Category: ASEAN

Billions Lost in Illicit Trade Critical to COVID-19 Recovery

Malaysia lockdown of RM300 billion shadow economy can help finance COVID-19 economic stimulus package

Heath Michael, Managing Director of RTBA

Heath Michael, Managing Director of RTBA

Retail and Trade Brand Advocacy (RTBA), a non-governmental organisation that safeguards business from criminal conduct, says strict action on illicit trade is critical at this time to recover billions of Ringgit that can then be channelled towards the COVID-19 economic recovery efforts.

Heath Michael, Managing Director of RTBA said: “The COVID-19 pandemic, compounded by plummeting oil and commodity prices and trade restrictions, is having a devastating impact on global and regional economies. Every Ringgit will count in the recovery, and radical action is needed from our governments.”

“This is all the more important given that the tax revenue to GDP ratio in Malaysia had declined progressively from 15.6% in 2012 to 12.0% in 2018 and 11.8% in January-September 2019.”

In Malaysia, the former Finance Minister, YB Lim Guan Eng, had stated recently that Malaysia’s shadow economy accounts for 21% of gross domestic product (GDP) and amounts to an estimated RM300 billion annually. Illicit trade forms a large part of this shadow economy.

“When compared with nearby countries, Malaysia’s shadow economy does not compare favourably. According to an International Monetary Fund Working Paper, Malaysia’s average ratio during the 1991-2015 period was 31.5% – higher than Singapore (11.9%), Australia (12.1%), China (14.7%), Hong Kong (14.7%), Vietnam (18.7%), India (23.9%), Indonesia (24.1%) and South Korea (25.7%).”

“Research shows that cracking down on this criminal activity can recover billions of Ringgit for governments,” he said.

Michael added: “Quick win strategies for Governments to shut down illicit trade include policies that addresses demand and supply factors, stricter border enforcement and enhanced collaborations at an intra-regional level. Times like these provide an excellent opportunity for countries to work together to support and rebuild economies.”

RTBA defines illicit trade as smuggling, counterfeit and tax evasion activities that cause Governments to lose tax revenues, legitimate businesses to be undermined and consumers being exposed to unregulated or unsafe products. These products include counterfeited or smuggled luxury goods, electronic products, alcoholic beverages and cigarettes that are usually sold illegally on the black market.

In order to facilitate policy reforms and pro-active initiatives to protect legitimate businesses and retailers across the region from criminal conduct and illicit trade, RTBA will be expanding its presence by establishing regional offices in ASEAN countries, including Malaysia.

About Retail & Trade Brand Advocacy

RTBA is a coalition of business, retailers and trademark holders working to protect the retail and supplier industries in the Asia-Pacific region from the impact of criminal conduct. Based in Victoria, Australia, RTBA’s focus is to unite, mobilise and advocate for effective change in regulatory, financial and taxation issues affecting the supply chain.

Today, RTBA continues to play an active role in the efforts to enhance product security and increasing penalties for criminals involved in black market operations; stamp out illegal activities including counterfeiting, piracy and illicit trade of consumer goods; protect brands & IP rights of suppliers, manufacturers, trademark owners and consumers as well as to provide positive regulatory and taxation solutions for all constituents of retail trade and supply chains. More information about RTBA is available on its website www.rtbacommerce.com

Issued on behalf of Retail & Trade Brand Advocacy
By Acendus Communications Sdn Bhd

For further information, please call I-mae Liew at +6012 383 5688

Yamada Consulting and ZICO Unveil Advisory and Consulting Services Platform To Bridge Urgent Funding Gap Between Japan and ASEAN SMEs

Targets Investments in US$10M to US$50M Range Initially

Yamada Consulting Group Co., Ltd. (“YCG”) of Japan and ZICO Holdings Inc. (“ZICO”) announced today they would offer a joint platform for advisory and consulting services to bridge a major funding gap between Japanese investors and ASEAN small and medium enterprises (“SMEs”), with initial target funding of between US$10 to US$50 million each.

The Strategic Collaboration Agreement was signed by Mr Keisaku Masuda, President and CEO of YCG, a leading independent consulting group based in Japan which is listed on the First Section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange, and Mr Chew Seng Kok, Managing Director of ZICO, a multi-disciplinary professional services firm listed on the Catalist Board of the Singapore Exchange.

The collaboration takes place amidst economic uncertainty, worsened by the Covid-19 crisis, as many Japanese corporations accelerate transformation through acquisitions in the face of an ageing population and slow domestic growth; while ASEAN SMEs urgently need access to more sources of funding beyond traditional bank borrowings.

