Why founders are important Steve Jobs made Apple the world’s most successful company with just two things: a dream, and help from millions of people. There would be no iPhone or Mac without the help of designers, engineers, marketers, lawyers, assembly workers, and countless others along the way. (Don’t even begin to think about all the managers involved.) Steve Jobs’ vision was just as important. As founder and CEO, Jobs created a company and culture that built some pretty innovative products. The next Steve Jobs isn’t who you think it is People looked high and low for the next Steve Jobs since his passing. Seeing as the Apple model clearly worked for Apple, VCs and angel investors would constantly invest in startups whose visionary founders had moonshot ideas and the determination to match. Yet Steve Jobs’ dream is attainable by anyone, and not just founders who look like him. Founders of backgrounds different from Jobs struggled to gain a foothold in the startup world for quite some time. Though these founders gained traction over the years, their companies represent a fraction of funded startups. There are still countless founders out there with brilliant ideas who aren’t getting their voices heard. Here’s how we’re fixing that When we launched Republic, we launched it for everyone. We’re far from content with the current startup/founder demographics, which is why highlighting underrepresented founders is a crucial part of who we are. To date, 25% of investments on Republic went to companies with underrepresented founders of color and 44% went to companies with a female founder. Compare that to 1% and 13%, respectively, for the industry. We made it easy to invest in companies with underrepresented founders. Though every company on Republic has related tags on their campaign page (eg. crypto, technology), companies featuring Minority Founders, for instance, say so right in those tags.
Now you’ll know from the get-go that you’re not just investing in a company — you’re supporting underrepresented founders with a dream.
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WHEN one buys housing accommodation from a developer in Malaysia, the terms of the sale and purchase agreement with the developer are prescribed by law (S&P), specifically the Housing Development (Control and Licensing) Regulations 1989 (HDR 1989).
Depending on the type of development, a developer is required to deliver vacant possession of the property (commonly referred to as VP) within 24 months or 36 months from the date of the S&P. If the VP is delivered after the prescribed period, the developer needs to compensate the purchaser for every day of the delay, unless extension of time is granted under the HDR 1989.
So, when does the 24-month or 36-month period start? From the date the booking fee is paid? Or from the date of the S&P?
This seemingly straightforward question has caused dispute between developers and home buyers. Past cases have held that for purposes of ascertaining the date of delivery of VP, time starts to run when the purchaser paid the booking fee. This position is beneficial to purchasers since the booking fee is usually paid before signing of the S&P. However, to be clear, the S&P prescribed under the current HDR 1989 in fact states that time starts from the date of the S&P
So, when does time for delivery of VP actually start to run? The Court of Appeal has, in two recent cases, added some confusion to the seemingly settled question.
GJH Avenue case In the recent judgement of GJH Avenue Sdn Bhd v Tribunal Tuntutan Pembeli Rumah & Ors (GJH Avenue case), the Court of Appeal clarified the words “from the date of this agreement” should be interpreted as the date of the S&P. In other words, the period for delivery VP commences from the date of the S&P. Therefore, the sooner one signs the S&P, the earlier one can expect to get VP. Case background In the GJH Avenue case, the purchasers bought a bungalow from the developer and paid the booking fee to the developer on Nov 24,2011. The statutorily prescribed S&P for the bungalow was signed on Feb 13,2012. The S&P requires VP to be delivered within 24 months “from the date of the agreement” and VP was delivered on Feb 14,2014. As the S&P was dated Feb 13,2012, the developer compensated the purchaser for the two-day delay.
The purchasers subsequently initiated a claim with the Tribunal for Homebuyer Claims (Tribunal) for a higher sum and the Tribunal granted the award. Dissatisfied with Tribunal’s decision, the developer filed a claim (by way of judicial review) to the High Court to set aside the Tribunal’s award.
