Category: Artificial Intelligence

MIL-OSI Australia: Forestry Centre of Excellence launched in Mount Gambier
Source: University of South Australia
03 October 2024

An artist’s impression of the Forestry Centre of Excellence, due to be built on UniSA’s Mount Gambier campus in 2025.

The State Government has today released new artist impressions of the Forestry Centre of Excellence (FCoE) being built in Mount Gambier and officially launched today.

The Centre is a collaborative project between the State Government, the University of South Australia (UniSA) and the forest industry. It will be built on the same site as the UniSA Mount Gambier campus, the new Mount Gambier Technical College and the Mount Gambier TAFE, providing a unique opportunity to create an education, training and research precinct.

The design for the facility is due to be finalised in November 2024 with building construction due to commence in April 2025 and an expected completion in January 2026.

Vital research underway in temporary facilities was showcased at a special launch on site today and includes projects on:
- structural timber market access
- improving safety
- fire detection from cameras and satellites
- suppression, recovery and analysis of digital forestry data using artificial intelligence
- immersive data analytics using VR and AR to understand the implications of climate change on plantation growth yield and water use.
Following a global search, Professor Jeff Morrell has been appointed as the Forestry Centre of Excellence’s inaugural director due to commence in mid-January 2025. Previously, he was Director for the Centre for Timber Durability and Design Life based at the University of the Sunshine Coast.

The FCoE links to the forest industry and its key attribute of collaboration, connection and partnerships through its research, training education, development, and extension activities, has been reflected in the new FCoE brand of interlocking abstract trees also unveiled today.

In launching the FCoE, SA Premier Peter Malinauskas described the Green Triangle plantation forest region as “one of the powerhouses of the Australian forest industry”.

“The South Australian portion of the region contributes more than $860 million to the state’s gross product annually – making it one of our most productive primary industry sectors,” Premier Malinauskas said.

“We are delivering on our election commitment to establish a world-leading Forestry Centre of Excellence to strengthen this already thriving industry.”

UniSA Chancellor John Hill, who attended the launch, said the University was honoured to host the new Forestry Centre of Excellence, which has evolved from Forest Research Mount Gambier, established in 2018 by the State and Federal Government, UniSA and the forestry industry.

“The model of recruiting UniSA researchers into the forestry industry has resulted in a more efficient, safer, progressive, and profitable industry, establishing standards for best practice,” Chancellor Hill said.

“Together with the State Government, we are proud to continue this partnership and help advance research and development projects to ensure the industry’s economic prosperity committing more than $6 million towards the Centre’s operations and building along with significant in-kind support.”

For further information on the Forestry Centre of Excellence visit: Forestry Centre of Excellence – PIRSA

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Media contact: Candy Gibson M: +61 434 605 142 E: candy.gibson@unisa.edu.au
Other articles you may be interested in

MIL OSI News –
January 23, 2025
MIL-OSI Economics: Huawei Launches Breakthrough Alpha Series Next-Generation Antenna Solution

Source: Huawei

Headline: Huawei Launches Breakthrough Alpha Series Next-Generation Antenna Solution

[Athens, Greece, September 29, 2024] At the Global Antenna Technology & Industry Forum 2024, Huawei launched its brand-new Alpha series antenna. This marks a major breakthrough, as this series embodies the essential capabilities base station antennas will need in the mobile AI era: high efficiency, digitalization, and easy deployment.
Mobile AI is driving the emergence of diverse service scenarios at an unprecedented speed, consequently raising the standards for network performance. In particular, it is spurring demand for greater downlink and uplink bandwidth and lower latency. In the meantime, the growing size and complexity of mobile networks underscores the urgency of more efficient network O&M. Huawei’s Alpha series is the first-ever antenna to simultaneously provide high efficiency, digital capabilities, and easy deployment, helping operators build eco-friendly, high-performance autonomous networks.
High efficiency: By applying Signal Direct Injection Feeding (SDIF) technology across all frequency bands, for all antennas in the series, the innovative architecture minimizes signal loss and maximizes RF efficiency to its theoretical limit. Additionally, Meta Lens technology is applied across all bands to reduce emission dissipation, enabling operators to enhance network coverage and user experience simultaneously.
All-scenario digitalization: All antennas in this series feature the next-gen antenna information sensor unit (AISU) with upgraded algorithms, suitable for a wide range of deployment scenarios. The ability to efficiently and remotely detect site engineering parameters with high precision enhances the data foundation for operators’ network management. With full-dimensional beam adjustment, the projection of beams can be dynamically reoriented and patterns reconfigured to enable real-time network optimization.
Easy deployment: The innovative Dragon Wings architecture represents a breakthrough in antenna design. Together, the bionic design of the internal load-bearing structure and the innovative GFRPP Pro radome material reduce the antenna’s weight to just 25 kg, enhancing its portability. Additionally, the innovative padlock bracket support and new plug-and-play feeder connector significantly simplify and shorten the installation process. Thanks to the Dragon Wings architecture, antenna deployment time is halved, greatly improving deployment efficiency and reducing overall network construction costs.
Andy Sun delivers a keynote speech

Andy Sun, President of Huawei’s Antenna Business Unit, emphasized the crucial role of antennas in supporting diverse services in networks. He noted that, “Antennas must evolve towards high efficiency, digital capabilities, and ease of deployment, to support operators achieving higher levels of network autonomy and realize new business value in the mobile AI era.”

MIL OSI Economics –

January 23, 2025
MIL-OSI Economics: Huawei Launches Breakthrough Alpha Series Next-Generation Antenna Solution Sep 29, 2024

Source: Huawei

Headline: Huawei Launches Breakthrough Alpha Series Next-Generation Antenna Solution
Sep 29, 2024

[Athens, Greece, September 29, 2024] At the Global Antenna Technology & Industry Forum 2024, Huawei launched its brand-new Alpha series antenna. This marks a major breakthrough, as this series embodies the essential capabilities base station antennas will need in the mobile AI era: high efficiency, digitalization, and easy deployment.
Mobile AI is driving the emergence of diverse service scenarios at an unprecedented speed, consequently raising the standards for network performance. In particular, it is spurring demand for greater downlink and uplink bandwidth and lower latency. In the meantime, the growing size and complexity of mobile networks underscores the urgency of more efficient network O&M. Huawei’s Alpha series is the first-ever antenna to simultaneously provide high efficiency, digital capabilities, and easy deployment, helping operators build eco-friendly, high-performance autonomous networks.
High efficiency: By applying Signal Direct Injection Feeding (SDIF) technology across all frequency bands, for all antennas in the series, the innovative architecture minimizes signal loss and maximizes RF efficiency to its theoretical limit. Additionally, Meta Lens technology is applied across all bands to reduce emission dissipation, enabling operators to enhance network coverage and user experience simultaneously.
All-scenario digitalization: All antennas in this series feature the next-gen antenna information sensor unit (AISU) with upgraded algorithms, suitable for a wide range of deployment scenarios. The ability to efficiently and remotely detect site engineering parameters with high precision enhances the data foundation for operators’ network management. With full-dimensional beam adjustment, the projection of beams can be dynamically reoriented and patterns reconfigured to enable real-time network optimization.
Easy deployment: The innovative Dragon Wings architecture represents a breakthrough in antenna design. Together, the bionic design of the internal load-bearing structure and the innovative GFRPP Pro radome material reduce the antenna’s weight to just 25 kg, enhancing its portability. Additionally, the innovative padlock bracket support and new plug-and-play feeder connector significantly simplify and shorten the installation process. Thanks to the Dragon Wings architecture, antenna deployment time is halved, greatly improving deployment efficiency and reducing overall network construction costs.
Andy Sun delivers a keynote speech

Andy Sun, President of Huawei’s Antenna Business Unit, emphasized the crucial role of antennas in supporting diverse services in networks. He noted that, “Antennas must evolve towards high efficiency, digital capabilities, and ease of deployment, to support operators achieving higher levels of network autonomy and realize new business value in the mobile AI era.”

MIL OSI Economics –

January 23, 2025
MIL-OSI China: Global start-ups, incubators seek business opportunities in Chinese market

Source: People’s Republic of China – State Council News

SHANGHAI, Sept. 29 — Global incubators and start-up entrepreneurs have praised the opportunities bred by the vast Chinese market and incubation soil for technology start-ups at the World Top-Performing Incubator Conference 2024.

The conference, held in Shanghai Municipality from Sept. 26 to 28, attracted nearly 300 innovation projects in cutting-edge fields such biomedicine, integrated circuits and artificial intelligence. It saw the attendance of top incubators from more than 10 countries, including China, the United States, Canada and the Netherlands.

Sejun Oh, CEO of Huespine, a digital healthcare rehabilitation platform, brought their AI-based nursing equipment to China. He hopes to establish contact with Chinese hospitals, enterprises and consumers and is optimistic about the Chinese market.

Jorg Kop, managing director of UtrechtInc, a university-linked start-up incubator, said he hopes to further their cooperation network in China and help European start-ups enter the Chinese market.

Kop said China is crucial to the development of the world economy and Shanghai has economic vitality as well as fantastic ideas. He added that the Lin-gang special area of Pudong district in the municipality can be a convenient entrance for its start-ups to enter the Chinese market.

According to Zhai Jinguo, deputy director of the Science and Technology Commission of Shanghai Municipality, Shanghai will continue to establish an innovative incubation ecosystem, cultivate new quality productivity forces, and provide support and guarantee for scientific and technological innovation projects and teams in Shanghai.

China has more than 700,000 incubated enterprises and teams. The revenues of incubated enterprises have exceeded 1 trillion yuan (about 143 billion U.S. dollars).

MIL OSI China News –

January 23, 2025
MIL-OSI China: New tech at expo signals China’s foreign trade momentum

Source: China State Council Information Office

Robots perform dance at a booth during the third Global Digital Trade Expo in Hangzhou, east China’s Zhejiang Province, Sept. 25, 2024. [Photo/Xinhua]

The third Global Digital Trade Expo, currently unfolding in Hangzhou, capital of east China’s Zhejiang Province, is offering a glimpse into avant-garde technologies that are unlocking the country’s burgeoning potential in foreign trade.

Over the span of five days, the exhibition is featuring 446 new products and technologies, ranging from robots performing remarkable tasks like opening bottles and sorting waste to AI-driven digital humans engaging in debate competitions.

“I was impressed most by medical AI displayed at the exhibition, such as robotic surgical arms and screening clinics,” said Kgaladi Melia Thema, a consultant for innovation and technology of Small Enterprise Development Agency, South Africa.

“Nurses can use chronic disease management screening products for patients, which can be applied both at home and in clinics. This reduces costs and enables remote patient monitoring, offering great potential,” she added.

Digital technologies such as big data, cloud computing and blockchain are taking center stage at the expo, underscoring how China is harnessing these innovations to propel its foreign trade.

At the booth of iFLYTEK Co., Ltd., a front-runner in China’s AI and speech technology industry, several African visitors were immersed in real-time conversations with staff through a state-of-the-art multilingual AI-powered translation screen. Despite the bustling environment, the screen, equipped with advanced voice recognition technologies, accurately captured and responded to human voices.

“Overseas business is poised to become a significant growth engine for us in the coming years. Our aspiration is for it to constitute one-third of our business segments in the future,” said Liu Qingfeng, chairman of iFLYTEK.

Chinese cultural exports are also stealing the show at the exhibition. In the digital entertainment zone, innovative exhibits such as an AI-powered representation of Su Dongpo, a celebrated poet from the Song Dynasty (960-1279), a virtual museum of traditional Chinese music, as well as a 3D display of the four bronze animal heads from the Old Summer Palace (Yuanmingyuan), are offering visitors a fascinating glimpse into the richness of Chinese culture.

“The fusion of digital technology with the splendor of traditional Chinese culture has not only expanded our export opportunities, but also invigorated the growth of China’s culture industry,” said Wu Shuang, a staff member of Zhejiang Kayou Animation Co., Ltd., a domestic card game creator.

Visitors are also being treated to futuristic transportation solutions, including autonomous boat taxis and the electric Vertical Take-off and Landing (eVTOL) vehicles, all being showcased for the first time at this year’s expo.

“China is rightly regarded as a global leader in digital technologies and innovations,” said Zhaslan Madiyev, minister of Digital Development, Innovations and Aerospace Industry of the Republic of Kazakhstan, adding that China’s advancement in digital trade is not only creating new avenues for cooperation, but also enhancing global trade infrastructure, fostering sustainable development worldwide.

“Chinese technologies and innovations are enhancing supply chains, making them faster and more efficient, while also improving access to goods and services,” Madiyev noted.

According to the Global Digital Trade Development Report 2024 released during the event, global digital trade soared to around 7.13 trillion U.S. dollars (about 1.02 trillion yuan) in 2023, up from 6.02 trillion U.S. dollars in 2021, marking an average annual growth rate of 8.8 percent.

The report also highlighted that the import and export scale of China’s cross-border e-commerce reached 2.37 trillion yuan last year, up 15.3 percent year on year.

Mercado Libre, a leading Latin American e-commerce platform, witnessed a 70-percent increase in online Chinese sellers and a 75-percent surge in their sales on its platform in 2023.

The company has opened its cross-border e-commerce services to Chinese sellers in Mexico, Brazil, Chile and Colombia, according to its representative at the expo, who also emphasized the escalating significance of the Chinese market.

As China’s sole national-level event focusing on the theme of digital trade, the expo has drawn over 1,500 enterprises, including more than 300 international companies, and over 30,000 purchasers this year.

MIL OSI China News –

January 23, 2025
MIL-Evening Report: Meta has launched the world’s ‘most advanced’ glasses. Will they replace smartphones?
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Martie-Louise Verreynne, Professor in Innovation and Associate Dean (Research), The University of Queensland

Humans are increasingly engaging with wearable technology as it becomes more adaptable and interactive. One of the most intimate ways gaining acceptance is through augmented reality (AR) glasses.

Last week, Meta debuted a prototype of the most recent version of their AR glasses – Orion. They look like reading glasses and use holographic projection to allow users to see graphics projected through transparent lenses into their field of view.

