NEC Corporation, OCC Corporation and Sumitomo Electric Industries, Ltd. Complete First Trial of Submarine Cable with Multicore Fiber

ruth 4 10 月

3 minutes

TOKYO, Oct 4, 2021 - (JCN Newswire via SEAPRWire.com) - NEC Corporation (TSE: 6701), its subsidiary OCC Corporation and Sumitomo Electric Industries, Ltd. (TSE: 5802) announced today that they have completed the first trial of uncoupled(1) 4-core submarine fiber cable(2), and verified its transmission performance to meet the exacting demands of global telecommunications networks. Comparison of conventional and multicore fiber cablesImage of OCC SC500 LW cableInternational data usage is expected to expand by 30-40% CAGR from 2020-2026(3), driven by factors such as the growth of 5G mobile data, and the need to share ever more content between data centers distributed around the world. To meet this demand, submarine networks are adopting space division multiplexing (SDM) technology, where the number of independent spatial channels is increased to maximize total system capacity, reduce power consumption and optimize cost per bit. Multicore fiber is now expected to further increase the number of parallel optical fiber cores without increasing the submarine cable size and structure, enabling the second generation of submarine SDM systems.Multicore fiber submarine cable featuresConventiona...

Govt to announce decision on HBL extension for primary schools later this week

aseanpr 4 10 月

3 minutes

SINGAPORE - An announcement will be made later this week on whether home-based-learning (HBL) will be extended for primary schools, said Education Minister Chan Chun Sing. All Primary 1 to 5 pupils are currently due to return to school next Monday (Oct 11) after two weeks of HBL to help reduce the risk of transmission amid Singapore's largest surge in Covid-19 cases. MOE had initially announced that these pupils would be placed on HBL from Sept 27 to Wednesday (Oct 6) - the end of this year's PSLE exams. This was later extended by a day to Thursday, with Children's Day on Friday. Mr Chan said the announcement is not being made immediately because school staff should focus on the ongoing PSLE, and his ministry wants to inform educators first. He was responding in Parliament on Monday (Oct 4) to Mr Darryl David (Ang Mo Kio GRC), who had asked if HBL could be extended past this week or even to the start of the school holidays - which start on Nov 20 this year. Mr David had also asked about HBL plans for older students taking the upcoming N, O and A level exams. Mr Chan replied that the considerations for primary and secondary schools are different. HBL was necessary to protect primary...

Director of freight forwarding company fined $105,000 for evading GST

aseanpr 4 10 月

2 minutes

SINGAPORE - The director of a freight forwarding company in Singapore, who evaded more than $20,000 in goods and services tax (GST), has been fined $105,000. Tang Yong Hoe, 43, director of I-Do Logistics, pleaded guilty to one charge of abetting a consignee to furnish false information to a Customs officer, and one charge of evadingGST that involved 67 import permits and a total of $16,842 in tax evaded. Another two similar charges were taken into consideration during sentencing on Sept 27. I-Do imports goodsfrom its business partner in China, before sorting and delivering them to consignees here. Tan, a Singaporean, was found to have under-declared the value of goods imported by I-Do Logistics and evaded $20,204 in GST between March 2017 and September 2018. He used the packing lists from his Chinese business partner to apply for permits, despite knowing that the lists did not give the actual worth of the goods. His offences came to light after an inspection by Customs officers on July 31, 2018. Two consignees provided packing lists which under-declared the value of the goods so that they could be exempted from GST. One of the consignees, who did so knowing that the information was...

S’pore’s judicial and legal services to be separated in proposed structural changes

aseanpr 4 10 月

5 minutes

SINGAPORE - The judicial and legal services will be separated to reap the benefits of greater specialisation, if proposed structural changes to Singapore's legal service are passed in Parliament. The Government has proposed creating a separate Judicial Service, which will be overseen by a newly established Judicial Service Commission (JSC) led by the Chief Justice. Changes have also been proposed to be made to the Legal Service, which will be overseen by a reconstituted Legal Service Commission (LSC) headed by the Attorney-General. The proposed changes will be made through the Constitution of the Republic of Singapore (Amendment) Bill and the Judicial Service (Miscellaneous Amendments) Bill, which were tabled in Parliament on Monday (Oct 4). Currently, about 800 legal service officers are overseen by the LSC and can serve in either or both the judicial and legal branches over the course of their careers. If the Bills are passed, about 220 who are currently holding judicial posts - assistant registrars in the Supreme Court and district judges and magistrates in the State Courts and Family Justice Courts - will be transferred to the new Judicial Service as judicial service officers. ...

