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Despite its strong long-term growth prospects, 2014 was a challenging year for Indonesia’s telecommunications sector, as operators faced fierce competition and market saturation, while average revenue per user (ARPU) continued to decline. The IT sector, however, showed promising growth, which is expected to continue on the back of the burgeoning data centre, cloud computing and e-commerce segments, with an increasing number of private players benefitting from a tech-savvy consumer base. At the same time, plans to change the licensing model for telecoms operators could expedite ongoing industry consolidation, which gained pace in 2014 with XL Axiata’s acquisition of Axis Telekom, while mobile data demand will continue to soar as major operators roll out 4G long-term evolution (LTE) services to customers. The market’s shift from traditional voice and SMS revenue to data-driven growth should keep operators profitable in the long term, with Indonesia’s sizeable domestic market providing the macro fundamentals for rapid near-term expansion.
Initially, the Ministry of Tourism, Post and Telecommunications regulated the telecoms industry in Indonesia, with the Ministry of Communication assuming this responsibility following the election of former President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono in March 1998. In 2005 the Ministry of Communications and IT (MCIT) was established and it has since overseen the ICT sector, exercising regulatory authority and formulating relevant industry policies, including radio frequency spectrum allocation.
Indonesia’s telecoms market is one of the most competitive in Asia, with seven operators vying for customers and revenues. Telekomunikasi Indonesia (Telkom), the state-owned incumbent, was first established in 1856, later splitting to create its mobile arm, Telekomunikasi Selular (Telkomsel), in 1995. With ownership of the majority of the archipelago’s copper wire infrastructure, Telkom is the major provider of fixedline telephone services in the country, with a total of 14.1m fixed-line subscribers as of the end of 2014.
The mobile market is dominated by the “big three” operators: Telkomsel, with 140.6m subscribers at the end of 2014; Indosat, which is 65% owned by Qatari operator Ooredoo and had a subscriber base of 63.2m at the end of the year; and XL Axiata, which finalised its $865m acquisition of Axis Telkom in 2014, and reported 62.9m subscribers. The remainder of the market is held by Hutchinson 3 Indonesia, Smartfren Telecom and Bakrie Telecom. Smartfren and Bakrie signed a deal for network sharing in 2014, and are the only two operators offering code division multiple access (CDMA) services, where multiple operators can access the same communication frequency, after Telkom dropped its CDMA platform in 2014.
Indonesia’s fixed-line market has followed international trends that have seen subscriber numbers plummet since the introduction of mobile technology. Statistics Indonesia, the national statistics agency, reports that the total percentage of households with fixed-line services stood at 13.01% in 2005, before declining to 9.46% in 2010, and hitting a nine-year low in 2013, with just 5.86% of households classified as fixed-line subscribers.
The erosion of fixed internet services was driven by a rise in mobile internet. Indonesia was an early adopter of 3G mobile broadband services, which were first rolled out in 2006, and by 2012 the big three operators were working to commence with 4G LTE services, with consumers increasingly abandoning fixed wireless services in favour of mobile broadband (see analysis).
Unlike its fixed market, Indonesia’s mobile market has shown tremendous growth in recent years; mobile subscribership doubled in the four years to 2013 to reach more than 300m subscribers, well above the country’s total population. Ericsson Mobility reports that subscribership was almost 330m at the end of 2013, while mobile penetration stood at 122% in 2014, according to research firm BuddeComm, although the presence of so many operators has been a challenge for growth, with price wars that kicked off in 2007 keeping ARPUs at some of the lowest levels in Asia. According to research by Venture Consulting, both pre-paid and post-paid ARPU have declined for all of Indonesia’s telecoms operators since 2007, with blended ARPU now standing at less than $4 for each operator and expected to remain depressed until at least 2016. For 2014, Business Monitor Research reported that blended mobile ARPU declined by 9.8%.
At the same time, the market has been affected by a shift towards data services, with fierce competition keeping voice and SMS revenue growth modest, while data demand has risen sharply. This shift will have an impact on operators’ business models, and the weak performance of many companies in 2014 is indicative of the challenges they face in adapting to changing consumer patterns, with rising operational costs and over-saturation leading to weaker results.
Telecoms operators struggled in 2014, with many experiencing financial losses. XL Axiata reported revenue growth of 10.4% for the year, rising to Rp23.56trn ($1.95bn), although the company still saw a net loss of Rp891.06bn ($73.66m) for the year as a result of higher operating expenses, as well as its costly acquisition of Axis Telekom. Indosat cited Rp1.86trn ($153.75m) in losses during the same period, with revenues increasing by a modest 0.95% to Rp24.09trn ($1.99bn). Telkom was the only one of the big three with a positive performance, reporting an 8.1% increase in consolidated revenues to Rp89.7trn ($7.41bn), of which some 70% is attributed to Telkomsel, and a 5.7% growth in consolidated net profits for the year, to reach Rp21.45trn ($1.77bn).
Alexander Rusli, CEO for Indosat, explained to the media that profits took a hit as a result of ongoing price wars for data packages, as well as market uncertainty in the wake of national elections in July 2014, which saw Joko Widodo become the nation’s seventh president. The rupiah’s recent decline has also impacted growth, with XL Axiata reporting its foreign exchange losses grew by Rp935.5bn ($77.33m) during the first nine months of 2014, compared to Rp714.6bn ($59.07m) during the same period in 2014.
Mergers & Consolidation
Although 2014 was a difficult year for many operators, it also marked a major event that will certainly have positive implications for future growth. On April 8, 2014, Axis Telekom officially merged with XL Axiata in a deal worth $865m that reduced the mobile market to seven operators, down from 11 in 2010. The government expects to see mergers continue in 2015 and 2016, with Rudiantara, the new minister of communications and IT, telling media in January 2015 that he would like to see the mobile market reduced to four players.
Recent announcements indicate that the government is serious about consolidation; in February 2015 the MCIT announced it plans to restructure the criteria for telecoms licensure, shifting its focus to quality of service, including broadband speeds and network reliability, rather than the number of telecoms towers in a company’s portfolio. The move could put an end to aggressive price wars that have seen quality of service decline, as well as pushing consolidation that is expected to see at least two more operators leave the market.
Infrastructure ownership is also shifting rapidly, and a number of mobile operators have moved to release ownership of telecoms towers to independent tower companies, a move which is expected to improve efficiency and quality of service.
In March 2014, Indosat sold its shares in tower operator Tower Bersama Infrastructure (TBI) for some $122m, in part to finance debt repayments. XL Axiata, meanwhile, signed a Rp5.6trn ($462.9m) deal to sell a total of 3500 towers to Solusi Tunas Pratama (STP) in October 2014, joining Telkom, which signed a share-swap deal with TBI in the same month.
In February 2015, Moody’s reported that Indonesia’s three largest telecoms tower companies – TBI, STP and Profesional Telekomunikasi Indonesia (Protelindo) – are expected to further expand their scale and market share over the course of the year.
According to the ratings agency, the telecoms tower industry in Indonesia stands at an inflection point, with major telecoms operators expected to dispose of additional tower assets over the next 18 months, and many expected to use the revenues from the sales to finance new capital expenditure. Tower operators, meanwhile, are expected to see their revenue base increase significantly as operators continue to invest in 3G and 4G LTE network expansion.
Capital expenditure (capex) is expected to remain strong in the short term, with Rudiantara telling media in January 2015 that telecoms operators are set to invest a combined $4bn throughout the upcoming year. Telkom will provide Rp23trn ($1.9bn), of which Rp10trn ($826.6m) will be used to build 12,000 new base transceiver stations for Telkomsel, while XL Axiata will invest Rp7.5trn ($620m). Following its rocky 2014, Indosat has announced it will spend less on capex in 2015, after two years of network modernisation in which capital expenditure reached a total of Rp14.1trn ($1.17bn).
In early 2015, Telkom announced it is considering issuing bonds to support its capex plans, although authorities did not unveil details of the planned issuance. Nonetheless, the company’s debt-to-equity ratio stands at 35%, compared to the industry average of 60%, with the company’s strong recent track record presenting an appealing prospect to investors. With the 4G LTE market representing a significant untapped revenue source, these capex plans should offer considerable return on investment. The near-term industry growth forecast is positive, with Rudiantara projecting that the sector will expand by between 7% and 10% in 2015.
Outside of telecoms, growth in the IT industry is also gathering pace, driven by the country’s strong macroeconomic fundamentals and a young, tech-savvy population, while its emerging middle class is expected to provide huge opportunities to IT companies and investors in the years ahead. The trend of digitalisation is impacting all industries. Local companies are increasingly aware of and preparing for the new era of social, mobile and big data, while multinational firms are expanding into Indonesia and placing a particular emphasis on their digital presence.
According to the US Chamber of Commerce (USCC), retail hardware, enterprise software and cloud computing will be key mid-term growth drivers for Indonesia’s IT sector, while the nascent e-commerce industry is expected to achieve double-digit growth in the next several years. The start-up environment is slowly maturing, supported by government and private sector plans to establish new technoparks and incubators, and the country’s large consumer base and high social media usage are expected to drive future investment. This investment is much-needed, with cloud computing uptake limited at present and internet penetration low by regional standards (see analysis). Cyber security presents another significant challenge, although the recent establishment of a national cyber security agency is expected to mitigate the problem.
Internet penetration and online engagement are growing fast in Indonesia; estimates of internet users in the country range from 40m to 74.8m. The World Bank reports that internet users as a percentage of the population has more than doubled since 2009, rising from 6.92% to 15.8% as of 2013. Meanwhile, the Association of Indonesian Internet Providers reported that the total internet user base expanded by 20% in 2013, to reach 71.2m.
The country’s internet users are also some of the most engaged in South-east Asia, particularly in social media, with the USCC stating in late 2014 that Indonesia has been among the top-five markets for Facebook and Twitter since 2010, and Singapore’s SP eCommerce reported in 2014 that Facebook user numbers stood at 69m in 2014, while the Twitter user base was roughly 20m. In 2012 mobile app developer Rovio, which is responsible for the popular game Angry Birds, declared Indonesia the “social media capital of the world”, with the country’s young, tech-savvy population expected to drive digital growth in the mid-term.
Social & E-Commerce
Social commerce in particular is expected to bolster overall growth in e-commerce activities. Indeed, more than 25% of the country’s entire e-commerce transactions were carried out on social media in 2014. SP eCommerce reported that Indonesian consumers themselves are pushing for new purchasing platforms, and this is creating considerable opportunities for online retailers. An e-commerce report published by Japanese internet services provider Rakuten in 2013 found that 78% of internet users in Indonesia are willing to share purchase recommendations via social media, higher levels than in Japan, Malaysia, the UK and the US. Further, the average Indonesian shopper spent a total of $239 on online purchases in 2012. A growing number of companies are now offering business-to-business social commerce services, including local firms such as LakuBgt and Onigi, and these are offering services ranging from upgrading Facebook pages into online stores to creating product catalogues and online payment platforms. These services are expected to soar in the coming years, on the back of tremendous growth in e-commerce activities.
The number of online shoppers jumped by 28.2% in 2014, rising from 4.6m to 5.9m, with SingPost estimating the country’s online consumer base will reach 8.7m in 2016. Of these, 20% prefer traditional shopping sites such as Zalora or Lazada, while 26.6% use online forums and classified sites such as Kaskus and OLX. A further 26.4% use social media to make online purchases, according to a December 2014 report by Tech In Asia. Total online sales grew by around 44% in 2014, rising from $1.8bn to $2.6bn, and SingPost projects that this will reach $4.49bn in 2016.
Recognising the opportunities in Indonesia’s burgeoning start-up market, investors have rushed to capitalise on funding gaps, with investment gathering pace after a landmark deal announced in October 2014, when local online retail services provider Tokopedia received $100m in funding from Sequoia Capital and SoftBank Corp – the largest start-up investment in the country’s history.
Since then, investment in local start-ups has skyrocketed. The first few months of 2015 saw a flurry of new deals, including a $1.5m investment in online fashion group Vela Asia, more than $1m of investment in online wedding marketplace Bridestory, unspecified investment in Jakarta-based travel and leisure activity auction start-up Grivy, and a round of seed funding sourced from investors in Indonesia, Singapore and the Netherlands for online contact lens retailer Lenza.
Existing ICT firms are also moving to cash in on the fast-expanding start-up segment, with Indosat launching a $50m venture capital fund for growth-stage start-ups in 2014. Rolled out in partnership with Japanese telecoms operator SoftBank, the company’s incubator seed fund programme welcomed its first graduates in February 2015, selecting local start-up Dealoka as one of the first recipients of $15,000 in seed funding. The firm offers e-vouchers tailored to users’ specific interests and locations, enabling retailers to push online traffic into brick-and-mortar businesses.
Small companies are able to expand rapidly as a result of the growing prevalence of cloud services, and outside of e-commerce, the cloud computing and data centre segments are also expected to be major growth drivers for the IT sector in the next several years. “The interest from the business community in cloud computing is still low, as business owners do not always understand the long-term benefits of this service. It is growing, although at this point we need greater investments in IT infrastructure and preventive maintenance,” Neil Cresswell, the president-director of Indonesian Cloud, told OBG.
In its 2015 study “SMEs in Asia Pacific: The Market for Cloud Computing”, the Asia Cloud Computing Association reported that only 14% of Indonesian small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) have adopted cloud technology so far, and by some measures only 3% of them really understand what it is. Growth in the segment remains robust, however; the study found that adoption of cloud computing among local SMEs increased by 100% in 2013 alone.
According to a 2013 report published by Frost & Sullivan, Indonesia’s cloud computing market expanded by 43% in 2012, to reach revenues of $31.4m. Although the industry is still in a nascent stage, the nation’s relatively untapped market offers considerable opportunity for expansion, particularly in the software-as-a-service segment, which accounted for 95% of the cloud market in 2012. Frost & Sullivan forecasts that the cloud market will reach $120m by 2017.
“The Indonesian market has started to evolve, especially in terms of buying behaviour, and more clients are choosing to manage their data through operational expenditure, rather than capex,” Mohammad Ghozie Indra Dalel, country manager for Global Technology Services at IBM Indonesia, told OBG. “The cloud as a service model is flexible and scalable, allowing for seasonal adjustments – for example, for those retailers whose service demands increase during peak seasons,” he added. “These kinds of benefits are eating up some of the growth from the traditional hardware business. In the future people will prefer to purchase IT as a service offering, instead of through capex, allowing smaller companies to flourish as they pay per use on the cloud as a service model.”
Telecoms operators and data centres are increasingly offering cloud services to clients, and recent developments have been promising for the cloud market in Indonesia. In August 2014, cloud provider Nexmo announced a strategic partnership with Telkomsel to provide cloud-based two-way communication services. The deal will see Nexmo provide business and app developers in the region with access to Telkomsel via an advanced SMS outbound text messaging platform, reducing the number of “hops” for customers by expanding its network of direct carrier connections, which will improve message service quality for local and regional customers. More recently, Indosat launched a cloudbased machine-to-machine platform in partnership with equipment vendor Ericsson in March 2015.
Data centres are expected to be another major growth driver going forward, benefitting from a regulatory change that requires foreign companies to use local data centres. Frost & Sullivan forecasts that spending by domestic companies on data centre services will increase by 317% from 2013 through 2019. While the segment faces significant challenges – a lack of network infrastructure and an unreliable power supply foremost among them – it also offers some advantages as well. Data centre companies in Indonesia can build and operate their own dedicated power plants, for example, and real estate prices remain significantly cheaper than those in regional competitors like Singapore. Some in the industry have also suggested that the government could do more to promote the growth of the segment by introducing incentives for foreign companies to set up data centres locally.
The government has recognised the growing potential of Indonesia’s tech and start-up community, announcing in November 2014 that it plans to create a network of technoparks which will support industry development. Andrinof Chaniago, minister for national development and planning, told the media that 100 regencies and municipalities will have a technopark, with each project estimated to require Rp10bn ($826,600) in investment. Each park is expected to develop relevant products and services for the local area. Municipal parks, for example, will be industry-oriented, while parks in coastal areas could focus on developing new technology for the fishery sector. The government intends to build 500 technoparks by 2019 as well as a network of science parks.
More recently, in February 2015, Rudiantara announced that the government aims to raise Rp12trn ($991.9m) to help develop digital start-ups, which is set to be sourced from unspecified national conglomerates. The government has also taken a protectionist approach to the local IT industry, adding e-commerce activities to its negative investment list in 2014, which means that e-commerce is effectively closed to foreign ownership, although companies such as Tokopedia have been able to avoid these restrictions because it is classified as a web portal and does not hold any inventory or execute direct sales.
Indonesia’s explosive IT growth is not without challenges, however, and cyber security is becoming an increasingly pressing concern. For example, in second-quarter 2013, Indonesia was responsible for 38% of the world’s malicious internet traffic, according to cloud service provider Akamai, surpassing China as the leading source of online attacks. While the level of malicious traffic has since receded, the risk is still there and this presents a significant obstacle to healthy IT expansion. In January 2015, the government announced plans to form a National Cyber Agency, which will coordinate an integrated defence strategy against cyber-attacks, after the MCIT reported 3.6m such attacks have been recorded in the last three years. The proposed agency is expected to be operational from 2016 and is accountable directly to the president.
Although the mobile market faces considerable challenges in adapting to shifting consumer trends, Indonesia’s solid economic fundamentals and thriving digital marketplace have created lucrative opportunities for private players of all sizes. A number of factors should see ICT growth continue over the medium term: new regulations and planned consolidation will relieve some of the price pressure on existing telecoms operators, while the nation’s massive, untapped mobile broadband, e-commerce and cloud computing markets will drive future growth. This should see both domestic and foreign direct investment continue their upwards trajectory in the coming years.
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Scientists in the U.S. have developed a flexible shirt made of the same material used in tank armor, by combining carbon in the shirt with the third-hardest material on Earth, boron.
“It could even be used to produce lightweight, fuel-efficient cars and aircrafts,” Xiaodong Li, from the University of Southern Carolina, wrote in the journal Advanced Materials.
The plain white T-shirts are dipped into a boron solution, then heated in an oven at more than 1000C, which changes the cotton fibers into carbon fibers.
The carbon fibres react with the boron solution and produce boron carbide — the same material used to make bulletproof plates in armored vests.
The resulting material was stiffer than the original cotton tee, but still flexible enough to be worn as such.
“We expect that the nanowires can capture a bullet,” Prof Li said.
But bullets are just the beginning for the new miracle material.
Prof Li said the T-shirts could also block “almost all” ultraviolet rays, and possibly life-threatening neutrons emitted from decaying radioactive material.

