Businesses in Asia could unlock at least US$5 trillion in market opportunities and create 230 million jobs by 2030 by implementing a few key development goals, global business and finance leaders said.
Asia’s unprecedented economic growth has helped to reduce poverty, but future growth, prosperity and stability “are all under threat from the impact of a swelling list of environmental and social burdens,” according to a report released on Monday last week by the Business and Sustainable Development Commission.
“There is the opportunity to shape a safer, more prosperous world,” the report said.
Asia, home to two-thirds of the world’s population, is extremely vulnerable to weather-related disasters, whose frequency and intensity could worsen as a result of climate change.
Meanwhile, more than 80 percent of the region’s population live in countries where inequality has risen over the past 20 years, according to the Asian Development Bank.
Pursuing strategies in line with the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) would turn these threats into opportunities and provide “the chance to consolidate and sustain the region’s regeneration,” the report said.
The 17-point SDGs, launched last year, include targets on eliminating poverty, providing clean energy, creating better jobs and tackling economic inequality by 2030.
The report identified four key areas with the most significant opportunities — cities, energy and materials, food and agriculture, and health and well-being — and specific projects such as affordable housing, renewable energy, reducing food waste and sustainable aquaculture.
The US$5 trillion value is conservative and more value could come from other sectors including information and communication technologies, education and consumer goods, it added.
The cost of realizing these opportunities in the four key areas would likely require US$1.7 trillion of annual investment, the report said.
The commission said “blended financing,” where public and philanthropic bodies take on high-risk and more policy-sensitive investment, could fill the funding gap.
The report follows an earlier study that identified US$12 trillion in market opportunities and the creation of up to 380 million jobs globally in the same time frame.
Asia accounts for more than 40 percent of the opportunities, the latest report said.
Of the US$5 trillion in business opportunities in Asia, about US$2.3 trillion could be found in China alone, US$1.1 trillion in India, and US$1.1 trillion in developing and emerging economies, it said.
The rest are in developed countries, such as Australia, New Zealand, Japan and South Korea, the report added.
ISSUES: Gogoro has been struggling with ballooning losses and was recently embroiled in alleged subsidy fraud, using Chinese-made components instead of locally made parts Gogoro Inc (睿能創意), the nation’s biggest electric scooter maker, yesterday said that its chairman and CEO Horace Luke (陸學森) has resigned amid chronic losses and probes into the company’s alleged involvement in subsidy fraud. The board of directors nominated Reuntex Group (潤泰集團) general counsel Tamon Tseng (曾夢達) as the company’s new chairman, Gogoro said in a statement. Ruentex is Gogoro’s biggest stakeholder. Gogoro Taiwan general manager Henry Chiang (姜家煒) is to serve as acting CEO during the interim period, the statement said. Luke’s departure came as a bombshell yesterday. As a company founder, he has played a key role in pushing for the
China has claimed a breakthrough in developing homegrown chipmaking equipment, an important step in overcoming US sanctions designed to thwart Beijing’s semiconductor goals. State-linked organizations are advised to use a new laser-based immersion lithography machine with a resolution of 65 nanometers or better, the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said in an announcement this month. Although the note does not specify the supplier, the spec marks a significant step up from the previous most advanced indigenous equipment — developed by Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment Group Co (SMEE, 上海微電子) — which stood at about 90 nanometers. MIIT’s claimed advances last
CROSS-STRAIT TENSIONS: The US company could switch orders from TSMC to alternative suppliers, but that would lower chip quality, CEO Jensen Huang said Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳), whose products have become the hottest commodity in the technology world, on Wednesday said that the scramble for a limited amount of supply has frustrated some customers and raised tensions. “The demand on it is so great, and everyone wants to be first and everyone wants to be most,” he told the audience at a Goldman Sachs Group Inc technology conference in San Francisco. “We probably have more emotional customers today. Deservedly so. It’s tense. We’re trying to do the best we can.” Huang’s company is experiencing strong demand for its latest generation of chips, called
GLOBAL ECONOMY: Policymakers have a choice of a small 25 basis-point cut or a bold cut of 50 basis points, which would help the labor market, but might reignite inflation The US Federal Reserve is gearing up to announce its first interest rate cut in more than four years on Wednesday, with policymakers expected to debate how big a move to make less than two months before the US presidential election. Senior officials at the US central bank including Fed Chairman Jerome Powell have in recent weeks indicated that a rate cut is coming this month, as inflation eases toward the bank’s long-term target of two percent, and the labor market continues to cool. The Fed, which has a dual mandate from the US Congress to act independently to ensure