00:45.8
Traders also bracing for the European Central Bank's interest rate decision on Thursday.
00:50.9
As for Wall Street, futures are inching higher.
00:54.1
Higher in the run-up to the March inflation print,
00:56.7
which could help shape the Federal Reserve's monetary policy path this year.
01:02.0
Minutes from the Fed's last meeting could also provide more clues.
01:06.0
Investors have dialed down expectations around how much a central bank could cut rates
01:10.5
after recent data indicated a robust U.S. economy.
01:17.0
Here are some stocks to watch out for.
01:19.0
We're monitoring shares of Swiss chocolate maker Barry Kalibaut
01:22.9
after it reported high.
01:24.1
We're also keeping a close watch on shares of Tesco
01:48.6
after the supermarket giant reported higher profit in its full-year results,
01:53.9
inflation pressures have lessened substantially.
01:56.6
Tesco shares are up 5% in midday trading.
02:00.2
Finally, we're also keeping an eye on shares of Delta Airlines,
02:03.8
which topped quarterly earnings expectations.
02:06.8
Delta shares popped 5% in pre-market trading.
02:11.5
Meanwhile, Asian markets ended on a mixed note Wednesday in a holiday-thin trade.
02:16.8
The Nikkei 225 fell half a percent,
02:19.0
while the Hong Kong Hang Seng, on the other hand,
02:21.1
jumped 1.8, powered by tech stocks.
02:23.5
The Shanghai Composite, on the other hand,
02:26.5
slumped 0.7% dragged by real estate shares.
02:30.7
This is as credit rating agency Fitch
02:32.7
lowered China's sovereign credit rating to negative from stable.
02:37.4
Fitch says its outlook revision reflects challenges in Beijing's public finance
02:41.8
as it grapples with decelerating growth and growing debt.
02:46.4
A protracted property downturn in China
02:48.6
has weighed heavily on debt-laden local governments
02:50.8
as their revenues from land development plunge
02:53.1
rendering debt levels in many cities unsustainable.
02:58.2
But while Fitch lowered its outlook,
03:00.3
it affirmed Beijing's issuer default rating at A+,
03:03.0
its third-highest category.
03:05.5
The Chinese government, meanwhile,
03:06.9
says it regretted Fitch's ratings decision
03:09.1
and that it would take steps to prevent and resolve risks
03:12.8
from local government debt.
03:18.1
What I want to tell you is that
03:20.1
the fundamentals of China's long-term economic growth
03:22.8
have been very important.
03:23.1
China's determination and ability to safeguard its sovereign credit
03:30.7
A notable stock movement in the region,
03:33.5
the Hong Kong-listed shares of Alibaba
03:37.1
after its co-founder Jack Ma
03:38.9
penned a lengthy memo to employees
03:41.3
expressing support for the internet giant's restructuring efforts.
03:46.1
That rare move from the billionaire
03:47.6
comes a year after Alibaba announced its decision
03:50.9
to split into six years.
03:53.1
The Philippine president en route to Washington
03:58.4
for a trilateral summit with the U.S. and Japan.
04:01.8
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. in his speech said
04:04.6
the meeting with U.S. President Joe Biden
04:06.9
and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida
04:09.6
will mainly discuss economic cooperation
04:12.3
but would also tackle maintaining peace
04:15.3
in the Indo-Pacific region.
04:17.6
The trilateral summit is happening on the backdrop
04:20.5
of an increasingly aggressive China
04:22.7
in the West Philippine Sea.
04:27.1
The main intent of this trilateral agreement
04:29.1
is for us to be able to continue to flourish,
04:33.7
to be able to help one another,
04:36.7
to keep the South China Sea
04:43.1
to keep the peace in the South China Sea
04:45.7
and the freedom of navigation in the South China Sea.
04:51.2
The president's item,
04:52.7
also includes a separate meeting with Biden
04:55.5
and a discussion with U.S. business leaders
04:57.9
for potential investments in the country.
05:01.0
A White House advisor said
05:02.5
several initiatives in key areas
05:04.5
are expected to be announced in the summit
05:06.5
including investments for the Philippines.
