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DGAP-News: SPORTTOTAL AG / Key word(s): Alliance
09.07.2021 / 11:00
The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.
*Corporate News *
*sporttotal acquires* *AFC Asian Qualifiers - Road to Qatar media rights from the Asian Football Confederation *

*- All AFC Asian Qualifiers - Road to Qatar matches on sporttotal
- Top fixtures being aired on #dabeiTV
- New markets and profitable marketing opportunities*

*Cologne, 9 July 2021*. sporttotal.tv gmbh, one of the largest multi-sport streaming platforms in Germany and a wholly-owned subsidiary of SPORTTOTAL AG, is the new partner of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. From September, sporttotal broadcasts all AFC Asian Qualifiers - Road to Qatar matches and will be adding the AFC Asian Qualifiers - Road to Qatar as a flagship competition to enhance their portfolio of rights with top-tier professional football. All matches will be distributed on sporttotal.tv with the top fixtures being aired on sporttotal's #dabeiTV channel, available via Magenta TV.

Dato' Windsor John, the AFC General Secretary, said: "The AFC is delighted to enter into this partnership with sporttotal to broadcast the AFC Asian Qualifiers - Road to Qatar in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, a region with an enormous football fanbase and incredible passion for the sport. This deal demonstrates the ever-growing stature of the AFC's competitions, and we thank Sporttotal for the belief they have shown in the future of Asian football by entering into this agreement."

Dr. Roman Schade, Director Media Rights and Legal (Sporttotal AG) said: "We are delighted to expand our sports portfolio and develop further markets as well as target groups in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. The AFC Asia Qualifiers - Road to Qatar offers highly exciting content and creates new marketing potential for sporttotal. Together with new partners, we will offer a high-reach platform, an engaged community with great fans and will create added value for all sports enthusiasts."

Patrick Murphy, Board Member and CEO at Football Marketing Asia (FMA) said: "We are pleased to welcome sporttotal as a media partner. sporttotal will bring this critical final phase of the AFC Asian Qualifiers - Road to Qatar closer to football fans in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. The partnership with sporttotal.tv gmbh is an important step in making Asian football more accessible for a global audience and we are looking forward to working with their teams to drive the growth of the fanbase of AFC national team competitions in Europe."

*About the AFC*

The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) is the governing body of Asian football and one of the six Confederations making up FIFA. Established in 1954, the AFC is headquartered in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and comprises 47 Member Associations. The AFC organises the AFC Asian Cup and the AFC Women's Asian Cup, which are the flagship Continental national team competitions, while the AFC Champions League is the premier competition for Asian clubs, drawing millions of fans to the beautiful game across the length and breadth of the Continent and beyond.

*About Football Marketing Asia*

Football Marketing Asia (FMA) is the exclusive commercial partner of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) for the rights cycles 2021-2024 and 2025-2028 (excluding (i) Japan in the case of media and certain sponsorship rights; and (ii) MENA in the case of media rights). FMA is headquartered in Hong Kong S.A.R., with offices in the Middle East, Southeast Asia and China PR. FMA combines unparalleled global football experience with in-depth Asian know-how and expertise.

To learn more, please visit www.FootballMarketingAsia.com

*About SPORTTOTAL AG*

SPORTTOTAL AG (ISIN: DE000A1EMG56), headquartered in Cologne, is a technology and media company on a growth path in the rapidly scalable digital business with video platforms and communities (DIGITAL), in the high-margin national and international project business (VENUES), as well as in the live events business (LIVE). The company, which was founded in 1979, operates a high-traffic portal through sporttotal.tv, with strong growth for online sport videos and live streaming. The company equips sports clubs with special camera technology which enables sports events to be transmitted live in a high quality and fully automatically on sporttotal.tv. SPORTTOTAL AG's service portfolio also comprises the technical equipping of racing circuits and sports facilities, as well as the production and marketing of sports events such as the ADAC TOTAL 24-Hour Race at the Nürburgring. In addition, SPORTTOTAL AG also produces content for prestigious companies such as Porsche, Audi, Mercedes/AMG, Red Bull and VW, operates the #dabei.tv linear TV station, and organises high-calibre live events such as the Porsche Experience.

To learn more, please visit www.sporttotal.com or www.sporttotal.tv

Contact:
Company:
SPORTTOTAL AG
Am Coloneum 2
50829 Köln
Germany
www.sporttotal.com
Tel: +49 [0] 221_7 88 77_ 0
Fax: +49 [0] 221_7 88 77_ 199 Email: info@sporttotal.com

Investor Relations:
BSK Becker+Schreiner Kommunikation GmbH
Tobias M. Weitzel
Tel.: +49 [0] 2154_ 81 22 16
Email: weitzel@kommunikation-bsk.de --------------------

09.07.2021 Dissemination of a Corporate News, transmitted by DGAP - a service of EQS Group AG.
The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.

The DGAP Distribution Services include Regulatory Announcements, Financial/Corporate News and Press Releases.
Archive at www.dgap.de --------------------

Language: English
Company: SPORTTOTAL AG
Am Coloneum 2
50829 Köln
Germany
Phone: +49 (0)221 7 88 77 0
Fax: +49 (0)221 7 88 77 199
E-mail: info@sporttotal.com
Internet: www.sporttotal.com
ISIN: DE000A1EMG56
WKN: A1EMG5
Listed: Regulated Market in Frankfurt (General Standard); Regulated Unofficial Market in Berlin, Dusseldorf, Hamburg, Stuttgart, Tradegate Exchange
EQS News ID: 1216916

End of News DGAP News Service

OneConnect Impresses at World Artificial Intelligence Conference 2021 in Shanghai

The company showcased its comprehensive, customer-centric fintech solutions aimed at empowering the financial industry through technology.

SHANGHAI, July 9, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Leading technology-as-a-service platform provider *OneConnect Financial Technology Co., Ltd. (NYSE: OCFT) ("OneConnect" or "the Company"), an associate company of Ping An Group,* recently displayed a lineup of impressive fintech solutions at the World Artificial Intelligence Conference 2021 (WAIC 2021) held in Shanghai from July 8-10, 2021, drawing much interest from attendees.

Exhibitors at the event – themed "Intelligent Connectivity, Inspirational Cities"– included several of China's most well-known companies but *one of* *the key attractions was OneConnect's Smart Government & Enterprise Platform*. The solution enables governments to combine services for matters of state, large manufacturers, financial institutions and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) through one digital platform, providing a venue for SMEs to accurately and efficiently locate resources for their financing needs.

OneConnect Chairman of the Board of Directors and CEO Ye Wangchun said, "With the rapid development of technology today, *OneConnect will continue to provide a valuable, customer-centric service experience while playing a key role in the industry's digital transformation.* We believe that the essence to creating more palatable financial technologies that support and enhance human potential, social connectedness, dignity, and self-reliance is to empower the financial industry through technology. We aim to promote digital transformation, support the real economy, facilitate rural revitalization, and create social value."

In addition, what most impressed visitors to the conference was *OneConnect's ability to provide comprehensive digital solutions *allowing the widely diversified needs of financial institutions to be met. Through the integration of multiple products, OneConnect has created 16 product lines across banking, insurance and investment verticals *covering both software-as-a-service(SaaS) and infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) scenarios*, providing financial institutions with full-process and end-to-end technology enablement.

*OneConnect's banking module, intelligent risk management platform, *corporate and banking digital transformation service, and intelligent double-entry bookkeeping solution all leverage leading technologies and *deep insights into business* to provide full-process corporate financial digital solutions and *full-scenario AI empowerment*, greatly enhancing the quality and efficiency of financial services.

*The Company's intelligent auto insurance claims platform provides insurance companies with a "Software + Services" end-to-end solution,* covering the entire process from reporting of the accident, rescue, vehicle damage and human injury assessment, to supply of parts and settlement of claims. Through a large, shared service center, the platform provides resource support including rescue, inspection of the damaged vehicle and maintenance, as well as enhanced management of claims services.

*OneConnect's smart subscription and audit solutions fully demonstrate the advantages of AI collaboration in improving management efficiency in the investment sector.* The smart subscription solution relies on multiple types of intelligent tools to automate 90% and standardize 100% of the process, significantly reducing operation and maintenance costs and lowering operational risks while enhancing management effectiveness. *The smart audit solution is the industry's first of its kind to deploy AI. *

The Company's *Gamma smart voice platform features* *intelligent solutions for voice navigation, online customer service, video robot, outbound calling, customer service assistance and quality inspection, among other smart customer service solutions*, coupled with a voice robot that genuinely delivers business results.

WAIC 2021 focused on *the artificial intelligence-enabled digital transformation of cities.* The event discussed the *path of innovation in AI and its resultant industrial applications* with the aim of conveying the concept and value of urban digital transformation and reaching a global consensus on relevant governance and norms.

The financial technology (fintech) industry serves as a good example. With the *growing maturity of key technologies such as cloud computing, big data, blockchain and AI* alongside the transition from the internet and mobile web eras into the era of AI, *integration of finance and technology has finally been achieved,* laying a solid foundation for the next stage of digital development.

During the first quarter of 2021, OneConnect announced its SaaS product lineup upgrade plan, with a focus on the "big picture," including platform and ecosystem, while adhering to the dual empowerment of "technology + business." *Having established a unique business model, the Company has also been fulfilling its corporate social responsibilities*, creating value for society through technology during this period of accelerated evolution of digital finance.

Publicly available data reveal that since its inception, OneConnect has invested more than 3.4 billion yuan in technology R&D. The Company *has now established its leadership in the fintech industry in terms of AI, big data and blockchain, with a series of industry-leading intelligent technology products in which it solely holds the intellectual property rights*. OneConnect is also expanding rapidly into overseas markets by setting up subsidiaries in Singapore, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines, embarking on a new journey of global expansion.

*About OneConnect Financial Technology*

OneConnect Financial Technology is a leading technology-as-a-service platform for financial institutions. The Company's platform provides cloud-native technology solutions that integrate extensive financial services industry expertise with market-leading technology. The Company's solutions provide technology applications and technology-enabled business services to financial institutions. Together they enable the Company's customers' digital transformations, which help them increase revenue, manage risks, improve efficiency, enhance service quality and reduce costs.

The Company's technology solutions strategically cover multiple verticals in the financial services industry, including banking, insurance and asset management, across the full scope of their businesses — from sales and marketing and risk management to customer services, as well as technology infrastructures such as data management, program development, and cloud services.

In a first for the Global Consumer Banking business globally, 74 Analysts and Associates mentored 15 youth-led social enterprises in the region to refine their business strategies as they seek to strengthen and expand their operations
HONG KONG, July 9, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Citi Asia Pacific has piloted a Corporate Social Responsibility Program for Global Consumer Banking (GCB) Analysts and Associates in a first for the business globally. Giving early career colleagues who are part of Citi's graduate programs the opportunity to mentor youth-led social enterprises in the region, a total of 74 GCB Analysts and Associates worked in cross-border teams to mentor 15 social enterprises.

From March to May this year, GCB Analysts and Associates worked with young social entrepreneurs who are part of Youth:Co Lab, a program co-created by the Citi Foundation and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in 2017. The program aims to tackle youth unemployment in the region by supporting young social entrepreneurs as they accelerate the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) through their businesses.

Citi colleagues partnered participating social entrepreneurs to refine and articulate their mission, vision, impact, and strategy as these social entrepreneurs seek investments to further grow and strengthen their operations. This included addressing various areas of focus including expansion into new markets, refinement of marketing and growth strategies, development of pricing policies, as well as performance measurement.

For Advisory Singapore, a youth-led non-profit dedicated to empowering young Singaporeans from all walks of life to make informed career and further education choices, the Corporate Social Responsibility program helped to identify key financial metrics to be shared when pitching for investment funding. Together with Citi colleagues, the team from Advisory Singapore also considered growth strategies for markets outside of Singapore.

Mock Yi Jun, Co-Founder and President of Advisory Singapore, said, "It was a delight to work with such a passionate, dedicated and enthusiastic team of GCB Analysts and Associates. The team was incredibly supportive and focused on addressing areas of need which we had raised. Since the end of the program, we've come away with a greater awareness on how to pitch Advisory's value proposition to external stakeholders. We are also glad to be able to continue to engage with Citi. Most recently, Citi Singapore joined Advisory Singapore as an official mentorship partner. As part of Citi's Global Community Day in June, we also had close to 50 Citi Singapore employees join our Advisory Mentorship Program which mentors students on a 1-1 basis. We're proud to be working with a firm that cares so deeply about developing the next generation."

Advisory Singapore's Mentorship Program, which runs from June to September this year, mentors students aged 16 to 28 from a range of educational institutions and backgrounds.

Cambodian-based JUNLEN which promotes the recycling of organic waste via vermicomposting is launching a website as part of its new digital sales strategy, developed in partnership with Citi colleagues. The social enterprise is currently working with smaller farmers in Cambodia to create a network of earthworm farms across the country.

"The Corporate Social Responsibility program with Citi was beneficial in multiple ways. We were asked very detailed questions that helped us to think through what we wanted to do with the business and the future we envisioned. The team's ideas and suggestions were practical, with clear steps on how we could expand our marketing efforts and strategies to pursue our plans for growth. Through this experience, we have learned to better articulate our business and the goals we hope to achieve through our social enterprise. With the launch of our upcoming website, we hope to be able to scale impact quicker with wider reach to opportunities, potential partners and impact investors," said Sothearath Sok, Founder of JUNLEN.

The Corporate Social Responsibility Program was piloted with GCB Analysts and Associates during their second job rotation as part of their respective two-year programs. Towards the end of the Corporate Social Responsibility pilot, Citi colleagues together with their community partners created final deliverables which included a three-minute pitch presentation for each social enterprise.

Kartik Mani, Citi's Asia Pacific Head of Global Consumer Banking, said, "At Citi, we want to nurture talents who appreciate the importance of social responsibility and corporate citizenship. Youth economic opportunities has been a core component of Citi's citizenship focus and we want to be able to integrate this focus as part of our business and mindset. This program has immersed our candidates in pressing societal issues and put into practice how as a bank, we can create positive social impact. We are encouraged by the outcome of the pilot program and the significant value that it has generated for the participating social enterprises."

As part of its commitment to being an employer of choice, Citi continues to introduce innovative recruitment programs and opportunities. In response to the impact of COVID-19 on youth unemployment in Asia Pacific, Citi last year committed to offering 6,000 jobs and 60,000 job skills training opportunities for young people through to 2023 as part of its global Pathways to Progress Initiative.

"Millennials and Gen-Z candidates increasingly value being part of companies that are actively leading the way in areas of sustainability and social responsibility. Programs like the one we have piloted provide direct experience in these areas and bring us closer to institutionalizing social impact programs as part of our training curriculum. Our graduate programs are widely regarded as industry-leading, with a legacy of candidates who have moved on to be senior leaders within the firm. Incorporating corporate citizenship initiatives within this program will help us to further develop our future leaders as they understand the impact of social challenges and how they can be part of the solution in progressing the SDGs," said Stephen Cronin, Asia Pacific Human Resources Head, Citi.

*About Citi *

Citi, the leading global bank, has approximately 200 million customer accounts and does business in more than 160 countries and jurisdictions. Citi provides consumers, corporations, governments and institutions with a broad range of financial products and services, including consumer banking and credit, corporate and investment banking, securities brokerage, transaction services and wealth management

Additional information may be found at www.citigroup.com | Twitter: @Citi | YouTube: www.youtube.com/citi | Blog: http://blog.citigroup.com | Facebook: www.facebook.com/citi | LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/citi.

Related Links :

http://www.citigroup.com

In this article, we will consider an employee's rights in the event that they are told that their role is being made redundant. We will also examine the consequences of receiving notice of redundancy,...

HONG KONG SAR - Media OutReach - 9 July 2021 - *YesAsia Holdings Limited* ("*YesAsia*" or the "*Company*"; together with subsidiaries, the "*Group*"; SEHK stock code: 2209), a Hong Kong-headquartered E-commerce platform operator engaging in the procurement and sale of Asian fashion and lifestyle, beauty and entertainment products to customers around the world, saw its shares successfully listed on the Main Board of The Stock Exchange of Hong Kong Limited ("HKEx") today. The offer price of the Company's shares was set at HK$3.28 per share, and the first day closing price was HK$3.46 per share, representing a 5.5% increase.

Commenting on the successful listing, Mr. Lau Kwok Chu, Founder and CEO of YesAsia, said: "We are delighted to see the successful listing of YesAsia in Hong Kong. We would like to take this opportunity to thank our investors for their endorsement of our vision to the "go-to" E-commerce gateway that bridges Asian products with customers worldwide. Going forward, we shall continue our efforts in reinforcing marketing strategies to boost customer base and enhancing customer loyalty; increasing global penetration to build stronger brand awareness; deepening our positioning as a Korean beauty product gateway; enhancing customer experience through further investment in IT systems and in-house-produced original content; and optimizing and expanding its logistics network and infrastructure."

HONG KONG SAR - Media OutReach - 9 July 2021 - As the pandemic gradually calms down, though overseas vacations are impossible this summer, we can still have fun from local outdoor activities, mountain climbing and running activities. Amidst pandemic disruptions to daily lives, Cushman and Wakefield organises the "Run for Taste" virtual run race from July 17 to August 29, giving everyone a chance to enjoy running and gourmet food at the same time!

*A race filled with fun and delicacies*

"Run for Taste" is a one-of-its-kind virtual run event organised by the Retail Team of Cushman and Wakefield. To encourage participation from all walks of life to enjoy running, the race comes in various categories with preferences and capabilities suitable for different age groups, genders and even pets. The first race is a round trip course along the Victoria Harbour promenade from Causeway Bay to Central with a distance of about 8 km. Participants will have fun on the newly opened waterfront path, and can admire the spectacular dusk and dawn scenery of Victoria Harbour in close proximity. Selfie photo points have been set up along the waterfront for checking in and taking pictures. Participants can also enjoy exclusive discounts at designated restaurants and bars for a wonderful running and dining experience.

*Race packs full of fun and food, and weekly lucky draw*

A running and dining activity is never complete without wonderful gourmet treats. Each participant will receive a race pack containing dining and shopping discounts/cash vouchers worth more than HK$250, free drinks and dining discounts, etc. A bib is certainly a must-have. After completing the race, participants will get an E-Finisher Certificate, a souvenir steel tumbler and a souvenir towel (Total value: HK$200). In addition, there is a lucky draw every week with the following prizes:

· Moët & Chandon N.I.R Nectar Impérial Dry Rosé 0.75L (12% vol), 3 prizes (Total value: HK$4,665)
· Sparkling wine sponsored by Base 8, 4 prizes (Total value: HK$1,200)
· Supermarket $500 cash voucher, 10 prizes**
· The Peninsula Boutique Heritage Chocolate Box Set, 5 prizes (Total value: HK$2,675)
· Izakaya by K and Teppanyaki Mihara $1,000 cash voucher, 3 prizes

Joining "Run for Taste" is easy. Simply register at the event website. Pick a convenient time during the specified period to start the race, then upload GPS records or selfies to prove the completion of the race*. Participants can take breaks and resume anytime, anywhere on the specific course. There is no pressure for competition but the fun of leisurely runs.

Participants can join any of the five categories: Challenge Category (8 km challenge for individuals), Leisure Category (8 km enjoyment for individuals), Couples Category (8 km team of lovers), Family Category (cross-generation family team of 3 or 4 people), or Run with Pet Category (individual and a pet). Participants stand a chance to win any of the following prizes.

