Monthly Archives: May 2023

When G7 leaders meet in Hiroshima this week, they wont be alone: eight non-members including major developing economies have been invited in a bid to sway opinion on Russia and China.

Regional powerhouses India and Brazil will attend along with ASEAN host Indonesia, Pacific Island Forum chair the Cook Islands, African Union chair Comoros, Vietnam, South Korea and Australia.

They will take part in a dedicated outreach session as well as bilateral meetings intended to bring some reluctant leaders into the fold in opposition to Russias war in Ukraine and Beijings growing military assertiveness.

Its increasingly the case that the guest lists of these things are quite large, but not just anybody is invited, said Tristen Naylor, an assistant professor at the University of Cambridge and an expert on summits and diplomacy.

The G7 wants to be seen as a club dedicated to the protection of democracy and wants broader backing for its support of Ukraine and efforts to counter China, he told AFP.

India is a long-time military ally of Moscow and its ambivalent position on the war in Ukraine is out of step with most other leading democracies, Naylor said.

So this is very much a chance for the G7 to at least try to bring India on side, he said, warning it would be a difficult task.

While Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is expected to address the summit remotely, a Russian delegation will be in Delhi this November for the G20 summit, and few expect Prime Minister Narendra Modi to make any sudden policy shifts.

Another principal aim of the summit will be to offer an alternative to Chinas huge infrastructure investments around the world, Naylor said.

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva was in Beijing last month, where his countrys top trading partner pledged to pursue high-quality development that would unlock opportunities for Brazil.

Lula, who took aim at the US dollar on the trip, is far from the only leader being courted by China, and G7 allies are keen to show they can offer an alternative.

This concept of pushing back on Chinese influence, sustaining the rules-based order in the Global South will be a big part of the summit, said Chris Johnstone, Japan chair at the Center of Strategic and International Studies.

Japan has already been doing legwork on that front, with Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and foreign minister Yoshimasa Hayashi making a flurry of trips this year to countries in Africa, Southeast Asia, Latin America andPacific Island nations.

In Delhi in March, Kishida pledged public and private capital worth $75 billion towards infrastructure in the Asia-Pacific region by 2030.

He has also hammered home the message that Russias invasion of Ukraine is the chief cause of the soaring food and energy prices that have hit developing countries hardest.

But theres a movement to divide the world by giving the wrong impression that the G7s sanctions against Russia are to blame, Kishida told reporters in Mozambique.

Tokyo and Seoul are in the process of patching up long-frayed ties, and Kishida is expected to hold trilateral talks with his Korean and US counterparts on the sidelines of the summit.

Talks could also be held in Hiroshima between the Quad grouping of Japan, Australia, the United States and India.

But not all invitees are likely to be in such a conciliatory mood, according to Yuichi Hosoya, professor of international politics at Keio University.

It should not be taken for granted that they will offer broad and strong support on Ukraine and other G7 initiatives, he wrote in an article last month.

Japan should make efforts to understand precisely what each of the countries are looking for, recognise the diversity of the international community, and make specific contributions.

by Katie Forster

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'Pushing back': G7 seeks influence with expanded guestlist - Macau Business

Unease over the slow progress of US debt talks further dampened sentiment in equity markets on Wednesday, though Japanese stocks got a boost from forecast-beating economic growth data.

Regional traders were provided a tepid lead from Wall Street, where disappointing retail sales data and weak earnings from Home Depot indicated softening consumer demand.

But analysts said the readings were unlikely to give the Federal Reserve room to pause its interest rate hikes yet.

All eyes are on Washington, where lawmakers remain deadlocked in negotiations to lift the countrys borrowing limit to pay its debts and avert a market-rattling default.

US President Joe Biden met Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and other congressional leaders at the White House on Tuesday after saying staff-level talks had produced no shift.

McCarthy told reporters there was still a lot of work to do before the country runs out of cash, which the Treasury has warned will happen around June 1.

However, there was a sliver of light as he said he ultimately expected a deal.

America is the number one economy in the world. And when we get done with these negotiations, Americas economy is going to be stronger, McCarthy said.

And the White House said Biden was optimistic that there is a path to a responsible, bipartisan budget agreement if both sides negotiate in good faith.

