SeaPRwire

IMF sees much stronger US growth, 2021 GDP up 7.0%

elean
4 minutes

WASHINGTON (AFP) - The IMF is bullish on the US economic recovery, predicting growth will hit 7 per cent this year - much stronger than previously forecast and "the fastest pace in a generation," the Fund said in a report on Thursday. The cheery analysis is a boon to President Joe Biden's administration and comes amid data showing an improving job market and on the eve of the all-important official employment report. The International Monetary Fund's annual review of the US economy put growth at its fastest rate since 1984, and also boosted the 2022 GDP forecast to 4.9 per cent, 1.4 percentage points higher than the April estimate. But while the IMF mostly cheered Mr Biden's policies to support the economy, the report flagged "significant concern" over the fact he has not pulled back on tariffs on goods like steel and aluminium imposed by his predecessor. The United States has seen a "remarkable recovery," the Fund said, helped by "unprecedented" support from government spending and the Federal Reserve's "highly effective" stimulus measures. The report notes the potential for growth to be even higher than forecast, but the outlook assumes US$4.3 trillion in spending over the next d...

SeaPRwire

TikTok bumps up video length to 3 minutes

elean
2 minutes

SAN FRANCISCO (AFP) - TikTok on Thursday began letting users post videos up to three minutes in length, tripling the prior cap to stay ahead of competitors. TikTok is believed to have one billion users worldwide, including more than 100 million in the United States, and is especially popular with young smartphone users. "With longer videos, creators will have the canvas to create new or expanded types of content on TikTok, with the flexibility of a bit more space," product manager Drew Kirchhoff said in a post. The option to post videos longer than the previous time limit of one minute will roll out to all TikTok users in coming weeks, according to Mr Kirchhoff. "Some of you might have come across a longer video on TikTok already - we've been letting creators around the world experiment with the expanded format," Mr Kirchhoff said. TikTok, which is owned by China-based ByteDance, remains one of the world's most popular social media apps, but faces competitors such as YouTube, Triller and others. Facebook-owned Instagram will be experimenting with video features to ride the hot trend, chief Adam Mosseri said in a Twitter post. Video sharing and viewing is driving a lot of growth at ...

SeaPRwire

Explainer: Binance, the giant crypto exchange under regulatory scrutiny

elean
5 minutes

LONDON (REUTERS) - Britain's financial watchdog has barred major cryptocurrency exchange Binance from carrying out regulated activities, the latest in a string of moves against the platform by the authorities across the world. Binance's Singapore arm Binance Asia Services runs a popular trading platform in the country. Here are answers to some key questions on Binance, one of the world's biggest exchanges, and what the latest regulatory moves mean. 1. How big is Binance? Very. Trading volumes last month were US$662 billion, up almost ten-fold from July last year, according to data from CryptoCompare. On a single day in May, daily volumes hit US$92 billion, United States researcher Coin Metrics said. Headed by Canadian Zhao Changpeng, Binance offers a wide range of services to users across the globe, from crypto spot and derivatives trading to tokenised versions of stocks. It also runs an exchange that allows users to trade directly with each other. Its own cryptocurrency, Binance Coin, is the fourth-biggest in the world. Binance is growing in popularity in Britain, where its app has been downloaded 1.8 million times this year, and 2.2 million times in total, according to mobile dat...

ACN Newswire
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Jinjiang Wulin Qiaopi Hall Included in UNESCO’s Memory of the World Register

