Category: Transport

  • MIL-OSI New Zealand: Man arrested in relation to Wainuiomata assault

    Source: New Zealand Police (National News)

    A man has been arrested following the assault in Wainuiomata last night, which left a man with serious injuries.

    The 23-year-old man has been charged with wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm, and is due to appear in Lower Hutt District Court tomorrow.

    The vehicle he was driving has been seized and will be forensically examined.

    Our enquiries have established that the incident occurred after an alleged road rage incident, which is believed to have occurred on Wainuiomata Road, between Rata Street and The Strand.

    Police are still looking to hear from anyone who may have information about this incident or those involved.

    In particular, we would like to speak to the occupants of a light-coloured Toyota Corolla, who may have recorded the incident on a phone, and the occupants of another vehicle who stopped and attempted to calm those involved in the incident.

    The alleged assault took place in a supermarket car park, with the store open at the time and shoppers about, so we are confident there are other people who witnessed what occurred and may be able to help our enquiries.

    If you can help, please use our 105 service and quote reference number 250205/0193.

    You can also share information anonymously through Crime Stoppers on 0800 555 111.

    ENDS

    Issued by Police Media Centre. 

    MIL OSI New Zealand News

  • MIL-OSI Economics: RBI cancels the licence granted to The Cuddalore and Villupuram District Central Co-operative Bank’s Employees Cooperative Bank Ltd., Cuddalore, Tamil Nadu and allows it to function as non-banking institution

    Source: Reserve Bank of India

    Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is satisfied to notify The Cuddalore and Villupuram District Central Co-operative Bank’s Employees Cooperative Bank Ltd., Cuddalore – 607001, Tamil Nadu as a non-banking institution under Section 36A(2) read with Section 56 of the Banking Regulation Act, 1949. Consequently, RBI has cancelled the licence dated March 21, 2000, granted to The Cuddalore and Villupuram District Central Co-operative Bank’s Employees Cooperative Bank Ltd., Cuddalore – 607001, Tamil Nadu to carry on banking business in India under Section 22 read with Section 56 of the Banking Regulation Act,1949, with effect from the close of business on February 6, 2025. This makes it obligatory on the part of The Cuddalore and Villupuram District Central Co-operative Bank’s Employees Cooperative Bank Ltd., Cuddalore – 607001, Tamil Nadu to stop conducting the business of ‘banking’ within the meaning of section 5(b) read with Section 56 of the Act ibid, including acceptance of deposits from non-members with immediate effect. Further, The Cuddalore and Villupuram District Central Co-operative Bank’s Employees Cooperative Bank Ltd., Cuddalore – 607001, Tamil Nadu shall ensure to repay unpaid and unclaimed deposits of non-members held by it, whenever demanded, even after being notified as a non-banking institution.

    (Puneet Pancholy)  
    Chief General Manager

    Press Release: 2024-2025/2087

    MIL OSI Economics

  • MIL-OSI: Capgemini and Peugeot Sport renew their partnership to tackle technological and sustainable challenges in sports performance

    Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

    Capgemini and Peugeot Sport renew their partnership to tackle technological and sustainable challenges in sports performance

    Paris, February 6, 2025 – Capgemini has renewed its partnership with Peugeot Sport to continue developing the 9X8 Hypercar that is competing in the FIA World Endurance Championship (FIA WEC). While enhancing the Hypercar’s performance through data with artificial intelligence (AI) at the heart of the partnership, the two companies also aim to strengthen their collaboration on reducing Peugeot Sport’s carbon footprint.

    Over the past two years, Capgemini teams have built a powerful data engineering platform to analyze information from both real and simulated races, as well as the associated parameters (driver, circuit, race conditions, etc.). The AI model powering the virtual sensors is tailored, compiled, and embedded in the PEUGEOT 9X8’s onboard computer to enhance decision-making and adjust the Hypercar’s behavior in real-time. Racing engineers have also significantly reduced the time required for processing and analysis—tasks that previously took a full day can now be completed in just ten minutes.

    Enhancing Hypercar 9×8 performance with generative AI
    The next step involves leveraging generative AI to analyze temporal sensor data to identify anomalies during the extended durations of tests or races. Generative AI will also be used to capture and structure the exchanges and interactions between drivers and race engineers, which, in the endurance championship context, can last several hours. These new insights will then be correlated with race data to extract valuable information aimed at optimizing the Hypercar’s performance.

    Decarbonizing motorsport
    Since 2022, Capgemini has been supporting Peugeot Sport, and more broadly Stellantis Motorsport, in its comprehensive decarbonization initiative, offering a proven methodology at every step of this journey. The first stage involved calculating the carbon footprint of the entire motorsport ecosystem: from vehicles on the track to parts and team logistics, as well as the organization of sporting events. Subsequently, around 30 concrete actions were identified to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 2030, with annual assessments and adjustments as needed. After several theoretical phases, practical implementation is now underway, with all action plans deployed. Key performance indicators are closely monitored to measure progress, and goals are on track to be achieved, with emissions calculations updated annually.

    Examples of initiatives implemented in addition to FIA WEC’s measures include:

    • R&D teams adopting an eco-design approach for vehicles, incorporating environmental considerations during parts development processes and using alternative materials without compromising performance.
    • Supplier engagement as a key element of the roadmap. Primary suppliers are supported in their decarbonization efforts through discussions, calculation tools, and idea exchanges with the design office to optimize the entire supply chain.
    • Climate awareness workshops (“Climate Fresco”) held for employees to highlight the impact of daily actions.
    • Optimized travel arrangements, with a preference for maritime freight.
    • Deployment of renewable biofuel tanks (HVO-100) for the entire fleet of trucks and diesel utility vehicles, reducing greenhouse gas emissions by more than 85% compared to fossil fuels.

    “The WEC Championship is an essential discipline for Team Peugeot TotalEnergies. The visibility and prestige of the 24 Hours of Le Mans make it a key event to showcase the advancements and improvements made by all actors in motorsport. Beyond the sporting event, we play a pioneering role in sustainability by developing tomorrow’s technologies. Today, AI has become a key element of our racing strategy, confirmed by improved results at the end of the 2024 season, particularly at Fuji and Bahrain,” said Jean-Marc Finot, Senior VP of Stellantis Motorsport. “Thanks to our partnership with Capgemini, we are able to closely monitor the key decarbonization indicators to ensure we stay on track with the ambitious goals we have set for 2030. Together, we are tackling a dual challenge: sports and sustainable performance.”

    “We are delighted to continue our collaboration to enhance Peugeot Sport’s performance, both in terms of sporting results and the environmental impact of motorsport, by providing the latest AI technologies and our expertise in decarbonization,” said Andrea Falleni, CEO of Capgemini in Southern Europe and Member of the Group Executive Board.

    The partnership between Peugeot Sport and Capgemini is part of Capgemini’s global sports sponsorship strategy, addressing two key objectives: firstly, partnering with major brands or sporting events worldwide (such as the Rugby World Cups for men and women or the Ryder Cup) to celebrate teamwork and boldness; and secondly, leveraging its expertise to provide cutting-edge technological tools to enhance performance and fan experiences, as seen during the 37th America’s Cup in 2024.

    About Capgemini
    Capgemini is a global business and technology transformation partner, helping organizations to accelerate their dual transition to a digital and sustainable world, while creating tangible impact for enterprises and society. It is a responsible and diverse group of 340,000 team members in more than 50 countries. With its strong over 55-year heritage, Capgemini is trusted by its clients to unlock the value of technology to address the entire breadth of their business needs. It delivers end-to-end services and solutions leveraging strengths from strategy and design to engineering, all fuelled by its market leading capabilities in AI, cloud and data, combined with its deep industry expertise and partner ecosystem. The Group reported 2023 global revenues of €22.5 billion.
    Get the Future You Want | www.capgemini.com

    About Peugeot Sport
    Since its inception, Peugeot Sport has pushed the limits of performance and innovation in motorsport. Combining technological expertise, boldness, and passion, Peugeot Sport takes on the most demanding challenges in international competitions while adopting a sustainable and responsible approach.
    Whether through its FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) program with the PEUGEOT 9X8, its involvement in cutting-edge technology development, or its heritage marked by iconic victories, Peugeot Sport embodies French excellence in competition.

    With a constant spirit of innovation, Peugeot Sport is also a key player in the energy transition, developing mobility solutions that are more environmentally friendly.

    For more information, visit www.peugeot-sport.com
    Stay up to date with all Peugeot Sport news

    Attachment

    The MIL Network

  • MIL-OSI United Kingdom: £8 million for Port Talbot growth and regeneration project

    Source: United Kingdom – Executive Government & Departments

    A new project will support more than 100 jobs and eventually generate more than £87 million for the South Wales economy.

    £8.2 million more announced for growth and regeneration project in Port Talbot.

    • The first of the growth and regeneration projects in Port Talbot will receive £8.2 million from the Tata Steel / Port Talbot Transition Board.
    • Plans will support more than 100 jobs and eventually generate more than £87 million for the South Wales economy. 
    • Tata Steel / Port Talbot Transition Board has now allocated £51 million into the local community.

    More than 100 jobs are expected to be created and supported with the UK Government announcement of £8.2 million funding for the first regeneration project in Port Talbot with other projects set to follow. 

    Chairing the latest meeting of the Tata Steel Port Talbot Transition Board today (6 February) Welsh Secretary Jo Stevens will announce £8.2 million for the South Wales Industrial Transition from Carbon Hub (SWITCH) supporting more than 100 jobs. 

    The South Wales Industrial Transition from Carbon Hub project will redevelop a four-acre site at Harbourside, Port Talbot which will include the construction of additional shared space, undertake flood mitigation and the provision of specialist equipment. This investment will help establish an Innovation District in Port Talbot. 

    This will allow the development of a new facility targeted at supporting the steel and metal industry and supply chain to reduce carbon emissions in production. The facility is expected to create and support more than 100 jobs and eventually benefit the South Wales economy by £87 million.

    The latest funding comes from the UK Government’s £80m Tata Steel / Port Talbot Transition Board fund which, since last July, has announced £51 million to support individual steelworkers and businesses in Tata Steel’s supply chain to protect jobs and grow the local economy. The latest announcement is the first project to support growth and regeneration of the region. In the coming months, there will be up to £30 million (as part of the overall £80 million) put into growth and regeneration projects.   

    This funding supports the UK Government’s mission to kickstart economic growth and will help deliver the ambition to raise living standards in every part of the United Kingdom as set out its Plan for Change. 

    Welsh Secretary Jo Stevens said:  

    We said we would back the community of Port Talbot through Tata Steel’s transition and we continue to do exactly that.

    In just six months there has now been over £50 million announced by the Transition Board to support individual steelworkers and their families, businesses in the supply chain and now on a major regeneration project for the town.

    Millions more will follow and while this remains a very difficult time for Tata workers, their families and the community, we are determined to support our steel communities whatever happens.

    The Secretary of State will also ensure that work is progressing at pace to develop a range of wellbeing and mental health interventions. This work will prioritise the provision of mental health support, help build community cohesion, support the delivery of wellbeing initiatives and peer support within the local community including that currently delivered via local community and other support groups. Funding to support this work will be announced at the next transition board meeting.

    Cabinet Secretary for Economy, Energy and Planning Rebecca Evans said:

    This announcement builds on the investment that will be unlocked through the recent Celtic Freeport and other investments and innovation we are supporting in and around Port Talbot. 

    Working alongside our Transition Bard partners, we will continue to do everything we can to provide opportunities for growth wherever they arise as well as making sure that the right assistance and support is in place for those impacted by the Tata changes.

    The Leader of Neath Port Talbot Council, Cllr Steve Hunt, said:

    We welcome this extra tranche of funding as the SWITCH project will attract jobs and investment to Neath Port Talbot as it progresses over the next few years. It also means this area can build on its long history in the steel and metals industries to address the challenges of our time.” 

    Professor Helen Griffiths, Pro Vice Chancellor for Research and Innovation at Swansea University, said:

    SWITCH will leverage Swansea University’s history of uniting academia, industry, local authorities, and government. This significant investment will make Welsh research and innovation expertise even more accessible to business and industry, and help stimulate economic growth, provide long-term employment and foster a thriving community.

    The South Wales Industrial Transition from Carbon Hub (SWITCH) delivers research to support industrial decarbonisation transition. This announcement of Transition Board funding for the SWITCH Harboursideproject will create a new base for SWITCH. This will add to the facility’s £20 million funding from the Swansea Bay City Deal, which is also part-funded by the UK Government. 

    Updates to this page

    Published 6 February 2025

    MIL OSI United Kingdom

  • MIL-OSI Australia: Serious crash at Beaufort

    Source: South Australia Police

    Police and emergency services are at the scene of a serious crash at Beaufort in the state’s mid north.

    About 5.25pm on Thursday 6 February police were called to the Augusta Highway approximately 4km north of Beaufort after reports of a crash.

    The Augusta Highway is closed between Branch Hill Road and Pipeline Road.

    Please be patient with crews in the area.

    Any vehicle larger than a semi-trailer will not be able to access local diversions and will need to park up.

    MIL OSI News

  • MIL-OSI New Zealand: Five people arrested following incident at Makara property

    Source: New Zealand Police (District News)

    Five people have been arrested following an incident at a property in Makara Road, Wellington today.

    Police were called to the residential address at 1.50pm, after a report of a person being threated with a firearm.

    The Armed Offenders Squad was deployed as a precaution and cordons were put in place on Makara Road.

    Three people were arrested as they left the property in a vehicle.

    Two other people who had fled the property on foot were subsequently located by Police nearby and arrested.

    Police are still working to establish exactly what took place at the property, but initial indications suggest those involved are known to each other.

    Nobody was injured during the incident and no charges have been laid at this time.

    Police would like to thank nearby residents on Makara Road for their patience and cooperation while cordons remained in place.

    Residents can expect to see a continued police presence this evening as we continue our enquiries at the Makara Road address.

    ENDS

    Issued by Police Media Centre. 

    MIL OSI New Zealand News

  • MIL-OSI Africa: Afreximbank challenges Africa’s miners to take bold steps to own the continent’s resources

    Source: Africa Press Organisation – English (2) – Report:

    CAPE TOWN, South Africa, February 5, 2025/APO Group/ —

    Africa must take bold steps to own its resources, create jobs and build industries that sustain prosperity for generations, African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) (www.Afreximbank.com) has told African leaders, policymakers, mining industry leaders and global partners at the African Mining Indaba 2025 in Cape Town, South Africa, on Sunday.

    In a keynote address at the ministerial symposium of the Indaba, Mr. Denys Denya, Senior Executive Vice President of the Afreximbank Group, argued that the continent was standing at a crossroads and could either continue exporting its wealth and remain a marginal player in the global economy or take the bold steps to own its resources.

    He noted that “While the global mining industry generated approximately US$1.7 trillion in revenue in 2023, Africa’s share of this wealth remains disproportionately low. Our continent extracts the raw materials that power the world’s industries, yet it is estimated that we retain as little as between four per cent and 20 per cent of the total value of our minerals due to minimal local processing and limited downstream development. The result? Lost economic opportunities, exposure to volatile commodity cycles and a persistent reliance on external markets for refined products derived from our own resources.” “The choice is ours. The time to act is now. Let us work together: governments, financial institutions, investors, and industry players to build an Africa where mining is not just about extraction but about transformation, innovation and wealth creation,” said Mr. Denya. “Africa has the resources, the market potential, and the policy frameworks to transition from a resource-dependent continent to an industrial powerhouse. However, success will depend on bold, decisive action from all stakeholders. Policymakers must implement clear, enforceable regulations that mandate local value addition and create investment-friendly environments. Private sector investors must step up with capital and technology to develop processing, refining, and manufacturing facilities.”

    Reversing this trend demanded bold, coordinated action, he argued. “We must move beyond extraction and invest in refining, smelting and advanced manufacturing. African nations must increase local processing capacity for minerals such as bauxite, lithium, cobalt and iron ore.”

    He added that regional collaboration was essential as no single country could build a mining value chain in isolation.

    Mr. Denya highlighted the importance of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) in developing intra-African mineral value chains and strengthening cross-border collaboration and said that attracting capital for mining-related infrastructure, technology transfer and skills development were critical.

    “Our mining policies must also prioritise environmental, social and governance standards, ensuring that mining benefits communities rather than displacing them,” he said, adding that the approach would create millions of skilled jobs for the youth and reduce reliance on volatile global markets while strengthening intra-African trade.

    Reiterating Afreximbank’s commitment to supporting Africa’s mining sector and ensuring that mineral wealth drove economic growth rather than perpetuate resource dependency, Mr. Denya announced that, over the past three years, the Bank had approved more than US$1 billion in support of mining and mineral sector projects across the continent, including financing the development and construction of a bauxite processing plant in Guinea, supporting the expansion of a manganese processing plant in Gabon and providing working capital financing to a diamond company in Botswana.

    Other major projects being supported by the Bank include a petrochemical fertilizer plant in Angola, a titanium dioxide pigment plant in South Africa and the feasibility study for the development of a limestone mine processing plant in Malawi, he added.

    Mr. Denya said that the establishment of the US$10-billion AfCFTA Adjustment Fund, managed by FEDA, Afreximbank’s impact investment subsidiary, would provide critical financial support to countries and businesses transitioning to the new trade regime, including those in the mining sector, and that the Bank’s efforts to harmonise standards and implement the Africa Collaborative Transit Guarantee Scheme would also facilitate seamless movement of minerals and mining equipment across borders, reducing logistical bottlenecks.

    Afreximbank was also leveraging digital platforms, such as the Africa Trade Gateway and the Pan-African Payment and Settlement System, to enable efficient transactions and market access, which would ensure that Africa’s vast mineral wealth was utilised to drive industrialisation, value addition and economic resilience across the continent, he added.

    Mr. Denya also noted that Afreximbank, in collaboration with development partners, was driving the development and expansion of industrial parks and special economic zones (SEZs) to address infrastructure challenges that hinder industrial growth.

    One of the most transformative initiatives under that pillar was the DRC/Zambia Electric Vehicle Battery Manufacturing Special Economic Zones – a project that positions Africa at the centre of the global energy transition by the implementation of battery precursor SEZs aimed at making the two countries globally competitive investment destinations for the battery electric vehicle value chain.

    The African Mining Indaba 2025, taking place from 3 to 6 February, is the premier gathering where Africa policymakers, industry leaders and global partners work to shape the future of the African mining sector.

    MIL OSI Africa

  • MIL-OSI Russia: NSU scientists have established that ordinary optical fiber can be used to manufacture systems for generating optical frequency combs

    Translartion. Region: Russians Fedetion –

    Source: Novosibirsk State University – Novosibirsk State University –

    Research staff of the Laboratory of Fiber Lasers Faculty of Physics, Novosibirsk State University found that high precision is not required to produce a radius variation on the surface of an optical fiber. It is enough to take a regular piece of fiber, make a couple of notches on it, and automatically obtain a system in which it is already possible to generate an optical frequency comb with a low repetition rate. The results of their study were published in the journal Optics Letters (Soliton-comb solutions for fiber-based bottle microresonators, HTTPS: //d.org/10.1364/ul.544823)

    — In our work, we show that cylindrical microresonators are a simple and reliable platform for generating optical frequency combs with a low repetition rate. If small variations in the radius are introduced into such a system, there is a set of axial modes with different spatial distributions along the fiber axis, while the spectral distance between them can be reduced to 100 MHz. In earlier works, a theoretical demonstration of an axial comb in a cylindrical microresonator with a parabolic radius variation was already carried out at a qualitative level. Our study reveals a counterintuitive fact: the axial soliton width weakly depends on the mode dispersion and can be observed, in principle, in a system with any form of radius variation. This significantly simplifies the fabrication of a system for generating optical frequency combs. Thus, any piece of optical fiber, regardless of its shape and surface roughness, can be used to generate combs, said Alena Kolesnikova, a junior researcher at the NSU Fiber Laser Laboratory.

    An optical frequency comb is a signal spectrum that looks like a set of narrow spectral lines equidistant from each other with high accuracy. In essence, it is a frequency line. The signal itself, to which such a spectrum corresponds, is a sequence of pulses arriving at the measuring device with one frequency, which is exactly equal to the distance between the lines in the comb. Since the comb is a kind of frequency line, the main application is ultra-precise measurement of frequency and time. And this in turn opens up a wide range of applications in the fields of spectroscopy, optical clocks, GPS navigation, distance measurement in astronomy, and also has applications in telecommunications, etc.

    There are two options for generating frequency combs: mode-locked lasers and microresonators. The first platform allows generating combs with a low repetition rate, i.e. with a small line pitch, but requires significant energy consumption and is relatively large. Microresonators, in turn, are small in size and require less power, but the distance between the lines is limited. To reduce it, it is necessary to increase the size of the resonator, but then it will require more power.

    — As in any resonator, there are modes in microresonators — this is a stable distribution of the electromagnetic field, which is a consequence of the limitation of the space in which it exists. Depending on the shape of the microresonator, we obtain different spatial distributions of modes. Each mode has its own resonant frequency. In order for the generation of combs in microresonators to be possible, it is necessary for the system to have a set of modes whose resonant frequencies are equidistant, that is, equally spaced. It is the distance between the frequencies of the modes that determines the distance between the lines in the comb, — explained Alena Kolesnikova.

    In previously known microresonators of spherical, ring or toroidal shape, the distance between the lines is about 10-1000 GHz. The best oscilloscopes at the moment allow direct measurement of frequencies up to 20 GHz, that is, without additional signal processing it is simply impossible to measure such frequencies.

    In a cylindrical microresonator with a small radius variation, it is possible to generate a comb with a repetition rate of less than 10 GHz and with the possibility of reducing it to 100 MHz, while maintaining the micron dimensions of the platform. This became possible due to the fact that such a system has a set of axial modes (modes with a spatial distribution along the cylinder), which, due to the geometry of the cylinder itself, have a small distance between resonant frequencies.

    — We have studied a cylindrical microresonator with a radius variation for the possibility of generating combs on a set of axial modes using the developed model. Such a microresonator can be made on the basis of a standard optical fiber, which is available in any laboratory that deals with fiber optics. To do this, it is enough to remove the plastic shell from the fiber and heat it with a CO2 laser. At the point of heating, the fiber will swell a little, that is, a small radius variation will occur. It is this radius variation that allows us to obtain a set of axial modes, since it will delay the radiation inside this area. Before us, such a system had already been studied for the possibility of generating combs. From the experience of generating combs in microspheres, rings, etc., it was believed that in order to make the comb as wide as possible, an almost perfectly equidistant spectrum of modes is necessary. For axial modes of a cylindrical microresonator, this is possible if we make a parabolic form of radius variation on its surface, which is actually a non-trivial experimental task and requires a good, precise algorithm for heating the fiber with a CO2 laser, said Alena Kolesnikova.