Speed Award

The fastest 3 men and 3 women in Challenge Category (Total 6 winners)

Each winner will get a pair of Saucony Endorphin Pro running shoes (Value: $1,699) and Dalloyau $200 cash voucher

Best Love Photo Award

The sweetest couple photo along the course (Total 5 winners)

Each winning group will get a K11 Musea Artisanal Afternoon Tea Set for 2 persons @ Artisan Lounge (Value: $768)

Best Family Photo Award

The heartiest family photo along the course (Total 6 winners)

Each winning group will get Dalloyau $300 cash vouchers and Bread and Bistro $300 dine in spending

Best Pet Photo Award

The cutest pet photo along the course (Total 5 winners)

Each winner will get Whiskers N Paws $800 cash voucher and pet treatment package (Total value over $1200)

*Bountiful rewards and race for charity*

Not only are the bountiful race packs and post event gifts tempting, the race itself is also meaningful. By downloading the Strava App and signing up the "Run for Taste" club, participants will contribute charity miles to the "F&B Run Club - Run to the Moon" project, which aims to reach a 384,400 km goal (equivalent to the distance from the Earth to the Moon) for charity purpose.

F&B Run Club is a network of owners and staff working within the food & beverage industry, who are on a mission to raise money for worthy charities through various activities that integrate wellness, self-betterment, health and social responsibilities.

Grab the chance to join the event and enjoy a fun summer full of gourmet and run!

For more detail, please visit Run for Taste website: www.powerasia.hk/run-for-taste-victoria-harbour

Or Run for Taste Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/RunforTaste/

Photo download link: https://bit.ly/3yG3Ini

About Cushman & Wakefield

Cushman & Wakefield (NYSE: CWK) is a leading global real estate services firm that delivers exceptional value for real estate occupiers and owners. Cushman & Wakefield is among the largest real estate services firms with approximately 50,000 employees in over 400 offices and 60 countries. Across Greater China, 22 offices are servicing the local market. The company won four of the top awards in the Euromoney Survey 2017, 2018 and 2020 in the categories of Overall, Agency Letting/Sales, Valuation and Research in China. In 2020, the firm had revenue of $7.8 billion across core services of property, facilities and project management, leasing, capital markets, valuation and other services. To learn more, visit www.cushmanwakefield.com.hk or follow us on LinkedIn (
https://www.linkedin.com/company/cushman-&-wakefield-greater-china).

#Cushman&Wakefield

I-Mab Expands Emerging Portfolio of Next Generation Novel Oncology Therapeutics Through Cutting-Edge mRNA and AI Technology Platforms

SHANGHAI and GAITHERSBURG, Md., July 9, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- I-Mab (the "Company") (Nasdaq: IMAB), a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company committed to the discovery, development and commercialization of novel biologics, today announced the signing of two new collaborations with emerging biotech companies in China to strengthen its next-generation innovation pipeline.

The collaborations with Immorna, an mRNA biotech company, and neoX Biotech, an AI-enabled R&D biotech company, allow I-Mab the access to transformative technologies in its quest to discover and develop novel oncology therapeutics. I-Mab will be developing novel anti-cancer antibody therapeutics through Immorna's pioneering self-replicating mRNA platform. Moreover, through a strategic collaboration agreement, I-Mab will work with neoX Biotech for up to 10 novel biologics programs using neoX's proprietary artificial intelligence algorithm. The announcement today is the new additions to the existing collaboration agreements with Complix for cell-penetrating antibody platform and Affinity for masking antibody platform in March 2021, positioning the Company to continually expand its globally competitive pipeline of next generation antibody assets enabled by transformative technologies.

"Since the launch of our discovery initiative earlier this year, we have identified transformative technologies that can enable us to rapidly expand the emerging portfolio of next generation novel antibody assets to sustain our innovative immuno-oncology pipeline," said Dr. Taylor Guo, Chief Scientific Officer of I-Mab. "The immense success of COVID-19 mRNA vaccines exemplifies that mRNA-based drugs have finally established themselves as transformative medicines. And channeling the power of AI into drug discovery holds great promise from unlocking novel targets and modalities to accelerating all aspects of R&D. By embracing these technologies, we have again demonstrated our commitment in executing against our long-term innovation strategy."

"We are delighted to establish this collaboration with I-Mab. By unlocking the potential of in vivo synthesized therapeutic antibody modality built on messenger RNA technology, we strive to realize our common mission of bringing the world's first self-replicating mRNA therapeutics to cancer patients," said Dr. Zihao Wang, CEO of Immorna.

"We look forward to working with I-Mab to generate novel oncology assets, leveraging our proprietary cutting-edge AI technology and unique capabilities to overcome the challenges of drug discovery and create new drugs better and faster," said Dr. Hang Chen, CEO of neoX Biotech.

Both partner companies will receive undisclosed upfront and/or milestone payments stipulated in the collaboration agreements.

*About I-Mab*

I-Mab (Nasdaq: IMAB) is an innovation-driven global biotech company focusing on discovery, development and soon commercialization of novel and highly differentiated biologics in immuno-oncology therapeutic area. The Company's mission is to bring transformational medicines to patients around the world through drug innovation. I-Mab's globally competitive pipeline of more than 15 clinical and pre-clinical stage drug candidates is driven by its internal R&D capability and global licensing partnerships, based on the Company's unique Fast-to-Proof-of-Concept and Fast-to-Market pipeline development strategies. The Company is now rapidly progressing from a clinical stage biotech company to a fully integrated global biopharmaceutical company with cutting-edge global R&D capabilities, a world-class GMP manufacturing facility and commercialization capability. I-Mab has established its global footprint in Shanghai (headquarters), Beijing, Hangzhou and Hong Kong in China, and Maryland and San Diego in the United States. For more information, please visit http://ir.i-mabbiopharma.com and follow I-Mab on LinkedIn, Twitter and WeChat.

*About Immorna*

Founded in 2019, Immorna is a fast-growing biotech company that focuses on developing self-replicating and conventional mRNA-based therapeutics and vaccines. Since its founding, Immorna has built a robust CMC platform for mRNA synthesis, purification, and analytical testing and is well suited for commercial development. Thanks to its state-of-the-art screening tools, Immorna has developed an arsenal of mRNA delivery vehicles including polymers and lipid nanoparticles featuring multiple proprietary cationic lipids suitable for intramuscular, intravenous or tissue-targeting delivery. Immorna has a diverse pipeline spanning cancer immunotherapy, infectious diseases, rare genetic diseases, and cosmetology. Immorna is fast advancing into clinical stage for its oncology and infectious disease projects. Immorna's footprint includes Hangzhou, Shanghai in China and Wilmington, DE in the US.

*About neoX Biotech*

neoX Biotech is a next-generation biotech company specializing in computational design for novel drug research and development. By integrating artificial intelligence (AI), biophysics with high-throughput experiments, neoX focuses on the research and development of macromolecular drugs and multi-specific drugs. Through an in-depth characterization of protein-protein interaction (PPI), neoX has developed a highly transferable and sophisticated platform for early drug discovery. NeoX has achieved demonstrable preclinical progress in a set of innovative drug pipelines derived from this platform. Founded in 2018 by two doctors graduated from MIT and Caltech, neoX has raised nearly $100 million US dollars of investment from the prestigious venture capitals, including Sequoia Capital China, 5Y Capital, Vision Plus Capital, Vertex Ventures, LYFE Capital, ZhenFund, etc.

*I-Mab Forward Looking Statements*

This press release includes certain disclosures which contain "forward-looking statements." You can identify forward-looking statements because they contain words such as "anticipate" and "expected." Forward-looking statements are based on I-Mab's current expectations and assumptions. Because forward-looking statements relate to the future, they are subject to inherent uncertainties, risks and changes in circumstances that may differ materially from those contemplated by the forward-looking statements, which are neither statements of historical fact nor guarantees or assurances of future performance. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements are set forth in filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. I-Mab undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as may be required by law.

*For more information, please contact:*

*I-Mab*

Jielun Zhu, Chief Financial Officer
E-mail: jielun.zhu@i-mabbiopharma.com
Office line: +86 21 6057 8000

Gigi Feng, Chief Communications Officer
E-mail: gigi.feng@i-mabbiopharma.com
Office line: +86 21 6057 5709

*Investor Inquiries:*

The Piacente Group, Inc.
Emilie Wu
E-mail: emilie@thepiacentegroup.com
Office line: + 86 21 6039 8363

Related Links :

http://www.i-mabbiopharma.com

NetDragon Reaches Strategic Cooperation with Autodesk (China) To Explore New Path of Digital Education

HONG KONG, July 9, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- NetDragon Websoft Holdings Limited ("NetDragon" or the "Company"; Hong Kong Stock Code: 777), a global leader in building internet communities, is pleased to announce that the Company has signed a strategic memorandum of understanding ("MOU") with Autodesk Software (China) Limited ("Autodesk (China)") in the Digital Education Town in Changle, Fuzhou. Both parties intend to establish a long-term communication mechanism through utilizing their core technology advantages, and work together to promote the application of digital technology in education. Both parties also plan to jointly participate in the UNESCO's charity activities in digital education and continuously deepen cooperation in education philanthropy. Meanwhile, NetDragon and Autodesk (China) have agreed to build a digital education ecosystem together. Having joined the "Autodesk ECOX Project", NetDragon will cooperate with Autodesk (China) to inject new vitality into the development of digital education ecosystem through technology exchanges, venue cooperation, business activities and market promotion. Mr. Liu Dejian, Chairman of NetDragon and Mr. Richard Li, Chairman of Autodesk (China) have both attended the signing ceremony.

During the signing ceremony, both sides agreed to build a long-term communication mechanism, constantly enrich and refine the communication channels, and promote in-depth development of the strategic partnership. The two parties intend to make digital education promotion the core of business cooperation, including 2D and 3D technology communications, sharing of digital content creation experience etc.

The advanced 2D and 3D technologies of Autodesk (China) will further enhance and expand the design capabilities and creative inspiration of NetDragon's designers, enabling them to design products which will fit teaching needs better. Meanwhile, NetDragon will also utilize Autodesk (China)'s technologies, products and services to improve the efficiency of 2D and 3D technologies in the digital education industry. Leveraging on years of experiences in digital education content creation and management, the Company has promoted the efficient development of digital education content production and will further improve the digital education ecosystem.

In addition to technology cooperation, NetDragon and Autodesk (China) have also reached a preliminary consensus on expanding cooperation in education philanthropy. Both parties plan to participate in UNESCO's digital education charity works to continually improve the education development in remote areas and promote educational equity.

Besides, NetDragon has joined the "Autodesk ECOX Project", in which the Company, like other members, will have the opportunity to obtain various accelerated support from Autodesk (China), including technical support, market promotion, industry knowledge etc.

NetDragon was invited to attend the Autodesk University meeting in November 2020. During the event, taking the virtual scene designs of graduation exhibition and graduation ceremony developed with the Central Academy of Fine Arts ("CFAF") as an example, the Company shared the practices and insights about how design and creative ideas could be applied in education, exhibition and other industries.

In the future, leveraging on the venue cooperation in the Digital Education Town, technology seminars, and IP linkage market promotion, both sides will jointly carry out the construction of digital education ecosystem through the "Autodesk ECOX Project".

Netdragon has focused on applying new technologies such as AI, VR, AR, and big data to various education segments for years and is committed to upgrading traditional pedagogy and creating lifelong learning communities. By integrating its edges in technology, platforms and resources, Netdragon has launched a series of innovative products and solutions such as 101 Education PPT, 101VR Immersive Classroom, AI education robot, Intelligent Space Solution, NCET virtual experiment and One-stop Learning. Meanwhile, leveraging on the digital education resource production base in the Digital Education Town, the Company has promoted digital education around the world. Currently, NetDragon's education business has covered more than 190 countries and regions worldwide, with more than 2 million classrooms and over 100 million users.

Autodesk, Inc. (NASDAQ: ADSK), the parent company of Autodesk (China), is dedicated to providing 2D and 3D design software, engineering software and digital content to help users unleash their unlimited creative potential. It has launched various products that are able to provide superior digital design and engineering software services for a wide range of applications in architecture, engineering, manufacturing, and film animation industries. For example, the company has launched the famous computer-aided design software AutoCAD, 3D animation rendering and production software 3D Max, 3D modeling and animation software Maya, etc.

NetDragon and Autodesk (China) have reached a strategic cooperation in promoting the development of digital education ecosystem and participating in education philanthropy. The cooperation is not only a strong alliance with complementary advantages in the areas of technology and resources, but also a brand new attempt by the two parties to explore a new path to jointly build a digital education ecosystem. Both parties will maximize the synergies through cooperation to provide new growth drivers in the digital education ecosystem.

*About NetDragon Websoft Holdings Limited*

NetDragon Websoft Holdings Limited (HKSE: 0777) is a global leader in building internet communities with a long track record of developing and scaling multiple internet and mobile platforms that impact hundreds of millions of users, including previous establishments of China's first online gaming portal, 17173.com, and China's most influential smartphone app store platform, 91 Wireless.

Established in 1999, NetDragon is one of the most reputable and well-known online game developers in China with a history of successful game titles including Eudemons Online, Heroes Evolved and Conquer Online. In recent years, NetDragon has also started to scale its online education business on the back of management's vision to create the largest global online learning community, and to bring the "classroom of the future" to every school around the world. For more information, please visit www.netdragon.com.

*For investor enquiries, please contact:*

Ms. Maggie Zhou
Senior Director of Investor Relations
Tel.: +852 2850 7266 / +86 591 8390 2825
Email: maggiezhou@nd.com.cn
Website: ir.netdragon.com

Related Links :

http://www.netdragon.com

SenseTime Joins Hands with Global Innovators to Build a Sustainable AI Ecosystem

SHANGHAI, July 9, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- SenseTime, the leading global artificial intelligence (AI) company, hosted an industry forum themed "AI+: Ecosystem" at the 2021 World Artificial Intelligence Conference (WAIC) today. The forum gathered influential entrepreneurs, academic scholars, leading innovators and government officials to discuss the latest developments and industry trends in AI, as well as share insights on how a sustainable AI ecosystem can be created.

On the opening ceremony of WAIC 2021 on July 8, Xu Li, Co-founder and CEO of SenseTime joined the session themed "Path to Inclusion - AI Brings New Life Blessings" with Masayoshi Son, Chairman & CEO of SoftBank Group, and Neil Shen, Founder & Managing Partner of Sequoia Capital. Xu Li and Neil Shen also had a dialogue on the AI development in Shanghai, as well as promoting fairness in the process of AI application.

In Xu Li's keynote speech on the opening ceremony, he raised the concept of "Machine's Conjecture" that creates a "new paradigm of innovation" and breaks the boundaries of human perception. He officially introduced the SenseCore AI Infrastructure, which is designed to develop powerful and efficient AI solutions that are scalable and adaptable for a wide range of applications.

*SenseCore: Breaking the boundaries of AI applications*Xu Li, Co-founder and CEO of SenseTime introduced SenseCore AI Infrastructure

The SenseCore AI Infrastructure creates a new paradigm of technology advancement, by achieving efficient, low-cost, and highly scalable AI innovation and empowerment. This is enabled by integrating three layers – computing power, platforms and algorithms. SenseCore is built upon SenseTime's New Generation Supercomputing Center (AIDC), which supports the analysis, training and reasoning of data, and algorithm models that ultimately accelerates applications at scale, addressing the long-tail challenges.

"We are heading towards a new era defined by the universal model, in which the demand for computing power will grow exponentially. The improvement in AI production efficiency will build the core competitiveness of SenseCore", Xu Li said at his keynote speech. "Every industry should be embracing AI to streamline daily operations and drive a new wave of intelligent transformation. With SenseCore, we will be able to meet the growing demand for long-tail scenarios among industries, integrating AI into more value chains. Going forward, SenseTime will continue to empower even more industries through our universal AI infrastructure and build a stronger AI ecosystem together with industries and academia."

*AI for Humanity: Shaping sustainable future of AI*

During the speech, Xu Li addressed that the new paradigm of innovation should come together with AI ethics governance which upholds sustainable development. This was further reinforced by another highlight of the SenseTime AI Forum today when Xue Lan, Professor and Dean, Schwarzman College, Tsinghua University, and Xu Li had an exciting dialogue on emerging opportunities and challenges in an AI era and how to balance its innovation and ethics.

In the dialogue, Xue Lan pointed out the importance of collaboration in the development of ethical AI and noted, "To foster AI ethics that support the beneficial, trustworthy, and robust development of the technology, we should strengthen international cooperation on AI regulation so that we can jointly ramp up our efforts to make sure AI is developed in a safe and responsible manner."

Xu Li emphasized SenseTime's commitment to a development-oriented principal of AI ethics that balances multiple objectives of making AI technologies sustainable, human-centric and controllable. He stressed that the development of AI should adhere to the objective of inclusiveness that can advance the development of human society.

*AI + Sci-Fi: Connecting physical and virtual worlds*

At this year's forum, SenseTime announced that Mr. Liu Cixin, the renowned science fiction writer and Recipient of Hugo Award, has officially become Director of SenseTime Science Fiction Planet Research Center. Moreover, SenseTime will collaborate with The Three-Body Universe, copyright owner of The Three-Body Problem, to explore the new paradigm of "AI + Science Fiction" as well as create an innovative and immersive offline entertainment experience.

Mr. Liu Cixin noted, "AI is an accelerator of the imagination which can promote the development of science and technology, ultimately leading to the advancement of humanity. The Sci-Fi empowered by SenseTime's AI technology will become an immersive world which welcomes everyone to experience the vastness of universe, the insignificance of human beings, and the infinite possibilities in the future."

Furthermore, SenseTime elevated WAIC 2021 through cutting-edge AR technologies. From an exclusive self-driving AR shuttle minibus to showcasing Digital Humans and the wide applications of the SenseMARS AR platform, SenseTime brought the guests and visitors to an immersive and interactive exhibition which was both fun and convenient, blurring the boundary between reality and virtuality.

*Strengthening industry empowerment and international collaboration*

A number of prominent industry experts in attendance at the event also shared how AI is changing the game across multiple industries. The world-renowned Chemistry Nobel Laureate Prof. Michael Levitt shared his insights on how AI empowers biological intelligence and other natural sciences to benefit society and humanity. YB Khairy Jamaluddin, Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation Malaysia, and Mr. LEE Yi Shyan, Chairman of Business China, Singapore addressed the importance of AI adoption, development, and governance in the Southeast Asian region to accelerate digital transformation. ZU Sijie, Vice President & CTO, SAIC Motor Corporation Limited emphasized his views on how the innovation of intelligent vehicle turns cars into digital devices, while Ali Nimer, Executive Director, Digital and Technology, Miral Group, discussed how AI redefines entertainment and tourism.

Meanwhile, as the supporting organization, SenseTime co-organized the first-ever Hong Kong sub-forum of WAIC with Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks Corporation this year, bringing distinguished keynote speakers including prominent AI experts, renowned scholars, and influential entrepreneurs to share their forward-looking insights on AI development in Hong Kong and beyond.

At the youth innovation panel discussion of the Hong Kong sub-forum, Mr. Shang Hailong, General Manager of SenseTime Hong Kong, shared, "We need to further capitalize on Hong Kong's advantages in R&D capabilities, capital market and global connectivity. From stock connect to technology connect, Hong Kong and Shanghai can collaboratively push forward innovation, nurture more young AI talents and shape the future of AI development."

During the sub-forum, Prof. Zhang Xiang, President and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Hong Kong (HKU), Prof. Wei Shyy, President of the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) joined hands with academician Lin Zhongqin, President of Shanghai Jiaotong University, to hold a virtual signing ceremony for HKU and HKUST to join the "Global Artificial Intelligence Academic Alliance".

The "Alliance" was a joint initiative by SenseTime and top global universities including Tsinghua University, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shanghai Jiaotong University, and others in 2018.

*About SenseTime*

SenseTime is a leading global company focused on developing responsible AI technologies that advance the world's economies, society and humanity for a better tomorrow.

We have made a number of technological breakthroughs, one of which is the first ever computer system in the world to achieve higher detection accuracy than the human eye. With our roots in the academic world, we invest in fundamental research to further our understanding and advance the state of art in AI technology and are one of the most prolific contributors of related papers in the research community.