05:11.4
Those include energy security,
05:13.9
which of course is a very important focus
05:15.7
for this government.
05:17.6
They include digital connectivity
05:19.8
to make sure that the people of the Philippines
05:22.2
have access to reliable, trusted networks
05:25.6
and a number of other areas
05:27.6
which if we can more effectively hone
05:29.7
our trilateral cooperation
05:30.8
will make the Philippines economy stronger
05:33.7
and will affect the everyday lives
05:35.8
of the Philippines people.
05:39.1
The Philippines sees more foreign direct investments
05:43.1
The central bank says
05:44.1
FDIs for that month came in at $907 million.
05:48.6
That's 90% higher from last year's figure.
05:51.6
That's 90% higher from last year's figure.
05:52.2
It's also an improvement
05:53.2
from the $826 million in December.
05:56.7
The BSP points to higher debt instrument investments
05:59.3
from foreign nationals
06:00.5
which climbed to $820 million.
06:03.3
Foreign investments in equity capital
06:05.5
meanwhile declined to $11 million
06:07.4
from the previous $93 million.
06:11.4
Monetary authorities say
06:12.7
most of the equity capital placements
06:14.5
were from Japan and the U.S.
06:16.8
The investments were channeled mostly
06:18.6
to the manufacturing, real estate
06:20.7
and construction sector.
06:22.2
A consultancy firm expects more Filipinos
06:27.1
to seek permanent residency in Greece
06:29.6
through so-called golden visas.
06:32.8
That's ahead of an anticipated doubling
06:34.5
of the minimum investment requirement by year-end.
06:38.0
Residence-buy investment programs
06:40.0
allow foreign investors
06:41.6
to secure permanent residency
06:43.4
via an initial payment.
06:45.8
Portugal tops the list of golden visa countries
06:48.6
but Greece, which ranks second,
06:50.5
is slowly gaining more
06:53.4
Golden Visa Central says
06:55.2
they anticipate around 100 families
06:58.0
to apply for a Greece golden visa this year.
07:02.8
Greece is gaining traction
07:04.4
because it is not only fast,
07:07.8
it's also gaining traction
07:09.7
because it's one of the lowest entry points
07:13.0
in terms of investment.
07:14.8
So we've really been seeing an upsurge
07:16.9
in the Filipino market.
07:18.5
For most of them,
07:19.3
it's really something that they want to do now.
07:22.2
And try to get on board fast.
07:25.7
It is not just now the lowest entry point
07:29.5
for an EU residency
07:32.5
but it's also the fastest.
07:35.1
So under six months.
07:37.9
We're taking a quick break.
07:39.6
Up next, we talk about
07:40.7
sustainable water management
07:42.3
with Singapore's startup firm, HydroLeap.
07:55.9
The ongoing El Niño phenomenon
07:57.5
has further fanned concerns
07:59.0
about water management
08:00.3
and access to clean water.
08:02.6
Now, Singapore-based startup HydroLeap
08:04.6
hopes to address this issue
08:05.8
through a partnership
08:06.7
with local firm, BioCare.
08:09.4
HydroLeap's founder and CEO,
08:11.2
Dr. Mohamed Chera Fatman
08:14.1
to further discuss
08:15.1
how the company aims to advance
08:16.9
sustainable water management
08:18.6
in the Philippines.
08:21.1
Thank you so much for joining us.
08:23.8
Hello, good evening.
08:25.1
Thank you so much for having me here
08:26.9
tonight on the program.
08:31.1
that's so concerning.
08:32.7
If you think about
08:33.5
how we need water so much these days,
08:37.1
especially because of El Niño.
08:39.0
What does your company do
08:40.3
and how does your company
08:42.9
plan to help us improve that number?
08:46.5
Yeah, absolutely.
08:48.0
HydroLeap is founded in 2016.
08:50.6
So we are a next-generation
08:52.2
green wastewater treatment company
08:55.4
headquartered in Singapore.
08:58.2
electrochemical technologies
08:59.6
for industrial wastewater treatment,
09:02.5
cooling water treatment,
09:03.8
or even desalination.