High Court findings The High Court did not find any illegality in the Tribunal’s decision and had instead decided that the Tribunal had applied the law to the facts correctly. This was on the basis that the Tribunal had taken into account two previous decisions of the High Court, which in turn relied on the decision of the Supreme Court (as it then was) in Hoo See Sen and Chew Nyat Shong. The High Court believed that the Tribunal is bound by the Supreme Court in those cases. Following this outcome, the developer filed an appeal to the Court of Appeal
Decision of the Court of Appeal
On appeal, the Court of Appeal decided that the Tribunal had acted beyond the scope of the Tribunal’s powers under the HDR 1989 in making the award. This resulted in the award being tainted with illegality. The Court was of the opinion that the Tribunal had made an error of law when making the decision as the relevant clause in the S&P was very clear and unambiguous. The Tribunal should have just applied the law by giving plain meaning to the words in deciding the purchasers’ claim, without sieving through various authorities to justify the findings. This also follows the Court’s earlier decision in Kompobina Holding Sdn Bhd v Tribunal Tuntutan Pembeli Rumah & Ors & Anor (Kompobina case), where the Court upheld the decision of the Tribunal that the timeline for delivery of VP is 24 months from the date of the S&P although the deposit was paid more than one year after the S&P was signed.
PJD Regency case
In the second decision of PJD Regency Sdn Bhd v Tribunal Tuntutan Pembeli Rumah & Ors (PJD Regency case), delivered just two days after the GJH Avenue case, a separate panel of the Court of Appeal decided that the time for delivery of VP actually starts to run from the date the purchaser paid the booking fee and, not the date of the S&P. Case background In this case, the purchaser paid a booking fee to the developer on Jan 16,2013. The time for signing of the S&P lapsed but the parties proceeded to sign the S&P on March 21,2013. The developer delivered vacant possession on Jan 23,2017, which was later than the 42 months contracted under the S&P. The Tribunal calculated the time for delivery of VP from the date of payment of the booking fee and awarded the purchaser damages for late delivery accordingly. The developer applied by way of judicial review to the High Court to set aside the Tribunal’s award. High Court’s decision The High Court applied the case of Chew Nyat Shong and, agreeing with the decision of the Tribunal, dismissed the developer’s application. The developer appealed to the Court of Appeal.
Decision of the Court of Appeal
The Court of Appeal agreed with the decision of the High Court and dismissed the appeal. The Court of Appeal affirmed that the case of Chew Nyat Shong was binding. This decision meant that the time for delivery of VP actually starts to run from the date the purchaser paid the booking fee and, not the date of the S&P. Conclusion The result of both the GJH Avenue and PJD Regency cases is that it is now uncertain as to when the period for delivering VP starts from. With these conflicting decisions, we will have to wait for the Federal Court to resolve the question.
In the writer’s opinion, the decision in the GJH Avenue case is preferred. It is a move in the right direction, and reflects the original intention of Parliament when enacting this piece of social legislation in the Housing Development (Control And Licensing) Act, 1966 which outlawed the collection of any monies by a housing developer from a purchaser other than at or upon the signing of the S&P, which was then prevalent to the detriment of house buyers.
source: TheStar
Putrajaya is mulling a homeownership scheme for those who have problems securing a home loan in the upcoming Budget 2020, said Deputy Finance Minister Datuk Wira Amiruddin Hamzah.
In his speech at the briefing for the property market 1H2019 and the launch of the Unsold Property Enquiry System Malaysia (UPESM) 2.0 held at the National Institute of Valuation (Inspen) this morning, Amiruddin said the Ministry of Finance is in the final stage of formulating Budget 2020 and a few new schemes will be introduced in the budget.
In the upcoming budget, which will be unveiled on Oct 11, the government will attempt to tackle the issues plaguing the property market, such as the bankability of certain buyers and the mismatch between the location of houses and buyers' expectations, he told the media after the launch.
"We are still in the process of formulating [the Budget] and getting good suggestions from the rakyat. "What is important is to come out with a scheme for those who are less bankable to help them become bankable… with some innovative schemes. I'm not supposed to give away anything here but [it will be] something along that line," he added.
Meanwhile, Amiruddin lauded the Valuation and Property Services Department's (JPPH) effort of enhancing the UPESM to allow users quicker and more efficient access to data on unsold properties in the country.
