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The Association of Hong Kong Professionals Proposes Innovative Measures to Curb Pandemic
Smart Vent Protector + Long-term Wastewater Monitoring System to Block Community Infections at Source & Eliminate COVID-19 Local Outbreaks
HONG KONG SAR – Media OutReach – 4 January 2021 – The Association of Hong Kong Professionals (“AHKP”) today put forward two recommendations on how the HKSAR government should introduce innovative measures to effectively handle current virus outbreak, so that Hong Kong can reach a target of zero community infection numbers as soon as possible:
Recommendation 1: Smart Vent Protector
There are many high-rise buildings in Hong Kong. Since SARS was discovered in 2003, in order to ensure that pipes do not harbour and spread viruses, the safety and design of water traps and exhaust pipes have been a primary consideration of industry experts. Although many buildings have adopted improved “double-U” water trap designs, with the outbreak of the new virus, vent pipes have become the means of spreading the virus between different flats in the same building, thereby increasing risks for residents.
The Association of Hong Kong Professionals proposes innovative measures to curb pandemic﹕(from left) Ir Fredrick Keung (Vice Chairman)、Sr Edgar Li (Vice Chairman)、Sr Samsong Wong(Chairman)、Dr Jeffery Pong (General Vice Chairman)、Ir Allen Law (Vice Chairman)
Chairman of AHKP and Building Surveyor, Mr Samson Wong San, and his SWA professional team, started developing the Smart Vent Protector (“SVP”) six months ago. Their aims were to make improvements in current ventilating pipe systems to achieve sustainable public health safety and greatly reduce concerns of the public and within the industry about the possibility of such vent pipes spreading viruses.
After several months of research and improvements, development of the SVP has made great progress and has now received full support of the Construction Industry Council (CIC). It is planned for the SVP to be officially launched onto the market in 2021 to help Hong Kong citizens fighting against the pandemic.
Mr Samson Wong said: “In order to improve the air quality of exhaust pipes, the Smart Vent Protector incorporates advanced technologies for sterilisation and deodorisation. It only needs to be installed on the top of existing exhaust pipes on the roof of the building to effectively disinfect foul air from the pipes, so that the risks of spreading viruses and bacteria can be reduced. SVP can also help greatly reduce the public and the industry’s worries about exhaust pipes, and set new standards for building safety. It is a milestone in the architectural, construction, engineering and surveying industry.”
Recommendation 2: Establish a long-term wastewater monitoring system to detect community infection at source and effectively curb COVID-19 local outbreak
AHKP believes that in order to prevent the spread of coronavirus in buildings and communities in Hong Kong, it is necessary to stop it at the source. Establishing a long-term wastewater monitoring system to detect any new coronavirus in housing estates, nursing homes, hotels and similar buildings in Hong Kong can further prevent any spread. With reference to research reports by teams from different countries in recent months, it is apparent that wastewater monitoring in communities is an effective tool for identifying transmission routes. Some cities have already set up dashboards to display the concentration of SARS-CoV-2 in wastewater.
The recommendations of AHKP include the use of the test results and scientific analysis of the virus in wastewater to assess infection trends in specific communities. This will help improving existing clinical and laboratory monitoring data, and concentrate resources for more effective usage; buildings and communities can also carry out better environmental management.
Furthermore, AHKP recommends that government introduce policies that support, organise and train professionals in various related industries, including registered laboratories with qualifications to collect environmental samples of any coronavirus, property management officers, building services engineers, and building surveyors, etc., to assist in taking samples in a standardised manner from underground drain pipes and manholes related to a building’s underground drainage system. The samples collected then can be sent to a registered laboratory for analysis. By doing so, the Centre for Health Protection can immediately receive the relevant reports for systematic assessment and justify their decision for a regional compulsory testing plan with other pandemic prevention measures. This can be one of the effective monitoring measures to help stopping the spread of COVID-19 to achieve the goal of virus elimination as well as provide more job opportunities.
Dr. Pong Chiu Fai, Executive Vice Chairman of AHKP, said: “Establishing a long-term wastewater monitoring system to detect any coronavirus not only can detect outbreaks, but also fight a pandemic effectively. Under a severe pandemic situation, the best way to cut off all invisible transmission chains is to implement drastic measures such mandatory testing and reducing the mobility of citizens. Their livelihood can only be restored if cases are eliminated as soon as possible, and this will lead Hong Kong out of the current situation”.