indie
2 minutes

Jinjiang, China, Jul 2, 2021 - (ACN Newswire via SEAPRWire.com) - With the recent approval of UNESCO Memory of the World Program's Sub-Committee on Education and Research and the National Archives Administration of China, the Fujian Provincial Archives and Jinjiang Municipal Archives jointly established Jinjiang Wulin Qiaopi Hall as the practice base of the "Memory of the World Program Knowledge Center - Fujian". Wulin Qiaopi Hall.Citizens read Qiaopi at Wulin Qiaopi Hall.Simulation of Qiaopi Office at the first floor.It is reported that the MoW Knowledge Center - Fujian is located in the Fujian Provincial Archives, which is responsible for assisting the China National Committee of the Memory of the World Program and the UNESCO Memory of the World Program's Sub-Committee on Education and Research. It aims at strengthening the research on the value of the Qiaopi archives, developing different forms of archival products and promoting the communication, promotion and utilization of the MoW program across countries, regions, and communities.Qiaopi, commonly known as "Fanpi" and "Yinxin", is a collective term for letters and remittances sent home by overseas Chinese through private chan...

JCN Newswire
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NEC Commercializes Open RAN Cloud-native Software Featuring High Performance Massive MIMO and Beamforming

ruth
3 minutes

TOKYO, Jul 1, 2021 - (JCN Newswire via SEAPRWire.com) - NEC Corporation announced today the launch of carrier-grade, cloud-native Open RAN software supporting its industry-leading digital beamforming of Massive MIMO (mMIMO). The solution will be available globally from the beginning of 2022. 5G Networks are increasingly adopting the cloud. The introduction of virtualization technologies in various layers of the network, from core to RAN, enables faster service provisioning and equipment cost reduction while shortening procurement lead times. Cloud-native architecture and operation allows network orchestration and automation at scale, thereby achieving improved service quality and reliability. NEC's cloud-native software delivers carrier-grade performance, cloud-grade scalability and cost effectiveness. To meet 5G's high-speed, high-capacity requirements, it provides advanced control of full digital beamforming over 16 layers in downlink communications in systems where mMIMO is utilized. This implementation delivers large-capacity transmission as well as efficient and autonomous control depending on the service requirements and traffic conditions. The solution fully supports O-RAN s...

ACN Newswire
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Cross the City, ADO Debuts A20F Ebike with Fat Tire

indie
5 minutes

FRANKFURT & LONDON, Jul 1, 2021 - (ACN Newswire via SEAPRWire.com) - Innovative startup ADO officially debuts the A20F off-road commuter Ebike across global on July 1st. The A20F is positioned as an urban off-road Ebike, able to conquer all urban terrains.With years of efforts and accumulation in the electric bicycle industry, ADO has reached cooperation with 30 local distributing partners in the United Kingdom, Germany, Italy, Spain, Russia, Ukraine, Ireland, Lithuania, Portugal, Finland, Slovenia, Vietnam, etc., radiating its business to the world. ADO will maintain its momentum to focus on deployment and continue to tackle the eight regional markets of the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Germany, Italy, Spain and France.What users get from A20F e-bikeADO's electric bicycle A20F, positioned as urban off-road, can conquer all urban terrains:- 500W (CE version: 250W) and 380r/min motor, rated as off-road power drive, provides excellent obstacle crossing ability, can easily conquer all urban terrains - ADO G-GIVER Control System- SHIMANO 7 speed Transmission System offers an easy cycling experience- Full body shock absorption system provides a smooth riding experience...

SeaPRwire

Merger of Viyi Algorithm Inc. and Venus Acquisition Corporation brings in $47.17 million in annual revenue

pandora
4 minutes

NEW YORK, June 10, 2021 Venus Acquisition Corporation (Nasdaq: VENA) ("Venus"), a publicly traded special purpose acquisition company, and VIYI Algorithm Inc. ("VIYI Algo"), a Cayman Islands exempted company operating in China and controlled by WiMi Hologram Cloud, Inc. (NASDAQ: WIMI), announced today that they have entered into a definitive merger agreement. A newly created merger subsidiary of Venus will be merged with and into VIYI Algo with VIYI Algo being the surviving entity and becoming a wholly owned subsidiary of Venus. Upon closing of the transaction, Venus will change its name to MicroAlgo Inc. The merger is structured as a stock for stock transaction and is intended to qualify as a tax-free reorganization. The terms of the merger provide for a valuation of VIYI Algo and its subsidiaries and businesses of US $400,000,000. VIYI Algo is dedicated to the development and application of bespoke central processing algorithms. Central processing algorithms refer to a range of computing algorithms, including analytical algorithms, recommendation algorithms, and acceleration algorithms. VIYI Algo provides comprehensive solutions to customers by integrating central processing algo...

