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Taitung Art Museum Enhanced! The 2022 Nanhui Art Project Exhibition Launches and Is Sure to Amaze!

TAITUNG COUNTY, TAIWAN – Media OutReach – 8 September 2022 – The 2022 Nanhui Art Project: Art Sproutland officially makes its annual debut in August. The event is coming to all of the tribes of Taitung in Taimali, Jinfeng, Dawu and Daren. Eight works of art are making their way to the nooks and crannies sprinkled throughout the South Link Highway. Glimmering Pavillion, one of the pieces of art, created by Taiwanese artist Eric Chen, is a transformation of the old abandoned Daxi Elementary bus shelter using iridescent cellophane. The transformation is a reflection of Taitung’s bright sunshine and adolescent imagination.

Glimmering Pavilion
Location: Taimali Township Daxi Elementary Bus Shelter
Taiwanese Artist: Eric Chen

Taitung County Magistrate April Yao said Taitung is stunning. It’s not necessary to embellish its natural beauty. Taitung’s prowess unfolds before our very eyes when witnessing the unity of our local culture, land and nature. As such, in the makings of Taitung, the form our art takes, does not conform. The entire county—the ocean and mountains that surround us—will be seen as one big art gallery as we again hold the Nanhui Art Project this year.

Event Info:
2022 Nanhui Art Project: Art Sproutland
Where: The four townships of the South Link: Taimali, Jinfeng, Dawu, Daren
Please follow The Nanhui Art Project Socials for the most up-to-date info:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/NanhuiArtProject
IG: https://www.instagram.com/nanhui_art/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjG-AD_pnnna0K5zJICqNhg

Hashtag: #TaitungCountyGovernment

Redress Design Award 2022 winner of Timberland prize announced amid mounting urgency faced by global sustainable fashion practices

Fashion Designers Win Spotlight For Circular Design Solutions

HONG KONG SAR – Media OutReach – 8 September 2022 – Redress, the environmental NGO promoting the reduction of fashion’s waste, announces the winners of their Redress Design Award, the world’s largest sustainable fashion design competition supported by Create Hong Kong (CreateHK) of the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region as the lead sponsor. The First Prize winner will work on a sustainable design project for Timberland. Redress educates designers about sustainable and circular design to transform fashion’s polluting practices. This 12th competition cycle cast a global net and received applications from designers l ocated in 47 countries and regions. The competition culminated in a Grand Final Fashion Presentation to an exclusive in-person VIP event and global livestream on 7 September in Hong Kong.

Redress Design Award 2022 First Prize winner Federico Badini Confalonieri

“This prize is about more than winning a competition,” said the First Prize winner, Federico Badini Confalonieri from Italy, who out-designed eight other finalist designers from Sri Lanka, Hong Kong, India, Spain, Chile and Brazil. “It will give me even more energy and determination to work towards building together a more sustainable fashion industry. I am humbled that the jury selected me among such skilled designers! We sustainable designers may have competed, but the reality is that collaboration creates greater fashion. To partner with one of the world’s most iconic brands, Timberland, is a huge opportunity for me, and I look forward to creating a positive and powerful project together!”

With a focus on the design stage, the competition has been inviting global emerging designers to create by using circular design techniques, including zero-waste, upcycling, and reconstruction. This cycle’s finalists’ looks also drew from various textile waste streams, including industry excess end-of-rolls, cut-and-sew waste, yarn waste, and consumers’ cast-off clothing, turning unwanted materials into eye-catching fashion from casual to couture.

The fashion industry, in its current form, is unsustainable, and reducing waste is critical. Since 2002, global clothing production has more than doubled, the average consumer buys 60% more, and each garment is kept for half as long1. Every second, the equivalent of one garbage truck of textiles is landfilled or burned, and just 1% of clothing is recycled back into clothing, with 73% of clothing going to landfill2. On fashion’s current trajectory, compared to 2017, textile waste is estimated to increase by 60% by 20303 and the fashion industry is projected to use 25% of the world’s carbon budget by 20504.

