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Warmer Weather Expected Across Central And Southern Laos This Week

Warmer weather forecast for Laos this week
Sunset in Vientiane Capital (Photo: Dr. Logan)

The temperature will be 1 to 3 degrees higher this week across central and southern Laos, with rainfall expected in some parts of the country.

Microsoft to establish first datacenter region in Indonesia as part of Berdayakan Ekonomi Digital Indonesia initiative

Microsoft increases its investment in Indonesia’s digital economy, with plans to establish a new datacenter region and a commitment to skill over 24 million Indonesians by end of 2021 through its decades’ long skilling investment

 

JAKARTA, INDONESIA – Media OutReach – 25 February 2021 – Microsoft today announced its Berdayakan Ekonomi Digital Indonesia initiative, which marks a significant commitment to advancing growth and digital transformation for Indonesia, its vibrant developer and startup ecosystem, enterprises, and the public sector. As part of the plan, Microsoft will establish its first datacenter region in Indonesia to deliver trusted cloud services locally, with world-class data security, privacy, and the ability to store data in country. Microsoft also announced plans to skill an additional 3 million Indonesians to achieve its goal of empowering over 24 million Indonesians by the end of 2021, through its long-established skills programs designed to create inclusive economic opportunities in the digital era.

Today’s announcement will play a pivotal role in accelerating the country’s digital transformation, toward its vision of becoming Southeast Asia’s leading digital economy. According to research from IDC, Microsoft’s investment in Indonesia is expected to generate up to USD $6.3 billion in new revenues from the country’s ecosystem of local customers and partners. In addition, its cloud-consuming businesses are expected to contribute 60,000 jobs to the local economy, over the next four years*.

“As a leading global provider of advanced cloud solutions, Microsoft’s investment to establish local datacenters, digital skilling and collaboration with the Government of Indonesia will support local innovation, economic recovery, and digital transformation. The Ministry of Communication and Information welcomes Microsoft’s plans to establish a local datacenter region with highly secure and compliant cloud services, which will benefit local businesses, government, and individuals across all sectors. We also welcome Microsoft’s commitment to increase the capacity of Indonesian digital talent across all skill levels,” Mr. Johnny G. Plate, Minister of Communication and Information, Indonesia.

“Microsoft has a long-term commitment to Indonesia’s growth. Today’s announcement is our most significant investment in the 26 years we have been established here. I am delighted that we are helping to empower Indonesia to realize its vision to lead the region’s digital transformation. From ecommerce to agriculture, Indonesian businesses across all sectors are gaining a digital advantage with the agility, security and scale offered by Microsoft’s cloud services. With a local datacenter region, businesses will have faster access to cloud services and the ability for data to be stored in country. To ensure everyone can take advantage of the digital opportunities ahead, we will continue to support digital skilling, with a new program that will reach over 24 million Indonesians by the end of 2021,” said Jean-Philippe Courtois, Executive Vice President and President, Microsoft Global Sales, Marketing and Operations.

“We’re proud to support Indonesian businesses and governments in their move to the trusted cloud with Microsoft. Over the last 26 years, we have been empowering industries across Indonesia and preparing Indonesians with future ready skills to improve their employability. Today’s announcement validates our Berdayakan Ekonomi Digital Indonesia initiative, to empower every person and every organization in Indonesia to achieve more. With more than 150 employees and 7,000 partners across Indonesia’s 17,000 islands, Microsoft’s significant presence in Indonesia has actively supported the startup community and ecosystem. Leading companies such as Bukalapak, Pertamina, and The Ministry of Agriculture have benefited from Microsoft’s global scale cloud services and have expressed their commitment to using Microsoft Cloud from the new region when it is available,” said Haris Izmee, President Director for Microsoft Indonesia.

Accelerating digital agility across Indonesia

With the new datacenter region, Indonesia will join the world’s largest cloud infrastructure with over 60 datacenter regions announced to date. Businesses of all sizes and industries will have access to Microsoft Azure at launch, which enables anyone to invent with purpose using cloud services and capabilities that span computing, networking, databases, analytics, artificial intelligence, and Internet of Things (IoT). Microsoft delivers enterprise-grade data security and privacy. With more than 90 compliance certifications, Microsoft meets a broad range of industry and regulatory entity standards.

To support customer needs for high-availability and resiliency in their applications, the new datacenter region will feature Azure Availability Zones, which are unique physical locations equipped with independent power, network and cooling for additional tolerance to datacenter failures. The Indonesia datacenter region will also support Microsoft’s sustainability goals, including its commitment to shift to 100 percent supply of renewable energy in Microsoft datacenters by 2025.

