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Laos Hits New Record Number of Covid-19 Cases and Deaths

Covid-19 Update


Laos has recorded 1,306 new cases of Covid-19 and six new deaths across the country today.

Local Company to Construct Smart City in Vientiane Capital

New Smart City project to be developed in Vientiane Capital
An artist's impression of the new Smart City project in Vientiane Capital.


Lao-owned construction company Douangchaleun Development Construction Group is to construct a Smart City development project in the capital of Laos.

Laos Examines Expressway Route to Vietnam

Vientiane to Vietnam Expressway
An expressway in Vietnam.


The Government of Laos is discussing plans for a new expressway running from Vientiane through Xaysomboun, Xieng Khouang and Houaphan provinces to the Vietnamese border.

Sleek raises $14M in Series A funding led by White Star Capital and Jungle Ventures

SINGAPORE – Media OutReach – 16 November 2021 – Sleek, a leading platform providing incorporation and accounting services for SMEs and entrepreneurs, has announced a $14M in Series A funding led by White Star Capital and Jungle Ventures. This brings the total capital raised by the company to $24M. Sleek will use the fresh funds to bolster tech and product development, hiring, and expand presence in existing markets and enter new ones.

 

Entrepreneurs and SMEs often struggle to separately deal with several siloed functions such as company secretary, bookkeeping, banking, tax, payroll, employment services, insurance, and more.

 

Founded in 2017 by Julien Labruyere and Adrien Barthel in Singapore, Sleek is a back-end operating system for start-ups and SMEs, a simple, single platform to manage all back office operations in a seamless manner, and seek expert advisory from qualified professionals. The platform streamlines, automates and integrates company set-up, financial and regulatory reporting, book-keeping and banking services.

 

The company has also constantly been expanding its bouquet of services. It recently launched ‘Sleek Business Accountthat simplifies opening bank accounts for SMEs. It enables entrepreneurs and small business owners to open a deposit account in just a day through the Sleek app, and start transacting, getting rid of the onerous paperwork requirements before opening an account. Additionally, the account details can be easily viewed on the Sleek dashboard along with the other company metrics to streamline bank reconciliation for accounting and book-keeping purposes. The company is also planning to release products addressing remittances and card issuance.

 

Sleek manages a growing portfolio of over 5,000 companies, who collectively generate about $700M of revenue and processed over 1.4M bookkeeping transactions in 2020. Since inception, Sleek has expanded offices beyond Singapore to Hong Kong, Australia, UK, and the Philippines.

 

Commenting on the announcement, Julien Labruyere, co-founder of Sleek said, “We are very excited to partner with White Star Capital and Jungle Ventures as we are expanding our services and entering two new markets – Australia and the United Kingdom. This will allow us to grow faster and improve our product further in order to become the go-to digital platform for all entrepreneurs.”

 

Adrien Barthel, co-founder of Sleek, added, “With the launch of Sleek Business Account, we have added a major brick in our product vision of building the Operating System for entrepreneurs. Gone are the days where you needed to navigate between your corporate secretary, accountant and banker – often sending documents hardcopies via courier. Now everyone can start a Singapore company and collect the first payments in a day, and from anywhere!”

 

Eric Martineau-Fortin, Founder and Managing Partner at White Star Capital said  “We are extremely pleased to be able to make our second South-East Asian investment out of our newly announced third fund, and believe we can be an excellent partner to Sleek and leverage our global footprint to help address a fundamental problem for all SMEs and supercharge their growth into Europe and Australia.” 

 

David Gowdey, Managing Partner of Jungle Ventures said “Sleek addresses the deeply underserved challenge of back office management for entrepreneurs and SMEs globally. Their growth across geographies, and rapid expansion is testament to the accelerated adoption of the platform and the value it brings to the ecosystem. It’s a fantastic business with a tremendous growth potential, and we are incredibly excited to partner with Adrien and Julien, and support their next stages of growth by leveraging our expertise and global network”

 

Sleek aims to use proceeds from the funding round to catalyse its global growth, particularly in Europe, where it has announced the acquisition of Ltd Companies, a market leader in UK incorporation management that has incorporated more than 450,000 companies since its foundation in 2005. Sleek will add its products and technology stack to the existing Fresh Startups offering to build a holistic SME operating system for UK-based entrepreneurs and businesses. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

About Sleek

Sleek was founded in Singapore in May 2017 by French entrepreneurs Julien Labruyere and Adrien Barthel, who grew frustrated at the pedestrian speed of traditional corporate secretaries and accounting firms and their paperwork. Through its paperless and digital platform led by a team of dedicated professionals, Sleek is a one-stop-shop for registering a business in Singapore or Hong Kong. This includes handling everything from incorporation, government, accounting and taxes, to visas and regulatory compliance. Today, Sleek helps more than 3,000 startups and companies from over 6 different continents and 115 countries onboard in Singapore, Hong Kong, Australia, UK, and the Philippines.