In a bid to get an agreement over the line, the president who flies to Japan on Wednesday for a G7 summit scrapped subsequent stops in Papua New Guinea and Australia, instead planning to return to Washington on Sunday.

Still, investors remain nervous about the possibility of a default, which many economists warn would send shivers through the world economy.

Hong Kong, Shanghai, Sydney, Singapore, Mumbai and Bangkok fell on Wednesday, though Seoul, Taipei, Manila, Wellington and Jakarta edged up.

London and Paris dipped in the morning but Frankfurt rose.

The standoff has forced traders to keep one foot on the gas and one foot on the brake, causing markets to spin wheels this week, said SPI Asset Managements Stephen Innes.

Tokyo led gainers after figures showed Japans economy grew more than expected in January-March thanks to a surge in tourism after pandemic border restrictions were lifted.

The figures helped push the Nikkei 225 to a 20-month high and it has now piled on more than 15 percent since the turn of the year, while the Topix is at a three-decade high.

Analysts said the strong market performance has been helped by corporate reforms and the central banks ultra-loose monetary policies.

Comments from several Fed officials did little to provide any clarity on the US central banks plans for rates at next months policy meeting.

Richmond Fed president Thomas Barkin said he was open-minded but still looking for signs that more than a year of tightening was having the necessary effect on inflation, which remains well above the banks target.

I do want to learn more about whats happening with all these lagged effects, he told Bloomberg Television.

But I also want to reduce inflation. And if more increases are whats necessary to do that, Im comfortable doing that.

And Atlanta Fed chief Raphael Bostic warned Tuesday that we havent gotten to the hard part yet, adding officials would come under pressure if they were unable to keep the economy from tipping into recession while fighting inflation.

Key figures around 0810 GMT

Tokyo Nikkei 225: UP 0.8 percent at 30,093.59(close)

Hong Kong Hang Seng Index: DOWN 2.1 percent at 19,560.57 (close)

Shanghai Composite: DOWN 0.2 percent at 3,284.23 (close)

London FTSE 100: DOWN 0.2 percent at 7,733.52

Euro/dollar: DOWN at $1.0836 from $1.0865 on Tuesday

Pound/dollar: DOWN at $1.2427 from $1.2483

Dollar/yen: UP at 136.96 yen from 136.37 yen

Euro/pound: UP at 87.18 pence from 87.01 pence

West Texas Intermediate: DOWN 0.7 percent at $70.35 per barrel

Brent North Sea crude: DOWN 0.6 percent at $74.43 per barrel

New York Dow: DOWN 1.0 percent at 33,012.14 (close)

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Markets mixed as sluggish debt talks worry investors - Macau Business

SolarWinds Service Desk now includes an AI-powered virtual agent to help users troubleshoot issues so IT agents can focus on critical and complex tasks

SINGAPORE Media OutReach 18 May 2023 SolarWinds (NYSE:SWI), a leading provider of simple, powerful, and secure observability and IT management software, announces its adding transformative artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) capabilities to its IT service management (ITSM) solutions. The new AI features include a virtual agent to help users solve everyday IT problems and guided incident resolution to empower agents with the information they need to effectively resolve complex issues.

The new SolarWinds Service Desk additions are designed to reduce ticket volume by enabling users to remediate easier-to-solve issues so IT practitioners can focus on the complex issues requiring their expertise. The Service Desk AI virtual agent can answer user questions and support troubleshooting. By constantly learning based on interactions with users, the virtual agent adapts over time to provide the most helpful and relevant information and help solve issues based on each customers specific needs.

The cloud-native SolarWinds Service Desk solution is highly regarded in the industry for being easy to use and effective for users and agents while providing quick time to value. Automated ticket routing, AI-powered smart suggestions, and the new virtual agent within Service Desk all help ensure agents can efficiently deliver services across the organization. Customers can also enhance and personalize Service Desk through integrations with over 200 popular cloud applications.

Digital transformation, application modernization, and the move to the cloud have dramatically increased the complexity of digital services, said Cullen Childress, GVP of product management at SolarWinds. This means the number of potential problems impacting user experience has also increased substantially. Our ITSM solutions are a significant focus were investing in. This includes Service Desk, which enables teams to focus more on important business priorities rather than mundane, time-consuming tasks. By leveraging advanced AI and powerful automation, SolarWinds makes users more productive, supports agents more efficiently, and helps ensure companies are more successful.

