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littlemisswonton · 4 years ago

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How Shanghai is losing its mother tongue

In the past 20 years, Shanghai has surged to become an international commercial, cultural and transport hub with eye-opening speed. While gaining worldwide attention with its fast-growing economy and skyscrapers, the megacity is quickly - and silently - losing a precious part of its own: its mother tongue.

The Shanghai dialect is a part of an ancient language family, Wu Chinese, which originated in eastern China some 2,500 years ago and is spoken by roughly 80million people today.

Known for its soft and elegant sound, Wu Chinese is not mutually intelligible with Mandarin, which is based on the Beijing dialect. And because Wu Chinese has preserved some ancient pronunciations non-existent in Mandarin, classic Chinese literature from hundreds of years ago - such as popular poems from Tang and Ming dynasties - would sound more authentic and rhythmical when being read in it.

The Shanghai dialect, also known as Shanghainese, is a young but prominent member of Wu Chinese due to Shanghai’s prosperity as a colonial trading port between the mid 19th and 20th century. It was a fashionable tongue in the pre-Communist China and introduced many then-trendy Western items to Chinese people’s life through phonetic translation, for example “vez lin” for Vaseline, “fa le niong” for flannel and “kes mi” for cashmere.

It was associated with intellectual, entertainment and political icons, such as novelist Eileen Chang, singer Zhou Xuan and “the mother of modern China” Soong Ching-ling. It also spawned opera, comedy and entertainment productions enjoyed by generations of Shanghai dwellers.

But the distinct lingo, which could be heard in the city’s every nook and cranny up until three decades ago, is struggling to survive the rapid modernisation that has propelled Shanghai to its global status today.

(Soong Ching-ling, the wife of Sun Yat-Sen, was born in Shanghai and spoke the Shanghai dialect all her life. The above picture of her, via Wikimedia, was taken by British photographer Sir Cecil Beaton during the Second World War in China’s wartime capital, Chungking.)

A 2016 survey showed that only 30 per cent of Shanghai residents would use the Shanghai dialect in their daily conversation, while more than half of the locals preferred to speak Mandarin, China’s official language. Another study from 2017 found that nearly 80 per cent of local youngsters between the ages of six and 20 could not speak their mother tongue fluently, highlighting a sombre cultural crisis.

The dialect’s popularity was dealt with a sudden blow in 1992 when the central government launched a hard-hitting campaign to “promote Mandarin”. Aimed to establish a lingua franca for the country, the language movement, however, imposed heavy restrictions on the use of Shanghainese in Shanghai.

Among a list of mandatory rules, school children must receive lessons in Mandarin and were banned from speaking dialect in class and during breaks. Besides, public servants and service industry staff must stick to Mandarin at work. A few years later in 2001, Shanghainese programmes, beloved by the locals at the time, were pulled from TV and radio stations by a language law. Only a few opera and comedy shows were permitted to be run in dialect.

Propaganda slogans, such as “Learn Mandarin, be a civilised person” and “Speak Mandarin is the symbol of civilisation”, appeared ubiquitously in Shanghai during the 1990s and early 2000s, leaving many youngsters feeling ashamed of using dialect.

Some of those compulsory policies were in place for more than a decade, others still remain effective.

(The above photo, via Vmenkov/Wikimedia, shows a ‘Mandarin-promoting’ slogan outside a kindergarten in Shanghai. It reads: ‘Everybody, please speak Mandarin, and standardise the language and writing.)

Qian Nairong, a Chinese language professor at Shanghai University, views the school ban a major cause of the dialect’s decline. He notes that the city’s primary school pupils were prohibited from speaking the Shanghai dialect on campus from the 1990s for over 10 years. As a result, several generations of Shanghai children grew up unable to express themselves well in their mother tongue.

“The inheritance of Shanghainese has met a rift when it comes to people born after 1985,” lamented Prof Qian during an interview with China News.

The ardent Shanghainese promoter authored a comprehensive dictionary in 2007 in a bid to romanise the dialect and standardise its written form. Five years later, he penned a petition with 81 other scholars, calling authorities to set up systematic regulations to protect Shanghainese.

Unfortunately, these grass-rooted efforts are yet to yield substantial changes in the government’s directives. Moreover, they might have come a little too late to alter millennials’ communication style.

Wang Kanyu, a 30-year-old Shanghai author, admits that it is difficult for her to hold a conversation purely in the Shanghai dialect because she talks to her friends and colleagues mostly in Mandarin.

Born in 1990 to a local family, Ms Wang began her primary school education in 1997 and was strictly forbidden from speaking the dialect by her teachers.

“I remember we promoted the using of Mandarin in my primary school. We had rankings with stars for pupils in our class. If anyone spoke Shanghainese, they would have a star taken away from them,” Ms Wang explains slowly using the Shanghai dialect.

“In middle and high school, all of my classmates were from Shanghai, but few of them would talk to each other in Shanghainese because most had got used to using Mandarin.”

She says as she grew up, she rarely conversed in Shanghainese with anyone outside her family. “Therefore, I am not accustomed to speaking it now. Besides, I feel that I cannot speak it well,” adds Ms Wang.

(I was among the very last generation of Shanghai children to be taught predominantly in my mother tongue throughout my school years. Above is my kindergarten graduation photo taken in the summer of 1989. I am in the front row, the fifth to the left.)

Apart from the tough Mandarin mandate, Shanghai’s swiftly shifting demographics pose as a challenge.

The city’s population ballooned by a third between 1998 and 2018, largely due to an influx of migrants from around the nation in search for work and better life. In other words, more than eight million out of Shanghai’s current 24million citizens did not grow up speaking the Shanghai dialect and rely on Mandarin to communicate in their daily life.

Huang Peide, a 37-year-old native, considers this a primary factor that prevents many Shanghai locals from using dialect.

“It is not that Shanghai people don’t speak Shanghainese any more. The fact is they have fewer and fewer people to speak it with,” Mr Huang points out using a mixture of the Shanghai dialect and Mandarin.

He says: “Environment can change people. For example, for people born after the 1980s, many of their friends, colleagues and clients are not from Shanghai. If they talk in Shanghainese, the listeners can’t understand. So what can you do?”

Mr Huang and his wife, both born in Shanghai, are encouraging their eight-year-old son to communicate with them in Shanghainese at home, “but he sometimes uses it, sometimes doesn’t”.

The father notes that around a third of his son’s classmates are from non-Shanghai-native families, and some 30 per cent of the teachers are non-Shanghainese speakers. Therefore it would not be practical for his son to speak the tongue while in school.

“In daily life, I insist teaching him the dialect, but he doesn’t have the environment to use it outside our home,” Mr Huang admits.

(The Shanghai dialect, or Shanghainese, could be heard in every nook and cranny of the city up until three decades ago. This picture, circulating on social media and believed to be taken in the early 1990s, shows pedestrians and cyclists on Nanjing Xi Road near the Jing’an Temple.)

Prof Qian believes it has become “urgent” to protect Shanghainese and the “key” is to encourage Shanghai youngsters to converse in it.

“The inheritance of a language relies on people, especially children,” the 75-year-old urged in a recent column. “We must let Shanghai pupils bring Shanghainese, which they have spoken with their parents since infancy, to their schools freely and allow it (the dialect) to be used after class. This is the key to passing forward Shanghainese.”

The academic, who has also developed a Shanghainese input method for computer users, stresses that promotion of Shanghainese is not aimed at marginalising Mandarin, but to build a society where the two can co-exist in a “harmonious” way.

“‘Bilingual people’ who can switch between Shanghainese and Mandarin can, for sure, have a more smooth, natural and free life in Shanghai. Furthermore, there are more and more occasions for [people to use] English. Therefore, Shanghai will certainly become a ‘multi-lingual’ society,” Prof Qian writes. “… In a diverse society, we need to build a harmonious, ‘multi-lingual’ life. Mandarin and Shanghainese can achieve a ‘win-win’ situation in Shanghai.”