Meta chief Mark Zuckerberg called Orion “the most advanced glasses the world has ever seen”. He said they offer a “glimpse of the future” in which smart glasses will replace smartphones as the main mode of communication.

But is this true or just corporate hype? And will AR glasses actually benefit us in new ways?

Old technology, made new

The technology used to develop Orion glasses is not new.

In the 1960s, computer scientist Ivan Sutherland introduced the first augmented reality head-mounted display. Two decades later, Canadian engineer and inventor Stephen Mann developed the first glasses-like prototype.

Throughout the 1990s, researchers and technology companies developed the capability of this technology through head-worn displays and wearable computing devices. Like many technological developments, these were often initially focused on military and industry applications.

In 2013, after smartphone technology emerged, Google entered the AR glasses market. But consumers were disinterested, citing concerns about privacy, high cost, limited functionality and a lack of a clear purpose.

This did not discourage other companies – such as Microsoft, Apple and Meta – from developing similar technologies.

Looking inside

Meta cites a range of reasons for why Orion are the world’s most advanced glasses, such as their miniaturised technology with large fields of view and holographic displays. It said these displays provide:

compelling AR experiences, creating new human-computer interaction paradigms […] one of the most difficult challenges our industry has ever faced.

Orion also has an inbuilt smart assistant (Meta AI) to help with tasks through voice commands, eye and hand tracking, and a wristband for swiping, clicking and scrolling.

With these features, it is not difficult to agree that AR glasses are becoming more user-friendly for mass consumption. But gaining widespread consumer acceptance will be challenging.

A set of challenges

Meta will have to address four types of challenges:
1. ease of wearing, using and integrating AR glasses with other glasses
2. physiological aspects such as the heat the glasses generate, comfort and potential vertigo
3. operational factors such as battery life, data security and display quality
4. psychological factors such as social acceptance, trust in privacy and accessibility.
These factors are not unlike what we saw in the 2000s when smartphones gained acceptance. Just like then, there are early adopters who will see more benefits than risks in adopting AR glasses, creating a niche market that will gradually expand.

Similar to what Apple did with the iPhone, Meta will have to build a digital platform and ecosystem around Orion.

This will allow for broader applications in education (for example, virtual classrooms), remote work and enhanced collaboration tools. Already, Orion’s holographic display allows users to overlay digital content and the real world, and because it is hands-free, communication will be more natural.

Creative destruction

Smart glasses are already being used in many industrial settings, such as logistics and healthcare. Meta plans to launch Orion for the general public in 2027.

By that time, AI will have likely advanced to the point where virtual assistants will be able to see what we see and the physical, virtual and artificial will co-exist. At this point, it is easy to see that the need for bulky smartphones may diminish and that through creative destruction, one industry may replace another.

This is supported by research indicating the virtual and augmented reality headset industry will be worth US$370 billion by 2034.

The remaining question is whether this will actually benefit us.

There is already much debate about the effect of smartphone technology on productivity and wellbeing. Some argue that it has benefited us, mainly through increased connectivity, access to information, and productivity applications.

But others say it has just created more work, distractions and mental fatigue.

If Meta has its way, AR glasses will solve this by enhancing productivity. Consulting firm Deloitte agrees, saying the technology will provide hands-free access to data, faster communication and collaboration through data-sharing.

It also claims smart glasses will reduce human errors, enable data visualisation, and monitor the wearer’s health and wellbeing. This will ensure a quality experience, social acceptance, and seamless integration with physical processes.

But whether or not that all comes true will depend on how well companies such as Meta address the many challenges associated with AR glasses.

Martie-Louise Verreynne receives funding from the ARC and NHMRC.

– ref. Meta has launched the world’s ‘most advanced’ glasses. Will they replace smartphones? – https://theconversation.com/meta-has-launched-the-worlds-most-advanced-glasses-will-they-replace-smartphones-240023
MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –
January 23, 2025
MIL-OSI New Zealand: Supporting age-friendly communities and improving health access for rainbow people key areas of EIT lecturer’s research | EIT Hawke’s Bay and Tairāwhiti

Source: Eastern Institute of Technology – Tairāwhiti

2 hours ago

Jeffery Adams is a Postgraduate Health Science Lecturer at EIT Auckland.

Supporting age-friendly communities and improving health access for rainbow people are key parts of an EIT Auckland lecturer’s research.

Jeffery Adams, Postgraduate Health Science Lecturer at EIT Auckland, says that he has undertaken research and programme evaluation across a number of health areas and settings – including physical activity, alcohol, gambling, mental health and wellbeing, workforce issues, volunteering, and community development/community action.

A recent research project has been an evaluation of the Office for Seniors age-friendly fund. Jeffery is working with Stephen Neville from Te Pūkenga, who is the lead researcher.

“We are looking at this funding scheme that the Office for Seniors offers and trying to work out how effective it has been in helping councils and communities either develop an age friendly plan or to implement age friendly projects.”

“It’s a New Zealand-wide sample with more than sixty different projects that have been funded. We are trying to make a determination about the fund as a whole as to whether it’s achieving outcomes and contributing to communities to be more age friendly.”

Another project that Stephen and Jeffery are involved in is the validation of an age-friendly survey tool. This is a partnership between the researchers, the Office for Seniors, and the Napier City Council and in association with The Hague University of Applied Sciences. The tool has been successfully trialled by Napier City Council with the aim of rolling it out for use in other communities in New Zealand.

There are eight domains for determining an age-friendly city – community and health care, transportation, housing, social participation, outdoor spaces and buildings, respect and social inclusion, civic participation and employment, and communication and information. For the Napier study, validation process involved receiving feedback from a consumer panel in Napier.

Jeffery says that while New Zealand has areas of age-friendliness, there’s a growing interest among some councils and communities to create more age-friendly environments.

He says that one difficulty for cities is striking a balance between meeting the needs of everybody, while also ensuring older people’s specific needs are met.

“An example is that many places have short time limits on their parking, but this can make it more difficult for older people to go out and shop and attend appointments.”

Another focus area for Jeffery is the health and wellbeing of rainbow people (an umbrella term used to describe people of diverse sexualities, genders, and variations of sex characteristics). This research has included studies focused on mental health, alcohol consumption, HIV and sexual health promotion, and Asian gay men. It has been funded by a number of agencies including the NZ AIDS Foundation, Ministry of Health and the Health Promotion Agency and is characterised by engagement with community organisations and employment of community members as research team members.

Jeffery’s most recent project is examining data from the New Zealand Health Survey to ascertain the healthcare experiences and health behaviours of lesbian, gay and bisexual people. This work was funded by Massey University and is set to be published soon in New Zealand and Australian publications.

Last year Jeffery and Stephen Neville wrote an article entitled Rainbow health in Aotearoa New Zealand – finally getting the attention it deserves? which was published in the Journal of Primary Health Care.

The authors wrote that the health of rainbow people had until now largely been ignored in government health policy.

“However this has changed with the release by Te Whatu Ora and Te Aka Whai Ora of Te Pae Tata: Interim New Zealand Health Plan, which details priority areas to improve health outcomes and equity for all New Zealanders.”

“Te Pae Tata promises a ‘new health system’ and improved health outcomes for rainbow people. Although this plan provides welcome recognition of inequity, it offers a limited, generalised view on how to improve health for rainbow people. More specific and detailed action plans on how equity might be achieved are required.”

MIL OSI New Zealand News –

January 23, 2025
MIL-Evening Report: Online spaces are rife with toxicity. Well-designed AI tools can help clean them up

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Lucy Sparrow, Lecturer in Human-Computer Interaction, The University of Melbourne

MMD Creative/Shutterstock

Imagine scrolling through social media or playing an online game, only to be interrupted by insulting and harassing comments. What if an artificial intelligence (AI) tool stepped in to remove the abuse before you even saw it?

This isn’t science fiction. Commercial AI tools like ToxMod and Bodyguard.ai are already used to monitor interactions in real time across social media and gaming platforms. They can detect and respond to toxic behaviour.

The idea of an all-seeing AI monitoring our every move might sound Orwellian, but these tools could be key to making the internet a safer place.

However, for AI moderation to succeed, it needs to prioritise values like privacy, transparency, explainability and fairness. So can we ensure AI can be trusted to make our online spaces better? Our two recent research projects into AI-driven moderation show this can be done – with more work ahead of us.

Negativity thrives online

Online toxicity is a growing problem. Nearly half of young Australians have experienced some form of negative online interaction, with almost one in five experiencing cyberbullying.

Whether it’s a single offensive comment or a sustained slew of harassment, such harmful interactions are part of daily life for many internet users.

The severity of online toxicity is one reason the Australian government has proposed banning social media for children under 14.

But this approach fails to fully address a core underlying problem: the design of online platforms and moderation tools. We need to rethink how online platforms are designed to minimise harmful interactions for all users, not just children.

Unfortunately, many tech giants with power over our online activities have been slow to take on more responsibility, leaving significant gaps in moderation and safety measures.

This is where proactive AI moderation offers the chance to create safer, more respectful online spaces. But can AI truly deliver on this promise? Here’s what we found.

‘Havoc’ in online multiplayer games

In our Games and Artificial Intelligence Moderation (GAIM) Project, we set out to understand the ethical opportunities and pitfalls of AI-driven moderation in online multiplayer games. We conducted 26 in-depth interviews with players and industry professionals to find out how they use and think about AI in these spaces.

Interviewees saw AI as a necessary tool to make games safer and combat the “havoc” caused by toxicity. With millions of players, human moderators can’t catch everything. But an untiring and proactive AI can pick up what humans miss, helping reduce the stress and burnout associated with moderating toxic messages.

But many players also expressed confusion about the use of AI moderation. They didn’t understand why they received account suspensions, bans and other punishments, and were often left frustrated that their own reports of toxic behaviour seemed to be lost to the void, unanswered.

Participants were especially worried about privacy in situations where AI is used to moderate voice chat in games. One player exclaimed: “my god, is that even legal?” It is – and it’s already happening in popular online games such as Call of Duty.

Our study revealed there’s tremendous positive potential for AI moderation. However, games and social media companies will need to do a lot more work to make these systems transparent, empowering and trustworthy.

Right now, AI moderation is seen to operate much like a police officer in an opaque justice system. What if AI instead took the form of a teacher, guardian, or upstander – educating, empowering or supporting users?

Enter AI Ally

This is where our second project AI Ally comes in, an initiative funded by the eSafety Commissioner. In response to high rates of tech-based gendered violence in Australia, we are co-designing an AI tool to support girls, women and gender-diverse individuals in navigating safer online spaces.

We surveyed 230 people from these groups, and found that 44% of our respondents “often” or “always” experienced gendered harassment on at least one social media platform. It happened most frequently in response to everyday online activities like posting photos of themselves, particularly in the form of sexist comments.

Interestingly, our respondents reported that documenting instances of online abuse was especially useful when they wanted to support other targets of harassment, such as by gathering screenshots of abusive comments. But only a few of those surveyed did this in practice. Understandably, many also feared for their own safety should they intervene by defending someone or even speaking up in a public comment thread.

These are worrying findings. In response, we are designing our AI tool as an optional dashboard that detects and documents toxic comments. To help guide us in the design process, we have created a set of “personas” that capture some of our target users, inspired by our survey respondents.

Some of the user ‘personas’ guiding the development of the AI Ally tool.
Ren Galwey/Research Rendered

We allow users to make their own decisions about whether to filter, flag, block or report harassment in efficient ways that align with their own preferences and personal safety.

In this way, we hope to use AI to offer young people easy-to-access support in managing online safety while offering autonomy and a sense of empowerment.

We can all play a role

AI Ally shows we can use AI to help make online spaces safer without having to sacrifice values like transparency and user control. But there is much more to be done.

Other, similar initiatives include Harassment Manager, which was designed to identify and document abuse on Twitter (now X), and HeartMob, a community where targets of online harassment can seek support.

Until ethical AI practices are more widely adopted, users must stay informed. Before joining a platform, check if they are transparent about their policies and offer user control over moderation settings.

The internet connects us to resources, work, play and community. Everyone has the right to access these benefits without harassment and abuse. It’s up to all of us to be proactive and advocate for smarter, more ethical technology that protects our values and our digital spaces.

The AI Ally team consists of Dr Mahli-Ann Butt, Dr Lucy Sparrow, Dr Eduardo Oliveira, Ren Galwey, Dahlia Jovic, Sable Wang-Wills, Yige Song and Maddy Weeks.

Dr Lucy Sparrow receives funding from the eSafety Commissioner’s Preventing Tech-Based Abuse Against Women grant program for the “AI Ally” project.

Dr Eduardo Oliveira receives funding from the eSafety Commissioner’s Preventing Tech-Based Abuse Against Women grant program for the “AI Ally” project.

Dr Mahli-Ann Butt receives funding from the eSafety Commissioner’s Preventing Tech-Based Abuse Against Women grant program for the “AI Ally” project.

– ref. Online spaces are rife with toxicity. Well-designed AI tools can help clean them up – https://theconversation.com/online-spaces-are-rife-with-toxicity-well-designed-ai-tools-can-help-clean-them-up-239590

MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

January 23, 2025
MIL-OSI China: German carmakers eye increased, deeper NEV cooperation with China

Source: China State Council Information Office 3

German carmakers have expressed optimism about cooperation with China in the new energy vehicle (NEV) industry when speaking at the 2024 World New Energy Vehicle Congress which concluded Sunday in Haikou, capital of south China’s Hainan Province, with China’s NEV market continuing to boom.

Jochen Goller, a member of the board of management of BMW AG, credited the success of China’s NEV market to supportive government policies, suitable regulations and technological innovations.

Goller emphasized BMW’s commitment to keeping the market open and expressed hopes of having more Chinese battery manufacturers in Europe.

Oliver Blume, chairman of the board of management of Volkswagen AG, noted that this year marks a significant milestone as Volkswagen celebrates 40 years in the Chinese market.

