Provincial Governor Prof. Dr Somkot Mangnomek told Lao media last week that the large number of missiles and munitions from the extensive wartime aerial bombardment remain a grave threat to the lives of local people and hinder development.

“Hundreds of thousands of bombs were dropped here during the Indochina War in the 1960s and 1970s,” he said. “The bombs remain in the ground, claiming the lives of local people and creating obstacles for socio-economic development.”

“I believe that it might take another 100 years or more to remove the UXO at the current rate unless more funding is allocated to cope with this issue.”

Prof. Dr Somkot said the government is highly committed to UXO surveys, clearance and education, but has limited funding for this task.

Critics claim that although foreign nations have provided support for UXO clearance in Xieng Khuang province, on occasions an unreasonably high percentage of this assistance has come in the form of costly international expertise or consultation rather than direct support targeted at where it could be most effective.

The province’s UXO problem has its origins in the nation’s dubious distinction of being the most heavily bombed country per capita in history as a result of aerial barrages that continued for most of a decade.

During the Indochina War (1964-1975), more bombs were dropped on Laos than on Japan and Germany combined during World War II. Despite the fact that the Indochina War ended more than four decades ago, unexploded bombs continue to kill and injure. Some 50,000 people fell victim as a result of UXO incidents between 1964 and 2008, many of those being women and children. Xieng Khuang is one of the most UXO contaminated provinces in the country.

Another fatal accident occurred in the province in recent months, claiming the life of a young girl and leaving several people including children injured and traumatised.

Explosive materials that remain continue to have a significant impact on the safety and livelihoods of vulnerable rural populations, too often diminishing their ability to cultivate sufficient crops to escape poverty.

The presence of UXO exposes people to the unacceptable risk of life- or livelihood-ending accidents that too often kill and maim those who take their chances working contaminated land. Unexploded ordnance also has a significant effect on social and economic development in the province and nationwide, increasing the cost of construction of schools, hospitals and roads, due to the need for surveys and UXO clearance before work can commence.

Adopted in consultation with the United Nations, Laos’ own national 18th Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) on removing UXO as an obstacle to development sets the tone and pace for the UXO sector.

It comes in addition to the 17 global SDGs and shares the target achievement date of 2030.

The government is directing clearance efforts to prioritised development hubs, areas earmarked for development projects, and land that has the potential for agriculture.

Driving in metropolis is never easy, but finding an open space can be more difficult in Chinese cities given that over half the demand for parking lots is not satisfied.

Thanks to the development of internet of things technology, drivers in Shanghai, however, are having an easier time. A driver can use an app to find an empty space in a parking lot, navigate to the location and pay the bill with a smartphone. Moreover, the app can calculate the probability of a space becoming empty by using information from the likes of parking ticket machines.

The pilot project is being conducted by China United Network Communications Group Co Ltd, or China Unicom, the country’s second-largest mobile carrier, and leading telecom equipment maker Huawei Technologies Co Ltd, in the Minhang district of Shanghai.

It is part of China’s broader push to gain a lead in the race toward the era of IoT, with the global market value of such subsystems — in equipment and Internet-connected things — projected to surpass $100 billion in 2018, according to Luo Wen, vice-minister of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the top industry regulator in China.

“Developing the Internet of Things is a strategic move to nurture a new momentum of China’s economy,” Luo told the 2017 World Internet of Things Wuxi Summit on Sunday.

IoT is the concept of connecting any electronic device to the Internet such as cellphones, coffee makers, washing machines, headphones and other wearable devices to streamline management and enhance efficiency.

He said that, bolstered by the government’s Made in China 2025 and Internet Plus initiatives, China has made strides in building the IoT’s infrastructure, commercial applications and technology advancements such as the narrow-band IoT.

China is in driver’s seat 

The market size of China’s IoT industry is expected to exceed 1.5 trillion yuan ($231.4 billion) in 2020, up from over 900 billion yuan in 2016, the 2016-2017 annual IoT Industry Development Report of China forecast.

Favourable government policies and fierce market competition inside the world’ s largest manufacturing powerhouse of electronics have already placed China in the driver’s seat in IoT adoption, according to Charlie Dai, principal analyst at consultancy Forrester.

“First, the government places great value on strategic IoT initiatives for the nation’s digital transformation, having inked IoT into its 13th Five-Year Plan, which steers China’s economic and social development between 2016 and 2020,” Dai said.

To be more specific, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology unveiled a plan earlier this year to boost development of IoT, with the goal of enabling more than 1.7 billion public machine-to-machine connections by 2020. There were 100 million connections in 2015, accounting for 31 per cent of all global connections, official data show.

Beijing also selected a host of cities to pilot the smart city projects, through which they established database and sensor networks to collect, store, and analyse information related to transportation, electricity, public safety and environmental factors.