09:05.7
So we are revolutionizing the industries
09:07.8
by providing this solution,
09:09.5
which is not only they are automated
09:12.2
but also they are cost-effective
09:14.6
and environmentally friendly.
09:17.0
So yeah, there's been quite a lot of results
09:19.3
coming out of this project
09:20.5
that we've been doing
09:21.5
for the last 10 years.
09:21.6
So we're doing a lot of work
09:21.7
and we're doing a lot of work
09:21.8
for the next 10 years.
09:21.8
So we're doing a lot of work
09:21.9
for the next 10 years.
09:21.9
So we're doing a lot of work
09:22.0
for the next 10 years.
09:22.2
So we're doing a lot of work
09:22.3
for the past couple of years
09:23.2
that it's quite interesting to share.
09:26.5
Okay, I want to clarify first
09:29.3
that you guys were talking about.
09:31.2
And I think that's connected
09:33.1
how much water is wasted by a company?
09:35.9
How much of it is actually
09:38.3
put into good use?
09:41.9
So I always give one stat,
09:44.8
the statistics that
09:46.0
it's still after all these years
09:48.2
in the water industry,
09:49.5
it's mind-blowing to me.
09:51.9
if you look at all the humans
09:55.2
all around the world,
09:56.2
we use only 10% of the water,
09:59.3
but industries use 20%.
10:01.6
But also think about it
10:03.3
that the industries
10:04.1
they generate a much more
10:05.8
difficult waste for us
10:07.1
which is going to have
10:07.8
the best effect on the environment.
10:10.3
So if we help these industries
10:11.8
to become more water efficient
10:13.5
and basically recycle that water
10:16.8
so we will having already
10:18.2
a lesser impact on the water resources.
10:21.9
I think it would also help
10:23.2
for you to give us
10:24.1
what's the life cycle of water
10:26.8
and how does that translate
10:28.7
to what you're doing?
10:30.0
So can you tell us about that?
10:33.6
I mean water is something that
10:35.4
everyone, I mean a lot of people
10:39.0
they think it's a bit likely
10:40.0
when we have it at the use of the taps.
10:44.2
But as soon as that becomes a waste water
10:46.0
it takes a very, very long time
10:48.1
to get back to the cycle
10:49.4
and to be able to reuse it.
10:51.9
So you see that some countries
10:52.9
such as Singapore for example
10:54.9
they have done a fantastic job
10:56.3
in reusing for example that water
10:59.7
and bring it up to the level
11:00.8
of the drinkable water.
11:02.0
But what's their number?
11:03.3
If you forgive me
11:04.2
what's their number in Singapore?
11:05.7
If it's 10% of the Philippines
11:07.8
how much is it in Singapore?
11:10.1
Oh no, for example Singapore
11:12.4
so I can give you one stats
11:13.4
of this out there too.
11:14.2
The treated water?
11:16.1
So the nearly 30% of the water
11:19.8
that it's coming in into the tap.
11:21.9
Tap water, it can come from
11:23.2
the waste water treatment.
11:25.0
So which is astonishing number.
11:27.6
So meaning that that can be a lesson
11:29.6
for a lot of countries
11:32.4
that they are dealing with the water scarcity
11:34.9
to be able to utilize the waste water.
11:37.7
I've visited multiple times the Philippines
11:40.4
and that's why actually
11:41.4
we started this partnership with Biocare.
11:43.4
You will see that how far is the waste water
11:48.1
to becoming a reusable water again.
11:50.8
And that's the whole point.
11:51.9
Of starting this partnership
11:54.2
to be able to help the communities
11:56.7
within the Philippines
11:59.2
let alone be the government bodies
12:01.0
let alone be the hospitals
12:02.5
let alone be the food establishment.
12:04.8
Wherever basically there are water intensive
12:07.8
in terms of the consumption
12:09.3
to be able to help them
12:10.9
to be able to recycle that waste water
12:12.9
up to the level of the reuse again.
12:16.2
Tell us the impact of
12:17.7
we're talking about that partnership with Biocare.
12:21.9
the impact of that to the environment?
