Daily Briefing: Malaysian PM eyes tenfold water price hike for Singapore; Temasek joins US$135m funding for VC firm Openspace

And LTA seized bicycles and personal mobility devices in a move against errant retailers.

From Yahoo! News Singapore:

Malaysian prime minister Mahathir Mohamad is targeting to increase water price sold to neighboring Singapore by more than 10 times to give Malaysia more ways to pay off massive debts.

Malaysia currently sells water to Singapore at 3 sen ($0.96) per thousand gallons and buys treated water at 50 sen ($0.16) per thousand gallons.

The leader compared the price to that of the southern Malaysian state of Johor which sells water to the neighboring state of Melaka at 30 sen per 1,000 gallons, a rate he described as "charitable" given that it's a domestic deal.

"To a foreign country, we need to get more than that," he said. He declined to discuss specifics, citing ongoing negotiations.

Read more here.

From E27:

Temasek joined the $185.39m (US$135m) funding for Singapore venture capital (VC) firm Openspace which brings the total amount of capital invested by its limited partners (LPs) to US$225m.

The company plans to “back the next wave of standout technology companies in Southeast Asia” and invest deeper in regional operational capabilities as it focuses on Series A and Series B investments in the region.

“We have seen immense opportunities from being able to work with our portfolio company to solve complex on-ground regional execution issues and we will intensify our efforts in these areas,” said Hian Goh, a Founding Partner at Openspace in a statement.

Read more here.

From Yahoo! News Singapore

The Land Transport Authority (LTA) seized 18 personal mobility devices (PMDs) and two power-assisted bicycles (PABs) following an islandwide operation to target retailers of such devices as the agency wants to tackle the issue of non-compliant PMDs and PABs upstream amongst said retailers.

Under the Active Mobility Act and Road Traffic Act, only compliant PABs and PABs can be used on public paths and roads here.

It is also an offence to sell non-compliant devices or to modify them for users into a non-compliant state and those convicted face up to three months’ jail, a maximum fine of $5,000, or both.

Read more here.

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