Prof Qian’s comments echo the social stigma Shanghai locals face while talking to strangers in dialect. Out of fear that the addressees would not understand Shanghainese, and thus they would be regarded as “discriminating against migrants” - a sensitive topic in today’s Chinese society – many have now abandoned Shanghainese entirely in public and at work.

Mandy Chen, an analyst for a Fortune 500 firm in Shanghai, considers the discrimination topic “an interesting social discussion”.

“Normally, if we go to a less-fortunate place and hear the locals talk in their dialect, you won’t think they are discriminating against you. But if we go to a more developed area and hear the local use their dialect, you might feel that they are excluding you,” says the 36-year-old “new Shanghai citizen”, who can understand Shanghainese but has not actively learnt it.

(The Shanghai dialect spawned opera, comedy and entertainment productions enjoyed by generations of Shanghai dwellers. This picture shows Shanghainese stand-up comedy legends Yao Mushuang, right, and Zhou Baichun, left.)

Ms Chen grew up in northern China’s Inner Mongolia and has lived in Shanghai for 10 years on and off after moving to the city for university. She says she doesn’t mind - sometimes even prefers – her friends and colleagues speaking Shanghainese to her. But she acknowledges that some non-natives would, indeed, feel being looked down upon if spoken to in Shanghainese.

“This is more a psychological issue of the listener than a language issue. Often, the speaker doesn’t have any intention to show prejudice against the listener. It could be that they sound cold naturally,” she explains.

While the lingo-in-crisis is yet to be officially allowed in school or added into the curriculum, many of the city’s community schools have set up Shanghainese courses intended for “new Shanghai citizens” who moved to the city from other places.

“To pay more attention to teaching Shanghainese to new Shanghai citizens would be very beneficial to their children’s adoption of Shanghainese,” Prof Qian pens.

Ms Chen confesses that if she has a child in Shanghai, she would be happy to learn Shanghainese and the Shanghainese culture together with her son or daughter, so “my child can somehow relate to Shanghai as their hometown”.

She says that due to her family background, she grew up speaking only Mandarin. Still, she supports the idea of protecting Shanghainese because dialect is “a symbol of a region” and “a bridge between a person and their native culture”.

“I don’t wish to see Shanghai children unable to understand Shanghainese one day. It would be very unfortunate. For one thing, many cultural nuances and household gossips can only be expressed thoroughly through dialect,” Ms Chen points out in Mandarin. “In this regard, I am a sad example. If you ask me to talk, I can only use Mandarin.”

#shanghai dialect #shanghainese #mother tongue #mandarin #local culture

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lastsonlost · 6 years ago

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SIXTEEN MONTHS INTO #MeToo, companies seeking sexual harassment insurance are facing intense scrutiny from insurers — a trend that could put pressure on firms to institute organizational change.

A recent report, authored by an insurance industry consultant, reveals new measures that insurers are taking to mitigate the risks of writing harassment policies, including decisions to exclude entire industries from their portfolios.

The increased vigilance comes as harassment complaints filed with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission are on the rise, perhaps sparked by the wave of #MeToo revelations. The EEOC received 7,609 sexual harassment charges in its 2018 fiscal year, up nearly 14 percent from 2017. These numbers don’t include an unknown number of complaints settled by victims who never contacted the federal regulator.

Ten of the 32 insurance companies polled by Richard S. Betterley, publisher of the Betterley Report, said they were not underwriting the legal industry. Financial firms, including brokers, investment banks, and venture capital operations landed on the prohibited lists of eight insurers. Seven insurers said they’d blacklisted companies in the entertainment industry. Betterley shared a copy of his report, completed in December, exclusively with The Intercept and Type Investigations.

Betterley reached out to the biggest companies offering what is called “employment practices liability insurance,” or EPLI, which covers sexual harassment, sex discrimination, and other employee claims. Among the companies responding to Betterley’s survey were AIG, Chubb, The Hartford, and Travelers.

EPLI insurers christen their products with names like “ForceField” and “Employment Edge” and sometimes market their wares with #MeToo paranoia in mind. A blogger at a Manhattan insurance brokerage asks readers, “Is your industry a snake pit for sexual harassment claims?” At Nationwide, a webpage devoted to EPLI insurance warns that “a business is more likely to have an employment claim than experience a fire.” To attract clients for their expensive policies, which can demand seven-figure premiums for large firms, some insurers offer extras, such as free consultations with an outside law firm and sample employee handbooks.

Betterley said in an interview that, with dozens of insurers offering EPLI policies, being blocked by some major providers doesn’t mean that companies in frowned-upon industries can’t get insurance at all. But it could now mean agreeing to higher premiums and deductibles and demonstrating that their problems “are under control and have been addressed,” he said.

For example, a problem company might have to show that it had set up a confidential outside service for employees to report complaints anonymously, Betterley said. Or that the company had circulated anti-harassment policies and set up sexual harassment compliance programs. A large employer with a history of harassment complaints might see a deductible soar from $1 million to $5 million, he said.

Companies with high-profile executives, big-name stars, or iffy corporate cultures are getting increased scrutiny, several insurers who participated in the survey told Betterley. One insurer said it had become more cautious about underwriting “any account with celebrity involvement.” Another said it was taking a more in-depth look at companies’ track records on pay equity.

When Betterley began tracking the insurance market for sexual harassment and other employee claims in 1991, he said, there were only five companies in the business. “But EPLI really got big after Anita Hill testified in the Clarence Thomas hearings, when insurance companies saw a business opportunity,” said Paula Brantner, senior adviser to Workplace Fairness, a nonprofit organization that advocates for workers’ rights. By the end of the 1990s, in the wake of several high-profile sex discrimination lawsuits against Wall Street firms, 10 firms were offering the coverage. Today, 50 to 55 companies are in the business, according to Betterley.

Employers paid $2.5 billion in premiums for EPLI insurance in 2017, before #MeToo, according to ISO MarketStance, a data provider. ISO estimates that premiums for U.S. firms will total more than $2.7 billion this year.

I read the application forms for five of the insurers that participated in Betterley’s survey. They ask expansive questions about a company’s procedures, including queries as to whether the firm has put in place formal procedures for terminations and employee complaints. They also, of course, demand detailed information about previous charges of sexual harassment. One insurer wanted a list of all incidents, including ones that have not triggered a formal complaint, with the name of the claimant, the allegations made, the settlement amount any complainant received, and what remedial actions were taken.

“Past is prologue from an underwriter’s standpoint,” said Betterley. “If you have a history of problems, it’s probably a problem for the insurer too.” Along with collecting hard data from an applicant, though, underwriters may factor in whether a company’s reputation is, in Betterley’s words, “a little on the sleazy side.” Insurers don’t necessarily raise their rates after a single sexual harassment case, he said, but companies with a pattern of harassment complaints are at risk of paying more. And companies with egregious histories might find that no one will insure them at all anymore.

Betterley said that some industries were viewed as risky long before #MeToo. “Sales mentality industries have been in deep trouble from an employment practices standpoint and maybe always will be,” he said. That puts car dealerships and stock brokerage firms on insurers’ high-risk lists, he said. Some of the best salespeople can be “a little egotistical and a little tone deaf and a little locker-roomy,” Betterley explained, adding that management often shields big producers when harassment complaints are made. Law firms, which can have their own culture of tolerating aggressive behavior by high-billing rainmakers, are similarly viewed by harassment insurers as high risk.

Several insurers told Betterley that their underwriters were increasing scrutiny of financial firms. Spokespeople at Merrill Lynch, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, and Morgan Stanley either declined to comment or didn’t respond to emails asking if they were experiencing difficulty getting EPLI insurance or were facing higher premiums or higher deductibles.

Insurers also told Betterley that in the wake of widespread allegations of sexual harassment and assault across industries during the #MeToo era, they are increasingly vigilant about vetting companies in the entertainment business. Queries to the Walt Disney Co., Sony Pictures, and Viacom, owner of Paramount Pictures, went unanswered.

AM Best, a global ratings firm for the insurance industry, suggested in a January 28 report that to combat corporate misconduct, companies “may choose to be proactive” by providing training and education for employees. Training, though, gets mixed reviews. Brantner, the employee advocate, said training programs have historically been focused on limiting a company’s liability — not necessarily on improving the workplace.