“The whole fashion industry and academia must take educating designers seriously. It’s thought that 80% of a product’s environmental impact is decided at the design stage5,” said Christina Dean, Founder of Redress. “From our base in Hong Kong, we’ve educated in several different languages thousands of designers globally, whom we consider more as activists than artists. As we look forward, we increasingly look to double up on efforts to access more Asian countries, which are home to the world’s greatest apparel production bases and consumption markets.”

Ms Jersey Yuen, Assistant Head of CreateHK, shared, “I am grateful for Redress’ dedication to creating a unique platform to promote sustainable design theories and techniques among up-and-coming fashion designers around the world through the sustainable fashion design competition.”

GLOBAL REVOLUTION IN SUSTAINABLE DESIGN FROM THE DESIGN BOARD

The 12-year work of the Redress Design Award to reduce fashion’s textile waste crisis by educating designers is further validated by the development of policies in different regions. The European Commission’s recent Strategy for Sustainable and Circular Textiles outlines mandatory circularity standards for the entire lifecycle of products, from design to clothing consumption, and is anticipated to force changes in the industry.

Christophe Degoix, Chief Operating Officer of TAL Apparel Ltd., the world-leading manufacturer that produces around 120 thousand garments daily, is passionate about educating designers. He shared, “Fashion designers have enormous power as they instruct what we manufacturers produce. Governments are taking notice as well. The EU Strategy for Sustainable and Circular Textiles is clear that by 2030, all clothes placed on their market will meet design requirements on durability and recyclability, among other requirements. This will have a substantial impact on industry, its supply chains, and how clothes are made.”

WINNER JOINS TIMBERLAND FOR SUSTAINABLE DESIGN PROJECT

Federico Badini Confalonieri wins the opportunity to work with the Timberland team to collaborate on a special sustainable design project. He will work closely with the Sustainability and Responsibility teams, across the supply chain from responsible design to marketing, at Timberland’s parent company, VF Corporation, one of the world’s largest global leaders in branded lifestyle apparel, footwear, and accessories. The collaboration will culminate in the launch of Timberland’s Lunar New Year 2024 collection.

“Redress consistently brings together emerging talents across the world to challenge our norm and sustainable design thinking,” said Sean Cady, Vice President of Global Sustainability and Responsibility at VF Corporation, who along with The VF Foundation, VF’s philanthropic arm to address economic, environmental, and social challenges, has supported the competition over several cycles as one of the judges. “As we look to embed circularity into the business models of our brands, we must disrupt our current processes, helping to drive creativity and fuel growth. With this goal in mind, we are excited that Federico will join us in bringing fresh innovation to support our upcoming sustainable design projects for our APAC market.”

EDUCATING ON TECHNOLOGY TO REDUCE FASHION WASTE AND TRANSFORM FIBRES

Redress educates designers about circularity through various educational programmes, including the Redress Academy, the multi-language open-source online platform. In the leadup to the Grand Final, the finalists of this cycle also participated in a 10-day educational bootcamp online, which included two challenges that mimic real-life design team’s scenarios.

In the Digital Zero-waste design challenge, hosted by TAL Group and Browzwear, a technology company pioneering 3D solutions for fashion, designers were equipped with 3D digital design skills to turn TAL’s factory fabric waste into digital fashion pieces. Such skills could help dramatically reduce sampling wastage, improve efficiency, and are particularly in demand in the post-pandemic, remote-working world.

The icebreaker® ‘Move to Natural’ challenge, hosted by VF Corporation, tasked the finalists to design a solution for a 100% natural fibre product that aims to reuse textile waste from the icebreaker® supply chain, from sheep to shirt, supporting the brand’s ongoing exemplary efforts to eliminate unnecessary plastic from performance apparel.

ALUMNI COHORT ACCELERATE HYPERLOCAL WASTE SOLUTIONS

Upon completion of each competition cycle, all the finalists and semi-finalists of that cycle will join their predecessors in the Redress Design Award Alumni Network, which offers ongoing career guidance, connections, and opportunities in sustainable fashion. Redress has 240 alumni designers in over 40 countries and regions who continue designing into sometimes complex local waste streams in their creative bids to commercialise and mainstream hyperlocal, mini circular fashion systems to benefit their own local communities.

