Laos is one of the countries taking a tough line to prevent and resolve the issue with the aim of boosting confidence among Lao and foreign businesses and investors.

As part of the government’s efforts to bring the country’s financial standards in line with international systems, the Bank of the Lao PDR (BOL)’s Anti-Money Laundering Intelligence Unit yesterday (April 20) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Registration and Management of Enterprises Department of the Ministry of Industry and Commerce.

The MoU was signed by BOL’s acting head of the Anti-Money Laundering Intelligence Unit Phengsy Phengmeuang, and director general of the Registration and Management of Enterprises Department Dr Somphouang Phienphinith.

“If we don’t strictly follow the guidelines of international bodies, Laos will be in trouble in terms of socio-economic development,” said Phengsy.

The banking and financial sectors in Laos would be more widely trusted by customers if their financial systems were more transparent, she noted.

The MoU is also an important aspect of compliance with the Law on Enterprise, Phengsy said.

“AML/CFT is an international issue, which is complex. We have to have detailed information about business operators who register in Laos in order to prevent transnational crime, under the convention to which Laos is a party,” she added.

The issue would be not successfully addressed if cooperation from the relevant sectors was not forthcoming.

Money laundering is a serious issue but wrongdoers are not severely punished, Dr Somphouang said.

On behalf of the Bank of the Lao PDR, the Anti-Money Laundering Intelligence Unit last month signed an MoU with the Foreigner Control Department under the Ministry of Public Security.

As a member of the Asia-Pacific Group on Money Laundering, Laos is obliged to implement the Financial Action Task Force’s 40 recommendations in order to meet international standards on anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism.

In the past few years, BOL’s Anti-Money Laundering Intelligence Unit has signed MoUs on data exchange with several government bodies including the State Inspection Authority. In addition, the BOL cooperates with various Asean countries in technical areas, including Myanmar, Cambodia and several other developing countries.

Last year, the BOL signed an MoU with the Korea Financial Intelligence Unit to exchange information on preventing money laundering and the financing of terrorism, which was a significant form of international cooperation to actively address the central bank’s AML/CFT deficiencies.

The long-haired, uncannily human-looking robot pauses as her software runs through past interactions to figure out the most appropriate thing to say. Finally, she settles on: “We talked about your job.”

At the National University of Singapore campus, a driverless cart attempts to navigate along a crowded walkway. When it senses a person in front of it, it stops; and as the crowd disperses, it inches forward, having learnt when to stop when an obstacle impedes its progress and when it is safe to move again.

These are two of the latest artificial intelligence (AI) projects that local researchers are working on as Singapore positions itself to grab a piece of the global market tipped to reach US$5.05 billion (S$6.8 billion) by 2020.

The revenue prediction by India- based research and consulting firm MarketsandMarkets was based on an expected rise in the adoption of AI in media and advertising, retail, finance and healthcare, growing from a market size of US$419.7 million in 2014.The new wave of AI machines like Nadine has moved beyond traditional AI design, in which machines are given specific instructions to follow with no room for improvisation.

Rather, they tap into a subfield of AI, called machine learning, in which machines generate new outcomes for themselves after learning from previous outcomes.

“Nadine could eventually act as a robotic caretaker for the sick or elderly,” said NTU’s Professor Nadia Thalmann, Nadine’s creator.

Machine learning was thrust into the spotlight last month when a computer program, AlphaGo, beat one of the highest-ranking players in the world 4-1 in the ancient, complex board game of Go.

Such a feat was thought to be at least five years away, and would not have been possible without machine learning. It would have been impossible to code all the optimal moves into the software as the number of moves on the evolving board state can exceed the number of atoms in the universe.

However, AlphaGo’s developer company, DeepMind, fed the software millions of Go games and had it play against itself, where it eventually learnt and developed a play style of its own. AlphaGo’s success brought renewed interest in the capabilities of machine learning.

While both AI and machine learning are not new, they have become more accessible to software developers due to two recent factors: the rapid increase in computational power and the proliferation of big data.

“These two advances in computing technology made it possible for computers to efficiently crunch large amounts of data to look for patterns, and to have a wide dataset to learn from,” said Associate Professor Steven Hoi, an expert in machine learning from the Singapore Management University.

Consumers are seeing the applications of machine learning in the smart devices in their hands. Speech-recognition software like Apple’s Siri and Microsoft’s Cortana, for instance, make use of machine learning to comprehend a user’s voice and the spoken instructions to the phone via a process called natural language processing.

Machine learning also underlies many of Google’s services found in Android devices. Google Photos, for instance, uses machine learning to learn and tag objects in its gallery.

