Frustrated by the lack of interest from the tech industry in engaging older people, she taught herself to code and set about doing it herself.

The over 60s, she insists, need to actively search out new skills to stay nimble.

“As you age, you lose many things: your husband, your job, your hair, your eyesight. The minuses are quite numerous. But when you learn something new, whether it be programming or the piano, it is a plus, it’s motivating,” she says.

“Once you’ve achieved your professional life, you should return to school. In the era of the internet, if you stop learning, it has consequences for your daily life,” Wakamiya explains during an AFP interview at her home near Tokyo.

She became interested in computers in the 1990s when she retired from her job as a bank clerk. It took her months to set up her first system, beginning with BBS messaging, a precursor to the internet, before building her skills on a Microsoft PC, and then Apple’s Mac and iPhones.

She asked software developers to come up with more for the elderly, but a repeated lack of response led her to take matters into her own hands.

Wakamiya learned the basics of coding and developed ‘Hinadan’ one of Japan’s first dedicated app games for the over-60s — she is now in such demand that this year Apple invited her to participate at their prestigious Worldwide Developers Conference, where she was the oldest app creator to take part.

– ‘Source of inspiration’ –

‘Hinadan’ — ‘the doll staircase’ — was inspired by the Hina Matsuri, a doll festival which takes place every March, where ornamental dolls representing the emperor, his family and their guests are displayed in a specific arrangement.

In Wakamiya’s app, users have to put them in the correct positions — a task which is harder than it sounds, requiring memorisation of the complex arrangements.

The app, which is currently only available in Japanese, has been downloaded 42,000 times with hundreds of positive comments from users.

And while these figures are relatively small compared to Japan’s big-hitting apps which are downloaded in their millions, ‘Hinadan’ has proved popular enough that Wakamiya plans to release English, Chinese and possibly French versions of the app before next year’s festival.

Its success has propelled her on to the tech world stage, despite the industry’s reputation for being notoriously ageist

In Silicon Valley, workers in their 40s are considered old by some firms and according to media reports citing research firm Payscale, the median age for an employee at Facebook is 29 and at Apple is 31.

But international tech firms and start-ups are slowly waking up to the economic potential of providing for silver surfers, and Wakamiya has already met with Apple’s chief executive Tim Cook.

Wakamiya recalls: “He asked me what I had done to make sure that older people could use the app. I explained that I’d thought about this in my programming — recognising that older people lose their hearing and eyesight, and their fingers might not work so well.”

“Mr Cook complimented me,” she says proudly, adding that he had hailed her as a “source of inspiration”.

– No time for sickness –

Wakamiya concedes that she finds “writing lines of code is difficult” but has a voracious appetite to learn more.

“I want to really understand the fundamentals of programming, because at the moment I only learned the elements necessary for creating Hinadan,” she explains.

More than a quarter of Japan’s population is aged 65 and above, and this is projected to rise to 40 per cent by 2055. The government is struggling to ensure its population remains active and healthy — and so also see the dynamic octogenarian as an inspiration.

“I would like to see all Japanese elderly people have the same motivation,” one official told AFP.

Wakamiya says her ultimate goal is to come up with “other apps that can entertain older people and help transmit to young people the culture and traditions we old people possess”.

“Most old people have abandoned the idea of learning, but the fact that some are starting (again) is not only good for them but for the country’s economy,” said Wakamiya, who took up the piano at 75.

Hinting that her good health is down to an active mind and busy life, she adds: “I am so busy everyday that I have no time to look for diseases.”

Supermarkets in Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, Sweden and Switzerland have pulled millions of eggs from the shelves after fipronil, a substance potentially dangerous to humans, was found in them.

Dutch farming organisation LTO said that several million hens may need to be culled at 150 companies in the country, with 300,000 having already been killed.

An LTO spokesman said late Sunday that they “had to be eliminated because of contamination”.

Belgium’s agriculture minister meanwhile said he had ordered the country’s food safety agency to report by Tuesday on why it failed to notify neighbouring countries until July 20 despite knowing about fipronil contamination since June.