REACHING CONSUMERS WITH SUSTAINABLE FASHION SHOWCASES

Up next, the 2022 finalists’ and selected alumni brands’ collections will be displayed at Hong Kong’s ArtisTree in Taikoo Place with free admission from 9 to 16 September (11am–7pm daily). At the showcase, a key interactive and consumer-focused tech feature will allow guests to virtually try on the displayed outfits using augmented reality (AR) filters on Snapchat, further educating public consumers on advances in virtual fashion.

In addition, the works of six alumni brands using a wide range of sustainable design techniques, three of which are from Hong Kong, will be showcased at CENTRESTAGE Asia’s Fashion Spotlight in the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre from 9 to 11 September. CENTRESTAGE is open to the trade and public for free admission with registration.

High-resolution images available for download here and full media kit here.

Editor’s Notes

REDRESS DESIGN AWARD 2022 ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: www.redressdesignaward.com.

The competitors: The Redress Design Award 2022 was open to applications from emerging designers and students with less than four years’ professional experience from around the world. All finalists are here.
The winners are:
● Redress Design Award 2022 First Prize winner: Federico Badini Confalonieri, Italy
● Redress Design Award 2022 Runner-Up Prize winner: Ashutosh Panda, India
● Redress Design Award 2022 Hong Kong Best Prize Winner: Patrick Lam, Hong Kong
● Redress Design Award 2022 People’s Choice winner: Cris Miranda, Chile
The judges are: Desiree Au, Founding Publisher, Vogue Hong Kong; Sean Cady, Vice President, Global Sustainability and Responsibility, VF Corporation; Orsola de Castro, Author and Co-founder, Fashion Revolution; Christophe Degoix, Chief Operating Officer, TAL Apparel; Edwin Keh, Chief Executive Officer, The Hong Kong Research Institute of Textiles and Apparel (HKRITA); Puneet Khosla, Vice President and Managing Director, Timberland APAC – VF Corporation; and Angus Tsui, Creative Director, ANGUS TSUI and Alumnus, Redress Design Award.
The Redress Design Award 2022 partners and sponsors include Create Hong Kong of the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region as the lead sponsor; VF Corporation, The VF Foundation, TAL Apparel, UPS, and Lenzing.
Education: the Redress Academy is here and further supporting statistics are here.

RECENT ALUMNI HIGHLIGHTS

● The Redress Design Award 2021 First Prize winner, Jessica Chang, collaborated with VF’s Timberland for their upcoming Lunar New Year 2023 collection ‘Year of the Rabbit’.
● In a collaboration with Lenzing, Hong Kong alumni Eric Wong’s and Louise Lau’s latest collections combine Tencel™ fibres made into fabric with REFIBRA™ technology.
● Five alumni recently collaborated on the ‘REVIVAL’ collection, with The R Collective, the business inspired by Redress that rescues, reuses, and recycles luxury textile waste.
● Alumnus Kévin Germanier debuted at Paris Fashion Week in March 2022 and will also show again in October 2022. He continues to dress celebrities, including Chelsea Lazkani and La Grande Dame.

Hashtag: #RedressDesignAward

About Redress (www.redress.com.hk)

Redress is a pioneering environmental charity with a mission to educate and empower the fashion industry and consumers to reduce clothing’s negative environmental impact by shifting to circular solutions. Its dynamic programmes work to minimise the negative impacts of fashion, whilst promoting innovative new models and driving growth towards a more sustainable industry via the circular economy. Working directly with a wide range of stakeholders, including designers, manufacturers, brands, educational bodies, government and consumers, Redress aims to create lasting environmental change in fashion.

The Redress Design Award () is the world’s largest annual sustainable fashion design competition. Each cycle, participants from all over the world are empowered through a months-long educational journey to create fashion with minimal waste. We educate designers about fashion’s negative environmental impacts, whilst inspiring them to use the core sustainable design techniques of zero-waste, upcycling, and reconstruction. Through our university talks, sustainable fashion workshops, the online Redress Academy, and in partnership with more than 150 universities around the world, we provide emerging designers with the theory and techniques to help them understand the new circular economy and capitalise on its global potential for the fashion industry.