JCN Newswire
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“Booking Car”, A Cloud Service for Company Cars, Launched at Toyota Dealers and Toyota Rental & Lease Agencies in Japan

ruth
2 minutes

Toyota City, Japan, Jul 1, 2021 - (JCN Newswire via SEAPRWire.com) - Toyota Motor Corporation (Toyota) today announced that Toyota dealers and Toyota rental & lease agencies in Japan have begun accepting applications for "Booking Car," a cloud service developed by Toyota Mobility Service Corporation for corporate customers nationwide who use company cars. Since the launch of this service at TMS in November 2020, we have received requests from all over the country to introduce and handle this service, which led to its nationwide expansion. We have received inquiries from about 200 companies, and have received high praise from customers who have already introduced the service.The service has the following two featuresThe first is to improve the efficiency of company car management by making it possible to make reservations and use company cars easily using smartphones and other devices. The second is to use the framework of a "shared use agreement"* to enable the sharing of company vehicles for private use by employees during holidays and nighttime hours when they are not used for business, and to rent them out to employees at low cost, thereby reducing vehicle costs and providin...

SeaPRwire

Man jailed for forging retrenchment letter to cheat MSF into disbursing Covid-19 Support Grant

aseanpr
3 minutes

SINGAPORE - A man who resigned from his job last July forged a letter claiming that he had been retrenched to dupe the Ministry of Social and Family Development (MSF) into disbursing the Covid-19 Support Grant. Benny Ong Hong Beng was unsuccessful as the ministry was able to detect that the letter was a forgery. MSF did not disburse the pay-out, which would have seen him receive a total of $2,400 over three months. The 44-year-old, who used to work for a company called Davis Guitar, pleaded guilty on Thursday (July 1) to committing forgery for the purpose of cheating and was sentenced to 10 weeks' jail. The financial support scheme was announced by the Government in March last year as part of the Resilience Budget to deal with the economic and social impact of Covid-19. It was administered by the MSF and targeted employees affected by the economic impact of Covid-19. An applicant must have experienced, among other things, involuntary unemployment due to retrenchment or contract termination after Jan 23 last year. They must also submit documents including a retrenchment letter. On July 6 last year, Ong tendered his resignation at Davis Guitar, which sells musical instruments, as he ...

JCN Newswire
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Eisai Launches In-house Developed Anti-insomnia Drug Dayvigo (Lemborexant) In Hong Kong

ruth
5 minutes

TOKYO, Jul 1, 2021 - (JCN Newswire via SEAPRWire.com) - Eisai Co., Ltd. announced today that its Hong Kong subsidiary Eisai (Hong Kong) Co., Ltd. has launched the in-house-discovered and developed orexin receptor antagonist DAYVIGO (generic name: lemborexant) for the treatment of adults with insomnia, characterized by difficulties with sleep onset and/or sleep maintenance. Eisai received approval for DAYVIGO in Hong Kong on February 28, 2021, and this launch is the first for DAYVIGO in Asia outside of Japan. DAYVIGO is a dual orexin receptor antagonist that inhibits orexin neurotransmission regulating sleep-wake rhythm by binding competitively to the two subtypes of orexin receptors (OX1R and OX2R). DAYVIGO acts on the orexin neurotransmitter system and is believed to facilitate sleep onset, sleep maintenance, and wake by regulating sleep-wake rhythm.DAYVIGO binds to orexin receptors OX1R and OX2R and acts as a competitive antagonist with stronger inhibition effect on OX2R, which suppresses both REM and non-REM sleep drive, such that DAYVIGO may provide faster sleep onset and better sleep maintenance to patients.DAYVIGO was launched in the U.S. and Canada for the treatment of adult...