Denis Ducarme said in a statement he had told the food safety agency (AFSCA) to produce a “report on the circumstances of the agency’s actions since the first information it received about the fipronil problem”

Facing pressure from Germany and the Netherlands, Ducarme promised “complete transparency”.

He said he would speak by telephone with his counterparts in the coming days.

Ducarme added that products from 57 Belgian egg producers — around a quarter of the country’s — had been blocked as a preventative measure.

Belgian officials admitted on Saturday they had kept the problem under wraps and failed to trigger the EU’s international food safety alert system but said it was because of a fraud probe.

European Commission spokeswoman Anna-Kaisa Itkonen said she could not comment on the Belgian delay “because it’s an ongoing criminal investigation.”

Germany has demanded an explanation from Belgium about why the issue was kept covered up.

Fipronil is commonly used in veterinary products to get rid of fleas, lice and ticks. But it is banned from being used to treat animals destined for human consumption, such as chickens.

In large quantities, the insecticide is considered to be “moderately hazardous” according to the World Health Organization, and can have dangerous effects on people’s kidneys, liver and thyroid glands.

It is believed the toxic substance was introduced to poultry farms by a Dutch business named Chickfriend brought in to treat red lice, a nasty parasite in chickens.

Dutch and Belgian media reports that the substance containing the insecticide was supplied to Chickfriend by a Belgian firm have not been confirmed.

In 2015 the government launched the 2020 Go Digital Vision campaign to boost the country’s digital economy. Among key targets are helping one million farmers and fishermen to go digital, creating 1,000 local tech startups valuedat a total of US $10 billion, and becoming the largest digital economy in Southeast Asia by 2020.

McKinsey in its report titled “Unlocking Indonesia’s digital opportunity” in 2016 predicted that digital economy would contribute to the national economy to the tune of $150 billion annually by 2025. Google and Temasek’s study in 2016 also revealed that Indonesia would become Asia’s digital economic powerhouse.

To unleash the digital economy potential, several initiatives have been done by the government.

For example, the national e-commerce roadmap was set up to support the development of the local e-commerce ecosystem, to fund the e-commerce startups, to protect consumers, and to double down on cybersecurity.

Further, the e-commerce entrepreneurs are being eased in processing business licenses as they just need to register their business with startup associations, such as the Indonesia E-Commerce Association (idEA), instead of applying through a government business registration office. Another initiative is to increase the broadband networks all over Indonesia.

However, despite huge potential and its government’s supportive initiatives, the country’s digital market still face challenges.

To start with, limited access to technology is still persistent. The data from the Internet Live Stats indicates that until 2016, internet penetration in Indonesia still stood at 20.4 per cent. The rate is less than one-third that of Malaysia which was 68.6 per cent in the same year.

Internet access is mostly enjoyed in the capital and provincial capitals such as Surabaya in East Java, Bandung in West Java, Medan in North Sumatra, Padang in West Sumatra and Makassar in South Sulawesi,. Access is still poor in smaller cities, and even worse in remote areas. Despite the government support of the digital ecosystem, such as the Palapa Ring project, we have yet to see the real outcome in far-flung parts of the archipelago.

Secondly, Indonesia still lacks digital competitiveness. The Harvard Business Review’s recent release titled “60 Countries’ Digital Competitiveness, Indexed” showed that Indonesia still has to work hard to increase its digital competitiveness.The release was based on the joint research between Harvard Business School, the Fletcher School at Tufts University, and Mastercard, creating the Digital Evolution Index 2017.

The index maps out the reviewed countries into four zones with the descending order, namely Stand Out, Stall Out, Break Out, and Watch Out. In Asean, Indonesia is standing on the Break Out zone, and still far behind Singapore in the Stand Out zone, and even behind Malaysia, among leaders in the Break Out zone. As a Break Out country, Indonesia is still held back by relatively weak infrastructure and poor institutional quality.

