Asia's Tech News, Weekly: October 19th 2024
Quantum in Japan, Philippines semiconductors, DPRK & mobile, China crossborder payments, Indian AI satellites, Vietnam 'net upgrade, Taiwan AI & startups boost...
• Japan: Government commits to quantum encryption by 2030, enlisting Toshiba, NEC and others with public-private investment over 5 years to prepare for next-generation cyber-attacks / full item
• Taiwan: Ministry of Digital Affairs maps out 5-year strategic plan to promote use of AI as a tool to boost efficiency of government operations, adding to NT$10BN AI startups plan / full item
• The Philippines is looking to develop 128,000 semiconductor industry-focused engineers and technicians by 2028, further growing its place in packaging and assembly / full item
• Thailand: The Australia Room opens its doors, a forensics training hub for police forces from Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam, focusing on cyber-scams and crime networks / full item
• Cambodia: Central bank partners China's Ant International for Alipay+ cross-border mobile payments via the KHQR system, facilitated by Cambodia's Bakong CBDC / full item
• Singapore recently unveiled the Smart Nation 2.0 agenda, an update on the city-state's digital goals for the economy, society, government, and security / full item
North Korea: "...about 6 in 10 people use mobile phones to purchase shop items in the capital [Pyongyang], and while the number is a bit lower in the provinces, it’s still 4 in 10." / full item
• Vietnam's National Payment Corporation inks MOU with China's UnionPay International for cross-border QR code interoperability, allowing QR payments between the two networks / full item
• China launches trial of cross-border payments CBDCs with Saudi Arabia, Hong Kong, Thailand and UAE with International Monetary Fund and others as observers / full item
• Taiwan: University researchers announce development of world's smallest quantum computer, for the first time using a single photon to perform quantum calculations / full item
• Japan: A look at Project Pax cross border payment system, involving big-3 banks, MUFG, SMBC and Mizuho, integrating Swift messaging with a stablecoin system / full item
• Thailand: Siam Commercial Bank & SCB 10X investment arm reportedly launched the nation's first cross-border payments-and-remittances service using stablecoins and public blockchain / full item
• India: Space Based Surveillance project approved for Phase 3 launch of 52 AI-backed satellites over 5 years to boost land and sea surveillance capabilities / full item
• KPMG Q3'24 Venture Pulse Asia findings: "While fintech businesses continued to attract a lot of attention in India, VC investors in the space have become more cautious..." / full item
• China Mobile unveils plans for low-altitude economy and generative AI, targeting 100 low-altitude demo projects by 2025 and noting Jiutian AI's 30 industry-specific AI models / full item
• Download: 'Towards an ASEAN Innovation Ecosystem - Start-up Creation for Inclusive and Sustainable Economic Development' / full item
• Taiwan: Ministry of Digital Affairs preps for NT$10BN (US$311M) program to cultivate local AI startups, projecting a return of NT$1 trillion in production value / full item
• Australia: Q-CTRL quantum infrastructure software firm secured an additional $59M, with focus on 'middleware' for hardware providers / full item
• Japan: Rapidus chipmaker and Denso auto supplier partner to share design methods for advanced chips, targeting standardization in Japan for AI and autonomous vehicles / full item
"...it is likely that China will become as innovative as foreign robotic producers in the midterm at the latest, while also enjoying a significant cost advantage." / full item
• China: A broad overview of the many steps taken to implement a national blockchain infrastructure / full item
• Critical technologies in September 2024: Semiconductors, space launch & satellites, supply chains & minerals, data & cybersecurity, quantum tech, subsea cables... / full item
• Australia: ARM Hub AI Adopt Centre launches for manufacturing SMEs to gain knowledge on AI and robotics, aiming to engage with as many as 30,000 small businesses / full item
• Philippines: Over 250 arrested in raid on online scam farm in Manila, located less than 1km from Pasay City Senate building / full item
• India looks to auction, not allocate, satellite spectrum for sat-delivered internet, raising possibility of Starlink service alongside home-grown Bharti Airtel and Reliance Industries / full item
• "Chinese scientists have mounted what they say is the world's first effective attack on a widely used encryption method using a quantum computer." / full item
• Australia: Paladin Space lands $100K SA State Gov't grant to further develop space debris removal tech, looking to new machine learning techniques for image analysis / full item
• Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co and Arizona's Amkor, a major global semiconductor packaging firm, partner for first US chip packaging facilities / full item
• India: Star Health & Allied Insurance confirms data breach, with hackers releasing data of 31M policyholders, over 5.8M claims, full names, addresses, medical reports and more / full item
• Singapore: Surfin secures $12.5M Series A with multi-country fintech presence, offering P2P lending, remittances, payment gateway services and more / full item
• China is to launch 2-3 quantum communications satellites in 2025, and one in 2027, connecting with ground-based networks in pursuit of global coverage / full item
"...the four [Quad group] leaders said they aimed to ensure every Pacific island state is connected by a subsea cable by the end of 2025..." / full item
• Philippines: "...data released by the BSP... showed the share of digital payments to total retail payment transactions in the country grew to 52.8% in 2023, from 42.1% in 2022..." / full item
