Champasak province is seeking major tourism investment from Vietnam’s Sun Group, the developer behind Da Nang’s Ba Na Hills resort and cable car system, as local authorities push to transform southern Laos into a larger regional tourism destination.
On 9 May, Champasak Provincial Party Secretary Alounxay Sounnalath led a delegation to Da Nang to meet Sun Group executives and present several potential investment sites across the province.
The proposal focused on three locations: the Phu Sa Lao–Phu Malong highland area in Phonthong district, known for panoramic Mekong River views; the Bolaven Plateau in Pakse district, where cooler year-round temperatures of around 18 to 20 degrees Celsius support premium resort development; and the Si Phan Don area in Khong district, home to the 4,000 Islands and some of the region’s best-known natural attractions.
According to provincial authorities, Sun Group representatives expressed strong interest in the proposals and confirmed the company plans to visit Champasak in June to conduct feasibility surveys at all three sites.
Founded in 2007, Sun Group is one of Vietnam’s largest tourism and infrastructure developers and is best known for projects such as Sun World Ba Na Hills in Da Nang, the Golden Bridge, Fansipan cable cars in Sa Pa, and multiple large-scale resort and entertainment complexes across Vietnam.
The company has become particularly known for developing mountain tourism destinations connected by large-scale cable car systems and integrated resort projects.
Officials in Champasak said the province’s location along the East-West Economic Corridor, linking Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, and Laos, gives it strong potential for regional tourism growth. Authorities also highlighted Vat Phou World Heritage Site, ecotourism opportunities, waterfalls, and highland agricultural products including coffee, macadamia nuts, blueberries, and blackberries as key advantages.
The discussions form part of a broader effort to deepen economic and tourism cooperation between Champasak and Da Nang.
Earlier this week, officials from both sides agreed to strengthen cooperation in tourism, clean agriculture, processing industries, and education. Businesses from Laos and Vietnam also signed partnership agreements, while both cities agreed to study the development of Vietnamese restaurants and hotels in Pakse to support rising visitor numbers.
New boutique separates luxury brand collections across two dedicated spaces, giving collectors a more focused buying experience
SINGAPORE – Media OutReach Newswire – 12 May 2026 – Watchbook Singapore has opened a second boutique at Far East Plaza, separating its curated collections across two dedicated spaces on the same floor to give collectors a more focused buying experience.
The expansion allows Watchbook to organise its inventory by brand family. The main boutique at #03-139 focuses on Rolex, Patek Philippe, Audemars Piguet and Cartier. The new boutique at #03-55 features contemporary luxury watches including Tudor, Omega, Hublot and other brands.
“By giving each collection its own dedicated space, we can offer collectors a sharper, more personalised experience,” said Anson Toh, chief executive officer at Watchbook Singapore. “This expansion reflects the growing interest in both neo-vintage and modern luxury watches, and our commitment to serving collectors at every level.”
Watchbook enters this next phase as Singapore’s second-highest-reviewed watch dealer, with more than 2,400 verified Google reviews reflecting thousands of successful transactions. Both boutiques are backed by the company’s end-to-end model: in-house authentication, a dedicated service centre staffed by certified watchmakers, and curated inventory under one roof.
Far East Plaza is well-established as a destination for watch enthusiasts and luxury retailers in Singapore. The opening of a second boutique on the same floor reinforces Watchbook’s position at the centre of that community.
Boutique Details
Both boutiques are open daily from 11:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m.
Main boutique 14 Scotts Road, #03-139 Far East Plaza, Singapore 228213.
New boutique 14 Scotts Road, #03-55 Far East Plaza, Singapore 228213.
The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.
Watchbook Singapore
Watchbook is Singapore’s Neo-Vintage Rolex Specialist and a trusted destination for authenticated pre-owned luxury watches. The company offers one of Singapore’s deepest curated selections of certified neo-vintage Rolex timepieces from the 1980s to 2000s, alongside a broader portfolio including Patek Philippe, Audemars Piguet, Cartier, Omega and more.
