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LG ELECTRONICS’ PRISM AI WINS BEST AI TOOL/PRODUCT AT THE 2026 IN2 SABRE AWARDS ASIA-PACIFIC

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Advertorial Desk
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Delivering Real-Time Insights to Support Strategic Decision-Making,
AI-Powered Communications Platform Redefines PR Measurement Worldwide

News Summary

  • LG Electronics’ (LG) PRISM AI has won the Best AI Tool or Product category at the 2026 IN2 SABRE Awards Asia-Pacific, recognizing its technological and PR excellence.
  • PRISM AI, an AI-powered communications intelligence platform using large language models (LLMs), delivers actionable insights by assessing media coverage, competitive positioning and emerging narratives across 200 markets and 30 brands worldwide.
  • This achievement highlights PRISM AI as a model case of LG Group’s broader AI Transformation (AX) efforts, demonstrating how AI can reshape global organization operations and setting a new benchmark for the communications industry.

SEOUL, South Korea, Aug. 24, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — LG Electronics’ (LG) proprietary AI-powered communications intelligence platform, PRISM AI, has been awarded one of the industry’s most prestigious honors, the Best AI Tool or Product category at the 2026 IN2 (Insight & Innovation) SABRE Awards Asia-Pacific. PRISM AI has also advanced as a finalist for the Consumer Electronics & Telecommunications category at the 2026 SABRE Awards Asia-Pacific.

LG Electronics’ PRISM AI Wins Best AI Tool/Product at the 2026 IN2 SABRE Awards Asia-Pacific
LG Electronics’ PRISM AI Wins Best AI Tool/Product at the 2026 IN2 SABRE Awards Asia-Pacific

The SABRE Awards Asia-Pacific, presented by PRovoke Media, are among the most respected programs in the global public relations industry, recognizing excellence in branding, reputation and engagement. The IN2 SABRE Awards Asia-Pacific, part of the broader SABRE Awards program, recognizes innovation in the evolving PR landscape, highlighting achievements in areas such as AI, data and analytics, digital engagement and emerging communications technologies.

AI-powered global PR analytics platform, PRISM AI leverages large language models (LLMs) and deep learning to analyze data related to 200 markets and 30 brands worldwide, measure PR performance and deliver strategic insights. By conducting in-depth analysis of millions of news articles, the platform generates key metrics, including PR Score and CI Index, while using context-based keyword analysis and AI Agents to transform complex data into actionable insights and reports. This enables executives and communications professionals to make faster, more objective communications decisions. Its evaluation methodology and measurement metrics have been validated by Burson, a leading global PR consultancy, further strengthening the objectivity and credibility of the platform.

The honor represents comprehensive global recognition of the PRISM AI’s innovation, validating both its advanced technological capabilities and tangible value for business. This milestone stands as a premier example of successfully deploying AI technology within real-world communications. By extending its impact beyond a single function to redefine how a global organization operates, PRISM AI sets a new benchmark for AI Transformation (AX) in the industry – solidifying LG’s position as a pioneering leader driving the future of data-driven communications.

As LG’s group-wide AI transformation efforts gained recognition as a leading example of enterprise-wide innovation, LG sought to bring the same data-driven discipline to its communications activities. With a deep understanding of the growing importance of global communications and the diverse needs of overseas markets, the Overseas Sales and Marketing Company identified the need for a data-driven framework to measure and optimize PR performance worldwide.

“PRISM AI enables us to objectively measure communications impact across markets and derive strategic insights from our activities – supporting LG’s business portfolio transformation and differentiated market strategies around the globe,” said Thomas Yoon, executive vice president of the Overseas Sales and Marketing Company at LG Electronics. “It is an indispensable tool for making more informed decisions with greater speed and precision.”

