SeaPRwire

DBS rolls out support measures for small business owners

elean
2 minutes

Micro and small enterprises prioritise protecting employees’ livelihoods but many need more support, according to a survey by DBS Bank. So it has rolled out new measures to help these business owners stay afloat. About six in 10 micro and small enterprises polled in the DBS SME Pulse Check Survey cited responsibility for protecting employee livelihoods as the main motivation for sustaining their businesses. More than half have tapped personal savings and assets to do so. Also, four in 10 respondents said their mental and physical well-being had taken a blow. The survey, done at the start of the year, polled over 200 enterprises across various industries. Ms Joyce Tee, group head of SME banking at DBS, said: “With the economic situation and road ahead still uncertain, business owners must be ready for a long fight, and will need to take care of themselves to avoid burning out.” DBS will extend complimentary access to an app that helps manage workplace stress, as well as webinars giving tips for mental well-being. It also plans to run webinars on financial planning strategies and tools, such as DBS NAV Planner, the bank’s digital retirement financial planning solution. Businesses are...

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Govt will help SMEs build innovative capacity: Chan

elean
3 minutes

Singapore companies need to look beyond price competitiveness and develop niche products so they will not be easily displaced in the global supply chain, said Minister for Trade and Industry Chan Chun Sing. In what he called a four-pronged strategy, Mr Chan said government support will now be focused on encouraging local manufacturers to make innovative products, innovate their production processes, access larger offshore markets and develop the local talent base. On a visit to Sanwa Plastic's Woodlands factory yesterday, he said there will be increased emphasis on small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), which represent more than 90 per cent of the local manufacturing sector. "Our SMEs are competing in an increasingly challenging business environment. There is an urgent need for our SMEs to innovate their offerings to meet customers' changing needs and stay relevant in today's evolving landscape," he said. The minister described the various government initiatives and schemes available for SMEs, like Sanwa, to build their capacity to innovate and ride the next wave of growth. The schemes include the Productivity Solutions Grant, Scale-up SG, Enterprise Leadership for Transformati...

ACN Newswire
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Modefi Integrates Blockpass Ahead of Token Offering for Oracle Solution

indie
4 minutes

HONG KONG, Feb 8, 2021 - (ACN Newswire) - Blockpass, the pioneer of On-chain KYC(TM), is excited to announce its latest partner, Modefi, in what is another step towards providing security and trust for Oracle solutions and blockchain technology. In this new partnership, Blockpass will be providing its revolutionary KYC services to the company as Modefi seeks to create truly decentralized, secure and precise oracle solutions. This integration comes just as Modefi prepares for its token offering on the 10th of February 2021, which will take place on the TrustSwap Launchpad.As a Decentralized Aggregated Oracle, Modefi facilitates fully trustless and decentralized off-chain data, on chain, in its mission to secure the DeFi space against bad actors. It provides on-demand oracle data through a P2P incentivized network so that users are able to obtain atypical off-chain data for on-chain solutions. As it builds the foundation for real world adoption of oracles and DeFi, Modefi provides an oracle marketplace - a secure, trustless market for oracle data, clients and providers. Modefi's solution utilises smart contracts and multiple data sources to remove outliers, malicious actors and corru...

JCN Newswire
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NEC, Netcracker and DigitalRoute Partner to Accelerate 5G Monetization

ruth
4 minutes

STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN, Feb 8, 2021 - (JCN Newswire) - NEC Corporation (TSE: 6701), Netcracker and DigitalRoute announced today a strategic partnership in which NEC will offer DigitalRoute's Usage Data Platform alongside its 5G mobile core network (5GC). NEC and Netcracker have previously collaborated with DigitalRoute to deliver the Netcracker Digital BSS solution to operators around the world. This new partnership will include both DigitalRoute and Netcracker as part of NEC's 5GC product suite. It will allow NEC to provide an end-to-end 5G mobile core network to its customers. The joint solution gives communications service providers (CSPs) the ability to quickly deploy 5GC with BSS functions that enable them to monetize any type of 5G business model, including complex B2B and B2B2X scenarios. NEC actively promotes an open, virtualized infrastructure model in support of 5G, utilizing IT, orchestration and network expertise. Specifically, the standalone (SA) 5GC enables flexible operations, supported by the adoption of container technology. In addition, the SA 5GC enables the provisioning of network slices, which are ideal for services that take advantage of 5G features, while also imp...

