Monthly Archives: October 2022

PR Newswire

Axiata’s Merdeka Brand Film Produced by ADA Emerges Winners — 2022 Experts’ Choice Awards

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The Merdeka Brand Film, The Turning Point was voted as of one of the Top 10 winners by MARKETING Magazine readers.

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia, Oct. 12, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — Axiata Group Berhad’s (Axiata’s) Merdeka Brand Film — The Turning Point was voted as one of the Top 10 winners of the Experts’ Choice Awards Merdeka TVC Edition 2022 by MARKETING Magazine readers.

The inspirational short film was produced by ADA in conjunction with Malaysia’s Independence Day on 31 August and Malaysia Day on 16 September.

In the film, the protagonist, Intan, a member of the indigenous community successfully built a business that helped her community thrive and prosper. A chance encounter marked the turning point for Intan’s remarkable journey, when she was gifted a book on how to start a business — a seemingly insignificant moment that changed her life and her community in ways she could never have imagined.

The short film reflects Axiata’s proposition to advance and transform lives of communities across Malaysia, leaving no one behind.

Similarly, this Merdeka, Axiata wished to spotlight the marginalised communities including senior citizens, urban poor, single moms and the disabled groups that are often excluded from the narrative of equal access and deprived of opportunities.

For the marginalised in Malaysia, Axiata aspires to be the turning point to a better life and a brighter future.

“ADA is very proud that we were able to bring this beautiful story to everyone. As a company, we will be very glad and grateful if we get a chance to use our creativity and digital capabilities to bring smiles to more “Intans” in our community,” said Anurag Gupta, Chief Operating Officer, ADA.

To date, the short film has gained over 4.4 million views across all social channels.

It’s a tradition for MARKETING Magazine to organise the annual Experts’ Choice Awards as a chance for their readers to vote for the brand, agency and production house they support. The award sees participation of major players from industries such as Telecommunications, Food & Beverage, Healthcare, Banking, Insurance, Automotive and more.

About ADA

ADA is a data and artificial intelligence company that designs and executes integrated digital, analytics, and marketing solutions.

Operating across 10 markets in South and Southeast Asia, ADA partners with leading brands to drive their digital and data maturity, and achieve their business goals. We are anchored on the following main services:

  • Providing business insights, data enrichment, and advanced analytics
  • Understanding the consumer mindset and designing data-driven creative marketing strategies
  • Executing end-to-end digital marketing solutions for growth hacking, funnel optimisation, and goal optimisation

ADA complements its unique digital expertise with deep proprietary data of 375 million consumers.

PR Newswire

AIOps Provider ScienceLogic Acquires Machine Learning Analytics Provider Zebrium to Provide At-A-Glance Root Cause Visibility

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RESTON, Va., Oct. 12, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — Moving toward its goal of freeing up resources of enterprise IT teams and optimizing digital experiences, AIOps and hybrid-cloud IT management provider ScienceLogic has acquired machine learning analytics firm Zebrium to automatically find the root cause of complex, modern (i.e., containerized, cloud-native) application problems. This partnership drastically reduces the time it takes to identify, diagnose and resolve business-service impacting issues, lowering IT costs and delivering superior customer and employee experiences.

How? With this acquisition, ScienceLogic is combining its AIOps capabilities with the root-cause analysis (RCA) technology of Zebrium to provide enterprises with the ability to comprehensively understand their IT estate, from endpoint devices to SaaS and cloud environments. The solution provides powerful machine learning analytics that draw on both real-time and historical data for a contextual understanding of the service impact and root cause when issues arise so they can be automatically remediated.

“We understand that at the end of the day, customers care about a few core things. Among those are making sense of drastically increased amounts of data, maintaining a quick time to resolution, and focusing on customer experience,” says Mike Nappi, CPO at ScienceLogic. “Combining our capabilities with that of Zebrium creates a whole new level of analytics-driven insights and automation we can bring to bear for our customers.”