“Combining LG’s global PR expertise with advanced AX capabilities, PRISM AI represents something few companies can replicate,” added Cho Jung-bum, head of the AX Center of CSO at LG Electronics. “PRISM AI exemplifies how AX is taking root not only within LG Electronics but across LG Group as a whole — moving beyond individual tools to reshape how LG operates.”

About LG Electronics, Inc.
LG Electronics is a global innovator in technology and consumer electronics with a presence in almost every country and an international workforce of more than 75,000. LG’s four Companies – Home Appliance Solution, Media Entertainment Solution, Vehicle Solution and Eco Solution – combined for global revenue of over KRW 89 trillion in 2025. LG is a leading manufacturer of consumer and commercial products ranging from TVs, home appliances, air solutions, monitors, automotive components and solutions, and its premium LG SIGNATURE and intelligent LG ThinQ brands are familiar names world over. Visit www.LG.com/global/newsroom/ for the latest news.

5G Capital Sets a New Benchmark:China Unicom Beijing and Huawei Power the 2nd World Humanoid Robot Games with 5G-A GigaUplink

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Advertorial Desk
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BEIJING, CHINA– Media OutReach Newswire – 24 August 2026 – The 2nd World Humanoid Robot Games opened yesterday at Beijing’s National Speed Skating Oval, also known as the “Ice Ribbon.” As another real-world validation of 5G Capital in robotics and embodied AI, China Unicom Beijing and Huawei have built an integrated digital foundation powered by a 5G-A GigaUplink network, supporting intelligent event operations, robot competition, and spectator experiences. The deployment also lays a connectivity foundation for humanoid robots to move beyond the arena and into everyday life. Across Beijing, 5G Capital’s region-wide GigaUplink network is providing ubiquitous, secure, and reliable connectivity for a growing range of cultural tourism, embodied AI, and Mobile AI applications and events.

China Unicom Beijing and Huawei Power the 2nd World Humanoid Robot Games with 5G-A GigaUplink
China Unicom Beijing and Huawei Power the 2nd World Humanoid Robot Games with 5G-A GigaUplink

This year’s Games feature major upgrades in both scale and competition design. A total of 1,301 competitions across 51 events will see 2,056 humanoid robots from 666 teams worldwide take part. The number of events has nearly doubled from 26 in the inaugural Games to 51 this year, with new high-intensity head-to-head events such as table tennis and kickboxing. Scenario-based competitions have also expanded into real-world settings including industrial production, hotels, homes, and logistics, while dance events place greater emphasis on synchronized movement across multiple robots. More autonomous competition formats and significantly higher task complexity are placing stringent demands on networks for high-capacity uplink, millisecond-level responsiveness, and high reliability, supporting real-time robot telemetry, precise control signaling, and multi-robot coordination.

To meet these requirements, China Unicom Beijing and Huawei deployed a dedicated 100 MHz network, complemented by a 300 MHz LampSite ultra-wideband indoor network, to support real-time robot telemetry and precise signaling exchange. A dedicated 5QI 7 slice combined with carrier isolation keeps end-to-end latency for humanoid robots within 30 milliseconds, supporting millisecond-level decision-making and response while helping ensure the precision of multi-robot coordination, obstacle avoidance, and fine-motion control.

By further integrating the dedicated network with BeiDou RTK (Real-Time Kinematic) positioning, the solution delivers decimeter- to sub-decimeter-level positioning accuracy, supporting autonomous navigation, agile obstacle avoidance, and precision racing in complex environments. On-site tests recorded a peak uplink speed of 1 Gbps, with average latency below 30 milliseconds.

While safeguarding mission-critical connectivity for the robots, China Unicom has also made the network experience of on-site spectators a priority. To address the high-density, heavy-traffic demands of large crowds, network resources and service assurance policies are dynamically adjusted according to different phases and areas of the event, including admission, waiting, competition, and departure. Core services such as instant messaging, ticket inquiries, QR-code admission, and mobile payments are prioritized for stable access, while the network also accommodates data-intensive services such as photo uploads, short-video sharing, and live streaming. This allows spectators to stay connected, interact seamlessly, and share highlights in real time even during peak traffic periods.