Mr Samson Wong, Chairman of AHKP, believes that the traditional contingency plans for dealing with infectious diseases does not seem to be applicable to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Mainland could manage to have close monitoring the situation, and cities locked down under certain circumstances, so that a large number of tests for the virus can be organised to suppress the pandemic.
However, Mr Wong also commented that although the SAR Government has not been able to follow the same approach in full due to differences in the social system, it should arrange adequate resources in a timely manner and choose strict principles of epidemic prevention and more surveillance methods to continuously innovate measures to deal with the pandemic. Everyone should carry on with the basic goal of eliminating all cases because, once measures are relaxed, the situation may rebound and become more severe again. Further resources will then have to be used to fight the disease and recovery will be delayed.
Please download more photos from below link﹕https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1MN4ZoDs0QbPVfKAEqZVSc3tWdpSmDwqG?usp=sharing
About the Association of Hong Kong Professionals (AHKP)
The Association of Hong Kong Professionals (“AHKP”) was established in August 2005, a non-profit seeking organisation dedicated in promoting Hong Kong professional services industries, contributing to citizens’ livelihood, upholding our core values, and enhancing Hong Kong professionals’ representation and competitiveness. As of 2018, over 600 professional individuals have joined AHKP, spinning across the spectrum of ten professional institutions, including doctors, dentists, barristers, lawyers, engineers, architects, planners, surveyors, landscape architects, accountants and company secretaries. AHKP is always advocating in Hong Kong social and economic policies and development, as well as accelerating professional exchange between Hong Kong and Mainland China.
Website: http://ahkp.com.hk/
Please download AHKP’s journal here: http://ahkp.com.hk/hk/journal/
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HKGSEO Provides Free Website SEO Analysis and Consulting Services
HONG KONG SAR – Media OutReach – 5 January 2021 – The COVID-19 epidemic has lasted for nearly a year. The sharp fall in the street traffic has been affecting core shopping districts everywhere. In addition, under the “Anti-epidemic Fund”, the Innovation and Technology Commission (ITC) launched the ” Distance Business (D-Biz) Programme subsidy. Increasing number of large and medium-sized enterprises have turned to the online market, setting up websites and opening online shops, in an effort to open up online sales channels to recover some of their businesses during the epidemic.
As many companies are not familiar with website technology, website optimization and SEO promotion are often ignored. In fact, SEO is one of the highest ROI of many online marketing channels and it is worthy of a long-term investment.
HKGSEO has performed SEO for more than 500 enterprises, with the SEO process bringing considerable traffic and sales to the companies. Leveraging on their years of experience, they now provide free website analysis (worth HK$2,000) for all content types. Here are some website analysis projects HKGSEO has engaged in:
CMS Web Content Management System
We recommend using the most popular CMS in the market to build a website. Well-known CMS such as WordPress, Wix, Shopline, and Shopify will make it easier to manage web content and make the website easier to crawl and index by search engines.
HKGSEO hence cautions against web design companies that use their own CMS. Generally speaking, these websites are not SEO friendly. For example, they might have undesirable attributes such as duplicate page titles, dynamic URLs, or category pages that cannot update new content, etc. These attributes are disadvantageous to implementing SEO plans, which ultimately leads to the redesigning of the entire website, resulting in a much higher cost.
SSL Website Security Certificate
If your website does not have an SSL certificate (HTTPS) installed, it will be marked as an insecure website by the browser, which will adversely affect the credibility and conversion rate. SSL should be installed immediately to protect customer information, especially for e-commerce websites. There are some free SSLs available on the market, such as Let’s Encrypt, with paid premium certificates recommendation by online shops.
Mobile Version of The Website
The latest personal computer and Internet penetration survey published by the Census and Statistics Department shows that more than 5.97 million people in Hong Kong have mobile phones, and 99.7% of the users access the Internet on smartphones, higher than those connected to computers or other devices. Besides, Google has launched the Mobile-First Indexing mobile version of content priority indexing. If your website does not have a mobile version, the ranking will be poor and a lot of traffic will be lost.
Website Loading Speed
According to research, more than 68% of viewers will leave a website when it takes more than 3 seconds to open. The main reason for the slow loading is the use of shared hosting or non-local hosting. Switching to local hosting, SSD or CDN can effectively improve the loading speed.
Website Content
Is the website content of high quality? Does it answer the questions of potential consumers? To build up the content, some corporate websites have piled up keywords, and some have published blog articles regularly. However the content of the articles is sometimes plagiarized from news media. Plagiarism makes search engines recognize the overall website quality as low, which will in turn affect the ranking.
