Huawei banned in Australia but its iFlytek incorporated into Top Group/IMC infrastructure in Australia

 by Ganesh Sahathevan

                                               https://fb.watch/esp3VL9_NE/

The video above at the link https://fb.watch/esp3VL9_NE/ is about the Communist Party China linked Top Education Group, these days rebranded as Australian National Institute Of Management And Commerce, incorporating iFlytek systems into its infrastructure. iFlytek is part of Huawei, which is banned in Australia.

TO BE READ IWTH 

Wednesday, June 17, 2020

Many Australian government agencies have now adopted iFLYTEK products: iFLYTEK blacklisted by the US Govt for persecution of Uyghurs

by Ganesh Sahathevan

China’s AI champion iFlyTek brushes off US entity list inclusion with bullish profit forecast


In the words of iFLYTEK, in a press release dated 20 January 2020:

Many Australian government agencies have now adopted iFLYTEK products.

This is intriguing, given that iFlytek was blacklisted by the US Government in October 2019 for its part in supplying AI that was used in the persecution of Muslim Uyghurs in Xinjiang. 

The decision is astonishing given iFlytek's partnership with Huawei.


TO BE READ WITH 

Friday, April 17, 2020

iFlytek & Huawei formed a strategic partnership in 2018, collaborated since 2010: NSW LPAB , Law Council Australia still silent about their approval of Zhu Minshen's Law School & his business with iFlytek given the Uyghur persecution

by Ganesh Sahathevan

Zhu Minshen and his Top Education Group Ltd's business with iFlytek is still of no concern to the NSW Legal Profession Admission Board, TEQSA and the Law Council Australia, despite iFlytek being sanctioned in the United States. The US banned iFlytek for its part in the Chinese Government's persecution of Xinjiang's Uyghurs.

The fact that iFlytek has actively collaborated with Huwaei since 2010 is  also it seems of no concern to the NSW LPAB which is chaired by the Chief Justice of NSW, Tom Bathurst. 

Bathurst, the Law Council Of Australia and the Attorney General of NSW Mark Speakman are primarily responsible for granting  Zhu and his law school entry into the  NSW and Australian legal establishment, despite his links to the Communist Party of China,and his undermining of the authority of the Australian Federal Police.

TO BE READ WITH


iFlytek: The voice of AI

2018.09.19 By Xu Shenglan, Xue Hua

AI is on a clear upward trajectory and is reshaping all aspects of life. According to Hu Yu, Executive President and Consumer BG President of iFlytek, AI is starting to approach human intelligence.  Serving hundreds of millions of users with its world-leading technologies, iFlytek started off as a pioneer in China’s voice recognition industry and has now evolved into a global leader in AI. But it all started with a little twist of fate.

From intelligent voice to Super Brain

Founded in 1999, iFlytek’s primary goal was to make machines talk, something that even today is reflected in the company’s mission: “We want the world to hear our voice.” And that’s starting to happen – the company is now at the forefront of the AI phenomenon.

Hu smiles as he recalls, “We had no idea at the time that we were working on AI. At least we weren’t sure what AI really was. We also weren’t aware that 1999 was a bad year for AI, as the second wave of AI innovation had just peaked.” Slightly tongue-in-cheek, he says, “If we’d known that AI was going to be such a tough business, we might never have started the company. I guess it was just fate.”

Around 2004, AI wasn’t the hot tech it is today, says Hu, but his team had come to realize that they were holding a key piece of AI. “The biggest difference between human intelligence and animal or machine intelligence is cognitive intelligence. It comes from our mastery of language and how we express knowledge, which allows us to do logical reasoning and complex decision-making,” he says. The cognitive revolution around voice and language, Hu believes, is the peak of human intelligence and the biggest challenge for AI today.

Hu is the leader of the iFlytek Super Brain Project, which was launched in 2014, “It’s much more than just a fancy name. We announced our definition of AI as computational intelligence.” He asserts that machines were much more powerful than humans since the day they were invented, citing AIs that play the board game Go as an example of computational intelligence. “Humanoid machines possess both perceptual intelligence and motion intelligence. That means they can see, hear, and feel the surrounding world. Today there are some impressive humanoid and animal-like machines,” he says.  “However, the reason we’re at the top of the planet’s food chain is language, or ‘cognitive intelligence’.” According to Hu, one of the goals of the Super Brain Project is to evolve machines from the level of perceptual intelligence, where they can hear, talk, see, and recognize, to the level of cognitive intelligence, where they can understand and think.