Upholding the guiding principles in our AI Code of Ethics, our global team of talented individuals are dedicated to developing original AI algorithms that bring positive impact to the society. This has made us a leading global AI algorithm provider and one of the most efficient producers of AI algorithms.

The deep learning and computer vision technologies we have developed are already empowering many industries. Our universal AI infrastructure, SenseCore, allows us to develop powerful and efficient AI solutions that are scalable and adaptable for a wide range of applications and industries. Today, our technologies are trusted by customers and partners around the world to help address real world challenges ranging from education, healthcare and smart city to intelligent automobile, smartphone and entertainment. Going forward, we strive to empower more industries with our universal AI infrastructure and build a stronger AI ecosystem together with industry and academia.

We have presences in markets including Hong Kong, Mainland China, Japan, Singapore, South Korea, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, The Philippines, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Taiwan and Macau. For more information, please visit SenseTime's website as well as its LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook pages.

SHENZHEN, China, July 9, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- BGI is aware of reports in Reuters regarding the company's non-invasive prenatal test (NIPT test) - NIFTY (Non-Invasive Fetal TrisomY).

BGI's NIPT tests have been used around the world to identify genetic conditions in pregnancy. These tests provide doctors with the scientific basis to assist millions of pregnant women, leading to better health outcomes and, in some cases, saved lives.

The research that BGI has undertaken collaboratively with some of the world's leading academic and scientific institutions has led to major medical breakthroughs that will benefit the world for many decades to come.

As a leader in life science and gene technology, BGI is committed to improving health outcomes worldwide. That is and always has been the company's mission. Assertions that BGI is motivated by anything other than the advancement of health outcomes are both deeply disappointing and factually incorrect.

These are the facts:

· BGI has never been asked to provide, nor has it provided data from its NIFTY test to Chinese authorities for national security or national defense security purposes.
· Contrary to the report by Reuters, DNA data collected from prenatal tests on women outside China are not stored in China's gene bank. All NIPT data collected overseas are stored in BGI's laboratory in Hong Kong and are destroyed after five years, as stipulated by General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
· Contrary to assertions by Reuters, BGI's NIPT test was developed solely by BGI – not in partnership with China's military.
· At no stage throughout the testing or research process does BGI have access to any identifiable personal data or the ability to match that data with personal records.
· Wherever BGI undertakes research, the company strictly comply with local laws, guidelines, and protocols, while adhering to internationally recognized ethical standards.
· The data privacy standards BGI applies to its research meet strict national and international requirements, including the GDPR in the European Union.
· BGI collaborates with many academic and research organizations not just in China, but also with many of the world's most renowned institutions in the US, UK, and Europe. These collaborations have led to significant advances in medical science that improve population health outcomes around the world.

BGI is a global organization driven by innovation, focused on precision medical research, and a desire to curb the harm of major diseases on humans worldwide.

Since its foundation in 1999, BGI has maintained a consistent track record of applying the strictest ethical standards and protection of data privacy and security. We established the Institute of Review Board of Bioethics and Biosafety (BGI-IRB) to recognize, advocate, and guide BGI's life science research and technological applications.

We are proud of the achievements that our scientists have delivered, and we are committed to continuing to work with our partners around the globe to drive new advancements in life science and healthcare.

Related Links :

http://www.bgi.com

Chinese pilgrims attend the general audience in St. Peter's Square, Oct. 12, 2016. / Daniel Ibanez/CNA.

Denver Newsroom, Jul 9, 2021 / 15:15 pm (CNA).

Today, July 9, the Church celebrates the feast day of Chinese Martyrs, 120 faithful Catholics assassinated for their faith between 1648 and 1930. 86 of them died in 1900, during the so-called "Boxer Rebellion," a Chinese anti-Western revolt that caused the killing of Catholic, Evangelical and Anglican missionaries as well as other Europeans and Americans.

Of the group canonized by Pope John Paul II on October 1st of 2000, 87 were Chinese laypeople and 33 were missionaries.

The feast is an occasion for the Chinese Catholic diaspora, and for the Universal Catholic church as a whole, to pray for Christians currently persecuted in Communist China, especially those Catholics who despite being a minority in Hong Kong, constitute the backbone of the freedom movement and are currently being jailed such as Catholic convert Jimmy Lai, owner of the pro-democracy paper Apple News; or those forced to exile, like pro-democracy Catholic leader Joseph Cheng.

“Chinese men and women of every age and state, priests, religious and lay people, showed the same conviction and joy, sealing their unfailing fidelity to Christ and the Church with the gift of their lives,” said St. John Paul II during the canonization.

“Resplendent in this host of martyrs are also the 33 missionaries who left their land and sought to immerse themselves in the Chinese world, lovingly assimilating its features in the desire to proclaim Christ and to serve those people.”

Of the 33 foreign-born missionaries, most were priests and religious, including members of the Order of Preachers, Friars Minor, Jesuits, Salesians and Franciscan Missionaries of Mary.

One of the more well-known native martyrs was a 14-year-old Chinese girl named Ann Wang, who was killed during the Boxer Rebellion when she refused to apostatize. She bravely withstood the threats of her torturers, and just as she was about to be beheaded, she radiantly declared, “The door of heaven is open to all '' and repeated the name of Jesus three times.

Another of the martyrs was 18-year-old Chi Zhuzi, who had been preparing to receive the sacrament of Baptism when he was caught on the road one night and ordered to worship idols. He refused to do so, revealing his belief in Christ. His right arm was cut off and he was tortured, but he would not deny his faith. Rather, he fearlessly pronounced to his captors, before being flayed alive, “Every piece of my flesh, every drop of my blood will tell you that I am Christian.”

Augustine Zhao Rong was the first native Chinese priest to become a martyr. Born in 1746, he served as one of the soldiers who escorted Bishop John Gabriel Taurin Dufresse to his martyrdom in Beijing. The witness of the bishop led Augustine to seek baptism at age 30. He was ordained a priest five years later and was martyred in 1815.

During the canonisation Mass, Pope John Paul II thanked God for blessing the Church with the heroic witness of the 120 martyrs, whom he called “an example of courage and consistency to us all.”

HONG KONG (AP) — China’s market regulator on Saturday blocked the merger of Tencent-backed game streaming platforms Douyu and Huya following an anti-monopoly investigation, as authorities ramp up scrutiny of some of the country’s biggest technology companies.

Huya and Douyu — which provide videogame live-streaming services akin to Twitch in the U.S. — are two of the largest companies of its kind in China. Both count gaming firm Tencent among their investors.

China’s State Administration for Market Regulation said in a statement that a merger between Huya and Douyu would give Tencent control over the merged entity.

“From the perspective of different key indicators like revenue, number of active users, resources for streamers, the total share is very substantial and the elimination and restriction of competition can be foreseen,” the statement said.

Authorities have stepped up oversight of some of China’s largest technology firms over concerns of monopolistic behavior and unchecked growth, as well as how companies are collecting and using data from their millions of users.

Last week, regulators ordered a cybersecurity investigation into ride-sharing platform Didi Global Inc. Food delivery platform Meituan is also under an anti-monopoly probe, and e-commerce giant Alibaba was fined a record $2.8 billion earlier this year for antitrust violations.

The market regulator said that the decision to ban the merger between Huya and Douyu is the first instance of regulators prohibiting market concentration in the internet sector.

The two companies first announced last October that they planned to merge, but market regulators later said that they would review the $6 billion deal.

Tencent said it was notified by the regulator that the merger has been halted.

“The company will...

(MENAFN - Gulf Times) QNB Group has officially opened its branch in Hong Kong, one of the world’s prominent global financial hubs. QNB Group CEO Abdulla Mubarak al-Khalifa said,–We are pleased to announce the official opening of our first branch...

(MENAFN - The Arabian Post) HONG KONG SAR – Media OutReach – 9 July 2021 – YesAsia Holdings Limited (“ YesAsia ” or the “ Company “; together with subsidiaries, the “ Group “; SEHK stock code: 2209), a Hong...

(MENAFN - The Arabian Post) HONG KONG SAR – Media OutReach – 9 July 2021 – As the pandemic gradually calms down, though overseas vacations are impossible this summer, we can still have fun from local outdoor activities, mountain climbing...

Taipei wary of provoking Beijing and fear mainland agents infiltrated protest movement

The FTSE 100 Index was steady amid fresh losses for struggling airline British Airways.

The carrier slipped a further 2% as investors continue to react to Monday's vote by cabin crew to hold 12 days of strikes over Christmas.

Outside the top flight, the news boosted shares in rival easyJet. Outsourcing group Serco gained after a positive trading update.

Shares in Asia moved lower with the Nikkei 225 in Japan shedding 22.2 points to 10,083.48 as exporters were hit by the ongoing strength of the yen.

In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng was also lower as the Chinese government said it will move to cool its housing market.

Shares in the US rose after Exxon Mobil announced a $31bn all-share buyout of XTO Energy, with the Dow Jones closing up 29.55, or 0.3%, at 10,501.05.

Biden’s $1.3 Trillion ‘National Security’ Budget Won’t Make Us Safer- OpEd

By Mandy Smithberger and William D. Hartung*

President Biden’s first Pentagon budget, released late last month, is staggering by any reasonable standard.

At more than $750 billion for the Defense Department and related work on nuclear weapons at the Department of Energy, it represents one of the highest levels of spending since World War II — far higher than the peaks of the Korean or Vietnam wars or President Ronald Reagan’s military buildup of the 1980s, and roughly three times what China spends on its military.

Developments of the past year and a half — an ongoing pandemic, an intensifying mega-drought, white supremacy activities, and racial and economic injustice among them — should have underscored that the greatest threats to American lives are anything but military in nature. But no matter, the Biden administration has decided to double down on military spending as the primary pillar of what still passes for American security policy.

And don’t be fooled by that striking Pentagon budget figure either. This year’s funding requests suggest that the total national security budget will come closer to a breathtaking $1.3 trillion.

That mind-boggling figure underscores just how misguided Washington’s current “security” — a word that should increasingly be put in quotation marks — policies really are. No less concerning was the new administration’s decision to go full-speed ahead on longstanding Pentagon plans to build a new generation of nuclear-armed bombers, submarines, and missiles, including, of course, new nuclear warheads to go with them, at a cost of at least $1.7 trillion over the next three decades.

The Trump administration added to that plan projects like a new submarine-launched, nuclear-armed cruise missile, all of which is fully funded in Biden’s first budget. It hardly matters that a far smaller arsenal would be more than adequate to dissuade any country from launching a nuclear attack on the United States or its allies.

A rare glimmer of hope came in a recent internal memo from the Navy suggesting that it may ultimately scrap Trump’s sea-launched cruise missile in next year’s budget submission — but that proposal is already facing intense pushback from nuclear-weapons boosters in Congress.

In all, Biden’s first budget is a major win for key players in the nuclear-industrial complex like Northrop Grumman, the prime contractor on the new nuclear bomber and a new intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM); General Dynamics, the maker of the new ballistic-missile submarine; Lockheed Martin, which produces sea-launched ballistic missiles (SLBMs); and firms like Honeywell that oversee key elements in the Department of Energy’s nuclear-warhead complex.

The Biden budget does retire some older-generation weapons. The only reason, however, is to fund even more expensive new systems like hypersonic weapons and ones embedded with artificial intelligence, all with the goal of supposedly putting the United States in a position to win a war with China (if anyone could “win” such a war).

China’s military buildup remains, in fact, largely defensive, so ramping up Pentagon spending supposedly in response represents both bad strategy and bad budgeting. If, sooner or later, cooler heads don’t prevail, the obsession with China that’s gripped the White House, the Pentagon, and key members of Congress could keep Pentagon budgets high for decades to come.

In reality, the principal challenges posed by China are diplomatic and economic, not military, and seeking militarized answers to them will only spark a new Cold War and a risky arms race that could make a superpower nuclear conflict more likely.

While there’s much to criticize in China’s policies, from its crackdown on the democracy movement in Hong Kong to its ethnic cleansing and severe repression of its Uyghur population, in basic military capabilities, it doesn’t come faintly close to the United States, nor will it any time soon. Washington’s military build-up, however, could undermine the biggest opportunity in U.S.-China relations: finding a way to cooperate on issues like climate change that threaten the future of the planet.

As noted, the three-quarters of a trillion dollars the United States spends on the Pentagon budget is just a portion of a much larger figure for the full range of activities of the national security state.

Let’s look, category by category, at what the Biden budget proposes to spend on this broader set of activities.

**The Pentagon’s “Base Budget”**

The Pentagon’s proposed “base” budget, which, in past years, has included routine spending for fighting ongoing conflicts, was $715 billion for fiscal year (FY) 2022, $10 billion more than last year’s request.

Despite complaints to the contrary by advocates of even higher Pentagon spending, that represents no small addition. It’s larger, for instance, than the entire budget of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. No question about it, the Pentagon remains by a long shot the agency with the largest discretionary budget.

One piece of good news is that this year’s request marks the end of the Overseas Contingency Operations (OCO) account. That slush fund was used to finance the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, but also included tens of billions of dollars for pet Pentagon projects that had nothing to do with current conflicts.

While off-budget emergency spending has typically only been used in the initial years of a conflict, OCO became a tool to evade caps on the Pentagon’s regular budget imposed by the Budget Control Act of 2011. That legislation has now expired and the Biden administration has heeded the advice of good-government and taxpayer-advocacy groups by eliminating the slush fund entirely.

Unfortunately, its latest budget request still includes $42.1 billion for direct and indirect war-spending costs, which means that, OCO or not, there will be no net reduction in spending. Still, the end of that fund marks a small but potentially significant step towards greater accountability and transparency in the Pentagon budget. Moreover, congressional leaders are urging the Biden administration to seize savings from the ongoing Afghan withdrawal to sooner or later reduce the Pentagon’s top line.

As for what’s in the base budget, there are a number of particularly troubling proposed expenditures that warrant attention and congressional pushback. Spending on the Pentagon’s new Intercontinental Ballistic Missile — known formally as the Ground-Based Strategic Deterrent — has nearly doubled in the new proposal from $1.4 billion to $2.6 billion.

This may seem like small change in such a budget, but it’s just a down payment on a system that could, in the end, cost more than $100 billion to procure and another $164 billion to operate over its lifetime. More importantly, as former secretary of defense William Perry noted, ICBMs are “some of the most dangerous weapons in the world” because a president would have only a matter of minutes to decide whether to launch them upon a warning of an attack, greatly increasing the risk of an accidental nuclear war based on a false alarm.

In short, the new ICBM is not just costly but exceedingly dangerous for the health of humanity. The Biden budget should have eliminated it, not provided more funding for it.

Another eye-opener is the decision to spend more than $12 billion on the F-35 combat aircraft, a troubled, immensely expensive weapons system whose technical flaws suggest that it may never be fully ready for combat. Such knowledge should, of course, have resulted in a decision to at least pause production on the plane until testing is complete. House Armed Services Committee chair Adam Smith (D-WA) has stated that he’s tired of pouring money down the F-35 “rathole,” while the Air Force’s top officer, General Charles Brown, has compared it to a Ferrari that “you don’t drive to work every day” but “only drive it out on Sundays.”

Consider that an embarrassing admission for a plane once publicized as a future low-cost bulwark for the U.S. combat aircraft fleet. Whether the Air Force, Navy, and Marines, the three services that utilize variants of the F-35, will stay the course and buy more than 2,400 of these aircraft remains to be seen.

Count on one thing, though: the F-35 lobby, including a special F-35 caucus in the House of Representatives and the Machinists Union, whose workers build the planes, will fight tooth and nail to keep the program fully funded regardless of whether or not it serves our national security needs.

And keep in mind that the F-35 is only one of many legacies of failed Pentagon modernization efforts. Even if the Pentagon were to acquire its new systems without delays or cost overruns — something rare indeed — its expensive spending plans have already earned this decade the moniker of the “terrible twenties.”

Worse yet, there’s a distinct possibility that Congress will push that budget even higher in response to “wish lists” being circulated by each of the military services. Items on them that have yet to make it into the Biden Pentagon budget include things like — surprise! — more F-35s. The Army’s wish list even includes systems it claimed it needed to cut. That the services are even allowed to make such requests to Congress is symbolic of a breakdown in budgetary discipline of the highest order.

The base budget also includes mandatory spending for items like military retirement. This year’s request adds $12.8 billion to the Pentagon’s tab.

Running Tally: $727.9 billion

**The Nuclear Budget**

It would be reasonable for you to assume that the Department of Energy’s budget would primarily be devoted to developing new energy sources and combating climate change. But that assumption would, sadly enough, be wildly off the mark.

In fact, more than half of the department’s budget goes to support the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), which manages the country’s nuclear weapons program. The NNSA does work on nuclear warheads at eight major locations — California, Missouri, Nevada, New Mexico (two facilities), South Carolina, Tennessee, and Texas — across the country, along with subsidiary facilities in several additional states. NNSA’s proposed FY 2022 budget for nuclear-weapons activities is $15.5 billion, part of a budget for atomic-energy-related projects of $29.9 billion.

The NNSA is notorious for poor management of major projects. It has routinely been behind schedule and over cost — to the tune of $28 billion in the past two decades. Its future plans seem destined to hit the pocketbook of the American taxpayer significantly, with projected long-term spending on nuclear weapons activities rising by a proposed $113 billion in a single year.

Nuclear Budge: $29.9 billion

Running tally: $757.8 billion

**“Defense-Related Activities”**

This is a catch-all category, totaling $10.5 billion in the FY 2022 request, including the international activities of the FBI and payments to the CIA retirement fund, among other things.

Defense-Related Activities: $10.5 billion

Running tally: $768.3 billion

*The Intelligence Budget*

There is very little public information available about how the nation’s — count ’em! — 17 intelligence agencies spend our tax dollars.

The majority of congressional representatives don’t even have staff members capable of accessing any kind of significant information on intelligence spending, a huge obstacle to the ability of Congress to oversee these agencies and their activities in any meaningful way. So far this year there is only a top-line figure available for spending on national (but not military) intelligence activities of $62.3 billion. Most of this money is already believed to be hidden away in the Pentagon budget, so it’s not added to the running tally displayed below.

National Intelligence activities: $62.3 billion

Running tally: $768.3 billion

**The Military and Defense Department Retirement and Health Budget**

The Treasury Department covers military retirement and health expenditures that should be in the Pentagon’s base budget. Net spending on these two items — minus interest earned and payments into the two accounts — was a negative $9.7 billion in FY 2022.

Military and Defense Department Retirement and Health Costs: -$9.7 billion

Running tally: $758.6 billion

**Veterans Affairs Budget**

The full costs of war go far beyond the expenditures contained in the Pentagon budget, including the costs of taking care of the veterans of America’s “forever wars.”

Over 2.7 million U.S. military personnel have cycled through war zones in this century and hundreds of thousands of them have suffered severe physical or psychological injuries, ratcheting up the costs of veterans’ care accordingly. In addition, as we emerge from the COVID-19 disaster months, the Veterans Affairs Department anticipates a “bow wave” of extra costs and demands for its services from veterans who deferred care during the worst of the pandemic. The total FY2022 budget request for Veterans Affairs is $284.5 billion.

Veterans Affairs Budget: $284.5 billion

Running tally: $1,043.1 billion

**International Affairs Budget**

The International Affairs budget includes funding for the State Department and the Agency for International Development, integral parts of the U.S. national security strategy. Here, investments in diplomacy and economic and health activities overseas are supplemented by about $5.6 billion in military aid to other countries. The Biden administration has proposed overall International Affairs funding for FY 2022 at $79 billion.

International Affairs Budget: $79 billion

Running tally: $1,122.1 billion

**The Homeland Security Budget**

In the wake of the 9/11 attacks, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) was created by throwing together a wide range of agencies, including the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Transportation Security Agency, the U.S. Secret Service, Customs and Border Protection, and the Coast Guard. The proposed DHS budget for FY2022 is $52.2 billion, nearly one-third of which goes to Customs and Border Protection.