And even a well-constructed training program has its limits, said Betterley. “There are real jerks out there in employment land,” he said. “If they were trainable, wouldn’t it have happened by now?”

This article was reported in partnership with Type Investigations, where Susan Antilla

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blumguldbrandsen21-blog · 6 years ago

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These shells are going to kill or maim other people, quite possibly other children. Teaching children to gloat over that is a crime against humanity. I'm naive I know, but I believe that all countries and people have the right to defend themselves. However, in the current climate pre-emptive strikes and defending yourself is the right of a very small select club. Non-members are terrorists if they dare to even think about it. I hope all members in Haifa are safe. Well I hope that too, but Haifa only? No thought for Forum members from Lebanon. Not surprisingly, given the way the news is managed and presented in the Land Of The Free, the poster is American. No thought for the people in Lebanon so here are photos from today's Gulf News.

They're people too, just like the rest of us. Oh COME ON it's illegal! One day after promising to return them, the management of Skycom, a call centre in Dubai Internet City, is continuing to illegally hold its employees’ passports. In a meeting between the staff and the management on Saturday, the company agreed to return all the passports it was holding but employees told 7DAYS yesterday that Skycom has failed to do so. Rashad Akbar, global operations manager of Skycom, told 7DAYS yesterday that he would only return passports of workers who were leaving the company. “We will send them back and return their passports at the airport,” he said, refusing to comment on the rest of his employees.

I simply don't understand. Holding employees' passports is illegal under UAE law. Why is no action being taken against this company? And others who also routinely break the law? What is the point of passing laws if you're not going to enforce them. Each time I come into Dubai Airport I swear the hike from the aircraft to the taxi stand takes almost as long as the flight. Is there another airport with such huge distances to walk? Eventually I do come to the end of it all and then into the e-gate machine. What a great time-saving invention that is, full marks for that. On to the taxi stand and, for the second consecutive time, a female taxi driver.

Smart & clean in her uniform, polite, drove all the way down Sheikh Zayed Road to Dubai Marina below the speed limit and correctly using the indicators. I'll repeat that - below the speed limit and correctly using the indicators. A male taxi driver who overtook us seemed to find a female driver a novelty. He glanced into our cab as he screamed passed, dropped back then pulled alongside gabbling at his three European passengers while pointing at our driveress. Stayed alongside for about a kilometre, eventually got bored so did the big macho number and hit the accelerator hard. Singapore daytime was 31C and 'orribly 'umid - Dubai was the same at 3am. I actually found the humidity there much more oppressive, but I sure didn't miss the dust that swamped us as we drove through 'New Dubai'. I agree with Gulf News!

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castingdirect · 3 years ago

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PORNHUB AND OTHERS NAMED IN THE PANDORA PAPERS RELEASE: PornHub Owner Defends Offshore Companies ‘Handed In Accordance With law’

PORNHUB AND OTHERS NAMED IN THE PANDORA PAPERS RELEASE: PornHub Owner Defends Offshore Companies ‘Handed In Accordance With law’ The owner of Pornhub and others named in the Pandora Papers release which showed the extent that multi-millionaires were using offshore investments and accounts. David Tassillo, the co-owner of Pornhub – one of the world’s largest porn sites with an annual revenue of $97 billion – is among the ultra-rich who hid money away in known tax havens. Tassillo was listed on two companies registered in Delaware, a company in Anguilla, and a company in the British Virgin Islands, according to The Toronto Star. The Canadian newspaper was among several news outlets throughout the globe that received nearly 12 million documents leaked to the US-based International Consortium of Investigative Journalists. PORNHUB AND OTHERS NAMED IN THE PANDORA PAPERS RELEASE The so-called Pandora Papers revealed Tassillo was the sole owner of Appscrutiny LLC and Appiation Management LLC, which were both registered in Delaware. He also registered Singleron Ltd. In Anguilla, and Teckkix in the British Virgin Islands in 2017. Tassillo reportedly used nominee shareholders and directors to create the companies, which allowed him to hide his identity. He told The Star in a statement that: ‘Every facet of the business, including tax obligations, were handled in accordance with the law.’ It’s not clear why the companies were registered in known tax havens, nor was it revealed why nominee shareholders and directors were used. USING NOMINEE SHAREHOLDERS ALLOWED HIM TO HIDE HIS IDENTITY Tassillo said the companies were created to work with a firm building technology that identifies and scrubs the web of phony online accounts. ‘To support the business, we established companies in Delaware, like many Fortune 500 companies, as well as Anguilla and the British Virgin Islands,’ his statement said. He said the project, which was wrapped up in 2018, earned $100,000 with proceeds going to an unnamed Delaware company. LATEST SCANDAL OF PORNHUB AND OWNERS The latest scandal follows a lawsuit in June accusing Pornhub of profiting off of videos posted online without their consent, which featured rape, revenge porn and child porn. In the 179-page lawsuit against Pronhub’s parent company MindGeek, it was filed on behalf of 34 unnamed women in a California State Court. Of the 34 women, 14 were underage when the nonconsensual videos were uploaded and another 14 were victims of convicted se criminals. They lived throughout the US and in the UK, Colombia, Thailand and Canada. CRITICS CALLED OUT PORNHUB LATE LAST YEAR Late last year, the site was called out by critics for hosting inappropriate content. ‘Its site is infested with rape videos.’ ‘It monetizes child rapes, revenge pornography, spy cam videos of women showering, racist and misogynist content, and footage of women being asphyxiated in plastic bags,’ wrote Nicholas Kristof in a New York Times column that first exposed Pornhub. ‘A search for “girls under 18” or “14yo” leads in each case to more than 100,000 videos.’ ‘Most aren’t of children being assaulted, but too many are.’ Tassillo, a Canadian, is co-owner of Pornhub’s parent company MindGeek, which makes an estimated $97 billion a year, according to the lawsuit. Conversely, Netflix makes around $11.7 billion a year. TASSILLO RUNS PORNHUB ALONGISDE FOUNDER FERAS ANTOON The two men have been called to testify before the Canadian Parliament’s Ethics Committee on the New York Times allegations. ‘I would… like to ask them how they expect to remedy the harm caused to individuals who never provided their consent for images and videos to be shared,’ said Member of Parliament, Nathaniel Erskine-Smith, who introduced the motion. Tassillo lives a lavish life in Montreal, Quebec. He lives in a house in a quiet cul-de-sac in Laval, just north of Montreal. The home backs onto the Prairies River. OTHER CELEBRITIES IN THE PAPERS Tassillo is among celebrities such as Claudia Schiffer and Shakira who’ve been tied to the unprecedented Pandora Papers leak – which has revealed how the super wealthy used offshore companies to accrue wealth and make transactions. They are joined by Indian Cricket legend Sachin Tendulkar – as well as associates of Vladimir Putin and 35 World Leaders – after they were all found to have companies set up in tax havens. SHAKIRA The papers also claim Colombian pop star Shakira set up offshore entities in the British Virgin Islands to conceal assets. The ‘Hips Don’t Lie’ hitmaker is already embroiled in a legal battle with the Spanish Government, which has accused her of failing to pay taxes in Spain in the years 2012, 2013, and 2014. Shakira has previously said that during those years she lived in the Bahamas and was not a resident of Spain, only visiting the country ‘sporadically.’ However, a Spanish judge ruled in July there was ‘sufficient evidence’ to try her for evading more than £12 million in taxes. The pop singer is expected to insist she ahs done nothing wrong if she does not real a last-minute deal with state prosecutors and has to take the stand. PREVIOUSLY DENIED THE ALLEGATIONS Shakira has previously insisted she is innocent of tax evasion after she was questioned by a Spanish judge. She denied the allegations of not paying tax when she lived in Spain between 2011 and 2014, during an hour and a half long hearing in Esplugues de Llobregat, near Barcelona. Prosecutors claimed that the superstar failed to pay taxes in Spain despite being a resident in the country for four years before 2014. REMAINED RESIDENT IN BAHAMAS DESPITE CLAIMS SHE MOVED TO SPAIN While she is alleged to have moved to Spain in 2011 when her relationship with footballer Gerrard Pique was made public, prosecutors claimed she maintained her official tax residency in the Bahamas until 2015 when she started paying taxes in Spain. The case only covers the period from 2012 to 2014, as the time frame to prosecute alleged tax offences in 2011 has now expired. Her press team later had previously released a statement stating the Colombian Superstar was innocent and everything claimed by tax authorities had been paid. ‘There’s currently no debt,’ it said. Her defence team had argued that until 2014 she earned most of her money in International tours and did not live more than six months a year in Spain – and was therefore not a resident under tax law. CLAUDIA SCHIFFER In a response to their client being named in the report, representatives of the German supermodel Ms Schiffer, 51, said the mother-of-three currently pays her taxes in the UK, where she lives. SACHIN TENDULKAR Meanwhile, Mr Tendulkar’s lawyers have said his investment is legitimate and has been declared to the tax authorities. The cricket star is also reported to have dissolved an offshore company in the British Virgin Islands three months after the release of the former Panama Papers in 2016. PANDORA PAPERS The Pandora papers consist of 12 million documents from 14 financial services companies in countries including the British Virginia Islands, Panama, Belize, the United Arab Emirates, Singapore and Switzerland. They were obtained by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) before being studied by more than 650 reporters from BBC Panorama, the Guardian and more than 100 other news outlets. RAFFAELE AMATO Italian Mobster Raffaele Amato is also named in the leak, which shows how he used a shell company in the UK to buy land in Spain, where he fled to set up his own crime gang. Mr Amato, who has been tied to at least a dozen killings, is currently serving a 20-year prison sentence. His lawyers declined to comment. FAILINGS BY THE UK GOVERNMENT While many of the transactions leaked in the papers – made by tens of thousands of different offshore firms – feature no legal wrongdoing, they do expose how the UK Government has failed to bring in a register of offshore property owners. There are concerns that some of the purchases could be the work of money laundering – while some of those named now face allegations of corruption and global tax avoidance. The papers also exposed how current and former world leaders used offshore companies to carry out transactions. WORLD LEADERS They revealed that former Prime Minister Mr Tony Blair and his wife Cherie Blair saved some £321,000 in stamp duty when they bought an office in London by purchasing the offshore company that owned it. BLAIRS SPOKESWOMAN In a statement, a spokeswoman for the couple said they had bought the property ‘in a normal way through reputable agents’ and should not have been ‘dragged into a story about “hidden” secrets of Prime Ministers etc.’ The spokeswoman said: ‘The vendor was an offshore company – the Blairs had nothing whatsoever to do with the original company nor those behind it.’ She continues: ‘The vendor sold the company not the property – again a decision the Blairs had nothing to do with.’ ‘Since the purchase was of a company no buyer would have had to pay UK stamp duty on that transaction.’ ‘However, because the Blairs then repatriated the company and brought it onshore, they are liable for capital gains and other taxes on the resale of the property which will significantly exceed any stamp duty.’ ‘For the record, the Blairs pay full tax on all their earnings.’ ‘And have never used offshore schemes to hide transactions or avoid tax.’ VLADIMIR PUTIN Meanwhile, Russian President Mr Vladimir Putin was linked to secret assets in Monaco, while an offshore company owned by his alleged lover purchased a $4.1 million apartment below the principality’s casino. The luxury fourth-floor flat was purchased by Brockville Development Ltd, which was eventually traced back to Svetlana Krivonogikh, reported the Guardian. And the woman, who was 28 at the time, is said by Russian investigative outlet Proekt to be mother of Putin’s child, after giving birth to Elizaveta, or Luiza, in March of the same year. KING OF JORDAN The King of Jordan was able to secretly add £70 million worth of property to his portfolios in the UK and the US – mainly in Malibu, California, and London and Ascot, the papers showed. ANDREJ BABIS – CZECH PRIME MINISTER And the Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis – who is facing an election later this week - failed to declare an offshore investment company used to purchase two villas for $16.2 million in the South of France. The Pandora Papers are much larger than the landmark Panama Papers investigation, which rocked the world in 2016, spawning raids and new laws in dozens of countries and the fall of Prime Ministers in Iceland and Pakistan, reported the ICIJ. This time around, the papers also shine a light on the lawyers and the middlemen who are at the heart of the offshore industry. With the owners of more than 29,000 companies revealed from more than 200 countries and territories – mostly from Russia, the UK, Argentina and China. 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xtruss · 3 years ago