12:24.2
The positive impact of that to the environment
12:28.0
and the community?
12:28.9
Yeah, absolutely.
12:31.0
So, I mean before that
12:34.0
we've been always been very interested
12:36.1
into the Philippines market
12:37.4
because of how massive that market is
12:40.3
and how many basically water
12:43.3
scarcity issue that the company has.
12:45.3
So with all the backings that we had
12:47.1
for the past couple of years
12:48.0
from a lot of fantastic investors
12:49.8
fantastic projects that we did.
12:51.9
The projects in the Philippines
12:54.1
we realized that there is a big opportunity
12:56.3
and with this Biocare partnership
12:59.9
we are excited to collaborate
13:02.3
to be able to deploy more of this
13:04.6
advanced electrochemical solutions
13:07.3
into the sustainable and more efficient
13:09.9
wastewater treatment.
13:11.2
The good thing about it is
13:12.2
Biocare is already a leading
13:14.4
IVD in vitro diagnosis distributor in Philippines.
13:18.0
So we are hydrolip
13:23.3
which is a flagship product of the Biocare
13:26.3
new environmental department
13:28.2
which is focusing on bringing
13:32.1
revolutionary basic technology
13:33.7
or advanced technologies
13:34.9
to the industry that I mentioned earlier.
13:38.2
We started this relationship more
13:41.1
firstly as a customer
13:42.7
and customer as a vendor
13:44.2
which is the great way of starting it up.
13:47.0
And for the past one and a half years
13:48.9
it's been developed to this point
13:51.2
and now we are starting
13:53.0
So we are really excited
13:54.6
to get this thing across Philippines
13:57.1
not just the main districts.
14:00.4
Dr. Mo, can you give us a picture
14:01.9
of how you do it?
14:02.9
I know you said electrochemical
14:04.8
but it also says chemical free.
14:06.6
I've been to some of the wastewater treatment plants
14:09.8
here in the Philippines.
14:11.3
They're big and they're expensive.
14:14.2
They're expensive to operate
14:16.4
and not a lot of people know about them
14:19.3
but basically some parts of that
14:21.7
water from the wastewater treatment plant
14:23.9
still go to the rivers and the ocean
14:25.8
as wastewater, right?
14:27.2
And some go back to the tap.
14:29.3
But in your process, how does it really work?
14:32.8
Like is it safe to drink a glass of water
14:35.4
from the wastewater treatment plant?
14:37.7
Do you have huge plants also?
14:39.3
How do you do it?
14:41.6
That's a great question.
14:43.0
And actually what you described
14:44.4
is pretty much how it's been going on
14:46.5
all around the world.
14:48.9
If I'm gonna put it very kind of generalized,
14:51.7
it's that normally wastewaters are generated
14:54.7
as a part of the processing.
14:56.3
It could be industry, it could be domestic,
14:58.1
regardless of the purpose of it.
14:59.6
You generate this wastewater.
15:01.4
Currently, as you mentioned it absolutely correctly,
15:04.5
the existing state of art of the wastewater treatment
15:08.9
is pretty much conventional.
15:10.3
Like it's the same technology as 50 years ago,
15:13.3
100 years ago, if they have it.
15:15.3
If they have it, I've been in so many places that,
15:17.8
I guess the machine got a little bit fancier,
15:21.7
but it's not the same technology.
15:23.6
So it's a chemical treatment
15:25.2
or very energy intensive process.
15:27.2
That's why actually, exactly as you mentioned it,
15:29.6
it makes it really difficult to make it happen
15:35.8
to be able to bring that water back to the cycles.
15:38.7
So either a lot of companies, they try to go around it
15:42.2
or discharge the wastewater to the rivers, to the sea,
15:44.6
which is currently you see in a lot of even areas
15:46.8
of the Philippines, how much environmental impact that has.
15:50.3
So basically what we do,
15:51.7
which you can see correctly in the video as well,
15:54.5
we have come up with this very modularized
15:56.8
electrolysis basis technology, which does not use chemicals.
16:01.2
And it uses a very, very small amount of electricity
16:04.3
and it can treat a wide variety of the wastewaters.