For example, in the city of Wuxi, a government-backed heartland for IoT adoption, the number of IoT-connected gadgets by the end of August had for the first time surpassed that of mobile subscribers, said Li Qiang, Party Secretary of Communist Party of China Jiangsu provincial committee.

“This is thanks to the full coverage of China’s narrow band IoT network four months ago across the city,” Li said. This marked another technical breakthrough that Wuxi has made since the city built the nation’s first high-standard all-optical network.

An IoT demonstration zone is also established in Wuxi’s Xuelang town, co-developed by the municipal government and tech giant Alibaba Group, to create synergies for the country’s wealthy Yangtze River Delta Region to push ahead with IoT technologies, he added.

The other driver is the competitive market in China, said Dai from Forrester, so firms in sectors from manufacturing to services have the impetus to improve product performance, better differentiate themselves from peers by using IoT technologies.

Billions to be spent 

Since China makes so much of the world’s electronics, such as sensors, microchips and other electronic devices, it will form the backbone of the expanding IoT technology market. Market research firm IDC predicted that Chinese manufacturing spending on the IoT will reach $127.5 billion by 2020, with an average growth rate of 14.7 per cent.

“Around 28 billion devices will be connected to the internet by 2021 globally, among which 16 billion are related to the IoT. The technology is set to transform public infrastructure such as power grids, railways and ports, by making them interconnected and smart,” Luo said.

The smart parking solution in Shanghai is one of the typical application scenarios of IoT. It is enabled by the narrow-band IoT technology, which can connect billions of low-power devices such as smart meters, which transmit small amounts of bandwidth and may need to be deployed for many years without interference.

“Narrow band IoT is the latest IoT battlefield that global telecom carriers are scrambling for so they can establish a beachhead,” said Xiang Ligang, chief executive of telecom industry website Cctime.

“It can connect the internet of hidden things, such as water and gas metres that often lie in basements, deeply shadowed areas and even underground pipes, making large-scale connection really possible. China is leading global efforts in commercializing the technology.”

In a report published in May, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology encouraged narrow band IoT’s commercial use in industrial internet and urban public service and management. It also supports smart factories and the internet of vehicles.

China Telecommunications Corp, the country’s third-largest telecom carrier by mobile subscriber base, said in May it had established a commercial narrow band IoT network with the widest coverage in the world. The company has upgraded 310,000 telecom base stations nationwide to support narrow band IoT connectivity.

Water metres the start 

Li Shengfei, general manager of China Telecom’s Shenzhen branch, said the company has delivered the world’s first commercial narrow band IoT-based Smart Water metering project in March by partnering with Huawei and Shenzhen Water, the local water utility provider.

About 1,200 narrow band IoT-enabled smart water metres have been deployed for Southern Pearl Garden and other residential areas in the Yantian District of Shenzhen. With a chipset inside, these smart water meters can intelligently read and upload data to Shenzhen Water’s online platform.

Liu Chang, a resident in Southern Pearl Garden, said the smart water avoids the service charge loss caused by false or missing metre reading and water loss from pipeline leakage. “I don’t have to wait at home for metre readers coming every month,” she said.

The project can also help water utility providers analyse water usage patterns of different consumer groups to build up or reconstruct the water pipe network in a more reasonable arrangement for convenient and reliable consumer water services.

Rival China Mobile Communications Corp, the country’s largest telecom carrier by subscribers, is catching up. It unveiled the world’s smallest embedded SIM narrow band IoT module. The M5310, as the module is called, was independently developed by China Mobile. It is highly power-efficient and can save more than 30 per cent of the space of its nearest rival.

The carrier, having started field tests on narrow band IoT in Shanghai, Guangzhou, Hangzhou and Fuzhou, is set to launch a large-scale field test later and commercialise narrow band IoT by 2018.

Near 100 companies are developing products based on the module to bring market innovation through narrow band IoT services, such as smart agriculture, smart parking, air-quality monitoring and asset management applications, according to China Mobile.

As with the rest of the world, Singapore, too, will face more extreme conditions as the world warms, experts told The Sunday Times as recent weather events continue to wreak havoc in the northern hemisphere.

Hurricane Irma, one of the strongest storms ever recorded in the Atlantic, is hurtling its way through the Caribbean and will reach the Florida coastline today, where 5.6 million people have been ordered out of Irma’s path. But in its wake, the hurricane has devastated communities and left at least 21 dead.

It follows tropical cyclones that have ripped across other parts of the world, such as Texas in the United States, Hong Kong and Macau. Last month, Typhoon Hato triggered Hong Kong’s most severe typhoon 10 warning, and left at least 16 dead.

Singapore remains relatively insulated from such storms due to its location on the equator. “Tropical cyclones are very rare in our equatorial region as their formation requires a rotational force, which is not present along the equator,” said a spokesman for the Meteorological Service Singapore (MSS).

But the island will not be spared extended dry spells and warm periods, as well as flash floods.

