SUBANG JAYA, Malaysia, March 10, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — Sunway Medical Centre, Sunway City (SMC) has yet again ranked in the top 250 hospitals globally in the latest Newsweek’s World’s Best Hospitals 2025 rankings.

Honoured for the second consecutive year, SMC improved from rank 233^rd in 2024 to rank 193^rd in 2025, and also is the top hospital in Malaysia in the latest listing.

The rankings list top 250 hospitals globally from 30 countries based on a comprehensive survey that gathered insights from medical experts, patient surveys, hospital quality metrics, and Statista Patient-Reported Outcome Measures (PROMs) Implementation Survey.

Dato’ Lau Beng Long, President of Sunway Healthcare Group remarked, “As the flagship hospital of Sunway Healthcare Group, SMC takes pride in its commitment to excellence in healthcare and hospitality in driving us to this level of international recognition. Being ranked among the top 250 hospitals globally, with the likes of the Mayo Clinic, The John Hopkins Hospital, Singapore General Hospital, and The University of Tokyo Hospital for two consecutive years is a testament to the unwavering dedication of our team especially medical specialists, nurses and allied health professionals.”

“We are proud to lead the way in Malaysia, and this achievement reaffirms our aim to provide the highest level of clinical care and to continue elevating the overall healthcare status in the country.”

The latest accomplishment builds upon SMC’s recent success in Newsweek’s Asia’s Top Private Hospitals 2025 ranking, where it was ranked 2^nd in Asia for cataract surgery, and 3^rd in Asia for refractive eye surgery, while also featured in the top 10 of Asia’s ranking for hip surgery and hip replacement (6^th); knee surgery and knee replacement (6^th); and shoulder surgery (10^th).

The hospital was also featured in Newsweek’s Best Specialist Hospitals Asia Pacific list for 2023 and 2024.

Dato’ Lau also made history as the first Malaysian healthcare leader to be inducted in Newsweek’s Top Hospital CEOs 2024 list, alongside other prominent CEOs from the globe’s leading medical facilities.

As Malaysia’s largest private quaternary hospital, SMC is the first hospital in Malaysia to achieve three major hospital-wide accreditations: Joint Commission International (JCI) Accreditation, The Gold Seal of Approval from the United States; the Australian Council on Healthcare Standards (ACHS); and the Malaysian Society for Quality in Health (MSQH).

BARCELONA, Spain, March 10, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — At the 2025 Mobile World Congress (MWC 2025), Speakly AI (www.speaklyai.com) took center stage at the Digital Finance Session, where our Co-Founder and COO, Jeff Jie, delivered a keynote speech titled “Empowering Retail Bank Branches and Online Marketing via LLMs and Digital Transformation”. Jeff shared our omnichannel solutions designed for retail bank branches and remote banking, highlighting how Speakly AI is driving intelligent transformation in the financial industry.

With innovative large language model (LLM) technology and proven success with leading industry clients, Speakly AI is injecting new momentum into the digital and intelligent transformation of financial institutions. The presentation and live demonstrations attracted enthusiastic attention and praise from the audience, including representatives from top global banks.

How LLMs Empower Banks
During the speech, Jeff detailed how Speakly AI’s LLM-powered solutions are helping financial institutions achieve end-to-end digital transformation across retail branches and contact centers. From customer service to marketing and risk management, Speakly AI enables banks to deliver smarter, more efficient operations.

Jeff highlighted two major pain points in the financial industry:

1. Online Telemarketing: While digital transformation has advanced in remote banking, the complexity of financial products and growing customer expectations have increased pressure on frontline staff.
2. Offline Branches: Retail branches face challenges due to fragmented data and complex scenarios, making it difficult to quickly understand customer needs and deliver personalized experiences.