Find out more at www.sleek.com, or follow us on LinkedIn

#Sleek

About White Star Capital

White Star Capital is a global multi-stage technology investment platform that invests in exceptional entrepreneurs building ambitious, international businesses. Operating out of Guernsey, New York, Paris, London, Montreal, Toronto, Singapore, and Hong Kong, our presence, perspective, and people enable us to partner closely with our founders to help them scale internationally from Series A onwards.

Find out more about how we venture beyond at www.whitestarcapital.com or follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter or Facebook.

About Jungle Ventures

Jungle Ventures is a Singapore based venture capital firm focussed on early to growth-stage companies in Southeast Asia and India, with a focus on building long lasting businesses. Jungle partners with the region’s most exciting founders to build high growth, capital-efficient technology businesses, and supports their growth from seed to unicorn, and IPO stage. Our portfolio includes regional and global category leaders like Kredivo, Moglix, Pomelo, Livspace, Builder.ai, Sociolla and more.

Find out more at www.jungle.vc/, or follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter, Youtube, or Instagram.

Engineering Job Opportunities Dip 45%, Most Affected by Q3 2021 Lockdown: Michael Page Vietnam

HO CHI MINH CITY, VIETNAM – Media OutReach – 16 November 2021 – According to job opportunity data shared by global recruitment specialists Michael Page Vietnam, the number of jobs in Q3 2021 compared to Q2 suffered a direct impact from the country’s Q3 pandemic lockdown. New job positions opened were largely on the decrease within Engineering (down 45%) and Human Resources (down 31%).

Mark Donnelly, Director of Michael Page Vietnam


Mark Donnelly, General Director of Michael Page Vietnam observes, “With all the government lockdown regulations, many manufacturing sites had to shut down temporarily in Vietnam. Engineering is a massive part of this sector and because quite a lot of Vietnam’s GDP is in labour- intensive manufacturing, many companies in this sector were not able to function for those three-four months.”

While those manufacturing factories are now coming back into operations with a more optimistic outlook, comparatively it was Vietnam’s Technology job opportunities which saw the least impact. “Remote working escalated and that obviously requires a lot of technology and digital transformation. This is seen across many of Vietnam’s key sectors such as education, property and FMCG,” Mark Donnelly continues.

As confidence returns to Vietnam post pandemic lockdown, this optimistic hiring activity in Technology is expected to hold up across sectors. This will be driven by more companies going through large-scale transformation projects and the incoming investments into startups. Software developers and data analysts will be in high demand here as they form key roles in those organisations.

“Within Vietnam’s technology startup space, there is a lot of competing players entering the market from around the world and Southeast Asia. They offer a variety of ecommerce services such as banking, education, e-wallets or delivery. Apart from the technology skills required to implement these online, Vietnamese professionals at the management level are also in demand to lead and establish those businesses locally. A lot of them are aimed at providing accessibility to the population, so a larger percentage can either gain new connections to such services or these daily essentials can still be provided to the wider public in the event of another lockdown,” comments Mark Donnelly.

 

Source: Information procured from Michael Page Vietnam’s proprietary data

#MichaelPage

RGE Provides 8,155 Food Packages and 427 COVID-19 Vaccinations to Mark its Founders Day

PANGKALAN KERINCI, INDONESIA – Media OutReach – 16 November 2021 – As part of RGE Founders Day 2021 celebrations to commemorate RGE’s 54th anniversary, its companies located in Pangkalan Kerinci, namely Pelalawan Regency, PT Riau Andalan Pulp and Paper (RAPP) and PT Asia Pacific Rayon (APR), raised funds and provided food packages and free COVID-19 vaccinations to the Pelalawan community.

August 1973 marks the establishment of the RGE group of resources-based companies by Mr. Sukanto Tanoto. Today, RGE is headquartered in Singapore, employs more than 60,000 people and spans Indonesia, China, Brazil, Spain and Canada.