On the operations side, China Unicom has also developed China’s first embodied AI robot management platform designed for event scenarios. Through a unique network ID assigned to each robot, event staff can monitor its location within the venue, competition status, and operational metrics in real time, creating a closed-loop operations and management system.

China Unicom and Huawei Together Advancing the 5G Capital initiative
China Unicom and Huawei Together Advancing the 5G Capital initiative

Yang Lifan, Deputy General Manager of China Unicom Beijing, said: “This network deployment is not only a real-world test of China Unicom’s network capabilities; it will also help us accumulate valuable network assurance experience for the large-scale deployment of embodied AI. China Unicom will continue to build on the experience gained through the 5G Capital initiative and turn technological innovation into tangible and replicable network capabilities for the Mobile AI era. In doing so, we aim to support industrial innovation and help bring Chinese solutions to the world with China Unicom’s expertise.”

David Li, President of Huawei’s Wireless TDD Product Line, said: “The 2nd World Humanoid Robot Games have provided a compelling real-world validation of the 5G-A 100 MHz GigaUplink network based on 3.5 GHz 2CC + 2.1 GHz SUL for embodied AI scenarios. Looking ahead, Huawei will continue to work with China Unicom Beijing to strengthen uplink capabilities and advance spectrum coordination, building multidimensional network capabilities with tiered and differentiated service assurance for multimodal device-to-cloud transmission. This will enable real-time interaction and precise control across a wide range of embodied AI scenarios.

“Networks are about more than speed. Low latency, high reliability, and ubiquitous coverage are equally important. Building on these capabilities, we will further advance the 5G Capital initiative, continue to expand the boundaries of network performance, and lay a solid foundation for the Mobile AI era, working with industry partners to enable an intelligent future.”

Hashtag: #Huawei #WorldHumanoidRobotGames

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

New global IKEA study: Nearly 4 in 10 are staging a “silent protest” over household mess

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Advertorial Desk
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MALMÖ, Sweden, Aug. 24, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — In 38% of homes, someone is quietly leaving things out and hoping someone else will deal with it. (They won’t.) Welcome to the silent protest. It’s one of many findings from the IKEA Store & Organise Report 2026: Finding Meaning in the Mess.

IKEA Report - Top 10 Store and Organize Trends
IKEA Report – Top 10 Store and Organize Trends

Life at home is getting busier and space tighter — so this year, IKEA is focusing on helping people find calm, not just storage.

The report surveyed 31,488 people across 31 markets — and found that clutter creates real tension at home. Nowhere more so than the kitchen countertop, the hardest space to keep clutter-free (24%) and the most likely to cause an argument (37%).

One in ten of us even use the oven for storage, rising to 21% in South Korea. Somewhere, someone’s about to get a very unpleasant surprise.

Living spaces are getting smaller. But there’s a clear shift towards “meaningful mess”: owning with intention, keeping what holds value. With 59% preferring a lived-in home over a minimalist one, perhaps the goal was never a perfect home.

“People aren’t chasing a perfect home anymore. They want a home that feels like them — one that holds their stories, their memories, the things that matter. What we keep says a lot about who we are. It was never just stuff. At IKEA, we believe everyone deserves a home that works for them. That’s what smart, affordable solutions are for,” says Licca Li, Home Furnishing & Retail Design Manager, Ingka Group (IKEA).

82% keep things purely for sentimental reasons, even if rarely used or out of sight. Then there’s the 26% hiding mementos from past relationships — men more so than women.

68% of households have a drawer of doom, and inside? Cables, mostly. 54% of Boomer men still keep them for gadgets they no longer own.

When guests are coming, one in 10 admit to cancelling plans with friends because the house is too messy, and 34% shuffle clutter before they arrive.