Launched in 2018, UPESM now allows users to generate graphs based on the data published on the website. To date, it has garnered some 7,000 users since its launch, according to JPPH director general Ahmad Zailan Azizuddin.
"Based on the positive feedback from the users, the system has been improved this year to enable users to gain access to more accurate data about unsold property through visual that follow by dostricts and property types," he said.
Raymond Miranda and his siblings worried for their ageing mother. Fiercely independent, she had refused to move in with any of them. She insisted on living alone in the marital home even after her husband died.
As a compromise, they thought it would be a good idea for mom to have a serviceable mobile phone close at hand. That way, her children were just a phone call or WhatsApp message away.
To the frustration of the siblings, mom refused to have anything to do with the device. It got to the point where they would gift her a new device almost yearly, only for her to keep it locked away in a drawer somewhere. She had lived her whole life without the thing and, as far as she was concerned, had no use for it now.
“But all that changed when my brother and his wife had twins,” said Miranda. His mother took care of the twins for the first five years of their lives and those were probably the best years of her life, he added. The founder and CEO of coaching consultancy Labora[s]tory Sdn Bhd was speaking to a full house at The Edge SME Forum 2019.
“When the twins were about 5½ years old, it was time for them to move away, quite a distance away, in fact. We all knew it would be difficult for mom as she would miss them terribly,” said Miranda.
“Every now and again, I would sit next to her, open the Facebook app on my phone and show her pictures of the twins. She got to see what they were up to. But more importantly, she realised just how much of their lives she was missing. In that moment, she finally began to seriously entertain the idea of owning a smartphone, just so she could follow their lives.” Unsurprisingly, Miranda was presenting a talk entitled “Story: When your fear is data for transformation”. His story perfectly encapsulated one of the key themes of his talk — connectivity does not mean connection.
“My mother was right. It was only when she was missing those connections did she take the effort to seek out connectivity. You see, we tend to forget that we are driven to connect with fellow human beings. But too often, young entrepreneurs get so excited about the prospect of developing technologies and ideas to improve connectivity, without ever considering if these were facilitating any real connections,” he said.
People tend to assume that both concepts are interchangeable, when in fact, “connectivity” is more akin to chaos. “We have for the longest time misinterpreted the word ‘connectivity’. We think it brings us together but actually, what it does is show us all the options and possibilities that exist around us and we end up feeling compelled to choose from all these options,” said Miranda. He also challenged what he saw as the prevailing “Silicon Valley start-up model”. Silicon Valley has mastered the art of problem-solving and finding solutions, he said. However, the model places a heavy premium of so-called “scalability”, that is, being quick to grow a solution or product into an all-conquering global phenomenon.
The downside, Miranda contended, is a very high failure rate for these young businesses and founders, not to mention the huge amounts of investment that go up in smoke.
Instead, he called on businesses, particularly young companies and start-ups in Malaysia, to consider what he referred to as the “Berlin start-up model”. “German small business culture is steeped in the local community. There is an unspoken understanding that one simply does not go into debt right out of the gate or rush to seek investment dollars. The culture very much revolves around family members and the local community supporting local businesses,” said Miranda, who had spent the last two months in Berlin and other parts of Europe engaging with the vibrant start-up community.
So in many ways, the Silicon Valley model is the antithesis of the Berlin model. That said, this clash of cultures has been very good for German businesses, Miranda suggested, because he found that a number of German entrepreneurs did wish that they had greater access to venture funding and the scalability that it entails. By and large, however, he believes that German SMEs still place a heavy emphasis on local and regional problem-solving, as opposed to scaling up as quickly as possible.
Miranda said local start-ups could stand to benefit from the measured approach of their German counterparts. “I think we have bought into the narrative that the only way for start-ups to really move is with venture funding. That narrative has to change because too many start-ups are dying as a result. “What we have in Malaysia is too many young people focusing on delivering the most amazing investment pitches. They spend months preparing themselves and go from one pitch to the next, all without even running a business. This is such a tragedy because so much taxpayer money goes into funding these start-ups.”
