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Australia and Laos Strengthen Cooperation During Visit by Michelle Chan

Lao PDR and Australia Strengthens Cooperation
Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Lao PDR, Mr. Thongphane Savanphet (right), and Deputy Secretary of the Southeast Asia and Global Partners Group, of Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Michelle Chan (left).

One of Australia’s top diplomats, Michelle Chan, visited Laos this week to discuss working towards upgrading bilateral relations to a Comprehensive Partnership.

Cushman & Wakefield: Border Reopening With Mainland Supported Q1 Market Recovery Q1 Transaction Numbers Expected to Climb by 49% Q-O-Q

  • Buyers’ confidence has improved with the full reopening of the Hong Kong-mainland China border, Q1 residential transaction numbers now expected to climb by 49% q-o-q to approximately 12,500 transactions
  • Q1 2023 residential prices rebounded to end decline since 2H 2022, with increases most notable in starter home and mass market segments
  • Market sentiment further supported by Ad Valorem Stamp Duty reduction, developers to expedite new project launches, 2023 residential transaction numbers expected to rise by 25%–35% y-o-y and prices by 5%–10% y-o-y


HONG KONG SAR – Media OutReach – 16 March 2023 – Global real estate services firm Cushman & Wakefield announced its Q1 2023 Hong Kong Residential Market Review and Outlook today. With the border reopening between Hong Kong and mainland China enacted in early February, coupled with the reduction of Ad Valorem Stamp Duty (AVD) in the 2023/2024 Budget, property buyers have regained confidence in the residential market, with prices rebounding. Residential transactions picked up in Q1 and are expected to record an increase of 49% q-o-q, to approximately 12,500 transactions.

Rosanna Tang, Executive Director, Head of Research, Hong Kong, Cushman & Wakefield, said: “The border between mainland China and Hong Kong has reopened, prompting improved market sentiment and buyers’ confidence. Some buyers moved quickly to seize opportunities in the relatively attractive market before prices fully rebounded. Property inquiries and inspections have also increased from the previous lows of last year. The recent government-announced reduction of AVD for residential properties will benefit first-time home buyers and spur demand for small-to-medium-sized properties below the HK$10 million mark. Property transactions will likely gain pace as some developers are now accelerating their launches of new home sales.”

Edgar Lai, Senior Director, Valuation and Advisory, Hong Kong, Cushman & Wakefield added: “The latest government data reveals that Hong Kong’s overall residential property price level in January 2023 ended a consecutive seven-month decline to rise a modest 0.6% YTD, although this price point is still 15% lower than the peak recorded in 2021. Property prices recovered across market segments, with some housing estates even recording mild V-shaped rebounds. Among them, prices at City One Shatin, representing the mass market bracket, rose by 20% q-o-q. Taikoo Shing, in the middle market, recorded an increase of 11.3% q-o-q. Prices at these popular housing estates had been on a downtrend in H2 2022 and underperformed the overall market, mainly due to the impact of rising interest rates and previous stock market volatility. However, the mainland China-Hong Kong border reopening has given these estates a strong boost, with some owners firming up their asking prices due to the more promising outlook. As for the luxury housing segment, prices edged down only slightly in 2022 on the back of strong holding power from luxury homeowners, and hence the price rebound was generally less noted than in the mass market given the large lump sum commanded by such properties. Prices at Residence Bel-Air, representing the luxury market bracket, rose by 5.3% q-o-q. ”

Commenting on the market outlook, Edgar Lai shared: “In terms of primary market supply, we expect developers to focus on launches for mass market and mid-to-low priced properties, in key areas such as Hong Kong Island South, Kai Tak, Northwest New Territories, Sai Sha, and Pak Shek Kok. With the support of the AVD reduction policy, we anticipate that first-time home buyers and upgraders will quicken their pace to enter the market, while mainland buyers will renew their activity to support the recovery in transaction numbers. Considering the low base of transactions last year, it is expected that the annual residential transaction count will rise by 25% to 35% y-o-y, reaching about 58,000 to 60,000 transactions by the end of 2023.”

Rosanna Tang concluded: “Given that interest rates have yet to peak, and geopolitical and economic uncertainty may still impede a full recovery, the residential market may experience fairly sluggish property price movements in 2H this year. Nevertheless, we are delighted to see the government’s active measures to reopen the city, which will help to expedite the return to normalcy in the broader economy and society. Over the long run, we believe that mainland buyers will be integral in supporting a full property market recovery in Hong Kong. The city’s overall property price level is expected to rise by 5-10% for the full year in 2023, and this will be mostly reflected in the 1H period.”

