ASEAN Archives - Page 28 of 36

Loh Boon Chye, CEO of SGX: Strengthen market connectivity and capital flows, and support China’s internationalisation

To achieve its Five-Year Plan – including its dual circulation and new development strategies, China has continued to promote innovation, digital trade, and sustainable development, making a significant difference in the global landscape.On 13 October, Loh Boon Chye, Vice Chairman of the World Federation of Exchanges (WEF) and CEO of the Singapore Exchange (SGX), delivered his video speech at the Digital Trade and Technology thematic event during the 2021 Global Digital Trade Conference and the Wuhan (Hankoubei) Commodities Fair.

Loh Boon Chye, Vice Chairman of WEF and CEO of SGX delivering his speech at the 2021 Global Digital Trade Conference and Wuhan (Hankoubei) Commodities Fair thematic event “Digital Trade and Technology”

As an international multi-asset exchange, SGX is a strong supporter of China’s internationalisation efforts across equities, fixed income, currencies, and commodities, and ultimately its economic growth, as capital flows and trade flows are inseparably linked. Loh says that the defining trends of our time, whether in digitalisation or sustainability, are borderless, and collaboration is essential to harness their fullest benefits.

At the same time, SGX continues to look for ways to strengthen market connectivity between Singapore and China, and Southeast Asia. SGX’s Loh feels that Southeast Asia is fast leapfrogging in digitalisation, as reflected in an increasing number of technology unicorns. Technology is another means to enhance greater connectivity across borders and across multiple asset classes. “Digitalisation has the potential to transform the efficiency of capital markets and advance Asia’s capital markets infrastructure,” says Loh.

Loh Boon Chye shared that Singapore has recently announced a range of initiatives to serve as Asia’s leading enterprise financing hub, including establishing an investment fund, a Growth IPO Fund, and enhancing its Grant for Equity Market Singapore scheme. “We are continuing to build a more conducive ecosystem that enables growth capital for companies across their different stages of development, supporting Chinese enterprises as they expand globally.

With the unique position at the centre of the market ecosystem, Exchanges play an important role in their countries’ economic development and sustainable society. In closing, Loh reiterated SGX’s commitment to support China in its internationalisation journey and look forward to greater collaboration opportunities and mutual success.

Time to Act: Promoting Women and Youth Leadership for Sustainable and Inclusive Growth

by Erick Thohir and Sharon Florencia*

COVID-19 has had a significant impact on people’s lives, how businesses and economies operate, and the global sustainability agenda. Nevertheless, the current conditions will provide an unprecedented opportunity to build a better world by implementing more sustainable policies and actions. In addressing these, the G20 heads of state and government will convene at the Rome Summit this month to discuss various development agendas, from health and education to the economy, emphasizing trade, investments, and the digital economy.

The Rome Summit is not the only significant event happening in the world in October. In the same month, International Day of the Girl (IDG) is being celebrated annually on 11 October, and this event, which intends to campaign on gender equalities, has become an important moment for us. It is a reminder for gender equality, to amplify girls’ voices meaningfully, and to support their presence and leadership.

Women’s effective participation and leadership have been recognized by UN Women reports to improve productivity, enhance ecosystem conservation, and create more sustainable systems. The participation has been progressing in the last decade: an increasing number of women serving in parliament, gender budgeting policy, and equal school attendance. Despite these gains, many challenges remain at the country, region, and global level. Globally, of the 500 world-class companies, only around 5.8% (just 29 women) became CEOs in 2019, and 5.3 percent of women became board members in 2018 (Catalyst 2020). The Global Gender Gap Report in 2021 by the World Economic Forum shows that across the 156 countries covered by the index, women’s representation is only at 26.1% of some 35,500 parliament seats and just 22.6% of over 3,400 ministers worldwide.

Women’s participation in Indonesia is not far behind when compared to the global levels. The McKinsey Global Institute in 2018 revealed that Indonesia could add $135 billion to its annual gross domestic product by 2025 if it can improve gender equality, the Asia-Pacific Girls Report 2021, published by Plan International, revealed that Indonesia is ranked 10th of 19 countries in the Girls Leadership Index based on six domains: education, health, economic opportunities, protection, political voice and representation, and laws and policies in the Asia Pacific. In this index, Indonesia’s position is ranked 12th in vote representation and representation of young women in politics. The progress achieved before the outburst of the COVID-19 pandemic has worsened gender equality’s situation during the pandemic. Women, mainly in the informal sector, is amongst the hardest hit by the pandemic. According to the Ministry of Women’s Empowerment and Child Protection, women bear more burden in doing domestic chores and spend more time caring for the family than men. This potentially affects their productivity, mental health, and participation in economic and leadership positions.

Responding to the situation, increasing the role of women in the Indonesian State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs) has been a key development agenda of the Ministry of SOEs since 2019. The Ministry of SoEs has been recognized as one of the agents of change in promoting women’s empowerment. The Ministry has set a high target of at least 15 percent of SOEs leaders being women in aggregate by the end of 2021, which is in line with the Asia average. Singapore and Italy have been in front of this by having the highest female CEOs at 15 percent. With the current figure in Indonesian SOEs at 13 percent, significant progress has been made, and the target will be increased to 25 percent in 2023.

