Newsletter By 2021-09-24
Chan Kung, Founder of ANBOUND, was invited to join the podcasts at
International Association for Energy Economics (IAEE). He shares his view on realizing hydrogen energy society. Many countries and major manufacturers of electric vehicles are now very interested in lithium battery. This has also greatly promoted its demand. While the concept of hydrogen society aims for carbon reduction, mass usage of lithium batteries actually causes pollution. There are questions on the effectiveness of electric cars in carbon reduction. Not only the mining of lithium causes pollution, the recycling of lithium batteries is also just something theoretical. Click to
listen.
With many Southeast Asian countries facing tight fiscal spending in their pandemic responses, any external aid from our cooperating partners outside of the region will be vital in reducing the costs of a successful containment of the new COVID-19 wave. The latest pandemic wave is an excellent test for ASEAN’s external partners of the commitments they made to the Southeast Asian region.
Chee Leong LEE (Karl), collaborative fellow at Anbound Research Center in Malaysia, explains why ASEAN must play a vital role in the region’s responses to the virus.
>>The pro-Putin United Russia party won the country's State Duma elections, winning 315 seats (70%) out of 450, and it also won in 39 regional elections. Some opinions from the United States believe that there is fraudulence in Russia’s election because millions of votes were suddenly added at the last moment. Sources from Russia say that the Russian Orthodox Church is very supportive of Putin. Many Russians in the church too are his staunch supporters. The Russians want Putin, not the Communist Party of Russia. However, many Americans do not think so badly on Putin. The sentiment of average American is that, Russia is much better than China.
>>Despite successfully hosting a most unusual Olympic Games, the spread of COVID-19 still plagues Japan, and drags down its economic recovery. Even, that will be updating the political landscape. Yoshihide Suga is now about to leave the office. The problem would be left to the new Japanese government, not only about effectively dealing with the pandemic, but also pushing for the recovery in the post-pandemic period. How will Abenomics that has lasted for nearly 10 years advance? The tone of the Bank of Japan's future monetary policy will depend on the new Japanese government to make new choices.
>>The COVID-19 pandemic has severely affected global supply chains. The global automobile industry is facing supply chain shocks, and industries such as semiconductors and consumer electronics are also experiencing supply crises to varying degrees. The more globalized the industry, the more dependent it is on the global supply chain and the greater the impact of shocks. Industry analysts at ANBOUND demonstrated that the impacts of the pandemic on the global supply chain are noteworthy in the following aspects. (1) There are new characteristics of concentrated production centers and low-profit competition in the industry. (2) Increasingly severe supply constraints. (3) Prices rising on the supply side may become a trend, and put inflationary pressure on the market. (4) Supply chain costs will climb to the higher levels, due to the global logistics difficulties. (5) Restructuring global supply chains is likely to continue, at least part of them to be altered. As the pandemic continues, the global supply chains of multiple industries will undergo a long-term transformation.
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