SeaPRwire

Jail for drunk man who punched 12-year-old son in the face, called his elderly mother a loose woman

aseanpr
3 minutes

SINGAPORE - A man who punched his young son in the face and called his elderly mother a loose woman was jailed for four weeks on Thursday (July 1). The 48-year-old, who worked at Singapore Changi Airport, was drunk in both incidents. He cannot be named to protect the identity of his child. He had pleaded guilty to one charge each of voluntarily causing hurt, harassment and breaching a Personal Protection Order (PPO). Two other charges for harassment and using criminal force were taken into consideration in sentencing. One of the incidents happened on Dec 3, 2019, at about 9pm, when the man returned to his family's flat after drinking four cans of beer. He was not supposed to be there as his 74-year-old mother had taken out a PPO against him. They argued and his mother told him to leave, but instead he used an abusive word on his mother, referring to her as a loose woman. He continued to verbally abuse her even after the police arrived and arrested him. At about 4.30pm on Feb 25 this year, the man got into an argument with his mother and his 51-year-old sister at the family flat. It was over his 12-year-old son. He was again drunk at the time after consuming five cans of beer. When ...

SeaPRwire

SingPost issues tallest stamps in Singapore’s history

aseanpr
2 minutes

SINGAPORE - A commemorative set of six stamps featuring prominent buildings with skyrise greenery in Singapore was released on Thursday (July 1). At a height of 81.6mm each, the stamps are the tallest ever issued here, Singapore Post said. The stamps feature six skyrise greenery projects built by public and private developers in the last 10 years. They are Khoo Teck Puat Hospital, Oasia Hotel Downtown, Kampung Admiralty, Jewel Changi Airport, SkyTerrace @ Dawson, and the Lee Kong Chian Natural History Museum. With the exception of the natural history museum, the developments have all been recipients of the President's Design Award for Design of the Year. The museum was designed by two recipients of the Designer of the Year award. The six landmarks seamlessly incorporate greenery into their architecture, in line with the Urban Redevelopment Authority's Landscaping for Urban Spaces and High-Rises (Lush) programme. Introduced in 2009, the Lush programme aims to encourage building developers to incorporate greenery on the exterior and interior spaces of buildings to replace greenery lost from the building sites. Over the past decade, Lush has enabled the introduction of more than 250ha...

ACN Newswire
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Shippit Inks Three New Deals with Leading Logistics Providers Janio, FedEx and Qxpress to Strengthen Domestic and International Capabilities

indie
4 minutes

SINGAPORE, Jul 1, 2021 - (ACN Newswire via SEAPRWire.com) - Today, fast-growing e-Commerce fulfilment tech company Shippit announces it has signed three new delivery partner deals with integrated logistics solutions provider Janio, global logistics player FedEx, and e-Commerce logistics expert Qxpress. These deals come as part of Shippit's efforts to rapidly scale up its operations in Southeast Asia following its A$30 million Series B fundraise in December 2020.Apart from strengthening Shippit's domestic delivery network in Singapore and Malaysia, Shippit's new partnership with Janio will allow Shippit to open up its delivery lanes with special rates in Southeast Asia, China, and the US. This enables merchants access to ship to more countries than before at lower costs. The partnership with Qxpress will help Shippit improve reliability and flexibility in domestic deliveries by offering new delivery options such as "same-day delivery" in Singapore, so parcels can reach end customers quickly.With an estimated 40 million new users in Southeast Asia coming online because of the pandemic, e-Commerce spend has unsurprisingly surged; the industry is currently valued at US$62 billion and i...

