Tag: news

MEDICAL KOREA 2026 TO SPOTLIGHT FUTURE OF AI-POWERED HEALTHCARE

by jezzabellemente, posted in Uncategorized

KUALA LUMPUR, March 3 (Bernama) — Medical Korea 2026, the 16th Global Healthcare & Medical Tourism Conference, will take place from March 19 to 22 at COEX in Seoul under the theme “AI-Powered Global Healthcare: Bringing the Future and the World Closer”.

Hosted by the Ministry of Health and Welfare and organised by the Korea Health Industry Development Institute (KHIDI), the conference will bring together global healthcare leaders, policymakers, and industry experts to discuss the future of artificial intelligence (AI)-powered healthcare and cross-border medical services.

Since its launch in 2010, Medical Korea has provided a platform for global dialogue on healthcare innovation and medical tourism, with this year’s event focusing on how AI is influencing healthcare delivery, digital transformation and international medical collaboration.

“Medical Korea 2026 will bring together global leaders and experts to address the latest trends and key issues in AI-driven healthcare. Through AI-powered innovation, the conference aims to strengthen global collaboration and bring the future of healthcare closer,” said KHIDI Director of the Department of Global Healthcare Business (Inbound), Andy Hong.

According to a statement, the programme includes an Opening Ceremony, eight Conference Sessions, Business Meetings, G2G Meetings, an Exhibition, FAM Tours, and the Medical Korea Gala Dinner.

At the Opening Ceremony, keynote speeches will be delivered by the Ministry of Health and Welfare Director General for Healthcare Industry Policy, Eun-Young Jung and Marx Advisory Chief Executive Officer, Edward Marx.

Meanwhile, the Conference Sessions will feature more than 40 domestic and international speakers discussing AI-driven healthcare innovation, medical tourism strategies, digital health trends and developments in AI-based medical technologies.

Business Meetings will provide structured networking opportunities for overseas patient attraction and international expansion, while G2G Meetings will facilitate discussions on healthcare and medical tourism cooperation between governments and related organisations.

The Exhibition will operate through three pavilions highlighting global healthcare collaboration, the competitiveness of Korea’s medical services industry and the Medical Korea platform, offering an overview of international medical capabilities and partnership opportunities.

— BERNAMA

FENGDU ORANGES POWER MODERN AGRICULTURE, RURAL PROSPERITY IN CHONGQING

by jezzabellemente, posted in Uncategorized

KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 12 (Bernama) — The harvest season is in full swing in Longkong Town of Fengdu County, a major orange-producing hub in west China’s Chongqing Municipality, as freshly picked fruit moves rapidly from orchards to nationwide markets through an increasingly modernised supply chain.

At the Common Prosperity Orange Orchard in Nanzhu Village, crates of oranges are transported directly to Fengdu Orange’s integrated production base, where the fruit is cleaned, polished, dried, graded and packaged before being shipped across the country.

According to a statement, to ensure smooth operations during the peak harvest is Bai Xiaohua, director of a local agricultural development professional cooperative, who coordinates picking schedules between orchards and processing facilities while personally overseeing quality control.

Raised among orange trees, Bai founded the cooperative in 2018 to organise scattered growers and promote standardised, large-scale citrus production through unified management.

To strengthen technical capacity, Bai conducts monthly on-site training sessions for farmers and has actively introduced modern practices. After completing professional agricultural programmes and study visits across China, he obtained a drone operation licence in 2020 and pioneered the use of drones for orchard management, which has since been adopted across the cooperative.

His efforts reflect the broader upgrading of Fengdu’s orange industry. Longkong Town now has 25,000 mu of orange orchards, producing more than 30,000 tonnes annually with an output value of 110 million Chinese yuan. Its citrus received National Geographical Indication trademark certification in 2011. (100 Chinese yuan = RM56.58)

Nanzhu Village was named a national speciality product demonstration village in 2019, while Fengdu oranges have been exported to the Middle East and other markets, establishing a strong regional brand.

