Japan: the Land of the Rising Stocks

The Japanese equity market is the 3rd largest in the world and responds to global economic conditions more sensitively than other developed markets. Many international investors still associate investing in Japanese equities with “Japan lost decade “ and the narrative of Japan as a country with no growth and a stock market that chronically underperformed the US and even European equities. The coronavirus pandemic has done what seven years of Abenomics could not: push Japan’s Nikkei 225 benchmark above the 25,000 marks for the first time since 1991.

Indonesia to Establish Electric Battery Corporation

Indonesia is gearing up for establishing an electric battery company to meet the country's prospective development of electric vehicles including motorcycles, cars and buses. The State Owned Enterprises Ministry has been preparing a holding company, Indonesia Battery Corporation (IBC) that will build a battery industry for electric vehicles, which was expected to be completed in the first half of 2021.

Room for Recovery

RedDoorz books growth amid pandemic

Infrastructure Review

The World Climate Change Conference, COP26, will be taking place in November 2021 in Glasgow, Scotland. Following a period of US indifference to such global discussions as espoused by its predecessor, the new administration's decision to immediately re-join the Paris Accord will help to bring a stronger emphasis and commitment from major global economies to the concrete actions which are needed to address the impacts of climate change on the world's ecosystem. A strong delegation is expected from Indonesia to set out what has been done towards its commitments to cut back carbon emissions as well as to help shape the discussions for future actions.

Researcher - Adi Utarini

Professor Adi Utarini is an Indonesian public health researcher fighting dengue in Indonesia. She worked with the World Mosquito Program (WMP), a joint initiative between Monash University and Gadjah Mada University research team, and has successfully utilized Wolbachia bacteria to fight dengue fever disease - one of the country's major health problems. There were nearly 96,000 infection cases in 2020 in Indonesia with 661 fatalities.

Credit Card Killer

Millennials were shunning plastic and supposedly wary of consumer debt. AFFIRM ’s MAX LEVCHIN saw a way to repackage buying now and paying later for younger folks—and it’s made him a billionaire.

Sjamsul Nursalim Clears Wanted List

The Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) decided to stop its investigation on graft cases surrounding Bank Indonesia Liquidity Support (BLBI) that named Sjamsul Nursalim and his wife Itjih Nursalim as suspects since 10 June 2019.

EV in Indonesia–Execution is the Key

Indonesia is rapidly becoming the citadel of Electric Vehicles (EV) in the Region. The media has been abuzz with news of leading car manufacturers like Hyundai and Toyota exploring to set up their EV factories in Java and, of course, the on-again-off-again news of Tesla setting up their EV battery facility locally.

Agrarian Reform in Cities: Options by the Government

Agrarian reform is a goal of the government since the promulgation of the agrarian law of 1960. The agrarian reform concept has also expanded, it's now beyond the redistribution of farms to the farmers but also land to the non-farmers. In cities like Jakarta, farmers are certainly not an essential subject. Instead, illegal houses and illegal occupancies that create slum areas are more problematic. Those are people who live in a building on a land plot that he does not own or cannot prove legal ownership. Never-ending legal disputes involving many parties claiming land ownership are a huge problem to be resolved.

Forbes 30 Under 30

MEET FORBES INDONESIA 30U30 2021! - The Forbes Indonesia 30 Under 30 Class of 2021 is an impressive list, showcasing top Indonesia's young entrepreneurs, artists, athletes, and philanthropists who manage to stay high spirited, maintain hard work, and see opportunity amid the challenging time. This time last year, Forbes Indonesia held an event to recognize the 30 Under 30 Class of 2020, when President Joko Widodo announced the first COVID-19 case in Indonesia. Not long after, the pandemic forced the world to adapt to what we call the new normal. The past year has put us in turmoil, many suffering from financial instability and losing their lost ones, but these young people featured on this year 30 Under 30 could provide us with optimism. We also noticed several trends in this year's list. First, the pandemic has accelerated the adoption of the internet and digitalization. Many in our list have taken advantage of what the internet has to grow their business and create awareness of what they are doing. Second, we see a significant trend in building a sustainable impact through their business and activism. Despite promising results are coming from the vaccine rollout, the pandemic is not over yet, and uncertainties remain. Thus, we hope our list could inspire other young Indonesians to stay positive and pursue their dreams.

Introduction to CI-EL

At the MarkPlus Conference 2021 event held by OMNI on 9-10 December 2020, we launched an ebook entitled CI-EL: Capabilities After COVID-19. This book is our answer to dealing with Volatility-UncertaintyComplexity-Ambiguity (VUCA) faced with DAMO (Discovery - Adventure - Momentum - Outlook).

ROW, REST, AND REPEAT

James Allan on his experience rowing across the Atlantic in 42 days.