“Over the past four decades, we have taken great pride from having become an integral part of Chinese life and in shaping the development of the Chinese automotive industry,” Blume said, while highlighting that the foundation of Volkswagen’s success lies in its strong partnerships — particularly with Chinese EV companies like SAIC and FAW.

Blume added that China has emerged as “the epicenter of the automotive industry’s future,” while Volkswagen is committed to being an even more integral part of the local industry ecosystem.

“We have significantly enhanced our local research and development capacities and concluded partnerships with local original equipment manufacturers and technology leaders in the fields of software, autonomous driving and batteries,” he explained.

In April, Volkswagen announced an investment of 2.5 billion euros (about 2.79 billion U.S. dollars) in expanding its production and innovation hub in the city of Hefei in east China — to increase its pace of innovation in the country.

The company also committed to accelerating the production of two Volkswagen-brand smart electric vehicles, which are currently under joint development with Chinese manufacturer Xpeng.

China’s production and sales of NEVs continued to maintain fast growth, with the NEV market share steadily increasing in the domestic market.

Data from the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers revealed that in the first eight months of 2024, NEV production had reached about 7.01 million units, rising 29 percent year on year, while sales during this period stood at around 7.04 million units — growing by 30.9 percent from a year earlier.

Wan Gang, chairman of the China Association for Science and Technology, said that expanding bilateral trade cooperation and investment, along with increasingly close industrial and supply chain collaboration between the Chinese and German automotive industries, have become vital for the high-quality development of the global automotive sector.

“In the future, we hope that the automotive industries of China and Germany will embrace development and reform, jointly promoting the further advancement of the NEV industry to contribute to global low-carbon transformation and sustainable development,” Wan added.

MIL OSI China News –

January 23, 2025
MIL-OSI China: Cutting-edge technologies, products of NEV showcased in Hainan

Source: People’s Republic of China – State Council News

Cutting-edge technologies, products of NEV showcased in Hainan

Updated: September 30, 2024 10:14 Xinhua

This photo taken on Sept. 28, 2024 shows an exhibition featuring cutting-edge technologies and products of new energy vehicle (NEV) in Haikou, south China’s Hainan Province. More than 30 NEV firms showcased their new energy vehicles, batteries and intelligent-connected technology at the exhibition. [Photo/Xinhua]

This photo taken on Sept. 28, 2024 shows a Global Intelligent Electric Architecture (GEA) at the booth of Geely during an exhibition featuring cutting-edge technologies and products of new energy vehicle (NEV) in Haikou, south China’s Hainan Province, Sept. 28, 2024. [Photo/Xinhua]

This photo taken on Sept. 28, 2024 shows a MIGHTY Fuel Cell vehicle at the booth of Hyundai during an exhibition featuring cutting-edge technologies and products of new energy vehicle (NEV) in Haikou, south China’s Hainan Province. [Photo/Xinhua]

This photo taken on Sept. 28, 2024 shows a chassis with AI technology at the booth of Geely during an exhibition featuring cutting-edge technologies and products of new energy vehicle (NEV) in Haikou, south China’s Hainan Province, Sept. 28, 2024. [Photo/Xinhua]

This photo taken on Sept. 28, 2024 shows a hydrogen fuel cell system at the booth of Hyundai during an exhibition featuring cutting-edge technologies and products of new energy vehicle (NEV) in Haikou, south China’s Hainan Province. [Photo/Xinhua]

This photo taken on Sept. 28, 2024 shows Shendun short-blade battery at the booth of Geely during an exhibition featuring cutting-edge technologies and products of new energy vehicle (NEV) in Haikou, south China’s Hainan Province. [Photo/Xinhua]

MIL OSI China News –

January 23, 2025
MIL-OSI China: China provides vibrant digital trade cooperation platform with int’l expo

Source: China State Council Information Office

Sales staff promote African products via livestreaming during the third Global Digital Trade Expo in Hangzhou, east China’s Zhejiang Province, Sept. 25, 2024. [Photo/Xinhua]

The third Global Digital Trade Expo (GDTE), concluding on Sunday, has been a vibrant platform for fostering global partnerships in digital commerce and thus sustainable growth.

Held in Hangzhou, a city known for blending ancient charm and modern innovation, the expo featured more than 1,500 enterprises, including over 300 international companies.

Attendees experienced cutting-edge innovations like AI-driven robots and hydrogen-powered drones and were presented with over 400 new products and technologies.

Valuable experience

Kazakh Minister of Digital Development, Innovation, and Aerospace Industry Zhaslan Madiyev highlighted China’s role as a global leader in e-commerce and digital technologies, noting that China is accelerating the digital transformation of markets worldwide.

In a written interview with Xinhua, Madiyev said China’s experience offers valuable insights for countries in the early stages of developing their digital markets, aiding global growth and helping reduce digital inequality. He cited Kazakhstan’s efforts to improve telecommunications and cybersecurity by learning from China.

In addition to cutting-edge technologies, China’s experience in e-commerce also set an example for countries seeking to capitalize on the rapid growth of digital trade.

Kilimall, an e-commerce platform founded by Chinese entrepreneurs in Africa in 2014, has become one of the most popular shopping websites among Africans. It has generated about 10,000 local jobs in logistics, courier services, customer support and regional sales.

The cooperation between China and Africa in digital economy “represents a new model of economic cooperation that creates tangible value for businesses and people on both sides” said Ugandan Ambassador to China Oliver Wonekha.

Digitalization is a technological leap and a key driver of future development for countries and businesses, said Jean Louis Robinson, ambassador of Madagascar to China. “We are eager to work closely with Chinese companies to learn from China’s advanced experience in digital economy and promote sustainable development in Madagascar,” he added.

Robots perform dance at a booth during the third Global Digital Trade Expo in Hangzhou, east China’s Zhejiang Province, Sept. 25, 2024. [Photo/Xinhua]

Vast opportunities

China’s advanced digital economy and vast market scale are creating immense opportunities for the world, said experts and attendees at the expo.

“For us, China is not just a sales market,” said Lyu Feng, division head of public relations at Yokogawa China, a Japanese electric firm. He highlighted China’s vast emerging industries, strong market demand, and numerous high-tech companies.

Lyu added that the company emphasizes collaborating with Chinese enterprises to explore new opportunities, particularly in digital transformation and carbon emissions management in the manufacturing sector.

Zhu Lili, vice president of AstraZeneca China, expressed that the pharmaceutical giant is “highly confident” in the Chinese market and its innovation ecosystem. She emphasized the company’s goal to partner with more local firms to explore the application of digital technologies in healthcare, driving sustainable and high-quality growth for both the healthcare industry and the broader economy.

In the first half of 2024, China’s cross-border e-commerce imports and exports reached 1.22 trillion yuan (about 170 billion U.S. dollars), an increase of 10.5 percent year over year, according to customs data.

Kazakhstan has opened national pavilions on Chinese e-commerce platforms like Alibaba and JD.com to promote products such as powdered milk, safflower oil, and honey, boosting bilateral e-commerce ties, Serik Korzhumbayev, editor-in-chief of Delovoy Kazakhstan, told Xinhua.

Yao Hongchun, vice president of the Thai Chinese New Generation Business Association, emphasized its potential for collaboration with China, mainly through advanced e-commerce technologies tailored to Thai consumers.

A foreign merchant consults about a small intelligent translation device at the third Global Digital Trade Expo in Hangzhou, east China’s Zhejiang Province, Sept. 25, 2024. [Photo/Xinhua]

Cooperation platform

“E-commerce can be successful and further developed in the long run if everyone can find their way in it, if it is based on close international cooperation, if it is diversified and if as many countries as possible are involved on both the manufacturer and the buyer side,” Hungarian National Assembly’s Deputy Speaker Lajos Olah said at the opening ceremony of the expo.

By July 2024, China has signed e-commerce cooperation memorandums of understanding with 33 countries spanning five continents.

Additionally, China has been involved in digital economy collaborations through multilateral frameworks like the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, BRICS, the APEC Economic Leaders’ Meeting, and the G20, according to an e-commerce development report released by China’s Ministry of Commerce during the expo.

Beyond exhibitions, this year’s GDTE also featured multiple forums, meetings, and seminars, providing officials and industry leaders with platforms to exchange views and discuss prospects for international collaboration.

Through participating in the expo, Thailand is ready to work with partners in trade, investment, research, and development to expand its digital products and services, aiming to integrate into key global supply chains, Thailand’s Deputy Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Commerce, Ekachat Seetavorarat told Xinhua on the sidelines of the expo.

Madiyev also highlighted the GDTE as a unique opportunity to exchange experiences with leading global players in the digital economy and expand economic ties with other countries, particularly China.

MIL OSI China News –

January 23, 2025
MIL-Evening Report: Unwritten rules, nostalgia and subtle rebellion: how school photos capture childhood and the changing times

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Cherine Fahd, Associate Head of School, School of Design, University of Technology Sydney

A 1935 school photograph taken in Kandos, NSW. Author provided, courtesy of the Kandos Museum.

In the town of Kandos, New South Wales, there’s the local Kandos Museum run by volunteers. The museum holds relics from the cement works that once defined the town, but there are other treasures, too.

As part of the Cementa24 festival, I became fixated on the museum’s collection of school photos. Neatly organised into ring-bound folders by the volunteers, the group portraits span decades of students from Kandos Public School and Kandos High School, from 1924 through to the 1990s.

A photo album made by volunteers at the Kandos Museum.
Author provided

I enlarged and cropped some of these photos to turn them into street posters to scatter around town. I asked permission before sticking a few outside the local pub, the radio station, the post office and the op shop. I spot the locals smiling as they pass them, stopping to look for someone they know. I watch them point at the pictures and hear them naming names.

Working on this project, I can’t stop thinking about the weight of these photographic rituals. School photos aren’t just memories; they hold social histories. Through them, you can trace changes in hairstyles, fashion, attitudes and even migration – yet there’s something homogeneous and unchangeable about how they’re made.

School photo rules

There’s always a physical hierarchy in these photos. The photographer organises the group to ensure compositional acuity. The students are lined up in rows, with tall people in the back and shorter people in front – evenly spaced, arranged by height and symmetry.

When was the rule made that says this is how a group should look? Balanced, orderly and with everyone fitting neatly into place, whether they socially do or not. Somehow I always ended up on the edge of the middle row. The social dynamics of the playground found their way into the organisation of our bodies, forever captured in a split second.

A photo of Kandos’ 5th Form, 1967.
Author provided, courtesy of the Kandos Museum

Looking at the Kandos photos from the 1940s through to the 1970s, then at my children’s photos from 2013 to 2024, and my own school photos in the 1980s and ‘90s, I can see the difference in public, private and catholic school uniforms. I can see the difference in racial diversity (or lack thereof) between a small regional town, inner-city Sydney and suburban southwest Sydney. I can also see how much photographic technology has changed.

Despite this, the organisational structure of the school photo remains the same. The kids still stand stiffly in their rows, with identical tunics and ties. Standing too close, someone’s elbow digs into someone else’s side.

As a photographer now, I often think about these school photos and the rituals that have remained largely unchanged in Australia. Every year, kids are shuffled onto tiered steps. Those in the front put their knees together, hands in laps, while the girls must “try to look like ladies”. Then there are the “nobodies” in the middle row (or is that just me reading into it?)

The perils of posing

Posing for school photos can be complicated. One year my daughter came home from school and declared the photographer was sexist because he made all the girls sit in the front row while the boys got to stand. I asked her why sitting was sexist. She couldn’t explain – she was eight years old – but she certainly felt the power difference between sitting with your knees pressed together and standing tall.

And what about the solo portrait? I still think about my kindergarten class from 1979. The group photo was fine. I was happy, standing next to my new best friend. But my solo portrait was a disaster. I looked possessed, my eyes half-closed, lashes blurred, caught mid-blink.

My mother didn’t buy the solo photo, but she kept the group one. After that I promised myself it would never happen again. I told myself every year: “don’t blink, don’t blink”. Back then, photography was on film. There were no re-dos, no instant feedback, no photoshop and no AI. Once the camera clicked, that was it.

‘Don’t blink, don’t blink,’ I’d think, while trying to keep my eyes open.
Author provided

At the end of primary school, I’d visit my best friend’s house and envy the neat, chronological line of her school photos framed on her kitchen wall. Year by year, there she was, changing just slightly – a slow, steady record of growing up. I didn’t know why, but seeing framed evidence of time passing made me emotional. Maybe it was the certainty of the way her life was so neatly documented.

My own school photos never made it to the wall in such a tidy fashion. But they did make it into my father’s wallet, my mother’s purse, in frames above the piano, on the fridge, in photo albums and in many a drawer.

Small acts of rebellion

The 1950s photos are formal and solemn. Back then you stood straight, faced the camera and no one smiled too much. By the 1970s and ’80s, the kids started to smirk – with hair loosened, mullets, and bodies shifting like they were trying to resist the pose. In one photo, the basketball team boys have their shoes off, feet raised above the blistering asphalt in the summer heat. The rules were still there, but you can see them pushing back.

Bare feet raised in a photo of the Kandos High School Open basketball team, 1975.
Author provided, courtesy of the Kandos Museum.

What if we invited the rituals to change? What if students could self-organise, be silly, pull faces, wear their own clothes, and resist gender binaries and institutional uniformity?

Some of the photos in the Kandos albums hint at this potential for small acts of rebellion. There’s the girl pulling a face, one laughing in profile. In one photo there’s a kid wearing a non-regulation jumper, and another in which they were clearly allowed to be silly because the teacher is laughing too.

Photographic rebellion in the class of 1996.
Author provided, courtesy of the Kandos Museum.

In the pre-digital era, these small mishaps and moments of failure were captured unpolished and unfiltered. Those are the images I find myself drawn to; these are often the best ones. They reveal how uncomfortable it can be being photographed and how forced a pose can feel. Shirking a smile and a stiff stance is maybe the only power we have in that brief moment.