“This partnership means that ITOps and DevOps teams will have the breathing room to commit time, energy, and resources to improving and supporting infrastructure and analytics standards, all while cutting IT costs,” said Ajay Singh, CEO at Zebrium. “With our machine learning capabilities combined with ScienceLogic’s service context and automation, organizations can greatly reduce the time they spend identifying and remediating issues.”

“The Cisco Technical Assistance Center (TAC) spends thousands of hours each month analyzing software logs to find the root cause of customer incidents,” said Koree Mires, Director, Global TAC Innovation, Automation and Disruption at Cisco Systems. “We had been investigating ways to help automate this process for many years. When we came across Zebrium, we were immediately impressed. In order to validate its effectiveness, we tested RCaaS with four product lines and 192 actual customer incidents. We were astonished to find that RCaaS correctly found the root cause automatically over 95 percent of the time.”

To learn more about ScienceLogic and Zebrium’s partnership, please contact:

Jillian Dykhouse
Sr. Content Marketing Manager
214-449-6909
jillian.dykhouse@sciencelogic.com 

Or visit our Newsroom at https://sciencelogic.com/about/news.

About ScienceLogic

ScienceLogic empowers intelligent automated IT operations freeing up IT talent, accelerating innovation and transformation, and driving outcomes. ScienceLogic’s AIOps platform monitors customer data across clouds and on-premises, enabling digital service visibility and automation. Trusted by thousands of organizations across the globe, ScienceLogic’s technology meets the rigorous security requirements of the U.S. DOD, has been proven for scale by the world’s largest service providers, and is optimized to meet the needs of large enterprises and government agencies. https://sciencelogic.com

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PR Newswire

ReneSola Power Announces Acquisition of Emeren

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STAMFORD, Conn., Oct. 11, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — ReneSola Ltd (“ReneSola Power” or the “Company”) (www.renesolapower.com) (NYSE: SOL), a leading fully integrated solar project developer, today announced the acquisition of Emeren Limited (“Emeren”), a United Kingdom-based utility-scale solar power and battery projects developer in Europe. The acquisition transaction was completed on October 10 through an all-cash deal with an earn-out provision.

Emeren is currently comprised of over 22 employees and has been a strategic partner of Renesola Power to co-develop ground-mounted solar and storage projects in Italy since 2021. Emeren has over 2.5 GW of pipeline under development (at different development stages) including over 2 GW of solar projects and over 500 MW of storage projects.

Mr. Yumin Liu, ReneSola Power Chief Executive Officer, said, “ReneSola Power is committed to accelerating solar development in Europe, the largest market in our global presence. The timing of this acquisition is excellent as it increases our project pipeline in Europe at a time when solar power purchase agreement prices have increased dramatically due to a supply shortage and favorable regulatory conditions. Further, the prestigious reputation, financial profile, and industry experience of Emeren are valuable assets to ReneSola Power as we expand our business footprint into Italy and other European countries. The acquisition is expected to generate healthy EBITDA immediately.”

Guido Prearo, CEO of Emeren, added, “I’m very excited about this acquisition as it offers unique synergies. ReneSola Power’s significant project development expertise and resources will enable us to grow stronger and more dynamic and benefit our partners and trusted clients. At the same time, we bring in-depth knowledge of the Italian market and other key European solar markets. I am confident we will achieve our solar development and storage milestones in the next few years and contribute significantly to ReneSola Power’s long-term growth.”

About ReneSola Power

ReneSola Power (NYSE: SOL) is a leading global solar project developer and operator. The Company focuses on solar power project development, construction management and project financing services. With local professional teams in more than 10 countries around the world, the business is spread across number of regions where the solar power project markets are growing rapidly and can sustain that growth due to improved clarity around government policies. The Company’s strategy is to pursue high-margin project development opportunities in these profitable and growing markets; specifically, in the U.S. and Europe, where the Company has a market-leading position in several geographies, including Poland, Hungary, Minnesota and New York. For more information, please visit www.renesolapower.com.