    The laboratory scientists have shown that in fact almost any form of radius variation can be suitable for generating a comb in such a system. In this case, the width of the comb, all other parameters being equal, will not depend on the shape. They modeled two cases: microresonators with a parabolic shape and a rectangular form of radius variation, and obtained the generation of solitons, in the spectrum of which look like an optical frequency comb. In this case, the characteristics of solitons and combs are almost the same for both cases. They came to the conclusion that high precision in manufacturing the radius variation on the fiber surface is not required. You can take an ordinary piece of fiber, make a couple of notches on it (i.e. a rectangular form of radius variation), you can even mechanically and automatically obtain a system in which the generation of an optical frequency comb with a low repetition rate is already possible.

    — It is also worth noting that the manufacturing process of other types of microresonators, spherical, toroidal, ring, etc., is also complex and requires high precision, while optical fiber is available and is a mass-produced product. As far as we know, no one has yet obtained optical combs in such a system, — explained Alena Kolesnikova.

    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.

    MIL OSI Russia News

  • MIL-OSI China: Beijing sees surge in intl travelers during Spring Festival

    Source: China State Council Information Office 2

    Beijing experienced a significant influx of international visitors during the Spring Festival holiday, with 450,000 tourists making cross-border trips, up 24.4% from last year, according to the Beijing General Station of Exit and Entry Frontier Inspection.
    The surge began before the holiday, with daily traffic exceeding 70,000 on both Jan. 25 and 26, setting new records.
    During the period from Jan. 24 to Feb. 4, more than 288,000 Chinese travelers made outbound trips, averaging 24,000 daily, a 26.3% increase from 2024.
    Foreign visitors made 98,000 cross-border trips during the same period, up 45.2% from last year. About 16,000 overseas visitors entered China visa-free, accounting for 36.4% of foreign arrivals. The 240-hour visa-free policy has encouraged more international visitors to visit China to experience Spring Festival celebrations.
    Beijing immigration officials used flight forecasting systems to manage border crossings during the holiday rush. The technology helped officials redirect staff and open additional checkpoints during peak periods. They also established a special area with seating for travelers applying for 240-hour temporary entry permits.
    The Spring Festival travel surge coincided with the 2025 Harbin Asian Winter Games. To facilitate the passage of event-related personnel and equipment, officials set up dedicated channels to expedite processing for Games-related personnel and equipment.

    MIL OSI China News

  • MIL-OSI New Zealand: EIT Tutors teach invaluable skills to remote islands of Tokelau | EIT Hawke’s Bay and Tairāwhiti

    Source: Eastern Institute of Technology – Tairāwhiti

    2 minutes ago

    Two EIT tutors have spent six weeks in Tokelau, teaching essential plumbing and automotive maintenance skills to support the remote island community. 

    The program, delivered by Stu Hannam and Chris Olsen last year, focused on equipping locals with the practical knowledge needed to maintain vital infrastructure and improve their quality of life.

    Over the course of their stay, the tutors taught 45 students, repaired 60 outboard motors, 15 cars, 5 motorbikes, 5 chainsaws, generators, and a jackhammer. They also worked on plumbing repairs for community buildings, the local hospital, houses, schools, and a hotel. 

    EIT Automotive Tutor Stu Hannam with students in Tokelau.

    The journey to Tokelau was an adventure in itself. After flying from New Zealand to Samoa on August 31, the pair boarded Mataliki, Tokelau’s ferry, for a 46-hour voyage across rough seas.

    They arrived at the atoll of Atafu on September 6, where they spent 16 days teaching, before moving to Nukunonu, the largest atoll, for another 18 days. 

    For Hannam, an automotive tutor, the trip was about addressing a critical need. “The people didn’t really know how to fix things themselves,” he said.

    “They fixed things only when they broke. I showed them how to service their outboards to make them safe at sea. It’s crucial because they rely on fishing for food and survival.” 

    Olsen, a plumbing tutor, emphasised the importance of water management in the islands.

    “Water is their lifeline. They don’t have natural groundwater, so everything is collected in tanks,” he explained. “We taught them how to fix leaks and install proper spouting to catch rainwater. A lot of the work involved tweaking their existing knowledge and showing them how to do things properly.” 

    The impact of their training extended beyond individual skills. On Nukunonu, the Taupulea (Council of Elders) decided to establish a dedicated plumbing team from Olsen’s graduates.

    “It was awesome to see the community so happy about the knowledge their people gained.” 

    The tutors fully immersed themselves in Tokelauan culture, participating in activities such as church services, a dance competition, and cricket matches.

    “The singing in church was amazing,” Olsen recalled. “And, yes, we got roped into dancing, which was a lot of fun.” 

    For both tutors, the experience was profoundly rewarding.

    “It really reinforced how we, as educators, can make a huge difference in remote communities,” Olsen said.

    Hannam agreed, noting how appreciative the Tokelauan people were. “They’ve told me their motors are running better than ever, and they feel safer going out to fish.” 

    Their time on Nukunonu concluded with a ceremony attended by the Ulu-o-Tokelau (Head of Government), Alapati Tavite, who praised the success of the program. 

    While no official plans to return have been confirmed, both tutors hope this is just the beginning.

    “There’s still a third atoll we didn’t get to because of time constraints,” Olsen said. “If given the chance, we’d love to continue this work.” 

    Andrew McCrory, Assistant Head School of Trades and Technology, said teaching these valuable Plumbing and Automotive Skills was a huge success for EIT and the Tokelauan Communities. 

    “Student engagement and embracing the community is important in these situations, and full credit must go to Chris and Stu for taking time away from their families to make this happen. They have both laid the groundwork for more tertiary education in Tokelau.”

    MIL OSI New Zealand News

  • MIL-OSI: Sampo Group’s results for 2024 

    Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

    Sampo plc, finanacial statement release, 6 February 2025 at 8:30 am EET

    Sampo Group’s results for 2024 

    • Top-line growth amounted to 12 per cent in 2024 on a currency adjusted basis, with notably strong development in Private in the fourth quarter.

    • The Group underlying combined ratio improved by 1.5 percentage points, supported by positive trends in the Nordics and in the UK.

    • The Group underwriting result increased by 13 per cent to EUR 1,316 million (1,164), driven by strong growth and a slight improvement in the Group combined ratio to 84.3 per cent (84.6).

    • Operating EPS increased by 13 per cent to EUR 2.33 (2.07) on a higher underwriting result and stable investment returns.

    • Solvency II coverage stood at 177 per cent, net of the proposed dividend, and financial leverage amounted to 26.9 per cent.

    • The Board proposes a regular dividend of EUR 1.70 per share, or EUR 0.34 per share adjusted for the share split announced on 5 February 2025.

    • Sampo expects to deliver an underwriting result of EUR 1,350–1,450 million in 2025, representing growth of 3–10 per cent year-on-year, and insurance revenue of EUR 8.7–9.0 billion.

    Key figures

    EURm 1–12/
    2024
    1–12/
    2023
    Change, % 10–12/
    2024
    10–12/
    2023
    Change, %
    Profit before taxes 1,559 1,481 5 219 368 -40
      If 1,256 1,358 -8 187 369 -49
      Topdanmark 137 162 -15 -21 19
      Hastings 193 129 49 52 59 -11
      Holding -29 -160 -1 -78
    Net profit for the equity holders 1,154 1,323 -13 180 382 -53
    Operating result 1,193 1,046 14 347 208 66
    Underwriting result 1,316 1,164 13 361 281 28
          Change, %     Change, %
    Earnings per share (EUR) 2.25 2.62 -14 0.31 0.76 -59
    Operating EPS (EUR) 2.33 2.07  13 0.65 0.42 55
    Return on equity own funds, % 29.5 24.7

     Net profit for the equity holders and earnings per share for 2023 include result from life operations.
    The figures in this report have not been audited.

    Sampo Group key financial targets for 2024–2026

    Target 2024
    Operating EPS growth: over 7% (period average) 13%
    Group combined ratio: below 85% 84.3%
    Solvency ratio: 150-190% 177%
    Financial leverage: below 30% 26.9%

    Financial targets for 2024–2026 announced at the Capital Markets Day on 6 March 2024.

    GROUP CEO’S COMMENT

    2024 was a landmark year strategically for Sampo as well as an excellent year when it comes to operational progress. We delivered solid underwriting profit growth of 13 per cent, significantly supported by strong performance in the UK, and we acquired the minority interest in Topdanmark, completing our journey to an integrated P&C insurance group. We enter 2025 in excellent shape, following strong growth in the fourth quarter and with an attractive pipeline of opportunities to capitalise on our digital capabilities and the synergy potential in integrating Topdanmark.

    Top-line growth continued to be excellent in the fourth quarter, on the back of long-term investments made into our capabilities and rational market conditions. Private stands out with 8 per cent currency adjusted GWP growth in the quarter, or 10 per cent if we exclude the Swedish mobility business adversely affected by low new car sales. This growth comes partly from investments into personal insurance and property, which grew by 14 per cent and 7 per cent in the quarter, respectively. However, supportive conditions in Norway and Denmark also provide a tail wind with a notable acceleration in GWP growth in Topdanmark to 11 per cent in the quarter. Private retention remains high and stable at 89 per cent, reflecting both high customer satisfaction and rational Nordic markets. To complete the picture on Private, I am pleased to be able to report that we have recently renewed two of the largest motor insurance distribution agreements in the Nordic markets, thereby confirming our strong leadership position in the region.

    In the UK, we added 84,000 policies in the quarter with growth in new products, such as telematics, bike, van, and home insurance, partly offset by a disciplined approach to the broader motor product as market pricing ticked down. Overall, 2024 was an outstanding year for Hastings with underwriting profit growth of 49 per cent, accounting for almost half the 13 per cent increase at Group level.

    In corporate lines, I want to focus on the 1 January 2025 renewals, which account for around 40–45 per cent of the business. Commercial achieved high-single digit rate increases, backed by particularly strong development in Norway, while retention remained high. In Industrial, a largely supportive market enabled rate increases above plan, and we took the opportunity to continue to reduce our exposure to the largest property risks. Our main reinsurance programmes were renewed successfully on 1 January, with net retention unchanged at SEK 300 million (circa EUR 25 million) per event and individual property risk.

    The de-risking action taken in Industrial and our discipline in UK motor illustrates our underwriting culture and commitment to high and stable margins. The fourth quarter once again saw strong and consistent development in underlying margins, as well as yet another improvement in the Nordic cost ratio putting us ahead of the ambition for 2024. The integration of Topdanmark into If P&C provides an opportunity to accelerate Nordic productivity improvements over the coming years.

    Turning to capital management, the Board of Directors is proposing a dividend of EUR 1.70 per share for 2024, or EUR 0.34 per share adjusting for the upcoming share split, representing growth of 6 per cent, as we prioritise reliability and a steady trajectory. In addition, I expect that we will launch new buyback programme in 2025, with a new mandate from our Annual General Meeting, funded by capital generated in 2024 and potential disposals of legacy holding company investments. Our commitment to disciplined capital management is unwavering and we will regularly seek to complement dividends with share buybacks.

    To conclude, we look to 2025 with great confidence. We have completed our strategic simplification, further rapidly developed our digital abilities and seen strong momentum in the 1 January renewals. Based on this, we have set an outlook for underwriting profit of EUR 1,350–1,450 million for 2025, reflecting our expectation to be able to deliver on our operating EPS growth target of more than 7 per cent per annum on average in 2024–2026.

    Torbjörn Magnusson
    Group CEO

     
    OUTLOOK

    Operating environment and assumptions

    The acquisition of Topdanmark in 2024 completed Sampo’s transition into a fully integrated P&C insurance group. Sampo has an attractive operational footprint as the leader in the consolidated Nordic P&C insurance market and a leading operator in the growing digital UK P&C insurance market, positioning the Group to deliver both stability and growth.

    Competitive dynamics remain rational across the Group’s areas of operation going into 2025, while demand for P&C insurance is stable despite limited economic growth. Sampo expects claims cost to continue to grow above the long-term trend over the year, driven by factors including rising repair costs for new cars and continued wage and service inflation. At Group level, underlying claims cost is expected to see a mid-single digit per cent increase in 2025, and the Group remains firmly committed to conservatively reflecting this in its pricing.

    The strategic and operational investments made by Sampo over recent years have substantially strengthened its competitive position. The Group has unique digital capabilities across distribution, pricing, underwriting, and claims handling that enable it to deliver superior service and efficiency. Further, the integration of Topdanmark into the Group is expected to enable financial benefits through the delivery of scale benefits and synergies.

    Outlook for 2025

    The outlook for Sampo Group’s 2025 financial performance is:

    • Group insurance revenue: EUR 8.7–9.0 billion, representing growth of 4–7 per cent year-on-year.

    • Group underwriting result: EUR 1,350–1,450 million, representing growth of 3–10 per cent year-on-year.

    The outlook for 2025 is consistent with Sampo’s 2024–2026 financial targets of delivering a combined ratio below 85 per cent and operating EPS growth of more than 7 per cent annually on average.

    The outlook is subject to uncertainty related to occurrence and estimation of the cost of P&C claims, investment performance, foreign exchange rates, and competitive dynamics. Revenue forecasts, in particular, are subject to competitive conditions, which may change rapidly in some areas, such as the UK motor insurance market. The revenue and underwriting profit figures in the outlook are based on 31 December 2024 currency exchange rates.


    FOURTH QUARTER 2024 IN BRIEF

    Strong top-line growth, notably in Private, and positive margin development drove 28 per cent growth in underwriting profits.

    Gross written premiums and brokerage income increased by 18 per cent on a currency-adjusted basis and 19 per cent on a reported basis to EUR 2,212 million (1,864) in October-December 2024. The growth was positively affected by Topdanmark’s acquisition of Oona Health as well as a change of inception date for a small group of large industrial contracts from the third quarter to the fourth quarter. Excluding these, the currency adjusted top-line growth was 10 per cent.

    Fourth quarter winter weather was fairly normal with claims damage caused mainly by localised events, whereas the prior year was affected by an early start to the winter in the Nordics. In total, severe weather and large claims had 2.3 percentage points negative effect on the Group combined ratio, down from 4.5 percentage points in the comparison period. The Group underlying combined ratio improved by 1.4 percentage points, driven by solid performance across business areas with If reporting an undiscounted adjusted risk ratio improvement of 0.3 percentage points year-on-year. The Group combined ratio improved to 83.4 per cent (85.5). The underwriting result increased by 28 per cent on a currency adjusted basis and on a reported basis to EUR 361 million (281) on strong growth.  

    The net financial result decreased to EUR 62 million (175) driven by lower investment income. Fourth quarter net investment income of EUR 70 million (517) was affected by a rise in interest rates and soft Nordic equity market performance, while the comparison period benefited from exceptionally favourable conditions. IFIE amounted to EUR -7 million (-342), supported by a positive effect of EUR 43 million from changes in discount rates, whereas the comparison period saw a negative effect of EUR -271 million. Unwind of discounting stood at EUR -54 million (-81).

    Profit before taxes was EUR 219 million (368). This includes non-recurring costs of around EUR 150 million related to the Topdanmark integration reserved for the fourth quarter, without which quarterly profit before taxes would have been EUR 369 million. Of the restructuring charge, EUR 76 million was booked in the If segment and EUR 73 million in the Topdanmark segment. Operating EPS came in at EUR 0.65 (0.42) on the back of higher underwriting result and stable investment returns.

    SAMPO PLC
    Board of Directors

    The Financial Statement Release for 2024, Investor Presentation and a video review with Group CFO Knut Arne Alsaker are available at www.sampo.com/result.

    A conference call for investors and analysts will be arranged today 6 February at 11:00 am Finnish time (9:00 am UK time). Please join the teleconference by registering using the following link: 

    https://palvelu.flik.fi/teleconference/?id=5004591

    The conference call can also be followed live at www.sampo.com/result. A recorded version and a transcript will later be available at the same address.

    For more information, please contact

    Knut Arne Alsaker, Group CFO, tel. +358 10 516 0010
    Sami Taipalus
    , Head of Investor Relations, tel. +358 10 516 0030
    Maria Silander
    , Communications Manager, Media Relations, tel. +358 10 516 0031

    Distribution:
    Nasdaq Helsinki
    Nasdaq Stockholm
    Nasdaq Copenhagen
    London Stock Exchange
    FIN-FSA
    The principal media
    www.sampo.com

    Attachment

    The MIL Network

  • MIL-OSI United Kingdom: New UK High Commissioner to Solomon Islands presents credentials

    Source: United Kingdom – Executive Government & Departments

    Paul Turner was appointed British High Commissioner to Solomon Islands and Nauru in July 2024.

    High Commissioner Paul Turner presenting his credentials to Prime Minister of Solomon Islands Jeremiah Manele.

    His Majesty’s new High Commissioner to Solomon Islands and non-resident High Commissioner to the Republic of Nauru, His Excellency Paul Robert Turner presented his credentials this week to the Prime Minister of Solomon Islands, Hon. Jeremiah Manele.

    Paul Turner was appointed British High Commissioner to Solomon Islands and Nauru in July 2024. Paul’s experience covers the UK Government and international organisations, including the World Bank, African Development Bank and the European Union.

    With the UK Department for International Development (DFID), Paul oversaw economic and trade portfolios in East and Southern Africa as well as in China. More recently, he worked for the World Bank in Uganda. 

    Paul has also led development teams in a range of fragile states including Afghanistan and the Western Balkans. Earlier in his career, he was private secretary to Ministers in DFID and the Home Office. 

    Acknowledging the bilateral relations between the two countries, Prime Minister Manele said UK is one of the first countries to forge ties with Solomon Islands since 1978. He also provided an overview of his government’s priorities including education, health, climate change and trade.

    In response, High Commissioner Paul Turner said that his mission was to expand bilateral relations between the two countries and be a key partner of the Government of Solomon Islands in addressing the impact of climate change.

    The High Commissioner said he was keen to explore opportunities in a number of economic sectors, especially the local cocoa industry and affirmed that one of his personal goals is to produce tangible outcomes in the sector during his time in office.

    The High Commissioner is the UK Government’s representative in a Commonwealth nation. They are responsible for the direction and work of the High Commission and its Deputy High Commissions and/or Consulates, including political work, trade and investment, press and cultural relations, and visa and consular services.

    Updates to this page

    Published 6 February 2025

    MIL OSI United Kingdom

  • MIL-OSI New Zealand: Waitangi Day Address at Ōnuku Marae

    Source: New Zealand Governor General

    Kei aku rangatira o Ngāi Tahu, tēnā koutou. Nāu rā te karanga, kia haramai ahau, i tēnei rā o Waitangi. Nāu anō te tino mōhio, ki te manaaki tangata. Nā reira aku mihi nui. Tēnā koutou katoa.

    I wish to specifically acknowledge: the Right Honourable Christopher Luxon, Prime Minister; the Right Honourable Gerry Brownlee, Speaker of the House of Representatives; Rear Admiral Mathew Williams, Vice Chief of Defence Force; Tā Tipene O’Regan, Member of the Order of New Zealand; Mr Justin Tipa, Chair of Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu, and your wider iwi leadership team; Mr Riki Tainui, representative for Ōnuku Rūnanga, and all representatives and whānau from Papatipu Rūnanga across Te Waipounamu.

    And, finally, to all distinguished guests, including representatives from central and local government, and all who have travelled to be here today – tēnā koutou katoa.

    Thank you for inviting me and my husband, Dr Davies, to Ōnuku, this beautiful place, to join with you in commemorating Waitangi Day this year. I know that the last Governor-General to attend commemorations at Ōnuku was my predecessor, Dame Patsy Reddy, six years ago, and I am honoured to be here today, in this very special part of Aotearoa New Zealand.

    Standing in this place, bearing, as it does, such deep history, and looking out at this harbour, of such astonishing beauty, I cannot help but be reminded of the whakataukī: ‘Whatungarongaro te tangata toitū te whenua. As people disappear from sight, the land remains.’

    I stand here and I think of those moments so significant in the history of Ngāi Tahu, Te Waipounamu, and Aotearoa, that have taken place here, on this whenua. I picture the HMS Herald entering Akaroa Harbour on the 28th of May 1840, and of Edward Williams and William Stewart coming ashore to explain the document they carried.

    In the following days, your tupuna surely gave deep consideration to what this Treaty might mean for Ngāi Tahu: for their tamariki and mokopuna, and for future generations – many of whom are gathered here today. I imagine Iwihau and Hone Tīkao returning to this place, on the 30th of May 1840, and signing that seventh sheet of Te Tiriti o Waitangi.

    Of course, it was also here, 158 years later, that the then Prime Minister, the Right Honourable Jenny Shipley, standing where I am now, delivered the Crown’s apology to Ngāi Tahu – expressing profound regret for the Government’s breaches of Te Tiriti in its dealings with your iwi, and initiating the process of redress and healing.

    I wholeheartedly commend Ngāi Tahu for all that you’ve achieved in these intervening years. You continue to be great leaders, collaborators, and champions, not only for this region, but for all of New Zealand – across the spheres of education and agriculture; business and the arts; innovation and sustainability – and working always with the vision, generosity, and enterprise for which your iwi is so rightly renowned.

    On that note, I wish to take this opportunity to again acknowledge Tā Tipene O’Regan. It has truly been one of the great honours of my term as Governor-General to present you, Tā Tipene, with your Order of New Zealand – our country’s highest civilian honour – for all you’ve done for Ngāi Tahu, and for Aotearoa.

    It was the author and former Governor-General of Canada, John Buchan, who said: ‘The task of leadership is not to put greatness into humanity, but to elicit it, for the greatness is already there.’ Thank you, on behalf of all New Zealanders, Tā Tipene, for the clarity, intelligence, and selflessness of your leadership, and the greatness you have elicited through your service over so many years.

    Across all its endeavours, Ngāi Tahu continues to seek the very best outcomes for your people, and for this precious land. I was deeply impressed by your Climate Change Strategy, emphasising, as it does, not only the urgency of the issues, but a model for principled, collective action in facing them.

    Perhaps most profoundly, it speaks to those often-neglected facts: that we are each a part of the natural world – and that, in the irreversible degradation and loss of the environment around us, we are, in turn, losing some deep and irreplaceable part of ourselves – inhabiting and sharing this beautiful, fragile earth which is our only home.

    I was moved to find that the pou in this whare behind me represent not only rangatira from the Banks Peninsula, but from across the country – including my own tupuna. In doing so, it stands beautifully for the way that, no matter where we may be from, we are bound together as people of Aotearoa: for the enduring nature of the relationship we share, enshrined in our Treaty.

    In such a way, I believe Te Tiriti o Waitangi to be this nation’s taonga: a gift given to us by our tupuna, and our guiding light towards a vision of nationhood conceived, debated, and pledged, at Waitangi, Ōnuku, and across Aotearoa.

    As our minds begin to turn towards 2040, the bicentenary of Te Tiriti, and to the long-term future of this country, it is our rangatahi who will lead us there, guided by our elders. I urge us to do all we can to empower them – to be examples in the way we conduct ourselves; to hold onto our own youthful sense of hope and purpose; and to be there for each other, in the spirit of understanding, goodness, and grace with which our Treaty was signed, here, 185 years ago.

    In this, our national project, I can think of no better guiding principle than the few, very simple lines of New Zealand poet, Jenny Bornholdt:

    Always refer back
    to the heart.
    It is where
    the world 
    began.

    My sincerest thanks once again to Ngāi Tahu for inviting and hosting us so graciously and generously here today. I wish you all the very best for the rest of your day of celebrations, and for your hopes and aspirations for these years ahead.

