14 6 月, 2021

JCB Accelerates Business Expansion in ASEAN Region with Opening of New Department in Singapore

TOKYO, Jun 14, 2021 - (JCN Newswire via SEAPRWire.com) - JCB Co., Ltd., Japan's only international payment brand is pleased to announce the establishment of a new ASEAN Business Enhancement and Creation Department under its subsidiary, JCB International Asia Pacific Pte Ltd.JCB develops and provisions innovative technologies and services around the world. The ASEAN Business Enhancement and Creation Department will further accelerate the development of new payment services through strategic partnerships and investments with local financial institutions and start-ups, and with Japanese companies operating in the rapidly growing ASEAN region. In addition, the new department will proactively seek to create new business opportunities beyond the framework of our current payment business in the ASEAN region.About JCBJCB is a major global payment brand and a leading credit card issuer and acquirer in Japan. JCB launched its card business in Japan in 1961 and began expanding worldwide in 1981. Its acceptance network includes about 36 million merchants around the world. JCB Cards are now issued mainly in Asian countries and territories, with more than 140 million cardmembers. As part of its international growth strategy, JCB has formed alliances with hundreds of leading banks and financial institutions globally to increase its merchant coverage and cardmember base. As a comprehensive payment solution provider, JCB commits to providing responsive and high-quality service and products to all customers worldwide. For more information, please visit: www.global.jcb/en/ContactKumiko Kida, Ayaka NakajimaCorporate CommunicationsTel: +81-3-5778-8353Email: jcb-pr@jcb.co.jp Copyright 2021 JCN Newswire. All rights reserved. (via SEAPRWire)

12 1 月, 2021

CITIC Telecom CPC Expands ASEAN Points of Presence to support Regional Proliferation of Innovative Technology Businesses and Smart Cities