Even so, 15% globally see mess as a form of creativity — rising to 31% in China but just 4% in Japan. Maybe the goal was never a perfect home; just a happy one.

For more information visit IKEA Store & Organise Report 2026 and Ingka newsroom.

IBM Unveils Next Generation Dual-Architecture Processor for IBM Z and LinuxONE

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Advertorial Desk
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Revolutionary design will bring Arm-native applications to IBM’s flagship mainframes and servers, broadening software choice for enterprise computing

ARMONK, N.Y., Aug. 24, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — At the annual Hot Chips conference, IBM (NYSE: IBM) today is announcing the first dual-architecture mainframe processor, which is being designed to enable enterprises to run operating systems and applications on both the IBM and Arm® compute platforms in future IBM Z and LinuxONE systems. This marks the first processor milestone to emerge from the IBM and Arm collaboration established in April 2026, and represents a significant advance in enterprise computing. The new processor is being developed to allow organizations to run Arm-native Linux environments simultaneously with z/OS and Linux on IBM Z, while benefiting from IBM’s established security, reliability, and scale.

A CAD layout of IBM's dual-architecture processor chip, designed with Arm.
A CAD layout of IBM’s dual-architecture processor chip, designed with Arm.

With more than 22 million developers worldwide, the Arm software ecosystem supports a broad and growing range of applications from cloud to edge, including the cloud-native and AI software increasingly shaping modern infrastructure. This new processor will bring that ecosystem to the IBM platforms known globally for transaction processing and data-intensive operations. Arm workloads will benefit from IBM’s enterprise-grade capabilities, including enhanced reliability, hardware-level fault detection and recovery, advanced encryption, secure key management, and AI acceleration.

Built on a 2 nanometer technology node, the processor’s design will contain 11 high-performance cores operating at more than 5.7 GHz, AI inference accelerators for in-transaction fraud detection, a dedicated on-chip data processing unit for I/O acceleration, and a large cache architecture for demanding enterprise workloads. The chip is architected to not contain separate Arm and IBM cores: each processor core can natively execute Arm and IBM Z, or Arm and LinuxONE, instructions concurrently while prioritizing the platform’s established performance, security, encryption, and availability characteristics. IBM Z and LinuxONE platforms are capable of scaling to hundreds of cores and tens of terabytes of memory.

“As organizations modernize their application portfolios and integrate AI into core business operations, they need infrastructure that expands their options,” said Christian Jacobi, Chief Technology Officer and IBM Fellow, IBM Systems Development. “This processor represents a significant architectural advancement for IBM Z and LinuxONE. By bringing Arm natively to our platform, we’re combining access to one of the industry’s fastest-growing software ecosystems with the qualities that have made IBM systems the foundation for how businesses run today.”

“As AI scales, more of the computing landscape is converging on Arm,” said Mohamed Awad, Executive Vice President, Cloud AI, Arm. “IBM Z and LinuxONE power some of the world’s most demanding workloads in highly regulated industries. Bringing Arm compute and its software ecosystem to these platforms will extend that momentum into mission-critical enterprise infrastructure to give organizations greater choice in how they deploy AI.”

This milestone represents a major step forward in IBM and Arm’s shared vision of expanding application choice and access to the latest in software innovation for enterprise computing without compromising the capabilities these environments demand.

Statements regarding IBM’s future direction and intent are subject to change or withdrawal without notice, and represent goals and objectives only.

Additional Sources

About IBM 
IBM is a leading provider of global hybrid cloud and AI, and consulting expertise. We help clients in more than 175 countries capitalize on insights from their data, streamline business processes, reduce costs and gain the competitive edge in their industries. Thousands of governments and corporate entities in critical infrastructure areas such as financial services, telecommunications and healthcare rely on IBM’s hybrid cloud platform and Red Hat OpenShift to affect their digital transformations quickly, efficiently and securely. IBM’s breakthrough innovations in AI, quantum computing, industry-specific cloud solutions and consulting deliver open and flexible options to our clients. All of this is backed by IBM’s long-standing commitment to trust, transparency, responsibility, inclusivity and service. Visit www.ibm.com for more information.