Rosanna Tang, Executive Director, Head of Research, Hong Kong, Cushman & Wakefield (Left) and Edgar Lai, Senior Director, Valuation and Advisory, Hong Kong, Cushman & Wakefield (Right) shared Cushman & Wakefield’s Q1 2023 Hong Kong Residential Market Review and Outlook today.

Click HERE to download the high-resolution press release photo and presentation material.

Hashtag: #CushmanandWakefield

The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.

About Cushman & Wakefield

Cushman & Wakefield (NYSE: CWK) is a leading global real estate services firm that delivers exceptional value for real estate occupiers and owners. Cushman & Wakefield is among the largest real estate services firms with approximately 52,000 employees in over 400 offices and 60 countries. In Greater China, a network of 23 offices serves local markets across the region, earning recognition and winning multiple awards for industry-leading performance. In 2022, the firm had revenue of $10.1 billion across core services including valuation, consulting, project & development services, capital markets, project & occupier services, industrial & logistics, retail and others. To learn more, visit .hk or follow us on LinkedIn ().

US Orders ByteDance to Sell Stakes in TikTok Over Security Concerns

United States order Bytedance to Hand Over Tiktok Over Security Concerns
U.S. officials are concerned that TikTok could be used for spying or the dissemination of propaganda by China. ( Photo : AP )

The Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) has instructed the Chinese tech giant ByteDance to divest its TikTok US market share to protect consumer data and national security or face a potential ban.

Road Safety Social Media Campaign Aims to Reduce Deaths During Pi Mai

Road safety campaign to lower accidents before Lao New Year.
Road safety campaign to lower accidents before Lao New Year.

Five popular Facebook pages in Laos have come together to launch a road safety campaign aimed at reducing accidents and fatalities during Lao New Year.

AIA Hong Kong announces signing of Memorandum of Understanding with The GBA Healthcare Group

Provides one-stop, diversified and quality cross-border medical healthcare services to customers in the Guangdong–Hong Kong–Macao Greater Bay Area

HONG KONG SAR – Media OutReach – 16 March 2023 – As cross-border travel between Hong Kong and Mainland China fully resumes and residents travelling between the two locations become more frequent, their demand for medical healthcare services is also gaining momentum. AIA Hong Kong, together with Blue Cross (Asia-Pacific) Insurance Limited (“Blue Cross”) and U Care Hong Kong Medical Limited (“U Care”) under AIA Group, are pleased to announce today the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with The GBA Healthcare Group Limited (“GBAH”) and its subsidiary, WellDoc Limited (collectively “GBAH Group”). The MOU aims to provide a diversified range of quality medical and healthcare services via GBAH Group’s vast medical services network in the Greater China region to designated AIA Hong Kong, Blue Cross and U Care customers residing in the Greater Bay Area (GBA). Designated customers can have access to GBAH Group’s medical institutions in Guangdong and Hong Kong, including UMP Medical Centres, and receive services that are consistent with the level of care adopted in Hong Kong. Such services include preventive care, continuity of treatment, chronic disease management, specialist care services and hospital admissions, as well as basic vaccination arrangements, medical check-ups and cross-border treatment, etc.

Mr Alger Fung, Chief Executive Officer of AIA Hong Kong & Macau, said, “The collaboration between AIA Hong Kong, together with AIA Group’s Blue Cross and U Care, and GBAH Group, leverages the strengths of both organisations to help customers live ‘Healthier, Longer, Better Lives’. Through providing comprehensive and diversified medical management and healthcare services, the collaboration will enhance customers’ health as well as their quality of life. The GBA Healthcare Group has extensive experiences in providing medical services according to the high standard of practice implemented in Hong Kong, enabling our individual life and group insurance customers who travel frequently between Hong Kong and the GBA or reside in both locations, to receive medical and healthcare services that are consistent with the level of care adopted in Hong Kong uninterruptedly.”

Ms Bonnie Tse, Chief Executive Officer of Blue Cross, said, “We are greatly encouraged by the collaboration, which will benefit both the customers of Blue Cross and U Care network, enabling our customers to enjoy quality cross-border healthcare services that are more diversified, extensive and accessible in the near future. While it is a sign of our continuous efforts in elevating customer experience, it also highlights our leading position in the field of healthcare insurance.”