    He ao te rangi ka uhia, he huruhuru, te manu ka tau. Tēnā tatau katoa.

    MIL OSI New Zealand News

  • MIL-OSI: DNO Results Reflect Robust Kurdistan Production, North Sea Expansion

    Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

    Oslo, 6 February 2025 – DNO ASA, the Norwegian oil and gas operator, today reported 2024 revenues of USD 667 million on the back of stellar production in the Kurdistan region of Iraq in a year marked by continuing North Sea expansion.

    Cash from operations increased nearly 50 percent to USD 433 million year-on-year. Operating profit dropped to USD 6 million reflecting the Company’s decision to take non-cash impairments of USD 146 million in its accounts, part of which was previously reported.

    Net production climbed 50 percent year-on-year to 77,300 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boepd), to which Kurdistan contributed 59,000 boepd, North Sea 15,200 boepd and West Africa 3,100 boepd.

    At Kurdistan’s Tawke license (75 percent and operator), DNO increased gross production from the Tawke and Peshkabir fields by 70 percent year-on-year to 78,600 boepd in 2024, with oil sold at its Fish Khabur terminal as the Iraq-Türkiye export pipeline remained shut in. Sales prices averaged USD 35 per barrel with payments deposited into DNO’s international bank accounts ahead of deliveries. At these prices, Tawke license sales generate around USD 10 million per month of free cash flow to DNO.

    Maintaining strict capital spending discipline, DNO drilled no new wells on the Tawke license in 2024. Notwithstanding, output was increased by bringing three previously drilled wells onstream and by workovers and interventions on more than 20 other wells across the license.

    “Our Kurdistan team is doing a terrific job. Maintaining, never mind increasing, production from mature carbonate reservoirs without new drilling is rare, even exceptional,” said DNO’s Executive Chairman Bijan Mossavar-Rahmani. “In Norway, we are applying a similar ‘can-do’ spirit to get our barrels from a string of recent discoveries out of the ground and into the market and do so faster than is the norm here,” he added.

    In 2024, DNO took steps to expand its North Sea business by acquiring a 25 percent interest in the producing Arran field in the United Kingdom and interests in four producing fields and one development asset in the Norne area offshore Norway. Driven by contribution from these acquisitions, recovery of production in some fields following maintenance and Trym field restart, net North Sea production climbed to 19,000 boepd in the fourth quarter.

    Meanwhile, DNO is taking part in four ongoing North Sea field development projects expected to come online between 2025 and 2028 that represent proven and probable reserves of some 30 million barrels of oil equivalent net to the Company. Two other discoveries, namely Ofelia/Kyrre (10 percent) and Cuvette (20 percent) are nearing development decisions.

    Among the 2024 exploration highlights was the play-opening Othello light oil discovery (50 percent and operator), Norway’s second largest find last year. Prior to the discovery, DNO had already taken a strong acreage position in this area in close collaboration with Aker BP, host operator of nearby Valhall hub.

    Overall, the Company plans to drill between four (firm) and six North Sea exploration wells in 2025. Meanwhile, complementing its ongoing exploration activities, last month DNO was awarded 13 new licenses in Norway’s 2024 Awards in Predefined Areas (APA) licensing round, including four operatorships, by the Norwegian Ministry of Energy.

    Planned 2025 operational spend is ramped up to USD 750 million driven by increased North Sea activity.

    DNO’s robust balance sheet supports growth and distributions to shareholders. The Board of Directors yesterday authorized a dividend of NOK 0.3125 per share in February, maintaining the quarterly distribution at the same level as last quarter.

    A videoconference call with executive management will follow today at 14:00 (CET). Please visit www.dno.no to access the call.

    Key figures

      Full-Year 2024 Q4 2024 Q3 2024
    Gross operated production (boepd) 80,280 80,765 84,212
    Net production (boepd) 77,269 77,646 77,238
    Revenues (USD million) 667 177 171
    Operating profit/-loss (USD million) 6 -82 31
    Net profit/-loss (USD million) -27 -98 20
    Free cash flow (USD million) 59 -5 35
    Net cash/-debt (USD million) 99 99 134

    For further information, please contact:
    Media: media@dno.no
    Investors: investor.relations@dno.no

    DNO ASA is a Norwegian oil and gas operator active in the Middle East, the North Sea and West Africa. Founded in 1971 and listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange, the Company holds stakes in onshore and offshore licenses at various stages of exploration, development and production in the Kurdistan region of Iraq, Norway, the United Kingdom, Côte d’Ivoire, Netherlands and Yemen.

    This information is subject to the disclosure requirements pursuant to section 5-12 of the Norwegian Securities Trading Act.

    This information is subject to the disclosure requirements pursuant to Section 5-12 the Norwegian Securities Trading Act

    Attachments

    The MIL Network

  • MIL-OSI Africa: Secretary-General’s message on the International Day of Zero Tolerance for Female Genital Mutilation [scroll down for French version]

    Source: United Nations – English

    emale genital mutilation is a horrific act of gender-based violence.

    More than 230 million girls and women alive today are survivors of this abhorrent practice.  

    As one of the most brutal manifestations of gender inequality, female genital mutilation inflicts profound, lifelong physical and mental harm, carries life-threatening health risks, and violates the rights of women and girls to bodily autonomy, safety, and dignity.

    Eradicating this vicious human rights violation is urgent, and it is possible.

    As this year’s theme reminds us, we are making progress, but we must pick up the pace. We must strengthen global movements to break down harmful attitudes, beliefs and gender stereotypes. And we need to bolster strong partnerships between governments, grassroots organizations and survivors to supercharge efforts and eliminate this scourge by 2030.  

    The Pact for the Future, agreed at the United Nations last September, includes a commitment by Member States to eliminate female genital mutilation by tackling negative social norms and gender discrimination.  

    Let’s join forces to make female genital mutilation history and ensure a brighter, healthier, and more just future for all women and girls everywhere.

    *****

    Les mutilations génitales féminines sont d’atroces actes de violence de genre.

    Plus de 230 millions de filles et de femmes actuellement en vie ont réchappé à cette pratique abominable.

    Les mutilations génitales féminines sont l’une des manifestations les plus brutales de l’inégalité entre les genres : elles infligent des blessures physiques et psychologiques profondes et irréversibles, elles engendrent des risques mortels pour la santé et elles portent atteinte aux droits des femmes et des filles de disposer de leur corps et de vivre en toute sécurité et dans la dignité.

    Il est urgent, et de surcroît possible, de faire disparaître cette violation barbare des droits humains.

    Comme nous le rappelle le thème de cette année, nous avançons, quoiqu’il faille accélérer la cadence. Il nous faut renforcer les mouvements qui, à travers le monde, viennent à bout des comportements néfastes et déconstruisent les croyances pernicieuses ainsi que les stéréotypes préjudiciables liés au genre. Il nous faut en outre consolider les partenariats entre les pouvoirs publics, les organisations citoyennes et les survivantes pour amplifier les efforts et extirper ce fléau d’ici à 2030.

    Dans le Pacte pour l’avenir adopté sous les auspices de l’Organisation des Nations Unies en septembre dernier, les États Membres se sont notamment engagés à éliminer les mutilations génitales féminines en luttant contre les normes sociales négatives et la discrimination fondée sur le genre.

    Unissons nos forces pour reléguer les mutilations génitales féminines aux oubliettes de l’histoire et pour assurer à toutes les femmes et à toutes les filles, partout dans le monde, une meilleure santé ainsi qu’un avenir plus radieux et plus juste.

    MIL OSI Africa

  • MIL-OSI Russia: Sergei Sobyanin: Moscow is developing digital services in the cultural sphere

    Translartion. Region: Russians Fedetion –

    Source: Moscow Government – Government of Moscow –

    Moscow has created an ecosystem of digital services that simplify interactions between city residents and cultural institutions. These include a single library card, a service for renting spaces in city cultural institutions, a ticket system on the mos.ru portal, and others. Sergei Sobyanin spoke about new functions and the development of digital services in the cultural sphere in his Telegram channel.

    Source: Sergei Sobyanin’s Telegram channel @Mos_Sobyanin

    Unified library card

    Since 2018, apply single library card can be done in person at the city library. In 2021, the mos.ru portal launched an electronic service, “Obtaining a single library card,” with which users can obtain a digital version of the document. As of 2024, Muscovites have already issued about 1.2 million library cards. It is convenient to use the digital version of the single library card in the My ID mobile app.

    A single library card can be linked to a school card “Moskvenok”. In this case, access to the funds of the capital’s libraries will be provided by the usual school key card. In addition, the ticket can be linked to a Muscovite card. Since 2021, readers have been finding, booking the books they need and extending their use using the service “Moscow Libraries” on the mos.ru portal. Here you can also view a list of events taking place in the capital’s reading rooms. And a recommendation system using artificial intelligence technologies will offer the user a selection of literature based on his tastes and booking history.

    In 2024, Muscovites were given the opportunity to pick up publications from book machines — contactless street book distribution points. They were placed in 10 city parks. You can pick up a book from a book machine using a single library card. Residents of the capital have already received more than 2.8 thousand publications in this way.

    Muscovites received over 6.6 million publications with a single library card in 2024DIT reminded about useful functions of the service “Moscow Libraries”

    Portal “Discover Moscow”

    Information portal “Get to Know Moscow” was created in 2013 and became one of the first digital projects telling about the sights and history of the city. Today the portal presents 407 museums, 2341 buildings, 702 monuments, 490 memorial sites, 287 routes around the city, 32 virtual tours and 134 online quests.

    The portal operates on the principle of a digital encyclopedia: each registered user can offer information about an object, which is verified before publication, and audiovisual elements.

    The portal hosts contests and thematic quizzes. The “Poster” section contains a schedule of events held in Moscow’s cultural institutions.

    The portal has mobile applications for Android and iOS. In 2024, a new type of content appeared in the mobile application “Discover Moscow” – users can see in augmented reality (AR) mode how buildings and structures that have not survived to this day would look in modern urban development. For example, the Red Gate, the Sukharev Tower, the building of the eighth Stalinist skyscraper and other historical architectural objects.

    The portal “Learn Moscow” published an online quiz for the 270th anniversary of the founding of Moscow State UniversityIn 2024, the portal “Discover Moscow” was visited about six million times

    City venue rental service

    Since 2021, Muscovites can rent premises in city cultural institutions on the mos.ru portal to hold lectures, master classes, educational classes and other events. Today, the service “Together with culture” offers more than 1.5 thousand premises in 42 cultural institutions. Since the project’s creation, Muscovites have booked the capital’s venues more than 43 thousand times.

    The service is used by both business representatives and ordinary citizens. In 2024, it was most often used by individuals, who mainly booked premises for master classes, meetings and trainings. Legal entities and individual entrepreneurs, as a rule, organized concerts, held rehearsals, seminars and lectures.

    More than 20 thousand events were held on the sites of the “Together with Culture” service in 2024The Moscow Department of Information Technologies told which sites can be rented in the “Together with Culture” service for events with children

    Online services for enrolling in children’s art schools and clubs

    In the summer of 2024, the mos.ru portal upgraded its online registration service for educational programs at children’s art schools, as well as for clubs organized in cultural centers, libraries, and parks. During the admissions campaign, about 10 thousand educational programs and clubs were available for registration. During the service’s operation, Muscovites have submitted about 700 thousand applications for enrollment of children in additional education institutions.

    Mosbilet system

    Mosbilet was launched in the fall of 2020. With this system, you can buy tickets to museums and theaters, rent and pay for city skating rinks, swimming pools and picnic areas. Today, 43 percent of tickets for events at city cultural institutions are purchased through this system, all of which are sold without a markup. Last year alone, more than 7.4 million tickets were issued through the system. It is expected that by the end of 2025, Mosbilet will be able to purchase tickets to all city cultural institutions.

    How to use QR codes for tickets to events in Moscow cultural institutionsPlan your leisure time and buy tickets: what else can the “Posters” section on mos.ru help with?

    Ticket purchase service via Mos ID

    In December 2024, a service for selling tickets to events in Moscow cultural institutions via Mos ID, an account on the mos.ru portal, was launched. Buying tickets through the city ticket system Mosbilet using a standard or full mos.ru account simplifies the process of entering data into the electronic ticket sales form: there is no need to enter the last name, first name, email address and phone number manually. Ticket QR codes are generated and displayed in the city mobile applications “My Moscow”, “Moscow State Services” and “My id”, as well as in your personal account on mos.ru. They can be shown at the entrance instead of a paper ticket. From March 15, 2025, when entering using a QR code from the application, visitors will not be required to present a document entitling them to do so.

    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 account to What the Source Is Stating and Does Not Reflect the Position of Mil-Sosi or Its Clients.

    HTTPS: //vv.mos.ru/mayor/tkhemes/12350050/

    MIL OSI Russia News

  • MIL-OSI United Nations: Secretary-General’s message on the International Day of Zero Tolerance for Female Genital Mutilation [scroll down for French version]

    Source: United Nations secretary general

    Female genital mutilation is a horrific act of gender-based violence.

    More than 230 million girls and women alive today are survivors of this abhorrent practice.  

    As one of the most brutal manifestations of gender inequality, female genital mutilation inflicts profound, lifelong physical and mental harm, carries life-threatening health risks, and violates the rights of women and girls to bodily autonomy, safety, and dignity.

    Eradicating this vicious human rights violation is urgent, and it is possible.

    As this year’s theme reminds us, we are making progress, but we must pick up the pace. We must strengthen global movements to break down harmful attitudes, beliefs and gender stereotypes. And we need to bolster strong partnerships between governments, grassroots organizations and survivors to supercharge efforts and eliminate this scourge by 2030.  

    The Pact for the Future, agreed at the United Nations last September, includes a commitment by Member States to eliminate female genital mutilation by tackling negative social norms and gender discrimination.  

    Let’s join forces to make female genital mutilation history and ensure a brighter, healthier, and more just future for all women and girls everywhere.

    *****

    Les mutilations génitales féminines sont d’atroces actes de violence de genre.

    Plus de 230 millions de filles et de femmes actuellement en vie ont réchappé à cette pratique abominable.

    Les mutilations génitales féminines sont l’une des manifestations les plus brutales de l’inégalité entre les genres : elles infligent des blessures physiques et psychologiques profondes et irréversibles, elles engendrent des risques mortels pour la santé et elles portent atteinte aux droits des femmes et des filles de disposer de leur corps et de vivre en toute sécurité et dans la dignité.

    Il est urgent, et de surcroît possible, de faire disparaître cette violation barbare des droits humains.

    Comme nous le rappelle le thème de cette année, nous avançons, quoiqu’il faille accélérer la cadence. Il nous faut renforcer les mouvements qui, à travers le monde, viennent à bout des comportements néfastes et déconstruisent les croyances pernicieuses ainsi que les stéréotypes préjudiciables liés au genre. Il nous faut en outre consolider les partenariats entre les pouvoirs publics, les organisations citoyennes et les survivantes pour amplifier les efforts et extirper ce fléau d’ici à 2030.

    Dans le Pacte pour l’avenir adopté sous les auspices de l’Organisation des Nations Unies en septembre dernier, les États Membres se sont notamment engagés à éliminer les mutilations génitales féminines en luttant contre les normes sociales négatives et la discrimination fondée sur le genre.

    Unissons nos forces pour reléguer les mutilations génitales féminines aux oubliettes de l’histoire et pour assurer à toutes les femmes et à toutes les filles, partout dans le monde, une meilleure santé ainsi qu’un avenir plus radieux et plus juste.

    MIL OSI United Nations News

  • MIL-OSI: Societe Generale: Fourth quarter & 2024 full year results

    Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

    RESULTS AT 31 DECEMBER 2024

    Press release                                                        
    Paris, 6 February 2025

    2024 RESULTS ABOVE ALL GROUP TARGETS
    GROUP NET INCOME OF EUR 4.2 BILLION, +69% vs. 2023

    Annual revenues of EUR 26.8 billion, up by +6.7% vs. 2023, above the ≥+5% target set for 2024, driven in particular by the strong rebound in net interest income in France and by an excellent performance in Global Banking and Investor Solutions with revenues above EUR 10 billion

    Cost-to-income ratio of 69.0%, below the target of <71% set for 2024, thanks to tight control of costs, which are stable vs. 2023

    Cost of risk at 26 basis points, at the lower end of the 2024 guidance range

    Profitability (ROTE) of 6.9%, above the target of >6% expected for 2024

    CET1 ratio of 13.3% at end-2024, around 310 basis points above regulatory requirement

    +75% INCREASE IN DISTRIBUTION TO SHAREHOLDERS VS. 2023

    Proposed distribution of EUR 1,740 million1, equivalent to EUR 2.18 per share1, composed of:

    • a cash dividend of EUR 1.09 per share to be proposed to the General Meeting
    • a share buyback programme of EUR 872 million, equivalent to EUR 1.09 per share1. ECB approval has been obtained to launch the programme, due to start on 10 February 2025
    • Increase of the payout ratio to 50% of net income2

    2025 FINANCIAL TARGETS, STRONG CAPITAL, EXECUTION DISCIPLINE

    Revenue growth of more than +3%3 vs. 2024

    Decrease in costs above -1%3 vs. 2024

    Improvement of the cost-to-income ratio, less than 66% in 2025

    Cost of risk between 25 and 30 basis points in 2025

    Increase of the ROTE, more than 8% in 2025

    CET1 ratio above 13% post Basel IV throughout the year 2025

    With a solid CET1 ratio ahead of the capital trajectory, we are proposing to improve the distribution policy with:

    • an overall distribution payout ratio of 50% of net income2
    • a balanced distribution between cash dividends and share buybacks

    Slawomir Krupa, the Group’s Chief Executive Officer, commented:
    “In 2024, our performance improves materially. All our targets are exceeded and ahead of plan. Strong capital build-up, strong and sustainable business growth, strong cost control and risk management, and a material progress in our integration projects led to the doubling of the earnings per share. Against this strong backdrop, we are improving both the 2024 distribution and our distribution policy. I would like to thank the entire Societe Generale team for their dedication and remarkable commitment, every single day, to serving our clients and our Bank.
    We will continue to focus in 2025 on the relentless execution of our strategy, improving our performance even further.”

    1. GROUP CONSOLIDATED RESULTS
    In EURm Q4 24 Q4 23 Change 2024 2023 Change
    Net banking income 6,621 5,957 +11.1% +12.5%* 26,788 25,104 +6.7% +5.7%*
    Operating expenses (4,595) (4,666) -1.5% -0.7%* (18,472) (18,524) -0.3% -1.6%*
    Gross operating income 2,026 1,291 +57.0% +61.3%* 8,316 6,580 +26.4% +26.6%*
    Net cost of risk (338) (361) -6.4% -4.9%* (1,530) (1,025) +49.3% +48.6%*
    Operating income 1,688 930 +81.6% +87.4%* 6,786 5,555 +22.2% +22.5%*
    Net income/expense from other assets (11) (21) +48.9% +45.2%* (77) (113) +31.4% +26.3%*
    Income tax (413) (302) +36.6% +40.5%* (1,601) (1,679) -4.7% -4.9%*
    Net income 1,273 612 x 2.1 x 2.1* 5,129 3,449 +48.7% +49.6%*
    O.w. non-controlling interests 233 183 +27.0% +33.6%* 929 957 -3.0% -9.3%*
    Group net income 1,041 429 x 2.4 x 2.5* 4,200 2,492 +68.6% +73.2%*
    ROE 5.8% 1.5%     6.1% 3.1% +0.0% +0.0%*
    ROTE 6.6% 1.7%     6.9% 4.2% +0.0% +0.0%*
    Cost to income 69.4% 78.3%     69.0% 73.8% +0.0% +0.0%*

    Asterisks* in the document refer to data at constant perimeter and exchange rates

    The Board of Directors of Societe Generale, which met on 5 February 2025 under the chairmanship of Lorenzo Bini Smaghi, examined the Societe Generale Group’s results for Q4 24 and endorsed the 2024 financial statements.

    Net banking income 

    Net banking income stood at EUR 6.6 billion, up by +11.1% vs. Q4 23.

    Revenues of French Retail, Private Banking and Insurance were up by +15.5% vs. Q4 23 and totalled EUR 2.3 billion in Q4 24. Net interest income increased in Q4 24 (+36% vs. Q4 23), in line with the latest estimates. Assets under management in Private Banking and Insurance increased by +7% each in Q4 24 vs. Q4 23. Lastly, BoursoBank showed strong growth momentum with more than 460,000 new clients in the quarter, allowing to reach a client base of 7.2 million clients at end-December 2024, above the target of 7 million clients set for end-2024. In addition, BoursoBank posted a positive contribution to Group net income in 2024 for the second year in a row.

    Global Banking and Investor Solutions registered a +12.4% increase in revenues relative to Q4 23. Revenues amounted to EUR 2.5 billion for the quarter, driven by strong momentum across all businesses. Global Markets grew by 9.8% in Q4 24 vs. Q4 23. Revenues from the Equities business were up by +10%, reaching a record level for a fourth quarter. They were driven by favourable market conditions, particularly after the result of the presidential elections in the United States. Fixed Income and Currencies were up by +9% owing to solid commercial activity in financing and intermediation across all asset classes. In Financing and Advisory, solid commercial momentum was recorded in structured finance and the performance of M&A and advisory continued to rebound. Likewise, Global Transaction & Payment Services posted a +26% increase in revenues vs. Q4 23, driven by a sustained commercial development across all businesses, particularly in correspondent banking.

    Mobility, International Retail Banking and Financial Services’ revenues were up by +2.0% vs. Q4 23, mainly due to an increase in margins at Ayvens. International Retail Banking recorded a -3.6% fall in revenues vs. Q4 23 at EUR 1.0 billion, due to a scope effect related to the asset disposals finalised in Africa (Morocco, Chad, Congo, Madagascar). Revenues were up +3.4% at constant perimeter and exchange rates. Revenues from Mobility and Financial Services were up by +8.3% vs. Q4 23 mainly due to non-recuring items in Q4 23 and improved margins at Ayvens.

    The Corporate Centre recorded revenues of EUR -159 million in Q4 24.

    Over 2024, net banking income increased by +6.7% vs. 2023.

    Operating expenses 

    Operating expenses came out to EUR 4,595 million in Q4 24, down by -1.5% vs. Q4 23.
    They include a scope effect of around EUR 46 million related to the integration of Bernstein’s cash equity operations and a decrease in transformation costs of EUR 26 million. Excluding these items, operating expenses were down by nearly -2% in Q4 24 vs. Q4-23 owing to the effect of the cost saving measures implemented across all business lines.

    The cost-to-income ratio stood at 69.4% in Q4 24, significantly lower than in Q4 23 (78.3%).

    Over 2024, operating expenses remained relatively stable (-0.3% vs. 2023), thanks from rigorous cost management. The cost-to-income ratio stood at 69.0% (vs. 73.8% in 2023), a level below the target of 71% for 2024.

    Cost of risk

    The cost of risk fell to 23 basis points over the quarter (or EUR 338 million). This includes a EUR 386 million provision for non-performing loans (around 26 basis points) and a reversal of a provision on performing loans for EUR -48 million.