Media Contact
Bethany Hill McCarthy
bethany@ibm.com
IBM

Following Its $2 Million Kickstarter Success, xLean Brings AI Agent-Powered Floor-Washing Robot to IFA 2026

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Advertorial Desk
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DOVER, Del., Aug. 24, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — xLean Robotics will showcase xLean TR1, the world’s first dual-form transformable floor-washing robot, at IFA 2026 from Sept. 4–8, following a preview at ShowStoppers @ IFA, on Sept. 3 at Messe Berlin.

xLean Brings AI Agent-Powered Floor-Washing Robot to IFA 2026
xLean Brings AI Agent-Powered Floor-Washing Robot to IFA 2026

xLean TR1 returns to Berlin with four honors: Best of IFA Next and Best in Design Honoree at IFA 2025, followed by the Red Dot Award: Product Design 2026 and an International Design Excellence Award (IDEA).

More than 2,000 early backers pledged over $2 million to xLean TR1 on Kickstarter, validating xLean’s belief that home robots should address the messes people actually face.

Households face a familiar compromise: autonomous robots manage daily cleaning, but sudden spills, dried stains, and muddy paw prints still require another appliance. TR1 closes that gap by operating as an autonomous whole-home floor washer, then transforming in one second into a handheld cleaner for targeted messes, combining robotic convenience with immediate human control.

That raised a broader question: can a robot understand what someone needs rather than wait for a predefined command?

Central to xLean’s presentation will be live demonstrations of EvoMate™ OS, an AI Agent experience designed to make robot cleaning as natural as asking someone for help. Visitors will see TR1 interpret one-sentence requests, identify what needs cleaning, execute the appropriate task, and report completion. Demonstrations will also show simple visual assistance, including locating everyday items and checking whether pet essentials need attention.

Unlike voice systems limited to preset commands, EvoMate™ OS interprets intent and manages cleaning from request through completion, without complex maps, menus, mode selections, or manual settings. To support this intelligent experience, xLean TR1 is powered by the D-Robotics Sunrise™ X5 AI chips with 10 TOPS of computing power.

The same user-driven philosophy extends to product design. Following strong community support, xLean introduced two supporter rewards: a newly unlocked Space Silver TR1 and personalized top-cover laser engraving for names, messages, or graphics. Both will be shown at IFA as examples of community-driven personalization and the beginning of deeper European localization.

xLean invites European distributors, retailers, and service partners to discuss market launches, localized experiences, channel partnerships, and long-term service support and experience TR1 in action at IFA.

Visit xLean at ShowStoppers @ IFA on Sept. 3 and Booth 11.1-129 during IFA 2026, Sept. 4–8.

More information: https://xlean.ai 

Media Contact
Davy Kwok
davy@xlean.ai 
+86 13246736683

HiDream.ai Advances Its Native Omni-Modal Roadmap with HiDream-O1-World, an Interactive World Model

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Advertorial Desk
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BEIJING, CHINA – Media OutReach Newswire – 24 August 2026 – HiDream.ai today launched HiDream-O1-World, a native omni-modal interactive world model that lets users generate complete, explorable 3D worlds from a single text prompt, image, or interactive control.

HiDream.ai Advances Its Native Omni-Modal Roadmap with HiDream-O1-World, an Interactive World Model

The model combines three core capabilities — roaming, editing, and interaction — and is built on HiDream.ai’s self-developed UiT (Unified Transformer) architecture. The upgraded UiT delivers a key breakthrough on two persistent challenges in the field: spatiotemporal consistency and physical consistency. As cameras pan, zoom, or track, scene geometry remains stable — objects don’t vanish or deform, and collisions, occlusions, and gravitational responses follow real-world causal logic rather than appearing as randomly stitched frames.