“The concerns for Singapore would be increased frequency of droughts and flash flooding, due to increased rainfall over the years,” said Assistant Professor Winston Chow, a weather researcher at the National University of Singapore’s (NUS) geography department.

MSS statistics show a trend of increasingly intense rainfall in Singapore. The annual maximum hourly rainfall was about 80mm in 1980. Last year, it rose to 90mm.

Last year was also Singapore’s hottest year, with the annual mean temperature rising to 28.4 deg C. In 2015, 1998 and 1997 – the three other warmest years here – the annual mean temperature was 28.3 deg C, according to MSS.

“The urban heat island effect and, increasingly, anthropogenic (human-induced) climate change, both contribute to higher temperatures in Singapore,” said Dr Benjamin Grandey, a research scientist from the Centre for Environmental Sensing and Modeling at the Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology.

The urban heat island effect refers to how city temperatures are higher than in rural areas, because of more heat released from buildings, roads and vehicles.

Erik Velasco, an air quality scientist, said the changing characteristics of meteorological events happening around the world point to climate change. He said: “The warming effect of greenhouse gases emitted by burning fossil fuels, agriculture and deforestation, in addition to the growing urbanisation and lack of mitigation measures in many places, are responsible for the catastrophic consequences of such weather events.”

NUS’ Prof Chow noted Singapore has taken steps to reduce the impact of flash floods, droughts and heat waves by improving drainage to reduce flood-prone areas, developing weather-proof technologies like desalination and Newater, and cooling the island by growing urban green spaces such as rooftop gardens.

To protect against rising sea levels, the minimum land reclamation level in Singapore was raised from 3m to 4m above the mean sea level.

Research is also being carried out to protect food supplies from the effects of extreme weather events.

Associate Professor Adam Switzer, academic associate chair at the Nanyang Technological University’s Asian School of the Environment, said the impact of typhoons on rice yields is being studied to “better prepare the region for potential rice losses from typhoons, sea level rise and floods”.

Zaryadye Park has replaced a gigantic Soviet-era hotel on the banks of the Moscow river, which was demolished in 2006 leaving a lot that stood empty for many years as investors and City Hall clashed over the space, valued at more than $1 billion.

Spanning an area just over 10 hectares (25 acres) in prime location near Red Square and the Kremlin, the lot was eventually converted into a park because “nothing else worked,” said Moscow culture department chief Alexander Kibovsky as he gave a tour to journalists at the weekend.

Initially, “nobody had the courage to suggest it could be a park… the lot was valued at 1.5 billion in foreign currency,” he said.

“We were shocked” when Moscow mayor Sergei Sobyanin floated the idea. he said. “I don’t know another metropolis where they would disregard commercial value and use the territory as a public space.

“It’s fantastic.”

The park consists of a landscape with different geobotanical “zones” including one resembling a tundra, as well as attractions like a philharmonic hall concealed under a hill with a “glass crust” roof and an ice cave with a labyrinth.

“Since we (Russia) have a lot of territory beyond the Arctic circle, we are showing it here,” Kibovsky said.

Park director Pavel Trekhleb pointed out that climate control for the park’s southern plants will be provided with infrared lanterns, while fish will be supplied into the pond on a weekly basis.

“You can come with a fishing pole and get fish for dinner,” he said

Moscow ‘fat cat’

Zaryadye Park is one element of the current mayor’s push to remake Moscow which has turned the city of some 12 million into a vast construction site over the past few years.

Other initiatives include a $62.1 billion plan to raze thousands of Soviet-era pre-fab apartment blocks, the $2 billion effort to revamp Moscow’s central streets and the $3.5 billion new train line connecting some outlying neighbourhoods.

Compared with these expenditures, the park’s budget of 14 billion rubles ($244 million) seems modest, but critics have called some of its pricey elements frivolous at a time when the country is trying to recover from recession.

“What a scale! That’s two annual budgets of Tver (a city north of Moscow) on one park!” one Facebook user Alexey Nikonov wrote of Zaryadye’s cost.

The park ended up costing three times the original budget of five billion rubles, RBK news agency said.

“No money in the budget to pay salaries to doctors, pensions in the provinces are miniscule, while Moscow is behaving like a fat cat,” wrote another critic Svetlana Popova on Facebook.

Historically Zaryadye was a bustling merchant quarters and became a mainly Jewish neighbourhood in the late 19th century.

However after Jews were forcibly moved out of the Russian capital in 1892, Zaryadye began to disintegrate and Soviet authorities decided to knock it down.

It was replaced by the Rossiya hotel which was the biggest in the world with 3,182 rooms when it was built in 1967.

Six million people have been ordered to flee the path of the hurricane — one of the biggest evacuations in US history — which is expected to trigger massive storm surges through vast swaths of the Sunshine State.

