HONG KONG SAR – Media OutReach – 7 May 2023 – The Wealth Management Expo 2023 presented by Bank of China (Hong Kong) and organized by Metro Finance FM 104 was successfully staged on 6 May at the JW Marriott in Hong Kong. Themed “Forecasting Economic and Trade Trends, Embracing Wealth Opportunities.”, a number of top-tier financial and economic experts, as well as political and business celebrities, provided the high-end customers and investment professionals with a comprehensive analysis and advice to assist them in capturing opportunities and managing wealth.
Physical classrooms across
Asia, like this Japanese High School, were recreated online during the onset of
COVID-19
SINGAPORE – Media OutReach – 9 June 2020 – Since the
onset of the pandemic early this year, education ministries across Asia have
pushed for mass migrations online, with the help of Microsoft Teams,
Office 365 and Microsoft Azure, enabling millions of students to continue to
learn from home. Beyond ensuring lesson continuity, schools have been
facilitating real-time interactivity between teachers and students in class
while enabling students to discover, create and share.
Widespread shift to remote learning
Finding and deploying the right tools
quickly was instrumental in managing the seismic shift in the education
landscape caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
In Vietnam, the Ministry of
Education and Training deployed Microsoft Teams in a record time of 27
hours for more than 200 schools in Hai Phong city. In over 2 months,
Teams was successfully adopted for more than 3.3 million teachers and students
from primary and secondary schools, high schools and institutes of higher
learning across the country.
Similarly, the Tokyo Metropolitan
Board of Education adopted Microsoft Teams and Microsoft 365 Education to create
a conducive and interactive environment online. This was launched in early May for
more than 160,000 students and 20,000 teachers across 253 Tokyo Metropolitan
high schools, special needs schools and other schools administered by the Board
of Education.
Educational institutions were also pressed to re-create the physical
classroom experience. In Taiwan, the Ministry of Education (MoE)
enabled 2.5 million students and 200,000 teachers from grade schools to
universities to learn remotely using free Office 365 and Microsoft Teams accounts
tied to their National IDs. The fusion of Office 365 apps and Teams allowed for
seamless sharing of presentations and documents, while other apps like Microsoft
Whiteboard for Windows 10 facilitated productive remote discussions in
real-time. Online lessons were recorded and stored automatically in Office
365’s video service Microsoft Stream for students to review at their own time.
Dr.
Huan-Chao Keh, President of Tamkang University in Taiwan, said, “In light of
the number of students affected by the travel restrictions, we were quick to
implement several precautionary and mitigation measures. With our IT staff and
the Microsoft team working around the clock to make the course content
available for the instructors, as well as the strong support of all the faculty
members, we are confident that we helped minimize the impact of COVID-19 on our
students’ education.”
Exploring new ways to teach and learn
The integration of applications on
Office 365 and Microsoft Teams also included Minecraft: Education Edition and Flipgrid, which were made available at no
extra cost to students in Thailand. There, the Ministry of Higher
Education, Science, Research and Innovation (MHESI) teamed up with partners
LannaCom and Microsoft to provide access to Office 365 A1 and Microsoft Teams
for over 150 universities across the country, covering more than 60,000
educators and 2 million students.
Dr. Suvit Maesincee, Minister of
Higher Education, Science, Research and Innovation (MHESI) Thailand, said: “We turned
this COVID-19 crisis into an opportunity by allowing students from all universities
across Thailand to continue their education through a 100% online learning
system. This takes the learning experience to a higher level in line with
modern learning methods — an outside-the-classroom learning that goes beyond a
simple video conferencing experience.”
Upscaling with Microsoft Azure
To cope with the volume of learning
taking place online, the Educational Broadcasting System (EBS) in South
Korea deployed Microsoft’s cloud Azure to expand its system’s service
capacity by 500 times within two weeks, granting access to 3 million middle and
high school students across the country.
Ji Eun Lee, CEO of Microsoft Korea said
that they have been receiving many inquiries requesting them to share their
experiences about holding the world’s first online classes in Korea. “We
will do our best to provide a constant educational environment based on our
global experiences and capabilities,” she said.
Re-educating teachers
Behind the successful deployment of
these learning tools came an equally steep learning curve, as educational institutions
stepped up to mobilize and equip educators with the proper skillsets for online
learning.
In the Philippines, the
executive committee of the Department of Education (DepEd) moved quickly
to train educators upon the nation’s lockdown in March. Department Secretary Leonor
Briones used Microsoft Teams to hold a meeting with 17 regional offices,
addressing critical issues faced by teachers and students. The industry was
kept connected via weekly “Ask the Expert” sessions for officers, as
well as “TeamsTalk“, a bi-weekly online meet-up for teachers to catch up
and solicit advice from one another.
Meanwhile, in Malaysia, the Ministry
of Education (MoE) and Digital Classroom Admin (DCA), with the help
of Microsoft, rose to the challenge by conducting daily webinars to introduce
teachers to Microsoft Teams and Office 365. Training sessions were recorded on
Teams and uploaded on MoE’s Digital Learning portal (Ruang Ilmu), enabling over
430,000 teachers across the nation to review training materials at their own time.
About Microsoft
Microsoft
(Nasdaq “MSFT” @microsoft) enables digital transformation for the era of an
intelligent cloud and an intelligent edge. Its mission is to empower every
person and every organization on the planet to achieve more.
First-of-its-kind virtual event from 15 to 17 October 2020 allows home buyers to enjoy 3D walk-throughs of newly launched condominium projects and their surrounding environments
SINGAPORE – Media OutReach – 8 October 2020 – MOGUL.sg, a property
technology (PropTech) start-up, has today announced the launch of Singapore’s
first-ever 3D Virtual Property Expo. Featuring Singapore Land Authority (SLA)’s OneMap3D and taking
place from 15 to 17 October 2020, the Expo will be hosted on the MOGUL.sg
platform and is aimed at assisting home buyers with their property search and
decision-making process.