About Emeren Limited

Emeren is a developer of utility-scale solar power and battery storage projects with a geographically diversified pipeline in various stages of development. Currently, the Company has over 2.5GW of projects under development (mid- to early- stage), all backed by institutional investors’ capital. Emeren has leveraged on trusted partnerships with tier-1 international financial and industrial players in order to deploy top-notch financial solutions. For additional information about the Company, follow Emeren on LinkedIn or visit www.emeren.co.uk.

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Source: ReneSola Ltd.

Business, Contributed, Editorial

Continuing the Pace of Government Innovation in a Post-Pandemic World

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The unprecedented disruption the world faced during the past two years forced governments to rewrite the rulebook on how they serve their citizens. During the COVID-19 pandemic, public sector organizations across Asia Pacific and Japan (APJ) had to act quickly to find digital solutions to everyday challenges to keep citizens safe and productive. Enabled by cloud technology, digitized government agencies became better equipped to offer citizen, educational, and healthcare services, which helped improve and even save lives. 

As we emerge from the crisis, the experience, momentum, and lessons learned have heightened potential for leaders to drive digitization as a priority to deliver their national agendas. Public sector organizations across APJ are pivoting from the pandemic and looking ahead to how digital transformation enabled by cloud can help to seize opportunities to deliver faster, more innovative, and modernized citizen services.

Scaling Digitization for Public Sector Organizations

According to a Gartner survey in 2021, digitally advanced government organizations realize more benefits of modernization, including higher efficiency, cost reductions, greater workforce productivity, compliance, and transparency. Research by Amazon Web Services (AWS) Cloud Economics shows that AWS customers in ASEAN – across commercial and public sectors – who migrated to AWS are seeing an acceleration in innovation, with an approximate 29% reduction in time-to-market for new features and applications, about 41% increase in employee efficiency, and an improvement of about 37% in operational resiliency through less downtime of services.

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In the last year, AWS has signed six government cloud services agreements across APJ to boost digitization, supporting these governments with our network of local partners as they move their customers and themselves to the cloud, including Malaysia, and Thailand in ASEAN. These initiatives help governments save lives, provide critical citizen services, and support learner outcomes – ultimately changing the way society engages, educates, and does business for good. They also enable opportunities for local businesses on the AWS Partner Network to work closely with public sector customers to solve some of the biggest community challenges.

Enabling Security, Resilience, and Continuity through the Cloud

Aside from accelerating the speed and scale of digitization, leveraging the cloud also ensures security, resilience, and continuity. This creates a safe and reliable environment for students to learn, employees to work remotely, and citizens to access government services and healthcare.

In Indonesia, when the Bali Provincial Government launched its Smart Island initiative to transform the Indonesian island into a digital province, the Communication, Information, and Statistics Agency of Bali (Diskominfos) migrated its data to AWS cloud from an on-premises infrastructure. Launching an attendance system using machine learning technology, it enabled 19,820 public service employees to sign in to the office virtually, saving almost 69% in monthly costs for its attendance system. Many of Bali’s other critical applications are also built using AWS solutions, including a traditional village census system, a health facility oxygen monitoring system, and an asset management system.

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By digitally transforming on the cloud, the public sector can rapidly scale services to meet spikes in demand, wind-down operations to reduce costs, and innovate widely using the latest cloud technology.

More Digital Skills Needed to Support Digitization

As the digitization momentum accelerates, governments across APJ will also need to prioritize digital skills training for their workforce in order to unlock the cloud’s full potential. The recent “Building Skills for the Changing Workforce” report produced by AWS and AlphaBeta shows that Australia, India, Indonesia, Japan, New Zealand, Singapore, and South Korea will need to train an estimated 86 million more workers in digital skills collectively over the next year to keep pace with technological advancements – equivalent to 14% of their current total workforce. The report also noted that three of the five most demanded digital skills by 2025 will be cloud-related.

In Thailand, the Ministry of Digital Economy and Society is collaborating with AWS to train more than 1,200 public sector employees with cloud skills, so they can implement cloud technologies at scale, make better data-driven business decisions, and innovate new services to drive improved outcomes for citizens. In Indonesia, its Information and Communication Technology Training and Development Center (BPPTIK Kominfo) worked with AWS to get its employees up to speed on cloud knowledge, in support of Indonesia’s goal of creating a pool of about 9 million digital professionals by 2030 as part of its national digital information agenda. And in Malaysia, AWS has worked to provide cloud training for the Malaysian Administration Modernization and Management Planning Unit (MAMPU) to help accelerate their cloud use and fulfil mission-critical needs.  This is in addition to the training of over 3.5 million users across Asia Pacific since 2018.

