27.6 C
Vientiane
Wednesday, July 23, 2025
spot_img
Home Blog Page 1385

Novo Nordisk Gulf receives prestigious Best Places to Work Certification in Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, and Oman for 2024

KUWAIT CITY, KUWAIT – Media OutReach Newswire – 2 October 2024 – Novo Nordisk Gulf, a leading global healthcare company, has been recognized as one of the Best Places to Work for 2024 across Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, and Oman. This certification highlights the company’s dedication to fostering a supportive, innovative, and inclusive work environment for its employees while remaining committed to its mission of driving change to defeat serious chronic diseases.

During the certification process, Novo Nordisk Gulf received high ratings in key areas including employee engagement, leadership support, and workplace culture. These factors underscore the company’s success in creating a desirable workplace that aligns with its broader goal of improving health outcomes across the Gulf region.

Venkat Kalyan, Vice President & General Manager of Novo Nordisk Gulf Cluster, expressed his pride in the achievement: “We are honoured to receive the Best Place to Work recognition for Novo Nordisk Gulf Cluster. Our purpose is driving change to defeat serious chronic diseases, and this recognition serves as a testament of our commitment to this purpose, as well as our colleagues’ valuable efforts to build and sustain an innovative and inclusive workplace.”

Aydogan Cantimur, People & Organization Director at Novo Nordisk Gulf Cluster, also commented on the company’s achievement: “In Novo Nordisk Gulf Cluster, we are committed to ‘be the best workplace’ by continuously evolving our environment to the better and creating the best employee experience by implementing tangible and innovative HR practices. We are proud to be recognized as a Best Place to Work in Gulf Cluster again, which gives us the confidence that we are on the right track.”
Hashtag: #BestPlacesToWork

The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.

About Novo Nordisk

Novo Nordisk is a global healthcare company with over 95 years of innovation and leadership in diabetes care. Headquartered in Denmark, Novo Nordisk also leads in hemophilia care, growth hormone therapy, and hormone replacement therapy. The company employs approximately 70,000 people in 80 countries and markets its products in more than 170 countries.

For more information about Novo Nordisk and its commitment to the well-being of its employees and patients, visit .

For more information, please visit .

LinkedIn:

Twitter:

Facebook:

First Phosphate Reports Published University Research Note Relating to Igneous Rock Phosphate Ore Bodies around the World


SAGUENAY, QUEBEC – Newsfile Corp. – 2 October 2024 – First Phosphate Corp. (CSE: PHOS) (OTC: FRSPF) (FSE: KD0) (“First Phosphate” or the “Company”) is pleased to announce that a peer-reviewed research note has been published by Queen’s University (“Queen’s”) and Université de Québec à Chicoutimi (“UQAC”) entitled:

Igneous Rock Phosphate: ore grades, concentrates and mining operations around the world

Drs. Sandeep Banerjee, Peir K. Pufahl, Sarah Dare
Department of Geological Sciences and Engineering, Queen’s University
Département des Sciences Appliquées/LabMaTer, Université du Québec à Chicoutimi (UQAC)
September 23, 2024

https://firstphosphate.com/phosphate-industry/quebecanorthosite

The study is divided into two main sections and compares igneous phosphate ore bodies around the world, including the Company’s Bégin-Lamarche property, as to their ore grades, beneficiated phosphate concentrate levels and mining operations where applicable.

  1. Comparisons of global igneous ore grades and beneficiated igneous ore

Only a small portion of the worldwide phosphate ore (~10%; Pufahl and Groat, 2017) is supplied from igneous rock from Russia, South Africa, Brazil, and Finland. These igneous phosphate deposits are mostly from the Khibiny Alkalic Igneous Complex (Notholt, 1979) and the Kovdor Phoscorite-Carbonatite Complex (Ivanyuk et al., 2016) from the Kola Peninsula in Russia, the Siilinjärvi Carbonatite Complex in Finland (Decrée et al., 2020), the Phalaborwa (Palabora) Igneous Complex in South Africa (Gómez-Arias et al.2022), and the Alto Paranaíba Alkaline Province in Brazil (Silva et al., 2023) (Fig. 1). These igneous deposits are from silica-undersaturated alkali intrusions and carbonatites.