Homeland Security Budget: $52.2 billion

Running tally: $1,174.3 billion

**Interest on the Debt**

The national security state, as outlined above, is responsible for about 20% of the interest due on the U.S. debt, a total of more than $93.8 billion.

Interest on the debt: $93.8 billion

Final tally: $1,268.1 billion

**Are You Feeling Safer Now?**

Theoretically, that nearly $1.3 trillion to be spent on national security writ large is supposed to be devoted to activities that make America and the world a safer place. That’s visibly not the case when it comes to so many of the funds that will be expended in the name of national security — from taxpayer dollars thrown away on weapons systems that don’t work to those spent on an unnecessary and dangerous new generation of nuclear weapons, to continuing to reinforce and extend the historically unprecedented U.S. military presence on this planet by maintaining more than 800 overseas military bases around the world.

If managed properly, President Biden’s initiatives on rebuilding domestic infrastructure and combating climate change would be far more central to keeping people safe than throwing more money at the Pentagon and related agencies. Unfortunately, unlike the proposed Pentagon budget, significant Green New Deal-style infrastructure funding is far less likely to be passed by a bitterly divided Congress. Washington evidently doesn’t care that such investments would also be significantly more effective job creators.

A shift in spending toward these and other urgent priorities like addressing the possibility of future pandemics would clearly be a far better investment in “national security” than the present proposed Pentagon budget. Sadly, though, too many of America’s political leaders have clearly drawn the wrong lessons from the pandemic.

If this country continues to squander staggering sums on narrowly focused national-security activities at a time when our greatest challenges are anything but military in nature, this country (and the world) will be a far less safe place in the future.

*About the authors:

· *Mandy Smithberger* is the director of the Center for Defense Information at the Project On Government Oversight (POGO).
· *William D. Hartung* is the director of the Arms and Security Program at the Center for International Policy and the author, with Elias Yousif, of “U.S. Arms Sales Trends 2020 and Beyond: From Trump to Biden.”

Source: This article was published by FPIF and first appeared in TomDispatch.

BEIJING (AP) — China on Sunday said it will take “necessary measures” to respond to the U.S. blacklisting of Chinese companies over their alleged role in abuses of Uyghur people and other Muslim ethnic minorities.

The Commerce Ministry said the U.S. move constituted an “unreasonable suppression of Chinese enterprises and a serious breach of international economic and trade rules.”

China will “take necessary measures to firmly safeguard Chinese companies’ legitimate rights and interests,” the ministry's statement said.

No details were given, but China has denied allegations of arbitrary detention and forced labor in the far western region of Xinjiang and increasingly responded to sanctions against companies and officials with its own bans on visas and financial links.

The U.S. Commerce Department said in a statement Friday that the electronics and technology firms and other businesses helped enable “Beijing’s campaign of repression, mass detention and high-technology surveillance” against Muslim minorities in Xinjiang.

The penalties prohibit Americans from selling equipment or other goods to the firms. The United States has stepped up financial and trade penalties over China’s treatment of Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities, along with its crackdown on democracy in the semi-autonomous city of Hong Kong.

The Chinese government since 2017 has detained a million or more people in Xinjiang. Critics accuse China of operating forced labor camps and carrying out torture and coerced sterilization as it allegedly seeks to assimilate Muslim ethnic minority groups.

The U.S. Commerce Department said 14 companies were added to its Entity List over their dealings in Xinjiang, and another five for aiding China's armed forces.

“The Department of Commerce remains firmly committed to...

HONG KONG SAR - Media OutReach - 11 July 2021 - AXA Hong Kong and Macau ("AXA") has always been adhering to the purpose of "Act for human progress by protecting what matters". We support various meaningful corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities, bringing positive impact to the wider society. Recently, Sally Wan, Chief Executive Officer of AXA Hong Kong and Macau and a group of AXA senior management participated in a beach clean-up activity at Tung Wan, Shek Pik in South Lantau with AXA employees, their families and friends, together with Lance Lau, a Hong Kong-based 12-year-old youth climate activist. AXA volunteers collected 257 kg of coastal wastes and recyclables to protect the environment and combat climate change.

(From left) Andrea Wong, AXA's Chief Marketing & Customer Officer; Sally Wan, AXA's Chief Executive Officer; Lance Lau, Hong Kong youth climate activist; Kevin Chor, AXA's Chief Life and Health Insurance Officer and Isabel Lam, AXA's Chief People and Corporate Management Officer, took part in the beach clean-up at Tung Wan, Shek Pik in South Lantau with AXA employees and families & friends to combat climate change.

Sally Wan, AXA's Chief Executive Officer cleaned up all kinds of beach wastes at Tung Wan to call for reducing waste together by making changes in daily life.

AXA volunteers collected 257 kg of waste and recyclables to protect the environment and combat climate change.

About AXA Hong Kong and Macau

AXA Hong Kong and Macau is a member of the AXA Group, a leading global insurer with presence in 54 markets and serving 105 million customers worldwide. Our purpose is to act for human progress by protecting what matters.

As one of the most diversified insurers offering integrated solutions across Life, Health and General Insurance, our goal is to be the insurance and holistic wellness partner to the individuals, businesses and community we serve.

At the core of our service commitment is continuous product innovation and customer experience enrichment, which is achieved through actively listening to our customers and leveraging technology and digital transformation.

We embrace our responsibility to be a force for good to create shared value for our community. We are proud to be the first insurer in Hong Kong and Macau to address the important need of mental health through different products and services. For example, the Mind Charger function on our holistic wellness platform "AXA BetterMe", which is available via our mobile app Emma by AXA, is open to not just our customers, but the community at large. We will continue to foster social progress through our product offerings and community investment to support the sustainable development of Hong Kong and Macau.

THIS PRESS RELEASE IS AVAILABLE ON AXA'S WEBSITE: AXA.COM.HK

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*IMPORTANT LEGAL INFORMATION AND CAUTIONARY STATEMENTS CONCERNING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS*

Certain statements contained herein may be forward-looking statements including, but not limited to, statements that are predictions of or indicate future events, trends, plans or objectives. Undue reliance should not be placed on such statements because, by their nature, they are subject to known and unknown risks and uncertainties and can be affected by other factors that could cause AXA's actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied in the forward-looking statements. Please refer to Part 4 - "Risk factors and risk management" of AXA's Universal Registration Document for the year ended December 31, 2019, for a description of certain important factors, risks and uncertainties that may affect AXA's business, and/or results of operations. AXA undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any of these forward-looking statements, whether to reflect new information, future events or circumstances or otherwise, except as part of applicable regulatory or legal obligations.

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When Brian Wong moved to Calgary from Hong Kong nearly thirty years ago as a teenager he said he "felt foreign" because most of his peers in university were talking about a game that he knew nothing about.

Tricor Group Signs a Sale and Purchase Agreement to Acquire NZGT Holding Company Limited Expanding Corporate Trust Business and Broadening APAC Footprint Covering New Zealand

HONG KONG, July 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- *Tricor Group* (Tricor), Asia's leading business expansion specialist, has signed a sale and purchase agreement to acquire NZGT Holding Company Limited (NZGT Holdings) together with its wholly owned subsidiaries *The New Zealand Guardian Trust Company Limited *(Guardian Trust) and *Covenant Trustee Services Limited* (Covenant) from Complectus Limited. The sale is subject to customary regulatory approvals.

Tricor is the largest pure-play corporate services platform in APAC, serving over 50,000 client entities across its 21-market footprint. A positive move for Guardian Trust and Covenant, this proposed acquisition will see the group and its New Zealand clients benefit from Tricor's significant financial backing, global best practices, and innovative product and service offerings.

Guardian Trust and Covenant are the leading provider of corporate supervisory services with over NZ$250 billion in funds under supervision, and has operated in New Zealand for over 125 years. Guardian Trust and Covenant will continue to grow its team and capabilities through further investment by Tricor Group. The entire team will remain with the business and benefit from opportunities this global alignment offers. Day to day operations remain unchanged.

Tricor's Global Corporate Trust business will operate and serve clients across 5 global markets including Hong Kong SAR, Beijing, Singapore, UK and New Zealand.

Perpetual Guardian, the private client services business of Complectus, does not form part of this acquisition and will remain 100% New Zealand-owned.

*Lennard Yong, Tricor Group CEO*, said: "We're excited to welcome Guardian Trust and Covenant to the Tricor family and have been very impressed with the local management team led by NZGT Holdings CEO Harry Koprivcic. The addition of Guardian Trust and Covenant to Tricor's corporate trust business practice will enable us to enhance our client proposition and offer market-leading trust solutions in New Zealand and across Australasia and Asia-Pacific."

*Harry Koprivcic, CEO of NZGT Holdings*, said: "Our decision to join forces with Tricor is strongly driven by the firm's global reputation and recognized strength in corporate services. Sharing in Tricor's service-oriented approach and benefiting from their investment, we will continue to grow our team and capabilities to support the delivery of our market-leading supervisory and trustee services to the New Zealand market."

For more information, please contact:

*HONG KONG SAR (GROUP OFFICE)
**Sunshine Farzan*
Tricor Services Limited
Group Head of Marketing & Communications
Tel: +852 2980 1261
Email: Sunshine.Farzan@hk.tricorglobal.com

*NEW ZEALAND
**Laura Air*
Alexander PR
Group Account Director
Tel: +64 21 259 3242
Email: laura@alexanderpr.co.nz

*About Tricor Group*

Tricor is the leading business expansion specialist in Asia, with global knowledge and local expertise in business, corporate, investor, human resources & payroll, corporate trust & debt services, fund administration and strategic business advisory. Tricor provides the building blocks for, and catalyzes every stage of clients' business growth, from incorporation to IPO. Tricor has had a rapid expansion through organic growth and development as well as partnerships, mergers and acquisitions. The Group today has over 50,000 clients globally (including 20,000 clients in Mainland China), a staff strength of over 2,800 and a network of offices in 47 cities across 21 countries / territories. Our client portfolio includes over 1,800 companies listed in Hong Kong SAR and Mainland China, ~600 companies listed in Singapore and Malaysia, and more than 40% of the Fortune Global 500 companies, as well as a significant share of multinationals and private enterprises operating across international markets. In March 2017, Permira became the controlling shareholder of Tricor, alongside management.

Visit: www.tricorglobal.com

*About Complectus*

Complectus was established in 2014 and is the dominant and most innovative fiduciary services group in the New Zealand market.

*About Guardian Trust and Covenant*

Guardian Trust has a market-leading position and is experienced in all aspects of corporate trust work. They are the leading provider of corporate trustee services to the New Zealand market. Guardian Trust has been recognized by KangaNews as the leading provider of trustee services by being awarded the New Zealand Trustee of the Year for four years running.

Related Links :

http://www.tricorglobal.com

SAN FRANCISCO and SUZHOU, China, July 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Innovent Biologics, Inc. (Innovent) (HKEX: 01801), a world-class biopharmaceutical company that develops, manufactures and commercializes high-quality medicines for the treatment of cancer, metabolic, autoimmune and other major diseases, today announced that the first patient has been dosed in a Phase 1 study of IBI323, an anti-LAG-3/PD-L1 bispecific antibody.

The objective of this open-label, multi-center Phase 1 dose escalation and expansion study is to evaluate the safety, tolerability, potential optimal dosage and preliminary efficacy of IBI323 in patients with advanced malignant tumors whose cancer progressed on standard-of-care treatment. The trial is being conducted in China.

IBI323 is a recombinant LAG-3/PD-L1 bispecific antibody. Preclinical studies showed that IBI323 effectively blocks both the PD-1/PD-L1 and LAG-3 pathways and can generate more effective and durable activation of T lymphocyte activation than the combination of anti-PD-L1 monoclonal antibody and anti-LAG monoclonal antibody. Besides, through the bridging effect of bispecific antibody, tumor cells expressing PD-L1 can be drawn closer to T lymphocyte expressing LAG-3, thus forming stable TCR: MHC immune synapses and enhancing T lymphocyte activation. Therefore, IBI323 shows advantages compared with two drugs combination according to the mechanism. Recently, an article about IBI323's bispecific antibody enhances tumor-specific immunity was published on Oncolmmunology.

Professor Caicun Zhou, Chief of Oncology Department of Shanghai Pulmonary Hospital Affiliated to Tongji University and Director of Cancer Institute of Tongji University Medical School, stated: "Although immune checkpoint inhibitors have shown promising results in the treatment of a wide range of tumors, there still remains many new challenges. Many patients inevitably develop drugs resistance and the efficacy of immune checkpoint inhibitors needs to be further enhanced. Therefore, it is of great value to develop the next generation of bispecific antibodies. LAG-3 is one of the most promising targets among cancer immunotherapy, combining innovative techniques for bispecific monoclonal antibody, we look forward to the results of IBI323 clinical trials. "

Dr. Hui Zhou, Senior Vice President of Clinical Development of Innovent, stated: "The LAG-3/PD-L1 bispecific antibody can specifically target both LAG-3 and PD-L1, block both the PD-1/PD-L1 and LAG-3 pathways, synergically enhance the activity of T lymphocyte and close the distance between tumor cells with high PD-L1 expression and T cells expressing LAG-3. The preclinical results have shown that compared with two monoclonal antibodies, IBI323 can further enhance the immune activation with improved convenience of administration. Therefore, the development of LAG-3/PD-L1 bispecific antibody will provide patients with a novel, comprehensive, effective and cost-saving treatment regimen. We hope that IBI323 will benefit more patients. "

*About IBI323 (anti-LAG-3/PD-L1 bispecific antibody)*

IBI323 is a recombinant LAG-3/PD-L1 bispecific antibody developed by Innovent Biologic. The IND of IBI323 has been approved by NMPA and we are actively conducting the clinical trial in China. We also plan to prepare an IND application with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

*About the Phase 1 Study of IBI323 (CIBI323A101)*

Conducted by Innovent in China, the CIBI323A101 trial is a Phase 1 open-label, multi-center study of the safety, tolerability and primary efficacy of IBI323 in patients with advanced solid tumors (ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT04916119).

*About Innovent *

Inspired by the spirit of "Start with Integrity, Succeed through Action," Innovent's mission is to develop, manufacture and commercialize high-quality biopharmaceutical products that are affordable to ordinary people. Established in 2011, Innovent is committed to developing, manufacturing and commercializing high-quality innovative medicines for the treatment of cancer, autoimmune, metabolic and other major diseases. On October 31, 2018, Innovent was listed on the Main Board of the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong Limited with the stock code: 01801.HK.

Since its inception, Innovent has developed a fully integrated multi-functional platform which includes R&D, CMC (Chemistry, Manufacturing, and Controls), clinical development and commercialization capabilities. Leveraging the platform, the company has built a robust pipeline of 24 valuable assets in the fields of cancer, metabolic, autoimmune disease and other major therapeutic areas, with 5 products – TYVYT^® (sintilimab injection), BYVASDA^® (bevacizumab biosimilar injection), SULINNO^® (adalimumab biosimilar injection), HALPRYZA^® (rituximab biosimilar injection) and Pemazyre® (pemigatinib oral inhibitor) – officially approved for marketing, sintilimab's Biologics License Application (BLA) acceptance in the U.S., 5 assets in Phase 3 or pivotal clinical trials, and an additional 14 molecules in clinical studies.

Innovent has built an international team with advanced talent in high-end biological drug development and commercialization, including many global experts. The company has also entered into strategic collaborations with Eli Lilly and Company, Adimab, Incyte, MD Anderson Cancer Center, Hanmi and other international partners. Innovent strives to work with many collaborators to help advance China's biopharmaceutical industry, improve drug availability and enhance the quality of the patients' lives. For more information, please visit: www.innoventbio.com.

*Forward-Looking Statements
*This news release may contain certain forward-looking statements that are, by their nature, subject to significant risks and uncertainties. The words "anticipate", "believe", "estimate", "expect", "intend" and similar expressions, as they relate to Innovent, are intended to identify certain of such forward-looking statements. Innovent does not intend to update these forward-looking statements regularly.

These forward-looking statements are based on the existing beliefs, assumptions, expectations, estimates, projections and understandings of the management of Innovent with respect to future events at the time these statements are made. These statements are not a guarantee of future developments and are subject to risks, uncertainties and other factors, some of which are beyond Innovent's control and are difficult to predict. Consequently, actual results may differ materially from information contained in the forward-looking statements as a result of future changes or developments in our business, Innovent's competitive environment and political, economic, legal and social conditions.

Innovent, the Directors and the employees of Innovent assume (a) no obligation to correct or update the forward-looking statements contained in this site; and (b) no liability in the event that any of the forward-looking statements does not materialise or turn out to be incorrect.

Related Links :

http://www.innoventbio.com

SINGAPORE, July 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Back in January 2019, JustLogin and the Institute of Technical Education (ITE) signed a Letter of Collaboration (LOC) to collaborate in the field of Human Resource education and training, using JustLogin's HR software for competency development of ITE students and staff. The first batch of students successfully completed the HR module covering JustLogin software training and received Certificates of Completion at a small hybrid ceremony in June 2021.

The collaboration between JustLogin and ITE is mainly on:

· Providing JustLogin's HR software to all students and staff from ITE's School of Business & Services and working with staff to create case scenarios to facilitate learning.
· Training of ITE staff to support the development of a curriculum that integrates JustLogin's HR software into the learning and assessment.
· Promoting trained ITE students for job opportunities.

"ITE and JustLogin have been working in partnership to create authentic learning opportunities for students to apply their skills in using Human Resource software in a relevant and realistic setting. This has helped to expand their knowledge in the areas of digitalising most aspects of the human resource function," said Alvin Goh, Director, School of Business & Services, ITE College West.

During the training that took place from July to December 2020, students gained hands-on skills in payroll and leave management using a live JustLogin software setup. The training involved the simulation of real-life scenarios in generating payroll and calculating leave adjustments.

"Students took pride in managing the whole payroll process and generating employee pay slips independently via the system. They better understood the importance of accuracy in inputting for payroll and its implications," Mervyn Foo, Senior Lecturer, Business Administration, ITE College West shared.

Attending the ceremony virtually, Kwa Kim Chiong, CEO, JustLogin, shared with students, "Every company in Singapore needs someone to run payroll and administer leave. These days, most companies use HR software to automate these processes. These are not easy tasks and companies will be looking for someone with experience to handle such matters. Having completed the training and with a certificate to show, it will put you in an advantageous position when you apply for HR jobs."

The students will be embarking on their internships soon before graduating in December 2021. JustLogin will also be helping to promote the students to customers who may be looking to recruit HR Executives to administer their JustLogin system. JustLogin and ITE are also in the process of renewing the LOC to continue this programme for future batches of business students.

*About JustLogin*

JustLogin is an Employee First Human Resource (HR) cloud platform that provides innovative technologies for businesses to manage their people operations.

JustLogin's HR platform provides a full suite of Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) including payroll, leave, attendance, expense and people. The platform helps businesses automate their manual processes, allowing them to focus on their people and productivity. JustLogin also helps employers build positive employee engagement through enabling excellent employee experiences in the moments that matter.

The company envisions a better working life for all, by continuously solving HR problems with beautiful products, driven by intuitive design and innovative technology.

JustLogin is a pre-approved solution vendor under the SMEs Go Digital programme by the Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) of Singapore. The company has been recognized with industry awards including Best HR Management System and Best Payroll Software at the HR Vendors of the Year Awards.

Headquartered in Singapore, the company also operates in Myanmar, Malaysia, Philippines and Hong Kong. For more information, please visit https://justlogin.com.

Related Links :

https://justlogin.com

China Is Weaker Than Xi Will Admit – OpEd

Xi Jinping, China’s strongman leader, recently gave a strident speech on the centennial of the founding of the Chinese Communist Party in 1921. Predictably, he focused on achievements of the Party and left out significant blemishes—for example the catastrophic Great Leap Forward in the 1950s, the sanguinary Cultural Revolution from the mid-1960s to the mid-1970s, and the suppression of democracy protests in Tiananmen Square in 1989. He also obliquely threatened the interventionism of the United States and the West by saying that foreign powers would “crack their heads and spill blood” if they tried to stop China’s rise. Yet Xi’s bravado hides significant weaknesses that afflict his country.