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Pandora Papers: Biggest Ever Leak of Offshore Data Exposes Financial Secrets of Rich and Powerful

Millions of documents reveal offshore deals and assets of more than 100 billionaires, 30 world leaders and 300 public officials

— Guardian Investigations Team | Sunday 3 October, 2021

Pandora papers reveal the inner workings of what is a shadow financial world, providing a rare window into the hidden operations of a global offshore economy. Illustration: Guardian Design

The secret deals and hidden assets of some of the world’s richest and most powerful people have been revealed in the biggest trove of leaked offshore data in history.

Branded the Pandora papers, the cache includes 11.9m files from companies hired by wealthy clients to create offshore structures and trusts in tax havens such as Panama, Dubai, Monaco, Switzerland and the Cayman Islands.

They expose the secret offshore affairs of 35 world leaders, including current and former presidents, prime ministers and heads of state. They also shine a light on the secret finances of more than 300 other public officials such as government ministers, judges, mayors and military generals in more than 90 countries.

The files include disclosures about major donors to the Conservative party, raising difficult questions for Boris Johnson as his party meets for its annual conference.

More than 100 billionaires feature in the leaked data, as well as celebrities, rock stars and business leaders. Many use shell companies to hold luxury items such as property and yachts, as well as incognito bank accounts. There is even art ranging from looted Cambodian antiquities to paintings by Picasso and murals by Banksy.

The Pandora papers reveal the inner workings of what is a shadow financial world, providing a rare window into the hidden operations of a global offshore economy that enables some of the world’s richest people to hide their wealth and in some cases pay little or no tax.

Quick Guide

What are the Pandora papers?

The Pandora papers are the largest trove of leaked data exposing tax haven secrecy in history. They provide a rare window into the hidden world of offshore finance, casting light on the financial secrets of some of the world’s richest people. The files were leaked to the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), which shared access with the Guardian, BBC and other media outlets around the world. In total, the trove consists of 11.9m files leaked from a total of 14 offshore service providers, totalling 2.94 terabytes of information. That makes it larger in volume than both the Panama papers (2016) and Paradise papers (2017), two previous offshore leaks.

Where did the Pandora documents from come?

The ICIJ, a Washington DC-based journalism nonprofit, is not identifying the source of the leaked documents. In order to facilitate a global investigation, the ICIJ gave remote access to the documents to journalists in 117 countries, including reporters at the Washington Post, Le Monde, El País, Süddeutsche Zeitung, PBS Frontline and the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. In the UK, the investigation has been led by the Guardian and BBC Panorama.

What is an offshore service provider?

The 14 offshore service providers in the leak provide corporate services to individuals or companies seeking to do business offshore. Their clients are typically seeking to discreetly set up companies or trusts in lightly regulated tax havens such as the British Virgin Islands (BVI), Panama, the Cook Islands and the US state of South Dakota. Companies registered offshore can be used to hold assets such as property, aircraft, yachts and investments in stocks and shares. By holding those assets in an offshore company, it is possible to hide from the rest of the world the identity of the person they actually belong to, or the “beneficial owner”.

Why do people move money offshore?

Usually for reasons of tax, secrecy or regulation. Offshore jurisdictions tend to have no income or corporation taxes, which makes them potentially attractive to wealthy individuals and companies who don’t want to pay taxes in their home countries. Although morally questionable, this kind of tax avoidance can be legal. Offshore jurisdictions also tend to be highly secretive and publish little or no information about the companies or trusts incorporated there. This can make them useful to criminals, such as tax evaders or money launderers, who need to hide money from tax or law enforcement authorities. It is also true that people in corrupt or unstable countries may use offshore providers to put their assets beyond the reach of repressive governments or criminal adversaries who may try to seize them, or to seek to circumvent hard currency restrictions. Others may go offshore for reasons of inheritance or estate planning.