As an independent luxury watch dealer, Watchbook operates a fully in-house service centre staffed by certified watchmakers, delivering complete authentication, servicing and warranty support. Recognised as Singapore’s second-highest-reviewed watch dealer, Watchbook serves collectors and enthusiasts who value heritage, character and certified quality.
The new operations agent helps merchants translate business intent into controlled execution across products, orders, logistics, discounts, and data.
TORONTO, May 12, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — As AI agents move from content generation into operational execution, Shoplazza today announced the launch of Athena, an AI admin agent designed to help merchants manage back-office eCommerce workflows through natural language.
Athena expands Shoplazza’s AI-native commerce operating system by bringing agentic execution into the daily tasks merchants rely on to run their businesses. Instead of moving across multiple dashboards to create products, update information, configure discounts, check orders, review logistics, or analyze data, merchants can describe what they want to accomplish and let Athena help prepare the task, preview the result, and execute after confirmation.
The launch reflects a broader shift in commerce software: from function-based tools to intent-based systems. For merchants managing large SKU catalogs, frequent campaigns, and cross-market operations, the challenge is no longer simply accessing software features, but coordinating fragmented tasks across operational modules.
“The next phase of commerce infrastructure will be defined by systems that can understand merchant intent and support controlled execution,” said Alyson Zhang, co-founder and COO at Shoplazza. “Athena reduces the distance between a business goal and the operational steps required to complete it, while keeping final decisions in the merchant’s hands.”
Athena currently supports high-frequency operations including product creation and editing, order inquiries, discount configuration, logistics information, data analysis, and platform knowledge assistance. Through a unified AI conversation interface, merchants can initiate tasks without first determining which system module or page is required.
In product operations, Athena supports inputs such as natural language, product links, images, and Excel or CSV files. For product-heavy merchants, fast-fashion sellers, and cross-border teams working with existing materials, Athena can help identify product attributes such as category, material, and color, then generate draft titles, descriptions, and pricing information for merchant review.
Athena also brings AI assistance into merchant data analysis. Instead of manually entering reporting pages, selecting time ranges, and configuring filters, merchants can ask business questions directly and receive charts, key findings, metric explanations, and operational suggestions. This allows teams to connect performance data more directly with product, conversion, order, campaign, and customer behavior context.
Built on Shoplazza’s experience supporting more than 650,000 global merchants, Athena is designed with a vertical understanding of independent commerce operations. Its role is not to replace merchant judgment, but to help teams move faster through repetitive and detail-heavy workflows while keeping important decisions under merchant control.
For critical actions such as creating, modifying, or deleting operational information, Athena asks for required details, presents a preview, and proceeds only after merchant confirmation. This confirmation-based design helps reduce the risk of incorrect product settings, pricing errors, fulfillment issues, or other operational mistakes that could affect customer experience and transactions.
Athena strengthens the broader Shoplazza AI-native commerce OS. Together with Shoplazza AI Store Builder, LazzaStudio, AdValet, and other AI capabilities across storefront creation, content generation, and marketing execution, Athena adds an operational intelligence layer for merchant back-office workflows.
About Shoplazza
Shoplazza is a global AI-native commerce operating system that enables brands to build, launch, and scale their online businesses. Built on an AI agent-native framework, Shoplazza integrates storefronts, marketing, payments, and operational workflows into a unified system designed to support scalable, long-term growth across global markets. Learn more at https://www.shoplazza.com/.
LONDON, May 12, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — PEI Group, the provider of vital intelligence to sharpen private market decisions, is proud to announce that four of its editorial team members have been recognised for journalistic excellence at the State Street Institutional Press Awards 2025.
Alex leads an award-winning team covering Asia-Pacific private equity markets. This is his second State Street Institutional Press Awards Asia-Pacific win.
Additionally, Joe Marsh, EMEA Editor, Investor Intelligence was named at State Street’s UK event as runner up in the Journalist of the Year: Private Markets & Alternatives category for his article in Private Equity International about how private equity is returning to the front line on defence.
These award wins further reflect PEI Group’s ongoing commitment to delivering high-quality, deeply researched and trusted journalism that informs and shapes global private markets.
