The world added 12 percent more clean power capacity in 2019 than the year before, but new renewable energy planned over the next decade falls far short of what is needed to forestall dangerous global warming, the U.N. warned on Wednesday.

An additional 184 gigawatts of renewable power — mostly solar and wind — came on line last year, according to the Annual Global Trends in Renewable Energy Investment report, jointly issued by the U.N. Environment Program and Bloomberg New Energy Finance.

One gigawatt is similar to the capacity of a nuclear reactor.

Total investment in renewables in 2019 was $282.2 billion (¥30 trillion), led by China ($83.4 billion), the United States ($55.5 billion), Europe ($54.6 billion), Japan ($16.5 billion) and India ($9.3 billion), with a record 21 countries each spending at least $2 billion.

Developing nations — not including China and India — poured an unprecedented $59.5 billion into clean energy.

The rapidly falling cost of solar and wind power — less expensive in most electricity markets than coal — means more bang for the buck, the report showed.

Investment in 2019 was the same as the year before, but yielded an additional 20 GW of installed capacity.

But measured against the Paris climate treaty target of capping global warming at “well below” 2 C above pre-industrial levels, the transition to clean energy is not happening nearly fast enough, the report said.

The 826 GW of new renewables planned by 2030 — at a cost of about $1 trillion — is only a quarter of the roughly 3,000 GW required to keep us on track for a 2-C world, it concluded.

Investment is lagging as well — more than $2.7 trillion were committed to renewables during the last decade.

“Clean energy finds itself at a crossroads in 2020,” said BNEF chief executive Jon Moore, one of the report’s authors. “The last decade produced huge progress, but official targets for 2030 are far short of what is required to address climate change.”

When the current health crisis eases, he added, governments must not only boost renewable power, but the decarbonization of transport, buildings and industry.

The huge amounts of cash mobilized to jump-start economies stalled by COVID-l9 lockdowns is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to close this “renewables gap” in investment, the authors argue.

“If governments take advantage of the ever-falling price tag of renewables to put clean energy at the heart of COVID-19 economic recovery, they can take a big step towards a healthy natural world,” said UNEP executive director Inger Andersen.

“This is the best insurance policy against global pandemics.”

But the transition from a brown global economy to a green one is strewn with obstacles.

Investment in renewables last year, for example, was barely half the amount governments spent to subsidize fossil fuels, according to a report last week from the International Energy Agency and the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development.

Combined subsidies for both consumption and production last year totaled $478 billion in 77 economies, the two intergovernmental agencies found.

That’s an 18 percent drop compared with 2018, but it was due mainly to lower oil and gas prices.

Indeed, subsidies for fossil fuel production in 44 countries increased 38 percent last year, OECD figures showed.

“I am saddened to see some backsliding on efforts to phase out fossil fuel support,” OECD Secretary-General Angel Gurria said in a statement.

Source: AFP

New U.S. solar installations will increase by a third this year, a report published on Thursday showed, as soaring demand by utilities for carbon-free power more than outweighs a dramatic decline in rooftop system orders for homes and businesses due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The solar industry will install 18 gigawatts this year, enough to power more than 3 million homes, according to the report by the U.S. Solar Industries Association and energy research firm Wood Mackenzie. That is 9% less than the group’s forecast before the outbreak prompted construction delays, weakened consumer demand and tightened access to financing.

But utility-scale solar is on track for a record year, the report said, with 14.4
GW of new capacity expected to be installed in 2020. State renewable energy targets and solar’s low cost are underpinning the sector’s robust demand.

Risks to the sector’s medium and long-term growth, however, include increased capital costs due to weak markets, reduced demand from commercial and industrial customers experiencing financial hardship, and delays in utility procurement plans.

SEIA reduced its five-year solar installation outlook by about 3% to 113 GW, citing “considerable uncertainty” caused by the pandemic.

Solar accounted for 40% of new U.S. capacity additions in the first quarter, ahead of natural gas and wind.