Established in 2015, GBAH focuses on developing evidence based medical services management models in the GBA. Since it was founded, The GBAH has established the General Practice Oriented Learning and Development (GOLD) Training Programme, which adhered to the standard of diagnosis and treatment found in Hong Kong’s family medicine practice and has been accredited by the Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP). The GBAH has trained more than 2,000 GOLD family doctors and nurses in various cities around the GBA. It has also collaborated with local authorities to establish more than 100 Hong Kong-style Family Doctor Clinics at public community health service centres and built three Hong Kong and Macau Residents Health Service Centres through partnerships with major hospitals to offer members an integrated outpatient and inpatient medical services as found in Hong Kong.

Dr Sun Yiu Kwong, Chairman of The GBA Healthcare Group, said, “We are very excited to be partnering up with AIA Hong Kong, Blue Cross and U Care to drive coordinated healthcare services together. In the past, insurance companies have mainly focused on providing medical claims to their customers. Underpinned by its ‘customer-centricity’ philosophy, AIA Hong Kong has been providing an array of innovative services, from ‘AIA Vitality’ to prevention and protection, and treatment to recovery support, to their customers throughout their health journey. AIA Hong Kong’s purpose to help customers live ‘Healthier, Longer, Better Lives’ resonates with our Group’s vision of making family doctors customers’ first point of contact for healthcare services to help them stay healthy. We are committed to providing top quality medical and healthcare services to address customers’ medical needs. We look forward to working with AIA Hong Kong, Blue Cross and U Care to help our customers lead healthier lives.”

The collaboration reflects AIA Hong Kong, Blue Cross and U Care’s steadfast commitment in supporting the Government’s efforts in bolstering the primary healthcare system. Through robust collaborations with medical and healthcare service providers and making reference to the Government’s “family doctor for all” medical care concept, the collaboration strives to offer individual life and group insurance customers access to family doctor services so they can receive appropriate preventive care, thereby strengthening chronic disease management and enabling them to receive specialist treatment as necessary to enhance personal health and disease prevention.

The collaboration between AIA Hong Kong, Blue Cross and U Care and GBAH Group will kick off in the GBA area, and is expected to be extended to other major cities in Mainland China to ensure interconnectivity of healthcare services. Additional arrangements will be announced in due course.

Hashtag: #AIAHongKong

The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.

About AIA Hong Kong & Macau

AIA Group Limited established its operations in Hong Kong in 1931. To date, AIA Hong Kong and AIA Macau have close to 18,000 financial planners1 , as well as an extensive network of brokerage and bancassurance partners. We serve over 3.4 million customers2 , offering them a wide selection of professional services and products ranging from individual life, group life, accident, medical and health, pension, personal lines insurance to investment-linked assurance schemes with numerous investment options. We are also dedicated to providing superb product solutions to meet the financial needs of high net worth customers.

1 as at 31 December 2022
2 Including AIA Hong Kong and AIA Macau’s individual life, group insurance and pension customers (as at 31 December 2022)

About Blue Cross (Asia-Pacific) Insurance Limited

Blue Cross (Asia-Pacific) Insurance Limited (“Blue Cross”) is a subsidiary of AIA Group Limited. With over 50 years of operational experience in the insurance industry, Blue Cross provides a comprehensive range of products and services including medical, travel and general insurance, which cater to the needs of both individual and corporate customers. Blue Cross distributes its products through various channels, including AIA agency force, online platform, direct sales, BEA network, insurance agents and brokers, as well as travel agencies. In 2023, Blue Cross is assigned a financial strength rating of A (Excellent) and the long-term issuer credit rating of “a+” (Excellent) by A.M. Best, a global full-service credit rating firm specialising in the financial service industry. For the latest rating, please access .

About The GBA Healthcare Group

The GBA Healthcare Group Limited was founded in Hong Kong in 2015 by a group of family doctors from Hong Kong and insurance related professionals, with the goal of developing value-based healthcare opportunities in the Greater Bay Area. In 2021, GBAH has evolved to become an independently managed entity, with strategic investment from Chow Tai Fook Enterprises Limited, the flagship investment family office of the Cheng Yu Tung family. GBAH focuses on partnering up with various regional governments and insurance companies in the GBA to develop value-based health plans for citizens of the GBA. As of December 31, 2022, The GBA Healthcare Group has built over 100 public private partnership clinical centers across the GBA and has trained and accredited over 2,000 family doctors and nurses.

Olympic and Paralympic Games Celebrated in Vientiane

Celebration of 500 Days Before Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games in Vientiane
A government official competing in a friendly pétanque contest

The French Embassy in Laos organized a sports event on 14 March 2023 in the garden of the French Institute 500 days before the opening ceremony of the Paris 2024 Olympics. 