When a user searches for “cats”, for example, the app is able to pick out photos with cats in them, having learnt how to identify such felines through millions of examples.

According to Professor Alfred Huan, executive director of the Agency for Science, Technology and Research’s (A*Star) Institute of High Performance Computing, current capabilities of AI have reached near human-level performance in areas such as machine vision and speech recognition.

But while machine learning has enabled AI to leap ever closer to the ambitious goal of simulating human consciousness, experts say there is still a long way to go before the days of robotic superiority.

“As impressive as these feats have been, machines are still nowhere near the intelligence of even a two-year-old child,” said Prof Huan. “We are still far away from any truly intelligent machine capable of replacing humans.”

WHAT IS MACHINE LEARNING?

Machine learning is a subset of the field of computer science known as artificial intelligence (AI), which seeks to simulate the workings of a human brain.

Machine learning is a form of programming, where the software improves its response after learning from previous responses, rather than following only scripted responses.

Nascent forms of machine learning first emerged some 20 years ago. The most modern form is “deep learning”, which tries to model the neural networks of the human brain by identifying millions of patterns in large datasets to predict the next outcome.

It plays an important role in big data analytics and is currently the rage in machine-learning research, given the accessibility of big data and computational power.

Professor Lee Wee Sun, vice-dean of undergraduate studies at the National University of Singapore’s School of Computing, says “true” AI is still far off in the future because there are four requirements for software before it can be deemed “intelligent”: learning, planning, reasoning and knowledge representation.

So, while machines may currently be able to crunch large amounts of data and make accurate decisions, such as when to buy and sell in the stock market based on statistical predictions, the human mind may never be replaced in areas like artistic creativity or coming up with novel solutions to open-ended problems.

The conference sought to review the implementation of a project on developing the environmental industry in Vietnam for the 2010-15 period and set goals through to 2025.

Preferential financial policies were needed for environmental service providers, the association said, adding that incentives should be devised to boost the consumption of domestically made environmentally friendly products, while financial assistance should be provided for promotional events. Localities also needed to develop their own plans for developing the sector through 2020, it added.

Sharing this view, Deputy Director of the Department of Science and Technology under the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MOIT) Nguyen Huy Hoan stressed the need for legal documents guiding the application of the incentives, in terms of finance, infrastructure, land and taxes for the production and import of machines, equipment and vehicles used in collecting, transporting and processing waste.

Developing a mechanism on environmental technology transfers should also be considered, Hoan said.

In the 2010-15 period, within the framework of the project, the ministry approved 57 research missions relating to technology, equipment and products serving the industry, with a total investment of VND198 billion (US$8.91 million).

There are nearly 4,000 licenced firms operating nationwide in the environmental field, said the association’s chairman, Nguyen Dinh Hiep. A majority of them are small-sized enterprises, with capital below VND5 billion ($225,000), Hiep noted.

According to the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment the environmental firms have not been able to invest into areas which require large investments due to their small scale.

There are almost no State-owned enterprises in the sector eligible to resolve large environmental issues, such as harmful solid waste and oil spills.

Here’s just a brief background of seven of these Malaysians who have made our food known abroad.

Kyo Pang: The pull of pulled tea

Her teh tarik is pulling hordes over to the tiny coffee shop in Chinatown’s Canal Street in New York City. Guess what Pang’s outlet is called? Kopitiam. Cute, huh?

Pang, 31, is a third-generation nonya whose family still lives in Penang, where her grandfather ran a kopitiam, which her father skilfully turned into a legit restaurant.

Pang established Kopitiam in October last year, wanting to keep alive the traditional nonya cuisine, as well as introducing it to the rest of the world. Kopitiam’s nasi lemak, pulut inti, kaya butter toast and other delectable nonya dishes have received rave reviews, and the outlet even got a mention on The New York Times Critics’ Pick.

Simpson Wong: A chef to celebrities

Can you imagine Meryl Streep eating char kway teow? Well, she may just order that dish when she dines at Simpson Wong’s Cafe Asean. The Oscar winner is one of the many A-listers who frequent the restaurant that serves Vietnamese, Thai and Malaysian cuisines.

Wong, who hails from Tanjung Malim, Perak also established Jefferson that got its own 15 minutes of fame after being featured in Sex And The City. However, it had to be closed down after Wong suffered a heart attack in 2005. The chef got back on his feet and eventually opened his namesake Wong, before moving on to Chomp Chomp in New York City. Although its menu – which features carrot cake, Nonya chap chye, assam fish and goreng pisang – is labelled as Singaporean cuisine, it has Malaysia written all over it. Seriously, there is no way anyone can believe that his Sarawak Laksa is Singaporean.

