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Laos-China Railway Proposes Standing Tickets

Massive crowds queue for tickets on the Laos-China Railway.
Massive crowds queue for tickets on the Laos-China Railway (Goy Outhachit).

The Laos-China Railway has proposed standing tickets as a way to accommodate large volumes of passengers following the reopening of the country to tourism.

Netcetera AG: Into the era of innovative and sustainable cloud payment solutions

Netcetera goes cloud by migrating the 3DS Server from on-prem data centers to a cloud platform

This will strengthen the company’s position as a global payment player adaptable to local markets and customer needs. Netcetera’s high-standard operations will continue in an environment-friendly manner

ZURICH, SWITZERLAND – EQS Newswire – 26 July 2022 – Today, as part of its future-orientated approach, Netcetera is announcing the switch to a cloud platform using world-leading hosting service providers. The first step of going cloud is the finalized migration of its 3DS services to a new cloud hosting environment.

This switch promises to deliver modernized infrastructure that more easily meets rapidly changing customer behavior and expectations, and drives business growth. The change is part of the payment player’s dedication to achieving sustainability and responsibility towards society through ongoing efforts to improve its core industry. “High-quality and high-availability solutions are an important part of our success, as are the long-term relationships we build with our customers and partners. We work with front-runners in the payment field to ensure that we set up the security and quality standards in the industry.” – stated Christian Waldvogel, from the Management Team of Netcetera.

Cloud means to provide sustainable solutions that solve the infrastructural and local market challenges, i.e., to be ready for global coverage, be able to get and provide services closer to the customers, and answer the local regions’ needs in which the payment player operates.

For Netcetera customers, it means that the company is undertaking all the actions to optimize costs, especially when resource shortages and prices are scaling up, and the markets around the world are strengthening their local regulations. Even more, cloud platform usage will improve the ability to instantly serve the most demanding and significant payment platforms during peak loads. Adopting the cloud leads to 62% more efficient IT infrastructure management vs. on-premises and reduced unplanned downtime. The cloud data centers that rely on renewable energy resources guarantee improved performance with automated scalability in a highly secured PCI 3DS/DSS certified infrastructure.

When asked about Netcetera’s plans, in the long run, the CEO, Andrej Vckovski, stated: “We care about where our energy comes from and how we are using it, and the time has come for all payment players to get involved in the process with global action. Digitalization is usually an energy saver on a global scale, but it still accounts for about 10% of global energy consumption. Clever design and reduction of energy waste can already make a difference. Along with us, our customers will contribute to this mission and join us in decreasing the carbon footprint.”

The migration process of the Netcetera 3DS Server to a new cloud platform started in January 2022. It was carried out in phases to ensure that the whole process was implemented smoothly.

Netcetera’s acquiring products enable processing transactions with 3-D Secure protocols and PSD2 SCA exemptions, certified with the biggest card networks, and fully compliant with all the standards in the payment industry. 3-D Secure is a globally trusted protocol for securing online transactions. It involves links between various components to ensure communication between merchants, issuers, and acquiring banks.

Netcetera will continue providing compelling business benefits such as improved conversions, optimized checkout processes, reduced fraud, and protection from fraudulent chargeback liability without compromising the smooth user experience for the online shopper. As a strong, flexible, and reliable partner, the leading software company strives for a positive global impact and beneficial changes in its customers’ business. This step aligns with the payment player’s modern, resource-efficient, and competitive way of working. Proudly confirming the statement of one of its customers: “Local inclusion of international payment players such as Netcetera will only mean more innovation and knowledge in the local online payment methods and the payment ecosystem as a whole.” Netcetera’s final goal is to delight its customers, answer their needs and jointly act responsibly towards the living environment.

Additional features:
File: Cloud payment platform

Hashtag: #Netcetera

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

About Netcetera

Netcetera is a global software company with cutting-edge IT products and individual digital solutions in the areas of secure digital payment, financial technologies, media, transport, healthcare and insurance. More than 2,000 banks and issuers, and 150,000 merchants rely on the digital payment solutions and globally certified 3-D Secure products of the market leader for payment security. The owner-managed company covers the entire IT lifecycle, from ideation and strategy to implementation and operation. The balanced combination of the latest technologies and proven standards ensures investment security, from large-scale projects to innovative start-ups. Founded in 1996, Netcetera is a holding company with around 800 employees and is headquartered in Zurich, Switzerland, with additional locations across Europe, Asia, and the Middle East.