In celebrating the IDG, the Indonesian Government, through the Ministry of State-Owned Enterprises, has involved five major Indonesian SOEs in the #GirlsTakeover campaign starting this year and joined forces with the Plan International. A commitment to participate in the #GirlsTakeover campaign is being set for this year and the subsequent five years. This participation is not mere rhetoric, but it represents the genuine readiness and a long-term commitment to promote and involve women and young people in transforming SOEs and develop the best solution for more sustainable and inclusive development within the Ministry and 100 state-owned companies, including their subsidiaries throughout Indonesia.

The #GirlsTakeover program had attracted over 7000 participants, and the outcome of the program resulted in recognizing outstanding leadership skills shown by six young women. As one of the #GirlsTakeover finalists, Sharon has had first-hand experience in being part of the high level commitment of the Ministry in promoting women leaders through mentoring, coaching and education programs for women.

#GirlsTakeover is also aligned with the Ministry of SOE’s programs to develop women and youth leadership in SOEs, aiming to provide an opportunity for people under 42 to lead and transform SOEs. The target is for young leaders populating 5 percent of all SOEs’ leadership positions by 2021 and 10 percent by 2023. The Ministry facilitated the establishment of Srikandi BUMN (Women of SOEs) and BUMN Muda (Youth of SOEs) communities as strategic partners to implement measures and build support systems to meet the targets. These affirmative actions by SOEs can inspire other private companies and enterprises to support women and youth leadership for a more equal future in our nation.

With a full commitment from the Indonesian Government and the business leaders for women and youth leadership, we can contribute to achieving gender equality and pre-condition for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals, particularly goals 5 and 10. We believe that promoting women and youth leadership can significantly contribute to the development of a country.

Next year, Indonesia will be trusted to host the G20 Summit, which will focus on three pillars: promoting productivity, increasing resilience and stability, and ensuring sustainable and inclusive growth. Evidence has shown that women and men, and young people are inseparable success factors for these pillars. Indonesia cannot deliver success in those pillars by only having men and male and senior leaders. If anything, this crisis teaches us about balance, inclusiveness, and togetherness. Hence, it is important for Indonesia, as the 2022 G20 Presidency, to promote women and youth leadership for an equal world which will contribute to country development performance in gender equality and a significant improvement to global development goals and prosperity.

*)
@ErickThohir is Indonesia’s Minister of State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs)
@SharonFlorencia is a future female leader who took over the Minister of SOEs’ role in the Girls Takeover 2021 campaign organized by Plan Indonesia in collaboration with the Ministry of SOEs, Srikandi BUMN and Indonesia Human Capital Forum.

StraitsX surpasses SGD 2 billion mark in digital assets-related transactions in 2021 and unveils new platform

StraitsX, Southeast Asia’s pioneering digital assets platform developed by Xfers, a Singapore-based FinTech licensed by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) for e-money issuance, today announced that it has surpassed the SGD 2 billion mark in digital assets-related transactions on its payment platform in 2021 alone.

Aymeric Salley, Head of StraitsX, said, “The growth in transactions shows that investors are increasingly exploring digital assets as an alternative form of investment that offers liquidity and returns. Meanwhile, central banks around the world are examining the potential benefits of digital and decentralised financial systems. Recently, we have been shortlisted in the MAS Global CBDC Challenge together with our partner SEBA Bank to explore innovative retail CBDC solutions to enhance payment efficiencies, and we intend to intensify our efforts working hand-in-hand with both regulators and digital assets market participants to enable such transformation.”

Rebranding and Transformation for better user experience
Adding on to this announcement is the unveiling of StraitsX’s new platform and identity. The new StraitsX platform features a redesigned and streamlined user interface to enable faster and more efficient navigation. The StraitsX platform enables individual users to transfer, mint and redeem XSGD with a connected bank account, in addition to spending their XSGD with various digital asset platforms. Businesses can also leverage APIs to collect, disburse and reconcile funds from their end-users. StraitsX currently supports over 10 digital asset platforms in Singapore through its API solution.

“With the increase of user adoption towards access to digital assets, we feel that we can better serve this market by separating StraitsX as a standalone brand dedicated to accelerating access to digital assets in Southeast Asia. This brand update aims to improve user experience and better communicate our mission to bring access to digital assets in Southeast Asia,” said Salley.

The new StraitsX brand logo depicts a strait, which is defined as a narrow passage of water connecting two bodies of water. Similar to a strait, StraitsX aims to connect the existing fiat-based financial system to a blockchain-based financial system, through its services and the StraitsX stablecoins. Along with this, StraitsX has also introduced a new token logo for XSGD, which features a simplified design to optimise for better readability. The equal borders at the top and the bottom represent XSGD’s one for one parity with the Singapore dollar.