The smaller market for residential and commercial systems has been hit hard by the pandemic due to stay-at-home orders that slowed construction and selling. Home installations are expected to be down 25% this year, the report said, recovering to rise 26% next year.

It will be several years before the sector reaches installation levels that had
been forecast before the outbreak.

Installations in the non-residential segment, which includes rooftop systems for businesses, will be down 38% this year, the report added.

Source: Reuters

China and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) will carry out cooperation in digital economy this year, according to the opening ceremony for the China-ASEAN digital economy cooperation year held on Friday.

China and ASEAN will expand cooperation in 5G, the internet of things, artificial intelligence, industrial internet, as well as digital epidemic prevention, said Minister of Industry and Information Technology Miao Wei at the virtual opening ceremony.

By 2025, ASEAN’s digital economy is expected to increase from 1.3 percent of GDP in 2015 to 8.5 percent, ASEAN Secretary-General Lim Jock Hoi said.

China is at the forefront of the development of digital infrastructure and is a valuable partner of ASEAN in promoting the development of the digital economy in the region, he said.

During the January-May period, ASEAN was China’s largest trading partner, with trade up by 4.2 percent year on year to 1.7 trillion yuan (about 241 billion U.S. dollars), accounting for 14.7 percent of China’s total foreign trade, customs data showed.

Source: Xinhua

Fifth-generation networking hype has been in full force since Qualcomm Inc. declared “5G is here, and it’s time to celebrate” in February of last year. The reality, however, has required patience from consumers due to the time needed to roll out the new networks and the dearth of applications to put additional speed to compelling use.

A year after South Korea launched the world’s first full commercial 5G network and months after China opened the world’s biggest, Bloomberg News reporters tested the leading carriers in both countries to see how far 5G has gotten. Tests in Hong Kong and Tokyo showed similar results — gaps in coverage that could leave most early adopters waiting for networks to reach full speed.

Smartphone makers have swept in with a flood of 5G devices this year, with Samsung Electronics Co., Huawei Technologies Co. and Xiaomi Corp. all pushing the new technology without asking for much higher prices or design compromises. Millions of 5G phones have already been sold, and for the billions of people not yet on the bandwagon, the new wireless standard will soon be the default option anyway.

Carriers aren’t moving quite as fast. They’re investing billions of dollars to set up and expand their 5G networks, but the technical design of this new standard demands high network density to provide the advertised stratospheric speeds. Once they have enough masts in place, they aim to recoup the initial costs by offering more bandwidth-hungry add-ons, such as Nvidia’s GeForce Now game-streaming service, which SoftBank Corp. launched in Japan on June 10.

Where it’s available, even without hitting its max theoretical speeds, 5G is an impressive upgrade for most consumer applications. For example, at a gigabit per second (1Gbps), a user could download a 9-hour audiobook in less than 1 second, according to Fastmetrics, a U.S.-based internet service provider. Even at 1/10 of that speed, 100 megabits per second, a 45-minute TV show takes only 16 seconds, Fastmetrics estimates.

Carriers in North America, Europe and Australia have also set up 5G, with so far underwhelming results for consumers. In March tests conducted by RootMetrics in the U.S., the choice appeared to be between fast speed with negligible availability — Verizon Wireless Inc. recorded a max speed of 846Mbps with 3.1% availability in Chicago — or wider availability without much of a speed bump — T-Mobile US Inc. covered 57% of Washington but at a less impressive 148Mbps.

While 5G uptake has been incremental, companies that make parts for the phones are betting on a wave of upgrades to drive smartphone demand and help spur economies from Taiwan to South Korea.

KT, the No. 2 South Korean carrier, has improved 5G service since the commercial debut in April 2019, though it still lacks the high-frequency airwaves necessary to reach top download speeds in the range of 20Gbps. SK Telecom Co., the country’s largest carrier, achieves a download speed of 1.5Gbps inside its headquarters, which drops to 1Gbps in the same building’s lobby.