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22 people charged with breaching SHN in 2020

aseanpr
2 minutes

SINGAPORE - Twenty-two people were charged with breaching stay-home notice (SHN) requirements last year, said the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA) on Monday (Feb 8). They included a 34-year-old Singaporean man who breached his 14-day SHN in March last year after returning from Myanmar to eat bak kut teh, as well as a former nurse who left her residence during her SHN period to buy bubble tea. She later tested positive for Covid-19. In its annual statistics report, the ICA said that more than 280,000 SHNs were issued in 2020. At the peak in April last year, the authority monitored more than 40,000 people placed on SHN. To help with its enforcement efforts, the ICA last August introduced electronic monitoring wristbands for people serving their SHN at non-dedicated facilities. More than 16,000 wristbands were issued last year. "This has allowed ICA to monitor this group of travellers in a more effective and efficient manner, thereby helping to reduce the risk to the community should they breach their SHN," said the authority. The ICA also enhanced online services to cater to the increased number of applications for short-term visit pass extensions, as many foreigners found...

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Real household incomes decline for first time in more than 10 years

aseanpr
2 minutes

SINGAPORE - The Covid-19 pandemic hit Singapore households hard last year, with overall median household income from work falling by 2.5 per cent in nominal terms from $9,425 to $9,189. After taking into account inflation, this works out to a 2.4 per cent drop in real terms - the first such decline in more than 10 years since after the economy was battered by the global financial crisis. In 2009, median monthly household income from work fell by 1.9 per cent in nominal terms, or 2.5 per cent in real terms after factoring in inflation. In a new report released on Monday afternoon (Feb 8), the Department of Statistics (DOS) found that lower-income households were the hardest hit, with those in the bottom 10 per cent seeing a 6.1 per cent real decline in income. In contrast, the rest of the households recorded real declines of 1.4 per cent to 3.2 per cent. But government transfers and taxes also significantly reduced the Gini coefficient from 0.452 to 0.375. The Gini coefficient measures income inequality from 0 to 1, with 0 being most equal. "This can be attributed to the significant amount of government support provided during the Covid-19 crisis in 2020, especially for households s...

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Over 42 million travellers entered Singapore in 2020, lowest in 5 years: ICA

aseanpr
3 minutes

SINGAPORE - Over 42 million travellers were cleared for entry and departure at Singapore's checkpoints last year, a plunge of more than 80 per cent from the year before, while the low-value goods that came in doubled in volume to over 21 million. The Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA) said on Monday (Feb 8) that the volume of arrivals and departures in 2020 - which saw an 80.6 per cent fall from the more than 217 million in 2019 - was the lowest in five years. In its annual statistics report, the ICA said the volume of fell as demand for air travel came to a halt, with many countries imposing strict border control measures because of the Covid-19 pandemic. With many of those stuck at home doing their shopping online, the volume of low-value goods - which do not exceed $400 in cost - rose sharply. The ICA cleared more than 21 million low-value goods through air cargo checkpoints last year, double the 10.5 million in 2019. Meanwhile, the volume of cargo - including consignments, containers and parcels - coming into Singapore rose by 400,000 last year, a 3.6 per cent increase from 2019. The drop in travellers and vehicles entering Singapore led to a 55.4 per cent decrease in ...

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Over 110,000 local jobseekers hired under Jobs Growth Incentive in September and October

aseanpr
2 minutes

SINGAPORE - More than 110,000 local jobseekers were hired under a government scheme that subsidises wages in the first two months of its implementation. This was double the number of workers that were hired in the Jobs Growth Incentive scheme's inaugural month in September alone, according to preliminary estimates. The workers were hired by around 26,000 firms, with about half of them aged 40 and above, said the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) on Monday (Feb 8). The Jobs Growth Incentive scheme aims to spur firms to hire more locals, with $1 billion set aside to provide wage support for these workers. Firms that hire local workers from September last year to February this year will receive a subsidy of 25 per cent of the first $5,000 of workers' gross monthly salaries for up to one year. The co-payment goes up to 50 per cent for workers aged 40 and above. In total, eligible firms can receive up to $15,000 for each local hire aged below 40, and $30,000 for each local hire aged 40 and above. MOM noted that the top hiring sectors included food services, wholesale trade, professional services, retail and construction. In October alone, more than 11,000 new employers became eligible for the ...