Further information:

ViewQwest Continues SASE Market Expansion in SEA with new HK Point of Presence (PoP)

Expanded coverage to serve growing regional and global customer base

SINGAPORE – Media OutReach – 26 July 2022 – Leading telecommunications, network, and security solutions provider ViewQwest today announced it has opened technical and commercial operations in Hong Kong to deliver Managed SASE and SD-WAN solutions to its customers in Hong Kong and Macau. The move further extends ViewQwest’s SASE market coverage in SEA as it meets the urgent demand for enterprise network and security transformation in the region.

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Vignesa Moorthy, Chief Executive Officer of ViewQwest

ViewQwest Chief Executive Officer Vignesa Moorthy says, “The accelerated business digital transformation we witnessed in 2020 and 2021 magnified the weaknesses of traditional network and security models. With the widespread adoption of cloud applications, and the hybrid workplace and workforce, organisations demand high-performance, high-availability, and high-security access from their network. All this while streamlining operations, driving cost-savings, and enabling business agility.”

ViewQwest has been rolling out its Managed SASE and SD-WAN offerings across SEA with market presence in Singapore, Malaysia, and the Philippines, supporting large domestic and global enterprises undertake large-scale transformation of their network and security architecture. Moorthy shares, “Our expansion in Hong Kong brings us closer to more customers with similar regional and global footprints. They are facing similar challenges and have seen the massive benefits the transformation has brought for their peers in various sectors such as retail, construction, manufacturing, logistics, and financial services.”

ViewQwest Managed SASE converges networking and security services into one unified solution. It replaces the legacy data center-oriented security with a cloud-based architecture and places network and security controls on the edge versus the corporate data center. ViewQwest Managed SD-WAN is designed to fully support and deliver the highest application performance for applications hosted in data centers and in the cloud, including SaaS services. Together, the solutions enable enterprises to provide secure access to any remote user, branch office, device, or application, and companies can reap enhanced protection and network performance, while reducing costs and complexity.

ViewQwest has been named by global cybersecurity leader Palo Alto Networks as a Next Wave MSSP Innovator. ViewQwest Hong Kong will provide the complete range of global connectivity, SASE solutions, and managed services required for enterprise network and security transformation.

Moorthy concludes, “We help customers transform their WAN and security architecture with confidence. With our telco DNA, no one understands networks as we do. We deliver high-performance internet links and simultaneously drive significant cost savings. Our global carrier relationships support customers’ footprint wherever they operate. And our certified capabilities for best-of-breed SASE from leading global cybersecurity leaders such as Palo Alto Networks enables us to create differentiated services to address security demands from different markets and customers. It is a distinct advantage that we can offer regional and global enterprises headquartered in Hong Kong and Macau but operate worldwide.”

Hashtag: #ViewQwest

About ViewQwest

Established in 2001, ViewQwest is a leading telecommunications service provider of domestic and global connectivity, managed network and security solutions, and other managed ICT services. It has been consistently recognized as Singapore’s fastest Fixed Network Provider in 2018, 2019, 2020, and 2021 by Ookla Speedtest Intelligence. In 2021, Ookla also named ViewQwest the Most Consistent Fixed Network in Singapore.

In 2016, ViewQwest expanded into Malaysia as a fully licensed operator with Network Facility Provider (NFP), Network Service Provider (NSP) and Application Service Provider (ASP) licenses. In 2019, it commenced commercial operations in the Philippines further expanding its market coverage for Managed SASE, SD-WAN, and cybersecurity solutions.

Lao U-19 Football Coach Michael Weiss Both Proud and Hopeful

Mr. Michael Weiss, Head Coach of the Laos National Football Team.
Mr. Michael Weiss, Head Coach of the Laos National Football Team.

The Laotian Times interviews Mr. Michael Weiss, coach of the U-19 Lao national men’s football team, about the tactics and techniques that led the team to its final match against Malaysia in the AFF U-19 Youth Championship in Indonesia.

Fujitsu Global Delivery Center Philippines awarded with Best Places to Work Certification

MANILA, PHILIPPINES – Media OutReach – 26 July 2022 – Fujitsu’s Global Delivery Center in the Philippines (GDC) has been awarded with the Best Places to Work certification during the awarding ceremony that took place at its head office in Taguig City on June 2, 2022.

Arlene Gregorio, Head of Philippines GDC, and Aristeo “Theo” Cataluna, Head of Human Resources, Philippines GDC, received the trophy and plaque on behalf of the company.

