Asia's tech news, weekly: April 16th 2024

TSMC's $6.6BN Arizona subsidy, China's BRI blockchain, Indonesian bank cybersec, Korea AI funding, Thai digital baht giveaway, Japan-NASA partnership, critical tech...

• China: Gov't reportedly to launch 'Ultra-Large-Scale Blockchain Infrastructure Platform for the Belt & Road Initiative', focusing on cross-border BRI-based projects

• 2024 International SpaceTech Startup Supporting Program from Taiwan Accelerator Plus applications close May 10, seeking firms focused on Asia-Pacific

• March 2024 round-up of critical and emerging tech news is now online, covering space tech, critical minerals, semiconductors, supply chains and more

• India: More on the €100M partnership between Indian Institute of Technology Madras and France's Starburst Accelerator, aiming to boost India's aviation, space and defense ecosystems

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Indonesia: "We put our money in the [Bank Rakyat Indonesia] for security. But if hackers can get in so easily and find all our data, BRI must have a big problem with their security."

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• China: Nationwide computing power network moves forward, targeting operation in 2025 and aiming to widen access both to computing resources and the energy requirements underpinning them

• Taiwan Semiconductor's US unit to gain with $6.6BN subsidy for advanced production in Arizona, and up to $5BN in low-cost US gov't loans, targeting 2nm process in 2028

• Asian Development Bank to launch ASEAN Climate Finance Policy Platform, looking to strengthen the region's economic and fiscal policies

• Bank for International Settlements and 7 central banks, including Japan and Korea, partner for Project Agorá, exploring tokenization of bank deposits via 'unified ledger'

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ASPI Sydney Dialogue - critical, emerging & cyber technologies

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• India's Tata Group conglomerate heading to Taiwan in high-level tech talent hunt, looking initially at growth in the consumer electronics semiconductor sector

• People's Bank of China to establish 're-lending' program of near $70BN to boost innovation and project upgrades in the science and tech sectors, available to SMEs via 21 banks

• Japan to participate in AUKUS Pillar 2 component, joining Australia, the US and the UK in collaboration on defence tech across fields including quantum and artificial intelligence

• Monetary Authority of Singapore and Mastercard ink MOU to boost cooperation in cybersecurity, specifically around cyber-resilience in Singapore’s financial services sector

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"To transform from a heavy consumer to a global innovator, Indonesia needs to focus on developing five strategic sectors identified in the 'Digital Indonesia Vision 2045'..."

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• Japan: Semiconductor materials maker, Shin-Etsu Chemical, to invest near $550M in new plant, targeting production in 2026

• Malaysia: KL20 Startup Summit is set for April 22-23 in Kuala Lumpur, delivered by the Ministry of Digital MyDIGITAL Corp

• Japan's Toyota reportedly to use 'smart drive' tech developed with China's Huawei and Momenta for global EV models

• China: General Motors to invest $300M in Momenta autonomous driving firm for self-driving tech in future GM China-market models

• Critical minerals: "International prices for gallium are now more than double where they were when Beijing’s new export curbs were announced..."

• South Korea to chair UN Security Council meeting focusing on cybersecurity, looking at issues including North Korea's cyberspace activities

• Australia: Westpac is in talks with Amazon for Project Kuiper satellite system use to make banking more accessible, particularly for remote Indigenous communities

• South Korea to invest near $7BN in AI by 2027 in bid to retain global position in global semiconductor industry

• Taiwan: Ministry of Digital Affairs partners Chunghwa Telecom to use UK-HQ's Eutelsat OneWeb for low-Earth orbit satellites in communications around disaster response

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Hong Kong: "Residents spend billions of dollars on trades in unregulated markets, forcing authorities to propose tightening rules while simultaneously trying to build the city’s status as a respected and open market."