Ironically, much of the U.S. foreign policy and national security establishment is also using Xi’s speech to help the Chinese leader magnify China’s strengths as a threat to the United States and minimize that country’s weaknesses. What more could a potential adversary ask for? Curiously, in the American political system, interest groups need a potent threat, whether domestic or abroad, to attract public attention and therefore extra cash to their proposed policy program. As during the Cold War with the Soviet Union, the U.S. foreign policy establishment is happy to overstate the threat that China poses to American security while minimizing U.S. strengths and China’s weaknesses.

However, even though the U.S. security establishment inflated the Soviet threat to increase American military spending throughout the Cold War, many at the Pentagon and State Department privately referred to the Soviet Union as “Upper Volta with Missiles,” in a condescending reference to the USSR’s inefficient, creaking, and non-viable communist economy. That economy eventually stagnated and the Soviet political system collapsed as a result. In contrast, in his speech, Xi bragged about all the economic progress that China has made during the Party’s reign. However, he forgot to mention that all of it occurred beginning in the 1980s, after the Party had allowed some sectors of the economy to “go capitalist.” This robust economic growth has probably made China a bigger potential threat to the United States than was the USSR during an earlier period. However, China has major weaknesses that neither Xi nor the U.S. security establishment want to highlight.

China’s first weakness is strongman Xi himself. Instead of selling off inefficient state-owned industries and banks, which still make up a significant portion of the Chinese economy, he is trying to recentralize power. He has done away with the improvement of Hu Jintao, his predecessor as Party leader, which set the expectation that CPP leaders would step down after two five-year terms. This was Hu’s attempt to begin to modernize Communist Party governance by trying to regularize changes of leadership. Instead, Xi is trying to return China to the bad old days of succession struggles after a political strongman (now Xi) dies or is incapacitated. In addition, the private economy continuing to carry the burden of sclerotic state-owned “key” industries and banks will slow Chinese economic growth.

Also likely to slow economic growth is China’s demographic crisis. As countries develop and industrialize, they have fewer children because less labor is needed in the agricultural sector and greater numbers of children raise costs to individual families. Thus, many developed countries around the world have declining birthrates. However, China’s problem is much worse because of the Communist Party’s disastrous “one-child policy,” which was revoked only after it had exacerbated the demographic crisis.

Furthermore, China has restive ethnic inhabitants of Xinjiang and Tibet and a politically unruly pro-democracy population in Hong Kong, which China is suppressing in violation of its promise to allow a “One China, Two Systems” approach. Such fractious populations weaken China internally.

China’s neighbors have complained about its more assertive behavior in the South China Sea, where it claims a ridiculous amount of the waters as its own and builds artificial islands to stretch its tenuous claims. However, as a rising power—which the United States would be wise to tolerate as long the Chinese do not threaten the United States—China should be allowed to have a sphere of influence, as most great powers throughout history have demanded for their security. Any threat China poses is primarily to surrounding regions and perhaps Taiwan. The United States should stay out of intra-Asian territorial disputes, including Taiwan, but could continue to sell weapons to all nations in the region to defend themselves against any Chinese assertiveness, using a porcupine strategy that could deter China from outright aggression.

China’s military threat is mostly to such areas in its “near abroad.” The U.S. security establishment has done much hand wringing about the Chinese economic “Belt and Road” initiative to win friends around the world by building infrastructure projects. However, paraphrasing Betty White, the program is really a colossal waste of Chinese time (and money), with “beneficiary” nations ensnared in debt traps for state-driven boondoggle projects that may even impair economic development. Perhaps the United States should be hoping the Chinese will continue to waste and dissipate their resources on such white elephants.

In short, the United States should manage China’s rise instead of trying to suppress the inevitable. And the American public should not allow its own security establishment to overhype the threat, as it did during the Cold War, to justify spending extravagantly on excessively high military budgets. Such profligate spending can cut into the American economic growth needed to maintain itself as a superpower.

This article was also published in *The American Conservative*

Why Is Biden’s Foreign Policy So Conventional? – OpEd

On the domestic front, Joe Biden is flirting with transformational policies around energy, environment, and infrastructure. It’s not a revolution, but it’s considerably less timid than what Barack Obama offered in that pre-Trump, pre-pandemic era.

When it comes to foreign policy, however, the Biden administration has been nowhere near as transformational. The phrase Joe Biden has used so often is: America is back. That sentiment certainly captures some aspects of Biden’s relationship with the international community, such as repairing relations with the World Health Organization and rejoining the Paris climate accords. In these ways, the administration has brought America back to the status quo that existed before Trump was unleashed on the world stage.

But on some very important issues—China, Iran, Cuba, North Korea—Biden hasn’t managed to restore even the previous status quo. His approach to military spending and the arms race is decidedly hawkish. His message on immigration, as expressed by Vice President Kamala Harris on a visit to Guatemala earlier this month, effectively erases the inscription on the Statue of Liberty by telling potential border crossers in the region to stay home.

Okay, foreign policy is not a winning issue at the ballot box, and Biden certainly has a lot on his agenda. But even the notoriously cautious Obama took some courageous steps with Tehran and Havana.

It’s possible that Biden is focusing on America first before turning to the world as a whole. It’s also possible that he’s simply not interested in altering U.S. foreign policy in any significant way beyond removing U.S. troops from Afghanistan. True, it was exhilarating to have a conventional president again after Trump. But “conventional,” when it comes to U.S. foreign policy, is just not good enough.

**Confronting China**

If the Biden administration’s overriding domestic preoccupation is the sustainable economy, then its dominant foreign policy obsession is China.

Biden and Xi have spoken only once—by telephone in February. Xi participated in Biden’s virtual climate confab in April. They are likely to meet face to face sometime this year, possibly around the G20 summit in Rome in October. There’s been talk of greater cooperation on addressing the climate crisis. And there haven’t been any overt military confrontations in the South China Sea or elsewhere.

But otherwise, Biden and Xi have not really gotten off on the right foot. It was a no-brainer for the new Biden administration to lift the Trump-era tariffs on Chinese products and de-escalate the trade war that unsettled manufacturers and consumers on both sides of the Pacific. The Biden team is ostensibly doing a review of U.S.-China trade policy with a focus on whether Beijing has met its commitments under the “phase one trade deal” signed back in January 2020 (so far, it’s been a mixed record of China meeting some targets for U.S. imports and missing others).

The review is more than just bean-counting. In a marked departure from the usual neoliberal trade talk coming out of Washington, U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai has said, “I want to disconnect this idea that the only way we do affirmative trade engagement, trade enhancement is through a free trade agreement.” Tai prefers to operate according to a “worker-centric trade policy” that evaluates China on issues of forced labor, workers’ rights, and the environment.

A more nuanced approach to trade is all to the good, of course, and Tai should be commended for breaking with the Washington consensus.

But taken in conjunction with other Biden administration policies, the reluctance to lift tariffs on Chinese goods is part of a full-court economic press on the country. The Biden administration has effectively continued the Trump approach of not only lining up allies in the region to contain China (the Quad, the Blue Dot Network) but enlisting European countries as well to join the bandwagon. In his recent trip to Europe, Biden corralled the G7 to create the Build Back Better World (B3W) initiative, a purported alternative to China’s Belt and Road infrastructure program, and twisted some arms to get NATO to prioritize China as part of its mission.

NATO’s new emphasis on China reflects the Pentagon’s shift in focus. Trump might have loudly proclaimed his anti-China animus, but the Biden administration is determined to close what it calls the “say-do gap” by expanding capabilities beyond the Navy to challenge China in the air and above.

China’s moves in Hong Kong, Xinjiang, and the South China Sea are deeply troubling. Nor is Beijing doing nearly enough to green its Belt and Road Initiative. But the Biden administration needs to think creatively about how to leverage China’s own multilateral aspirations in order to address global problems. Trade tensions and disagreements about internal policies are to be expected. Yet, the Biden administration has an urgent and historic opportunity to work with China (and everyone else) to remake the international community.

**Sparring with Iran**

Another no-brainer for the Biden administration was reviving the Iran nuclear agreement that Trump tried to destroy. Granted, it was tricky to unwind the sanctions against Tehran and address Iran’s demands for compensation. It wasn’t easy to reassure the Iranian leadership of the sincerity of U.S. intentions given not only Trump’s past hostility but the current animosities of congressional Republicans. And there was also Israel, which was doing everything within its power to scuttle diplomacy up to and including sabotaging Iran’s nuclear facilities and assassinating Iranian scientists.

These obstacles notwithstanding, the Biden team could have gotten the job done if it had started earlier and been more flexible. Not wanting to open itself up to criticism from hawks at home, however, the administration argued for a mutual, step-by-step return to the agreement. By contrast, Iran quite sensibly argued that the United States, since it attempted to blow up the agreement, should be the first to compromise by removing sanctions, a position that some U.S. policymakers have also supported.

Meanwhile, the Biden administration is continuing a tit-for-tat confrontation with militias aligned with Iran. This week, the administration launched airstrikes against facilities on the Iraq-Syria border from which these militias have allegedly attacked U.S. bases in Iraq. U.S. forces in Syria subsequently came under rocket fire.

Why are there still U.S. solders in Iraq and Syria? Didn’t the Biden administration commit to ending America’s endless wars? Although U.S. forces are scheduled to depart Afghanistan in September and Washington has pledged to remove troops from Iraq as well, negotiations around the latter have yet to produce a timetable.

Removing the 2,500 U.S. soldiers from Iraq would please the government in Baghdad, remove an irritant in U.S.-Iranian relations, and take U.S. personnel out of harm’s way.

What’s not to like, Joe?

**Getting Nowhere with Cuba and North Korea**

Late in his second term, Barack Obama orchestrated a bold rapprochement with Cuba. After lifting financial and travel restrictions, Obama visited the island in March 2016 to meet with Cuban leader Raul Castro. It wasn’t a full opening. Washington maintained a trade embargo and refused to close its anomalous base in Guantanamo. But it was a start.

Donald Trump brought a quick end to that fresh start by re-imposing the restrictions that Obama had lifted.

Joe Biden promised to resurrect the Obama policy. Trump’s reversals, he said as a candidate, “have inflicted harm on the Cuban people and done nothing to advance democracy and human rights.” And yet, as president, he has done nothing to reverse Trump’s reversals.

As Karen de Young writes in The Washington Post, “Under Trump restrictions, non-Cuban Americans are still prohibited from sending money to the island. Cruise ships are banned from sailing from the United States to Cuba, and the dozens of scheduled U.S. commercial flights to Cuban cities have largely stopped. Tight limits remain in place on commercial transactions.”

The reason for the new administration’s lack of action, beyond its concerns about human rights in Cuba and its fear of Republican opposition in Congress, boils down to domestic politics. Robert Menendez, the Democratic senator from New Jersey who never liked the Obama-era détente with Cuba in the first place, represents a key obstacle in Congress. And public opinion in Florida among Cuban-Americans, which had swung in favor of rapprochement during the Obama period, has now swung decisively in the other direction, thanks to a steady diet of Trumpian demagoguery.

Here, the Biden administration could try something new by closing Guantanamo. The administration is already launching a quiet effort to close the detention facility at the base by resolving the status of the several dozen inmates. He should go even further by rebooting Guantanamo as a center for U.S.-Cuban environmental research, as scientists Joe Roman and James Kraska have proposed.

North Korea, meanwhile, is the one place in the world where Trump sought to overturn decades of U.S. hostility. His attempts at one-on-one diplomacy with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un didn’t achieve much of anything, but it still might have served as a foundation for future negotiations.

Biden has instead followed the script of all the administrations prior to Trump: review policy, promise something new, fall back on conventional thinking.

The administration finished its review of North Korea policy in April. Biden rejected his predecessor’s approaches as misguided. And he has relied on the usual big-stick-and-small-carrot policy that stretches back to the 1990s. On the one hand, he extended sanctions against the country and has maintained a military encirclement. On the other, his emissaries have reached out to Pyongyang, with special representative for North Korea Sung Kim saying this month that the United States would meet with Pyongyang “anywhere, anytime, without preconditions.”

“Without preconditions” is fine. But what about “with incentives”?

Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, North Korea is more shut off from the world than usual. It is preoccupied with the economic challenges associated with its increased isolation. In his annual address in January, Kim Jong Un made the unusual admission that the government’s economic program fell short of its goals. More recently, he has said that his country is “prepared for both dialogue and confrontation, especially … confrontation.”

Biden should focus on the first half of Kim’s sentence. South Korea’s progressive president Moon Jae-in, nearing the end of his own tenure, very much wants to advance reconciliation on the peninsula. Instead of beefing up its military containment of the isolated country, Washington could work with Seoul to break the current diplomatic impasse with a grand humanitarian gesture. Whether it’s vaccines or food or infrastructure development, North Korea needs help right now.

**Military Exceptionalism**

It’s still early in the Biden administration. Remember: Obama didn’t achieve his major foreign policy achievements in Iran and Cuba until later in his second term. Biden no doubt wants to accumulate some political capital first, by repairing relations with allies and participating in multilateral fora on the global stage and achieving some economic success on the home front.

The administration’s position on military spending, however, suggests that Biden is wedded to the most conventional of thinking.

The United States is poised to end its intervention in Afghanistan and reduce its commitments in the Middle East. It is not involved in any major military conflicts. Everyone is wondering how the administration is going to pay for its ambitious infrastructure plans.

So, why has Biden asked for a larger military budget? The administration’s 2022 request for the Pentagon is $715 billion, an increase of $10 billion, plus an additional $38 billion for military-related spending at the Energy Department and other agencies.

True, the administration is hoping to boost non-military spending by a larger percentage. It is planning to remove the “overseas contingency operations” line item that funded the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

But if there ever was a time to reduce U.S. military spending, it’s now. The pandemic proved the utter worthlessness of tanks and destroyers in defending the homeland from the most urgent threats. Greater cooperation with China, a renewed nuclear pact with Iran, and détente with both Cuba and North Korea would all provide powerful reasons for the United States to reduce military spending.

To use Joe Biden’s signature phrase, “C’mon, man!”

*About the author: John Feffer is the director of Foreign Policy In Focus. His new book is Songlands. This article was published at FPIF

QNB expands its footprint in Asia with Hong Kong branch opening

DOHA, Qatar, July 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- QNB Group, the largest financial institution in the Middle East and Africa, has opened officially its branch in Hong Kong, one of the world's prominent global financial hubs.QNB Group Head Office

Commenting on the occasion, QNB Group CEO, Mr. Abdulla Mubarak Al-Khalifa, said: "We are pleased to announce the official opening of our first branch in Hong Kong, one of the most attractive markets in the world. As part of our Group's strategy to expand into strategically located markets with excellent infrastructure and a business friendly environment, we are planning to continue diversifying our sources of revenue and profit, particularly in the MEASEA markets."

As a newcomer to the market, QNB seeks to position itself as a reputable foreign bank to customers with trade and investment flows between Hong Kong, the Middle East, Africa, and Mainland China.

The Branch aims to facilitate cross border business with a range of corporate banking products and services, treasury and investments, foreign exchange solutions, syndication strategies, and project financing.

Hong Kong is the gateway for the Group's clients to Mainland China and wider Asia. It is a major trade hub accounting for USD 1,077.5 billion in imports and exports.

The Branch will work closely with the Group's global network, and particularly the Singapore branch and Shanghai representative office. It will advise QNB's clients in China on their outbound growth through Hong Kong as a base and will link with Singapore to cover South East Asia region.

In its keenness to become a leading bank in the Middle East, Africa and South East Asia, the Group's presence in Hong Kong reflects its commitment to develop a successful market expansion strategy, through in-depth insight and understanding.

It is worth mentioning that QNB already has a presence in Asia, through branches in Singapore and India, a subsidiary in Indonesia, and representative offices in China, Vietnam and Myanmar.

The QNB Group's presence through its subsidiaries and associate companies extends to more than 31 countries across three continents, providing a comprehensive range of advanced products and services. The total number of employees is more than 28,000 operating through 1,000 locations, with an ATM network of more than 4,600 machines.

*Contact:*
Hissa AlSowaidi
hissa.alsowaidi@qnb.com
+974 44975725

Related Links :

https://www.qnb.com

The Hong Kong stock market on Friday finally ended the losing streak that had reached eight sessions and cost it more than 2,110 points or 7.3 percent. The Hang Seng Index now rests just beneath the 27,350-point plateau and it's expected to open higher again on Monday.

AXA management and employees conducted beach clean-up

257 kg of coastal wastes removed to protect the environment

HONG KONG, July 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- AXA Hong Kong and Macau ("AXA") has always been adhering to the purpose of "Act for human progress by protecting what matters". We support various meaningful corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities, bringing positive impact to the wider society. Recently, Sally Wan, Chief Executive Officer of AXA Hong Kong and Macau, and a group of AXA senior management participated in a beach clean-up activity at Tung Wan, Shek Pik in South Lantau with AXA employees, their families and friends, together with Lance Lau, a Hong Kong-based 12-year-old youth climate activist. AXA volunteers collected 257 kg of coastal wastes and recyclables to protect the environment and combat climate change.(From left)Andrea Wong, AXA’s Chief Marketing & Customer Officer; Sally Wan, AXA’s Chief Executive Officer; Lance Lau, Hong Kong youth climate activist; Kevin Chor, AXA’s Chief Life and Health Insurance Officer and Isabel Lam, AXA’s Chief People and Corporate Management Officer, took part in the beach clean-up at Tung Wan, Shek Pik in South Lantau with AXA employees and families & friends to combat climate change.

Sally Wan, AXA’s Chief Executive Officer cleaned up all kinds of beach wastes at Tung Wan to call for reducing waste together by making changes in daily life.

AXA volunteers collected 257 kg of waste and recyclables to protect the environment and combat climate change.

*About AXA Hong Kong and Macau*

AXA Hong Kong and Macau is a member of the AXA Group, a leading global insurer with presence in 54 markets and serving 105 million customers worldwide. Our purpose is to act for human progress by protecting what matters.

As one of the most diversified insurers offering integrated solutions across Life, Health and General Insurance, our goal is to be the insurance and holistic wellness partner to the individuals, businesses and community we serve.

At the core of our service commitment is continuous product innovation and customer experience enrichment, which is achieved through actively listening to our customers and leveraging technology and digital transformation.

We embrace our responsibility to be a force for good to create shared value for our community. We are proud to be the first insurer in Hong Kong and Macau to address the important need of mental health through different products and services. For example, the Mind Charger function on our holistic wellness platform "AXA BetterMe", which is available via our mobile app Emma by AXA, is open to not just our customers, but the community at large. We will continue to foster social progress through our product offerings and community investment to support the sustainable development of Hong Kong and Macau.

*THIS PRESS RELEASE IS AVAILABLE ON AXA'S WEBSITE: **AXA.COM.HK*

*IMPORTANT LEGAL INFORMATION AND CAUTIONARY STATEMENTS CONCERNING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS*

Certain statements contained herein may be forward-looking statements including, but not limited to, statements that are predictions of or indicate future events, trends, plans or objectives. Undue reliance should not be placed on such statements because, by their nature, they are subject to known and unknown risks and uncertainties and can be affected by other factors that could cause AXA's actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied in the forward-looking statements. Please refer to Part 4 - "Risk factors and risk management" of AXA's Universal Registration Document for the year ended December 31, 2019, for a description of certain important factors, risks and uncertainties that may affect AXA's business, and/or results of operations. AXA undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any of these forward-looking statements, whether to reflect new information, future events or circumstances or otherwise, except as part of applicable regulatory or legal obligations.

Just months after bankers celebrated a record haul from taking Chinese companies public in New York and Hong Kong, they’ve had a rude awakening.

