Category: Uncategorized

KUALA LUMPUR, May 12 (Bernama) — The delegation from Fujian Province to Indonesia has conducted a series of economic, trade, and cultural exchange and promotion activities, deepening the friendship between Fujian and Indonesia and promoting regional collaboration between the two sides.

Secretary of Fujian Provincial Committee and Chairman of the Standing Committee of Fujian Provincial People’s Congress, Zhou Zuyi led the delegation from May 8 to 10, according to the Information Office of Fujian Provincial People’s Government in a statement.

At the China-Indonesia “Two Countries, Twin Parks” (TCTP) Economic and Trade Cooperation Promotion Conference on May 9, 21 projects including the China-Indonesia TCTP Infrastructure Construction Fund, were signed on-site, with a total contract amount of 43.2 billion Chinese yuan. (100 Chinese yuan=RM64.41)

As early as 2019, Fujian proposed the China-Indonesia TCTP initiative in which the idea of establishing industrial parks in each respective country would lay the groundwork for exploring a cooperation mechanism featuring industrial, infrastructural connectivity and preferential policies, synergising China’s Belt and Road Initiative and Indonesia’s vision for the Global Maritime Fulcrum.

The Chinese Park is centered on the Fuzhou Yuanhong Investment Zone, with a planned area of 60 square kilometres, while the Indonesian Park includes Bintan Industrial Estate, Aviarna Industrial Estate and Batang Industrial Park, with a planned area of 87.6 square kilometres.

In addition, Fujian and Indonesia have deep historical roots. In ancient times, Fujian was a key starting point of the Maritime Silk Road, while Indonesia was a vital hub along the route, with the earliest and largest number of Fujian settlers.

Fujian and Indonesia are forging new friendship and drawing new blueprints for common progress, thanks to the long-standing maritime connection, with both sides having enjoyed closer interactions, tighter economic and trade cooperation as well as stronger growth potential, especially since the twinning of Fujian Province and Central Java Province in 2003.

— BERNAMA

KUALA LUMPUR, May 11 (Bernama) — Rakuten Group Inc and the All Japan University Basketball Federation (JUBF) announced they will be holding Sun Chlorella’s World University Basketball Series 2023 (WUBS 2023), from Aug 10 to 13 at the Yoyogi National Stadium Second Gymnasium in Tokyo, Japan.

A champions league-style tournament for world-class university basketball teams, WUBS 2023 is hosted by JUBF with operation support provided by Rakuten Sports, a Rakuten Group business focused on creating partnerships with professional athletes and other sports services.

According to a statement, with presenting partner Sun Chlorella, this year’s tournament marks the second in the series following last year’s inaugural WUBS and tickets for the games are now available for purchase on the official website.

This year, an expanded roster of universities will compete, with a total of eight men’s university basketball teams from seven countries and regions namely Australia, Chinese Taipei, Indonesia, Japan, the Philippines, South Korea and the United States.

“This year’s tournament will make for an even more competitive and exciting event with eight universities competing, including one from the National Collegiate Athletics Association (NCAA).

“It is my great hope that WUBS 2023 will contribute to the further growth of university basketball as well as enhance friendships across each country and region,” said JUBF president and World University Basketball Series Executive Committee chairman, Naoki Hayashi.

The teams will compete in a series of 12 knock-out tournament games over three days from Aug 11 to determine the 2023 series champion. An “Opening Night” exhibition game (tentative title) will be held on Aug 10, between the Japanese university men’s basketball select team (JUBF selection) and WUBS 2022 champions, Ateneo de Manila University.

Going forward Rakuten Sports and JUBF will continue to empower the next generation of rising athletes through engaging initiatives that unite fans and grow the sport of basketball in markets worldwide.

— BERNAMA

KUALA LUMPUR, May 5 (Bernama) — Hitachi Energy, a global technology leader that is advancing a sustainable energy future for all, has been selected by Pattern Energy to supply its high-voltage direct current (HVDC) and other advanced technologies for the SunZia Transmission Project.

It will connect the 3,500-megawatt (MW) SunZia Wind project in New Mexico to the power grid in Arizona and Southern California, which will be among the world’s largest transmission links delivering renewable energy.

Hitachi Energy’s HVDC Light technology will efficiently transfer and integrate huge volumes of wind power over more than 885 kilometres into the regional power grid.

According to a statement, this will significantly increase the availability of sustainable energy for homes and businesses throughout the region.

When complete, SunZia Wind will have a total power capacity of 3,500 MW, enough clean, renewable electricity to provide power to approximately three million Americans.