KT’s average 5G data speed ranges between 800Mbps to 1Gbps, the company said in an email. “It is hard to simply compare data speeds in South Korea, which has nationwide services, with other countries that only have test services or have services in a few cities,” the company said.

In Beijing, tests using a Huawei P40 Pro phone showed 5G service was consistent enough to play high-definition (1080p) video while riding in a car. There was no 5G signal inside the subway and the shopping mall in Guomao, where luxury brands from Tiffany to Vacheron Constantin are sold. Most of the Zhongnanhai district, home of the central government, has no 5G coverage, according to a map provided by China Mobile.

A China Mobile representative in Beijing emailed a video showing download speed exceeding 1.1Gbps at Beijing Daxing International Airport. The representative had no further comment.

Tests using a Huawei P40 Pro showed streaming of high-resolution 4K video was smooth outdoors even in a moving vehicle. The fastest download speed was recorded in the carrier’s flagship store in the city’s central business district.

The carrier expects its 5G network to “penetrate deeply” in Hong Kong, Alex Cheng, China Mobile principal engineer, said in an email.

At two locations in the city, the 5G signal was strong inside the Docomo shop but became unstable a short distance away from it, using a Samsung Galaxy S20 phone and Netflix’s speed test app. Both of Tokyo’s main airports, two Olympics facilities and Tokyo Sky Tree are among the covered spots. Two more waves of 5G network expansion are planned by the end of July and end of October, the carrier said.

“The initial rollout is going as planned,” Docomo said in an email.

Source: Bloomberg

Supply chain diversification has put ASEAN in a sweet spot, but the real test is if the bloc is unified, opines the CIMB ASEAN Research Institute (CARI).

CARI said data from the Chinese General Administration of Customs showed that in the first two months of 2020, ASEAN surpassed the EU and became China’s largest trading partner.

Trade between ASEAN and China during the period increased 0.5 per cent year-on-year to US$85.3 billion amidst falling trade with most other trading nations as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“ASEAN has hit a sweet spot during this pandemic,” noted Hong Kong-based research consultancy Asia-Analytica managing director Pauline Loong during CARI’s webinar briefings today.

In a statement, CARI stated that the briefings titled ‘How can ASEAN Bounce Back: China’s Economic Trajectory and ASEAN the New Abnormal: Navigating the Post-Pandemic World’ are part of its COVID-19 Economic Recovery Plan Series.

Loong, who is also a senior fellow of CARI, said even before the onset of the US-China trade war, ASEAN member states had already benefited from structural shifts in international trade and commerce, “which have been hastened due to the pandemic.”

“The change in risk perceptions worldwide and the accelerating trend in supply chain diversification and regionalisation have put the spotlight on ASEAN as an investment destination.

“However, ASEAN’s longer-term challenge is in successfully dealing with the tectonic shifts underway in trade, finance and global alliances. Whether it can leverage its strength for more advantages in a multi-polar world ultimately rests on the group’s willingness to act as a truly unified entity,” she said.

She also projected that the chances of a meaningful recovery for the Chinese economy in the remaining months of 2020 are slim but 2021 could prove to be the turning point.

“The year 2021 is particularly important for the country’s leaders as it will be the centenary of the founding of the Chinese Communist Party. It is vital for the leadership to ensure economic recovery is on course and China will have the political determination and policy tools to achieve that goal.

“It is not often appreciated that as a command economy, China is equipped with more than the conventional market tools to boost growth,” she added.

Contrary to some predictions, Loong believes that despite talks of de globalisation, world economies will remain highly interconnected.

“However, the speed of how the world begins to resume trade flows will depend on the reopening of other markets,” she said.

Meanwhile, CARI chairman and ASEAN Business Club, Malaysia president Tan Sri Dr Munir Majid echoed Loong’s insights, particularly on the need for ASEAN unity during the current economic uncertainty.

