The 23,500-square-feet centre will process all of LinkedIn’s online traffic in the Asia-Pacific region and handle about a third of global traffic, the social networking site says.
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Government agencies are reviewing information being reported in connection with the leaked tax documents from a law firm in Panama, said the Ministry of Finance (MOF) and the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) last night.
The agencies are also doing the “necessary checks” in connection with the “so-called Panama Papers”, said spokesmen for the MOF and MAS in an e-mail reply to The Straits Times.
“If there is evidence of wrongdoing by any individual or entity in Singapore, we will not hesitate to take firm action,” they said.
About 72 current and former world leaders were named in a report on Sunday by a global journalists body after a year-long study of documents leaked from law firm Mossack Fonseca, which handled their offshore deals.
German daily Suddeutsche Zeitung had obtained the data from an anonymous source and shared it with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, which reviewed it with some 370 reporters from over 70 nations.
Dubbed the “Panama Papers”, the documents have showed possible wrongdoings by high-profile figures using offshore firms or bank accounts for purposes such as money laundering and tax evasion.
“Singapore takes a serious view on tax evasion and will not tolerate its business and financial centre being used to facilitate tax-related crimes,” said the MOF and MAS spokesmen.
“We have put in place a strong legal, tax and regulatory framework, coupled with a rigorous supervisory regime, to tackle cross-border tax evasion and avoidance.”
The Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes, an international body that assesses jurisdictions’ implementation of the international standards on tax transparency, has said that Singapore’s exchange of information regime is “largely compliant” with the international standard.
This is similar to its assessment of jurisdictions such as the US and Britain, said the spokesmen.
kohping@sph.com.sg
This article was first published on April 6, 2016.
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BEIJING SOUTH Korean actor Song Joong Ki is so popular in China that some merchants printed his image on joss papers and sold them as part of offerings by families to their late kin this tomb-sweeping festival.
The boyish-looking hunk has become all the rage in China since the television drama Descendants Of The Sun, in which he plays a special forces officer on an overseas peacekeeping mission, began airing in late February.
“This is really an extreme business move,” a netizen wrote in Weibo, China’s most popular microblogging site, in a comment on the joss papers bearing Song’s image and denominated as 50,000 won (S$58) notes – the highest value in South Korea’s paper currency.
Another quipped: “His name calls for it,” suggesting that the 31-year-old’s name bears resemblance to the Chinese term for “papers for the departed”.
But Song’s female fans seem to be unamused, with one slamming the design as “uncivil”.
Another follower lamented angrily that “the makers of ghost money have gone overboard”.
Descendants Of The Sun, which has been viewed more than a billion times in China, is expected to continue to draw viewers even after April 16 when the whole show is completely streamed.
This year’s tomb-sweeping day fell on Monday.
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RESIDENTS in Ang Mo Kio have been shunning a lift that suddenly shot up 17 storeys last month, hurting a domestic worker who was in it.
It has broken down again despite having been certified safe for use last week.
Residents at Block 317, Ang Mo Kio Street 31, do not dare to take Lift A, saying it is “too terrifying”, Chinese evening daily Lianhe Wanbao reported yesterday.
A 38-year-old resident, Abby, told Chinese newspaper Shin Min Daily News in a report yesterday that the lift broke down at least thrice since March 28, when it was certified safe for use by the Building and Construction Authority (BCA).
The lift had malfunctioned on March 7, hurting Evi Lisnawati, 36, when it shot up 17 storeys and stalled, trapping her for more than an hour.
Her employer told Shin Min that Ms Evi no longer dares to take the lift by herself and will use the stairs if she is alone.
An authorised examiner appointed by Ang Mo Kio Town Council (AMKTC) to inspect the lift concluded last week that the brakes were “not functioning well” and “could not hold the lift car in a stationary position”.
The BCA said last week that the town council’s lift contractor had completed the “required rectification works” and allowed the lift to resume operation on March 28.
But residents remain wary.
A Wanbao reader who gave his name as Mr Chen said it was stuck at the second floor when he went home at about 11pm on Sunday.
He saw that it was half-open and used the stairs instead.
He added that the lift was still stuck when he passed by at about 6am the next day, so he informed the town council.
Wanbao visited the block on Monday afternoon and found that the lift had been repaired, with a few men who appeared to be lift maintenance workers monitoring it.
Although Lift A had been fixed again, many residents chose to take the other lift or the stairs instead.
A resident with a child in tow pulled him away when he tried to enter Lift A, telling him: “That lift is too scary.”
However, 74-year-old resident Madam Hong said she did not see a need to avoid taking Lift A, as she felt the breakdown was merely an accident.
“Are we to not drive or walk on the roads just because there are accidents on them every day?” she asked.