Has everyone named in the Pandora papers done something wrong?

No. Moving money offshore is not in or of itself illegal, and there are legitimate reasons why some people do it. Not everyone named in the Pandora papers is suspected of wrongdoing. Those who are may stand accused of a wide range of misbehaviour: from the morally questionable through to the potentially criminal. The Guardian is only publishing stories based on leaked documents after considering the public interest. That is a broad concept that may include furthering transparency by revealing the secret offshore owners of UK property, even where those owners have done nothing wrong. Other articles might illuminate issues of important public debate, raise moral questions, shed light on how the offshore industry operates, or help inform voters about politicians or donors in the interests of democratic accountability.

There are emails, memos, incorporation records, share certificates, compliance reports and complex diagrams showing labyrinthine corporate structures. Often, they allow the true owners of opaque shell companies to be identified for the first time.

The files were leaked to the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) in Washington. It shared access to the leaked data with select media partners including the Guardian, BBC Panorama, Le Monde and the Washington Post. More than 600 journalists have sifted through the files as part of a massive global investigation.

The Pandora papers represent the latest – and largest in terms of data volume – in a series of major leaks of financial data that have convulsed the offshore world since 2013.

Setting up or benefiting from offshore entities is not itself illegal, and in some cases people may have legitimate reasons, such as security, for doing so. But the secrecy offered by tax havens has at times proven attractive to tax evaders, fraudsters and money launderers, some of whom are exposed in the files.

Other wealthy individuals and companies stash their assets offshore to avoid paying tax elsewhere, a legal activity estimated to cost governments billions in lost revenues.

After more than 18 months analysing the data in the public interest, the Guardian and other media outlets will publish their findings over the coming days, beginning with revelations about the offshore financial affairs of some of the most powerful political leaders in the world

They include the ruler of Jordan, King Abdullah II, who, leaked documents reveal, has amassed a secret $100m property empire spanning Malibu, Washington and London. The king of Jordan declined to answer specific questions but said there would be nothing improper about him owning properties via offshore companies. Jordan appeared to have blocked the ICIJ website on Sunday, hours before the Pandora papers launched.

The Azerbaijan president, Ilham Aliyev, and his wife, Mehriban Aliyeva. The Aliyev family has traded close to £400m of UK property in recent years. Photograph: Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

The files also show that Azerbaijan’s ruling Aliyev family has traded close to £400m of UK property in recent years. One of their properties was sold to the Queen’s crown estate, which is now looking into how it came to pay £67m to a company that operated as a front for the family that runs a country routinely accused of corruption. The Aliyevs declined to comment.

The Pandora papers also threaten to cause political upsets for two European Union leaders. The prime minister of the Czech republic, Andrej Babiš, who is up for election this week, is facing questions over why he used an offshore investment company to acquire a $22m chateau in the south of France. He too declined to comment.

The Czech prime minister, Andrej Babiš, is facing questions over why he used an offshore investment company to acquire a $22m chateau in the south of France. Photograph: Milan Kammermayer/EPA

And in Cyprus, itself a controversial offshore centre, the president, Nicos Anastasiades, may be asked to explain why a law firm he founded was accused of hiding the assets of a controversial Russian billionaire behind fake company owners. The firm denies any wrongdoing, while the Cypriot president says he ceased having an active role in its affairs after becoming leader of the opposition in 1997.

Not everyone named in the Pandora papers is accused of wrongdoing. The leaked files reveals that Tony and Cherie Blair saved £312,000 in property taxes when they purchased a London building partially owned by the family of a prominent Bahraini minister.

The former prime minister and his wife bought the £6.5m office in Marylebone by acquiring a British Virgin Islands (BVI) offshore company. While the move was not illegal, and there is no evidence the Blairs proactively sought to avoid property taxes, the deal highlights a loophole that has enabled wealthy property owners not to pay a tax that is commonplace for ordinary Britons.

War Criminal Tony and Cherie Blair bought a £6.5m office in Marylebone by acquiring a British Virgin Islands offshore company. Photograph: WPA Pool/Getty Images

The leaked records vividly illustrate the central coordinating role London plays in the murky offshore world. The UK capital is home to wealth managers, law firms, company formation agents and accountants. All exist to serve their ultra-rich clients. Many are foreign-born tycoons who enjoy “non-domicile” status, which means they pay no tax on their overseas assets.

The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, is also named in the leak. Photograph: Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, who was elected in 2019 on a pledge to clean up his country’s notoriously corrupt and oligarch-influenced economy, is also named in the leak. During the campaign, Zelenskiy transferred his 25% stake in an offshore company to a close friend who now works as the president’s top adviser, the files suggest. Zelenskiy declined to comment and it is unclear if he remains a beneficiary.

The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, whom the US suspects of having a secret fortune, does not appear in the files by name. But numerous close associates do, including his best friend from childhood – the late Petr Kolbin – whom critics have called a “wallet” for Putin’s own wealth, and a woman the Russian leader was allegedly once romantically involved with. None responded to invitations to comment.

The Pandora papers also place a revealing spotlight on the offshore system itself. In a development likely to prove embarrassing for the US president, Joe Biden, who has pledged to lead efforts internationally to bring transparency to the global financial system, the US emerges from the leak as a leading tax haven. The files suggest the state of South Dakota, in particular, is sheltering billions of dollars in wealth linked to individuals previously accused of serious financial crimes.

The offshore trail also stretches from Africa to Latin America to Asia, and is likely to pose difficult questions for politicians across the world. In Pakistan, Moonis Elahi, a prominent minister in prime minister Imran Khan’s government, contacted an offshore provider in Singapore about investing $33.7m.

Kenya’s president, Uhuru Kenyatta, will come under pressure to explain why he and his close relatives amassed more than $30m of offshore wealth. Photograph: Yasuyoshi Chiba/AFP/Getty Images

In Kenya, the president, Uhuru Kenyatta, has portrayed himself as an enemy of corruption. In 2018, Kenyatta, he told the BBC: “Every public servant’s assets must be declared publicly so that people can question and ask: what is legitimate?”

He will come under pressure to explain why he and his close relatives amassed more than $30m of offshore wealth, including property in London. Kenyatta did not respond to enquiries about whether his family wealth was declared to relevant authorities in Kenya.

The Pandora papers also reveal some of the unseen repercussions of previous offshore leaks, which spurred modest reforms in some parts of the world, such as the BVI, which now keeps a record of the real owners of companies registered there. However, the newly leaked data shows money shifting around offshore destinations, as wealthy clients and their advisers adjust to new realities.

Some clients of Mossack Fonseca, the now defunct law firm at the heart of the 2016 Panama papers disclosures, simply transferred their companies to rival providers such as another global trust and corporate administrator with a major office in London, whose data is in the new trove of leaked files.

Asked why he was migrating the new company, one customer wrote bluntly: “Business decision to exit following the Panama papers.” Another agent said the industry had always “adapted” to external pressure.

Some leaked files appear to show some in the industry seeking to circumvent new privacy regulations. One Swiss lawyer refused to email the names of his high-value customers to a service provider in the BVI, following new legislation. Instead, he sent them by airmail, with strict instructions they should not be processed in any “electronic way”. The identity of another beneficial owner was shared via WhatsApp.

“The purpose of this way to proceed is to enable you to comply with BVI rules,” the lawyer wrote. Referring to Mossack Fonseca, the lawyer added: “You are obliged to keep secrecy for our clients and to not make feasible at all a second ‘Panama papers’ story that happened to one of your competitors.”

Gerard Ryle, the director of the ICIJ, said leading politicians who organised their finances in tax havens had a stake in the status quo, and were likely to be an obstacle to reform of the offshore economy. “When you have world leaders, when you have politicians, when you have public officials, all using the secrecy and all using this world, then I don’t think we’re going to see an end to it.”

