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Welcome to the Business Outlook. I'm Ron Cruz.

And I'm Salve Duplito. The Headlines.

Wall Street futures and European markets are up ahead of crucial inflation data from the U.S.

Fitch lowers China's sovereign credit rating from stable to negative.

And a discussion with Singapore startup HydroLeap on their partnership with a local firm

to advance sustainable wastewater management here in the Philippines.

Let's check on European markets first.

They are picking up gains ahead of the March inflation data from the U.S.

with the German DAX up by about eight-tenths of a percent.

Traders also bracing for the European Central Bank's interest rate decision on Thursday.

As for Wall Street, futures are inching higher.

Higher in the run-up to the March inflation print,

which could help shape the Federal Reserve's monetary policy path this year.

Minutes from the Fed's last meeting could also provide more clues.

Investors have dialed down expectations around how much a central bank could cut rates

after recent data indicated a robust U.S. economy.

Here are some stocks to watch out for.

We're monitoring shares of Swiss chocolate maker Barry Kalibaut

after it reported high.

We're also keeping a close watch on shares of Tesco

after the supermarket giant reported higher profit in its full-year results,

saying,

inflation pressures have lessened substantially.

Tesco shares are up 5% in midday trading.

Finally, we're also keeping an eye on shares of Delta Airlines,

which topped quarterly earnings expectations.

Delta shares popped 5% in pre-market trading.

Meanwhile, Asian markets ended on a mixed note Wednesday in a holiday-thin trade.

The Nikkei 225 fell half a percent,

while the Hong Kong Hang Seng, on the other hand,

jumped 1.8, powered by tech stocks.

The Shanghai Composite, on the other hand,

slumped 0.7% dragged by real estate shares.

This is as credit rating agency Fitch

lowered China's sovereign credit rating to negative from stable.

Fitch says its outlook revision reflects challenges in Beijing's public finance

as it grapples with decelerating growth and growing debt.

A protracted property downturn in China

has weighed heavily on debt-laden local governments

as their revenues from land development plunge

rendering debt levels in many cities unsustainable.

But while Fitch lowered its outlook,

it affirmed Beijing's issuer default rating at A+,

its third-highest category.

The Chinese government, meanwhile,

says it regretted Fitch's ratings decision

and that it would take steps to prevent and resolve risks

from local government debt.

What I want to tell you is that

the fundamentals of China's long-term economic growth

have been very important.

China's determination and ability to safeguard its sovereign credit

will not change.

A notable stock movement in the region,

the Hong Kong-listed shares of Alibaba

surged nearly 5%

after its co-founder Jack Ma

penned a lengthy memo to employees

expressing support for the internet giant's restructuring efforts.

That rare move from the billionaire

comes a year after Alibaba announced its decision

to split into six years.

The Philippine president en route to Washington

for a trilateral summit with the U.S. and Japan.

President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. in his speech said

the meeting with U.S. President Joe Biden

and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida

will mainly discuss economic cooperation

but would also tackle maintaining peace

in the Indo-Pacific region.

The trilateral summit is happening on the backdrop

of an increasingly aggressive China

in the West Philippine Sea.

The main intent of this trilateral agreement

is for us to be able to continue to flourish,

to be able to help one another,

and of course,

to keep the South China Sea

as a freedom,

to keep the peace in the South China Sea

and the freedom of navigation in the South China Sea.

The president's item,

also includes a separate meeting with Biden

and a discussion with U.S. business leaders

for potential investments in the country.

A White House advisor said

several initiatives in key areas

are expected to be announced in the summit

including investments for the Philippines.

Those include energy security,

which of course is a very important focus

for this government.

They include digital connectivity

to make sure that the people of the Philippines

have access to reliable, trusted networks

and a number of other areas

which if we can more effectively hone

our trilateral cooperation

will make the Philippines economy stronger

and will affect the everyday lives

of the Philippines people.

The Philippines sees more foreign direct investments

in January.

The central bank says

FDIs for that month came in at $907 million.

That's 90% higher from last year's figure.

That's 90% higher from last year's figure.

It's also an improvement

from the $826 million in December.

The BSP points to higher debt instrument investments

from foreign nationals

which climbed to $820 million.

Foreign investments in equity capital

meanwhile declined to $11 million

from the previous $93 million.

Monetary authorities say

most of the equity capital placements

were from Japan and the U.S.