Websites and online shops are platforms that promote businesses. An optimized website will reward twice the results with half the effort of both online and offline marketing campaigns combined.
Please log onto www.hkgseo.com, fill in the website, email and contact number, and our network promotion experts will reply within one working day and arrange a free SEO analysis and consultation.
About HKGSEO
HKGSEO focuses on website SEO services. It is founded and operated by former Google employees. The company is based in Hong Kong and has branches in Shenzhen, Singapore and Australia. It is committed to providing affordable, one-stop digital marketing solutions for small and medium-sized enterprises. Digital marketing solutions include: SEO, SEM, social media promotion and web design, etc.
Website (Chinese)：www.hkgseo.com
Website (English)：www.hkgdigital.com
Email：[email protected]
News
Jollibee Foods Corporation Recognized with Two Global Employer Excellence Awards
MANILA, PHILIPPINES – Media OutReach – 8 January 2021 – Jollibee Foods Corporation (JFC) recently received two global citations recognizing the company’s excellence as a world-class employer. These international awards affirm JFC’s commitment to be a best-in-class workplace that values and takes good care of its people.
A First for the Philippines. Jollibee Foods Corporation (JFC) is the only Filipino company to date that has been recognized by the Gallup Exceptional Workplace Awards. JFC was also cited in this year’s Forbes’ List of the World’s Best Employers. Some brands under JFC include Jollibee, Chowking, Mang Inasal, Greenwich, Red Ribbon, The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf, Smashburger, and Tim Ho Wan.
Gallup Exceptional Workplace Award
Jollibee Foods Corporation, also known as Jollibee Group, is the first ever Philippine-based company to be recognized with the Gallup Exceptional Workplace Award (GEWA), given to only 38 organizations worldwide whose cultures drive high engagement among its employees. Winners of the Gallup Exceptional Workplace Award put people at the heart of their business strategy, focusing on people’s strengths and coaching talents to reach their full potential, unleashing human motivation, creativity, and innovation as a result.
“This award is Gallup’s highest honor, presented only to organizations that meet rigorous standards of excellence. As an award winner, you rank among the most elite organizations around the globe,” said Gallup in its letter to the Jollibee Group.
Forbes’ List of the World’s Best Employers
In this year’s Forbes’ list of the World’s Best Employers, the Jollibee Group is one of only three Philippine-based companies that were cited.
Forbes partnered with market research firm Statista to survey 160,000 employees from 58 countries who were asked to rate their willingness to recommend their own employers to friends and family. They were also asked to rate their satisfaction with their employers’ Covid-19 responses and score their employers on image, economic footprint, talent development, gender equality and social responsibility.
“We are honored to receive these global awards that reflect the kind of organization and strong culture of Jollibee Foods Corporation. We take pride in having professionals in our teams who are not only excellent in what they do, but also live the values that make the Jollibee Group what it is today,” said Jollibee Group President and CEO Ernesto Tanmantiong. “We know that a company is only as strong as the quality of its people, and it is our people who incessantly inspire us to be better.”
“To all our teams across the world, thank you for your commitment and trust in the Jollibee Group. We will continue to uphold the culture and values that have made us who we are and develop programs that will continuously uplift our teams,” Tanmantiong added.
The Jollibee Group has a dedicated People Agenda in its business strategy, characterized by a people-focused culture, strong talent pipeline, and highly engaged teams. The organization is defined by its values of customer focus, speed with excellence, humility to listen and learn, integrity, and spirit of family and fun. Despite challenging external factors, employees remained resilient and engaged with the Jollibee Group mission of serving great-tasting food, bringing the joy of eating to everyone.
In previous years, the Jollibee Group has also received global citations–named as Philippines’ most admired company by the Asian Wall Street Journal for ten years and honored as one of ‘Asia’s Fab 50 Companies’ by Forbes Asia Magazine.
Jollibee Group is one of the fastest-growing Asian restaurant companies in the world with 16 brands including Jollibee, Chowking, Mang Inasal, Greenwich, Red Ribbon, The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf, Smashburger and has a joint venture with the Tim Ho Wan Group to open Michelin-starred Tim Ho Wan restaurants in Mainland China.