16:08.0
For example, the wastewaters from a suspended solid
16:11.1
to the heavy metals, to the oil and grease,
16:13.8
all these contaminants can be basically removed
16:17.2
only through this process.
16:18.6
So basically what you're doing,
16:19.7
you're making the wastewater treatment
16:21.3
much more smaller and also you're making it less footprint.
16:25.8
So with that, we make it more reliable or more available
16:31.3
for the companies to be able to utilize it.
16:34.6
In terms of your second part of the question,
16:36.4
can you drink it?
16:38.5
Currently we are mainly actually focusing
16:41.3
on the industrial side of it
16:42.8
for the same reason that I mentioned it,
16:44.6
but actually we have done projects
16:46.6
that you can make the water up to the level
16:48.5
of the drinkable water, which is exactly what we're gonna do.
16:51.3
We're gonna do a part of a job in the Philippines
16:53.4
because for example, that part of the market
16:56.5
is not that relevant to Singapore
16:58.7
because Singapore, for example,
17:00.4
is the domestic wastewater is very well managed
17:03.6
by a public utility of Singapore, which is a water agency.
17:07.1
But for example, when you're talking about Philippines,
17:08.8
there's a lot of areas that if we treat that wastewater
17:13.1
up to the level that it can be drinkable
17:15.0
or it can be reusable,
17:16.9
is a very, very good value added to the communities.
17:21.3
And follow-up question, Ron.
17:23.3
Does that then make it a good part of the business model?
17:27.6
Because as of now, I think that's considered as an expense.
17:30.5
I'm thinking about cash flow versus water flow.
17:34.6
A lot of companies, I think, consider that in their books
17:40.5
Yeah, I mean, that's a reality.
17:42.4
That's a reality, right?
17:43.6
But the good thing about wastewater,
17:45.5
it's specifically when you're talking about
17:48.1
the industrial wastewater, it's very well regulated,
17:51.3
the Philippines, you will see that a lot of regulation
17:54.2
has already been out there.
17:55.5
A lot of companies get fined with it, right?
17:57.6
But the challenge has been so far that
18:01.0
when they go about to find the solution for it,
18:04.0
the solutions are that expensive
18:05.8
that sometimes paying those fines sometimes makes sense.
18:10.1
So now we are going in,
18:12.2
while actually we are really advocate about sustainability,
18:15.4
that's the whole point of actually we started this company,
18:18.2
but actually every single project that we do,
18:21.3
regardless of the nature of them,
18:23.1
we are showing the customers that how they can have a return
18:26.8
on the investments on top of that,
18:29.5
to have that sustainable and ESG goals achieving.
18:32.9
So we really strongly believe,
18:35.7
and this is the kind of the value that we share with Biocare,
18:39.0
we felt that when you combine these two,
18:41.5
it becomes a no-brainer for the companies
18:43.5
and for even the government bodies
18:45.1
to move towards adopting these technologies.
18:48.3
You guys have to forgive me for this question.
18:50.3
I just want to brief you.
18:51.3
Briefly go into the science of it.
18:53.2
Aside from the sustainability aspect,
18:56.5
how is electrolysis better than chemically treating water?
19:05.8
Very good question.
19:09.0
I always answer it with this simple question,
19:11.8
as with the chemical treatment,
19:14.1
you are trying to solve the issue,
19:16.9
take the contaminants,
19:18.4
but you are adding another contaminant,
19:20.4
especially you are adding
19:21.1
another chemicals to it.
19:22.4
But electrolysis,
19:24.8
and also what you can do with the chemical treatment
19:28.5
For example, you can take away some of the chemicals of it,
19:31.6
but you can't really, for example,
19:34.0
be very effective about removing heavy metals.
19:36.2
So that's why when you go to the wastewater treatment,
19:38.3
apart from the chemical treatment,
19:40.2
you need a lot of other processes in place.
19:42.6
But when it comes down to electrolysis,
19:44.7
is the first if you don't add any chemicals.
19:49.5
actually we do have a product that,
19:50.2
we have a product that it doesn't use
19:51.8
and even use any electrodes.