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Looking ahead, we will need to move beyond business as usual to close the skills gap and create conditions for successful digitization. Governments, educators, and industries across APJ will need to collaborate more closely than ever to give all individuals the opportunity to build and deepen their digital skills that will support digitization momentum now and in the future.

Closer Collaboration Needed to Unlock the Potential of APJ

As societies and communities across APJ continue to evolve, organizations of all kinds – from governments to industries to non-profits – will need to come together to solve some of the biggest issues we are facing, from helping marginalized communities to addressing climate change.

This is why AWS launched Cloud Innovation Centers (CIC), to serve as a platform for public and private sector organizations to collaborate, solve challenges, and test new ideas with AWS’s technology expertise. In Singapore, AWS is partnering with East Coast Town Council and Accenture on a six-month pilot to deploy cloud-powered sustainability solutions in municipal estate management, to support Singapore’s move towards its net zero carbon emissions goal by 2040.

We encourage collaborations between governments, industry, and cloud services providers to enable long-term scaling of digital programs. The momentum has been established, so let’s continue to ride the wave and work together to keep digitization at the forefront of the region’s push for progress as we pivot from pandemic to prosperity.

PR Newswire

Straive appoints Josh Blair as its Chairman

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MUMBAI, India, Oct. 11, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — Straive (erstwhile SPi Global), a leader in delivering technology-driven solutions for Content, EdTech, and Data to leading global organizations, has appointed Josh Blair as its Non-Executive Chairman.

Josh is the CEO and Co-Founder of EdTech innovator Impro.AI. Additionally, Josh is the Vice Chair at TELUS International, the Governance Chair at Neighbourly Pharmacies, and a partner at Esplanade Ventures. Prior to 2020, Josh enjoyed 25 years working at TELUS Corporation, most recently as Group President overseeing TELUS International, TELUS Health, TELUS Agriculture, TELUS Business Solutions, and TELUS Ventures.

“We are thrilled to have Josh Blair join our Board as the Non-Executive Chair. Josh has had a tremendous impact while leading various digital transformation programs, and we look forward to drawing on his experience and acumen as we continue to transform Straive,” said Ratan Datta, President and CEO of Straive.

“We have enjoyed working with Josh over several years at TELUS International, and his leadership has been a catalyst to the success of his companies. We look forward to his Chairmanship at Straive as the company continues its growth journey and achieves new heights,” said Jimmy Mahtani, Managing Director of Baring Private Equity Asia.

“As Chairman of Straive, I am excited about the opportunity of working with Baring Private Equity Asia, the board, and the management team to continue to transform Straive, with its investments in high caliber talent and digital technologies focused on delivering the highest quality of services to its clients,” said Josh Blair.

About Straive (erstwhile SPi Global)

Straive is a market-leading content technology enterprise that provides data services, subject matter expertise (SME), and technology solutions to multiple domains, such as research content, e-Learning/EdTech, and data/information providers. With a client base scoping 30 countries worldwide, Straive’s multi-geographical resource pool is strategically located in seven countries: Singapore (headquarters), India, Philippines, USA, Nicaragua, Vietnam, and UK.

PR Newswire

Waterdrop Inc. CEO Shen Peng Attends Future China Global Forum 2022

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BEIJING, Oct. 10, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — On October 7, 2022, the Future China Global Forum 2022 was held in Singapore. Mr. Peng Shen, Founder and CEO of Waterdrop, attended the forum via video link and introduced the Company’s operations in Singapore.

