Chapter 10 sustaining terrestrial biodiversity the ecosystem approach test

President Joe Biden told reporters it was always his view that the balloon needed to be shot down and brushed off a question about whether the incident would weaken U.S.-China relations. "No. We made it clear to China what we're going to do," he said. "They understand our position. We're not going to back off. We did the right thing and it's not a question of weakening or strengthening - it's reality." White House national security spokesperson John Kirby said the balloon's flight over the United States had done nothing to improve already tense relations with China and dismissed Beijing's contention it was for meteorological purposes. White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre nevertheless said the U.S. approach to relations with China would remain calm and it was up to China to decide whether it wanted to build on a meeting between Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping last November. "It's up to China to figure out what kind of relationship they want," she said. The … [Read more...] about US seeks Chinese balloon remnants, says approach to China will stay calm

A tomato farm in Don Duong district, Lam Dong province, joining the platform of Koina (Photo courtesy of Koina) HCM City (VNA) – VinaCapital Ventures, a technology-focused venture capital fund of the Ho Chi Minh City-based VinaCaptial Group , has announced an investment of 1 million USD into Koina, an agritech startup founded in Vietnam. The investment from VinaCapital Ventures is part of Koina’s seed fundraising round. Koina, established in 2021, aims to build a large and efficient agricultural ecosystem in Vietnam by connecting farmers with financial organisations, suppliers, and retailers. Its “Farmer Platform” is intended to help farmers access loans, publicise prices, and give guidance on good agricultural practices. Thi Nguyen, co-founder and Chairman of Koina, said the funding from VinaCapital Ventures will help his firm expand sales channels and increase investment in technology to control quality and boost the value of agricultural products of Vietnam. … [Read more...] about VinaCapital Ventures pours 1 million USD into agritech startup

Vo Tri Thanh *Vo Tri Thanh Viet Nam achieved and exceeded 14 out of 15 targets assigned by the National Assembly for 2022 with many impressive numbers including GDP growth, export turnover and the number of newly-established and re-opened businesses. Only labour productivity was under expectations. Viet Nam’s labour productivity was expected to increase by between 4.7 per cent and 5.2 per cent on average in 2022, higher than the average growth rate of 4.7 per cent in 2021 but behind the target of 5.6 per cent set for the whole of 2022. On January 10 this year, the Government issued Resolution No 06/NQ-CP on the development of a modern, efficient, sustainable and integrated labour market serving quick socio-economic recovery, setting the average labour productivity target for 2023 at more than 6.5 per cent. Labour productivity is an important economic indicator that is closely linked to economic growth, competitiveness and living standards within an economy. According to … [Read more...] about Viet Nam wrestles with labour productivity issue when heading to innovation-based development

So said Prof. Bilveer Singh from the Department of Political Science at the National University of Singapore in an interview granted to the Vietnam News Agency ahead of PM Pham Minh Chinh’s official visit to the city state from February 8 to 10. He held that the way in which Vietnam and Singapore view and understand each other, and together move forward amid numerous fast-changing external challenges is highly important. Assessing their strategic partnership, he highlighted the development of bilateral connections in economy, politics, diplomacy, culture, and defense, adding that the two countries’ relationship have established itself as a special one. The expert described Vietnam and Singapore as pillars of ASEAN over the last 10 - 15 years, saying the development of their ties within the bloc’s is crucial. The countries are moving in the right roadmap and should work harder to become the cohesion of ASEAN, he went on, noting that they are the most stable nations in Southeast … [Read more...] about Vietnam – Singapore ties contribute to cohesion in ASEAN: expert

Just two months after its launch, ChatGPT - which can generate articles, essays, jokes and even poetry in response to prompts - has been rated the fastest-growing consumer app in history. That has pushed Google owner Alphabet Inc to plan its own chatbot service and using more artificial intelligence for its search engine. While ChatGPT is not accessible in China, mainland investors are still pumping up the shares of AI technology companies such as Hanwang Technology Co, TRS Information Technology Co and Cloudwalk Technology Co. The CSI AI Industry Index, which includes larger capitalized companies such as iFlytek Co, is up about 17% this year, outperforming the benchmark CSI300 Index's 6% rise. To be sure, there is no indication that these AI companies are close to pushing out a ChatGPT-like product. The closest seems to be search engine giant Baidu Inc with plans to complete testing of its "Ernie bot" in March. Its shares surged more than 13% on Tuesday after making the … [Read more...] about ChatGPT mania pumps up Chinese AI technology stocks