The full stories and official announcements from State Street can be found for Asia-Pacific here and for the UK here.
About PEI Group
PEI Group is a leading provider of business intelligence, data, analytics, and events for the global private markets industry, with over 500 people operating from six offices.
Combining more than 25 years of proprietary data, deep editorial expertise, and a trusted journalistic heritage, PEI delivers vital intelligence to sharpen the decision-making of more than 30,000 investors, asset managers, and service providers worldwide.
With two decades of strong growth, PEI operates across private equity, private credit, private real estate, private infrastructure, and other specialist asset classes through its portfolio of premium information brands, research platforms, membership networks, and global events.
PEI connects investment professionals with the intelligence, relationships, opportunities and critical market insights needed to navigate evolving markets and achieve stronger investment outcomes.
DataMind AI™ for mobile fleet recognized in the “Anomaly Detection & Pattern Recognition Platform” category
SYDNEY, May 12, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Razor Labs (TASE: RZR), a global leader in AI-powered predictive maintenance solutions for the mining industry, today announced that it has been named a Gold Winner in the 2026 Globee® Awards for Artificial Intelligence.
Razor Labs wins the 2026 Gold Globee® Award for Artificial Intelligence.
The company received the award in the “Anomaly Detection & Pattern Recognition Platform” category for its DataMind AI™ solution, recognized for enabling early failure detection across mining fleets using advanced artificial intelligence.
The Globee® Awards for Artificial Intelligence recognize organizations and technologies driving innovation and measurable impact through AI across global industries.
Designed specifically for large-scale mining fleets, DataMind AI™ for mobile fleets supports rapid deployment using a compact single data logger per truck, enabling fast integration with existing fleet infrastructure and OEM telemetry systems.
“This award is a strong validation of the impact AI-driven predictive maintenance is creating across the mining industry,” said Raz Roditti, CEO of Razor Labs. “Mining companies across different commodities, equipment types, and operating environments are looking for practical technologies that improve reliability and reduce operational risk. DataMind AI™ helps maintenance teams detect issues earlier and make better decisions across both mobile fleets and fixed assets.”
Tomer Srulevich, CBO at Razor Labs, added: “We’re proud to see DataMind AI™ creating measurable operational impact across mining operations worldwide. In a single quarter, the platform identified 11 critical failure findings across a coal mining fleet’s haul trucks and helped the operation avoid more than 40 hours of unplanned downtime. The recognition reflects our continued investment in AI technologies tailored specifically for mining environments.”
About Razor Labs
Razor Labs (TASE: RZR) is a global leader in mining technology, specializing in predictive maintenance solutions that combine advanced AI Sensor Fusion with real-time diagnostics. With operations across Australia, South Africa, the United States, and Colombia, Razor Labs helps critical industries transform asset reliability, efficiency, and safety.
DataMind AI™ for mobile fleet recognized in the “Anomaly Detection & Pattern Recognition Platform” category
SYDNEY, May 12, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Razor Labs (TASE: RZR), a global leader in AI-powered predictive maintenance solutions for the mining industry, today announced that it has been named a Gold Winner in the 2026 Globee® Awards for Artificial Intelligence.
Razor Labs wins the 2026 Gold Globee® Award for Artificial Intelligence.
The company received the award in the “Anomaly Detection & Pattern Recognition Platform” category for its DataMind AI™ solution, recognized for enabling early failure detection across mining fleets using advanced artificial intelligence.
The Globee® Awards for Artificial Intelligence recognize organizations and technologies driving innovation and measurable impact through AI across global industries.
Designed specifically for large-scale mining fleets, DataMind AI™ for mobile fleets supports rapid deployment using a compact single data logger per truck, enabling fast integration with existing fleet infrastructure and OEM telemetry systems.
“This award is a strong validation of the impact AI-driven predictive maintenance is creating across the mining industry,” said Raz Roditti, CEO of Razor Labs. “Mining companies across different commodities, equipment types, and operating environments are looking for practical technologies that improve reliability and reduce operational risk. DataMind AI™ helps maintenance teams detect issues earlier and make better decisions across both mobile fleets and fixed assets.”
