July 21, 2022

Huawei: Shaping Smarter, Greener Finance Together

SINGAPORE, July 21, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — July 20, the three-day Huawei Intelligent Finance Summit 2022 officially begins at Sands Expo and Convention Centre. Under the theme of “Shaping Smarter, Greener Finance”, the summit is bringing together financial industry leading figures, KOLs, academic experts, and innovative practitioners from more than 30 countries around the world to discuss the future development of the financial industry, exploring how to build smarter and greener finance together.

Huawei proposed three core elements for gaining competitiveness in the financial industry, upon the arrival of the super digitalization era

With the fully connected intelligent world on its way, both the economy and society are transforming towards two major trends of digitalization and sustainable development. In face of changing financial service scenarios and business models in the digital era, the financial industry is met with a growing demand for rapid business innovation and ultimate customer experience, which further speeds up its pace of transformation. To cope with the complex and dynamic nature of digital transformation, it is necessary for the financial industry to rebuild its core competitiveness amidst the digital era in order to realize the vision of intelligent finance.

“Better connections, stronger intelligence, and more scenarios are the key to building competitiveness of digital finance,” Ryan Ding, President of the Huawei Enterprise BG, pointed out, “Following the concept of co-creation, sharing, and win-win, we are working with our customers and partners in finding a way towards Shaping Smarter, Greener Finance, Creating New Value Together.”

Huawei announced three strategic initiatives, advancing the digitalization of the financial industry in the new era.

Jason Cao, CEO of Huawei Global Digital Finance said in his speech, “Technology, especially the connection and intelligence, continues to drive the development of the financial industry. In 2022, we have officially entered into the ZFLOPS era for AI computing power. With the development of AI, we will embrace super-personalization. By 2025, more than 100 billion physical connections will lead to financial services for ‘things’. In the future, smart contract will enable intelligent decision-making possible everywhere. New service and product models will emerge one after another. However, end-to-end user experience, real-time processing of massive data, and O&M and management of more complex networks and multi clouds will all become challenges for the financial industry. We are facing opportunities as well as challenges. ”

To build smarter and greener finance based on better connections, stronger intelligence, and more scenarios, Huawei announced three strategic initiatives for the financial sector during the summit.

Smarter: smarter customer engagement solutions to improve digital experience; data and intelligent converged platform to build real-time data capabilities; hybrid multi-cloud architecture to make cross-cloud management easier and services more agile.
Greener: autonomous digital infrastructure to help financial institutions achieve high efficiency, availability, and performance and facilitate collaboration of multi-technology, heterogeneous technology, and hybrid multi-cloud.
Together: Build a global ecosystem cooperation platform and put forward three upgraded initiatives for the Financial Partner Go Global Program 2.0 (FPGGP): develop more solution partners; expand FPGGP to global consulting and service partners; develop local sales and service partners for providing FPGGP solutions locally.

Working with global clients and partners, shaping smarter and greener finance

During the summit, Huawei and DBS announced the establishment of the Innovation Showcase at DBS Newton Green.

Huawei also signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with OCBC Bank to bolster the bank’s digital transformation in Southeast Asia and the Greater Bay Area in three key initiatives: Green Branch and Buildings with Smart IoT; Data Science and Artificial Intelligence (AI) Innovation and Cloud Adoption Acceleration.

Meanwhile, Huawei released the Digital Banking 2.0 Solution leveraging Temenos open platform. The solution supports the quick launch of digital banks and helps larger banks accelerate their modernization in the cloud. This greatly improves the rollout efficiency and customer satisfaction.

In the coming days, Huawei will sign a number of cooperation agreements with several financial institutions, and unveil a wide variety of products and solutions jointly created with partners, covering various business scenarios.

Photo – https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1863821/image_1.jpg

July 21, 2022

Huawei Releases Digital Banking 2.0 Solution Leveraging Temenos Platform

SINGAPORE, July 21, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — During Huawei Intelligent Finance Summit 2022 — Huawei, launched the Digital Banking 2.0 solution leveraging Temenos open platform, and discussed with customers and top partners in the financial industry about how to build a cloud-native architecture to achieve business agility and industry innovation.