With over 900 staff and offices in 13 Japanese cities, ASEAN, Shanghai and Los Angeles, YCG recorded an average of US$22.4 million in pre-tax profits for the last three financial years leading up to 31 March 2019. YCG focuses on, amongst others, restructuring and business succession consulting for Japanese corporations, many of whom seek acquisitions, alliances and extended business networks, offering major buy-side opportunities which the YCG-ZICO platform can address.

On the sell-side, ASEAN SMEs tend to be family-owned, dependent on internal resources and often lack access to bank borrowings and external investors. The Covid-19 situation may make this even more acute.

The confluence of these factors offers an exceptional opportunity for the YCG-ZICO platform to provide access to private equity and institutional investors from Japan looking for good business targets in ASEAN. While Japanese companies had made ad hoc attempts to seek such targets, the pace of transformation has accelerated recently.

YCG and ZICO will provide ASEAN SMEs with professional services support and access to these corporations as well as pre-IPO investors, and providers of mezzanine capital and private equity, initially targeting those in the range of US$10 million and US$50 million each. The platform will also leverage on YCG’s expertise to provide technical, consulting and corporate restructuring services. Projects will be geared towards achieving business succession and transformation for target companies and SMEs, eventually leading up to exits through IPOs or trade sales.

The impetus from the buy-side is driven in part by activist shareholders in Japan demanding better returns and performance. YCG’s Mr Masuda revealed that based on independent estimates[1], 63% of Japanese corporations are reviewing their direct investment portfolio every three months, with about half of them saying they intend to acquire companies over the next year.

Giving a breakdown of YCG’s investor base, Mr Masuda said the Food & Beverage and Engineering/Construction sectors each comprised 26.3% followed by Energy/Oil and Gas (15.8%), IT & Digital and Logistics (5.3% each) and Others (21.0%).

While YCG will introduce buy-side investors from Japan, ZICO will tap on its network of partners and professionals who can provide deep local knowledge and insights of target companies in ASEAN.

YCG and ZICO will help corporations seeking investments, divestment or other means to grow revenue and profitability. Both sides will develop and execute corporate finance and M&A advisory projects; identify and facilitate international buyers and sellers; create, secure and execute sell-side and buy-side mandates; and support geographic acquisition strategies of corporate finance clients.

Due to the concerns arising from the Covid-19 coronavirus health situation, the momentum to increase investment and flows and business relationships between the two regions is expected to gather pace, boosted also by the strong network and deep client relations that both parties have in their respective regions.

Commenting on the strategic collaboration, Mr Keisaku Masuda said: “Japanese corporations are more eager than before to capitalise on opportunities in ASEAN. The potential for a surge in investment flows between Japan and ASEAN, hastened by the Covid-19 situation, makes it more conducive for both parties to collaborate. We see ZICO as a partner who shares our aspirations in seeking to build economic bridges between the two regions.”

“This strategic collaboration lays the foundation of a platform to provide advisory and consulting services to Japanese investors and businesses in ASEAN. It will facilitate the provision of such services between Japanese companies who are seeking acquisition targets and ASEAN businesses, particularly SMEs, who intend to obtain investments or divest their businesses to international investors,” said Mr Chew Seng Kok.

In line with the Strategic Collaboration, ZICO also announced separate agreements with two Malaysian sell-side advisory companies. They are Sage 3 Sdn. Bhd., a leading corporate finance advisory firm offering a range of services including debt restructuring and financing, and Andersen Corporate Restructuring Sdn. Bhd., a boutique corporate restructuring firm. Both firms have an extensive client base and strong professional networks in Malaysia.

The collaboration with these leading independent Malaysian firms provides valuable access for businesses-seeking capital and investments for expansion from Japan. Consequently, this will play a key role in strengthening the collaboration between ZICO and YCG by facilitating the identification of acquisition and investment targets for Japanese investors in ASEAN.

[1] Source: EY 17 June 2019, Global M&A appetite at 10-year high fueled by portfolio reshaping (https://www.eyjapan.jp/newsroom/2019/2019-06-17-en.html)

About Yamada Consulting Group

Listed on the First Section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange, Yamada Consulting Group Co., Ltd. engages in the provision of financial consulting services. It operates through the following business segments: Business Consulting, Real Estate Consulting, Financial Planner (FP) related, and Investment and Fund. The Business Consulting segment includes business revival, operations, and financial consulting. The FP related segment includes marketing course, corporate training, and insurance consulting for financial planners. The Investment and Fund segment includes composition and management of investment partnership and investment business. The company was founded on July 10, 1989 and is headquartered in Tokyo, Japan. For more information, please visit https://www.yamada-cg.co.jp/en/

About ZICO Holdings Inc.