“Our partnership with Microsoft is transforming e-commerce and operations for merchants in Indonesia. With a trusted local datacenter region, we will help our 6.5 million merchants, 7 million Bukalapak partners and more than 100 million customers achieve business resiliency in the face of the pandemic. Equally, our combined efforts in skilling merchants and our employees will empower the digital economy, improving employability, creating opportunities, and transforming lives,” said Rachmat Kaimuddin, CEO of Bukalapak.

“Pertamina and Microsoft have a strong collaboration in accelerating digital transformation and empowering Indonesia’s digital economy. I welcome Microsoft’s commitment to establish a datacenter region in Indonesia, which will enable every Indonesian business to embrace the digital economy and create disruptive innovation,” said Nicke Widyawati, President Director, Pertamina.

“We welcome Microsoft’s commitment to establish a datacenter region in Indonesia, which will give even more opportunities for joint programs in enhancing the agricultural digital ecosystem. Agriculture is one of Indonesia’s critical industries where with the support of real-time, data driven innovation through sensors on the field connected with the cloud as well as providing digital farming capability training for Young Farmers it can make an enormous positive impact on Indonesia’s economy,” said Mr. Syahrul Yasin Limpo, Minister of Agriculture of Indonesia.

Empowering Indonesia’s workforce with future-ready skills

As part of the Berdayakan Ekonomi Digital Indonesia initiative, Microsoft will empower individuals with the skills they need to succeed in a cloud and AI-enabled future, by developing talent pipelines for high-demand skills, while increasing the employability of Indonesians. A continuation of Microsoft’s commitment to skills training in Indonesia over the last 26 years, the company will work with government and industry stakeholders to skill an additional 3 million people, bringing the total to 24 million Indonesians skilled by the end of 2021. This initiative, in collaboration with four universities and the Ministry of Communications and Information, extends across backgrounds, including students and teachers, those in mid-career, home makers and people from disadvantaged communities. The skills initiative will empower Indonesians in AI, cybersecurity, and data science through a digital literacy curriculum.

*IDC Info Snapshot, sponsored by Microsoft, The Microsoft Cloud Dividend Snapshot: Indonesia, Doc. # US47443521, February 2021

About Microsoft

Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT” @microsoft) enables digital transformation for the era of an intelligent cloud and an intelligent edge. Its mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more.

DHL Global Forwarding Partners Longhorn Vaccines & Diagnostics to Assure Safety and Efficacy of Lab Testing in Africa and Asia

  • DHL has transported nearly 26,000 Covid -19 testing vials for Longhorn, who is donating one million vials to the International Organization for Migration
  • Vials were transported via three initial flights from Indianapolis to Kenya, Nepal and the Philippines, supporting emerging markets in the process
  • Life-saving transports will help COVID-19 testing of refugees and displaced persons

SINGAPORE – Media OutReach – 25 February 2021 – DHL Global Forwarding, the air and ocean freight specialist of Deutsche Post DHL Group, has partnered with Longhorn Vaccines & Diagnostics, an innovative molecular tool, assay and vaccine development company focused on serving unmet critical needs in both developed and developing nations, to deliver much-needed Covid-19 testing vials to the International Organization for Migration (IOM) in Kenya, Nepal and the Philippines.

Longhorn is donating one million tubes of its PrimeStore® Molecular Transport Medium (MTM) in an effort to increase the safety and efficacy of Covid-19 testing of refugees and displaced persons in the three countries. In the face of the unprecedented global health crisis, DHL Global Forwarding has tapped its global network of experienced life sciences and healthcare (LSH) logistics specialists to transport nearly 26,000 vials of Longhorn’s PrimeStore®MTM thus far. These deliveries represent a continued commitment to provide a holistic range of patient-centric solutions and deliver them where they are needed most — especially during a pandemic.

“With more than two decades of experience working with the LSH sector, DHL Global Forwarding has built up the logistics expertise and global infrastructure, including certified facilities, that are integral to the LSH supply chain,” said Kelvin Leung, CEO, DHL Global Forwarding Asia Pacific. “Our capabilities place us in good stead to deliver life-saving vaccines and medical devices across the globe according to the strictest requirements as countries battle the pandemic to save lives and livelihoods.”

The pandemic has caused increased challenges in the intricate deliveries of temperature controlled shipments, including stricter controls at international borders, the absence of airfreight capacity, and high demand for medical supplies around the world. For this reason, Longhorn chose DHL Global Forwarding, who thanks to its specialists, worldwide network of terminals, warehouses and offices, and technological infrastructure, remains able to effectively maintain supply chains. Despite the strained situation in air and ocean freight, urgently-needed protective equipment, medicine, and SARS-CoV-2 test kits and vials in particular are still being transported.