Asian firm Tricor Group to buy Guardian Trust and Covenant from Complectus

Local corporate trust businesses Guardian Trust and Covenant have been snapped up by Hong Kong-based Tricor Group spelling an end to 125 years of New Zealand ownership.The two Kiwi businesses were part of financial services company...

Peter Burridge appointed to the role of CEO

SINGAPORE, July 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Nomu Pay, a Finch Capital funded company, today completed two transactions to acquire Wirecard Payment Solutions Malaysia and Wirecard Payment Solutions Hong Kong, and announced the appointment of Peter Burridge as Group Chief Executive Officer, to be based in Singapore.

The acquisitions and appointment are part of Nomu Pay's high-level strategy to create a market-leading unified payments company focused on high-growth customer segments in Asia-Pacific, the Middle East and Europe.

Nomu Pay is in the process of closing several other transactions related to different Wirecard entities in the Philippines, Thailand and Turkey. Following these deals, Nomu Pay will be active in five countries, with access to markets of 300 million people and a GDP equal to that of India.

Peter Burridge joins Nomu Pay group as Chief Executive Officer with more than 30 years of management and leadership experience at rapid growth technology companies. He specialises in strategic management and global growth of financial technologies companies. Before joining Nomu Pay, Mr. Burridge was President of Hyperwallet, the leading payout platform for on-demand and collaborative economy companies, where he guided the organisation through a successful recapitalization, followed by global expansion and the ultimate sale of the business to PayPal. Peter has also previously served in leadership roles at Oracle, Siebel, and Travelex Global Business Payments.

Mr. Burridge will lead Nomu Pay's team across the region in the areas of corporate and business development, market entry, establishment of operations, licensing and compliance.

Other new hires to complete the senior management team are being made. Owen Burke was appointed to the role of Finance Director, based in Dublin, Ireland.

Mr. Burridge says: "Nomu Pay is an innovator with the vision of transforming the payments landscape across Asia-Pacific and EMEA. The payments ecosystem has transformed because of the Covid-19 pandemic, and merchants and financial players are committed to innovation. This provides us with a unique opportunity and we are committed to achieving growth alongside our clients by bringing the latest payments technology to market."

Radboud Vlaar, Managing Partner of Finch Capital, comments: "We are very pleased with the first closings and very excited that Peter joins us as CEO. We are committed to supporting Peter and his team to provide the funding and help needed to accelerate the growth and establishment of the company in key markets."

*About Nomu Pay*

Nomu Pay is a newly established company that through its subsidiaries will provide state of the art unified payment solutions to help its clients accelerate growth in large high growth countries in Asia, Turkey and the Middle East region. NOMU Pay is funded by Finch Capital, a leading European and South East Asian Financial Technology investor.

*About Wirecard in Hong Kong, Philippines, Malaysia and Thailand*

With the acquisition of Citibank's merchant acquiring portfolio and prepaid card services business in 2017, Wirecard provides financial institutions and regional merchants in Asia Pacific with a wide variety of payment and issuing processing as well as fraud management solutions. Catering to the specific needs of regional merchants across a broad spectrum of industries, the acquired entities are connected to major financial institutions and local payment schemes in Asia Pacific, and hold issuing and acquiring licenses from major payment and card networks. The APAC entities provide both business customers and consumers with a constantly expanding ecosystem of real-time value services built around innovative digital payments using an integrated B2B2C approach.

*About Finch Capital*

Founded in 2013, Finch Capital's mission is to fund and support the entrepreneurs creating products that shape the future of finance. Finch Capital's team of 12 investment professionals are entrepreneurs (e.g. Adyen, Deliveroo, Deepmind) and investors (e.g. Accel, Atomico, Egeria) with deep industry backgrounds (e.g. Facebook, Google and McKinsey&Co), located across offices in Amsterdam, London and Jakarta. Its track record includes AccountsIQ, Aylien, BUX, Brytlyt, Fixico, Fouthline, Goodlord, Grab, Hiber, ScalingFunds, Twisto and ZOPA. Finch Capital produces original research including the State of European Fintech and the Fintech sector post Covid-19. For more information see www.finchcapital.com.

Many who have left the city say they feel less like refugees than trailblazers, eager to build a new home after watching their old one slowly transform under Beijing.

(MENAFN - The Arabian Post) HONG KONG SAR – Media OutReach – 9 July 2021 – Supporting numerous scientist and explorer in various projects, National Geographic is dedicated to showing the wonder of our world and...

Partnership will enable Everest Medicines to leverage the power of digital transformation to develop unique patient engagement and disease management solutions for people in Greater China

SHANGHAI, July 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Everest Medicines (HKEX 1952.HK), a biopharmaceutical company focused on developing and commercializing transformative pharmaceutical products that address critical unmet medical needs for patients in Greater China and other parts of Asia, today announced that it has entered into a strategic commercial partnership with Tencent, one of the world's largest technology companies, to explore novel ways to optimize meaningful digital engagement with patients and healthcare providers.

"As part of our preparations to become a commercial organization, we are focused on establishing key partnerships and building an offering of innovative and comprehensive technology solutions to engage and connect patients, healthcare providers, payers and other key stakeholders across the industry," said Kerry Blanchard, MD, PhD, CEO of Everest Medicines. "This partnership with Tencent, a global technology powerhouse, is a critical part of our overall commercial strategy as it will enable us to leverage the power of digital transformation, technology and data to strengthen our market position and ensure patients and healthcare providers in Greater China have greater access to the information and medicines they need."

As part of this partnership, Everest Medicines will explore a number of capabilities and potential solutions with Tencent, including ways to engage patients and healthcare professionals in disease awareness, particularly in various cancers, kidney diseases and severe infectious diseases, which tend to disproportionately impact people in the Greater China region and have limited treatment options, resulting in significant unmet medical need. In addition, the Companies will consider options to build a one-stop patient management ecosystem that spans disease management, from diagnosis to treatment and outcomes, as well as look at ways to leverage artificial intelligence and business intelligence tools to better identify customer profiles and improve treatment adoption.

*About Everest Medicines*

Everest Medicines is a biopharmaceutical company focused on developing and commercializing transformative pharmaceutical products that address critical unmet medical needs for patients in Greater China and other Asian markets. The management team of Everest Medicines has deep expertise and an extensive track record of high-quality clinical development, regulatory affairs, CMC, business development and operations both in China and with leading global pharmaceutical companies. Everest Medicines has built a portfolio of eight potentially global first-in-class or best-in-class molecules, many of which are in late stage clinical development. The Company's therapeutic areas of interest include oncology, autoimmune disorders, cardio-renal diseases and infectious diseases. For more information, please visit its website at www.everestmedicines.com

*About T**encent*

Tencent uses technology to enrich the lives of Internet users. The communication and social services, Weixin and QQ, connect users with each other and with digital content and services, both online and offline, making their lives more convenient. The targeted advertising service helps advertisers reach out to hundreds of millions of consumers in China. Our FinTech and business services support our partners' business growth and assist their digital upgrade. Tencent invests heavily in talent and technological innovation, actively promoting the development of the Internet industry. Tencent was founded in Shenzhen, China, in 1998. Shares of Tencent (00700.HK) are listed on the Main Board of the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong.

DHL Express Hong Kong awarded by Great Place to Work (R) institute for 6th consecutive year

One of the 14 organizations being recognized as the "Best workplaces in Hong Kong™"

HONG KONG, July 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- DHL Express, the world's leading express service provider, has been named one of the Best Workplaces in Hong Kong™ 2021 by Great Place to Work® Institute for the sixth consecutive year.DHL Express Hong Kong awarded by Great Place to Work® institute for 6th consecutive year

"It's particularly heartening to receive the accolade in what has been an extremely challenging year for businesses everywhere. We are truly grateful and proud of our teams, who have risen to the challenge while continuing to support our customers and bolster trade", says Chee Choong Ng, Senior Vice President and Managing Director of DHL Express Hong Kong.

The methodology behind the Great Place to Work® ranking is highly rigorous where the firm gathers and evaluates employee feedback and recognize companies who have built high-trust, high-performance cultures. This year 50 organizations in Hong Kong participated in the survey. Only 14 organizations have been recognized as the Best Workplaces in Hong Kong™.

In the past year, DHL Express Hong Kong has maintained its delivery efficiency and speed while practising a high level of safety. The company's main priority has been in ensuring its people's health and empower their people to work despite the difficult situation. Among these initiatives include providing personal protection equipment and sanitizer, arranging necessary IT devices to facilitate remote work arrangement, implementing alternate working schedules, providing preventive COVID-19 testing for employees who lived in buildings with infected cases and keeping their employees informed through virtual townhall and bulletins.

DHL Express continues to invest in leadership development and talent growth programs, including running the Certified International Specialist (CIS) and Certified International Manager (CIM) over the last 10 years. CIS and CIM are a series of training sessions meant to create a powerful sense of community that enable employees to combine best-in-class product knowledge with incomparable service excellence. The global board of management of DHL Express regularly contributes time toward personally facilitating CIS and CIM learning sessions for employees of all levels around the world.

In 2020, DHL Express was ranked one of the Best Workplaces in Asia for the second consecutive year by Great Place to Work®. Since 2014, DHL Express Asia Pacific has received 288 awards for its workplace and corporate culture, and in 2020 alone, the company received a total of 43 awards.

Great Place to Work®, a global people analytics and consulting firm, assesses the work experience of employees through their certification program every year. In 2020, more than 10,000 organizations participated in the survey process, representing the voices of 10.2 million employees in 92 countries.

Note to Editors:

· To date, DHL Express Hong Kong has received a total of four human resources-related awards in 2021, including Best Workplaces in Hong Kong by Great Place to Work, Employer of Choice Award, Super MD of ERB Manpower Developer Award and "QF Star Employer" under "Qualifications Framework" Scheme

On the Internet: https://www.dhl.com/hk-en/home/press.html
Follow us at: facebook.com/DHLExpressHongKong / instagram.com/dhlhk/ / linkedin.com/company/dhl-express-hong-kong/

*Media Contact:*

*DHL Express Hong Kong*

Fiona Yau

Tel: +852 2400 2055

Email: fiona.yau@dhl.com

*DHL – *The logistics company for the world

*DHL* is the leading global brand in the logistics industry. Our DHL divisions offer an unrivalled portfolio of logistics services ranging from national and international parcel delivery, e-commerce shipping and fulfillment solutions, international express, road, air and ocean transport to industrial supply chain management. With about 400,000 employees in more than 220 countries and territories worldwide, DHL connects people and businesses securely and reliably, enabling global sustainable trade flows. With specialized solutions for growth markets and industries including technology, life sciences and healthcare, engineering, manufacturing & energy, auto-mobility and retail, DHL is decisively positioned as "The logistics company for the world".

DHL is part of Deutsche Post DHL Group. The Group generated revenues of more than 66 billion euros in 2020. With sustainable business practices and a commitment to society and the environment, the Group makes a positive contribution to the world. Deutsche Post DHL Group aims to achieve zero-emissions logistics by 2050.

Related Links :

https://www.dhl.com/hk-en/home/press.html

HONG KONG, Jul 12, 2021 - (ACN Newswire) - Champion Real Estate Investment Trust ("Champion REIT" or "Trust") (Stock Code: 2778), owner of Three Garden Road and Langham Place, always regards sustainable development as an integral part of its corporate culture and is committed to creating long-term value not only for its business but also for the community. The Trust is organising the "Magical Langham Place in Your Lens" Student Filming Competition during this summer holiday. In view of the increasing market demand for multimedia skills nowadays, the competition is aimed at providing a platform for students to realise their creative potentials and essential skills to tell stories through video taking. It is a golden chance for students to practice and improve their video making skills.
The competition is themed on "Magical Langham Place in Your Lens", and filming in Langham Place is required. Located in the heart of Mong Kok, Langham Place stands as a one-stop destination offering a full range of experiences, including shopping, dining, popular events as well as green and healthy lifestyle activities. Riding on this theme, the Trust encourages students to showcase how people of all ages embrace their joyful moments at Langham Place through creative and interesting filming approaches.

The overall champion of the competition will receive a cash prize and Langham Place cash vouchers that valued at HK$10,000 in total. The winner's video will have a chance to be displayed on the large LED screen of Langham Place Mall and he or she will be granted internship opportunities as well, reflecting the Trust's long-standing mission to support youth development. All participants would also have a chance to learn more video taking skills and insights from professional judges. The entry deadline is 18 August 2021 (Wednesday) and the results will be announced in late August 2021.The Trust will be holding an online briefing on 14 July 2021 (Wednesday). For more details, please click here.
https://tinyurl.com/yeerms26

Ms. Ada Wong, Chief Executive Officer of Champion REIT, said, "Following the Entrepreneur in Action Student Competition with overwhelming response held last year, we are pleased to organise another competition for young people again. We continue to explore different opportunities for students, providing them with more opportunities for internship and nurturing their professional skills. Moreover, we hope to promote Langham Place as the ideal spot where everyone can gather and have fun. In addition to growing our business, we also strive to creating sustainable value together with all stakeholders moving forward."

About Champion REIT (Stock Code: 2778)
Champion Real Estate Investment Trust is a trust formed to own and invest in income producing office and retail properties. The Trust focuses on Grade-A commercial properties in prime locations. It currently offers investors direct exposure to nearly 3 million sq. ft. of prime office and retail floor area. These included two Hong Kong landmark properties, Three Garden Road and Langham Place, as well as joint venture stake in 66 Shoe Lane in Central London. Since 2015, the Trust has been included in the Constituent of Hang Seng Corporate Sustainability Benchmark Index of Hang Seng Indexes.
Website: www.championreit.com
Copyright 2021 ACN Newswire. All rights reserved. www.acnnewswire.com

Disposal of Wirecard Subsidiaries in Asia Well Advanced - Further Sale in Indonesia - Transactions Completed in Hong Kong and Malaysia

*MUNICH, and ASCHHEIM, GERMANY / DUBLIN, IRELAND /KUALA LUMPUR, MALAYSIA / HONG KONG, CHINA / JAKARTA, INDONESIA / ACCESSWIRE / July 12, 2021 / *The insolvency administrator has achieved further success in completing additional divestitures as part of the insolvency proceedings regarding the assets of Wirecard AG and Wirecard Sales International Holding GmbH. Specifically, this week the shares of two of four subsidiaries in the Asian-Pacific region were sold and transferred to Finch Capital. This was achieved in spite of the difficult circumstances for the consummation of the transaction due to the current lockdown in Malaysia and hence the insolvency administrator Dr Michael Jaffé was successful in completing the first portion of the transaction with Finch Capital's subsidiary Nomu Pay Ltd.

Pursuant to the sales contract executed in mid-April, the shares in the other entities, which have been sold to Finch Capital, Wirecard e-Money Philippines, Inc. and Wirecard (Thailand) Co., Ltd., shall be transferred as well. With the completion of the first part of the transaction, almost 90 employees will find a new home and substantial proceeds can be distributed to the German insolvency estates.

Furthermore, the insolvency administrator has previously sold all of the shares in PT Prima Vista Solusi/Indonesia together with its nearly 670 employees to the technology holding company of an Indonesian company group, thus achieving yet another successful sale in South East Asia amidst strict limitations due to the pandemic. The completion of this transaction is still subject to customary closing including the necessary approval by the Indonesian banking control authority.

"With the sale of PT Prima Vista Solusi in Indonesia and the completion of the sale of subsidiaries in Hong Kong and Malaysia, we have largely completed the disposal of the portfolio companies. Overall, we were able to achieve the best possible solutions for employees and creditors and to safeguard around 2,800 existing jobs in the course of the disposals ", said insolvency administrator Dr Michael Jaffé.

*Additional information:*

Dr Michael Jaffé is one of the most experienced and renowned insolvency administrators in Germany. He has been regularly appointed by the courts for over two decades in large and complex insolvency cases where the aim is to secure assets for creditors and to realise them in the best possible way. One special focus of his expertise lies in multi-stage group insolvency proceedings and proceedings with cross-border issues or assets that are difficult to realise. Among the most nationally and internationally renowned insolvency proceedings of Dr Michael Jaffé are the media group KirchMedia of the late Dr Leo Kirch, the former global memory chip manufacturer Qimonda and the German subsidiaries of the Petroplus Group. He also successfully completed the restructuring of caravan manufacturer Knaus Tabbert, Grob Aerospace and Cinterion Wireless Modules Holding GmbH, among others.

As the insolvency administrator of Stadtwerke Gera Aktiengesellschaft, a holding company for participations of the city of Gera for public welfare, he found a permanent solution for all companies. As insolvency administrator of the insolvent fund company NARAT GmbH & Co. KG, Dr Michael Jaffé sold one of the largest commercial real estate portfolios in North Rhine-Westphalia. In the insolvency proceedings of DCM Deutsche Capital Management (DCM AG), a leading provider of closed-end funds in Germany with a total investment volume of around €4.7 billion, he worked through the complex structures and successfully liquidated the investments. He is also the insolvency administrator of Pro Health AG, Phoenix Solar AG and Dero Bank AG.

As the insolvency administrator of three German P&R container management companies, he realised the worldwide container fleet within the framework of a complex cross-border structure with the aim of minimising the losses for the approximately 54,000 investors who have filed for insolvency tables for over €3 billion.

Munich Local Court appointed Michael Jaffé as the insolvency administrator of Wirecard AG and Wirecard Technologies GmbH, Wirecard Issuing Technologies GmbH, Wirecard Service Technologies GmbH, Wirecard Acceptance Technologies GmbH, Wirecard Sales International Holding GmbH and Wirecard Global Sales GmbH in a court order given on 25 August 2020.

For more than two decades, JAFFÉ Rechtsanwälte Insolvenzverwalter has been one of the leading law firms in the fields of insolvency administration, insolvency law and restructuring (in accordance with the German Law on Further Facilitating the Restructuring of Companies (Gesetz zur weiteren Erleichterung der Sanierung von Unternehmen or ESUG), especially in complex and cross-border proceedings. An important basis for this is the many years of experience, competence and independence that are regularly in demand, especially in complex proceedings. This is one of the reasons why the firm has enjoyed the trust of courts and creditors for decades, especially in difficult proceedings where conflicting interests of the parties involved exist. With its own efficient structure, which has grown over the years, the firm can accompany proceedings of any size in the interest of creditors.

Please do not hesitate to contact us if you have any questions:

Media contact for the insolvency administrator:
Sebastian Brunner
Tel.: +49175/5604673

E-Mail: sebastian.brunner@brunner-communications.de

*SOURCE: *Sebastian Brunner Communications
View source version on accesswire.com:
https://www.accesswire.com/655056/Disposal-of-Wirecard-Subsidiaries-in-Asia-Well-Advanced--Further-Sale-in-Indonesia--Transactions-Completed-in-Hong-Kong-and-Malaysia

BEIJING (AP) — Asian stock markets rose Monday after Wall Street hit a high despite jitters about the spread of the coronavirus's delta variant, as investors looked ahead to U.S. earnings reports.

Market benchmarks in Shanghai, Tokyo, Hong Kong and Sydney advanced.

On Friday, Wall Street’s benchmark S&P 500 index ended up 0.4% for the week.

“Wall Street shrugged off ‘delta variant’ concerns,” said Mizuho Bank in a report. “Futures suggest that the optimism will spill over into Asia’s equity trading session.”

The Shanghai Composite Index rose 0.8% to 3,549.80 after the Chinese central bank on Friday reduced the level of reserves commercial banks must hold, freeing up money for lending. That came after forecasters saw signs China’s economic rebound might be weakening.

The Nikkei 225 in Tokyo surged 2.2% to 28,554.56 and the Hang Seng in Hong Kong gained 0.6% to 27,495.07.

The Kospi in Seoul advanced 1% to 3,249.36 and Sydney’s S&P-ASX 200 rose 0.7% to 7,326.10.

India's Sensex opened up 0.6% at 52,674.18. New Zealand and Southeast Asian markets also advanced.

On Friday, the S&P 500 index rose 1.1% to a record 4,369.55, rebounding from the previous day's loss.