SINGAPORE, Jan 12, 2021 - (ACN Newswire) - CITIC Telecom International CPC Limited ("CITIC Telecom CPC"), a wholly-owned subsidiary of CITIC Telecom International Holdings Limited (SEHK: 1883), has recently completed its Kuala Lumpur and Jakarta network gateway deployments for its TrueCONNECT(TM) Hybrid (SD-WAN, Software Defined Wide Area Network) enterprise connectivity solution.These latest SD-WAN gateways, powered by VMware, follow CITIC Telecom CPC's ongoing initiatives to anticipate and address demand for innovative, high performance, and agile Information and Communications Technology (ICT) solutions in the fastest-growing markets in ASEAN. In 2016 the company expanded Russian and Eastern European coverage to serve its customers better, encompassing CITIC Telecom CPC's full range of end-to-end managed services, including MPLS, cloud, and managed network security solutions.By further enhancing the footprint and capacity of TrueCONNECT(TM) Hybrid in ASEAN, CITIC Telecom CPC (CPC) is catering to the significantly growing base of Innovative Technology Businesses and Smart Cities being created in the region. TrueCONNECT(TM) Hybrid's ASEAN coverage now includes Kuala Lumpur, Singapore, Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Bangkok and Jakarta."We have always focused on identifying and serving the most important needs in the most important market segments," said Mr. Taylor Lam, Senior Vice President of Product Development & Management from CITIC Telecom CPC. "Within a year of its launch, TrueCONNECT(TM) Hybrid already covers nearly 50 gateways across 49 cities in 15 countries, including six (6) in Southeast Asia. These new ASEAN gateways in Malaysia and Indonesia underscore our commitment to ASEAN customers and highlight our continued strong SD-WAN partnership with VMware. More network gateways translate to better link quality, lower latency and overall improved performance."With TrueCONNECT(TM) Hybrid, a fully managed and better secured SD-WAN connectivity solution, customers can leverage the most cost-effective bandwidth available without compromising QoS delivery. Enterprises can dynamically create hybrid networks that bind multiple access technologies into single logical paths, taking advantage of MPLS linkages' reliability, security, and performance, yet limiting associated expenses. Network traffic is steered intelligently on optimal paths at the best times to increase performance and reduce costs. It improves business agility, application performance, bandwidth conservation and maximizes business application accessibility. TrueCONNECT(TM) Hybrid achieves these compelling advantages without requiring the high traditional costs, additional in-house staffing or other ongoing overhead expenses, often prohibitive for companies with tight budgets and timeframes. IT managers also gain more visibility, traffic routing control, rapid deployment and recovery, all with almost zero on-site IT personnel. The new Kuala Lumpur and Jakarta network gateways significantly enhance TrueCONNECT(TM) Hybrid performance across ASEAN, long popular as an ideal region for world leading technology companies expanding physical presence. In particular, Singapore's political and legal stability and transparency have attracted considerable investment from MNCs and global technology pioneers to the city-state, including purchasing significant real property in the central business district and establishing innovation research labs. ASEAN as a whole is receiving increasing venture capital from around the world."A huge percentage of the ASEAN population is digitally savvy," said Mr. Derek Ung, General Manager, Enterprise Sales, CITIC Telecom CPC. "Companies and people are eager to embrace and enjoy new technological products and services. ASEAN is still relatively under-represented in terms of tech startups. The potential for solutions that support all these new businesses and government projects especially smart city initiatives is huge, and creates opportunities for win/win/win for our company, our partners such as VMware, and our customers."The latest Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) is setting out the framework for becoming the largest free trade area in the world. It is a potential window to reshape the future of trade as well as to propel enterprises to capitalize new opportunities across Asia Pacific. Further, analyst research has pointed to potentially immense ASEAN growth of its digital economy to some $300 billion over the next five years, likely encompassing multiple areas including smart products and services in mobility, e-commerce, travel, social media, telecommunications and even healthcare, the latter driven by telehealth demands in Southeast Asian countries lacking sufficient medical workers, and COVID-19 social distancing impacts. The "Master Plan on ASEAN Connectivity 2025" has also forecast up to $625 billion in annual economic impact in ASEAN by 2030, through disruptive technologies such as mobile Internet, Big Data, Cloud and Internet of Things applications."We may also see tremendous growth in fintech as the financial sector leverages new connectivity and computing technologies to innovate banking and investment services," added Derek, CPC. "Manufacturing is yet another area that will evolve, with many regional companies relocating or building out their supply chain in ASEAN. With our latest gateway deployment, we want to be ready to serve our customers in ASEAN and those moving to ASEAN."The new ASEAN gateways for TrueCONNECT(TM) Hybrid fortify CITIC Telecom CPC's ability to maintain its high-quality SLA commitment to ASEAN enterprise customers, enabling high network performance without compromising on responsiveness or reliability. The enhanced network capacity is also crucial for the region's emerging new digital businesses and smart cities, including the New Normal "Work From Home" approach being adopted worldwide. Robust network performance without sluggishness or outages is especially relevant for organizations migrating applications and workloads to cloud platforms via business digitalization initiatives."We are very excited to partner with CITIC Telecom CPC and help them deliver TrueCONNECT(TM) Hybrid to ASEAN customers," said Abe Ankumah, senior director, SD-WAN and SASE Business, VMware. "VMware SD-WAN Gateways are a unique and key component of our architecture, and for even the most demanding connectivity requirements, enterprises will be well-supported by the many high-performance gateways deployed by CITIC Telecom CPC throughout this region." "We are fully committed to the long-term success of our customers," said Taylor, CPC. "From Q1 2021, we plan to expand our network gateways to 10 more cities including in the Philippines, to ensure that we deliver the best experience to our customers."About CITIC Telecom CPCWe are CITIC Telecom International CPC Limited ("CITIC Telecom CPC"), a wholly owned subsidiary of CITIC Telecom International Holdings Limited (SEHK: 1883), serving multinational enterprises the world over by addressing their specific ICT requirements with highly scalable tailored solutions built upon our flagship technology suites, comprising TrueCONNECT(TM) private network solutions, TrustCSI(TM) information security solutions, DataHOUSE(TM) cloud data center solutions, and SmartCLOUD(Tm) cloud computing solutions.As a leading Global Local ICT Solutions Partner with worldwide footprint across East to West and native presence, we truly live our motto, "Innovation Never Stops." Being a preferred Digital Society Enabler, we lead our key markets at the forefront of pioneering ICT development, embracing AI, AR, Big Data, IoT, and other cutting-edge emerging technologies to transform technical potential into real-world value for our customers, helping them achieve higher productivity, agility, cost-efficiency, and ultimately, Digital Globalization. As one of the first managed service providers in Hong Kong to achieve ISO 9001, 14001, 20000, 27001, and 27017 ICT-related certifications, CITIC Telecom CPC delivers on our superior quality commitment through a broad global self-managed infrastructure encompassing some of the highest growth markets in Asia, Europe and America, with over 140 points of presence, 18 Cloud service centers, 30+ data centers, and two dedicated 24x7 Security Operations Centers.For more information please visit www.citictel-cpc.comVMware, and VMware SD-WAN are registered trademarks or trademarks of VMware, Inc. in the United States and other jurisdictions. All other marks and names mentioned herein may be trademarks of their respective companies.Media Contact:June TayCITIC Telecom International CPC Limited(65) 6692 8357Email: june.tay@citictel-cpc.com Copyright 2021 ACN Newswire. All rights reserved. www.acnnewswire.com

