Cabinet ministers and National Assembly members held a special meeting yesterday to discuss the country’s growing economic problems.
Laos Cabinet and National Assembly Meet to Discuss Economic Woes

Ordinary Folk raised $5M Pre-Series A to bring access to personalized, quality telehealth experience to men and women’s health in a $10B market across Asia
Strengthen its development in Hong Kong by focusing on expanding its product, growth and design team in the market
- Ordinary Folk, a digital health experience that engages and connects patient care across its service lines, secures $5M Pre-Series A by Monk’s Hill Ventures.
- The funding will be used to accelerate hiring talent to build a differentiated CX in healthcare using tech, expand in new markets (Hong Kong & other Asian cities), while continuing to scale in Singapore.
- Its full-stack telehealth platform integrates its two consumer platforms (Noah and Zoey), distributed compliant medical network, electronic medical record (EMR), digital prescriptions, cloud pharmacy, and last-mile fulfillment.
HONG KONG SAR – Media OutReach – 21 April 2022 – Ordinary Folk, a digital health technology startup that makes telehealth services easily accessible to patients across Asia, based in Singapore, today announced its Pre-Series A funding of USD 5 million.
“Our mission is to use technology to simplify the patient experience. 60% of total health expenditure in Southeast Asia is out-of-pocket making treatments for many prevalent health conditions very expensive. We realized the need for a frictionless experience from discovery to delivery. Which is why it was essential for our digital health platforms to create access to doctors and medical solutions for sexual health, hair care, fertility, mental health and overall wellbeing together. We’re committed to strengthening our existing engineering, product and design teams as well as bringing on board the right people to pilot our expansion into key markets including Hong Kong, while continuing to scale in Singapore,” said Sean Low, founder of Ordinary Folk.
The funding will be used to accelerate hiring talent to build a differentiated CX in healthcare using tech, expand in new markets (Hong Kong & other Asian cities), while continuing to scale in Singapore. The company plans to grow its team and hire top engineering talents in Vietnam, product, growth and design across the Singapore and Hong Kong markets.
Ordinary Folk also plans to continue to expand its B2B partnerships with companies to provide Noah and Zoey services to its employees.
“Millions of people across Asia find it difficult to access proper treatment and care for health conditions that have tremendous taboo attached. Through Noah and Zoey, Ordinary Folk is uniquely positioned to bring in value through the consumer journey of healthcare services, creating an ecosystem where patients have access to medical experts and products, and a wide range of treatment options. Sean and his team have strong digital and branding DNA to grow the business to new heights, and we are happy to be partnering with them,” said Peng T. Ong, Co-founder and Managing Partner, Monk’s Hill Ventures.
As a full-stack telehealth platform, Ordinary Folk integrates two platforms:
- Noah: Launched in 2020, Noah is a men’s telehealth platform that integrates different areas of care including sexual health, mental wellness, hair care, weight management, creating the right tools for a better, more seamless patient experience.
- Zoey: Less than a year later, Zoey was also launched as a telehealth platform where women can access sexual wellness, fertlility, mental health and wellbeing medical solutions in a judgement-free space.
The aim is to help people across Asia lead healthier lives, removing high costs and accessibility as barriers to quality healthcare.
Since its launch in 2020, Ordinary Folk has seen revenue growth up by over 130% and attracted over a million unique visitors. Its platforms, Noah and Zoey, help users with cutting down on scheduling appointments, long waits at clinics, encountering tough questions in-person, and instead create a patient-doctor-treatment process that can be accessed from the privacy and comfort of one’s home.
In addition, Ordinary Folk is also committed to expanding their growth, design and marketing teams. Its team currently comes from some of the most creative names in the region – Grab, Ogilvy, DDB, BBH, TBWA.
Tuan Pham, formerly at Grab, who leads the tech team from Vietnam, said, “Coding is not just about building digital products. It’s about engineering change, and for us, on how we can improve the patient-doctor experience to make an impact on the lives of people across Asia.”
About Ordinary Folk
At Ordinary Folk, we’re reimagining the building blocks of healthcare in Asia. Bringing access to quality healthcare, people engage with medical experts and receive treatment online and at home. The company has inclusive, judgement-free telehealth platforms, Noah and Zoey, for men’s and women’s healthcare, which provide service and support for conditions across sexual wellness, hair care, fertility, mental health and overall wellbeing.