ACN Newswire

Showa Denko Invests in AMI Automation

indie
3 minutes

TOKYO, Feb 8, 2021 - (ACN Newswire) - Showa Denko (SDK; TOKYO:4004) has acquired 50% ownership in AMI Automation, headquartered in Monterrey, Mexico, effective on 5th February 2021. AMI Automation provides fully integrated automation and control solutions to a wide range of industries. Showa Denko has an option to acquire the remaining 50% of AMI within 5 years.AMI, through its Meltshop Solutions division, provides electrode regulation systems and EAF optimization services to improve operating efficiencies, while its Industrial Systems division is an automation and control solution provider for a wide range of industries around the world. AMI's electrode regulation systems are utilized to produce almost 90% of EAF steel in North America.SDK has contributed to improve EAF steelmaking quality and efficiency by providing customized high quality graphite electrodes to customers around the world. In collaboration with the Meltshop Solutions division's EAF optimization services, we will improve graphite electrode performance and provide more solution-based services that improve EAF steelmaking efficiency, energy conservation, and greenhouse gas reduction. In addition, by utilizing AMI's ...

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National movement launched to encourage digitalisation, President’s Challenge to provide $2.5 million in seed funding

aseanpr
3 minutes

SINGAPORE - A fund has been set up as part of a new national movement to spur Singaporeans in embracing a digital lifestyle. The Digital for Life movement and fund was launched by President Halimah Yacob on Monday (Feb 8). It will have $2.5 million in seed funding, provided by the President's Challenge, and is targeted to grow to $10 million over the next three years. Madam Halimah, who is the patron for the movement, said the pandemic threatens to widen the digital divide, even as it has hastens digitalisation efforts with businesses moving online and more using digital solutions like e-payments or video-conferencing tools. Those who are unfamiliar with technological tools, or have no access to them, will face challenges in their "digitalisation journey", she added. People can also be endangered if they do not know how to identify or mitigate the risks present in the digital domain. "As the digital landscape changes rapidly, we need the entire community to come together to build and strengthen our digital resilience. "To do so, we need to understand and collectively address the digital needs of different segments of our society," said Madam Halimah, who announced the Digital for L...

ACN Newswire
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The FMC-Film Music Contest Reveals Members of a Prestigious Jury

indie
6 minutes

UK, Feb 8, 2021 - (ACN Newswire) - FMC-Film Music Contest 2021 is preparing for its annual global launch and registration opening for music composers, sound designers and musicians from around the world.An elite group of professionals from the EU, USA, Asia and Australia will be made up of representatives from the music and film business who actively work for national television, the largest Asian and Hollywood film studios, cultural or theater institutions, agencies as well as for Netflix.About the absolute winners will be decided this year in seven competition categories, which will be officially introduced next week."I'm glad that they found time in their busy work schedules to listen to our contestants and help to discover new talents in each category," said the director of FMC-Film Music Contest Mgr. Vlado Zeleznak Jr. The official members of the prestigious international jury FMC 2021 are:Roc Chen is one of the biggest names in China's film, television and video game industries. He scored over 200 projects both within and beyond China's borders. He has worked with major Chinese and Hollywood film studios such as Dreamworks, Disney, Universal, Wanda, and China Film Group. He w...

ACN Newswire

Positive profit alert exceeds expectations Research houses issue upbeat recommendations On Central China New Life

indie
6 minutes

HONG KONG, Feb 8, 2021 - (ACN Newswire) - Central China New Life Limited (Stock Code: 9983.HK) issued earlier a positive profit alert on its 2020 annual results in which it forecast the company's net profit to increase by no less than 80%. The Company's strong performance, which exceeded market expectations, subsequently earned "Buy" or "Overweight" ratings from different securities houses. The price targets issued by securities houses ranged from HKD11.2 to HKD16.47, indicating potential upside of between 47% and 88% compared to the stock's closing price of HKD7.6 last Friday. Everbright Securities was the most upbeat among different securities houses as it significantly raised its target price originally set at HK$14.62 to HK$16.47. CCBI reiterated the company as the top pick among property management sector. Recommendation / Target PriceEverbright Securities Buy HK$16.47CCBI Outperform HK$13.8DBS Buy HK$12.51BNP Paribas Buy HK$13.2CMB International Buy (Initiation) HK$11.2Guosheng Maintain Buy HK$14Central China New Life has announced that its unaudited consolidated net profit attributable to shareholders for the year ended 31 December 2020 was expected to expand substantially b...