ZICO, an integrated provider of multidisciplinary professional services focused on the ASEAN region, provides advisory and transactional services, management and support and licensing services. Through its multidisciplinary services, regional capabilities and local insights, ZICO enables its clients to capitalise on opportunities across Southeast Asia.

The Group currently operates two key business segments: (i) Advisory and Transactional Services (“ATS”); and (ii) management support services business & licensing services (“MSSL”).

Within the ATS, ZICO provides legal services, Shariah advisory, trust advisory, corporate services, consulting services, investor services, wealth management services, corporate finance advisory services and immigration services. ZICO provides legal services only to the extent permitted in the relevant jurisdictions. In other jurisdictions, ZICO cooperates with and supports independent and autonomous law firms who are members of the ZICOlaw Network, in compliance with local professional regulations. Presently, ZICO provides legal services in Myanmar, Lao PDR and Thailand.

For the MSSL segment, the Group provides regional management services and business support services to members of the ZICOlaw Network and certain entities within the Group.

ZICO also engages in the licensing of the “ZICO”, “ZICOlaw” and “ZICOlaw Trusted Business Advisor” trademarks to members of the ZICOlaw Network and certain entities within the Group.

ZICO has business operations in Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia (including Labuan), Myanmar, Singapore and Thailand. The Group augments its existing regional presence with that of the ZICOlaw network to extend its reach to all 10 countries in ASEAN. For more information, please visit http://www.zicoholdings.com.

For media queries, please contact:

WeR1 Consultants Pte Ltd
3 Phillip Street #12-01, Royal Group Building
Singapore 048693
Tel: +65 6737 4844
Email: zico@wer1.net

Yamada Consulting Group Co., Ltd. Singapore Branch
78 Shenton Way #24-01
Singapore 079120
Tel: +65 6221 7727
Email: asean-support@yamada-cg.co.jp

The Ramco Innovation Lab Singapore demos Touch-less Attendance System with Thermal Scan

– RamcoGEEK, Facial Attendance System with Temperature Recording, unveiled
– Organizations Protect Staff, Enable Contact Tracing for COVID-19 Virus Threat

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The Ramco Innovation Lab in Singapore today unveiled an advanced ‘Touch-less’ attendance system with embedded temperature scanning, to improve employee safety right from the entrance. The RamcoGEEK facial recognition system uses IoT based sensor doors, enabling organizations to move towards ‘Touch-less’ attendance and workplace access in the wake of COVID-19, and the focus back on ‘Hygiene’. Ramco will offer the new system on a subsidized basis to Singapore enterprise (250+ employees), expressing gratitude to the city and its workforce where the Innovation Lab and Regional HQ are based.

The Ramco Innovation Lab introduced today’s innovation based on Ramco’s own facial-recognition attendance system, deployed globally across numerous organizations, combined with a thermal imaging device for temperature measurement and associated software. This enables organizations to track staff or visitors with high temperatures that may indicate infection, and build procedures to avoid further contamination caused by biometric scanners. Ramco Systems, headquartered in Chennai, India, is a global enterprise software specialist which has pioneered many HR-related innovations.

RamcoGEEK for Attendance with Temperature Capturing can detect and match the faces of staff members and mark their attendance along with temperature. Where facial-based attendance is a privacy concern, enterprises can replace it with voice to register access. The system is linked to IoT sensor-powered doors which can restrict access in cases where temperature is higher than normal and auto apply leave on behalf of employees. It communicates the information to HR and management in real-time and tracks the movements of a high-temperature staff in the workplace.

RamcoGEEK for Visitors system can send notifications when it encounters a person with a very high temperature to the facility manager/facility admin and track the movement of that person within that premise.

RamcoGEEK for Contact Tracing can send notifications to all those employees, customers, vendors and others interacted with in-person, in the event any person develops COVID-19 symptoms. Reverse Tracing can also be initiated based on data around positive COVID-19 cases from the external environment. For example, in a positive case of COVID-19 at a restaurant, RamcoGEEK can alert employees who dined at the restaurant to be quarantined based on bills raised.