5G is the fifth generation of wireless data networks and an upgrade that you will want sooner or later, depending on your appetite for wireless bugs and growing pains. It is much more than the simple bandwidth or "speed" improvement on your phone that you're used to from the history of 4G and 3G before it. 5G boasts low latency, intelligent power consumption, high density and network slicing -- attributes that make it a breakthrough, and perhaps a confusing bore.
So we've decided to make 5G understandable for you, the person who just wants to use it and understand what it's worth, because it will come at additional cost.
First, 5G will revolutionize the capability of all the current technologies on your phone, and make it possible for your home internet to come from the air rather than a telco wire or cable. Then it will make possible new experiences that are still fringe, like augmented reality that works well anywhere, smart cities that are safer, cleaner and more efficient, and a truly connected car.
Forget about archaic examples like "downloading a full-length movie in seconds" and move your expectations to a world that is more responsive, transparent and anticipatory.
To get there you will need to replace everything you currently own that accesses a cellular network, as the 5G wireless gear is distinct from today's 4G technology. That means billions of new devices over the next few years, making it clear why carriers and device makers are pretty excited about 5G. But you should be too, as this will be the first cellular data technology that can revolutionize your life, not just your phone. Along the way, they will have to convince a fair number of people who believe 5G is a toxic technology due to its microwave spectrum radiation. But concerns about cellular radiation aren't new: There is still no clear consensus that cellular technology is safe in general, let alone the 5G variant of it.
5G does emit "microwave" radiation, but so does anything using 4G, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. The point of contention is whether 5G's number of antennas, proximity of antennas and the power levels coming from them make it hazardous. Conventional scientific wisdom has long held that radio waves don't become dangerous to our bodies' cells, or "ionizing," until they reach frequencies found in X-rays, gamma rays and light from the sun. Even the highest 5G frequencies sit far below those types of radiation and are, therefore, considered safe or "nonionizing."
That doesn't prevent doubters in a number of US towns and cities from worrying about what we don't know about 5G, but the FCC has final say on cellular towers and waves in the US and "preempts local decisions premised directly or indirectly on the environmental effects of radio frequency emissions, assuming that the provider is in compliance with the Commission's RF rules."
The bottom line on 5G safety is that the safety of cellular networks in general has been in dispute since at least the early '90s, as well as that of radiation from power lines, which are of extremely low frequency. Anything with the word "radiation" attached to it is going to come in for fearsome speculation. Impediments to 5G's rollout are far fewer than the ways and places it is propagating and by early 2021 we should see a tipping point that makes 5G the new standard.
The world has witnessed a technological sea change in the last five years, with an array of seemingly disparate concepts and ideas leaping off research papers and into mainstream appeal.
Once people got used to the concept of cloud computing, a host of other technologies quickly followed. For a start, the mainstream acceptance of cloud computing and cloud storage meant that devices were no longer tethered to physical storage and processing capabilities.
But being able to connect to Google’s host of services, launching Instagram on a device or even managing one’s entire net worth on a smartphone require a seamless, well-connected information superhighway. Today’s array of social media and e-commerce giants have gained both global appeal and notoriety because of the global telecommunication standards in place.
In layman’s terms, these telecommunication standards are referred to as GSM, 2G (second generation), 3G and, now, 4G LTE (long-term evolution). It is no coincidence that the slew of technological marvels in recent years have advanced alongside these standards. Thanks to these advancements on the so-called information superhighway, the Internet of Things (IoT), Industry 4.0 and machine learning — as well as the broader artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms and applications — began jostling for position. To varying degrees, these technologies found residency on retail and industrial devices throughout the world.
So, as countless new applications and use cases continue to be discovered and perfected, the resultant demands on processing power and connectivity speeds are increasing. It is not that these technologies have reached their zenith, in the way that the internal combustion engine has, for example. Rather, the information superhighway needs a major upgrade.
