Banque Pour Le Commerce Exterieur Lao Public (BCEL) has announced that customers will now be able to receive international bank transfers directly into their accounts through MoneyGram.
MIPIM Asia explores emerging investment opportunities amidst changing macro landscape in APAC property market
Characterized by worldwide recovery from the global pandemic and turbulent macroeconomic environment, 2022 is a year of challenges from which opportunities also emerge. Despite the widespread pressures of inflation and rising interest rates, many Asia Pacific markets have remained relative resilient and attractive to investors, particularly in markets such as Japan and Singapore which have picked up steady pace in recovery.
As Hong Kong and APAC region gradually open up to visitors, MIPIM Asia Summit 2022 once again takes a face-to-face format where participants from far and near can meet up. Themed “Better Places – Greater Impact – Stronger Business“, MIPIM Asia Summit 2022 will convene decision makers from across Asia Pacific to plot a path back to growth while building more sustainable and liveable places for future generations. Top-notched speakers will reveal strategy which maximizes investment returns assets and uncover territories where the next treasure island lies.
Opening the two days’ MIPIM Asia Summit will be Mr Adriel Chan, Vice Chair of Hang Lung Properties who will highlight the fast-changing sustainability landscape, and how businesses evolve in this context. The Summit will be followed by four panel discussions on various topics including approaches in satisfying Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) requirements, investment strategy in response to hikes in interest rates and inflation, outbound investment opportunities as well as emerging alternative assets as a result of changes in lifestyle.
In the first panel discussion, Mark Cameron, Head of Sustainability, APAC of Nuveen Real Estate; Sam Crispin, Head of Sustainability and ESG of Savills; Ellie Tang, Director, Sustainable Investing of Fidelity International, and Johnny Yu, Advisor to Chairman of Henderson Land Development Company Limited will draw participants’ attention to the equally important “S” and “G” aspects of ESG.
Timmy Fung, Investment Director of Park Capital Group; Eric Huang, Director – Business Planning of New World Development Company Limited; Kenny Lam, Chief Investment Officer (Strategic Investment) of LINK Asset Management, and Sally Ronald, Deputy Director Investor Relations of Department for International Trade will discuss the potentials of real estate markets outside of Asia.
As interest increases, Shaman Chellaram, Senior Director | Asia – Valuation & Advisory Services | Hotel Advisory of Colliers; Christina Gaw, Managing Principal, Global Head of Capital Markets & Co-chair of Alternative Investments of Gaw Capital; Michael Lane, Partner and Managing Director, SC Capital Partners Pte Ltd, and Christopher Wu, CFO of Chongbang Group will discuss the best strategy to raise capitals.
Closing the first day’s discussion are Aaron Ho Ting Lee, Founder and CEO of Dash Living; Sarah Mathews, Director of Media Partnerships APAC of Tripadvisor; Kevin Poon, CEO and Founder of WOAW Gallery; Philip Yu, Vice President – Operations, Greater China of Hyatt Hotels Corporation, and Yang Yu, Chief Executive Officer of CSI Properties Asset Management Limited who will delve into the investment of alternative assets.
On the second day of the Summit, Edmund Ho, Managing Director & Regional Head, CRE Client Coverage GCNA of Standard Chartered Bank (HK) Limited, and Stephanie Lo, Executive Director of Shui On Land will kick off the day with reflections from re-inventing investment across Greater China and the markets beyond.
The keynote section will be followed by a sharing on asset re-positioning by Simon Chua, Co-Founder and Executive Director of Lead8; George Hongchoy, Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer of Link Asset Management Limited; Raymond Kwok, Senior Investment Director, Head of UK Real Estate of Nan Fung Group; Nicholas Loup, CEO Asia & Group Vice Chairman of Chelsfield Asia, and Zoe Zuo, Managing Director of Angelo Gordon.
A panel comprising Benjamin Chow, Head of Real Assets Research of MSCI; Peter Kim, Managing Director of QuadReal Property Group; Angel Li, Head of Asia, Real Estate of Macquarie Asset Management; Bryan Southergill, Partner, Real Estate of Ares SSG, and Jonathan Umali, Managing Director of ARCH Capital Management Co., Limited will discuss on how APAC markets can attract inbound investments.
As alternative investment gets increasing attention from investors, Dr. Charles Lam, Co-Head of APAC Diversified Funds of EQT Exeter; Collin Lau, Founder & CEO of BEI Group; Brandon Li, Executive Director of Warburg Pincus, Pak Man Yuen, Principal of Blackstone, and Jing Zhou, Senior Director, Alternatives and Strategic Transactions of Nuveen Real Estate will shed lights on new investment assets available in the market.