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Webroot launches small-business software package
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Webroot Software Inc. announced Wednesday that it would offer a suite of software geared to small and mid-sized businesses.
The Boulder-based software developer introduced Webroot SME Security to protect small- to mid-sized companies from spyware and viruses.
The new offering combines Webroot's anti-spyware protection with anti-virus technology from Sophos, an England-based enterprise software developer. The two companies entered into a partnership earlier this year.
Webroot, which employs about 300 people, raised $108 million from a group of California investors in Colorado's largest venture-capital round of 2005.
Two of Webroot's products are consistently among the top 10 best sellers for packaged software.
But despite the popularity of Webroot's SpySweeper among consumers, the company has faced a tougher challenge selling its products to businesses looking for an all-in-one suite that protects computers against viruses, spyware and malware. Webroot hopes the Sophos partnership will strike a chord with business customers.
The company added parental control software to its line of offerings in mid-November.
Earlier last month, Webroot CEO David Moll announced he would step down to make way for Peter Watkins, a current member of Webroot's board. Watkins formerly was president and COO of the security company now known as McAfee Inc. -- one of Webroot's competitors.
Moll's resignation takes effect Jan. 1, 2007.
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Angry Mob Games has pushed out a big content update for their Toysburg game. This new update brings with it all kinds of new content for players to check out, but the biggest change is the addition of new toy buildings. Each toy now has its own building: Policeman has a huge Donut House, the Beaver has a Concert Stage, the Pirate a Music Shop inside his Ship and so on.
It seems like today is a bit of mix of new releases and a lot of updates for existing Android games, instead of the usual amount of strictly Android game releases on Thursday. Another game has received a content update today, this time it is DeNA's RPG title Blood Brothers 2.
Zeptolab today has released a new update for their King of Thieves game which they are labeling as a major update. This update adds a new global competitive ranking system to the game, which also adds new leagues to it as well for more of a challenge but also for bigger rewards.
While you won't be able to play Just Cause 3 on your Android device, you will now be able to experience jumping out of a plane wearing a wingsuit from the game on your Android device... sort of. It is a virtual reality experience which means you will need a Samsung Gear VR or Google Cardboard headset if you really want to enjoy it.
Another interesting announcement coming from the Oculus Connect Day 2 keynote presentation is that the Samsung Gear VR headset will be getting a bunch of classic games brought over to it. This is all thanks to the inclusion of the Oculus Arcade, which will be available for the Gear VR headset.
Gameloft has pushed out an update today for Dungeon Hunter 5 which brings with it a few new goodies for players to enjoy. However, the biggest change to the game is the addition of full controller support finally. Now, if you have a Bluetooth controller, you can connect it to your device, load up Dungeon Hunter 5, and play the game with your controller of choice.
If you played a lot of PC games back in the 90s, and especially horror themed ones, then there is a good chance you played Sanitarium. Well whether you have or have not played it, you will soon get the chance to again as DotEmu has announced their will be bringing the psychological thriller to Android next month.
Sega today announced that they will be publishing a new game onto Android soon called Puzzle & Glory. This particular game was developed by Demiurge, the same folks who developed D3's popular Marvel Puzzle Quest game. As you might be guessing, this will be a new Puzzle-RPG title.
Glu Games continues releasing games in the month of September. Recently, they released the sequel to one of their more popular games, Eternity Warriors. Eternity Warriors 4 is now available to download in the Google Play Store, and all of the hack-and-slack action of the previous games has been increased. A little polish on the graphics definitely enhances the game. If you are a fan of action games and enjoyed Darkness Reborn, Eternity Warriors 4 should be added to your library of games.
Laser Dog announced back in August 2015 that they would finally be releasing their crazy looking platformer Hopiko onto mobile devices in September. Well it is now September and it looks like release is close as the company has revealed a new official trailer for Hopiko.
NHN PixelCube Corp has released a new Puzzle-RPG onto Android called Kill Me Again: Infectors. This game takes place after the zombie apocalypse has happened, leaving the world as we know it riddled with zombies. Very few people have the ability to survive in this future and your character happens to be one of them.