“We are proud to be advancing a sustainable energy future for all in the southwestern United States, enabling Pattern Energy to integrate emission-free electricity into the regional grid serving Arizona and Southern California.

“Our market-leading HVDC technologies combined with our execution expertise makes us the partner of choice to help the US achieve its carbon-neutral targets by efficiently and reliably maximising its renewable energy resources,” said Hitachi Energy’s Grid Integration business Managing Director, Niklas Persson.

Meanwhile, Pattern Energy Chief Executive Officer, Hunter Armistead said: “The use of HVDC technology will enhance power grid reliability and resilience and play a vital role in delivering clean energy and deploying a sustainable energy system in the US.”

The SunZia Transmission project is a 3,000 MW HVDC link between Corona, New Mexico and Pinal County, Arizona. Hitachi Energy has already started work on designing and engineering the two HVDC Light converter stations, one at either end of the link.

Hitachi Energy has partnered with Quanta Services Inc (Quanta) to provide a turnkey project solution for the SunZia project, including managing the HVDC construction and building installation at the associated project sites.

— BERNAMA

KUALA LUMPUR, May 3 (Bernama) — Universal Peace Federation (UPF) announced that global leaders are gathering in South Korea to discuss contemporary challenges to global well-being and ways to advance toward a “world culture of peace”.

According to a statement, the UPF Peace Summit 2023 is taking place for five days beginning May 2, with events in Seoul and nearby areas.

Delegations from over 150 countries, including heads of state, first ladies, and government leaders, will join parliamentarians, religious leaders, media professionals, business leaders and academicians to explore prospects for greater regional cooperation and increased efforts toward peacebuilding.

“We stand at a critical juncture in history, with rising threats to peace emerging across the globe; our awareness of this unstable context underscores the importance of our work during Peace Summit 2023,” said UPF International Chairman, Dr Thomas G. Walsh.

Beginning May 3, the events will be live-streamed from South Korea and will be accessible simultaneously in time zones around the world and in different languages, while the Opening Plenary will start on May 2 in the United States.

A highlight of this year’s summit is the inauguration of a new initiative called the International Elders Roundtable, which is designed to capture the wisdom and experience of elders to establish peace and stability in the society and the nation.

Peace Summit 2023 regional sessions will focus on peacebuilding in North America, Asia Pacific, Latin America and the Caribbean, Africa, Europe and the Middle East.

There is a track for youth and students, as well as breakout sessions around UPF’s seven primary associations. Laureates of the Sunhak Peace Prize will speak at a special luncheon in their honour.

Peace Summit 2023 is part of UPF’s ongoing series of peacebuilding activities, which are held under the theme of mutual prosperity, interdependence and shared universal values.

— BERNAMA

KUALA LUMPUR, April 26 (Bernama) — Singapore-based Mindverse AI kicked off its Closed Beta Launch of MindOS, its debut tool for creating customised virtual artificial intelligence (AI) beings for marketing, customer service, e-commerce, hospitality and events.

The webinar hosted journalists, developers, creators and distributors from across the world, all of whom were given cost-free beta licences for MindOS. A recording of the closed beta launch can be accessed here.

The firm’s Closed Beta launch followed its signed partnership and planned rollout of customisable embodied chatbots for one of the world’s three largest e-commerce platforms, a global beauty and cosmetics brand, and several e-commerce small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

Current legacy AI chatbots and LLMs face their fair share of challenges such as legacy chatbots lack flexibility and fluency, while LLMs are difficult to customise and control. MindOS provides a comprehensive solution to all challenges, which is Mind as a Service (MAAS).

In a statement, Mindverse Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Fangbo Tao said, “We envision MindOS as a middle layer between LLMs and businesses, in an attempt to democratise AI for everyone, levelling the playing field between joint corporations like Google and Microsoft and smaller businesses.”

MindOS generates AI beings with customisable appearances, personalities, knowledge domains and app integrations. The tool can be deployed as a chatbot or Intelligent Virtual Assistant (IVA) for service or sales, or as a process automation tool for workplace productivity and internal processes.

MindOS supports 30 languages, offers a big library of pre-designed AI beings, and infers intent accurately 97 per cent of the time. MindOS AI beings can be trained with an unsorted training data set such as an onboarding manual, product documents or full websites, without the need to structure the data.

With real-time searching and zero-shot training, those AI beings can be onboarded rapidly to consistently provide high-quality responses that are faithful to each brand’s voice.

— BERNAMA