Speakly AI’s LLM solutions are designed to address these challenges:

1. SalesMate: The Ultimate AI Assistant for Branch Staff
   SalesMate, Speakly AI’s LLM-powered assistant, seamlessly integrates with communication channels like WhatsApp, WeChat Mini Programs, and mobile apps. It understands customer needs in real time, provides personalized follow-up recommendations, and records customer profiles, communication history, and tasks. SalesMate also delivers tailored reports to managers, helping them track team performance, identify customer intent, and adjust strategies quickly.
2. Customer Insights: From Post-Hoc Analysis to Real-Time Intervention
   Traditional customer insights often take weeks or months to generate. Speakly AI’s solutions leverage LLMs to shorten this process to just days. As Jeff explained, “Banks no longer need to wait for customer complaints to identify issues. Our solutions enable real-time discovery of customer needs and proactive problem-solving.”
3. Agent Assist: Boosting Efficiency and Customer Experience
   In online marketing scenarios, Speakly AI’s Agent Assist (Expert) empowers sales teams with end-to-end support. LLMs quickly identify customer questions, extract accurate answers from vast documents, and provide real-time reminders. After interactions, the system automatically summarizes conversations, generates customer profiles, monitors service quality, and records follow-up tasks—significantly improving efficiency and customer satisfaction.

Customer Success: From Efficiency Gains to Tangible Results
Speakly AI’s solutions have been successfully implemented at leading global banks. Jeff shared a case study: A Fortune 500 bank saw a 3.5x increase in daily customer intent orders, a 40%+ improvement in issue resolution efficiency, and a 60%+ adoption rate for real-time knowledge generated by AI. “These numbers reflect not just operational improvements but also enhanced satisfaction for both employees and customers,” Jeff noted.

The Future of AI in Finance
The era of LLMs empowering enterprises is no longer exploratory—it’s here. According to Gartner, by 2027, the market share of generative AI in conversational intelligence will far surpass traditional solutions, with a 14x growth rate projected by 2033. As the financial industry accelerates toward digital and intelligent transformation, Speakly AI remains committed to helping institutions optimize customer experiences, improve operational efficiency, and stay ahead in a competitive market.

First Movement ETF Filing Will Provide U.S. Investors with Exposure to Movement Ecosystem

GRAND CAYMAN, Cayman Islands, March 10, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — The Movement Network Foundation, the organization dedicated to advancing MoveVM technology, today announced that REX-Osprey has filed for a new exchange-traded fund (ETF) focused on $MOVE. If approved, this ETF would be the first providing exposure to Movement through traditional financial rails. Simultaneously, the Foundation announced the successful launch of Movement Public Mainnet Beta, with $250M in at-launch Total Value Locked (TVL) from its Cornucopia program.

Movement Network Foundation Announces Movement Mainnet Beta and $MOVE TGE

“This filing represents a historic moment not just for Movement, but for the entire Move landscape,” said Rushi Manche, Co-Founder of Movement Labs. “Breaking the pattern of ETFs limited to long-established cryptocurrencies opens doors for institutional capital to support next-generation blockchain innovation.”

“Traditional investors have expressed keen interest in gaining regulated exposure to emerging blockchain technologies without directly managing tokens,” noted Cooper Scanlon, Co-Founder of Movement Labs. “This ETF represents the convergence of innovative financial products with cutting-edge blockchain architecture.”

ETF Provides Traditional Market Access to $MOVE
The Move programming language, originally developed by Meta, empowers Movement developers to create more efficient, more secure smart contracts. If approved, the ETF would allow investors to gain exposure to Movement through traditional brokerage accounts and retirement vehicles without the technical complexities of direct token management.

Public Mainnet Beta Launches with Substantial Liquidity
Concurrent with the ETF filing announcement, Movement Network Foundation has successfully launched its Public Mainnet Beta with $250M in Total Value Locked (TVL). This day-one liquidity provides the network with immediate utility.

The Public Mainnet Beta enables permissionless smart contract deployment, full user onboarding, and Ethereum settlement. It gives users and builders the full benefits of Move and the MoveVM. Users can access the network through the canonical Movement bridge powered by LayerZero.

For more information about Movement Public Mainnet Beta, visit movementnetwork.xyz or follow @movementlabsxyz, @movementfdn, @moveecosystem  @Move_Collective on Twitter.

About Movement Network Foundation
Movement Network Foundation is the driving force behind the Movement ecosystem, dedicated to fostering innovation and advancing the adoption of MoveVM technology. The foundation oversees the development of Movement Network, a next-gen solution built using MoveVM that settles to Ethereum. Through its MoveDrop program and ecosystem initiatives, the foundation supports developers, projects, and community contributors building decentralized applications. Learn more at movementfdn.xyz or follow @movementfdn on X.