Thirdly, heavy reliance upon cash transaction would definitely diminish Indonesia’s digital competitiveness. The above McKinsey report showed that e-commerce businesses in Indonesia are constrained by the absence of diversified financial products and heavy dependence oncash payment.

Also, according to Mastercard, as of 2013, non-cash payments accounted only 3.1 per cent of the total value of consumer payments in Indonesia, and were far behind those of Singapore, Malaysia, and Thailand, accounting for 69 per cent, 45 per cent, and 41 per cent respectively, out of the total value of consumer payments, in their respective countries.

In fact, to maximize the digital economy potentials in Indonesia, the use of cashless mobile payment should be heightened.

What to do next? To address the major challenges, the government should apply strategic yet sweeping measures.

First, focus on creating quality instead of quantity-based digital economy. Indonesia must change its own perception to no longer create more and more e-commerce, but focus more on quality digital business.

Indonesia has to learn from countries focusing on quality digital economy that have proved themselves to be more competitive and indexed higher digitally than Indonesia worldwide. Take Malaysia. Why does Malaysia, with a smaller population compared to that of Indonesia and India, become one of the leaders in the Break Out zone, not them? Because it has more quality digital competitiveness, such as better internet penetration, digital infrastructure, more accessible cashless infrastructure, and advanced tech-savvy society.

Second, creating a gradual cashless society. Indonesia must strive its best to build a conducive ecosystem for more non-cash payments. They have to educate and stimulate public, small and medium enterprises, and technopreneurs to start doing business using digital transactions. However, care and prudence must be applied when implementing it to prevent public confusion; let’s learn from India’s radical cashless transaction policy.

Without implementing an integrated and holistic approach to achieving the vision, the government’s current digital initiatives will only act as a drag on reaching the 2020 Go Digital Vision

A reporter for the St Louis Post-Dispatch for most of his over 75-year-long career, Dudman often found himself in the thick of history, from reporting on the United States President John F Kennedy’s assassination to covering conflicts and revolutions around the world.

Born on May 3, 1918, in Centerville, Iowa, he first began covering the Vietnam War in 1968, and in 1970 – along with Elizabeth Pond of the Christian Science Monitor and Michael Morrow of Dispatch News Service International – tried to drive from Saigon to Phnom Penh to report on the escalating covert war in Cambodia. The trio, however, were abducted along the way by Vietcong fighters, who accused them of being CIA spies.

“If we get out of this alive, we’ll have a hell of a good story,” Dudman told his colleagues at the time.

Released six weeks later on a roadside and left to hitchhike back to Saigon, Dudman described his captivity in his 1971 book Forty Days with the Enemy.

But perhaps his most defining professional experience came in 1978, when along with Elizabeth Becker of the Washington Post and Scottish economist Malcolm Caldwell, he secured a meeting with Pol Pot. They were the first western writers to gain access to Cambodia since the Khmer Rouge takeover in 1975, and Dudman’s reporting would receive accolades, despite later proving to be controversial for having been relatively soft on the brutal regime.

Recalling the experience of the trip at the Khmer Rouge tribunal in 2015, he said that a “feeling of frustration” prevailed as it was “really impossible” to get answers to any questions. Minded by Khmer Rouge officers, the group was tightly controlled and given a tour of the country, including several worksites and communes, which he suspected painted a rosier view of the regime amid reports of mass killings and atrocities. Internal regime documents from the time show the Khmer Rouge viewed Dudman with suspicion, often referring to him as an “imperialist”, DC-Cam Director Youk Chhang noted yesterday.

The 1978 interview with Democratic Kampuchea’s “brother number one” turned out to be a one-sided affair, which Dudman described in a 2015 article for the Post-Dispatch. “He spoke in a quiet monotone,” he said of Pol Pot, whose handshake he found unnerving. “He spoke in Cambodian, Foreign Minister Ieng Sary put the Cambodian into French, and another official translated into English. Before getting to our questions, Pol Pot launched into a diatribe against the Vietnamese,” he wrote, adding: “We tried to break in with questions, but he ignored them and rolled right on.”