Currently, Super Brain is using big data to train and optimize its algorithms. They’re not trained by simply cramming all kinds of data into the system; instead, the system actively processes data from interactions in real-world scenarios, and uses that data to update itself. Hu believes this style of self-enhancement is like the ripple effect, where the volume of data grows exponentially as the product reaches more people, enabling his team to more rapidly iterate and optimize the product experience. 

No shortage of awards

iFlytek boasts leading tech in areas like speech synthesis, voice recognition, voice assessment, and translation. From 2005 to now, the company has racked up 13 consecutive wins at the Blizzard Challenge, the world’s leading speech synthesis contest. It’s also won various machine translation championships, including the IWSLT 2014 and NIST 2015. Over the past six years, iFlytek’s voice recognition accuracy has improved from 60.2 percent to over 98 percent. The company’s strengths in voice tech became a natural bridge into the world of AI and its industrial application.

iFlytek is also researching the dynamic of AI and neurology. Through computing based on the human brain, iFlytek is trying to unlock the mystery of our intelligence. If they succeed, it may pave the way towards Artificial General Intelligence, meaning human levels of intelligence, one of AI’s holy grails.

Translation on the fly

iFlytek started applying AI to the real world in the shape of natural language processing (NLP) back in 2010, when it developed China’s first voice input product and the second of its kind in the world, after Google. iFlytek’s system has an accuracy of more than 98 percent and supports 22 different Chinese dialects.

In 2016, iFlytek released its first smart device, the iFlytek Translator, which it followed up in April 2018 with the 2.0 incarnation. Offering real-time interpretation between Mandarin and 33 other languages and Chinese dialects, it also translates text in photographs and can be used on 4G or Wi-Fi networks or offline. Most of its users – 86 percent – use it on vacation. Translator 2.0 has also mastered the accents of four major dialects in China’s complex and voluminous linguistic web: Cantonese, Sichuanese, Northeastern Mandarin, and Henan dialect, with support for more expected in the future. In an advance for NLP, the product can recognize different situations and adapt to its users’ language tics.

“There are some who say that there’s no need to build a translator device because the translation function can be integrated into a smartphone. But we made a deliberate decision to sell our translator as a hardware device,” says Hu. First, he explains, we tend to hold our phones close to our faces, which might not always be possible depending on the scenario. Second, phones are affected by ambient noise. Third, Hu believes that intelligent hardware must be easy to use. The best experience is something that works with a single click, but using an app on a smartphone isn’t always easy or intuitive. Fourth, the translation process should allow for natural and intuitive interaction, and sticking your smartphone in someone’s face isn’t always socially acceptable.

In 2012, iFlytek launched its voice cloud platform as part of its efforts to build an ecosystem for the AI industry. Since then, more than 860,000 developers have worked on the platform, which connects 1.9 billion devices and provides nearly 4.6 billion interactive services each day. 

In 2015, iFlytek launched the human-machine interaction interface AIUI, hitting a milestone in the AI industry. AIUI redefined the standards for human-machine interaction in the connected era. Hu adds, “In 2017, iFlytek was announced as one of China’s first open innovation platforms for next-generation AI and our platform will focus on intelligent voice technology. The government clearly recognizes the importance of the ecosystem built on our company’s AI.”

AI: An industry enabler

iFlytek is also applying intelligent voice and AI technology to different sectors, including the judiciary and education.

In the justice system, iFlytek is working with China’s Supreme People’s Court and Supreme People’s Procuratorate (public prosecutors). In 2016, a test in Anhui Province showed that an AI system could identify phone scams with a very high level of accuracy. Moreover, a pilot study found that trials were 30 percent shorter when intelligent voice recognition was used instead of a human reporter.

In education, AI has outperformed all expectations in scoring test papers. In a test in Jiangsu Province, two different AIs scored a series of college entrance test papers. For Chinese essay questions, the two AIs differed by an average of less than seven points per paper. They were 92.82 percent consistent – more than 5 percent higher than the average consistency of two human teachers. A trial in Hunan showed similar scores. 

iFlytek is currently working with China’s National Education Examinations Authority to build an AI lab to jointly develop more advanced technologies for education.