Tomer Srulevich, CBO at Razor Labs, added: “We’re proud to see DataMind AI™ creating measurable operational impact across mining operations worldwide. In a single quarter, the platform identified 11 critical failure findings across a coal mining fleet’s haul trucks and helped the operation avoid more than 40 hours of unplanned downtime. The recognition reflects our continued investment in AI technologies tailored specifically for mining environments.”
About Razor Labs
Razor Labs (TASE: RZR) is a global leader in mining technology, specializing in predictive maintenance solutions that combine advanced AI Sensor Fusion with real-time diagnostics. With operations across Australia, South Africa, the United States, and Colombia, Razor Labs helps critical industries transform asset reliability, efficiency, and safety.
Shutterstock’s first-ever partnership with a video-to-music platform licenses its music catalog for AI model training—a new benchmark for responsible AI music
MENLO PARK, Calif,, May 12, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Sonilo, the world’s first professionally licensed video-to-music AI platform, today announced a strategic partnership with Shutterstock (NYSE: SSTK), one of the world’s largest providers of licensed creative content.
Sonilo x Shutterstock Official Partnership
Through this partnership, Sonilo has licensed Shutterstock’s high-quality music catalog for AI model training—making this Shutterstock’s first-ever partnership with a video-to-music AI platform. Sonilo is headquartered in San Francisco and backed by B Capital, a venture capital firm affiliated with the Boston Consulting Group focused on emerging technology startups expanding globally.
Redefining licensed AI music for video
The AI music industry is at a crossroads. By 2025, infringement cases filed against AI companies had surged by more than 130% year over year. The dominant response from AI music platforms has been to train on unlicensed content first and deal with the legal consequences later—producing AI-generated music that not only raises serious copyright concerns, but floods the internet with low-quality content that shortchanges creators and audiences alike.
Sonilo is built to address these problems. Powered by its proprietary Sonilo v1.0 model, Sonilo takes the video itself as input rather than relying on text prompts. It reads the footage, understands its pacing, structure and emotional arc, and composes an original soundtrack to match. No prompts, no library searches, and no manual syncing. Every soundtrack generated is original, production-ready, and cleared for commercial use—no additional licensing required, whether for social content, branded video, or broadcast use.
Most AI music platforms have treated licensing as an afterthought, training on copyrighted content without authorization and leaving artists without compensation. Sonilo was built differently. By securing professional licensing partnerships upfront, Sonilo ensures that every model it trains is built on content that artists have consented to and been compensated for. This partnership with Shutterstock is a direct expression of that commitment: the music industry doesn’t have to choose between innovation and integrity.
“Music has always been the last unsolved layer of video creation, and video has always carried its own soundtrack,” said Shawn Song, CEO, Sonilo. “We built Sonilo to hear it and compose from it, without a single text prompt. But how we build matters as much as what we build. While others have chosen to take artists’ work without permission and charge creators for the privilege, we’ve chosen a different path—one where artists are compensated from day one. Partnering with Shutterstock reflects that standard. Every model we train meets a bar the music industry can stand behind, because the most innovative AI platforms don’t have to come at the expense of the artists who make all of these possible.”
“AI innovation depends on access to high-quality, rights-cleared content and trusted licensing partnerships,” said Jessica April, Vice President, Data Licensing & AI Services, Shutterstock. “Sonilo’s approach reflects the growing demand for responsibly sourced training data and commercially safe AI workflows. We’re pleased to support companies building generative AI products with licensed content and scalable data solutions that help accelerate innovation while respecting creators and rights holders.”
Scaling across platforms, built for every creator
This partnership is part of Sonilo’s broader momentum. Earlier this month, the platform launched as a native node inside ComfyUI, the open-source AI workflow tool used by over four million creators. Sonilo is also available via API for integration into video tools, creator platforms, game engines, and AI systems, and offers Free, Pro, and Premium tiers. Further platform integrations are planned throughout the rest of this year.