The investments were channeled mostly

to the manufacturing, real estate

and construction sector.

A consultancy firm expects more Filipinos

to seek permanent residency in Greece

through so-called golden visas.

That's ahead of an anticipated doubling

of the minimum investment requirement by year-end.

Residence-buy investment programs

allow foreign investors

to secure permanent residency

via an initial payment.

Portugal tops the list of golden visa countries

but Greece, which ranks second,

is slowly gaining more

popularity.

Golden Visa Central says

they anticipate around 100 families

to apply for a Greece golden visa this year.

Greece is gaining traction

because it is not only fast,

it's also gaining traction

because it's one of the lowest entry points

in terms of investment.

So we've really been seeing an upsurge

in the Filipino market.

For most of them,

it's really something that they want to do now.

And try to get on board fast.

It is not just now the lowest entry point

for an EU residency

but it's also the fastest.

So under six months.

We're taking a quick break.

Up next, we talk about

sustainable water management

with Singapore's startup firm, HydroLeap.

Welcome back.

The ongoing El Niño phenomenon

has further fanned concerns

about water management

and access to clean water.

Now, Singapore-based startup HydroLeap

hopes to address this issue

through a partnership

with local firm, BioCare.

HydroLeap's founder and CEO,

Dr. Mohamed Chera Fatman

joins us tonight

to further discuss

how the company aims to advance

sustainable water management

in the Philippines.

Dr. Moh, hi.

Thank you so much for joining us.

Good evening.

Hello, good evening.

Thank you so much for having me here

tonight on the program.

That 10% number,

that's so concerning.

If you think about

how we need water so much these days,

especially because of El Niño.

What does your company do

and how does your company

plan to help us improve that number?

Yeah, absolutely.

HydroLeap is founded in 2016.

So we are a next-generation

green wastewater treatment company

headquartered in Singapore.

We use advanced

electrochemical technologies

for industrial wastewater treatment,

cooling water treatment,

or even desalination.

So we are revolutionizing the industries

by providing this solution,

which is not only they are automated

and reliable,

but also they are cost-effective

and environmentally friendly.

So yeah, there's been quite a lot of results

coming out of this project

that we've been doing

for the last 10 years.

So we're doing a lot of work

and we're doing a lot of work

for the next 10 years.

So we're doing a lot of work

for the next 10 years.

So we're doing a lot of work

for the next 10 years.

So we're doing a lot of work

for the past couple of years

that it's quite interesting to share.

Okay, I want to clarify first

what that 10%

that you guys were talking about.

And I think that's connected

to my question,

how much water is wasted by a company?

How much of it is actually

put into good use?

Absolutely.

So I always give one stat,

the statistics that

it's still after all these years

in the water industry,

it's mind-blowing to me.

If you use water

if you look at all the humans

all around the world,

we use only 10% of the water,

but industries use 20%.

But also think about it

that the industries

they generate a much more

difficult waste for us

which is going to have

the best effect on the environment.

So if we help these industries

to become more water efficient

and basically recycle that water

so we will having already

a lesser impact on the water resources.

Yeah.

I think it would also help

for you to give us

what's the life cycle of water

for example

and how does that translate

to what you're doing?

So can you tell us about that?

Yeah.

I mean water is something that

everyone, I mean a lot of people

they think it's a bit likely

when we have it at the use of the taps.

But as soon as that becomes a waste water

it takes a very, very long time

to get back to the cycle

and to be able to reuse it.

So you see that some countries

such as Singapore for example

they have done a fantastic job

in reusing for example that water

and bring it up to the level

of the drinkable water.

But what's their number?

If you forgive me

what's their number in Singapore?

If it's 10% of the Philippines

how much is it in Singapore?

Oh no, for example Singapore

so I can give you one stats

of this out there too.

The treated water?

Yes.

So the nearly 30% of the water

that it's coming in into the tap.

Tap water, it can come from

the waste water treatment.

So which is astonishing number.

So meaning that that can be a lesson

for a lot of countries

that they are dealing with the water scarcity

to be able to utilize the waste water.

I've visited multiple times the Philippines

and that's why actually

we started this partnership with Biocare.

You will see that how far is the waste water

to becoming a reusable water again.

And that's the whole point.