The average P2O5 contents of phosphate ore from igneous rocks from major deposits in the four major countries (Russia, Finland, South Africa, and Brazil) exhibit significant variations (4.0-17.2 wt.%; Table A2).

The igneous phosphate ore found at First Phosphate’s Bégin-Lamarche property in Quebec, Canada is mostly from nelsonite and oxide-apatite-mafic- ultramafic rocks in massif anorthosite from the Grenville Province (geological province). The P2O5 of the ultramafic rock ranges from 2.6 to 15.0 wt.%. The average P2O5 grading of the phosphate is 6.01%. Testing suggests that the phosphate ore from this deposit could produce a high-quality phosphate concentrate with a P2O5 content of ~40.9 wt.% (Table 1), which is above the global average P2O5 of marketable phosphate concentrates produced from igneous ore from other countries (36.9 wt.%; Table 1).


Table 1. Average P2O5 contents of phosphate ore and concentrates from igneous and sedimentary phosphate rocks from various countries around the world.

To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit:
https://images.newsfilecorp.com/files/8917/225249_table1.jpg

* Prepared and analyzed by SGS-Canada.

Table 2. Average P2O5 contents of igneous phosphate ore from major deposits from four major countries including companies operating the mines, host rocks, and geological provinces

To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit:
https://images.newsfilecorp.com/files/8917/225249_table2.jpg

  1. Comparisons of global igneous phosphate rock mining operations

Depth of ore body, distributions of ore and waste rocks, and grades of ore are the principal factors for selecting open-pit or underground mining operations. Both open-pit and underground mining operations exist for igneous phosphate ore excavation (Geissler et al., 2015). The open-pit mining operations are, however, becoming the primary method of mining over time (Geissler et al., 2015). One of the major Russian igneous phosphate producers, PhosAgro, operates both open-pit and underground mines in the Khibiny Alkaline Igneous Complex, Russia. In the case of the Koashvinsky open-pit mine, the quarry excavation depth reaches up to 960 m, including the upland part, and up to 580 m in a closed contour (Iliashenko, 2022). Another major igneous phosphate producer in Russia, EuroChem, excavated to a depth of 414 m until 2015 at their Kovdorskiy open-pit mine in the Kovdor Ultramafic Alkaline Complex and has a plan to excavate to a depth of 874 m before starting an eventual underground mining operation (Dickson, 2015).

Figure 1. Major igneous complexes supplying igneous phosphate ore worldwide. First Phosphate’s Bégin-Lamarche property in the Grenville Province of Canada is also shown.

To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit:
https://images.newsfilecorp.com/files/8917/225249_fb97f42324482828_003full.jpg

First Phosphate Corp. completed a total of 25,929 m of drilling since February 2024 in three areas of its Bégin-Lamarche property (Mountain zone, Northern zone, and Southern zone). All analyses for the drilling program have been received. Initial results show that one drill hole (BL-24-56) in the Mountain zone intersects a phosphate layer at a depth of 6.5 m from the surface and continues over 92.5 m down the depth with an average P2O5 content of 11.8 wt.%. This layer continues toward the south end of the Mountain zone through to the Northern zone. Multiple phosphate layers were also identified in the Northern zone. The overall strike length of the Northern and Mountain zones is nearly 600 m (First Phosphate press release, April 23, 2024). The presence of the phosphate layer close to the surface (~6.5 m below the surface) in the BL-24-56 drill hole suggests that the area close to this drill hole in the Mountain zone could be a prospective location for starting open-pit mining operation at the Bégin-Lamarche property. This needs to be justified with subsequent proper mine planning study.

Details on First Phosphate’s assets in the Saguenay-Lac-St-Jean region of Quebec, can be found at: https://firstphosphate.com/projects/begin-lamarche

Details on First Phosphate’s pilot plant for the purification of Quebec igneous anorthosite can be found at: https://firstphosphate.com/projects/pilot-plant

Details on First Phosphate’s pilot plant for the manufacture of PPA from Quebec igneous phosphate can be found at: https://firstphosphate.com/projects/ppa-production

Details on First Phosphate’s strategy for the creation of a fully integrated LFP battery supply chain in North America based on establishing an LFP battery valley in the Saguenay-Lac-St-Jean region of Quebec can be found at: https://firstphosphate.com/lfp-battery-strategy

First Phosphate believes that Quebec igneous anorthosite phosphate rock is an untapped source of high purity phosphate which can potentially be mined and transformed into large quantities of PPA to service North America’s need for LFP batteries.