SolarWinds solutions are rooted in the companys deep connection with tech professionals. The company engaged directly with customers through THWACK, its community of over 180,000 users, to develop and test the new AI capabilities and ensure they make it easier for IT pros to do their jobs. A recent survey of SolarWinds customers found the new Service Desk AI features enabled IT teams to reduce ticket resolution time by 24% and save an average of 23 hours per week. Surveyed Service Desk customers have also reported a reduction in downtime of 21% on average and a 24% average increase in progress toward achieving service-level agreements (SLAs).

Teams can customize SolarWinds Service Desk to provide an efficient and intelligent ticket management system and service request workflows for other business groups beyond the IT department. This enables human resources, legal, finance, sales, marketing, and other departments to become more responsive and enhance their service delivery capabilities. Managing employee requests through one system and automating workflows helps these departments deliver better and faster services to colleagues. Later this year, SolarWinds is planning to launch a new enterprise service management (ESM) solution designed to allow multiple departments within a single organization to have their own service portal, ticket management system, and service catalog within one platform to allow better cross-department workflows while ensuring data from different departments is appropriately segregated.

The new AI-powered ITSM upgrades are the latest significant solution enhancements from SolarWinds. SolarWinds released cloud-based and hybrid observability solutions and a new partner program in the past year. By investing in the AI-powered SolarWinds Platform, the company is blending observability and service management to consistently deliver simple and secure solutions for IT Ops, DevOps, SecOps, and CloudOps professionals.

Hashtag: #SWI #SWIproducts

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The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.

SolarWinds (NYSE:SWI) is a leading provider of simple, powerful, secure observability and IT management software built to enable customers to accelerate their digital transformation. Our solutions provide organizations worldwideregardless of type, size, or complexitywith a comprehensive and unified view of todays modern, distributed, and hybrid network environments. We continuously engage with IT service and operations professionals, DevOps and SecOps professionals, and database administrators (DBAs) to understand the challenges they face in maintaining high-performing and highly available hybrid IT infrastructures, applications, and environments. The insights we gain from them, in places like our THWACK community, allow us to address customers needs now and in the future. Our focus on the user and our commitment to excellence in end-to-end hybrid IT management have established SolarWinds as a worldwide leader in solutions for observability, IT service management, application performance, and database management. Learn more today at http://www.solarwinds.com.

This press release contains forward-looking statements, which are subject to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including statements regarding future features and functionality. These forward-looking statements are based on managements beliefs and assumptions and on information currently available to management. Forward-looking statements include all statements that are not historical facts and may be identified by terms such as aim, anticipate, believe, can, could, seek, should, feel, expect, will, would, plan, intend, estimate, continue, or similar expressions and the negatives of those terms. Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause or contribute to such differences include, but are not limited to, the risks and uncertainties described more fully in documents filed with or furnished to the Securities and Exchange Commission, including the risk factors discussed in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the period ended December 31, 2022 filed on February 22, 2023 and our Quarter Report on Form 10-Q for the period ended March 31, 2023 filed on May 4, 2023. All information provided in this release is as of the date hereof and SolarWinds undertakes no duty to update this information except as required by law.

The SolarWinds, SolarWinds & Design, Orion, and THWACK trademarks are the exclusive property of SolarWinds Worldwide, LLC or its affiliates, are registered with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, and may be registered or pending registration in other countries. All other SolarWinds trademarks, service marks, and logos may be common law marks or are registered or pending registration. All other trademarks mentioned herein are used for identification purposes only and are trademarks of (and may be registered trademarks of) their respective companies.

2023 SolarWinds Worldwide, LLC. All rights reserved.

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SolarWinds Adds Transformative AI Features to IT Service ... - Macau Business

The Asian Football Confederation said on Wednesday that it was investigating acts of violence after two mass brawls and four red cards marred the mens final of the Southeast Asian Games.

Indonesia defeated Thailand 5-2 in extra time on Tuesday in the Cambodian capital Phnom Penh in a match that saw clashes between players and coaches of both sides.

Thailand, who have since apologised and launched their own investigation, ended the bad-tempered final with eight players on the field.

One of those sent off was goalkeeper Soponwit Rakyart after he ran half the length of the pitch to deliver a diving punch to an Indonesian opponent.