MEDIA CONTACT
Carmen Pearson
Head of PR & Communications
Movement Labs
Carmen.Pearson@MovementLabs.xyz 

Onsite hydrogen production using industrial off-gases now offers a commercially viable,
economic clean energy for heavy industry

HOUSTON, March 10, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — Utility, the leader in affordable, reliable and clean hydrogen solutions that drive a profitable energy transition for hard-to-abate industries worldwide, today announced the successful operation of the company’s H2Gen® system at a major steel plant in North America. Utility’s H2Gen system successfully produced the world’s first hydrogen using steel plant off-gas (blast furnace gas) in an elegant single process step under actual site conditions. Additionally, this marks the industry’s first successful implementation of a system that can produce clean hydrogen from water without the need for electricity. The H2Gen system is now proven as the leading economic clean hydrogen platform solving the steel industry’s significant clean energy challenges. It is a solution that is commercially available, cost-effective, offers a profitable pathway to a clean energy transition and easily integrates with existing assets.

Steel production is vital to industrial progress, but it is also one of the world’s most energy-intensive processes, facing significant energy transition hurdles in reducing its carbon footprint. These challenges include: 

• Capital costs in the billions of dollars for alternative steelmaking technologies compared to the blast furnaces used in making most of the steel globally
• Limited space and infrastructure constraints for making economic on-site clean hydrogen that can reduce carbon footprint of existing steel plants
• The need to balance sustainability with productivity and global competitiveness while lacking economic carbon capture solutions for the steel industry 

Utility’s H2Gen system offers a groundbreaking solution to these challenges by producing hydrogen from water using industrial off-gases, such as blast furnace gas. The H2Gen system enables on-site hydrogen production with a compact footprint while delivering enriched CO₂ at a single point for cost-effective carbon capture. With more than 3,000 hours of successful operation at a major steel plant, H2Gen has demonstrated its ability to drive a cost-effective, scalable, reliable and commercially ready energy transition pathway for heavy industries including steel, biogas-to-hydrogen, chemicals, refining, upstream oil & gas, power, and hydrogen-powered data centers. 

REAL-WORLD PROJECT RESULTS: 

• Hydrogen Production: The H2Gen system consistently produced hydrogen on-site without the need for electrical input to the reaction.
• Seamless Integration: Designed for compatibility and operational simplicity, the modular, factory-built H2Gen system integrates with existing steel plant processes with minimal pre- and post-gas treatment, enhancing operational efficiency. 
• Robust Performance: The system demonstrated significant flexibility, handling a wide variety of feed gas conditions and could restart in less than 15 minutes after feed gas outage events. 
• Cost-Effective and Scalable Solution: By minimizing operating and capital costs with a very small onsite footprint and modular scalability, H2Gen provides a practical, economic pathway to clean hydrogen production for decarbonizing steel manufacturing, among many other hard-to-abate industry sectors. 

“Decarbonizing heavy industries like steel, mobility, chemicals, refining, and power has been one of the toughest challenges in the energy transition — until now. Our successful deployment of H2Gen at a major steel plant proves we can deliver scalable, economic, clean hydrogen solutions that seamlessly integrate with existing infrastructure and assets. H2Gen is the only commercially viable solution for producing clean hydrogen in hard-to-abate industries like steelmaking.” stated Parker Meeks, chief executive officer of Utility. “Utility is rapidly scaling to meet global demand, with strong momentum in steel, biogas-to-hydrogen for mobility and beyond. Our H2Gen systems provide an economic, modular solution without the high costs and infrastructure barriers of alternative hydrogen technologies. With strong customer and partner momentum including the recent ArcelorMittal funding and GH EnA Project Development announcements, we are accelerating the shift to clean hydrogen at scale.” 

Utility Global, Inc. (www.utilityglobal.com) is a portfolio company of Ara Partners (www.arapartners.com), a private equity firm specializing in industrial decarbonization investments. 

About Utility
Utility is a Houston, Texas-based off-gas-to-value company built specifically to enable economic decarbonization of hard-to-abate sectors like mobility, steel and others. Utility’s H2Gen® system needs no electricity to utilize the remaining electrochemical energy contained in a wide range of dilute off-gases to produce high-purity clean hydrogen from water. 

