00:44.7
The cheer comes from U.S. tech giants Microsoft and Alphabet reporting bumper earnings overnight.
00:51.0
Taking a look at Wall Street futures, they are also up with a tech-heavy Nasdaq seen to open 1% higher.
00:57.1
In Focus today, the Feds closely watched inflation gauge, the PCE price index.
01:04.8
Here are some stocks to watch out for.
01:06.7
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.
01:16.8
Shares of the British cybersecurity firm popped 17% on the news.
01:21.7
Also in Focus, shares of British bank NatWest whose first quarter profit fell sharply.
01:27.1
The stock, however, rose 6% after the lender outperformed expectations in its net interest margin.
01:33.8
We're also keeping a close watch on shares of Snap, which delivered a positive revenue forecast for the second quarter.
01:40.5
Snap shares are soaring 24% in pre-market trading.
01:44.1
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.
01:55.1
Intel shares lumped 8%.
01:58.6
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.
02:08.1
The Nikkei 225 climbed 0.8% while the Hong Kong Hang Seng hit a five-month high.
02:15.2
Australia's ASX 200, on the other hand, slumped 1.4% on data showing producer prices went up more than expected in Q1.
02:24.4
Here at home, the local bores closed up.
02:27.0
With the main index rising back above the 6600 level, although it marked its fourth weekly loss.
02:35.6
The equities market a bit looking for safer haven, alternative assets, and so investors try to lighten up.
02:44.8
But hopefully, the accumulation, the start of accumulation could happen because we have this April being seasonally low.
02:55.0
We're exiting April.
02:56.8
And I think May, we're going to see a recovery, sustained recovery.
03:02.2
Meanwhile, the Japanese yen remained in focus as it crossed 156 to the U.S. dollar, a new 34-year low.
03:10.3
That's after the Bank of Japan kept its monetary policy loose at its latest policy meeting.
03:16.4
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,
03:25.8
partly to the U.S. dollar.
03:26.8
But that's not enough to slow the yen's declines.
03:32.2
Monetary policy does not directly control the currency rate.
03:36.2
But as I have always said, exchange rate volatility could have a significant impact on the economy and prices.
03:43.0
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.
03:56.8
The U.S. dollar alone allots around P280 billion in capital expenditures this year.
04:01.6
That's 14% higher than 2023, even as it eyes to simplify its corporate structure.
04:08.3
The conglomerate is planning to finish divesting around P50 billion worth of its non-core businesses by the end of this year.
04:16.1
It's also looking to divest from Light Rail Manila Corp. and Manila Water.
04:20.5
Ayala Corporation President and CEO Cesar Consing says the company plans to focus more on business.
04:26.8
Businesses that can be scaled up.
04:29.1
These include potential investments in healthcare and energy, particularly electric vehicles.
04:36.6
All our businesses review their portfolios on a regular basis.
04:40.7
That's just par for the course.
04:43.2
I think right now, that review is probably more rigorous.
04:48.9
I think it's become quite apparent.
04:51.7
You could be very, very successful, but if you're too small,
04:56.8
should we be devoting capital to it?
04:59.0
Should we be devoting management time to it?
05:00.9
You can do a hundred activities, but if only a dozen of them really move the needle,
05:06.7
Focus on those dozen.
05:12.0
Chinese President Xi Jinping says there's a number of issues that Beijing and Washington must resolve
05:17.6
to ease the tensions between the two economic powers.
05:20.5
He gave those remarks during a meeting with visiting U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
05:26.8
We should be partners, not rivals.
05:31.8
With China-U.S. increasing dialogue,
05:34.8
managing differences and promoting cooperation is not only something the people of both countries want to see,
05:40.6
but also what the rest of the world anticipates.
05:43.8
I have said many times, the world is big enough to accommodate both the U.S. and Chinese development.
05:49.4
China is happy to see a self-confident, open, prosperous, and developing United States.
05:56.0
It is hoped that the U.S. and China will be able to achieve the same goals.
05:56.8
But the U.S. will also take a positive view of Chinese development.
06:04.0
We're taking a quick break. Up next, a discussion on boosting connectivity and closing the digital divide.
