Efforts to reuse cooking oil and food waste as biofuel are spreading among Japan’s restaurant chains and food manufacturers. In addition to being an effective way to recycle cooking waste, such efforts are gaining attention as a means of decarbonising delivery and production processes. Nagoya-based food chain operator Sagami Holdings Co has launched an initiative in which it refines waste oil from deep-fat fryers into bio diesel fuel for transportation trucks. The company started the initiative at 10 outlets in Kyoto and Osaka prefectures, with the cooperation of a Kyoto-based biofuel manufacturer and distributor, and local transportation operators. It uses…
Author: Asia News Network
When new rules come in force from April 1, buyers of property or vehicles will still be able to use digital money as a guarantee, but not to pay for the purchase, a senior official from the Bank of Thailand said recently. Naphongthawat Phothikit, director of the central bank’s Payment Systems Policy Department, said the use of cryptocurrencies as deposits or investments is still allowed, though they will be banned as payment for goods and services. Under the new rules, business operators including crypto exchanges are prohibited from providing payment services promoting the use of digital assets and cryptocurrency to…
As fruit and vegetable exports to China face difficulties, many Vietnamese enterprises have spent hundreds of millions of dollars to invest in systems and processing plants to sell their products in Europe and the US. Vinamit JSC director-general Nguyen Lam Vien said: “China is becoming more and more strict in quality control, traceability, packaging. Their ‘Zero Covid’ policy makes it difficult for many fruit and vegetable exporters. “For Vinamit, with more than 20 years of experience in doing business in the market, with carefully prepared planting area and standard processing and packaging, the strict disease control affects the fulfilment progress.…
Indonesia’s National Commission on Violence Against Women (Komnas Perempuan) has called on the Supreme Court to reject a legal attempt to overturn provisions on consent in state guidelines for on-campus sexual violence, following a successful bid to revise another nondiscriminatory policy. The national struggle to protect women against sexual violence has often been complicated by the more conservative elements of Indonesian society, who are reluctant to endorse rights that go beyond prevailing religious and cultural norms. Some sections of the population are more forthcoming, actively blocking any progressive policy-making, as was the case in May last year, when a mass…
On March 24, the Belt and Road Initiative International Green Development Coalition (BRIGC) launched the report, Green and Low-Carbon Transition of ASEAN Member States under the BRI Framework – Potentials and Opportunities. The report points out, as its title suggests, that “China and ASEAN’s cooperation in green and low-carbon transition is at a historical juncture of huge opportunity.” ASEAN member states, in the face of tortuous recovery of the world economy and climate crisis, are now in a critical period of economic development and industrial transformation and upgrading. According to the ASEAN Plan of Action on Energy Cooperation (APAEC) 2016-2025…
The global recorded music market grew by 18.5 percent in 2021 despite the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, according to the annual global music report released by the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry on March 22. The IFPI is the voice of the recording industry worldwide, representing over 8,000 record company members across the globe with affiliated organisations in over 70 countries. China ranks sixth-largest music market in the world, according to the report. In 2021, China occupied the seventh spot. Driven by growth in paid subscription streaming, the total revenues for the global music market were $25.9 billion…
K-POP stars are known for donning designer items with styles their fans would like to follow. But most of their items have a hefty price tag and most fans do not usually have the same access to high-end brands. For example, a fur coat by Dan Cassab worn by Blackpink’s Jennie costs $3,600. Due to the high price, some fans opt to buy more affordable costumes replicated by local artisans, including in Indonesia. The K-pop market in Indonesia is a big one. According to Twitter, Indonesia is listed under the top 20 countries tweeting about K-pop. The rampant exposure to…
This year sees the third edition of curator Zhu Yujie’s group female art exhibition, a project hosted annually with the aim of offering more opportunities to women artists. The exhibition Metaphor and Gaze opened in Shenzhen’s La Vie Art Center, Guangdong province, on February 27. Zhu says that she has been consciously and continuously learning about gender theory since university, and her master’s studies in culture, criticism and curation at Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design in the United Kingdom drew her attention to the understated roles of women in art history. “Women artists still have relatively fewer…
The UAE on March 24 reaffirmed that it would invest in Indonesia’s new capital city project through an existing $10 billion funding commitment to the Indonesia Investment Authority (INA). UAE ambassador to Indonesia Abdulla Salem Obaid al-Dhaheri said that a portion of the funds would be directed toward the new capital project, while the remainder would go to other projects in strategic sectors such as infrastructure, food security, logistics, E-learning, digital infrastructure and vaccines. “The UAE is committed to investing in developing a new capital city in Kalimantan, also encouraging other parties to also invest in this project, which is…
The Lao kip has continued to depreciate over the past week against the US dollar and the Thai baht, propelled by a supply-demand mismatch. Meanwhile the deposits in foreign currencies increased from 60.78217 trillion kip ($5.2 billion) in June 2021 to 75.39539 trillion kip in December 2021, according to the Bank of Lao PDR’s (BoL) monetary statistics posted on its website. According to BCEL exchange rates on March 16, $1 bought 11,580 kip and sold for 11,606 kip, and one baht bought 356.36 kip and sold for 359.05 kip, whereas on March 23, $1 bought 11,580 kip and sold for…