Cherine Fahd does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

– ref. Unwritten rules, nostalgia and subtle rebellion: how school photos capture childhood and the changing times – https://theconversation.com/unwritten-rules-nostalgia-and-subtle-rebellion-how-school-photos-capture-childhood-and-the-changing-times-239190

MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

January 23, 2025
MIL-OSI China: China provides vibrant digital trade cooperation platform

Source: China State Council Information Office 3

Sales staff promote African products via livestreaming during the third Global Digital Trade Expo in Hangzhou, east China’s Zhejiang Province, Sept. 25, 2024. [Photo/Xinhua]

The third Global Digital Trade Expo (GDTE), concluding on Sunday, has been a vibrant platform for fostering global partnerships in digital commerce and thus sustainable growth.

Held in Hangzhou, a city known for blending ancient charm and modern innovation, the expo featured more than 1,500 enterprises, including over 300 international companies.

Attendees experienced cutting-edge innovations like AI-driven robots and hydrogen-powered drones and were presented with over 400 new products and technologies.

Valuable experience

Kazakh Minister of Digital Development, Innovation, and Aerospace Industry Zhaslan Madiyev highlighted China’s role as a global leader in e-commerce and digital technologies, noting that China is accelerating the digital transformation of markets worldwide.

In a written interview with Xinhua, Madiyev said China’s experience offers valuable insights for countries in the early stages of developing their digital markets, aiding global growth and helping reduce digital inequality. He cited Kazakhstan’s efforts to improve telecommunications and cybersecurity by learning from China.

In addition to cutting-edge technologies, China’s experience in e-commerce also set an example for countries seeking to capitalize on the rapid growth of digital trade.

Kilimall, an e-commerce platform founded by Chinese entrepreneurs in Africa in 2014, has become one of the most popular shopping websites among Africans. It has generated about 10,000 local jobs in logistics, courier services, customer support and regional sales.

The cooperation between China and Africa in digital economy “represents a new model of economic cooperation that creates tangible value for businesses and people on both sides” said Ugandan Ambassador to China Oliver Wonekha.

Digitalization is a technological leap and a key driver of future development for countries and businesses, said Jean Louis Robinson, ambassador of Madagascar to China. “We are eager to work closely with Chinese companies to learn from China’s advanced experience in digital economy and promote sustainable development in Madagascar,” he added.

Robots perform dance at a booth during the third Global Digital Trade Expo in Hangzhou, east China’s Zhejiang Province, Sept. 25, 2024. [Photo/Xinhua]

Vast opportunities

China’s advanced digital economy and vast market scale are creating immense opportunities for the world, said experts and attendees at the expo.

“For us, China is not just a sales market,” said Lyu Feng, division head of public relations at Yokogawa China, a Japanese electric firm. He highlighted China’s vast emerging industries, strong market demand, and numerous high-tech companies.

Lyu added that the company emphasizes collaborating with Chinese enterprises to explore new opportunities, particularly in digital transformation and carbon emissions management in the manufacturing sector.

Zhu Lili, vice president of AstraZeneca China, expressed that the pharmaceutical giant is “highly confident” in the Chinese market and its innovation ecosystem. She emphasized the company’s goal to partner with more local firms to explore the application of digital technologies in healthcare, driving sustainable and high-quality growth for both the healthcare industry and the broader economy.

In the first half of 2024, China’s cross-border e-commerce imports and exports reached 1.22 trillion yuan (about 170 billion U.S. dollars), an increase of 10.5 percent year over year, according to customs data.

Kazakhstan has opened national pavilions on Chinese e-commerce platforms like Alibaba and JD.com to promote products such as powdered milk, safflower oil, and honey, boosting bilateral e-commerce ties, Serik Korzhumbayev, editor-in-chief of Delovoy Kazakhstan, told Xinhua.

Yao Hongchun, vice president of the Thai Chinese New Generation Business Association, emphasized its potential for collaboration with China, mainly through advanced e-commerce technologies tailored to Thai consumers.

A foreign merchant consults about a small intelligent translation device at the third Global Digital Trade Expo in Hangzhou, east China’s Zhejiang Province, Sept. 25, 2024. [Photo/Xinhua]

Cooperation platform

“E-commerce can be successful and further developed in the long run if everyone can find their way in it, if it is based on close international cooperation, if it is diversified and if as many countries as possible are involved on both the manufacturer and the buyer side,” Hungarian National Assembly’s Deputy Speaker Lajos Olah said at the opening ceremony of the expo.

By July 2024, China has signed e-commerce cooperation memorandums of understanding with 33 countries spanning five continents.

Additionally, China has been involved in digital economy collaborations through multilateral frameworks like the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, BRICS, the APEC Economic Leaders’ Meeting, and the G20, according to an e-commerce development report released by China’s Ministry of Commerce during the expo.

Beyond exhibitions, this year’s GDTE also featured multiple forums, meetings, and seminars, providing officials and industry leaders with platforms to exchange views and discuss prospects for international collaboration.

Through participating in the expo, Thailand is ready to work with partners in trade, investment, research, and development to expand its digital products and services, aiming to integrate into key global supply chains, Thailand’s Deputy Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Commerce, Ekachat Seetavorarat told Xinhua on the sidelines of the expo.

Madiyev also highlighted the GDTE as a unique opportunity to exchange experiences with leading global players in the digital economy and expand economic ties with other countries, particularly China.

MIL OSI China News –

January 23, 2025
MIL-OSI China: Chinese FM outlines China’s vision for addressing global challenges

Source: People’s Republic of China – State Council News

UNITED NATIONS, Sept. 29 — Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Saturday outlined China’s vision for tackling the world’s most urgent challenges, reaffirming the country’s role as a proactive force in global governance and cooperation.

“As the world faces increasingly serious challenges, China has never opted to be an indifferent spectator. Instead, we have been playing a bigger part in global governance than ever before,” said Wang, also a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, in his speech at the general debate of the 79th session of the United Nations General Assembly.

Wang referenced the Global Development Initiative, the Global Security Initiative and the Global Civilization Initiative proposed by President Xi Jinping as examples of China’s leadership in proposing solutions to the difficult issues facing humanity.

“They carry China’s wisdom for resolving various difficult issues confronting humanity, and bring impetus from China for improving global governance,” he said.

In the face of uneven and inadequate global development, China’s proposal is to put development at the top of the global agenda, focus on delivering the Sustainable Development Goals of the U.N. 2030 Agenda, increase input in development, and help developing countries better respond to different risks and challenges, said Wang.

At the recent Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation, Xi outlined 10 partnership actions to be taken together with Africa to advance modernization, and announced the decision to give over 40 least developed countries (LDCs), including those in Africa, zero-tariff treatment for 100 percent tariff lines.

“China is the first major developing country and the first major economy to take such a significant step,” Wang said.

He pointed out that in the face of unilateral, bullying acts such as sanctions and blockade, China firmly supports countries in defending their legitimate rights, upholding the equity and openness of the international system, making global development more coordinated and beneficial for all, and jointly opposing technology blockade and rejecting decoupling or severing supply chains.

“Sanctions and pressure will not bring monopolistic advantages. Suppressing and containing others will not solve problems at home. The right of people of all countries to pursue a better life should not be taken away. Here, we once again urge the United States to completely lift its blockade, sanctions and terrorism-related designation against Cuba,” said Wang.

In the face of aggravating ecological challenges, Wang said, China is firmly committed to a path of green, low-carbon and sustainable development.

“We will move from carbon peaking to carbon neutrality in the shortest time span in world history, contributing China’s efforts to harmonious coexistence between humanity and nature,” he said.

At the global level, the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities must be upheld, and the Paris Agreement must be implemented in earnest, he added.

“Developed countries should assist developing countries in building their capacity to cope with climate change. Touting the need of climate response while suppressing the green industries of others will only hold back global progress in green transition,” said Wang.

Addressing the rapid rise of artificial intelligence (AI), Wang stressed China is committed to taking a people-centered approach, developing AI for good, and putting equal emphasis on development and security.

“We are working to explore and establish widely-recognized international rules and standards,” he said, adding China supports the U.N.’s role as the main channel for global AI governance and is committed to strengthening international cooperation on AI capacity-building.

“China has put forth the AI Capacity-Building Action Plan for Good and for All, and is ready to make more contributions to the sound, orderly, fair and inclusive development of AI,” said Wang.

On human rights protection, Wang reiterated China’s stance that all countries should have the right to independently choose their path of human rights development. He rejected external interference in others’ internal affairs citing human rights as an excuse, asserting that no country should impose its own will on others.

“In human rights protection, China is committed to putting people first and promoting the free and well-rounded development of the people. We have found a path of human rights development that suits China’s national conditions,” he said. “China is ready to engage in dialogue and exchanges with all countries and UN human rights bodies on an equal footing, and jointly promote the sound development of the global human rights cause.”

MIL OSI China News –

January 23, 2025
MIL-OSI Submissions: Australia – CBA cautions small business against “too good to be true” investment opportunities

Source: Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA)

With more than half of the money Aussie small businesses lose to scams going to fake investments, CBA Executive General Manager Rebecca Warren provides top tips on how to spot a fake investment opportunity.

Nearly 90 per cent of all scams reported by CommBank’s business customers in FY24 came from small business, with more than half of their losses going to investment scams, according to new data released by CommBank.

The data, which looks at the number and types of scams reported by CommBank small businesses in the last financial year shows investment scams, phishing, and business email compromise continue to be the most prevalent scams targeting Aussie small business.

Investment scams offer fake money-making opportunities, often with the promise of unrealistically high or above-market returns and seemingly coming from legitimate sources.

Business owners and leaders may be at higher risk of being targeted for investment scams because they’re more likely to have disposable funds to invest.

CommBank Executive General Manager Small Business Banking Rebecca Warren said, while it is encouraging to see CBA customer scam loss decreasing overall, small businesses remain a prime target and the impact could be severe.

“If a business owner or leader falls victim to an investment scam, it’s not just the business that could be compromised, but also the jobs of the people who work there”.

“We can see through our data that small businesses lose around $30,000 on average to investment scams, which can have a devastating impact, both financially and emotionally. When they make an investment into what they think is a term deposit with a great interest rate, they tend to put in most of the money they have available, to maximise their returns.

“We know running a small business is tough, and our priority is to help protect our customers from scams. Our focus is on early detection and prevention of scams through fraud prevention and monitoring activity, industry-leading features and education,” Ms Warren said.

CommBank’s NameCheck feature prompts customers if the account details on a first-time payment don’t look right based on available payment information1. CallerCheck allows customers to verify whether a caller claiming to be from CommBank is legitimate, by triggering a security message in the CommBank app. CommBank may also use CustomerCheck to identify our customers in branch or over the phone by sending a message to the CommBank app.

CBA has invested more than $800 million to help protect customers against fraud, scams, financial and cybercrime, but as Ms Warren points out, scams are least effective when people stop and check, and then reject.

“While the Bank’s technology is designed to help detect and prevent fraudulent activities, it is crucial for customers to take proactive steps to protect themselves. It is imperative that they know what to look out for.”

Ms Warren shares top tips for small business owners on protecting their business from scams.

Know what to look out for

Be suspicious of investment opportunities that sound too good to be true, because they probably are, according to Ms Warren. Scammers tend to contact prospective victims via phone, social media or sponsored ads.

“Investment opportunities that offer high returns with little or no risk are likely fake and coming from a scammer. Be wary of any unsolicited online contact, including people reaching out via social media, sponsored ads or any opportunities endorsed by public figures and popular TV programs,” Ms Warren added.

Scammers also use AI technology to impersonate well-known public figures who may appear to endorse a particular investment opportunity, and these may be used to give a false sense of legitimacy.

Customers are advised to sense-check investment opportunities with friends and family before committing to anything, as they may help identify warning signs.

“You can also research and check reviews by searching the investment name with the word ‘scam’ and consult ASIC’s list of companies you should not deal with by using the ASIC search portal,” Ms Warren said.

Customers can also understand how to check if a company or a person is licensed on MoneySmart.

Train and educate your staff

Making sure business owners and their staff are on top of the latest scam and cyber threats is imperative.

“When it comes to any scam, people are the first and very important line of defence, so it’s important to ensure you encourage staff to question and escalate payment requests,” Ms Warren said.

It’s important that small business owners and staff have basic cyber hygiene such as strong passwords, multi-factor authentication and awareness of phishing scams.

The Cyber Wardens program, which was created in partnership between CBA, Telstra and the Council of Small Business Organisations Australia (COSBOA), is specifically designed to help SMEs respond to the risks and support them to build an effective culture of cyber security.

Put the right processes in place

According to Ms Warren, processes play an important role in helping reduce the impact of scams.

“You should check with the beneficiary the details of any large payments in person or by calling a verified number and especially if the beneficiary is requesting to amend their banking details. No single person should be responsible for making payments, so adopt strict separation of duties, using multiple authorities to make and approve payments but also to change beneficiary details,” she said.

Businesses are also advised to restrict how much information they reveal about their suppliers and staff on public websites and social media.

Take advantage of technology

While scammers use increasingly sophisticated tactics to target unsuspecting small businesses, technology can also play an important role in preventing attacks.

Leveraging technology does not have to be complex but it can be very effective in preventing scams and cyber-attacks, according to Ms Warren.

“Promptly installing software updates, enabling software auto-updates and installing a reputable antivirus program can help reduce the impact of malicious software designed to tamper with online banking payments,” she added.

1 For CommBiz transactions, NameCheck is currently available for payments to a first-time payee using direct credit, priority payment, fast payment and bulk payments for up to 50 payees only.

MIL OSI – Submitted News –

January 23, 2025
MIL-OSI Economics: AIIB Commits USD100 Million for Climate Transition in Asia
Source: Asia Infrastructure Investment Bank

The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) has signed a USD100 million commitment toward climate transition investments in emerging Asia. Of the total commitment, USD75 million is committed to the Actis Asia Climate Transition Fund (the Fund), managed by Actis GP LLP, and up to USD25 million co-investment sleeve alongside the Fund.

This marks AIIB’s first climate transition-themed fund dedicated to emerging Asia and highlights the Bank’s commitment to sustainable development and climate change mitigation in the region.