He noted that the performance of a better integrated regional economy in ASEAN and East Asia has become critical in the recovery process.

“It is important that we are able to distil post COVID-19 China without the noise and distraction which tends to judge the regime in that country and not the economic activities that are beginning to stir again.

“There are opportunities of investment relocation out of China of course, but there is also the huge Chinese market,” he said during the webinar.

Source: Bernama

Companies worldwide are beset by the very near-term threat of the coronavirus and the long-term specter of climate change. Air conditioning giant Daikin Industries Ltd. might be one of the few companies that stands to benefit from both.

Nearing a market value of ¥5 trillion ($47 billion), the world’s largest maker of air conditioners is riding an almost uninterrupted eight-year streak that has seen its shares surge more than 700 percent. It’s now the 19th largest stock on the Topix and has also beat the broader index by 15 percentage points this year.

The streak is being helped by surging interest in ventilation. Suddenly, everyone wants to know how air conditioners work — and how they can help prevent the spread of the coronavirus. As Japan enters peak season for air conditioner installs, Daikin has been heavily advertising its latest model complete with the timely and unique ability to bring outside air indoors.

With the pandemic turning everyone in germophobes, many consumers have been surprised to learn that most air conditioners only circulate air indoors — heat, not air, is moved outside. Daikin’s Urusara X is different, with technology that allows it to bring in fresh air from outside. The company says it’s the only model with this ability.

“However, it doesn’t remove air indoors to the outside,” a Daikin spokesman cautions. He recommends using it in combination with periodically opening windows. Daikin, with an 18 percent share of the residential air conditioner market, has seen an increase in demand for the units, he said.

The most popular type of the model on Japan’s largest price-comparison site retails for a hefty ¥180,000 ($1,680) and is equipped with Daikin’s virus-killing air-purification technology.

Daikin is also thought to be a beneficiary of the government’s long-delayed cash handouts of ¥100,000 ($936) per person. While many in the U.S. have been putting their government checks into trading stocks on Robinhood, droves of Japanese workers stuck at home — often in rooms not equipped with air conditioners — are looking to keep themselves cool.

Japan was once dominant in the global market for so-called white goods, such as washing machines. Air conditioners are now the market where Japanese firms are strongest, said Masayuki Kubota, chief strategist for Rakuten Securities Economic Research Institute.

Daikin conducts sales in over 150 countries, boosted by more than 100 manufacturing sites, which became advantageous when global logistics lines were disrupted by coronavirus lockdowns.

The company’s management team, led by President Masanori Togawa, has impressed with its quick response to the pandemic. At its earnings teleconference, Daikin unveiled an exhaustive set of steps aimed at capitalizing on the pandemic and seizing market share in a post-COVID-19 world, which met with almost universal acclaim from analysts.

“The firm’s competitive position could be even stronger in the post-COVID world,” wrote SMBC Nikko analysts Taku Ouchi and Asuka Sasao.

Still, the company’s forecasts for this year — ¥150 billion in operating profit from ¥2.33 trillion in revenue — are well below the targets it set in a mid-term plan in 2018, leaving it much work to do to hit its goals.

“We’re watching how they’ll correct course in the post-coronavirus world,” said Masahiko Ishino, an analyst at Tokai Tokyo Research Institute Co. “Now is the time to lay the groundwork to solidify the position of global number one.”

Source: Bloomberg

The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) needs to create a more resilient APEC region that can overcome the COVID-19 pandemic, speed up the economic recovery and be better prepared for future emergency situations.

Chair of the Committee of Trade and Investment (CTI) Krasna Bobenrieth said business as usual is no longer possible, and as such, the capacity of members to adjust and work on common priorities, exchange best practices, and to collaboratively find solutions to new challenges is of paramount importance.

CTI is APEC’s largest group and is often at the frontlines of the forum’s work to achieve free and open trade and investment.