Utility’s H2Gen systems are highly scalable, modular, smaller in size and compatible with existing industrial processes and assets. H2Gen minimizes balance of plant, increases operational flexibility and offers attractive benefits in total cost of ownership. Utility helps companies in hard-to-abate industries meet sustainability and business goals by reducing emissions, energy use and waste profitably. Utility turns the environmental challenges of off-gases into competitive advantages as onsite energy, fuel or feedstock. 

About Ara Partners
Founded in 2017, Ara Partners is a global private equity and infrastructure firm dedicated to decarbonizing the industrial economy. Ara seeks to build, scale, and optimize companies with significant decarbonization impact across the industrial and manufacturing, chemicals and materials, energy efficiency and fuels, and food and agriculture sectors. The company operates from offices in Houston, Boston, Washington, D.C., and Dublin. Ara Partners closed its third private equity fund in December 2023 with over $2.8 billion in new capital commitments. As of September 2024, Ara Partners had approximately $6.3 billion of assets under management. 

For more information about Ara Partners, please visit www.arapartners.com.

Logo – https://laotiantimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/utility_global_2025_logo.jpg

August Secures $10 Million Series A to Scale On-Chain Finance Infrastructure

Dragonfly, 6th Man Ventures (6MV), SCB Limited, and Robot Ventures back August as it expands its institutional product suite and bridges the gap between DeFi and traditional finance.

GENEVA, March 10, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — August, an on-chain prime brokerage and execution platform, today announced a $10 million Series A funding round led by Dragonfly Ventures with participation from SCB Limited, 6th Man Ventures (6MV), Foresight Ventures, FinTech Collective, Robot Ventures, Maven11, and others. This investment accelerates August’s on-chain prime brokerage capabilities, with a portfolio margin system enabling institutions to use staked assets and yield-bearing positions as collateral for structured products, OTC derivatives, and credit. With seamless cross-margining and enhanced capital efficiency, clients can hedge DeFi portfolios with CeFi rails—all within a single on-chain account. August supports 12+ blockchains, 250+ tokens, and 70 protocols, unlocking liquidity across any liquid asset.

August raises $10M Series A

In a world where more assets are getting tokenized, and continue to move on-chain, August provides the most capital-efficient infrastructure for trade execution, maximizing liquidity and capital optimization.

August facilitates over $7 billion in monthly transaction volume across lending, DeFi and OTC transactions, and algorithmic swaps with $400M+ in loans originated over the past year. The company rebranded to underscore its commitment to building trusted financial infrastructure for a crypto industry recovering after the collapse of centralized finance (CeFi). August provides institutions, protocols, and trading desks with a comprehensive suite of on-chain financial tools, including: smart contract multi-signature accounts, trade execution, borrowing and lending, options and structured products, tri-party collateral management, cross-margining and cross-chain DeFi strategies. Clients supported today include both institutional hedge funds and principal trading firms, as well as protocols such as Upshift, the first decentralized application built on August, with total value locked (TVL) around $300M.

“The events of 2022 following the collapse of large centralized finance counterparties, more liquidity and volume has moved on-chain over the past two years, demonstrating that transparency and risk management are non-negotiable,” said Aya Kantorovich, Co-Founder and Co-CEO of August. “August is setting a new standard for capital-efficient and institutionally viable digital asset trading, where trust is no longer assumed—it’s built into the infrastructure itself.”, said Alexandre Elkrief, Co-Founder and Co-CEO of August.

By bringing on-chain verifiability to these services, August eliminates the hidden risks that have plagued CeFi. With August, credit and counterparty risk can be monitored and mitigated in real-time.

“FTX and 3AC didn’t fail due to a lack of institutional interest in digital assets,” said Rob Hadick, General Partner at Dragonfly Capital. “They failed because risk was obfuscated, and counterparty exposure was unmanageable. August provides real-time risk measurement, programmatic collateral management, and default transparency.”

“We are thrilled to double down on August, the leader in On-chain Capital Markets. August combines the speed and composability of DeFi with the risk management tools required by the world’s largest institutions. Now these benefits will be available to the public via Upshift. The future of finance is now,” adds Carl Vogel, General Partner at 6th Man Ventures.

