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Independent Singapore
8 hours ago
- Independent Singapore
'We admire Singapore deeply': Johor calls for end to rivalry, urges deeper regional partnership
SINGAPORE: Johor and Singapore must shift from a mindset of rivalry to one of partnership if they are to unlock the full potential of their shared geography and economic interdependence, said Johor Menteri Besar Datuk Onn Hafiz Ghazi. Speaking at the Lee Kuan Yew Exchange Fellowship dinner in Singapore, Onn Hafiz called for the two neighbours to embrace each other's strengths and pursue joint strategies for regional development. 'Let's stop thinking in terms of rivalry and focus on shared strategy. Together, we can build regional supply chains, renewable energy projects, data infrastructure and food security frameworks,' he said, as quoted by the New Straits Times. Complementary strengths offer regional potential Onn Hafiz highlighted how Singapore's capital and connectivity, combined with Johor's land and labour resources, form a naturally complementary partnership. Rather than compete, the two should collaborate to build a 'corridor of prosperity' stretching from Woodlands to Iskandar Puteri and beyond. 'If we plan wisely, we can create a corridor of prosperity,' he said, urging both sides to fully realise the potential of the Johor–Singapore Special Economic Zone (JS-SEZ), a key initiative currently under development. Praise for Singapore and call for mutual respect Onn Hafiz also paid tribute to Singapore's transformation and its founding leader, calling Mr Lee Kuan Yew 'a statesman whose vision uplifted not only Singapore, but leadership standards across the region.' His remarks underscored Johor's admiration for its neighbour, even amidst the frequent public comparisons between the two. 'It's not always easy being Singapore's neighbour when your people constantly compare roads, airports and customer service! But the truth is, we admire Singapore deeply,' he said, according to the New Straits Times . A relationship beyond GDP Framing the Johor–Singapore relationship as one of Southeast Asia's most important bilateral dynamics, Onn Hafiz emphasised that genuine cooperation rests on goodwill, not merely economic figures. 'It is goodwill, not just GDP, that sustains partnerships,' he said. His remarks come at a time when both sides are looking to deepen economic integration, particularly through cross-border infrastructure projects like the RTS Link and the JS-SEZ. See also SDP's finalised slate of candidates for GE2020 An open invitation to Singaporeans The Menteri Besar extended a warm invitation to Singaporeans, encouraging them to view Johor not just as a destination for food and shopping, but as a partner in progress. 'Our friends in Singapore are always welcome in Johor, not just for better food, but for real partnership and shared progress,' he said. The event, attended by Singapore Foreign Minister Dr Vivian Balakrishnan and other dignitaries, marked Onn Hafiz's participation as a Lee Kuan Yew Exchange Fellow — a programme that honours regional leaders who have made significant contributions to diplomacy and development. His comments signal a diplomatic shift toward closer ties and shared growth, a message both symbolic and strategic as Johor and Singapore navigate a new phase in regional cooperation. Read also: Tourism sector welcomes heritage-focused investment zones in Johor Bahru under 13MP
Business Times
20 hours ago
- Business Times
Apple CEO tells staff AI is ‘ours to grab' in hourlong pep talk
[LOS ANGELES] Apple chief executive officer Tim Cook, holding a rare all-hands meeting following earnings results, rallied employees around the company's artificial intelligence (AI) prospects and an 'amazing' pipeline of products. The executive gathered staff at Apple's on-campus auditorium on Friday (Aug 1) in Cupertino, California, telling them that the AI revolution is 'as big or bigger' as the internet, smartphones, cloud computing and apps. 'Apple must do this. Apple will do this. This is sort of ours to grab,' Cook told employees, according to people aware of the meeting. 'We will make the investment to do it.' The iPhone maker has been late to AI, debuting Apple Intelligence months after OpenAI, Alphabet's Google, Microsoft and others flooded the market with products such as ChatGPT. And when Apple finally released its AI tools, they fell flat. But Cook struck an optimistic tone, noting that Apple is typically late to promising new technologies. 'We have rarely been first,' the executive told staffers. 'There was a PC before the Mac; there was a smartphone before the iPhone; there were many tablets before the iPad; there was an MP3 player before iPod.' But Apple invented the 'modern' versions of those product categories, he said. 