Corruption as Usual

Edward Omar Sharif Hiariej is a government official who does not mince words. The deputy minister of justice and human rights recently suggested that state prosecutors may demand capital punishment for the two former ministers recently apprehended by the antigraft body KPK. As the professor in law from the Yogya-based University of Gajah Mada sees it, under the current Corruption Law the death sentence is applicable to former ministers Edhy Prabowo (marine and fisheries) and Juliari Batubara (social services).

DELIVERING THE FUTURE

V2INDONESIA reaffirms its commitment to delivering cutting-edge technology through its revamped logo and website.

PROTECTING LEGACY

BUILD THE LEGACY AND INDULGE YOUR BUSINESS IN AN EASE OF FINANCIAL SERVICE AND EXCLUSIVE PRIVILEGES PROVIDED

Beyond Payment

Interview with OVO CCO Rajiv Chandna on how the pandemic impacted the company and plans for going forward.

You Won't Cut This Cable

Camino Winds—by John Grisham (Doubleday, $28.95). This novel by the foremost man of letters from Mississippi since William Faulkner takes up where a previous gripper, Camino Island (Bantam, 2017), left off. The most interesting character in both of these well-constructed, can’t-put-’emdowners is Bruce Cable, an independent bookstore owner. A lover of rare books and manuscripts and an imaginative and tireless marketer who takes delight in promoting promising writers and in doing all he can to make sure established authors sell multiple hundreds of their latest works at festive book signings and readings, Cable is a prodigious reader and man of high taste. He also has a rather roguish side that enables him to charmingly seduce attractive women. PC he is not.

Bitcoin Is Not Money—Yet

Bitcoin is the new darling of investors. It has rocketed since March 2020 from $5,000 to over $40,000 before pulling back. Fans are predicting that it will resume its rise and head to $100,000 or higher.

An Uncertain Inheritance

Now that it is all over, it’s time for an honest and truthful appraisal of Donald Trump and the correlation between businessmen and politics in general.

The Prophet and Her Profits

CATHIE WOOD has leveraged her zealous belief in innovation into a $29 billion-in-assets investment firm and a $250 million net worth. Among her predictions: Tesla will build a fleet of robo-taxis worth $1 trillion.

Why Investors in 2021 Need to Bet Against the Usual VC Dogma

It is now just over a year into the COVID-19 pandemic, and at a glance, early data from venture capital (VC) investing activity in 2020 paints a rosier picture than the gloom and doom that was foreshadowed during the first wave of cases. US VC investment activity totaled $156.2 billion last year, up from $138.1 billion in 2019. It was the first time funding has surpassed $150 billion, said Pitchbook. Full-year numbers for ASEAN are not in yet, but based on an August report by Cento Ventures, the first half of 2020 saw $5.6 billion invested, lower than the $6.4 billion in the first half of 2019.

MAKING MILLIONS FROM BEZOS' BILLIONS.

Deep-pocketed investors are rushing to bet on Amazon’s third-party sellers. The stampede will change retail forever.

THE LOOMING SPAC MELTDOWN

What’s driving SPAC mania on Wall Street? Not the billionaires and bankers making headlines daily, but a mob of little-known hedge fund investors, the “SPAC Mafia,” who are incentivized to gobble up these opaque public offerings with little concern over whether they ultimately succeed or fail.

Killing It

Ryan Hogan and Derrick Smith are cashing in on the pandemic’s deadly combination of boredom and screen fatigue by selling immersive murder mysteries packaged in monthly subscription boxes.

The Remote-Work Absolutist

GitLab CEO Sid Sijbrandij built a developer-tool business valued at nearly $3 billion without maintaining any offices. Now he’s warning companies against doing telecommuting halfway.

Health vs. Wealth

The world is awash in cheap antibiotics. So why is biotech billionaire Bob Duggan trying to make a new one—and how can he possibly make money from it?

WOMEN IN TECH

IN THE DIGITAL ERA, STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) jobs are expected to grow exponentially in the near future. While it's already challenging to fill in the positions with qualified individuals, attracting women's talents to the industry is even more challenging. According to the non-profit organization American Association of University Women (AAUW), women in the US make up only 28% of the workforce STEM, and men vastly outnumber women majoring in most STEM fields in college. The gender gaps are exceptionally high in some of the fastest-growing and highest-paid jobs of the future, like computer science and engineering.

High Rise

Zuo Hui has built KE Holdings into China’s largest platform for residential property transactions and services. And he sees plenty of growth ahead.

BREXIT Done: Time For a UK Trade Reset

On December 31, 2020, after numerous stalls in discussions and negotiation deadline postponements, the United Kingdom exited its transition arrangements with the European Union – BREXIT was officially completed. Few will remember when the UK originally joined the Common Market, and fewer still may be aware that it was British World War II Prime Minister, Sir Winston Churchill, who in 1946, conceived of the idea of an ‘United States of Europe’, as a measure to prevent future wars on the continent.

Speedy Recovery

ITDC moves to build tourist destinations beyond Bali.