“We have a major global health pandemic that has affected many. The spread of the disease has brought the focus back on Hygiene and Health of Employees. We built this application to help better address a crisis through technology. Robust containment through a robust attendance and access system with zero contact and temperature measurement can be a key to avoiding easy spread of the virus that can take place with a Biometric access system,” said Mr. Virender Aggarwal, CEO of Ramco Systems.

“The launch of the advanced facial attendance system by Ramco Systems is timely, given global concerns over pandemic threats. We continue to see companies undertake a spectrum of innovation activities from Singapore, as they develop new products and solutions to address the needs and challenges of today,” said Ms. Junie Fo, Director of Investment Facilitation at the Economic Development Board (EDB), which is backing the new Innovation Lab in Singapore.

Complete with chatbots, voice and facial recognition-based workforce management, organizations can deploy Ramco’s HR with Global Payroll on-cloud, on premise or leverage as a managed service. The multi-tenant architecture with embedded intelligence and device agnostic features now serves more than 500+ clients worldwide. With innovative concepts in artificial intelligence (AI) & machine learning, context-sensitive pop-ups and chatbots as self-service customer support, and voice-activated HR transactions based on Google Assistant & Alexa, Ramco has been setting the benchmark for innovation in this segment.

With statutory compliance across 45+ countries covering ANZ, Asia including Japan & China, Middle-East & Africa, UK and Ireland, Ramco’s HR with Global Payroll is available in English, Japanese, Mandarin, Bahasa, Thai, Malay and Arabic, among others. To further explore this solution, visit https://tinyurl.com/skgp7ka

Ramco is a next-gen enterprise software player disrupting the market with its multi-tenant cloud and mobile-based enterprise software in HR and Global Payroll, ERP and M&E MRO for Aviation. Part of the USD 1 billion Ramco Group, Ramco Systems focuses on Innovation and Culture to differentiate itself in the marketplace.

On the Innovation front, Ramco has been moving towards Active ERP leveraging AI and Machine Learning by building features such as Talk It – which allows transactions to be carried out by simple voice commands, Bot it – which allows users to complete transactions using natural conversations; Mail It – transact with the application by just sending an email; HUB It – a one screen does it all concept built to address all activities of a user; Thumb It – mobility where the system presents users with option to choose rather than type values and Prompt It – a cognitive ability which will let the system complete the transaction and prompts the user for approval.

With 1900+ employees spread across 24 offices, globally, Ramco follows a flat and open culture where employees are encouraged to share knowledge and grow. No Hierarchies, Cabin-less Offices, Respect work and not titles, among others are what makes the team say, Thank God it’s Monday!

For more information, please visit https://www.ramco.com/hcm
Follow Ramco on Twitter @ramcosystems / @ramcohcm and stay tuned to http://blogs.ramco.com

Please contact:
Vinitha Ramani
+91 44 6653 4204
vinitharamani@ramco.com

Retarus WebExpress Offers Free Communication with Staff in Times of Crisis

As the wave of COVID-19 infections grow, an increasing number of companies are restricting business trips for their employees and requesting staff instead to opt for home office and virtual meetings. To handle the resulting communication with staff, Munich cloud service provider Retarus is now granting its existing customers free use of its market-leading multichannel messaging service, Retarus WebExpress.

With this one-to-many service, enterprises can keep their employees well-informed about the latest developments with timely yet personalized messages. This free limited offer is available until April 30th, 2020. Customers can find out more about this opportunity from their Retarus representatives in their local country organization.

Retarus WebExpress (https://www.retarus.com/services/webexpress/) enables companies to send email, fax, and SMS using a single, uniform browser interface. Templates can easily be set up in advance. Should an emergency suddenly come to pass, these templates can then be adapted and sent out in nearly instantly. To save valuable time in critical situations, existing distribution lists can be imported to the platform with just a few clicks.

Several communication channels can be served simultaneously from the same distribution list, should this be required. In doing so, the specific features of each channel are supported – no matter whether the key information needs to be contained in 160 characters in an SMS, shared on a fax page, or sent in the form of an email. With detailed analysis of delivery and throughput rates in real time, companies see whether a message has reached its recipients immediately after it has been sent out. If necessary, recipients who were not reachable can also be contacted automatically by means of an alternative communication channel.