#OrdinaryFolk #ofnoahhk
About Monk’s Hill Ventures
Founded in 2014 by entrepreneurs Peng T. Ong and Kuo-Yi Lim, Monk’s Hill Ventures (‘MHV’) is a venture capital firm investing in early-stage technology startups, primarily in Series A, in Southeast Asia. Backed by institutional investors and family offices worldwide, MHV works with exceptional entrepreneurs who use technology to improve the lives of millions of people in the region. Find out more at www.monkshill.com.
World’s Longest Glass Bridge Near Completion in Vietnam
On 30 April, Vietnam’s national holiday of Reunification Day, a glass bridge spanning more than 630 meters will open to tourists.
Telos’ Decentralization Rivals that of Bitcoin and Ethereum
Telos shows that decentralization is measured in more than just node count

After a thorough competitive analysis comparing Telos’ decentralization to the decentralization of many of the other top Layer 1 chains, the Foundation has confirmed its assumptions. Based on validator equality and crucial factors regarding architecture and finances, the team confirmed that Telos is indeed one of the leading chains regarding credible neutrality and decentralization.
As mining pools lack equality, massive node counts become irrelevant: As depicted in the pie charts above, Telos, via its governance, has maintained an equitable distribution amongst all its active validators and Bitcoin and Ethereum have not. Instead, the mining pools of both Bitcoin and Ethereum have now become centralized. The hypothesis is that over the years the well-funded pools have overtaken the little ones. Despite the substantial number of nodes, to be a credibly neutral peer-to-peer network, the network must also sustain even splits in validator power / responsibilities. Without this equality, the insulating strengths of decentralized peer-to-peer networking becomes significantly degraded. A decentralized network made up of equitable validators adds a powerful layer of insulation against multiple scenarios. For example, a multi-government coalition could potentially implement disruptive regulations or restrictions on blockchain. If only a handful of validators / mining pools need to be targeted, it becomes much easier for those governments to impose their will and degrade the insulation that a peer-to-peer network is supposed to provide. In fact, an event far smaller than this could instantly interrupt some chains from operating as they intended. However, the problem is not just limited to government interference. It is also the potential of a coalition amongst the validator majority that threatens the decentralization and stability of a chain. Despite having many nodes, it appears that for Bitcoin it would take only ~5 large mining pools to form a majority, only ~4 for Ethereum and 22 for Telos (as depicted in the pie charts above). Aside from this significant (4x to 5x) difference, it is also worth noting that the community fairly votes the Telos validators into active slots vs Bitcoin / Ethereum in which the mining pool’s principles are anonymous and can simply buy their way into a majority position. Hence, the centralization and lack of credible neutrality that has now formed. Credible neutrality cannot exist in an environment in which control and influence is exerted by small groups of well-funded people. This move towards validator centralization also leads to neutrality questions that are impossible to answer. For example, are the validator majorities’ ambitions in line with what is best for the chain or themselves? To put the potential gravity of this into perspective one needs to understand that the principal/s of a majority sized mining pool can easily be a crime syndicate, and no one would know about it due to the anonymity. In fact, all the major mining pools can hypothetically be owned by crime syndicates, and no one would ever know. In contrast to this, with chain-governed validator equality and ongoing fair community voting, these credibility and neutrality questions are simply non-existing issues. In fact, all these chain degrading scenarios are exactly what the Telos architecture and governance have insulated against. As a chain’s validator network becomes unequal in size; the more it will move towards centralization, the more its neutrality will become biased and the more these chain breakdown scenarios may become a reality.
Insider allocation cost blockchain’s their credible neutrality: Being that Telos was a 100% bootstrap project (95% of the coins airdropped to the community, 5% were used as equal pay to the almost 150 contributors, no insider handouts, and no ICO), the team already knew that its insider allocation was at the same level as Bitcoin’s beginnings, zero. Telos is the only L1 chain besides Bitcoin to have ever reached this stage of maturity while still maintaining zero insider allocation. All the other L1 chains are believed to be centralized and unable to become credibly neutral public infrastructure due to their insider allocation (click here to see). With this being noted, these chains will most likely never be utilized by governments as a legal tender and dApps depending on this infrastructure will never be 100% insulated by the full power of credible neutrality and decentralization.
