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

And I'm Savvy Duplito.

The Headlines.

U.S. futures and European markets are up as tech stocks rise.

China tells the U.S. the world is big enough for shared prosperity.

And we talked to U.N. agency, the International Telecommunication Union, about bridging the digital gap in the Philippines.

Let's check on European markets first.

You're seeing gains in afternoon trade with tech and construction stocks leading all sectors in the green.

The pan-European benchmark stocks 600 on course to snap a three-week losing streak.

The cheer comes from U.S. tech giants Microsoft and Alphabet reporting bumper earnings overnight.

Taking a look at Wall Street futures, they are also up with a tech-heavy Nasdaq seen to open 1% higher.

In Focus today, the Feds closely watched inflation gauge, the PCE price index.

Here are some stocks to watch out for.

We're monitoring shares of U.K. tech darling Darktrace after it announced it had agreed a sale to U.S. private equity giant Thoma Bravo for over $5 billion.

Shares of the British cybersecurity firm popped 17% on the news.

Also in Focus, shares of British bank NatWest whose first quarter profit fell sharply.

The stock, however, rose 6% after the lender outperformed expectations in its net interest margin.

We're also keeping a close watch on shares of Snap, which delivered a positive revenue forecast for the second quarter.

Snap shares are soaring 24% in pre-market trading.

We're also keeping an eye on shares of Intel following a downbeat second quarter sales forecast, signaling that the AI boom is hurting PC chip demand.

Intel shares lumped 8%.

Before the bell.

Meanwhile, Asian markets ended the week on a mixed note as investors weighed weak first quarter GDP data and strong tech earnings from the U.S. overnight.

The Nikkei 225 climbed 0.8% while the Hong Kong Hang Seng hit a five-month high.

Australia's ASX 200, on the other hand, slumped 1.4% on data showing producer prices went up more than expected in Q1.

Here at home, the local bores closed up.

With the main index rising back above the 6600 level, although it marked its fourth weekly loss.

The equities market a bit looking for safer haven, alternative assets, and so investors try to lighten up.

But hopefully, the accumulation, the start of accumulation could happen because we have this April being seasonally low.

We're exiting April.

And I think May, we're going to see a recovery, sustained recovery.

Meanwhile, the Japanese yen remained in focus as it crossed 156 to the U.S. dollar, a new 34-year low.

That's after the Bank of Japan kept its monetary policy loose at its latest policy meeting.

The central bank also stuck to its guidance to keep buying government bonds around the current pace, dashing hopes by some traders that it could soon taper purchases,

partly to the U.S. dollar.

But that's not enough to slow the yen's declines.

Monetary policy does not directly control the currency rate.

But as I have always said, exchange rate volatility could have a significant impact on the economy and prices.

If yen moves have an effect on the economy and prices that are hard to ignore, it could have a reason to think about adjusting monetary policy.

Thank you.

The U.S. dollar alone allots around P280 billion in capital expenditures this year.

That's 14% higher than 2023, even as it eyes to simplify its corporate structure.

The conglomerate is planning to finish divesting around P50 billion worth of its non-core businesses by the end of this year.

It's also looking to divest from Light Rail Manila Corp. and Manila Water.

Ayala Corporation President and CEO Cesar Consing says the company plans to focus more on business.

Businesses that can be scaled up.

These include potential investments in healthcare and energy, particularly electric vehicles.

All our businesses review their portfolios on a regular basis.

That's just par for the course.

I think right now, that review is probably more rigorous.

I think it's become quite apparent.

You could be very, very successful, but if you're too small,

should we be devoting capital to it?

Should we be devoting management time to it?

You can do a hundred activities, but if only a dozen of them really move the needle,

then guess what?

Focus on those dozen.

Chinese President Xi Jinping says there's a number of issues that Beijing and Washington must resolve

to ease the tensions between the two economic powers.

He gave those remarks during a meeting with visiting U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

Xi told Blinken,

We should be partners, not rivals.

With China-U.S. increasing dialogue,

managing differences and promoting cooperation is not only something the people of both countries want to see,

but also what the rest of the world anticipates.

I have said many times, the world is big enough to accommodate both the U.S. and Chinese development.

China is happy to see a self-confident, open, prosperous, and developing United States.

It is hoped that the U.S. and China will be able to achieve the same goals.

But the U.S. will also take a positive view of Chinese development.

We're taking a quick break. Up next, a discussion on boosting connectivity and closing the digital divide.

Welcome back. Last year, the International Telecommunication Union, a UN agency, reported only half of Filipinos are within 10 kilometers of a fiber network.

But beyond connectivity issues, the ITU has also raised concerns over the rising gender gap in the sector with only 32 ICT regulators being led by women.

How can the Philippines advance its connectivity woes and close the gender gap in ICT?

And STEM industries? Here to tell us how is Dr. Cosmas Sabadzava, Director of ITU's Telecommunication Development Bureau.