“The value of an interactive world model isn’t in generating a photorealistic 3D scene — it’s in AI beginning to genuinely understand the depth of space, the texture of objects, the inertia of motion, and the logic of light and shadow,” said Yao Ting, CTO of HiDream.ai. “This is a systematic reconstruction of how the physical world works. HiDream-O1-World is the first bridge in that reconstruction — every interaction leads to a world never reached before.”

Topping the Leaderboard on Debut

HiDream-O1-World’s first third-party benchmark results came from WBench, an interactive world model evaluation benchmark jointly developed by Meituan’s LongCat team and Fudan University. The model topped the core Navi sub-leaderboard with an average score of 80.9, ranked first in the Physical dimension at 73.3, and scored 88.0 on Consistency — the best overall performance on the board.

WBench covers 289 multi-turn interaction cases and 1,058 interaction turns across five dimensions and 22 metrics. Its Navi board, focused on spatial navigation and viewpoint control, is widely regarded as the core measure of a world model’s spatial understanding. Topping Navi on its first entry, HiDream-O1-World sets a new performance ceiling for interactive world models — outperforming established players including Tencent Hunyuan 1.5.

One-Click World Generation for Immersive Interaction

The model lets users generate structurally complete, stylistically diverse interactive worlds from a short description, a single image, or simple controls. Upload a photo of a room, for example, and the model rapidly constructs a high-precision digital twin, completing the full panorama with accurate proportions and fine-grained detail.

Users can explore worlds in first-person or third-person mode, freely driving a character and adjusting viewpoints. In a diving scene, light patterns on the water surface and refracted glimmers on the seabed shift in sync with the camera; coral textures remain crisp and drift-free throughout.

Beyond roaming, HiDream-O1-World enables real-time editing — directing characters to grab, run, crouch, or jump, or triggering environmental events like rainfall. Changes maintain globally unified coherence across geometry, lighting, materials, and physical logic, ensuring every interaction remains self-consistent.

The model generalizes across humans, animals, and fictional characters, adapting to each one’s form and motion. In a snow-climbing scene, footprints press realistic indentations into the snow, snowflakes drift at varied speeds, and distant ridgelines blend naturally with rock textures as the viewpoint shifts. It supports a wide scene and stylistic range — from real city streets and natural terrain to anime-style cartoons and AAA-game-grade rendering.

Two Core Breakthroughs: Spatiotemporal and Physical Consistency

Interactive world models have long been constrained by three problems: space, physics, and memory. Camera switches cause blurring and scene drift; physics violations undermine credibility; and without long-term memory, objects disappear when the view turns. HiDream-O1-World addresses these through two coordinated capabilities:

Long-horizon spatiotemporal consistency. The model pairs 3D priors injected into Memory context with Test-Time Training (TTT) online maintenance. The Memory mechanism encodes scene geometry and object relationships as 3D priors, letting the model “remember” explored structures across viewpoint switches — fundamentally eliminating drift and scene resets. TTT performs lightweight online adaptation during inference, dynamically optimizing adapters so internal representations stay aligned with the scene’s 3D constraints. Where conventional models act like a painter redrawing every frame — with errors compounding into drift and vanishing objects — HiDream-O1-World behaves like a director with spatial memory: it records scene structure rather than re-guessing the environment at each step, recalling the corresponding view when the camera moves.

Globally stable physical consistency. On the training side, a generative world simulator produces synthetic data covering rigid-body collisions, fluid motion, soft-body deformation, and gravity-driven projectiles — systematically reinforcing the model’s inductive bias through physics-simulated data. On the inference side, the same TTT mechanism enhances physical consistency online, adjusting representations when new object types or materials appear so subsequent frames better follow that scene’s physics. This dual-engine design delivers gains of 13.6% over the industry average on visual-plausibility evaluation and 12.7% on causal-fidelity evaluation across fluid, collision, and deformation dimensions.