“Our commitment to the Actis Asia Climate Transition Fund underscores AIIB’s dedication to financing sustainable infrastructure and fostering low-carbon solutions in Asia,” said Rajat Misra, AIIB Acting Vice President, Investment Clients, Region 1 & Financial Institutions and Funds, Global. “This partnership aligns with our climate strategy and sets a precedent for future investments aimed at achieving net-zero emissions while promoting gender equality in the energy sector.”

The Fund aims to invest in renewable energy infrastructure, energy solutions and sustainable transportation which lean toward emerging Asia.

Project Highlights:
- Strong Sustainability Credentials—The Actis Asia Climate Transition strategy was established to meet investor demand for an SFDR Article 9 investment strategy which is focused on net zero and decarbonization assets aimed at supporting climate solutions including energy efficiency, smart grids, district energy and sustainable transportation. AIIB will gain access to Actis’ proprietary sustainability toolkit for direct investments, including enhanced governance framework, processes and metrics that will persist beyond exit.
- Demonstration Effect on Gender Focus—The Project marks AIIB’s first equity position in an energy transition infrastructure-focused fund which is committed to addressing gender gaps in the energy sector, enabling learning opportunities for development of gender considerations in future investments.
- Strategic Partnership that Drives Environmental and Social Impact—As an emerging market-focused sustainable infrastructure investor, the Fund will be Actis’ first climate-transition strategy. The collaboration highlights AIIB’s proactive approach to forming strategic partnerships and demonstrates AIIB’s dedication to financing sustainable infrastructure and fostering low-carbon solutions in Asia.
About AIIB

The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) is a multilateral development bank whose mission is Financing Infrastructure for Tomorrow in Asia and beyond—infrastructure with sustainability at its core. We began operations in Beijing in 2016 and have since grown to 110 approved members worldwide. We are capitalized at USD100 billion and AAA-rated by the major international credit rating agencies. Collaborating with partners, AIIB meets clients’ needs by unlocking new capital and investing in infrastructure that is green, technology-enabled and promotes regional connectivity.
MIL OSI Economics –
January 23, 2025
MIL-OSI Asia-Pac: 2024 Industrial Parks Summit Forum unveils Taiwan’s New Direction for Industrial Parks.

Source: Republic Of China Taiwan 2

As global industrial competition intensifies, to enhance the competitiveness of Taiwan’s industrial parks, the Bureau of Industrial Parks (BIP) of the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) held the “2024 Industrial Parks Development Policy Summit Forum” on October 23, 2024. The forum brought together elites from central and local governments, academia, and industries to jointly explore how to promote comprehensive upgrades in park safety management through smart transformation and achieve sustainable economic development goals.
The Director of BIP, Yang, Po-Keng, stated that the Industrial Park Policy Summit Forum has entered its 10th year, and this year’s forum is even more significant as it is the first held after the BIP’s reorganization under the MOEA. After the reorganization, the BIP now oversees 80 industrial parks nationwide. In the future, the BIP will strive to attract more enterprises to settle in the parks and provide more comprehensive value-added services.
The Director also mentioned that many industrial parks are currently facing infrastructure aging. To address this, the BIP will actively seek funding from the Forward-looking Infrastructure Development Program to carry out major renovations of industrial zones. In addition, with more than 13,000 manufacturing companies operating in the parks, the BIP will assist businesses in developing research and sales capabilities. At the same time, The BIP will also accelerate the promotion of digital, intelligent, and AI-based production. Therefore, this forum focuses on the theme of ‘Smart, Safe, and Sustainable: Park Upgrades and Cross-Disciplinary Cooperation” to discuss the future development direction of Taiwan’s industrial parks and how to integrate hardware and software strategies to achieve the mission of smart, safe, and sustainable development.
As one of the highlights of the forum, Lin, Chien-Yuan, the professor of National Taiwan University, delivered a speech titled “Industrial Park Development and Spatial Optimization Upgrades,” providing an in-depth analysis of the current state and future challenges of industrial park development. He emphasized that with the ever-changing demands of industries, industrial parks need to continuously innovate, focusing on spatial optimization and smart technology to meet future challenges. Following this, Zheng, Xiu-Rong, the Director of the Southern Taiwan Science Park Bureau of the National Science and Technology Council shared successful experiences in smart operations and investment environment optimization, noting that these experiences will serve as important references for the development of other parks.
In the second half of the forum, discussions shifted toward how central and local governments can work together to promote the construction of smart parks. Lin, Rong-Chuan, the Director of the Tainan City Government’s Economic Development Bureau and Sheng Hsiao-Rung, the Deputy Director of the New Taipei City Government’s Economic Development Bureau each introduced their cities’ innovative initiatives in promoting smart parks. They emphasized that cooperation between local and central governments is key to unleashing the full potential of smart technology in park management and realizing sustainable industrial development.
The forum concluded with insightful dialogues between representatives from industry and government on topics such as the application of smart technology in park management and the close connection between smart city construction and industrial parks. The participants unanimously agreed that close cooperation between central and local governments and the introduction of innovative technologies will be crucial to enhancing the competitiveness of Taiwan’s industrial parks in the future.
The successful hosting of this forum demonstrated the BIP’s firm commitment to promoting smart and sustainable development. In the future, the bureau will continue to advance smart transformation policies, deepen cooperation between central and local governments, and lead Taiwan’s industrial parks to a more advantageous position on the global stage.

Spokesman: Mr. Liu Chi Chuan (Deputy Director General, BIP)
Contact Number: 886-7-3613349, 0911363680
Email: lcc12@bip.gov.tw

Contact Person: Luo, Fong-Ying (Industrial Parks Development Division, BIP)
Contact Number: 886-7-361-1212 ext 121
Email: luofeng@bip.gov.tw

MIL OSI Asia Pacific News –

January 23, 2025
MIL-OSI: MSTX, The First Leveraged MicroStrategy ETF in the U.S. Surpasses $400 Million
Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

MIAMI, Sept. 30, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Defiance ETFs, a leading provider of thematic and leverage-focused exchange-traded funds, is thrilled to announce that its MSTX ETF (Daily Target 1.75X Long MSTR ETF) has surpassed $400 million in assets under management (AUM). This milestone underscores the strong investor demand and confidence in the product’s innovative approach to offering amplified exposure to MicroStrategy Inc. (MSTR), a company known for its substantial Bitcoin holdings and cutting-edge data analytics solutions.

Key Highlights:
- Unprecedented Growth: The MSTX ETF’s rapid ascent to $400 million in AUM reflects investors’ growing interest in leveraged strategies and their desire to capitalize on the high volatility and significant movements in MicroStrategy’s stock.
- Innovative Investment Strategy: MSTX offers 1.75x the daily performance of MicroStrategy’s stock, providing sophisticated investors with a powerful tool to enhance their exposure to the company’s dynamic market positioning. The ETF is designed for investors with a strong appetite for risk who seek the potential for amplified returns over short-term holding periods.
- Market Demand: The strong reception of the MSTX ETF signals confidence in Defiance ETFs’ ability to meet market demand for targeted leverage exposure, particularly in the tech and cryptocurrency sectors. MicroStrategy’s strategic focus on Bitcoin has made it a popular choice among investors looking to gain exposure to the cryptocurrency market.
- Strategic Timing: The launch of MSTX comes at a time when interest in both MicroStrategy and Bitcoin is surging, driven by the increasing institutional adoption of digital assets and the evolving landscape of corporate strategies centered around blockchain technology.
“We are excited to see such strong early interest in the MSTX ETF, which validates our belief in the demand for specialized leveraged products that offer precise exposure to high-growth sectors,” said Sylvia Jablonski, CEO of Defiance ETFs. “The rapid growth of MSTX is a testament to our team’s ability to deliver innovative investment solutions that resonate with today’s investors.”

About Defiance ETFs:
Defiance ETFs is a leader in leverage-focused exchange-traded funds, providing innovative solutions designed for tactical traders and investors seeking amplified exposure to individual companies.

For more information about the MSTX ETF or to explore Defiance ETFs’ full lineup of products, please visit defianceetfs.com.

Media Contact:
David Hanono
Defiance ETFs
Tel: 833.333.9383

The Fund is not intended to be used by, and is not appropriate for, investors who do not intend to actively monitor and manage their portfolios. The Fund pursues a daily leveraged investment objective, which means that the Fund is riskier than alternatives that do not use leverage because the Fund magnifies the performance of its Underlying Security. The Fund is not suitable for all investors. The Fund is designed to be utilized only by sophisticated investors, such as traders and active investors employing dynamic strategies. Investors who do not understand the Funds, or do not intend to actively manage their funds and monitor their investments should not buy shares of the Funds.

About Defiance ETFs

Founded in 2018, Defiance stands as a leading ETF issuer dedicated to income and thematic investing. Defiance also pioneers leveraged ETFs designed for traders seeking tactical opportunities.

Our suite of first-mover leveraged & thematic ETFs empowers investors to express targeted views on disruptive innovations, including artificial intelligence, machine learning, and quantum computing, while our actively managed options ETFs are designed to seek current income.

Important Disclosures

The Funds’ investment objectives, risks, charges, and expenses must be considered carefully before investing. The prospectus contains this and other important information about the investment company. Please read carefully before investing. A hard copy of the prospectuses can be requested by calling 833.333.9383.

Defiance ETFs LLC is the ETF sponsor. The Fund’s investment adviser is Tidal Investments, LLC (“Tidal” or the “Adviser”).

Investing involves risk. Principal loss is possible.

There is no guarantee that the Fund’s investment strategy will be properly implemented, and an investor may lose some or all of its investment.

Underlying Security Risk. The underlying security is subject to many risks that can negatively impact the Fund.

Leverage Risk. Leverage may increase the risk of loss and cause fluctuations in the market value of the Fund’s portfolio to have disproportionately large effects or cause the NAV of the Fund generally to decline faster than it would otherwise.

Derivatives Risk. Derivatives may be more sensitive to changes in market conditions and may amplify risks.

Effects of Compounding and Market Volatility Risk. The Fund has a daily leveraged investment objective and the Fund’s performance for periods greater than a trading day will be the result of each day’s returns compounded over the period, which is very likely to differ from the Fund performance, before fees and expenses.

Single Issuer Risk. Issuer-specific attributes may cause an investment in the Fund to be more volatile than a traditional pooled investment which diversifies risk or the market generally. The value of the Fund, which focuses on an individual security, may be more volatile than a traditional pooled investment or the market as a whole and may perform differently from the value of a traditional pooled investment or the market as a whole.

MSTR Performance Risk. MSTR may fail to meet its publicly announced guidelines or other expectations about its business, which could cause the price of MSTR to decline.

Bitcoin Risk. While the Fund will not directly invest in digital assets, it will be subject to the risks associated with Bitcoin by virtue of its investments in options contracts that reference MSTR.

New Fund Risk. As of the date of this prospectus, the Fund has no operating history and currently has fewer assets than larger funds. Like other new funds, large inflows and outflows may impact the Fund’s market exposure for limited periods of time.

New Fund Risk. As of the date of this prospectus, the Fund has no operating history and currently has fewer assets than larger funds. Like other new funds, large inflows and outflows may impact the Fund’s market exposure for limited periods of time.

Brokerage Commissions may be charged on trades.

MSTX is distributed by Foreside Fund Services, LLC.

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/87922bbb-50cf-447b-a7be-657fcf4cde83

The MIL Network –
January 23, 2025
MIL-OSI Russia: NSU scientists took part in the conference “Yenisei Photonics” in Krasnoyarsk

MILES AXLE Translation. Region: Russian Federation –

Source: Novosibirsk State University – Novosibirsk State University –

The All-Russian scientific conference with international participation “Yenisei Photonics – 2024” was held at the Institute of Engineering Physics and Radioelectronics of the Siberian Federal University from September 16 to 20. It was attended by more than 300 scientists, students and postgraduates from Russian universities, as well as from new regions of Russia and the Republic of Belarus. The conference program included lectures by leading scientists, oral and poster presentations by researchers, postgraduates and students in the field of photonics. The conference was held with the support of the L. V. Kirensky Institute of Physics of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences and the Scientific and Educational Center of Photonics and Optoinformatics of ITMO University.

The conference participants, among whom were many young researchers, presented the results of theoretical and experimental research in several traditional areas of photonics at plenary and sectional sessions: creative photonics industries, new optical materials, coherent optics and nonlinear photonics, photonic crystals, metamaterials and topological phases, biophotonics. Attention was also paid to new areas of this science – artificial intelligence in photonics and quantum communications. 10 reports were presented by scientists from Novosibirsk State University and several institutes of the SB RAS: N.N. Vorozhtsov Institute of Organic Chemistry SB RAS, G.I. Budker Institute of Nuclear Physics SB RAS, Institute of Cytology and Genetics SB RAS, G.K. Boreskov Institute of Catalysis SB RAS, etc.

The plenary and sectional sessions discussed the results of theoretical and experimental research in seven areas: “Artificial Intelligence in Photonics: Integration of AI and Photonics, Optical Recognition (Faces and Objects), Optical Computing, Self-Learning Optical Systems, etc.”; “Quantum Communications: Quantum Information Theory, Quantum Key Distribution, Quantum Optics, Quantum Entanglement, etc.”; “Creative Industries of Photonics: Applied Photonics, Optical Technologies, Optical Methods of Diagnostics of Matter, Optical Metrology, etc.”; “New Optical Materials: Crystals and Crystalline Solid Solutions, Glass, Optical Ceramics, Liquid Crystals, etc.”; “Coherent Optics and Nonlinear Photonics: Coherent Processes, Interaction of Light with Matter, Laser Physics, Nonlinear Optical Phenomena, etc.”; “Photonic crystals, metamaterials and topological phases: resonant and anisotropic photonic structures, nanophotonics, plasmonics, photovoltaic and photocatalytic effects, etc.”; “Biophotonics: emission, detection, absorption, scattering and generation of optical radiation in biological objects, use of light to obtain information about the state of biological objects, etc.”