“Once we coordinated the donation of one million PrimeStore® MTM sample collection devices with the IOM, we needed to manage the logistics of such a large endeavor,” stated Jeff Fischer President of Longhorn Vaccines and Diagnostics. “PrimeStore® MTM inactivates SARS-CoV-2 during collection and transit, which can reduce the need for safety cabinets and reduce the time between collection and results. With the need to ship to different countries on multiple continents and traverse to varied customs requirements, DHL was the clear choice given the importance of reliable transportation in the testing process.”

The IOM is an inter-governmental organization dedicated to promoting humane and orderly migration, with 173 member states, nine states holding observer status and offices in over 100 countries. The IOM works to ensure the orderly and humane management of migration, promote international cooperation on migration issues, assist in the search for practical solutions to migration problems and provide humanitarian assistance to migrants in need, including refugees and internally displaced people.

Throughout this pandemic and beyond, DHL Global Forwarding is committed to track, comprehend, and comply with essential and increasing rules and regulations for the storage, transportation, and delivery of pharmaceuticals, medical equipment, biological products, and patient-specific treatments. This past December, DHL started the international distribution of COVID-19 vaccine. For the provision of its citizens, the government of Israel received the first batch of the vaccine with flights operated by DHL Express and DHL Global Forwarding. DHL Global Forwarding also dedicated a charter flight for additional supplies of vaccine doses with more to follow. Additionally, DHL Global Forwarding delivered the first batch of COVID-19 vaccines to Singapore. DHL Global Forwarding arranged for the collection of the vaccines from the manufacturing site in Puurs, Belgium, where the cargo was accompanied by security escorts on the road to the Brussels International Airport. The cargo arrived at Singapore’s Changi International Airport on December 21 where DHL handled the customs clearance and final delivery to a designated location in Singapore. The company will also handle the return of these special shipper boxes to Europe.

Nine thousand specialists work across DHL’s dedicated global network so that pharmaceutical, medical devices, clinical trials and research organizations, wholesalers and distributors, as well as hospitals and healthcare providers are connected across the value chain and through digitalization, from clinical trials to point of care, and every step in between. DHL’s portfolio for the healthcare industry includes 150+ pharmacists, 20+ clinical trials depots, 100+ certified stations, 160+ GDP-qualified warehouses, 15+ GMP-certified sites and 135+ medical express sites.

Deutsche Post DHL Group also has a well-established infrastructure in place to promote volunteer engagement among its employees and support refugee aid and support programs. The Group’s Living Responsibility Fund provides financial assistance to support voluntary work performed by employees. An internal We Help Each Other fund is fed by individual employee donations to help colleagues who find themselves in need in the wake of natural disaster.

In its public-private partnerships, Deutsche Post DHL Group also promotes education and employment opportunities, and assists both disaster prevention and disaster response with a GoHelp disaster management program which it has operated in partnership with the United Nations (UN) since 2005. Through this partnership, the Group provides the UN and national disaster management agencies with pro bono access to its core logistics expertise, and the logistics skills of more than 700 specially-trained employee volunteers worldwide who can deploy within 72 hours after a natural disaster. Disaster Response Training is part of the Go Help program, as well as the Get Airports Ready for Disaster (GARD) initiative –also part of the GoHelp program — trains airport management in high-risk regions to be better prepared should disaster strike.

Note to editors:

Vaccine logistics for Covid-19 will pose challenges along the supply chain that must be jointly addressed by governments, NGOs, pharmaceutical companies, and logistics players urgently. Find out what lessons Covid-19 has taught on securing stable supply chains for future emergencies and the complexities in distributing the vaccine across the globe.

DHL – The logistics company for the world

DHL is the leading global brand in the logistics industry. Our DHL divisions offer an unrivalled portfolio of logistics services ranging from national and international parcel delivery, e-commerce shipping and fulfillment solutions, international express, road, air and ocean transport to industrial supply chain management. With about 380,000 employees in more than 220 countries and territories worldwide, DHL connects people and businesses securely and reliably, enabling global sustainable trade flows. With specialized solutions for growth markets and industries including technology, life sciences and healthcare, engineering, manufacturing & energy, auto-mobility and retail, DHL is decisively positioned as “The logistics company for the world”.

DHL is part of Deutsche Post DHL Group. The Group generated revenues of more than 63 billion euros in 2019. With sustainable business practices and a commitment to society and the environment, the Group makes a positive contribution to the world. Deutsche Post DHL Group aims to achieve zero-emissions logistics by 2050.