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Marijuana Special – Growing
June 5, 2019
In 2018, more than 116 Arizona dispensaries sold about 56 tons of marijuana flower alone, plus another 5 tons in food and other products containing marijuana. Those products come from one carefully regulated crop. KPBS reporter Matt Hoffman shows us the growing business of cannabis.


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Perth property syndication business Primewest has secured a 20.42 per cent stake in the South Central retail centre from a group of the property’s founding investors, including John Poynton and Linc Property’s Ben Lisle.
It’s understood Primewest has paid about $9 million for its cornerstone stake in the 36,000 square metre centre, along with the management rights for the Cockburn retail property.
Primewest will work with the small but high-profile group of owners, including millionaire property developer Nigel Satterley, to maximise returns from the centre and maintain its strong tenant profile.
The large format retail centre is within walking distance of the Perron Group’s Cockburn Central and its tenant list includes a number of major retail chains, including Officeworks, Spotlight and The Good Guys.
Primewest is already one of Australia’s biggest bulky goods retail landlords, with a $420 million portfolio of 12 big-box style properties in suburbs including Osborne Park, Innaloo and Cannington.
In addition to this metropolitan network, Primewest has centres in Rockingham, Mandurah, Busselton and Albany.
The South Central purchase will bolster Primewest’s exposure to Perth’s rapidly growing southern corridor and complement its existing investments in big box centres in Melville and Cannington.
Primewest recently expanded its bulky goods footprint with the purchase of the Homemaker Megamall in Western Sydney for $54.75 million.
Primewest director John Bond said Primewest’s relationships with all the major large format retailers would prove beneficial for the future growth of South Central.
The large format retail sector has weathered a difficult few years but Mr Bond said there were signs it was on the road to recovery.
“As a landlord we are seeing more interest from tenants, especially national tenants wanting to come to WA,” Mr Bond said.
“The nature of retailing has changed dramatically over the last decade and what was once bulky goods retailing has been recognised as a much broader and more dynamic market sector.”
Vend Property negotiated the South Central sale and while managing director Jeff Klopper did not want to make any comment, he was upbeat about the outlook for Western Australia’s large format retail sector.
He said there were a number of national retailers planning to roll-out new stores in WA in the near future, and the vacancy rate across Perth’s big box retail precincts was low.
“Electrical goods have been a bit hard but we haven’t had any new technologies rolled out or events like the Olympics to give people a reason to buy,” Mr Klopper said.
“The pet (supplies) and baby categories seem to be the flavour of the month, we have a new pet retailer currently rolling out five stores of a planned 11,”


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Xiaomi Mi Mix 3 is the first 5G phone – Maybe
Xiaomi Mi Mix 3 could be the first phone to be 5G enabled.
We couldn’t doubt the live image posted by Donovan Sung on Twitter. Donovan is Xiaomi Global spokesman. Right at the top right of the phone, one can spot the not-so-clear 5G indicator in the phone. Judging by the current conditions, Donovan is probably on a 5G testing ground to test run Xiaomi Mi MIx 3.
— Donovan Sung (@donovansung) September 3, 2018
Xiaomi, according to rumors is expected to launch Xiaomi Mi Mix 3 on the 15th of this month. This, if true will make the Chinese company bag the title which Samsung, LG and Nokia has been on the race for. This is not the first time the company is leading in a trend. Bezel-less display trend could be said to have originated from Xiaomi device.
Aside the 5G indication, other interesting factors can be derived from the images. Xiaomi did a nice clean up of the bezels giving the display all that the phone’s front can offer. Volume rockers and power buttons are on the right. You can’t spot a front facing camera, making it safe to conclude that Xiaomi will do the slide up front camera thing. This you can conclude from an image which Xiaomi’s president, Lin Bin posted on Weibo – Chinese facebook.
The next spree will be the slide out front facing camera. The bezels are already gone.


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A Day in the Life of a Deal
After years of litigation and ill will, it took two men just a couple of hours to hammer out the basic terms that would finally bring the Beatles’ music to the iTunes Store.
Beatles songs are finally available in Apple’s iTunes store. But ATD’s Peter Kafka says that iTunes is all about apps these days, while digital music sales have flattened out–and even the Fab Four may have a hard time changing that.
The deal was outlined by Jeff Jones, chief executive of the Beatles’ corporate entity, Apple Corps Ltd., and Roger Faxon, CEO of EMI Group Ltd., which owns and distributes the band’s recordings. The meeting took place at EMI’s London headquarters this past July 14, less than a month after Mr. Faxon took the reins at EMI.
Under the terms, Apple Inc.’s digital media store is the Beatles’ exclusive online retailer at least until January, Mr. Faxon said in an interview Tuesday, after the much-awaited deal was announced. It marks the first time that Beatles songs have been available for digital-download sales.
“Jeff and I sat down shortly after I arrived” as CEO of EMI, Mr. Faxon recalled. “We agreed this really was the moment to do this. After that it was very easy to cut a deal.” They code-named the initiative “Bastille,” as it coincided with Bastille Day.


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IN a progressive move towards further establishing the Digital Economy as a strategic engine of growth for the country, the Malaysian government through the Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC), BSN Bank and the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) recently announced the MSME Digital Grant under the ‘Malaysia Madani’ initiative as part of Budget 2023.
This collective effort aims to accelerate the digital transformation of micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in Malaysia, according to MDEC senior vice president Gopi Ganesalingam.
“We at MDEC have joined forces with strategic digital partners to catalyse the digital leap for Malaysian MSMEs. The MSME digital grant ‘Malaysia Madani’ initiative stands as a testament to our collective commitment towards nurturing a digital-savvy business ecosystem and fuelling a resilient, inclusive and sustainable economy,” Gopi pointed out.
“Together, we will chart a transformative journey, fostering digital adoption and innovation among MSMEs across the nation.”
Eligible MSMEs stand to gain a subsidy of up to 50% with a maximum of RM5,000 generously provided by the government to facilitate their adoption of digital technologies.
Building on this commitment, SiteGiant, a leading Malaysian e-commerce solution provider, has officially come on board as a key partner to this initiative.
“Our endeavour since 2013 has been to spearhead e-commerce innovation,” remarked its founder and CEO Stanley Lim.
“Having assisted over 10,000 SMEs in their digital journeys, we would like to encourage SMEs to embrace this grant and the growth potential it brings with SiteGiant’s Omnichannel e-commerce solutions.”
The company’s renowned proficiency in offering comprehensive digital solutions – from online store setups to payment integrations – positions it as an ideal partner to support MSMEs in their digital endeavours.
“In essence, the ‘Malaysia Madani’ MSME Digital Grant serves as an essential stepping stone for local businesses to thrive in the digital age,” added Lim.
Currently, SiteGiant has an expansive database housing 8.4 million SMEs, 52,000 active sellers from seven countries and RM6.2 bil sales volume in 2022.
MSMEs eager to benefit from the MSME Digital Grant MADANI initiative must satisfy several criteria.
When it comes to digital solutions for MSMEs, SiteGiant offers a wide range. Its Webstore Solution allows businesses to choose from an array of over 70 themes, each customisable to resonate with the brand’s ethos.
Moreover, SiteGiant’s Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Solution serves as an all-encompassing hub, streamlining operations across various platforms like Lazada, Shopee and TikTok Shop.
On the retail front, SiteGiant’s integrated POS (point-of-sale) solution ensures harmony between offline and online sales, preventing stock discrepancies.
Their Warehouse Management System (WMS) is a testament to operational efficiency, boasting the capacity to handle over 10,000 orders daily. Lastly, the OMO Mobile App by SiteGiant enriches the consumer journey, making shopping a more personalised and rewarding experience.
This opportunity remains available for eligible MSMEs until the earmarked RM100 mil finds its rightful beneficiaries. – Oct 24, 2023
Main pic credit: VeecoTech