    At end-December, the Group’s provisions on performing loans amounted to EUR 3,119 million, stable relative to 30 September 2024. The EUR -453 million contraction relative to 31 December 2023 is mainly owing to the application of IFRS 5.

    The gross non-performing loan ratio stood at 2.81%4,5 at 31 December 2024, significantly down vs. end of September 2024 (2.95%). The net coverage ratio on the Group’s non-performing loans stood at 81%6 at 31 December 2024 (after taking into account guarantees and collateral).

    Net profits from other assets

    The Group recorded a net loss of EUR -11 million in Q4 24, mainly related to the accounting impacts of finalised asset sales, such as the disposals of our activities in Morocco and Madagascar.

    Group net income

    Group net income stood at EUR 1,041 million for the quarter, equating to a Return on Tangible Equity (ROTE) of 6.6%.

    Over the year, Group net income stood at EUR 4,200 million, equating to a Return on Tangible Equity (ROTE) of 6.9%.

    Shareholder distribution

    The Board of Directors approved the distribution policy for the 2024 fiscal year, aiming to distribute EUR 2.18 per share, equivalent to EUR 1,740 million, of which EUR 872 million in share buyback7. A cash dividend of EUR 1.09 per share will be proposed at the General Meeting of Shareholders on 20 May 2025. The dividend will be detached on 26 May 2025 and paid out on 28 May 2025.

    1. AN ESTABLISHED ESG STRATEGY FROM WHICH TO STEP FORWARD

    In 2024, Societe Generale accelerated the execution of its ESG roadmap, particularly with respect to the contribution to the environmental transition:

    • The Group now covers ~70% of companies’8 financed emissions, with 10 alignment targets for the carbon-intensive sectors. It has already reduced its oil and gas upstream exposure by more than 50% since the end of 20199
    • In Q2 24 and ahead of schedule, the Group reached its target of EUR 300 billion for sustainable finance planned for the period 2022-2025. A new target of EUR 500 billion, complementing the work carried out as part of the portfolio alignment, was announced for the period 2024-2030. This will help increase the orientation of financial flows towards decarbonization activities.

    The Group has broadened the scope of actions to prepare for a sustainable future by supporting new players and new technologies:

    • The EUR 1 billion investment for the transition, announced during the Capital Markets Day, has entered its operationalization phase
    • A new partnership with the EIB to unlock up to EUR 8 billion in the wind industry supply chain in Europe was signed in Q4 24.

    At the same time, ESG risk management continues to be strengthened, enhancing forward-looking assessments of environmental risk materiality and further integrating environmental, social and governance risks into the risk framework.
    Lastly, the Group is moving forward with its ambitions as a responsible employer: at the end of 2024, the “Group Leaders Circle” (Top 250) had ~30% women executives10 and ~30% international members. As announced during the Capital Markets Day, the EUR 100 million envelope commitment to reduce the gender pay gap was launched in 2023.

    1. THE GROUP’S FINANCIAL STRUCTURE

    At 31 December 2024, the Group’s Common Equity Tier 1 ratio stood at 13.3%11, around 310 basis points above the regulatory requirement. Likewise, the Liquidity Coverage Ratio (LCR) was well ahead of regulatory requirements at 156% at end-December 2024 (145% on average for the quarter), and the Net Stable Funding Ratio (NSFR) stood at 117% at end-December 2024.

    All liquidity and solvency ratios are well above the regulatory requirements.

      31/12/2024 31/12/2023 Requirements
    CET1(1) 13.3% 13.1% 10.24%
    Fully-loaded CET1 13.3% 13.1% 10.24%
    Tier 1 ratio (1) 16.1% 15.6% 12.17%
    Total Capital(1) 18.9% 18.2% 14.73%
    Leverage ratio(1) 4.34% 4.25% 3.60%
    TLAC (% RWA)(1) 29.7% 31.9% 22.31%
    TLAC (% leverage)(1) 8.0% 8.7% 6.75%
    MREL (% RWA)(1) 34.2% 33.7% 27.58%
    MREL (% leverage)(1) 9.2% 9.2% 6.23%
    End of period LCR 156% 160% >100%
    Period average LCR 145% 155% >100%
    NSFR 117% 119% >100%
    In EURbn 31/12/2024 31/12/2023
    Total consolidated balance sheet 1,574 1,554
    Shareholders’ equity (IFRS), Group share 70 66
    Risk-weighted assets 390 389
    O.w. credit risk 327 326
    Total funded balance sheet 952 970
    Customer loans 463 497
    Customer deposits 614 618

    At 31 December 2024, the parent company had issued EUR 43.2 billion in medium/long-term debt under its 2024 funding program. The subsidiaries had issued EUR 4.7 billion. In all, the Group has issued a total of EUR 47.9 billion.

    At 10 January 2025, the parent company 2025 funding program was executed at 47% for vanilla notes.

    The Group is rated by four rating agencies: (i) FitchRatings – long-term rating “A-”, stable outlook, senior preferred debt rating “A”, short-term rating “F1”; (ii) Moody’s – long-term rating (senior preferred debt) “A1”, negative outlook, short-term rating “P-1”; (iii) R&I – long-term rating (senior preferred debt) “A”, stable outlook; and (iv) S&P Global Ratings – long-term rating (senior preferred debt) “A”, stable outlook, short-term rating “A-1”.

    1. FRENCH RETAIL, PRIVATE BANKING AND INSURANCE
    In EURm Q4 24 Q4 23 Change 2024 2023 Change
    Net banking income 2,267 1,963 +15.5% 8,657 8,053 +7.5%
    Of which net interest income 1,091 801 +36.2% 3,868 3,199 +20.9%
    Of which fees 1,028 948 +8.5% 4,108 3,975 +3.3%
    Operating expenses (1,672) (1,683) -0.7% (6,634) (6,756) -1.8%
    Gross operating income 596 280 x 2.1 2,024 1,297 +56.0%
    Net cost of risk (115) (163) -29.6% (712) (505) +41.0%
    Operating income 481 118 x 4.1 1,312 792 +65.6%
    Net profits or losses from other assets (2) 5 n/s 6 9 -35.1%
    Group net income 360 90 x 4.0 991 596 +66.2%
    RONE 9.1% 2.3%   6.3% 3.9%  
    Cost to income 73.7% 85.7%   76.6% 83.9%  

    Commercial activity

    SG Network, Private Banking and Insurance 

    The SG Network’s average outstanding deposits amounted to EUR 232 billion in Q4 24, down by -1% on Q4 23, with strong shift of inflows into investment products and savings life insurance.

    The SG Network’s average loan outstandings contracted by -4% vs. Q4 23 to EUR 194 billion, but -2.5% excluding PGE (state guaranteed loans). Outstanding loans to corporate and professional clients grew vs. Q3 24 excluding state guaranteed PGE loans, and individual clients lending experienced an increased commercial momentum.

    The average loan to deposit ratio came to 83.6% in Q4 24, down by 2.6 percentage points relative to Q4 23.

    Private Banking activities saw their assets under management12 maintain a record level of EUR 154 billion in Q4 24, up by +7% vs. Q4 23. Net gathering stood at EUR 6.3 billion in 2024, the annual net asset gathering pace (net new money divided by AuM) being at +4% in 2024. Net banking income came to EUR 348 million over the quarter, a decrease of -2% vs. Q4 23. It stands at EUR 1,469 million for 2024, unchanged from 2023.

    Insurance, which covers activities in and outside France, posted a very strong commercial performance. Life insurance outstandings increased sharply by +7% vs. Q4 23 to reach a record EUR 146 billion at                end-December 2024. The share of unit-linked products remained high at 40%. Savings Life insurance gross inflows amounted to EUR 3.4 billion in Q4 24, and EUR 18.3 billion for 2024, up by +42% vs. 2023.

    Personal protection and P&C premia were up by +3% vs. Q4 23 (+5% at constant perimeter).

    BoursoBank 

    BoursoBank’s growth momentum continued with more than 460K new clients in the fourth quarter of 2024. BoursoBank reached almost 7.2 million clients in December 2024, above 2024 target.

    Thanks notably to its comprehensive banking offer and recognized among the “Digital Leaders”13, the Bank has a low attrition rate (~3% in 2024), still down vs. 2023.

    BoursoBank continued its profitable growth trajectory in 2024 with a cost per client down by -17.0% vs. 2023 with an expanding client base, more than 1.3 million net clients over 12 months (+22.4% vs. 2023).

    Loans outstanding improved by +5.4% relative to Q4 23, at EUR 16 billion in Q4 24.

    Average outstanding in savings including deposits and financial savings were +15.5% higher vs. Q4 23 at EUR 64 billion. Deposits outstanding totalled EUR 39 billion in Q4 24, posting another strong increase of +15.4% vs. Q4 23, driven by interest-bearing savings. Average life insurance outstandings, at EUR 13 billion in Q4 24, rose by +10.2% vs. Q4 23 (o/w 48% in unit-lined products, +3.8 percentage points vs. Q4 23). The activity continued to register strong gross inflows over the quarter (+50.4% vs. Q4 23, 65% unit-linked products).

    For the second year in a row, BoursoBank recorded a positive contribution to Group net income in 2024.

    At end of 2025, BoursoBank aims to exceed 8 million clients.

    Net banking income

    Over the quarter, revenues amounted to EUR 2,267 million (including PEL/CEL provision), up by +15% compared with Q4 23 and up by +1% compared with Q3 24. Net interest income grew by +36% vs. Q4 23 and +3% vs. Q3 24. Fee income rose by +9% relative to Q4 23.

    Over the year, revenues reached EUR 8,657 million, up by +8% compared with 2023 (including PEL/CEL provision). Net interest income was up by +21% vs. 2023. Fees increased by +3% relative to 2023.

    Operating expenses

    Over the quarter, operating expenses came to EUR 1,672 million, down -1% compared to Q4 23. The cost-to-income ratio reached 73.7% in Q4 24 and improved by 12 percentage points vs. Q4 23.

    Over the year, operating expenses totalled EUR 6,634 million, decreasing by -2% vs. 2023.                                         The cost-to-income ratio stood at 76.6% and improved by 7.3 percentage points compared with 2023.

    Cost of risk

    Over the quarter, the cost of risk amounted to EUR 115 million, or 20 basis points, down compared with Q3 24 (30 basis points).

    Over the year, the cost of risk totalled EUR 712 million, or 30 basis points.

    Group net income

    Over the quarter, Group net income totalled EUR 360 million. RONE stood at 9.1% in Q4 24.

    Over the year, Group net income totalled EUR 991 million. RONE stood at 6.3% for the year.

    1. GLOBAL BANKING AND INVESTOR SOLUTIONS
    In EURm Q4 24 Q4 23 Change 2024 2023 Change
    Net banking income 2,457 2,185 +12.4% +11.6%* 10,122 9,642 +5.0% +4.8%*
    Operating expenses (1,644) (1,601) +2.7% +2.0%* (6,542) (6,788) -3.6% -3.7%*
    Gross operating income 812 584 +39.0% +37.9%* 3,580 2,854 +25.4% +25.0%*
    Net cost of risk (97) (38) x 2.5 x 2.5* (126) (30) x 4.2 x 4.3*
    Operating income 715 546 +31.0% +30.1%* 3,455 2,824 +22.3% +21.9%*
    Group net income 627 467 +34.4% +33.0%* 2,788 2,280 +22.2% +21.7%*
    RONE 16.6% 12.2% +0.0% +0.0%* 18.4% 14.8% +0.0% +0.0%*
    Cost to income 66.9% 73.3% +0.0% +0.0%* 64.6% 70.4% +0.0% +0.0%*

    Net banking income

    Global Banking & Investor Solutions delivered an excellent fourth quarter, with revenues up by +12.4% compared with Q4 23, at EUR 2,457 million.

    Over 2024, revenues reached a record14 level of EUR 10,122 million, up by +5.0% vs. FY23, owing to excellent momentum across all business lines.

    Global Markets and Investor Services recorded a sharp rise in revenues over the quarter vs Q4 23 of +9.8% to EUR 1,493 million. Over 2024, they totalled EUR 6,557 million, up by +4.5% vs. FY 2023. This growth is the result of solid performance across all activities.

    Global Markets posted both a record fourth quarter and a record1 year with revenues, respectively, of EUR 1,332 million, up +9.5% vs. Q4 23, and EUR 5,884 million, up +5.6% vs. 2023, in a market environment that remains conducive.

    The Equities business delivered an excellent performance, with both a record year and fourth quarter. In Q4 24, revenues amounted to EUR 831 million, a steady increase of +10.0% vs. Q4 23, benefiting from a strong commercial dynamic post US elections especially in flow, listed products and financing activities. Over 2024, revenues increased sharply by +12.2% versus 2023 to EUR 3,569 million.

    Fixed Income and Currencies grew by +8.8% to EUR 501 million in Q4 24, thanks to a solid performance across all products, with an increased client engagement across Corporates and Financial Institutions following the impact of the US elections on rates and currencies. In addition, European rates and currencies franchise outperformed, together with solid secured financing opportunities in the Americas. Over 2024, revenues decreased slightly by -3.2% to EUR 2,315 million.

    Securities Services’ revenues were sharply up by +12.4% versus Q4 23 at EUR 162 million but increased by +4.8% excluding the impact of equity participations. The business continued to reap the benefit of a positive fee generation trend and robust momentum in fund distribution, especially in France and Italy. Over 2024, revenues were down by -4.0%, but up by +2.8% excluding equity participations. Assets under Custody and Assets under Administration amounted to EUR 4,921 billion and EUR 623 billion, respectively.

    The Financing and Advisory business posted revenues of EUR 964 million, up by +16.7% vs. Q4 23. Over 2024, revenues totalled EUR 3,566 million, up by +5.8% vs. 2023.

    The Global Banking & Advisory business grew steadily by +13.7% compared with Q4 23 with a double digit increase in fees vs. Q4 23 driven by strong origination and distribution volumes in Fund Financing and Structured Finance. The rebound in M&A and Advisory continued in the fourth quarter with a strong increase in revenues. This is the second best quarter ever in terms of revenues, close to record Q4 22. Over 2024, revenues grew by +3.2% vs. 2023.

    The Global Transaction & Payment Services business once again delivered an excellent performance compared with Q4 23. The sharp increase in revenues of +26.1% was driven by solid commercial momentum in all activities, as well as a high level of fee generation, led by a strong performance in correspondent banking. Over 2024, revenues saw a steady increase of +13.9%. This represents a record year and fourth quarter.

    Operating expenses

    Operating expenses came out to EUR 1,644 million for the quarter, including around EUR 32 million in transformation costs. They are up by +2.7% relative to Q4 23. The cost-to-income ratio came to 66.9% in Q4 24.

    Over 2024, operating expenses decreased by -3.6% compared with 2023 and the cost-to-income ratio came to 64.6%.

    Cost of risk

    Over the quarter, the cost of risk was EUR 97 million, or 24 basis points vs. 9 basis points in Q4 23.

    Over 2024, the cost of risk was EUR 126 million, or 8 basis points.

    Group net income

    Group net income recorded strong growth, up by +34.4% vs. Q4 23 to EUR 627 million. Over 2024, Group net income rose sharply by +22.2% to EUR 2,788 million.

    Global Banking and Investor Solutions reported significant RONE of 16.6% over the quarter and 18.4% over 2024.

    1. MOBILITY, INTERNATIONAL RETAIL BANKING AND FINANCIAL SERVICES
    In EURm Q4 24 Q4 23 Change 2024 2023 Change
    Net banking income 2,056 2,016 +2.0% +6.7%* 8,458 8,507 -0.6% -3.8%*
    Operating expenses (1,240) (1,281) -3.2% +0.8%* (5,072) (4,760) +6.6% +1.7%*
    Gross operating income 816 734 +11.1% +17.0%* 3,386 3,747 -9.6% -10.9%*
    Net cost of risk (133) (137) -2.5% +2.2%* (705) (486) +45.1% +43.5%*
    Operating income 682 598 +14.2% +20.4%* 2,681 3,261 -17.8% -19.1%*
    Net income/expense from other assets (2) (12) +86.1% +84.3%* 96 (11) n/s n/s
    Non-controlling interests 203 152 +33.1% +39.6%* 826 826 -0.1% -7.1%*
    Group net income 314 284 +10.5% +16.1%* 1,270 1,609 -21.1% -20.0%*
    RONE 12.0% 11.0%     12.2% 16.6%    
    Cost to income 60.3% 63.6%     60.0% 56.0%    

    (2)()

    Commercial activity

    International Retail Banking

    International Retail Banking15 activity remained strong in Q4 24 with outstanding loans at EUR 59 billion, up by +3.4%* vs. Q4 23 and deposits at EUR 74 billion, up by +3.9%* vs. Q4 23.

    Europe continues to post good commercial performance for both entities in individual and corporate client segments. With EUR 43 billion in Q4 24, outstanding loans increased by 4.9%* vs. Q4 23, across segments in Romania and more particularly in home loans in the Czech Republic. Outstanding deposits totalled EUR 55 billion in Q4 24, up by +3.8%* vs. Q4 23, mostly driven by Romania.

    In the Africa, Mediterranean Basin and Overseas France network, outstanding loans were stable* vs. Q4 23, with EUR 16 billion in Q4 24, on the back of the good performance in retail. Outstanding deposits of EUR 20 billion in Q4 24 increased by 4.0%* vs. Q4 23, mainly driven by sight deposits in retail.

    Mobility and Financial Services

    Overall, Mobility and Financial Services maintained a good commercial performance.

    Ayvens’ earning assets totalled EUR 53.6 billion at end-December 2024, a +2.9% increase vs. end-December 2023.

    Consumer Finance posted outstandings of EUR 23 billion in Q4 24, still down by -4.0% vs. Q4 23.

    With EUR 15 billion in Q4 24, Equipment Finance outstandings slightly decreased by -1.4% vs. Q4 23.

    Net banking income

    Over the quarter, Mobility, International Retail Banking and Financial Services’ revenues rose by +2.0% vs. Q4 23 to EUR 2,056 million in Q4 24.

    Over the year, revenues were stable compared with 2023 at EUR 8,458 million.

    International Retail Banking revenues reached EUR 1,029 million, up by +3.4%* vs. Q4 23. Over 2024, revenues amounted to EUR 4,161 million, up by 3.8%* vs. 2023.

    Revenues in Europe, which amounted to EUR 539 million in Q4 24, rose by +6.4%* vs. Q4 23, driven by the +3.5%* increase in net interest income for both KB in Czech Republic and BRD in Romania. Fee income increased strongly over the quarter in the Czech Republic, up by +29.5%* vs. Q4 23. Over 2024, revenues improved by +2.8%* vs. 2023 at EUR 2,028 million.

    The Africa, Mediterranean Basin and French Overseas network maintained a sustained level of revenues in Q4 24 of EUR 490 million, stable* vs. Q4 23, mainly driven by fee growth. Over 2024, revenues improved by +4.8%* vs. 2023 at EUR 2,133 million.

    Overall, revenues from Mobility and Financial Services were up by 8.3% vs. Q4 23 at EUR 1,026 million. They remained stable vs. 2023, at EUR 4,298 million in 2024.

    At Ayvens, net banking income stood at EUR 707 million in Q4 24, a sharp increase of +16,3% vs. Q4 23 as reported, and of +2.0% adjusted for non-recurring items16. The amount of margins stood at 541 basis points, generating revenues up +12%1 vs. T4-23. The used car sales markets are gradually normalising, as expected, with an average Used Car Sale (UCS) result per unit of EUR 1,2671 per unit this quarter, vs. EUR 1,4201 in Q3 24 and EUR 1,7061 in Q4 23. In 2024, Ayvens posted an increase in revenues of +1.2% vs. 2023 (at EUR 3,015 million), with an increase in underlying margins.

    The Consumer Finance entities posted revenues of EUR 216 million in Q4 24, still down by -4.2% vs. Q4 23. These are stabilizing from Q3 24, with an improvement in the margin for new production. Revenues from the Equipment Finance business was down this quarter by -9.3% vs. Q4 23, with EUR 103 million in Q4 24. In 2024, overall revenues for both businesses decreased by -4.0% vs. 2023.

    Operating expenses

    Over the quarter, operating expenses remained contained at EUR 1,240 million (-3.2% vs. Q4 23, stable* at constant perimeter and exchange rates). The cost-to-income ratio stood at 60.3% in Q4 24 vs. 63.6% in Q4 23.

    Over the year, operating expenses came to EUR 5,072 million, up by +6.6% vs. 2023. They include transformation costs of around EUR 200 million.

    International Retail Banking recorded an increase in costs of +4.8%* vs. Q4 23 (down by -2.1% at current perimeter and exchange rates, to EUR 577 million in Q4 24), still including the new bank tax in Romania, implemented since January 2024.

    Mobility and Financial Services costs reached EUR 663 million in Q4 24, down by -4.2% vs. Q4 23.

    Cost of risk

    Over the quarter, the cost of risk amounted to EUR 133 million or 32 basis points, which was considerably lower than in Q3 24 (48 basis points).

    Over the year, the cost of risk normalised to a level of 42 basis points, compared with 32 basis points in 2023.

    Group net income

    Over the quarter, Group net income came out to EUR 314 million, up by +10.5% vs. Q4 23. RONE stood at 12.0% in Q4 24. RONE was 16.3% in International Retail Banking, and 9.1% in Mobility and Financial Services in Q4 24.

    Over 2024, Group net income came out to EUR 1,270 million, down by -21.1% vs. 2023. RONE stood at 12.2% in 2024. RONE was 16.4% in International Retail Banking, and 9.4% in Mobility and Financial Services in 2024.

    1. CORPORATE CENTRE
    In EURm Q4 24 Q4 23 Change 2024 2023 Change
    Net banking income (159) (207) +23.4% +24.4%* (450) (1,098) +59.0% +59.6%*
    Operating expenses (39) (101) -61.8% -61.8%* (224) (220) +1.6% +1.4%*
    Gross operating income (197) (308) +36.0% +36.5%* (674) (1,318) +48.9% +49.5%*
    Net cost of risk 7 (23) n/s n/s 12 (4) n/s n/s
    Net income/expense from other assets (7) (15) +51.3% +51.3%* (179) (111) -61.3% -61.4%*
    Income tax (37) (45) -17.9% -16.6%* 81 (130) n/s n/s
    Group net income (261) (412) +36.7% +37.0%* (848) (1,994) +57.5% +57.8%*

    The Corporate Centre includes:

    • the property management of the Group’s head office,
    • the Group’s equity portfolio,
    • the Treasury function for the Group,
    • certain costs related to cross-functional projects, as well as several costs incurred by the Group that are not re-invoiced to the businesses.

    Net banking income

    Over the quarter, the Corporate Centre’s net banking income totalled EUR -159 million, vs. EUR  – 207 million in Q4 23.

    Over the year, the Corporate Centre’s net banking income totalled EUR -450 million, vs. EUR – 1,098 million in 2023. It includes the booking in Q3 24 of exceptional proceeds received of approximately EUR 0.3 billion17.

    Operating expenses

    Over the quarter, operating expenses totalled EUR -39 million, vs. EUR -101 million in Q4 23.