A partnership covering multiple markets 

iFlytek and Huawei have formed a strategic partnership to develop practical applications for voice and AI technology in the areas of telecoms and smart devices, building on nearly a decade of collaboration. In 2010, the two companies deployed the world’s first open cloud platform for Chinese voice recognition. 

In May 2018, Huawei and iFlytek signed a strategic agreement covering four areas: public cloud services, ICT infrastructure, smart devices, and office IT systems. Huawei also integrated iFlytek’s AI technology into its smartphones to gain an edge over its competitors. Huawei and iFlytek are working on smart devices and device cloud services based on iFlytek’s voice AI technologies and capabilities, including voice recognition, speech synthesis, iFlyrec, and iFlytek translation.

In the enterprise space, Huawei uses iFlytek’s technology and products in its infrastructure and its own office applications. The iFlytek speech engine will form a key component of Huawei’s Enterprise Intelligence cloud platform. Hu believes that in the intelligence era, all AI applications will run on the cloud. As cloud computing consumes a lot of resources, device computing and edge computing will better support AI. 

Each with its own strengths and ecosystems, we’re certain that Huawei and iFlytek will help build a strong AI ecosystem and make AI a valuable asset to life, business, and society. 

Josh Frydenberg, former Australian Treasurer who oversaw Australia's refusal to investigate ANZ's role in the 1MDB theft, appointed Goldman Sachs Senior Regional Adviser for Asia Pacific

 by Ganesh Sahathevan 

Goldman Sachs has  announced the appointment of Josh Frydenberg as Senior Regional Adviser for Asia Pacific.

Josh was elected to the Australian Parliament in 2010 as the Member for Kooyong in Victoria. In August 2018, he was elected Deputy Leader of the Liberal Party and was appointed Treasurer of Australia. He previously served as Minister for the Environment and Energy, Minister for Resources, Energy and Northern Australia, Assistant Treasurer and Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister since the 2013 election.

In other words, Josh was the person ultimately responsible for not investigating ANZ Bank's role in the 1MDB theft. 

It is also interesting that Josh is not concerned by this announcement of 22 October 2020, from the US Department Of Justice:

The Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (Goldman Sachs or the Company), a global financial institution headquartered in New York, New York, and Goldman Sachs (Malaysia) Sdn. Bhd. (GS Malaysia), its Malaysian subsidiary, have admitted to conspiring to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) in connection with a scheme to pay over $1 billion in bribes to Malaysian and Abu Dhabi officials to obtain lucrative business for Goldman Sachs, including its role in underwriting approximately $6.5 billion in three bond deals for 1Malaysia Development Bhd. (1MDB), for which the bank earned hundreds of millions in fees.  Goldman Sachs will pay more than $2.9 billion as part of a coordinated resolution with criminal and civil authorities in the United States, the United Kingdom, Singapore, and elsewhere. 

TO BE READ WITH 

Australia And New Zealand Slide From Their Responsibilities Over Mass Corruption In Malaysia

• 21 Jul 2017
 
•  BM 翻译
 

What has turned the sleazy 1MDB corruption scandal, involving a wide-boy from Penang and a dirty Malaysian politician, into a global issue, has been the light it has thrown on the willingness of major financial instutions to turn a blind eye to massive money laundering.

This has in turn been permitted by deliberately under-staffed regulators, controlled by ‘First World’ politicians, who see no benefit in dealing with corruption in places like Malaysia. They have been willing instead to see their own institutions make money out of the proceeds and to hell with the human misery caused back where the thieves are thieving.

Confronted with the blatant nature of the grubby pillaging of 1MDB, however, and the huge sums flushed through property, businesses and the art market, countries like the United States, Switzerland and Singapore have taken action and are punishing financial facilitators in their regions.

Yet, down south, Australia and New Zealand are still doing their best to pretend none of this was to do with them.

ANZ Bank is the most atrocious example of this failure, since the Australian regulators have done absolutely nothing to investigate, let alone chastise or punish blatant failures by this bank to control vast money laundering activity in a subsidiary where it was the dominant shareholder, namely AmBank.