Irma was packing dangerous winds of up to 105 miles (169 kilometers) per hour as it neared Fort Myers late Sunday, a major tourist destination in southwestern Florida.

Although Irma was downgraded to a Category Two storm, it was expected to remain a hurricane through at least Monday with a turn to the north-northwest overnight, according to the National Hurricane Center.

The storm killed three people when it struck the southern Florida Keys island chain as a more powerful Category Four earlier in the day.

About three million people were without power throughout the state, according to utility company Florida Power and Light, which said it had “safely shut down” one of two nuclear reactors at its Turkey Point power plant.

Handfuls of holdout residents, having defied calls to evacuate, hunkered down as Irma tore over the Keys, ripping boats from their moorings, flattening palm trees and downing power lines across the island chain popular for fishing and scuba diving.

Hours later, the storm made a second landfall on Marco Island near the beach resort of Naples, unleashing high winds and rain across southern Florida and cutting power to two million people as it moved up the western Gulf coast.

One of the mightiest hurricanes ever to slam the state, Irma is threatening dangerous storm surges of up to 15 feet (4.5 meters), enough to cover a house, as it collides with Florida after sowing devastation through the Caribbean.

“I am concerned about people that don’t believe in the storm surge,” said Virginia Defreeuw, 76, who fled her mobile home in Naples to a shelter. “You need to be afraid of the storm surge! People are not listening.”

While southwest Florida bore the deadly brunt of Irma’s wrath Sunday, the coastlines of Miami and the neighboring island of Miami Beach were heavily inundated by storm surges as hurricane winds sent two giant construction cranes crashing down.

The sea swallowed the coastal walkway of glitzy Brickell Avenue in the center of Miami, flooding the streets and leaving cars half-submerged.

“The wooden pier is basically gone,” said Steven Schlacknam, a 51-year-old visual artist watching from a 37th floor apartment.

‘Lives, not cost’

President Donald Trump, who vowed to travel to Florida “very soon,” approved the state’s request for emergency federal aid to help with temporary housing, home repairs, emergency work and hazard mitigation.

“Right now, we’re worried about lives, not cost,” Trump said.

At least 30 deaths are already attributable to the storm. The US victims included a sheriff’s deputy killed in a head-on collision early Sunday as she drove home for supplies after working in a shelter all night.

Irma smacked the Keys 57 years to the day that Hurricane Donna hit the same area in 1960, destroying nearly 75 percent of the island chain’s buildings.

A shelter of last resort set up in the Middle Keys city of Marathon was reported to be without power or running water, and surrounded by surging waters.

Irma also led to some uniquely Floridian responses, with a sheriff forced to warn residents not to shoot at the storm after an online prank promoting the idea went viral.

“To clarify, DO NOT shoot weapons @ #Irma,” the office of the sheriff of Pasco County, on the state’s west coast, tweeted hours before landfall.

Miami spared worst

In Miami, where emergency services were sheltering in place, a dispatcher talked a woman through delivering her own baby on Sunday morning, Assistant Fire Chief Eloy Garcia told the Miami Herald.

Before reaching the United States, Irma smashed through a string of Caribbean islands from tiny Barbuda on Wednesday, to the tropical paradises of Saint Barthelemy and Saint Martin, the US Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, Haiti and the Turks and Caicos.

Terrified Cubans who rode out Irma in coastal towns — after it made landfall Friday on the Camaguey archipelago as a maximum-strength Category Five storm — reported “deafening” winds, uprooted trees and power lines, and blown rooftops.

There were no immediate reports of casualties in Cuba but it caused significant damage, and enormous waves lashed the Malecon, Havana’s emblematic seafront, with seawaters penetrating deep into the capital.

Residents in the old colonial city were waist-deep in floodwaters after Irma cut power and forced the evacuation of more than a million people.

Storm surge, tornado risk

Irma is so wide that authorities faced destructive storm surges on both coasts of Florida and the Keys as it follows a path north toward Georgia.

Businesses on both Florida coasts were shuttered while Miami airport was closed and not expected to reopen until Tuesday.

MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, the military installation home to US Central Command, issued mandatory evacuation orders ahead of the storm’s passage early Monday, while the Kennedy Space Center on the east coast was also closed.

 Irma, packing winds of 130 miles (210 kilometres) per hour, was upgraded to a Category 4 storm as it closed in on the Florida Keys, the US National Hurricane Center said, as more than six million Floridians — a third of the state’s population — had been ordered to evacuate their homes ahead of the monster storm.

Hurricane-force gusts began whirling into the Keys as the storm churned about 40 miles (65 kilometres) south-southeast of Key West as of 5:00 am local time (0900 GMT).

“It looks as if the destructive eyewall of Hurricane #Irma will overspread the Lower #FLKeys between 7-8 am” local time, the National Weather Service (NWS) tweeted.

“EVERYONE IN THE FLORIDA KEYS… IT IS TIME TO HUNKER DOWN,” the NWS warned.