    Over the year, operating expenses totalled EUR -224 million, vs. EUR -220 million in 2023.

    Net losses from other assets

    Pursuant notably to the application of IFRS 5, the Group booked in Q4 24 various impacts from ongoing disposals of assets.

    Group net income

    Over the quarter, the Corporate Centre’s Group net income totalled EUR -261 million, vs. EUR -412 million in Q4 23.

    Over the year, the Corporate Centre’s Group net income totalled EUR -848 million, vs. EUR -1,994 million in 2023.

    To be noted that starting from 2025, normative return to businesses will be based on a 13% capital allocation.

          8.   2024 AND 2025 FINANCIAL CALENDAR

    2025 Financial communication calendar
    April 30, 2025 First quarter 2025 results
    May 20, 2025 2024 Combined General Meeting
    May 26, 2025 Dividend detachment
    May 28, 2025 Dividend payment
    July 31, 2025 Second quarter and first half 2025 results
    October 30, 2025          Third quarter and nine months 2025 results
    The Alternative Performance Measures, notably the notions of net banking income for the pillars, operating expenses, cost of risk in basis points, ROE, ROTE, RONE, net assets and tangible net assets are presented in the methodology notes, as are the principles for the presentation of prudential ratios.

    This document contains forward-looking statements relating to the targets and strategies of the Societe Generale Group.

    These forward-looking statements are based on a series of assumptions, both general and specific, in particular the application of accounting principles and methods in accordance with IFRS (International Financial Reporting Standards) as adopted in the European Union, as well as the application of existing prudential regulations.

    These forward-looking statements have also been developed from scenarios based on a number of economic assumptions in the context of a given competitive and regulatory environment. The Group may be unable to:

    – anticipate all the risks, uncertainties or other factors likely to affect its business and to appraise their potential consequences;

    – evaluate the extent to which the occurrence of a risk or a combination of risks could cause actual results to differ materially from those provided in this document and the related presentation.

    Therefore, although Societe Generale believes that these statements are based on reasonable assumptions, these forward-looking statements are subject to numerous risks and uncertainties, including matters not yet known to it or its management or not currently considered material, and there can be no assurance that anticipated events will occur or that the objectives set out will actually be achieved. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from the results anticipated in the forward-looking statements include, among others, overall trends in general economic activity and in Societe Generale’s markets in particular, regulatory and prudential changes, and the success of Societe Generale’s strategic, operating and financial initiatives.

    More detailed information on the potential risks that could affect Societe Generale’s financial results can be found in the section “Risk Factors” in our Universal Registration Document filed with the French Autorité des Marchés Financiers (which is available on https://investors.societegenerale.com/en).

    Investors are advised to take into account factors of uncertainty and risk likely to impact the operations of the Group when considering the information contained in such forward-looking statements. Other than as required by applicable law, Societe Generale does not undertake any obligation to update or revise any forward-looking information or statements. Unless otherwise specified, the sources for the business rankings and market positions are internal.

          9.   APPENDIX 1: FINANCIAL DATA

    GROUP NET INCOME BY CORE BUSINESS

    In EURm Q4 24 Q4 23 Variation 2024 2023 Variation
    French Retail, Private Banking and Insurance 360 90 x 4.0 991 596 +66.2%
    Global Banking and Investor Solutions 627 467 +34.4% 2,788 2,280 +22.2%
    Mobility, International Retail Banking & Financial Services 314 284 +10.5% 1,270 1,609 -21.1%
    Core Businesses 1,301 841 +54.7% 5,048 4,486 +12.5%
    Corporate Centre (261) (412) +36.7% (848) (1,994) +57.5%
    Group 1,041 429 x 2.4 4,200 2,492 +68.6%

    MAIN EXCEPTIONAL ITEMS

    In EURm Q4 24 Q4 23 12M24 12M23
    Net Banking Income – Total exceptional items 0 41 287 (199)
    One-off legacy items – Corporate Centre 0 41 0 (199)
    Exceptional proceeds received – Corporate Centre 0 0 287 0
             
    Operating expenses – Total one-off items and transformation charges (76) (102) (613) (765)
    Transformation charges (76) (102) (613) (730)
    Of which French Retail, Private Banking and Insurance 7 18 (132) (312)
    Of which Global Banking & Investor Solutions (32) (64) (236) (167)
    Of which Mobility, International Retail Banking & Financial Services (51) (56) (199) (251)
    Of which Corporate Centre 0 0 (47) 0
    One-off items 0 0 0 (35)
    Of which French Retail, Private Banking and Insurance 0 0 0 60
    Of which Global Banking & Investor Solutions 0 0 0 (95)
             
    Other one-off items – Total (7) (115) (74) (820)
    Net profits or losses from other assets (7) (15) (74) (112)
    Of which Mobility, International Retail Banking and Financial Services 0 0 86 0
    Of which Corporate Centre (7) (15) (160) (112)
    Goodwill impairment – Corporate Centre 0 0 0 (338)
    Provision of Deferred Tax Assets – Corporate Centre 0 (100) 0 (370)

    CONSOLIDATED BALANCE SHEET

    In EUR m   31/12/2024 31/12/2023
    Cash, due from central banks   201,680 223,048
    Financial assets at fair value through profit or loss   526,048 495,882
    Hedging derivatives   9,233 10,585
    Financial assets at fair value through other comprehensive income   96,024 90,894
    Securities at amortised cost   32,655 28,147
    Due from banks at amortised cost   84,051 77,879
    Customer loans at amortised cost   454,622 485,449
    Revaluation differences on portfolios hedged against interest rate risk   (292) (433)
    Insurance and reinsurance contracts assets   615 459
    Tax assets   4,687 4,717
    Other assets   70,903 69,765
    Non-current assets held for sale   26,426 1,763
    Investments accounted for using the equity method   398 227
    Tangible and intangible fixed assets   61,409 60,714
    Goodwill   5,086 4,949
    Total   1,573,545 1,554,045
    In EUR m   31/12/2024 31/12/2023
    Due to central banks   11,364 9,718
    Financial liabilities at fair value through profit or loss   396,614 375,584
    Hedging derivatives   15,750 18,708
    Debt securities issued   162,200 160,506
    Due to banks   99,744 117,847
    Customer deposits   531,675 541,677
    Revaluation differences on portfolios hedged

    against interest rate risk

      (5,277) (5,857)
    Tax liabilities   2,237 2,402
    Other liabilities   90,786 93,658
    Non-current liabilities held for sale   17,079 1,703
    Insurance and reinsurance contracts liabilities   150,691 141,723
    Provisions   4,085 4,235
    Subordinated debts   17,009 15,894
    Total liabilities   1,493,957 1,477,798
    Shareholder’s equity  
    Shareholders’ equity, Group share  
    Issued common stocks and capital reserves   21,281 21,186
    Other equity instruments   9,873 8,924
    Retained earnings   33,863 32,891
    Net income   4,200 2,493
    Sub-total   69,217 65,494
    Unrealised or deferred capital gains and losses   1,039 481
    Sub-total equity, Group share   70,256 65,975
    Non-controlling interests   9,332 10,272
    Total equity   79,588 76,247
    Total   1,573,545 1,554,045

          10.    APPENDIX 2: METHODOLOGY

    1 –The financial information presented for the fourth quarter and full year 2024 was examined by the Board of Directors on February 5th, 2025 and has been prepared in accordance with IFRS as adopted in the European Union and applicable at that date. The audit procedures carried out by the Statutory Auditors on the consolidated financial statements are in progress.

    2 – Net banking income

    The pillars’ net banking income is defined on page 42 of Societe Generale’s 2024 Universal Registration Document. The terms “Revenues” or “Net Banking Income” are used interchangeably. They provide a normalised measure of each pillar’s net banking income taking into account the normative capital mobilised for its activity.

    3 – Operating expenses

    Operating expenses correspond to the “Operating Expenses” as presented in note 5 to the Group’s consolidated financial statements as at December 31st, 2023. The term “costs” is also used to refer to Operating Expenses. The Cost/Income Ratio is defined on page 42 of Societe Generale’s 2024 Universal Registration Document.

    4 – Cost of risk in basis points, coverage ratio for non-performing loan outstandings

    The cost of risk is defined on pages 43 and 770 of Societe Generale’s 2024 Universal Registration Document. This indicator makes it possible to assess the level of risk of each of the pillars as a percentage of balance sheet loan commitments, including operating leases.

    In EURm   Q4 24 Q4 23 2024 2023
    French Retail, Private Banking and Insurance Net Cost Of Risk 115 163 712 505
    Gross loan Outstandings 233,298 240,533 235,539 246,701
    Cost of Risk in bp 20 27 30 20
    Global Banking and Investor Solutions Net Cost Of Risk 97 38 126 30
    Gross loan Outstandings 160,551 168,799 162,749 169,823
    Cost of Risk in bp 24 9 8 2
    Mobility, International Retail Banking & Financial Services Net Cost Of Risk 133 137 705 486
    Gross loan Outstandings 167,911 164,965 167,738 150,161
    Cost of Risk in bp 32 33 42 32
    Corporate Centre Net Cost Of Risk (7) 23 (12) 4
    Gross loan Outstandings 25,730 23,075 24,700 20,291
    Cost of Risk in bp (11) 40 (5) 2
    Societe Generale Group Net Cost Of Risk 338 361 1,530 1,025
    Gross loan Outstandings 587,490 597,371 590,725 586,977
    Cost of Risk in bp 23 24 26 17

    The gross coverage ratio for non-performing loan outstandings is calculated as the ratio of provisions recognised in respect of the credit risk to gross outstandings identified as in default within the meaning of the regulations, without taking account of any guarantees provided. This coverage ratio measures the maximum residual risk associated with outstandings in default (“non-performing loans”).

    5 – ROE, ROTE, RONE

    The notions of ROE (Return on Equity) and ROTE (Return on Tangible Equity), as well as their calculation methodology, are specified on pages 43 and 44 of Societe Generale’s 2024 Universal Registration Document. This measure makes it possible to assess Societe Generale’s return on equity and return on tangible equity.
    RONE (Return on Normative Equity) determines the return on average normative equity allocated to the Group’s businesses, according to the principles presented on page 44 of Societe Generale’s 2024 Universal Registration Document.
    Group net income used for the ratio numerator is the accounting Group net income adjusted for “Interest paid and payable to holders if deeply subordinated notes and undated subordinated notes, issue premium amortisation”. For ROTE, income is also restated for goodwill impairment.
    Details of the corrections made to the accounting equity in order to calculate ROE and ROTE for the period are given in the table below:

    ROTE calculation: calculation methodology

    End of period (in EURm) Q4 24 Q4 23 2024 2023
    Shareholders’ equity Group share 70,256 65,975 70,256 65,975
    Deeply subordinated and undated subordinated notes (10,526) (9,095) (10,526) (9,095)
    Interest payable to holders of deeply & undated subordinated notes, issue premium amortisation(1) (25) (21) (25) (21)
    OCI excluding conversion reserves 757 636 757 636
    Distribution provision(2) (1,740) (995) (1,740) (995)
    Distribution N-1 to be paid
    Equity end-of-period for ROE 58,722 56,500 58,722 56,500
    Average equity for ROE 58,204 56,607 57,223 56,396
    Average Goodwill(3) (4,192) (4,068) (4,108) (4,011)
    Average Intangible Assets (2,883) (3,188) (2,921) (3,143)
    Average equity for ROTE 51,129 49,351 50,194 49,242
             
    Group net Income 1,041 430 4,200 2,493
    Interest paid and payable to holders of deeply subordinated notes and undated subordinated notes, issue premium amortisation (199) (215) (720) (759)
    Cancellation of goodwill impairment 338
    Adjusted Group net Income 842 215 3,480 2,073
    ROTE 6.6% 1.7% 6.9% 4.2%

    181920

    RONE calculation: Average capital allocated to Core Businesses (in EURm)

    In EURm Q4 24 Q4 23 Change 2024 2023 Change
    French Retail , Private Banking and Insurance 15,731 15,445 +1.9% 15,634 15,454 +1.2%
    Global Banking and Investor Solutions 15,129 15,247 -0.8% 15,147 15,426 -1.8%
    Mobility, International Retail Banking & Financial Services 10,460 10,313 +1.4% 10,433 9,707 +7.5%
    Core Businesses 41,320 41,006 +0.8% 41,214 40,587 +1.5%
    Corporate Center 16,884 15,601 +8.2% 16,009 15,809 +1.3%
    Group 58,204 56,607 +2.8% 57,223 56,396 +1.5%

    6 – Net assets and tangible net assets

    Net assets and tangible net assets are defined in the methodology, page 45 of the Group’s 2024 Universal Registration Document. The items used to calculate them are presented below:
    2122

    End of period (in EURm) 2024 2023 2022
    Shareholders’ equity Group share 70,256 65,975 66,970
    Deeply subordinated and undated subordinated notes (10,526) (9,095) (10,017)
    Interest of deeply & undated subordinated notes, issue premium amortisation(1) (25) (21) (24)
    Book value of own shares in trading portfolio 8 36 67
    Net Asset Value 59,713 56,895 56,996
    Goodwill(2) (4,207) (4,008) (3,652)
    Intangible Assets (2,871) (2,954) (2,875)
    Net Tangible Asset Value 52,635 49,933 50,469
           
    Number of shares used to calculate NAPS(3) 796,498 796,244 801,147
    Net Asset Value per Share 75.0 71.5 71.1
    Net Tangible Asset Value per Share 66.1 62.7 63.0

    7 – Calculation of Earnings Per Share (EPS)

    The EPS published by Societe Generale is calculated according to the rules defined by the IAS 33 standard (see page 44 of Societe Generale’s 2024 Universal Registration Document). The corrections made to Group net income in order to calculate EPS correspond to the restatements carried out for the calculation of ROE and ROTE.
    The calculation of Earnings Per Share is described in the following table:

    Average number of shares (thousands) 2024 2023 2022
    Existing shares 801,915 818,008 845,478
    Deductions      
    Shares allocated to cover stock option plans and free shares awarded to staff 4,402 6,802 6,252
    Other own shares and treasury shares 2,344 11,891 16,788
    Number of shares used to calculate EPS(4) 795,169 799,315 822,437
    Group net Income (in EUR m) 4,200 2,493 1,825
    Interest on deeply subordinated notes and undated subordinated notes (in EUR m) (720) (759) (596)
    Adjusted Group net income (in EUR m) 3,480 1,735 1,230
    EPS (in EUR) 4.38 2.17 1.50

    2324
    8 – The Societe Generale Group’s Common Equity Tier 1 capital is calculated in accordance with applicable CRR2/CRD5 rules. The fully loaded solvency ratios are presented pro forma for current earnings, net of dividends, for the current financial year, unless specified otherwise. When there is reference to phased-in ratios, these do not include the earnings for the current financial year, unless specified otherwise. The leverage ratio is also calculated according to applicable CRR2/CRD5 rules including the phased-in following the same rationale as solvency ratios.

    9 – Funded balance sheet, loan to deposit ratio

    The funded balance sheet is based on the Group financial statements. It is obtained in two steps:

    • A first step aiming at reclassifying the items of the financial statements into aggregates allowing for a more economic reading of the balance sheet. Main reclassifications:

    Insurance: grouping of the accounting items related to insurance within a single aggregate in both assets and liabilities.
    Customer loans: include outstanding loans with customers (net of provisions and write-downs, including net lease financing outstanding and transactions at fair value through profit and loss); excludes financial assets reclassified under loans and receivables in accordance with the conditions stipulated by IFRS 9 (these positions have been reclassified in their original lines).
    Wholesale funding: Includes interbank liabilities and debt securities issued. Financing transactions have been allocated to medium/long-term resources and short-term resources based on the maturity of outstanding, more or less than one year.
    Reclassification under customer deposits of the share of issues placed by French Retail Banking networks (recorded in medium/long-term financing), and certain transactions carried out with counterparties equivalent to customer deposits (previously included in short term financing).
    Deduction from customer deposits and reintegration into short-term financing of certain transactions equivalent to market resources.

    • A second step aiming at excluding the contribution of insurance subsidiaries, and netting derivatives, repurchase agreements, securities borrowing/lending, accruals and “due to central banks”.

    The Group loan/deposit ratio is determined as the division of the customer loans by customer deposits as presented in the funded balance sheet.

    NB (1) The sum of values contained in the tables and analyses may differ slightly from the total reported due to rounding rules.
    (2) All the information on the results for the period (notably: press release, downloadable data, presentation slides and supplement) is available on Societe Generale’s website:
    www.societegenerale.com in the “Investor” section.

    Societe Generale

    Societe Generale is a top tier European Bank with more than 126,000 employees serving about 25 million clients in 65 countries across the world. We have been supporting the development of our economies for 160 years, providing our corporate, institutional, and individual clients with a wide array of value-added advisory and financial solutions. Our long-lasting and trusted relationships with the clients, our cutting-edge expertise, our unique innovation, our ESG capabilities and leading franchises are part of our DNA and serve our most essential objective – to deliver sustainable value creation for all our stakeholders.

    The Group runs three complementary sets of businesses, embedding ESG offerings for all its clients:

    • French Retail, Private Banking and Insurance, with leading retail bank SG and insurance franchise, premium private banking services, and the leading digital bank BoursoBank.
    • Global Banking and Investor Solutions, a top tier wholesale bank offering tailored-made solutions with distinctive global leadership in equity derivatives, structured finance and ESG.
    • Mobility, International Retail Banking and Financial Services, comprising well-established universal banks (in Czech Republic, Romania and several African countries), Ayvens (the new ALD I LeasePlan brand), a global player in sustainable mobility, as well as specialized financing activities.

    Committed to building together with its clients a better and sustainable future, Societe Generale aims to be a leading partner in the environmental transition and sustainability overall. The Group is included in the principal socially responsible investment indices: DJSI (Europe), FTSE4Good (Global and Europe), Bloomberg Gender-Equality Index, Refinitiv Diversity and Inclusion Index, Euronext Vigeo (Europe and Eurozone), STOXX Global ESG Leaders indexes, and the MSCI Low Carbon Leaders Index (World and Europe).

    For more information, you can follow us on Twitter/X @societegenerale or visit our website societegenerale.com.


    1 Based on the number of shares in circulation at 31 December 2024 excluding own shares, subject to usual approvals from the General Meeting
    2 Reported Group net income, after deduction of interest on deeply subordinated notes and undated subordinated notes, restated from non-cash items that have no impact on CET1 ratio
    3 Excluding assets sold
    4 Ratio calculated according to EBA methodology published on 16 July 2019
    5 Ratio excluding loans outstanding of companies currently being disposed of in compliance with IFRS 5 (in particular Société Générale Equipment Finance, SG Marocaine de Banques and La Marocaine Vie)
    6 Ratio of S3 provisions, guarantees and collaterals over gross outstanding non-performing loans
    7 The share buyback programme and the subsequent capital reduction, aim also, and in priority, at fully offsetting the dilutive impact of the future capital increase as part of the next Group Employee Share Ownership Plan, the principle of which was adopted by the Board of Directors on February 5, 2025
    8 Scopes 1 & 2 of corporate clients’ financed emissions
    9Target: -80% upstream exposure reduction by 2030 vs. 2019, with an intermediary step in 2025 at -50% vs. 2019
    10 The target is to have at least 35% of women executives by 2026
    11Including IFRS 9 phasing
    12France and International (including Switzerland and the United Kingdom)
    13 Banking App #1 in France and #2 worldwide based on Sia Partners International Mobile Banking Benchmark in October 2024
    14 At comparable business model in the post Global Financial Crisis (GFC) regulatory regime

    15 Including entities reported under IFRS 5, excluding entities sold in Morocco and Madagascar in December 2024
    16 Excluding non-recurring items on either margins or UCS (mainly linked to fleet revaluation at EUR 107m in Q4 23 vs. EUR 0m in Q4 24, prospective depreciation at EUR -191m in Q4 23 vs. EUR -87m in Q4 24, hyperinflation in Turkey at EUR -27m in Q4 23 vs. EUR -40m in Q4 24 and MtM of derivatives at EUR -137m in Q4 23 vs. EUR -2m in Q4 24)

    17 As stated in Q2 24 results press release
    18 Interest net of tax
    19 Based on the 2024 proposed distribution, subject to usual approvals of the General Meeting
    20 Excluding goodwill arising from non-controlling interests
    21 Interest net of tax
    22 Excluding goodwill arising from non-controlling interests
    23 The number of shares considered is the number of ordinary shares outstanding at the end of the period, excluding treasury shares and buybacks, but including the trading shares held by the Group (expressed in thousand of shares)
    24 The number of shares considered is the average number of ordinary shares outstanding during the period, excluding treasury shares and buybacks, but including the trading shares held by the Group

    Attachment

    The MIL Network

  • MIL-Evening Report: We know how hard it is for young people to buy a home – so how are some still doing it anyway?

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rachel Ong ViforJ, John Curtin Distinguished Professor & ARC Future Fellow, Curtin University

    PrasitRodphan/Shutterstock

    For young Australians, breaking into the housing market feels tougher than ever. Many now fear they’ll never be able to own a home.

    Despite public debates on whether it’s truly harder to buy a house than it was decades ago, falling homeownership rates across generations suggest the market has indeed shifted significantly against those just starting out.

    But if it’s so difficult, how are some young people still managing to buy homes? Our newly published study set out to investigate the major barriers – and the factors – that might tip the scales in favour of ownership.

    Despite the challenges imposed by high home prices relative to incomes, some young Australians are still finding a way onto the property ladder.

    While being a good saver helps, a boost from the “bank of mum and dad” can be a game changer.

    A fading dream

    Using 14 years of data from the 2006-2020 government-funded Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) survey, we tracked independent adults aged 25-44 who were not homeowners.

    Our calculations from the HILDA survey show for those aged 25-44 , average house prices across major cities in 2006 were 4.5 times the average household income.

    In Sydney, for example, the average price of properties faced by these young people was about A$600,000 in 2006 while the average household income was $102,000.

    Across major cities, this ratio rose steadily to 6 times income in 2018, before dropping slightly to 5.4 times income at the start of the pandemic.

    For young people in cities, house prices are spiralling upward at faster rates than their incomes.

    A generous ‘bank’ available to some

    As property markets have become more unaffordable, the share of non-homeowning young people receiving help from the “bank of mum and dad” has climbed.

    We estimated from the HILDA survey that in 2006, 3.1% of this group received more than $5,000 in transfers or inheritance from their parents, rising to 5.3% by 2020.

    Young people are good savers

    Contrary to popular some commentary that young people are unable to purchase a house because they are spending their money on “smashed avocados”, young people are actually saving more.

    In 2006, around two-thirds of non-homeowning adults aged 25-44 saved regularly by putting money aside each month, saved non-regular income, or saved money left over after they met their spending needs. This proportion increased to four in five of young non-homeowning adults in 2020.

    In general, young non-homeowners are also financially planning further ahead. In 2006, 47% were planning more than a year ahead. By 2020, this share had risen to 55%.

    How are some young people buying houses?

    We looked at how the personal saving habits of young people influence their homeownership chances, taking each person’s finances and living situation into account.