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China hedge funds add $268b in assets in 2020, trouncing Wall Street rivals

elean
4 minutes

BEIJING (BLOOMBERG) - China's army of tiny hedge funds are pulling further ahead of their better-known foreign competitors with outsized gains helping them attract more assets. The nearly 15,000 funds offered by Chinese managers returned 30 per cent on average last year, with the best-performers surging 10-fold, according to Shenzhen PaiPaiWang Investment & Management. That dwarfs the average 12 per cent gain for hedge funds globally. The out-performance is another impediment to global funds such as Bridgewater Associates and Two Sigma, which have struggled to make inroads into China's 3.8 trillion yuan (S$783.9 billion) hedge fund market since it was opened to foreign firms four years ago. Local funds added a record 1.3 trillion yuan (S$268 billion) in assets last year. "Foreign players are handicapped in China," said Yan Hong, director of the China Hedge Fund Research Center at the Shanghai Advanced Institute of Finance. While many global funds are "patient" given the potential riches of cracking the Chinese market, their persistently small size adds to regulatory constraints, "making it hard for them to distinguish themselves." China's early economic recovery from the pandemic f...

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Dogecoin soars to record high as Elon Musk fires off new tweet

elean
1 minute

NEW YORK (BLOOMBERG) - Dogecoin rose to all-time high on Sunday (Feb 7) as Tesla co-founder Elon Musk tweeted "Who let the Doge out" amid the rally. The Shiba Inu-themed digital coin surpassed 8 cents for the first time, just a week after crashing to 2.5 cents and sparking an outcry on Reddit. It rose 53 per cent in the last 24 hours to 8.2 cents as of 5:45pm in New York on Sunday, according to CoinMarketCap data, breezing through its recent record of 7.8 cents posted in late January. It now has a market value of US$10 billion (S$13.3 billion), making it the 8th-biggest cryptocurrency. The price recovered over the past week after Mr Musk returned from his self-imposed Twitter break to send a series of tweets promoting Dogecoin. Started as a joke in 2013, Dogecoin has been riding a wave of newfound popularity on social media, powered by the speculative frenzy of retail investors. Bitcoin has also rallied this week, topping a record of US$40,000, before paring gains. More on this topic Related Story Elon Musk at it again, sending Shopify shares up with Twitter blast Related Story GameStop market value soars past $13 billion after Elon Musk tweet

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Hong Kong stock market is about to lose biggest source of funds

elean
3 minutes

HONG KONG (BLOOMBERG) - Hong Kong's stock traders are about to find out whether the US$7.1 trillion (S$9.5 trillion) market can hold its own without its biggest source of flows. Starting on Tuesday (Feb 9), trading links via Hong Kong's exchange operator allowing mainland traders to buy domestic stocks will halt through Feb. 17 due to the Lunar New Year holiday. The stock connect closure will slam the brakes on record levels of inflows that helped propel Hong Kong's equities market to its best start to a year since 1985. Investors north of the border turned bargain hunters in late 2020 after valuations in some sectors onshore reached the highest in more than a decade. Mainland investors net bought a total of nearly US$48 billion worth of Hong Kong stocks in the first five weeks of this year, which is already more than half of 2020's total. "We think it might be worthwhile to take some profit ahead of the trading link halt for stocks that are heavily boosted by southbound investors" including Tencent Holdings Ltd., Meituan and China Merchants Bank Co Ltd, said Zhuang Jiapeng, a fund manager at Shenzhen JM Capital. Still, the incentive to take money out of the market is low given tha...

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Reddit’s populist stock movement was 15 years in the making

elean
7 minutes

NEW YORK (BLOOMBERG) - The Redditor revolt that made stock markets go haywire in recent weeks owes its origins, in part, to a humpback whale named Mister Splashy Pants. In 2007, Greenpeace asked the public to decide the name of a whale in the South Pacific Ocean for a campaign raising awareness of hunting by Japanese fisheries. A group of pranksters organized on the still-nascent message board Reddit to hijack Greenpeace's online poll and push their chosen name. The organiSation and the netizens grappled for weeks until Greenpeace finally relented, and Mister Splashy Pants was crowned. Two years later, Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian recounted the gag in a TED Talk. "In the last four years, we've seen all kinds of memes, all kinds of trends get born right on our front page," he said. "This is how the internet works. This is the great big secret. The internet provides a level playing field." The Greenpeace caper was such a meaningful event for the company that Reddit temporarily changed its logo to a whale flexing its bicep fins. Mister Splashy Pants would offer a model for Reddit, shaped over more than a decade, that gave birth to cultural touchstones and charitable causes, as wel...