He expected the Pandora papers to have a greater impact than previous leaks, not least because they were arriving in the middle of a pandemic that had exacerbated inequalities and forced governments to borrow unprecedented amounts to be shouldered by ordinary taxpayers. “This is the Panama papers on steroids,” Ryle said. “It’s broader, richer and has more detail.”

At least $11.3tn in wealth is held offshore, according to a 2020 study by the Paris-based Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). “This is money that is being lost to treasuries around the world and money that could be used to recover from Covid,” Ryle said. “We’re losing out because some people are gaining. It’s as simple as that. It’s a very simple transaction that’s going on here.”

Pandora papers reporting team: Simon Goodley, Harry Davies, Luke Harding, Juliette Garside, David Conn, David Pegg, Paul Lewis, Caelainn Barr, Rowena Mason and Pamela Duncan in London; Ben Butler and Anne Davies in Sydney; Dominic Rushe in New York; Andrew Roth in Moscow; Helena Smith in Athens; Michael Safi in Lebanon; Robert Tait in Prague.

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hilarycaollins · 3 years ago

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globalstarcapital · 4 years ago

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New project principals from London United Kingdom have engaged the expertise of Global Star Capital and founder Rich Cocovich to align £52 M for a new commercial property buildout. Since 1991, we have assisted project principals in 126 countries and all 50 states in America by bridging the gap between our clients and high net worth private investors. Over $30 Billion USD awaits the project we represent from private families and investors who demand protocols are followed. If you are a solvent and prepared project principal who understands that high end expertise is not contingent, not free, not commission based and not a part of a closing, then you are welcome to apply at our main website www.globalstarcapital.com beginning in the Our Process section. #globalstarcapital #richcocovich #cocovich #globalstarcapitalreview #richardcocovich #richardcocovichreview #richcocovichreview #richcocovichworldtravels #privatefunding #projectfunding #capitalraising #equityfunding

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projectfundingservices · 4 years ago

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Global Star Capital founder Rich Cocovich recently met with new project principals in Ithaca And Geneva New York USA. All principals engaged the expertise of our firm to align over $45 M in private funding collectively in the agriculture and commercial real estate sectors. Since 1991, Cocovich and Global Star Capital have met and assisted with project principals in 125 countries and all 50 states. We are not brokers. We are experts and paid under a standard fee schedule. If you are a solvent and prepared project principal who understands that high-end expertise is not free, not commission based, not pro bono and not contingent then you are welcome to apply at our main company website www.globslstarcapital.com, beginning in the Our Process section. Over $30 Billion USD awaits the projects we represent from private investors world wide.

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the-targethumaneducation · 4 years ago

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ED-TECH SE LEVER

Ed-Tech est devenue une "star" dans le contexte de l'industrie de l'éducation a besoin d'une nouvelle fondation pour faire face aux épidémies.

La tendance à investir dans Ed-Tech, un terme faisant référence aux startups technologiques dans le secteur de l'éducation, renaît après un an de silence en raison de l'impact de l'épidémie.

NOUVEAU COMMERCE

Début mars, Nguyen Hoang Education Group a annoncé deux programmes de baccalauréat américain au Vietnam avec deux modes de participation: l'un consiste à étudier directement au SNA Marianapolis - Campus Bien Hoa; l'autre est l'apprentissage en ligne selon le programme de la Providence Country Day School (PCD), membre de la Hudson Global Scholars Organization, du Sterling Partners Education Investment Fund (États-Unis). Pour PCD, il s'agit d'un programme d'apprentissage mixte (apprentissage interactif direct en ligne) d'une durée de 2 à 3 ans. Les étudiants participeront au programme d'apprentissage en ligne après l'école PCD à plein temps dans les écoles de l'IEC Quang Ngai, de la UK Academy et de l'iSchool avec le soutien d'enseignants.

S'adressant au pont d'investissement (NCĐT), le représentant de Nguyen Hoang a déclaré que, face aux restrictions de voyage en raison de la traduction du COVID-19, l'apprentissage mixte est une méthode éducative largement appliquée. Par conséquent, le groupe a acheté les droits exclusifs du programme PC pour répondre aux besoins d'études à l'étranger des clients au Vietnam.

Il n'y a pas longtemps, Do Ventures et d'autres investisseurs ont également annoncé un investissement de 3 millions de dollars dans Manabie, une unité d'enseignement avec des clients du secondaire exploitant 5 succursales à Ho Chi Minh-Ville et une application mobile du même nom. Récemment, la startup ELSA avec Elsa Speak a réussi à lever le capital de la série B avec un capital total pouvant atteindre 15 millions USD. Jusqu'à présent, ELSA a appelé avec succès 27 millions de dollars en capital d'investissement. Selon M. Takuya Homma, fondateur de Manabie, Ed-Tech au Vietnam est très attractif car il en est à ses balbutiements, avec beaucoup de marge de développement. «Les Vietnamiens attachent une grande importance à l'éducation lorsqu'ils consacrent jusqu'à 20% du budget familial à l'éducation de leurs enfants», a déclaré M. Homma.

Il n'est donc pas rare que les entreprises Ed-Tech, les solutions d'éducation en ligne qui constituent la première préoccupation dans le contexte épidémique, n'aient pas encore été totalement maîtrisées. Bien qu'assez passionnant depuis le début de cette année, mais il faut reconnaître que les investissements dans Ed-Tech au Vietnam diminuent à partir de 2019. De 7 entreprises recevant des investissements d'une valeur totale de plus de 18 millions USD, a chuté de façon spectaculaire à 3 entreprises d'une valeur totale inférieure à 1 million USD à la fin de l'année dernière. Si vous y prêtez plus attention, l'ampleur des investissements dans Ed-Tech Vietnam qui a atteint un sommet de 50 millions USD (Topica en 2018) a également diminué depuis lors.

L'accord le plus important en 2020 est l'investissement du groupe Galaxy dans Hocmai. Il s'agit d'un fournisseur de programmes d'apprentissage en ligne pour les lycéens au Vietnam sur des plateformes de sites Web et des applications mobiles. Actuellement, 5 millions d'étudiants étudient le site Web hocmai.vn et plus de 800 000 étudiants étudient sur l'application. «À partir de la fin du mois d'août, la croissance du nombre de nouveaux utilisateurs dans Hocmai a doublé par rapport à la précédente», a déclaré Pham Giang Linh - directeur général de Hocmai.

S'adressant au chercheur par e-mail, Mme Le Hoang Uyen Vy, PDG de Do Ventures, a déclaré que l'éducation en ligne au Vietnam est toujours une industrie qui intéresse les investisseurs étrangers, en particulier lorsque COVID-19 fait la demande La demande d'apprentissage en ligne a explosé. ces dernières années. Cependant, précisément à cause du COVID-19, les déplacements entre les pays sont limités, ce qui empêche les investisseurs étrangers de rencontrer directement les startups. Cela se traduit par une prise de décision limitée pour les investissements de grande valeur. Cependant, l'année 2021 montre des signes plus positifs car il n'y a que 2 investissements à Elsa et Manabie, la valeur totale est presque égale à toute l'année 2019. Par conséquent, les investisseurs estiment que la situation s'améliorera lorsque la maladie sera sous contrôle.

CONCOURS ED-TECH AU VIETNAM

Le modèle Ed-Tech a commencé à décoller au Vietnam en 2006, les premiers noms participants étant Delta Viet of Dream Viet Education - DVE (renommé plus tard Kyna), hocmai.vn, violet.vn, FUNiX (FPT) ... à cette époque, il s'agissait principalement de compétences générales pour les étudiants. Les produits sont filmés avec une caméra vidéo, enregistrés sur un serveur et distribués via la plate-forme Internet. Cependant, en raison du faible auto-apprentissage des clients, du manque d'outils de connectivité et des restrictions de contenu en raison du fait que la loi n'autorise pas l'octroi de licences en ligne pour les programmes de formation formels, Ed-Tech était juste au coin de la rue. -financement de démarrage.