“Amazing, amazing achievement for our organization. This afternoon is not really about Fujitsu, but it’s really about the people of Fujitsu. So Best Places to Work is not about the facilities, it’s about our culture; it’s about the way we take care of each other. And definitely a big part of that would be our HR team, our IT team, our support team, and of course, our delivery team – meaning each and every one of this membership,” said Ms. Arlene Gregorio, Head of Fujitsu GDC Philippines, who added that the awarding ceremony is not a culmination event, but a continuous effort for the organization to be one of the best places to work for in the world.

“I am truly humbled by the result of this certification activity because this is based on the anonymous responses collected from our dear team members. As such, this award recognizes the significant contribution of everyone in the organization. In HR, together with the support teams and the senior leadership team, we constantly challenge ourselves on how to give better support to the employees,” said Aristeo Cataluna, Head of Human Resources, Fujitsu GDC Philippines.

Fujitsu GDC Philippines was assessed focusing on eight (8) workplace factors including culture, leadership, opportunities for growth, and people practices. The GDC Philippines’ Human Resources (HR) policies and practices were also assessed against Best Places to Work’s global people framework standard. In addition, the GDC also attained high scores from the employee satisfaction survey which were answered anonymously.

Representing the Best Places to Work organization and program was Hamza Idrissi who joined the awarding ceremony virtually.

Best Places to Work is an international HR certification program that certifies and recognizes leading workplaces in many countries around the world.

HR practices implemented in the organization against our global people framework standard.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/best-places-to-work-program/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/bptw4
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bptw4all/

For more information, please visit www.bestplacestoworkfor.org

Hashtag: #BestPlacesToWork

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

Infor Names Isabella Kusumawati Vice President and Managing Director for Southeast Asia and Korea

Asian industry veteran chosen to helm most diverse region in Asia Pacific

SINGAPORE – Media OutReach – 26 July 2022 – Infor, the industry cloud company, today announced the appointment of Isabella Kusumawati as vice president and managing director for Southeast Asia and Korea (SEAK). Based at the company’s regional hub in Singapore, Kusumawati will be responsible for scaling Infor’s SEAK business, driving customer success and strengthening the ecosystem to spearhead the next phase of growth across Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Vietnam and Korea.

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“We are thrilled to welcome Isabella to Infor to lead our fast-growing SEAK region. She is a seasoned and well-respected leader in the industry, with a strong track record in driving customer transformation and building high-performing sales teams in top technology companies across the globe,” said Chema Aramburu, executive vice president and general manager for Asia Pacific & Japan. “Digital technologies such as cloud, mobility, artificial intelligence and IoT continue to present immense opportunities for us to help our customers accelerate innovation across their business. I am confident that Isabella will be an asset to Infor, our partners and a trusted advisor to customers.”

Kusumawati brings over two decades of experience in sales management, including new market and business development. Most recently, she was vice president and managing director of Southeast Asia for SUSE. Prior to that, Kusumawati held strategic leadership roles at Salesforce, SAP, Oracle and Microsoft, where she was instrumental in strengthening customer and partner satisfaction, and clinched multiple sales, leadership and employee awards for her achievements.

A native to a region as diverse as Southeast Asia, Kusumawati’s ability to speak a number of languages key to this part of the world, coupled with her understanding of Asian business, will be an edge for the role. She is an active member of the Women’s Business Network, and a passionate advocate for women in technology and leadership.

“The Southeast Asia and Korea markets are growing at a rapid pace, and there is accelerated consideration and appetite for cloud that enables organizations to drive innovation and strategic outcomes at speed and scale. As businesses emerge out of the post-pandemic fog of the past two years, they are increasingly looking for technology solutions that can support their growing needs for operational agility, efficiency, resilience, and visibility,” said Kusumawati. “Infor’s industry-specific CloudSuite solutions are purpose-built to address these needs and accelerate time-to-market for business innovation. I am excited to be joining the Infor family, and look forward to driving even greater success and outcomes for our customers and partners across the SEAK region.”

Media contact:
Phyllis Tan
Infor Asia Pacific & Japan
phyllis.tan@infor.com
+65 9799 9133

Hashtag: #Infor

About Infor

Infor is a global leader in business cloud software specialized by industry. We develop complete solutions for our focus industries, including industrial manufacturing, distribution, healthcare, food & beverage, automotive, aerospace & defense, and high tech. Infor’s mission-critical enterprise applications and services are designed to deliver sustainable operational advantages with security and faster time to value. We are obsessed with delivering successful business outcomes for customers. Over 60,000 organizations in more than 175 countries rely on Infor’s 17,000 employees to help achieve their business goals. As a Koch company, our financial strength, ownership structure, and long-term view empower us to foster enduring, mutually beneficial relationships with our customers. Visit .