Katerina Kozlova, first-year master’s student at the Physics Department of NSU:

— I gave a report entitled “Registration of the precession of the magnetic moment of rubidium atoms in the Earth’s magnetic field using an elliptically polarized light wave for applications in quantum magnetometry.” It presented experimental data concerning the development of a compact optical magnetometer (magnetic field sensor), which is being developed in our laboratory. This device will be able to measure the absorption of radiation by atoms in a magnetic field and determine its magnitude based on certain changes. The report described two magnetometer schemes: the Bell-Bloom scheme and its modification using elliptical polarization of radiation. The sensitivities of both schemes were assessed and magneto-optical resonances registered in the Earth’s magnetic field were presented.

The conference left a very positive impression due to the large number of areas and the diversity of the works presented. I realized that I do not know much and am only just beginning to touch upon what modern optics and related areas are doing.

Sofia Pudova, 4th year undergraduate student at the Physics Department of NSU:

— Мой доклад был посвящен разработке методики анализа белков, полученных из биожидкостей, на основе спектроскопии комбинационного рассеяния света. Анализировались кондиционные жидкости после культивирования фибробрастов роговицы и модельные объекты — растворы яичного белка в среде DMEM. Были оптимизированы параметры эксперимента, что позволило детектировать белок с начальной концентрацией >=1 mg/ml and distinguish the spectra of growth and conditioned media. A method for obtaining spectra and assessing the amount of proteins, if their concentration is less than 1 mg/ml, by precipitating them with trichloroacetic acid and adding lysozyme is also proposed.

I would like to thank NSU for participating in funding this trip. This conference gave me the opportunity to listen to papers from different areas of photonics from speakers from all over Russia and practice presenting my own results. I received a lot of interesting, informative information that will be useful for my future scientific career.

Anastasia Omelchenko, 5th year student of the Physics Department of NSU:

— I gave a poster presentation on the study of living tardigrades using Raman spectroscopy. In the Laboratory of Condensed Matter Spectroscopy at the Institute of Automation and Electrometry of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, we develop methods that allow non-invasive and non-destructive study of complex biological systems, which we demonstrated at the conference using organisms such as tardigrades as an example.

The conference left the most positive impressions – it is a wonderful location, a lot of interesting high-level reports and famous scientists who shared the latest scientific achievements with the participants. The conference featured about 300 reports covering modern issues and tasks of photonics – from quantum dot spectroscopy to phototherapy of diseases. In general, it was nice to see many familiar faces, and even nicer to make new promising acquaintances. As part of the conference, we also visited the laboratories of the L.V. Kirensky Institute of Physics SB RAS, where we were shown some of the best devices used in optical spectroscopy.

Please note: This information is raw content directly from the source of the information. It is exactly what the source states and does not reflect the position of MIL-OSI or its clients.

Please note; This information is raw content directly from the information source. It is accurate to what the source is stating and does not reflect the position of MIL-OSI or its clients.

http://vvv.nsu.ru/n/media/nevs/science/scientists-NSU-took-participation-in-the-conference-Yenisei-photonics-in-Krasnoyarsk/

EDITOR’S NOTE: This article is a translation. Apologies should the grammar and or sentence structure not be perfect.

MIL OSI Russia News –

January 23, 2025
MIL-OSI Russia: From October 31 to November 1, 2024, NSU will host the II annual scientific and production forum “Golden Valley-2024”

MILES AXLE Translation. Region: Russian Federation –

Source: Novosibirsk State University – Novosibirsk State University –

The organizer of the forum is Novosibirsk State University. According to the idea of the founder of the Novosibirsk Akademgorodok, academician Mikhail Lavrentiev, the university was included in the Lavrentiev triangle “science-personnel-industry” from the day of its foundation, and today it confidently ranks among the top ten leading universities in the country.

The Forum’s partners include the interregional association “Siberian Agreement”, the government of the Novosibirsk region, the NSU Graduates Association, the Novosibirsk Akademgorodok technology park, the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences and the Council of Rectors of Universities of Novosibirsk.

Director of the Center for Interaction with Government Authorities and Industrial Partners of NSU Alexander Lyulko noted:

— The results of the first Forum were very pleasing to all participants. One of the main results of the work was the signing of several agreements at once, designed to strengthen the trinity of science, education and business.

Throughout the past year, we have seen an active growth of interest from industrial enterprises in our university and its resources. The programs implemented by the Center for Technology Transfer and Commercialization, New Functional Materials, the Advanced Engineering School and other innovation centers of NSU find a response and support in industry and business.

This year, the key aspect of the Forum will be the discussion of ways of further interaction between science and production with an emphasis on joint solution of import substitution tasks and creation of high-tech products. We will be glad to see representatives of both the scientific community and business structures at our Forum to strengthen ties and exchange ideas.

Together we can create conditions for the introduction of innovative technologies into production and the training of qualified specialists necessary for the success of the Russian economy, and become part of an important dialogue about the future of science and industry in our country.

The Golden Valley 2024 Forum will feature thematic sections:

Aviation

Unmanned aircraft systems.

Mechanical engineering and instrument making.

Energy.

Smart city technologies. Construction.

Medicine and pharmaceutical industry.

Artificial Intelligence in Industry and Robotics

Agriculture.

In addition to the business program, the Forum will host a number of related events aimed at establishing contacts between universities and potential industrial partners. In particular, there will be an exhibition of the latest scientific developments and advanced industrial achievements. Participants of the exhibition will be able to get acquainted with the best developments and technologies already implemented in the Novosibirsk Region, other regions of the Russian Federation and in the world.

The result of the Forum should be the formation of partnerships between representatives of science, universities, industry, development institutions, and government agencies to introduce new technologies and developments into the real sector of the economy.

In 2023, the Forum brought together more than 1,000 participants. Over 130 speakers spoke at sections and plenary sessions, including 15 members of the Russian Academy of Sciences, 20 rectors of universities in the Siberian Federal District, and more than 50 directors of federal and regional enterprises. The forum was attended by Deputy Governors of the Novosibirsk Region Irina Manuilova and Sergey Semka, representatives of leading corporations interested in introducing new technologies and promising developments into the domestic industry: Rosatom, Rostec, Russian Railways, Sitronics, Rostelecom, UEC, SGK, LUKOIL and many others.

Following the results of the first Forum, the rector of NSU, academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences Mikhail Fedoruk noted:

— Such events will be held regularly, their main goal is to help ensure the technological sovereignty of our country. It is not without reason that the forum’s motto is: “Real science for real industry.

More detailed information is provided on the forum website.

Please note: This information is raw content directly from the source of the information. It is exactly what the source states and does not reflect the position of MIL-OSI or its clients.

Please note; This information is raw content directly from the information source. It is accurate to what the source is stating and does not reflect the position of MIL-OSI or its clients.

http://vvv.nsu.ru/n/media/nevs/science/on October 31-November 1, 2024-its-annual-research-production-forum-zolo will be held in NSU/

EDITOR’S NOTE: This article is a translation. Apologies should the grammar and or sentence structure not be perfect.

MIL OSI Russia News –

January 23, 2025
MIL-OSI: Change to the Executive Management Committee

Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

30 September 2024 | SAINT HELIER, Jersey – CoinShares International Limited (“CoinShares” or “the Company”) (Nasdaq Stockholm: CS; US OTCQX: CNSRF), Europe’s leading alternative asset manager specialising in digital assets, today announced changes in the composition of the Executive Management Committee.

Graeme Dickson, Group General Counsel, has resigned to pursue other opportunities and as a result, has been removed from the Executive Management team of the Company with effect from the date of this announcement.

The Chief Executive Officer, supported by the wider Executive Management team, will carefully consider the options for a successor and will provide further details to the market, when available.

About CoinShares

CoinShares is Europe’s leading alternative asset manager specialising in digital assets, that delivers a broad range of financial services across investment management, trading and securities to a wide array of clients that includes corporations, financial institutions and individuals. The firm is headquartered in Jersey, with offices in France, Stockholm, the UK and the US. CoinShares is regulated in Jersey by the Jersey Financial Services Commission, in France by the Autorité des marchés financiers, in the US by the Securities and Exchange Commission, National Futures Association and Financial Industry Regulatory Authority. CoinShares is publicly listed on the Nasdaq Stockholm under the ticker CS and the OTCQX under the ticker CNSRF.

For more information on CoinShares, please visit: https://coinshares.com
Company | +44 (0)1534 513 100 | enquiries@coinshares.com
Investor Relations | +44 (0)1534 513 100 | enquiries@coinshares.com

The MIL Network –

January 23, 2025
MIL-OSI: Nokia deployments with majority of world’s largest IXPs reflect push for scale, reliability and automation
Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

Press release
Nokia deployments with majority of world’s largest IXPs reflect push for scale, reliability and automation
- Six of the world’s 10 largest IXPs have deployed Nokia networking infrastructure and cumulatively carry close to 45 Tbps of traffic during peak times
- Performance at scale, security and AI-enhanced operations of Nokia IP, optical and DDoS solutions support buildouts of massive cloud networks
- Stunning growth of regional clouds driven by unprecedented latency, security and bandwidth pressures as global digital economy flourishes
30 Sept 2024
Espoo, Finland: Nokia today reaffirmed its leadership and commitment to the global Internet Exchange market as it continues to work with more than 20 Internet Exchange Providers (IXPs), including six of the world’s 10 largest based on both peak traffic and number of members. As the local interconnection points for more than 5,000 member organizations, these six IXPs cumulatively transport close to 45 Tbps of traffic during peak times – a figure that’s set to grow as the Equinix Global Interconnection Index (GXI) 2024 predicts a stunning 34% five-year CAGR in interconnection bandwidth.

The expanding digital economy, proliferation of edge compute, and anticipated move of latency-sensitive AI models to regional clouds for local consumption are contributing to the need for what the GXI calls an Interconnection Oriented Architecture^® (IOA). According to the GXI 2024 report, “The economics of data, density, velocity and experience demand localized exchange to move the highest volumes of data with the lowest latency to dense clusters of participants and population centers.”

Built to handle these current and future pressures, the characteristics of the Nokia IP, optical and security solutions align to those identified in the IOA and are central to why the Nokia portfolio has increasingly become the dominant choice of leading IXPs.

The Nokia FP5 800GE technology, deployed by leading European IXPs including Germany’s DE-CIX and the Netherlands’ NL-ix , provides the fastest possible performance in the industry and is realizing dramatic sustainability gains. Since deploying this technology, NL-ix has shown a reduction in power consumption from 0.8 watts to 0.1 watts per gigabit in parts of its network.

Thomas King, CTO at DE-CIX, said: “Nokia’s 800GE technology gives us the considerable runway needed to address future traffic growth in a cost- and energy-efficient way. 800GE optics consume the least amount of space and power per bit, and at the same time it provides the most headroom for traffic peaks of the future.”

Nokia has also played a leadership role in the standardization of Ethernet Virtual Private Networks (EVPNs). With industry-leading functionality and scalability, the SROS implementation of EVPN provides IXPs an ideal toolset to manage the increase in traffic. When Telehouse America selected Nokia to upgrade its NYIIX peering exchange infrastructure in the US, it deployed the Nokia EVPN solution to resolve multiple technical challenges.

Akio Sugeno, Vice President of Telehouse and founder of NYIIX, said: “EVPN is a game changer for us. It is a next-generation VPN solution that provides a unified architecture, in both the control and data planes, and solved many of our requirements. With our new EVPN implementation from Nokia we police and control broadcast, unknown-unicast and multicast traffic entering our network while also rate-limiting ARP requests, so they do not flood our network. With this same protocol, we are also able to implement load balancing techniques between our edge and the customer’s network to increase resiliency and network availability. Finally, with EVPN’s auto-configuration capabilities we can simplify operational complexity across the entire lifecycle of our VPNs.”

Additionally, the virulent rise in cybercrime has made anti-DDoS solutions critical. Nokia partnered with NL-ix for an industry-first deployment of an anti-DDoS solution that performs mitigation directly on the router, avoiding dedicated scrubbing centers that would push up transport costs and impact latency. Nokia’s AI-enhanced Deepfield Defender actively detects DDoS attacks and then instructs Nokia’s FP5 silicon to block those packet flows without any impact on other router traffic.

Jan Hoogenboom, Founder and Chief Vision Officer at NL-ix, said: “With this innovative anti-DDoS solution from Nokia we can provide our customers with security across their entire area of operations as we pursue our goal of zero enterprise downtime. We are now a one-stop-shop for Europe-wide connectivity and security, saving our customers the hassle of working with multiple parties or making complex arrangements to be protected by a third party.”

Vach Kompella, Senior Vice President and General Manager of IP Networks business at Nokia, said: “As the nerve centers of the Internet, the world’s largest IXPs are host to every type of traffic and customer, and in response they have reset expectations around networking innovation – driving the highest levels of uptime, reliability and security with Nokia solutions. We are proud to be the leading provider of networking infrastructure solutions for these critical organizations.”

Nokia has won contracts with 23 IXPs, and has publicly announced wins with Telehouse NYIIX, NL-ix, LINX, LINX NoVa, BIX, DE-CIX, France-ix, ESpanix, LINX Nairobi, TOP-ix and TREX.

Resources and additional information
Webpage: 7750 Service Router | Nokia
Webpage: FP5 network processor | Nokia
Webpage: Optical networks | Nokia
Webpage: Deepfield Defender | Nokia

About Nokia
At Nokia, we create technology that helps the world act together.

As a B2B technology innovation leader, we are pioneering networks that sense, think and act by leveraging our work across mobile, fixed and cloud networks. In addition, we create value with intellectual property and long-term research, led by the award-winning Nokia Bell Labs.

With truly open architectures that seamlessly integrate into any ecosystem, our high-performance networks create new opportunities for monetization and scale. Service providers, enterprises and partners worldwide trust Nokia to deliver secure, reliable and sustainable networks today – and work with us to create the digital services and applications of the future.