About PrimeStore® MTM

PrimeStore® MTM is the only U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-cleared nucleic transport device that inactivates SARS-CoV-2 within the device during collection and transit. According to U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) guidelines, inactivated samples can be transferred to point of care devices and laboratory-based molecular testing equipment without requiring a biological safety cabinet, reducing the time between collection and results. Since the COVID-19 pandemic began, Longhorn has driven COVID-19 testing by distributing more than 35 million PrimeStore® MTM tubes to providers in North and South America, Europe, Africa, Asia and Australia.


About Longhorn Vaccines and Diagnostics

Longhorn Vaccines & Diagnostics is an innovative molecular tool, assay and vaccine development company focused on serving unmet critical needs in both developed and developing nations. Longhorn’s core product, PrimeStore® Molecular Transport Medium (MTM), is a patented, FDA approved, state-of-the-art ambient temperature molecular diagnostic collection and transport device that can help governments, global health organizations and drug manufacturers improve the diagnosis and treatment of highly infectious diseases such as Influenza, SARS-CoV-2, and Mycobacterium tuberculosis (TB). Unlike standard devices for collecting and transporting TB samples, PrimeStore® MTM is the first molecular transport device that can safely deactivate pathogens and stabilize RNA and DNA, allowing enhanced point of care and ambient temperature transport for laboratory based molecular testing and characterization. Longhorn is based in Bethesda, Maryland with a diagnostic research and development facility in San Antonio, TX.

CUHK Business School Research Examines the Pivotal Role of Entrepreneurial Experience for Entrepreneurs Launching New Start-ups

HONG KONG SAR – Media OutReach – 25 February 2021 – How important is experience in entrepreneurial success? If you take a look at the world’s most successful businesspeople, the anecdotal evidence would point to the negative. Consider that Bill Gates didn’t have any experience running a business before Microsoft, and neither did Steve Jobs before co-founding Apple. Fast forward to more recently, and we had Mark Zuckerberg launching Facebook from his dorm room at Harvard.

Success stories like these seem to suggest that experience is not a requirement to making it big as an entrepreneur. In reality, about 90 percent of new start-ups fail in the U.S., and only a handful of companies can make it to the long run. A top reason for this low success rate? Many budding entrepreneurs are highly creative but they fail to study their market sufficiently (a business skill), and as a result launched highly innovative products that nobody really needed. It is against this backdrop that a recent research study has found experience allows entrepreneurs to better balance their creative and business roles to avoid potential pitfalls on the road to entrepreneurial success.

The research examines how previous entrepreneurial experience could influence entrepreneurs when they have to juggle multiple roles when starting up their businesses. It found that entrepreneurs with no prior experience tend to concentrate too much on one role, such as being the product developer and lose sight of other important things. On the other hand, experienced entrepreneurs tend to do a more balanced job.

“Being an entrepreneur is a balancing act. Although entrepreneurs should seek to produce products which are both unique and useful as well as being commercially viable, doing so can be difficult. For example, an entrepreneur may channel their inner inventor to create highly unique products, but that’s no good if they don’t consider market demand. It is essential for entrepreneurs to achieve both goals simultaneously to succeed,” says Ying-yi Hong, Choh-Ming Li Professor of Management and Principal Investigator of the Culture Lab at The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) Business School.

Missing the Forest for the Trees

Her study “Missing the Forest for the Trees: Prior Entrepreneurial Experience, Role Identity, and Entrepreneurial Creativity” was co-conducted with Prof. Siran Zhan at the University of New South Wales College and Prof. Marilyn Ang Uy at Nanyang Technological University. Some existing research literature on entrepreneurship focus on the journey or personal qualities of successful entrepreneurs, while others studied the mindset and behaviours of these entrepreneurs. Prof. Hong and her co-authors combined the two factors and tackled the topic from a “person-by-situation” interaction approach.

This approach assumes entrepreneurs take on different roles, such as that of an inventor or businessperson, and these are triggered by different situations. For example, an entrepreneur would play the role of a salesman during a pitch meeting, but the same person would wear the inventor hat when dealing with product design in the lab. When the entrepreneur plays the role of a salesperson, their attention would be more focused on the profitability of the product and less on the product design, and vice versa. When too much attention is given to the tasks related to one role, entrepreneurs might overlook other equally important aspects, creating the so-called “missing the forest for the trees” effect.