Societal cost of 6 common mental health disorders estimated at $1.7b yearly: IMH study

aseanpr 4 10 月

5 minutes

SINGAPORE - A study by the Institute of Mental Health (IMH) has identified for the first time the societal cost of six common mental health disorders here, estimated at about $1.7 billion per year. It found that the healthcare system or society would be expected to incur $3,938.90 more in total costs a year for an individual associated with these conditions compared with someone without a disorder. The costs refer to healthcare utilisation costs and productivity loss. The six common mental health disorders identified in the study are major depressive disorder, general anxiety disorder, bipolar disorder, obsessive compulsive disorder, alcohol abuse and alcohol dependence. The $1.7 billion figure was derived from a 13.9 per cent prevalence rate of common mental health conditions among adults aged 18 and above, an estimated more than 433,000 persons, said IMH on Monday (Oct 4). These findings were from the second Singapore Mental Health Study, initiated in 2016, which examined the prevalence of common mental health disorders here, their associated factors, treatment gap and the local adult population's help-seeking behaviour. The study was led by IMH in collaboration with the Ministry...

TraceTogether ‘not cleared’ issue for Covid-19 home recovery patients to be resolved soon: Ong Ye Kung

aseanpr 4 10 月

3 minutes

SINGAPORE - People who have recovered from Covid-19 at home, but find that their TraceTogether app still shows they are "not cleared", will have this issue resolved in the next few days, said Health Minister Ong Ye Kung in Parliament on Monday (Oct 4). The alert will be synchronised with their discharge dates, meaning that it will automatically disappear on the day they complete their home recovery, he said. This means that vaccinated people will be able to resume normal life after 10 days, while non-vaccinated people will be able to do so after 14 days. Mr Ong was responding to Ms Jessica Tan (East Coast GRC), who said she had received several requests for help on the issue. Once a person tests positive for Covid-19 in a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test, the TraceTogether app test status will show that he is "not cleared". This prevents the person from entering most buildings, including for activities such as dining and grocery shopping. Typically, the test status would be cleared once he takes a second PCR test and obtains a negative result. But many patients on home recovery are not offered such a test. Mr Ong explained that fully vaccinated people are automatically discharg...

Flying Evans delivers another home win for the Toyota Yaris WRC

ruth 4 10 月

8 minutes

Toyota City, Japan, Oct 4, 2021 - (JCN Newswire via SEAPRWire.com) - The TOYOTA GAZOO Racing World Rally Team is celebrating a fourth home victory on Rally Finland thanks to an outstanding weekend from Elfyn Evans and his co-driver Scott Martin. The British duo are now the only crew who can catch team-mates Sebastien Ogier and Julien Ingrassia - who finished fifth in Finland - from winning the championship with two rounds remaining, meaning a Toyota driver is now guaranteed to win the title for a third year in a row. The team has also taken a step closer to clinching the manufacturers' championship.Elfyn Evans, Scott MartinIn the first Rally Finland to be held for over two years, the team faced strengthened competition on the high-speed gravel roads. Evans was its best-placed driver at the end of the opening day on Friday in third overall, having produced a strong performance despite running second on the road. On Saturday morning he surged into the lead with four stage wins out of four, and he took an advantage of 9.1 seconds into the final day.He was only 0.4s off the fastest time in the first of Sunday's tests before delivering fastest times in both SS17 and SS18 to increase his...

Implications of brave new world of crypto, distributed ledger tech

elean 4 10 月

1 minute

SINGAPORE - Cryptocurrencies are having a moment. Whether you're on the trading floor or at the kopitiam, it seems you can't escape whispers of Ethereum or Solana. Please subscribe or log in to continue reading the full article. Get unlimited access to all stories at $0.99/month Latest headlines and exclusive stories In-depth analyses and award-winning multimedia content Get access to all with our no-contract promotional package at only $0.99/month for the first 3 months* Subscribe now *Terms and conditions apply.