Telos Decentralization: Since its inception, the validators of the Telos Blockchain are both equally sized and regionally / globally diversified. Plus, no ungoverned wallet is known to hold more than 2% of the chain. From chain architecture to finances, decentralization and neutrality are of the highest priority for the chain. Over the last 4 years, Telos has grown into a truly utopian blockchain option for both private and public infrastructure. It is ludicrously fast, very inexpensive, extremely energy efficient, credibly neutral, non-congested, super easy to deploy on and the only chain that fully insulates the public from the front running / MEV that is plaguing Ethereum.
Decentralization Highlights:
- Telos is the only third generation layer 1 blockchain to have never done an ICO [initial coin offering] and this non-action alone insulates the chain greatly regarding insider collusion and the SEC security law suits. Telos, at its inception, electively chose to stay a bootstrap project and rise in the same fashion as Bitcoin. All other third generation layer 1 chains (including Ethereum) have done ICOs and will more than likely be forced to file with the SEC as securities. The former and current SEC Chairman have both expressed that every ICO [initial coin offering] they have seen are indeed securities, that they have jurisdiction, and that federal securities laws apply.
- The validating architecture of other networks might be structured via peer-to-peer architecture, but they are not credibly decentralized due to the distribution of monetary / voting / validating power. Again, insider allocation is non-existent and as you can see above in the pie charts depicting validator decentralization, Telos Validators are proportionally equal.
- Telos governance has the fairest voting system in existence, called Telos Decide. It is tamper-proof and secured by the Tlos coins that investors own. A coin holder can vote on behalf of the coins they hold and rely on outcomes that do not require any further human involvement. No other Layer 1 offers this level of automated community fairness. Especially because the Telos governance documents may be dynamically amended by the votes of the coin holders in a process that is entirely controlled by on-chain smart contracts.
Governments, investors, dApp creators, and end users need not forget that the fundamental features which bring the most value to blockchain are credible neutrality and decentralization. With credible neutrality and decentralization the following attributes are all significantly enhanced:
- Utility Redundancy
- Security / Trust
- Individual Financial Independence
- dApp Sovereignty
- Fair Voting
- Legal Tender
The actions and inactions of Telos are driven by the belief that the public and private sectors require credibly neutral blockchain infrastructure in a third-generation capable format. Credible neutrality, ludicrously fast speeds, energy efficiency, and super low-cost transactions make Telos the perfect crypto currency for the global internet and for the people.
About Telos
Live since 2018, Telos Blockchain (ticker: Tlos) is a third-generation smart contract platform that offers compatibility with Solidity, Vyper and Native C++ smart contracts. Telos provides full EVM/Solidity support with fixed low-cost gas fees and no front running. Uniquely, Telos also offers a path to fee-less transactions via its robust native C++ smart contract support. Utilizing less than 0.000002 kWh per transaction, the chain can sustainably support hundreds of millions of transactions per day, produce blocks in 0.5 second intervals on a first-in-first-out basis (eliminating front running on the network) and securely validate transactions via a credibly neutral and globally decentralized block producer network. The Telos Blockchain has the throughput needed to facilitate and scale the thriving Metaverse / Web 3.0 better than any other blockchain. Its performance is unrivaled in the industry and was purpose-built to offer speed, scalability, cost-effectiveness, credible decentralization, and end-user fairness. Telos, harnesses its power by utilizing tight C++ on the frontend and a custom WASM runtime environment on the backend.
About The Foundation
The Telos Foundation is a Decentralized Autonomous Organization established as a promotional and funding body to advance the Telos Blockchain Network and provide support to network applications.
Sunlight Real Estate Investment Trust Operational Statistics for the Third Quarter of the Financial Year 2021/22
At 31 March 2022, the occupancy rate of Sunlight REIT’s portfolio exhibited a mild improvement to 95.0% (31 December 2021: 94.5%). Office occupancy rate increased from 93.3% at 31 December 2021 to 94.3%, while retail occupancy rate dropped slightly to 96.6% (31 December 2021: 97.1%).