In October 2020, StraitsX launched Southeast Asia’s first stablecoin – the StraitsX Singapore Dollar (XSGD), a digital token available on the Ethereum and Zilliqa blockchain that is backed one-for-one by the Singapore dollar. XSGD is supported on various digital asset platforms including decentralised finance applications such as Zilswap, Uniswap and DFX finance. As of September 2021, XSGD crossed over 1.5 billion SGD in on-chain transaction value.

Salley added, “At StraitsX, we strive to enable and accelerate access to digital assets in Asia and beyond. With the help of our valuable partners, we have seen tremendous growth in digital asset-related transactions and the adoption of XSGD. We hope to continue to bring value to our users in Southeast Asia through the StraitsX platform and the StraitsX stablecoins.”

About StraitsX by Xfers
StraitsX is the pioneering payments infrastructure for the digital assets space in Southeast Asia developed by Singapore-based FinTech Xfers Pte. Ltd, a Major Payment Institution licensed by the Monetary Authority of Singapore for e-money issuance. StraitsX offers personal and business accounts to deposit, hold and withdraw funds as well as to connect accounts to digital asset platforms. Business accounts can also access B2B API-enabled payments rails for digital asset platforms and issues the Singapore Dollar-backed stablecoin, XSGD. For more information, please visit straitsx.com.

For media queries PRecious Communications for Xfers/StraitsX:
xfers@preciouscomms.com

Ecopark launches world’s greenest residential complex

Ecopark has launched Swan Lake Residences, world’s largest onsen complex spanning 3,000 sqm, and the first of its kind in Vietnam.

Ecopark is Vietnam’s role model for a green residential complex, the largest of its kind in the country. It has received numerous awards for its beautiful landscaping and sustainable living. Perfect for people requiring exceptional living conditions for mental well-being, the total capacity of the Ecopark Project is about 110,000 residents. Hanoi, Vietnam, will be home to one of the most futuristic townships in the country, constructed specially to foster sustainability and human well-being.

Ecopark launches Vietnam’s largest residential complex (Hanoi, 9/2021).

Undergoing development through multiple construction phases, Ecopark is a project of unparalleled capacity, estimated to cost about US$10 billion. Set within the Hung Yen Province, the Ecopark project will span 500 ha, with more than 20% of the area dedicated purely to natural elements, like flora, fauna, and clean water bodies. The Solforest Apartments shall consist of two luxury towers amidst thick forests and spectacular views across the river.

This exemplary urban establishment aims to create a sustainable city with modern solutions for mental health and nature conservation problems. The creators of this project have envisioned a settlement program where the resident’s quality of life can be improved through elevated environmental metrics. Ecopark will have as many as 1,000,000 trees, five times the coverage found in New York’s Central Park. The resulting air quality is going to match that of New Zealand.

Various studies have revealed that nature is highly detrimental to emotional regulation while also playing a part in improved memory functions. It has also been observed that a good environment can bring great relief to people suffering from mild to major depressive disorders, leading them to feel motivated, energized, and more aligned than before. Ecopark will also boast of over 3000 birds and some scarce species. The water coverage would be as spacious as 142 American football fields, totaling over 1million sq feet, with each district furnished with its lake.

Noting the importance of mental well-being during these turbulent times, the creators have directed all their focus towards revolutionizing global standards of residential living. Ecopark is not only going to be a reverential example to look up to for future living, but it will also challenge the existing patterns that pervade community settlements and construction in general.

Media Contact:
Mrs Dung, Ecopark Group
T: +84 9778 01821
E: dungnt@ecopark.com.vn
U: http://www.ecopark.com.vn

Alpha DX Group Completes Acquisition of DiDi Academy

Alpha DX Group Limited, (“Alpha DX”, the “Company” and together with its subsidiaries, the “Group”), a premier learning and education solution company, is pleased to announce that it completed the acquisition of DiDi Academy as approved by the Company’s shareholders via an EGM held on 8 September 2021.

Separately, under the Addendum to the MOU (“Addedum”), DiDi Academy has been appointed as a service provider in “Next Generation” University – the Asnaro University of Uzbekistan (“PROJECT ASNARO”), the project Alpha DX entered into a memorandum of understanding (“MOU”) with the Republic of Uzbekistan (Ministry of Higher Education and Secondary Specialized Education of Uzbekistan) (“Uzbek MHSSE”) to build and operate together, as previously announced.

Furthermore, DiDi Academy will also develop collaborations and partnerships between Universities in Uzbekistan and Universities in Japan to facilitate various joint programs, including but not limited to, such as student exchange programs and joint degree programs among partner Universities in both countries.

Subject to the entry of binding agreements, Didi Academy is expected to receive agreed fees of no less than US$1.56 million over a five-year period to provide representations and campuses in Japan for Universities in Uzbekistan, on top of additional service fees from such joint programs.