Restricted Share Units (“RSUs”) and Shares For Debt (“SFD”)

The Company has also granted 358,000 RSUs of the Company (“RSUs”) to eligible consultants of the Company. The RSUs vest in 2 tranches (50% on November 30, 2024 and 50% on February 28, 2025). The Company has settled $25,000 of debt for accrued amounts owing to an arm’s length service provider through the issuance of 83,334 Common Shares at the deemed price of $0.30 per Common Share. All securities issued are subject to a hold period of four months plus one day from the date of issuance.

Qualified Person

The scientific and technical disclosure for First Phosphate included in this news release has been reviewed and approved by Gilles Laverdière, P.Geo. Mr. Laverdière is Chief Geologist of First Phosphate and a Qualified Person under National Instrument 43-101 – Standards of Disclosure of Mineral Projects (“NI 43-101”).

For additional information, please contact:

Bennett Kurtz, CFO
bennett@firstphosphate.com
Tel: +1 (416) 200-0657

Investor Relations: investor@firstphosphate.com
Media Relations: media@firstphosphate.com
Website: www.FirstPhosphate.com

Follow First Phosphate:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/FirstPhosphate
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/first-phosphate

-30-

The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.

About First Phosphate Corp.

First Phosphate (CSE: PHOS) (OTC: FRSPF) (FSE: KD0) is a mineral development company fully dedicated to extracting and purifying phosphate for the production of cathode active material for the LFP battery industry. First Phosphate is committed to producing at high purity level, in responsible manner and with low anticipated carbon footprint. First Phosphate plans to vertically integrate from mine source directly into the supply chains of major North American LFP battery producers that require battery grade LFP cathode active material emanating from a consistent and secure supply source. First Phosphate holds over 1,500 sq. km of royalty-free district-scale land claims in the Saguenay-Lac-St-Jean Region of Quebec, Canada that it is actively developing. First Phosphate properties consist of rare anorthosite igneous phosphate rock that generally yields high purity phosphate material devoid of high concentrations of harmful elements.

Forward-Looking Information and Cautionary Statements

This news release contains certain statements and information that may be considered “forward-looking statements” and “forward looking information” within the meaning of applicable securities laws. In some cases, but not necessarily in all cases, forward-looking statements and forward-looking information can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as “plans”, “targets”, “expects” or “does not expect”, “is expected”, “an opportunity exists”, “is positioned”, “estimates”, “intends”, “assumes”, “anticipates” or “does not anticipate” or “believes”, or variations of such words and phrases or statements that certain actions, events or results “may”, “could”, “would”, “might”, “will” or “will be taken”, “occur” or “be achieved” and other similar expressions. In addition, statements in this news release that are not historical facts are forward looking statements, including, among other things, the Company’s planned exploration and production activities, the properties and composition of any extracted phosphate, the Company’s plans for vertical integration into North American supply chains, the Company’s belief that Quebec’s igneous anorthosite phosphate rock is an untapped source of high-purity phosphate that can potentially be extracted and processed into large quantities of PPA to meet North America’s LFP CAM production needs to achieve electrification goals, the Company’s ability to prepare and the timing of the preparation of an NI 43-101 compliant resource estimate and technical report on the Company property, mining planning study, and the results of such report, the quality of resources from the Company properties and the accuracy of the preliminary indications of the drilling program on the future operations on the property and related environmental benefits from the Company’s proposed processing methods.

These statements and other forward-looking information are based on assumptions and estimates that the Company believes are appropriate and reasonable in the circumstances, including, without limitation, expectations of the Company’s long term business outcomes given its short operating history; expectations regarding revenue, expenses and operations; the Company having sufficient working capital and ability to secure additional funding necessary for the exploration of the Company’s property interests; expectations regarding the potential mineralization, geological merit and economic feasibility of the Company’s projects; expectations regarding drill programs and the potential impacts successful drill programs could have on the life of the mine and the Company; mineral exploration and exploration program cost estimates; expectations regarding any environmental issues that may affect planned or future exploration programs and the potential impact of complying with existing and proposed environmental laws and regulations; receipt and timing of exploration and exploitation permits and other third-party approvals; government regulation of mineral exploration and development operations; expectations regarding any social or local community issues that may affect planned or future exploration and development programs; expectations surrounding global economic trends and technological advancements; and key personnel continuing their employment with the Company, as well as the Company’s ability to prepare an NI 43-101 compliant resource estimate and technical report, and mining planning study, on the timeline provided and that the results will be consistent with the preliminary results as disclosed.