All the top responsible personnel in charge of compliance, executive decisions and customer care at AmBank were on secondment from ANZ and remained primarily employed by ANZ during their periods of deployment at the KL subsidiary.

Yet, when questioned about the failure of this substantial body of Australian staff members to honestly do their jobs, the response of the bank has been that they had no control over their seconded employees, who in turn were apparently not responsible for their own failures to carry out their legal obligations and report money laundering.

ANZ want to have their cake and eat it. They wanted to be able to brag that AmBank was, thanks to their own investment and major shareholding, a top class bank, run according to the highest global benchmark standards. Yet, when it turned out to be a corrupted can of worms, ANZ have turned round and said they cannot be held responsible.  No one in Australia’s regulatory establishment is holding them to account.

The cover-up is now well underway.  Lowly staff have been sacked, those more senior have quietly retired and ANZ is eagerly preparing to sell off its stake in AmBank, so it can slide away unscathed.

Stunningly, the proposed purchaser of that stake is none other than the Malaysian Government/Najib controlled public pension fund KWAP, which was itself already a victim of 1MDB, having lent some RM4billion to the fund, which Najib then proceeded to notoriously help himself to.  No accounts have been filed for KWAP since December 2015.

Yet now, once again, this public pension money is being funnelled in to get a 1MDB player off the hook and the Australian bankers responsible are showing not the slightest degree of contrition over their responsibility for the this disgraceful outcome.

It is shameful behaviour that will come back to haunt those who have failed their duties.

Trust Us No More! New Zealand’s Reforms Expose Past Lies

In New Zealand, meanwhile, 1MDB has had a different impact, which the authorities are equally attempting to ignore, according to financial commentators who have passed on their observations to SR.

A headline catching court case at the start of the year in Aukland, saw Jho Low win an important battle in his fight to hang on to a previously secret trust he and his family had used to park ownership of hundreds of millions of dollars worth of assets around the world (including in London, Singapore, Paris and the United States) all of which had been purchased with money stolen from 1MDB.

Justice TooGood agreed that in order to contest the asset seizures the Lows could regain control of the New Zealand trust, which they had pretended Rothschild bank had been managing on their behalf – thereby proving that such trusts (which then existed by the thousand in New Zealand) are effectively bogus fronts.

But, if Jho Low won that battle, the exposure of this rotten system seems to have lost the war for the New Zealand bogus trust industry. Following the Panama Papers outcry and cases such as this one the government was forced to officially investigate the scandal and then implement reforms, which included new regulations requiring that the beneficiaries of the thousands of rich man trusts set up in New Zealand now need to be declared.

No longer could such billionaires hide behind companies registered in the Caymans, Bahamas or Mauritius.

No problem, if such individuals are indeed the genuine article.  A review of the country’s trusts by one of its top financial big-wigs, John Shewin  had concluded it could find absolutely no instances where the lax system in New Zealand had been abused. Although, Mr Shewin conceeded that it would plainly be possible to do so, hence these telling reforms.

Shine A Light And The Roaches Run

Now the reform has been implemented as of June 30th of this year, it has predictably resulted in some devastating figures.  This from the country’s own Business News:

“.. new foreign trust disclosure rules came into effect in New Zealand on June 30, which meant foreign trusts have to register with Inland Revenue and provide particulars of all parties, including the settlor and beneficiaries, and assets. They will also have to file annual returns and pay registration and filing fees.

New Zealand had 11,645 trusts in April last year but fewer than 3000 have registered with Inland Revenue under the law changes. Some 3000 said they didn’t want to operate under the new rules while another 5000 didn’t respond, meaning they will be struck off.

However, as financial writer Graham Adams has told Sarawak Report “Extraordinarily, the government is spinning this as trusts finding the new conditions to be onerous rather than evidence of the trusts formerly being used to hide illicit money and packing up shop because their cover has been blown”.

And, so it seems. The government minister responsible appears to believe the whole episode provides a grand excuse for New Zealand’s regulators to pat themselves on the back rather than hang their heads in shame over years of harbouring thousands of crooked accounts:

“Revenue Minister Judith Collins said the drop in trust numbers was not surprising and it shouldn’t be assumed that was because many had been handling the proceeds of illegitimate activities.  “There is a much heavier compliance burden under the new regime with more disclosure required than ever before.”.. she said, adding New Zealand now had a “world class regime”.[Stuff NZ]

Who believes that – after all, how burndensome is it to write down your own name?