DiDi Academy is also in advanced stage of negotiations for formal collaborations and partnership with several academic institutions and businesses in Japan to offer EduTrust certified educational and training programs to students and working professionals in Japan through a new licensing agreement that is in discussions with ERC Institute Pte. Ltd. (“ERCI”).

As one of the leading higher education & learning private institutions in Singapore, ERCI is engaged in the business of providing various EduTrust certified academic programs through collaborations with global institutions, which includes Advanced Diploma Programs, Bachelor’s Degree Programs, Master’s Degree Programs and corporate training services.

Alpha DX’s CEO, Mr Daiji Yamada, said, “As a pioneer in offering alternative choices in the academic path for students in Japan, DiDi Academy has the first mover advantage within Japan’s education market which has a combined market size of approximately S$91 billion per annum, comprising domestic education service of S$33 billion and higher education (Universities and Colleges) of S$58 billion.

Utilising our extensive range of digital technology to deliver the education and training programs will create a new emerging blue ocean segment within the massive education and learning market in Japan, hence DiDi Academy is expected to undertake a key strategic role in the Group’s growth plans ahead.”

The Company will continue to provide timely updates to shareholders as each new arrangement and partnership is being finalised and executed.

About Alpha DX Group Limited
(Bloomberg: ALEN:SP / Reuters: ALPH.SI/ SGX Stock Code: VVL)

Listed on the Singapore Stock Exchange, Alpha DX Group Limited (“Alpha DX”) is one of the region’s leading learning solution companies.

Led by the veterans in Technology, Education, Corporate Training and Business consultancy in both the Board of Directors and the management team, Alpha DX provides next generation Expanded Reality (XR)* integrated solutions in learning and education market that enable our customers to create engaging, fully immersive, super enhanced learning and training experiences of the future – next generation educational Institutions, multi-dimensional learning design methodologies, digital content conversion and creation platform, ubiquitous learning super platform and systems with the relevant technologies – all under one roof.

With a strategic focus on integrating XR technologies to create a personalised and digitally enhanced learning experience, Alpha DX aims to offer new value propositions, with its integrated ubiquitous learning solutions, to serve both today’s and the future needs of diverse learners across all genders, ages, cultures and purposes.

For more information, please visit www.alpha-dx.com.sg

Issued on behalf of Alpha DX Group Limited. by 8PR Asia Pte Ltd.
Media & Investor Contacts:
Mr. Alex TAN
Mobile: +65 9451 5252
Email: alex.tan@8prasia.com

This press release has been reviewed by the Company’s sponsor, PrimePartners Corporate Finance Pte. Ltd. (the “Sponsor”). It has not been examined or approved by the Singapore Exchange Securities Trading Limited (the “Exchange”) and the Exchange assumes no responsibility for the contents of this press release, including the correctness of any of the statements or opinions made or reports contained in this press release.

The contact person for the Sponsor is Ms Ng Shi Qing, 16 Collyer Quay, #10-00 Income at Raffles, Singapore 049318, sponsorship@ppcf.com.sg.

ZALL Smart Commerce Group (2098.HK) increased revenue by 40.3% in 1H2021, aims for RMB100 billion on year

ZALL Smart Commerce Group (ZALL; 2098.HK), Asia’s largest B2B e-commerce group, today announced its results for the first half 2021 (January 1 – June 30, 2021). ZALL’s revenue rose by 40.3 per cent year-on-year to RMB 50.16 billion (US$7.76 billion), on the back of stronger Group operating capacity. Gross profit rose to RMB 607 million (US$93.96 million), an increase of 8.1 per cent year-on-year, and profitability remained stable.

Revenues from ZALL’s offline wholesale markets and online Industrial Internet platforms such as Shenzhen Sinoagri, ZALL Steel, and Huasuhui steadily increased, benefitting from the gradual increase of services in ZALL’s ecosystem, spanning wholesale trade markets, agriculture, steel, plastics and chemicals and other industries. Supply chain services such as finance, warehousing, and logistics also continued to empower upstream and downstream customers in the industry value-chain, laying a solid foundation for rapid growth.

Previously, ZALL embarked on a new strategic rebrand and is committed to becoming the world’s largest digital trade platform. The Group looks to incorporate “New Trading Methods” and use advanced digital technologies, such as Big Data, Artificial Intelligence and Blockchain to achieve this goal.

Mr Qi Zhiping, CEO of ZALL Smart Commerce Group said: “ZALL will focus on innovation and the development of digital trade, leveraging data as the driving force to build a new B2B digital trade ecosystem and improve the efficiency of the industrial chain.”