However, Dudman did take one of the few photographs of the secretive dictator.

The night following the interview, a gunman broke into the house where the group was staying. Dudman found himself face-to-face with the assailant, and took cover in his room, dodging bullets. The motivation for the attack, in which Caldwell was killed, never became clear, nor was the identity of the perpetrators ever revealed.

Dudman was later criticised by Becker for being less critical of the regime than her in his reporting in which he described the country as “one huge work camp, but its people clearly were not being worked to death or starved to death”.

Dudman’s work in Cambodia received recognition at the time, including from the US government, and it wasn’t until the Vietnamese liberation in 1979 that Becker’s accounts would appear vindicated.

Yet Dudman retained his scepticism of mass atrocities and, in a George Polk Award-winning editorial for the New York Times in 1990, he questioned whether Pol Pot was a mass murderer while saying that Vietnam was “the real threat” to Cambodia.

Despite her criticism of Dudman’s conclusions following the 1978 trip, Becker yesterday remembered her former colleague fondly.

“On our trip to Democratic Kampuchea he was very professional and a solid, friendly colleague especially during that horrible night when we were attacked by Khmer Rouge assassins who killed Malcolm Caldwell. Dick and I disagreed profoundly about what we witnessed in that trip – he was willing to give Pol Pot the benefit of the doubt – but we remained friends,” she wrote in an email.

It wasn’t until his 2015 court testimony that Dudman admitted his reporting and subsequent editorial on the Khmer Rouge had not been critical enough and that he had come to believe the evidence supported mass murder.

“Since then, I have read a great deal about what went on under the Pol Pot regime and I’ve talked to many sources about it too,” he told the court. “And I doubt if I would have written this story knowing what I know today.”

The coast was coated with rancid-smelling sticky white clumps of the oil as it washed in Sunday, with 11 beaches still closed to swimmers Monday in the height of a summer heatwave.

There are still lumps of the solidified oil on the beaches and the sea water in some areas is greasy.

Hong Kong comprises more than 200 islands with glittering bays, but there are increasing concerns about pollution and rubbish blighting its shores.

On Pui O beach, on the island of Lantau, cleaners raked through the famous black sand Monday morning retrieving lumps of palm oil mixed with other trash, from plastic water bottles to children’s toys.

Although there is still a red flag up and the beach is officially closed, some people ventured into the water.

One 61-year-old surfer, who gave his name as Simon and is a regular at the beach, said there was still oil in the sea.

“It got under my feet and on my board. It’s all slippery,” he told AFP.

“Yesterday there was big chunks along the beach and in the water.”

He added that there was often rubbish on the beach, often left by visitors.

“I live here now, I have to put up with it. I don’t like it,” said Simon, who is an airport worker originally from Hawaii.

Beach announcements told determined swimmers at the closed beaches to get out of the water Monday.

But Agnes Mercado, 49, a regular at secluded South Bay on Hong Kong Island, was determined to take her morning dip, although she said she would not submerge her upper body.

“Of course I’m worried about it, but it’s even worse than this on some days,” she said of the pollution.

– Environmental impact –

========================

The Leisure and Cultural Services Department said beach workers were using absorbent strips to prevent the spread of the oil and that government departments had been notified to clean up the water.

In a statement late Sunday it described the palm oil as “harmless to the human body”.

But environmentalists still fear the potential impact and say the government has not done enough to contain the spillage.

“Whilst we may not see birds covered in black oil, palm oil is hazardous to wildlife in that it attracts bacteria,” said Gary Stokes of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society.

Stokes added that the oil will dissolve and break down, which could also remove oxygen from the water and kill marine life.

The leakage was caused by a collision between two vessels near the Pearl River estuary in southern China on Thursday, the marine department confirmed.

The department said it was only notified of the crash Saturday.

Swathes of rubbish frequently clog the coastline with authorities and environmentalists pointing the finger at southern mainland China as the source.