In celebration of its Founders Day, RGE extended its cheer to those who may be in need of a helping hand amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. The company supported its employees’ fund raising efforts on a three-to-one basis, matching every dollar collected with three dollars. A total of 8,155 basic food packages, each containing 5 kg of rice, sugar and cooking oil, were distributed at 33 locations across five districts including Pelalawan, Siak, Meranti Islands, Kuantan Singingi and Kampar. An additional 521 packages of prenatal vitamins, 5,239 packages of toddler vitamins, and 206 food packages for tuberculosis patients were distributed at 28 locations. To support the local government’s target of mass immunity, 427 free doses of Sinovac COVID-19 vaccinations were administered to the Pangkalan Kerinci community on 9 November 2021.

Mr. H Zukri Misran, the Regent of Pelalawan expressed his appreciation at Kuala Terusan Village, Pangkalan Kerinci District, Pelalawan Regency. He said: “On behalf of the government, we would like to thank Pelalawan Regency, RAPP and APR, for their food and vaccine donations as well as their economic contributions in Pelalawan.”

Mr. Sukanto Tanoto, the founder and Chairman of RGE strongly believes that whatever the company does must be good for the Community, good for the Country, good for the Climate, good for the Customer – only then will it be good for the Company. He commented: “We concluded the RGE Founders Day 2021 celebrations with global fundraising across 10 regions to support more than 50 organisations and local communities, many of which had been hard hit by the pandemic.”

About RGE

RGE manages a group of resource-based manufacturing companies with global operations. Our work ranges from the upstream, comprising sustainable resource development and harvesting, to downstream, where our companies create diverse value-added products for the global market. Our commitment to sustainable development underpins our operations, as we strive towards what is good for the community, good for the country, good for climate, good for customer, and good for company.

RGE was founded in 1973. The assets held by RGE companies today exceed US$20 billion. With more than 60,000 employees, we have operations in Indonesia, China, Brazil, Spain and Canada and continue to expand to engage newer markets and communities.

www.rgei.com

#RGE

Farmers Encouraged to Replace Tobacco Crops in Laos

Tobacco plantation near Kong Lor Cave in Khammouane Province
Tobacco plantation near Kong Lor Cave in Khammouane Province

Health officials in Laos have asked the government to encourage farmers to grow other crops as alternatives to growing tobacco.

HKMA Men’s Health Week, Men’s Health Matters

HONG KONG SAR – Media OutReach – 15 November 2021 – Men have always been portrayed as “strong providers” by the society. They work hard for themselves and the families which create certain amount of stress.  Busy works also make them unable to enjoy regular meals and to have work-life balance include spending time to exercise.  Such undesirable lifestyle eventually causing the strong men feel sick both physically and mentally but many of them are unaware of the body signals to seek immediate medical advice and therefore missing the golden treatment period.  Take heart disease as an example, it is one of the leading killers of men in Hong Kong.  In 2019 alone, this is the cause of registered death in 3,409 men1. Diabetes, another common chronic disease, is also one of the top ten killers in Hong Kong.  Based on the data in 2019, more than half of the nearly 500 deaths from diabetes were men2. Early symptoms of these diseases are often ignored by patients, indeed earlier detection with appropriate treatment will result in the optimal treatment effect.  To enhance the vigilance of men in Hong Kong and to deal with their own health positively, the Hong Kong Medical Association organizes the “Men’s Health Week” to arouse the concerns of men, their families and the community to men’s physical and mental health.  One cannot keep his nose clean, only the better man and the better woman can maintain a better family!

 

The HKMA Men’s Health Community Network is launching the Men’s Health Week during 15–20 November, and has invited doctors from different specialties to hold online continuing medical education programmes for doctors to participate.  Also, there are round table discussions and public talks scheduled for the participation of the public while the speakers and guests will share relevant health topics with the public, including “Innovation on Men’s Health”, “Substance Abuse in Men”, “Men’s Smoking Quit Guide: Be Happy and Brave” and ” Prime Time to Treat Common STDs”.

 

HKMA points out that the topics covered by the four public round table discussions and public talks of this “Men’s Health Week” are closely related to the health of modern men:

  • Innovation on Men’s Health – Representatives of NGOs, start-ups, Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks and doctors will discuss the impact of the establishment of community health centres and the development of innovative medical technology on the health care model of communities, citizens, and patients.
  • Substance Abuse in Men – Guests will give an overview of the current situation of drug abuse in Hong Kong, and discuss the impact of early intervention in the setting of Accident and Emergency Services and the services provided to drug abusers through the cooperation of doctors and NGOs.
  • Men’s Smoking Quit Guide: Be Happy and Brave – Smoking is extremely harmful to health. Smoking-related male diseases include cancer, cardiovascular diseases, respiratory diseases, reproductive system diseases, and male sexual dysfunction. The psychiatrist will explain how to help men quit smoking.
  • Prime Time to Treat Common STDs – Sexually Transmitted Diseases may have a long or short incubation periods, and the symptoms may not be obvious or even have no symptoms causing them be easily overlooked.  Infectious disease specialist encourages men to seek medical advice as soon as possible if their sexual organs have wounds, blisters, frequent urination, and milky discharge from the urethra so as to reduce the chance of complications.