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The Arcimoto FUV slices through a wet Vegas parking lot, kicking up spray from puddles and smiles from passersby. Despite the unusual downpour, I stay bone dry under the electric tricycle's semi-enclosed canopy, twisting the throttle to zip back and forth with a grin on my face.
While taxis on the road beside me inch through traffic toward the annual CES trade show, the world's first Fun Utility Vehicle is living up to its name. It's nippier than a car, drier than a scooter, and easier to handle than a motorbike.From the back seat, Arcimoto founder and CEO Mark Frohnmayer shares his dreams of turning this ultra-efficient (230mpg-equivalent) trike into the world's greenest rideshare vehicle. "Around 80 percent of taxi trips are just one passenger," he says. "In a world where all vehicles are autonomous and you can hit a button and jump in, it doesn't make sense that you'd be jumping into a seven-passenger 5,000lb vehicle all by yourself."
Although the FUV is enjoyably manual for now, Arcimoto is working with two unnamed technology partners to get a self-driving version on the roads later this year, just as soon as it begins mass production of the FUV at a new factory in Eugene, Oregon. "We've got 2,250 pre-orders to fulfill first, then we want to produce 10,000 vehicles in 2019 and beyond," says Frohnmayer.
To help scale up production at its current factory and start work on a second, Arcimoto is about to submit an application for a loan from the Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing (ATVM) program at the US Department of Energy (DOE). This Bush-era project is intended to support the production of fuel-efficient, next-generation vehicles in the US with long, low-interest loans. Even in an era of Trumpian cuts and climate skepticism, ATVM retains more than $16 billion in loan authority to distribute—at least until the White House succeeds in killing the program, as it hopes to do this year.
"We are a publicly traded company and have other avenues to capital," Frohnmayer tells me. "But in terms of building out our full financing package, it makes sense to have that support."
He had better not hold his breath. In nearly a decade of operation, the ATVM program has issued just five loans—and none at all since 2011. Some electric vehicle (EV) start-ups are still waiting for a decision on loan applications filed in 2009 and 2010. Despite being credited with saving tens of thousands of blue collar jobs in the American heartland and launching Tesla to its current heights, the ATVM remains mostly unknown to the public, unloved by politicians, and unable to complete any new loans.
So how did a program that was meant to embody America's high-tech future get so stuck in the past?
The big three US carmakers, Ford, GM and Chrysler, have traditionally had little incentive to build economical vehicles. With gas taxes in the US a fraction of those in most developed countries (about one tenth of those in the UK, for instance), Americans consistently choose large comfortable cars and powerful pickups over smaller, more efficient vehicles.
So when the Bush administration proposed more stringent fuel standards in 2007, Detroit faced a bigger bill than European and Japanese carmakers to bring fleets up to scratch. ATVM was the solution: a corporate welfare package of cheap money to help US-based automakers compete with fuel-sipping imports. The program authorized up to $25bn in very low-interest loans to build or modernize American car plants, as long as any vehicles they built achieved at least 25-percent higher fuel economy than comparable 2005 models.
ATVM went live in 2009, just as the Great Recession was freezing the banking system. The Big 3, scrambling for cash, saw it as a lifeline. Chrysler requested $8.5 billion in ATVM loans, Ford $11 billion, and GM a whopping $14.4 billion.
"We were never going to be in a position to provide that size of a loan to a single entity," remembers Jonathan Silver, who was named executive director of the DOE's Loan Programs Office (LPO) in November 2009. "One of the ways to de-risk an investment portfolio is to ensure the risk is balanced. It's hard to do that if one investment is over half its value."
ATVM had simply arrived too late for GM and Chrysler, which slid into bankruptcy and restructuring. But Ford held on by the skin of its teeth, securing a $5.9 billion loan late in 2009 to upgrade factories across the midwest to produce hybrid vehicles and new efficiency technologies. Nissan North American got a $1.4 billion loan a few months later.
But the chaos of the recession masked a shift at the DOE. With the arrival of Obama-appointee Silver, ATVM's focus changed overnight. Helping Detroit tweak its gas mileage would now take a back seat to ushering in a green transportation revolution.
By the end of 2009, Elon Musk's EV startup Tesla had manufactured only a few hundred hand-made Roadster sports cars. To build his next vehicle, the Model S sedan, Musk would need to completely refit an old Toyota-GM plant in California to build battery packs, motors, and other components, quickly and at volume.
"With the credit market completely locked up, there was no place to get support," says James Chen, who worked at Tesla from 2010 to 2016, ending up as vice president for regulatory affairs. "The ATVM loan program was a really good place for us."
"The risk profile at Tesla was certainly different to that at Ford and Nissan," says Silver. "But at the same time, the technology was radically different and theoretically very important. I was trying to find technologies that could radically transform the nation's infrastructure and that could only get there with some kind of government support, which I took to be the mission of the organization."
In January 2010, just over a year from when it had first applied to ATVM, Tesla received a ten-year loan of $465 million to build the Model S. In April, another EV company, Fisker Automotive, got a $529 million ATVM loan to develop and produce a luxury plug-in hybrid sedan called the Karma at a plant in Delaware.
For Tesla, the loan provided credibility as much as capital. "Having the federal government, which obviously had to do its due diligence, provide that loan was instrumental in helping launch the company," says Chen. "It was a great validation of what Tesla was doing." Shortly after the loan, Toyota invested $50m in Tesla to work together on an electric SUV. The first Model S rolled off the production line at Tesla's new factory just over two years later. Tesla now has a stock market valuation higher than either Ford or the merged Fiat-Chrysler Automobile.
With Tesla and Fisker netting nearly a billion dollars between them, the EV community woke up to ATVM in a big way. By 2011, more than 75 start-ups, suppliers, and OEMs had applied for a total of around $50 billion. "We saw crazy ideas," says Silver. "We had inflatable cars and underwater cars, stuff that was never going to go anywhere." But there were also dozens of sensible, smart applications from companies that appeared to boast the same mix of entrepreneurship, practicality, and sustainability as Tesla or Fisker.
Bright Automotive had been founded by an ex-GM executive to develop a plug-in hybrid delivery vehicle. Carbon Motors was building the world's first purpose-built police car. Aptera had already demonstrated an ultra-efficient three-wheeled car built with high-tech composite materials, while Elio Motors' three-wheeler would cost less than $7,500. Local Motors wanted $24m to support a new open source, 3D-printed model of car production.
Aptera filed its ATVM application just a few weeks after Tesla in the fall of 2008. "We were hot on the heels of Tesla and Fisker, with Bright Automotive and a couple of others," remembers Paul Wilbur, Aptera's CEO. "We saw them getting their funding, and that's when we really started to think it was a viable funding mechanism for us."
In March 2011, one of these scrappy start-ups, Vehicle Production Group, even secured a modest $50m loan to produce a wheelchair-accessible vehicle powered by natural gas. But this would prove to be the last loan that ATVM ever completed.
In May 2011, the DOE froze Fisker's credit line after it missed key performance milestones. Fisker's battery supplier then recalled power packs and went bankrupt, while Hurricane Sandy destroyed more than 300 Fisker Karmas at a port in New Jersey in 2012. The company filed for bankruptcy itself the next year, leaving the ATVM program with a net loss of $139 million.
Silver says, "The Fisker loan was done before I got there, where the Tesla loan was completed after we put some professionals in place. [But] from the very beginning, Henrik Fisker was developing a car, and Elon Musk was developing a car company. And those are two very different things."
The spectacular implosion of Fisker was compounded by the failure of Solyndra, a manufacturer of innovative photovoltaic solar panels that received a $535 million DOE loan guarantee in 2009 under a sister DOE program. However, Solyndra was unable to turn a profit and filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in September 2011.
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You may not know it but ARM has a lot of clout when it comes to your smartphone. In short, the British-based company provides “scalable, energy-efficient processors”, which, in turn, “deliver insight”.
It has just announced that its latest developments in chip technology will “set a new standard for premium experiences” on mobile devices from 2016 onwards.
Key to the new upgrades is ARM’s Cortex-A72 processor, which the tech firm says is the “highest performing CPU technology available for developing mobile SoCs [systems on a chip] today”.
What does this mean to you, because, we get the fact that while it sounds impressive, it is a little technical with regards to the detail.
Well, some of the key developments that will be observable when you recycle your smartphone for a new one will be a speedier performance, better battery life and a more optimised experience.
“Our new premium mobile experience IP suite with the Cortex-A72 processor delivers a decisive step forward from the compelling user experiences provided by this year’s Cortex-A57 based devices,” commented Pete Hutton, executive vice president of ARM.
“For multiple generations, together with our partners, we have delivered the leading-edge of the premium mobile experience. Building on this, in 2016 the ARM ecosystem will deliver even slimmer, lighter, more immersive mobile devices that serve as your primary and only compute platform.”
What is set to emerge in 2016 are more sophisticated image and video capture, a gaming experience that is equivalent to that found on consoles and productivity suites that embrace unified communications.


