Its food delivery arm, which has about 1,200 restaurant partners, will stop on Monday, while its laundry service will also be temporarily suspended, Honestbee said in a statement.

It is unclear whether its food Takeaway service, launched in February to allow users of the Honestbee app to order from partner restaurants for self-collection, will also be shut.

Honestbee announced last month that it would be suspending some of its overseas operations and cutting about 10 per cent of its global headcount amid reports that it was facing financial trouble and looking to sell.

It said it would be stopping its services in Hong Kong and Indonesia, and its food business in Thailand, as well as temporarily suspending its operations in Japan and the Philippines, though it had indicated that Singapore operations would not be affected.

Honestbee’s chief executive and co-founder Joel Sng resigned from the company earlier this month, while Brian Koo, whose family controls electronics giant LG, has taken the reins.

Earlier yesterday, The Business Times reported that investors were approached earlier this month about raising at least S$20 million (Bt 461.42 million) for Honestbee, and that before its leadership transition, it has eyed growth avenues including finance and insurance partnerships.

In its latest statement yesterday, Honestbee said about 400 delivery riders, many of whom are part-timers, will be affected by the closure of its food delivery service and suspension of its laundry service, and the firm is committed to assisting them.

“The decision was made to optimise the business structure, and to drive better focus and alignment with Honestbee’s current strategic priorities,” the statement said.

It will meanwhile continue to operate its grocery delivery service and its cashless and automated supermarket called habitat, which was opened in October last year.

The firm’s headcount in Singapore will also remain unaffected, it said.

Experts have pointed to Habitat, which occupies 60,000 sq ft in an industrial building in Pasir Panjang, as a way for Honestbee to grow its profits.

Honestbee employees were reportedly told at a town hall last month that Habitat was profitable.

“The newly appointed executive team is working on future plans to stay relevant and sustainable in today’s rapidly changing business environment. This will help to put Honestbee in the best possible position to support the business in Singapore and other geographies going forward,” the statement said.

According to an e-mail to delivery riders seen by The Straits Times, Honestbee said no food delivery slots will be released from this week, and that riders will receive payment according to the regular schedule.

Personal information sold by the salespeople comprised a customer’s name, phone number, address and even their parents’ names.

Basic customer information, excluding their financial information, was sold for as low as 300 rupiah (US$0.21,Bt4.83) per piece of information. Personal information that included evidence of a customer’s financial health was typically sold for between 20,000 and 50,000 rupiah per piece of information.

A credit card salesperson, identified only as RF, said last month that he had been selling the private information of 1,101 credit card holders compiled by a private bank between 2017 and 2018 for 350,000 rupiah, or around 318 rupiah per piece of infromation.

 “The information contains credit card holders’ personal data,” he said.

The investigation confirmed the validity of the data, as a credit card holder whose private information was sold by the salespeople told Kompas that every piece of information – including her home and office addresses, date of birth, phone number and credit card number – was accurate.

The source said her credit card was issued by a state-owned lender, not a private bank.

A credit card sales coordinator at a bank in Central Jakarta, identified only as JS, said the selling of cardholders’ private information had been commonplace among bank employees.

High-quality data, which includes information on cardholders’ salary and financial documents from Bank Indonesia and the Financial Services Authority (OJK), is typically sold for 1 million rupiah per 50 pieces of information, or 20,000 rupiah each, JS said.

JS added that employees were sometimes compensated by the bank for giving away customers’ personal information. JS and other bank employees can earn up to 16 million rupiah for 30 to 40 platinum credit card approvals.

However, not every piece of a customer’s personal information is “good”, according to JS.

“Personal data that has been resold between multiple banks is largely regarded as garbage: it is usually sold online,” JS said.

Personal data is sold online for as low as 0.1 rupiah per piece of information, as reported by Kompas.

Indonesian Credit Card Association executive director, Steve Martha, said the recent sale of customers’ personal data was possibly part of an effort to attract new telemarketers.

State-owned PT Bank Mandiri corporate secretary Rohan Hafas said the selling of personal information was a persistent issue in the industry. However, he went on to say that the selling was not caused by a leak from banks.

OJK commissioner Heru Kristiyana said personal financial information of bank customers was protected by the constitution.