About Retarus

With its outstanding solutions and services, intelligent infrastructure, and patented technology, Retarus manages communication for companies worldwide. Retarus’ state-of-the-art technologies, highly available data centers, and innovative cloud messaging platform offer maximum security, maximum performance, and business continuity. With experience in steering information flows at the enterprise level, Retarus ensures that information is transferred securely and reliably to the right place, at the right time, in the right format – since 1992 and with now 15 subsidiaries on four continents. Seventy-five percent of DAX 30, half of all EURO STOXX 50, and 25 percent of S&P100 companies rely on Retarus services. Our long-standing customers include Adidas, Bayer, BNP Paribas, Bosch, Continental, DHL, DZ BANK, Fujitsu, Goldman Sachs, Honda, Linde, PSA, Puma, Sixt, T-Systems, Sony and Zeiss.

Media Contact:
Retarus (Asia) Pte. Ltd.
Dylan Castagne, Managing Director
T: +65 6323 7354
E: press@sg.retarus.com

Coronavirus Drug Development Update from NanoViricides, Inc.

NanoViricides, Inc. (NYSE American: NNVC) (the “Company”) a leader in the development of highly effective antiviral therapies based on a novel nanomedicines platform, is providing an update on its efforts towards drug development for the current novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 that causes COVID-19.

The Company has completed the synthesis of a number of nanoviricide drug candidates for testing in just a few weeks after identification of virus-binding ligands. This was possible because the Company is boot-strapping its efforts on the basis of its inventory of novel custom chemicals in hand. Additionally, the polymer backbone was previously manufactured in multi-kilogram quantities. However, there can be no assurance that any of these candidates would show sufficient effectiveness and safety for human clinical development at this time.

The Company has acquired and expanded two different, low-threat circulating coronaviruses in its own BSL2 lab, and has already expanded them to enable testing of drug candidates. One of these coronaviruses, namely NL63, uses the same ACE2 receptor on human cells as SARS-CoV-2, although it does not cause a similar severe disease in humans.

If the Company’s test candidates are effective against these cell culture studies against coronaviruses, then that would provide a strong rationale that they may be expected to be effective against the current SARS-CoV-2. Presently, the Company does not have any collaboration established for further testing of its drug candidates against SARS-CoV-2. The Company is working to establish such collaborations, however, there can be no assurance that we will be successful in establishing the necessary collaborations or that our drug candidates will succeed in further testing. In the past, the Company has established and worked on collaborations with the U.S. Center for Diseases Control and Prevention (CDC), as well as the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID).

The Company has already successfully developed antiviral drug testing assays based on cell culture infection of certain low-threat coronaviruses viruses in our own BSL2 certified virology lab. Development of an assay to test the effectiveness of a drug candidate is an important milestone in the drug development process. We have been able to complete this milestone in just a few weeks because of the extensive experience and expertise in medium throughput drug testing antiviral assays development of our Senior Virologist.

Testing of our drug candidates against these BSL2 coronavirus strains is expected to begin shortly in our BSL2 virology lab.

As of March 11th, SARS-CoV-2 has caused at least 800 confirmed cases in more than 30 states, and the virus has led to more than 26 deaths in the U.S., with area lockdowns, quarantines, and state of emergency being declared in several states. The entire country of Italy is under quarantine. Japan is also experiencing a severe outbreak. This COVID-19 outbreak has caused cases in at least 99 countries, with confirmed cases totaling over 110,000, of which 62,000 have already recovered, with deaths of over 3,800 patients, according to CBS news (https://www.cbsnews.com/live-updates/coronavirus-outbreak-death-toll-us-infections-latest-news-updates-2020-03-09/). The health risks associated with the virus rise significantly with age and many younger, otherwise healthy people who contract it might show only mild symptoms, if any. It appears that the outbreaks in China and in South Korea are now showing signs of being controlled, with new cases having decreased significantly.

The U.S. Government has approved $8.3 Billion for COVID-19 response that includes development of drugs as well as vaccines, patient care, containment, and education, in a holistic approach.

Although vaccine development has started very quickly against the SARS-CoV-2, an effective vaccine may take at least 12-18 months before it can be used to treat patients.

Viruses are known to escape antibody drugs and vaccines via mutations, although, in contrast, the NanoViricides platform technology enables development of a drug that a virus is unlikely to escape by mutation. This is because we develop biomimetics that are designed to interfere with the virus binding to its cognate cellular receptor, and are further capable of disabling the virus from binding to cells. Coronaviruses mutate less rapidly than other RNA viruses such as influenza and HIV.