New brands, New directions, New trends

During the first half of 2021, the Group saw a growth in customer loyalty as its industry vertical platforms such as Shenzhen Sinoagri, ZALL Steel, and Huasuhui expanded into subcategories to provide practical, efficient and convenient supply chain services for upstream and downstream customers in the industry value-chain:

– Shenzhen Sinoagri has been enhancing their online trading of cocoon silk, sugar, and expanded to include live pigs, corn, coffee and other product categories.
– ZALL Steel has successfully passed the CMMI3 international certification, and its SaaS cloud service was significantly upgraded.
– ZALL Steel Warehouse (Fengshan Port) was successfully inaugurated, and its supply chain service system was gradually improved.
– Huasuhui’s supply chain financial service “Plastic Loan” celebrated its first anniversary since its launch and has helped nearly a thousand Micro-, Small- and Medium-Enterprises (MSMEs), enabling a coordinated development ecosystem of industry and finance.
– Leveraging the service capabilities of ZALL’s intelligent trading ecosystem to interconnect domestic and international resources, Zallgo facilitates commodity trade flow between wholesale markets and commodities, creating a trillion-level market of commercial tools through digital empowerment, and is committed to becoming a super portal for industrial Internet transactions and services.
– ZALL’s offline flagship project, North Hankou International Trade Centre (“North Hankou”) actively promotes the integrated development of traditional commerce and live streaming e-commerce. The industry ecology of the live-streaming trade has started to develop, with orders happening at major specialised trading markets in an orderly manner, and the construction of 12 major projects of Wuhan International Trade City progressing smoothly after its upgrade. North Hankou is overall ranked second among China’s commercial markets, and is China’s largest and the world’s leading commercial and logistics platform.

ZALL has also established integrated online and offline development while contributing to China’s economic circulation. As a leader in global digital trade, ZALL established ZALL International Trade Group to service MSMEs that is committed to becoming a large-scale comprehensive import and export trade group that “buy from the world and sell to the world”. Its principal businesses include operating the national pilot market for foreign trade, comprehensive foreign trade services, and import and export trade. The Group’s commodities marketplace, Commodities Intelligence Centre (CIC) uses blockchain technology to provide one-stop cross-border B2B trade to support the entire process of commodity-related transactions, helping companies uncover new business opportunities, reduce transaction costs, and achieve greater trading synergies globally.

ZALL’s robust strategic layout and strong operating capabilities are highlighted in the integration of domestic and foreign trade, both online and offline, and the construction of an efficient supply chain service system. During the first half of 2021, ZALL continues to provide services such as smart warehouse logistics and supply chain finance. Powered by information technology, smart warehouse logistics uses Internet of Things (IoT) to integrate automation, informatization, and Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies for cargo delivery and storage applications, and has helped companies to reduce costs and increase efficiency. Supply chain financial services such as “factory loans” and “supply-guaranteed E-loans” use real-trading scenarios to promote enterprise innovation through the integration of industry and finance, optimizing the overall capital flow of the industrial supply chain, and improving circulation efficiency.

In addition, ZALL is committed to help companies kickstart their business growth through data technology. During the first half of the year, Wuhan City announced their first batch of 271 digital economy application scenario projects. Two solutions developed by ZALL Research Institute, a subsidiary of ZALL, were selected. They include “Banking Financial Product Data Mutual Trust Project based on Low Code Blockchain Solutions” and “Data Cross-Chain Platform based on Privacy Protection”. This has further enhanced commercial efficiency in the digital realm.

Coupled with its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) efforts, as well as its extraordinary achievements in promoting the digitalisation of traditional enterprises, ZALL has been growing its influence in the field of digital trade for many years. These accomplishments have been widely recognised by the government, financial and industry leaders, media and the general public. During the first half of 2021, ZALL has consecutively won the best new economy award; the most value-added company award; Top 10 listed China Industrial Internet companies; Top 100 in China Industrial Internet (Industrial Digitalization); Hubei’s Best Hong Kong Stock Listed Company among other awards, and was ranked 155th in the Fortune China 500 list in 2021.

In 2020, ZALL achieved a revenue of RMB 72.769 billion (US$11.27 billion), in line with expectations. With steady growth of 40 per cent in 2021, ZALL is expected to achieve RMB 100 billion (US$15.49 billion) in revenue this year and reach the top echelon of the industrial digital trade industry. Through this process, ZALL intends to emerge as a leader in new trading methods, while maximising the value of digital trade, and becoming the world’s leading digital trade platform.

About ZALL Smart Commerce Group

ZALL Smart Commerce Group is a leading Chinese B2B e-commerce group (ranked 155th of Fortune China 500 companies) with a truly global footprint, and its companies trading worldwide: HKSE, NYSE, SSE and SZSE. ZALL Group develops and operates Asia’s largest B2B offline-to-online trade ecosystem, in China and Southeast Asia, including Singapore, with more than 30 B2B platforms in China, US and Singapore, and a GFA of more than 10 million sqm of wholesale trade centres in China. In 2018, ZALL Group achieved a GMV of more than RMB 600 billion (US$85.2 BN), serving over 1 million SME customers worldwide. ZALL has also obtained a virtual banking licence and currently operates Z-Bank in China since 2017, one of China’s Top 5 digital banks that has supported more than 5.5 million SME and individual customers.