About 90% of the stocks in the S&P 500 closed higher. Banks, technology companies and industrial stocks powered much of the rally.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 1.3% to a record 34,870.1. The Nasdaq composite added 1% to 14,701.92.

Investors have swung between optimism about economic recovery and unease about the spread of the highly contagious delta variant.

Over the weekend, the president of the European Central Bank, Christine Lagarde, told investors to prepare for new guidance on monetary policy after the bank’s July 22 meeting. But she...

*Rechtsanwalt Dr. Michael Jaffé*
*Insolvency Administrator of Wirecard Sales International Holding GmbH*

*Disposal of Subsidiaries in Asia well advanced: *

*Further sale in Indonesia - transactions completed in Hong Kong and Malaysia*

MUNICH/ASCHHEIM/DUBLIN/KUALA LUMPUR/HONG KONG/JAKARTA - EQS Newswire - 12 July 2021 - The insolvency administrator has achieved further success in completing additional divestitures as part of the insolvency proceedings regarding the assets of Wirecard AG and Wirecard Sales International Holding GmbH. Specifically, this week the shares of two of four subsidiaries in the Asian-Pacific region were sold and transferred to Finch Capital. This was achieved in spite of the difficult circumstances for the consummation of the transaction due to the current lockdown in Malaysia and hence the insolvency administrator Dr Michael Jaffé was successful in completing the first portion of the transaction with Finch Capital's subsidiary Nomu Pay Ltd.

Pursuant to the sales contract executed in mid-April, the shares in the other entities, which have been sold to Finch Capital, Wirecard e-Money Philippines, Inc. and Wirecard (Thailand) Co., Ltd., shall be transferred as well. With the completion of the first part of the transaction, almost 90 employees will find a new home and substantial proceeds can be distributed to the German insolvency estates.

Furthermore, the insolvency administrator has previously sold all of the shares in PT Prima Vista Solusi/Indonesia together with its nearly 670 employees to the technology holding company of an Indonesian company group, thus achieving yet another successful sale in South East Asia amidst strict limitations due to the pandemic. The completion of this transaction is still subject to customary closing including the necessary approval by the Indonesian banking control authority.

"With the sale of PT Prima Vista Solusi in Indonesia and the completion of the sale of subsidiaries in Hong Kong and Malaysia, we have largely completed the disposal of the portfolio companies. Overall, we were able to achieve the best possible solutions for employees and creditors and to safeguard around 2,800 existing jobs in the course of the disposals ", said insolvency administrator Dr Michael Jaffé.

*Additional information:*

Dr Michael Jaffé is one of the most experienced and renowned insolvency administrators in Germany. He has been regularly appointed by the courts for over two decades in large and complex insolvency cases where the aim is to secure assets for creditors and to realise them in the best possible way. One special focus of his expertise lies in multi-stage group insolvency proceedings and proceedings with cross-border issues or assets that are difficult to realise. Among the most nationally and internationally renowned insolvency proceedings of Dr Michael Jaffé are the media group KirchMedia of the late Dr Leo Kirch, the former global memory chip manufacturer Qimonda and the German subsidiaries of the Petroplus Group. He also successfully completed the restructuring of caravan manufacturer Knaus Tabbert, Grob Aerospace and Cinterion Wireless Modules Holding GmbH, among others.

As the insolvency administrator of Stadtwerke Gera Aktiengesellschaft, a holding company for participations of the city of Gera for public welfare, he found a permanent solution for all companies. As insolvency administrator of the insolvent fund company NARAT GmbH & Co. KG, Dr Michael Jaffé sold one of the largest commercial real estate portfolios in North Rhine-Westphalia. In the insolvency proceedings of DCM Deutsche Capital Management (DCM AG), a leading provider of closed-end funds in Germany with a total investment volume of around €4.7 billion, he worked through the complex structures and successfully liquidated the investments. He is also the insolvency administrator of Pro Health AG, Phoenix Solar AG and Dero Bank AG.

As the insolvency administrator of three German P&R container management companies, he realised the worldwide container fleet within the framework of a complex cross-border structure with the aim of minimising the losses for the approximately 54,000 investors who have filed for insolvency tables for over €3 billion.

Munich Local Court appointed Michael Jaffé as the insolvency administrator of Wirecard AG and Wirecard Technologies GmbH, Wirecard Issuing Technologies GmbH, Wirecard Service Technologies GmbH, Wirecard Acceptance Technologies GmbH, Wirecard Sales International Holding GmbH and Wirecard Global Sales GmbH in a court order given on 25 August 2020.

For more than two decades, JAFFÉ Rechtsanwälte Insolvenzverwalter has been one of the leading law firms in the fields of insolvency administration, insolvency law and restructuring (in accordance with the German Law on Further Facilitating the Restructuring of Companies (Gesetz zur weiteren Erleichterung der Sanierung von Unternehmen or ESUG), especially in complex and cross-border proceedings. An important basis for this is the many years of experience, competence and independence that are regularly in demand, especially in complex proceedings. This is one of the reasons why the firm has enjoyed the trust of courts and creditors for decades, especially in difficult proceedings where conflicting interests of the parties involved exist. With its own efficient structure, which has grown over the years, the firm can accompany proceedings of any size in the interest of creditors.

The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.

HONG KONG SAR - Media OutReach - 2 July 2021 - Kerry Logistics Network Limited ('Kerry Logistics Network'; Stock Code 0636.HK) is honoured to be recognised as one of the "Most Honored Companies" in Institutional Investor's annual All-Asia (ex-Japan) Executive Team rankings for the sixth consecutive year. It was also ranked in the top three in five categories under the Transportation sector.

Kerry Logistics Network and its key executives secured top three in the following categories, based on votes from buy-side analysts, money managers, and sell-side researchers at securities firms and financial institutions that cover the Asian region:

· Best CEO – William Ma
· Best CFO – Ellis Cheng
· Best Investor Relations Professional – Iris Tsang
· Best Investor Relations Program
· Best ESG

William Ma, Group Managing Director of Kerry Logistics Network, said, "We are honoured to be recognised once again for our commitment to a proactive investor relations strategy. While it has been imperative to respond to the challenges brought by the pandemic, in terms of investor relations, we have remained steadfast in maintaining our transparency, stepping up communication with the investment community and addressing investors' concerns. Despite all the difficulties, we believe it is of paramount importance for us to keep our shareholders and investors up to date, particularly on Kerry Logistics Network's latest corporate developments, while providing comprehensive disclosure to our stakeholders to ensure we create value for all. We are grateful to Institutional Investor and the investment community for the long-term support, and we will continue doing our best in applying global best practices in our investor relations programme."

Kerry Logistics has received the "Most Honored Companies" accolade since 2016. The 2021 All-Asia (ex-Japan) Executive Team rankings were determined by the votes from over 4,000 investment professionals across 1,285 financial services firms. The survey covered several core areas, including "Financial Disclosure", "IR Services & Communications", "COVID-19 responses", "ESG", "CEO", "CFO" and "IR Professional".

About Kerry Logistics Network Limited (Stock Code 0636.HK)

Kerry Logistics Network is an Asia-based, global 3PL with a highly diversified business portfolio and the strongest coverage in Asia. It offers a broad range of supply chain solutions from integrated logistics, international freight forwarding (air, ocean, road, rail and multimodal), industrial project logistics, to cross-border e-commerce, last-mile fulfilment and infrastructure investment.

With a global presence across 59 countries and territories, Kerry Logistics Network has established a solid foothold in half of the world's emerging markets. Its diverse infrastructure, extensive coverage in international gateways and local expertise span across China, India, Southeast Asia, the CIS, Middle East, LATAM and other locations.

Kerry Logistics Network generated a revenue of over HK$53 billion in 2020 and is the largest international logistics company listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

# KerryLogisticsNetwork

About Institutional Investor

Now entering its fifth decade, Institutional Investor has consistently distinguished itself among the world's foremost financial publications with groundbreaking journalism and incisive writing that provides essential intelligence for a global audience. In addition, Institutional Investor offers a host of proprietary research and rankings that serve as respected industry benchmarks.

Pioneer Developer of CMOS Thermal Sensors adds strategic manufacturing investor for the next phase of its commercial production and the development of its second-generation sensor

SINGAPORE, July 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Meridian Innovation Pte Ltd, the pioneer developer of low cost, mass producible thermal sensors, today announced that it has secured a total of US$8 million in its latest round of financing inclusive of a bank loan. Existing investors: Creative Technology Ltd; Excelpoint's investment arm, PlanetSpark; and SEEDS Capital; together with new investor, Best Ever Pte Ltd, a subsidiary of Best Ever Industries Ltd, will participate in this latest round, bringing Meridian Innovation's total investment to date to more than US$18 million.

This round of investment will further accelerate Meridian's ramp up in production of thermal sensors and development of the second generation of its SenXor™ thermal sensor solution, which is protected by a number of international patents. Over the last 12 months, Meridian has shipped to over 20 customers in multiple market segments, including IoT devices: Smart Appliances; ADAS; AI-assisted Heat Failure Analyzers and Security; Medical & Safety products; as well as portable thermography instruments. Meridian is uniquely positioned to address these emerging markets which are all rapidly adopting low-cost thermal sensors. Both investors and customers are embracing Meridian's compelling, patented CMOS thermal sensors, due to their salient benefits of low-power and low-cost owing to their mass manufacturable CMOS process.

"Since we first invested in 2019, Excelpoint has been a strategic partner for Meridian's thermal sensor and we have witnessed a rapid adoption of these sensors due to their competitive price points and performance. We continue to invest in Meridian as we see the tremendous potential for this kind of sensors which are synergistic with Excelpoint's focus segments and vast regional distribution network in the Asia Pacific Region," stated Albert Phuay Yong Hen, Chairman and Group Chief Executive Officer of Excelpoint Technology Ltd.

"For the past year, we have been manufacturing Meridian's thermal sensor modules and promoting them to our customer base. We are very enthusiastic in this new line of sensors and their market adoption. Best Ever has been a premier supplier of RGB and other sensors to Tier 1 customers around the world. We want to play a larger role by investing in Meridian to accelerate the adoption across multiple market segments which can be transformative for many industries," said Vincent Chiang, CTO of Best Ever Industries Ltd.

"Meridian is honored to have Best Ever joining Creative, Excelpoint and SEEDS Capital as investors. With Best Ever, a premier manufacturer investing in Meridian and partnering with us to ramp up production to meet the increasing demand, we are well positioned to have an explosive growth in the coming years," said Hock Leow, CEO and Co-Founder of Meridian Innovation. "We have been shipping for a full year to our customer base and seen a rapid adoption of our thermal sensor. We are committed to constant innovation and, with this new investment, we are accelerating our second-generation sensor development. We will be sampling our second generation SenXor product in early 2022."

*About Meridian Innovation*

Meridian Innovation, headquartered in Singapore, is a pioneering developer of advanced Complementary Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor ("CMOS") Thermal Imaging solutions with operations also in Hong Kong, USA and UK. Meridian Innovation is committed to the development of cost effective and high-performance Thermal Imaging Sensor-based solutions for commercial and consumer applications that will enable safer and better living. Meridian's technology utilizes a unique patented approach in fabricating MEMS LWIR sensors based on CMOS. Combining a proprietary wafer-level vacuum packaging allows Meridian to produce their sensors at lower cost and mass producible volume.

For more information on Meridian, please visit https://www.meridianinno.com/

*About Excelpoint Technology Ltd. *

Excelpoint Technology Ltd. (the "Company") and its subsidiaries ("Excelpoint" or the "Group") are one of the leading regional business-to-business ("B2B") platforms providing quality electronic components, engineering design services and supply chain management to original equipment manufacturers ("OEMs"), original design manufacturers ("ODMs") and electronics manufacturing services ("EMS") in the Asia Pacific region. Excelpoint Technology Ltd. has been recognized in the Top 25 Global Electronics Distributors and Top Global Distributors lists by EBN (a premier online community for global supply chain professionals) and EPSNews (a US premier news, information and data portal and resource center for electronics and supply chain industries) respectively.

Excelpoint works closely with its principals to create innovative solutions to complement its customers' products and solutions. Aimed at improving its customers' operational efficiency and cost competitiveness, the Group has set up research and development ("R&D") centers in Singapore, China and Vietnam that are helmed by its dedicated team of professional engineers. Established in 1987 and headquartered in Singapore, Excelpoint's business presence spans over 40 cities in more than 10 countries with a workforce of more than 750 people from different nationalities and cultural backgrounds.

For more information on Excelpoint, please visit www.excelpoint.com

*About Best Ever Industries Ltd.*

Best Ever Industries Ltd was founded in Taiwan in 2003, as a subsidiary of Foxconn® Group focuses on camera module R&D, manufacturing and sales. Over the years, Best Ever has accumulated a wealth of experience, become a major strategic partner and a leading supplier to top global clients. Best Ever is also the leading technological solution provider and it continuously leverages its expertise in hardware and software to integrate its unique manufacturing systems with emerging technologies. Best Ever provides diverse CIS camera products, three dimensional optoelectronic products, and other optoelectronic modules in the fields of mobile/ computing/ consumer/ automotive and IoT.

For more information on Best Ever Industries Ltd, please visit http://rayprus.web.hdv.tw

*Media Contact:*

Hasan Gadjali
+852-28100211
+1 (408) 667-1125
gadjali@meridianinno.com

Related Links :

https://www.meridianinno.com/

On 7 July 2021, the Legislative Council of Hong Kong passed the Employment (Amendment) Bill 2021 which increases the number of statutory holidays under the Employment Ordinance (the "EO")...

- Accelerates development of antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) and immuno-oncology (IO) technology platforms

- Enables lead best-in-class and first-in-class ADCs to enter clinical development

WOODINVILLE, Wash. and SUZHOU, China, July 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- ProfoundBio announced the closing of a $55+ million Series A financing round led by Lilly Asia Venture and co-led by LYFE Capital, with participation from Sequoia Capital China and Oriza. All investors from the Series Pre-A financing, K2VC, Gaorong Capital, and Chang'an Capital, also participated in this round of financing.

ProfoundBio will use the proceeds to accelerate development and implementation of novel technology platforms for ADCs and IO therapeutics and to advance a portfolio of differentiated therapeutics into clinical development.

"We made significant progress with our lead programs and novel technology platforms since the completion of Series Pre-A financing. The additional funding will allow us to further strengthen and expand our integrated R&D capability, grow and broaden our innovative product pipeline, and prepare for multiple IND submissions in 2022 and beyond," said Baiteng Zhao, PhD, co-founder, CEO, and Chair of the Board of ProfoundBio. "We are really excited about the enthusiastic participation of the new investors and the continued support from our shareholders. I am confident that by working together, we can bring more innovative targeted therapeutics to patients with cancer sooner."

"We believe emerging modalities, such as ADCs, will bring hope to patients with solid tumor to address the significant unmet medical needs," said Dr. Fei Chen, Managing Partner of LAV. "ProfoundBio's founding team are industry veterans with rich experience, deep knowhow and a FDA drug approval track record established during their tenure at the global leader of ADC drug development. It is a great pleasure to partner with ProfoundBio at this critical moment, and we are committed to support the company to realize the potential of ADC and create new targeted drugs for patients around the world."

According to LYFE Capital, "The antibody-drug conjugate modality has demonstrated great potential in oncology treatment. The ProfoundBio team has extensive R&D and clinical translation experience in ADC drug development. The company quickly established a strong R&D and translational platform and built up a differentiated ADC drug pipeline. We believe that the ProfoundBio team will leverage their rich experiences and efficient R&D platform to develop more differentiated ADC drug pipeline to address large unmet clinical needs in oncology."

"Congratulations to ProfoundBio on completing Series A funding!" said Lynn Yang, Partner of Sequoia Capital China. "Healthcare has been a key sector of investment since Sequoia Capital China's establishment. We are impressed by ProfoundBio's long-term commitment to ADC development, where the company has gained extensive experience and achieved remarkable progress. We hope ProfoundBio will continue creating value for society by helping more patients in their recovery."

"Antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) has become another important sector after monoclonal antibodies," said Yunfei Chen, Investment Director of Oriza. "ProfoundBio's management team comes from SeaGen, a global leader in the ADC industry, which makes them well experienced in ADC development. ProfoundBio focuses on clinical unmet needs instead of overcrowded targets and mainly develops ADC drugs with innovative targets. We expect ProfoundBio to become a leading ADC enterprise. Oriza is pleased to help ProfoundBio grow rapidly and benefit more patients as soon as possible with greater success."

*About ProfoundBio*

ProfoundBio is an oncology biotherapeutics company focused on the development of novel antibody-based therapeutics with curative potential for patients with cancer. Built on innovative technology platforms, ProfoundBio has developed a pipeline consisting of multiple solid tumor-targeting drug candidates that are currently in discovery and preclinical development stages. ProfoundBio has operations in both the greater Seattle area, WA, USA and Suzhou, China.

For more information, please visit www.profoundbio.com.

*About Lilly Asia Venture*

Lilly Asia Ventures (LAV) is a leading biomedical venture capital firm, with offices in Shanghai, Hong Kong, and Palo Alto. As one of the earliest biomedical venture investors in China, LAV has been consistently investing in this region for over a decade. With a team of over 30 distinguished scientific, medical, investment, and operational professionals, LAV manages over $4.5 billion of committed capital. LAV's vision is to become the trusted partner for exceptional entrepreneurs seeking smart capital and to build great companies developing breakthrough products that treat diseases and improve human health.

*About LYFE Capital*

Founded in 2015, LYFE Capital is a dedicated healthcare fund, with two offices set up in Shanghai, China and Menlo Park, US. We are actively seeking healthcare companies with exceptional management teams and expansive vision geared towards global markets. Our investment focus spans innovative biopharmaceuticals, medical devices, and diagnostics. We work closely with our portfolio companies to support their needs by providing capital and active support in global partnerships, collaborations, strategy, regulatory guidance and local market access. At LYFE Capital, our portfolio companies are not just investments, but rather long-term partners.

*About Sequoia China*

The Sequoia team helps daring founders build legendary companies. In partnering with Sequoia, companies benefit from our unmatched community and the lessons we've learned over 49 years. As "The Entrepreneurs Behind the Entrepreneurs," Sequoia China focuses on three sectors: TMT, consumer/services and healthcare. Over the past 16 years we've had the privilege of working with approximately 600 companies in China.

*About Oriza*

Suzhou Oriza Holdings Corporation (hereinafter referred to as "Oriza Holdings") is an investment holding company with over RMB 100 billion under management. Its businesses cover equity investment, debt financing and investment & financing services. Oriza Holdings has achieved a great success in exploring financial creation, boosting science creation, guiding fund accumulation and upgrading industries through the coordination of the three businesses of capital operation, risk control and operation allocation, including China' s first national FOFs of equity investment etc.

Media/Investor contact
Tae Han
Phone: +1 650-922-0422
Email: pr@profoundbio.com

Related Links :

http://www.profoundbio.com

Bud APAC Closes First Green Financing Loan of USD500 Million to Incentivize and Accelerate its ESG Performance

HONG KONG, July 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Budweiser Brewing Company APAC ("Bud APAC", SEHK:1876) today announced the successful signing of a total USD500 million Sustainability-Linked Loan Revolving Credit Facilities ("Green Financing Loan") with a bank consortium led by Bank of China, one of the largest of this kind among publicly listed consumer goods companies in Asia Pacific.

The Green Financing Loan has a three-year term with a tiered discount on the loan's interest rate if Bud APAC achieves pre-determined ESG targets. These targets incentivize improvement in four key performance areas that contribute to Bud APAC's 2025 Sustainability Goals in climate action, water stewardship, circular packaging and smart agriculture.

"This loan further demonstrates our unwavering commitment to integrating sustainability into all aspects of our business. As a purpose-driven company, we are confident of our ability to capitalize on this opportunity and achieve the performance-based incentive regarding ESG targets. We look forward to making our communities greener and our people healthier as we work towards a sustainable future," said Jan Craps, Bud APAC's Chief Executive Officer and Co-chair of the Board.