How Can Hong Kong Create a Breakthrough in Times of Talent Crisis through the Pandemic, explored by Master of Science in Human Resource Management and Organisational Behaviour, Lingnan University

HONG KONG SAR – Media OutReach – 26 July 2022 – The pandemic has amplified the talent crisis of Hong Kong, according to the government Census and Statistics Department, the total employed persons have decreased by around 244,500 from 3,855,000 in May 2019 – July 2019 to 3,610,500 in January 2022 – March 2022. In January 2022, the American Chamber of Commerce (AmCham) in Hong Kong conducted a survey and found in its “2022 Business Sentiment Survey Report” that more than 40% of employees from American companies in Hong Kong are more likely to leave the city while over 25% of surveyed American companies say they are more likely to leave Hong Kong.

And in January 2022, the Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO) also indicated that “37% of 251 Japanese companies in Hong Kong noted it was more difficult to hire locally than it had been a year earlier”. On March 30 of 2022, Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam also admitted that “It’s an unarguable fact that we have a brain drain and some senior managements of some corporates have left Hong Kong”.

The CEO of Lan Kwai Fong Group, Allen Zeman, has made an open-up suggestion about the current talent situation. He thought that “we have to open up Hong Kong. It is great to worry about health, which is especially important. But on the other hand, we also need an economic life as we are an international financial center.”

Oxford Metrica also conducted a survey in 2021 for the Financial Services Development Council of Hong Kong, and the council pointed out in its report “2021: Hong Kong – the Leading Global Financial Centre” that “The challenge will be to find ways to ensure that Hong Kong continues to be a popular posting for expatriates while at the same time attracting the best and brightest young graduates locally to join the financial services industry”. Thus, there is a need for talent strategies and specific plans to maintain and strengthen Hong Kong’s advantages of talent competitiveness.

In the 4th quarter of 2021, the distribution of composite employment by sector in Hong Kong was 2% in manufacturing with 89,100 workers and 88.4% in service industries which cover several key industries including financial and insurance services with 286,500 persons accounting for 7.8% share in total employment, trading and logistics with 877,600 employees accounting for 23.8% share in total employment and professional and business services with 401,800 persons accounting for 10.9% share in total employment as reported by HKSAR census and statistics department.

Given the current situation of digital needs, departure of ex-pats, immigration of Hong Kong residents, the aging population as well as low birth rate. According to the statistics released by the Census and Statistics Department of Hong Kong, the percentage of residents aged sixty-five or above is projected to increase from 703,700 in 2021 to around 945,723 at the average annual rate of 5.05% by 2027.

It is projected that there would be a witness of talent shortage and a worsening gap between the labor demand and supply of approximately 170,000 positions after 5 years in Hong Kong which is in 2027 due to the gap between the retiring population and newly added population. The industry with the biggest vacancy would be professional and business services, it is estimated that this field will lack 32,000 people in 5 years. The finance industry will lack 16,000 people in 5 years. And the Information and Communication Techniques field is about to see a gap of 12,000 vacant occupations in 5 years.

To realize the talent strategy, we could establish different talent development game plans regarding the period of time that talents may stay in Hong Kong.

Sources of long-term talent include largely both local and non-local higher education graduates who study in Hong Kong, professionals, mainland talents, and highly skilled or talented persons.
The main source of short-term talent would be the expatriates.

1. The First Category Long-term Talent Source – (Local & Non-local Fresh Graduates in Hong Kong)

The first one is fresh graduates of Hong Kong which include both local and non-local residents. There are nearly 30,000 graduates every year from the programs funded by the University Grants Committee (UGC) in Hong Kong, and that number was 28,861 in 2021 as reported by UGC in which approximately 13% of whom were mainland Chinese students. They also account for around 67.1% of the total non-local students.

Besides, there are around 49,000 postgraduate students in Hong Kong in both government-funded and self-financed postgraduate programs regarding the figures published by 8 UGC-funded universities while the vast majority of them come from mainland China. Of all those students in higher education, the number of students studying business courses (including business management and finance) and computer science and information technology is about 13,000 and 5,000, respectively.