With Hong Kong gradually coming out of pandemic, a panel discussion featuring Bernie Devine, Senior Regional Director Asia Pacific of Yardi; Wendy Gan, Deputy Chief Executive Officer (District Development) of West Kowloon Cultural District Authority; Samuel Kwong, General Manager – ESG of Chinachem Agencies Limited; Ada Ka Ki Wong, Chief Strategy Officer & Chief Investment Officer of EC Healthcare, and Andrew Young, Associate Director (Innovation) of Sino Group will suggest various ways that can build back Hong Kong better and make it great again. On the other hand, Stanley Ching, Senior Managing Director of CITIC Capital Holdings Limited; Hank Hsu, Co-Founder & CEO of Forest Logistics Properties; Claire Thielke, Senior Managing Director, Head of Greater China of Hines, and Jie Wei, Managing Director of Goldman Sachs (Asia) LLC will focus on ways to navigate China’s property investment market.
At the finale panel event of the Summit, the “Meet the Chairmen” panel will gather heavyweight speakers including Justin Chiu, Executive Director of CK Asset Holdings Limited; Alison Cooke, Managing Director, Real Estate of Starr International Investment Advisors (Asia) Limited; Andrew Weir, Senior Partner, Hong Kong of KPMG, and Allan Zeman, Chairman of Lan Kwai Fong Group, who will reveal how they are creating “Better Places”, achieving “Greater Impact” and developing “Stronger Business” for the future generations.
Closing the two days’ event is a gala dinner where winners of MIPIM Asia Awards 2022 will be announced and presented. The Awards aims to recognize and celebrate outstanding real estate projects in Asia. Ronnie C. Chan, Chair of Hang Lung Properties Limited will attend the dinner and deliver a keynote speech.
To get full programme of the MIPIM Asia Summit 2022 and make registration, please visit mipim-asia.com.
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Hashtag: #MIPIMAsiaSummit
The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.
About MIPIM Asia Summit
MIPIM Asia Summit is the annual property leaders’ summit in Asia Pacific organised by Reed MIDEM. It is the major gathering where top-level decision makers gather to explore new business partnerships and investment opportunities. It features expert-led conference sessions, premium networking accelerators and an exclusive awards gala dinner over a two-day period. Distinguished speakers, senior executives, high-level business professionals and industry experts from around the world will discuss the latest developments and prevailing trends in the property and retail industry. MIPIM – the world’s property market – is the leading and largest global property event. The four-day event takes place annually in Cannes every March. 20,000+ delegates attended in 2022 with over 2,000 Investment & Financial companies, and more than 80 different countries being represented.
About RX Global:
RX Global builds businesses for individuals, communities, and organizations. We elevate the power of face-to-face events by combining data and digital products to help customers learn about markets, source products, and complete transactions at over 400 events in 22 countries across 43 industry sectors. RX is passionate about positively impacting society and is fully committed to creating an inclusive work environment for all our people. RX is part of RELX, a global provider of information-based analytics and decision tools for professional and business customers.
www.rxglobal.com.
President of Laos Arrives in China for State Visit
The President of Laos arrived in Beijing this week for a state visit in response to an invitation from the Chinese President, Xi Jinping.
Former Chinese President Jiang Zemin Dies at 96
Former Chinese President Jiang Zemin died on Wednesday at the age of 96 after succumbing to leukaemia and multiple organ failure.
Lao Sprinter Wins Gold Medal at Thailand Open 2022

The Lao long-distance runner, Ms. Lodkeo Inthakoumman won a gold medal on Monday in the Thailand Open 2022 which was held in Pathum Thani province.
Laos, Russia Kickstart Counter-Terror Drills for Laros 2022
Laos and Russia commenced their joint military exercise Laros on Tuesday with participation from the tank and motorized rifle units of the two countries.
Global ESG Monitor Releases 2022 Report & Scorings
The Good, The Bad and The Ugly in ESG Reporting
FRANKFURT, GERMANY – EQS Newswire – 30 November 2022 – In a new report released today, the Global ESG Monitor (GEM) shines a light on the Environmental, Social and Governance reporting of 350 important corporations worldwide. The GEM is the world leader in analyzing the transparency of ESG reporting and publishes a major report annually which analyzes non-financial ESG reporting across Europe, North America, Asia, and Australia.
“2022 has been a year in which the importance of ESG issues has increased dramatically,” said Michael Diegelmann, Co-Founder of the GEM. “Environmental and social crises fill the news daily and corporations need to clearly communicate what they are doing and how they govern their efforts. Progress is being made, but the bottom line is that many large multi-national companies fall short in their ESG reporting which will not go unnoticed by investors and the public.”