Since 2018, ZALL has invested in five projects in Singapore, including the Commodities Intelligence Centre (CIC), Singapore’s first physical commodity eTrading platform (B2B) powered by blockchain technology; ezbuy.sg, Singapore’s leading global online shopping platform; ZMA Smart Capital, an online trade finance company; ZALL Chain Technology, a blockchain solutions company.

Xfers & SEBA Bank Named Finalists for Global CBDC Challenge organised by the Monetary Authority of Singapore

Xfers, a Southeast Asia based payments leader holding a Major Payment Institution (MPI) license for e-money issuance, together with its partner, SEBA Bank, a FINMA licensed Swiss Bank providing a seamless, secure, and easy-to-use bridge between digital and traditional assets, today announced that they have been named among the 15 finalists for the Global Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) Challenge organised by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS).

Launched by the Monetary Authority of Singapore and in partnership with the International Monetary Fund, World Bank, Asian Development Bank, United Nations Capital Development Fund, United Nations High Commission for Refugees, United Nations Development Programme, and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the Global CBDC Challenge calls for FinTech companies, financial institutions and solution providers around the world to submit innovative retail CBDC solutions to enhance payment efficiencies and promote financial inclusion.

The joint proposal submitted by Xfers and SEBA Bank was shortlisted from over 300 applications representing over 50 countries and will be presented to the public and a panel of judges at the Singapore Fintech Festival on November 8th, 2021.

Launched in October 2020, StraitsX by Xfers is the first stablecoin initiative focusing on Southeast Asia and issues the StraitsX Singapore dollar, XSGD, a digital token available on the Ethereum and Zilliqa blockchain that is backed one-for-one with the Singapore dollar.

Aymeric Salley, Head of StraitsX, said, “We are delighted to be named finalists for the CBDC challenge by the MAS. We look forward to continuing leveraging our experience as Singapore’s first stablecoin issuer, and working closely with our partner, SEBA Bank, which comes with a wealth of expertise and practical experience in developing CBDCs, having just completed a CBDC experiment with Banque de France in June this year.”

Founded in 2018, SEBA Bank is a fully licensed FINMA banking and securities dealer. In June this year, SEBA Bank completed a successful CBDC experiment with the Banque de France, which demonstrated the capacity of distributed ledger technologies to communicate with the Eurosystem’s settlement platform TARGET2-Securities for the settlement of listed securities. This testing is an important contribution towards the development of an EU wide CBDC.

Matthew Alexander, Head of Digital Corporate Finance & Asset Tokenisation SEBA Bank, commented, “We are thrilled to have been selected by the MAS for this CBDC challenge amongst such a prestigious group of institutions. We look forward to working with our partner Xfers and contributing both our Digital Asset capabilities and recent experience working with the Banque de France CBDC to support the MAS and the Singapore financial centre. At SEBA Bank, we are constantly striving for innovation in the development of digital currencies and digital asset infrastructure. This selection, alongside our partners Xfers, by MAS as a finalist in the CBDC challenge, is a significant validation of our innovation in the development of digital currencies, and builds on our work supporting the Banque de France in CBDC testing. The shortlisting by MAS is testament to SEBA Bank’s extensive network and operations in APAC, with the recent appointment of Sam Lin as APAC CEO, and headcount growth in our Singapore and Hong Kong hubs, further solidifying our presence in the region.”

About StraitsX by Xfers
StraitsX is the pioneering payments infrastructure for the digital assets space in Southeast Asia developed by Singapore-based FinTech Xfers, which is a Major Payment Institution licensed by the Monetary Authority of Singapore for e-money issuance. StraitsX offers personal and business accounts to deposit, hold and withdraw funds as well as to connect their accounts to digital asset platforms. Business accounts can also access B2B API-enabled payments rails for digital asset platforms and issues the Singapore Dollar-backed stablecoin, XSGD.

About SEBA Bank – The Future of Digital Banking, Investing & Financing
Founded in April 2018 and headquartered in Zug, SEBA Bank is a pioneer in the financial industry and the only global smart bank providing a fully universal suite of regulated banking services in the emerging digital economy. In August 2019, SEBA Bank received a Swiss banking and securities dealer licence – the first time a reputed, regulatory authority such as FINMA has granted a licence to a financial services provider with a core capability in digital assets. The broad, vertically integrated spectrum of services combined with the highest security standards, make SEBA Bank’s value proposition unique – this is why Banque de France selected SEBA Bank to test the integration of Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC). CVVC Global Report and CB Insights named SEBA Bank as Top 50 Companies within the blockchain ecosystem. Aite Group awarded SEBA Bank with their 2021 Digital Wealth Management Impact Innovation Award in the category “Digital Startup of the Year”. For more information please visit seba.swiss.

For media queries
PRecious Communications for Xfers
xfers@preciouscomms.com

Comtel Rebrands to Quess Singapore with Focus on Local Job Creation in the City

Quess Corp, one of the world’s leading Business Service Providers, today announced that Comtel Solutions, the leading tech talent solutions Company in Singapore, and an affiliate of Quess Corp, has now become Quess Singapore and will operate as fully owned Singaore entity.