A 5G future Over the last two years, it has become increasingly apparent that 5G communications technology will carry on wherever the 4G LTE standard leaves off. Simply put, the fifth generation of mobile network technology is the successor to the current standard.
Typical mobile activities that now require buffering on 4G mobile networks will be instantaneous. But 5G will offer much more than just unprecedented connectivity speeds. With it comes increased processing ability, reliability and very low latency meant to support a host of key services throughout an economy.
According to Fusionex vice-president of new technologies Raju Chellam, 5G will bring devices and data closer, quicker and with much less latency (the ability to process large amounts of data with minimal delay) than 4G. That means 5G will enable hundreds or even thousands of IoT devices to continuously send data to servers. Fusionex is a data technology provider that specialises in big data analytics, IoT and AI applications for businesses. 5G’s ultra-fast processing speeds will drastically alter the way some budding verticals operate by offering real-time solutions not currently possible in the prevailing 4G environment, says Raju. “Self-driving cars, for example, would need to monitor multiple variables such as road conditions, traffic congestion, signals, jaywalkers, weather, global positioning system, speed, acceleration and braking, roadworks as well as sharp turns, and take action almost instantaneously.
“All of this data has to be immediately analysed and acted upon. Only 5G is capable of maintaining the processing speeds required to handle such large volumes of data in real time.”
ST Liew, president of Taiwan and Southeast Asia, and vice-president at Qualcomm Technologies Inc, says 5G connectivity will take many of today’s already impressive digital experiences to an entirely new plane. It will have three major effects, he points out. First, 5G connectivity will vastly enhance the mobile broadband experience, thus enabling an exponential increase in the number of connected devices throughout the environment. Second, it will significantly improve what is known as “mission critical communications”. These include emergency responders, aircraft and marine communications, as well as critical systems and communications in power generation and other utilities. Under the current communications regimes, these services tend to receive additional bandwidth allocation as a priority, albeit at the expense of other non-critical communications and connectivity needs.
Third, the proliferation of IoT devices throughout a 5G connected environment will create a massive network of interconnected devices, meaning an exponential increase in big data collection and processing demands. This will give rise to huge economic and enterprise opportunities in the big data analytics space alone.
“But really, the 5G sphere of influence extends far beyond traditional smart devices. There will be major applications in industrial IoT. The direct and indirect economic impact of operating in a 5G environment will run into the tens of trillions of dollars,” Liew tells Enterprise. No matter when 5G adoption hits critical mass, he believes that the world will be much better equipped to harness its power than previous communications standards. “If you look at when 4G communications technology first went to market, there were just three or four operators in the world that had the networks up and running. There were also just a handful of original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) making 4G-enabled products,” he says. “But as at the first half of this year, there were more than 20 5G network operators in the world. They are either actively working on or already rolling out 5G networks in cities throughout the world. As for OEMs, there are now well over 20 brands testing and manufacturing 5G-enabled devices. There are at least 75 5G-enabled devices that I know of in the market right now.”
Under the present 4G environment, the connectivity benefits have been most prominent in consumer and enterprise devices. “We are very accustomed to 4G as a device-centric technology. But the range of products, components and services that will be produced under a 5G environment will be far and away more expansive than anything we have witnessed,” says Liew.
Under the 5G regime, advanced IoT sensors and components will gradually become viable and permanent features of the global economy, he adds. Instantaneous communication between machines in a complex production line will be feasible. In a 5G world, IoT-connected factories could distil countless data points into a single virtual dashboard that could predict the entire floor’s maintenance needs. “All the IoT-enabled machines will even make it possible for machines to detect internal changes and then, independently shut off and redirect production lines to other machines while it rings out a maintenance order,” says Liew. Interestingly, Qualcomm appears to be exploring such a scenario. One of its strategies for operating in a 5G environment will be to get more value out of the individual components of a smartphone. A leading chipmaker for the smart devices market, the company is exploring the idea of creating entirely new devices from individual components of the classic smart device.
“We can use the individual camera module of a smartphone as an IoT sensor. By adding 5G connectivity to the component, we could turn it into an advanced, vision computing device. The speakers could become specialised listening devices, embedded into other 5G-enabled machines,” says Liew.