About Create Hong Kong (www.createhk.gov.hk)

Create Hong Kong (CreateHK) is a dedicated office set up by the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region in June 2009 to spearhead the development of creative industries in Hong Kong. From 1 July 2022 onwards, it is under the Culture, Sports and Tourism Bureau. Its strategic foci are nurturing talent and facilitating start-ups, exploring markets, and promoting Hong Kong as Asia’s creative capital and fostering a creative atmosphere in the community. CreateHK has been sponsoring the Redress Design Award (formerly the EcoChic Design Award) since 2011 to promote Hong Kong’s fashion design.

*Disclaimer: The Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region provides funding support to the project only, and does not otherwise take part in the project. Any opinions, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in these materials/events (or by members of the project team) are those of the project organisers only and do not reflect the views of the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, the Culture, Sports and Tourism Bureau, Create Hong Kong, the CreateSmart Initiative Secretariat or the CreateSmart Initiative Vetting Committee.

Police Seize 1,600 Kg of Cannabis in Bolikhamxay

The four cannabis smugglers were apprehended in Bolikhamxay.

Police arrested four cannabis dealers in Thaphabat district for possessing more than 1,600 kilograms of cannabis.

PetaRush Demo Version Gameplay Announced. Reveal the Blind Box for Free and Run in the Game as NFT Animal Characters

TAIPEI, TAIWAN – Media OutReach – 8 September 2022 – Asia’s first multi-IPs blockchain game, “PetaRush,” is now available for the seven-day worldwide demo version gameplay. Being a Web3 beginner-friendly game, even if the players do not have a crypto wallet, do not understand Blockchain Technology, or have never bought an NFT before, players can still log into the game for free and experience the joy of unlocking the blind box in the game and draw NFT characters. During the demo version gameplay period, players can also earn various rewards, including whitelists, token airdrops, and NFT game characters through daily logins, community activities, and ranked competitions. The official PetaRush gaming NFT, Peta, will be available on Binance’s Galler marketplace on September 20th at 0.2 BNB and will be limited to 1,000 units.

(PetaRush gaming scenario / source: PetaRush)

PetaRush is a racing game featuring NFT characters. The characters of the racers, such as lions, cats, pigeons, and foxes, are presented in a cyberpunk style. In addition, PetaRush collaborates with other NFT projects and integrates them into the game to participate in the race. The style of the racing track is the science fiction scene of Mars. The dunes, lacus, volcanoes, and other landscapes on the planet are exquisitely represented on the track. During the demo version gameplay, players can participate in the Web3 game world in just four steps:

(PetaRush gaming scenario / source: PetaRush)

Step 1: Unlock the blind box for Free

No NFTs are required to play the game during the demo version gameplay period. Players can simply download the demo version gameplay via APK or TestFlight, then can log into the game directly and unlock the blind box to get their own animal character to race in games.

Step 2: PVE & PVP

When the players enter the game lobby, they can see and interact with various Peta NFTs. PetaRush has two gaming modes, PVE, and PVP. In PVE mode, players can claim Marscoins, and materials to cultivate Petas. The cultivated Peta NFT can get higher stats in the game and increase the win rate. In addition, players can bring the cultivated Peta NFTs to the METASENS NFT Marketplace to trade and resell them directly to other players. This makes the NFTs can be played for in-game earning, and traded out of the game. During the demo version gameplay period, only the PVP mode is available to the public. Players can play with others as long as two people get matched successfully and start to race.

Step 3: Racing

The core gameplay of PetaRush is simple and easy. Before players’ Petas start a race, they will need to pull a handle of a slot for filling the energy bar. The energy bar consists of four colors, different color combinations bring different skills. The player just has to press one skill button to increase Peta’s running speed, reduce Peta’s physical consumption, or trigger Peta’s attack skills that can temporarily put the opponent in a state of turtle speed.

Every time the player runs a third of the distance, the old energy bar will be emptied and receives a new energy charge instead. In this way, even a player who had a bad start has two more chances to turn the tide. Players can relax in bed and play PetaRush, but if they truly want to win the championship, it still requires a good strategy.