Initiated by Singapore’s former prime minister Mr. Lee Kuan Yew in 2010, the Future China Global Forum is an international exchange platform that gathers leaders and experts from political, industrial, business, and academic circles. Themed “Stability Amidst Turbulence”, the 2022 session invited over 30 guest speakers, including celebrities like Lawrence Wong, Singapore’s Vice Prime Minister and Minister of Finance, Liu Shijin, Deputy Director of the Economic Affairs Committee of the CPPCC National Committee and Vice Chairman of China Development Research Foundation, Jia Qingguo, Director of the Institute for Global Cooperation and Understanding of Peking University, Danny Quah, Dean of the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at NUS, and Li Shimo, founder, and executive partner of Chengwei Capital.

In terms of investment in Southeast Asia, Shen Peng said Waterdrop has been an active player in the Belt and Road Initiative by expanding its presence in the countries along the routes. In 2019, Waterdrop Medical Crowdfunding raises donations through the Internet in collaboration with Singapore local charitable organizations to help people in need.

In 2022, Waterdrop decided to make Singapore an operating and management center for its operations under the Belt and Road Initiative, as Singapore has the geographical location, infrastructure, economic and cultural environment, and a talent pool ideal for Chinese companies to pursue global development.

Shen Peng said, “In their global move, Chinese enterprises should adjust operations to local conditions, and do what they are best at in a new market. Only by focusing on ‘basic skills’ can they serve local people well, win user recognition, build competitive edges and take roots locally.”

About Waterdrop Inc.

Waterdrop Inc. (NYSE: WDH) is a leading technology platform dedicated to insurance and healthcare service with a positive social impact. Founded in 2016, with the comprehensive coverage of Waterdrop Insurance Marketplace and Waterdrop Medical Crowdfunding, Waterdrop aims to bring insurance and healthcare service to billions through technology. For more information, please visit www.waterdrop-inc.com.

Safe Harbor Statement

This press release contains statements that may constitute “forward-looking” statements pursuant to the “safe harbor” provisions of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements can be identified by terminology such as “will,” “expects,” “anticipates,” “aims,” “future,” “intends,” “plans,” “believes,” “estimates,” “likely to,” and similar statements. Statements that are not historical facts, including statements about Waterdrop’s beliefs, plans, and expectations, are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements involve inherent risks and uncertainties. Further information regarding these and other risks is included in Waterdrop’s filings with the SEC. All information provided in this press release is as of the date of this press release, and Waterdrop does not undertake any obligation to update any forward-looking statement, except as required under applicable law.

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Source: Waterdrop Inc.

PR Newswire

SKF magnetic bearings enable more sustainable production of compressed air

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GOTHENBURG, Sweden, Oct. 10, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — SKF’s magnetic bearings, which can rotate at up to 50,000 rpm are now playing a key role in reducing CO2 emissions across a range of industrial applications, including compressors.

SKF’s magnetic bearing technology has been selected by Finnish cleantech company Tamturbo for their high-speed turbo motors used in industrial air compressors.

Compressed air is used in many industrial plants to power machines, tools and automation, as well as to move materials through the production process.

The delivery of compressed air historically makes use of oil-based screw compressors, which have high maintenance costs and associated CO2 emissions resulting both from the oil they consume as well as energy waste in the form of extra heat loss.

By using high-speed, direct drive centrifugal compressors, with permanent magnet motors and active magnetic bearings as a core technology, industrial customers can generate compressed air with lower emissions, longer service intervals and a lower total cost of ownership, compared to oil-based screw compressors.

Thomas Fröst, President, Independent & Emerging Business at SKF, says: “Helping industries shift towards more sustainable operations is what SKF is all about. What makes our magnetic bearing technology so exciting is that a solution that was once developed for oil and gas industries is now able to accelerate the development of cleaner technologies.”

Igor Nagaev, President & CEO of Tamturbo, says: “SKF’s magnetic bearings help solve a number of critical dilemmas in our applications: enabling high rotational speeds, with outstanding reliability and improved efficiency. This contributes to helping Tamturbo offer customers compressors with a lower total cost of ownership and reduced CO2 emissions.”