“The display element in a smartphone could be harnessed for other purposes. By simply adding the connectivity speeds of a 5G environment, each of these individual components in a smartphone could spawn new and exciting products and services.” The new, alternate reality Steven Spielberg’s 2002 hit movie Minority Report is a science fiction classic. In it, there is a scene where Tom Cruise’s character — using what appears to be a pair of very advanced IoT-enabled gloves — brings up a virtual screen seemingly out of thin air. He then gesticulates his way through a series of crime scene photographs, expertly manipulating and scrolling through the pictures.
The scene was striking because until that point, no one had expressed that level of seamless human-computer interface on the silver screen. For the first time, audiences witnessed a world in which man and machine operated as a nearly indistinguishable unit, free from the shackles of physical processors, displays and other long-obsolete tools such as keyboards and mice.
Just 12 years after the movie, Dr Andrew Yew presented as his doctoral thesis on an operating system designed for such a scenario. “My paper focuses on designing and developing an operating system for ubiquitous, augmented reality (AR) applications,” the National University of Singapore alumnus tells Enterprise. “What we want to do is render the computer, as we traditionally understand it, entirely invisible,” he adds. True enough, this operating system does not reside on any one visible hardware or computing system. Rather, the circuitry and processors are embedded in a host of real-world objects, residing throughout real-world environments, says Yew. Whether in a room, shopping mall, public space or factory, this operating system integrates a host of once disparate technologies — IoT, Industry 4.0, big data analytics and AI — thus providing the user with an unprecedented, seamless and tailor-made computing experience.
“In traditional computing terms, a graphical user interface [that is, digital information expressed on a traditional display screen, whether on a desktop or smartphone] is what we are all used to. But what we have developed in the university media lab allows a user to interact with computer programmes using very natural physical actions. These include hand gestures, vision, voice recognition and even brain-computer interfacing,” says Yew.
“Quite simply, the operating system we have designed represents a cohesive, seamless way of interacting with computer applications that are displayed in AR within your physical environment.” Yew is co-founder of a local “extended reality” start-up, Ministry XR. He founded the company with his cousin Ivan Khoo, a media and advertising veteran. Another just as impressive use for Yew’s pioneering AR research is in the area of sports science. Medical research has discovered a link between alpha brain waves and a golfer’s ability to make accurate shots. If a golfer is coached to control and stabilise his alpha brain waves, his putting accuracy increases significantly. By creating a human-brain interface, it would be possible to feed the athlete’s alpha waves back to him as a visual of some kind, says Yew. For instance, the waves could be represented in the form of a glass of water. His alpha waves could then be synced to the laws of fluid dynamics, which govern the behaviour of water, Yew explains.
If the alpha waves are unstable, the water ripples and swishes about. This visual would be displayed on a screen or even the athlete’s own AR-enabled device. This way, the athlete can learn to calm his mind and stabilise his alpha waves, not by thinking about it in abstract terms but amazingly, by deeply focusing on the glass and gradually stabilising that body of water.
Yew and Khoo are excited about operating in a 5G-enabled environment. But for now, they are taking a pragmatic approach to its adoption. While waiting for 5G connectivity speeds, the roughly three-year-old company has found early success developing AR content for a slew of prominent brands. Even with the relatively limited capabilities of current-generation smart devices and graphics software, these AR solutions are adding significant value to its growing list of clients, says Khoo. “One of our clients, Ford Malaysia, engaged us to develop a seamless, virtual reality (VR) demonstration of one of their pick-up trucks’ safety features. We ran these demonstrations through three simple VR headsets.
“We deployed the solution at a number of the client’s weekend roadshows. There were only two physical vehicles available for test driving, which if used continuously for test driving would only yield between 40 and 50 rides a day. With our three VR headsets, we successfully logged about 350 VR test drives over just two days.