Step 4: Claim Rewards

During the demo version gameplay period, PetaRush Team members have also prepared generous rewards for players. Players can claim rewards such as NFT blind boxes, whitelist qualifications, and PT qualifier tickets if they are in the top 100 of the ranking. In addition, various community activities will be held on PetaRush’s Discord channel. As long as you complete some simple tasks, you have a chance to be airdropped tokens or NFT rewards.

PetaRush provides the players with this demo version to get a trial first. If the player likes it and would like to invest his time in this game, then spends money to buy Peta NFT and become an advanced player. “Keep the risk lowest for both sides,” says Louis, the Chief Creative Officer of PetaRush. “Community is about gathering like-minded people. PetaRush is a fun game and has a healthy economic model. We are confident we will earn recognition from players.”

PetaRush NFTs will be minted on Binance’s Galler NFT platform on September 20th at 0.2 BNB for seven days. Players who own NFTs can use them to log into the game and directly participate in the next closed beta period at the end of September. Players who want to get whitelisted can participate in community activities on PetaRush’s Discord.

PetaRush Demo Version Gameplay Date 9/8 to 9/15

Android download: https://lihi1.com/2XAZe
iOS download: https://lihi1.com/U3a84
PetaRush NFT: https://www.metasens.com/activity/peta
PetaRush Discord: https://discord.com/invite/petarush

Hashtag: #PetaRush #METASENS

About METASENS

METASENS is a Web3 gaming platform funded by Hong Kong-listed Imperial Technology Group. It owns a Web3 gaming platform, an NFT marketplace, and a variety of blockchain games, with the governance token MSU along with the game token to build a sustainable token-economic ecosystem. METASENS team also provides technical support and guidance for blockchain game development and promotion. METASENS aims to provide an open GameFi platform and build a Universal Amusement Park for players worldwide.

METASENS Website:

OPPO Collaborates with Artist Julian Stanczak to Provide Aquamorphic Wallpaper in ColorOS 13

SHENZHEN, CHINA – Media OutReach – 8 September 2022 – Following the release of ColorOS 13, OPPO today unveils a new Aquamorphic Wallpaper[i] in collaboration with the estate of Op Art artist Julian Stanczak (1928-2017) with Stanczak’s work Blue Diffusion # 2 on OPPO Theme Store Art+ Channel. The wallpaper features the iconic blue tones of the ColorOS Aquamorphic Design combined with Julian Stanczak’s mastery of color, giving users visual enjoyment and a unique aesthetic experience.

As one of the founders of the international Op Art movement and a master of color, Julian Stanczak made paintings that prompt a visual, psychological, and emotional response in the viewer. In this collaboration, the Aquamorphic Wallpaper operates seamlessly with the Aquamorphic concept in ColorOS 13. Stanczak’s reverence for color comes from a desire to translate the drama and power of nature into a universal impression, which highly echoes the intention behind the Aquamorphic Design. Inspired by water (the natural and organic element of nature), the Aquamorphic Design is to provide a fluid, vibrant and inclusive user experience by vitalizing users when using the phone. The energy of the different wavelengths of light shown in the Aquamorphic Wallpaper is intuitive and abstract, yet private in everyone’s experience and use, providing an artistic and natural experience for ColorOS 13 users.

Available on OPPO Theme Store Art+ Channel

Available on OPPO Theme Store Art+ Channel

” Building dialogue through product and time is what makes a design good. It should be able to respond to people’s psychological needs in the moment”, as Xi Zeng, OPPO’s Director of Software Design said. “The wallpaper collaboration of Julian Stanczak and OPPO incorporates nature, art, and technology to create a digital experience that encourages self-reflection, inspiration, and vitality.”

In addition to the Aquamorphic Wallpaper, ColorOS 13 offers other wallpaper options, such as Blossom Wallpaper, providing a visually aesthetic experience while focusing on users’ digital well-being. The new operating system just released on 18th August also includes other smart features such as Multi-Screen Connect, a range of updates on Always-On Display, Meeting Assistant, and a brand-new Aquamorphic Design to better serve 500 million global users.


[i] This will be available in the OPPO Theme Store Art+ Channel for selected regions/countries including: India, Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia.