Hi, Dr. Cosmas. Thank you so much for being here today.

Thank you for having me here.

And not online.

Okay, before we talk about the Philippines, I do want to ask you about something global.

I breezed through the 2023 Facts and Figures report of the ITU.

Well,

first of all, it's the first time I've heard that there's a UN agency that's dedicated to telecommunications concerns of the world.

But tell us why the UN has this special concern for internet connectivity of countries.

Well, it is now the culture. We breathe the internet, we eat the internet, we drink the internet.

It is the lifeblood for doing business, for delivering education, healthcare, etc.

So, every human being should have it.

Every human being should have the right to access the internet.

And we are worried and concerned that there are still 2.6 billion people globally who remain offline.

And that is of great concern.

We, surprisingly, are the oldest United Nations agency who was established in 1865.

So, I'm surprised that you don't know us.

We haven't reported on you as much before.

Maybe that's why.

Yeah, maybe that's why. We'd love to know more about your report.

Especially because one of the things that jumped at me from your report is that not a lot of people are connected.

You know, it doesn't feel that way.

It feels like us Filipinos, we can call our relatives from across the world because they're connected to the internet.

But apparently, the numbers show differently.

Absolutely. The numbers in this case lie.

Or probably our perception misleads.

Because many people have got basic telephony which cannot connect.

And they have, what we call, mobile broadband.

And that is a restriction.

They can't transact with, they can't do electronic commerce, they can't receive government services using their phones.

But many of the people who reside in rural remote areas remain offline.

They cannot contact their relatives.

And when they do so, there is what we call universal meaningful connectivity.

What do they use their connectivity for?

Some just save the net, read the news, send an email.

That is not enough.

We want them to be meaningfully connected and to do business online.

So that they can reach their markets and to transact, transfer money and all the basic services.

That's a great way of looking at inclusion.

Initially, we just thought inclusion is all about financial transactions, being able to find work, being employed, educated.

But apparently, your internet connection is also a great tool.

Absolutely.

So inclusion.

We have what we call digital inclusion.

In this respect, we take care of the people who live in remote rural areas where the telecommunications operators are not guaranteed return on investment.

So they don't have an incentive to go there.

So it remains the government's obligation to make sure that the internet becomes a public good, just like electricity and water.

And then there is an incentive for the private sector to go.

So we have a regulatory framework.

And we call it the Universal Service Fund, where the operators contribute money.

And any operator who goes to remote rural areas gets a subsidy.

And that is very important.

Gender is critical for us.

Women as well as men, people with disabilities, the elderly, the young, they all have the right to be included.

Are all countries, are all governments on board and they have the same motivation of digital inclusion?

Because, of course, there will be special concerns for poorer countries, developing countries.

They have other major problems.

But is internet connectivity one of those priorities?

Should it be a priority of theirs as well?

Absolutely.

So we tell them, I met in one country an official who said we have higher priorities.

There is an elderly woman in rural communities with a dying granddaughter or grandchild.

Why should we?

Why should connectivity become a priority?

And we tell them that's the lifeline.

You cannot, it's not an afterthought.

This is the basic thing that you need to make sure that you are connected.

And infrastructure is critical.

And I wanted to applaud, of course, the government of the Philippines.

I know that last Saturday, there was a rolling out of the national backbone.

That is very critical if we are going to achieve prosperity.

And we have the sustainable development goals,

which are driven by development.

And that's very important that we have that clear understanding.

In fact, those countries that remain lagged behind,

like the least developed countries, landlocked developing countries,

small island developing states,

can accelerate their development efforts using digital.

That's a great example of saying that digital connectivity is a lifeline.

I think that's the first time that I've heard of this.

Now, I'd like to ask you two questions.

Can you talk to us about,

first, about top line numbers in your latest report on connectivity?

What are the statistics there that really people should know about?

And second, the Universal Service Fund, it just jumped at me.

Do we have that?

I don't even know if we have that here.

If you talk to your regulator, they are going to tell you that they've got policies.

And in fact, every year, ITU organizes what we call Global Symposium for Regulators,

where we bring every regulator in the world to sit under one roof.

And we strategize and we see how best we can promote accessibility for good.

So that everybody has good equal access.

With respect to our statistics, I have already given you the numbers.

Two point six billion people are still offline.

We are finding ways to make sure that they are incentivized

to jump on the information highway.