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• China: ByteDance Singapore affiliate, Picoheart, invests in InnoStar Semiconductor's licensable IP for system-on-chip tech, with use cases including in AI datacenters

• Thailand: PM announces much-delayed election-pledge digital wallet scheme, with 50 million citizens able to register in Q3 for 10,000 baht giveaway wired to accounts in Q4

• Australian Federal Police and US FBI join for arrest of individuals believed to be behind development and distribution of Firebird/Hive remote access malware

• Japan and NASA partner for lunar exploration with Japan to develop rover vehicle for crewed and uncrewed use, and NASA providing launch and delivery

• Download: 2024 Cyber Security Report from Check Point Software, near 100 pages looking at emerging risks (pdf link)

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Critical technologies in March 2024

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• China: Origin Wukong quantum computer boosts data security with implementation of post-quantum cryptography

• Hong Kong regulators likely to approve the first set of spot-bitcoin exchange-traded funds, with trading potentially commencing this month

• Philippines: SUSI Asia Energy Transition Fund partners Alba Renewables for development, construction and operation of utility-scale renewables platform featuring solar and onshore wind projects

• More on the recent collaboration MOU between the Korean Positioning System and Japan's Quasi-Zenith Satellite system, aiming for autonomous positioning services

• Download: 'Tokenization - Realizing the vision of a future financial ecosystem' from Deloitte

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'South Korea has successfully launched its second military reconnaissance satellite, days after North Korea reiterated its intention to launch multiple spy satellites this year.'

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• Vietnam: Viettel, part of Military Industry & Telecoms Group, set to play larger role in the country's moves to develop a domestic semiconductor chip industry

• Singapore's Temasek state-owned investment firm opens Paris office, building on London and Brussels, aiming to boost investment and partnership opportunities across European Union and broader EMEA regions

• Australia: Vudoo selected by Amazon Web Services Partner Network with shoppable video tech, turning content and ads into directly-shoppable on-screen assets

• March 2024's collected tech summaries from across Asia and the Indo-Pacific

• Online now: 'The Limits of DeFi for Financial Inclusion - Lessons from ASEAN'

• China: Didi ride-hail major's self-driving unit inks JV with GAC Aion EV maker, gaining license for mass production of fully self-driving electric robotaxis

• Australia: Space Machines Company reportedly struggling to establish and hold communications with Optimus spacecraft, following launch of on-orbit satellite inspection, servicing and protection vehicle

• Singapore's Peptobiotics raises $6.2M with antimicrobial peptide tech as alternative to over-use of antibiotics in the aquaculture sector

• South Korea's Rebellions AI semiconductors firm partners Arteris on system-on-chip integration to boost chip energy and efficiency and performance

• Future of work: Cashiers are Zooming in from the Philippines to take orders at a US fried chicken joint

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Malaysia: "The government reported nearly 52K cases of harmful content on various social media platforms, including Meta’s Facebook and TikTok, in the first 3 months of 2024, compared with 43K for the whole of 2023."

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• Australia: Gap Drone secures partnerships to develop drone delivery capabilities for remote and regional communities, targeting payloads of 60-90kg at speeds of 120km/h and a range of 1100km

• Thailand’s National Innovation Agency inks MOU with Korea Tourism Organisation around travel-tech, aiming to boost startups in the sector and shared ecosystems

• Australia: UK's Founders Factory Nature & Biodiversity Tech Accelerator sets up in Perth, with $7.2M, 3-year WA gov't support, and Rio Tinto lined up for separate mining-tech accelerator

• South Korea, New Zealand and Canada now also considered for possible participation in advanced capability projects of AUKUS security partnership, building on consideration of Japan for inclusion

• Vietnam: Tech in Asia's Saigon Summit to feature Startup Showcase for Vietnam tech startups - applications close April 22nd

• Thailand: AIS The StartUp digital infra provider, Stock Exchange of Thailand, National Innovation Agency and Thai Startup Association join for ESG education programme

• Japan: A brief intro to the tech startups selected for OIST Innovation Accelerator working on GenAI and LLMs, advanced prosthetics and more

• Australia: BHP and Rio Tinto piloting electric smelting that may reduce steel industry gas pollution in first-of-its-kind move in Australia, potentially cutting blast furnace C02 by 80%

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Deepfakes: "If you tell somebody they're looking at a deepfake before they watch it, the social psychology of watching that video is so powerful that they will still reference it as if it was fact."

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In wider-world technology news:

» 7 open source foundations join for common specifications and standards for the Europe Cyber Resilience Act, which aims to mandate cybersecurity best practices for EU-sold hardware and software

» The Internet Archive is now hosting Caribbean island of Aruba's entire formal history, making over 100,000 of the nation's historic materials available for all, online

» A brief intro to Astranis satellite internet operator, potentially a StarLink competitor but placing sats in orbit at 22000 miles rather than low-Earth orbit at 340 miles

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AI's jailbreak headaches: "People could use the hack to force LLMs to produce dangerous responses, the study concluded — even though such systems are trained to prevent this."

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Indo-Pacific tech news: Other editions

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