Nor is this system yet ‘world class’.  The New Zealand Government have notably refused  to extend to the full transparency that would actually be expected of a benchmark regime i.e. an open register where journalists and others could cross reference potentially illegal activity.

This means that, for example, Sarawak Report is unable to inform Malaysians whether Jho Low and his family are one of the few to have re-registered their trust in New Zealand.  They may have done so. After all, in the end they got what they wanted from the courts despite being fully exposed in the process.

Like Australia with its banks, New Zealand should be ashamed of the comparatively paltry $40 million a year that certain financial folk were making out of facilitating grand theft through such trusts from countries around the world, including the largest kleptocracy case ever from Malaysia.

We give the last word to their Labour Revenue Spokesman, Michael Wood, quoted as saying “Our view is the most likely reason [so many trusts have quit New Zealand] is because the people engaged in setting up foreign trusts are by definition wanting to hide their assets from their own jurisdictions and don’t want there to be any sunlight on their activities,”

That conclusion is inescapable and Australian and New Zealand spokesmen have fooled nobody by denying the obvious.

Will Australia's new First Nations Foreign Affairs policy enable the Sulu Sultanate to seize Petronas assets in Australia

 by Ganesh Sahathevan 

Australia's new government lead by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has announced a new Indigenous or First Nations' centred foreign policy. 

Labor will place the experience of First Nations at the heart of our diplomacy by implementing a First Nations Foreign Policy that incorporates First Nations identities, perspectives and practices into Australia’s overseas engagement. We will establish an Office of First Nations Engagement headed by an Ambassador for First Nations Peoples within the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade to lead systematic engagement with First Nations communities and leaders and embed First Nations perspectives in Australia’s international diplomacy.

It is unclear if Albanese and his Minister for Foreign Affairs, Penny Wong, had in their contemplation regional realities when they formulated and announced their First Nations Foreign Policy, but they have as a result placed Australia at the centre of a number of regional conflicts, in Malaysia, Thailand , The Philippines, Indonesia  and possibly Singapore where there are ongoing tensions arising from claims made by their First Nations people. 

Coinciding with Penny Wong's "balik kampung" to her home state of Sabah was legal action by the Sultanate Of Sulu against the Government Of Malaysia for oil royalties the Sultanate says it is owed. Pursuant to an arbitration award in its favour, The Sultanate has already seized state oil company Petronas' assets in Luxembourg. It has vowed to pursue Petronas and other Malaysian Government assets worldwide (see MalaysiaNow story below).

Petronas has a significant portfolio of assets in Australia. The Sultanate would be negligent if it does not press the Australian Government for assistance in seizing Petronas assets in Australia, given its First Nations Foreign Policy that "incorporates First Nations identities, perspectives and practices into Australia’s overseas engagements".

END 

Malaysian assets at risk globally as late Sulu sultan's heirs claim US$15 billion award

Lawyers for the claimants say the ruling remains legally enforceable outside France through the New York Convention, a UN treaty on international arbitration recognised in 170 countries.
Reuters
July 18, 2022 10:00 AM


The heirs of a 19th century sultanate are seeking to seize Malaysian government assets around the world in a bid to enforce a US$14.9 billion arbitration award they won against the Southeast Asian nation, despite a stay on the case handed by a French court, their lawyers told Reuters.

A French arbitration court in February ordered Malaysia to pay the sum to the descendents of the last sultan of Sulu to settle a dispute over a colonial-era land deal.

The government said last Wednesday the Paris Court of Appeal had stayed the ruling, after finding that enforcement of the award could infringe the country's sovereignty.



Law minister Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar said the stay would prevent the award from being enforced as Malaysia works to set aside the ruling. Malaysia had not previously participated in the arbitration.

Lawyers for the claimants, however, say the February ruling remains legally enforceable outside France through the New York Convention, a UN treaty on international arbitration recognised in 170 countries.

"The 'stay' that seems to comfort the Malaysian government temporarily delays local enforcement in one country, France itself," said Paul Cohen, the heirs' lead co-counsel, of London-based law firm 4-5 Gray's Inn Square.

"It does not apply to the other 169."