However, campaigners also say Hong Kong itself has a terrible track record on dumping of waste — the city’s landfills are groaning at capacity and there is no widespread recycling culture.

The prosecution on Monday asked a Seoul court to sentence Samsung Group’s heir apparent Lee Jae-yong to 12 years in jail for alleged bribery in connection with the corruption scandal that led to former President Park Geun-hye’s ouster. The court will rule on Aug. 25.

At the final hearing held at the Seoul Central District Court, Special Counsel Park Youg-soo said that the Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman was a direct beneficiary and final decision maker in the bribery scheme.

“Samsung Group voluntarily offered funds rather than gave in to former President Park’s threats, expecting to get help in the firm’s leadership transfer, after it received a request from Park,” he said during the hearing, calling it “a typical case of crony capitalism.”

Lee has been on trial since April 7 on charges of bribery, embezzlement and perjury for allegedly seeking political favors from the Park administration in return for paying or promising to pay 43.4 billion won in donations to foundations controlled by Park’s close confidante Choi Soon-sil and in sports sponsorship to Choi’s horse-riding daughter.

Special Counsel claimed that the money was a bribe to win the government’s backing for the 2015 merger of Samsung Group’s two affiliates – Cheil Industries and Samsung C&T – a crucial step for a smooth leadership transition from its ailing chairman Lee Kun-hee to his only son, Lee Jae-yong.

Former President Park, in return for the money, is suspected of have pressured the state-funded National Pension Service, the largest stakeholder in Samsung C&T, to vote in favor of the controversial merger.

“I have never expected or asked for favors for my private interest,” a tearful Lee said, in his final remark during the hearing. “Also… How would I touch our Korean ordinary people’s retirement pension, even if I am so foolish?”

Lee has maintained that he had not been involved in making decisions to offer donations to the Choi-controlled entities, had no favors to ask for in return and was not even aware of Choi and her daughter Chung Yoo-ra’s existence.

Lee’s lawyer called Samsung Group, the nation’s top conglomerate, a “victim.” He dismissed the counsel team’s accusations as lacking solid evidence and based on assumptions.

“We think that Special Counsel made a mistake of relying on the public sentiment,” Lee’s lawyer said, saying the accusation is only based on Special Counsel’s “prejudice” toward Samsung Group and its young heir.

The prosecution recommended terms of 7 to 10 years in jail for four other Samsung former and current executives, including former Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Choi Gee-sung and former Samsung Electronics President Park Sang-jin.

The officials have consistently argued that they had been forced to provide donations out of fear of former President Park Geun-hye and Choi Soon-sil, and denied their chief Lee’s part in Samsung Group’s controversial decisions.

The ruling is expected to serve as a barometer for the fate of ex-President Park and her friend Choi, who were arrested and put on trial in connection with the scandal.

Park, who was removed from office in March over the corruption scandal, is on a total of 18 charges including bribery and abuse of authority. She is suspected of pulling strings to benefit Samsung.

If Lee is found guilty, it will likely deal a heavy blow to Park, who is accused of conspiring with Choi and Lee to make the alleged money-for-political favors deal.

The ruling on Park is expected in October.

Sam Kanizay waded waist-deep into the water at Brighton Beach in suburban Melbourne on Saturday evening, standing still for about 30 minutes. When he came out of the sea he was bleeding profusely from the calves down.

“The cold water numbed my legs. I felt what I thought was pins and needles but maybe it wasn’t just pins and needles,” the 16-year-old told 3AW radio Monday.

Washing the blood off his legs in the shower did little to stem the flow from what his family believed was an attack by sea lice.

“It sort of looked like hundreds of little pin holes or pin-sized bites distributed all over my ankle and the top of my foot,” he said.

Kanizay, who was rushed to hospital, said doctors could not explain what had caused the injury.

“We had a few people guessing that it was sea lice, but no one really had any ideas.”

His father went as far as scooping some of the tiny critters from the ocean and posting a film online of them devouring small chunks of meat.

Some reports cited experts pointing instead to stingrays or jellyfish as the suspected culprits.

