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Haydn Jones, director and senior specialist of Blockchain Market at PwC UK, shared with VIR’s Luu Huong how this trend could broaden access to financial services and some suggestions to build more transparent cross-border transactions, as discussed at the PwC workshop “Cryptocurrency and its Impact to Businesses” hosted in Hanoi last week. Haydn Jones, director and senior specialist of Blockchain Market at PwC UK Could you provide some highlights from the PwC Global CBDC (central bank digital currency) Index 2022? The headline message is that adoption is a political decision. A 2021 survey from the Bank for International Settlements of central banks found that 86 per cent are actively researching the potential for CBDCs, 60 per cent were experimenting with the tech, and 14 per cent were deploying pilot projects. So, if you look at the different jurisdictions, they all have a specific driver, whether it’s financial inclusion, a drive towards digitisation, reasons … [Read more...] about Keeping on top of crypto legislation

Whether in the Western world or the East, newspapers large and small are being forced to up their games considerably in order to survive. In many regions, the press industry is facing slumping ad sales, the loss of classified advertising, and sharp drops in circulation. The United States saw the loss of an average of two newspapers per week between the end of 2019 and May of this year, according to the Medill School of Journalism. The statistic means that an estimated 70 million people now live in areas deemed “news deserts” or areas that are at high risk of becoming so. Over in the United Kingdom, newspaper publishers are being shunned by investors because they do not offer decent returns. Britain’s major newspapers have seen circulations decline sharply in the last couple of decades, although they have countered this to some extent with online products. “We have found a clear pattern of declining sustainability in the sector since 2010, which is consistent with reduced income … [Read more...] about Evolution vital for VIR to stay relevant

The dollar lost a little of its strength Tuesday after starting the week by surging against major peers, including a record high versus the pound, though equity traders struggled to claw back recent losses owing to recession fears. While central banks around the world are ramping up interest rates to fight inflation, the main focus is on the US Federal Reserve's increasingly hawkish tone that has seen it unveil three successive bumper hikes with a warning of more to come. That has seen investors pile into the dollar, sending it to record or multi-decade peaks, which has rattled governments from Tokyo to Beijing and London. On Monday it hit its highest-ever level against the pound -- touching $1.0350 after traders were spooked by a massive tax giveaway mini-budget by new UK finance minister Kwasi Kwarteng. Sterling staged a small recovery but fell back again after traders were left disappointed by a lack of solid action from the Bank of England, with governor Andrew Bailey … [Read more...] about Dollar softens after rally but Asian stocks struggle to recover

International and local environmentally themed films are being screened at an environmental film festival organised in Vietnam for the first time. Illustrative photo Held in response to the UN General Assembly (UNGA)’s Climate Week this year (September 19-25), the film festival, entitled #It’s Time To Act - A Nature Film Festival in Vietnam, is coordinated by the Spanish Embassy in Vietnam with movies from Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Ireland, Norway, Peru, Venezuela, Spain, the UK and Vietnam. WildAct Vietnam, a wildlife conservation organisation, is the organisational partner of the first edition of this festival, joined by Vietnam Film Development Association, the Delegation of EU to Vietnam and nine environmental organisations from Vietnam. The festival will be showing 17 feature films, documentaries, and short films with subtitles in Vietnamese. Many film screenings will be free for the public and in a hybrid format (both … [Read more...] about First nature film festival takes place in Vietnam