“When COVID-19 first started to garner attention at the beginning of 2020, nobody foresaw the widespread health, economic and social impact it would have.

“While the world has experienced terrible pandemics before, it’s hard to remember one with such far reaching consequences in our lives, societies and economies, and that affected so many different parts of the world in such a short time,” Bobenrieth wrote in a blog today.

She noted that the region had already been experiencing trade headwinds whereby the value of APEC exports and imports contracted by 2-3 per cent in 2019, even before COVID-19 was in anyone’s vocabulary.

Tensions related to trade and technology have been weighing down heavily on the region’s trade dynamism and will not contribute to the post-pandemic economic recovery, she said.

Bobenrieth said trade and investment, which are key components for economic growth, are severely affected during the pandemic.

The World Trade Organisation had highlighted that world trade is expected to fall between 13 per cent and 32 per cent in 2020 across all sectors of the economy.

Currently, APEC committees and groups are eagerly working on ways to identify and tackle the variety of problems caused by COVID-19 and CTI is no exception to it, she said.

The CTI is the primary vehicle for advancing APEC’s work on trade and investment liberalisation and has currently over 40 initiatives in its pipeline, covering topics related to areas such as support for the multilateral trading system, regional economic integration, trade facilitation and connectivity, and inclusive approaches to trade and investment.

It also has a responsibility and an important role to play in contributing to the collective fight against the multiple effects of this pandemic, she said.

Source: Bernama

As the novel coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic continues to infect and claim lives, there is no danger of an oversupply of gloves just yet.

According to Maybank Investment Bank Research, global demand for gloves is expected to grow 20% in 2020-2021.

This would be supply-led as there is insufficient capacity to cater to the sudden jump in demand stemming from Covid-19, the brokerage points out.

In contrast, the total capacity growth of the world’s top five biggest glove producers is only expected to grow 16%-19% in 2020-2021, according to Maybank IB.

These glove manufacturers are Top Glove Corp, Hartalega Holdings, Kossan Rubber Industries, Supermax Corp and Sri Trang Agro-Industry.

Only Malaysia-listed Top Glove and Thai-listed Sri Trang have a secondary listing on the Singapore Exchange.

Given the stock replenishment requirement and the long sales lead time into mid-2021, Maybank IB believes the market would only reach equilibrium in 2H21.

As such, short-medium term oversupply risk is low, it says.

However, there is a risk of oversupply in 2022, warns the brokerage.

Maybank IB expects global demand for gloves to grow just 8% in 2022, lagging the total capacity growth of the “Big 5” of 12%.

Still, the brokerage believes the new capacity could be absorbed by the local China market as the country needs to replace some of its vinyl gloves consumption  with nitrile gloves.

“Moreover, given that the margins of the China glove-makers are not superior to that of Malaysia’s glove-makers, we believe the average selling price pressure from the China peers may not be excessive in an oversupply situation,” Maybank IB analyst Lee Yen Ling writes in a note June 24.

Source: The Edge Singapre

China announced today it was expanding the number of sectors open to foreign investment, relaxing international ownership caps on brokerages, futures companies and life insurance firms.

The scaling back of the so-called “negative-list” comes as the country works to revive its coronavirus-hit economy, as Beijing pledges to further open-up the economy to international investors.

The number of items on the list of restrictions on foreign ownership has been cut from 40 to 33, said the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) in a statement. The number was also reduced last year.

US and European companies, however, have been raising concerns that access to the Chinese market remains tough, and repeatedly complained of unfair treatment.

An NDRC spokesman said Wednesday this shows Beijing’s “determination to expand its opening to the outside world, and China’s firm attitude in supporting economic globalisation”.

Previously, foreign capital in securities companies, futures companies and life insurance could not exceed 51% of the company’s total holdings.

Beijing also lifted regulations prohibiting foreign investment in radioactive mineral production, processing and nuclear fuel production.