China steps up efforts to ring-fence Evergrande, not to save it

elean 4 10 月

6 minutes

HONG KONG (BLOOMBERG) - As China Evergrande Group edges closer to a massive restructuring, Beijing has stepped up efforts to limit the fallout, signaling it's willing to prop up healthy developers, homeowners and the real estate market at the expense of global bondholders. In the last week alone, Chinese authorities have dispatched top financial regulators to nudge the country's massive banks to ease credit for homebuyers and support the property sector. They also bought out part of Evergrande's stake in a struggling bank to limit contagion. The central bank meanwhile pumped 460 billion yuan (S$96.3billion) into the system over a five-day stretch to ease liquidity. The moves underscore that China will do everything it can to ring-fence Evergrande, while showing little interest in a direct bailout of the developer that has roiled global markets for weeks. That doesn't bode well for bondholders - both onshore and abroad - looking for some kind of rescue from the Chinese government. "The first obligation is going to make sure that homeowners who bought those homes take delivery and are made whole," said Marathon Asset Management chief executive Bruce Richards, who started buying Everg...

Will some semblance of calm return after turbulent September?

elean 4 10 月

5 minutes

SINGAPORE - To say it has been rough in September might seem like an understatement. Not only was the market rocked by inflation and interest rate concerns, it also had to deal with the debt saga involving China-based property giant Evergrande and its potential contagion in other East Asian asset markets. The question is whether, heading into the final quarter of the year, some semblance of calm will return. The first trading day of this month saw the three key Wall Street indexes landing in positive territory. But all three were down for the week. The Dow Jones ended at 34,326.46 points, down 1.36 per cent compared with the previous Friday. The broader S&P 500 index fared even worse, losing 2.21 per cent to close at 4,357.04 points. The tech-laden Nasdaq slid 3.2 per cent to 14,566.70 points - its lowest weekly close since end-July. The Straits Times Index fell almost 36 points last Friday to end at 3,051.11 in the wake of negative news flows from the United States and China. But for the week, the benchmark index was down just 10.24 points or 0.33 per cent. As at Sept 30, the total value of the 665 companies listed on the Singapore bourse slipped 0.1 per cent to $845.5 billion, fr...

UOB recognised as world’s best bank for SMEs by British publication Euromoney

elean 4 10 月

3 minutes

SINGAPORE - UOB has earned credit for being a world-best in lending to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The Singapore bank said on Monday (Oct 4) that it has been named the World's Best Bank for SMEs at the Euromoney Global Awards for Excellence 2021, "based on its deep regional connectivity, expertise and support of SMEs to enable post-pandemic recovery and growth". Last February, it rolled out $3 billion in relief financing to companies impacted by Covid-19 and to date has lent money to more than 20,000 SMEs across the region. UOB operates here as well as in Malaysia, Thailand and the Philippines. Its deputy chairman and chief executive Wee Ee Cheong said it is also helping its SME customers "transform their business digitally, seize cross-border opportunities and advance responsibly for long-term growth". For example, the number of transactions made through PayNow Corporate among UOB's SME customers grew more than 50 times in the first quarter of 2021, compared with the same period in 2019. SME clients in the region that took up UOB BizSmart, a suite of cloud-based solutions tailored to boost productivity, also reported revenue expansion of between 15 per cent and 30 p...

Accessing Asia’s post-pandemic opportunities

elean 4 10 月

8 minutes

Transformational trends converging in Asia – some accelerated by the pandemic – could potentially unleash the region’s next wave of growth opportunities. “Opportunities are where people are. If we take a pair of compasses and draw a large circle on the map with Indonesia at the centre, and China and India also within it, we will find that there are more people living inside than outside the circle,” says Ms Caroline Loke, portfolio manager, Asia ex-Japan equity at PineBridge Investments. Drivers of post-Covid-19 growth in Asia With over more than half of the world’s population living in Asia-Pacific1, ample opportunities can be found in the region. Urbanisation is swelling the region’s cities. Asia is projected to have the largest urban population on the planet by 2050 – with implications on essential services, housing and sustainability, among others, for years to come.2 Not only that, the region’s demographics are primed for the next generation of technological innovations incubating in Asia – it has the world’s largest population of “digital natives”.3 This young and tech-savvy population is coming of age amid increasing wealth and consumption power. By 2027, 1.2 billion Chinese...