The research has been accepted to ECCV 2026 (European Conference on Computer Vision), one of the three premier academic conferences in computer vision and AI.

Paper: DreamWorld: Geometry-Grounded Video Diffusion for 3D-Consistent World Modeling
Project page: https://yanghb22-fdu.github.io/DreamWorld

Three New Industry Frontiers

Beyond technical breakthroughs, HiDream-O1-World opens new possibilities for industrial transformation:

AI interactive film and games. Users no longer follow a linear plot passively but become active participants, with worlds evolving along branching storylines — delivering cinematic visual quality, unprecedented immersion, and the enjoyment of multiple endings.

Embodied-AI simulation. The model builds physically grounded, high-fidelity simulation spaces — cities, factories, interiors — providing virtual testbeds for robotics training, autonomous driving, and smart manufacturing, replacing high-cost, high-risk real-world testing.

3D scene production. Creators can generate 3D figurines, home scenes, and art spaces with complete structure and rich detail, supporting structural fine-tuning and instant style switching. It even extends to the microscopic world — simulating cellular behavior and protein interactions for drug discovery and disease-mechanism research.

When the physical world can be generated at a click and explored freely, many industries deserve to be reimagined. These fields are only the tip of the iceberg — as more developers and creators join, the application boundaries of interactive world models will extend far beyond what can be described today.

Hashtag: #HiDreamAI

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

Attapeu Looks to Job Support as School Dropouts Rise

By
Phoudasack Vongsay
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A pciture of education in Laos, used for illustration purpose only. (Photo by European Commission)

Attapeu is expanding its employment services as the province seeks to respond to labor shortages and help people who have left school find work, according to provincial media.  

At a meeting on 20 August, Director of the provincial Department of Labour and Social Welfare Phonmany Khiengxayavong said the province will focus on linking jobseekers with employers and helping businesses recruit workers with suitable skills.

The push comes after provincial authorities recorded 5,237 students leaving secondary school, grade 6 to 12 between 2022 and 2026.

Attapeu’s labor market currently includes 47,420 workers, of whom 46,282 are employed. The province’s unemployment rate is 2.4 percent, equivalent to about 1,138 people.

Most workers remain in agriculture, which employs 26,315 people, or 56.8 percent of the workforce. Industry accounts for 15,242 workers, while 4,725 people work in services.

Looking ahead, Attapeu will expand employment services in the second half of 2026 by collecting information from jobseekers and employers, identifying workforce needs and improving coordination between government agencies and businesses to connect available workers with suitable jobs.

The province has 2,368 registered business units, providing a potential base for expanding job opportunities and matching workers with employers.

Enrollment Trend in Laos

The issue is part of a bigger challenge in the education field in Laos..

In late July, Vientiane announced plans to support disadvantaged students and reduce school dropouts by waiving school fees, providing free textbooks, redistributing teachers, and strengthening science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) and information and communications technology (ICT) education.

During the 2024-25 school year, 2.38 percent of primary students dropped out, well above the city’s target of less than 0.4 percent. The lower-secondary dropout rate stood at 5 percent, also above the target of less than 4 percent. Officials linked the dropouts mainly to poverty, families moving, and students leaving school to work or help support their families.

The decline in school enrollment has continued for several years.

Laos has recorded three consecutive years of declining school enrollment. From 2022-23 to 2024-25 school year, primary enrollment fell from 741,976 students to 739,554, while lower secondary enrollment dropped from 388,019 to 378,457.

The sharpest decline was recorded at the upper secondary level, where enrollment fell from 169,523 to 144,050 over the same period. 

Education authorities cite poverty, migration to work in the city or abroad and infrastructure challenges.

To Address This

The education challenges facing Attapeu are part of a wider national effort to reduce school dropouts and improve teaching quality.