“Throughout the month-long period, we managed to yield more than 1,400 VR test drives. What started as a four-weekend project with Ford stretched into six weeks. In fact, we are now developing a series of VR-enabled chairs to be placed in their showrooms. These chairs will be synced to the VR demonstration to add a real, physical experience alongside the VR simulation.” Superfast semiconductors But Ministry XR is not the only local company taking early steps into a 5G connected environment. Local semiconductor manufacturer SilTerra Malaysia Sdn Bhd is doing so as well. Vice-president of strategic management Tan Eng Tong acknowledges the inevitability of such a future. But the fact is that the rollout will most likely occur in stages over a period of years, if not longer.
Tan believes that the early touchpoints of 5G connectivity will only apply to businesses and individuals operating at the very highest level of their respective industries. “Our current global economy is still trying to achieve full 4G penetration and the fact is that the majority of industries will be able to perform at a significantly higher level with just full 4G penetration,” he says.
“The networks that most industries operate on are for the most part still optimised for the current 4G environment. So, for the foreseeable future, these industries will not need 5G connectivity.” Tan is concerned that 5G connectivity is receiving its moment in the spotlight because of sheer novelty. It is very exciting to read about hundredfold increases in connectivity speeds, of course. But right now, it is the technology that is fuelling interest, rather than real-world business cases. And because of this, many of the 5G-enabled products are being marketed because of the novelty more than anything else. Having said that, SilTerra is by no means dismissing 5G technology. The company is actively working towards such a future by researching exotic materials and technologies. The idea is that these technologies could be pushed to market as pre-5G iterations. “We know 5G connectivity is coming to Malaysia and the technology that will eventually support it is being used for other things in the meantime. Once we build our capacities and capabilities in these new technologies, we will have a suitably strong foundation from which to launch into a 5G environment,” says Tan.
For example, semiconductor wafers are primarily silicon-based. The substance has proved to be an excellent foundation for the electronics we take for granted today. But chips have shrunk in size (and increased in power) for so long that now, the latest circuits are literally approaching the size of atoms, says Tan.
“Gallium nitride-based wafers are very promising. This is something we are focusing on because our research tells us that it is one of the substances with the potential to give us the next significant series of gains in processing power and compact sizing. “For example, one of our clients specialises in manufacturing laptop power adaptors. Right now, these adaptors are the size of small bricks. But with gallium nitride circuitry, they could reduce the adaptors to just the size of an AA battery. “What is more amazing is that, depending on the manufacturing process, we could be looking at between a 50% and 100% increase in energy efficiency from these next-generation power adaptors.”
Retail giant Walmart plans to launch a supply chain tracking system to encourage food safety standards in Southeast Asia.
Walmart has announced a pilot to track shrimp imports from India to the USA using blockchain technology.
The retail giant plans to track shrimp imports between Andhra Pradesh, a gorgeous coastal region in India’s southeast, and U.S.-based retail warehouses, using blockchain technology developed by IBM. It will feature “end-to-end traceability,” according to a press release issued Friday.
“The introduction of blockchain in the shrimp supply chain could help improve the quality of information on the product for compliance purposes and for sharing with consumers, providing added traceability beginning at the farm and extending throughout the transportation process,” the company said.
The system will be available only to small-time farmers enrolled in Walmart’s membership-only retail warehouse chain Sam’s Club, whose food-safety program requires compliance with international best aquaculture practices (BAP). Walmart will provide funding for smallholder farmers in Andhra Pradesh to receive BAP training as part of the scheme.
“This end-to-end blockchain pilot is the first of its kind in India and has the potential to create long-term economic opportunity for the shrimp farming community in Andhra Pradesh, directly benefiting the farmers through new skills training and development,” said Chowdary Kunam, managing director of Indian seafood processor Sandhya Aqua. The processor is participating in the project alongside US-based supplier Stanley Pearlman Enterprises.
Walmart has been dabbling in blockchain for a while, working alongside the IBM Food Trust blockchain project since 2017. Its latest project is slated to run on IBM’s blockchain technology, which the retailer has previously used for a system designed to track lettuce supply chains.