Under a draft circular about intermediary payment services which the State Bank of Vietnam recently made public, e-wallet daily transaction limits were set at 20 million dongs(US$850,Bt26,783)for individuals and 100 million dongs for organisations.

The monthly transaction limits were set at 100 million and 500 million dongs, respectively.

Pham Tien Dung, director of the State Bank of Vietnam’s Payment Department, said at a conference late last week that setting daily and monthly transaction limits for e-wallets aimed to prevent them being used for illegal purposes like tax evasion or money laundering.

 Dung pointed out that transaction value via e-wallets in Vietnam is currently modest, averaging about 200,000 dongs per transaction.

Can Van Luc, a senior economist of the Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam, said setting inappropriate monthly transaction limits would hinder the development of e-payment, adding that the limit for individuals should be increased to 150 million-200 million dongs.

“More consideration should be given on the transaction limits for e-wallets,” Luc said.

He said limits should be set based on income per capita and consumption demand.

E-payment has significant potential in Vietnam, given the country’s young population, high rate of smartphone users (55 per cent) and rapidly growing e-commerce segment, Luc said.

Nguyen Ba Diep, CEO of e-wallet company Momo, said transaction limits should be set at higher levels to prepare for the anticipated rapid development of e-payment.

Diep said monthly limits for individuals should be increased to 200 million dongs while no limits should be set for organisations.

The master plan sets out four main strategies aimed at transforming the country into a net producer instead of simply a market for halal goods and services.

The strategies are to empower Indonesia’s halal value chain by focusing on the country’s most competitive sectors, such as food and beverages and fashion, and strengthen the presence of the sharia financial sector as a capital provider to halal businesses.

The strategies are: enhance the role of micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) as the prime mover of the value chain and cooperate with e-commerce platforms to promote Indonesia’s halal goods and services.

“One of the main keys to achieving our goal lies in our identity as [the country with] the world’s largest Muslim population, in this sharia economy,” Jokowi said during the launch at the National Development Planning Agency.

Despite being a Muslim-majority country, Indonesia is only the 10th largest exporter to Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) countries in 2017, lagging behind non-Muslim majority countries like Brazil, the United States and India.

On the other hand, 36 per cent of domestic consumption in 2017 was halal goods, Bappenas head Bambang Brodjonegoro said, pointing out that a large proportion of those goods were imported.

Priority pieces of legislation that are needed to make the domestic economy more competitive, particularly the subsequent phases of a comprehensive tax reform program, are also seen to gain ground.

Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI) president Alegria Sibal-Limjoco said the results of the elections should not keep the country from moving forward with its economic agenda.

“The election has proven that democracy is very much alive and while many may have misgivings on the outcome of the elected candidates, this should not dissuade us from once again uniting and rallying our leaders to continue with the economic agenda that is now putting our country in the map of the international business community,” she said.

While business groups dodged questions on the implications of having a Senate dominated by President Duterte’s bets, some said they would just have to see what happens moving forward.

In separate interviews with the Inquirer, the heads of local and foreign business groups have commented on a rather divisive national elections, considered a referendum on the Duterte administration thus far.

With nearly all of the votes already transmitted as of press time, politicians who either were endorsed by President Duterte or were allies of the administration had taken hold of the upper chamber of Congress.

With policies such as federalism posing uncertainty to businesses, a lot is at stake in the election, which some saw as a matter of whether or not the Senate stays independent from the current administration.

Business groups, however, have either deferred from commenting on these implications, or declined to comment at all, despite the questionable track record of some officials who have won.

“I think [it’s] too early to make any conclusions at this point. Let’s wait and see what the Senate actually does,” said Riza Mantaring, president of the Management Association of the Philippines.

The Makati Business Club (MBC) said that they hoped Congress would “seriously consider” economic factors despite the political nature of some proposals like federalism.

MBC executive director Coco Alcuaz said the administration had done a “good job” on its economic legislation, which he hoped Congress would continue, such as work on bills concerning security of tenure and tax reform.

“We hope they seriously consider economic factors if and when they discuss federal government and other political proposals,” Alcuaz said.

European chamber

Nabil Francis, president of the European Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines (ECCP), said they trusted Congress to continue improving the country’s competitive standing against regional peers and create more jobs.

“With a Senate likely to be composed of administration bets, future budget proposals may most likely be passed within the timeframe and the tax reform programme will likely be revived,” said Robert Dan Roces, chief economist at Security Bank.