There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate, and actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from the Company’s expectations include: limited operating history; high risk of business failure; no profits or significant revenues; limited resources; negative cash flow from operations and dependence on third-party financing; the uncertainty of additional funding; no dividends; risks related to possible fluctuations in revenues and results; insurance and uninsured risks; litigation; reliance on management and key personnel; conflicts of interest; access to supplies and materials; dangers of mineral exploration and related liability and damages; risks relating to health and safety; government regulation and legal uncertainties; the company’s exploration and development properties may not be successful and are highly speculative in nature; dependence on outside parties; title to some of the Company’s mineral properties may be challenged or defective; Aboriginal title and land claims; obtaining and renewing licenses and permits; environmental and other regulatory risks may adversely affect the company; risks relating to climate change; risks related to infrastructure; land reclamation requirements may be burdensome; current global financial conditions; fluctuation in commodity prices; dilution; future sales by existing shareholders could cause the Company’s share price to fall; fluctuation and volatility in stock exchange prices; and risks related to market demands. There can be no assurance that any opportunity will be successful, commercially viable, completed on time or on budget, or will generate any meaningful revenues, savings or earnings, as the case may be, for the Company. In addition, the Company will incur costs in pursuing any particular opportunity, which may be significant.

These factors and assumptions are not intended to represent a complete list of the factors and assumptions that could affect the Company and, though they should be considered carefully, should be considered in conjunction with the risk factors described in the Company’s other documents filed with the Canadian and United States securities authorities, including without limitation the “Risk Factors” section of the Company’s Annual Information Form dated November 29, 2023 which is available on SEDAR at Although the Company has attempted to identify factors that would cause actual actions, events or results to differ materially from those disclosed in the forward-looking information or information, there may be other factors that cause actions, events or results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. The Company does not undertake to update any forward-looking information, except in accordance with applicable securities laws.

Cambodia Withdraws from Development Pact with Laos, Vietnam

Cambodia Withdraws from Development Pact with Laos, Vietnam
Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet announces Cambodia's withdrawal of CLV Triangle Agreement on 20 September.

Cambodia has officially withdrawn from the regional development pact with neighboring Laos and Vietnam. The decision was announced by Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet on 20 September, citing concerns about national sovereignty and increasing political opposition.

Caladan Announces Options and Structured Products Desk


SINGAPORE – Media OutReach Newswire – 2 September 2024 – Leading digital asset trading group Caladan is proud to announce the opening of its over-the-counter crypto options desk to offer crypto structured products for institutional and accredited investors.

Caladan Announces Options and Structured Products Desk
Caladan Announces Options and Structured Products Desk

Strategic Expansion Into Structured Products

Caladan’s decision to expand into structured products is a natural expansion of how it partners with crypto token projects, and as a leading crypto trading firm, it is highly synergistic with its existing venture capital investing and market-making activities.

“For years, we’ve supported crypto startups at their very earliest stages as a venture capital investor, and also at token listing with our crypto market-making capabilities across CEFI and DEFI”, said John Gu, CEO of the Caladan Group, “Now, we are expanding further across the token project lifecycle by providing treasury solutions for token foundations and key investors that will enable them to protect and leverage their investments.”

Remi Colinmaire Appointed as Head of Options Trading

Caladan has appointed Remi Colinmaire as its Head of Options Trading.

Colinmaire, who is based out of the Caladan Group’s Singapore office, brings over twenty years of experience in options and volatility trading to the role. He began his career as an options market-maker at BNP Paribas, and has previously been a Managing Director at Goldman Sachs and a Portfolio Manager at AlphaDyne Asset Management specialising in index volatility trading.

“I am delighted to join Caladan to build out the crypto structured products and options business”, said Colinmaire. “Despite being a nascent market, digital assets options are poised to grow tremendously from here as more institutions and sophisticated investors are looking for capital efficient financing solutions.,” he added.