Countywide, Fengdu Orange covers 52,500 mu, with an annual output reaching 70,000 tonnes and a total income of 150 million Chinese yuan. Through cooperative organisation, digital tools and brand development, the local orange industry is evolving from a traditional speciality into a modern agricultural value chain driving sustained rural prosperity

— BERNAMA

STB’s Virtual Assistant Alma Redefines How Travelers Explore Slovenia

by jezzabellemente, posted in Uncategorized

LJUBLJANA, Slovenia, Dec 17 (Bernama-GLOBE NEWSWIRE) —TheSlovenian Tourist Board (STB) is strengthening Slovenia’s position as a digitally advanced, user-focused destination with Alma, an AI-powered virtual travel advisor that has rapidly become one of the country’s most innovative tourism tools. Integrated into the national tourism portal slovenia.info, Alma enables visitors to access personalised and up-to-date travel information in real time, marking a major step in the STB’sdigital transformation efforts.

Launched in May 2024, Alma engages users in conversational, intuitive exchanges across seven languages, providing tailored guidance, inspiring stories and practical tips for exploring Slovenia. Named after traveller and writer Alma M. Karlin, the assistant is built on advanced OpenAI technology and sources information from the slovenia.info database and more than 60 curated tourism websites and API integrations.

Since its introduction, Alma has gained significant recognition. It earned silver in the Tourism category at the 2024 Websi Awards, praised for its intelligent integration with the website’s search engine and for enhancing user interaction on a national tourism platform. More recently, Alma won the prestigious Travel Tech Project of the Year at the 2025 Game Changer Awards, underscoring Slovenia’s leadership in developing responsibly designed, user-friendly digital solutions for the future of travel.

MSc. Maja Pak Olaj, the Director of the Slovenian Tourist Board, emphasised: “Alma represents an important step towards modern, intelligent and personalised services that make exploration of Slovenia easier. The award recognises our efforts toward innovation and confirms that thoughtful use of technology can create greater value for tourists, partners, and the entire Slovenian tourism sector.”

Alma’s impact is reflected in its strong adoption figures. In August 2025 alone, users asked nearly 12,000 questions, with English, Italian, German and Slovenian speakers representing the largest share. The assistant achieved an 88% positive rating that month, rising to 91% in October and November, reflecting high satisfaction.

Travellers increasingly rely on Alma to plan multi-day itineraries, discover lesser-known regions, choose family-friendly activities, explore culinary and cultural events and access sustainable mobility options. Continuous upgrades – including a redesigned mobile interface, dynamic suggestions and multilingual adaptation – further strengthen its role as a digital companion. Looking ahead, the STB is developing “Admin Alma” to allow destinations to enrich the assistant with local insights, and plans to evolve Alma into a real-time voice guide supporting visitors throughout their journey.

More information: 
https://www.slovenia.info/en/business/content-digital-marketing/alma-slovenian-ai-travel-guide

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at 
https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/614ec2a1-ff5d-4362-8310-12fcdb6c12ae

press@slovenia.info

SOURCE: Slovenian Tourist Board

–BERNAMA

GLOBAL WEALTH MIGRATION DRIVEN BY RISING PRIVATE HEALTHCARE COSTS – HENLEY & PARTNERS

by jezzabellemente, posted in Uncategorized

KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 9 (Bernama) — A sharp acceleration in global wealth migration in 2025 is colliding with rapidly diverging private healthcare costs worldwide, making the availability and price of reliable private care a key factor for high-net-worth families deciding where to live, invest, or secure residence and citizenship.

New data released by Henley & Partners confirms record demand for cross-border planning and highlights healthcare cost exposure as a critical “hidden variable” shaping long-term destination choices for globally mobile families.

The firm in a statement said it has received applications from 92 nationalities this year and supported demand across more than 50 residence and citizenship programmes and has assisted applicants from 136 nationalities over the past five years.

Comparing the first three quarters of 2024 with the same period in 2025, Henley & Partners reported a 43 per cent increase in applications, underscoring intensifying cross-border mobility among affluent households.

To support destination planning, the firm is referencing the newly published SIP Health Cost Index (HCI) 2025—a benchmark of the true cost of private healthcare across 50 key countries, based on International Private Medical Insurance (IPMI) premiums.

While Henley & Partners focuses on residence and citizenship advisory, the Index provides a complementary view into how private healthcare costs can materially affect a destination’s long-term affordability and suitability, especially for families with children, ageing parents, or elective cross-border medical needs.