The overall passing rent of Sunlight REIT’s portfolio was HK$45.8 per sq. ft. at 31 March 2022 (31 December 2021: HK$46.1 per sq. ft.). Reflecting the still challenging business environment, the office and retail portfolio registered negative rental reversions of 7.6% and 7.0% respectively for the quarter under review.
At 31 March 2022, Dah Sing Financial Centre registered a steady occupancy rate of 91.4% with a passing rent of HK$42.9 per sq. ft.. Meanwhile, Strand 50 continued to benefit from the successful transformation into a top-notch Grade B office building in Sheung Wan, registering an improvement in occupancy rate to 97.7% with a passing rent of HK$32.3 per sq. ft.. On the Kowloon side, occupancy rate of The Harvest rebounded to 80.4% after the move-in of new beauty parlours; however, given the prolonged pandemic situation, the rent void period for its vacant areas would be longer than previously anticipated.
On the retail front, Sheung Shui Centre Shopping Arcade (“SSC“) and Metro City Phase I Property recorded occupancy rates of 94.8% and 98.0% at 31 March 2022 respectively, while their corresponding passing rents were HK$100.2 per sq. ft. and HK$55.1 per sq. ft.. However, the vacancy rate of SSC is expected to rise in light of the departure of a kindergarten tenant which currently takes up approximately 7.5% of its gross rentable area.
Remarks: Attached operational statistics of Sunlight REIT for the third quarter of the financial year 2021/22.
Operational statistics for the third quarter of the financial year 2021/22
Notes :
1. Calculated on the basis of occupied gross rentable area (“GRA“) as a proportion of total GRA on the relevant date.
2. Calculated on the basis of average rent per sq. ft. for occupied GRA on the relevant date.
About Sunlight REIT
Listed on The Stock Exchange of Hong Kong Limited since 21 December 2006, Sunlight REIT (stock code: 435) is a real estate investment trust authorized by the Securities and Futures Commission and constituted by the amended and restated trust deed dated 10 May 2021 (the “Trust Deed“). It offers investors the opportunity to invest in a diversified portfolio of 11 office and five retail properties in Hong Kong with a total gross rentable area of over 1.2 million sq. ft.. The office properties are located in both core and decentralized business areas, while the retail properties are situated in regional transportation hubs, new towns and urban areas with high population density.
About the Manager
The Manager of Sunlight REIT is an indirect wholly-owned subsidiary of Henderson Land Development Company Limited. Its main responsibility is to manage Sunlight REIT and all of its assets in accordance with the Trust Deed in the sole interest of its unitholders.
Disclaimer: The information contained in this press release does not constitute an offer or invitation to sell or the solicitation of an offer or invitation to purchase or subscribe for units in Sunlight REIT in Hong Kong or any other jurisdiction.
#SunlightREIT
The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.
Government of Japan and UNFPA partners to launch a Safer Cities Initiative
The government of Japan pledged 833,333 USD to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) to implement: Safer Cities: Interventions against Covid-19 focusing on WASH and Protection for communities at risk.
PolyU study finds south China has become more vulnerable to flash droughts that develop in a shorter time amid climate change

The PolyU study, published in Nature Communications, found that southeast China – the region spanning from the Yangtze River Delta to Hainan province – is at a higher risk of experiencing more rapid drying, with an increase in the proportion of flash droughts developed within five days by as much as 18.67 per cent during 2000 – 2020. Ordinary droughts usually take five to six months or an even longer time to develop to full strength.
Dr WANG Shuo, Assistant Professor of PolyU’s Department of Land Surveying and Geo-Informatics, who led the research, said the nature of flash droughts, characterised by rapid onset in less than a month and a fast depletion of water availability, means there are less early warning indicators for impact preparation, potentially causing more severe impacts on agriculture and society than slowly evolving droughts.
“Flash drought occurrence is often accompanied by above-average temperatures and a precipitation deficit, which may trigger compound extreme events such as the concurrence of flash drought and heat wave. Thus, flash droughts can pose even more serious threats to urbanised areas like Hong Kong due to the urban heat island effect,” he said.