Aktiebolaget SKF

CONTACT:

For further information, please contact: PRESS: Theo Kjellberg, Director, Press Relations

tel: 46 31 337 6576, mobile: 46 725-776576, e-mail: theo.kjellberg@skf.com

INVESTOR RELATIONS: Patrik Stenberg, Head of Investor Relations

Patrik Stenberg, 46 31-337 2104; 46 705-472 104; patrik.stenberg@skf.com

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PR Newswire

HK’s integration with GBA opens new chapter

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HONG KONG, Oct. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — Hong Kong should accelerate its exploration, research and study of the changing situations in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area so that the city can better perform its superconnector role in the building of the region.

Political and business heavyweights made the observations on Thursday at the Greater Bay Area Conference 2022 and 25th Anniversary Ceremony of China Daily Hong Kong Edition, themed “GBA: Integration Writes a New Chapter”.

Co-organized by China Daily and the Hong Kong Coalition, the conference consisted of three panel discussions on how to promote technology and innovation, forge financial connectivity, and preserve cultural heritage in the city-cluster area, which comprises the two special administrative regions of Hong Kong and Macao, and nine cities in Guangdong province.

Over 400 people, including government officials, business leaders, and experts from the Chinese mainland, Hong Kong and overseas, attended the hybrid event.

Leung Chun-ying, a vice-chairman of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference National Committee, said that “knowledge about the changing situations on the other side of the tiny Shenzhen River is key”, as better cross-boundary mobility of resources such as professionals, capital, goods and electronic data, is needed.

Leung cited as an example the fact that Chinese customs officials have released new measures regarding Nansha district of Guangzhou, and these measures included the freer flow of materials for biomedical research, the development of an international logistics center, and cross-boundary e-commerce and aircraft leasing businesses.

But the recent development of the Greater Bay Area is not detailed in Hong Kong media reports, or analyses by Hong Kong research institutions, or commentaries by Hong Kong opinion leaders, Leung added.

“What it means is that Hong Kong has to double up efforts of exploring, researching, studying, comparing, ‘tea-sipping’ and engaging on the other side of the river,” Leung said. “As the most international city in the Greater Bay Area, Hong Kong should reinforce the advantage as the superconnector to share our knowledge of the Greater Bay Area cities to entice international business partners.”

Leung suggested media organizations, research institutions, chambers of commerce and professional bodies set up permanent branches in the Greater Bay Area cities to have “eyes and ears, arms and legs and voices on the ground”.

Hong Kong Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu agreed. “Hong Kong and other Greater Bay Area cities continue to collaborate closely and complement one another to bring about enormous opportunities for our people, our businesses and our communities.”

Lee added: “Hong Kong will leverage its highly market-oriented and internationalized business environment, its well-developed professional-services sectors, as well as the city’s status as an international financial, trade and shipping center” to develop the Greater Bay Area as a world-class city-cluster for living, traveling and working.

“As the world’s freest economy and the largest offshore renminbi business center, Hong Kong is the ideal gateway to connect international investors with the mainland on the one hand and help channel mainland funds to the global market on the other,” Lee said.

Maria Tam Wai-chu, deputy secretary-general of Hong Kong Coalition, said that the integration not only refers to infrastructural integration in transport and communication networks, “but also in our rules and regulation, administrative and professional practices and cooperation”.

Tam said that Guangdong province has a complete chain of economic activities, but the services sector is comparatively less strong than the primary and secondary industries.

“Here is where Hong Kong can play a vital role with our strong third-sector services and our links to the world markets,” she said. “This is a perfect combination to create an even more powerful economic growth engine.”

In 2021, the total gross domestic product of the Greater Bay Area was about 12.6 trillion yuan ($1.77 trillion), and 25 of its corporations were in the top 500 globally. The city-cluster area has over 50 unicorns (startups with a value of over $1 billion) and over 1,000 incubators. It also boasts the majority of the over 60,000 high-technology companies in Guangdong.

Qu Yingpu, publisher and editor-in-chief of China Daily Group, said the Thursday conference invited some of the finest minds in the region to unravel the nuances embedded in the idea of the Greater Bay Area, and to find some well-thought-out responses to some questions.