In the GEM 2022, 625 ESG reports from 350 companies included in indices from ten major stock markets were analyzed. Comprehensive regional reports will be published subsequently over the coming weeks. Today the GEM global report is being published, covering the four most relevant continental stock market indices from Europe, the USA, Asia, and Australia[1].
Few corporations approached the top of the scoring scale of 100 as defined by the GEM Assay™, the Global ESG Monitor’s proprietary analytical model. The world’s highest score for transparency in non-financial reporting was 90, and the lowest was seven. The GEM Assay™ analyzes the ESG reporting of companies on 184 criteria as disclosed in their published ESG reports. Corporate ESG reports are used in a variety of ways, including as a factor in third-party ESG scores used by investors to guide financial decisions.
When comparing the transparency of ESG reporting across continents, the average corporate score was 66 out of 100 in Europe, followed by 56 for Asia and 53 for both the United States and Australia.
“It is no surprise that the GEM found such a wide difference in reporting transparency in different nations and regions. There is still no uniform, internationally recognized standard in ESG reporting and this poses challenges for companies,” said Ariane Hofstetter, the GEM’s Co-Founder and Head of Research and Data Science. “Even though there is the widespread use of important analysis tools such as materiality assessments, there is still a lot of make believe and lack of validity and liability in the results.”
The research clearly shows that European companies set the pace globally on ESG transparency, as eight of the top ten companies were from Europe and two from Asia. The company with the highest overall score and thus the most transparent company with regards to ESG reporting was the Italian energy company, Enel SpA.
The GEM Top Ten
Rank | Company | Index | GEM ASSAYTM SCORE (of 100) |
1 | Enel SpA | EUROSTOXX | 90 |
2 | Iberdrola SA | EUROSTOXX | 87 |
3 | CRH PLC | EUROSTOXX | 84 |
4 | Vonovia SE | EUROSTOXX | 84 |
5 | Industria de Diseno Textil SA | EUROSTOXX | 81 |
6 | Deutsche Post AG | EUROSTOXX | 80 |
7 | TotalEnergies SE | EUROSTOXX | 78 |
8 | Banco Santander SA | EUROSTOXX | 77 |
9 | Anta Sports Products Ltd | S&P 50 (Asia) | 77 |
10 | Fubon Financial Holding | S&P 50 (Asia) | 77 |
Further Information
The Global ESG Monitor 2022 Transparency Report
Gender Diversity: The world has changed – at least in some regions.
Gender diversity is a key part of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The GEM analyzed disclosures on gender diversity by collecting data on “male, female, other”. Because there was such little information disclosed in the “other” category, the GEM analysis focused on male and female.
Worldwide, the most gender diverse management structures and Boards of Directors were found in the United States, with 90% of companies having gender mixed boards and only 10% having a male-only board. In Europe, boards were found to be 12% male and 88% mixed; boards in Australia were 72% mixed gender with 28% all-male; boards in Asia came in last place with 57% male-only boards and only 43% having women members. Going deeper, it is noticeable that the average ratio of women to men is most balanced in Europe with at least 50% for each gender. It was significantly less balanced in the rest of the world with 33% of board members each in Australia and in the USA being women and only 20% in Asia.
What is the impact of no international ESG reporting standards?
In practice, companies know how to help themselves by consulting many different standards and frameworks. According to the 2022 GEM, 96% of the companies in the global sample refer to frameworks and standards in their reports, with an average of 9.1 frameworks being mentioned. In the EuroSTOXX an average of 12.3 frameworks are referenced. Some companies put too much emphasis on frameworks and publish separate reports specifically tailored to individual standards. For investors and stakeholders, orientation is difficult, and the risk exists that companies will pick and choose from the most favorable specifications.
Over all four indices, the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD), created by the Financial Stability Board (FSB), is the most widely used framework or standard, followed by the UN (United Nations) SDGs and the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI).
Carbon Dioxide (CO2) emissions in the spotlight
The scientific community agrees that CO2 is a major contributor to human-induced climate change and that the focus should be on reducing emissions. Accordingly, the companies analyzed in the GEM addressed emissions, but a limited number of these companies have become carbon neutral. But most companies have set carbon neutrality goals and aim to reach net-zero in the future. The highest rate of companies claiming carbon neutrality are among the S&P 50 in Asia, with the lowest in Europe.
Furthermore, 78% of EuroSTOXX companies are aligned with the Paris Climate Agreement goals to limit global warming to a maximum of 2° Celsius. Other regions are lagging with only 54% of Australian companies aligned with the Paris goals, 31% of Asian listed firms and 29% of the American companies.