The AFC is disappointed with the disorderly incidents at the SEA Games football final, a spokesperson for the governing body for football in Asia said.

The AFC underlines the importance of fair play, mutual respect and sportsmanship, and takes a zero tolerance approach towards all such acts of violence, which threaten the physical integrity of players and officials.

Mens football at the biennial SEA Games is played between under-23 sides.

The final had been billed as a chance for Indonesia to restore some pride to its football following a deadly stadium disaster and the loss of hosting the Under-20 World Cup.

But the game will be remembered for the scenes that began in the 97th minute when Thailand - who had been 2-0 down - scored to make it 2-2 and force extra time.

Thai officials celebrated their late leveller by running over to the Indonesia bench, prompting the first melee.

When Indonesia took the lead back early in extra time, their officials returned the favour, with even more incendiary results.

Sumardji, a member of the team staff who like many Indonesians goes by one name, told TVOne that their players returned the provocation and I chased them and shouted Dont!'

But suddenly I got hit here (his mouth) and I fell down.

Kicks were landed as well as punches. Both teams had a player sent off, and members of their coaching staff were also dismissed.

As the Thai teams discipline crumbled, another two of their players were sent off during extra time for second yellow cards.

The Thai football association said it would punish anyone found to have been in the wrong.

The FA of Thailand must apologise for the clash on the touchline, it said in a statement, adding it would set up a committee to investigate those involved as soon as possible and will take decisive measures.

The chairman of the Indonesian FA pointed the finger at Thailand.

Sometimes we got provoked and then we fell into it, Erick Thohir told Metro TV.

I warned earlier that this is a provocation, they wanted us to lose. We were beaten, trampled on and cheated.

The chaos and their role in it overshadowed the achievements of Indonesias young team, and what it means to football in the country.

In October, a stadium disaster killed more than 130 people in East Java. And in May FIFA relocated the Under-20 World Cup from Indonesia to Argentina because of opposition in the Muslim-majority nation to Israels participation.

President Joko Widodo said he was very happy that his country won gold.

This is something we had been waiting for 32 years, to be the champion in Southeast Asia, Widodo told reporters, according to a statement by the presidential palace.

by James LEGGE

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Asian football probes 'acts of violence' after red cards mar final - Macau Business

At a hillside temple, a monk in saffron robes blows a refrain on a conch and begins chanting prayers as thousands of origami cranes donated to Hiroshima burn.

For a decade, the Daisho-in Buddhist temple on Miyajima island, facing Hiroshima, has held ritual burnings of the millions of origami cranes sent to the city each year.

The ceremony is intended to honour the sentiments folded into each of the miniature paper birds.

And since 2015, the ash from the burned cranes has been used to glaze ceramic incense burners and candle holders, including one given to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky by Japans prime minister on a trip to Kyiv.

Cranes have arrived in Hiroshima for decades, inspired by Sadako Sasaki, who was just two when the United States dropped an atomic bomb on the city on August 6, 1945.

She developed leukaemia and in hospital began folding cranes in keeping with a tradition that holds folding 1,000 can make a wish come true.

She died aged 12, one of about 140,000 people killed by the bomb immediately or in the aftermath, and has become a powerful symbol of the bombs effects and a popular way to educate children about the attack.

For years, the cranes sent to Hiroshima were simply left at memorials, with municipal cleaners occasionally disposing of them.

It wasnt until 2012, as the city searched for a better way to handle the cranes, that Kinya Saito of the Nagomi Project, a peace group, proposed ritually burning them.

I thought about the idea of emotions being released with smoke and sent up to the victims of the atomic bomb, the Hiroshima native told AFP.

Yoyu Mimatsu, a monk at Daisho-in, has led the burning ceremony for the past decade.

After blowing the conch, he sits at a table in front of the fire pit and strikes a prayer bowl before beginning chants for the souls of bomb victims.

He also prays for the emotions and prayers of people from all over the world, the prayers for peace folded into each of the paper cranes, to reach the heavens, the 57-year-old told AFP.

While Daisho-in was willing to burn the cranes, they werent sure what to do with the leftover ash.

They found a solution in Taigendo, a pottery studio that for more than 100 years has produced ceramics using sacred sand from under a Miyajima shrine.

The third-generation potter running the studio Kosai Yamane was already using ash from an eternal flame burning on Miyajima to glaze his ceramics and was open to using the crane ash in a similar way.