With some exceptions, such as diplomatic premises, any Malaysian government-owned asset within nations party to the UN convention is eligible for the purposes of enforcing the award, said Elisabeth Mason, another lawyer for the heirs.

Wan Junaidi declined to comment when contacted.

Petronas assets held
- Advertisement -


The heirs claim to be successors-in-interest to the last sultan of Sulu, who entered a deal in 1878 with a British trading company for the exploitation of resources in territory under his control – including what is now the oil-rich state of Sabah.

Malaysia took over the arrangement after independence from Britain, annually paying a token sum to the heirs, who are Philippine nationals.

But the payments were stopped in 2013, with Malaysia arguing that no one else had a right over Sabah, which was part of its territory.

The claimants last week moved to seize two Luxembourg-based units of state oil firm Petronas as part of efforts to enforce the award.

Petronas, which has described the seizure as "baseless", has said it will defend its legal position, adding that the units have divested their assets.

Lawyers for the heirs said the units were now under the control of bailiffs in Luxembourg, pending any appeal by Petronas against the seizure.

"We note Petronas’ description of certain transactions, and we note their statement that those transactions are complete," Mason said.

"We will discover the full picture of all assets in due course."

Singapore property experts said that East Coast property values will not be affected by climate change because Singapore Government mitigation efforts will work, but they did not account for the impact of rising groundwater

by Ganesh Sahathevan 

In 2019  Singapore property experts said that East Coast property values will not be affected by rising sea levels and other  consequences of  climate change because Singapore Government mitigation efforts will work. However, they   did not account for the impact of rising groundwater. 

A seawall may not save Singapore from rising sea levels-The real problem may be rising groundwater that will make Singapore uninhabitable

To Be Read With
Rising sea levels to affect property values? Not if the Govt has solutions planned, say analysts
TODAY file photo

A man with his dog at East Coast Park at dawn while a plane passes by. When the sea levels rise, low-lying areas of Singapore will increasingly be at risk, including a long stretch on the East Coast from Changi to the city centre.


BY
WONG PEI TING
Published August 18, 2019
Updated August 19, 2019



SINGAPORE — When sea levels rise, the low-lying areas of Singapore that will increasingly be at risk include a long stretch on the East Coast from Changi to the city centre, but property analysts said that this will unlikely affect the value of real estate in these areas.

This is because the Government has already indicated that it is going to tackle the problems, they said.



Stressing the importance of investing in climate change defence at the National Day Rally held at the Institute of Technical Education (ITE) College Central on Sunday (Aug 18), Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said that property values, safety and liveability in those areas will be affected by rising sea levels if mitigating measures are not in place.

To protect the coastline, the Government will likely need to spend S$100 billion or more on solutions over the next 50 to 100 years.

From a map that Mr Lee showed at the rally, the areas most susceptible to sea-level rise include Tanjong Rhu and Marine Parade, and places hugging the Singapore River and Kallang Basin.

READ ALSO

NDR2019 Blog: Highlights and key announcements


Some of them happen to be prime real estate that is centrally located, sea-facing or offering riverfront living.

These areas are 4m above mean sea level or lower — and this is not much because water can surge as high as 2m above the mean sea level during high tide.

ADVERTISEMENT


Mr Chris Koh, director of property consultancy Chris International, said that property prices in this eastern stretch will be pulled down only “if there are no solutions”, and if rising sea levels remain a “worrying situation”.

“Now, it is clear that the Government will do something, so property values will remain sustainable. Developers won’t be deterred.”

Furthermore, in 50 to 100 years’ time, 99-year lease properties in at-risk areas — even Mandarin Gardens along the Marine Parade Road stretch or the newest ones that are being built right now — would be returned to the Government to be redeveloped or be sold in an en-bloc sale, Mr Koh said.

In time, property developers should also know to construct buildings to sit at least 4m above sea level in at-risk areas, he said, noting that it is “not difficult” for developers to raise the foundation by 1m.

READ ALSO

National Day Rally 2019: The cheat sheet


At the rally, Mr Lee said that a buffer is needed to cope with heavy rains while sea levels are projected to rise by up to 1m by the end of the century — just 80 years from now.


A video illustration he used showed that rising sea levels will first impact Pulau Tekong and the cluster of islands south of Singapore.