Digital banking is a global trend

Facing fierce competition with Internet giants, banks are transforming from providers of traditional financial services to those of new digital financial services based on the industry ecosystem. New technologies — such as cloud-native, open API, and big data — as well as the new economic environment have been driving digital banking to be open, intelligent with seamless integration capability.

Banks have to go digital to meet the various new requirements in new scenarios, and digital banking is an inevitable choice. Indeed, global digital banks have undergone explosive growth in recent years. According to the statistics of Simon-Kucher’s new bank database, 153 digital banks emerged in 2020 and 2021, and this number will continue to rise in the future.

Huawei releases Digital Banking 2.0 Solution leveraging Temenos open platform supporting banks’ architecture transformation and business innovation

Jason Cao, CEO of Huawei Global Digital Finance & Jimmy Ng, CIO and Head of Group Technology & Operations, DBS

During the summit, Huawei released the Digital Banking 2.0 Solution leveraging Temenos open platform. This new Digital Banking solution is an upgraded solution and uses Temenos open platform for composable banking to provide cloud-native, core banking functionality and data capabilities. The solution supports the quick launch of digital banks and helps larger banks accelerate their modernization in the cloud. This greatly improves the rollout efficiency and customer satisfaction.

Digital Banking 2.0 Solution enables fast service integration and rollout based on a cloud-native architecture, providing core banking functions for banks. The solution has the following key capabilities:

Pre-integrated: The solution certified with Temenos and other partners in the industry offers a complete and comprehensive function stack of digital banking for customers in different business scenarios, such as retail, corporate and Islamic banking, etc.
Agile: The solution provides composable banking services that allow new services to be developed and iterated through simple assembly. At the same time, the cloud-native system is highly scalable and cost-effective, requiring less initial investment.
Open: The platform provides open APIs for third-party invoking and integration. It enriches the ecosystem and supports more business scenarios. All of this results in improved system operational efficiency and user satisfaction.

Neo Gong, Senior Solution Director of the Huawei Enterprise BG Digital Finance, introduced, “Digital Banking 2.0 can be delivered in the SaaS or cloud foundation model. This solution helps customers improve their efficiency of business operations and cost management, so that they can focus more on service innovation and ecosystem development. Based on the collaboration with Temenos, a leading open platform for composable banking, this solution provides rich core banking functionality for banks.”

Through building an agile, elastic, secure and reliable cloud foundation, and integration with partners to build scenario-based financial solutions, Huawei is committed to further promote the development and innovation of financial services, shaping smarter, greener finance together.

About Huawei Intelligent Finance Summit 2022

Huawei Intelligent Finance Summit is Huawei’s annual flagship event for the global financial industry. HiFS 2022 runs from July 20 to 22 in Singapore. With the theme of “Shaping Smarter, Greener Finance”, Huawei Intelligent Finance Summit brings together leading figures, KOLs, academic experts, and innovative practitioners in the global financial industry to discuss how to shape green and digital finance in light of the future development trend of the financial industry. For more information, please visit: https://e.huawei.com/en/special_topic/Industry/finance/2022-finance-summit

Photo – https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1863833/image.jpg

July 21, 2022

Darwin Aboriginal Art Fair set to showcase works from over 1,500 First Nations artists, represented by a record 76 community Art Centres from across Australia

DARWIN, Australia, July 21, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander creatives will be celebrated in Darwin, Australia, from 2-7 August in an unmissable showcase of art, design and culture at Darwin Aboriginal Art Fair (DAAF) Foundation’s series of iconic events.

The Darwin Aboriginal Art Fair (DAAF) is Australia’s largest and most celebrated First Nations visual art event, which will return for the 16^th year to run both online and in person this 5-7 August.

The internationally celebrated art fair sits alongside the Foundation’s two Indigenous Fashion Projects events, Country to Couture on the 2 August, and the National Indigenous Fashion Awards on the 3 August, bringing Australia’s most acclaimed and vibrant First Nations artists and designers to the national and global stage.