'This is how I feel about AI.' BT in your inbox Start and end each day with the latest news stories and analyses delivered straight to your inbox. Sign Up Sign Up An Apple spokesperson declined to comment on the gathering. The hourlong meeting addressed a range of topics, including the retirement of operating chief Jeff Williams, increasing Apple TV+ viewership and advances in health care with features such as the AirPods Pro hearing-aid technology. It also touched on donations and community service by Apple employees, the company's goal to become carbon neutral by 2030, and the impact of regulations. 'The reality is that Big Tech is under a lot of scrutiny around the world,' Cook said. 'We need to continue to push on the intention of the regulation and get them to offer that up, instead of these things that destroy the user experience and user privacy and security.' Cook often holds town hall-style chats when visiting Apple's offices around the world, but companywide meetings from the Steve Jobs Theatre at headquarters are unusual. The remarks followed a blockbuster earnings report, with sales growing nearly 10 per cent during the June quarter. That beat Wall Street expectations and eased concerns about iPhone demand and a slowdown in China. Apple still faces myriad challenges, including Trump administration tariffs and a regulatory crackdown on its business practices. The company said on Thursday that tariffs would bring a US$1.1 billion headwind this quarter, though Apple was upbeat about sales growth. It also said that App Store revenue rose by a percentage in the double digits last quarter, despite efforts in the EU and elsewhere to further restrict that business. Echoing comments he made during the earnings conference call, Cook told employees the company is investing in AI in a 'big way'. He said 12,000 workers were hired in the last year, with 40 per cent of the new hires joining in research and development roles. Apple's chip development efforts, led by executive Johny Srouji, are key to the company's AI strategy, Cook said. Apple is working on a more powerful cloud-computing chip, code-named Baltra, to power AI features, Bloomberg News has reported. It's also setting up a new AI server manufacturing facility in Houston. The meeting included Craig Federighi, senior vice-president of software engineering, who discussed the future of Apple's Siri voice assistant. The company had planned to roll out a Siri overhaul as part of Apple Intelligence earlier this year, adding the ability to tap into user data to better fulfil requests. It was delayed, spurring management changes for the company's AI work. Federighi explained that the problem was caused by trying to roll out a version of Siri that merged two different systems: one for handling current commands, such as setting timers, and another based on large language models, the software behind generative AI. 'We initially wanted to do a hybrid architecture, but we realised that approach wasn't going to get us to Apple quality,' Federighi said. Now, Apple is working on a version of Siri that moves to an entirely new architecture for all of its capabilities. That iteration is slated for as early as spring, Bloomberg News has reported, though Apple executives have not confirmed a timeline other than a release next year. 'The work we have done on this end-to-end revamp of Siri has given us the results we needed,' the engineering executive told employees. 'This has put us in a position to not just deliver what we announced, but to deliver a much bigger upgrade than we envisioned. There is no project people are taking more seriously.' Federighi cited leadership changes, including putting Vision Pro creator Mike Rockwell and his headset software leadership team in charge of Siri, as a driving force in improving the product. He said Rockwell and his group have 'supercharged' the company's work in the area. In his speech, Cook also pushed employees to move more quickly to weave AI into their work and future products. 'All of us are using AI in a significant way already, and we must use it as a company as well,' Cook said. 'To not do so would be to be left behind, and we can't do that.' Employees should push to deploy AI tools faster, and urge their managers and service and support teams to do the same, he said. Cook also addressed the company's retail strategy, stressing that the current plan is to focus on opening new stores in emerging markets and upping the investment in Apple's online store. The iPhone maker is opening outlets in India, the United Arab Emirates and China this year, and is preparing to add its first location in Saudi Arabia next year. 'We need to be in more countries, and you will see us go into more emerging markets in particular,' Cook said. That doesn't mean Apple will ignore other places, he said, but a 'disproportionate amount of growth' will be in new areas. The CEO also shared his enthusiasm about upcoming products, though he did not get specific. 'I have never felt so much excitement and so much energy before as right now,' he said. Bloomberg News has previously reported that Apple plans to launch its first foldable iPhone next year and is also working on a stream of smart home devices. New headset products, smart glasses, a push into robotics and a redesigned iPhone for the two-decade anniversary are also underway. 'The product pipeline, which I can't talk about: It's amazing, guys. It's amazing,' Cook said. 'Some of it you will see soon, some of it will come later, but there's a lot to see.' BLOOMBERG