Topica, une unité Ed-Tech record avec un investissement de 50 millions de dollars au Vietnam, s'est démarquée de ce sommet en fournissant une technologie et des services de soutien à des universités réputées du pays. Cependant, le modèle Ed-Tech n'a pas de modèle de réussite commun dans le monde et les tendances d'investissement changent constamment. Par exemple, en 2013, le cours universitaire modèle (MOOC) assez proéminent avec Coursera (USA), a été ramené au Vietnam avec des représentants comme GiapSchool, FUNiX mais pas adapté.

Par conséquent, malgré quelques succès certains, Topica ne peut pas être le dénominateur commun pour tous et depuis lors, de nombreux autres Ed-Tech sont nés au Vietnam et desservent différents marchés. Plus précisément, selon Mme Uyen Vy de Do Ventures, il existe quatre grands domaines dans Ed-Tech: le contenu (leçons préenregistrées sous forme de vidéos ou de banques d'examens), les cours en direct (cours en ligne avec des enseignants, cela peut être sous forme de 1-1 ou en groupe), O2O (en ligne combiné avec un modèle hors ligne), B2B (solution de gestion de processus pour écoles ou établissements d'enseignement).

Les entreprises d'Ed-Tech ont le potentiel d'atteindre environ 16 millions d'élèves du primaire et du secondaire et 1,7 million d'étudiants. Cibler les clients d'Ed-Tech de la maternelle aux employés. Cependant, le groupe K-12, y compris les étudiants et les employés, est le groupe le plus actif avec jusqu'à 12 entreprises participant à l'exploitation minière, au moins 3 fois plus que les autres groupes. C'est le groupe avec le plus de besoins et de goulots d'étranglement sur le marché aujourd'hui, donc les entreprises qui servent ce groupe avec de bons produits auront une plus grande chance d'investissement et d'acquisition qu'Ed-Tech dans les domaines restants. Manabie, hocmai.vn sont des exemples typiques.

L'explication la plus appropriée de cette tendance est que, jusqu'à présent, la loi vietnamienne n'a pas eu de solution pour reconnaître les diplômes issus de l'apprentissage en ligne, et les licences doivent encore passer les examens fixés par le ministère de l'Éducation et de la Formation. Par conséquent, les modèles Ed-Tech, quelle que soit la technologie moderne, doivent résoudre le problème hors ligne, c'est-à-dire qu'il existe un lieu interactif ou un tuteur comme Manabie ou comment Nguyen Hoang fait avec PCD, pour que les étudiants puissent passer des examens importants.

Pour résoudre le problème de mise à l'échelle, ces plates-formes en ligne de ces entreprises sont développées pour répondre aux besoins d'apprentissage dans les zones reculées, où les revenus sont plus faibles mais veulent toujours accéder à des programmes de qualité dans les villes. Dans l'ensemble, les entreprises Ed-Tech devraient avoir tendance à ouvrir des réseaux de classe dans les grandes villes et à investir dans des plateformes en ligne pour attirer des apprenants éloignés.

En accord, M. Pham Giang Linh a déclaré que les deux types d'apprentissage hors ligne et en ligne se soutiendront très bien pour aider les apprenants à accéder facilement et facilement aux connaissances, à la pratique et à l'échange d'apprentissage avec les sources de connaissances. "Au Vietnam, nous pensons que l'investissement et le développement de modèles intégrés se feront fortement dans les 3 prochaines années, en particulier dans le secteur de l'éducation dans les entreprises et en dehors des écoles", a admis Linh.

Yola, après avoir reçu des investissements de Mekong Capital et Kaizen, a investi massivement dans des modèles d'apprentissage en ligne et des modèles O2O. S'entretenant avec le chercheur, Mme Ngo Thuy Ngoc Tu, présidente du conseil d'administration de Yola, a déclaré que les modèles Ed-Tech au Vietnam doivent encore commencer par aider les étudiants à mieux se préparer aux examens, à partir de là. Ouvrez la porte pour atteindre parents et étudiants.

La partie la plus difficile des processus d'apprentissage en ligne et traditionnels est de susciter la curiosité et de trouver des solutions à leurs domaines d'intérêt. Outre le contenu attrayant, la technologie est un moyen de répondre aux besoins des apprenants et de les mettre en relation avec des personnes partageant les mêmes idées. "Nous nous attendons à ce que lorsque les parents et les élèves comprennent la méthode de formation, l'apprentissage en ligne ou traditionnel ne sera pas un problème", a déclaré Mme Ngo Thuy Ngoc Tu. Cela crée également une incitation à collaborer pour Ed-Tech uniquement en ligne et Kyna en est un excellent exemple. Mme Ho Hong Bao Tram, cofondatrice du système d'apprentissage en ligne Kyna, a déclaré que la société recherchait une coopération pour posséder un modèle de formation traditionnel dans un proche avenir.

Kyna réussit assez bien avec la solution d'apprentissage de l'anglais Kynaforkids sur les applications mobiles et les sites Web, récompensée par le Financial Times et la Société financière internationale (IFC) pour ses solutions innovantes dans l'éducation et les modèles commerciaux durables en 2019. De même, l'application d'enseignement de l'anglais d'Elsa ces dernières années a également coopéré avec de nombreux centres d'enseignement de l'anglais tels que Petunia English, Speak Up ... Lorsque l'économie mondiale se rétablira et que les investisseurs espèrent réaliser Plus la marge bénéficiaire est élevée, plus les secteurs connaîtront une croissance rapide cette année.

Dans ce contexte, le Vietnam est actuellement dans le top 10 des marchés Ed-Tech à la croissance la plus rapide au monde, avec un taux de 44,3% en 2018. Selon Ken Research, le marché d'Ed-Tech au Vietnam pourrait atteindre une valeur de 3 milliards USD d'ici 2023 Avec l'explosion d'Internet et du mobile, le Vietnam est perçu comme un marché très potentiel pour les modèles Ed-Tech dans la région. Outre les entreprises nationales, de nombreuses entreprises étrangères ont également rapidement réalisé le potentiel du Vietnam. Certains grands noms de l'Ed-Tech sont déjà présents au Vietnam comme Snapask, Duolingo, Elsa et Ruangguru.

En général, les Ed-Techs au Vietnam sont constamment à la recherche du bon modèle pour répondre aux besoins de dépenses d'éducation et d'apprentissage des consommateurs vietnamiens. Cette recherche ne s'est pas arrêtée jusqu'à présent.

Cette tendance se produit également en Chine, qui représente plus de 50% de l'investissement mondial total dans le secteur Ed-Tech. Les entreprises Ed-Tech ici évoluent également fortement vers le modèle de la classe en direct, qui devrait apporter une nouvelle expérience d'apprentissage, inspirant pour surmonter partiellement la faible conscience de soi de l'apprenant. «Avec de nombreuses similitudes dans les habitudes de dépenses en matière de culture et d'éducation, la Chine disposera de nombreux modèles dont les entreprises vietnamiennes pourront s'inspirer», a déclaré Mme Le Hoang Uyen Vy.

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dipulb3 · 4 years ago

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Exclusive: UBS quietly bans advisers from pitching booming SPACs to clients

New Post has been published on https://appradab.com/exclusive-ubs-quietly-bans-advisers-from-pitching-booming-spacs-to-clients/

Exclusive: UBS quietly bans advisers from pitching booming SPACs to clients

Earlier this month, UBS (UBS) decided its wealth management clients will be allowed to trade SPAC shares only on an unsolicited basis, a person familiar with the matter told Appradab Business.

In other words, UBS advisers are not permitted to call their wealthy clients to encourage them to buy or sell specific SPACs trading on the open market. Once the newly merged entity has gone public, the UBS advisers will be allowed to pitch the stocks.

A UBS spokesperson declined to comment.

The decision was made, the person familiar with the matter said, because of the limited availability of information and research on SPACs before they merge with private companies.

Some SPACs ‘make no sense’

Indeed, little is known about SPACs until they determine what company they will target to bring public. SPACs don’t have operating businesses, just a blank check and a management team hunting for the right merger candidate.

The SPAC restrictions at UBS do not extend to SPAC IPO offerings. UBS financial advisers are still able to review these so-called primary SPAC offerings with eligible clients in deals where UBS is an underwriter of the IPO, the person said. (Private banks like UBS typically only offer these deals up to wealthy clients with net worth above a specified level.)

