The 2nd stakeholders briefing on the 5th Population and Housing Census 2025 (PHC) was chaired on Monday by Mme. Phetsamone SONE, Deputy Head of Lao Statistics Bureau, and co-chair Ms. Mariam A. KHAN, UNFPA Representative to Lao PDR.
Bonaqua® Launches Its First Individual Sale Label-less Bottled Water Anywhere in the World
Innovative initiative reinforces the brand’s commitment to a “World Without Waste”
HONG KONG SAR – Media OutReach – 28 April 2022 – The leading bottled water brand1 Bonaqua® today announced it will launch its first individual sale label-less bottled water anywhere in the world. The company will produce the Bonaqua® Label-less Mineralized Water locally, which is now being pilot-launched at the Austin Road “7-Eleven X Coca-Cola” concept store and will be available on store shelves at various sales channels later this summer. The effort echoes the brand’s commitment to exploring sustainability solutions and hopefully inspiring more consumers to adopt sustainable lifestyles.

It marks the first time The Coca-Cola Company launches individual sale of the Bonaqua® label-less bottled water. “Individual sale” allows the label-less bottled water to be available to a broader range of retail channels, allowing more consumers in Hong Kong to take part in building a world without waste by reducing packaging materials and enhancing bottle recyclability. The Bonaqua® label-less bottled water for individual sale will also be introduced in Taiwan market soon.

“By making label-less Bonaqua® bottled water widely available, it allows everyone in Hong Kong to play a part in building a better world and a better tomorrow,” says Tim Warwick, Vice President of Operations for Hong Kong, Taiwan, Macau and Mongolia at The Coca-Cola Company. “More importantly, it puts Bonaqua® at the center of Hong Kong’s sustainability dialogues while we continue to create more solutions that cater for different needs and occasions. Our collaboration with key retail customers like 7-Eleven, one of the largest retail networks in Hong Kong, will provide wider channels to support label-less bottled water so as to expand the outreach of our innovative sustainability efforts.”
“As Coca-Cola’s bottling partner, we will continue to apply our expertise to make every possible effort, including design, sourcing, production and delivery, to launch greener choices of beverage products and to steer a sustainable lifestyle,” says Connie Yeung, Director and General Manager of Swire Coca-Cola Hong Kong.
The label-less bottle was first available last year for bulk purchase only. The new bottle uses laser incising technology for highlighting product information on the bottles, and feature a sales barcode on the bottle cap, enabling the individual sale of the products while reducing packaging materials and improving bottle recyclability.
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1 Nielsen MarketTrack Service data shows that Bonaqua® was ranked first in Sales Volume (Litre) in the Packaged Water category for the 15-year period ending November 2021 for Total Supermarkets, CVS, Drug Stores, Provision Stores and Soft Drink Outlets in Hong Kong.
The launch of the Bonaqua® label-less bottle further enhances the brand’s commitment to a sustainable future. Since 2020, all locally produced Bonaqua® Mineralized Water have adopted 100% rPET for production of bottles, each of which weighs 11.8g (per Bonaqua®’s 500 ml bottle), that is 52.8% lighter than a typical PET bottle found in the market, which weighs 18 – 32g[1]. The initiative also aligns with The Coca-Cola Company’s vision of a ‘World Without Waste’ – a global commitment to collect and recycle every bottle or can that the company sells by 2030.
If any customers are interested in learning more about the Bonaqua® label-less mineralized water, please feel free to contact the Swire Coca-Cola Hong Kong customer service hotline at +852 2210 3888. Consumers may also purchase the products via the current distribution channels and Swire Coca-Cola HK eShop (www.swirecocacolahk.com).
About The Coca-Cola Company
The Coca-Cola Company is a total beverage company, offering over 500 brands in more than 200 countries. In Hong Kong, the company has a portfolio covering sparkling, sweetened and unsweetened tea, juice, sports drink, water, enhanced hydration beverages, etc. We have 15 brands offering 70 different variants such as “Coca-Cola”, “Coca-Cola No Sugar”, “Coke Plus”, “Sprite”, “Fanta”, “Schweppes”, “OOHA”, “Bonaqua” Mineralized Water, “Authentic Tea House”, “Minute Maid”, “Minute Maid Qoo”, “Glaceau vitaminwater”, “Yeung Gwong”, “Aquarius”, “Healthworks”, and “Kochakaden””CRAFTEA”. We are constantly transforming our portfolio, from reducing sugar in our drinks to bringing innovative new products to market. Learn more at https://www.coca-colacompany.com/ and follow us on Facebook and Instagram.