But Jeff Weir, from the Dolphin Research Institute, said the injury was likely caused by opportunistic amphipods, a tiny crustacean that latches onto decaying plant or animal matter to help break it down.

“They are not there to eat us, but sometimes they might take a little bit, like mosquitoes and leeches and other things out there in the environment,” he told AFP.

“He (Kanizay) must have been very, very cold and he wouldn’t have felt it,” added Weir, who experienced a similar injury on his forehead after a night dive 40 years ago.

The veteran marine researcher said Kanizay’s injury was much like a graze and he should not fear returning to the water.

“I don’t think there has been anything that has changed, there just aren’t that many people that stand really still for that long.”

People running businesses on this shopping street are struggling to recover their former prosperity and are trying various measures, such as a new tourist service for foreigners launched by the owner of a long-established store.

Shop owner gets creative

“Hello, this is Japanese tea.”

Early one afternoon in July, Hiroaki Okita, 60, the fourth-generation owner of green tea shop “Okitaken,” founded in the first year of the Meiji era (1868-1912), called out in a smattering of English to foreign tourists walking on the street.

Shinsekai Ichiba shopping street is about a two-minute walk from Tsutenkaku tower, a famous sightseeing spot in the Shinsekai area. In its heyday, the 150-meter street was lined with 48 stores, but the number began falling around 2000. Only about 15 stores are operating at present. As the store owners get older, few of the old shops were turned into new ones as the shop buildings were also the owners’ dwellings. Today, vacant and shuttered shops are conspicuous.

According to an estimate by Mitsubishi Research Institute, Inc., the number of foreign tourists visiting the Shinsekai area increased threefold to 1.28 million from 2012 to 2015. In reality, however, few tourists visit this shopping street as it gives an impression of being deserted.

Hoping to change the situation, Okita decided to attract more foreigners. He learned English phrases such as “strong green tea” on the internet, and created a leaflet in English.

Since many Malaysian tourists visit the store, Okita started offering an original cafe latte using matcha powdered green tea mixed with sugar, which he thought would be popular among Malaysians after visiting the country himself to learn about local tastes. In March, Okita launched a new service in cooperation with an organization running a tour for foreign tourists to taste Japanese green tea. The service has been favorably received by participants, with one from the Philippines saying, “I will definitely let my friends know about this after returning home.”

Shintaro Kaku shows his design in Naniwa Ward, Osaka.

“I want to do anything I can come up with to attract more people,” Okita said. “If I fail, I will think about the next step.”

Animal prints bring fame

Other strenuous efforts to recover the street’s prosperity have been under way in recent years.

A poster reads: “Once, in the past, we could not see even a short distance ahead due to the crowds. Now, we could go bowling here.”

Posters carrying these self-deprecating messages about how deserted the street is were created based on an idea from a copywriter at major advertising company Dentsu Inc. People visiting the street can enjoy various phrases on these posters, which appear throughout the street.

Meanwhile, garment store Naniwa Komachi has begun to specialize in animal print clothing in order to better match Osaka’s reputation for being over-the-top. The store handles an inventory of about 5,000 garments with leopard and tiger prints. When the shop opened in 2012, it mainly offered yukata summer kimono. However, since about two years ago, it made changes to its product line and started offering items representative of Osaka to entertain tourists. Subsequently, the store has often been spotlighted on TV programs and in other media.

Owner Mayumi Takahashi, 66, who has become famous, loves leopard-print patterns. She said: “It’s good to emphasize Osaka’s unique characteristics as well as those that are popular among foreigners. I would like to promote these features in order to revitalize the whole shopping street.”

Shintaro Kaku shows his design in Naniwa Ward, Osaka.

Sticker fetes 105th anniversary

OSAKA — A sticker has been chosen to help liven up the mood of the 105th anniversary of the Shinsekai area in Naniwa Ward, Osaka, in July.

The sticker represents the bustle of Shinsekai — literally “new world” — and has smiling faces drawn on the number 105. It will be displayed by shops in the area to promote the 105th anniversary of Shinsekai.