The Index identifies familiar high-cost markets, with the United States ranking as the world’s most expensive private healthcare market, with an average annual IPMI-based cost of US$17,969 per person, followed by Hong Kong and Singapore. (US$1 = RM4.11)

However, unexpected shifts are emerging beyond traditional hubs. Several markets in emerging Asia—including China, Thailand, and Taiwan—have now entered the global top 12 for private-care costs, driven by strong demand for premium hospitals and rising inpatient expenses.

Europe shows one of the widest spreads, with the United Kingdom (UK), Greece, and Spain among its most expensive markets, partly due to Insurance Premium Tax in the UK and Greece. In the Middle East, the United Arab Emirates ranks 10th globally, reflecting expanding high-end healthcare infrastructure and medical-tourism ambitions.

As global wealth migration continues to rise, Henley & Partners said private healthcare cost exposure is becoming a first-order consideration in residence and citizenship planning. The SIP Health Cost Index provides a practical comparison tool to help families anticipate long-term healthcare budgets and avoid hidden high-cost risks when choosing a home, second residence, or multi-base lifestyle.

— BERNAMA

Thai vocational education representatives visit Guangxi Financial Vocational College, jointly discussing a new blueprint for vocational education

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Teaching Building of the Digital Economy Modern Craftsman College at the Kuala Lumpur Campus of Tunku Abdul Rahman University of Technology, Malaysia

NANNING, China, Nov. 10, 2025 /Xinhua-AsiaNet/ — 

Recently, Minister Tanapat Saengchan of the Vocational Education Commission of Thailand visited Guangxi Financial Vocational College. This exchange is an important opportunity to deepen cooperation between the two sides, and it is expected that through pragmatic communication, in-depth collaboration in the field of vocational education between the two countries will be promoted.

Guangxi Financial Vocational College adheres to building a highland for open cooperation and innovation in vocational education in Guangxi facing ASEAN, actively explores new models of integration of production and education, helps the high-quality economic development of the ASEAN region, and constantly polishes the golden brand of “Modern Craftsmen” in international exchanges and cooperation.

Four-Party Collaboration Between Schools and Enterprises to Enhance the Ability of Vocational Education to Serve Industries

Focusing on the construction of the “China-Malaysia Digital Economy Modern Craftsman College”, the school has established a regular communication mechanism with Malaysian national universities and enterprises, forming a “school-school-enterprise-enterprise” co-construction model. It has jointly built a “1+1+N” production-education integration innovation and development carrier with “one industry community, one modern craftsman college, and N demonstration enterprises and branch colleges” as the core. Relying on the background of the digital economy industry, it serves the overseas expansion of products of Chinese enterprises and increases the output value of enterprises by about 13 million yuan.

Co-construction of Overseas Platforms to Promote In-depth Collaboration in China-ASEAN Vocational Education

The school has successively established foreign exchange projects such as the China-ASEAN Business Technology Innovation and Vocational Education Cooperation Center (Indonesia), Cooperation Center (Cambodia), and the overseas “Silk Road Finance College”, forming an all-round and sustainable pattern of vocational education exchanges. Relying on the intellectual resources of the “Zhongguancun Artificial Intelligence Large Model Industry Agglomeration Area” in Tsinghua Science Park, it has built 1 overseas digital intelligence center, 2 exchange centers, 3 technical service platforms, and 2 cross-border production-education integration bases. It accurately meets the technical and talent needs of enterprises in ASEAN countries and further promotes China-ASEAN vocational education collaboration.

Cross-border Ecological Integration to Empower the Training of “Modern Craftsmen”

With the help of the Modern Craftsman College project, schools and enterprises have built an international talent training matrix integrating “teaching, training, competitions, research, conferences, and exhibitions”. It has co-constructed and shared 6 standards, 4 international courses, 1 bilingual textbook, and 8 international training resource packages, and developed 6 teaching equipment. It has carried out 49 domestic and foreign skill training sessions, covering 8,251 participants. It has held 2 international skill competitions for ASEAN, attracting 303 teams from 7 countries to compete. The school also held the “2024 China (Guangxi)-ASEAN Vocational Education Development Exchange Conference”, jointly carried out research projects and exhibition activities with universities and enterprises in ASEAN countries, explored the “AI+X” compound talent training model, transported high-quality applied talents for the development of Guangxi’s digital economy and China-ASEAN artificial intelligence industry cooperation, and wrote a new chapter in vocational education serving the local economy.

Source: Guangxi Financial Vocational College