Ping Coombes: A master chef of her own

She put Malaysia on the food map after winning the 2014 UK MasterChef competition with her take on nasi lemak and wonton soup, and she hasn’t looked back since. Although Coombes has lived in Britain for over 15 years, she still looks to her hometown in Ipoh for inspiration in her cooking. Her first cookbook, Malaysia: Recipes From A Family Kitchen will hit the shelves in May, and features recipes for Malaysian food inspired by her childhood. Coombes also keeps busy by partnering with eateries in London, where she prepares Malaysian dishes for the customers. She recently concluded two Laksa Monday sessions at a restaurant in Lower Bristol Road, where she showcased her signature Prawn and Chicken Laksa (that was featured on UK MasterChef 2014).

Azalina Eusope: Answering her life’s calling

The last thing Azalina Eusope set out to do in life was to become a street vendor, like her folks four generations before her. She didn’t want to become a noodle seller like her father in Penang, and escaped to apprentice in a kitchen in Singapore. She eventually worked in Sydney, Hong Kong and Bangkok before finally accepting her fate in the United States. Azalina sold crepes and kaya-glazed banana fritters at a weekly farmer’s market in San Francisco to make ends meet. Her food was good, and she unofficially became the spokeswoman for Malaysian cuisine in the Bay Area. However, her talent couldn’t be contained within the confines of a pushcart. Azalina opened a new restaurant called Azalina’s at Market Street – oh, and it just happens to be on the ground floor of San Francisco’s Twitter building! Here she offers dishes like pineapple tea salad, nasi lemak, hokkien mee and other Malaysian fare.

Norman Musa: Malaysian cuisine ambassador

His recipes are featured in The Sunday Times UK, and in his latest entry, Norman Musa writes of his yearning for Malaysian food. The Penang-born chef has been living in Britain for 21 years, and it was during the first few months as a student at the University of Portsmouth that he learned how to cook Malaysian dishes – over the telephone. His late mother taught him everything he needed to know about making curries and rendangs, which he now features in his restaurant, Ning. In 2007, Norman launched his Malaysian cookery classes through which he promotes Malaysian food to the Brits, teaching them how to make rendang, gulai, murtabak and more. Norman is also a familiar face at food festivals and on television, after hosting a 13-episode cooking series and having a stint as a celebrity chef on MasterChef Malaysia in 2011. After the success of his first cookbook Malaysian Food: A Collection Of My Favourite Dishes And The Inspiration Behind Them, Norman released his second book Amazing Malaysian: Recipes For Vibrant Malaysian Home-Cooking this year.

Christina Arokiasamy: The spice merchant’s daughter

She was known as “the girl with yellow hands” at school, but that didn’t stop Christina Arokiasamy from helping her mother prepare spices for grinding at their mill. She is a fifth generation descendant of a family who traded spices, and she was exposed to the world of spices throughout her childhood.

Christina may have left Kuala Lumpur behind to pursue a different life in the United States, but she always held on to the great memories and food created in her kitchen back home.

She started by teaching her American friends how to prepare South-East Asian dishes, and her small classes turned into cooking demonstrations that took her across the country. Christina is now one of the most recognised teaching chefs in America, known for her unique take on South-East Asian flavours, which she also presented in her cookbook The Spice Merchant’s Daughter. But her biggest achievement so far has to be the day she was elected as Malaysia’s official Food Ambassador to the United States in 2014.

Poh Ling Yeow: Recreating connections with home

When she moved from Kuala Lumpur to Adelaide at nine, Poh Ling Yeow left most of her culture behind. But food has enabled her to keep that vital link to her Malaysian family heritage, and a drive to have something to pass down to her family in Australia. Poh entered the first season of MasterChef Australia, and emerged first runner-up. Although she didn’t win the title, she was nonetheless introduced to a world of opportunities – including her own cooking shows and writing cookbooks. Same Same But Different was published in 2014 and features Chinese and Aussie favourites such as noodles, dumplings, bagels, salads, puddings, pasta and cakes. In 2014, she also collaborated with Malaysia Airlines to introduce her signature Nonya Chicken Curry dish on their Australia and New Zealand flights.

In an interview with the media, Colin Willett, the US Department of State’s deputy assistant secretary in the East Asia and Pacific Bureau, said that the US-led initiative puts together a “whole of government” approach to economic engagement for businesses from both sides.

“This will give US businesses more centralised information about Asean and provide them access to US assistance to Asean.