The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.
Police Detain One Hundred Lao Workers Smuggled into Thailand
More than 100 Lao migrant workers have been apprehended by Thai authorities after entering the country illegally.
CoinW officially launched in the Vietnam Market and announced the rewards of 10 million USDT.

Founded in 2017, CoinW has provided secure, compliant, efficient, and convenient cryptocurrency and derivatives trading services for more than 7 million users around the world. They have successively obtained financial regulatory licenses in many countries and regions such as the Lithuania financial license, US MSB financial license, Singapore MAS license, SVGFSA license, and so on.
Mingguo Bai, CEO of CoinW said: “Vietnam is currently the most dynamic blockchain market in the world. In recent years, a large number of encrypted projects and technical teams, such as Axie Infinity and Coin98, have emerged in the global encryption industry. Fresh wind. It is a great pleasure to bring the products and services to Vietnam. CoinW will provide a safe, stable, and fast cryptocurrency channel for local cryptocurrency users, and ensure the security of user transactions in multiple dimensions.”
CoinW has already launched a Vietnamese language package version to make transactions more convenient for Vietnamese users. In addition, the Vietnamese Dong (VND) OTC transaction feature will also be opened soon, enabling Vietnamese users to use VND to exchange cryptocurrencies on the platform. CoinW has also prepared a mysterious gift of 10 million USDT for new users in the Vietnamese market. For more details, please follow the official announcements or their official communities as belows:
Register Now: https://www.coinw.com/user/register.html
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Coinw_exchange
Telegram: https://t.me/coinw_vietnam
Furthermore, CoinW Vietnam agents are becoming extremely hotly recruited. If users apply to become a CoinW Vietnam agent, they are probably to get a generous floating salary, and the commission rate is as high as 80%, far exceeding the current industry average. Besides, CoinW Vietnam agents will also be able to receive airdrop rewards, traffic support, and exclusive gift packages (click here to learn more) ). CoinW highly welcomes and is looking forward to the participation of the Vietnamese Community owners, KOLs, media promoters, or market analysts… to join with us to bring crypto to greater heights.
The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.
CoinW officially launched in the Vietnam Market and announced the rewards of 10 million USDT.

Founded in 2017, CoinW has provided secure, compliant, efficient, and convenient cryptocurrency and derivatives trading services for more than 7 million users around the world. They have successively obtained financial regulatory licenses in many countries and regions such as the Lithuania financial license, US MSB financial license, Singapore MAS license, SVGFSA license, and so on.
Mingguo Bai, CEO of CoinW said: “Vietnam is currently the most dynamic blockchain market in the world. In recent years, a large number of encrypted projects and technical teams, such as Axie Infinity and Coin98, have emerged in the global encryption industry. Fresh wind. It is a great pleasure to bring the products and services to Vietnam. CoinW will provide a safe, stable, and fast cryptocurrency channel for local cryptocurrency users, and ensure the security of user transactions in multiple dimensions.”
CoinW has already launched a Vietnamese language package version to make transactions more convenient for Vietnamese users. In addition, the Vietnamese Dong (VND) OTC transaction feature will also be opened soon, enabling Vietnamese users to use VND to exchange cryptocurrencies on the platform. CoinW has also prepared a mysterious gift of 10 million USDT for new users in the Vietnamese market. For more details, please follow the official announcements or their official communities as belows:
Register Now: https://www.coinw.com/user/register.html
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Coinw_exchange
Telegram: https://t.me/coinw_vietnam
Furthermore, CoinW Vietnam agents are becoming extremely hotly recruited. If users apply to become a CoinW Vietnam agent, they are probably to get a generous floating salary, and the commission rate is as high as 80%, far exceeding the current industry average. Besides, CoinW Vietnam agents will also be able to receive airdrop rewards, traffic support, and exclusive gift packages (click here to learn more) ). CoinW highly welcomes and is looking forward to the participation of the Vietnamese Community owners, KOLs, media promoters, or market analysts… to join with us to bring crypto to greater heights.
The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.