The in-depth analysis was devised to address the following scientific questions: how fast flash droughts evolve and why. In the study, the research team mapped the onset timescales of flash droughts globally and the causes of the rapid onset speed, providing valuable insights for policymakers and stakeholders on the potential risks of flash droughts, and an impetus for innovators to advance flash drought forecasts and early warning systems.
Based on different data sets that use satellite soil moisture measurements, the study found that although flash droughts are not becoming more frequent in most parts of the world, they are developing at a faster rate (i.e. in a shorter period of time). Out of all flash droughts that occurred in the past two decades, these data sets showed that there was about 33.64 – 46.18 per cent of flash droughts that developed within five days, representing an increase of 3.23 – 19.03 per cent during the period.
Such adverse climate events tend to occur in humid and semi-humid regions, including Southeast Asia, East Asia, the Amazon Basin, eastern North America and southern South America. Atmospheric aridity – caused by high temperature, low precipitation and a high vapour pressure deficit (VPD) – is likely to trigger flash droughts, the study indicates.
Dr Wang explained that “atmospheric aridity creates a perfect condition for the occurrence of flash droughts, and the joint influence of soil moisture depletion and atmospheric aridity further reinforces the rapid onset of flash droughts. In other words, low soil moisture combined with a high vapour pressure deficit accelerates the decline in soil moisture through land–atmosphere feedback loops. Thus, southeast China with strong land–atmosphere coupling is more vulnerable to flash droughts.”
Compared with traditional, slowly developing droughts, flash droughts evolve with a relatively fast depletion of soil moisture that may cause an imbalance of ecosystems and agricultural systems. The flash drought in the summer of 2012 led to an estimated US$35.7 billion in losses of corn crops in the central United States.
“Governments and the public should realise the increasing flash drought risk in addition to commonly known extreme weather events, and adapt to such emerging climate-induced natural disasters. It is crucial to improve traditional drought monitoring systems and indicators for capturing rapidly evolving flash droughts,” Dr Wang said.
#HongKongPolytechnicUniversity #PolyU
Lenovo Study: Three in Five CIOs Would Replace Half or More of Their Current Technology If Given Opportunity
- Research commissioned by Lenovo reveals CIOs are more involved than ever before in areas outside their traditional technology purview, such as business model transformation, corporate strategy, and sustainability
- Tasked with increasing organizational agility and streamlining operations cost, 57% of CIOs think at least half their current tech stack is serviceable but could be improved – with 21% wanting to replace almost all of their tech stack
HONG KONG SAR – Media OutReach – 20 April 2022 – A new global research study from Lenovo [1] reveals how the CIO role has evolved, shedding light on growing areas of responsibility and increasing influence in the C-Suite, as well as removing barriers to business growth.
Today, technology is the nervous system that connects corporate strategy, finance, innovation, operations, and talent. CIOs are increasingly tasked with connecting with key stakeholders across the organization to ensure alignment and drive execution. With IT enmeshed in every facet of a business, CIOs believe that their organizations must continue to invest in digital transformation to remain relevant. Key findings from Lenovo’s global survey of more than 500 CIOs include:
- Nearly all CIOs surveyed believe their roles have evolved and expanded in the past few years, and that they are being asked to make business decisions that go far beyond technology.
- 9-in-10 CIOs say that their role and responsibilities have expanded beyond technology, including non-traditional areas such as data analytics and business reporting (56%), sustainability/ESG (45%), DE&I (42%), HR/talent acquisition (39%), and sales/marketing (32%).
- 82% say the CIO role has become more challenging compared with just two years ago as they are confronting a vast array of unique challenges, from the increasing use of AI and automation to talent acquisition in a global, remote workforce.
- CIOs find it most difficult to solve challenges related to data privacy/security (66%), cybersecurity/ransomware (66%), keeping up with technological change (65%), managing fragmented IT vendor ecosystems (61%) and adopting/deploying new technology (60%).
- The majority of CIOs believe their role in the organization has increased in influence.
- More than 3-in-4 CIOs say they have a greater impact on their company’s overall fortunes than other C-Suite positions.
- 88% agree that “my role as CIO is the most critical component of my company or organization’s continued operation.”
- As the CIO role expands and evolves, respondents say that their technology vendors play an invaluable role in their company’s overall success.