Vietnam to Offer Visa Exemptions to More Countries

Vietnam to Offer Free Visas to More Countries
Foreign tourists in Vietnam (photo: vnvis)

Vietnam will grant visa-free entry to more countries and prolong the maximum stay duration of international visitors to bolster the recovery of its tourism industry, said the Vietnamese Prime Minister, Mr. Pham Minh Chinh on Wednesday.

HDFC Bank continues investing in platform technologies to improve customer experience and enhance efficiencies

Backbase remains the preferred next-gen digital banking platform vendor for HDFC Bank

MUMBAI, INDIA – Media OutReach – 16 March 2023 – HDFC Bank Ltd has appointed Backbase to deliver their vision for a market-leading digital banking experience in India. Backbase powers HDFC Bank’s next-gen retail banking, enabling a more seamless customer experience across digital touchpoints in response to changing consumer expectations and new regulatory requirements.

HDFC Bank is India’s largest private sector bank, providing innovative products and smart banking solutions to over 70 million customers across India. A Backbase customer since 2016, HDFC Bank has renewed its agreement in line with its technical design principles of security, horizontal scalability, and remaining cloud agnostic.

Built as one unified platform to engage and orchestrate frictionless experiences across all touchpoints at every stage of the customer lifecycle across retail banking, business banking, digital lending, and wealth management, Backbase has helped 150+ banks and credit unions around the globe re-architect banking around their customers.

“Indian consumers expect digital banking to match the seamless experience of their favourite e-commerce and social media platforms. In addition to savvy UI, from savings to loans to payments and beyond, customers want to effortlessly complete transactions, easily and quickly, anytime and anywhere. Backbase’s banking platform has been assessed to be what we need and; we are confident that it will help us develop new services faster,” Ramesh Lakshminarayanan, CIO and Group IT Head, HDFC Bank said.

HDFC Bank’s next-gen customer-first internet banking architecture will be run and managed on the Backbase Engagement Banking Platform. The digital banking platform meets Indian money transfer regulations, via seamless integrations with Real Time Gross Settlement (RTGS), National Electronic Funds Transfer (NEFT), Immediate Payment Service (IMPS), and UPI Payments, and encompasses enhanced, configurable local security features on par with local industry standards.

HDFC Bank continues to invest in technologies to improve customer experience and enhance efficiencies by providing a seamless experience to their customers across all platforms, on the back of a resilient infrastructure, building on the HDFC Bank Enterprise and Digital Factory established in June 2021.

“I’m delighted to continue partnering with HDFC Bank to bring platform-era banking to its millions of customers,” Jouk Pleiter, CEO, Backbase said. “We’ve worked tirelessly to earn the trust of HDFC Bank, and we’re excited to deliver a next-generation banking experience in one of the most important and innovative banking markets in the world.”

Localized delivery
Backbase provides seamless local engineering, implementation and customer support, for banks in India, including HDFC Bank, through its Asia Customer Success hub and Hyderabad Backbase Development Center (BDC), freeing financial institutions to focus on delivering hyper-personalized experiences and support as well as generating new revenue streams. In addition, for banks with hybrid or pure cloud implementation, Backbase provides local support via our data centers within Mumbai and Hyderabad.

“Our strong local technology and engineering resources allow us to do it right the first time, and to do more with less,” Abhijit Chavan, Regional Vice President, Customer Success, Asia, Backbase explained. “Our engineering investment in India and customer success hub provides instant digital execution power to Indian financial institutions as they move to a unified banking platform architecture.”

Hashtag: #Backbase #digitalbanking #engagementbanking #apac #HDFC

The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.

About Backbase

is on a mission to re-architect banking around the customer.

Backbase created the Backbase Engagement Banking Platform – a unified platform with the customer at the center, empowering banks to accelerate their digital transformation. From customer onboarding, to servicing, loyalty, and loan origination, our single platform — open and frictionless, with ready-to-go apps — improves every aspect of the customer experience. Built from the ground up with the customer at the heart, our Engagement Banking Platform easily plugs into existing core banking systems and comes pre-integrated with the latest fintechs so financial institutions can innovate at scale.

Industry analysts Forrester, Gartner, Omdia, and IDC continuously recognize Backbase’s category leadership position. Over 150 financials around the world have embraced the Backbase Engagement Banking Platform. In APAC, the customers we serve include ABBANK, BDO Unibank, Bank of the Philippine Islands, EastWest Bank, HDFC, IDFC First, JudoBank, Techcombank, TPBank, and UBank.

Backbase is a privately funded fintech company, founded in 2003 in Amsterdam (Global HQ), with regional offices in Singapore (APAC HQ), Atlanta (Americas HQ), and operations in Australia, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam, Latin America, and the UK.