“We expect experienced entrepreneurs to have developed a more holistic knowledge structure in which their inventor and businessperson roles are integrated. In contrast, novice entrepreneurs who lack prior entrepreneurial experience may see their two role identities as separate and disjointed,” Prof. Hong comments. “Thus, experienced entrepreneurs tend to be capable of processing a greater amount of information in a given instance and see the big picture, which novices tend to neglect.”

To test their theory, the researchers recruited 108 entrepreneurs who were in the process of starting a new venture to participate in an experiment. Among the participants, 40 were experienced entrepreneurs who had started businesses before. The participants were first asked to recall and write about their experience as an inventor or a businessperson. They were then told to submit ideas for a product or service to sell to university students. Their ideas were then evaluated in terms of how novel or commercially viable they were by experts with substantial experience in entrepreneurship.

The study found that entrepreneurs with less experience tend to produce fewer ideas that were deemed novel when asked to assume the role of a businessperson, whereas experienced entrepreneurs were able to maintain their ability to generate creative ideas even when they were in salesman mode. On the other hand, inexperienced entrepreneurs produced fewer ideas that were deemed by experts to be commercially viable when they assume the role of an inventor while experienced entrepreneurs did not display any reduction in performance.

The effect is even more pronounced when the entrepreneur is forced by circumstances to take up a specific role. For example, an entrepreneur under pressure to raise funds for their project must fulfil the role of a businessperson and put their inventor self aside. Prof. Hong says such a tension-ridden situation would likely to result in reducing creativity, especially among inexperienced entrepreneurs. The study results confirmed this conjecture, with the business ideas of experienced entrepreneurs being 12.7 percent more creative and 7.7 percent more profitable than inexperienced entrepreneurs when they were placed in that situation.

Interestingly, experienced entrepreneurs were 9.4 percent less innovative than inexperienced entrepreneurs when there was no tension between the two roles. The study explained that new entrepreneurs might be better at learning at being an inventor and thus were able to produce more innovative ideas. However, overall experienced entrepreneurs were able to perform more consistently regardless of the situation.

How Does Experience Help?

So why does being able to integrate the disparate creative and business roles into their entrepreneurial identity prevent experienced entrepreneurs from falling into blind spots? Prof. Hong and her co-authors sought to explain this from a cognitive perspective. The brain can form networks of associated ideas through learning and experience. For example, the word “fire engine” is likely to be associated with the colour “red” and the image of “vehicle” in our minds because we have learned it in the past.

They reason that experienced entrepreneurs would in the past have encountered numerous situations which required skills from both their creative and business sides. These situations would have stimulated them to reconcile their different demands and as a result they become better able to distribute their attention to the related tasks evenly. In doing so, experienced entrepreneurs develop a close association between their creative and business mindsets, such that the activation of one role would trigger the activation of the other. Therefore, an experienced entrepreneur can be an inventor and a salesperson at the same time in different situations.

Commenting on practical implications, Prof. Hong suggests inexperienced entrepreneurs to team up with business partners who have prior entrepreneurial experience or consider getting an experienced mentor. “An experienced entrepreneur or mentor can maintain the ‘big picture’ for the team and help the novice entrepreneur avoid the inherent blind spot,” says Prof. Hong.

Reference:

Zhan, S., Marilyn A Uy and Ying-Yi Hong. “Missing the Forest for the Trees: Prior Entrepreneurial Experience, Role Identity, and Entrepreneurial Creativity.Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice (2020): 104225872095229.

This article was first published in the China Business Knowledge (CBK) website by CUHK Business School: https://bit.ly/3sJMJOG.

About CUHK Business School

CUHK Business School comprises two schools — Accountancy and Hotel and Tourism Management — and four departments — Decision Sciences and Managerial Economics, Finance, Management and Marketing. Established in Hong Kong in 1963, it is the first business school to offer BBA, MBA and Executive MBA programmes in the region. Today, the School offers 10 undergraduate programmes and 18 graduate programmes including MBA, EMBA, Master, MSc, MPhil and Ph.D.

In the Financial Times Global MBA Ranking 2021, CUHK MBA is ranked 48th. In FT‘s 2020 Executive MBA ranking, CUHK EMBA is ranked 15th in the world. CUHK Business School has the largest number of business alumni (40,000+) among universities/business schools in Hong Kong — many of whom are key business leaders. The School currently has more than 4,800 undergraduate and postgraduate students and Professor Lin Zhou is the Dean of CUHK Business School.