06:26.8
Welcome back. Last year, the International Telecommunication Union, a UN agency, reported only half of Filipinos are within 10 kilometers of a fiber network.
06:40.3
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.
06:51.3
How can the Philippines advance its connectivity woes and close the gender gap in ICT?
06:56.2
And STEM industries? Here to tell us how is Dr. Cosmas Sabadzava, Director of ITU's Telecommunication Development Bureau.
07:05.1
Hi, Dr. Cosmas. Thank you so much for being here today.
07:07.7
Thank you for having me here.
07:12.6
Okay, before we talk about the Philippines, I do want to ask you about something global.
07:18.1
I breezed through the 2023 Facts and Figures report of the ITU.
07:26.2
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.
07:34.5
But tell us why the UN has this special concern for internet connectivity of countries.
07:41.1
Well, it is now the culture. We breathe the internet, we eat the internet, we drink the internet.
07:47.6
It is the lifeblood for doing business, for delivering education, healthcare, etc.
07:54.1
So, every human being should have it.
07:56.2
Every human being should have the right to access the internet.
07:58.8
And we are worried and concerned that there are still 2.6 billion people globally who remain offline.
08:04.6
And that is of great concern.
08:06.7
We, surprisingly, are the oldest United Nations agency who was established in 1865.
08:14.1
So, I'm surprised that you don't know us.
08:18.2
We haven't reported on you as much before.
08:21.6
Maybe that's why.
08:22.3
Yeah, maybe that's why. We'd love to know more about your report.
08:26.2
Especially because one of the things that jumped at me from your report is that not a lot of people are connected.
08:33.9
You know, it doesn't feel that way.
08:35.4
It feels like us Filipinos, we can call our relatives from across the world because they're connected to the internet.
08:41.6
But apparently, the numbers show differently.
08:44.7
Absolutely. The numbers in this case lie.
08:48.0
Or probably our perception misleads.
08:51.3
Because many people have got basic telephony which cannot connect.
08:56.2
And they have, what we call, mobile broadband.
08:58.8
And that is a restriction.
09:00.8
They can't transact with, they can't do electronic commerce, they can't receive government services using their phones.
09:07.3
But many of the people who reside in rural remote areas remain offline.
09:12.1
They cannot contact their relatives.
09:14.1
And when they do so, there is what we call universal meaningful connectivity.
09:18.5
What do they use their connectivity for?
09:21.3
Some just save the net, read the news, send an email.
09:25.1
That is not enough.
09:26.2
We want them to be meaningfully connected and to do business online.
09:30.8
So that they can reach their markets and to transact, transfer money and all the basic services.
09:37.0
That's a great way of looking at inclusion.
09:40.5
Initially, we just thought inclusion is all about financial transactions, being able to find work, being employed, educated.
09:50.5
But apparently, your internet connection is also a great tool.
09:55.8
We have what we call digital inclusion.
09:58.7
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.
10:09.3
So they don't have an incentive to go there.
10:11.1
So it remains the government's obligation to make sure that the internet becomes a public good, just like electricity and water.
10:21.0
And then there is an incentive for the private sector to go.
10:23.9
So we have a regulatory framework.
10:25.8
And we call it the Universal Service Fund, where the operators contribute money.
10:30.7
And any operator who goes to remote rural areas gets a subsidy.
10:35.5
And that is very important.
10:37.3
Gender is critical for us.
10:40.0
Women as well as men, people with disabilities, the elderly, the young, they all have the right to be included.
10:48.3
Are all countries, are all governments on board and they have the same motivation of digital inclusion?
10:55.8
Because, of course, there will be special concerns for poorer countries, developing countries.
11:02.5
They have other major problems.
11:04.7
But is internet connectivity one of those priorities?
11:08.1
Should it be a priority of theirs as well?
11:11.6
So we tell them, I met in one country an official who said we have higher priorities.
11:19.5
There is an elderly woman in rural communities with a dying granddaughter or grandchild.
11:25.8
Why should connectivity become a priority?
11:27.4
And we tell them that's the lifeline.
11:30.0
You cannot, it's not an afterthought.