Recovering at home from Covid-19 was a good thing in a bad situation for this Singapore family

aseanpr 3 10 月

5 minutes

SINGAPORE - My son, who will turn 12 in January, caught Covid-19 on Sept 22. It started with a cough, then a fever and concluded with a positive polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test. As the person closest to him, I was also diagnosed on the same day. After we tested positive, we quarantined ourselves in my room. But we were freed from the room shortly after, when, the next day, my husband also tested positive. The happy part of this story was that, on Sept 15, about a week before we caught Covid-19, the home recovery programme kicked in. When my son and I tested positive, we applied to stay home together. My husband did the same too when he got his results. Initially, there was a bit of confusion over what to do because we were given scanty instructions, but we sorted things out ourselves by reading the Ministry of Health (MOH) website. We then hunkered down for self-isolation at home. The home recovery scheme is to lighten the load of medical personnel and facilities, but I am sure being at home also played a very big part in our recuperation. For a few days after testing positive, we were knocked out by flu-like symptoms such as a fever, headache, runny nose and fatigue, and noth...

Biden’s Nuclear Submarines: weapons that may hurt Australia

pandora 3 10 月

3 minutes

Australia is showing its power as an important member of the Anglosphere. In mid-September, Australia tore up its $37 billion contract with France for 12 diesel-powered submarines in 2016, and then announced a new nuclear-powered submarine deal worth about $66 billion between Canberra, Washington and London and the formation of a new three-nation defense alliance — AUKUS. Affected by the epidemic, Australia’s economic situation is in dire straits, but Morrison seems to be using his muscles to prove that Australia still has a strong endogenous power. Australia’s growth is now slower than the United States, United Kingdom and OECD average and the worst of the economic pain caused by the Morrison government’s incompetence is yet to come, says Jim Chalmers, the shadow treasurer of Australia. However, a tough foreign policy could be an effective means for the Morrison administration to deflect domestic tensions. Australia no longer takes the arrogant French seriously and announced the suspension of its submarine contract with France. It also insisted that it had warned of problems with Macron’s contract previously, stressing that its decision was in Australia’s national interests. After...

Academic activities not under threat from anti-foreign interference law: MHA

aseanpr 3 10 月

4 minutes

SINGAPORE - Academics presenting research overseas, writing for international journals and receiving international funding will not fall afoul of the proposed law to counter foreign interference, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) said in a Facebook post on Sunday (Oct 3). The ministry was responding to academics Cherian George, Chong Ja Ian, Linda Lim and Teo You Yenn who expressed concerns, in an editorial published on Academia.sg on Friday, that the Foreign Interference (Countermeasures) Bill (Fica), in its current form, would "suddenly transform activities that are currently encouraged into a legal minefield". The editorial listed various activities that could potentially be threatened by the passage of Fica, including "presenting research at overseas conferences; writing for international journals and multi-author book projects; publishing in and reviewing for prestigious academic presses; participating in international collaborative research projects; partaking of fellowships, visiting appointments and training programmes; and participation in international funding opportunities". MHA said: "Please allow us to state without qualification: None of these activities will be affe...

Proposed law on foreign interference is aimed at hostile actors: Singapore envoy tells UN review

aseanpr 3 10 月

5 minutes

SINGAPORE - It is not the Government's intent to prevent all forms of foreign influence, only those which attempt at manipulation. Neither does Singapore intend to use the powers under a proposed law on foreign interference against those who engage in legitimate commentary, news reporting, civil activities or academic research, the Republic has told a United Nations meeting. These individuals and groups may do so even if their views are critical of Singapore or the Government, said the permanent representative of Singapore to the United Nations Office in Geneva, Ambassador Umej Bhatia, as he delivered Singapore's national statement at the adoption of its third Universal Periodic Review (UPR) outcome on Friday (Oct 1). "Our concern lies with the use of coordinated, deceptive methods by hostile foreign actors to manipulate our political discourse and disrupt our society," Mr Bhatia added. The adoption of the report on Singapore's UPR took place at the 48th session of the United Nations (UN) Human Rights Council. The UPR looks at the human rights records of all 193 UN member states every five years. Singapore submitted its report to the UN in January and participated in its UPR on May...