The SPAC restrictions by UBS come as some experts, including former Federal Reserve officials and famed investor Jeremy Grantham, worry the blank-check boom is overdone. US-listed SPACs have already raised more money this year than in all of 2020 — and the year’s first quarter hasn’t even ended.

“If you look at the SPAC market, there’s some really attractive new companies and new technologies coming to the market that are financing effectively,” Rick Rieder, BlackRock’s chief investment officer of global fixed income, told Appradab Business this week. “And then there are some that make no sense.”

Rieder expressed concern about how some SPACs will ever be able to grow into the elevated multiples they are garnering. “You’ve got to be really selective about where you go and not just jump onto that train because it’s gotten crazy,” he said.

Big banks like UBS are cashing in

Celebrities including Alex Rodriguez, Jay-Z and Ciara Wilson have all lent their star power to SPACs in recent months.

The SEC issued a warning last week urging investors not to buy SPACs simply because of a celebrity’s involvement. “Celebrities, like anyone else, can be lured into participating in a risky investment or may be better able to sustain the risk of loss,” the SEC said.

Big banks, including UBS, are cashing in on the SPAC craze. Investment banks receive fees in exchange for finding buyers for SPAC shares and putting a floor beneath their share price. These fees are not as large as what Wall Street firms make on traditional IPOs, but the sheer volume of SPAC deals have helped make up for that.

UBS was the primary underwriter, or book runner, on 22 US-listed SPACs last year, sixth among major Wall Street firms, according to Dealogic. The Swiss bank was one of the lead underwriters, along with Citigroup, for Bill Ackman’s SPAC, which raised $4 billion last July and is still hunting for a merger candidate. UBS has led another 15 SPACs so far this year, according to Dealogic.

UBS is actively hiring in this booming part of the capital markets business. A week ago, the company listed a position on LinkedIn for a New York-based investment banker squarely focused on SPACs.

Martin Blessing, the former co-president of UBS Global Wealth Management, reportedly launched a SPAC earlier this week aimed at buying a financial technology company.

It’s not clear whether other major banks are imposing similar restrictions. Wells Fargo declined to comment, while representatives from firms including Goldman Sachs, Bank of America and JPMorgan did not respond to inquiries.

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architectnews · 4 years ago

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Vridsløselille Masterplan, Copenhagen

Vridsløselille Masterplan, Danish Architecture Project, Albertslund Buildings, Urban Development

Vridsløselille Masterplan near Copenhagen

2 Dec 2020

Vridsløselille Masterplan

Design: Schmidt Hammer Lassen Architect

Location: Vridsløselille, Albertslund, Denmark

Two schemes recommended to form a combined vision for the future development of Vridsløselille prison site

The development plan for ‘Vridsløselille’ will re-imagine the site in Albertslund, close to Copenhagen, which once housed a state prison by turning its rich historic structure and surroundings into an attractive, green district with a distinct identity derived by its unique heritage.

Danish architectural firm Schmidt Hammer Lassen Architects and landscape architects BOGL aim to design a new district which will attract new residents and activity to the city of Albertslund. Driving west of the city, just 15 kilometers from central Copenhagen, a site with a former correctional facility and a stretch of other historical buildings along the area emerge. The site has for many years been a closed enclave, and the aim is, therefore, to open up the area towards the city.

Vridsløselille, a 160,000-square-metre district, will become a natural extension of Albertslund and its main thoroughfares. The flexible scheme will draw city life to the area where green parks and residential complexes are intertwined creating a strong synergy while making way for a variety of building typologies, urban qualities and common facilities. The new urban area will create new connections and destinations in Albertslund, focused on creating activated green spaces, urban farming as well as movement and sports facilities. Important connections, sightlines, and local identity will be maintained and enhanced. The main focus is laying the foundation for a healthy and social lifestyle with a broad spectrum of common areas and green spaces.

Morten Løgsted, Project Development Manager at A. Enggaard A/S, says: “It has been an exciting process to follow the five selected teams and their approach to the site. The diversity and depth of the initial project proposals are quite spectacular. The two projects, recommended by the jury, clearly shares a common vision for the site and at the same time holds individual strengths. The next step will be to merge those proposals and integrate their distinct qualities into a combined masterplan for the area.”

Making the historic, star-shaped building the beating heart of the development Our design includes five different districts with their own identity and direct access to nature – Skovbyen, the Northern district characterized by urban villas among two forest clusters; Bevægelsesbyen, the Western district with terraced, multi-storey houses with semi-public squares and intimate urban spaces; Grobyen, the largest and most populated South-Western district containing residential units up to 7 floors where community and interaction play a central role; Portbyen, the Southern district along the railway housing up to 10-storey buildings; and Havebyen, the Eastern district characterized by more intimate Renaissance gardens.

Inspired by the unique relic of the past, the iconic star-shaped prison building is surrounded by trees which once stood as a security fence. The proposal focuses on opening the area and drawing new connections through the “Loop”, a new main pathway surrounding the site and tying the different districts together with the existing prison structure.

“Our vision for Vridsløselille is to create a new neighborhood with a green heart for all citizens, an area that strengthens the social, climatic and landscape cohesive force in Albertslund,” said Kristian Ahlmark, Partner and Design Director at Schmidt Hammer Lassen. “We will preserve as much as possible of the existing prison building and integrate some of the complex’s secondary buildings to enhance original qualities. Some old wings will be teared down but will be rebuild with a deep respect for the original geometry, marking the existing star-shaped complex as the star of the show. In this way, we aim to encourage participation and sharing through converting some of the structures into common places for everyone to enjoy.”

Jens Linnet, Design Lead Landscape and Creative Director at BOGL, says: “Vridsløselille is a unique place, forming its own ‘universe’ in a modernistic city. It has been incredibly exciting to transform the area by creating a characteristic identity that also reaches out to the rest of Albertslund. We have used the history, walls, and old gardens of the existing site to create a new meeting place for the whole city.”

Ahead are several years of close cooperation with Freja Ejendomme and The Municipality of Albertslund until local plans are approved. Architectural studio COBE is the other team selected for Vridsløselille’s redevelopment. For more information (in Danish), visit Freja Ejendomme.

Schmidt Hammer Lassen has a variety of ongoing masterplan projects in Denmark and abroad including Sydhavnskvarteret, a masterplan for the South Harbour District in Aarhus, Denmark, and Molobyen, a flexible development in Bodø, Norway.

About Schmidt Hammer Lassen Architects Schmidt Hammer Lassen Architects, part of global architecture and design firm Perkins&Will, is one of Scandinavia’s most recognized and award-winning architectural practices. The company was founded in Aarhus, Denmark in 1986 and is led today by partners Morten Schmidt, Kim Holst Jensen, Kristian Lars Ahlmark, Chris Hardie, Mads Kaltoft, Kasper Frandsen, Elif Tinaztepe, Tiago Pereira, and Sanne Wall-Gremstrup. The firm provides skilled architectural services all over the world, with a distinguished track record as designers of international, high-profile architecture. Cultural and educational buildings, offices, commercial, retail, and residential buildings, often in mixed-use developments and complex urban contexts, are cornerstones of the firm’s output. The practice has extensive global experience in the design of libraries and other public and cultural landmark buildings, and its innovative, sustainable, and democratic approach to architecture has attracted global attention, winning more than 100 national and international awards.

Vridsløselille Masterplan near Copenhagen, DK – Design Information

Design: Schmidt Hammer Lassen Architect

Client: Freja Ejendomme, The Municipality of Albertslund

Architect: Schmidt Hammer Lassen Architects Building Area: 160,000 sqm Competition: Parallel assignment, 2020 Landscape architect: BOGL Engineer: Týrens: Sub-consultants AKTII: Via Trafik Acoustics: Gade & Mortensen

Visuals: Schmidt Hammer Lassen Architects+BOGL

Vridsløselille Masterplan, Copenhagen images / information 021220

Location: Copenhagen, Denmark, Denmark

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Comments / photos for the Vridsløselille Masterplan near Copenhagen page welcome

Website: Vridsløselille prison site

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