11:33.4
This is the basic thing that you need to make sure that you are connected.
11:37.5
And infrastructure is critical.
11:39.1
And I wanted to applaud, of course, the government of the Philippines.
11:41.9
I know that last Saturday, there was a rolling out of the national backbone.
11:48.1
That is very critical if we are going to achieve prosperity.
11:51.9
And we have the sustainable development goals,
11:54.8
which are driven by development.
11:55.7
And that's very important that we have that clear understanding.
11:59.6
In fact, those countries that remain lagged behind,
12:02.2
like the least developed countries, landlocked developing countries,
12:05.5
small island developing states,
12:07.5
can accelerate their development efforts using digital.
12:13.5
That's a great example of saying that digital connectivity is a lifeline.
12:20.1
I think that's the first time that I've heard of this.
12:21.9
Now, I'd like to ask you two questions.
12:24.5
Can you talk to us about,
12:25.3
first, about top line numbers in your latest report on connectivity?
12:30.1
What are the statistics there that really people should know about?
12:33.4
And second, the Universal Service Fund, it just jumped at me.
12:37.8
I don't even know if we have that here.
12:40.2
If you talk to your regulator, they are going to tell you that they've got policies.
12:44.3
And in fact, every year, ITU organizes what we call Global Symposium for Regulators,
12:50.6
where we bring every regulator in the world to sit under one roof.
12:55.3
And we strategize and we see how best we can promote accessibility for good.
13:02.2
So that everybody has good equal access.
13:05.5
With respect to our statistics, I have already given you the numbers.
13:09.9
Two point six billion people are still offline.
13:13.3
We are finding ways to make sure that they are incentivized
13:18.0
to jump on the information highway.
13:20.7
Some of them are not online because they can't afford the service.
13:25.1
them they don't have coverage but the majority of the people have they are within coverage and they
13:30.9
have a signal and they could just simply being a get educated digital skills remain a big challenge
13:39.4
but also the profit motive the private sector goes where the return on investment is guaranteed so
13:46.7
that is very important to do and we believe in the itu that one day and soon we are going to have
13:53.6
everybody being able to participate effectively but another underlying factor which is very
13:58.7
critical is cyber security right so some people doubt they don't want for example i give you some
14:05.5
statistics a lot of women during covid who went online got harassed online and do that translated
14:13.9
eventually into offline harassment and we don't want that to happen so we make sure that
14:18.7
we have cyber security as a priority yes and that's ron's favorite
14:23.6
topic you want to jump into something ask a lot but okay while you're thinking of that can can i
14:29.5
just follow up a little bit and in the global global report i think it said there that connectivity
14:37.9
is growing only by five percent of all right it's my memory correct it's growing so slowly and that
14:45.4
seems like a very different picture from how me and ron we report every single day everybody's
14:53.6
computing and it's like everything is connectivity generated all the businesses are
14:59.7
saying we are growing our businesses online but apparently connectivity is not growing as much
15:04.9
so those are super layers artificial intelligence that thrives on data data thrives on connectivity
15:10.7
yeah so it's a report if i've made of a artificial intelligence quantum computing as we say in the
15:16.6
net of things they all rely on infrastructure and we know that some countries are having challenges
15:23.6
particularly in bridging the rural urban divide so connectivity remains an issue we have
15:30.6
categories region by region i can give you for example if you go to africa they have about 26
15:38.4
least developed countries the poor of the poorest and globally we have 46 least developed countries
15:44.7
so there it is a challenge we also have the highest number of landlocked developing states
15:50.5
followed by asia and the pacific so those groups
15:53.6
of countries confront challenges and some countries are double landlocked so to have
15:59.6
access to the sea they have to deal with the two jurisdictions and if there is a conflict
16:05.4
then they cannot survive and access to the sea because of the distance the bandwidth is very
16:11.5
narrow and the cost is very high so that's a constraint if you go also some of the small island
16:17.3
developing states are suffering from sea rise natural disasters etc so that the
16:23.6
people who are living in those isolated areas it's difficult to get there we have 7 000.