    Not surprisingly, saving regularly does improve the likelihood of eventually buying a house. However, being a regular saver is much less likely to offset the impact of rising prices than parental help.

    Our research found that once prices exceed three times an individual’s income, their odds of becoming a homeowner are halved.

    No, brunch is not to blame for the state of Australia’s housing market.
    Tatiana Volgutova/Shutterstock

    In much of Australia, prices are already well above that mark. In all state capitals, they’ve gone beyond six times annual household income – a line where the odds of homeownership fall to about a third.

    However, we found having access to the “bank of mum and dad” can shift these odds dramatically.

    We found receiving financial assistance of more than $5,000 quadruples the odds of becoming a homeowner.

    Parents also help in indirect ways. Young people living in rent-free dwellings provided by family or friends had more than double the odds of private renters.

    This puts those from well-off families at a distinct advantage. Those without parental assistance face steeper deposit hurdles and risk missing out on access to areas with better job prospects.

    How governments can help

    For those without parental assistance, governments have an important role to play. Property prices will continue to soar faster than incomes grow, unless policies are implemented to address both supply and demand challenges.

    Loosening restrictions on mortgage borrowing could help some first homebuyers overcome the hurdle to homeownership. But there’s a worrying trade-off between making it easier to borrow and exposing young people to more financial risk.

    Government grants that place more cash into the hands of first-time homebuyers will likely push house prices up further, unless supply of entry-level properties can keep up.

    Such grants should also be carefully targeted to those without access to personal or family resources to help buy a home.

    Finally, tax reforms could be used to increase the supply of dwellings in first homeowner entry markets, and hold back demand from multi-property owners who can crowd out first-time home buyers.




    Read more:
    Our housing system is broken and the poorest Australians are being hardest hit


    Rachel Ong ViforJ is the recipient of an Australian Research Council Future Fellowship (project FT200100422). She also receives funding from the Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute.

    Christopher Phelps and Jack Hewton do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

    ref. We know how hard it is for young people to buy a home – so how are some still doing it anyway? – https://theconversation.com/we-know-how-hard-it-is-for-young-people-to-buy-a-home-so-how-are-some-still-doing-it-anyway-248666

    MIL OSI AnalysisEveningReport.nz

  • MIL-OSI NGOs: Inflicting harm and denying care in the West Bank report

    Source: Médecins Sans Frontières –

    Israeli forces and settlers have increased the use of extreme physical violence against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank since the all-out war on Gaza began in October 2023, according to a new report by Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF). In total, at least 870 Palestinians have been killed and over 7,100 injured between October 2023 and January 2025.

    According to our new report, “Inflicting harm and denying care”, the escalation of violence in the West Bank has severely hindered access to healthcare and is part of a pattern of systemic oppression by Israel which has been described by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) as amounting to racial segregation and apartheid.

    “Inflicting harm and denying care” in the West Bank pdf — 13.7 MB Download

    MIL OSI NGO

  • MIL-OSI NGOs: “Inflicting harm and denying care” in the West Bank: MSF report on escalation of attacks and obstructions of healthcare

    Source: Médecins Sans Frontières –

    Jerusalem – Israeli forces and settlers have increased the use of extreme physical violence against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank since the all-out war on Gaza began in October 2023, according to a new report by Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF). In total, at least 870 Palestinians have been killed and over 7,100 injured between October 2023 and January 2025. 

    According to the MSF report, “Inflicting harm and denying care”, the escalation of violence in the West Bank has severely hindered access to healthcare and is part of a pattern of systemic oppression by Israel which has been described by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) as amounting to racial segregation and apartheid.

    “Inflicting harm and denying care” in the West Bank pdf — 13.7 MB Download

    The report which covers a one-year period from October 2023 and 2024, provides in-depth interviews from 38 MSF patients and personnel, hospital staff paramedics and volunteers supported by MSF who report prolonged and violent Israeli military incursions and stricter movement restrictions, all of which have severely hindered access to essential services, particularly healthcare.  The situation has further deteriorated since the ceasefire in Gaza and has exacerbated dire living conditions for many Palestinians who are paying an immense physical and psychological toll.

    “Palestinian patients are dying because they simply cannot reach hospitals,” says Brice de le Vingne, MSF emergency coordinator. “We’re seeing ambulances blocked by Israeli forces at checkpoints while carrying critical patients, medical facilities surrounded and raided during active operations, and healthcare workers subjected to physical violence while trying to save lives.”

    Every volunteer paramedic risks their life to provide life-saving treatment to the people living in the camp. Palestine, September 2024.
    Alexandre Marcou/MSF

    An increased number of attacks on medical personnel and facilities have been reported to MSF teams, including attacks on hospitals, destruction of makeshift medical sites in refugee camps, as well as the harassment, detention, injury, and killing of first responders and medical workers by Israeli forces.

    Between October 2023 and December 2024, WHO has recorded 694 attacks on healthcare in the West Bank, with hospitals and healthcare structures often besieged by military force. Healthcare workers express a feeling of insecurity as they are frequently harassed, detained, injured and even killed.

    “Israeli forces surrounded the stabilisation point [in Tubas], closing both its entrances, even though it was very clear that this was a medical building,” says a medic from the Palestinian Red Crescent Society, supported by MSF. “They ordered all the paramedics to exit the stabilisation point. There were around 22 of us paramedics there. Israeli soldiers shot inside and outside the building, damaging our supplies and the stabilisation point.”

    In case of medical emergency, restrictions of movement can have deadly consequences. Access to healthcare in this context has been severely impeded by the obstruction and targeting of ambulance movements and the escalation of violent military raids resulting in injuries, fatalities and the destruction of vital civilian infrastructure, including roads, healthcare, water pipelines and electrical systems, particularly in Tulkarem and Jenin refugee camps. In remote areas and outskirts of cities like Jenin or Nablus, the situation is especially dire, as patients with chronic conditions, such as those who need regular dialysis treatment, are forced to stay home due to the untenable obstacles to reaching healthcare.

    On top of the frequent Israeli military incursions, settler violence and the ever-increasing expansion of settlements has left many Palestinians vulnerable to violence and afraid to move across the West Bank. In total, 1,500 attacks by Israeli settlers against Palestinians have been reported by OCHA between October 2023 and 2024.

    As the occupying power, Israel has legal obligations under international law to ensure access to healthcare and protect medical personnel. The healthcare system in the West Bank is under immense strain and forced into a state of perpetual emergency.

    MSF calls Israel to stop the violence against healthcare workers, patients and health facilities and to stop obstructing medical personnel from performing lifesaving duties.

    MIL OSI NGO

  • MIL-OSI Australia: (WIP) New industry standards for online safety: what service providers need to know

    Source: Allens Insights

    Deadline to carry out risk assessments is fast approaching 8 min read

    Certain online service providers must complete a risk assessment and implement required compliance measures by 21 June 2025. This relates to the following types of material:

    • child sexual exploitation
    • pro-terrorism
    • extreme crime and violence (Class 1A material)
    • crime and violence
    • drug-related material (Class 1B material).

    This is required by two industry standards referred to as the Phase 1 Standards:

    • Online Safety (Relevant Electronic Services)—Class 1A and Class 1B Material) Industry Standard 2024 (the RES Standard); and
    • Online Safety (Designated Internet Services—Class 1A and Class 1B Material) Industry Standard 2024 (the DIS Standard).

    In this Insight, we cover who needs to carry out a risk assessment and the obligations that two new industry standards impose.

    Key takeaways

    How did we get here?

    The Act provides for industry bodies to develop new codes to regulate Class 1 and Class 2 materials. The industry bodies (including the Communications Alliance, Australian Mobile Telecommunications Association, Digital Industry Group, and Interactive Games and Entertainment Association) adopted a two-phase approach to develop these codes.

    During phase 1, industry bodies drafted eight codes to regulate Class 1A and Class 1B material. Six of these industry codes were registered in 2023, and they apply to the following sections of the online industry: social media services, app distribution services, hosting services, internet carriage services, equipment providers and search engine services. The other two codes were not registered because the Commissioner was not satisfied that they provided appropriate community safeguards. As a result, the Commissioner developed and registered the RES Standard and DIS Standard.

    Development of the phase 2 industry codes have been underway since July 2024, with public consultation concluding on 22 November 2024. These codes are intended to deal with class 1C and class 2 materials, which includes online pornography and other high-impact material.

    Phase 1 Standards

    The Phase 1 Standards apply to two sections of the online industry—providers of RESs and DISs

    RES DIS

    A service that enables end-users in Australia to communicate with other end-users by:

    • email
    • instant messaging
    • SMS
    • MMS
    • chat services

    as well as:

    • services that enable end-users to play online games with each other; and
    • online dating services.

    Note: A service that meets the definition of a RES will be required to comply with the RES Standard, regardless of whether it also meets the definition of another industry section.5

    A service that:

    • allows end-users in Australia to access material using internet carriage services; or
    • delivers material to persons who have the appropriate equipment for receiving that material via an internet carriage service.

    Note: This is a very broad category that includes many apps and websites, as well as file and photo storage services, and some services that deploy or distribute generative artificial intelligence models.6 A DIS is expressly not:

    • a social media service;
    • a RES;
    • an on-demand program service; or
    • other specified and exempt services.7

    A service that meets the definition of a DIS will be required to comply with the DIS Standard, unless the service’s predominant purpose is more closely aligned with another industry code or industry standard.8

    The RES Standard and DIS Standard classifies certain service providers as ‘pre-assessed’ or ‘defined’ categories. A service provider that falls within either the pre-assessed or defined categories is not required to conduct its own risk assessment. Instead, it is deemed to either fall within a particular risk tier, or it has a unique risk profile such that no specific risk tier is attributed to it.

    Service providers that are not captured in the table below must conduct their own risk assessment or default to assigning the service a Tier 1 risk profile.9

    RES Standard DIS Standard

    Pre-assessed category:

    • Communication relevant electronic service
    • Gaming service with communication functionality
    • Dating service

    Pre-assessed category:

    • High impact DIS
    • Classified DIS
    • General purpose DIS
    • Enterprise DIS

    Defined category:

    • Telephony RES
    • Enterprise RES
    • Gaming service with limited communication functionality

    Defined category:

    • End-user managed hosting service
    • High impact generative AI DIS
    • Model distribution platform

    The risk assessment must be undertaken by a person with the relevant skills, experience and expertise to carry it out.10  

    The Phase 1 Standards require certain matters to be taken into account, so far as they are relevant to the service, to determine the overall risk tier for it.11 These are summarised below. Depending on the nature of a service and the context it operates in, service providers are likely to have additional risk factors to consider beyond the ones below.

    Applicability to RES or DIS Matters to be taken into account for risk assessment
    Both RES and DIS
    • Predominant purpose of the service
    • Functionality of the service12
    • Extent to which material posted on, generated by or distributed using the service will be available to end-users of the service in Australia
    • Terms of use for the service
    • Terms of arrangements under which the provider acquires content to be made available on the service
    • Ages of end-users and likely end-users of the service
    • Outcomes of the forward-looking analysis conducted under section 8(4) of the RES Standard and DIS Standard
    • Safety by design guidance and tools published or made available by a government agency or a foreign or international body
    • Risk to the online safety of end-users in Australia in relation to material generated by artificial intelligence.
    DIS only
    • Manner in which material is created or contributed to in connection with the service
    • Whether the service includes chat, messaging or other communications functionality
    • Risk that any generative AI features of the service will be used to generate high-impact materials
    • Design features and controls deployed to mitigate the risks related to material generated by AI and high-impact materials generated by generative AI features of the service

    Obligations that flow from risk assessment

    The Phase 1 Standards impose a range of obligations depending on the service provider’s risk tier arising from the risk assessment (ie Tier 1, Tier 2 or Tier 3), or the type of service it is pre-assessed or defined to be if it has a unique risk profile (eg Telephony RES, High impact generative AI DIS or dating service).

    A high-level summary of the obligations that may be applicable to certain RESs and DISs include:

    • Implement, enforce and publish relevant terms of use.
    • Ensure that there are systems in place to address circumstances where there is a breach of terms in respect of class 1A and class 1B material, including processes to report such material to an enforcement authority if it represents a serious and immediate threat to a person in Australia.
    • Implement a system for disrupting access and distribution of class 1A materials through the RES or DIS.
    • Implement a system to detect and remove class 1A materials that is accessible through the RES or DIS.
    • Implement reporting arrangements to ensure compliance with the Phase 1 Standards.
    • Ensure that features and settings that would minimise the risk of class 1A or class 1B material are incorporated before material changes are made to the service.
    • Ensure end-users can effectively control associated communication functions.
    • Implement policies, procedures and mechanisms to report or make complaints, and to respond to complaints.
    • Notify the Commissioner of proposed changes to the features and functions of the service, unless the change will not significantly increase the relevant risk.
    • Cooperate with and report to the Commissioner as required.

    What’s next?

    The Commissioner has stated that no enforcement action will be taken in the first six months of the Phase 1 Standards coming into effect, apart from in exceptional circumstances—eg in response to serious or deliberate non-compliance. The initial focus will be on working with industry bodies and service providers to raise awareness of their obligations under the Phase 1 Standards.13

    The Commissioner has a range of enforcement options under the Act to address non-compliance with the Phase 1 Standards. These include:

    • a formal warning
    • an enforceable undertaking
    • an injunction
    • an infringement notice
    • civil penalty proceedings or a court order requiring a service provider to cease its service.

    Notably, failure to comply with the Phase 1 Standards may, currently, result in a penalty of up to $49.5 million.14 Service providers should promptly take proactive measures to ensure they are complying with their obligations under the Phase 1 Standards (including conducting a risk assessment if necessary) to avoid enforcement action by the Commissioner, which may commence from 22 June 2025.

    Service providers should also be aware that new regulation of the access and exposure to class 1C and class 2 material is forthcoming. The Commissioner will undertake an assessment of whether the draft phase 2 industry codes meet the statutory requirements when they are submitted for registration, which must be no later than 28 February 2025.

    Review of Online Safety Act

    On 4 February 2025, the Government tabled the statutory review of the Online Safety Act (the Report). This independent review was initially delivered to the Government in October 2024 and makes 67 recommendations aimed at strengthening Australia’s online safety framework.

    Key recommendations in the Report include:

    • Legislating a statutory digital duty of care that is intended to place the onus on digital platforms to prevent online harms.
    • Raising the civil penalties for breaches of the Act (ie the maximum penalty to be increased to the greater of 5% of global annual turnover or $50 million).
    • Empowering the Commissioner with stronger investigative, information-gathering and enforcement powers, such as the power to require certain providers of online service to undertake compliance audits at their own expense.
    • Requiring providers of services with the greatest reach or risk to provide an annual transparency report and publish a summarised version on its website.

    There is currently no proposed legislation (or timetable for legislation) to implement the recommendations, but the Government has said it will continue to carefully consider all recommendations put forward in the Report and respond in due course. With the federal election looming, the Government’s (and Opposition’s) response to online safety reform is a key area to watch.

    MIL OSI News

  • MIL-OSI Australia: Investing to promote higher quality supports for NDIS participants

    Source: Ministers for Social Services

    Ensuring every NDIS participant has access to the highest quality supports will be the focus of two new pilots to commence this year.

    Grant rounds will this week open for the two 12-month pilots – the Support Coordination Pilot and Supported Independent Living Pilot – that will help set a benchmark for quality and pricing.

    Registered providers only will be invited to apply.

    Supported Independent Living is one type of Home and Living support and includes help or supervision in the home with daily tasks, such as personal care or cooking meals. SIL helps NDIS participants live as independently as possible, while building their capacity and skills.

    Support coordinators assist NDIS participants to understand and implement supports included in their plan. They link the participant to providers and other community and government services. A support coordinator will also support the participant to build skills and direction.

    The two pilots will be run by the National Disability Insurance Agency and providers will be financially incentivised for participating if they demonstrate high quality.

    An analysis will then be conducted and the pilots will inform future approaches to ensure taxpayers and participants get the best value for money for services provided.

    The pilots will evaluate the characteristics of quality service provision, and costs and outcomes associated with providing quality services, including to participants who have complex support needs and are at risk of not receiving supports.

    Learnings from the pilots will inform the NDIA’s role as market steward, as the Agency continues to review current NDIS pricing models as part of its commitment to a revised pricing approach.

    A further pilot will be released later this year which will focus on smaller SIL providers, such as those who deliver more bespoke services, those who support regional and remote communities, and those who specialise in service provision for First Nations and CALD participants.

    “We want to ensure we have the right supports that demonstrate high quality and the best use of taxpayer money,” Minister Rishworth said.

    “The highest quality supports for participants will in turn lead to better outcomes. We don’t want quality to be a lottery.

    “These pilots will help ensure the NDIA has the information and insights it needs to deeply understand how providers are working to offer quality supports, and the cost of delivering these supports.”

    Minister Assisting the Minister for the National Disability Insurance Scheme Anne Aly said, these initiatives will provide us with valuable insights, driving quality improvements across the NDIS.

    “Working with established, high-quality providers, we can ensure that participants, particularly those with high and complex needs, continue to have access to quality care and services that meet those needs.” Minister Aly said.

    The two pilots follow significant reforms to the NDIS to ensure the Scheme’s sustainability for generations to come.

    December data shows the Scheme remains in line with forecasts of 12 per cent growth in costs this financial year, before coming down to the National Cabinet target of 8 per cent growth next year.  

    “These savings are built on significant reform to support participants to spend in line with their funding period, rather than exhausting all of their funding too soon,” Minister Rishworth said.

    “This strengthening of the NDIS will ensure every dollar in the Scheme goes towards quality supports for participants.”

    MIL OSI News

  • MIL-OSI Australia: Remarks to the Business Council of Australia Dinner

    Source: Australian Treasurer

    Thanks to Bran for the invitation, Geoff for the introduction and to you all for being here.

    It’s a pleasure to be back for this annual gathering on Ngunnawal and Ngambri land. I acknowledge, as Geoff did, elders, customs and traditions.

    I know I speak for Mark, Katy, Don, Chris, Murray and Andrew when I say our attendance is a symbol of our appreciation for your engagement with us on economic policy.

    It’s also another chance to thank you for the jobs and opportunities you create around Australia.

    And from a personal point of view, to thank you for the opportunity we have to catch up every month or 2 with the board or other small groups, to compare notes.

    This bigger gathering is timely in political terms with an election due by May.

    It’s also timely from an economic perspective.

    We’ve seen really important data released in the last month, a new administration in the US making some big announcements, some volatility in markets as well.

    I want to focus almost exclusively on economics tonight.

    Because 2 inflation readings and the jobs figures have brought the soft landing we have been working towards into sharper focus.

    Last week’s CPI data saw underlying inflation fall to a 3‑year low and headline inflation fall to an almost 4‑year low.

    That represents the sharpest moderation in a parliamentary term since inflation targeting began.

    Even more extraordinary that we’ve made this substantial and sustained progress on inflation at the same time as we’ve seen the creation of more than 1.1 million new jobs.

    I put it this way because I think we’re on the cusp of achieving something remarkable, together.

    Inflation is down, unemployment is still low, and, unlike most of our peers, we’ve avoided even one negative quarter of growth.

    You’d know and appreciate how unusual this is in historical terms and in contemporary global experience as well.

    Every other time we’ve gone through an inflation spike, it’s been followed by higher unemployment.

    On other occasions and now in most other advanced economies progress on inflation has been paid for with much higher unemployment and negative quarters of growth.

    Since the start of 2022 every major advanced economy, and two-thirds of the OECD, has gone backwards at least once.

    We’ve made as much or more progress on inflation without paying that price.

    Before I get carried away here let me acknowledge 3 important truths.

    Australians are still under very substantial if not severe financial pressure – we get that.

    Our economy is not productive enough – more on that shortly.

    And our economy is barely growing – an inevitable consequence of higher interest rates and global pressures.

    In this soft economy there have still been some remarkable developments we shouldn’t dismiss or diminish:

    The lowest average unemployment rate for any government in 50 years.

    Stronger employment growth than any major advanced economy.

    Four in every 5 of the 1.1 million jobs created in the private sector.

    More jobs created in the market sector than any first‑term government on record.

    Record labour force participation.

    The strongest rate of real wage growth since 2020 – and now 4 consecutive quarters of annual real wage growth.

    The narrowest gender pay gap on record.

    Unemployment at 4 per cent and inflation below 3 per cent at the same time, for the first time in half a century.

    The highest level of business investment in over a decade, in the last financial year.

    25,000 new businesses created each month this term, the highest average on record.

    27 share market record highs since the election –

    25 per cent growth in household wealth via super and shares as a result.

    The biggest nominal improvement in the budget in a Parliamentary term.

    The first back‑to‑back surpluses in almost 2 decades.

    We know the job’s not done and the economy is not yet what we want it to be but there is progress to be proud of too.

    I run through this list not to take the credit, but to share it.

    Because our exceptionalism is the result of governments, employers and employees all doing their bit.

    This is the soft landing we’ve been planning and preparing for.

    We decided we’d rather deliver a soft landing than clean up after a hard one.

    It’s why our economic plan was always about fighting inflation without ignoring risks to growth.

    Public demand has played a role in keeping the economy from going backwards over the past 2 years.

    But we know that the best kind of strong and sustainable economic growth means growth led by the private sector.

    When I’ve said this on many occasions before, I’ve seen it written up as some kind of reluctant admission, but I think it’s just common sense.

    Our economy is at its best when it’s private companies powering growth and propelling us forward.

    This is what guides our productivity agenda.

    It has 5 pillars:

    Creating a more dynamic and resilient economy.

    Building a skilled and adaptable workforce.

    Harnessing data and digital technology.

    Delivering quality care more efficiently.

    Investing in cheaper, cleaner energy and the net zero transformation.

    We’ve asked the Productivity Commission for a big piece of work on each pillar, deliberately timed for the second half of this year to inform whoever wins the election.

    But we haven’t been waiting for those inquiries to land.

    We’ve already put in place some substantial and under‑recognised policy:

    Abolishing 500 nuisance tariffs.

    Introducing comprehensive competition reforms.

    The biggest overhaul to merger settings in 50 years.

    Better designing and informing our capital markets.

    Reforming our foreign investment framework.

    A $900 million National Productivity Fund.

    Record investment in skills.

    The Universities Accord.

    Finishing the NBN.

    Investing in quantum computing.

    Reforming the NDIS.

    Unlocking tens of billions in private investment via the Capacity Investment Scheme.

    Realising net zero industrial opportunities through a Future Made in Australia –

    Like our green hydrogen, critical minerals, and green aluminium production incentives.

    This list isn’t exhaustive but it’s indicative and I use it to make this point:

    There was a big focus on productivity in this first term and there will be an even bigger focus in a second, should we win one.

    Let me give you a couple of examples.

    Take regulation.

    Here I pay tribute to all the work Katy has been driving to harmonise standards, streamline accreditation and make it easier to export Australian goods.

    This year, we’ll also stand up our single front door for investors –

    And I can let you know tonight I’ve asked Danielle Wood to look into how we can further streamline regulation as part of the inquiries the PC are doing on our 5 pillars.

    This is all aimed at making it easier to invest, easier to hire, easier to trade and easier to do business in Australia.