On the other hand, the United Kingdom (UK) has launched the “BNO” (British National Overseas) scheme since the beginning of 2021 which allows eligible Hong Kong residents and their families to live, study or work in the UK. In May 2022, the UK initiated another visa scheme called as “HPI” (High Potential Individual) visa which aims at attracting eligible students who graduated in the past 5 years worldwide, any graduate of universities that have ranked top 50 in at least 2 comprehensive references for university rankings out of the Times World University Rankings, QS World University Rankings and Academic Ranking of World Universities could apply for the “HPI” visa. A few universities in Hong Kong are on the list. The impact of the UK’s “BNO” scheme and “HPI” (High Potential Individual) work visa on Hong Kong’s “brain drain” is unknown.

2. The Second Long-term Talent Source – (Professionals, Mainland Talents, and Technology Talents Coming to Hong Kong through Various Admission Schemes)

Hong Kong has also launched various kinds of talent admission schemes trying to attain valuable human capital. Thus, the second long-term talent source of Hong Kong includes professionals under the General Employment Policy (GEP), mainland talents from the Admission Scheme for Mainland Talents and Professionals (ASMTP), and talents with relevant technical backgrounds through the Technology Talent Admission Scheme (TechTAS). According to the Hong Kong Immigration Department, the number of talents coming to Hong Kong via the aforementioned types of immigration schemes was about 32,000 per year before the pandemic.

3. Short-term Talent Source – (Expatriates)

The other pool of talent is expatriates. Hong Kong as a global financial center holds a high percentage of expatriates in its population, there were 41,592 of them in 2018 referring to the statistic provided by the Hong Kong Council of Social Services.

Therefore, it is imperative to strengthen the attractiveness of Hong Kong to those talents, and the existing methods and thinking modes are not enough to address the growing talent crisis.

For local recent university graduates, we could:

i. Create and expand job opportunities in Hong Kong and the Greater Bay Area (GBA).

ii. Continue and expand the job assistance scheme to GBA.

ii. Support them with other approaches such as housing allowances/subsidies, career pathway development, tax incentive, and so forth.


For non-local recent university graduates:

i. Government may consider increasing the scholarship opportunities and relaxing the restrictions on working for non-local students to attract them to study in Hong Kong.

ii. Continue the ease of application for the Immigration Arrangements for Non-local Graduates (IANG) visa and consider the extension of the validity period of the IANG visa (the number of IANG visa applicants is around 9,000 every year) for the sake of attracting non-local students to stay and work in Hong Kong after graduating.

iii. A more controversial but attractive approach is for policymakers to consider revising the immigration policies and shortening the residency requirement from 7 years to 4 years in becoming permanent residents of HKSAR.

iv. Initiate a tuition grant scheme similar to Singapore that waives a certain amount of tuition fees in exchange for a fixed duration of work in Hong Kong.

v. Collaborate with different enterprises in Hong Kong and provide internship or work opportunities for non-local fresh graduates.


For Professionals, Mainland Talents, and Technology Talents:

i. In the short term, easing the travel and quarantine restrictions could mitigate the burdens on the flow of talents.

ii. Increase the input on R&D (research and development) and other infrastructure and create more relevant occupations to attract as well as retain talents with a technology background. Currently, Hong Kong’s R&D investment only accounts for less than 1% of its GDP as reported by the Census and Statistics Department in 2021 while that proportion of global districts has almost achieved 5% early in 2018 according to the data released by The Global Economy, and that average rate of European Union was 2.32% in 2020 as presented by European Commission.

iii. Financial support or tax incentives for those who come to Hong Kong to start businesses in key industries.

iv. Increase government funding to encourage the knowledge transfer of academic research.

v. Policymakers could consider assisting these talents with job searching in both Hong Kong and the GBA.

vi, Other than the IANG scheme, policymakers could consider the continuation and expansion of the General Employment Policy (GEP) and Technology Talent Admission Scheme (TechTAS).


For Expatriates:

i. Policymakers could design and implement tax holidays on income for eligible expatriates who work in key industries or technologies.

ii. Spouse career development support such as financing part of the tuition to attend recognized programs.

iii. Strengthen education support for expatriates’ children, government could reconsider continuing to subsidize the English Schools Foundation (ESF) to ensure the quality international education for expats’ children.

In summary, Hong Kong’s existing talent plans are not adequate to help it get a breakthrough in building the talent pipeline. Policymakers should contemplate more innovative and proactive initiatives to attract and retain both long- and short-term talents for Hong Kong.

Hashtag: #LingnanUniversity

EU Approves Monkeypox Vaccine From Bavarian Nordic

The European Commission has granted permission to Danish biotechnology company Bavarian Nordic to market its Imvanex vaccine as protection against Monkeypox.