CNA
a day ago
- CNA
A homesick craving inspired her to launch a Singaporean supper club and food brand in London
It was a comforting bowl of bak chor mee (minced meat noodle) that changed it all. During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, Megan Tan was living in London and working as a finance lawyer. With the city in lockdown, her homesick roommate was craving local Singaporean food. 'It was her birthday and we couldn't go anywhere. I wanted to do something thoughtful for her, so I asked her what her favourite dish was. It was bak chor mee, so I Googled a recipe and made it for the first time,' Tan, 30, recalled. That simple act of cooking for a friend was enough to spark a realisation in Tan for two reasons. 'First, it was the feeling of making something with my own two hands. And second, it was making something that I love so much, and that she loved so much too, and the joy that it brought to the both of us.' In fact, Tan enjoyed the experience of cooking for others so much that for the rest of the lockdown, she started opening up orders for dishes such as wonton mee, Hokkien mee and carrot cake on her Instagram. During the weekends, she would cook the dishes and cycle out to deliver them herself. 'I had a lot of fun and I think it gave me a lot of meaning and human connection at a time when it was very short in supply,' Tan, a self-professed extrovert, reflected. Eventually, she launched Homi Kitchen, a supper club run out of her apartment where she serves Singaporean dishes to guests. What started as a nostalgic dinner for her social bubble soon evolved into something bigger. Beyond the supper club, Tan is on a mission to create a brand that can make 'Singaporean flavours easily accessible on supermarket shelves for everyone in the UK', said the young entrepreneur. In early 2025, Tan went on to launch her first product – the Giga Chicken Rice Chilli sauce, a flavour-packed condiment inspired by one Singapore's most beloved dishes, with more products already in the pipeline. FROM LAW TO LOCAL FLAVOURS Born and raised in Singapore, Tan grew up in a three-generation household in Serangoon, with her grandmother, an avid cook, cooking Teochew dishes every day for the family. 'She's the queen of the kitchen. I would try to help, but quite often I would be making things worse,' Tan recalled with a laugh. It wasn't until she studied law at the University of Oxford in the UK that she began experimenting with cooking herself. 'I missed food from home, and the funny thing is, I didn't have a kitchen in my college accommodation. I only had a rice cooker, and I had all my sauces and ingredients in a box.' She made do with the limited setup, cooking Asian comfort dishes such as chicken curry and katsu curry in that one pot. She often invited friends to gather in her room for dinner, who brought over their own bowls and cutlery. After completing her legal training back in Singapore, Tan made the jump to move to London full-time. 'Within the legal industry, London is one of the big hot spots for top-notch firms and teams. It is also a very international, cosmopolitan city,' she said of the move. A few years into her legal career, Tan quickly realised that her true passion laid elsewhere. 'What sparked the greatest joy for me was being in the consumer retail space, and seeing my customers really enjoying my food and being grateful for the comfort that a simple bowl of noodles brought them,' said Tan. Homi Kitchen was a way for her to indulge in her love for cooking while balancing a demanding day job. 'Why I started the supper club was to also test my theory that there's a growing interest in Singaporean food in the UK. It was a way to meet people who weren't necessarily from Singapore or Malaysia to find out how they know about the cuisine and why they were curious enough to try it,' Tan explained. For her very first supper club, Tan whipped up a Hainanese chicken rice feast. Later on, the menus featured other Singaporean hawker favourites such as carrot cake, wonton mee and even a chilli crab and black pepper crab session. Seats are usually priced around £25 (S$42). At the table, 'there was always a mix of nationalities, which is reflective of life in London,' said Tan. Despite the success of the supper club, Tan knew that if she were to leave her job, it would not be to continue hosting private dinners. Instead, she had bigger ambitions. 