19:53.4
So basically the electrodes are just there
19:55.9
for the reaction to happens on the surface of that,
19:58.7
to be able to break down the compounds
20:01.9
to the less harmful and to be able to kind of reuse it.
20:06.1
So yeah, in terms of capability is drastically different.
20:09.1
So, and it's not just about sustainability part of it Ron,
20:13.1
it's about the capability and the return on investment.
20:18.8
Because we really do believe that, you know,
20:20.2
as a private company,
20:22.4
if you really want to
20:24.1
move sustainability
20:26.1
at a much bigger scale,
20:28.9
you need to show to the end users
20:30.7
how they can get that return
20:32.6
of investment by having
20:34.5
this technology or any other
20:36.6
technology. That's exactly what we are
20:40.0
You're getting my partner very excited with the science
20:42.6
stuff because he's the science
20:44.9
guy. And you know, that's a little bit comforting
20:46.8
because if you're thinking about it,
20:48.1
you're just, let's say you're drinking
20:52.6
everything's still there, there's just some
20:54.5
added chemicals to make it
20:56.6
potable. That's not good, right?
21:01.5
That's absolutely correct.
21:03.1
And that's why actually
21:04.2
if you look at how we started off,
21:06.3
we started off, of course, a number of years ago
21:08.2
from an idea of it, but we managed
21:10.4
to have a lot of actually
21:12.4
reputable global investors coming
21:14.5
in on board, like for example of
21:16.4
Singapore government
21:17.6
and Australian governments,
21:20.0
Mitsubishi Electric,
21:21.7
Realtec Holding, all these really
21:23.9
really great global investors, they
21:25.9
came on board because they could
21:27.9
see the potential of this technology
21:29.6
can make differences
21:33.8
I was going to ask, where is this going?
21:36.2
Like, how are you going to scale that in the
21:37.9
Philippines? And maybe offline, you can
21:40.0
tell us about the life cycle of the
21:41.9
water because I'm still there. My brain's
21:43.9
still wandering from the
21:45.8
rain to the, I don't know,
21:47.6
and then to the top, and then where does it
21:49.7
go afterwards if you don't treat it
21:51.8
and if you treat it, but that's going to be
21:53.7
on offline. How are you
21:55.6
planning to scale this up? What's the big plan
21:57.7
for the next five years? And that will be my last
21:59.7
question. Amazing.
22:02.7
Actually, the company
22:03.6
has been doing very well for the past
22:05.4
specifically two years. Then we built
22:07.6
more capabilities and we
22:09.6
managed to close some of the fundraising round.
22:11.7
For example, last year, we did nearly
22:13.4
four times better than the year before, and we're
22:15.5
already on the track to do the same thing.
22:17.6
And we have already done projects
22:19.5
and completed projects
22:21.0
in Singapore, Philippines, Thailand,
22:24.1
Indonesia, and we are
22:25.8
expanding further within the
22:27.6
Southeast Asian market, as well as
22:29.7
Australia and Japan.
22:31.6
And one of the opportunities that we saw
22:33.6
in Philippines, we saw both in industrial
22:35.4
and Philippines, that's why we came together
22:37.7
with Biocare, and we
22:40.7
very quick turnaround. I mean, the number
22:43.7
of, I can't say the project's
22:45.6
names, but we already have started
22:47.6
this partnership, and we have a number of projects
22:49.7
on the pipelines within the Philippines,
22:51.4
as mentioned, across from government
22:54.0
bodies, Washington streets, all the way to
22:56.0
the private establishment. I can
22:58.1
see a really bright future for 2024
23:00.7
and upcoming years, actually.
23:02.6
Well, congratulations. Fascinating
23:04.6
conversation. Thank you so much, Dr. Mo.
23:07.5
Thank you so much for having me here.
23:10.0
At your business outlook, I'm Ron Krook.
23:11.8
And I'm Salve Duplito. The World Tonight
23:13.9
comes your way at the top of the next hour.
23:15.9
Keep it here on ANC.
23:17.6
We'll be right back.