More information is available at http://www.bschool.cuhk.edu.hk or by connecting with CUHK Business School on:

Facebook: www.facebook.com/cuhkbschool

Instagram: www.instagram.com/cuhkbusinessschool

LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/school/cuhkbusinessschool

WeChat: CUHKBusinessSchool

Taste the World with 7-Eleven’s Latest Additions to its Very Own 7-SELECT Ready-to-Eat Range. First Stop, Southeast Asia!

Launching island-wide on 3 March – you’ll be spoilt for choice as we introduce our exclusive Southeast Asian inspired noodle dishes and many more quick and easy meals that’ll hit the spot.

 

SINGAPORE – Media OutReach – 24 February 2021 – We all know how it feels for hunger to strike anytime and anywhere! To combat those cravings, 7-Eleven has developed and expanded on its innovative 7-SELECT own brand range of meal and snack solutions. Let 7-Eleven take you on a journey around the region with its latest additions to its ready-to-eat menu, inspired by some Southeast Asian classics. Check out these new culinary creations (halal-certified too!) available at 7-Eleven stores island-wide from 3 March. You now know where to go if hunger hits at midnight!

#7ElevenSG #7Eleven #OwnBrand #7SELECT #NewProductLaunch

Seriously Sedap: Southeast Asian delights to tickle your taste buds

Here’s a delicious duo that will be sure to cure any noodle cravings, day or night. First up, a signature dish from Malaysia – 7-SELECT Sarawak Style Kolo Mee. We’ve reinvented this classic, using chicken instead of pork, to come up with this halal certified version. The dish boasts tender, yet firm springy egg noodles coated in fragrant shallot oil, a generous serving of minced chicken and chicken char siew marinated in a special in-house blend of herbs and spices to give you that authentic sweet and smoky flavour. All of this is topped off with crispy fried shallots, choy sum and chilli for a spicy kick.

Our second exciting addition to our grab-and-go menu is our 7-SELECT Indonesian Style Noodles with Fried Chicken. Perfectly cooked noodles accompany fried chicken cubes in a balado sauce, a spicy sambal made using chillies, garlic and onion. This delicious dish also comes with an assortment of vegetables including choy sum, cabbage and carrots on the side.

Both items are launching in 7-Eleven on 3 March. From 3– 30 March 2021, get these items at just $3.60 (U.P. $3.90)!

Brand-new additions to the 7-SELECT RTE menu perfect for those on-the-go!

We’re rolling out two more quick, easy and mouth-watering snack options. Try our new 7-SELECT Chicken Gyoza with juicy minced chicken on the inside yet crispy golden brown on the outside. These pan-fried dumplings make for the ideal snack or side dish and are available at just $3 (U.P. $3.20) from 3 — 30 March.

Sometimes, a simple sandwich just hits the spot. Our brand-new 7-SELECT Ham and Omelette Sandwich launching on 10 March is made using tender chicken ham and fluffy egg omelette. We’ve also added extra vegetables including onion, bell peppers and lettuce to give some added crunch, making it the perfect breakfast bite or tea-time snack. Enjoy one for just $2.90 (U.P. $3.20) from 10 — 30 March!

More promotions and updates can always be found on the 7-Eleven Singapore Facebook page so stay tuned! Find your nearest 7-Eleven Store here.

About 7-Eleven

Established in Singapore in 1983, 7-Eleven has since expanded to more than 400 stores island wide to become the leading 24-hour convenience chain store. We take pride in serving the Singapore community 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. 7-Eleven emphasises convenience and value by offering a wide array of quality products, food and services to satisfy the needs of its customers. Think 7-Eleven and what comes to mind are the refreshing Slurpee, 7Café as well as a wide range of quality Ready Meals and sandwiches under 7-SELECT. 7-Eleven is also a 24/7 one-stop destination for customers who need to access bill payment services in their own time. Our services cover payment of utilities, courier services, and even cash withdrawal.

For more information, visit www.7-eleven.com.sg

Kyoto University will hold an online showcase event to deliver state-of-art innovations of startups rooted from premier Japanese academic institutes to U.S. investors and venture capitals

KYOTO, JAPAN – Media OutReach – 24 February 2021 – Kyoto University, one of the highest research and educational institutes of Japan, has successfully achieved breakthrough innovations in science and technology. In order to accelerate the conversion from science to society, Kyoto University has been committed to supporting entrepreneurs to start businesses with cutting-edge technologies and inventions that they have discovered. One of the initiatives that Kyoto University launched is an on-site laboratory on the campus of UC San Diego in 2019, which provides the university researchers with the resources that can be utilized to start business in the US.