It relaxed restrictions on foreign investment in commercial vehicle manufacturing as well.

While it cancelled regulations prohibiting foreign investment in air traffic control, the NDRC statement said that the construction and operations of civil airports must be controlled by China.

In the agriculture sector, restrictions were eased on wheat breeding and seed production. Authorities said Chinese entities had only to hold at least 34%, rather than a majority share.

In the infrastructure industry, China also lifted a rule stipulating the construction and operation of urban water supply and drainage pipeline networks for areas with a population of 500,000 or more must be controlled by the Chinese.

Source: AFP

Airbus has reached a crucial jetliner production target and smoothed recent industrial problems as it embarks on a new phase in its response to the coronavirus crisis, the planemaker’s chief operating officer said.

Airbus recently announced output cuts of 33%-42% to limit damage as the pandemic grounded airlines around the world. First, however, it had to overcome the difficulty of producing planes at all as lockdowns spread across Europe.

“We have recovered from that phase and we are now dialled in at the new
rates,” COO Michael Schoellhorn told Reuters.

The monthly rates — 40 A320/A321, six A350 and two A330, down from 60, 9.5 and 3.5 respectively before the crisis – are a “sweet spot that is not too disruptive to the whole supply chain…and puts us relatively close to where we feel the market will trend to,” he said.

The new rates have already kicked in at the start of each assembly line, where wings are joined, but unions said after a briefing that completed jets would only leave plants at that speed from September. Meanwhile, it remains uncertain when the delivery rate will catch up as airlines are reluctant to spend cash.

Until the pandemic hit, Airbus’ problem was meeting demand for its hot-selling A321neo. But as that and other demand melted away in March, the company was forced to cut all output.

The result has been a production see-saw as Airbus first halted key plants, then started edging towards the new goals, which are higher than during the peak of the crisis but lower than the company and its suppliers originally invested for.

Suppliers are still lagging, however, with Airbus only needing parts for 25 jets a month as it soaks up surplus inventory from pre-crisis production levels, industry sources said.

Airbus has not ruled out cutting output again depending on the pace of recovery, but Schoellhorn said 40 a month is “still a place that we feel comfortable with”.

The 55-year-old former military helicopter pilot and veteran of the Robert Bosch industrial group was brought in during a management shake-up last year to accelerate new production techniques as jetliner demand looked set to keep growing.

Instead, he found himself grappling with the industry’s worst crisis as undelivered jets spilled onto the tarmac.

Still, Schoellhorn said the crisis had given Airbus a chance to fix problems it could not easily address beforehand. “I drive this home every day: now is the time to put all the issues to bed,” he said. “We are making good progress.”

Chief among these is a high-capacity version of the A321, the 240-seat A321ACF, which had suffered delays of at least six months before things began improving late last year.

“There are no systematic industrial problems as we speak,” Schoellhorn said of the plane. There are also “very few disruptions” among suppliers, he
added.

Unions fear an imminent reorganisation involving thousands of phased job cuts and early retirements and are wary of a possible streamlining of the group’s 11 European plants.

Schoellhorn declined comment on a potential restructuring, but said the time taken to improve operations during the enforced downtime would create a “stable basis” for the future.

That future is one in which parts and information flow more freely, expanding ideas already imported from the car industry. Boeing has also invested in data-driven manufacturing methods.

“There will be elements of the production system that will be very much like they are today…but we will see a higher degree of automation building on what we have implemented in recent years,” he said. “It will be more of a real-time flow”.

For now, automation investment has slowed as Airbus saves cash on most projects except its next single-aisle, the A321XLR.

Airbus wants to sustain the recently lowered production rates without losing cash, meaning cutting fixed costs has become a pressing priority.

“We are working on all angles,” Schoellhorn said. “It’s a challenge but
also an opportunity.”