Separately, Walmart has attempted to patent a digital currency. The currency, which would be backed by a reserve of dollars, drew comparisons to Facebook’s Libra project when it was revealed earlier this year.
In this latest project, let’s hope Walmart implements anti-monkfish-laundering provisions!
Shopee, Southeast Asia and Taiwan’s leading e-commerce platform, expects e-commerce activities to increase in the second half of the year.
“We have no qualms that second half of 2019 is going to be a vibrant season that is poised for strong growth with the 9.9, 10.10, 11.11 and 12.12 sales, not just for our industry but also the entire network of industries that support e-commerce including the banks, telcos and logistics providers,” Shopee said in a statement.
Based on empirical data, the e-commerce platform said the first half of the year was usually quieter in the e-commerce world with shopping activities increasing towards the tail end of the year.
“However, Shopee recorded stellar performance on all fronts of our business during the first half of 2019, which was supported by the increased shopping activities particularly during Chinese New Year and Hari Raya. We achieved more than a 3-fold increase from 2018’s corresponding festive periods,” it said, adding that its growth was further fueled by the introduction of its next-day delivery service in June. To-date, Shopee Malaysia employs more than 600, a 50% increase from the same period in 2018. The employees in Malaysia are trained to serve the Malaysian and part of Singapore’s markets. The employment and job creation contributes to the growth of Malaysia’s consumption economy.
“In just a year, Shopee has doubled the number of downloads of our app from around 10 million downloads to 20 million downloads to-date. This was achieved through creative branding and communications efforts, successful and exclusive brand tie-ups and strong word-of-mouth advocacy by Malaysians in general; a testament that our product serves the demands of the markets,” Shopee said.
Shopee said apart from the sales campaigns lined up for the rest of the year, it would continue to scale our efforts in line with the Government’s initiatives in accelerating growth of e-commerce as part of the National eCommerce Strategic Roadmap.
“One of our missions has always been to better the lives of consumers and small businesses with technology. We believe in the transformative power of technology and want to solve social and lifestyle problems for retailers, entrepreneurs and consumers by bridging the gap between all stakeholders and creating greater convenience that would change the way retailers trade and people live,” it said.
“We have made it our mandate to ensure that Malaysia is on track to achieve its projected annual e-commerce growth of 20% in 2020. We will continue to work and support to the best of our abilities and capacity to benefit the local economy and Malaysians as we strive towards a high-income nation by 2024,” Shopee said.
The Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Ministry has taken the initiative to work with e-commerce industry players in promoting local products through the Buy Malaysia campaign, its minister Datuk Seri Saifuddin Nasution Ismail said.
He said the campaign, which was launched by Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad in 1998, was aimed to educate consumers on the vast array of high-quality Malaysian-made products as well as to encourage them to take pride in the works of their fellow citizens.
“Sadly, along the way, this vision was sidelined and forgotten by our predecessors, and so it is time that we reignite the campaign to set our domestic trade back on the right track. But we cannot do this on our own; we need the support of the private sector to push this national agenda forward.
“As such, we have been ramping up our efforts and started several new initiatives, including partnering with e-commerce players like Shopee, to provide local entrepreneurs with new platforms to sell their products and to give them the exposure, priority, branding and marketing support from world-renowned companies,” he said in his speech at the launching of Shopee 10.10 Brands Festival here today.
He added that the e-commerce industry was growing exponentially all over the world and presented great opportunities for consumers and entrepreneurs alike.
“Shopee’s own rapid growth is a testament to this fact. Having entered the market in 2015, Shopee today has over 200 million users in the Asean and Taiwan region and 20 million users in Malaysia alone,” he added.
He said Shopee was also looking to help Malaysian small and medium enterprises (SMEs) expand their market starting with the Singaporean market with the help of the Shopee International Platform.
“This is a game-changer for Malaysian entrepreneurs as they will now have the opportunity to penetrate the export market as well. My ministry will be working tirelessly with Shopee to identify gaps and engage with Malaysian SMEs which are currently not selling their products online,” he said. Source: Bernama |
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October 2021
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