One of the coronaviruses we are using for testing of our drug candidates uses the same ACE2 receptor as the current SARS-CoV-2 virus (aka nCoV-2019). However, this coronavirus does not cause similar, severe disease in humans. Another coronavirus we are testing against uses a different but somewhat related receptor (in terms of biophysics). Investigating against both of these strains would allow us to examine which of the test candidates have more broad-spectrum effectiveness. However, there can be no assurance that successful results against these forms of coronavirus will lead to similar results against nCoV-2019 aka SARS-CoV-2. Moreover, the path to typical or standard drug development of any pharmaceutical product is extremely lenghty and requires substantial capital. However, regulatory agencies in China created expedited processes to enable rapid clinical testing of exploratory drug candidates. Accelerated pathways were also developed for enabling anti-Ebola clinical drug candidates in the 2017-18 epidemic in DRC. Nevertheless, there can be no assurance that even successful results against SARS-CoV-2 will lead to successful clinical trials or a successful pharmaceutical product, which is true of every drug development effort against SARS-CoV-2 at present.

Previously, on January 30th, the Company confirmed that it is working on a drug to treat the SARS-Cov-2 virus infections. The Company said that it had successfully completed the important milestone of finding potential virus-binding ligands that mimic the ACE2 interaction with SARS-CoV (2002) using molecular modeling. The current coronavirus strain, namely SARS-CoV-2 is closely related to the 2002 SARS-CoV, and uses the same human cellular receptor. We have now completed the next two milestones, namely synthesis of test candidates, and development of anti-CoV assays for testing them.

About NanoViricides

NanoViricides, Inc. (www.nanoviricides.com) is a development stage company that is creating special purpose nanomaterials for antiviral therapy. The Company’s novel nanoviricide(R) class of drug candidates are designed to specifically attack enveloped virus particles and to dismantle them. Our lead drug candidate is NV-HHV-101 with its first indication as dermal topical cream for the treatment of shingles rash. The Company is also developing drugs against a number of viral diseases including oral and genital Herpes, viral diseases of the eye including EKC and herpes keratitis, H1N1 swine flu, H5N1 bird flu, seasonal Influenza, HIV, Hepatitis C, Rabies, Dengue fever, and Ebola virus, among others.

The Company’s technology is based on broad, exclusive, sub-licensable, field licenses to drugs developed in these areas from TheraCour Pharma, Inc. The Company does not currently have a license to the coronavirus field, however, TheraCour has not denied any licenses to the Company. The Company typically begins the licensing process only after demonstrating effectiveness of some candidates in optimization stage.

This press release contains forward-looking statements that reflect the Company’s current expectation regarding future events. Actual events could differ materially and substantially from those projected herein and depend on a number of factors. Certain statements in this release, and other written or oral statements made by NanoViricides, Inc. are “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. You should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements since they involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which are, in some cases, beyond the Company’s control and which could, and likely will, materially affect actual results, levels of activity, performance or achievements. The Company assumes no obligation to publicly update or revise these forward-looking statements for any reason, or to update the reasons actual results could differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements, even if new information becomes available in the future.

Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from the company’s expectations include, but are not limited to, those factors that are disclosed under the heading “Risk Factors” and elsewhere in documents filed by the company from time to time with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission and other regulatory authorities. Although it is not possible to predict or identify all such factors, they may include the following: demonstration and proof of principle in preclinical trials that a nanoviricide is safe and effective; successful development of our product candidates; our ability to seek and obtain regulatory approvals, including with respect to the indications we are seeking; the successful commercialization of our product candidates; and market acceptance of our products. FDA refers to US Food and Drug Administration. IND application refers to “Investigational New Drug” application. CMC refers to “Chemistry, Manufacture, and Controls”.

Contact:
NanoViricides, Inc.
info@nanoviricides.com

Public Relations Contact:
MJ Clyburn
TraDigital IR
clyburn@tradigitalir.com

SOURCE: NanoViricides, Inc.

TIME Interconnect Fights Against COVID-19 with Public and Resumes Work Smoothly

TIME Interconnect Technology Limited (“TIME Interconnect”, Stock Code: 1729.HK, with its subsidiaries collectively referred to as the “Group”) is pleased to announce that its wholly-owned subsidiary TIME Interconnect Technology (Huizhou) Limited has gradually resumed production in early February, and the Company’s work resumption rate has reached 100%. The Group actively fulfilled its corporate social responsibility and spared no effort in the prevention and control of the COVID-19. In order to ensure Company’s safe operation during the outbreak of the epidemic, TIME Interconnect Technology (Huizhou) Limited has actively responded to central government’s call, supported the work of local government, and strictly implemented the prevention and control measures in accordance with the requirement of the local government, so as to ensure the health, safety and smooth work of the Group’s employees.