Source: Reuters

Today we face one of the largest global challenges of our generation. The impact of Covid-19 is undeniable and its test of our perseverance, unmatched. We must all work together to ensure the personal and financial safety of everyone while also minimising global economic damage.

According to recent International Monetary Fund (IMF) statistics on 2020 global GDP growth outlook, world economic growth is expected to be negative for the remainder of 2020, and while many countries have yet to flatten the curve, several in Asia and Europe have begun to relax restrictions to revive their economies.

Globally, governments have announced stimulus packages to address the standstill resulting from forced shutdowns, employment furloughs, and social distancing orders. Countries like China and South Korea, where the first wave impact has been more or less addressed, have announced new business continuity plans while closely monitoring for any new waves of Covid-19 cases.

During the pandemic, more organisations are opting to work from home, more students are learning remotely, and more people are shopping online and relying on delivery services to minimise travel and outdoor activity. In a recent article by Analysys Mason Research, travel restrictions and work from home options actually accelerated digital transformation, putting forward new requirements for telecom operators to upgrade their services to meet new capacity demands.

In March, Asean economic ministers resolved to use technologies and digital trade to enable businesses, especially the micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), to continue operations amid the Covid-19 outbreak, and according to a brief recently released by the Economic Research Institute for Asean and East Asia (ERIA), the adoption of the technology of the Fourth Industrial Revolution – such as artificial intelligence, IoT, automation, and robotics – gives manufacturing firms a better chance of rapidly increasing production when the economy recovers.

Given the foundational role ICT infrastructure has played in helping manage the current pandemic, governments are even more aware of the productivity and socioeconomic benefits brought forth by ubiquitous broadband communication and cloud services. This is further substantiated with the recent 11 regulatory recommendations made by GSMA that are aimed to strengthen connectivity during the Covid-19 crisis.

My reflection in Malaysia, while working together with the Ministry of Health, is that digital solutions have provided critical connectivity between global and local healthcare experts and frontline medical professionals, allowing them to conduct online consultations for more effective diagnosis and treatment with faster identification and less spread of infection.

In the Philippines, more than 50 hospitals were analysed to deliver service assurance using AI based forecast tools to anticipate traffic growth, prevent network congestion due to increased traffic and ensure sufficient capacity to sustain voice and data communication services. Leveraging innovative solutions, telecom operators have been able to increase the capacity of the entire National Capital Region (NCR) area by 10% in less than a week.

Over the next few months, digital healthcare infrastructure will be paramount in preparing for the next wave of infection, with the ability to monitor patients remotely, isolate infection prone areas with robots, and protect frontline healthcare workers with remote treatment and consultation. Vertical industry transformation will accelerate digitalization, which in turn will require ICT infrastructure development to cater to high throughput, low latency, security, and fast service provisioning scenarios simultaneously.

The role of digital video for effective communication publicly and privately is now undeniable, powering everything from social media and remote work to critical vertical industries including e-Education, telemedicine, manufacturing and more. Efficient and flexible high definition video solutions have already become the new norm and a critical component to business and economic continuity, and this will continue post-pandemic.

While, many telecom operators have already stepped up in boosting critical capacity and coverage, it is now abundantly clear that the powerful convergence of broadband and 5G, Cloud, Internet of Things (IoT), and Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a common fundamental requirement for larger digital transformation, and we need to accelerate its adoption for future emergency readiness and sustainable economic growth.

Looking ahead, the IMF anticipates strong growth in 2021, driving governments and regulators to act quickly to overcome the immediate economic impact in 2020. Digital connectivity is key to restart the economy with telecom services proven to be critical in all aspects of life. Preparing for the new normal has increased the demand for faster digital transformation, and with it, the urgency for new telecom policies with government and ecosystem support. Underpinned by 5G, Cloud, IoT and AI, ecosystem collaboration between governments, industries, enterprises and service providers is the catalyst for the digital transformation that will reignite the economy, and help secure everyone’s personal and financial safety in the future.

Source: The Edge Markets