ACN Newswire
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NovelPlus Makes Successful Debut on LEAP Market

indie
2 minutes

KUALA LUMPUR, Jul 1, 2021 - (ACN Newswire via SEAPRWire.com) - NovelPlus Technology Berhad ("NTB" or the "Group"), an online social reading and writing platform developer and operator, successfully listed on the LEAP Market of Bursa Securities Malaysia Berhad today at RM0.25 per share, above the offer price of RM0.15 per share.NTB Chief Executive Officer, Crystal LaiThe Group has an e-book library comprising over 37,000 published novels in Bahasa Melayu and Bahasa Indonesia with an ecosystem comprising over 2.1 million users, of which approximately 10,000 are registered as writers and the rest are readers.The platform operates under the name NovelPlus, with the content being accessed through the Group's mobile application and web browser. NovelPlus operates on a freemium model where readers can access the platform for free or pay a subscription fee to enjoy an advertisement-free reading experience.The NovelPlus platform allows readers to browse and select e-books, personalise their experience and manage their profile as well as interact with writers registered on the platform. For writers, the NovelPlus platform allows them to write, edit and self-publish their serialized novels, b...

SeaPRwire

Singapore’s resident unemployment rate falls for 7th straight month

aseanpr
3 minutes

SINGAPORE - Singapore's labour market continued to recover in May, latest figures from the Ministry of Manpower showed on Thursday (July 1). The resident unemployment rate, which covers Singapore citizens and permanent residents, fell for the seventh consecutive month. It declined to 3.8 per cent, from 3.9 per cent in the preceding month. Meanwhile, unemployment among Singapore citizens also dropped to 4 per cent, from 4.1 per cent previously. The overall unemployment rate fell to 2.8 per cent, from 2.9 per cent in April. About 88,600 residents were unemployed in May, including 79,000 citizens. This is down from 92,100 unemployed residents, including 82,800 citizens, in April. Singapore's unemployment rates peaked in September last year and persisted through October before falling steadily since November. The downward trend of unemployment rates is a good sign that the labour market is steadily improving, said Manpower Minister Tan See Leng. "However, we remain cautiously optimistic about the situation as we continue to see resurgence of the virus globally and have also yet to see the full impact of phase two (heightened alert) restrictions, which began in mid-May," said Dr Tan in ...

SeaPRwire

Man who smuggled cigarettes and hid them in excavator arms jailed 39 months, fined $16m

aseanpr
2 minutes

SINGAPORE - A man who repeatedly dealt with duty-unpaid cigarettes has been jailed 39 months and fined $16 million, and will serve an additional 25 months and a day of jail as he did not pay the fine. Singaporean Loh Hu Seong, 58, was found to have worked with a Malaysian man in 2018 to smuggle duty-unpaid cigarettes into Singapore, in return for $1,000 to $2,000 for each shipment, going so far as to search for warehouses in Singapore for the operation, Singapore Customs said on Thursday (July 1). He and the Malaysian man sourced for excavator parts in Singapore to hide the cigarettes, using an industrial unit in Tuas South Street 1, which Loh rented, to dismantle the excavators and retrieve the cigarettes. Singapore Customs in November that year found 5,428 cartons and 25 packets of duty-unpaid cigarettes during a raid on the unit, with many of the cigarettes concealed in recycled excavator arms. The total duty and goods and services tax (GST) evaded amounted to $552,410. Five men were arrested. Singapore Customs is also investigating the Malaysian man. Investigations showed that Loh, during the same period, also engaged in "a criminal conspiracy" with another Singaporean man when...

ACN Newswire
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Chinese Sportswear Brand Anta Released Olympic Award Uniform of China with High-Tech

indie
3 minutes

BEIJING, Jul 1, 2021 - (ACN Newswire via SEAPRWire.com) - Chinese sportswear brand Anta released Team China's podium uniform for the Tokyo Olympics, called 'Champion Dragon Clothes', on June 25 in Beijing. The uniform is designed by Tim Yip, also known as Ye Jintian, the renowned art director, visual artist and Oscar winner for best art design. According to Ye, the uniform combines Chinese traditional cultural icons, beauty and advanced sportswear technologies. The designer said he hoped to show the beauty of Chinese culture and most creative design language to the world."This is probably the longest time in history it took to design the Champion Dragon Clothes for Team China. It's different from designing costumes for movies or shows. We need to show the beauty of athletes' body, so we have conducted many studies," said Ye."We also used many advanced technologies and high-quality materials of different function in the uniform. During the process, I'm impressed by Anta's technologies, especially the shoes. It's fresh and interesting for me to know how to make the sneakers to have light weight, good breathability and durability at the same time."Working with the Chinese Olympic Comm...

