Singapore To Increase Road Capacity By Tracking All Vehicles With GPS

ASIA IN BRIEF Singapore's Land Transport Authority (LTA) estimated last week that by tracking all vehicles with GPS it will be able to increase road capacity by 20,000 over the next few years.

The densely populated island state is moving from what it calls Electric Road Pricing (ERP) 1.0 to ERP 2.0. The first version used gantries – or automatic tolls – to charge drivers a fee through an in-car device when they used specific roadways during certain hours.

ERP 2.0 sees the vehicle instead tracked through GPS, which can tell where a vehicle is at all operating times.

"ERP 2.0 will provide more comprehensive aggregated traffic information and will be able to operate without physical gantries. We will be able to introduce new 'virtual gantries,' which allow for more flexible and responsive congestion management," explained the LTA.

But the island's government doesn't just control inflow into urban areas through toll-like charging – it also aggressively controls the total number of cars operating within its borders.

Singapore requires vehicle owners to bid for a set number of Certificates of Entitlement – costly operating permits valid for only ten years. The result is an increase of around SG$100,000 ($75,500) every ten years, depending on that year's COE price, on top of a car's usual price. The high total price disincentivizes mass car ownership, which helps the government manage traffic and emissions.

Between ERP 2.0, a plan to one day charge based on distance instead of per gantry entry, improvements in mass transit links, and “evolving” traffic patterns sparked by an increase in flexible work arrangements, Singapore reckons it can handle the extra traffic from 20,000 cars.

It plans to begin expanding the allocation of COEs, which is expected to drive down their price, in February of next year.

Singapore's Grab back to office five full days

While Singapore's LTA might be confident that flexible work arrangements are here to stay, the nation's Uber-esque superapp Grab has different plans.

It reportedly told its employees they will return to the office five days a week starting on December 2, or face disciplinary action.

The nation's government released guidelines this past April [PDF] in support of flexible work arrangements. It asserts that all rejections of such requests should be backed only by reasonable business grounds.

CEO Anthony Tan told employees in an email that "increasing face-to-face collaboration will accelerate progress and enhance integration across [Grab's] ecosystem and business units."

China Unicom auctioned scrap cables

Chinese telco China Unicom auctioned off over 1,200,000 kilometers of scrap cable from 18 provinces and cities last week.

The cables are considered state-owned obsolete assets and bidding started at ¥213.15 million ($30 million) on the auction platform of e-commerce giant Alibaba.

This is not the first time the telco has sold its assets. In 2018, it sold 1,000 mobile phones in damaged boxes in an auction participated in by nearly 2,000 people.

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Jio Payment gets online payment aggregator approval

The Reserve Bank of India granted approval to Reliance Jio's digital financial services spinoff – Jio Payment – to act as an online payment aggregator, effective last Monday.

The biz will now be able to facilitate and manage online transactions between customers and merchants through multiple payment options on a single platform.

Japan's My Number card also a driver's license

The Japanese government will allow the nation's personal identification card – known as My Number – to act as a driver's license beginning in March of next year.

Drivers have the option to merge their license into the card, carry both, or keep them separate. Before the card can act as a license to drive, the appropriate information must be moved to the embedded IC.

Barring any traffic violations, those who integrate their driver's license into the My Number card can renew the license online for less money. They also benefit from less red tape when changing addresses.

Hong Kong's top leader warns US investment blacklist will backfire

Hong Kong chief executive John Lee Ka-chiu has spoken out against a recent rule issued by the US treasury department that limits US investment in Chinese semiconductors and microelectronics, quantum information technologies, and AI.

He is reported as calling the ban – which also applies to Hong Kong – harmful to American businesses.

He reportedly warned, in relation to the blacklist, that the US will "reap what it sows."

APAC Dealbook

Recent alliances and deals spotted by The Register across the region last week include:

• Japanese electronics giant Fujistu and data-driven video assembly biz Linius Technologies announced a partnership to provide AI-powered video analytics.

  The duo claimed ability for businesses to search, analyze, and compile video data instantly into actionable insights, which they expect to be particularly impactful for "security/surveillance, airport and transportation operations, border services, police/fire services operations, site/asset inspections and maintenance, retail analysis, consumer behavior."

• Singapore-headquartered digital forensics and cyber emergency response business BlackPanda signed a Memorandum of Collaboration (MoC) with the Cyber Security Agency of Singapore (CSA) to collaborate on cyber threat analysis and intelligence.
• Cambodian telecom provider Telcotech and China Unicom Global Cambodia signed an agreement to build a new network route and upgrade existing infrastructure connecting China, Laos, and Cambodia.

  According to China Unicom Global, the deal supports "the growing demand in China and Indochina, which can be an alternate route for China to connect to Singapore or Malaysia via Laos, Cambodia, and the MCT subsea cable." ®