Asia's Tech News, Weekly: June 26th 2024

Quantum in Japan, Australia's critical minerals, blockchain in Korea, AI TV hosts in India, Indonesian maritime cybersec, India's Jio vs Amazon & Starlink, HK & Web3...

• Malaysia: Taiwan's Elite Material Co to commence construction of $190M facility in Penang, producing substrates for circuit boards and semiconductors

• Japan: Nat'l Institute of Advanced Industrial Science & Tech partners IBM to develop quantum computer with 10,000 qubits, 75 times more capacity than current quantum machines

• 'Indonesia’s $5 billion deal with Tesla is only part of its all-in strategy on nickel mining'

• Japan: Tier IV adds Suzuki to alliance partners including Isuzu and Yamaha, with all seeking autonomous driving technology advantages and global positioning

• Russia’s central bank adopts China’s yuan as its official benchmark currency, ends trading in USD and euros following expansion of Ukraine war sanctions

---

"[Australia's] Northern Territory has defined mineral resources for 17 globally recognised critical minerals...[and] has geological potential for a further 12 emerging critical minerals."

---

• South Korea: SK Telecom and 6 partners including Nokia unveil X Quantum alliance, aiming to grow the quantum ecosystem via joint marketing and opportunity exploration

• Micron chipmaker is considering Malaysia for production of AI-focused high-bandwidth memory chips, alongside test production lines in the US

• China: Huawei and Tencent deal underway to allow WeChat super-app to run on Huawei's HarmonyOS platform without revenue-sharing, looking to boost lead over Apple in China

• South Korea: Ministry of Science & ICT and Korea Internet & Security Agency to invest $14.5M in 6 public sector blockchain projects, including CBDC platform with Bank of Korea

• Indonesia and the US recently completed a port-focused cybersecurity exercise in move to better prepare for attacks on maritime critical infrastructure

• Japan: Synspective satellite startup inks agreement with Rocket Lab USA to launch 10 satellites by 2027 in move towards a constellation to enable near-real-time global observation

• India: Doordarshan public service broadcaster has rolled out farmer-focused news using 2 AI-generated presenters, aiming to soon broadcast in 50 of the country's languages

• Hong Kong: Legislative Council rolls out Subcommittee on Web3 and Virtual Asset Development to boost digital assets industry, inviting input on policy

• Australia: Medibank hack which exposed near 10M customers' details believed to stem from absence of multi-factor authentication protecting access to IT systems

• India: China's Vivo smartphone giant reportedly to sell factory stake to Tata Group, responding to tightening scrutiny of foreign businesses operating in India

---

Survey: How has ASEAN Connectivity contributed to the development in the region? What are your aspirations for ASEAN Connectivity beyond 2025? Give your responses here >

---

• India: Jio Platforms gains approval from space regulator to operate satellites, overtaking Starlink and Amazon services in provision of satellite-delivered internet

• TSMC investigates rectangular panel substrates for semiconductors, rather than current round wafers, in bid to facilitate chiplets approach and create more useable surface area

• Taiwan: Cisco, US network equipment maker to establish Taiwan cybersecurity centre as part of its Taiwan Digital Acceleration Plan 3

• China Manned Space Engineering Office selected 10 astronauts for 4th astronaut cohort, with Hong Kong and Macao astronauts participating for the first time

• Google Australia launches AI First Accelerator initiative to provide Australian startups with cutting-edge AI capabilities including guidance, mentorship and resources

• India and US agree to co-invest in South American lithium project, and rare earths deposit in Africa, to diversify mineral supply chains, alongside a range of other partnership projects

• Thailand: SPACE-F food-tech incubator and accelerator rolls out Batch 5, selecting 20 startups addressing current and future food industry challenges

• Australia: The State of Open Banking 2024 report is online, a deep dive into the industry's opportunities and challenges, from Frollo

• Philippines: South Korea’s Kakao and Japan’s LINE partner for Kaia blockchain platform in the Philippines, focusing on Web3 gaming and associated opportunities

• Vietnam: Gov't moves to boost use of VN web domain in bid to stimulate industry growth locally and boost overseas presence in digital fields

• Malaysia: Tech in Asia Conference is set for July 24-25, running in Kuala Lumpur and backed by MYStartup

---

"Amazon plans to invest about $12.7bn in cloud infrastructure in India by 2030, while Microsoft has committed about $3.7bn to India’s southern state of Telangana, local officials have said."