“THE WORST WINDS ARE YET TO COME.”

For those people still at home, it was too late to escape the wrath of what could be the worst hurricane in storm-prone Florida, where nearly 300,000 power outages had already been reported.

In Key West, police had opened a “shelter of last resort” for those who had ignored mandatory evacuation orders.

The cities of Naples, Fort Myers and the densely populated peninsulas of Tampa Bay were in the crosshairs of the massive storm, which threatened storm surges of up to 15 feet (4.5 metres) — enough to cover a house.

“Life threatening storm surge is occurring now in the Keys and is expected to begin this morning in southwest Florida,” warned Florida Governor Rick Scott in an early Sunday tweet.

Take shelter

The NWS urged Floridians to wear suitable footwear and take shelter in lower floor interior rooms — far from windows — and use items like helmets, mattresses, pillows and blankets for protection.

At North Collier Regional Park, a designated shelter just outside Naples, anxious evacuees prayed they and their loved ones would remain safe when the storm made landfall.

Viviana Sierra, a Naples resident who was accompanied by her dog, parents and brother, was sanguine about the prospect of eventually going back to find her home and belongings destroyed.

“You can replace material things but your life is very important so I think it’s better that we stay here,” she said.

The storm was expected to move along or near Florida’s southwest Gulf coast later Sunday and into Monday.

But Irma is so wide that authorities were bracing for destructive storm surges on both coasts of Florida and the Keys.

And hurricane-force winds are expected to lash the state as Irma rolls north toward Georgia.

The NHC also warned of tornado risks through Sunday night, with the greatest threat lying in areas east of the storm’s path.

Mass Exodus

In Florida, cities on both the east and west coasts looked like ghost towns, as nervous residents heeded insistent evacuation orders.

MacDill Air Force Base, the military installation home to US Central Command, issued mandatory evacuation orders with the eye of the storm expected to pass near or over its home city of Tampa early Monday.

The Kennedy Space Center on the east coast was also closed.

Strip malls, fast food restaurants and retail giants were all closed for business.

Scott Abraham, who lives on the fifth floor of a beachfront apartment building in Miami Beach, planned to ignore evacuation orders and ride the storm out with his wife and two kids.

“If I lived in a house I would have left, but if it gets flooded here it’s going to take a week at least to come back. I don’t want that,” he said.

Warning that Irma would be worse than Hurricane Andrew — which killed 65 people in 1992 — Florida’s governor had said all 20.6 million of the state’s inhabitants should prepare to flee.

Cuban-American Orlando Reyes, 82, was forced to leave his assisted living facility in Miami Beach.

“It is frightening,” he told AFP at a shelter in Miami. “We had to leave without a cent, without taking a bath, or bringing anything.”

‘Significant damage’

At least 25 people have been killed since Irma began its devastating march through the Caribbean earlier this week.

Terrified Cubans who rode out Irma in coastal towns — after the storm made landfall Friday as a maximum-strength Category 5 storm on the Camaguey archipelago — reported “deafening” winds, uprooted trees and power lines, and blown rooftops.

There were no immediate reports of casualties, but officials reported “significant damage.” A total of 1.5 million people were evacuated.

Authorities in Havana organised evacuations from low-lying districts at risk from Atlantic storm surges. Enormous waves lashed the Malecon, the capital’s emblematic seafront, causing seawaters to penetrate some 820 feet into the capital, AFP journalists reported.

The storm had smashed through a string of Caribbean islands, beginning with tiny Barbuda on Wednesday, followed by the holiday islands of St Barts and St Martin.

Also affected were the US Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, Haiti and the Turks and Caicos. The Bahamas were spared the worst of Irma.

Another powerful storm, Hurricane Jose, had been heading toward the same string of Caribbean islands that Irma pummeled in recent days, but the area received a welcome reprieve when the storm began to gradually weaken and shift course towards the north.

The deteriorating weather had grounded aircraft and prevented boats from bringing relief supplies to hard-hit islands.

The US military was mobilizing thousands of troops and deploying several large ships to aid with evacuations and humanitarian relief, as the Air Force removed scores of planes from the southern United States.

At school, 16-year-old Joey Heng isn’t one of the popular girls.

But the self-professed “low-key” Secondary 4 student has her hands full being popular elsewhere.

With some 20,000 followers on her Instagram, the teen is a “social media influencer” among teens in her age group – showing them the latest fashion trends and new restaurants to visit.

Sometimes, even her mother gets roped in to help her to take “Insta-worthy” photos.

“I just wanted to follow the trend and post photos of myself in the latest fashion,” said Joey, who started her account when she was 10 to meet more friends.

“I think people started following me because they thought the clothes I wore were nice.”

As her popularity grew, so did the attention she received from blogshops and brands that wanted her to endorse their products, given that each of her posts gets at least 1,000 likes.