ESG Reports leave shadows over supply chains
“We are clean – but we are not responsible for our suppliers,” used to be a common refrain from companies seeking to distance themselves from their suppliers. This has changed because companies, especially large companies, have great influence on their vendors and their supply chain and exercise their authority to achieve improvements. But the GEM shows that companies are still failing to provide adequate information on their supply chains. In Europe, a small majority (52%) of companies at least reveal the geographic location of their suppliers, while only 36% of firms in Australia do, followed by 29% of American listed companies and 24% of Asian S&P 50 listed companies. Disclosure of other supplier information is thin at best, with few companies addressing the types of or total number of suppliers engaged or estimating the total amount of payments made to vendors.
Disclosures on child labor and forced labor raises questions
People living in affluent, western democracies often are not focused on child and forced labor. But in many parts of the world, these conditions are a part of everyday life. Globally connected value chains make it necessary for large corporations to take on responsibility for putting an end to this. However, the GEM paints a more than sobering picture in this regard:
While 72% of the EuroSTOXX companies disclose the risk for incidents of child, forced or compulsory labor in their ESG reporting, only 54% from the USA, 51% from Asia and 36% from Australia do so. And it is getting worse: in Europe, 60% of companies are disclosing strategies for preventing forced and child labor as well as other forms of exploitation. It is less than one third in the US (27%), Asia (27%) and Australia (26%). It is to be hoped that companies will take these issues seriously and that the GEM 2023 will be able to show marked improvement.
Auditing – not yet mandatory or common
Auditing is intended to foster trust and reliability. But only 68% of companies provide some voluntary assurance of their disclosures via an audit. An audit with limited assurance is still the most common (88 of the 353 audited reports indicate the audit depth).
European companies are preparing for increased auditing because the European Commission’s (EC) Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) proposal introduces an EU-wide requirement for limited assurance on sustainability information with the end goal to move to reasonable assurance in the longer term.
The Top 4 Auditors working in ESG are the so-called Big 4. PwC is the largest with ESG mandates in all four GEM analyzed indices (21%), followed by KPMG (15%) and EY (15%), and ending with Deloitte in 4th place (14%). The depth of inspection differs from reasonable (dominant in US and Asia) to limited assurance, which is the dominant procedure in Europe and Asia, and with substantially less companies in Asia mandating an auditor at all.
[1] * The GEM Global Report covers the most relevant stock market indices from Europe (EuroSTOXX), the USA (S&P 50); Asia (S&P 50) and Australia (ASX 50).
The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.
About the Global ESG Monitor
The Global ESG Monitor (GEM) is a unique research initiative to examine transparency in non-financial reporting of the largest companies in the world. The GEM monitors, analyzes and reports on the transparency of non-financial ESG reporting using the GEM ASSAYTM, a proprietary research tool adapted annually in response to evolving conditions and developments.
The operationalization of transparency underlying the GEM ASSAYTM is based on the relevant guidelines of Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), ISO Standard 26000, World Economic Forum (WEF) and Accountability.
The Global ESG Monitor is headquartered in Wiesbaden (Frankfurt), Germany with partner offices in Washington, DC; Melbourne, Australia; Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; Hong Kong, China; Warsaw, Poland and Bucharest, Romania.
Global Premiere of the First-Ever NFT Art Film “SHIP” is an alarming Success in Singapore

Featuring 221 NFT artworks across 14 scenes, SHIP showcases the work of over 80 emerging and established Asian artists. The film features novel cinematographic techniques, such as advanced volumetric photography,to construct virtual spaces from images taken by 2D cameras. During the film production, the film’s director, Mr. Naohiko KISHI, used up to 400 cameras to film each scene to deliver an immersive experience as a vehicle for rich visual storytelling. Viewers were treated to a multi-sensory display of cutting-edge NFT art, spectacular soundtracking, moving stories of humanity, and had an opportunity to purchase the artworks that feature in the film right from their seats.
The Global Premiere Event was well attended by an audience made up of famous investment personalities and art collectors from more than 15 countries. The Mexican Ambassador to Singapore, Mr. Agustin Garcia-Lopez Loaeza, graced the event and gave a thumbs up to the film which blends the genres of art, graphics, performance, music and technology into a coherent experience for the very first time. Professor FU Qiang, Academic Director, Department of Strategy and Policy of the National University of Singapore, who also heads the EMBA Program, calls it his “first close-up encounter with entertainment” that blew his mind!
Hashtag: #ArtTokyoGlobal #ATG
The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.