---

• HSBC China rolls out e-CNY services to corporate clients, the first foreign bank to offer services around central bank digital currency to both retail and corporate sectors

• Vietnam: Finance committee recommends imposition of new tax on imports of low-value goods sold by e-commerce sites

• Data centers, AI and Asia-Pac: "The new capacity that needs to be built in Asia Pacific in the next three to five years is simply mind blowing."

• Japan: A brief overview of Tanegashima Island, home to the nation's rocket launch center, and hopes for startups, tech jobs and Immigration as drivers for a local revival

• New Zealand: AgriFutures growAG, Australian agri-tech innovation platform, to launch in New Zealand, seeing global opportunities in NZ's agriculture-focused tech space

• Indo-Pacific Insights: Japan & the EU, China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, Japan & Italy, India-France developments, Cambodia-Vietnam Mekong canal, floating nuclear in the SCS...

• India to host annual SEMICON event in September, the world's leading semiconductor industry event

• Singapore's Carro signs for Sg$75M multi-currency loan, tapping into the US$1 billion HSBC Asean Growth Fund to boost financing component of online used car marketplace

• Australia: Guide Dogs Victoria adds BindiMaps to 'gold standard for accessible buildings' in development of Kew Campus, world-first sensory-accessible campus

• Indo-US Global Challenges Institute preps for launch, an initiative of the Council of Indian Institutes of Technology and the Association of American Universities

---

"Apparently, North Korean IT workers are pretending to be Americans, interviewing for remote US tech jobs, landing as many jobs simultaneously as they can, and funneling the salaries back..."

---

• China In 2035: 'China’s youthful urbanization changed the world. What will happen as the country ages and slows down?'

• Monetary Authority of Singapore and National Bank of Cambodia launch Financial Transparency Corridor initiative in bid to boost cross-border SME trade volumes

• Australia: Breakthrough Victoria, $2BN state gov't tech fund, backs Liquid Instruments with $15M to bring wide-use test equipment manufacturer to Melbourne

• Australian Internet Observatory launches with 6 universities investigating misinformation, consumer targeting, political messaging and social media-related issues

• Cambodia: Here's an overview of the recently-launched Techpreneur Bootcamp, with 30 university students selected from over 600 applications for the 6-month program

---

'Less than half of Australian children and teens think they can tell real news stories from fake. So how well are we preparing them for a new media world order?'

---

• Digital Rights In Asia-Pacific 2024 Conference is set for August 18-19 in Taipei

• Australia: A quick intro to 6 startups selected for the Venture Catalyst acceleration program from the University of South Australia Innovation & Collaboration Centre

• Echelon Philippines tech & startup conference and expo from e27 is set for September 26-27 - details here

• South Korea: Survey finds Open AI ChatGPT app has over 3 million monthly users in South Korea, fully 6% of the country's smartphone users

• DigiMarCon Southeast Asia 2024 conference and expo is set for September in Singapore, looking at all things digital media, marketing and advertising

• Australian Startup to Scaleup Summit, S2S Summit, is set for September 26th

---

China: "[Huawei's] HarmonyOS had 17% market share during the first quarter... ahead of Apple’s iOS with 16%. Google’s Android is still by far the most popular mobile OS, with a 68% share..."

---

In wider-world technology news:

» Major critical and rare earth minerals deposits found in Norway and Greenland, potentially delivering a game-change to supply chain challenges

» infineo insurance-tech firm transacted the first-ever tokenized life insurance policy using distributed ledger blockchain technology

» New York City signs two bills into law, the Stop Addictive Feeds Exploitation (SAFE) for Kids Act, and New York Child Data Protection Act

» The top 100 generative artificial intelligence consumer apps, from Andreessen Horowitz

» Autonomous trucks firm, Waabi, raised over $200M led by Uber with sights on 2025 roll-out, with backers including NVIDIA providing AI chips for self-driving applications

» Universal Music Group partners SoundLabs to provide AI voice modeling tech to producers and artists

» US gov't to ban sale of Kaspersky antivirus software, citing privacy and national security concerns and asking Americans using the software to switch providers

» 'Global Critical Minerals Outlook 2024' from the International Energy Agency

---

Asia & Indo-Pacific tech news: Other editions

• LinkedIn / Twitter / Facebook / Monthly / Substack / Web / Connect