As the only Australian event of its kind, DAAF has secured a reputation as one of the country’s most significant and internationally recognised arts events, creating a unique opportunity to connect with, and ethically purchase art directly from Art Centres, as well as meeting the artists and learning firsthand about their cultural heritage, stories, history and traditional artistic practices through a range of masterclasses, talks and demonstrations.

DAAF 2022 is on track to be the most successful and widest reaching yet, with a record 76 Art Centres participating in the Foundation’s inaugural hybrid delivery of the event. In 2021, the Fair achieved a record $3.12 million AUD in sales with 100 per cent of profits going back to the Art Centres and their communities. The Fair itself takes no commission from artwork sold.

DAAF Foundation are proud to be part of a collective of organisations championing music, arts, and ideas from the world’s oldest living cultures. Taking place in Australia’s Top End each July-August, alongside DAAF Foundation’s renowned Fair and fashion events, will be:

Garma Festival | Yothu Yindi Foundation | 29 July – 1 August
Salon des Refusés | Salon Art Projects | 3-13 August
Telstra National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Art Awards | Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory | 5 August 2022 – January 2023
National Indigenous Music Awards | Music NT | 6 August

The first week of August is predicted to be one of the biggest showcases of First Nations talent in the world. Music, art and culture will collide as The Collective unifies to bring the public a unique experience across the creative industries in the Northern Territory.

For more information about the 16th Darwin Aboriginal Art Fair and for priority access to the digital Art Fair, visit daaf.com.au/register.

Georgina Dawson
georginad@bastionagency.com

A Media Snippet accompanying this announcement is available by clicking on the image or link below:

July 21, 2022

Why Aren’t More Americans Getting COVID-19 Booster Shots?

New cases of COVID-19 have been sweeping across the United States in recent weeks. On Thursday, President Joe Biden tested positive. His symptoms of tiredness, a runny nose and dry cough are considered mild.

The highly infectious and transmittable BA.5 subvariant of the coronavirus’s omicron variant is making up nearly 80% of new cases, according to the latest figures from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) COVID Data Tracker.

Although the initial vaccinations are effective at preventing hospitalization and death, their immunity weakens over time.

“So, more people, even those who might have protection from past infection or vaccination, have gotten COVID-19,” according to the CDC.

That’s why the CDC is recommending that immunized adults and children 5 years and older follow up with a vaccination booster in five months, and those 50 and older get a second booster shot for renewed protection. But so far, the CDC reports that only about half of adults have gotten a booster and just 28% of those age 50 and older have received a second dose, which provides even further protection from the illness.

This leaves millions of people more vulnerable to the most recent variants of omicron.

“It’s very concerning that many individuals who are eligible for boosters are choosing not to get them,” David Grabowski, a professor of health care policy at Harvard Medical School, told VOA. “There’s really strong research suggesting the protective effects of these boosters against COVID.”

The White House issued a warning this week about the spike in BA.5 subvariant cases and urged Americans over the age of 50 to get the booster shots.

“It could save your life,” said Dr. Ashish Jha, the administration’s COVID response coordinator.

Many health advocates are alarmed that public momentum over COVID-19 has waned.

Some people “don’t feel a sense of urgency to get booster shots even though they are available in most parts of the country,” Grabowski said.

Part of the reason may be a lack of communication by public health officials that is confusing to the public, said Dr. William Schaffner, a professor of infectious diseases at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine.

“Public health officials have not communicated clearly when you should get a booster and that it is an important step,” Grabowski told VOA.

Dr. David Aronoff, chair of the Department of Medicine at Indiana University’s School of Medicine, explained that in some instances, “people may have had a booster shot and not have realized they were eligible for another in several months.”

There is also the idea that since the symptoms from BA.5 are usually mild for people who are vaccinated, then why bother getting a booster, said Tina Runyan, a professor of family medicine and community health at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. With a highly contagious strain going around, some people think they will get COVID anyway, so getting a booster won’t protect them that much, she said.

But Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, said that’s not true.

“If you are not vaccinated to the fullest, namely, you have not gotten boosters according to what the recommendations are, then you’re putting yourself at an increased risk that you could mitigate against by getting vaccinated,” he said during a July 12 press briefing with the White House COVID-19 response team and public health officials.