14 11 月, 2020

Asean Summit: Political-security, economic ties key areas of cooperation for US and Asean, says PM Lee

SINGAPORE - Singapore hopes that the United States will further broaden and deepen its presence in this region, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said on Saturday (Nov 14), highlighting political-security and economic ties as two areas of cooperation. Speaking at the 8th Asean-US Summit, PM Lee said the US has been a vital partner for Asean since the end of World War II, and thanked it for its support to the region during the Covid-19 crisis. The virtual summit was attended by US National Security Adviser Robert O'Brien, who represented President Donald Trump. During the session, PM Lee said Singapore hopes that the US will further broaden and deepen its presence in this region, and welcomes the US' continued security presence in Asia. He said the Republic appreciates American support for the Asean Outlook on the Indo-Pacific, which is the bloc's plan to develop the Indo-Pacific region. He also noted that operations of the US' Seventh Fleet help strengthen regional security and safeguard the rights of regional countries under international law, such as the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. "We also hope to continue to work with the US to uphold the rules-based international order, including by supporting multilateral institutions, and finding multilateral solutions to global challenges like climate change and pandemics," he added. PM Lee also highlighted the strengthening of Asean-US economic ties, by protecting supply chains, maintaining open and unimpeded trade flows, and safely resuming international travel. "This would benefit many US companies which have longstanding business interests here," he said. PM Lee called for the US to continue supporting Asean's efforts to deepen economic integration with partners, such as through the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), which will be signed on Sunday, and the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) which was signed almost three years back. "There is much strategic value to strengthening economic integration. It gives us a larger mutual stake in one another's growth and well-being and will help sustain the Asia Pacific as an oasis of stability and prosperity for many years to come," said PM Lee. More on this topic Related Story Asean Summit: PM Lee highlights need to deepen economic cooperation, connectivity in region Related Story Spotlight on RCEP trade talks when virtual Asean Summit begins on Thursday In his speech, PM Lee also said that the longstanding US presence in the region has created a stable and conducive environment for peace and stability, fostering regional prosperity and allowing countries to concentrate on economic development. This has resulted in the economic relationship between Asean and the US growing steadily over the years, with mutual growth and benefit. The stock of American investments in this region, for instance, is now US$329 billion (S$443 billion) - exceeding the amount in China, India, Japan and South Korea combined. "Many American companies are household names in Asean. Even in some of the most remote areas in our region, you can find Coca-Cola and Colgate," said PM Lee. He said Singapore strongly welcomes the US' continued engagement in the region, such as through the Asia Reassurance Initiative Act, which will provide US$1.5 billion to the Asia Pacific annually for five years, and the Better Utilisation of Investments Leading to Development Act, which has created US$1 billion in investments in Asean countries since 2018. "We appreciate that during the Covid-19 crisis, the US has been a supportive partner, providing financial and technical assistance to Asean member states," PM Lee added.