Virtual assistants talkback – Beauty brand LUX hacks virtual assistants to outwit casual sexism
An initiative by LUX and Wunderman Thompson Singapore gives female-voiced virtual assistants witty clap backs for sexist comments, discouraging harmful behaviours
Almost 3 billion people are currently using voice automated software. Research by Brookings[1], a leading non-profit organisation, states that 92.4% of smartphone assistants have traditionally featured female-sounding voices. Furthermore, according to Gartner,[2] people will have more conversations with voice assistants than with their spouses. This form of AI is increasingly a part of our daily life. However, there have been numerous reports of widespread sexist and sometimes abusive language from users.

Shut up Sexism was created to highlight sexist or gender bias behaviour found when engaging with virtual assistants with female voices and names. In a study by the UNESCO (2019) it outlined how virtual assistants responded to verbal abuse.[3] As an example. when a user says ”You are hot”, the replies vary from “How can you tell? You say that to all the virtual assistants” to “Thank You.”
Shut Up Sexism From LUX:
As a brand that aims to empower women to fight against everyday sexism, LUX wants to call out the unquestioned nature of these exchanges and start a conversation about the impact of this kind of casual misogyny hidden in seemingly harmless interactions with tech.
In the new campaign, virtual assistants were designed to automatically respond to demeaning, sexist insults with sassy clap backs. For example, in response to “Shut up”, the hacked assistant might reply, “If I shut up, will you grow up?” or “After you, I insist.” You might even hear a siren noise accompanied by “Attention; the anti-sexist police are on the way.” These comebacks serve as witty reminders of how abuse directed at virtual assistants with female voices (and names) can help stop harmful behaviour in real life. The new responses effectively get the assistants to stand up for themselves, which is one tactic when dealing with abusive situations.[4]
Speaking on behalf of LUX, Severine Vauleon, Global Vice President – LUX at Unilever, said, “The global campaign’s central idea was triggered by a UNESCO study released earlier this year, in which researchers argue that the way voice assistants are gendered as female is seriously problematic. Our digital assistants typically have female voices and female names, and researchers say this reinforces stereotypes of women as ‘servile’, existing only to do someone else’s bidding.”
LUX collaborated with women from all walks of life to create witty comebacks to the most common sexist insults thrown at the virtual voice assistants. A social experiment was conducted with several families whose virtual assistants were trained to deliver these lines. The clapback routines are easily installed in any virtual assistant and available to everyone globally at bit.ly/luxshutupsexism. The initiative is launched through a video campaign and a collaboration with one of the most influential women: actor and celebrity Yasmine Sabri, who has 18.4 million followers on Instagram.
Yasmin Sabri, a champion of women’s rights across the Middle East said: “Touching upon gender stereotypes and how they originate, there are so many studies on stereotyping and it all starts from ages 5-6. Imagine the child being exposed to sexism at home through virtual assistants. It’s nice to see Lux stand up against sexism and also giving everyone the power to stop casual sexism at home by giving their virtual assistants a voice to speak up; and also trigger important conversations within the home about stopping casual sexist behaviour.”
‘Shut Up Sexism’ will be activated through the video campaign and via influencers. The downloadable anti-sexism routine is available globally and can work with most virtual home assistants. LUX is inviting women and girls to download these clapbacks to stand up against casual sexism in the home, one sassy comeback at a time.
LUX creative agency, Wunderman Thompson Singapore, has created the ‘Shut up Sexism’ campaign to tackle sexism head-on and literally ‘talk back’ to abusers by reaching them in their own homes. The initiative stemmed from the widespread debate around why virtual assistants are programmed to have default female voices and female names.
Marco Versolato, Chief Creative Officer – Unilever at Wunderman Thompson Singapore said, “These virtual assistants are increasingly becoming fixtures of our homes, and part of the family routine. Significantly, most of them speak with women’s voices and have female names. Often, they the virtual assistants are submissive or apologetic in response to insults. This is a sexist issue that needs to be highlighted and called out.
Our campaign will help highlight casual sexism at home. The next time someone insults a virtual assistant, she will answer back – helping call out sexist behaviour and toxic language. We hope that we shall encouraging more debate, discussion, and education around this topic to ensure sexist or abusive behaviour will not happen in the first place.”
LUX Global Initiatives To Inspire Women:
The new activation echoes LUX global initiative. The brand has pledged to inspire 50 million women by 2025 using content, partnerships and activations to help them rise above everyday sexist judgements and express their beauty and femininity unapologetically.