- Business would feel an impact in no more than a few weeks if they halted spending on digital transformation initiatives, according to 61% of respondents. This speaks to technology’s role as a critical component of the business, not just a source of cost efficiencies.
- Looking ahead, CIOs expect to turn to their vendors to help them solve a myriad problems in the next five years, including increasing their organizational agility (60%) and providing security of their company’s systems and operations (52%), as well as to simplify the configuration, deployment and maintenance of technology (50%), and optimize costs (43%).
- 8-in-10 CIOs agree their tech vendors are “so effectively integrated that it increases [their] overall productivity.”
- Considering their new challenges and evolving responsibilities, CIOs suggest their current tech stack has much room for improvement.
- Given the chance to reboot from scratch, most CIOs (57%) say they would replace half or more of their company’s current technology.
- Compared to the previous year, 63% of companies are using more Device-as-a-Service in their tech stack.
- As business models change, nearly all CIOs (92%) would definitely or probably consider adding new aaS offerings over the next two years.
“Modern CIOs are the ‘mission control’ for their organizations, their role has transformed drastically in just the span of the past 24 months,” said Ken Wong, President, Lenovo Solutions and Services Group. “From navigating complex tech ecosystems to keep up with the speed of digital transformation, to upskilling employees and managing a global shortage of IT talent, today’s CIO is responsible for the entire technology value chain and beyond. Lenovo’s research demonstrates CIOs are up for the challenge. And they are looking to partner with their vendors to bring their organizations along and succeed.”
Research firm International Data Corp. estimates that by 2023, 60% of CIOs at companies world-wide will be primarily measured for their ability to cocreate new business models and revenue streams, chiefly through enterprise-wide collaboration[2] . Yet Lenovo’s own research shows that it may be an uphill battle for CIOs, who have identified areas such as data privacy/security, cybersecurity/ransomware and managing a fragmented IT vendor ecosystem as their most challenging concerns.
“In this complex technological environment, CIOs want to innovate, not manage IT. As Lenovo’s research highlights, CIOs look to their technology vendors beyond just delivering the basics well – namely, increase organizational agility, simplify configuration, and optimize costs. IT leaders also need counsel and guidance on how emerging technology can enhance their business goals. The opportunities for technology to add real business value – right across the enterprise – are immense,” added Mr. Wong.
To manage an increasingly complex digital transformation journey, businesses need simple and flexible IT solutions. Lenovo’s solutions provide organizations the breadth of Everything-as-a-Service offerings in Lenovo TruScale; the flexibility to pay for the infrastructure solutions they need, as long as they need; and the depth in our expertise and services that empower CIOs to focus more on their strategic imperatives. Businesses of all sizes need the flexibility to stay competitive, and a scalable, cloud-like solution model is the answer.
Industry forecasts by Technology Business Research indicate that Device Subscription Services are growing at a CAGR of 26% from 2020 to 2024 and data center subscription services are growing at 42% during the same period. [3] As-a-Service solutions provide mission-critical support and services, enabling businesses to use technology to scale quickly, lower costs, and reap greater efficiencies. With its flexible and simple offerings, Lenovo has helped organizations from the education to aerospace sectors optimize the right technology with the potential to transform and future-proof their operations.
The full study is available at: [link]
About Lenovo SSG Global Study of CIOs
Fieldwork for this study was conducted via a quantitative survey from December 6, 2021 to December 21, 2021, among a total of 525 global CIOs. The survey sample comprised of a near equal number of respondents from each market: Brazil, China, Japan, Singapore, the United Kingdom and the United States. Respondents included CIOs of companies and organizations with at least 250 total employees.
Third Calendar Quarter 2021
About Lenovo
Lenovo (HKSE: 992) (ADR: LNVGY) is a US$60 billion revenue Fortune Global 500 company serving customers in 180 markets around the world. Focused on a bold vision to deliver smarter technology for all, we are developing world-changing technologies that power (through devices and infrastructure) and empower (through solutions, services and software) millions of customers every day and together create a more inclusive, trustworthy and sustainable digital society for everyone, everywhere. To find out more visit https://www.lenovo.com and read about the latest news via our StoryHub.
#Lenovo