About Jollibee Group
Jollibee Group is one of the fastest-growing Asian restaurant companies in the world. It operates in 34 countries, with over 5,800 stores globally with branches in the Philippines, United States, Canada, the People’s Republic of China (including Hong Kong and Macau), United Kingdom, Italy, Vietnam, Brunei, Singapore, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Oman, Kuwait, Bahrain, Indonesia, Costa Rica, Egypt, El Salvador, Panama, Malaysia, South Korea, Japan, and India. It has eight wholly-owned brands (Jollibee, Chowking, Greenwich, Red Ribbon, Mang Inasal, Yonghe King, Hong Zhuang Yuan, Smashburger), three franchised brands (Burger King and Panda Express in the Philippines, Dunkin’ Donuts in certain territories in China), 80% ownership of The Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf, and 60% ownership in the SuperFoods Group that owns Highlands Coffee and PHO24 brands.
Jollibee Group is a significant investor in Titan Dining LP, a private equity fund and the ultimate holding entity of the Tim Ho Wan (THW) Brand and has a joint venture with the THW Group to open THW restaurants in Mainland China. It also has a business venture with award-winning Chef Rick Bayless for Tortazo, a Mexican fast-casual restaurant business in the United States.
Jollibee Group was named the Philippines’ most admired company by the Asian Wall Street Journal for ten years. It was also honored as one of Asia’s Fab 50 Companies and among the World’s Best Employers by Forbes. In 2020, Gallup awarded the Jollibee Group with the Exceptional Workplace Award, making it the first Philippine-based company to receive the distinction.
Jollibee Group has grown brands that bring delightful dining experiences to its customers worldwide, in line with its mission of serving great tasting food and spreading the joy of eating to everyone.
News
SunMirror AG Plans CHF 70 Million Raise to Fuel Growth
| – Fresh capital to develop existing portfolio of mining assets and roll-up new ones – Renewed focus on tier-one jurisdictions, including its highly accretive Europe business |
SunMirror intends to carry out a capital increase in the volume of up to CHF 70,000,000 by issuing of up to 1,000,000 new shares at a price of CHF 70 per share. The new shares will be offered to select, institutional strategic investors for subscription in a private placement. SunMirror is already experiencing brisk demand from institutional investors. The company plans to use the funds from the capital increase to expand its portfolio and business activities in tier-one jurisdictions, such as Australia and highly accretive Europe. The capital increase, lead by Opus Capital Switzerland AG, is expected to be closed in February 2021 when the shares shall also be admitted to the regulated markets of the Dusseldorf Stock Exchange followed by inclusion into trading on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange and on Xetra. An introduction onto the London Stock Exchange is planned for the 2nd Quarter 2021.
Explanatory Part
The creation of new authorized capital in the nominal amount of CHF 837,500 to CHF 1,000,000 was approved at SunMirror’s Annual General Meeting, held in Zug on 29 December 2020. The creation of new conditional capital of CHF 837,500 to CHF 1,000,000 was also approved. In addition, the Company decided to carry-forward the Balance Sheet result for the fiscal year (1 January 2020 to 30 June 2020) in full.
Strong tailwind from high iron ore and gold prices as indicator for sustainable demand
Dr Heinz Rudolf Kubli, Director of SunMirror AG, recently commented: ‘Battery technology is expected to evolve from the current lithium-ion battery (LIB) to next-generation high-capacity LIBs, all solid-state batteries, and lithium metal-based batteries, resulting in improvements in energy density, safety, and battery lifespan, as well as reduction in cost. We currently own or are planning to acquire prized sites in Australia that shall be developed with the potential to help enable this transformation. In addition, we would like to see SunMirror expand its strategic metal and mineral portfolio in Europe to provide traceable metals for an increasingly sustainability driven European batteries market for electric vehicles and others powering next-gen consumer and industrial technology products. Together, these markets continue to grow significantly. The outlook for the future metals and minerals SunMirror is aiming to market remains very attractive; Meanwhile, iron-ore prices are trading at record-highs, and gold is climbing again.’
About SunMirror AG
SunMirror is a natural-resources holding company with a strategic focus around gold and other critical resources – those metals and minerals powering demand for next-generation sustainable technology. The company’s shares (ISIN CH0396131929) are listed on the electronic Stock Exchange Xetra in Vienna (ticker: ROR1) and on the Dusseldorf Stock Exchange. For more information please visit: www.sunmirror.com.
About Opus Group
Opus Capital Switzerland AG and Opus Capital Asset Management AG (‘Opus Group’) specializes in bringing-to-market tomorrow’s next-generation natural resources firms, today, by combining its strong industry expertise together with one of Switzerland’s leading independent financial services firms. For more information please visit: http://www.opus-capital.ch.
HKGSEO Provides Free Website SEO Analysis and Consulting Services
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