Options Products Available on Long Tail Tokens

As an alt-coin specialist, Caladan will be offering a range of derivative solutions on a large number of different tokens, including crypto hedging solutions, treasury solutions, and various crypto yield products as well.

These crypto structured products will allow token foundations and institutional investors to generate yield on and hedge the risk of their holdings, including through crypto OTC options for large transactions.

“Token foundations and institutional investors often don’t want to sell their holdings as they believe in the project for the long run”, said Will Leung, Caladan’s Head of Business Development. “Instead, we are seeing increased demand from the most savvy foundations and investors for solutions to be able to monetize their holdings, combining a crypto market making strategy with hedging to protect capital.

More information on hedging and protection strategies may be found on the Caladan website.

Caladan Group’s structured products solutions will only be available to institutions and accredited investors subject to strict customer due diligence. These products are not offered to retail investors or the general public in Singapore.
Hashtag: #CaladanGroup #CryptoOptions #CryptoStructuredProducts #OTCTrading




The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.

About Caladan

Caladan makes digital asset markets more efficient and fair. We support exchanges, tokens, and institutional investors with on-exchange liquidity, DeFi expertise, treasury solutions, and investments. Since 2017 we’ve been a pioneer in crypto market-making, powering over $50B in annual transactions across 1000+ assets.

“Panda’s World” Photography Exhibition of Giant Pandas Grandly Opens in Paris, France


PARIS, FRANCE – Media OutReach Newswire – 2 October 2024 – On September 24, 2024, the third stop of the cultural exchange event featuring Panda Wandering, “Panda’s World” photography exhibition of giant pandas, was grandly inaugurated at the Paris Grand Palais art gallery in France. The opening ceremony was attended by numerous distinguished guests, creating a lively and celebratory atmosphere. Dignitaries from both China and France, including representatives from political, business, and art sectors, were present. France’s First Lady Brigitte Macron sent a message of congratulations, wishing the panda photography exhibition great success!

PressReleaseTMPDeP4rq.jpg

Prominent figures such as Pubu Dunzhu, Vice Governor of the Sichuan Provincial Government, Lu Shaye, Chinese Ambassador to France, Emmanuel Mandon, French National Assembly Deputy and Member of the France-China Friendship Group, and French girl Ninon Vernay, jointly unveiled the event, marking the formal commencement of the exhibition.

Ninon Vernay, who suffers from cystic fibrosis, fulfilled her dream last year with the help of Sino-French charities by visiting Chengdu, Sichuan, to see pandas. This event marked her continued journey with pandas. During the cultural exchange sharing session, Zhou Mengqi, the global ambassador of panda culture and renowned panda photographer, shared captivating stories about pandas and his photography journey, leaving the audience deeply moved by the charm of these adorable creatures.

In addition to enjoying countless stunning panda photographs, visitors also participated in panda-themed DIY activities, which further enriched their understanding of Chinese culture.

Pandas, China’s national treasure, are envoys of friendship and symbols of the strong bond between China and France. As we celebrate the 60th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the two countries, this panda photography exhibition will further strengthen the friendship between the peoples of China and France. The exhibition will continue its global tour, using visual media to showcase the unique charm of pandas and promote Chinese culture, especially from Sichuan, to the world.

Hashtag: #PandasWorld

The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.

Trend Micro Warns Devices and Accounts are Highest-Risk Assets

Cyber Risk Report highlights critical vulnerability, offers new ways to prioritize risk management


HONG KONG SAR – Media OutReach Newswire – 2 October 2024 – Trend Micro Incorporated (TYO: 4704; TSE: 4704), a global cybersecurity leader, today urged network defenders to gain greater visibility into risk across their attack surface, after unveiling a new study* which provides granular metrics by region, company size, industry, asset type and more.

To read a full copy of the report, Intercepting Impact: 2024 Trend Micro Cyber Risk Report, please visit: https://www.trendmicro.com/vinfo/hk/security/news/cybercrime-and-digital-threats/intercepting-impact-2024-trend-micro-cyber-risk-report

Jon Clay, VP of threat intelligence at Trend Micro: “Trend’s cyber risk report shares key insights on where risks are greatest within organizations such as weak security controls, misconfigurations, and unpatched actively exploited vulnerabilities. Shifting towards a more risk-based approach to cybersecurity—discovering the entire attack surface, using AI to calculate the actual risk, and providing mitigating controls advice—allows an organization to improve its cybersecurity posture like never before. This is a game changer for the industry.”

