EJ Insight

BUSINESS

SoftBank fund eyes US$1 bln investment in SenseTime: report

Jul 23, 2018 9:39am

SoftBank Vision Fund is seeking to invest almost US$1 billion in China’s facial recognition technology developer SenseTime Group, Bloomberg reports, citing people familiar with the matter. The fund, created by Japan’s SoftBank Group, and SenseTime are finalizing...
US lawmakers cut anti-ZTE measure from defense bill

Jul 23, 2018 9:15am

US lawmakers cut measures from a defense bill that would have reinstated sanctions on China’s ZTE Corp, abandoning an attempt to punish the firm for illegally shipping US products to Iran and North Korea, Reuters reports....
Europeans press for digital tax at G20 meeting

Jul 23, 2018 9:04am

European finance leaders called for progress on global rules to tax the digital economy at a meeting of G20 finance ministers and central bankers on Sunday, putting them at odds with US counterparts, Reuters reports. The...
WhatsApp makes further moves in bid to curb fake news, spam

Jul 20, 2018 6:45pm

WhatsApp, the instant messaging app owned by Facebook, is rolling out more changes as it seeks to curb fake news and spam on its social platform. After recently adding labels that can help users identify whether...
China’s finance ministry hits back at PBOC in fiscal policy row

Ko Tin-yau - Jul 20, 2018 4:44pm

China’s central bank and finance ministry recently engaged in a hot debate over the role of fiscal policy amid the nation’s economic restructuring. The debate was triggered by an article written by Xu Zhong, the head...
Time to review outdated laws that bar ride-hailing apps

HKEJ Editorial - Jul 20, 2018 11:32am

Earlier this week, 28 Uber drivers were convicted of providing car-hire services without permits at the Kowloon City Magistrates’ Courts, and were fined between HK$3,800 and HK$4,500. In his ruling, Magistrate Joseph To Ho-shing said the...
What makes BASF’s US$10 billion Guangdong project possible?

Mark O'Neill - Jul 20, 2018 10:39am

In April this year, a delegation led by Zhanjiang City Mayor Jiang Jianjun visited the headquarters of BASF in Ludwigshafen, Germany. He was blown away by what he saw. Its “Verbund” site is the largest industrial...
Comcast drops Fox bid, clearing way for Disney

Jul 20, 2018 9:28am

US cable giant Comcast on Thursday dropped its US$66 billion bid for the entertainment assets of Twenty-First Century Fox, saying it will now focus on gaining control of European broadcaster Sky. The withdrawal marks a concession...
IBM shaking down tech firms, Groupon alleges in patent trial

Jul 20, 2018 9:26am

A lawyer for discount e-commerce company Groupon Inc. told a US federal court that International Business Machines Corp. has shaken down practically every large tech firm for patent fees, Reuters reports. IBM is suing Groupon for...
Microsoft beats Wall Street targets on cloud services revenue

Jul 20, 2018 8:57am

Microsoft Corp. posted quarterly profit and revenue that beat analysts’ estimates, as more businesses signed up for its Azure cloud computing services and Office 365 productivity suite. The company’s flagship Azure cloud product recorded revenue growth...

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WORLD

Cyber attack on Singapore database steals details of 1.5 million

Jul 23, 2018 9:48am

A major cyber attack on Singapore’s government health database stole the personal information of about 1.5 million people, including Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, Reuters reports, citing a government statement. The attack, which the government called...
G20 calls for enhanced trade dialogue to mitigate global risks

Jul 23, 2018 8:42am

Finance ministers and central bankers from the Group of 20 nations on Sunday called for stepped-up dialogue to prevent trade and geopolitical tensions from hurting growth. Following a two-day meeting in Buenos Aires, finance officials from the world’s...
South Korea’s ex-president Park gets another eight years in jail

Jul 20, 2018 5:15pm

A South Korean court sentenced former president Park Geun-hye to eight more years in prison on Friday after finding her guilty on charges of causing loss of government funds and interfering in a 2016 parliamentary election,...
Why it’s becoming more difficult to keep work-life balance

Ko Tin-yau - Jul 20, 2018 12:09pm

Sociologists and HR managers have been calling for work-life balance. But employees are actually spending more time at work, and have less time to enjoy life. Take the United States for example. Many might think American...
Why Putin could be the biggest winner from the World Cup

Simon Shen - Jul 20, 2018 11:56am

France may have taken the 2018 World Cup, but in my opinion, it was Russian President Vladimir Putin that could prove the biggest winner of the tournament. Russia had been under Western sanctions due to its...

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Hong Kong

What HK can learn from Moscow on tackling traffic congestion

Using information technology to improve the quality of living has been a common strategy of many countries in recent years. Take traffic congestion, a problem that many cities face, as an example, Moscow was...
Time to reform our obsolete school exam model

In ancient times, particularly in Imperial China, memorization was the single most important skill when it comes to school or civil service examinations. Sadly, more than a thousand years on, things have remained largely...
Helping our kids realize their dreams

Most of us, during our primary school years, would have been asked to write about our dreams as part of an exercise. Most of those goals, however, end up just like that — a...
Gratitude journal: a powerful cure for insomnia

Hong Kong is known for the fast-paced and stressful lifestyle of its people. Many of those who live in this busy city are often sleep-deprived, poorly rested or insomniac. When their sleeping pattern is often...
Everything about eczema

Eczema has been widely discussed and more noticeable since the unfortunate case of an eczema patient killing her parents and herself. Eczema is a common skin condition which happens to various age groups but...