An affiliate of Quess Corp Limited, Comtel has been in business for over a decade and has expanded across the Asia Pacific and several industry verticals and sectors such as Banking, Hi-Tech Manufacturing, Telecommunication, Logistics, and Healthcare Industries. The company which partners with global market leaders, including Fortune 100 companies for services, solutions and focussed executive searches for technology staff, has been a part of Quess Group for five years and will continue to maintain its industry leading status in Staff augmentation in Singapore.

Since the beginning of the pandemic, Quess Corp has been tirelessly working with a mission to help hire skilled and productive workers who are equipped to meet the dynamic market requirements of their clients across sectors. Quess has made significant investments in technology across the hire to retire cycle to provide manpower services that are already trusted by several customers globally. Its thrust on developing tools to improve productivity of frontline workers and boost employee engagement is helping create a grey collar/semi-skilled workforce that is more efficient and future-ready.

The workforce landscape is going through a massive change as talent and skills become the most important currency for organisations to drive growth and establish value differentiation. Through re-branding Comtel to Quess Singapore, the company aims to better communicate the breadth and scale of expertise that Quess truly represents.

Speaking on the company’s refreshed branding, Vikas Srivastava, Country Manager, Quess Singapore said, “COVID has completely made everyone re-think their talent strategy as companies now move to a more hybrid and asynchronous workforce that will help them make the most of the disruption to the labour economy to best meet their growth ambitions. Over the last few years, our technology-enabled solutions have been making search, selection, and management of contingent workforce easy in Singapore. With this new identity, we are confident of providing associates working for our clients with more career-enhancing opportunities through our ever-growing partnership with leading learning and development providers for their re-skilling and upskilling needs. This apart, we will help our clients manage and increase the productivity of their grey collar/semi-skilled workforce more effectively by introducing metric-driven, technology-led management through integrating our in-house mobile WorQ App into our standard offering.”

As one of the world’s leading Business Services Providers, Quess is known for its many milestones over the last 14 years; one of them being the fastest to become part of the coveted list of top 50 largest Global staffing suppliers ranked by Staffing Industry Analysts (SIA).

Commenting on the potential in local market, Quess Corp CEO APAC Mr. Sandeep Sharma said, “We are focussed on “Thinking Global Acting Local”. The focus of Quess Singapore – is to be No-1 workforce solutions partner for clients in Singapore and the most preferred employer for associates and candidates. We will be more agile, technology-enabled, and look forward to boosting local employment. We are at the forefront of providing innovative workforce solutions to our larger customer base in South East Asia and stand by our mission of “Winning Together – In our client’s win lies our win” and bring it to fruition. We aim to transition to our new brand identity with the reassurance of consistent and efficient service delivery with no disruptions while looking forward to continued support from our existing clients.”

About Quess Corp

Established in Bengaluru in 2007, Quess Corp Limited (BSE: 539978, NSE: QUESS) is India’s leading business services provider – leveraging its extensive domain knowledge and future-ready digital platforms to drive client productivity through outsourced solutions. Quess provides a host of technology enabled staffing and managed outsourcing services across processes such as sales & marketing, customer care, after sales service, back office operations, manufacturing, facilities and security management, HR & F&A operations, IT & mobility services etc. Quess has a team of ~369,000 employees, serving ~3,000 clients across India, North America, APAC and the Middle East as on 31st July 2021.

Media contacts:
Namrata Sharma – namrata.sharma@adfactorspr.com
Neha Chaturvedi – neha.chaturvedi@adfactorspr.com

KGiSL wins Common infrastructure for Brokers Back Office Project from Stock Exchange of Thailand

KGiSL, a global IT Products, Solutions, and Services provider, today announced the landmark contract that was won by KGiSL against significant competition from one of the largest stock exchanges in the ASEAN, The Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET). KGiSL will rollout Dolphin – a state of the art, cutting-edge technology back-office (BO) platform for brokers in Thailand. The platform will be hosted by SET and will be made available to brokers. The implementation is expected to be completed in the next 16 months.

KGiSL’s flagship product for Capital Markets – Dolphin, caters to 60% of the leading institutional brokers in India by supporting their back-office clearing and settlement operations. The new platform is set to become the one-stop-shop solution to the brokers of Thailand with its ability to handle multiple asset classes including Equities, Bonds, and Offshore Trading, for both retail and institutional brokers. The next generation technology platform has been tested for handling 5 million trades/ day and has the potential capability to scale vertically and horizontally, to support any increase in business volumes. Dolphin was chosen over the other leading global platforms, because it had a better fit to the requirements and also for the robustness, scalability, and automation capabilities, it offers.

Dr. Pakorn Peetathawatchai, President, The Stock Exchange of Thailand said, “This is one of our most ambitious and challenging projects to establish a common, streamlined infrastructure that will open up new possibilities for Thai brokers to revolutionize their back office business models. We strongly believe that continued support from participating brokers in providing valuable insights, along with KGiSL’s delivery capability are key ingredients to contribute the project’s success.”