Mr. Zhou Yinfa, Deputy General Manager of TIME Interconnect Technology (Huizhou) Limited, said, “Since the outbreak of the COVID-19, the Company’s management has attached great importance to the work of anti-epidemic and immediately set up a leading group that is responsible for the work. The Company quickly organized staff to carry out the tracking of employee’s itinerary, and completed the investigation of the whole factory’s personnel itinerary on January 23.” At the same time, the Company also set up 35 isolation rooms for the isolation and observation of the returned employees outside Huizhou City. It also strictly implemented the entry management of the factory, regularly disinfected the public areas in the factory, and require the staff to dine in batches in the canteen so as to ensure the safety of dining environment. As an anti-epidemic pioneer, the Company work hard to make sure its employees to work in a safe environment.

TIME Interconnect Technology (Huizhou) Limited is a highly demand enterprise for the production of anti-epidemic products, and it is the key supplier of the raw materials for medical diagnosis equipment. Being well aware of its important role in the prevention and control of COVID-19, the Group has fully supported the Chinese government and coordinated all resources to resume the Company’s production as soon as possible. It has enhanced its production capacity and ensured the operation of the production lines of diagnostic equipment can resume quickly and smoothly, so as to meet the supply of raw materials for medical diagnostic equipment and make greatest contribution to the society and the whole country.

Mr. Lo Chung Wai Paul, Chairman of TIME Interconnect, said, “As a reputable supplier of customised cable assemblies for medical equipment, TIME Interconnect has always attached great importance to corporate social responsibility. The Group pays attention to the health of every employee as well as all citizens in China. In the face of the epidemic, we will do our best to support the Chinese government in the prevention and control of the epidemic. The Group will take all effective measures to make sure that employees can work in a safe environment. On the premise of employee and public health, we will accelerate the operation of raw material production lines for medical diagnosis equipment, increase equipment supply and fully support the government and front-line personnel. We believe that as long as we work together to fight against the epidemic, it will pass soon. The Group will do its best to provide customers with high-quality products and services while preventing the epidemic.”

About TIME Interconnect Technology Limited
TIME Interconnect Technology Limited is a well-established supplier of custom cable assemblies with more than 20 years of experience in the cable assembly industry. The Group primarily manufactures and supplies a wide variety of copper and optical fibre cable assemblies which are produced in accordance with the specifications and designs of individual customer. The products of the Group are used by a number of established PRC and international customers in a variety of market sectors including 5G telecommunications, data centre, industrial and medical equipment.

Dr Charles Chen Yidan, Founder of Yidan Prize, Presents the Prestigious Award to Professor Usha Goswami at Cambridge University

Dr Charles Chen Yidan, founder of the Yidan Prize visited the United Kingdom this week to present the prestigious award to Professor Usha Goswami at the University of Cambridge.

“We hold high respect for Professor Goswami’s visionary approach to answer for our children’s well-being and their future. It is exciting to see her ground-breaking work setting the scientific basis in understanding how we can help every child succeed. As education continues to drive forward fundamental changes in our societies, it is our hope that deeper knowledge into brain functions would open new possibilities for better access to learning,” Dr Charles Chen Yidan said at the award ceremony.

Usha Goswami is Professor of Cognitive Developmental Neuroscience at the University of Cambridge, and a Fellow of St John’s College Cambridge. She founded and serves as Director of the world’s first Center for Neuroscience in Education. Her research revealed the brain basis of rhythm perception, showing how this neural process is impaired in developmental dyslexia. These discoveries are enabling transformative educational interventions that have the potential to benefit millions of children worldwide.

Professor Usha Goswami was awarded the Yidan Prize for Education Research in September 2019 for her ground-breaking neuroscience research in understanding brain function, which allows educators to design different teaching pedagogy, techniques and tools to help children with dyslexia and special needs to learn languages more effectively.

The University’s Vice-Chancellor, Professor Stephen Toope, remarked at the ceremony: “We are incredibly grateful to Charles Yidan Chen for establishing the Yidan Prize. It is a prize that inspires and encourages educational innovation and research, and which will inspire and encourage the generations to follow. Congratulations to Professor Usha Goswami, who embodies the University’s mission to contribute to society through the pursuit of education, learning and research and research at the highest international levels of excellence.”

“I am deeply honored to receive the Yidan Prize, and to have my research in educational neuroscience, language and literacy recognized by the Foundation. I whole-heartedly endorse the Yidan Prize Foundation’s mission to create a better world through education. Children’s language and reading skills are fundamental to their ability to access the opportunities offered by education,” Professor Goswami said.

