wonderland

KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 9 (Bernama) — The Fifth International Marine Protected Area Congress (IMPAC5) which runs from Feb 3-9 in Vancouver, Canada, brings together ocean conservation managers and practitioners, global experts and high-level officials, to take a stand of protecting the oceans.

“Mary Kay is delighted to support The Nature Conservancy (TNC), in collaboration with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and other experts from around the world, in an effort to protect our world’s most precious assets: oceans.

“These organisations are on the frontlines of the fight to preserve our waterways, and we are hopeful that with our funding support, they will have the tools and resources needed to ensure our oceans are healthy for generations to come,” said Mary Kay Chief Operating Officer, Deborah Gibbins in a statement.

IMPAC5 is known as the preeminent conference for the exchange of knowledge within the global community of marine conservation managers, practitioners and decision makers.

It provides the opportunity to highlight the latest science and share experiences, and best practices to strengthen the conservation of marine biodiversity, and protect the natural and cultural heritage of the ocean.

A symposium at IMPAC5 titled “Innovations in Improving Marine Protected Areas (MPAs)” provided an exclusive preview of a new online platform for the planning and management of MPAs, guiding MPA planners and practitioners via practical approaches to addressing key challenges.

This symposium brought together voices from all sides of marine conservation, emphasising the importance of knowledge sharing to improve ocean management amongst stakeholders at every level.

Meanwhile, TNC Global Reefs Lead, Dr Lizzie McLeod said: “Harnessing lessons learned and best practices globally to achieve these ambitious targets in ocean management is a conservation priority including the co-creation of solutions with key partners.”

Marine managers are better able to tackle major threats facing marine ecosystems worldwide by leveraging scientific innovation and new technologies, and global best practices.

— BERNAMA

KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 8 (Bernama) — Pluglink, an electric vehicle (EV) charging platform, has signed an investment agreement with KDB KIAMCO, the largest alternative asset manager in Korea, for a total of 15 billion Korean won in EV charger assets. (1,000 Korean won=RM3.42)

Acknowledged for its specialty in finance, Pluglink introduced alternative investments in EV charger assets for the first time in Korea, and will provide complete charging services for more than 7,400 EV chargers through this investment.

In a statement, Pluglink said by signing the investment agreement, the company raised investment worth 17 billion Korean won in cumulative assets including 2 billion Korean won investment by local city gas companies.

As a result, Pluglink has so far attracted a total of 30 billion Korean won, including 13 billion Korean won of cumulative corporate investment.

Its Chief Executive Officer, In-cheol Kang said: “Starting with this first investment for EV charger assets, we plan to expand the scale of charger-oriented finance and proceed with various structured finance.”

Pluglink is the fastest growing company in the market that made contracts for more than 10,000 EV chargers until now and operates 1,100 EV charging stations in Korea.

— BERNAMA

LONDON, Jan 31 (Bernama) — The UK-Malaysia Clinical Research Partnership forum organised by Clinical Research Malaysia, was successfully wrapped up on Sunday. The event took place at Malaysia Hall, London and had over 80 attendees in the field of clinical research participating. Most of the attendees were part of prestigious universities, industry and hospitals who came from areas of Oxford, Cambridge, Manchester, Plymouth as well as Sheffield. The forum was also graced by both Malaysia’s Minister of Health, Dr Zaliha Mustafa and Director General of Health, Tan Sri Dato Seri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah.

With the theme ‘Making It Happen’, the forum’s objective was to bring Malaysian clinical researchers in the UK together to discuss about the areas of research interest that can be explored together with Ministry of Health Malaysia. “We hope to leverage on the Malaysian diaspora in the UK to form collaborative research with our local researchers and clinicians back home. With more than 1000 active and experienced clinical trialists in Malaysia delivering quality research in their respective institution, I believe that with the right partnerships we could leverage on common research interests and areas between both countries and make these projects happen”, said Dr Zaliha in her opening address.

The forum was moderated by Professor Eric Lim, Consultant Thoracic Surgeon from the Royal Brompton Hospital and panellists include Associate Professor Dr Masliza from University of Oxford, Dr Joseph Cheriyan from University of Cambridge, Dr Azlisham Mohd Nor from University Hospital Plymouth, Dr Nubli Mustafa from AstraZeneca Cambridge and Dr Ezanul Wahab from MAC Clinical Research. The panel members shared their research experiences and insights on the current and future collaboration in their field of expertise.