Then they will next hit Jurong Island and the city to East Coast stretch — both of which had been identified by Mr Lee as “critical segments” where work is to be prioritised.

While he emphasised that these segments will not be submerged under water yet, they will be at risk like how Chinatown used to be in the old days — “high tide, rain, trouble”, he said.

VALUE OF RECLAIMED LAND

One solution is to build “polders” and dykes as the Dutch have done, which will include reclaiming new land from the sea and keeping the land dry.


Explainer: Why climate change should matter to Singaporeans and what the Govt is doing about it


Another alternative is to reclaim a series of islands offshore from Marina East to Changi, connect them up with barrages and create a reservoir — similar to Marina Reservoir that is formed with the Marina Barrage.

A small polder is already being built at Pulau Tekong to gain some experience operating one, Mr Lee said, adding that the reclaimed land there will be used for Singapore Armed Forces training.

As for the eastern coastline, polders are also a “serious option” and the reclaimed land can be used for “housing and other purposes”, Mr Lee added.

Mr Koh said that these new parcels of land that might be introduced to the 17km eastern coastline could become prime land if opened for residential development, since they would likely enjoy more of a sea view.

Agreeing, Mr Alan Cheong, executive director of research and consultancy at property firm Savills Singapore, noted that if the new land comes to be considered as “much more valuable”, it will boost the values of sites inland because prices in the same area are “correlated”.

ERA Realty’s head of research Nicholas Mak said that the Government’s plans should “give some comfort” instead of riling up the market.

READ ALSO

It will cost S$100b or more over next 50 to 100 years to protect Singapore against rising sea levels: PM Lee


“Property prices won’t go down if there is confidence in the Government to fix the issue,” he said.

‘ASSURANCES’ FROM GOVERNMENT, EFFORTS FROM INDIVIDUALS

Speaking to TODAY at (ITE) College Central in Ang Mo Kio after the rally, Dr Mohamad Maliki Osman, Member of Parliament (MP) in the East Coast Group Representative Constituency (GRC), said that Mr Lee’s suggestions will hopefully “give some assurances that measures will be put in place”.

Noting that the younger generation is concerned about environmental issues, he added: “I am glad young people are very aware that this is the future for them because they are going to be the ones inheriting the places.”

Nee Soon GRC MP Louis Ng, who often champions environmental causes in Parliament, said that while the Government can make adaptations to retain property value along the East Coast Road area, climate change efforts do not stop there.

“I think what PM Lee covered was very important, but it is not just about what the Government can do. It is about what individuals can do…

“We need people to reduce, reuse and — as I keep stressing as the very last resort — recycle… Everybody can do it,” he said. ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY NABILAH AWANG AND LOUISA TANG

Singapore's Lee Hsien Loong says “Look at Australia” for an example of a country that has bankrupted its pension fund and amassed a trillion in debt to finance populist demands.

 This is making the rounds on Whatsapp. It is hard to argue with the lesson. As his father warned, Australians are in danger of becoming the white trash of Asia.

A seawall may not save Singapore from rising sea levels-The real problem may be rising groundwater that will make Singapore uninhabitable

 by Ganesh Sahathevan 

                                                                                    NDR 2019: Singapore may build polders, dykes to                                                                            protect eastern coastline from rising sea levels

In December 2021 MIT's Technology Review published an article under the headline
How rising groundwater caused by climate change could devastate coastal communities : Higher sea levels will push the water table up with them, causing flooding, contamination, and all manner of unseen chaos.

The gist of the story is this:


For something you’ve probably never heard about, rising groundwater presents a real, and potentially catastrophic, threat to our infrastructure. Roadways will be eroded from below; septic systems won’t drain; seawalls will keep the ocean out but trap the water seeping up, leading to more flooding. Home foundations will crack; sewers will backflow and potentially leak toxic gases into people’s homes.

Any coastal area where “the land is really flat, and the geology is [the kind of] loose material that water moves through really easily,” says (Kristina Hill, an associate professor at the University of California, Berkeley), is “where this is really going to be a problem.” This includes places like Miami, but also Oakland, California, and Brooklyn, New York. Silicon Valley communities like Mountain View are susceptible to groundwater rise, as is Washington, DC. Worldwide, the area at risk includes portions of northwestern Europe and coastal areas of the United Kingdom, Africa, South America, and Southeast Asia.