AMKTC chairman Ang Hin Kee told Lianhe Zaobao that the lift had malfunctioned as plastic nails believed to be from furniture had been lodged in the lift gaps, stopping the door from closing.
He added that the relevant authorities and town council will carry out inspections in four areas, including lift installation standards, skills of lift technicians and maintenance.
He said: “We (also) want to remind residents on how to use lifts safely. For example, to avoid throwing items into lift gaps, or jamming cardboard into lift doors to keep them open while moving furniture and the like.”
myp@sph.com.sg
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South China Morning Post announced on Tuesday (April 5) it is giving free access to its online and mobile editions with immediate effect, as Chinese Internet giant Alibaba takes ownership of the popular Hong Kong English-language newspaper.
The 113-year-old daily said the paywall at www.scmp.com was removed with effect from 6pm on Tuesday. A new SCMP mobile app has also been launched. The newspaper as well as e-paper version will continue to be subscription-based.
“(With the paywall taken down today) our focus now should not be on finding the right media business model. Our priority should be on how we should change to better adapt to the reading habits of our readers,” Alibaba Group executive chairman Jack Ma said in an announcement posted on the newspaper’s website.
“This is what we need to do as the media industry transforms for the future.”
On Dec 11, the Alibaba Group agreed to pay HK$2.06 billion (S$360.5 million) to acquire the widely read newspaper and all other media assets owned by SCMP Group.
SCMP’s website has about 4 million website visitors per month, of whom two-thirds come from outside Hong Kong and the mainland. It also has a print readership of about 100,000. The acquisition expanded Alibaba’s multiple media assets to 25.
Mr Ma has said he hopes to improve China’s image and provide a different perspective from Western media through the deal.
SCMP Editor-in-Chief Tammy Tam said on Tuesday the removal of the paywall at the daily’s website “paves the way for the SCMP to grow its readership globally”.
“It is our firm belief that as China plays an increasingly critical role in world politics and the economy, a global community of China stakeholders will demand insightful and trusted news and commentaries from a within-the-region perspective,” she added.
SCMP acknowledged that the move to provide free-to-access content bucks the industry trend, but said Mr Ma was taking the plunge based on his experience in running Taobao, the world’s biggest e-commerce business.
“Many people think being free is how the internet should work, but this is not always a simple solution,” Mr Ma said. “Taobao was free for merchants in the beginning, but that is not how Taobao wins the market.
“Our winning edge is to provide better services. Free services do not mean cheap services. Rather, offering free but quality services is how we can succeed and sustain our growth.”
This article was first published on April 5, 2016.
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SINGAPORE – The world’s two biggest builders of oil rigs saw their stocks rise the most in more than two years last month as crude rebounded. Investors looking for more gains shouldn’t get their hopes up just yet, Baring Asset Management and Henderson Global…
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From today, selected Uber customers can pay their fares in cash, under a pilot that makes Singapore the first developed city in the world to do so.
This is a departure from the private car hire service’s cashless payment policy here.
The trial will involve a “large proportion of new and existing customers”, said the San Francisco-based firm, but it did not reveal how many.
While the global start-up accepts cash in about 40 of more than 400 cities it operates in, it said the Republic is “the first developed city in the world to experiment with cash payments”.
Observers noted that Uber’s latest move ups the ante in the competition with rival transport app Grab for drivers and customers.
Grab offers its customers both cash and cashless options, such as credit card, for its taxi bookings and for-hire chauffeur service, called GrabCar.
Uber Singapore’s general manager Warren Tseng said: “Currently, cash transactions make up over 30 per cent of all transactions on the island-state, so introducing cash payments as an alternative option for Singaporeans makes sense.”
But it is not only passengers who benefit. Mr Tseng said cash is also useful for drivers to help with day-to-day expenses like petrol.
On Sunday, Uber informed drivers of when and how much to collect from cash-paying customers. Fares paid by cash are to be rounded down to the nearest 10 cents, and only the fare amount calculated by the app is to be collected, Uber said in a training video.
Though Uber has touted cashless payment as a selling point for its convenience – allowing passengers to hop off the car at the destination – its latest move is seen as a way to win over more passengers and drivers to its platform.
Private car hire drivers who operate for both Uber and Grab platforms said between 60 and 70 per cent of GrabCar’s customers pay by cash as they hail from a more blue-collar background, and do not own credit cards.
Asked about the proportion of cash transactions it receives, Grab would say only that its “numbers do show that people still prefer cash”.
Uber and GrabCar driver Chin T. T., 35, said: “Some passengers tell me they do not want to upload their credit card details for security reasons, for example, if the servers are hacked.”
adrianl@sph.com.sg
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