So far, she has worked with about 100 blogshops and brands, including watch company Daniel Wellington and e-commerce platform ezbuy.

There are a number of other “student influencers” just like her who are followed by tens of thousands on social media. Several study at brand-name schools.

These teens, some as young as 14, take on marketing gigs for sponsors, such as blogshops, cosmetics brands and delivery services, in exchange for freebies, discounts and even advertorial fees. However, there is no estimate of how much they earn as many receive free or discounted items rather than cash for their gigs.

Mostly girls, these “influencers” post photos of themselves in trendy clothes and are often seen at the latest hipster joint. A few are known to show a bit of skin too, presumably to get more followers and better sponsors.

The going is so good for these teens that some of them are considering being a social media celebrity as a profession.

Among them is Catherine Khoo, 16, who has received sponsorships for clothes and accessories.

The Sec 4 student, who has more than 10,000 followers, said her parents were initially against the idea of her being an “influencer” but they have come to accept it after she explained the hard work involved.

“I would like to show people how influencers actually work behind the scenes, and how it is a job and not something that you take on just for free things,” she said.

Sec 4 student Toh Yi Xuan, who has some 6,000 followers, hopes her popularity will eventually kick-start her modelling career.

Meanwhile, others see being an “influencer” merely as a hobby.

Sec 4 student Michelle Annette Sully, who has been using Instagram for the past five years and has about 17,000 followers, has worked with more than 30 sponsors, including shops selling cosmetics and mobile phone covers.

“As a hobby… I am just showing (my followers) what I want to show them. But as a career, you are going to have to show them everything. I feel I don’t want to be that transparent to people I don’t even know,” said the 16-year-old, who wants to become a doctor.

Teens interviewed said their parents were aware of their social media celebrity status and, for many of them, so are their teachers.

In fact, some teachers told The Sunday Times that they follow their students on Instagram and jokingly address their students by their social media handles.

A teacher at a brand-name school who declined to be named said some of his students aspire to become YouTube personalities and social media stars.

“I advise them not to let these things distract them from their schoolwork for now, but we also have to move with the times. Many influencers make a decent living and earn good money,” he said.

Ms Ilinadiah Mohd Ismail, assistant director at the Singapore Children’s Society Youth Service Centre (Toa Payoh), said teens find such a status attractive because of the “perks, freebies, sponsorships, high life and popularity” of influencers.

“In some ways, if we tread carefully and with guidance, this could be a healthy channel for youth to build confidence and to put their energy to productive use. For instance, to raise awareness and public education on worthy causes,” she said.

However, she said parents and teachers should teach their teens to keep themselves safe while using these platforms. Dangers include being duped by older individuals and, in particular, sexual predators.

Like many influencers, Yi Xuan, 16, said she has received at least 50 “creepy” messages of a perverse nature through Instagram.

“Sometimes, it affects me, because I will feel insecure,” she said, adding that she ignores these users or even blocks them.

“But it won’t stop me. I think I shouldn’t give up so easily.”

In making this announcement on Saturday, Trade Undersecretary Ceferino Rodolfo did not say when the agreement was actually concluded, given that the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) had been announcing the signing of the Asean-Hong Kong, China Free Trade Agreement (AHKFTA) this November for months now.

Moreover, they also concluded the Asean-Hong Kong-China Investment Agreement (AHKIA).

“These agreements would level up our already vibrant trade and investments relations as this would mean increased market access for Filipino exporters,” Rodolfo said. “Likewise, for those who have not yet set their foothold in Hong Kong, this would mean new expansion opportunity.”

According to Rodolfo, Hong Kong is the third largest export market for Philippine products in 2016..

AHKFTA covers elements related to trade in goods and related issues such as tariffs, rules of origin, non-tariff measures, customs procedures and trade facilitation, trade remedies, technical barriers to trade, and sanitary and phytosanitary measures.

The trade deal also covers trade in services, investment, intellectual property rights, dispute settlement, horizontal and institutional issues, economic and technical cooperation, and other areas of interest to be mutually agreed on.

Hong Kong is Asean’s sixth largest trading partner last year, with the total bilateral merchandise trade reaching $93.3 billion, or 4.2 percent of Asean total trade last year, data showed.

On the other hand, total foreign direct investment (FDI) flows from Hong Kong to Asean reached $9.6 billion or 9.9 per cent of Asean total FDI in 2016.

One of the topics that were presented by President Jokowi was the development of airports in Indonesia’s 10 priority destinations.

“In the next 10 months, the airports in Lake Toba and Labuan Bajo will become international airports. The hope is to have more international tourists coming to Indonesia,” said Jokowi.

Additionally, H.A.S. Hanandjoeddin Airport in Bangka Belitung is also set to become an international airport as well. Earlier this year a CIQP (Custom, Immigration, Quarantine and Port) simulation was conducted there.