16:45.2
and just before ron i'm sorry ron no um and the numbers some countries still have 2g well uh you
16:53.6
advance economies have 5g um and the cost is like in poorer countries you're spending
17:01.3
a huge percentage of your total income on broadband absolutely so now we used it to rely
17:09.1
on fix the broadband now we have mobile broadband and we see there are quite a significant number
17:15.6
of countries that are failing to roll out mobile broadband but that is the easiest way to reach the
17:23.6
people because of many of the people who've got smartphones so they can transact and they
17:28.4
can communicate they have broadband in their fingertips now uh with respect to the generation
17:35.4
of technology it varies some countries are stuck with the 2g whereas if i go to europe and some
17:42.7
other regions some are aspiring to get into five and a half g or 6g already and switching off 3g
17:51.5
because it's duplicating what you're finding
17:53.6
5g and 5g is critical also to in terms of supporting artificial intelligence because of the
18:00.2
latins so high speed and so it just varies from region to region it's painful to imagine that
18:07.0
some countries are still on 2g the philippines is on 4g 5g already and if you can i can just
18:14.9
imagine what it's doing as well as a roadblock for for digital inclusion but beyond maybe
18:22.3
infrastructure development
18:23.6
in countries are there any other ways to uh to to resolve or mitigate the problems of digital
18:30.3
inclusions absolutely so our role is to create an enabling environment and attract investment from
18:37.0
industry and private sector and we are lucky because we have all the countries in the world
18:42.4
as being our members 193 member states but we also have over a thousand of industry players
18:49.7
so we work with them to make sure that they understand the importance
18:53.6
of them reaching out to people who don't have access and who cannot afford it so there are
18:58.6
many strategies to make sure that you excite some people with low purchasing power price screening
19:09.4
there are many ways and the regulatory framework will inform this to make sure that we subsidize
19:15.3
and many people can can have access and then the infrastructure issue there is a high cost of course
19:23.6
private sector to do infrastructure sharing there is no need for you to go
19:29.5
and also to be strategic if you are building new roads there is no need after one month or two
19:34.7
months after the road has been constructed that you start digging again to put an optical fiber
19:40.2
in order to reach people so we have to have a holistic approach to the development agenda
19:45.3
bringing it now to the philippines what is your assessment of the developments here the efforts of
19:50.2
the government connectivity as well
19:53.6
and uh the the the scenario of inclusion here in the country what i'm going to say is not bias
20:00.3
because i'm in the philippines because you said here we're going to call you next week
20:07.9
absolutely very good we are very pleased and we congratulate the government and the people of the
20:15.3
philippines you are in the forefront not only in terms of inclusion bridging the gap between the
20:21.9
health and have notes but also in terms of inclusion bridging the gap between the haves and have nots
20:23.6
that are so important to us to help the women who work so hard and our intrapreneur
20:27.9
are doing great things and we prioritize them that's why we celebrated this year
20:33.4
our global event on ict for girls celebrations here we chose this place for a reason
20:41.3
in terms of infrastructure you are doing very well i already told you that and i congratulate
20:45.7
of course his excellency the president uh for launching uh the first phase of uh the backbone
20:53.6
and I know that by 2026, you want to have a complete transformation of the infrastructure backbone.
21:01.1
And that is a great thing. Skills development are very key.
21:04.4
Today, I went to one place where we're launching the Digital Transformation Center,
21:09.7
which is going to take care of small and medium enterprises.
21:12.9
Innovation is a high priority. Access for small businesses, academic institutions have been prioritized.
21:21.8
And we are very happy to be working with the government of Philippines.
21:25.8
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.
21:33.6
And in the UN system, we have this target of reaching out to every living human being by 2027 with an early warning signal
21:43.2
so that they are out of harm's way when there is an impending danger.
21:48.6
We like you, Dr. Cosmas.
21:51.0
Please, let us know.
21:51.8
Let us know when you're back in the country. You're welcome to come to the studio anytime. Thank you so much.
21:57.1
Thank you so much for inviting us.
21:58.1
Thank you very much. It's a pleasure.
21:59.8
That's your business outlook abroad, Cruz.
22:01.5
And I'm Salve Duplito. The world tonight comes your way at the top of the next hour. Keep it here on ANC.