# # #

Media inquiries
Nokia, Corporate Communications
Email: Press.Services@nokia.com

Follow us on social media

LinkedIn X Instagram Facebook YouTube

The MIL Network –
January 23, 2025
MIL-OSI Russia: “StuDos” invites you to open classes

MILES AXLE Translation. Region: Russian Federation –

Source: State University of Management – Official website of the State –

The creative team “StuDos” invites you to the first open classes for dancers and vocalists.

Become a part of our creative family, discover your talent and show yourself to the world! Our team supports any initiatives and efforts. You should definitely visit our open classes and show your talent.

Dance September 30 at 19:00 Dance floor of the State University of Management (building of the Central University of Management, 1st floor)

Registration for the class is strictly via this link: https://forms.yandex.ru/u/66f512c75d2a06350cebb30e/ Don’t forget to bring comfortable clothes and shoes. See you on the dance floor!

Vocals October 9 at 19:00 A-124 (Administrative building of the State University of Management, 1st floor)

Registration for the class is also strict, but this time via this link: https://forms.yandex.ru/u/66f50c553e9d0833492fe8dd/ Don’t forget to prepare a song.

Subscribe to the tg channel “Our State University” Announcement date: 09/30/2024

The creative team “StuDos” invites you to the first open classes for dancers and vocalists.

Become a part of our creative family,…

” data-yashareImage=”https://guu.ru/wp-content/uploads/СтуДос-1.png” data-yashareLink=”https://guu.ru/%d1%81%d1%82%d1%83%d0%b4%d0%be%d1%81-%d0%bf%d1%80%d0%b8%d0%b3%d0%bb%d0%b0%d1%88%d0%b0%d0%b5%d1%82-%d0%bd%d0%b0-%d0%be%d1%82%d0%ba%d1%80%d1%8b%d1%82%d1%8b%d0%b5-%d0%b7%d0%b0%d0%bd%d1%8f/”>

Please note: This information is raw content directly from the source of the information. It is exactly what the source states and does not reflect the position of MIL-OSI or its clients.

Please note; This information is raw content directly from the information source. It is accurate to what the source is stating and does not reflect the position of MIL-OSI or its clients.

“StuDos” invites you to open classes

embedded content

EDITOR’S NOTE: This article is a translation. Apologies should the grammar and or sentence structure not be perfect.

MIL OSI Russia News –

January 23, 2025
MIL-OSI United Nations: Press Release 30 September 2024 Major international drought conference seeks to increase resilience
Source: World Meteorological Organization

Experts, policymakers, and practitioners will gather at the headquarters of the World Meteorological Organization at the Drought Resilience +10 Conference – so called because it marks a decade since the High-Level Meeting on National Drought Policy.

The conference provides an opportunity for global stakeholders to reflect on a decade of advancements in drought preparedness, response, and adaptation while exploring new ways to turn knowledge into practical solutions that can help countries become more drought-resilient.

“Droughts are an insidious and dangerous climate-related hazard, which undermines food human security and is a major cause of internal displacement in worst-hit countries. It can wreak a devastating impact on the environment and economies and reverse progress in sustainable development,” said WMO Secretary-General Celeste Saulo.

“We need sustainable solutions, based on scientific knowledge and tailored policies that promote integrated drought management practices and policies. We have the knowledge and the tools but we all too often lack the necessary political will and financial investment to build drought-resilient societies,” said Celeste Saulo.

The Conference will focus on the escalating drought-related risks posed by climate change and increasing structural vulnerabilities in many societies. It will examine how to accelerate the shift in approach from a reactive, crisis-driven one to a more proactive approach, which leverages climate services such as seasonal forecasts, and anticipatory action tools, including innovative financing mechanisms.

The conference will examine drought monitoring and forecasting advances and will discuss how to strengthen drought monitoring for early warnings for food security and health, and how to embed policies into the international Early Warnings for All initiative. There will be a heavy emphasis on case studies and community-led actions.

It will also look at scientific and policy-making developments, including progress in satellite technology and artificial intelligence tools, which bring new perspectives to forecasting, monitoring and impact assessment.

Drought is not a new phenomenon and has historically occurred as a consequence of natural climatic variability. However, climate change is intensifying the water cycle. This brings more intense rainfall and associated flooding, as well as more intense drought in many regions, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

Changes in land use and land cover are compounding the challenge.

“Healthy economies depend on healthy lands. We must urgently recognize that our land and natural systems are allies in our responses to climate change and drought, and we must leverage them for integrated, proactive drought management. Drought Resilience +10 is a crucial opportunity to exchange knowledge and build momentum for UNCCD COP16, which will take place in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, from 2 to 13 December”, remarked the UNCCD Deputy Executive Secretary Andrea Meza.
Drought Resilience +10 Conference

State of Climate

Between 1970 and 2019 drought caused approximately 650,000 reported deaths. Poverty and poor land use can increase vulnerability to drought and intensify their impact, according to the WMO Atlas of Mortality and Economic Losses from Weather, Climate and Water Extremes.

In Africa, 1 839 disasters attributed to weather, climate and water extremes were reported between 1970 and 2021. They caused 733 585 reported deaths and US$ 43 billion in economic losses. Droughts accounted for 95% of reported deaths.

WMO State of the Climate reports report on the occurrence and impact of droughts.

For instance, a prolonged La Niña event led to five consecutive failed rainfall seasons in the Horn of Africa, culminating in a massive humanitarian, food security and displacement crisis in 2023 in Ethiopia, Kenya, and Somalia.

With the transition to El Niño in 2023-2024, Southern African nations became the focus of the drought crisis – especially countries like Zimbabwe, Zambia, and Malawi.

Enhanced drought resilience

Despite the challenges, progress has been made in integrated drought management.

The Integrated Drought Management Programme (IDMP) is a joint initiative between WMO and the Global Water Partnership (GWP), which works with over 45 partners to support countries and states, by providing them with policy and management guidance for handing droughts.

There are a number of success stories. These examples underscore the importance of strong drought management policies and early warning systems. They highlight the need for governments to adopt forward-looking approaches that integrate climate data and resource management into their drought preparedness strategies.

Brazil’s Northeast region, which historically faces frequent and severe droughts, provides a prime example of the benefits of proactive drought management policies. Recent policy responses focused on developing a comprehensive drought management system that integrates early warning systems, sustainable water management practices, and integration of climate change scenarios into infrastructure planning. Coordination between federal, state, and local governments was also enhanced to facilitate timely and efficient responses.

Similarly, in the USA, a proactive approach helped mitigate the effects of a severe water shortage in the State of Washington in 2024. With water supplies falling below 75% of normal levels in April, the state issued an early emergency drought declaration, unlocking funding for drought relief measures. This early action allowed communities and public entities to access funding for drought relief in advance, giving them time to implement mitigation strategies such as securing alternative water supplies and preparing for reduced irrigation.

Drought Resilience +10 Conference

Conference themes

Discussions at DR+10 will focus on nine topics, each addressing key aspects of drought management and reflecting the central challenges and opportunities for building drought resilience globally.

It will include national and regional case studies
These include:
- Drought resilience and global mechanisms
- Drought risk governance: the regional, national and local challenges
- Drought monitoring, impact assessment and forecasting
- From policies to action
- Ecosystems
- Social inclusion and climate justice
- Drought finance
- Public-private civil society partnerships
- Health
There will be a high-level closing session: Turning Drought Resilience Challenges into Action.

The Conference’s final declaration will include recommendations for countries to accelerate drought resilience efforts over the next decade. It will focus on policy implementation, drought resilience in countries’ preparedness plans, and adaptation strategies. It will also seek to mobilize resources to support vulnerable countries facing drought-related challenges.

The outcomes of the Conference will inform the global drought community as well as the high-level discussions at the 16th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP-16) of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) in Riyadh in December 2024.

Logos of the World Meteorological Organization, Drought Resilience High-Level Meeting on National Drought Policy, and United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification.
The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) is a specialized agency of the United Nations responsible for promoting international cooperation in atmospheric science and meteorology.

WMO monitors weather, climate, and water resources and provides support to its Members in forecasting and disaster mitigation. The organization is committed to advancing scientific knowledge and improving public safety and well-being through its work.

MIL OSI United Nations News –
January 23, 2025
MIL-OSI Economics: Sony Semiconductor Solutions and Raspberry Pi Launch the Raspberry Pi AI Camera
Source: Sony

Atsugi, Japan and Cambridge, UK — Sony Semiconductor Solutions Corporation (SSS) and Raspberry Pi Ltd today announced that they are launching a jointly developed AI camera. The Raspberry Pi AI Camera, which is compatible with Raspberry Pi’s range of single-board computers, will accelerate the development of AI solutions which process visual data at the edge. Starting from September 30, the product will be available for purchase from Raspberry Pi’s network of Approved Resellers, for a suggested retail price of $70.00*.
* Not including any applicable local taxes.

In April 2023, it was announced that SSS would make a minority investment in Raspberry Pi Ltd. Since then, the companies have been working to develop an edge AI platform for the community of Raspberry Pi developers, based on SSS technology. The AI Camera is powered by SSS’s IMX500 intelligent vision sensor, which is capable of on-chip AI image processing, and enables Raspberry Pi users around the world to easily and efficiently develop edge AI solutions that process visual data.
- AI camera features
- Because vision data is normally massive, using it to develop AI solutions can require a graphics processing unit (GPU), an accelerator, and a variety of other components in addition to a camera. The new Raspberry Pi AI Camera, however, is equipped with the IMX500 intelligent vision sensor which handles AI processing, making it easy to develop edge AI solutions with just a Raspberry Pi and the AI Camera.
- The new AI Camera is compatible with all Raspberry Pi single-board computers, including the latest Raspberry Pi 5. This enables users to develop solutions with familiar hardware and software, taking advantage of the widely used and powerful libcamera and Picamera2 software libraries.
“SSS and Raspberry Pi Ltd aim to provide Raspberry Pi users and the development community with a unique development experience,” said Eita Yanagisawa, General Manager, System Solutions Division, Sony Semiconductor Solutions Corporation. “I’m very excited to share SSS edge AI sensing technology with the world’s largest development community as the first fruits of our strategic partnership. We look forward to further collaboration with Raspberry Pi using our AITRIOS edge AI solution development and operations platform. We aim to make the most of AI cameras equipped with our image sensors in our collaborative efforts with Raspberry Pi.”

“AI-based image processing is becoming an attractive tool for developers around the world,” said Eben Upton, CEO, Raspberry Pi Ltd. “Together with our longstanding image sensor partner Sony Semiconductor Solutions, we have developed the Raspberry Pi AI Camera, incorporating Sony’s image sensor expertise. We look forward to seeing what our community members are able to achieve using the power of the Raspberry Pi AI Camera.”

Specifications
- Sensor model: SSS’s approx. 12.3 effective megapixel IMX500 intelligent vision sensor with a powerful neural network accelerator
- Sensor modes: 4,056(H) x 3,040(V) at 10 fps / 2,028(H) x 1,520(V) at 40 fps
- Unit cell size: 1.55 µm x 1.55 µm
- 76 degree FoV with manual/mechanical adjustable focus
- Integrated RP2040 for neural network firmware management
- Works with all Raspberry Pi models using only Raspberry Pi standard camera connector cable
- Pre-loaded with MobileNetSSD model
- Fully integrated with libcamera
About Sony Semiconductor Solutions Corporation
Sony Semiconductor Solutions Corporation is a wholly owned subsidiary of Sony Group Corporation and the global leader in image sensors. It operates in the semiconductor business, which includes image sensors and other products. The company strives to provide advanced imaging technologies that bring greater convenience and fun. In addition, it also works to develop and bring to market new kinds of sensing technologies with the aim of offering various solutions that will take the visual and recognition capabilities of both human and machines to greater heights.
For more information, please visit https://www.sony-semicon.com/en/index.html.

About Raspberry Pi Ltd
Raspberry Pi is on a mission to put high-performance, low-cost, general-purpose computing platforms in the hands of enthusiasts and engineers all over the world. Since 2012, we’ve been designing single-board and modular computers, built on the Arm architecture, and running the Linux operating system. Whether you’re an educator looking to excite the next generation of computer scientists; an enthusiast searching for inspiration for your next project; or an OEM who needs a proven rock-solid foundation for your next generation of smart products, there’s a Raspberry Pi computer for you.

Note: AITRIOS is the registered trademark or trademark of Sony Group Corporation or its affiliates.
MIL OSI Economics –
January 23, 2025
MIL-OSI Europe: AI in cyberattacks – the NCSC’s focus during European Cyber Security Month

Source: Switzerland – Department of Defence, Civil Protection and Sport

National Cyber Security Centre

Bern, 30.09.2024 – Artificial intelligence (AI) is increasingly being used in cyberattacks, particularly social engineering attacks. For this year’s European Cyber Security Month (ECSM), the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) will be raising public awareness of this cyberthreat. The ECSM takes place every October and is organised by the European Union Agency for Cybersecurity (ENISA) together with the European member states.

The use of AI is becoming increasingly important – even in the world of cybercrime. In particular, we are seeing a trend in social engineering attacks where AI is being used by criminals to impersonate someone else. For example, AI can easily be used to write authentic-looking emails, mimic voices or fake images. These fake identities give the cybercriminals more credibility and make it easier for them to gain the trust of their victims. In light of these developments, the NCSC is focusing on the influence of artificial intelligence in social engineering attacks as part of this year’s ECSM.

A spotlight on deepfake videos

From 1 October, the NCSC will run a campaign to raise public awareness of the risks of social engineering attacks using deepfake technology. Together with Youth and Media and Ralph Landolt, partner of Seniorweb.ch, the NCSC has developed targeted content for young people, professionals and seniors. The campaign includes a short video that shows how easy it is for cyber criminals to use AI to create deepfake videos. There will also be an online lunch meeting to discuss the issue, an explanatory video for older people and more information on the NCSC website. The campaign will run until 31 October.

The European Cyber Security Month

The ECSM is organised by ENISA together with the European member states. As a cooperation partner of ENISA, the NCSC plays an active role in the campaign. Social engineering was already the focus of ECSM 2023: the NCSC’s campaign was built around a dance video, which generated a lot of interest from the public. Because it is still so relevant today, the 2024 campaign will once again address the issue of social engineering in the context of cyberattacks.