Using a risk event catalog, the Trend Vision One™ platform calculates a risk score for each asset type and an index for organizations by multiplying an asset’s attack, exposure, and security configuration by impact. An asset with low business impact and few privileges has a smaller attack surface, while higher-value assets with more privileges have a larger attack surface.

The following assets are the most at risk:

  • Devices: 22.6 million total devices, with 877,316 classified as high-risk.
  • Accounts: 53.9 million total accounts, with 12,346 classified as high-risk.
  • Cloud Assets: 14.5 million total cloud assets, with 9,944 classified as high-risk.
  • Internet-Facing Assets: 1.1 million total, with 1,661 classified as high-risk.
  • Applications: 8.8 million total applications, with 489 classified as high-risk.

The number of high-risk devices is much higher than that of accounts, even though there are more accounts in total. Devices have a larger attack surface—i.e., they can be targeted with more threats. However, accounts are still valuable as they can grant threat actors access to various resources.

Elsewhere, the report also found:

  • Americas has the highest average risk index among regions, with an average risk index rating of 43.4, driven by vulnerabilities in the banking sector and critical infrastructure and the region’s attractiveness to profit-driven actors.
  • Europe is the quickest region to patch vulnerabilities, indicating strong security practices.
  • Mining has the highest risk score of any vertical due to its strategic position in global supply chains and large attack surface.
  • Pharmaceuticals are the fastest sector to patch vulnerabilities by several days, reflecting the importance of protecting sensitive data.
  • The top detected risk event is accessing cloud applications with a high risk level based on historical application data, known security features, and community knowledge.
  • Old and inactive accounts, accounts with disabled security controls, and sensitive data being sent outside the network are other risk events with high event counts.

The report also uncovered many weak configurations that could lead to compromise, especially around security control settings.

As the threat landscape continues to evolve, organizations’ ability to identify and manage risks is becoming increasingly crucial. The Trend Vision One™ platform, with its integrated Attack Surface Risk Management (ASRM), provides the necessary tools for comprehensive threat visibility and effective risk mitigation.

The following steps are recommended to help mitigate cyber risk:

  1. Optimize product security settings to get alerts on misconfigurations.
  2. When a risky event is detected, contact the device and/or account owner to verify the event. Investigate the event using the Trend Vision One™Workbench search function to find more information about or check event details on the product management server.
  3. Disable risky accounts or reset them with a strong password and enable multi-factor authentication (MFA).
  4. Apply the latest patches or upgrade application and operation system versions regularly.

*The report is based on telemetry data from Trend Micro’s Attack Surface Risk Management (ASRM) solution in its flagship cybersecurity platform, Trend Vision One™, plus the native eXtended Detection and Response (XDR) tools. It’s divided into two sections: the user side covers risk in assets, processes, and vulnerabilities, while the adversary side maps adversary behaviors, MITRE, and TTPs. Data points are based on telemetry from December 25, 2023, to June 30, 2024.
Hashtag: #trendmicro #trendvisionone #visionone #cybersecurity #cyberrisk #cyberriskindex




The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.

Trend Micro

Trend Micro, a global cybersecurity leader, helps make the world safe for exchanging digital information. Fueled by decades of security expertise, global threat research, and continuous innovation, Trend Micro’s AI-powered cybersecurity platform protects hundreds of thousands of organizations and millions of individuals across clouds, networks, devices, and endpoints. As a leader in cloud and enterprise cybersecurity, Trend’s platform delivers a powerful range of advanced threat defense techniques optimized for environments like AWS, Microsoft, and Google, and central visibility for better, faster detection and response. With 7,000 employees across 70 countries, Trend Micro enables organizations to simplify and secure their connected world.

ISCA Partners COC to Launch New AML and CFT Initiatives to Enhance Charities Sector’s Financial Governance and Resilience


SINGAPORE – Media OutReach Newswire – 2 October 2024 – Minister for Culture, Community and Youth and Second Minister for Law Edwin Tong announced that the Institute of Singapore Chartered Accountants (ISCA) will partner the Office of the Commissioner of Charities (COC) to bolster the resilience of Singapore’s charities sector through new anti-money laundering (AML) and countering the financing of terrorism (CFT) initiatives. He made this announcement at Charity Governance Conference 2024 today.