In closing the forum, Tan Sri Dato’ Seri Dr Noor Hisham, Director-General of Health also shared his aspiration in hoping these partnerships would enable knowledge transfer between researchers in both nations in addition to further building the research expertise in Malaysia through training and development programs.

About Clinical Research Malaysia (CRM)

Established by Malaysian Ministry of Health in 2012, Clinical Research Malaysia exists to advance global health solutions for a brighter, more hopeful future for the people by providing speedy and reliable end-to-end clinical research support for quality studies. CRM’s innate understanding of the local clinical research landscape with the international standards of operations coupled with fundamental backing of the government ministries provides the organisation an incomparable advantage to work with partners from the nascent stages of development to materialisation of the end product, in order to deliver better treatment and high-skilled job opportunities.

SOURCE: Clinical Research Malaysia (CRM)

http://mrem.bernama.com/viewsm.php?idm=45331

KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 31 (Bernama) — The Japan Livestock Products Export Promotion Council (J-LEC) has announced the production and broadcast of a programme titled “The Masterfully Marbled World of Japanese Wagyu Beef” on NHK WORLD-JAPAN on Feb 1.

According to a statement, the NHK programme introduces the profound world of Wagyu beef and its global appeal from the stage at the “Wagyu Olympics”, one of Japan’s largest food-related exhibitions.

In 2022, Kagoshima Prefecture hosted the 12th National Competitive Exhibition of Wagyu, also known as the Wagyu Olympics, the largest Wagyu beef competition in Japan, and 438 cattle qualified from 41 prefectures in Japan gathered for the breeding cattle division.

This competition is held once every five years in different locations in Japan to determine which Wagyu production farm is leading the continued pursuit of the world’s highest-quality beef.

Tracing the history of the Wagyu Olympics over the past 50 years reveals a transformation of working cattle in rural areas that were selected to be genetically improved into beef of the highest quality, subsequently becoming one of Japan’s major exports.

In 2021, Japanese beef export value exceeded 50 billion yen (approximately US$500 million according to the exchange rate at the time) and the Japanese government has set a goal of tripling that value by 2025. (US$1=RM4.245)

Wagyu is expected to set a new standard for increasing exports of other Japanese products related to agriculture, forestry and fisheries, as well as Japanese food and culinary exports.

J-LEC is a Japanese organisation consisting of multiple local municipal representatives and sharing information with the world about Japanese livestock farming and the meat and egg production industries.

— BERNAMA

KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 30 (Bernama) — Alipay and AlipayHK have registered huge rebounds in cross-border transactions between Jan 21-27, the seven-day-long public holiday in the Chinese mainland as China relaxed its travel restrictions, celebrating the Year of the Rabbit.

Between Jan 21 and 26, the year-on-year (yoy) growth of outbound transaction volumes by Alipay users has surged by 150 per cent, with the Hong Kong and Macao S.A.R.s being the most popular destinations for mainland consumers, based on the number of transactions during this Chinese New Year period.

“Specifically, the number of transactions through Alipay from Chinese mainland tourists to Macao increased by 100 per cent, while that from Chinese mainland tourists to HongKong increased by nearly 70 per cent,” said Alipay+ in a statement.

Alipay currently serves more than one billion users and has transformed from a trusted payment tool to a digital open platform over the years.

Besides Hong Kong and Macao, Southeast Asian countries have reclaimed their importance as one of the most popular destinations for outbound Chinese mainland travellers.

The top five Southeast Asian markets with the highest transaction volume by Alipay users during the first six days of the holiday were Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, the Philippines and Cambodia.

The most Alipay cross-border payments took place with merchants such as street vendors and convenience stores, and the highest average spending was seen at duty-free shops across various markets.

On Jan 8, China announced its first steps to reduce travel restrictions between the mainland and Hong Kong, lifting quarantine requirements that were in place for almost three years, thus Chinese New Year public holiday witnessed a surge in cross-border travel between the mainland and overseas markets.

AlipayHK, the most popular e-wallet in Hong Kong, with 3.3 million active users, saw transactions in the mainland and Macao jump 18 times from Jan 21 to 24, compared to the same period last year.

The number of AlipayHK users that completed a transaction in the mainland and Macao also soared 15 times yoy in the same period.

Both Alipay and AlipayHK are e-wallet partners of Alipay+, an Ant Group-owned provider of global cross-border digital payment and marketing solutions, which connects merchants with multiple e-wallets and payment methods.

— BERNAMA