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Covid-19 pandemic a shot in the arm for digital health service Speedoc

elean
4 minutes

SINGAPORE - Seeing a doctor has taken on a whole new meaning amid the pandemic with plenty of patients keen to keep a distance, which is where digital health app Speedoc comes in. The app has experienced a spike in demand over the past year, whether from people wanting to book urgent face-to-face treatment or those preferring consultations without leaving home. Chief executive Shravan Verma notes that many people think twice about visiting clinics and hospitals as they want to limit potential exposure to the coronavirus and more are turning to alternative ways of getting medical care. Speedoc's revenue surged nearly 400 per cent last year over 2019's level while app downloads rose by more than 200 per cent from a year ago. "We already had a network of healthcare professionals in various parts of Singapore, so when the pandemic occurred, it was very easy to deploy them to provide medical care in their vicinity," said Dr Verma. The app allows users to book a doctor or nurse for home visits 24/7 or have a tele-consultation. They can also book an ambulance for non-emergency situations. The surging demand prompted Speedoc to hire more than 70 full and part-time staff - mainly doctors an...

ACN Newswire
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Government Blockchain Association (GBA) Announces New Ai Community for Blockchain

indie
2 minutes

Washington, D.C., Feb 8, 2021 - (ACN Newswire) - In response to the Executive Order titled Promoting the Use of Trustworthy Artificial Intelligence in the Federal Government, the Government Blockchain Association, GBA, is pleased to announce that we are launching the AI for Government Community, led by Mr. Oki Mek, the Chief Artificial Intelligence Officer, (CAIO), for US Health and Human Services, (HHS).Mr. Mek, along with Jose Arrieta, Former CIO at HHS, developed Accelerate, the first blockchain-based program in the Federal government to get an authority-to-operate. This program was purported to save HHS $30 million over five years, according to MeriTalk, 2/11/2020. Mr. Mek's leadership will be instrumental in supporting government's use of Artificial intelligence (AI) for economic growth and improving the quality of life for their citizens.The International Community will meet virtually, the first Monday of each month, from 3-4 PM. On this call, Civil Servants from around the world can discuss best practices and lessons learned regarding government use of AI. Government employees from Tel-Aviv to Hyderabad can sign up discuss their intricate AI challenges.The GBA Artificial Int...

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4,600 public rental-flat families became HDB home owners over the past five years

aseanpr
4 minutes

SINGAPORE - About 4,600 families in public rental homes have become owners of Housing Board (HDB) flats over the past five years through various housing schemes and grants. By 2023, around 1,000 families will be offered help by HDB to do the same. Among the 4,600 households, three in four bought a flat directly from the HDB while the remaining bought a resale flat on the open market, said the HDB on Sunday (Feb 7). More than half of these households bought a three-room flat while a quarter bought four-room flats, it added. About two-thirds of the rental households that bought a flat had tapped housing grants such as the Enhanced CPF Housing Grant (EHG), which was introduced in September 2019 and dispenses up to $80,000 in grants to eligible buyers. Others had also tapped the previous Additional CPF Housing Grant (AHG) and Special CPF Housing Grant (SHG), which gave up to $40,000 in grants each. These two grants are now replaced by the EHG. Families with at least one child below the age of 18 who live in public rental flats, and who had previously bought a subsidised flat, can also buy a two-room flexi flat through the Fresh Start housing scheme. Close to 100 families have been plac...

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Morning Briefing: Top stories from The Straits Times on Feb 7

aseanpr
2 minutes

Good morning! Here are our top stories to kick-start your Sunday, Feb 7. A Covid-19 CNY: How are restaurants, businesses and people in Singapore coping It's the last weekend before CNY and a festive season where many will be celebrating at home with safe management measures in place. READ MORE HERE 5 doses of Covid-19 vaccine given to S'pore National Eye Centre worker due to human error There was no adverse reaction and the staff member remains well, said the centre. READ MORE HERE She gave up a PhD in business to protect Chinese traditions Lynn Wong was on track to get her PhD from Insead but gave it up to do something she felt was more important. READ MORE HERE First case of likely Covid-19 reinfection in Singapore, located in dormitory The Bangladeshi worker recovered after becoming infected last April but tested positive again last month. READ MORE HERE More on this topic Related Story ST newsletters: Get alerts on the latest news Myanmar generals shut down Internet as thousands protest coup The protesters marched down the streets of Yangon as policemen in riot gear stood guard. READ MORE HERE Covid-19 has changed commuting patterns. Can we keep them? Mindset shift needed from ...