Of starting this partnership

to be able to help the communities

within the Philippines

let alone be the government bodies

let alone be the hospitals

let alone be the food establishment.

Wherever basically there are water intensive

in terms of the consumption

to be able to help them

to be able to recycle that waste water

up to the level of the reuse again.

Tell us the impact of

we're talking about that partnership with Biocare.

What would be

the impact of that to the environment?

The positive impact of that to the environment

and the community?

Yeah, absolutely.

Yeah, yeah.

So, I mean before that

we've been always been very interested

into the Philippines market

because of how massive that market is

and how many basically water

scarcity issue that the company has.

So with all the backings that we had

for the past couple of years

from a lot of fantastic investors

fantastic projects that we did.

The projects in the Philippines

we realized that there is a big opportunity

and with this Biocare partnership

we are excited to collaborate

to be able to deploy more of this

advanced electrochemical solutions

into the sustainable and more efficient

wastewater treatment.

The good thing about it is

Biocare is already a leading

IVD in vitro diagnosis distributor in Philippines.

So we are hydrolip

we are powering

Spike Clean

which is a flagship product of the Biocare

new environmental department

which is focusing on bringing

revolutionary basic technology

or advanced technologies

to the industry that I mentioned earlier.

We started this relationship more

firstly as a customer

and customer as a vendor

which is the great way of starting it up.

And for the past one and a half years

it's been developed to this point

and now we are starting

to be partners.

So we are really excited

to get this thing across Philippines

not just the main districts.

Dr. Mo, can you give us a picture

of how you do it?

I know you said electrochemical

but it also says chemical free.

I've been to some of the wastewater treatment plants

here in the Philippines.

They're big and they're expensive.

They're expensive to operate

and not a lot of people know about them

but basically some parts of that

water from the wastewater treatment plant

still go to the rivers and the ocean

as wastewater, right?

And some go back to the tap.

But in your process, how does it really work?

Like is it safe to drink a glass of water

from the wastewater treatment plant?

Do you have huge plants also?

How do you do it?

That's a great question.

And actually what you described

is pretty much how it's been going on

all around the world.

If I'm gonna put it very kind of generalized,

it's that normally wastewaters are generated

as a part of the processing.

It could be industry, it could be domestic,

regardless of the purpose of it.

You generate this wastewater.

Currently, as you mentioned it absolutely correctly,

the existing state of art of the wastewater treatment

is pretty much conventional.

Like it's the same technology as 50 years ago,

100 years ago, if they have it.

If they have it, I've been in so many places that,

I guess the machine got a little bit fancier,

but it's not the same technology.

So it's a chemical treatment

or very energy intensive process.

That's why actually, exactly as you mentioned it,

it makes it really difficult to make it happen

to be able to bring that water back to the cycles.

So either a lot of companies, they try to go around it

or discharge the wastewater to the rivers, to the sea,

which is currently you see in a lot of even areas

of the Philippines, how much environmental impact that has.

So basically what we do,

which you can see correctly in the video as well,

we have come up with this very modularized

electrolysis basis technology, which does not use chemicals.

And it uses a very, very small amount of electricity

and it can treat a wide variety of the wastewaters.

For example, the wastewaters from a suspended solid

to the heavy metals, to the oil and grease,

all these contaminants can be basically removed

only through this process.

So basically what you're doing,

you're making the wastewater treatment

much more smaller and also you're making it less footprint.

So with that, we make it more reliable or more available

for the companies to be able to utilize it.

In terms of your second part of the question,

can you drink it?

Currently we are mainly actually focusing

on the industrial side of it

for the same reason that I mentioned it,

but actually we have done projects

that you can make the water up to the level

of the drinkable water, which is exactly what we're gonna do.

We're gonna do a part of a job in the Philippines

because for example, that part of the market

is not that relevant to Singapore

because Singapore, for example,

is the domestic wastewater is very well managed

by a public utility of Singapore, which is a water agency.

But for example, when you're talking about Philippines,

there's a lot of areas that if we treat that wastewater

up to the level that it can be drinkable

or it can be reusable,

is a very, very good value added to the communities.

And follow-up question, Ron.

Does that then make it a good part of the business model?

Because as of now, I think that's considered as an expense.

I'm thinking about cash flow versus water flow.

A lot of companies, I think, consider that in their books

as expense.

Yeah, I mean, that's a reality.

That's a reality, right?