“Men’s Health Week” provides free events that welcomes the general public to participate.  At the same time, there are 12 sessions of continuing medical education programmes specially designed for local and overseas doctors.  The contents include substance abuse, benign prostatic hyperplasia, male infertility, heart disease and diabetes, infectious diseases and male sexual dysfunction, etc.  It provides opportunities for in-depth medical discussions with local and overseas’ doctors and scholars, and hopes to further uplift the level of the medical profession in Hong Kong.

 

HKMA hopes that “Men’s Health Week” will raise men’s health awareness and call on the whole of Hong Kong to pay attention to men’s health issues, so as to improve the health of the general public.  HKMA also hopes that the government will introduce appropriate policy regarding the issue so that men can maintain their physical and mental health and become truly “strong providers”.

 

The Hong Kong Medical Association held the opening ceremony of “Men’s Health Week” today, November 15. Dr. CHOI Kin, HKMA President, and Dr. The Honorable LAM Ching Choi, SBS, JP, member of the Executive Council, are invited to share men’s health information and suggestions to the media.

 

Photo 1

Dr. CHOI Kin is delivering the opening remark.

 

Photo 2

Dr. The Honorable LAM Ching Choi, SBS, JP, is giving the opening speech.

Photo 3

(Left to Right) Dr. YAM Chun Yin, Abraham (Committee Member of HKMA Men’s Health Community Network), Dr. CHONG King Yee (HKMA Council Member, Committee Member of HKMA Men’s Health Community Network), Dr. YEUNG Hip Wo, Victor (HKMA Honorary Treasurer, Committee Member of HKMA Men’s Health Community Network), Dr. CHOI Kin (HKMA President), Dr. The Honorable LAM Ching Choi, SBS, JP, Dr. MAK Siu King, HKMA Vice-President, Co-Chairman of of HKMA Men’s Health Community Network) and Dr. WONG Tin Yau, Andrew (Committee Member of HKMA Men’s Health Community Network)


For details of the round table discussions and public lectures, please visit https://www.thkma.org/menshealthweek/

Or Facebook page HKMA Men’s Health Week 2021

Event open to public:

(1) Round Table Discussions (Live broadcast)

Date/Time

Subject

Host and Guest

November 20

10:00 – 10:50AM

Innovation on Men’s Health

Guests:

  • Mr. CHOW Yick Hay, BBS, JP
  • (Chairman, Safe Community and Healthy City Association)
  • Dr. Cyrus CHAN (Assistant Director, IncuBio of HKSTP)
  • Dr. MAK Siu King (Vice-President, HKMA, Vice Chairman, Society for Innovative Healthcare Hong Kong)
  • Mr. IP Ka Chun (Director,  DeepHealth)
  • Mr. Chapman LEE (Director, Imsight Technology)

Host:

Mr. Chris CHOW (Director, Society for Innovative Healthcare Hong Kong)

November 20

11:00 – 11:50AM

Substance Abuse in Men

Guests:

  • Dr. LAM Pui Kin, Rex (Clinical Associate Professor, Emergency Medicine Unit, The University of Hong Kong)
  • Dr. CHONG King Yee (Specialist in Psychiatry)
  • Ms. Shirine CHEUNG (Senior Supervisor, Caritas Lok Heep Club)

Host:

Dr. MAK Siu King (Vice-President, HKMA)

Anyone who are interested in participating in the round table discussions can visit this link

(2) Public Talks (Pre-recorded, broadcast from mid-November)

Subject

Speaker

Men’s Smoking Quit Guide: Be Happy and Brave

Dr. CHONG King Yee (Specialist in Psychiatry)

Prime Time to Treat Common STDs

Dr. WONG Tin Yau, Andrew (Specialist in Infectious Disease)

Anyone who are interested in viewing the public talks can visit this link

 

Reference:

1.     Centre for Health Protection – Men’s Health Line – Coronary Heart Disease, Department of Health

https://www.chp.gov.hk/en/static/80035.html

 

2.     Centre for Health Protection – Men’s Health Line – Diabetes Mellitus, Department of Health

https://www.chp.gov.hk/en/static/80037.html

#TheHongKongMedicalAssociation