HANOI, Vietnam, June 20, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Norfund, the Norwegian Investment Fund for Developing Countries, has decided to invest US$30 million to Southeast Asia Commercial Joint Stock Bank (SeABank, stock code: SSB) in form of a convertible loan. The loan can be converted into common shares of SeABank within 4-year term, aiming at providing additional capital to support retail banking customers, small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and micro-enterprises in Vietnam.
Norfund is an investment fund owned and funded by Norwegian Government that works to create jobs and improve lives by investing in businesses in developing countries that drive sustainable development. Norfund is fully funded by the Norwegian International Development Assistance budget - Government's most important tool for strengthening the private sector in developing countries and for reducing poverty.
Ms. Le Thu Thuy – Vice Chairwoman of the BOD, SeABank shares: "The partnership shares our joint purpose of impacting Vietnamese economy growth in general, while enhancing financial access for SeABank's SMEs and retail banking customers in particular. The loan also supports the Bank's sustainable development strategy to the utmost in the upcoming period."
Ms. Fay Chetnakarnkul – Regional Director (Asia), Norfund said: "Financial inclusion is Norfund's core mandate and is aligned with SeABank's strong commitment to finance and support retail banking customers and SMEs in Vietnam. The partnership will look to be a catalyst to help uplift the unbanked and underbanked in the country."
The cooperation aims to provide SMEs with additional financial sources to fulfill their long-term capital demands. The Bank also has additional capital for retail lending, considering the increasing financial needs of this group.
Previously, SeABank has continuously received foreign investments totaling nearly US$600 million from prestigious institutions like IFC, DFC, etc. These aim to accelerate the Bank's sustainable development strategies focusing on: SMEs financial access improvements, ESG practices application, and climate change mitigation. International funding, together with available capacity, has enabled SeABank to deliver flexible financial solutions and strongly support SMEs, especially women-owned SMEs, in capital use optimization. Besides, SeABank prioritizes disbursements for green credit and climate change mitigation projects as well as green mortgages for individual customers buying houses with green-building certificates, thereby posing positive impacts on the socio-economy and environment.
Norfund's investment has demonstrated the increasing trust, affirming SeABank's reputation, operational efficiency, and capital utilization efficiency. This also helps SeABank's corporate customers improve capacity and promote key business areas effectively.
** The press release content is from PR Newswire. Bastille Post is not involved in its creation. **
Norfund grants US$30 million convertible loan to SeABank
SHANGHAI, June 27, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- During MWC Shanghai 2024, Chen Hao, President of Carrier Business at Huawei, delivered a keynote speech. He noted that while primary innovation unleashes technology dividends, secondary innovation accelerates business success, and pointed out that 5G is currently undergoing secondary innovation.
China has built the world's largest and most advanced 5G networks, and by May this year, the number of 5G users in China exceeded 890 million, accounting for over 52% of the global total. Bolstered by this incredible progress, information and communications technologies like 5G are rapidly developing into an integral part of every sector and domain in China.
During his keynote entitled "Secondary 5G Innovation: Charting a New Course for Business Success", Chen said, "China's success in 5G is a result of ceaseless exploration, effective practices, and endless innovation. Just as James Watt's improvements to the steam engine sparked the Industrial Revolution, secondary 5G innovation is expected to accelerate monetization in three areas – user scenarios, network-cloud-intelligence synergy, and ecosystem collaboration – for a new stage of business success."
Scenario innovation: Reinventing the value of user groups and scenarios to accelerate multi-metric network monetization
Today, China has 150 million registered livestreaming users. Thanks to 5G's high uplink speeds and priority-based network access, operators in the country can meet these users' requirements for videos that offer higher definition and zero stuttering. Furthermore, more than 15 provincial operators in China have released livestreaming packages with guaranteed uplink speeds.
Networks are becoming increasingly capable of supporting new features like user- and service-specific acceleration, deterministic experience, and visualized user perception, and these advances will extend livestreaming to more scenarios, user groups, and applications. The value of user groups and scenarios will thus be reinvented, accelerating network monetization through different metrics.
Integrated innovation: New gateway to industry IoT services through network-cloud-intelligence synergy
New Calling and cloud phone services will serve as a gateway to more individual digital services, while Internet of Vehicles (IoV) and Internet of Video Things (IoVT) services create new opportunities for industry connectivity. Innovation that integrates 5G, cloud, and AI will drive such services forward.
AI-generated content (AIGC) is only the starting point for New Calling to deliver unparalleled user experience. With the incubation of more consumer- and business-oriented high-value application scenarios, such as replacing traditional enterprise hotlines with AI assistants, New Calling will become even more engaging, convenient, and valuable.
Cloud phones can already deliver experiences that almost match those of physical phones. Delivering 2K resolution and latency as low as 100 ms, cloud phones are well on their way to offering higher-resolution display and smoother interaction that are comparable to those found on a physical phone.
For IoV and IoVT, RedCap technology can support connectivity services with optimal performance, at optimal cost. The RedCap ecosystem for chips, modules, and devices is already mature, meaning it allows operators to quickly establish industry benchmarks. With contiguous network coverage, alongside new capabilities like slicing and edge cloud computing, new high-value applications will be developed to support new IoT services for industries, such as smart manufacturing and industrial automation.
Collaborative innovation: E2E industry collaboration boosts video service traffic
Current video services, whether short videos, long videos, or video calls, typically deliver 540p or 720p resolution, meaning user experience has much room for improvement. As part of its efforts to improve consumer experience and maximize China's leading network capabilities, Huawei advocated "moving towards a full HD era" at the recent event "HD China: Forum on High-Quality Development of Mobile Video in the AI Era". Huawei also called on players from across the industry to collaborate on breakthroughs in glasses-free 3D content, technology, and experience, so that everyone can benefit.
In terms of 5G business success, monetization will rely heavily on reinventing the value of user groups and scenarios; services strategies will require network-cloud-intelligence synergy; and collaboration on new types of video services will be key to boosting network traffic. Concluding his speech, Chen stated that Huawei will go all out to support operators in propelling secondary 5G innovation and embracing commercial 5.5G to take 5G business success to the next level.
MWC Shanghai 2024 will be held from June 26 to June 28 in Shanghai, China. During the event, Huawei will showcase its latest products and solutions at stands E10 and E50 in Hall N1 of the Shanghai New International Expo Centre (SNIEC).
2024 will mark the first year of commercial 5.5G, and F5.5G gigabit optical network deployment has already begun. Synergies across networks, cloud, and intelligence are set to give rise to pervasive intelligent applications and increasingly diverse user experiences. Together with global operators, industry professionals, and opinion leaders, Huawei will dive into exciting topics at this year's MWC Shanghai, like how to amplify 5G's success in the 5.5G era and how to tap into the potential of operator revenue growth to bring us even faster to the intelligent world. For more information, please visit: https://carrier.huawei.com/en/events/mwcs2024.
** The press release content is from PR Newswire. Bastille Post is not involved in its creation. **
Secondary 5G Innovation: Charting a New Course for Business Success