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To fight speculators Christie’s auction house has developed a list of purchase conditions.
In February 2020, a painting by Ghanaian-born artist Amoako Boafo was sold at the auction house of Phillips in London for $ 881.4 thousand – more than 10 times higher than the estimate and more than 3000% more than the current owner paid for it a year earlier. The artist did not receive a cent from this deal. High performance in the secondary market like this can be detrimental to an up-and-coming talent that has not yet had a chance to shape up or experiment. In other words, auction houses are not very pleasant places for new creators, especially those who quickly become popular.
However, 22 novice or non-peaked author careers have registered to attend the Christie’s Say It Loud (I’m Black and Proud) curated exhibition-sale dedicated to promoting black art. The auction house, along with exhibition curator Destiny Ross-Sutton, says they have gone even further to discourage buyers from reselling the work for a quick profit. Each artist will receive 100% of the proceeds from the sale of his works, and each buyer must sign a special contract with a whole list of conditions.
- So, they must agree not to resell the work at auctions for at least five years.
- And if they still want to sell what they bought, they must give the author of the work the right of the first redemption.
- If they sell the work to someone else, they must return 15% of the profits to the artist.
Ross-Sutton says these conditions are the result of long conversations with artists and others about the best way to support their careers. The contract can also serve as a litmus test of the buyer’s motivation. While Ross-Sutton had doubts about how people would react to contract restrictions, she says they mostly reacted greedily. This is encouraging, and she suggests that people will not stop answering after they get a contract.
To date, about 75-80% of the exhibition has been sold to collectors and art institutions, with prices ranging from $ 475 for limited prints by Houston-based artist Cary Fagan to $ 43,000 for two large works by South African artist Nelson Makamo. Collins Obijiaku, Harry Turner, Ishak Ismail, Juvon Aderemi, Alexis McGrigg, Amani Lewis, and Anyway Oluwaseyi are estimated to be worth around $ 6,000 – $ 8,000. Yoyo Lander’s painting from Los Angeles is estimated at $ 15 thousand. A large-scale composition by South African author Wonder Bule Mbambo is estimated at $ 17,000.
Say It Loud (I’m Black and Proud) sales exhibition will run on Christie’s website until August 18, 2020.


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Russian Salvage Team Arrives At Kerch Strait Bridge
By Max Hunder and Jonathan Landay (Reuters) – Russian divers were to examine on Sunday the damage from a powerful blast on a road-and-rail bridge to Crimea that is an...
The Felicity Ace sank 220 nautical miles off the coast of Portugal’s Azores Islands around 9 a.m. local time on Tuesday after being battered by waves and leaning 45 degrees to its starboard side, the ship’s operator said.
“The weather was pretty rough out there,” Pat Adamson, a spokesperson for MOL Ship Management (Singapore), a unit of Mitsui OSK Lines Ltd., said by phone. “And then she sank, which was a surprise.”
Volkswagen had VW, Porsche, Audi, Bentley and Lamborghini-branded models on the vessel, which was on its way to Rhode Island from Germany’s Emden port when the fire broke out on Feb. 16. The blaze is believed to have lasted more than a week after the Panama-flagged ship’s crew was evacuated and it was left adrift.
Tug boats and salvage craft accompanying the vehicle are in the area to monitor the situation, Adamson said.
“There doesn’t appear to be any oil pollution yet — they’re checking on that,” the spokesperson said.
Volkswagen declined to comment on Tuesday. The German carmaker had feared that large numbers of its cars on the vessel would not be salvageable, with brands and dealers notifying customers that the U.S.-bound vehicles likely wouldn’t be delivered. Damage to the cars is covered by insurance, the automaker had said last week.
In a projection assuming all vehicles would be lost, the risk-modeling company Russell Group last week estimated that the incident could cost the automaker at least $155 million. Approximately $438 million worth of goods were aboard the ship, $401 million of which were cars.© 2022 Bloomberg L.P.
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By CRM Staff
Westchester, Illinois — February 14, 2018 — Fenix Parts, a leading recycler and reseller of original equipment manufacturer automotive products, today confirmed that it has received an unsolicited, non-binding offer from Upstate Shredding to acquire all of the outstanding shares of common stock of Fenix Parts. The non-binding offer was received outside of the company’s previously announced strategic alternatives process, which is being managed by Stifel.
Fenix Parts said its board of directors would continue to work with its financial and legal advisors to pursue a strategic or financial transaction that it believes is in the best interest of the company and its shareholders. The company said that it does not expect to provide further updates on the progress of this process until it deems appropriate and cautioned its stockholders not to assume that the aforementioned non-binding offer, or any other transaction with Upstate Shredding or any other party, will be completed.
For more information, visit fenixparts.com.


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AWS will build three data centres and open a new cloud region in Stockholm.
Console Connect integrated with Microsoft Azure ExpressRoute.
Amazon added CloudFront CDN edge nodes in Zurich, Switzerland and Prague in the Czech Republic.
Digital Pacific in Australia acquired Anchor.
DuPont Fabros began work on its TOR1 data centre in Toronto.


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Square Enix and Eidos Montreal recently made big, scary waves with their announcement of the Deus Ex: Mankind Divided “Augment Your Pre-Order” program. Well, the program is now no more. Hit the jump to augment your daily news.
The program was controversial to say the least, as it allowed early adopters to choose their pre-order rewards, with more rewards becoming available as more copies were pre-ordered. According to a post on Deus Ex Universe, the program has been cancelled after it received “a resounding amount of negative feedback”. The full range of content available with the Augment Your Pre-Order program will now be included in every pre-order, regardless of global pre-order sales. These changes will be applied to all existing pre-orders as well, so the earliest of early adopters don’t have to worry about missing out.
Deus Ex: Mankind Divided is set to launch on February 23 2016 on PC, PS4 and Xbox One.


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2020 has been a difficult year for small businesses and many of those have struggled to create new strategies for operating and marketing their Las Vegas businesses. Between city closures and hesitant customers, brick and mortar establishments still have many obstacles to overcome. In response to the more than 500 small businesses still being impacted by the effects of COVID-19, Clark County, Nevada has announced the resumption of a grant program created to help these Las Vegas business owners.
Kaizen Crossfit Gym is one of the many local businesses that has worked hard to pivot their marketing strategies in order to connect with gym members via Facebook and Instagram while also trying to connect with new members through virtual workouts. Despite the overwhelmingly positive response to these new digital options, Kaizen was still trying to stay afloat with growing expenses. This new grant opportunity can help support local businesses like Kaizen in their efforts to reach new customers and stay connected with current members.
Small Business Stabilization Grant
The Small Business Stabilization Grant aims to ease the financial strain on Las Vegas business owners and help them keep their doors open.
Through the program, local small business owners will be awarded $5,000 – $10,000 depending on the number of employees on their teams. The money can be applied to working capital which includes rent, utilities, payroll, inventory, and licensing fees. Small Business Stabilization grant applications will be accepted September 15 – September 29, 2020.
With the assurance of your finances with the help of this grant, you may have more bandwidth to focus on marketing. Consider using email marketing to reach locals by creating a branded newsletter to tell your customers what’s going on with your business and announce new products or services. You can even create a private Facebook group for your loyal followers like Kaizen did to develop one-on-one relationships and address your customer’s main concerns.
The struggles many businesses are facing as a result of the current pandemic have been difficult to overcome for companies in all industries. By adjusting your current business strategy and finding support from resources like the Small Business Stabilization grant, your business can continue to thrive.
Has your Las Vegas business been impacted by the effects of COVID-19?
If you’re in need of a new marketing strategy that can help increase brand awareness and bring in leads, let us brainstorm with you!
CONTACT US to request a FREE 30-minute audit.


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Just one year after Ford unveiled the 2010 F-150 SVT Raptor at the SEMA show, Ford today is announcing the long-anticipated power figures for the all-new 6.2-liter premium V-8 engine now available in this ultimate high-speed off-road performance truck. When this optional powertrain in the Raptor arrives in showrooms in early 2010, the 6.2-liter V-8 will produce 411 hp and 434 ft.-lb. of torque, making Raptor the most powerful half-ton pickup available. Customers will now have the choice of two V-8 engines in the Raptor, Ford’s proven 5.4-liter Triton V-8 or the new 6.2-liter V-8, which can be ordered beginning Dec. 1, with an MSRP of $41,995 including destination and delivery. Read the rest of this entry »
Commercial News & Reviews
So, you’re a small business owner looking for a way to cut your fuel cost by getting a pure electric vehicle, and your choice is an expensive boutique two-seater sports car with zero cargo room or an affordable compact but super roomy commercial van. Yep, some business decisions are just that easy.
Ford and Azure Dynamics have joined in a collaborative effort to deliver a pure battery electric Ford Transit Connect van for the United States and Canadian markets in 2010. Azure will integrate its Force Drive™ battery electric drive train in the Transit Connect van for commercial fleet and retail use. Read the rest of this entry »
We’re looking for your true story about how Ford’s new Transit Connect is fueling the rise of your small business. Whether you’re a florist, caterer, contractor or caregiver, show us how you’ve tricked out your Transit Connect and we’ll feature your business and provide a link to your company website. Send your story and picture to email@example.com to be featured in our new Commercial Customer section.
To see sample owner stories, follow this link: http://www.fordvehicles.com/transitconnect
Here’s the latest news on this business class sensation:
(AP) — Ford Motor Co. said it sold more than 2,000 of its new Transit Connect commercial vans in the vehicle’s first month of sales. Ford said small businesses and fleet customers snapped up the van in August, with some vehicles selling in fewer than 10 days after arriving at dealerships.
Ford is planning on introducing an all-electric version of the Transit Connect in the U.S. next year. The automaker also hopes to have a passenger version of the vehicle geared toward families on the road soon.
The existing commercial version gets 22 miles per gallon in the city and 25 miles per gallon on highways.