Few vaccinated people in S’pore infected by Covid-19 develop long-term symptoms

aseanpr 3 10 月

5 minutes

SINGAPORE - Only a small number of vaccinated Covid-19 cases in Singapore have developed "long Covid" symptoms so far. This is supported by overseas data showing the risk of developing the condition could be reduced by half in vaccinated people. The long Covid syndrome refers to residual symptoms that people continue to experience long after recovering from the disease. These include fatigue, shortness of breath, chest pain, joint aches and "brain fog" - where one's thinking is sluggish - which tend to last for four weeks or more. However, the risk of developing long Covid could be reduced by half among vaccinated individuals compared with the unvaccinated, according to a study conducted in Britain, said Dr Barnaby Young, head of National Centre for Infectious Diseases (NCID)’s Singapore Infectious Disease Clinical Research Network. "This is an encouraging result, and I suspect that it may even be an underestimate of the effectiveness of vaccination against long Covid symptoms, which are a direct result of a severe illness," he said. While there certainly have been cases of long Covid among vaccinated people overseas, the number of cases locally so far appears to be small, said Dr ...

Anti-foreign interference Bill already has proportionality requirement, similar to Pofma: MHA

aseanpr 3 10 月

4 minutes

SINGAPORE - The proposed law to counter foreign interference already contains a requirement for orders issued under it to be proportionate, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) said on Sunday (Oct 3). The ministry was responding to Senior Counsel Harpreet Singh Nehal who said in a Facebook post on Saturday that the language of the Foreign Interference (Countermeasures) Bill (Fica) "sets an extremely low bar for the public interest requirement to be met". "The Bill simply requires that the minister form the opinion that it is in the public interest to exercise his powers. As drafted, the Bill does not require that the opinion be reasonably held, or that the specific Fica orders that are issued be proportionate," Mr Singh added. The ministry said this was untrue, adding that the Bill incorporates proportionality into its public interest requirement. "The statutory test of 'public interest' stipulates that it should be necessary or expedient in the public interest to use those powers," MHA said. The ministry also said the same issue arose two years ago in relation to the law on fake news - the Protection from Online Falsehoods and Manipulation Act (Pofma) - that imposes a similar requir...

Mandalika Circuit ready for holding WorldSBK Championship: MGPA

indie 3 10 月

3 minutes

LOMBOK, INDONESIA, Oct 3, 2021 - (ACN Newswire via SEAPRWire.com) - The major work and the infrastructure at Mandalika Circuit, Lombok Island, West Nusa Tenggara, is nearly 100 percent complete, stated Mandalika Grand Prix Association (MGPA) CEO Ricky Baheramsjah. Supporting facilities - and vaccinations - are being accelerated in a bid to ensure the success of the MOTUL World Superbike (WorldSBK) Championship to be held at the Mandalika Circuit on November 19-21.An aerial view of construction works at the Mandalika Circuit, Mandalika Special Economic Zone, in the Central Lombok Regency, West Nusa Tenggara (NTB), Indonesia. (ANTARA FOTO/Ahmad Subaidi: 7/6/2021)For the first time since 1997, WorldSBK returns to Indonesia for the final round of the 2021 season, set to take place at Mandalika Circuit. "The main work and circuit infrastructure are complete. Now, we are focusing on the operational aspects, including deploying the circuit staff and medical team as well as ensuring that we have adequate equipment," Baheramsjah said here on Saturday.As of September 9, work on the supporting facilities had reached near 100 percent completion, comprising pit building, helipad and medical cen...

Pandemic frugality starting to wane

elean 3 10 月

1 minute

(REUTERS) - Early in the pandemic, there were encouraging and surprising signs about the decline of credit card debt. Now, that trendline seems to be changing. Many people stayed at home at the start of Covid-19 and did not spend like they usually do. They also received several rounds of emergency cash assistance, helping to chop away at those credit card bills, at least temporarily. Please subscribe or log in to continue reading the full article. Get unlimited access to all stories at $0.99/month Latest headlines and exclusive stories In-depth analyses and award-winning multimedia content Get access to all with our no-contract promotional package at only $0.99/month for the first 3 months* Subscribe now *Terms and conditions apply.

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