It was an artistic project, but also deeply personal for Yamane, whose mother was 14 at the time of the bomb attack.

She had burn scars on her elbows, and as a child, I never saw her wear anything except long sleeves, Yamane told AFP.

She never talked about it. I felt she was trying everything to avoid being noticed, to avoid talking about it.

Yamane knew immediately the crane ash could not be used to glaze everyday items like cups or bowls.

I wanted to make something that would convey a message of peace from Hiroshima, he said.

He settled first on a delicate crane-shaped incense burner, and later began producing candle holders.

They have a dome-like top modelled on the shape of the Childrens Peace Memorial and are etched with cranes.

The candle sits under the dome on a plate glazed with the ash, the glaze helping reflect the light to produce a warm orange glow.

Yamane was shocked but delighted to learn Japanese Prime Minister Kishida had presented Zelensky with one on his March visit.

I felt that peoples message of peace was in the right place, the 60-year-old said.

This message gathers in Hiroshima, but it does not come only from Japan, it comes from all over the world, and is brought together when thecranesare burned.

Group of Seven leaders, including US President Joe Biden, are expected to visit peace sites in Hiroshima during this weeks summit, where Kishida will push for action on nuclear disarmament.

Hiroshima is now a synonym for peace, said Saito.

But it is also a place that directly illustrates how terrifying and horrifying nuclear weapons are.

I want the leaders to understand what happened, to listen to what people say.

by Sara HUSSEIN

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The second life of Hiroshima's origami cranes - Macau Business

Germanys second-biggest lender Commerzbank on Wednesday said net profit almost doubled in the first quarter, thanks to a tailwind from higher interest rates.

The group said it made a bottom-line profit of 580 million euros ($630 million), compared with 298 million euros over the same period a year earlier.

We had a very good start to 2023, CEO Manfred Knof said in a statement.

The interest rate development continues to give us a tailwind, and the fee business has delivered a good result, he said.

Like other lenders in Europe, Commerzbank has benefited from a higher interest rate environment as the European Central Bank has raised borrowing costs at an unprecedented rate in recent months to combat inflation.

Inflation in Germany, Europes biggest economy, eased to 7.2 percent in April after peaking at 8.8 percent last October.

Commerzbank said quarterly revenues fell slightly to just under 2.7 billion euros, from 2.8 billion euros a year earlier. The lender said the dip was partly due to charges set aside to cover legal costs at its Polish unit mBank.

Commerzbank embarked on a major turnaround in recent years, focussed on winning new customers, digitisation and reducing its workforce.

The bank has culled around 9,000 jobs since 2021, out of a planned 10,000.

The overhaul helped the group remain in the black for a second consecutive year in 2022, when it booked a net profit of 1.4 billion euros.

Commerzbank returned to the prestigious DAX index of Germanys 40 top listed companies in February.

Looking ahead, Commerzbank said itwas aiming for a full-year net profit well above that of 2022.

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Commerzbank profits soar on higher interest rates - Macau Business

The city has over 20% of cellphone users using 5G service, said Lau Wai Meng, director of Macao Post and Telecommunications Bureau (CTT).

Speaking on the sidelines the World Telecommunication and Information Society Day ceremony yesterday, Lau said she is satisfied with the progress because when compared with nearby localities, the growth of the user size has been rather fast. The official also said the fast-paced growth was probably due to the citys small size and population.

In addition, pursuant to the law, 5G license holders must build a network that covers 50% of Macaus area within the first year of operation. She said all operators had achieved the threshold and some had even surpassed it.

To date, CTT has issued two 5G licenses to CTM and China Telecom.

Yesterday morning, CTT held an event to celebrate World Telecommunication and Information Society Day. To highlight the theme of the day this year, CTT organized thematic lectures about The Driving Force of Urban Development: Innovation and Application of Information and Communication Technology, and invited academic experts, as well as representatives from the industry in Hong Kong and mainland China, to discuss and share experiences on the topic.

The ceremony aimed to highlight the necessity of accelerating sustainable development in the places where international assistance is needed the most, tapping the full potential of the least developed countries and helping them make progress on the road to prosperity.

Staff Reporter

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MACAU DAILY TIMES 20% of population using 5G - Macau Daily Times