• Vietnam is to convert all local networks to IPv6, the most recent Internet Protocol, alongside tech goal announcements on subsea cables, nationwide 5G, home fiber, and more / full item
• Australia: Green Gravity raised Au$9M with gravity-generated energy storage, using disused mining shafts to raise and lower weights for energy generation / full item
• South Korea: North Gyeongsang Province seized $890K in crypto assets from residents who failed to pay taxes, with 22 cities and counties now preparing for further collections / full item
• Space Kidz India launches ShakthiSAT, a globally-minded initiative to train 12000 female high school students in aspects of space technology / full item
• Reserve Bank of India Governor sees risk in financial services adoption of AI tech, both in concentration of tech providers and in vulnerabilities to cybercrime / full item
• Taiwan: I-Ke International Ocean Energy inks MOU to install Eco Wave Power energy generation units on Taiwan's coastline, boosting the island's green and renewable energy / full item
• China: Baidu looks to expand Apollo Go robotaxi unit overseas, entering talks with foreign automakers, ride-share firms and tech companies / full item
• Presight AI-Startup Accelerator launches for next-gen UAE and MENA-region AI firms, with sights also on South-East Asia and Central Asia / full item
• Japan: Gov't rolls out plans for a 300MW wind farm off Hokkaido coast to boost energy for new Rapidus semiconductor manufacturing facility, and new SoftBank data centre / full item
• China: ByteDance, TikTok parent firm, launches $170 AI-enabled earbuds linked to ByteDance Doubao chatbot / full item
• Hong Kong Science & Tech Parks Corp'n unveils 12 new partner organisations, working in international data, health tech, artificial intelligence and more / full item
"Satellite internet market in India is set for growth and has the potential to generate US$1 billion revenue in the near future." / full item
• Malaysia: MYStartup pre-accelerator cohort 4 unveils 5 winners, working on solutions in fintech, construction, green technologies, agriculture and health-tech / full item
• New Zealand: Emerge fintech raises $12M Series A in bid to challenge traditional banking with app-based services and tools / full item
• Australia: Parliamentary inquiry rejects calls for ban on AI-generated images and videos in election campaigns despite near-certainty of the tech being used for disinformation / full item
• Vietnam: A brief listing of the 40 final round project awards from the 2024 Women's Startup Competition / full item
• China's ByteDance, TikTok parent firm, has laid off more than 700 workers from its Malaysian unit, shifting focus towards greater use of AI in content moderation / full item
• Australia: An overview of the nation's moves into quantum technologies, focusing on PsiQuantum, the firm chosen to lead the way / full item
• Taiwan's Foxconn partners NVIDIA to construct the world's largest factory for NVIDIA's GB200, a chip focused on artificial intelligence systems / full item
• Vietnam: Lotte Ventures, VC arm of Lotte Group conglomerate, gains gov't approval for local VC fund, looking to invest in tech-driven startups / full item
• South Korea: New regulatory body preps for launch this month, the tentatively-named Virtual Assets Committee, operating under the Financial Services Commission / full item
• KPMG Australia has opened the KPMG Nature Positive Challenge for applications, seeking eco-startups in Australia, Fiji and Papua New Guinea / full item
'A South Korean probe into soldiers who reportedly used their military passwords as loan collateral to buy crypto has unveiled 29 further cases of compromised armed forces secrets.' / full item
• Vietnam: An overview of the finalists from the recent Women's Creative Startup and Green Transformation component of the 2024 Women's Startup Competition / full item
• L’Oréal Big Bang Beauty Tech Innovation Program selects 4 Singapore startups and 4 from India for finals, working in customer-serving technologies and insights / full item
• China: Huawei's MateXT triple-fold smartphone is reportedly facing significant hinge durability issues just weeks after release, exacerbated for users by high price point / full item
• Australia: Capital X community-driven connections initiative launches, focused on boosting opportunities for women founders in Australia and New Zealand / full item
• Vietnam: A brief overview of the recently-opened Ho Chi Minh City Creative Startup Hub project, aiming to gather innovators with coworking, events, networks and more / full item
• Australia: An overview of quantum tech firm, Q-CTRL, following its recent $86.3M Series B extension / full item
China: "Temu is looking to turn the costs of Amazon’s full range of logistics, order processing, transport, delivery and customer relations services into a weakness it can exploit..." / full item
• Australia: Entertainment & Expertise for your end-of-year business event - a Christmas event special offer from Melbourne's Tech Femme Fusion / details
• A dive into the increasingly sophisticated use of AI in email account takeover scams, using spoofed addresses and 'phone numbers, AI-run telephone calls and more / full item
And here's the link to this week's larger edition of the newsletter, published over on LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/asias-tech-news-weekly-october-19th-2024-startup-news-asia-myl8c/
Asia's Tech News, Weekly to October 19th is a larger edition as we've moved our publishing schedule to a week-ending slot, hence more items as we transition.
For past, archived editions over on LinkedIn (over 2 years' worth of Asia's technology news headlines, no less) click through to:
https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/sna-asia-s-tech-news-6940166562133749760/
And while you're over on LinkedIn, let's connect: https://www.linkedin.com/in/wadekw/