Hashtag: #OPPO

About OPPO

OPPO is a leading global smart device brand. Since the launch of its first mobile phone – “Smiley Face” – in 2008, OPPO has been in relentless pursuit of the perfect synergy of aesthetic satisfaction and innovative technology. Today, OPPO provides a wide range of smart devices spearheaded by the Find X and Reno series. Beyond devices, OPPO also provides its users with ColorOS operating system and internet services such as OPPO Cloud and OPPO+. OPPO has footprints in more than 60 countries and regions, with more than 40,000 employees dedicated to creating a better life for customers around the world.

About ColorOS

ColorOS is a highly customized, efficient, intelligent, and richly designed Android-based mobile OS from OPPO. With over 500 million global monthly active users, ColorOS supports 67 languages, including English, Hindi, Thai, and Indonesian.

Biodiversity Project Extended in Nongkhamsean Wetland

Noungkamsean Wetland in Hadxayfong District.

Agro-Forestry Development Consultant (AFDC) in Vientiane Capital has extended a project in the Nongkhamsean Wetland to protect biodiversity, sustain ecology, and increase ecotourism.

The first AXA Medical Centre officially unveils

Partnering with EC Healthcare to offer one-stop health management services
AXA fulfills its Payer-to Partner strategy to become customers’ lifelong partner

HONG KONG SAR – Media OutReach – 8 September 2022 – AXA and EC Healthcare today (8 September) held the “AXA Medical Centre Unveiling and AXA Hong Kong and EC Healthcare MOU Signing Ceremony”, pledging to work together to provide professional, quality, and hassle-free one-stop health management services to AXA customers in the future. Under the partnership, the first AXA Medical Centre was unveiled today at the World Trade Centre in Causeway Bay. Together with the AXA designated Endoscopy and Day Surgery Centre in Central, it will officially start operating in November this year.

AXA and EC Healthcare signed Memorandum of understanding today to kick start their long term collaboration. (From left: Emily Li, Chief Employee Benefits & Wellness Officer, AXA Hong Kong and Macau, Sally Wan, Chief Executive Officer of AXA Greater China, Eddy Tang, Founder, Chairman, Executive Director and CEO of EC Healthcare, and Leslie Lu, Executive Director and Co-CEO of EC Healthcare

Sally Wan, Chief Executive Officer of AXA Greater China, said, “AXA Medical Centre marks a major milestone for us in delivering exceptional health management services to our customers, providing our customers with all-round care across their life stages. The centre, offering comprehensive one-stop health management services spanning prevention, diagnosis, and treatment, not only enhanced AXA’s health management ecosystem but also brought to life our ongoing commitment to become a lifelong partner to our customers. AXA and EC Healthcare share the same vision of improving our customers’ holistic wellness. Through this partnership, we can bring an exclusive, innovative, and personalised healthcare experience beyond insurance to our customers leveraging our combined strength.”

Leslie Lu, Executive Director and Co-CEO of EC Healthcare, said, “We are honoured to partner with AXA, a leading global insurer. With the belief that prevention is better than cure, our Group is committed to preventive and precision medicine. We hope to provide customers with accessible and affordable quality healthcare services. EC Healthcare and AXA will work together to bring health, beauty, and happiness to everyone by providing safe, effective, and customer-first one-stop health management services at the AXA Medical Centre.”

One-stop exclusive health management services with seasoned healthcare professionals for AXA customers

The first AXA Medical Centre, jointly set up by AXA and EC Healthcare, is located at the World Trade Centre in Causeway Bay. The 5,000-plus-square-feet centre offers services such as preventive medicine, body checks, vaccinations, and nutritional counselling with support from on-site medical professionals including radiographers, general practitioners, Chinese medicine practitioners as well as dieticians. AXA Medical Centre provides various body check services such as chest and abdominal X-rays, ultrasound scans, gynaecological examination, electrocardiogram (ECG), and exercise ECG with over 10 body examination rooms. Other services include allergy tests, non-invasive genetic screening tests for colorectal cancer, and all pre-insurance health screening for AXA customers.

AXA Medical Centre aims to provide one-stop hassle-free comprehensive health management services to our customers. Should AXA customers’ check-ups reveal that further medical examinations or treatments be required, they will be referred on spot to specialists to save waiting time.