“But it also gives Asean a place to learn more about the US not just in terms of investment but in areas such as export financing and insurance,” Willett said at The Radisson Hotel.

Willett was in the country for meetings with Brunei’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MoFAT) to discuss various issues.

She said that the US-Asean Connect initiative, which was launched in February 2016 during the Special US-Asean Summit in California, is also another channel for Asean to interact with the US government which had been actively involved in the developments of regional economic integration.

She added that a ‘connect centre’ has been set up in Jakarta followed by more centres in Singapore and Bangkok.

In terms of trade, Willett said that there has been a lot of interest coming from US businesses to come into Southeast Asia due to the potential benefits of having a connected regional economy under the AEC.

However, she said more work needs to be done to show how it would affect businesses.

“I think there are still some questions on what the AEC means for international investors and I think that people are still looking at what the AEC means for them.”

Willett said that the interest is also partly because of the TPP, a trade deal among 12 Pacifc Rim countries of which Asean states Brunei, Singapore, Malaysia and Vietnam are members of.

“When it comes to TPP implementation, we’re also taking cues from Asean and finding out what the next steps are in regional economic integration.”

Willett said that discussions have been held on how the US can help Asean through workshops and training to take the AEC forward.

Engagements between the US and Asean in the last five years have helped drive the importance ofAsean to US businesses, the US official said.

US exports to Asean totalled US$91.9billion in 2012/13 while imports to the region amounted to US$108 billion, according to information from the US-Asean Business Council website.

Asean is the US’ fourth largest export market creating and supporting over 472,000 jobs in the US.

The average Asean consumer also purchases nearly 1.75 times as many US goods per capita as the Chinese consumer and about nine times as many as the average Indian consumer, said the council.

It is believed he was pressured to sell as his private bank did not want to handle an auction sale.

A 678 sq ft studio apartment at The Sail @ Marina Bay went for S$1,475 psf in late February, a price not seen at the project in over five years.

Some owners are selling due to business problems or job losses, experts noted. Others may fear the outlook could deteriorate further.

Said Suzie Mok, senior director of investment sales at Savills Singapore: “Many of the apartments are vacant and it is quite difficult to get leases renewed at a good rate. The returns are not that great and if owners have made capital gains, it may be time to recycle (the asset).”

While not all sellers would have lost money – The Sail @ Marina Bay was launched in 2004 at prices from about S$900 psf, for example – more sellers are booking losses.

Across the Core Central Region (CCR) – which includes the traditional prime Districts 9 to 11, the downtown core planning area and Sentosa Cove – 63 secondary market sales of condos lost money in the first quarter, according to SRX Property.

This is up from 35 of such sales a year earlier and 60 in the fourth quarter last year.

At Orange Grove Residences, for example, all three transactions this year have each involved losses of close to S$1 million.

The rental market is the key culprit as it struggles with weakened demand and ramped-up supply.

Expatriates arriving these days tend to be at the middle-management or executive level, with far less generous housing budgets than in the past, said Desmond Sim, CBRE head of research for Singapore and Southeast Asia.

There is no longer demand for the large luxury units that are common to the CCR, he noted.

And while the Urban Redevelopment Authority’s rental index for non-landed homes in the CCR has fallen just 7.9 per cent from its peak in the third quarter of 2013 to the end of last year, rents on a quantum basis have probably corrected more than that, Sim added.

This is because shrinking unit sizes over time would have helped prop up rents on a psf basis.

At Draycott Eight, for example, recent contracts signed for four-bedders have fallen to as low as S$13,000 a month, well under the S$15,000 to S$20,000 they used to command.

Luxury homebuyers today tend to be Singaporeans purchasing for their own use, usually as holiday homes or gifts to their children, said DTZ regional head (SEA) of research Lee Nai Jia.

“Hence they are not concerned about the rental yield. Some are entering the market at this point as the prices are relatively cheap, compared to when the property was launched or sold three or four years ago.”

Other buyers feel the Additional Buyers’ Stamp Duty will probably not be tweaked in the short term and do not wish to wait longer.

Foreign buyers, who are still in the minority, are mainly Malaysian and Indonesian permanent residents purchasing homes in Singapore as their children are studying here, Dr Lee added.

At the same time, funds continue to be on the hunt for unsold units from developers.

A fund run by Evia Capital Partners is said to have recently bought 20 units at Starlight Suites in River Valley from developer TA Corporation. Evia Real Estate managing director Vincent Ong said on Thursday that he could neither confirm nor deny the purchase. TA Corporation declined to comment.

“These funds feel commercial values have not come off enough, but residential is cheap,” an agent said.

(US$1 = S$1.36)