Hydrologists are aware of the problem and it’s all over the scholarly research, but it has yet to surface in a significant way outside of those bubbles.

The Government Of Singapore has made climate change mitigation a priority and has estimated that a 100 Billion Singapore dollars will be required for mitigation initiatives which are to include Dutch style polders, sea walls, and raising coastal ground levels.

Nothing has been said about protecting the country and its vast underground network of commercial property , infrastructure including an extensive transport system from rising groundwater. Then again, contemplation of the problem may cause a revaluation of commercial and residential property values.

Ultimately Singapore residents will have to ask if their island can remain habitable.   
END 

See also 

Allianz worried about rising sea levels, Allianz 

investing in expensive waterfront office block, 

located on small island

Why have 1MDB investigators ignored the Design Worldwide Partnership -Hakkasan-Khadem AlQubaisy connection?

by Ganesh Sahathevan

                           Khadem Al Qubaisy

In September 2021 industry publication Commercial Interior Design reported, under the headline Hakkasan Dubai reopens for 2021 with interiors refreshed by dwp:

After temporarily closing its doors, the award-winning Cantonese restaurant Hakkasan Dubai has reopened with a refreshed interior by Design Worldwide Partnership (dwp).

Global hospitality company Tao Group Hospitality took over the Hakkasan brand in April 2021 and appointed dwp to spearhead a summer-long enhancement programme at the popular’s restaurant’s new home.

Thanks to work done by the investigative news site Sarawak Report the connection between the 1MDB theft and Hakkasan are well known, and have been in the public domain for more than SIX years. 

Sarawak Report has also provided evidence of Khadem AlQubaisy's control and ownership of Hakkasan. That ought to have prompted investigators to search worldwide for companies linked to AlQubaisy. Had they done so they would have discovered Al-Qubaisy's link to DWP. It should not take an expert in international tax to see why that would be relevant, especially in light of the Commercial Interior Design report above.

The Google news search of Sarawakreport and Hakkasan is provided below for the benefit of 1MDB investigators who seem to have missed the connections. 

TO BE READ WITH 

Sarawak Report

Mansour Named As 1MDB Bribe Recipient Together With Najib

In the event, as Sarawak Report exclusively revealed way back in 2016, ... Other 1MDB cash can be traced to the Hakkasan nightclub empire...

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17 Feb 2022

Sarawak Report

Ministry Of Justice Moves Against Britain's Rogue Libel ...

As Sarawak Report has often pointed out, in the same way that greedy ... with the oil firm PetroSaudi and the Hakkasan boss Neil Moffat.

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18 Mar 2022

Sarawak Report

Hakkasan's USD$50 Million Director's Emolument!

The US nightclub chain Hakkasan has already created gasps around Vegas for ... Sarawak Report has followed the fortunes of America's fastest...

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21 Aug 2018

Sarawak Report

BOOM! - DOJ Goes After PetroSaudi, Abu Dhabi's Royal ...

Sarawak Report has recently flagged up warnings that the present coup ... based Hakkasan hospitality group also linked by Sarawak Report to...

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17 Sept 2020

Sarawak Report

Sovereign Stealth Funds? EXCLUSIVE

... such as Las Vegas's largest nightclub venture Hakkasan (subsequently absorbed back into Aabar and now largely divested of its assets).

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7 Aug 2020

Sarawak Report

French Swoop on 'KAQ's' 1MDB Funded Assets Worth €130 ...

Sarawak Report revealed that the owner of the company behind Hakkasan, which coincidentally boomed following the injections of cash into...

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29 Dec 2018

Sarawak Report

Jho Low Spills The Beans From Hiding In Macau!

Sarawak Report has obtained bank records which showed that over $500 million was diverted into the Vasco Trust account held in the name of the...

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16 Nov 2020

Sarawak Report

This Just Made The London Court Case A Whole Lot Worse ...

Najib Exposed For Being In The Know · Sections · Your views are valuable to us, but Sarawak Report kindly requests that comments be deposited in...

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8 Jan 2020

Sarawak Report

Another Top 1MDB Banker At Last Faces Punishment In ...

Transcripts made available to Sarawak Report detailed a ... Hakkasan is now in the process of being dismantled and both IPIC and Aabar were...

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28 Mar 2020