As a Yidan Prize Laureate, Professor Goswami received a gold medal and HK$30 million (around US$3.9 million), half of which is a cash prize and the other half a project fund.

Professor Goswami plans to use the Yidan Prize project fund for a dedicated neuroimaging investigation of developmental language disorder (DLD). Children with DLD have difficulties in acquiring oral language in the absence of some neurodevelopmental issues. Worldwide, it is estimated that 7% of children in every culture are affected – over 15 million children.

The research data empowered by the Yidan Prize project fund will potentially reveal the brain basis of DLD, leading to the development of innovative intervention techniques to enable children with DLD to access education normally.

Further the neural data will be rich enough to create a classifier by using machine learning approaches to identify children at risk of DLD, enabling early screening in infancy, which is much needed but currently impossible. By collecting matched neural data to that with dyslexic children, Professor Goswami can also create a classifier to discriminate the DLD brain response from the dyslexic brain response, this would be ground-breaking.

“We are so pleased to be working closely with Professor Goswami, supporting her inspiring work which could benefit millions of children. We all know that having the right environment for individuals to thrive is so important, and we greatly anticipate that, here in Cambridge, exciting findings will open doors for passionate educators to apply innovative technology and solutions to create a more inclusive global community,” Dr Charles Chen Yidan said.

“The award of the Yidan Prize enables me to extend my rhythm research into oral language difficulties, a long-term ambition of mine. I’m incredibly grateful for what the prize makes possible,” Professor Goswami said.

About the Yidan Prize

Founded in 2016 by Dr Charles Chen Yidan, a core founder of Tencent, the Yidan Prize has a mission of creating a better world through education. It consists of two awards, the Yidan Prize for Education Research and the Yidan Prize for Education Development. Yidan Prize Laureates each receives a gold medal and a total sum of HK$30 million (around US$3.9 million), half of which is a cash prize while the other half is a project fund. To ensure transparency and sustainability, the prize is managed by the Yidan Prize Foundation and governed by an independent trust with an endowment of HK$2.5 billion (around US$323 million). Through a series of initiatives, the prize aims to establish a platform for the global community to engage in conversation around education and to play a role in education philanthropy.

SOE Hospitals Holding Pertamedika set to tackle Coronavirus Spread

Ministry of SOE of Republic of Indonesia Erick Thohir

Indonesia’s government, through the State-Owned Enterprise (SOE) Ministry, instructed government-owned hospitals in the Indonesian Healthcare Corporation (IHC) Pertamedika to establish crisis centers and isolation rooms during the emergency period to handle the spread of coronavirus (COVID-19).

Moreover, the hospitals should be equipped with other medical supplies, including long-sleeves biohazard gowns, aprons, disposable head caps, N95 masks, safety goggles, gloves, and boots.

“State-owned hospitals are located in almost every area in Indonesia. Hence, crisis centers should be built as a precautionary measure against the emergence of patients suspected of having contracted the coronavirus,” Minister of State-Owned Enterprises Erick Thohir noted in a statement received here, Monday.

Reports were received of at least six confirmed cases of COVID-19 since March 2. All six patients are being quarantined in Jakarta.

In response to the first few confirmed cases in Indonesia, IHC Pertamedika, a network of 65 state-owned hospitals across Indonesia, prepared supporting facilities and COVID-19 alert teams, as well as standard operational procedures to handle coronavirus cases.

Chief Executive Officer of IHC Pertamedia, Dr Fathema Djan Rachmat stated that negative pressure isolation rooms were prepared to handle the increasing number of patients.

“We are also considering the construction of a field hospital equipped with various treatment facilities for coronavirus patients,” she stated.

Rachmat spoke of innovations made to the tracking system for suspected COVID-19 cases. The Chinese government has successfully applied such tracking systems.

“We are ready to conduct this simulation,” she emphasized.

Furthermore, other SOEs have contributed to the efforts to prevent the spread of coronavirus in the country, including the SOE in the pharmaceutical field, Bio Farma, which has begun the research for a COVID-19 vaccine.

PT Angkasa Pura I and II, operational management companies of the country’s airports, had prepared isolated parking areas for aircraft that came in from countries with confirmed coronavirus infections.

Meanwhile, SOEs in the transportation sector, including railway management company PT Kereta Api Indonesia, have activated their onboard clinics and inspections on several routes. — Antara.