'Here in London, we already have a growing number of Singaporean and Malaysian restaurants. We have Singapulah, which still has long queues months after opening, and we've got Old Chang Kee as well, so I don't think London necessarily needs another restaurant,' said Tan. 'I think what the UK is lacking is authentic Singaporean flavours on grocery shelves.' View this post on Instagram A post shared by Homi Kitchen (@ From her very first supper club session, where she served Hainanese chicken rice, Tan was already toying with the idea of selling the accompanying chilli sauce she had made from scratch. Over time, she used each supper club as a testing ground, gathering feedback from her diners. 'I wanted to get a good sense of what would be a great product that people actually want,' she said. 'By the time I left my job, I had a very clear idea of what the product would be and the kind of people who would be interested in the brand.' COOKING UP A BRAND With the Giga Chilli Sauce, Tan wants to bridge the gap between home-cooked meals and dining out at a restaurant. The condiment is meant to help home cooks add interesting, familiar flavours to their dishes with minimal effort. Tan's customers have been creative in the way they use the sauce too. Beyond pairing it with chicken rice, they have slathered it on sandwiches or stirred it into their takeaway pho from the nearby Vietnamese restaurant. At one of Homi Kitchen's pop-up events, Tan even created a 'chicken rice cocktail' in the form of a spicy margarita with the chilli sauce as a base, in collaboration with a bar in Camden market. Customers interested in the Giga Chilli Sauce can currently purchase it online on Homi Kitchen's website. The condiment is also stocked at grocers, food courts and delis such as Raya at Borough Market, Eat 17 on Orford Road, Polhill Farm Shop at London Road and Harvest E1 on Brick Lane. The name Homi Kitchen – a playful twist on 'home' that also means 'homie', as in friend – reflects Tan's dual vision for the brand. 'As I started out as a homerun supper club, I wanted people to feel at home with the brand. It's also a reminder to myself that my focus is also on getting my products into other people's homes.' The brand wants to share the 'crazy rich flavours of Singapore" beyond its shores, as its tagline encapsulates. And for Tan, the chilli sauce is just the beginning. 'Right now, it's just chilli sauce, but long-term, the other products I have in mind are stuff like ready made char kway teow that you can pop into the microwave,' Tan elaborated. 'Of course, it will never be as good as going to your favourite store in Singapore, but my goal is to get as close as humanly and to fill that gap for someone who misses local food, or someone who is curious about the cuisine.' Tan is already working on Homi Kitchen's next condiment, the Hei Hei Black Pepper Sauce, slated to launch soon. 'At my black pepper and chilli crab supper club, some of the guests loved the black pepper sauce so much that they asked if I was going to start selling it,' shared Tan. 'I started looking into it and making the sauce for people to try at my events, putting them on things like tater tots just to get people to see it as something different and seeing how it lands. People really loved the flavour.' FINDING PURPOSE Giving up a prestigious career in law to pursue an uncharted path is a bold move. 'Growing up in Asia, and maybe especially in my generation, you are brought up to study hard to secure a good, stable job for the rest of your life,' said Tan, who attended Raffles Girls School and later Raffles Institution in Singapore. 'Reflecting on my younger years, part of why I chased a law career was because my friends were doing so,' Tan reflected. 'But as objectively desirable I knew a law career is for many people, eventually I had to accept that I would never be 100 per cent happy.' Stepping into entrepreneurship is 'unfamiliar territory' for her family, who do not come from a business background. While her parents were initially worried she was making a rash decision, they supported her wholeheartedly. Tan makes regular trips back to Singapore to spend time with her family. Her go-to dish when she's home? A comforting bowl of bak chor mee. Back in London, Tan continues to host supper club sessions while developing new products for Homi Kitchen. In June, she hosted two sold-out events in collaboration with Hong Kong milk tea brand Chadong. On the menu were dishes such as Hei Hei Pepper Pork Belly, Hainanese Chicken Rice and Popiah, while Chadong contributed milk bread prawn toast, lychee and lime granita and Hong Kong French toast ice cream bars. Despite the uncertainties that lie with entrepreneurship, Tan has found a sense of purpose in building something of her own. 'Whatever the outcome, I can say that I already find this journey meaningful,' she reflected. 'This is something I intrinsically want to do. No one needs to tell me that I'm doing a good job, or that it's the right thing to do. It still feels right for me."