With the credit rating upgrade recently seen from Standard & Poor’s, Roces said both chambers would also likely consider expediting passage of those bills that would boost the country’s chance for an “A” rating upgrade.

“If deemed not political-capital draining to the legislative sponsor, expect a revival of the tax reform program; and as long as the original spirit of the measure – that is to generate 120 billion pesos in additional revenues to fund key infrastructure projects – remain, we see the measure being prioritised by the incoming 18th Congress,” he said.

One much-awaited phase of the tax reform program is the reduction in corporate income tax rates, one of the highest in the region.

The Mekong Delta city of Can Tho expects to receive Canadian investment in high-tech agriculture so that local staples can meet stringent requirements in some foreign markets.

During a working session in Can Tho with Canadian General Consul in HCM City Kyle Nunas, Vice Chairman of the People’s Committee of the city Truong Quang Hoai Nam said the Mekong Delta region and Can Tho City in particular hold enormous potential in agricultural products, however, limitations in technologies in post-harvest, processing and packaging mean local goods have failed to enter many choosy markets.

As Canada is a strong supplier of modern machines for production and processing of agro-fishery products, Can Tho hopes to receive the General Consul’s support to lure Canadian investment in the field.

 “Can Tho City welcomes Canadian infrastructure projects, especially warehouses, roads and bridges, to serve local agricultural economic development,” he said. – Viet Nam News

State revenue grows slowly as commodity prices stall

The Indonesian government has been urged to find ways to increase state revenue, which grew only 4.9 per cent year-on-year in the first quarter, much lower than the 12.6 per cent growth in the corresponding period last year.

The main reason for the slow growth was the decrease in tax revenue, which grew only 6.7 per cent in the first quarter, far lower than in the first quarter of 2018, which was 10.3 per cent.

Non-tax revenue also declined 1.4 per cent from the amount collected in the same period last year, which grew 22.1 per cent yoy.

Commenting on the data, Centre for Indonesia Taxation (Cita) executive director Yustinus Prastowo said it was difficult for the government to achieve this year’s state revenue target of 1.56 quadrillion rupiah (US$108.06 billion, Bt3.404 trillion).

He pointed to the stagnant prices of commodities, which were major export products, as one of the reasons for the slow growth in state revenue.

Yustinus said one of the ways for the Taxation Directorate General to boost state revenue was to scrutinise taxpayer data. He said the tax office should map out taxpayers by checking the data in their tax annual returns (SPT) and tax amnesty documents. – The Jakarta Post

New acquisitions drive ComfortDelGro’s earnings

Powered by contributions from new acquisitions, Singapore’s transport giant ComfortDelGro posted a 6.2 per cent increase in first-quarter earnings to S$70.4 million (Bt1.621 billion) for the period ended March 31.

The Singapore-listed group with operations in China, Australia and Britain saw revenue rising by 7.8 per cent to $947.3 million for the first three months.

Operating expenses crept up by 7.3 per cent to $839.9 million, with the spiral reined in by lower premises cost.

Earnings per share grew from 3.06 cents to 3.25 cents, while net asset value per share stood at 123.56 cents, up from 120.7 cents as at December 31, 2018.

Compared with the previous corresponding quarter, margin before interest, tax and depreciation improved marginally from 22 per cent to 22.5 per cent.

The group said on Tuesday that revenue from its public transport division grew by 11.6 per cent to $684.9 million, driven mainly by contributions from new acquisitions in Australia and Britain, higher fees earned for its government bus contracts, and higher ridership and higher fares from its rail services in Singapore. – The Straits Times

Casino boom pushes Pagcor remittance to record high

The Philippines’ gaming regulator turned over its largest annual dividend to the national government for its 2018 operating year on Tuesday, thanks to the strong performance of both private and government-run casinos, the agency said.

In a statement, the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp(Pagcor) said the 16.17 billion pesos in cash dividends it turned over to the national treasury is the “highest one-time remittance, [which] almost matched the 17.16 billion peos cumulative cash dividends from 2011 to 2017.”

Pagcor chair and CEO Andrea Domingo described the record high remittance – which the government uses to fund its social, educational and poverty alleviation programs – as “just the tip of the iceberg”. – Philippine Daily Inquirer