Category Archives: General

S’pore third as City of Opportunity

Posted on 21 May 2014 | Comments Off on S’pore third as City of Opportunity

Singapore has been ranked third – up four positions from last year – in PwC’s sixth edition of its Cities of Opportunity report.

For the first time, London posted the highest score in the 30 cities studied by PwC. The U.K. capital is the only city to finish first in three of the 10 indicators – economic clout, city gateway and technology readiness, a category it ties with Seoul – and was followed by New York and Singapore.

The study showed that top ranked cities embody the energy, opportunity and hope that draw people to city life. High performing cities also find the right balance between social and economic strengths in a world being quickly shaped by inescapable global trends.

Moving up four spots from the last edition, Singapore took third place overall and finishes first in two indicators – ease of doing business and transportation and infrastructure.

Despite not having a top rank in any indicator, New York continues to show strong consistency across most of the categories. Rounding out the top five cities are Toronto and San Francisco.

“Changing demographics, shifts in economic power and the concepts of urbanization being realised are the forces taking the world in a new direction,” said Bob Moritz, PwC’s U.S. Chairman and Senior Partner.

“Cities are increasingly competing for talent and are working hard to capture the promise of growth from the many opportunities in today’s rapidly changing world. As a result, people are looking for more potential for personal opportunity while demanding critical elements to increase quality of life. It’s the top ranking cities in this year’s study that are demonstrating the foresight that is needed to adapt, stay competitive and thrive for a sustainable positive future.”

Cities of Opportunity 6 also highlighted the increasing competitiveness of emerging cities across several key indicators. Beijing, which ranked 19th, finishes in the top three in both the city gateway and economic clout categories, while Seoul is top in technology readiness and is the only emerging city to reach the top 10 in the ease of doing business indicator. Seoul and Buenos Aires also break into the top three for transportation and infrastructure, while Johannesburg is in the top three for cost.

The full report is available at http://www.pwc.com/cities.

The methodology for Cities of Opportunity is based on publicly available data, using three main sources: global multilateral development organisations such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund; national statistics organisations, such as National Statistics in the UK and the Census Bureau in the U.S.; and commercial data providers. The data was collected during the third and fourth quarters of 2013. Besides adding Jakarta, Nairobi, and Rio de Janeiro to the study, PwC also replaced Abu Dhabi with Dubai which brought the study to 30 cities total, the largest to date. The scoring methodology was developed to facilitate transparency and simplicity for readers, as well as comparability across cities.

Source : Property Guru

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Higher rentals push up prices at some coffee joints

Posted on 7 Aug 2013 | Comments Off on Higher rentals push up prices at some coffee joints

At least three coffee joints here have recently raised prices, citing rising operational costs, especially rentals.

The move comes as the chain operator of S11 coffeeshops increased its drink prices by 10 cents across all 15 outlets at the start of June.

Ya Kun raised prices by 10 to 20 cents starting July 27, citing escalating operating costs leading to a “juncture whereby a price revision is inevitable”, said a notice posted at storefronts dated June 26.

A cup of coffee at Ya Kun now costs S$1.60 instead of S$1.50.

The coffee chain’s rising operational costs came from “a bit of everything”, said Mr Adrin Loi, Executive Chairman of Ya Kun. Rental accounts for the bulk of costs at the chain’s 44 Ya Kun outlets, followed by raw material and manpower.

Mr Loi said labour costs have gone up as workers working more than 44 hours a week are paid an overtime rate of 1.5 times their hourly rate, and the Foreign Worker Levy has also increased.

The chain also had to pay its staff higher salaries to remain competitive in a tight labour market. It had previously said it plans to hire more retirees and housewives to fuel its expansion to 100 outlets by 2015.

“Sometimes, we bear the costs … we control the price. But at the end of the day, the worker will be affected. We cannot give them better rewards, and we want to reward our staff who perform well,” Mr Loi said.

Old Town White Coffee, which has eight outlets here, is in the middle of a revamp involving renovations and menu changes. TODAY understands that this will translate to an increase in prices, of not more than 50 cents, at four outlets — City Square Mall, JCube, Orchard Cineleisure and Square 2 — that have been upgraded in recent months.

The upgrading for a “fresher and more contemporary ambience” is part of the company’s strategy to retain customers and, hence, manage rising costs, said Ms Dawn Liew, General Manager of Kopitiam Asia Pacific, which manages the Old Town outlets in Singapore.

“Rising costs are part and parcel of doing business and this spreads across an array of items. In saying that, rentals are becoming a lot steeper,” she said.

The Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf also raised its prices,by 10 or 20 cents, two months ago, but only for food items.

Prices at Starbucks, Wang Cafe, Spinelli Coffee Company and Toast Box remain the same.

Source – Today – 6 Aug 2013

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