Featuring
more than 21 newly launched condominium and commercial projects by developers such
as GuocoLand, Far East Organisation, CapitaLand and Four Seasons, the Expo will
allow potential buyers to experience the properties and their surrounding
environments via three-dimensional walk-throughs — even before they have been
built. This means that online visitors can tour the neighbourhood and discover
nearby amenities. MOGUL.sg and its partners believe that this will help prospective
buyers determine if the property and the neighbourhood suit their lifestyles
and priorities.
The unique 3D
mapping feature also allows home buyers to look outward from within each
property to appreciate the virtual view and outward facing line of sight — from
any floor in the building. These features also apply for businesses looking to
lease or rent commercial or office spaces.
“GuocoLand
has a proven track record for developing luxury residential developments that
are known for their quality, innovation, lush landscaping and liveability. We
look forward to giving visitors of the 3D Virtual Property Expo a closer look
and a deeper understanding of our projects, as well as what they offer in terms
of flexibility and connectivity that will uplift home owners’ quality of life,”
said Dora Chng, General Manager (Residential), GuocoLand.
In
Singapore, the average home buyer spends at least six months viewing property
listings before making a purchasing decision. For each new build listing, home
buyers typically spend time painstakingly visiting a showroom, before visiting
the property’s location to assess the neighbourhood. With this time-consuming
process already engrained in consumers’ search behaviour prior to COVID-19, the
3D Virtual Property Expo aims to transform the traditional concept of showrooms
and eliminate common house-hunting inconveniences.
“Home buyers
care a great deal about the neighbourhood and nearby amenities, often asking
about nearby supermarkets and schools, while carefully assessing transportation
links. Environmental considerations are also important, with buyers commonly
thinking about which direction the property faces and the proximity to roads,
highways and other sources of noise,” said Gerald Sim, Co-founder and Chief
Executive Officer, MOGUL.sg. The 3D Virtual Property Expo will allow buyers to
see and assess these factors first-hand via detailed 3D maps, without having to
travel to multiple spots across Singapore. This will make the process of buying
or renting a property smoother, much more convenient, and should remove some
friction in the transaction that we have all become accustomed to.”
The
first-of-its-kind 3D viewing capabilities for local properties was enabled
using MOGUL.sg’s geospatial technology expertise and proprietary machine
learning algorithms, combined with the application programming interfaces
(APIs) and geospatial data from OneMap3D Beta — an open-source 3D platform
announced by SLA on 17 September 2020.
“As an early
user of OneMap3D Beta, we see the platform’s potential for delivering immersive
3D experiences, not just for viewing new homes but entire neighbourhoods as
well,” Sim continued. “We would like to thank SLA for giving us the opportunity
to showcase OneMap3D Beta at our event.”
Meeting home
buyers’ end-to-end property discovery, financing and renovation needs
The 3D
Virtual Property Expo will also offer end-to-end services for home buyers. All project
launches showcased at the Expo will incorporate first-hand information on the
project facilities and prices from their respective developers. Visitors with
queries on any project can jump into live chats with the developers’ direct representatives
and consultants.
For those
looking to make purchases via the Expo, Maybank Singapore will provide home
loan affordability assessment. This ensures that home buyers get the best
price from developers for their property of choice and extends the convenience they
enjoy from home discovery to mortgage financing.
“At a time
when more home buyers are turning to online service platforms for their needs,
Maybank Singapore is committed to being at the heart of the community to
provide convenient access to financing, while ensuring fair terms and pricing.
This Expo aims to deliver a viewing experience that many will find as
informative as visiting the physical spaces. To support those who wish to make
a purchase, we will be available online to provide consultation on
affordability assessment and advisory on home loan application processes,” said
Alan Yet, Head of Consumer Finance, Maybank Singapore.
In addition,
Expo visitors can access virtual fireside chats, hosted by Singapore radio
personality and media industry veteran Michelle Martin, on property
financing information shared by Maybank Singapore, the developers themselves,
and mortgage brokering platform Mortgage Master, along with
relevant advice, insights and offers from other lifestyle service providers.
MOGUL.sg’s overarching
mission to digitally enable the real estate sector
The upcoming
3D virtual event represents another milestone for MOGUL.sg, as it accelerates
its mission of digitally enabling home buyers, home renters, property sellers
and property agents in Singapore to search, buy and sell in a smart and
hassle-free manner. Following recent partnerships with leading property
agencies OrangeTee & Tie (OTT) and Century 21 Singapore Holdings, MOGUL.sg has also been accepted
into Enterprise Singapore’s Enterprise Development Grant programme to catalyse the
development of its proprietary technologies.
The first
major property portal in Singapore that harnesses artificial intelligence,
locational data and geospatial technology to streamline the home buying process,
MOGUL.sg has seen tenfold user growth in the past three months. This
contributed to a record-breaking SG$25 million worth of properties being transacted
through its platform within two weeks after Singapore’s COVID-19 ‘circuit
breaker’ period.
Launched in
2018, MOGUL.sg is a cutting-edge real estate platform that harnesses proprietary
geospatial technology and government agencies’ geospatial data to redefine the
meaning of ‘where’. The company aims to digitally enable home buyers, home
renters, property sellers and property agents in Singapore to search,
buy and sell in a smart and hassle-free manner. MOGUL.sg features more than 30,000
property listings in Singapore, with individuals able to use redefined search
parameters to easily find their dream home. It also offers additional international
investment opportunities for real estate projects in the US, the UK, and the
Asia-Pacific region. For more information, please visit: www.mogul.sg