President Jokowi expressed his wish for the two countries to work together for tourism development in terms of joint destinations, cruise ships management, development of cruise docks, improvement of tourism infrastructure investment and development of Meeting, Incentives, Conferences and Exhibitions (MICE).

“Singapore has the technology and man-made [tourism] while Indonesia has nature and culture. The marketing synergy between Indonesia and Singapore will strengthen the tourism sector,” said tourism minister, Arief Yahya who accompanied the President at the meeting.

The president proposed Batam as the ideal place for the digital economy and tourism expansion that includes the development of digital park cluster at Nongsa Batam, the establishment of a start-up incubator, training programs for IT workers and university lecturers.

Singaporean prime minister Lee echoed President Jokowi’s statements, as he saw the economic development of Indonesia to be stable and positive and that’s what encouraged Singapore to do partnerships and investments in Indonesia.

“Both of us welcome plenty of tourists from each other’s places. The economy in Indonesia has grown positively and stable. We have a high chance to develop our economic relation, both governments have been working closely together for a long time. This time the investment will focus on tourism,” said Lee.

Meanwhile, Arief who attended the panel discussion titled National Policy on Tourism Industry Development said that the government has been working on simplifying business regulations in Indonesia.

“The effort in regulations simplification is to make it easier for incoming investments. We are currently developing the 10 priority tourist destinations, also known as 10 new Balis,” told Arief.

He explained that Singapore is the transportation hub for Indonesian tourism, it’s the gate to Indonesia. There are millions of people who transit at Changi International Airport in Singapore and the country welcomes 15.5 million of international tourists.

“By increasing our promotion in Singapore it will help in doubling up the number of international tourists. The distance and travel duration [from Singapore to Indonesia] is short and there are plenty access points, such as ports in Batam and Bintan,” he added.

MALAYSIA’S economy is being transformed by huge and high-tech investments from China, with revolutionary changes seen in several sectors – particularly in manufacturing and construction.

In manufacturing, Malaysia has become the world’s third largest solar cell manufacturer – after mainland China and Taiwan. It has also become a glass exporter – instead of importer – after China firms poured in billions into the sector last year.

In construction, a Chinese contractor is using proven technology to build a tower in the Tun Razak Exchange at a faster rate of one floor every three days. This is among those contracts worth billions of US dollars clinched by Chinese builders in Malaysia.

This change in industrial momentum and productivity, as well as the benefits to be derived from China-funded infrastructure projects, were highlighted by China’s Ambassador to Malaysia Dr Huang Huikang (pic).

“Malaysia is able to bag the most benefits from China’s Belt and Road initiative. The country is gaining in economic growth, employment opportunities, opportunities to upgrade and transform its industries/economy,” said Huang, sporting a batik shirt at the Chinese Embassy in Kuala Lumpur, during an interview with Sunday Star.

He also said that China is buying Malaysia’s sovereign bonds in the open market on a daily basis, thus giving support to the ringgit. Below are excerpts of the interview:

Q: What could be the total value of foreign direct investment (FDI) from China to Malaysia this year?

A: In the first six months of this year, our non-finance FDI totaled US$480mil (RM2bil), a rise of 6% over the value in January-June 2016. Our accumulated FDI in Malaysia as at end-June 2017 was US$3.38bil (RM14.19bil).

 > What is your projection on total bilateral trade volume this year?

Due to slower economic growth, fall in commodity prices, depreciation of the ringgit, etc, the value of China-Malaysia trade fell 10.7% to US$86.87bil last year. But this year, trade value has risen healthily after recovery in prices of major export items from Malaysia. In the first seven months of this year, China-Malaysia trade posted US$52.55bil or a rise of 14.8% over similar period last year. With efforts by both nations, we aim for the return of US$100bil in 2017.

> What bilateral achievements have been made due to the close bilateral ties?

We made five major achievements last year:

1. China continued to be Malaysia’s largest trade partner for the eighth year in a row.

2. China topped the FDI country list last year. It was the first time we surpassed the United States, Japan and Singapore in FDI value.

3. We surpassed Singapore to be the largest investor in Malaysia’s real estate.

4. China continued to be one of the largest foreign contractors. Chinese corporations are contractors for many huge infrastructure projects.

5. China ranked first in terms of visitor arrivals to Malaysia, after Singapore and Indonesia. Last year, we recorded 2.2 million tourist arrivals for the first time. Based on an average spending of RM5,000 per person, our people have contributed about RM11bil to the local economy. This year, we are looking at three million and a spending of about RM15bil. In the first half of 2017, we recorded 1.48 million tourist arrivals.

Top notch: A Chinese contractor with high technical and engineering capabilities is able to build a tower in the Tun Razak Exchange at an impressive rate of one floor every three days. — FAIHAN GHANI/The Star.

> What benefits has Malaysia gained from China’s Belt and Road initiative?