    Historically, more than half of our productivity growth has come from working smarter – combining our skills and capital resources in more efficient and innovative ways.

    Here it’s AI and the digital economy where we see huge opportunities.

    You only need to look at the events of the last few weeks to get a sense of the scale and breadth of the sweeping change AI presents.

    From the Americans announcing the $800 billion Stargate AI project one day –

    To Chinese start‑up DeepSeek causing $1 trillion to be wiped from Nvidia’s market cap – the biggest one‑day rout in the history of the US share market.

    It’s clear AI will become a bigger part of our economy and lives.

    How we respond will shape the future.

    Australia is among the top 5 global destinations for the data centre infrastructure AI depends on.

    Our reputation and software development know‑how also means we’re a priority market for AI app development.

    Already 70 per cent of Australian businesses have implemented AI and another 20 odd per cent are planning to in the next year.

    It’s a big focus for us now and will be over the coming years.

    Ed has already done a lot of work on how we get the policy settings right – including how to make sure AI is deployed safely and sustainably.

    Our focus with AI is also on the huge gains on offer, not just the guardrails.

    We want to continue to build and foster innovation, so more workers and more businesses adapt and adopt AI to their advantage.

    And also give investors clarity and certainty to invest in AI infrastructure in Australia with confidence.

    That will be a big focus our National AI Capability Plan for Australia.

    We want you to bring forward your ideas, your innovation and your ambition to shape that plan.

    We’ll always listen when you do –

    We read with interest the BCA’s 2025 election platform this week, with technology, AI and deregulation all featuring.

    Because we know to make the momentous changes happening in the digital economy, energy transformation, services sector, geopolitics and demographics work for us, your ideas and insights will be key.

    The patterns of history tell us what happens when our relationship is at its best.

    Those of you who have heard me speak a lot will recognise my obsession with our fourth economy.

    Let me put this in some broader context.

    You all spend as much time in airport bookshops as me.

    And you’re all probably bigger readers than I am when it comes to investing and market cycles.

    So I know you’d all be familiar with people like Ray Dalio, George Friedman, or Neil Howe and William Strauss.

    They’re all grappling with a similar question:

    Where do we fit in the bigger sweep of economic history and how should that inform our strategy?

    In the US, 80‑year historical cycles lead from one kind of society and economy to the next.

    For Australia it’s more like 40‑years.

    Every 4 decades or so from the 1900s we have transformed our economy.

    From largely agrarian at the start of the 20th century.

    To one that was industrial and protected after the Second World War.

    And then unshackled and opened up to the world in the 1980s.

    Every time one of these 3 economies has taken shape the private sector has been at the forefront of the transformation.

    In the 1900s it was the wool and wheat industries.

    In the 1940s it was manufacturing, underpinned by trade agreements which supported our domestic and export industries.

    And 40 years later, it was the services and financial sector – new drivers of growth unlocked as Labor dismantled the tariff wall and floated the dollar.

    The BCA itself came to life during one of these seismic shifts – following Bob’s National Economic Summit in 1983.

    It’s 4 decades since we unleashed our third economy –

    And we’re now building a fourth, transformed by technology and powered by cleaner and cheaper energy.

    An economy that ensures Australians are primary beneficiaries of all the churn and change occurring around the world.

    Over the last 15 years, we’ve seen 3 major economic shocks, war, and tensions in our region.

    At the same time as the big 5 shifts identified in our Intergenerational Report transform the world.

    From globalisation to fragmentation;

    From hydrocarbons to renewables;

    From information technology to AI;

    From a younger population to an older one;

    And changes to our industrial base.

    All this is shaped by a pronounced slowdown in China, a new administration in the US with new priorities, and an uncertain outlook for Europe and the Middle East.

    The fourth economy is about how we make Australia an island of opportunity and prosperity in a sea of uncertainty.

    Modernising our economy, managing pressures, and maximising our advantages.

    We see a powerful and pre-eminent place for the private sector in the future we will build together.

    Propelling our growth and pushing us forward.

    Innovating and investing.

    Employing and upskilling.

    Our political opponents want to pick fights with you on cultural issues and take the country backwards, divided.

    We want to work with you on the economy to take the country forwards, together.

    We know we wouldn’t be approaching this soft landing without you.

    And we know that we can’t build Australia’s fourth economy without you either.

    For all these reasons I’m looking forward to the discussion tonight.

    MIL OSI News

  • MIL-OSI Australia: Address to OECD International Workshop on Rigorous Impact Evaluation Approaches including Randomised Controlled Trials

    Source: Australian Treasurer

    As is customary in Australia, I acknowledge the Ngunnawal people, on whose lands I am recording these remarks, and all First Nations people joining this international workshop.

    Thank you to our OECD Public Management and budgeting colleagues, Jon Blondal, Andrew Blazey and the team for helping to coordinate this event and offering me the opportunity to provide this opening address. This event is being run by the OECD in collaboration with the Australian Centre for Evaluation in the Department of the Treasury. The Australian Government is delighted to be contributing to global efforts to advocate for better evidence. And we are keen to connect with international endeavours that promote its generation, synthesis and sharing in public policy.

    Today, I want to discuss how countries can collaborate to better create and use evidence. This is a substantial reform. Indeed, I argue that randomised trials and better use of evidence isn’t just another worthy public policy tweak. It’s bigger than that. Much bigger. Effectively using evidence to make policy decisions is a public administration reform on par with the biggest changes in good government that humanity has put into place. It is the seventh phase of good government.

    Let’s take a quick moment to run through the major milestones in the history of public administration.

    Six big reforms in the history of public administration

    Throughout history, there have been 6 big reforms in public administration.

    The first was the rise of bureaucracy and professionalised governance. It was during the 18th and 19th centuries that public administration shifted from patronage and informal systems to emphasising impartiality, specialisation, and accountability. Democratic institutions and a robust civil society provided the conditions for an independent and accountable civil service.

    The second big reform occurred in the early 20th century. The efficiency revolution – scientific management of public administration that focused on efficiency and rational organisation – was inspired by industrial principles.

    In response to economic crises and post‑WWII recovery, we saw the rise of the third big reform – the welfare state and the expansion of government responsibilities in social welfare, healthcare and economic planning.

    The fourth big reform in public administration in the late 20th century was market‑oriented governance. We saw governments adopt private‑sector practices like outsourcing, performance metrics, and competition.

    Concerns about accountability also carried through to the fifth big historic reform – the era of digital transformation and e‑governance. The early 21st century saw technology revolutionise public administration. It enabled data‑driven decision‑making and citizen engagement.

    Building on the lessons learnt during the digital transformation, the past decade has seen the move towards adaptive governance – the sixth big reform in public administration. Top‑down processes were swapped out for more flexible, collaborative and cross‑sector approaches that embrace ‘long‑term systems thinking’ to address interconnected crises such as climate change (Brunner and Lynch 2017).

    Each of these 6 big reforms from the past 3 centuries has helped to reshape government and improve citizens’ lives.

    The seventh big reform in public administration: randomised trials

    Today I want to argue that we are on the cusp of a seventh big reform in public administration.

    It will involve the widespread adoption of randomised trials as a means of testing policies by providing a counterfactual.

    This reform should include the synthesis of quality evidence about what works, and what doesn’t, to provide public administrators with irrefutable knowledge that can improve people’s lives.

    Let’s consider a couple of examples to see how this might work in practice.

    Eye care is often a neglected field of public health in developing economies.

    In rural Bangladesh, a randomised trial of providing free reading glasses involved more than 800 adults with jobs requiring close attention to detail, such as tea pickers, weavers, and seamstresses (Jacobs 2024). The study found that when workers were given free reading glasses, they earned 33 per cent more than those who were not given glasses (Sehrin et al. 2024).

    Speaking to The New York Times, Dr Nathan Congdon, one of the authors of the study findings, said that ‘…what makes the results especially exciting is the potential to convince governments that vision care interventions are as inexpensive, cost‑effective and life‑changing as anything else that we can offer in healthcare’ (Jacobs 2024).

    As well as garnering evidence on what does work, the widespread adoption of randomised trials must also include quality evidence about what doesn’t work.

    In 2014, the US state of Massachusetts launched a 4‑year intervention program called the Juvenile Justice Pay for Success Initiative (Patrick DL 2014). The program aimed to reduce recidivism and improve employment outcomes in young men who were at high risk of re‑offending (Third Sector 2024).

    The initiative involved an experimental financial contract called ‘Pay For Success’ – also known as a social impact bond. Funders assumed the US$27 million up‑front financial risk. And the government would only refund the cost of the program if a third‑party evaluator and validator determined that the initiative achieved a reduction in the number of days the young men spent in jail, and improvements in their employment and job readiness (Patrick DL 2014).

    At the end of the 4‑year program, a randomised trial found no discernible effects on reincarceration or employment (Coalition for Evidence‑Based Policy 2025). Neither the recidivism nor employment outcomes were sizable enough to trigger the repayment under the pay‑for‑success contract (Roca et al. 2025).

    Why randomised trials should be prioritised over other forms of evaluation

    When the evaluation of a social program does not produce the hoped‑for results, it’s difficult to avoid feelings of disappointment.

    But this has been the reality for some time.

    We know from the history of large, well‑conducted randomised trial evaluations that only a small percentage find that the intervention being evaluated produces a meaningful improvement over the status quo.

    As Peter Rossi attested in his 1987 Iron Law of Evaluation, ‘The expected value of any net impact assessment of any large‑scale social program is zero’ (Arnold Ventures 2018a).

    But here’s the light on the hill.

    The ‘iron law’ applies to most fields of research. That includes medicine, where 50–80 per cent of positive results from initial clinical studies are overturned by a subsequent randomised trial (Arnold Ventures 2018a).

    In medicine, the move towards randomised trials continues to save lives and stop unnecessary interventions.

    For every new treatment such as AIDS drugs, the HPV vaccine and genetic testing – medicine has discarded old ones, like bloodletting, gastric freezing and tonsillectomy (Leigh 2018).

    The willingness to test cures against placebos, or the best available alternative, is how we make progress. In public policy, we can do the same. If it works, we use it; if not, it’s back to the lab.

    The central goal of evaluation: finding interventions that work

    The key is having a big, ambitious goal to strive towards.

    I propose the primary goal of government evaluation should be to find interventions that work.

    More specifically – to build a body of programs backed by strong, replicated randomised trial evidence of important, lasting improvements in people’s lives.

    In other words, evidence that provides policymakers with confidence that if another jurisdiction were to implement the program faithfully in a similar population, it would improve people’s lives in a meaningful way.

    Imagine being able to confidently draw from a codified body of social programs and interventions that your jurisdiction could test, deploy and regulate.

    In the United States, the Coalition for Evidence‑Based Policy points towards Saga Education, a high‑dosage mathematics tutoring program for year 9 and 10 students in low‑income US schools that underwent 3 rigorous randomised trials. This program produced sizable, statistically significant effects on students’ maths scores on the district tests at the end of the tutoring year (Arnold Ventures 2024a). I’ll come back to this program a bit later.

    Similarly, the Coalition for Evidence‑Based Policy points to 2 job‑training programs for low‑income adults that were both shown to increase long‑term earnings by 20 to 40 per cent. These programs focused on the fast‑growing IT and financial services sectors, where jobs are well paid, and employees are in high demand (Arnold Ventures 2022a and 2022b).

    Finding interventions that work should be evaluators’ central goal. It is the only plausible path by which rigorous evaluations will improve the human condition. If we don’t allocate spending based on rigorous evidence, it is hard to see how governments can make progress on critical social problems.

    Here in Australia, a think tank study examined a sample of 20 Australian Government programs conducted between 2015 and 2022 (Winzar et al. 2023).

    Their report concluded that 95 per cent of the programs, which had a total expenditure of over A$200 billion, were not properly evaluated. And its analysis of Australian state and territory government evaluations reported similar results.

    The researchers noted that the problems with evaluation started from the outset of program and policy design. They also estimated that fewer than 1.5 per cent of government evaluations use a randomised design (Winzar et al. 2023).

    This finding echoes the Australian Productivity Commission’s 2020 report into the evaluation of Indigenous programs (Productivity Commission 2020).

    This report concluded that ‘both the quality and usefulness of evaluations of policies and programs affecting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are lacking’, and that ‘Evaluation is often an afterthought rather than built into policy design’ (Productivity Commission 2020).

    Finding what works: using strong signals from prior research

    If we accept that the central goal of evaluation is to find interventions that work, there are important implications for researchers and research funders.

    It means that it makes sense to evaluate an intervention, using a large randomised trial, only if there is a strong signal in prior research.

    Examples of prior research could include a pilot randomised trial, a high‑quality quasi‑experiment, or a randomised trial of a related program.

    This is the approach that Arnold Ventures is taking in the US via the Coalition for Evidence‑Based Policy, the US nonprofit relaunched under the leadership of Jon Baron (Coalition for Evidence‑Based Policy n.d.).

    Rigorous testing enabled Arnold Ventures to create a growing body of proven interventions in education and training (Coalition for Evidence‑Based Policy n.d.). It’s an approach also being used by the US Department of Education in its Investing in Innovation Fund, which was recently renamed the Education Innovation and Research Program. It has yielded a much higher success rate in identifying interventions with true effectiveness. In 2019, robust evidence standards used by the Fund (as it was at the time) resulted in positive impacts for 40 to 50 per cent of its larger grants.

    Compare this to the US Department of Health and Human Services’ Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program, which had a much lower hit rate of success – just 17 per cent – for its larger grants (Arnold Ventures 2019).

    Arnold Ventures (2018b) proposes a strategy for policy and researchers that involves 3 tiers of evidence – top, middle and low.

    Expand the implementation of programs backed by strong (‘top tier’) evidence of sizable, sustained effects on important life outcomes.

    Fund and/or conduct rigorous evaluations of programs backed by highly promising (‘middle tier’) evidence, to hopefully move them into the top tier.

    Build the pipeline of promising programs through modest investments in the development and initial testing of many diverse approaches (as part of a ‘lower tier’).

    This is about systematising our use of evidence: a familiar approach in medicine, but one that has not been standard practice for all policymakers.

    It is about producing tangible proof that randomised policy trials improve lives, in that way that we already have tangible proof that randomised medical trials save lives.

    As a specific example of this kind of approach, in the US state of Maryland, a partnership between Arnold Ventures and the state government is already scaling‑up proven programs.

    In August last year, the high‑dosage maths tutoring program for 9th and 10th graders I mentioned earlier (Saga Education) and ASSISTments – an educational tool for mathematics – received scale‑up funding under the US$20 million Maryland Partnership for Proven Programs with Arnold Ventures (Arnold Ventures 2024b).

    In the UK, the development of the What Works Network is a world‑leading achievement which owes credit to the network of evidence‑based policymakers. That includes the extraordinary David Halpern, who will be speaking on the panel shortly (for an excellent snapshot of his recommendations for the coming decade, see Halpern 2023).

    Across health and housing, education and employment, hundreds of UK randomised trials have been conducted. For a practitioner, policymaker or curious member of the British public, it is now easier than ever to see what we know, and what we do not (Leigh 2024a).

    For example, the Education Endowment Foundation has run literally hundreds of randomised trials in the education sector. It uses these findings, alongside rigorous evaluations conducted outside the UK, to advocate for evidence‑based education policies (Education Endowment Foundation n.d.).

    The Education Endowment Foundation has commissioned 316 research projects (208 of which are randomised trials). Sixty per cent of schools in England have taken part in a randomised trial funded by the Foundation. Seventy per cent of school leaders use the Education Endowment Foundation’s teaching and learning toolkit when making their funding decisions on spending for pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds.

    Here in Australia, we are committed to taking a stronger approach towards evidence‑based policymaking.

    In July 2023 we established the Australian Centre for Evaluation in the Department of the Treasury.

    The main role of the centre is to collaborate with other Australian Government departments to conduct rigorous evaluations, including randomised trials. Such agreements have already been forged with federal agencies responsible for employment, health, education and social services.

    Led by Eleanor Williams, armed with a modest budget of A$2 million per year and just over a dozen staff, the Centre operates on smarts and gentle persuasion, not mandates or orders (Leigh 2024b).

    No agency is forced to use the services of the Australian Centre for Evaluation, but all are encouraged to do so. This reflects the reality that evaluation, unlike audit, isn’t something that can be done as an afterthought. A high‑quality impact evaluation needs to be built into the design of a program from the outset (Leigh 2024b).

    The centre takes an active role in considering aspects that are relevant to all evaluations, such as rigorous ethical review and access to administrative microdata. The Australian Bureau of Statistics is playing a pivotal role in brokering access to administrative data for policy experiments.

    Collaboration with evaluation researchers outside of government is critical, too. Thanks to a joint initiative by the Centre and the Australian Education Research Organisation, we now have the Impact Evaluation Practitioners Network, which is bringing together government and external impact evaluators.

    The centre has several randomised trials currently underway, and I await the results with interest.

    In the next month, the centre will release a Randomised Controlled Trial Showcase Report, featuring examples of public policy‑related trials in Australia.

    Another organisation doing extraordinarily thorough research across the whole of social policy and the social sciences is the nonprofit Campbell Collaboration.

    For example, the Campbell Countering Violent Extremism evidence synthesis program is a global research initiative that is attracting attention here in Australia. The program originated from a 5‑country partnership of Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the UK and the US (Campbell Collaboration n.d.). Professor Lorraine Mazerolle from the University of Queensland is one of the principal investigators on the program (Campbell Collaboration n.d.).

    Creating an experimenting society

    Bringing a ‘what works’ philosophy to social policy is vital to helping the most vulnerable.

    And it is by no means a new idea. It follows the path forged by the prominent social scientist Donald Campbell.

    He is of course, the ‘Campbell’ in the Campbell Collaboration, which was named after him to honour his substantial contributions to social science and methodology.

    Over 50 years ago, Dr Campbell wrote Methods for the Experimenting Society, outlining his vision for helping governments to produce better‑informed policies and social interventions via research and evaluation (Campbell 1991).[1]

    In this paper, Campbell forewarns policymakers of the ‘over‑advocacy trap’, where advocates of a new social program or policy make exaggerated claims about its effectiveness in order to get it adopted (Campbell 1991). He effectively highlights the tension between the need for strong advocacy to get social programs funded and adopted, and the need for rigorous evaluation to determine their true effectiveness (Campbell 1991).

    Thirty years after Dr Campbell wrote Methods for the Experimenting Society, the US Department of Education was allocating over a billion US dollars each year to an after‑school program called the 21st Century Community Learning Center initiative.

    The program, which was initiated in 1998, saw children attending the centres for up to 4 hours of after‑school programs, where they partook in everything from tutoring to drama to sports. It attracted high‑profile advocates, including the former Californian governor and Mr Universe, Arnold Schwarzenegger.

    It’s no wonder then, that a randomised trial by Mathematica in 2003 startled everyone with its findings (Haskins 2009). Attending the after‑school program raised a child’s likelihood of being suspended from school (Leigh 2018). And there was no evidence that the after‑school program improved academic outcomes.

    The program’s prominent advocates had fallen head‑first into the over‑advocacy trap.

    Overcoming denial with collaboration and momentum

    American political scientist Ron Haskins commented on how easy it was for Schwarzenegger to flex his celebrity muscle to overcome a negative evaluation. ‘The lesson here, yet again, is that good evidence does not speak for itself in the policy process and is only one – sometimes a rather puny – element in a policy debate’ (Haskins 2009).

    Overcoming denial in the face of irrefutable evidence requires continuous collaboration and sustained momentum. In 2025 and beyond, we will need both to reach the tipping point on the widespread use of rigorous impact evaluation across public policy. It will be harder to run roughshod over good evidence if OECD nations continue to collaborate – both internally with non‑profit researchers outside of government, and externally with other nations.

    Philanthropic foundations in the UK, US and other OECD nations have a strong track record in supporting randomised policy trials. Initiatives such as the Maryland Partnership for Proven Programs and Arnold Ventures, which I mentioned earlier, demonstrate that the ‘what works’ philosophy in social policy is gaining traction.

    Here in Australia, the Paul Ramsay Foundation launched a A$2.1 million open grant round in 2024. Its structure is similar to a successful model that the Laura and John Arnold Foundation has deployed in the United States over the past decade (Leigh 2024c).

    The grants, which last for 3 years and are valued at up to A$300,000 each, will support up to 7 experimental evaluations conducted by non‑profits with a social impact mission. For example, improving education outcomes for young people with disabilities, reducing domestic and family violence, or helping jobless people find work (Paul Ramsay Foundation 2024).

    The Australian Centre for Evaluation supported the open grant round, and is helping to connect grantees with administrative data relevant to the evaluation, and I am excited to see what we learn from these studies (Leigh 2024b).

    One of the most appealing advantages of well‑conducted randomised trials is that they resonate well with 3 democratic principles: non‑arbitrariness, revisability and public justification (Tanasoca and Leigh 2023).

    This gives us good democratic reasons to seek out such evidence for policymaking. Indeed, the more democratic a regime is, the more likely it is to conduct randomised trials (Tanasoca and Leigh 2023).

    Recall the first big public administration reform – the growth of a professionalised civil service – rested on the development of democratic institutions. Nobel laureates Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson call this the ‘red queen effect’, in which societies offering more public goods also need to offer more democratic social power (Acemoglu and Robinson 2019).

    The seventh reform – randomised trials and evidence‑based policymaking – takes us further along the corridor. Things are not true simply because politicians assert them. Policies must be backed by evidence, and citizens must be able to test and trust that evidence.

    Democracies are on this journey together, and international collaboration is vital to reaching the tipping point.

    This is not about the performative use of words like ‘evaluation’ and ‘evidence’. It is about raising the quality and quantity of evidence, which is one reason that I keep referring to randomised trials. I acknowledge the work of the OECD towards achieving the goal of institutionalising rigorous evaluation across public policy areas, as per the OECD Recommendation of the Council on Public Policy Evaluation (OECD 2022).

    The second annual update of the Global Commission on Evidence also confirms the many signs of momentum towards the Commission’s 3 implementation priorities to formalise and strengthen domestic evidence‑support systems, enhance and leverage the global evidence architecture, and put evidence at the centre of everyday life (Global Commission on Evidence 2024).

    Conclusion

    We’re here because we care about good government. And because we understand that evaluation and evidence science are not fields in their infancy.

    Just as we don’t put homeopathy on the same level as science‑based medicine, it is a mistake to think that evidence‑free policy is on a par with evidence‑based policy.

    OECD governments have decades of experience about how to identify evidence gaps, put policies to the test, and implement the most effective programs (Leigh 2024a).

    Policymaking by focus groups and gut‑feel alone is the modern‑day equivalent of bloodletting and lobotomies in medicine (Leigh 2024a). Which is why the seventh big reform to public administration must focus on finding interventions that work. And on building a body of programs backed by strong, replicated randomised trial evidence of important, lasting improvements in people’s lives.

    This goal requires OECD nations to get behind the momentum of the Global Commission on Evidence.

    This will have massive benefits. It will save lives. It will save dollars. And it will make government work better.

    So let’s make it happen.