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Faced with US sanctions, Chinese telecom giant Huawei on Wednesday launched its own operating system, HarmonyOs, to better fight for its survival in the smartphone arena, after it was deprived of its Android license. .
The Middle Kingdom strikes back. Chinese telecom giant Huawei announced the launch on Wednesday June 2 of its own operating system, called HarmonyOS. Plagued by US sanctions for two years, the company wants to better fight for its survival in the arena of smartphones despite the loss of the Android license, belonging to Google.
Huawei unveiled its first mobile devices equipped with the new HarmonyOS system during an online event broadcast from its headquarters in Shenzhen, in the south of the country, from 8 p.m. local time (1200 GMT).
The development of HarmonyOs has been closely followed by the tech world since the Trump administration launched a very aggressive campaign in 2018 to short-circuit the ambitions of Huawei, suspected by the United States of spying for the benefit of Beijing.
Huawei was placed on the blacklist by Washington in 2019, which prevents the Chinese group from accessing American technologies for its products, and in particular the Android operating system, owned by Google and used by almost all manufacturers. non-Apple smartphones, which use its own iOS.
However, so far no company has managed to tackle the duopoly of mobile operating systems: Blackberry, Microsoft’s Windows Phone and Amazon’s Fire device have each abandoned the battlefield.
As the world’s largest provider of telecommunications base station equipment and other networking equipment, Huawei entered the mobile phone business in 2003, using Android.
It had become one of the top three smartphone makers in the world, along with Korea’s Samsung and America’s Apple, even temporarily taking the number one spot, boosted by Chinese demand and sales in emerging markets.
But US sanctions, which have notably cut the company off from global component supply chains, have thrown its mobile phone segment into uncertainty.
Analysts say the biggest challenge facing Huawei at the moment is apps: convincing enough developers to reprogram their apps and other content to work with HarmonyOS, so consumers keep buying Huawei phones.
The candidacy challenge
Being deprived of Android, Huawei can no longer offer users of its smartphones very popular applications, such as the Google search browser or its mapping function, Google Maps.
Huawei’s access to the chips needed to make a smartphone has also been limited, and its shipments have dropped dramatically in recent quarters.
According to analysts, Huawei should be able to easily solve the problem of the application market in China, its interior: those it has developed are designed for its compatriots.
Towards independence from the American market
But in the rest of the world, the outlook is much bleaker.
“In terms of content, when you talk about the international market, you can’t live without Google, without Amazon or YouTube. It will be a challenge,” revealed Elinor Leung, head of internet and telecommunications research in Asia. at CLSA.
Huawei’s troubles led to a major overhaul of the company, which was founded in 1987 by Ren Zhengfei, a former People’s Liberation Army engineer who still serves as CEO.
Since US pressure intensified, Huawei quickly shifted to new product lines that were inefficient as well as less vulnerable and refocused on its core home market.
In an internal memo to his employees last week, Ren Zhengfei called on his employees to transform his group all over the place and to accelerate autonomy in software.
Thus, “the United States will have very little control over our future development,” wrote the businessman.
The firm has accelerated its diversification in sectors such as dematerialized computing (“cloud”) or connected vehicles, beyond 5G where it is already one of the leaders.
Huawei announced last month its desire to work in partnership with Chinese automakers for smart vehicles.


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HMV has said it plans to put its faith in the UK high street by opening 10 more stores this year.
The boss of the entertainment retailer said it will seek to incorporate more live music into its stores as part of its investment into bricks and mortar sites.
The company, which opened its first store on Oxford Street in 1921, said Ed Sheeran will perform a centenary concert at the HMV Empire site in Coventry to 700 customers in August.
Doug Putman, the Canadian retail boss who bought the business in 2019, said the move was not a “reversal” of HMV’s decision to exit the music venue sector in 2012.
He told the PA news agency: “The music venue business didn’t perform particularly well so we aren’t doing the same thing again – this is more of a shop hybrid and won’t be the same for every shop.
“We have a really enthusiastic core of customers and we know that they want to see investment in the store experience.”
HMV added that the loosening of pandemic restrictions has allowed it to restore a programme of live in-store events and signings, featuring acts such as KSI, Laura Mvula and Anne-Marie.
The retailer currently operates more than 100 stores across the UK and has plans to open 10 more sites, including a site in Solihull.
Mr Putman added that the company is actively looking to open a new flagship London site, having closed its Oxford Street store after tumbling into administration in 2019 before the rescue deal by the Canadian retail executive.
“In an ideal world, we would have a new London flagship store and we are trying hard to make that happen,” he told PA.
“It’s a slightly strange situation now with Covid. There are definitely vacancies and opportunities but any new opening has to be the right location.
“There are also issues with full business rates returning and the potential for any further pandemic restrictions so we have to keep on our toes.”
The company said it has seen “strong footfall” since reopening stores in April, following the easing of restrictions.


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Aave DeFi protocol founder Stani Kulechov responded to Jack Dorsey’s Bitcoin enterprise plans with a suggestion to construct ‘Twitter on Ethereum.’
Final week, Jack Dorsey Tweeted that Sq. will probably be launching a set of decentralized monetary companies on Bitcoin within the close to future.
In response to this, Stani Kulechov, founding father of the Aave protocol, top-of-the-line performing and hottest ecosystems for decentralized finance (DeFi), posted a Tweet poking enjoyable at Dorsey, and hinting that Sq. is constructing the identical service that Aave provides – so perhaps Aave ought to then construct “Twitter on Ethereum.”
Since @jack goes to construct Aave on Bitcoin, Aave ought to construct Twitter on Ethereum
— stani.eth 👻 =(⬤_⬤)= 👻 🦇🔊 (@StaniKulechov) July 17, 2021
He additionally goes on to say that Aave co-founder Jordan Lazaro Gustave, would lead the trouble, which makes it unclear if the Tweet is a poke or a severe announcement of a proposal which will really land on Dorsey’s desk.
Aave’s web site describes the mission in strikingly comparable phrases to those utilized by Twitter’s founder final week: “Aave is an open-source and non-custodial liquidity protocol for incomes curiosity on deposits and borrowing belongings.”
Each, Aave and Dorsey’s new project plans present the likelihood for customers to borrow cash, earn curiosity on financial savings, insure different customers for a premium, and different decentralized monetary companies usually run with a standard monetary establishment (a financial institution) as an middleman.
In the meantime, demand for the favored Aave protocol for decentralized monetary companies is on the rise amongst mainstream, institutional traders.
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Tesla now permits some prospects to pay a month-to-month subscription payment for its premium driver help service, as an alternative of an …
Apple Pay is planning on boosting its companies by launching a Pay Later program in collaboration with Golman Sachs.
Apple launched a brand new MagSafe battery pack for the iPhone 12. It prices $99 and is on the market on Apple.com.
Airbnb is welcoming its first totally 3D printed rental, the Fibonacci home, constructed by TAM and situated in Canada.
Grubhub will begin utilizing Russian-made autonomous robots to ship meals throughout US faculty campuses this Fall.


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Bike to Work Month
Posted by Ashley on Apr 25, 2011 | Urban
May is national Bike Month, join Cascade Bicycle Club in celebrating! The best way to celebrate is to get on a bike: ride to work, ride to the grocery store, or just ride for the sheer joy of being outside cycling in the spring weather.
Spring is for new beginnings. Take that bike out of the basement and wipe off the cobwebs. Or give your bike some love after months of winter riding. Hop on and join other riders on roads and trails, even if this is the first time you’ve ridden in years. You won’t be alone. Last year thousands of people started biking for the first time during Bike Month.
Bike Month motivates new riders and inspires experienced cyclists. F5 Bike to Work Day (Friday, May 20) is a vision for what the region can look like in the future. The roads are packed with more than 20,000 cyclists. More bicyclists mean safer streets, healthier people, cleaner air and more livable communities.
More information on Bike Month can be found on Cascade's Website.