Despite that warning, health experts say COVID-19 fatigue is causing a lack of response.

“People are ready to put COVID behind them and they just want to return to a more normal way of life,” explained Schaffner.

Going back to normal may be fleeting as new subvariants continue to pop up.

“We have to start thinking about the booster as something we might do annually to protect ourselves and others,” said Keri Althoff, an associate professor of epidemiology at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Maryland.

Meanwhile, new vaccines are in the works to target omicron subvariants BA.4 and BA.5.

“Getting vaccinated now will not preclude you from getting a variant-specific vaccine later this fall or winter,” said Jha, the White House COVID response coordinator.

“We’re hoping we get new vaccines in the future that will target particular variants as they come up,” Aronoff said, but the currently available vaccines, which include boosters, “are keeping people out of hospitals and from dying from COVID.”

Source: Voice of America

July 21, 2022

Ukrainian Experts Turn to Israel for Mental Trauma Training

Ukrainian therapist Svitlana Kutsenko thought she was making progress with her patients — army veterans recovering from mental trauma suffered during fighting with Russia in 2014. Then, war erupted again.

Now, five months after Russia invaded Ukraine, Kutsenko says the situation looks bleaker than ever. Many of her patients have returned to the front lines, while ordinary citizens scarred by the horrors of life in wartime are now seeking treatment.

“Sometimes it’s bearable, sometimes it’s not,” Kutsenko, who lives in Kyiv, told The Associated Press. “Some people are suffering from huge fear — fear of death, fear of their relatives’ death and some are pretty angry about what’s going on and they want to somehow take this anger under control.”

Kutsenko was among 20 Ukrainian mental health professionals who spent the past two weeks in Israel receiving training on how to treat trauma cases.

Israel, which has gone through several wars with its Arab neighbors and has a large population of Holocaust survivors, has deep experience in treating psychological or mental trauma.

But in Ukraine, awareness for recognizing and treating mental trauma remains relatively low. And despite a conflict with Russia that has been ongoing since 2014, the country is not equipped to deal with the numbers of people affected by the Russian invasion.

Kutsenko said that there is a great difference between treating patients struggling to come to terms with events from the past and helping people who are under fire cope with grief and fear in real time.

“Right now, in Ukraine, it’s not just, you know, shooting and people” being killed by missiles and bombs, Kutsenko said, adding that torture, rape and other terrible acts are also happening.

The course’s instructor, Danny Brom, says treating mental trauma in Israel has taught him how to provide therapy to victims who are both post-trauma and still in immediate danger. These lessons, he said, have helped him relate to mental health professionals from conflict zones across the world and especially Ukraine.

“They understand that we Israelis know what we are talking about. This … has happened to us in the different wars, so there’s a very special connection between them and us. They really feel that we understand what we are talking about,” said Brom, a clinical psychologist who is director of Metiv, an Israeli nonprofit that trains mental health professionals to treat trauma victims.

The group included 20 psychologists from across Ukraine, including some who have been displaced throughout the war. The course included training in cognitive behavior therapy techniques, or CBT, which are commonly used to treat depression and anxiety.

Larysa Zasiekina is a psychologist from western Ukraine, where internally displaced people have flocked to seek refuge from the fighting.

Before the war, she treated adults, but now she sees mothers and children who have had to suddenly leave everything behind as their husbands and fathers head off to battle.

Zasiekina says the course has given her new methods to cope with this new reality, especially when it comes to working with young people.

“We used a lot of imaginary exercises, and I think these exercises are very good for children because actually they have a lot of imagination,” says Zasiekina. “They want to play.”

Throughout the course, the participants were never far from having to deal with horrific news from back home.

During her time in Jerusalem, Kutseno got word that the building across from her family home in Vinnytsia, where her parents still live, had been bombed. Her parents weren’t harmed in the barrage, which killed 23 people that day, but it was a terrifying reminder.

“Even being here, feeling safe, war is still (in) the background of everything I do here,” Kutseno said.

“It’s not like I will get back to something that will have changed,” she added. “What I will find there is war.”

Source: Voice of America