Key initiatives by LUX, include:
A partnership with an online travel platform CityWalks which asked men to walk in women’s shoes in 2021
Taking a stand for Olympic Gold Medallist Caster Semenya in her 2021 campaign against being banned by the World Athletics’ ban for having natural high-performance testosterone
Watch the video here https://youtu.be/biVIzsaHA58
Install it here bit.ly/luxshutupsexism
ABOUT LUX
Lux has been celebrating beauty and femininity since 1925. We understand that beauty is a woman’s armour, her source of strength. It is hers to express, unapologetically. We will continue to help women everywhere fight casual sexism at home, in the workplace and in wider society. Lux is committed to impacting 50 million lives by 2025 through content, activations and partnerships.
#LUX
The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.
China-funded Project Resettles Luang Prabang Residents affected by Railway
The resettlement of villagers in Luang Prabang affected by the Laos-China Railway is now complete.
Landor & Fitch enhances APAC team amid greater demand for data backed branding and unique experience design
Key appointments in Insights & Analytics and Client Servicing teams in Hong Kong with studio recently certified as Great Place to Work™
HONG KONG – Media OutReach – 28 April 2022 – Landor & Fitch, a global brand transformation company, today announces key appointments to a growing APAC team amid greater demand for Insights & Analytics (I&A) and Experience Design that push the envelope for the world’s biggest brands. The appointments add to a 300 strong team located in studios across the region from Tokyo to Mumbai, Sydney and Beijing.
After a comeback year that saw many brands recover in 2021, demand for transformation has skyrocketed. The B2B, consumer, retail, mobility and tech sectors are among the most active in their demand for modern design, brand innovation, connected experiences and greater brand culture as a way to redefine engagement with customers and elevate brand relevance in an era of continuous change.
Landor & Fitch’s Australia business welcomes Julius Cruickshank to lead the Sydney and Melbourne design teams. Cruickshank’s 20 years of experience working with the likes of the Australian Government, Crown Resorts, Dolby and KPMG will be leveraged to create brands that are relevant, uniquely creative and delivering tangible business results.
Monica Zhu joins as a Director on the I&A team in Hong Kong. Zhu brings 17 years of experience in consumer insights and analytics, specialist branding, market analysis, new product development and go-to market communications to the award-winning Hong Kong studio. The company was recently Great Place to Work-Certified™ by Great Place to Work®, the global authority on workplace culture.
Stephen Pill returns to head up strategy within the Experience Design team as a Strategy Director and will deliver exceptional experiences and real value to brands. Pill has a proven track record of designing award-winning transformational experiences throughout APAC and EMEA across brands including Swire Properties, Dubai Airports and The Ritz-Carlton. Pill will set the strategy for how Landor & Fitch develop innovative experiences, building on global award-winning work with Singtel, Swire and Apraava Energy.
Nav Kumari leads the Procter and Gamble work across APAC with a strong intent to create regionally and locally relevant solutions that help to positively transform their portfolio of FMCG brands. Kumari has expertise across FMCG, retail, and telecommunications and joins as a Senior Director for Client Services APAC.
‘2022 has got off to a very exciting start for Landor & Fitch across the region following a great performance in 2021 and I am delighted that we continue to welcome star talent to the team,” said Landor & Fitch APAC President Jonathan Cummings. “We expect to see growing needs for clients to reimagine and reinvent their brand ambition and experience to thrive in the new normal. Our breadth and depth of expertise in brand transformation, underpinned by our Insights & Analytics capability will ensure we can deliver powerful and tangible business results for our clients, as exemplified by the recent AirJapan launch.”
Landor & Fitch
We are a global brand transformation company with the ambition to make an extraordinary difference: for our clients, our employees and the world around us.
We are 1,200 curious minds, located in 19 countries, operating as one team. We have an uncommon combination of skills and capabilities, mixing left and right brain people, that work together to go beyond what’s expected. We bring rigor and creativity together to transform brands and businesses, to drive growth. Our clients turn to us for our insight and intelligence on everything from dramatic design, business strategy and brand purpose, to expression, experience and empathy.
We see ourselves as valuable additions to our clients’ teams and are proud of our relationships with them. Local and global, corporate and consumer, emerging and established, we work with clients that include Apple, Bang & Olufsen, bp, Kellogg’s, Lego, Microsoft, Nike, Procter & Gamble and Singtel, to name a few.
We are proud to be part of WPP, a creative transformation company dedicated to building better futures.
The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.