Address for enquiries

NCSC Communication
+41 58 465 04 64
media@ncsc.admin.ch

Publisher

National Cyber Security Centre
https://www.ncsc.admin.ch/ncsc/en/home.html

General Secretariat DDPS
https://www.vbs.admin.ch/

Social share

MIL OSI Europe News –

January 23, 2025
MIL-OSI United Kingdom: Pan-African partnership reaches milestone for long-term climate finance solutions in Kenya
Source: United Kingdom – Executive Government & Departments

Mobilisation of climate finance set to be boosted across East Africa through new UK-backed company as investors put pen to paper to begin operations.
Investors back Dhamana Guarantee Company’s work to transform East Africa’s financial landscape.

Tackling climate change given another boost in Kenya as, for second time in a week, a UK-Government backed investor in green finance solutions puts pen to paper.

Monday 30 September 2024 – Dhamana Guarantee Company Ltd (Dhamana) has reached a major milestone, marked at an event in Nairobi today.

Investors in the new company put pen to paper at a signing ceremony, which will allow the company to kick-start operations.

Dhamana aims to mobilise private sector finance to support the development of sustainable businesses. It will do so by issuing guarantees to commercially viable projects, businesses, and institutions that tackle the climate crisis and make progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The design and creation of the company was supported by the UK-Government backed investor the Private Infrastructure Development Group (PIDG) through InfraCo Africa. With its anchor investment, PIDG kick-started Dhamana, attracting further equity investment from the African Development Bank (AfDB) and CPF Group, with support provided by Cardano Development and FSD Africa.

Dhamana is a new limited liability company based in Kenya with a mandate to deliver for the East African region – including – Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda and Rwanda. It will provide credit guarantees on debt capital market instruments, to boost the credit rating of such instruments and crowd in investment from pension funds, insurance companies and sovereign wealth funds to support sustainable infrastructure and business development in East Africa.

Dhamana will target businesses that add value to people’s lives, improving the day-to-day life of Kenyans and of people across the region. The increase in affordable finance for Kenyan businesses will mean projects will require less capital to get off the ground, make money, and generate growth. Dhamana will also enable investors to diversify their portfolios, acting as a catalyst to transform East Africa’s financing landscape.

This is the second time in a week that an investor in climate solutions backed by the UK Government has achieved a milestone. Last week, MOBILIST signed a partnership with the Nairobi Securities Exchange which aims to drive the listing of new investment products in the Kenyan market and increase the amount of private sector capital available for development and climate projects in Kenya and drive growth.

Dhamana CEO, Christopher Olobo, said:

With the support of our investors and supporters, we have worked to develop Dhamana as an important catalyst for long-term sustainable finance in the region. Dhamana’s local currency guarantees will connect pools of untapped capital with East Africa’s real economy, making a tangible difference to people’s lives and offering local investors the opportunity to invest in Paris-aligned initiatives.

Deputy High Commissioner and Development Director, British High Commission Nairobi, Leigh Stubblefield, said:

For the second time in a week I am proud to say that the UK has supported a climate finance solution in Kenya – an example of our long-term commitment to long-term investment and growth. This is a great pan-Africa partnership that will improve the lives of East Africans for the better, and as the saying goes, we go far when we go together.

Representing PIDG, InfraCo Africa CEO, Gilles Vaes, added:

Building on the success of other PIDG-supported credit enhancement facilities in Nigeria and Pakistan, Dhamana will demonstrate the value of such a facility in the East African market, opening up opportunities for investors and clients alike. Crucially, Dhamana will engage new partners and investors in our efforts to urgently address the climate crisis and accelerate delivery of the UN sustainable development goals.

In his remarks at the launch event, Solomon Quaynor, African Development Bank Vice President for Private Sector, Infrastructure & Industrialisation, said:

The African Development Bank’s equity investment in Dhamana reinforces the catalytic role and potential of credit enhancement companies in leveraging opportunities for infrastructure financing in local currency and supporting debt capital markets deepening in our regional member countries. We intend to replicate this business model in appropriate markets across Africa with partners such as the Private Infrastructure Development Group (PIDG) and others. The first example of this type of credit enhancement company was InfraCredit in Nigeria which has had demonstrated success, and now Dhamana in East Africa. The investment in Dhamana aligns with the Bank’s priority to mobilise financing through innovative vehicles from African institutional funds including pension funds, sovereign wealth funds and insurance companies for infrastructure development in Africa.

On his part, Dr. Hosea Kili, OGW – CPF Group Managing Director/CEO – said:

We are proud to be part of this transformative initiative through Dhamana Guarantee Company. We believe in the power of innovative financial solutions to drive sustainable growth. By leveraging local currency guarantees, Dhamana will unlock critical capital for critical infrastructure projects, advancing economic development. This partnership aligns with our commitment to investing in initiatives that improve the lives of people’s lives and our economy while contributing to a more sustainable future.

Joost Zuidberg, CEO of Cardano Development concluded:

Dhamana’s true strength lies in its capacity to attract significant investments from East Africa’s institutional capital, laying a strong foundation for future scaling up according to its sizeable potential and thus meaningfully contribute to sustained economic growth in the region. Part of our core work is to incubate guarantee solutions for emerging and frontier markets, and we are thrilled to formalise this partnership today, as we collectively provide Dhamana with the crucial support and capital needed to fulfil this vital objective.

NOTES FOR EDITORS

The UK-Kenya Strategic Partnership

The UK-Kenya strategic partnership joint statement can be found here.

About Dhamana

Dhamana Guarantee Company (Dhamana): Dhamana is working to catalyse the development of domestic capital markets in East Africa. It does this by connecting significant under-utilised sources of domestic institutional capital with the real economy, such as new green infrastructure, and providers of credit to businesses. This increases access and the affordability of local capital, providing new low-risk opportunities for local investors. Dhamana will also serve to provide a portfolio of businesses with access to the local currency capital needed to deliver bankable projects, meeting the high demand for new affordable housing, transportation, water, and energy infrastructure, and promoting long term economic development. http://www.dhamana.com

About PIDG

The Private Infrastructure Development Group (PIDG) is an innovative infrastructure project developer and investor which mobilises private investment in sustainable and inclusive infrastructure in sub-Saharan Africa and south and south-east Asia. PIDG investments promote socio-economic development within a just transition to net zero emissions, combat poverty and contribute to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). PIDG delivers its ambition in line with its values of pioneering, partnership, safety, inclusivity, and urgency. PIDG offers Technical Assistance for upstream, early-stage activities and concessional capital; its project development arm – which includes InfraCo Africa and InfraCo Asia – invests in early-stage project development and project and corporate equity. PIDG credit solutions include EAIF (the Emerging Africa Infrastructure Fund), one of the first and more successful blended debt funds in low-income markets; GuarantCo, its guarantee arm that provides credit enhancement and local currency solutions to de-risk projects; and a growing portfolio of local credit enhancement facilities, which unlocks domestic institutional capital for infrastructure financing. Since 2002, PIDG has supported 233 infrastructure projects to financial close, which provided an estimated 228 million people with access to new or improved infrastructure. PIDG is funded by the governments of the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Australia, Sweden, Global Affairs Canada, Germany, and the IFC. http://www.pidg.org

About the African Development Bank (AfDB)

The African Development Bank (AfDB) is Africa’s premier development finance institution. It comprises three distinct entities: the African Development Bank (AfDB), the African Development Fund (ADF) and Nigeria Trust Fund (NTF). On the ground in 34 African countries with an external office in Japan, the AfDB contributes to the economic development and the social progress of its 54 regional member states. http://www.afdb.org

About the CPF Group

The CPF Group offers a comprehensive range of services through its various subsidiaries including CPF Financial Services which administers both private and public pension funds; notably – the Public Service Superannuation Scheme (PSSS); The Local Authorities Pensions Trust (LAPTRUST); the Taifa Pension Fund; the County Pension Fund and CPF Individual Pension Plan. The funds under our administration have a total membership of just over 500,000 members.

Other subsidiaries include Laser Infrastructure & Technology Solutions (LITES); Laser Property Services; Rukisha Advances payment platform; CPF Asset Managers; CPF Capital & Advisory; and Laser Insurance Brokers (LIB). The Group offers a wide range of services in ICT & renewable energy solutions, Property Services, Insurance Brokerage, Smart Money platform, fund management, Transaction Advisory, Trust fund services, training & consultancy, and Corporate Trustee Services. Derived from uncompromised commitment to fulfilling lives, the CPF Group prioritises new models and approaches in engineering turnkey solutions for clients across the region. http://www.cpfgroup.or.ke

About Cardano Development

Cardano Development (CD), established in 2007, incubates new companies, and creates and manages fund managers. Through careful risk-management analysis in data poor settings, CD identifies scalable solutions that can help to make frontier financial markets more inclusive, investible, and sustainable to unlock lasting economic value. CD creates scalable solutions for currency, credit, and liquidity risks in these markets. With over USD 6 billion assets and USD 3.1 billion capital under management, CD supports scale-up ventures (TCX, GuarantCo, Frontclear, BIX Capital, ILX Fund, AGRI3 Fund), and a number of new start-ups, with ongoing management support services and corporate governance oversight. http://www.cardanodevelopment.com.

Share this page

The following links open in a new tab

Share on Facebook (opens in new tab)

Share on Twitter (opens in new tab)

Updates to this page

Published 30 September 2024
MIL OSI United Kingdom –
January 23, 2025
MIL-OSI Asia-Pac: Consultation conclusions on information sharing among Authorized Institutions to aid in prevention or detection of crime

Source: Hong Kong Government special administrative region

Consultation conclusions on information sharing among Authorized Institutions to aid in prevention or detection of crime
Consultation conclusions on information sharing among Authorized Institutions to aid in prevention or detection of crime
******************************************************************************************

The following is issued on behalf of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority: The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) published today (September 30) the conclusions of the public consultation on a proposal for information sharing among Authorized Institutions (AIs) to aid in prevention or detection of crime (Conclusions Document). The Conclusions Document sets out the main comments received, the HKMA’s responses, and the next steps on taking forward the HKMA’s proposal. The HKMA launched a public consultation on January 23, 2024 to seek views from the banking sector and the public on proposals to facilitate sharing of information among AIs of information on customer accounts (including personal customers) for the purposes of preventing and detecting crime. The aim of the proposals is to help protect bank customers and the banking system against abuse for fraud, money laundering and terrorist financing (ML/TF). The HKMA received a total of 18 submissions from the banking industry, professional associations, public sector, law enforcement agencies, relevant firms and organisations and members of the public in the consultation. Respondents were generally in support of the proposal. In particular, the HKMA welcomes the comments provided by the Office of the Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data (PCPD) from the perspective of protection of personal data privacy under the Personal Data (Privacy) Ordinance (Cap. 486) (PDPO), which are reflected in the Conclusions Document. The HKMA will take into account the comments received and proceed with preparation of the necessary legislative amendments, which will form part of the overall review of the Banking Ordinance. In the meantime, the HKMA will continue to engage stakeholders on practical matters relating to implementation of the proposal. The Conclusions Document is available on the HKMA website.

Ends/Monday, September 30, 2024Issued at HKT 16:12

NNNN

MIL OSI Asia Pacific News –

January 23, 2025
MIL-OSI Economics: Notice on Rotating Chair Tenure

Source: Huawei

Headline: Notice on Rotating Chair Tenure

In accordance with Huawei’s Rotating Chair system, Ms. Sabrina Meng will assume the position of Rotating and Acting Chair of Huawei from October 1, 2024 to March 31, 2025. During her term, Ms. Meng will serve in the company’s top leadership position and head the Board of Directors and its Executive Committee.
Sabrina Meng’s Bio

Ms. Meng holds a master’s degree from Huazhong University of Science and Technology. Ms. Meng joined Huawei in 1993 and has held positions including Director of the International Accounting Dept, CFO of Huawei Hong Kong, and President of the Accounting Mgmt Dept. Ms. Meng now serves as Deputy Chairwoman of the Board, and Rotating Chairwoman and CFO of Huawei.
Since 2003, Ms. Meng has led the establishment of Huawei’s globally unified finance organizational structure, processes, regulations, and IT platforms. From 2007 to 2014, Ms. Meng implemented the Integrated Financial Services (IFS) Transformation Program across the company around the world, making fine-grained management part of Huawei’s DNA for sustainable growth.
In 2014, Ms. Meng led the company’s data transformation and established a comprehensive data management system, creating a single source for data and making data a strategic asset of the company. During the same period, Ms. Meng implemented transformation programs for Internal Controls over Financial Reporting (ICFR), Consistency of Inventory Accounts and Goods (CIAG), treasury management, and tax management. This has transformed the finance team into a business partner and value integrator, and supported the rapid and stable development of the company’s business worldwide.
Since 2019, Ms. Meng has developed a blueprint for the digital transformation of finance based on the company’s strategic vision and long-term development plan. She has led the development of key risk indicators and risk control models, making contactless risk controls a reality at Huawei. She has guided the establishment of an agile operations management system which has facilitated intelligent operations management and decision-making based on data and AI algorithms. She has also guided the establishment of an integrated management platform for key financial operations scenarios, to achieve collaborative operations and matrix management based on data sharing and real-time interactions.
Under Ms. Meng’s leadership, Huawei has established a world-leading digital and intelligent finance organization, laying a solid foundation for the company’s operations and supporting the company’s efforts to realize its strategies in the new era.

MIL OSI Economics –

January 23, 2025
MIL-OSI Economics: Governor Christian Kettel Thomsen’s speech at the 3S Collaboration’s board seminar

Source: Danmarks Nationalbank

Danish economy

30 September 2024

On 30 September, Governor Christian Kettel Thomsen gave a speech at the 3S Collaboration’s board seminar. The presentation focused on Nationalbanken’s new outlook for the Danish economy, various issues in the financial sector as well as cyber security and artificial intelligence (The speech is in Danish only).

MIL OSI Economics –

January 23, 2025