Your Way Home with Hongbin Jeong

China's top diplomat Wang Yi and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken met on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference this weekend, as the rift between the US and China over the balloon saga widens.

With the US warning its allies that China may increase support for Russia, what does it spell for US-China relations? 

And as Russia's takeover attempt of Ukraine nears its one-year mark, what will be unveiled in China's peace plan for Ukraine?

On Washington Report, Drive Time's Elliot Danker and Timothy Go spoke with Steve Okun, Senior Advisor, Mclarty Associates to find out. 

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If you recall, we spent quite some time talking about startups and unicorns over the past week. Today, we’re going to look at how a financial institution specialising in SPACs and deal advisory help blank cheque companies access a quality deal pipeline.

Speaking of SPAC IPOs, the market for special purpose acquisition companies has slowed quite a bit over the past few months. According to S&P Global Market Intelligence, there were 86 SPAC IPOs in 2022. That’s a sharp drop from the 610 deals seen in the year before, as increased regulatory scrutiny and rising interest rates weighed on activity. 

But how will this change as economies recover from the troughs of the pandemic, and should interest rates level off towards the end of the year? What would this mean for advisory firms then?

On Under the Radar, Drive Time’s finance presenter Chua Tian Tian posed these questions to Crystal Zhang, Managing Partner at Arc Group.

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In a recent study by Vonage, it has been found that businesses have technology gaps that prevent them from making meaningful connections with customers. Even after two years of non-stop digital transformation among businesses, only 45 percent of consumers are “very satisfied” with the way they connect with companies.

Sunny Rao, Senior Vice President of API Global Sales, Vonage shares with us on what more companies can do to close the gaps in their digital transformation front. 

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Singapore shares declined in early trade today after the country’s non-oil domestic exports posted worse-than-expected performance and the US market reported losses amid interest rate concerns.

The Straits Times Index fell 0.2 per cent in early trade to 3,303.14 points after 31.4 million securities changed hands. 

Some notable names seeing new developments today include Sembcorp Marine and Keppel Corporation. 

If you recall, Sembmarine’s shareholders voted overwhelmingly for the merger with Keppel Corp’s offshore and marine unit, with over 95 per cent of votes cast in favour of the proposal. 

On Market View, the Drive Time team took a closer look at the developments for the day with  Benjamin Goh, Head of Research and Investor Education, SIAS.

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Today we discuss why sports people tend to let emotions get to them during a competition and is this emotion really necessary? 

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One of the major reasons many couples in Singapore are not pursuing IVF is due to the cost. So how much does it really cost? Let's debunk some myths on IVF in Singapore 

Drive Time's Elliott Danker speak to Dr Janice Tung, Consultant, Thomson Fertility Centre on the cost of IVF in Singapore. 

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Have you stuck to your New Year’s resolution to go head to the gym more often?

If not, the Covid-19 pandemic has taught us that you can now keep up with your fitness right in the comforts of your home. 

So... is online fitness boom here to stay? Are there new frontiers of virtual and on-demand fitness that we can explore with things like the metaverse?

On Culture Club, Drive Time's Elliot Danker and Timothy Go speak with  Ryan Hogan, CEO of Les Mills Asia Pacific to find out more about new-age tech transforming the fitness and wellness landscape.

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The debate around chatbots has once again resurfaced since OpenAI launched ChatGPT, a new artificial intelligence (AI) tool capable of writing essays and code.  But what if an invention like this falls into the wrong hands? 

Ravi Rajendran, Vice President, APJ, Cohesity shares his views on this potential issue. 

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We’re going to wrap up the week talking about the automotive marketplace landscape here in Southeast Asia and in particular, we want to talk about Southeast Asia’s largest online car retailer Carro. 

The firm had achieved its unicorn status in June 2021 after a funding round led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2, and continued to see stellar growth thereafter.

According to technode global, the firm achieved profitability in its 2022 financial year. It said last September that the company is tracking over S$1.3 billion in run-rate revenue in FY2022 , and is positioned to produce another two times growth in revenue in FY2023. But what is the status so far and is the company on track to meet its target?

The company is also venturing into Japan, where it estimated the used car market is double the size of the whole of Southeast Asia. And as always, we want to find out how the experience has been for them thus far.

On Under the Radar, Drive Time’s finance presenter Chua Tian Tian sat down with Aaron Tan, Co-Founder and CEO of Carro for more.

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Drive Time's Elliott Danker discuss with former national footballer Aleksandar Duric about the hardest thing to get over as an older athlete. 

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