ACN Newswire
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MothersonSumi INfotech and Designs Ltd. (MIND) Announces the Opening of a New Office in Singapore, Expanding Global Operations

indie
3 minutes

Singapore, Jul 1, 2021 - (ACN Newswire via SEAPRWire.com) - Mothersonsumi INfotech and Designs Ltd. (MIND) a technology and Industrial solutions division of Motherson Group, today announced the official opening of its new office in Singapore. MIND's Singapore office will serve as the headquarters for the entire Southeast Asia region and will be an essential pillar in its geographic expansion strategy. MIND's Singapore business unit will offer a holistic gamut of IT service offerings, including digital transformation, Cloud Hosting and Migration, Next Gen IT Infrastructure, Smart Factory Automation and digital engineering services. With its Singapore base, MIND is looking to expand its best-in-class services to customers across Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia, and Malaysia and to other countries in Far East."The launching of the MIND Singapore office is aligned with our commitment to drive clients' success in the region and worldwide. Given Singapore's position as the hub for economic activities in the Southeast Asia, it's a market we constantly evaluated and wanted to open an office to expand our presence in the market," said Rajesh Thakur, Chief Executive Officer, MIND. He further ad...

JCN Newswire
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NEC and Netcracker Orchestrate Cloud-Native 5G Core Services on AWS

ruth
4 minutes

TOKYO, Jul 1, 2021 - (JCN Newswire via SEAPRWire.com) - NEC Corporation and Netcracker, a wholly owned subsidiary of NEC, announced today that they have deployed their 5G Core and full stack Digital BSS/OSS on Amazon Web Services (AWS) to orchestrate and automate 5G digital services. The solution will be displayed at the AWS Virtual Village during Mobile World Congress. In this demonstration, NEC deploys its 5G Core control plane on an AWS Region and its 5G UPF on an AWS Outposts' edge location. AWS Outposts is a fully managed service that offers the same AWS infrastructure, AWS services, application programming interfaces (APIs), and tools to virtually any datacenter, co-location space, or on-premises facility for a truly consistent hybrid experience. The edge location is connected to the AWS Local Zone where applications are hosted. 5G services and network slices can be ordered on-demand from Netcracker's Digital Marketplace, and its orchestration systems dynamically place the 5G workloads and applications in the appropriate AWS Local Zone. This setup guarantees the very low latency and very high data capacity necessary for services such as interactive media traffic. NEC and Netc...

SeaPRwire

Alibaba nears first big deal since record antitrust fine

elean
5 minutes

HONG KONG (BLOOMBERG) - Alibaba Group Holding is poised to make its first major investment since it paid a record antitrust fine as part of a bruising crackdown on Jack Ma's internet empire. A consortium led by the e-commerce giant and the Jiangsu provincial government is nearing a deal to buy a stake in the retail arm of Chinese billionaire Zhang Jindong's Suning conglomerate, people familiar with the matter have said. The deal would add to the 20 per cent stake that Alibaba already owns in Suning.com, one of China's biggest retailers of appliances, electronics and other consumer goods that's valued at roughly US$8 billion (S$10.8 billion). The potential investment could mark a comeback for Alibaba since authorities levied a US$2.8 billion fine on the company in April for anti-monopoly violations, fueling its first loss in nine years. The deal would help the e-commerce firm encroach on top rival JD.com's traditional stronghold of electronics, while joining hands with local authorities signals the tech billionaire and his company are ready to get back to deal-making. "Should the deal proceed, it strengthens the case that Alibaba isn't allowing regulatory overhang to constrain its s...