Kyoto University has also launched an initiative to hold a showcase event titled “2nd Kyoto University Life Science Showcase @ UCSD 2021 (Online)” on March 2, 2021. This showcase was made possible by the collaborations with the Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO) and the Foundation for Biomedical Research and Innovation at Kobe (FBRI). The purpose of this showcase is to help scientists develop their technologies and launch their businesses internationally. This online event will introduce cutting-edge technologies and seeds in the life-sciences fields including pharmaceuticals, regenerative medicine, medical devices, diagnostics, and other categories.

Kyoto University has also decided to share this opportunity with other top ranked academic institutes in Japan. Therefore, startups rooted from other Japanese universities, resulting in 18 teams in total, will present their technologies and business plans in this showcase. Presentations will cover novel small molecules, antibodies and siRNA with novel mechanisms of action, cell therapies as novel therapeutics for oncology, Alzheimer’s disease, and other diseases with unmet medical needs. Novel technologies with iPS cells for respiratory diseases associated with COVID-19 and its novel diagnostic testing will also be presented in this showcase.

Prof. Masatoshi Hagiwara (Graduate School of Medicine, Kyoto University), who leads the initiative, says “We will bring innovative technologies invented in diverse universities in Japan. This will be an excellent opportunity for US investors, venture capitals or technology recruiters from pharmaceutical companies to discover promising startups. I hope we will have productive discussions and interactions between participants.”

2nd Kyoto University Life Science Showcase @ UCSD 2021 (Online)”

Date: March 2. 2021, 1:00pm- 5:00pm [PST] / 4:00pm – 8:00pm [EST] / March 3. 2021, 6:00am – 10:00am [JST]

Venue: Online via Remo

Registration: Click below to reserve your Remo link by March 2 (Mon), 2021. No fee required.

https://sites.google.com/kuhp.kyoto-u.ac.jp/kuls2021-in-english/home

About Kyoto University

In 1897, Kyoto University was established in Japan’s ancient capital of Kyoto as the country’s second national university. Ever since its founding in this historical and cultural center, the university has worked towards the realization of a peaceful and harmonious international community while taking a dialogue-based free academic style as its foundation. Today, it boasts eighteen graduate schools, ten faculties, and thirteen research institutes. They span from the humanities and social sciences to science, engineering, life science, medicine, and pharmaceutical science. Kyoto University is one of the top research universities in Japan, as well as the alma mater of many scholars and researchers active on the international stage, including ten Nobel Laureates, several Fields Medalists, and a Gauss Prize Winner. Visit our website at https://www.kyoto-u.ac.jp/en/.

VinBrain reaches final round of global competition “COVID-19 Pandemic Response Challenge”

The VinBrain team in the US has reached the final round of the Pandemic Response Challenge held by XPRIZE and Cognizant.


This competition, which has prize money of $500,000, aims to harness the power of data and artificial intelligence to predict COVID-19 infection rates, and propose Intervention Plans for governments, communities and regional institutions to control COVID-19 Pandemic when reopening the economy.


HANOI, VIETNAM – Media OutReach – 24 February 2021 – The Pandemic Response Challenge co-organised by XPRIZE and Cognizant was launched in November 2020. Participating teams will develop models based on artificial intelligence to make recommendations to achieve the goal of reopening society safely and limit negative impacts on the economy while minimising the SARS-CoV-2 virus outbreak.

Based on the jury’s independent assessment of the AI prediction of the COVID-19 trend and the infection patterns of the participating teams, the jury selected 48 teams from 17 countries for the final round out of a total of 104 teams from 28 countries in the semi-finals.

Thanks to the guidance by Mr. Mudit Jain — the Deputy General Director of VinBrain Product Development in the United States, the Vinteam team has developed a solution applying artificial intelligence to the accurate diagnosis of COVID-19 infections and provides intervention options.

The infection patterns vary by country and territory. As a result, interventions may work in one country or territory but be less effective in another.

Members of VinBrain in the US have come up with an extensive solution to this problem by developing the region-specific AI models to predict the COVID-19 infection time series in those regions. The Vinteam developed this solution based on a classical epidemic model called the SEIR model, which was then expanded to integrate with artificial intelligence to turn it into a dynamic model. In order to train its AI models, the team uses available features/data such as demographics, medical infrastructure, and economic indicators. A special feature used by Vinteam is Google Maps mobile metrics collected from worldwide Android phones in an anonymous and secure way, measuring the movements of people in public areas such as parks, hospitals, workplaces, grocery stores, stations, airports, etc. Another unique feature used by Vinteam is Google’s COVID-19 infection trend data which is aggregated anonymously and contains popular COVID-19 Symptom-Related Google Searches.