29 10 月, 2020

Retired Singapore diplomat dismisses claims by Cambodia of being agent to foreign power

SINGAPORE - Former top Singapore diplomat Bilahari Kausikan on Thursday (Oct 29) dismissed claims by a group of Cambodian diplomats that he is acting as an "agent" for a foreign power. A group claiming to be made up of retired and active Cambodian diplomats had hit back at Mr Kausikan over remarks he made at a webinar on Friday (Oct 23), in which he observed that Cambodia and Laos are "teetering precariously on the edge" of entrusting their agency to an external power or trying to be passively neutral. In an unsigned open letter published on Tuesday (Oct 27), they criticised his "arrogant and condescending tone", and said he had made a "barrage of misleading and flawed claims", among other things. In response, the retired diplomat said: "Being (as they point out) 'senile and forgetful', I cannot remember what this is about. But even my addled wits cannot take seriously an argument that contains the phrase 'Anyhow, back to the substance...'. "What were they saying before? Nonsense? I cannot take this rubbish seriously," added Mr Kausikan, who was permanent secretary at Singapore's Ministry of Foreign Affairs. During the webinar at the 35th Asean Roundtable organised by the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute, he had said that neutrality does not mean lying low and hoping for the best. True neutrality means "knowing your own interests, taking positions based on your own interests and not allowing others to define your interests for you by default", he added. During the roundtable, Mr Kausikan noted that Asean had for the first time in its history failed to agree on a Joint Communique in 2012, because the then Cambodian foreign minister refused any compromise on the South China Sea issue. China has overlapping claims with Asean members in the disputed waterway. He also noted that Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen later said supporting China was "Cambodia's political choice." This betrayed Cambodia's lack of understanding of how the 10-member association works, he said. "We are an inter-state and not supra-national organisation. No member is required to give up its sovereign right to define its national interests as it chooses. "Cambodia's right to make its own political choices was never at issue. What was at issue was whether Cambodia had in any degree taken the regional interest into account when making that political choice." He also said that should Cambodia and Laos make the wrong choices, Asean as a whole will be confronted with difficult choices too. "We may have to cut loose the two to save the eight (other members)." His remarks drew a sharp response from the Cambodian diplomats. In an open letter published on Cambodian news website Fresh News Asia, they wrote that it is contradictory for Mr Kausikan to postulate that Asean is an inter-state and not a supra-national organisation, while at the same time promoting the idea that some member states should be expelled from the regional grouping. "Somehow, he seems to forget or pretends to forget that Asean has never been designed to retain a supra-national authority to dictate the economic, political, strategic direction of its member states," they said. The Cambodian diplomats also criticised the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute as a platform for "wolf warriors" to promote a narrative that Cambodia is China's vassal state. Cambodia is viewed by analysts to be one of China's closest allies in Southeast Asia. The term "wolf warrior", named after an action film, is often used to describe aggressive moves by Chinese diplomats to defend China's national interests. The institute's deputy director Terence Chong told The Straits Times that it does not wish to respond to an open letter which does not believe it warrants signatories. Nevertheless, he said, as an independent research centre, the institute examines long-term trends and challenges facing the region. "To do so, we allow individual researchers and invited speakers the freedom to give their own views and insights based on their analysis of the issues at hand. "We believe in providing this platform to enable and facilitate candid assessments...in order to deepen our understanding of the region and its dynamics."