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Fans can now buy tickets online
Port Vale Football Club has today made another step forward with the launch of online ticketing and the ability to print tickets at home.
This summer Vale announced a new partnership with the country’s leading stadium ticketing company Ticketmaster and cash free turnstile have already been introduced as part of the new initiative.
The new online ticket website www.portvaletickets.com
enables fans to buy match tickets online themselves and either collect their tickets from the Ticket Office or use is the print at home option.
Chairman, Norman Smurthwaite said: “Hands up, We had one or two minor problems for the first couple of games with the new ticket system, but that is to be expected with so many positive changes being made.
“The new system worked without a hitch for the Bradford game and now the stadium side is fully functional we are launching the new ticket website.
“I know fans can’t always get down to the ground midweek to buy tickets in advance, but this new website enables you to buy from your armchair.
“The Wolves match is the first to go on sale and the more fans buy in advance the better it is on a matchday.
“As a thank you we will send the first 500 fans that buy online a free programme voucher to be redeemed at the game.”
The print at home facility is only available for home games. If you have any problems using the new website call 0871 222 1950


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Apple Pay will launch in Belgium on Wednesday, according to Belgian newspaper De Tijd. The report, citing sources, claims Belgium's largest bank BNP Paribas Fortis will be the exclusive Apple Pay partner in the country at launch. The bank offers a variety of Visa and Mastercard credit cards and debit cards.
Belgium would become the 30th region where Apple Pay is officially available. Apple Pay is also set to launch in Germany later this year, as Apple CEO Tim Cook announced in July, and is "coming soon" in Saudi Arabia per Apple.com.
Apple Pay first launched in the United States in October 2014 and has since expanded to many other countries, including the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, China, Singapore, Switzerland, France, Japan, Spain, Italy, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Russia, New Zealand, Brazil, Poland, Ireland, and Ukraine.
Top Rated Comments
4 Years!. Apple needs to start thinking how to speed up some of their recent services execution world wide. I know it is better to be right than to be quick. But 4 years is a long time.
Sadly their website is written in Dutch :( https://www.streekproduct.be/


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This partnership will allow Waymo customers to use Uber Freight to more efficiently plan their fleet of human-operated and automated trucks. Currently, Uber Freight’s software acts as an intermediary and connects truck drivers with freight forwarders.
For information, Waymo is not the only company that cooperates with Uber Freight. Previously, there was Aurora who collaborated in 2020.
Alphabet’s self-driving division wants to sell self-driving truck services to logistics companies. Under this plan, customers will purchase and own an autonomous truck while also paying the company a usage fee calculated based on the distance traveled.
This significant partnership with Waymo’s self-driving truck division is not the first. In which, the company has been working with the United States Air Force (USAF) for more than two years and embarked on a series of autonomous trials with Class 8 trucks equipped with the fifth-generation Waymo Driver system.
In the test, autonomous trucks delivered units for the USAF from a facility in Dallas-Fort Worth to Houston.
Waymo is also working with Daimler on a Level 4 autonomous system for trucks and is testing the Peterbilt truck fleet in Arizona, California and Texas. The autonomous truck currently being tested by Waymo had a commercially licensed driver and Waymo software engineer in the cab of the truck during the test run.


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Data privacy is an ever-present concern in the digital age. This data can include varying levels of information about consumers that is then used for targeted marketing. With this growing sea of personal information, it’s important to be responsible with it, as well as abide by regulations governing data privacy. The internet has made it easier for targeted marketing campaigns, but the tides are changing in regards to how advertisers are affected by current and proposed data privacy regulations.
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- Lamborghini and Audi may also share the new Porsche platform for electric supercars
As far as Volkswagen Group goes, Porsche is already ahead of other brands and is now planning yet another future EV platform, specifically for electric supercars and two-door sports cars.
Volkswagen Group is aiming to electrify its entire lineup by 2030, meaning that every car from every brand under its umbrella will be either battery-electric or plug-in hybrid within that time frame. By 2025, the group intends to offer 80 electrified variants, consisting of about 50 purely electric vehicles and 30 plug-in hybrids.
Porsche Mission E Concept
We've yet to see much of anything in the way of substantial progress on said plans, though Porsche has already found notable success in the segment. The Panamera plug-in is growing in popularity in some markets, and the automaker is currently working on its first all-electric vehicle: the Mission E. According to Automotive News:
"Roughly 60 percent of all new Panamera sedans in Europe are sold currently as a plug-in, and by 2025 more than half of its volumes should have some form of electric propulsion."
Volkswagen Group has been touting its two new electric platforms (MEB and PPE) for some time. The MEB (Modular Electrification Toolkit) is the architecture that will be utilized for VW's new I.D. family of electric vehicles, as well as EVs from Audi, Skoda, and Seat. The PPE (Premium Platform Electric) is a joint effort between Porsche and Audi.
Now, Porsche will begin work on a third EV architecture, coined SPE. Although this additional platform's application is much further down the road from the initial two new platforms, information of its existence was discovered in a footnote at a recent presentation.
Porsche is unwilling to provide many specifics about the architecture other than to say that it is official but won't arrive until after 2025. It's specifically to be used for electric supercars and two-door sports cars.
So, this could definitely be something that is in the works for vehicles like the 911, Cayman, and Boxster, expecially if it employs solid-state battery cells. It may also be shared across the Volkswagen Group and could be implemented in vehicles like the Audi R8 e-tron supercar, along with Lamborghini's initial electrification efforts. Automotive News reported:
"VW executives declined to answer whether SPE vehicles would be equipped with an electric motor on each axle or even a third to offer faster acceleration. Nor could they comment on whether it might be designed specifically to employ space saving solid-state battery cells. This next-generation technology boasts higher energy density over conventional cells that use liquid electrolytes to transport lithium ions."
A spokesperson from VW Group would not elaborate on whether or not other brands were already planning uses for the SPE platform. The automaker elaborated that the future project is "too far away." Porsche is currently laser-focused on the J1 platform for the Mission E, so commenting on the future platform is not in the cards at this time.
Keep the conversation going in our Forum. Start a new thread about this article and make your point heard.
Source: Automotive News


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A walk in a Fife village sparked a couple’s dream of setting up their own company.
Over the last couple of years, Darren has sourced equipment from all over Europe.
Now they hope to become Scotland’s largest manufacturer of hand harvested sea salt.
Darren harbours ambitions of making between one and two tonnes of salt every month – that’s between 7,000 and 14,000 units.
The Fife salt business has also had financial support – a Crowdfunding campaign raised nearly £25,000, and has also secured a number of grants.
‘Great feedback’ for East Neuk Salt Co.
Darren said: “The processing system is now complete with the first batch of salt already in production.
“We visited Achill Island Sea Salt in Ireland, as the process they use looked very similar and with the added bonus of some tweaks, we can improve efficiency.
“This process results in salt flakes which we sell in 150 gram pouches, 10 gram pinch tins and various bulk order quantities.
“The product lines will be extended to include smoked and flavoured salt.
“It is without doubt the best sea salt we have ever tasted and we are receiving great feedback from local chefs and businesses to support that.”
Business Gateway advisers Shona Morrison and Samir Rhazali have been supporting the couple throughout their business journey.
Samir said: “The company has a major emphasis on community spirit and brand heritage.
“They have used local village tradesmen in all aspects of the renovation of the production unit.
“Darren and Mhairi have shown a real determination and commitment to this project with great plans for the future.”
Plans to create Fife salt visitor centre
At the heart of the business is the link with local heritage and collaboration with local communities.
There are plans to create a tourist attraction too.
Darren wants to rebuild one of the old salt pans as a visitor attraction centre.
Darren, who grew up in St Monans, added: “We are already engaged in productive talks with Historic Environment Scotland to rebuild the pan house near the bathing pool at St Monans.
“This is a very important project.
“Not only to retain the historic heritage of the area, but to protect it from environmental erosion in the future.”


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Having explored the need for an overhaul of the look and feel of the UK’s licensed betting offices, the second part of the feature looks at the technology that could help shape the sector’s sports-led future.
The majority of the UK retail sector appears to be focusing on automation, rather than renovation, however. In particular, operators are embracing self-service betting terminals (SSBTs).
“We want to remove pinboards of the Racing Post pages. We want the slick, large screens, live content, touchscreen terminals and a more vibrant, clean and modern environment,” Woodfine says.
Pettit says SSBTs have been designed with the novice punter in mind, providing them with an interface designed to help them navigate their way to placing a bet.
“What is an SSBT but a very big mobile phone that can be played without registration? What we’re offering is a much more intuitive interface, which is proven to be effective in educating new customers. So if anything, that gives me confidence that they will encourage new players to have a bet,” he says.
“For novices, it’s much easier to work out a betting site on 22-inch screens than it is on a mobile phone or website.”
Woodfine adds that the current retail content offering is “nowhere near as rich” as what’s on offer online – something he says operators have to address as a priority.
“You have all the markets but none of the content, and we’re providing the corresponding pictures to that,” he says. “It’s a very small [step towards] producing parity with what’s available online – you have to move closer to the online experience to offer something to everyone.”
This, he says, can be achieved through SSBTs. Further linking online and retail can be achieved through an omni-channel strategy. While it has become something of an industry buzzword, it works – omni-channel bettors, according to Ladbrokes Coral, are cheaper to acquire, and more loyal to their preferred brands.
Having a single wallet means that retail bettors can take their winnings home in their online account. Should they decide to bet online, they will almost certainly use the account for their retail brand. After all, the money’s already in their accounts.
Dave McDowell, CEO of sports betting platform FSB, admits that he was initially dubious of the omni-channel concept but says it is the option to bring online customers into the retail environment that makes it interesting.
“One of the things I’ve heard from our operators is that when you take a withdrawal online, it takes a few days, and there will be players who want to immediately access those funds, so they will come into a shop to withdraw in person. And that’s where the omni-channel journey starts to make sense.”
Woodford adds: “If you have a player who is a very strong online customer, if they go into a retail environment that they don’t regularly use, then the operator would want to treat that customer in the same way.” This, he suggests, incentivises players to bet in- store rather than solely online.
However, McDowell suggests the fact that events are less competitively priced in retail compared to online may prove a stumbling block.
“You can get a different price over the counter, a different price on your mobile, and a different price on an SSBT,” he says. “How can a betting shop have different prices within five feet of each other?”
Pettit, however, argues that the focus should not be on pricing in the lower- volume retail environment, where turnover was £8bn for April 2017 to March 2018, according to the Gambling Commission, compared to £26.9bn for online. Instead, he is in favour of betting shop operators focusing on retail principles, such as buy one get one free, or offering extra percentages back on certain bets.
Customers are more likely to look at returns than pricing in the channel, he says, pointing to the operators’ aggressive bonusing strategies around this year’s Cheltenham Festival.
“It’s a simpler message for the customer,” he explains. “You might have less competitive pricing but offer more back in bonuses, which is better understood by the end consumer.
“Price will become less front of mind as retail issues such as win bonuses on certain selections become more popular as a promotional tool, such as a free in- play bet and the like” he adds.
To date, operators appear to have taken the stance that if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. There has been little desire or motivation to revolutionise the retail experience. Until 2013 there were a few examples of challenger brands looking to offer a new betting experience, such as Samvo, though none succeeded in gaining any traction in the market.
“In 2012 and 2013, the moves were a little bit early,” Woodfine says. “The products, in terms of hardware and software, have dramatically improved and now you have a stronger appetite among the majors to change.”
However, a lot of work needs to be done, and few in the industry have gone public about their plans for the future of retail. Those that go into shops today tend to do so because it’s how they have always bet. SSBTs will have to do a lot of heavy lifting to achieve the sort of results that can return retail to growth. And investment will be needed to end some deep-rooted preconceptions about betting shops.
Ultimately a change is coming. And many would argue it’s long overdue.
McDowell suggests that in their current form, there is no future for betting shops: “For betting shops, it feels like the Blockbuster Video business model. The utilitarian part of it – I want to watch a movie tonight, or I want to place a bet – has moved online,” he says.
Unfortunately, at this stage it’s impossible to offer any concrete answers on what the betting sector needs to do to survive in this new regulatory climate. But if the focus shifts from trying to survive to trying to make retail betting thrive, it will have a much better chance of a long-term future.