ISCA partners COC to set up Charities AML/CFT Services Panel

Recognising the pressing need for robust governance amid growing concerns over the vulnerabilities in fund-raising practices, ISCA and Office of COC will be rolling out subsidised services for charities in Singapore to help enhance their AML/CFT capabilities. This initiative will be led by a Charities AML/CFT Services Panel set up by ISCA, comprising accounting firms – Forbis Accounting Pte Ltd, InCorp Global and Unity Assurance Pte Ltd.

Charities can approach the panel members for support in conducting due diligence checks, identify potential risks and provide interpretation of the screening results. They can also receive support in the drafting and implementation of AML/CFT policies and procedures at a low bono fee.

ISCA’s Community Accounting Programme

ISCA is also spearheading digital transformation in the charities sector through its Community Accounting Programme, which was launched in October 2023 in partnership with the Office of COC and the National Council of Social Service. The programme is designed to accelerate the digital transformation of charities, particularly those with limited resources. It targets to support more than 50 charities and non-profit organisations by end-2024. A pilot programme was recently concluded in March 2024 with three charities which helped to digitalise their accounting and finance processes. For example, Fo Guang Shan (Singapore), a Buddhist organisation, benefitted from a transition to Xero, a cloud-based accounting solution, supported by Singapore Corporate Services Pte Ltd. The transition allowed the charities to automate manual tasks, retrieve supporting documents easily, as well as obtain up-to-date and accurate information for cashflow planning. More importantly, this has improved the charity’s financial operations for better accountability and governance.

These initiatives underscore ISCA’s and Office of COC’s commitment to advancing the charity sector, reinforcing public trust and promoting operational excellence.

Professor Ang Hak Seng, Chairman of ISCA Charity Accounting Committee, said: “ISCA is committed to making an impact in the charities sector by working hand-in-hand with Office of COC. Together, we aim to strengthen charities’ governance through initiatives like provision of AML risk consultancy, AML know your donor screening services, as well as our Community Accounting Programme. These initiatives help protect charities from money laundering threats and automation of robust finance processes to enhance transparency and accountability. As the national accountancy body, ISCA is happy to serve as a platform to enable ISCA members to contribute meaningfully and be able to make a lasting difference in the community.”

Commissioner of Charities, Mr Desmond Chin said: “We are pleased to partner ISCA to enhance the financial governance and resilience of our charity sector. The Charities AML/CFT Services Panel will provide charities with the tools and knowledge to strengthen their AML/CFT measures. We will continue working together with our partners to foster a culture of transparency and accountability to strengthen public trust in charities.”

Hashtag: #ISCA #Accountancy #Accounting #DifferenceMakers #AML #AntiMoneyLaundering #CFT #Counteringthefinancingofterrorism

The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.

Institute of Singapore Chartered Accountants

The Institute of Singapore Chartered Accountants (ISCA) is the national accountancy body of Singapore with over 36,000 ISCA members making their stride in businesses across industries in Singapore and around the world. ISCA members can be found in over 40 countries and members based out of Singapore are supported through 12 overseas chapters in 10 countries.

Established in 1963, ISCA is an advocate of the interests of the profession. Complementing its global mindset with Asian insights, ISCA leverages its regional expertise, knowledge, and networks with diverse stakeholders to contribute towards the advancement of the accountancy profession.

ISCA administers the Singapore Chartered Accountant Qualification programme and is the Designated Entity to confer the Chartered Accountant of Singapore – CA (Singapore) – designation.

ISCA is a member of Chartered Accountants Worldwide, a global family that brings together the members of leading institutes to create a community of over 1.8 million Chartered Accountants and students in more than 190 countries.

For more information, visit .

Lao Government Increases Minimum Wage to Combat Rising Living Costs

Lao Government Increases Minimum Wage to Combat Rising Living Costs
New Minimum Wage Policy Sets LAK 2.5 Million Monthly for Lao Workers (photo credit: Hukbanna Prime)

The Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare has announced a new minimum wage policy, aiming to support workers facing economic challenges due to rising living costs and the depreciation of the Lao kip.