About August

August, an on-chain prime brokerage and execution platform that enables users to borrow, lend, trade, and clear across any DeFi and CeFi application with any form of liquid collateral. August supports all DeFi primitives, including lending, borrowing, spot execution, over the counter options, and derivatives.

Media contact:
Aya Kantorovich,
+16466009692,
aya@augustdigital.io

August co-founders Aya Kantorovich and Alexandre Elkrief

• GEEF 2025 will take place on March 13–14, bringing together 83 speakers from 14 countries to discuss solutions for bridging societal divides.
• The forum will feature Keynote speeches from Nobel laureates Muhammad Yunus and Denis Mukwege, along with global leaders and experts, and is predicted to welcome over 2,000 participants from 80+ countries.
• Former UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon emphasized the importance of global cooperation and innovation for sustainable development.
• Yonsei University President Dong-Sup Yoon highlighted the forum’s role in driving change through education and collaboration as the university celebrates its 140th anniversary.

SEOUL, South Korea, March 10, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — Yonsei University (President Dong-Sup Yoon) will host the 7th Global Engagement & Empowerment Forum on Sustainable Development (GEEF 2025) from March 13 to 14, 2025, under the theme “Time for Action: Bridging Divides for a Sustainable Future.” The forum will focus on formulating innovative solutions to global challenges and resolving delays in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), while addressing key issues such as the climate crisis and poverty.

Following the UN General Assembly in September 2024, GEEF 2025 will prioritize actionable outcomes, given that global SDG progress stands at only 17%. Yonsei University hopes to continue hosting annual forums under the “Time for Action” theme, each exploring sector-specific and goal-oriented sub-themes.

Distinguished attendees include former UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, former Austrian President Heinz Fischer, and UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina J. Mohammed. Nobel Peace Prize laureates Muhammad Yunus (2006) and Denis Mukwege (2018) will deliver keynote speeches. In a ‘Great Minds: Special Conversation’ session, Chang Yong Rhee, Governor of the Bank of Korea, and Jim Yong Kim, former President of the World Bank Group, will engage in an in-depth conversation about structural reforms and domestic/international economic divides, with Yonsei University President Dong-Sup Yoon moderating the discussion.

Former Foreign Minister Kyung-wha Kang, actress and environmental activist Jin Hee Park, and youth climate activist Jeah Han will present solutions for addressing gender gaps and promoting climate action. In addition, a total of 24 sessions will explore practical solutions to address extreme poverty, the climate crisis, and bridging gender, generational, and technological gaps.

GEEF 2025 will explore concrete solutions to address various social gaps, including gender, generation, digital competencies, and socio-economic status. Experts in each field will participate in in-depth discussions on policies and technological approaches to reduce gender inequality, educational efforts to reduce the digital divide, and methods to encourage youth participation. Additionally, the forum will seek innovative solutions to bridge social gaps through the use of artificial intelligence and cutting-edge technologies, and will develop concrete action plans to ensure that technology and data-based solutions can have a tangible impact across society. The forum will not only focus on discussions but will also encourage participants to take concrete actions and provide clear direction for building a sustainable society.

Furthermore, the Ban Ki-moon International Fellowship, aimed at cultivating leaders with global citizenship awareness in developing countries to lead a sustainable future for humanity, will be established and awarded.

8^th UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon emphasized the urgency of global cooperation and innovation, stating that GEEF 2025 will serve as a crucial platform for identifying practical solutions for sustainable development.

Yonsei University President Dong-Sup Yoon highlighted that, as the university marks its 140th anniversary, GEEF 2025 presents a vital opportunity to drive change through education and inclusive collaboration while exploring tangible solutions for a sustainable future.

GEEF 2025 will be streamed live on the Institute for Global Engagement & Empowerment’s (IGEE) official YouTube channel. Participants can register in advance via the official website (http://www.geef-sd.org) by March 6 or register onsite during the event.

Yonsei University ranked 11th globally and 1st among private universities in Asia in the Times Higher Education (THE) Impact Rankings, which assess universities’ contributions to social impact. Additionally, in November 2023, Yonsei University, along with Seoul National University, Korea University, and POSTECH, launched the Sustainable Campus Initiative, reinforcing its commitment to ESG-driven education and SDG achievement.

For more information, please visit www.geef-sd.org.