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Budget retailer Wilko to go into administration leaving 12,000 jobs at risk
The news follows the closure of several stores last year
Budget retailer Wilko has filed a notice of intent to appoint administrators in a move that leaves 12,000 jobs at risk
The popular household and gardening chain, which has around 400 stores including one in the Manchester Arndale shopping complex, has struggled in the tough economic climate.
Last year it borrowed £40m from restructuring specialist Hilco, cut jobs, and closed several stores after falling to a loss.
Wilko has reportedly struggled to pay suppliers and has had to pause some deliveries after a credit insurer withdrew cover for the retailer.
The company filed a notice of intent on Thursday that over the past few months, it had been working with advisory firm PricewaterhouseCoopers in an attempt to find a buyer in the hopes of freeing up more cash to keep the retail chain afloat.
Wilko chief executive Mark Jackson has confirmed that whilst there were ‘significant levels of interest’, the business has not yet received an offer.
He said: “We’ll continue to progress discussions with interested parties with the aim of completing a transaction which preserves the business.”
A notice of intention protects a business from creditors for 10 days in order to give it time to secure its finances, and does not necessarily mean that its stores will close.
The business needs to find more cash by the end of the month, however, and if the administration process is unsuccessful things may in turn lead to liquidation.
In a statement, Mark Jackso said: “While we can confirm we’ve had a significant level of interest, including indicative offers that we believe would meet all our financial criteria to recapitalise the business, at present, we don’t today have an offer that provides the necessary liquidity in the time we have available, given the mounting cash pressures we’re faced with.
“Unfortunately, with this in mind, today we’re having to take the difficult decision to file a [notice of intention to appoint administrators].”
“We continue to believe that our robust turnaround plan, with significant re-stabilisation cost savings in progress, will deliver a profitable Wilko and maximise the significant opportunities that we know exist.”
Featured image – Manchester Arndale


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A digest of important news from sources selected by our local editors. Delivered weekday mornings.
Idexx Laboratories Inc. has expanded its Memphis footprint by expanding its distribution operation to 150,000 square feet, paving the way for future growth in the market.
The Maine-based company develops, manufactures and distributes veterinary products and services.
It has operated a distribution facility in Memphis since 1997 with 97,500 square feet at 6100 Shelby Drive. This facility employed 42. In 2008, it built an 8,000-square-foot lab and added 50 jobs.
Its latest move is a 10-year extension of its distribution lease with the expanded space.
“It gives the distribution a chance to refine their functions and relay out their space,” says Justin King, real estate asset manager for Idexx. “In 10 years, it gives you the ability to improve processes and update equipment.”
The 10-year extension gives the distribution group and laboratory group security, according to King.
“We know we’re going to be there and will support the future functions,” he says.
Idexx’s distribution operations are in Memphis and Westbrook, Maine, where its corporate headquarters are located.
The company opened its Memphis laboratory to take advantage of the same shipping advantages FedEx Corp. provided its distribution facility. Late shipping times helps the company provide diagnostic tests for veterinarians who lack the equipment to perform those tests. This advantage has also helped the company put Memphis into its long-term plans.
“We wanted to make some long-term decisions about what the distribution functions were going to look like for the foreseeable future and we matched that up with the leasing,” King says. “It was just an opportunity for us to be able to find a place which was going to fit our long-term needs.”
email@example.com | (901) 259-1732


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The UK market lets us see that video games continue to outperform other industries such as music.
A few weeks ago we knew that the video game market does not stop growing, with a detailed analysis that indicated that, worldwide, they have once again generated more profits in 2021 than in the entire year 2020. These are news that are beginning to stop surprising us, since growth is constant and the data that we are arriving they reaffirm it.
In recent days we have known, thanks to VGC, the annual video game sales in the UK, one of the most powerful markets and that is usually representative of how the industry works at a European level. This has generated less than last year, where a record was set as a result of the pandemic and the most time people had to enjoy leisure at home, but it again confirms an upward trend.
The benefits outweigh video and musicAccording to official data from the Entertainment Retailers Association (ERA) shared last Thursday, the video game market in the United Kingdom has generated 4,290 million pounds throughout the past year, which places it ahead of other markets such as video, with 3.7 billion, or music, with 1.7 billion.
These are figures that include both physical and digital sales. Regarding purchases in stores, in 2021 they have suffered a decrease of more than 20%, but in the digital market it has remained with very similar numbers. At a general level, we talk about the benefits being more than double that of ten years ago, with two consecutive years (2020 and 2021) above 4 billion pounds.
As for video games themselves, the usual protagonists are FIFA 22, which does not usually fall below the top sales, and cases such as Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, which is triggered in times of offers or special dates, such as Black Friday or Christmas. In fact, they both occupy the top two positions in the most recent weekly top seller that we know of.
More about: Sales, United Kingdom, Digital Market, Videogames and Videogame stores.


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Minister of Commerce Trade and Industry Hon. Christopher Yaluma says he is enthralled with many Zambian companies who have embraced value addition on raw commodities.
The minister was speaking after touring stands at the ongoing 93rd Agriculture and Commercial show in Lusaka which is being commemorated under the theme “Embracing Industrial Development.”
He shared the view that the issue of exporting raw commodities is now the thing of the past, as Zambian companies are now able to produce commodities and process them within the country for increased value addition.
He further encouraged Emerging Zambian Entrepreneurs to embrace Governments diversification agenda.
And from his tour Mr. Yaluma observed that the agriculture sector has produced and processed a lot of products, which he said will be able to push the economy in the right direction with enhanced capacity.
Mr. Yaluma also commended mining companies who are processing minerals locally, and encouraged them to continue helping Government in shaping the country’s economy.


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MATRIARCH COFFEE IS THE STORY OF
Ms. Marie Mukamurenzi, Chris's mum, was raised in a family of coffee farmers in the heart of the high hills of South-West of Rwanda. After finishing her secondary school education, she became a teacher at a primary school. At the age of 22, she got married to Celestin who was a coffee farmer and trader. Five years into the marriage, she had her third child and had to give up on her teaching career to raise her children. As an alternative source of income, she embarked on coffee which also afforded her more time with the kids at the farm.
For over thirty years now, Marie and her husband Mr. Celestin Rumenerangabo have used Gasharu Farms to positively affect both their family and their community. Building on her experience in education, Marie has been the key for the education of her 9 children in addition to supporting education of hundreds of children from her community. One of her children Valentin specializes in coffee and ensures Matriarch Coffee roasts the world class quality coffee.
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Coffee farmers, majority women, work long hours to give us a cup of good coffee. Women in coffee farming communities are the hearts of their households and with the cost of one cup of coffee we can impact their households greatly. Matriarch coffee allocates 10% of all of its profits to support initiatives that promotes risk reduction, prosperity and financial empowerment of women in the coffee farming communities.


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GOVERNMENT is working on measures aimed at curtailing the rampant smuggling of goods into the country.
Industry and Commerce Minister Dr Mike Bimha told The Herald Business that Government was cognisant of the threat smuggling has on the economy. In line with this, an inter-ministerial committee chaired by the Ministry of Home Affairs was established and is working on recommendations to tackle smuggling. “I am happy that we have come up with a blueprint on how we are going to address smuggling,” said Dr Bimha in an interview. “Smuggling has a lot of dimensions to it, hence the need to have a broad spectrum of ministries and agencies to look into this issue.
“I think it is too early for me to divulge much, but we have identified the loopholes and we have also come up with recommendations addressing issues like use of technology, drones, CCTV and issues to do with the human factor,” he said adding that corrupt officials were also a menace in the fight against smuggling and recommendations in the blueprint would address that too.
He, however, made a call to all stakeholders to fight smuggling, as this did not affect Government only. “Smuggling is the biggest challenge which we want to address. But it is not only for Government alone to address, it also requires participation of wholesalers, supermarkets and retailers; we need to do this together,” said Dr Bimha.
Capacity use for the manufacturing sector spiralled downwards in the past decade as industry battled lack of funding for retooling and unfair competition from imports, some of them smuggled into the country. Recovery, however started last year after Government promulgated Statutory Instrument 64 of 2016 which removed some products that can be locally manufactured from the general open import licence.
Since its introduction, local manufacturers have started registering improvement in production volumes, job creation, market share as well as enhanced competitiveness.
The Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries manufacturing sector survey reports shows capacity utilisation rose to 47 percent in 2016 from 34 percent recorded in 2015. However, Dr Bimha acknowledged the smuggling in of goods could reverse SI64 gains and therefore needed to be addressed with haste. “Normally, when you come up with measures to control the formal sector, people resort to the informal sector to counter that. There were people who were benefiting from importation, all of sudden there was an instrument to stop it and so they resorted to smuggling.”