“Will Hong Kong be able to use its financial services and legal assistance facilities to boost trade ties between fellow Greater Bay Area member cities and their international partners? How effective is its role as a cultural bridge connecting the Greater Bay Area with the rest of the world going to be, and what does Hong Kong stand to gain in the process?” Qu asked.

In addition to the roundtable conference on how various stakeholders can forge ahead with the Greater Bay Area blueprint, the Thursday event also featured the 25th anniversary of the China Daily Hong Kong Edition.

Zhou Li, deputy editor-in-chief of China Daily Group and publisher and editor-in-chief of China Daily Hong Kong, agreed. “We add an important new voice to the local media and play an ambassadorial role in helping China to forge stronger political and economic ties with other countries and step up social and cultural exchanges,” he said.

“We also helped unpack the idea of ‘one country, two systems’, and articulate its ambitions,” Zhou added.

About China Daily

Founded in 1981, China Daily covers 400 million readers and users worldwide through diversified platforms, including newspapers, websites, mobile devices, and social media. The number of China Daily’s followers has now reached 70 million on Weibo, 13 million on the WeChat blog platform, 105 million on Facebook, and 4.23 million on Twitter.

About the China Daily Asia Leadership Roundtable

The China Daily Asia Leadership Roundtable is a by-invitation network of movers and shakers in Asia, providing platforms for focused dialogue, issue investigation and possible collective action on strategic issues relating to Asia’s economic, business and social development. Our aim is to enhance communication and increase mutual understanding among China, Asian countries and Western countries. Roundtable events are held in major cities across Asia.

About the Hong Kong Coalition

The Hong Kong Coalition is founded by 1,500 initiators from all sectors of Hong Kong society, with Mr. Tung Chee Hwa and Mr. Leung Chun Ying assuming the roles of chief convener, Mr. Tam Yiu Chung serving as secretary-general, and Ms. Maria Tam Wai Chu and 10 other members holding the posts of deputy secretary-general. The coalition held a press conference on May 5, 2020, declaring its official establishment. The aims of the Hong Kong Coalition are: Uphold “one country, two systems”, support Hong Kong to overcome difficulties; and start afresh for brilliance ahead.

Media Contact:
Ms. Jing Fang
Tel: (852) 3465-5451
Email:jingfang@chinadailyhk.com

PR Newswire

Unbeatable Superior 4K Display-Toshiba TV M550K

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HONG KONG, Oct. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — In television technology’s most advanced era, Toshiba TV’s M550K takes the 4K resolution spotlight for its unique ability to display HD content at its brightest and best. Every pixel counts on this television and at the peak of picture quality, Toshiba TV’s M550K is a stunner in every room it sits. Toshiba TV continues to surpass itself, with its M550 television series recorded an impressive 196% year on year growth of global sales volume.


Whether people are watching their favorite content directly on television or projecting content from smaller devices such as smartphones and laptops on the television, the Toshiba TV M550K is designed to deliver professional-grade ultra-high-definition pictures for a flawless viewing experience. Toshiba TV’s REGZA Audio Power Pro and Dolby Atmos compliment the M550K’s superb display with heart-shaking sound power. With an upscaling bass technology that pulls out the maximum potential in every sound that emanates from the TV, the M550K turns home into a theater of boundless immersive captivation.

Introducing a wider array of bright colour shades, the Wide Colour Gamut technology is another feature inbuilt with Toshiba TV’s M550K. Crafted to reproduce images into a finer and richer display, the Toshiba TV M550K conveys images that are deeper, sharper, and lusher than any conventional LED television on the market. Enjoy movies, games, sports, and other content in superior HD pictures and with breathtaking realness in every scene. This precision weaves into the 4K Brilliance Restoration, another mesmerizing ability of the Toshiba TV M550K.

Every time users turn on the M550K TV to view any content, every picture in every frame that comes to view is analyzed for improved quality. A dynamic, on-the-go feature like the 4K Brilliance Restoration does not only analyze images, it divides each one and restores it to ultra HD brightness, using colours that naturally enhance it before it is displayed to you in real-time.