AXA and EC Healthcare will further deepen our collaboration going forward. We hope to set up additional medical centres and expand service scope in other core business districts or residential areas in the future.

Hashtag: #AXA

About AXA Hong Kong and Macau

AXA Hong Kong and Macau is a member of the AXA Group, a leading global insurer with presence in 50 markets and serving 95 million customers worldwide. Our purpose is to act for human progress by protecting what matters.

As one of the most diversified insurers offering integrated solutions across Life, Health and General Insurance, our goal is to be the insurance and holistic wellness partner to the individuals, businesses and community we serve.

At the core of our service commitment is continuous product innovation and customer experience enrichment, which is achieved through actively listening to our customers and leveraging technology and digital transformation.

We embrace our responsibility to be a force for good to create shared value for our community. We are proud to be the first insurer in Hong Kong and Macau to address the importance of mental health through different products and services such as offering free mindfulness practice resources through Mind Charger which is fully accessible to our customers and the public via our holistic wellness platform AXA BetterMe.

AXA also takes part in a wide range of ESG initiatives and programmes both globally and locally. AXA Group established AXA Climate School and Net-Zero Insurance Alliance in 2021 and set out various global green targets such as reaching €26 billion in green investments by 2023 and achieving carbon neutrality by 2025. In Hong Kong, AXA pledges to reduce paper usage via digitisation and is the first insurer to join the ‘Green Monday ESG Coalition’. As of Feb 2022, AXA Hong Kong’s green investments have exceeded HKD4 billion. We strive to contribute to a sustainable future as an investor, insurer and an exemplary company.

About EC Healthcare
EC Healthcare is Hong Kong’s largest non-hospital medical service provider focusing on preventive and precision medicine while leveraging investment in IT, brand, service and corporate culture to build an enclosed healthcare ecosystem with the mission to bring health, beauty and happiness to everyone.
The Group currently provides one-stop medical services across 29 specialities, with a team of 230 full-time registered doctors and over 1,400 network doctors, serving over 10 million customers. With an extensive service network all over Hong Kong, the Group strives to offer customers safe and effective healthcare and medical services with professionalism.

THIS PRESS RELEASE IS AVAILABLE ON AXA’S WEBSITE:

IMPORTANT LEGAL INFORMATION AND CAUTIONARY STATEMENTS CONCERNING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

Certain statements contained herein may be forward-looking statements including, but not limited to, statements that are predictions of or indicate future events, trends, plans or objectives. Undue reliance should not be placed on such statements because, by their nature, they are subject to known and unknown risks and uncertainties and can be affected by other factors that could cause AXA’s actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied in the forward-looking statements. Please refer to Part 4 – “Risk factors and risk management” of AXA’s Universal Registration Document for the year ended December 31, 2019, for a description of certain important factors, risks and uncertainties that may affect AXA’s business, and/or results of operations. AXA undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any of these forward-looking statements, whether to reflect new information, future events or circumstances or otherwise, except as part of applicable regulatory or legal obligations.

Lazada and YesWeHack Strengthen Long-term Partnership by jointly hosting a live Bug Bounty event at HITBSecCONF2022 Singapore

Since launching their first private bug bounty program in 2020, the initiative has expanded into a two-day live hacking event focused on protecting Lazada’s consumer data

SINGAPORE – Media OutReach – 8 September 2022 – Southeast Asia’s leading eCommerce platform Lazada has concluded its latest live bug bounty with YesWeHack, a leading global Bug Bounty and Vulnerability Disclosure Policy (VDP) Platform. The two-day live bug bounty program, which was held at the Hack In The Box Security Conference (HITBSecCONF 2022), resulted in 115 vulnerability reports being submitted by the several dozen researchers present at the event, including some of the best security researchers in the world.

After running a successful two-year Bug Bounty program with YesWeHack, Lazada scaled the program to the next level this year during the HITBSecCONF 2022. The event allowed Lazada to test their applications over the given period of time, while being able to meet with researchers to exchange on the discoveries—thus giving Lazada deep and exclusive insights to the vulnerabilities found.