On the association with SET, Prassadh Shanmugam, Director & Chief Executive Officer KGiSL said, “This is a huge win for KGiSL. Dolphin has been the undisputed market leader in India so far, but we have had limited successes in other markets. This order opens up the entire ASEAN & APAC market to create similar success stories like how we have done in India. KGiSL is poised to invest more in Dolphin’s capabilities by adding Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML), Business Intelligence (BI) and Analytics. I would also like to take this opportunity to thank Dr. Pakorn Peetathawatchai, President of The Stock Exchange of Thailand and the rest of the management in placing their trust in KGiSL and Dolphin.”

About The Stock Exchange of Thailand: www.set.or.th

SET is the most liquid stock market in ASEAN with end-to-end services to empower seamless journey for all investors, securities brokerage companies and market participants. SET has transformed toward partnership platform by harnessing world-class technology and digital innovation to enable all parties to benefit from the Thai capital market in line with vision “To Make the Capital Market Work for Everyone”. A number of open architecture and interoperable platforms have been developed with aims at building ecosystem crucial for fundraising, wealth creation and the country’s development; widening business opportunities for operators in securities industry while offering investors convenient access to investment data, products and services.

About KGiSL: www.KGISL.com/gss

KGiSL is a global IT Products, Solutions, and Services provider in the BFSI space. KGiSL offers Software Products, Solutions and Services, Intelligent Automation, ERP (SAP), CRM, Business Intelligence and Analytics, Quality Engineering, IT Infrastructure Management and Custom Application Development. KGiSL has offices in India, US, Malaysia, Singapore, Australia and Thailand.

KGiSL is part of the $750 million business conglomerate KG Group with interest in Textiles, Engineering, Healthcare, Education, Real Estate, Entertainment, Software and Business Support Services. The Group employs over 25000 people and is known for its philanthropic services to the community for over 8 decades.
For further information, please contact:

KGiSL: Sampathkumar S | sampathkumar.s@KGISL.com | +91 9940069884

Gaming platform Zupee closes Series B at over $500 Million valuation

Zupee, a leading innovator in India’s online skill-based gaming industry, has announced that it has raised $30 million at a pre-money valuation of $500 million in Series B funding round. This round of funding has been co-led by Silicon Valley based WestCap Group and Tomales Bay Capital, with participation from Matrix Partners India & Orios Venture Partners.

This round comes within 6 months after its Series A round at a $100 million valuation, which is more than 5x increase in the company’s valuation. With total funds raised now at $49 million, Zupee is backed by some of the best in the industry – WestCap Group, Matrix Partners India, Smile Group and Orios Partners. The company has an existing user base of over 10 million users. This new round of funding will be used to enable scaling efforts through expanded product portfolio, deepening market reach and hiring global talent.

Founded in 2018 by graduates of India’s leading institution IIT Kanpur, Dilsher Singh and Siddhant Saurabh, and incubated with funding from Smile Group, Zupee innovates by reengineering time-tested games and enabling them to enhance skill, joy and hope. The company’s portfolio has innovative gaming formats of multiple popular board games. The flagship gaming app hosts live trivia quiz tournaments and has seen over 250 million gameplays.

Dilsher Singh, Founder and CEO, Zupee said, “Games inherently celebrate the journey and nurture self-expression. That’s what I am committed to building with Zupee – an organization which enables people anywhere in the world to enhance their intrinsic happiness through games. We innovate to ensure our games provide an intersection between skill and entertainment, enabling our users to earn while they play. We thank our investors for believing in our purpose and enabling us to progress on our journey to transforming it to reality. Our journey has just begun; 10 million happy users in India, billions more globally we want to touch through our innovative games.”

“WestCap remains a key strategic investor and operating advisor to Zupee and we are increasing our interest again as part of this most recent funding round,” commented Laurence A. Tosi, Founder and Managing Partner of WestCap and early investor in Zupee. “Dilsher and his world class team have innovated some of the most compelling and widely used mobile games of skill in India. The enduring appeal of the Zupee games brings engagement, enjoyment and empowerment to the widest audience of any gaming platform in the market. This funding will enable the Zupee team to invest further in innovation, expand its suite of games and aggressively pursue international expansion. Zupee has exponentially accelerated its growth over the last 12 months, making them one of the largest and fastest growing game companies globally.”

According to industry reports, the global online gaming industry is estimated to grow from $98 billion in 2020 to $272 billion in 2030. In 2020, the industry saw over 53 billion mobile gaming downloads worldwide, of which 17% came from India. By the end of this year itself, there will be 2.9 billion players worldwide.

About Zupee

Zupee is an online skill-based gaming platform startup based in India that is focused on innovating and creating games that engage, entertain and empower users.
More information about the company and its founder is available at https://www.zupee.global/

For further information, please contact:
Vikas Kumar – 9811054648; vikas.kumar@zupee.in
Himani Rautela – 9711306576; himani.rautela@zupee.in