The jury selected Vinteam for the final round based on the accuracy of the AI ​​models and its ability to easily interpret the predictions of the solution. In addition, this approach can be used for any future pandemic response model.

Mr. Amir Banifatemi, General Manager for Innovation and Growth, said: “We aim to maximise the power of collaboration, competition and innovation to accelerate possible solutions for COVID-19 and future pandemics. The competition has shown encouraging results in a very short time, reflecting the application of artificial intelligence to the society.”

The Pandemic Response Challenge is sponsored by XPRIZE, which designs and operates incentive competitions to solve humanity’s grand challenges, in partnership with Cognizant, which is considered one of 15 iconic companies in the US, operating extensively in the field of information technology, developing business processes and consulting cooperation for some of the most successful units worldwide. The organisers also hope the competition will promote the use of artificial intelligence and data in tackling other humanitarian challenges. The competition’s results will be announced at the end of February 2021.

About VinBrain

VinBrain is an AI-focused company funded by VinGroup and its mission is to infuse AI and IoT to medicine. VinBrain aims to provide access to the best healthcare solutions, knowledge, and services. VinBrain is made up of a team of talented AI professionals with world-class experience. Their expertise are in the fields of computer vision, machine learning, language processing and large scale products and services. VinBrain’s AI experts work in teams despite living in many different countries including Việt Nam, Australia, South Korea and the United States.

About XPRIZE

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Kyoto University will hold an online showcase event to deliver state-of-art innovations of startups rooted from premier Japanese academic institutes to U.S. investors and venture capitals on March 2

KYOTO, JAPAN – Media OutReach – 24 February 2021 – Kyoto University, one of the highest research and educational institutes of Japan, has successfully achieved breakthrough innovations in science and technology. In order to accelerate the conversion from science to society, Kyoto University has been committed to supporting entrepreneurs to start businesses with cutting-edge technologies and inventions that they have discovered. One of the initiatives that Kyoto University launched is an on-site laboratory on the campus of UC San Diego in 2019, which provides the university researchers with the resources that can be utilized to start business in the US.

Kyoto University has also launched an initiative to hold a showcase event titled “2nd Kyoto University Life Science Showcase @ UCSD 2021 (Online)” on March 2, 2021. This showcase was made possible by the collaborations with the Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO) and the Foundation for Biomedical Research and Innovation at Kobe (FBRI). The purpose of this showcase is to help scientists develop their technologies and launch their businesses internationally. This online event will introduce cutting-edge technologies and seeds in the life-sciences fields including pharmaceuticals, regenerative medicine, medical devices, diagnostics, and other categories.

Kyoto University has also decided to share this opportunity with other top ranked academic institutes in Japan. Therefore, startups rooted from other Japanese universities, resulting in 18 teams in total, will present their technologies and business plans in this showcase. Presentations will cover novel small molecules, antibodies and siRNA with novel mechanisms of action, cell therapies as novel therapeutics for oncology, Alzheimer’s disease, and other diseases with unmet medical needs. Novel technologies with iPS cells for respiratory diseases associated with COVID-19 and its novel diagnostic testing will also be presented in this showcase.

Prof. Masatoshi Hagiwara (Graduate School of Medicine, Kyoto University), who leads the initiative, says “We will bring innovative technologies invented in diverse universities in Japan. This will be an excellent opportunity for US investors, venture capitals or technology recruiters from pharmaceutical companies to discover promising startups. I hope we will have productive discussions and interactions between participants.”

2nd Kyoto University Life Science Showcase @ UCSD 2021 (Online)”

Date: March 2. 2021, 1:00pm- 5:00pm [PST] / 4:00pm – 8:00pm [EST] / March 3. 2021, 6:00am – 10:00am [JST]

Venue: Online via Remo

Registration: Click below to reserve your Remo link by March 2 (Mon), 2021. No fee required.

https://sites.google.com/kuhp.kyoto-u.ac.jp/kuls2021-in-english/home

About Kyoto University

In 1897, Kyoto University was established in Japan’s ancient capital of Kyoto as the country’s second national university. Ever since its founding in this historical and cultural center, the university has worked towards the realization of a peaceful and harmonious international community while taking a dialogue-based free academic style as its foundation. Today, it boasts eighteen graduate schools, ten faculties, and thirteen research institutes. They span from the humanities and social sciences to science, engineering, life science, medicine, and pharmaceutical science. Kyoto University is one of the top research universities in Japan, as well as the alma mater of many scholars and researchers active on the international stage, including ten Nobel Laureates, several Fields Medalists, and a Gauss Prize Winner. Visit our website at https://www.kyoto-u.ac.jp/en/.