Some of them are not online because they can't afford the service.

them they don't have coverage but the majority of the people have they are within coverage and they

have a signal and they could just simply being a get educated digital skills remain a big challenge

but also the profit motive the private sector goes where the return on investment is guaranteed so

that is very important to do and we believe in the itu that one day and soon we are going to have

everybody being able to participate effectively but another underlying factor which is very

critical is cyber security right so some people doubt they don't want for example i give you some

statistics a lot of women during covid who went online got harassed online and do that translated

eventually into offline harassment and we don't want that to happen so we make sure that

we have cyber security as a priority yes and that's ron's favorite

topic you want to jump into something ask a lot but okay while you're thinking of that can can i

just follow up a little bit and in the global global report i think it said there that connectivity

is growing only by five percent of all right it's my memory correct it's growing so slowly and that

seems like a very different picture from how me and ron we report every single day everybody's

computing and it's like everything is connectivity generated all the businesses are

saying we are growing our businesses online but apparently connectivity is not growing as much

so those are super layers artificial intelligence that thrives on data data thrives on connectivity

yeah so it's a report if i've made of a artificial intelligence quantum computing as we say in the

net of things they all rely on infrastructure and we know that some countries are having challenges

particularly in bridging the rural urban divide so connectivity remains an issue we have

categories region by region i can give you for example if you go to africa they have about 26

least developed countries the poor of the poorest and globally we have 46 least developed countries

so there it is a challenge we also have the highest number of landlocked developing states

followed by asia and the pacific so those groups

of countries confront challenges and some countries are double landlocked so to have

access to the sea they have to deal with the two jurisdictions and if there is a conflict

then they cannot survive and access to the sea because of the distance the bandwidth is very

narrow and the cost is very high so that's a constraint if you go also some of the small island

developing states are suffering from sea rise natural disasters etc so that the

people who are living in those isolated areas it's difficult to get there we have 7 000.

and just before ron i'm sorry ron no um and the numbers some countries still have 2g well uh you

advance economies have 5g um and the cost is like in poorer countries you're spending

a huge percentage of your total income on broadband absolutely so now we used it to rely

on fix the broadband now we have mobile broadband and we see there are quite a significant number

of countries that are failing to roll out mobile broadband but that is the easiest way to reach the

people because of many of the people who've got smartphones so they can transact and they

can communicate they have broadband in their fingertips now uh with respect to the generation

of technology it varies some countries are stuck with the 2g whereas if i go to europe and some

other regions some are aspiring to get into five and a half g or 6g already and switching off 3g

because it's duplicating what you're finding

5g and 5g is critical also to in terms of supporting artificial intelligence because of the

latins so high speed and so it just varies from region to region it's painful to imagine that

some countries are still on 2g the philippines is on 4g 5g already and if you can i can just

imagine what it's doing as well as a roadblock for for digital inclusion but beyond maybe

infrastructure development

in countries are there any other ways to uh to to resolve or mitigate the problems of digital

inclusions absolutely so our role is to create an enabling environment and attract investment from

industry and private sector and we are lucky because we have all the countries in the world

as being our members 193 member states but we also have over a thousand of industry players

so we work with them to make sure that they understand the importance

of them reaching out to people who don't have access and who cannot afford it so there are

many strategies to make sure that you excite some people with low purchasing power price screening

there are many ways and the regulatory framework will inform this to make sure that we subsidize

and many people can can have access and then the infrastructure issue there is a high cost of course

and we encourage

private sector to do infrastructure sharing there is no need for you to go

and also to be strategic if you are building new roads there is no need after one month or two

months after the road has been constructed that you start digging again to put an optical fiber

in order to reach people so we have to have a holistic approach to the development agenda

bringing it now to the philippines what is your assessment of the developments here the efforts of

the government connectivity as well

and uh the the the scenario of inclusion here in the country what i'm going to say is not bias

because i'm in the philippines because you said here we're going to call you next week

absolutely very good we are very pleased and we congratulate the government and the people of the

philippines you are in the forefront not only in terms of inclusion bridging the gap between the

health and have notes but also in terms of inclusion bridging the gap between the haves and have nots

that are so important to us to help the women who work so hard and our intrapreneur

are doing great things and we prioritize them that's why we celebrated this year

our global event on ict for girls celebrations here we chose this place for a reason

in terms of infrastructure you are doing very well i already told you that and i congratulate

of course his excellency the president uh for launching uh the first phase of uh the backbone

and I know that by 2026, you want to have a complete transformation of the infrastructure backbone.

And that is a great thing. Skills development are very key.

Today, I went to one place where we're launching the Digital Transformation Center,

which is going to take care of small and medium enterprises.

Innovation is a high priority. Access for small businesses, academic institutions have been prioritized.

And we are very happy to be working with the government of Philippines.

And also, the other issue of importance is that we'll be rolling out what we call early warning for all to try to save lives.

And in the UN system, we have this target of reaching out to every living human being by 2027 with an early warning signal

so that they are out of harm's way when there is an impending danger.

We like you, Dr. Cosmas.

Please, let us know.

Let us know when you're back in the country. You're welcome to come to the studio anytime. Thank you so much.

Thank you so much for inviting us.

Thank you very much. It's a pleasure.

That's your business outlook abroad, Cruz.

And I'm Salve Duplito. The world tonight comes your way at the top of the next hour. Keep it here on ANC.

Thank you.