With the entry of our corporations, Malaysia has become a new leader in certain sectors and there is significant improvement in some industries.

Take the example of the glass sector. In the past, Malaysia had to spend RM1.5bil per year to import glass. After investments by Kibing Glass Group and Xinyi Glass Holdings Ltd, Malaysia has become a glass exporter instead.

Another example is the solar cell sector. Two Chinese companies have invested in Penang and one in Sarawak. Malaysia has now become the third largest solar cell producer in the world, after mainland China and Taiwan.

There is a high-tech textile factory in Johor Baru set up by the Chinese.

In the auto sector, there is a strategic partnership of Proton and Geely. And in the Digital Free Trade Zone (DFTZ) to help digitise your economy, Alibaba is the main partner.

In the oil and gas sector, the pipeline transporting oil products from Melaka to Jitra (in Kedah) is starting construction soon, after an agreement signing last November. The Government is looking at extending the pipeline and talks are being held on this extension.

In Sabah, there will be a multi-billon ringgit gas pipeline linking Sandakan to Kimanis.

I have inspected these companies in February and March. They are producing tangible results.

Over the last three years, China’s actual investment in real estate was at US$2.1bil (RM8.9bil), surpassing US$1bil (RM4.3bil) by Singapore.

> Is China still supporting the ringgit by buying our sovereign bonds?

During his visit to Malaysia in late 2015, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang said China would help to support the Malaysian economy. We carried out measures such as granting a 50-billion yuan quota to Malaysia under the Renminbi-Qualified Foreign Institutional Investor programme and buying Malaysian government bonds in line with market rules. He also called for more joint efforts to stabilise financial markets and boost investment and trade cooperation to tackle global financial instability and other economic woes. Following his statement, the ringgit strengthened.

> There is some local opposition towards China’s investments as Chinese firms are not dishing out contracts to local players. What is your view?

Chinese corporations are here to create win-win collaborations for both countries. There is no issue of taking away the “rice bowls” of locals. In fact, every Chinese project brings employment opportunities and economic growth.

I have inspected 12 China investment projects in Malaysia in March. There are localisation measures in place to fulfil the development strategies of both countries.

Apart from business development, Chinese corporations also emphasise on social responsibility. Investment from China is bringing mutual benefits. I hope people here will not politicise Chinese investments in Malaysia.

> Some of the largest foreign contractors in Malaysia are Chinese. Does it mean they have deprived local players of opportunities?

Chinese corporations are undertaking mega projects that local firms are not capable of doing, as they need world-class technical requirement. These corporations are world-class top players, with sophisticated technical expertise.

You can see in two examples. Penang’s second bridge, an excellent model for the construction of bridges, is showcasing high standard of expertise. Malaysian firms have yet to reach such level.

In the construction of Tun Razak Exchange (TRX), our Chinese company is able to complete one storey in three days. In comparison, the Petronas Twin Towers constructed by the Koreans and Japanese in the 1990s saw one storey per month.

These are difficult jobs that require high technical and engineering capabilities.

But for most other mega projects, there are jobs that can involve the local contractors. In the case of East Coast Rail Link (ECRL), Prime Minister (Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak) has announced that at least 30% of the civil engineering work will be awarded to local contractors. The electrified double-tracking railway line linking Gemas with Johor Baru will see 50% of the civil construction works awarded to local players.

For some of the projects awarded to Chinese contractors, China also provides financing. The ECRL is one of those. Soft loans will be provided at low interest rates. We bring our money to work in Malaysia.

For projects which locals are capable of undertaking, Chinese enterprises may not have the competitive edge against them.

> Some experts say the RM55bil cost of the ECRL is too high. Any explanation from China?

The cost of construction is not high. There are two reasons:

From Gombak to Kuantan, an 18km-tunnel to cut through Peninsular Malaysia’s Titiwangsa Mountain range needs to be built. The tunnel will be the longest in Malaysia and will be completed within six years. The whole railway will be completed in seven years. It took the Swiss 20 years to complete a similar tunnel.

Secondly, from Kuantan to Terengganu and Kelantan, the railway will be built along the coastal line. More than 30% of the railway will need viaducts to be elevated due to soft clay ground.

This is not an easy project, as the construction and the engineering of geological condition is very complicated. Viaduct and tunnel will take up 30% of the 600km railways.

> With many parties showing interest in bidding for the RM70bil KL-Singapore High Speed Railway, what is the chance for China?

China has a strong chance to win. Chinese corporations will be the most competitive as we will give the best terms. I have said before, 10 years to build the railway is too long, five years is enough. China has capabilities to finish it in five years.

> What do you think of the Malaysian economy?

Early this year, I publicly made some optimistic predictions. I said the local economy this year would grow faster than 4.5% and the ringgit would appreciate by 5% to 8%. These predictions have come true. The key takeaway is that China has confidence in Malaysian economy, so Malaysians should have confidence in their economy, too.