to yield the better outcomes. To meet the challenges, the company is giving its utmost efforts for research. The description of human voice is based on several parameters, while these parameters are not having yet researched well. Stoss further added that this area needs further research.

Stoss further added that the company needs experts in the technical field such as processing of digital signal. The experts are not easily available and hence are expensive. So Mr. Stoss added that it is a challenge for start-ups. There are several ways in he pipeline that enable the users to determine the technologies according to their needs. Stoss stated that they are intending to create a platform, a mobile application where the users will be able to create and upload their own voices. These two approaches are being utilized to address the investor's challenge so that the company can convince its investors about the working technology and dominated the market.