Shinsekai started in 1912 at the former site of the National Industrial Exhibition. A local community-building organization called Shinsekaientai (A team to support Shinsekai) chose the sticker from a total of 40 sticker designs in a contest and other events.

The selected sticker designed by Shintaro Kaku, a 38-year-old designer from Nara, features the number 105 with smiling faces on it. It also says “Metcha iitoko Shinsekai” (Shinsekai is a really nice place). It was highly praised at the contest as it matches the atmosphere of the town, which attracts many people.

The team printed 800 stickers, each measuring 15 centimeters by 15 centimeters, and distributed them to shops and others in July. “This sticker shows our hope that Shinsekai will remain a nice place, even though it is ever changing,” said Masataka Kondo, 54, the head of Shinsekaientai. “I want to liven up the mood of the 105th anniversary with it.”

The exact date for the inauguration and ticket prices are still unknown, but details will be announced at a later date, an official of the airlines told the Vientiane Times yesterday.

Aircraft will fly three times a week on Wednesday, Friday and Sunday, according to the plan.

“The precise date to begin to operate the flight and air ticket price is still unknown. Details are expected to be announced soon and passengers can follow our official website or facebook site,” the official said.

The new air route will be the first regulated direct flight that the Lao national flag carrier operates to Japan. Previously, Lao Airlines operated shuttle flight to Japan, but stopped operating this service.

The company said in its announcement on Monday that the new air route was expected to boost economic development, investment and trade in Laos as well as the inflow of visitors to the country.

The planned opening of the new air route is also in line with the will of the government.

Prime Minister Thongloun Sisoulith told his Japanese counterpart, Shinzo Abe during their meeting in June in Japan that Laos hoped to increase the exchange of people and goods by establishing direct flights between Laos and Japan promptly.

Lao Airlines now flies to major cities in Cambodia, China, Republic of Korea, Thailand and Vietnam. Domestically, Lao Airlines operates flights to the provinces of Luang Namtha, Oudomxay, Luang Prabang, Xieng Khuang, Savannakhet and Champassak.

Recently, the airline announced it would re-launch direct flights from Vientiane’s Wattay International Airport to Singapore’s Changi International Airport starting on October 29 after halting the flight earlier this year.

In addition, the company plans to operate direct flights to additional destinations in Myanmar, Indonesia and on the island of Taiwan.

Along with its expansion, the company has registered growing numbers of passengers using its service.

In 2011, more than 531,000 passengers travelled with Lao Airlines and numbers climbed to more than 658,000 in 2012.

In 2015, more than 828,000 passengers flew with Lao Airlines including more than 504,000 foreign customers. Numbers rose to 924,924 people in 2016 including 543,422 foreigners.

An official of the company’s Marketing Department said the planned launch of the direct flight to Japan was to handle the growing air transport need, especially foreign visitors.

In 2016, Laos registered more than 4.23 million foreign visitors in total. Tourists from Japan accounted for almost 50,000, an increase from the 43,826 recorded in 2015, according to an information from the Ministry of Information, Culture and Tourism.

It has become the norm for workers to switch jobs every few years, making the lifelong career in one organisation a thing of the past in Singapore and Hong Kong.

That is according to human resources firm Randstad’s latest Workmonitor Research, which found that 73 per cent of employees globally felt that a “job for life” was an extinct concept.

This sentiment was much higher across the region, with 83 per cent of those polled in Singapore and Hong Kong in the three months to June 30 feeling that lifelong jobs no longer existed. In Malaysia, 76 per cent of employees felt the same way.

Michael Smith, managing director for Randstad Singapore, Hong Kong and Malaysia, attributed the demise of lifelong jobs and careers to the growing willingness of employees to move across organisations and specialisations to define career paths based on their own requirements.

The survey, which covered 34 countries across Asia-Pacific, Europe and the Americas, was conducted via an online questionnaire with a minimum of 400 interviews per country.