    My thanks to officials in the Australian Centre for Evaluation for valuable drafting assistance, and to Jon Baron, President and CEO of the Coalition for Evidence‑Based Policy, and David Halpern CBE, President Emeritus at the Behavioural Insights Team, for valuable discussions that helped shape this speech.

    References

    Acemoglu D and Robinson JA (2019) The Narrow Corridor: States, Societies, and the Fate of Liberty, Penguin, New York.

    Arnold Ventures (21 March 2018a) ‘How to solve U.S. social problems when most rigorous program evaluations find disappointing effects (part one in a series)’, Straight Talk on Evidence, accessed 15 January 2025.

    Arnold Ventures (13 April 2018b) ‘How to solve U.S. social problems when most rigorous program evaluations find disappointing effects (part 2 – a proposed solution)’, Straight Talk on Evidence, accessed 15 January 2025.

    Arnold Ventures (18 June 2019) ‘Evidence‑Based Policy ‘Lite’ Won’t Solve U.S. Social Problems: The Case of HHS’s Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program’, Straight Talk on Evidence, accessed 15 January 2025.

    Arnold Ventures (26 October 2022a) ‘Year Up’, Social Programs That Work, accessed 15 January 2025.

    Arnold Ventures (21 March 2022b) ‘Per Scholas Employment/Training Program for Low-Income Workers’, Social Programs That Work, accessed 15 January 2025.

    Arnold Ventures (11 July 2024a) ‘Saga Math Tutoring’, Social Programs That Work, accessed 15 January 2025.

    Arnold Ventures (28 August 2024b) Governor Moore Announces $20 Million in Grants for Education Programs, First Awards Under Maryland Partnership for Proven Programs with Arnold Ventures [media release], Arnold Ventures, accessed 16 January 2025.

    Australian Education Research Organisation (n.d.), About us, Australian Education Research Organisation website, accessed 22 January 2025.

    Brunner R and Lynch A (2017) ‘Adaptive Governance’, Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Climate Science, doi:10.1093/acrefore/9780190228620.013.601.

    Campbell Collaboration (n.d.) Our work, Campbell Collaboration website, accessed 16 January 2025.

    Campbell Collaboration (n.d.) About the CVE programme, Campbell Collaboration website, accessed 21 January 2025.

    Campbell DT (1991) ‘Methods for the Experimenting Society’, Evaluation Practice, 12(3):223–260.

    Education Endowment Foundation (n.d.) How we work, Education Endowment Foundation website, accessed 22 January 2025.

    Global Commission on Evidence to Address Societal Challenges (2024), ‘Global Evidence Commission update 2024: Building momentum in strengthening domestic evidence‑support systems, enhancing the global evidence architecture, and putting evidence at the centre of everyday life’ [PDF 5MB], McMaster Health Forum, Hamilton, accessed 17 January 2025.

    Halpern D (2023) ‘Foreword’, in Sanders M and Breckon J (eds) The What Works Centres: Lessons and Insights from an Evidence Movement, Bristol University Press, Bristol.

    Haskins R (17–18  August 2009) ‘Chapter 3 With a scope so wide: using evidence to innovate, improve, manage, budget’ [roundtablee presentation] Strengthening Evidence‑based Policy in the Australian Federation, Session 1 Evidence‑based policy: Its principles and development Canberra, accessed 16 January 2025.

    Jacobs A (4 April 2024) ‘Glasses Improve Income, Not Just Eyesight’, The New York Times, accessed 15 January 2025.

    Leigh A (2018) Randomistas: How Radical Researchers Changed Our World, Black Inc, Melbourne.

    Leigh A (3 October 2024a) ‘Address to the UK Evaluation Task Force, 9 Downing Street, London’ [presentation], London, accessed 15 January 2025.

    Leigh A (17 June 2024) ‘Address to the Australian Evaluation Showcase, Canberra’ [presentation], Australian Evaluation Showcase, Canberra, accessed 15 January 2025.

    Leigh A (28 November 2024c) ‘Address to 10th Annual Social Impact Measurement Network Australia Awards’ [presentation], 10th Annual Social Impact Measurement Network Australia Awards, Virtual, accessed 17 January 2025.

    OECD (Organisation for Economic Co‑operation and Development) (2022) Recommendation of the Council on Public Policy Evaluation, Adopted on 06/07/2022, OECD Legal Instruments, OECD/LEGAL/0478, accessed 17 January 2025.

    Patrick DL (29 January 2014) Massachusetts Launches Landmark Initiative to Reduce Recidivism Among At‑Risk Youth [media release], Commonwealth of Massachusetts, accessed 14 January 2025.

    Paul Ramsay Foundation (17 June 2024) ‘Experimental evaluation open grant round’, Paul Ramsay Foundation, accessed 17 January 2025.

    Productivity Commission (2020) Indigenous Evaluation Strategy: Background Paper, Australian Government.

    Roca Inc., Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and Third Sector Capital Partners (30 August 2024) Final Report: the Massachusetts Juvenile Justice Pay for Success project, accessed 14 January 2025.

    Sehrin F, Jin L, Naher K, Chandra Das N, Chan VF, Li DF, Bergson S, Gudwin E, Clarke M, Stephan T and Congdon N (2024) ‘The effect on income of providing near vision correction to workers in Bangladesh: The THRIVE (Tradespeople and Hand‑workers Rural Initiative for a Vision‑enhanced Economy) randomized controlled trial’, PLOS ONE, 19(4):e0296115, doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0296115.

    Tanasoca A and Leigh A (2024) ‘The Democratic Virtues of Randomized Trials’, Moral Philosophy and Politics, 22(1):113–140, doi:10.1515/mopp‑2022–0039.

    Winzar C, Tofts‑Len S, Corpu E (2023) Disrupting disadvantage 3: Finding what works, Committee for Economic Development of Australia, Melbourne, accessed 16 January 2025.

    Footnotes

    [1] Campbell’s paper was written around 1971 and used in presentations to the Eastern Psychological Association and the American Psychological Association. It was revised and first published in 1988 (see Campbell 1991).

    MIL OSI News

  • MIL-OSI New Zealand: Great South Road blocked following crash

    Source: New Zealand Police (District News)

    Great South Road is currently blocked near Mcannalley Street following a crash.

    The single-vehicle crash was reported just before 5pm.

    The vehicle has collided with a power pole, causing power lines to fall.

    No injuries have been reported.

    Motorists are advised to avoid the area and expect delays.

    ENDS

    Issued by Police Media Centre

    MIL OSI New Zealand News

  • MIL-OSI USA: Senators Marshall, Lee Reintroduce SHUSH Act to Simplify Suppressor Rules

    US Senate News:

    Source: United States Senator for Kansas Roger Marshall

    Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator Roger Marshall, M.D. and Senator Mike Lee (R-UT) introduced the Silencers Helping Us Save Hearing (SHUSH) Act, a bill to eliminate the excessive regulation of firearm suppressors. The bill seeks to simplify the purchase process for law-abiding citizens and reduce unnecessary bureaucratic obstacles. The SHUSH Act has garnered the support of the National Association for Gun Rights, Gun Owners of America, the National Rifle Association, and the National Shooting Sports Foundation. 
    “The misinformation around silencers has led many to fear and misunderstand this valuable tool,” said Senator Marshall. “Silencers help gun owners across America protect their hearing and safely exercise their Second Amendment Right – restricting access to a safety tool for gun owners just doesn’t make sense. By treating silencers the same as any other firearm accessory, this bill will protect Americans’ Second Amendment rights and encourage safe firearm usage.”
    “Despite what Hollywood may lead you to believe, silencers aren’t silent, and they aren’t just for secret agents,” said Senator Lee. “They are a vital tool for hearing protection for countless marksmen and gun enthusiasts across America, and making them prohibitively difficult to obtain is an assault on the 2nd Amendment. The SHUSH Act eliminates federal regulation of silencers and treats them as the non-lethal accessory that they are.”
    Background
    Suppressors, commonly known as silencers, are non-lethal firearm accessories widely used by hunters, sportsmen, and marksmen. These devices enhance safety by reducing noise, recoil, and muzzle blast. Contrary to popular belief, they do not completely silence firearms.
    Currently, the process to legally acquire a suppressor involves an extensive and burdensome procedure through the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), including:

    Completing two copies of ATF Form 4
    Filling out ATF Form 5330.20 Certification of Compliance
    Obtaining certification from a local chief law enforcement officer and two copies of fingerprints
    Submitting two passport photos and a $200 check to the ATF
    This approval process can take 9-12 months, making the purchase of a suppressor prohibitively complex and costly for many consumers

    The SHUSH Act aims to:

    Eliminate federal regulation of suppressors as firearms under the National Firearms Act (NFA) and the Gun Control Act (GCA).
    Remove existing taxes, fees, and registration requirements associated with suppressors.
    Allow current or retired law enforcement officers to carry concealed firearms with suppressors.
    Preempt state regulations on the manufacture, transfer, transport, or possession of suppressors.
    Strike provisions requiring mandatory minimum sentences for suppressor possession in certain cases.
    Exempt suppressors from regulation by the Consumer Product Safety Commission.
    Provide a provision for a refund of the $200 transfer tax for anyone who purchased a suppressor within two years prior to the enactment of the bill.

    If passed, the SHUSH Act will work alongside the Hearing Protection Act to further deregulate suppressors and remove them from the Gun Control Act of 1968.

    MIL OSI USA News

  • MIL-OSI: Nokia to modernize Vietnam Air Traffic Management Corporation’s communication network for improved safety

    Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

    Press Release

    Nokia to modernize Vietnam Air Traffic Management Corporation’s communication network for improved safety

    • Vietnam’s Air Traffic Management Corporation (VATM) will use Nokia’s multi-service network solution to upgrade its legacy network systems to enhance the performance and flexibility of its air traffic network.
    • Nokia’s trusted mission-critical Internet Protocol Multi-Protocol Label Switching (IP/MPLS) networking solution will make air traffic management more robust, and Vietnam’s airways safer.
    • Nokia Quantum-Safe Network (QSN)-ready network will provide unparalleled security and reliability to VATM.

    6 February 2025
    Hanoi, Vietnam – Nokia today announced that Vietnam Air Traffic Management Corporation (VATM) will use Nokia’s networking solution to replace the legacy Synchronous Digital Hierarchy (SDH) transport system with IP/MPLS technology to improve security and reliability in the South region of Vietnam. The new advanced transport network will support new-age applications required for operating highly reliable services to serve rapidly growing air traffic in Vietnam.

    The initiative will provide an advanced transmission system to Ho Chi Minh City’s Air Traffic Control Center (ATCC), which will deliver mission critical applications to enhance Air Traffic Control (ATC). The newly upgraded transport network, compliant with the International Civil Aviation Organization’s standard will be operational in the second quarter of 2025.

    Nokia’s solution will provide VATM with advanced network capabilities such as advanced analytics, simplifying operations and improving network performance. The IP/MPLS network also offers increased flexibility and programmability, supporting critical applications that enhance overall air traffic management efficiency and safety. The network will equip VATM with robust security features and the ability to evolve to defend against quantum threats.

    Ho Sy Tung, Deputy General Director at VATM, said: “Air traffic networks need to be exceptionally secure and reliable at all times to ensure the highest standards of safety are met. Nokia comes with extensive experience in air navigation with 20 air traffic control networks deployed worldwide. We are impressed by the quality and performance of Nokia’s IP/MPLS networking solution and are looking forward to the successful completion of this crucial initiative in the coming year.”

    Nguyen Van Nam, General Director at ANSV – Advanced Network System Vietnam, said: “ANSV is proud to be selected as prime contractor for tender package CP-17. Together with other critical systems, we will provide a new Nokia IP/MPLS network replacing the existing SDH networks for air navigation systems.”

    Jonathan Goh, Head of Enterprise Business, Network Infrastructure, Southeast Asia North at Nokia, said: “Our mission-critical network solutions are trusted worldwide, delivering exceptional performance and reliability. With embedded QSN capabilities, Nokia’s IP/MPLS technology will enhance the safety and operational efficiency of Vietnam’s air traffic network. We are honored that VATM has chosen Nokia for this pivotal network transformation, paving the way for safer, more advanced and reliable air traffic management across Vietnam.”

    Resources and additional information
    Product page: 7705 Service Aggregation Router
    Product page: 7750 Service Router
    Product page: 7250 Interconnect Routers
    Product page: Network Services Platform
    Product page: Converged IP/MPLS for Aviation

    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.

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    Email: takayuki.omino@nokia.com

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  • MIL-Evening Report: It’s official: Australia’s ocean surface was the hottest on record in 2024

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Moninya Roughan, Professor in Oceanography, UNSW Sydney

    Australia’s sea surface temperatures were the warmest on record last year, according to a snapshot of the nation’s climate which underscores the perilous state of the world’s oceans.

    The Bureau of Meteorology on Thursday released its annual climate statement for 2024 – the official record of temperature, rainfall, water resources, oceans, atmosphere and notable weather.

    Among its many alarming findings were that sea surface temperatures were hotter than ever around the continent last year: a whopping 0.89°C above average.

    Oceans cover more than 70% of Earth’s surface, and their warming is gravely concerning. It causes sea levels to rise, coral to bleach and Earth’s ice sheets to melt faster. Hotter oceans also makes weather on land more extreme and damages the marine life which underpins vital ocean ecosystems.

    What the snapshot showed

    Australia’s climate varies from year to year. That’s due to natural phenomena such as the El Niño and La Niña climate drivers, as well as human-induced climate change.

    The bureau confirmed 2024 was Australia’s second-warmest year since national records began in 1910. The national annual average temperature was 1.46°C warmer than the long-term average (1961–90). Heatwaves struck large parts of Australia early in the year, and from September to December.

    Average rainfall in Australia was 596 millimetres, 28% above the 30-year average, making last year the eighth-wettest since records began.

    And annual sea surface temperatures for the Australian region were the warmest on record. Global sea surface temperatures in 2024 were also the warmest on record.

    According to the bureau, Antarctic sea-ice extent was far below average, or close to record-lows, for much of the year but returned to average in December.

    What caused the hot oceans?

    It’s too early to officially attribute the ocean warming to climate change. But we do know greenhouse gas emissions are heating the Earth’s atmosphere, and oceans absorb 90% of this heat.

    So we can expect human-induced climate change played a big role in warming the oceans last year. But shorter-term forces are at play, too.

    The rare triple-dip La Niña Australia experienced from 2020 to 2023 brought cooler water from deep in the ocean up to the surface. It was like turning on the ocean’s air-conditioner.

    But that pattern ended and Australia entered an El Niño in September 2023. It lasted about seven months, when the oscillation between El Niño and La Niña entered a neutral phase.

    The absence of a La Niña meant cool water was no longer being churned up from the deep. Once that masking effect disappeared, the long-term warming trend of the oceans became apparent once more.

    Water can store a lot more heat than air. In fact, just the top few metres of the ocean store as much heat as Earth’s entire atmosphere. Oceans take a long time to heat up and a long time to cool.

    Heat at the ocean’s surface eventually gets pushed deeper into the water column and spreads across Earth’s surface in currents. The below chart shows how the world’s oceans have heated over the past 70 years.

    Changes in the world’s ocean heat content since 1955.
    NOAA/NCEI World Ocean Database

    Why should we care about ocean warming?

    Rapid warming of Earth’s oceans is setting off a raft of worrying changes.

    It can lead to less nutrients in surface waters, which in turn leads to fewer fish. Warmer water can also cause species to move elsewhere. This threatens the food security and livelihoods of millions of people around the world.

    Just last week, it was reported that tens of thousands of fish died off northwestern Australia due to a large and prolonged marine heatwave.

    Warm water causes coral bleaching, as experienced on the Great Barrier Reef in recent decades. It also makes oceans more acidic, reducing the amount of calcium carbonate available for organisms to build shells and skeletons.

    Warming oceans trigger sea level rise – both due to melt water from glaciers and ice sheets, and the fact seawater expands as it warms.

    Hotter oceans are also linked to weather extremes, such as more intense cyclones and heavier rainfall. It’s likely the high annual rainfall Australia experienced in 2024 was in part due to warmer ocean temperatures.

    What now?

    As long as humans keep burning fossil fuels and pumping greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, the oceans will keep warming.

    Unfortunately, the world is not doing a good job of shifting its emissions trajectory. As the bureau pointed out in its statement, concentrations of all major long-lived greenhouse gases in the atmosphere increased last year, including carbon dioxide and methane.

    Prolonged ocean warming is driving changes in weather patterns and more frequent and intense marine heatwaves. This threatens ecosystems and human livelihoods. To protect our oceans and our way of life, we must transition to clean energy sources and cut carbon emissions.

    At the same time, we must urgently expand ocean observing below the ocean’s surface, especially in under-studied regions, to establish crucial baseline data for measuring climate change impacts.

    The time to act is now: to reduce emissions, support ocean research and help safeguard the future of our blue planet.

    Moninya Roughan receives funding from the Australian Research Council.

    ref. It’s official: Australia’s ocean surface was the hottest on record in 2024 – https://theconversation.com/its-official-australias-ocean-surface-was-the-hottest-on-record-in-2024-249277

    MIL OSI AnalysisEveningReport.nz

  • MIL-Evening Report: Mandatory minimum sentencing is proven to be bad policy. It won’t stop hate crimes

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Lorana Bartels, Professor of Criminology, Australian National University

    Shutterstock

    Weeks after Opposition Leader Peter Dutton announced his support for mandatory minimum jail terms for antisemitic offences, the government has legislated such laws. Minister for Home Affairs Tony Burke stated the federal parliament would now be “putting in place the toughest laws against hate speech that Australia has ever had”.

    It follows a concerning recent spate of antisemitic attacks in Australia, including on Jewish places of worship, schools, businesses and homes.

    Last week, a caravan was found on the outskirts of Sydney, filled with explosives and a list of Jewish targets.

    Understandably, there is fear in the Jewish community.

    The government’s decision to pursue mandatory minimum sentencing is contrary the 2023 ALP National Policy Platform stating:

    Labor opposes mandatory sentencing. This practice does not reduce crime but does undermine the independence of the judiciary, leads to unjust outcomes, and is often discriminatory in practice.

    The evidence shows that Labor’s official policy platform is correct. Mandatory minimum sentencing is unlikely to help solve this issue – or any other issue for that matter. It has a poor track record of reducing crime.

    What is mandatory sentencing?

    Australian criminal laws usually set a maximum penalty for an offence. It is then the role of the courts (a judge or magistrate) to set the sentence, up to the maximum penalty.

    This allows the judiciary to exercise discretion in sentencing. It means the courts can take into account a range of relevant factors when determining an appropriate sentence, guided by the sentencing laws in each jurisdiction.

    However, laws that demand a mandatory sentence set a minimum penalty for an offence, thereby significantly reducing the role of judicial discretion.

    Sentencing decisions are made by judges in Australian courts.
    Shutterstock

    Let’s imagine two people are appearing in court, to be sentenced for exactly the same offence.

    Defendant A (Kate) is 18 years old and has pleaded guilty. It is her first offence. She is Aboriginal, a victim of childhood domestic violence and lives on the streets. She has recently started to get help for her mental health problems.

    Defendant B (Jim) is 35. He has a long criminal history, including breaches of bail and parole. He has never been out of prison for more than six months at a time. He has pleaded not guilty and doesn’t think he has done anything wrong.

    The maximum penalty for this offence is five years. Under standard sentencing laws, a judge would usually give different sentences to Kate and Jim, based on their personal circumstances and future prospects. Jim would generally get a more severe sentence than Kate.

    Now, let’s imagine parliament decides to set a mandatory minimum sentence of two years in prison. This means the judge has to send both Kate and Jim to prison for at least two years, despite the differences between them, even if a community-based sentence might be more appropriate for Kate.

    So do mandatory minimum sentences work?

    The main arguments for mandatory sentences are that they:

    • reflect community standards

    • provide consistency

    • avoid judicial leniency, and

    • reduce crime.

    The evidence for each of these is weak.

    A study with members of the Victorian public who had served on juries found strong support for sentencing discretion.

    This is confirmed by recent research from the Queensland Law Reform Commission. It found general support from the public for individualised responses, not an inflexible approach to sentencing.

    Mandatory sentencing yields more consistent outcomes, but denies flexibility in cases where defendants should be treated differently.

    The argument that mandatory sentencing reduces crime is also contested.

    Study after study has shown that harsher penalties do not reduce crime.

    It is uncontested, however, that certainty of detection (whether you’ll get caught) is the primary deterrent factor, not the severity of the sentence (assuming that the perpetrator is aware of it).

    Mandatory sentencing also brings risks

    Let’s review the arguments against mandatory sentencing.

    Firstly, it undermines judicial independence, the separation of powers (between the courts and executive government) and the rule of law: a concept based on fairness in the judicial system.

    Mandatory sentencing also shifts discretion to other, less transparent, parts of the criminal justice system (for example, police and prosecution services), as they frame the charges that will bring defendants to court in the first place.

    Secondly, a guilty plea is a mitigating factor the court considers when sentencing. Mandatory sentencing means there is little incentive for defendants to plead guilty. This increases workloads, delays, costs, and has consequent negative effects for victims.

    In addition, juries may be reluctant to convict if they know the minimum sentence will insist upon a prison term. This can lead to inappropriate not guilty verdicts.

    Undermining the right to a fair trial

    Australia has previously come under fire from the United Nations for its mandatory sentencing laws.

    These requirements are found in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which entered into force for Australia in 1980.

    Indeed, the Law Council of Australia has suggested mandatory sentencing is inconsistent with the international prohibition against arbitrary detention, and undermines the right to a fair trial, given that such sentences have been somewhat predetermined.

    These laws can also lead to injustice. As the example above shows, mandatory sentencing can impact disproportionately on vulnerable people, such as Indigenous people, and women with disabilities.

    These cohorts are already far more vulnerable than non-Indigenous men (who account for most people who offend).

    Adverse effects on imprisonment rates

    The High Court recently stated that the mandatory minimum sentence will have the effect of lifting sentencing levels generally.

    But the research shows longer prison sentences are much more expensive and less effective than community-based sentencing options in reducing crime.

    Let’s leave the final word on this subject with the Law Council of Australia:

    achieving a just outcome in the particular circumstances of a case, while maintaining consistency across similar cases and with Australia’s human rights obligations, is […] paramount.

    We need effective responses to all forms of racial and religious hatred, including antisemitic hate crimes, but populist, knee-jerk reactions are highly unlikely to make the community safer. Clear-headed thinking will best stand the test of time, not policy developed in anger or fear.

    Lorana Bartels is a Director of the Justice Reform Initiative. She is a supporter of the Jewish Council of Australia. She has received research funding from the ACT, Commonwealth, Queensland, Tasmanian and Victorian governments. She recently undertook a project for the Queensland government, which examined the use of mandatory minimum sentences for murder. She is a member of the Tasmanian Sentencing Advisory Council, which recently completed a project on hate crimes.

    Rick Sarre 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. Mandatory minimum sentencing is proven to be bad policy. It won’t stop hate crimes – https://theconversation.com/mandatory-minimum-sentencing-is-proven-to-be-bad-policy-it-wont-stop-hate-crimes-249266

    MIL OSI AnalysisEveningReport.nz