About Sonilo
Sonilo is the world’s first professionally licensed video-to-music AI platform, built for the creators defining the next era of content. Powered by its proprietary Sonilo v1.0 model, it composes original music directly from your footage—matching the pacing, emotion, and story of every frame — in seconds, without a single text prompt. Trusted by professional creators and integrated with leading platforms including ComfyUI and Shutterstock, Sonilo is built on one belief: every original video deserves an equally original soundtrack. Sonilo is headquartered in San Francisco and backed by B Capital.
Shutterstock is an end-to-end AI model training partner that unifies data licensing, services, and long-term collaboration under a single provider—reducing operational complexity and helping teams bring higher-performing AI systems to market faster and with greater confidence. Shutterstock combines access to one of the world’s largest rights-cleared multimodal datasets with advanced data curation and custom training datasets to power high-performing, deployment-ready generative models. This licensable training data includes high-quality labeled and continuously updated multimodal content with clear data provenance to support AI compliance. Shutterstock leverages ML-assisted evaluation tools to provide model training, fine-tuning, alignment, evaluation, and retraining. Through human-in-the-loop workflows, expert creative feedback, and structured preference data, Shutterstock delivers aesthetic preference signals, benchmarking, and regression testing to drive continuous model improvement.
Shutterstock is in the business of turning ideas into impact. Powered by a global network of millions of creators and our cutting-edge technology, we provide businesses, creatives, and brand leaders with the essential, universal ingredients to make their work more effective. Shutterstock offers access to one of the world’s largest and most diverse collections of high-quality licensable assets, specialized training datasets, evaluation tools, and end-to-end strategic partnerships for the full model training lifecycle, as well as advertising and distribution solutions, exclusive editorial content, and full-service studio production—delivering unparalleled resources to fuel great work.
SHANGHAI, May 12, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — muShanghai, a month-long Pop-up City dedicated to high-density co-creation, officially launched today. As the first mainland China edition of The Mu—a global builder community with a footprint stretching from San Francisco to Buenos Aires—the program marks a strategic expansion of its mission to foster cross-border innovation.
The city’s debut is headlined by the China premiere of ClawCon. Dedicated to the OpenClaw ecosystem, an open-source personal AI agent project that has amassed over 180,000 GitHub stars—the summit brings together core contributors Vincent Koc, Josh Palmer, and Michael Gabbert alongside a diverse cohort spanning six continents.
Out of a competitive pool of over 2,000 applicants, only 800 builders were selected to participate muShanghai. The group represents a high concentration of technical talent: 46% are actively building in AI or machine learning, while 16% specialize in hardware and robotics. The majority of the cohort consists of founders in their late 20s to early 30s, signaling a powerful convergence of experience and emerging tech leadership.
“China’s AI and hardware ecosystem is world-class but largely invisible to global builders,” said Sun, Founder of The Mu. “muShanghai exists to close that gap—800 people, 28 days, zero spectators, pure co-creation.”
Four Weeks, 90+ Events
AI Week (May 11–15): Featuring the OpenClaw debut and sessions with engineers from ByteDance’s Seedance, Moonshot AI’s Kimi, Zhipu AI, StepFun, and MiniMax, alongside an AI safety track with international cryptographers.
BioTech & Longevity Week (May 18–22): Led by a Yale-trained computational biologist, this week focuses on AI drug discovery and synthetic biology. Highlights include XtalPi’s AI pharma insights and a CGM dietary experiment. The week culminates in BioBloom, a hackathon tackling real-world problems from biotech partners.
Robotics & Supply Chain Week (May 25–29): Featuring robot combat and direct access to hardware networks across the Yangtze River Delta—the global hub for consumer electronics manufacturing.
Culture & Future States Week (June 1–6): A collaborative track with game designers from Tencent and NetEase, a Solarpunk panel on experimental communities, and the “Future Broadcasting” mixed-reality closing experience.
Every Friday, a Creators’ Marketplace provides a live floor for participants to demo projects, recruit co-founders, and test products with real users.
About The Mu
The Mu is a global builder community that runs pop-up cities, month-long residencies where people across cultures and industries work, build, and share knowledge in the same room. Past editions ran in Buenos Aires and San Francisco. muShanghai is the first in mainland China.
https://watchbook.sg/
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