But the good thing about wastewater,

it's specifically when you're talking about

the industrial wastewater, it's very well regulated,

the Philippines, you will see that a lot of regulation

has already been out there.

A lot of companies get fined with it, right?

But the challenge has been so far that

when they go about to find the solution for it,

the solutions are that expensive

that sometimes paying those fines sometimes makes sense.

So now we are going in,

while actually we are really advocate about sustainability,

that's the whole point of actually we started this company,

but actually every single project that we do,

regardless of the nature of them,

we are showing the customers that how they can have a return

on the investments on top of that,

to have that sustainable and ESG goals achieving.

So we really strongly believe,

and this is the kind of the value that we share with Biocare,

we felt that when you combine these two,

it becomes a no-brainer for the companies

and for even the government bodies

to move towards adopting these technologies.

You guys have to forgive me for this question.

I just want to brief you.

Briefly go into the science of it.

Aside from the sustainability aspect,

how is electrolysis better than chemically treating water?

Very good question.

I always answer it with this simple question,

as with the chemical treatment,

you are trying to solve the issue,

take the contaminants,

but you are adding another contaminant,

especially you are adding

another chemicals to it.

But electrolysis,

and also what you can do with the chemical treatment

is limited.

For example, you can take away some of the chemicals of it,

but you can't really, for example,

be very effective about removing heavy metals.

So that's why when you go to the wastewater treatment,

apart from the chemical treatment,

you need a lot of other processes in place.

But when it comes down to electrolysis,

is the first if you don't add any chemicals.

So it's a very,

actually we do have a product that,

we have a product that it doesn't use

and even use any electrodes.

So basically the electrodes are just there

for the reaction to happens on the surface of that,

to be able to break down the compounds

to the less harmful and to be able to kind of reuse it.

So yeah, in terms of capability is drastically different.

So, and it's not just about sustainability part of it Ron,

it's about the capability and the return on investment.

Because we really do believe that, you know,

as a private company,

if you really want to

move sustainability

at a much bigger scale,

you need to show to the end users

how they can get that return

of investment by having

this technology or any other

technology. That's exactly what we are

advocating for.

You're getting my partner very excited with the science

stuff because he's the science

guy. And you know, that's a little bit comforting

because if you're thinking about it,

you're just, let's say you're drinking

treated water,

everything's still there, there's just some

added chemicals to make it

potable. That's not good, right?

That's not good.

That's absolutely correct.

And that's why actually

if you look at how we started off,

we started off, of course, a number of years ago

from an idea of it, but we managed

to have a lot of actually

reputable global investors coming

in on board, like for example of

Singapore government

and Australian governments,

Mitsubishi Electric,

Realtec Holding, all these really

really great global investors, they

came on board because they could

see the potential of this technology

can make differences

in the market.

I was going to ask, where is this going?

Like, how are you going to scale that in the

Philippines? And maybe offline, you can

tell us about the life cycle of the

water because I'm still there. My brain's

still wandering from the

rain to the, I don't know,

and then to the top, and then where does it

go afterwards if you don't treat it

and if you treat it, but that's going to be

on offline. How are you

planning to scale this up? What's the big plan

for the next five years? And that will be my last

question. Amazing.

Actually, the company

has been doing very well for the past

specifically two years. Then we built

more capabilities and we

managed to close some of the fundraising round.

For example, last year, we did nearly

four times better than the year before, and we're

already on the track to do the same thing.

And we have already done projects

and completed projects

in Singapore, Philippines, Thailand,

Indonesia, and we are

expanding further within the

Southeast Asian market, as well as

Australia and Japan.

And one of the opportunities that we saw

in Philippines, we saw both in industrial

and Philippines, that's why we came together

with Biocare, and we

really see this

very quick turnaround. I mean, the number

of, I can't say the project's

names, but we already have started

this partnership, and we have a number of projects

on the pipelines within the Philippines,

as mentioned, across from government

bodies, Washington streets, all the way to

the private establishment. I can

see a really bright future for 2024

and upcoming years, actually.

Well, congratulations. Fascinating

conversation. Thank you so much, Dr. Mo.

Thanks.

Thank you so much for having me here.

At your business outlook, I'm Ron Krook.

And I'm Salve Duplito. The World Tonight

comes your way at the top of the next hour.

Keep it here on ANC.

We'll be right back.