Bud APAC's 2025 Sustainability Goals, which support the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, deliver a clear strategy and measurable, positive impact on the environment and communities in Asia Pacific.

· *Climate **Action**:* Bud APAC announced in June 2021 that its Wuhan brewery would achieve carbon-neutrality by the end of 2021, the first among all Anheuser-Busch InBev breweries globally. Three breweries in China have already achieved RE 100 and 11 breweries have installed solar panels across Asia Pacific.
· *Water Stewardship: *With the creed of "No water, no beer!" Bud APAC has invested in water availability and quality improvement in communities with significant water stress, particularly in China and India, the world's top two most populated countries. In China, it initiated a Water Return Community program with approximately 17 million hectoliters of reclaimed water returned to communities from its operation in 2020. Bud APAC created more than 10 million hectoliters of cumulative water recharge in high-risk watersheds in India in 2020.
· *Circular Packaging: *Bud APAC continues to follow its Reduce, Reuse, Recycle and Rethink strategy. In South Korea, the company became the industry's first to use 100% recycled material for box packages.
· *Smart Agriculture:* Bud APAC confirmed that 92% of its direct farmers were skilled by the end of 2020, 100% were connected and 83% were financially empowered through digital solutions.

In line with its 2025 Sustainability Goals and its Dream-People-Culture principles, Bud APAC has a clear roadmap for social and corporate governance including best practices in D&I initiatives, corporate governance, compliance, and workplace well-being. The roadmap integrates sustainable development and actions for its long-term value creation in Asia Pacific. For more information, please refer to Bud APAC's latest environmental, social and corporate governance report here.

*About Bud APAC *

Budweiser Brewing Company APAC Limited ("Bud APAC") is the largest beer company in Asia Pacific, with leadership positions in premium and super premium beer segments. It brews, imports, markets, distributes, and sells a portfolio of more than 50 beer brands, including Budweiser®, Stella Artois®, Corona®, Hoegaarden®, Cass® and Harbin®. In recent years, Bud APAC has expanded beyond beer into new categories such as ready-to-drink, energy drinks and spirits. Its principal markets are China, South Korea, India, and Vietnam. Bud APAC operates more than 50 breweries and has over 26,000 colleagues across Asia Pacific.

Bud APAC is listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange under the stock code "1876" and is a Hang Seng Composite Index member that is incorporated under the laws of the Cayman Islands. The company is a subsidiary of Anheuser-Busch InBev, which has over 600 years of brewing heritage and an extensive global presence.

For more details, please visit our website at: http://www.budweiserapac.com.

Related Links :

http://www.budweiserapac.com

*Market-exclusive Dementia Multi-care Benefits*

*Continuous Cancer Payout Benefit up to 100 months*

*Up-to-date comprehensive protection*

HONG KONG SAR - Media OutReach - 12 July 2021 - AXA Hong Kong and Macau ("AXA") today announced the launch of "LoveAssure Plus Critical Illness Plan" and "LoveAssure Critical Illness Plan" (collectively referred as "LoveAssure Critical Illness Protection" Series or the Series), a unique comprehensive critical illness protection covering illnesses, ranging from the most common ones to the emerging ones to which the market has yet to provide sufficient support.

The Series includes market-exclusive^1 Dementia Multi-care Benefits that provides continuous annuity until the age of 100 to support the cost of long-term care for the insured who is diagnosed with severe dementias. Moreover, despite the improved cancer survival rate due to advancements in medical technology, cancer recurrence rate is still high, for example, colorectal and ovarian cancer recurrence rate can reach as high as 50% and 80% respectively^2. "LoveAssure Critical Illness Protection" Series thus offers up to 100 months of Continuous Cancer Payout Benefit, providing the insured long-term financial support to fight against cancer.

From now until 30 September 2021, customers can enjoy 2 months' premium refund if they successfully apply for the "LoveAssure Critical Illness Protection" Series.

*Costly long-term dementia care up to HKD190,000 per year*

According to the data from the Food and Health Bureau and the Hong Kong Hospital Authority, it is estimated that for people aged 65 or above, there is a worrying 5-8% chance of getting dementia and the prevalence of dementia doubles with every 5-year increment after age 65. Due to the irreversible nature of dementia and the heavy dependence on support services, the cost of care and the burden on caregivers will keep growing with an ageing population and increase of dementia cases. A research report^3 shows that the non-medical expenses to take care of a patient with severe dementia in Hong Kong would be approximately HKD190,000 per year, which could not be reimbursed under medical insurance in the market. Thus, we have especially added the market-exclusive Dementia Multi-care Benefits to the "LoveAssure Critical Illness Protection" Series to help customers fill this protection gap.

* *

*"Living with Cancer" is becoming prevalent which requires long-term financial support *

Meanwhile, though cancer is the most common critical illness in Hong Kong, it is no longer a terminal illness and being proactive with treatment can increase the survival rate. According to our claims data, even someone who is diagnosed with Stage IV of lung cancer can receive continuous cancer treatments for almost 8 years to control cancer cells. As "Living with Cancer"* *is becoming prevalent, the Series' Continuous Cancer Payout Benefit of up to 100 months will provide great support to cancer patients on their road to recovery.

*Kevin Chor, Chief Life and Health Insurance Officer, AXA Hong Kong and Macau*, said,* *"A comprehensive critical illness protection can provide customers with immediate financial support if they unfortunately encounter serious illnesses. According to a recent survey^4 conducted by the Golden Age Foundation in partnership with AXA, approximately 75% of Hong Kong's golden age people (aged 45 and older) are neutral or dissatisfied with their current savings, future finance, ability to cope with financial crises, and their own financial management ability. Approximately 40% reported that their savings may not meet their financial needs in healthcare and long-term care. The shortfall highlights the importance of getting critical illness protection with continuous support as it helps relieve the heavy financial burden brought by critical illnesses especially during the golden age.

'LoveAssure Critical Illness Protection' Series provides holistic protection to our customers physically, mentally and financially. It underscores AXA's continuous commitment to being a true lifelong partner to our customers. With the Series' extensive and innovative features and benefits, we hope to provide comprehensive support to our customers and serve as their useful companion in times of need."

"LoveAssure Critical Illness Protection" Series all-rounded protection includes:

· *Market-exclusive^1 Dementia Multi-care Benefits* – If the insured is diagnosed with severe dementias, a lump sum payout up to 100% of the sum insured and a Dementia Caregiver Annuity Benefit of up to 12% of the sum insured will be payable every year to continuously support the costs of long-term care until the insured reaches age 100.
· *Up to 100 months of Continuous Cancer Payout Benefit *– If the insured is diagnosed with cancer, a lump sum payout up to 100% of the sum insured will be payable first. In addition, a monthly payout of 5% of the sum insured will be provided if the insured is still suffering from cancer after a 1-year waiting period and undergoing cancer treatment. This will provide long-term financial support as income replacement and help ease the burden brought by daily living expenses for up to 100 months. Under LoveAssure Plus, the insured who is diagnosed with late stage cancer can receive payouts immediately with no waiting period.
· *Total coverage of up to 1300% of the sum insured *– The Series provides Multiple Claims Major Illness Benefit against most of the covered major illnesses before the insured reaches age 85, with 100% of the sum insured each time.
· *Dual-tier Intensive Care Unit Coverage – *To provide a safety net for our customers,* *regardless whether it is caused by an accident or an unexpected infectious disease,* *up to 20% of the sum insured will be payable if the insured is admitted to the ICU for 72 consecutive hours or more; up to 100% of the sum insured will be payable if the insured stays in the ICU for 120 consecutive hours and undergoes a complex surgery.**
· *Wide range of value-added services* – The Series provides a wide range of value-added services that cover prevention, treatment and rehabilitation will be provided. These include dementia early detection screening and a caregiver training programme for dementia care.
· *Extra coverage* – I f customers take up "LoveAssure Critical Illness Protection" Series together with designated supplements , an extra 50% sum insured will be provided when the Major Illness Benefit or Death Benefit becomes payable within the first 2 0 policy years . With Extra Coverage Benefit, the Series offers a total coverage of up to 200% of original sum insured for the first 10 policy years.

There are more benefits offered by the "LoveAssure Critical Illness Protection" Series such as Juvenile Caregiver Benefit. For details, please visit: www.axa.com.hk/en/loveassure-plus-critical-illness-insurance and https://www.axa.com.hk/en/loveassure-critical-illness-insurance.

The above information is for reference only. For details on premium refund and product features, content, terms and exclusions, please refer to the relevant product brochures and promotional leaflets.
--------------------

^1 This is based on a comparison among critical illness insurance plans available for new business provided by the insurers which are included in the Composite and Long Term business in the Register of Authorized Insurers published by the Insurance Authority as of May 2021.

^2 Source: The Chinese University of Hong Kong (December 2017). Study on Multi-gene Mutation-Drug Matching for Recurrent Ovarian Cancer Patients [Press release] Retrieved from https://www.cpr.cuhk.edu.hk

^3 Source: Alzheimer's Disease International (2016). Cost of Community Care for Dementia and Cognitive Impairment in Hong Kong Chinese: Social and Informal Care Time Analysis. Retrieved from https://hub.hku.hk/handle/10722/239101

^4 In partnership with AXA, Golden Age Foundation successfully interviewed a total of 1,109 golden aged people (aged 45 and older) online to understand their views on six dimensions of smart ageing: demographic background, financial knowledge and management, health and healthcare, productive and civic engagement, technology use and application, and social participation and care.

About AXA Hong Kong and Macau

AXA Hong Kong and Macau is a member of the AXA Group, a leading global insurer with presence in 54 markets and serving 105 million customers worldwide. Our purpose is to act for human progress by protecting what matters.

As one of the most diversified insurers offering integrated solutions across Life, Health and General Insurance, our goal is to be the insurance and holistic wellness partner to the individuals, businesses and community we serve.

At the core of our service commitment is continuous product innovation and customer experience enrichment, which is achieved through actively listening to our customers and leveraging technology and digital transformation.

We embrace our responsibility to be a force for good to create shared value for our community. We are proud to be the first insurer in Hong Kong and Macau to address the important need of mental health through different products and services. For example, the Mind Charger function on our holistic wellness platform "AXA BetterMe", which is available via our mobile app Emma by AXA, is open to not just our customers, but the community at large. We will continue to foster social progress through our product offerings and community investment to support the sustainable development of Hong Kong and Macau.

*THIS PRESS RELEASE IS AVAILABLE ON AXA'S WEBSITE: **AXA.COM.HK*

*
*

*IMPORTANT LEGAL INFORMATION AND CAUTIONARY STATEMENTS CONCERNING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS*

Certain statements contained herein may be forward-looking statements including, but not limited to, statements that are predictions of or indicate future events, trends, plans or objectives. Undue reliance should not be placed on such statements because, by their nature, they are subject to known and unknown risks and uncertainties and can be affected by other factors that could cause AXA's actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied in the forward-looking statements. Please refer to Part 4 - "Risk factors and risk management" of AXA's Universal Registration Document for the year ended December 31, 2019, for a description of certain important factors, risks and uncertainties that may affect AXA's business, and/or results of operations. AXA undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any of these forward-looking statements, whether to reflect new information, future events or circumstances or otherwise, except as part of applicable regulatory or legal obligations.

#AXA

Market-exclusive Dementia Multi-care Benefits

Continuous Cancer Payout Benefit up to 100 months

Up-to-date comprehensive protection

HONG KONG, July 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- AXA Hong Kong and Macau ("AXA") today announced the launch of "LoveAssure Plus Critical Illness Plan" and "LoveAssure Critical Illness Plan" (collectively referred as "LoveAssure Critical Illness Protection" Series or the Series), a unique comprehensive critical illness protection covering illnesses, ranging from the most common ones to the emerging ones to which the market has yet to provide sufficient support.

The Series includes market-exclusive[1] Dementia Multi-care Benefits that provides continuous annuity until the age of 100 to support the cost of long-term care for the insured who is diagnosed with severe dementias. Moreover, despite the improved cancer survival rate due to advancements in medical technology, cancer recurrence rate is still high, for example, colorectal and ovarian cancer recurrence rate can reach as high as 50% and 80% respectively[2]. "LoveAssure Critical Illness Protection" Series thus offers up to 100 months of Continuous Cancer Payout Benefit, providing the insured long-term financial support to fight against cancer.

From now until 30 September 2021, customers can enjoy 2 months' premium refund if they successfully apply for the "LoveAssure Critical Illness Protection" Series.

*Costly long-term dementia care up to HKD190,000 per year
*According to the data from the Food and Health Bureau and the Hong Kong Hospital Authority, it is estimated that for people aged 65 or above, there is a worrying 5-8% chance of getting dementia and the prevalence of dementia doubles with every 5-year increment after age 65. Due to the irreversible nature of dementia and the heavy dependence on support services, the cost of care and the burden on caregivers will keep growing with an ageing population and increase of dementia cases. A research report[3] shows that the non-medical expenses to take care of a patient with severe dementia in Hong Kong would be approximately HKD190,000 per year, which could not be reimbursed under medical insurance in the market. Thus, we have especially added the market-exclusive Dementia Multi-care Benefits to the "LoveAssure Critical Illness Protection" Series to help customers fill this protection gap.

*"Living with Cancer" is becoming prevalent which requires long-term financial support
*Meanwhile, though cancer is the most common critical illness in Hong Kong, it is no longer a terminal illness and being proactive with treatment can increase the survival rate. According to our claims data, even someone who is diagnosed with Stage IV of lung cancer can receive continuous cancer treatments for almost 8 years to control cancer cells. As "Living with Cancer"* *is becoming prevalent, the Series' Continuous Cancer Payout Benefit of up to 100 months will provide great support to cancer patients on their road to recovery.

*Kevin Chor, Chief Life and Health Insurance Officer, AXA Hong Kong and Macau*, said, "A comprehensive critical illness protection can provide customers with immediate financial support if they unfortunately encounter serious illnesses. According to a recent survey[4] conducted by the Golden Age Foundation in partnership with AXA, approximately 75% of Hong Kong's golden age people (aged 45 and older) are neutral or dissatisfied with their current savings, future finance, ability to cope with financial crises, and their own financial management ability. Approximately 40% reported that their savings may not meet their financial needs in healthcare and long-term care. The shortfall highlights the importance of getting critical illness protection with continuous support as it helps relieve the heavy financial burden brought by critical illnesses especially during the golden age.

'LoveAssure Critical Illness Protection' Series provides holistic protection to our customers physically, mentally and financially. It underscores AXA's continuous commitment to being a true lifelong partner to our customers. With the Series' extensive and innovative features and benefits, we hope to provide comprehensive support to our customers and serve as their useful companion in times of need."

"LoveAssure Critical Illness Protection" Series all-rounded protection includes:

· *Market-exclusive*[1]* Dementia Multi-care Benefits* – If the insured is diagnosed with severe dementias, a lump sum payout up to 100% of the sum insured and a Dementia Caregiver Annuity Benefit of up to 12% of the sum insured will be payable every year to continuously support the costs of long-term care until the insured reaches age 100.
· *Up to 100 months of Continuous Cancer Payout Benefit *– If the insured is diagnosed with cancer, a lump sum payout up to 100% of the sum insured will be payable first. In addition, a monthly payout of 5% of the sum insured will be provided if the insured is still suffering from cancer after a 1-year waiting period and undergoing cancer treatment. This will provide long-term financial support as income replacement and help ease the burden brought by daily living expenses for up to 100 months. Under LoveAssure Plus, the insured who is diagnosed with late stage cancer can receive payouts immediately with no waiting period.
· *Total coverage of up to 1300% of the sum insured *– The Series provides Multiple Claims Major Illness Benefit against most of the covered major illnesses before the insured reaches age 85, with 100% of the sum insured each time.
· *Dual-tier Intensive Care Unit Coverage *–* *To provide a safety net for our customers, regardless whether it is caused by an accident or an unexpected infectious disease, up to 20% of the sum insured will be payable if the insured is admitted to the ICU for 72 consecutive hours or more; up to 100% of the sum insured will be payable if the insured stays in the ICU for 120 consecutive hours and undergoes a complex surgery.
· *Wide range of value-added services* – The Series provides a wide range of value-added services that cover prevention, treatment and rehabilitation will be provided. These include dementia early detection screening and a caregiver training programme for dementia care.
· *Extra coverage* – If customers take up "LoveAssure Critical Illness Protection" Series together with designated supplements, an extra 50% sum insured will be provided when the Major Illness Benefit or Death Benefit becomes payable within the first 20 policy years. With Extra Coverage Benefit, the Series offers a total coverage of up to 200% of original sum insured for the first 10 policy years.

There are more benefits offered by the "LoveAssure Critical Illness Protection" Series such as Juvenile Caregiver Benefit. For details, please visit: https://www.axa.com.hk/en/loveassure-plus-critical-illness-insurance and https://www.axa.com.hk/en/loveassure-critical-illness-insurance.

The above information is for reference only. For details on premium refund and product features, content, terms and exclusions, please refer to the relevant product brochures and promotional leaflets.

[1] This is based on a comparison among critical illness insurance plans available for new business provided by the insurers which are included in the Composite and Long Term business in the Register of Authorized Insurers published by the Insurance Authority as of May 2021.

[2] Source: The Chinese University of Hong Kong (December 2017). Study on Multi-gene Mutation-Drug Matching for Recurrent Ovarian Cancer Patients [Press release] Retrieved from https://www.cpr.cuhk.edu.hk

[3] Source: Alzheimer's Disease International (2016). Cost of Community Care for Dementia and Cognitive Impairment in Hong Kong Chinese: Social and Informal Care Time Analysis. Retrieved from https://hub.hku.hk/handle/10722/239101

[4] In partnership with AXA, Golden Age Foundation successfully interviewed a total of 1,109 golden aged people (aged 45 and older) online to understand their views on six dimensions of smart ageing: demographic background, financial knowledge and management, health and healthcare, productive and civic engagement, technology use and application, and social participation and care.

*About AXA Hong Kong and Macau *

AXA Hong Kong and Macau is a member of the AXA Group, a leading global insurer with presence in 54 markets and serving 105 million customers worldwide. Our purpose is to act for human progress by protecting what matters.

As one of the most diversified insurers offering integrated solutions across Life, Health and General Insurance, our goal is to be the insurance and holistic wellness partner to the individuals, businesses and community we serve.

At the core of our service commitment is continuous product innovation and customer experience enrichment, which is achieved through actively listening to our customers and leveraging technology and digital transformation.

We embrace our responsibility to be a force for good to create shared value for our community. We are proud to be the first insurer in Hong Kong and Macau to address the important need of mental health through different products and services. For example, the Mind Charger function on our holistic wellness platform "AXA BetterMe", which is available via our mobile app Emma by AXA, is open to not just our customers, but the community at large. We will continue to foster social progress through our product offerings and community investment to support the sustainable development of Hong Kong and Macau.

*THIS PRESS RELEASE IS AVAILABLE ON AXA'S WEBSITE: **AXA.COM.HK*

*IMPORTANT LEGAL INFORMATION AND CAUTIONARY STATEMENTS CONCERNING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS
*Certain statements contained herein may be forward-looking statements including, but not limited to, statements that are predictions of or indicate future events, trends, plans or objectives. Undue reliance should not be placed on such statements because, by their nature, they are subject to known and unknown risks and uncertainties and can be affected by other factors that could cause AXA's actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied in the forward-looking statements. Please refer to Part 4 - "Risk factors and risk management" of AXA's Universal Registration Document for the year ended December 31, 2019, for a description of certain important factors, risks and uncertainties that may affect AXA's business, and/or results of operations. AXA undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any of these forward-looking statements, whether to reflect new information, future events or circumstances or otherwise, except as part of applicable regulatory or legal obligations.

Related Links :

http://www.axa.com.hk

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