During a meeting ahead of the 2026–27 school year, Education Minister Thongsalith Mangnomek identified enrollment, dropouts and teacher quality as key challenges. Reforms will strengthen teacher training and placement, while authorities prepare to introduce the 6+3+3 education system nationwide in 2028–29.

In early August, the ministry also announced plans to recruit 2,200 new teacher trainees for the 2026–27 academic year. The intake is based on the number of secondary schools nationwide, with provinces expected to select students with strong academic performance and an interest in teaching.

Laos Moves to Update Electricity Law for Energy Sector Shift

By
Namfon Chanthavong
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A 1,000 MW solar power facility in Oudomxay Province, one of the country’s largest renewable energy projects. (Photo credit: CGN Energy Laos)

Laos is moving to update its electricity sector as the government prepares to adopt a revised Electricity Law aimed at supporting a greener, more modern and sustainable energy system.

The current Electricity Law, adopted in 2017, no longer fully reflects changes in how electricity is generated, traded and managed, according to officials.

A seven-day meeting to review the revised law ran from 17 to 23 August.

Minister of Industry and Commerce Malaithong Kommasith said the government has long considered energy a strategic sector of the national economy, with electricity serving as the “backbone” of economic stability and competitiveness.

He said Laos needs to revise the 2017 law because the electricity sector has developed rapidly, with new investment models, market mechanisms and technologies emerging that the existing legislation does not fully cover.

Laos is working to change how it produces and uses electricity. The government wants to make it easier for households and businesses to generate their own power or buy electricity directly from producers. It also plans to prepare for power projects whose concessions will expire and return control to the state.

Resource Diversity

Another big plan is to diversify the country’s energy resources. This will help Laos not depend so much on hydropower.

Deputy Justice Minister Khamphan Bounphakhom also emphasized that the Electricity Law needs to be updated to reflect the changing times, both in terms of the economy and society, as well as keeping pace with developments in Laos and globally.

The meeting discussed several proposed changes, including new business models such as Build-Lease-Transfer (BLT) and Lease-Operate-Transfer (LOT), the establishment of an energy management agency, and measures to promote new technologies, clean energy and greener industries.

The revised draft contains 14 parts, nine chapters and 176 articles. Of these, 86 articles have been amended, 65 are new provisions and 25 remain unchanged.

The draft also introduces several new policies and mechanisms. These include an Electricity Regulatory Authority, rules for self-supply and direct electricity sales, and new measures for managing power projects when their concessions expire.

It would also establish a Lao Grid Code and Renewable Energy Certificates, while introducing registration requirements for electrical engineers and technicians.

Following the meeting, the revision committee will continue working on areas where officials disagreed to ensure the final law can be implemented effectively.

Broater Energy Transition

The proposed law comes as Laos begins to diversify its electricity system beyond its long-standing reliance on hydropower.

In April, Electricité du Laos (EDL) introduced a nationwide program to buy electricity from household rooftop solar systems at LAK 992 (USD 0.04) per kilowatt-hour, with contracts lasting up to 10 years. The program allows households with single-phase connections to install systems of up to 5 kilowatt-peak, while those with three-phase connections can install up to 10 kWp. EDL set an initial nationwide limit of 50 MWp for the program.

The government is also encouraging people to switch to electric vehicles.

In May, it suspended imports of most fossil-fuel-powered vehicles until the end of 2026 while introducing price controls for electric vehicles to keep them affordable. The measures aim to reduce fuel imports, make transportation cleaner and strengthen the country’s long-term energy security.

They form part of a broader push to build a cleaner and more sustainable transport system.

These policies match with the broader energy transition plan outlined in the revised Electricity Law. The draft would establish rules for self-supply, direct electricity sales and renewable energy certificates, while also creating a Lao Grid Code and a framework for managing power projects as existing concessions expire.

Following the recent seven-day review, the revision committee will continue working on areas where officials disagree before finalizing the draft for implementation.

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