TV time is more alluring with the consistency of Toshiba TV M550K’s 4K Brilliance Restoration. Say goodbye to dull pictures and blurry screen images with the ultimate craftsman television that refines pictures with high premium restoration at an unbeatable speed.

Transform home entertainment experience with Toshiba TV M550K’s rich display technology and relish the most realistic viewing that pushes beyond conventional LED limits. 

To find out more, stay tuned to Toshiba TV on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube.

PR Newswire

China and its Southeast Asian neighbors need to enhance industrial cooperation

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BEIJING, Oct. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — By Beijing Review: In 2019, TCL, a Chinese consumer electronics company, began to build its new manufacturing base in Viet Nam. The new base has improved TCL’s production capacity with its products selling not only in Viet Nam but also to other markets in Southeast Asia and beyond.

In the first four months of 2022, the total foreign investment in Viet Nam surpassed $10.8 billion, up 88.3 percent year on year, according to its Ministry of Planning and Investment.

The country’s exports in the first quarter hit $88.58 billion, up 12.9 percent year on year, data from the Ministry of Industry and Trade showed.

Viet Nam’s rising status in the global supply chain has sparked discussion of the possibility that it will take away orders from China. In response, Wang Xiaosong, a research fellow at Renmin University of China’s National Academy of Development and Strategy, pointed out that China should adapt to the trend of some enterprises relocating their businesses to Southeast Asia.

“It is a natural process of industrial upgrading for China,” Wang told Beijing Review, adding that the development of near neighbors will facilitate mutual prosperity.

The strategy of relocating labor-intensive jobs to countries with competitive local resources that are much closer to target markets, while maintaining core and critical links in China, is motivating increasing numbers of Chinese manufacturers to take their operations overseas. For example, while TV assembly is the core business of TCL’s Vietnamese base, the company’s factories in China produce high value-added products such as display panels.

“The industrial relocation began in 2015,” Wang said. “Economic development has raised the cost of labor-intensive businesses in China so companies have turned their eyes to Southeast Asian countries with cheaper workforces.”

In addition, emerging markets in the region are also offering preferential policies to attract foreign investors. In Viet Nam, for example, firms making new investments in sectors including technology, footwear and automobiles are taxed at 10 percent for 15 years. This period also includes a tax holiday for the first four years and a 50-percent reduction in the corporate income tax rate for nine subsequent years, according to Bloomberg Tax.

Some companies have transferred due to non-market factors. Hanyu Group is a Chinese company producing drainage pumps. Three years ago, Hanyu’s products were included on the U.S. list of Chinese goods to be subject to added tariffs. Its U.S. clients told the president of company that he needed to take part of his operations overseas, otherwise they would turn to other suppliers. Consequently, he moved part of his assembly line to Thailand.

The COVID-19 flare-ups have also triggered concerns about a possible industrial chain exodus from China.

“Southeast Asian countries are unlikely to replace China as a destination for foreign investment,” Wang said, citing statistics released by Viet Nam’s Ministry of Planning and Investment.

Despite the 88.3-percent rise in foreign investment, Viet Nam’s newly registered capital decreased by 56.3 percent in the first four months of the year. It means few companies established new factories in the country and the increasing foreign investment came from companies already present there.

During the same period, paid-in foreign direct investment into the Chinese mainland expanded 26.1 percent year on year to $74.47 billion, according to the Ministry of Commerce.

China has complete industrial clusters, technological accumulation, and a huge market that cannot be replicated in the short term, he added.

“The growth of Southeast Asian markets is actually a boon for China,” Wang said. “We have close industrial chain connections with our near neighbors.”

Viet Nam, for example, imports upper stream core equipment, raw materials and supporting facilities mainly from China, which will create more opportunities for Chinese suppliers, he explained.

According to the General Administration of Customs of China, trade between China and Viet Nam hit $230.2 billion in 2021, with a year-on-year growth of 19.7 percent. China was Viet Nam’s biggest trading partner.

Wang suggested China to tap the potential of its less developed areas where the labor costs are relatively low and which could be new destinations for industrial shifting.