Kopi time is a podcast series on insights from markets and economies around the world, hosted by Taimur Baig, Ph.D., Chief Economist of DBS Bank Ltd.
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We welcome Ethan Wu, Asia business and finance editor at The Economist, to Kopi Time. We cover Asia's remarkably strong exports cycle, regional resilience to this year's energy shock, issues related to trade, tech, and national security, frictions with the US, China over-capacity, direction of RMB, and global rebalancing needs. Ethan is very well-versed in regional issues; this conversation…
Gaurav Keerthi, CEO of StrongKeep, a Singapore-based cybersecurity startup that provides SMEs with AI-driven security and compliance platforms, returns to Kopi Time to discuss the topic of the moment. In this wide ranging conversation, we begin by talking about why secure AI is a fundamentally different proposition compared to traditional software. Gaurav walks us through the essence of an…
Manu Bhaskaran, founding director and head of Centennial Asia Advisors, returns to Kopi Time ahead of Singapore's 61st birthday. We begin by taking stock of Singapore's recent economic performance, with growth accelerating and investments surging. Manu walks us through the sectoral outcomes and productivity developments, noting that while the electronics industry is leading the charge, growth is…
In this episode, we get expert view on the ongoing, historic tech wave. Ravi Vijayaraghavan, head of APAC Technology & Cloud Services practice at Bain and Company, offers a wide range of insights, starting with the implication of the unprecedented scale of capital spending on AI build-out taking place presently. We compare this tech cycle with past ones, consider sectors that are in vogue…
We discuss energy market outlook with Vandana Hari, founder of Vanda Insights, a Singapore-based provider of energy market intelligence. We begin with the crude and refined product bottleneck created by the virtual closure of the Strait of Hormuz, and what it means for Asia and Europe. We then delve into the supply and demand responses since the Iran war began, especially with the way China and…
Should AI be nationalised, or at least have a substantial part of its equity held by the public sector? I collaborated recently with author and economist Anthony Annett to delve into this issue. The resulting op-ed, published on Singapore's Business Times (link here: https://bt.sg/g/DyLA ), and the torrent of feedback we have received since it came out, is the subject of this Kopi Time episode.…
A year since the reciprocal tariff bombshell, how has trade changed and what realignments are in the making? We invite back to Kopi Time, Deborah Elms, Hinrich Foundation's head of trade policy, to mark the tumultuous period. We begin by taking stock of the macro impact on the US and rest of the world over the past year, with little evidence of a major change in the import appetite of American…
The week of the IMF Spring Meetings were characterised by a stark contrast. Markets focused on fading war risks and kept rallying. But official sector and analysts' warnings about public debt, energy security, future of the USD, and Fed leadership risks loomed over the meetings. Commodity price/supply shocks likely to be substantial; growth forecasts are at risk. Energy source diversification,…
The first time Tan Su Shan came on Kopi Time, it was right after the war in Ukraine had broken out and energy and food prices were spiking worldwide. Four years later, another war and another bout of inflation and associated risks are to the fore. We begin our conversation with Su Shan comparing the two episodes, with strategies to guide the bank and its clients through the fog of war. It's also a…
In a recent collaboration with Dr. Leslie Teo, Senior Director of AI Products at AI Singapore, we published an article on redefining jobs and expertise in the AI era (link here ). The process of writing the article entailed making several Large Language Models work for many hours, searching through hundreds of top journal articles, establishing key insights from the latest research findings, and…
Dr. Khor Hoe Ee, presently with Nanyang Technology University, with a long career in multilateral institutions and central banking, returns to Kopi Time. We begin with his recent writings, part of which has analysed the factors underlying the better-than-expected performance of the global economy in 2025, particularly Asia. Dr. Khor explains the role of the AI spending cycle, a powerful green…