Lazada wanted to use this live event as an opportunity to achieve in-depth security. To enable this, the company voluntarily disabled a number of security mechanisms for participating researchers and only for the period of the event, allowing them to extensively test the systems and applications. For instance, researchers were able to bypass Web Application Firewalls (WAF) throughout the length of the event—allowing them to hack into the eCommerce platform’s sites and services directly. Lazada had chosen to disable WAFs for the hunters, due to the fact that while they are able to block most of the attack, they are not infallible. In addition to WAFs, Lazada also disabled other security solutions that are typically used as a first line of defense, so as to offer hackers the chance to test their application in greater depth.

“Accomplishing a live program on this scale demonstrates Lazada’s commitment to security and progressive stance towards bug bounties. By engaging with the broader community, the eCommerce giant is placing an unprecedented level of trust in ethical hackers to better strengthen their security, transparency, as well as data privacy and protection. We are delighted to be able to contribute to yet another successful collaboration with Lazada,” said Kevin Gallerin, CEO APAC, YesWeHack.

“Securing customer’s data and protecting it from any future incidences is of highest importance at Lazada. Having some of the best security researchers in the world in the same room as us is an exceptional opportunity to learn and exchange—especially for our red team, who mounts deliberate attacks on our systems daily to identify and fix vulnerabilities,” said Bruno Demarche, who leads the Red Team & Security Testing Team at Lazada Group.

“The live bug bounty program was a rewarding experience for Lazada and YesWeHack alike. The teams have been able to uncover quality results, which has already given us ideas on how we can improve our internal testing processes for our application and services to ultimately better safeguard Lazada’s customers and partners,” said Yuezhong Bao, Head of Cybersecurity, Lazada Group.

Lazada’s partnership with YesWeHack began in January 2020 with a successful 18-month private bug bounty program. The partners then continued to expand the scopes of their collaboration, and Lazada opened its program to the public in 2021, with rewards of up to US$10,000 per bounty. Since then, the company has been working with over 45,000 ethical hackers to detect flaws within their application and systems to achieve maximum security and protection over their platforms.

The collaboration with Lazada has also allowed YesWeHack to further advance its community of cybersecurity experts and position the company as the leading player of bug bounties in Asia Pacific. Since 2019, YesWeHack has served more than 60 clients from its Asia Pacific headquarters in Singapore, including large BFSIs, tech unicorns and government bodies. With a growing market demand being seen for the crowdsourced security model, 40 percent of YesWeHack’s security researchers are based out of Asia, with 30 percent of its clientele coming from Australia, China, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore.

Hashtag: #YesWeHack

About Lazada

Lazada Group is Southeast Asia’s pioneer eCommerce platform. For the last 10 years, Lazada has been accelerating progress in Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam through commerce and technology. Today, a thriving local ecosystem links about 160 million active users to more than one million actively-selling sellers every month, who are transacting safely and securely via trusted payments channels and Lazada Wallet, receiving parcels through a homegrown logistics network that has become the largest in the region.

With a vision to achieve USD100 billion annual GMV, Lazada aims to serve 300 million shoppers by 2030, and be the best at enabling brands and sellers in digitalizing their businesses.

In 2022, the Lazada Foundation was set up to empower youths and women for the digital future, close the gender digital divide and uplifting communities by creating positive impact. More information can be found here .

About YesWeHack

Founded in 2015, YesWeHack is a global Bug Bounty and VDP Platform. YesWeHack offers companies an innovative approach to cybersecurity with Bug Bounty (pay-per-vulnerability discovered), connecting more than 40,000 cybersecurity experts (ethical hackers) across 170 countries with organisations to secure their exposed scopes and reporting vulnerabilities in their websites, mobile apps, infrastructure and connected devices.

YesWeHack runs private (invitation based only) programs and public programs for hundreds of organisations worldwide in compliance with the strictest European regulations.

In addition to the Bug Bounty platform, YesWeHack also offers: a creation and management solution for Vulnerability Disclosure Policy (VDP), a Pentest Management Platform, a learning platform for ethical hackers called Dojo and a training platform for educational institutions, YesWeHackEDU.