JAKARTA – It is said that a picture is worth a thousand words. If that is so, an exhibition of some of the world’s top photographers must be a text of epic proportions.

Through the lens of photographers, unseen places and moments are revealed — from a boat full of refugees in the middle of the Libyan coast, Ebola-stricken areas in Sierra Leone to an Islamic school for transgender people in Yogyakarta, Indonesia.

The event, which runs until March 12, displays the winning images of the 58th annual World Press Photo contest that drew 97,912 entries from 5,692 professional photographers coming from 131 countries.

World Press Photo is an Amsterdam-based non-profit organization that aims to generate public interest in and appreciation for the work of photographers and other visual journalists, as well as to promote the free exchange of information.

The exhibited photos are divided into eight categories: contemporary issues, daily life, general news, long term projects, nature, portraits, sports and spot news.

Danish photographer Mads Nissen’s photo of a gay couple enjoying an intimate moment in St. Petersburg, Russia, was selected as Photo of the Year, and won first place in the contemporary issues category.

The photo is part of his larger project “Homophobia in Russia”, which aims to document the lives of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people that have become increasingly difficult in the country.

A jury member Alessia Glaviano said that Nissen’s photo had a message about love as the answer to everything that happened in the world nowadays.

“It is about love as a global issue, in a way that transcends homosexuality. It sends out a strong message to the world, not just about homosexuality, but about equality, about gender, about being black or white, about all of the issues related to minorities,” she said in a statement.

The general news category captures photos on news topics and their aftermath, and the photo by Italian photographer Gianfranco Tripodo of a migrant hiding from the Guardia Civil beneath a vehicle in Melila, an enclave of Spanish territory in North Africa, also won the attention of visitors.

The black and white image stunningly captures the subject’s fear of being captured by the police officers. According to Tripodo, three 6-meter-high fences separate Melilla from Morocco, but thousands of people keep trying to cross them to reach Spanish soil in search of a better life.

Chinese photographer Yongzhi Chu presents a photo concerning the nation’s controversial animal circuses, which have been banned by the Chinese government, but are still rampant as circus trainers are unaware of the regulations and have no intention of stopping the practice.

The heart-breaking picture shows a monkey cowering behind a bicycle as its trainer approaches.

Apart from single pictures, the event also exhibits photo stories that invite viewers on a visual journey to take a deeper look into certain issues.

In the long-term project category, American photographer Darcy Padilla displays a captivating photo story that follows the life of Julie Baird and her family for 21 years, from 1993 through to 2014.

Padilla first met her subject in the lobby of a San Francisco hotel, when Baird, who was HIV positive and had a history of drug abuse, was 18 and carrying an eight-day-old child.

She took a picture of her with her three-month-old daughter at the hotel, and also captured her depression after the sudden death of her father.

A series of pictures after Baird’s death in 2010 is also presented, revolving around the life of her second daughter, and her partner Jason Dunn who was charged with sexual abuse of a minor.

“By focusing on one woman’s struggle, I hoped to provide an in-depth look at social issues surrounding disadvantage and HIV, but I also wanted to create a record for Julie’s children of their mother’s story,” Padilla said.

All submitted photos were assessed by 17 jury members who looked for the combination of news values, journalistic standards, and the photographer’s creativity and visual skills in each image. In the case of stories and long-term projects, the editing of the material submitted was also taken into account.

Photos then went through three stages of verification to ensure compliance with the competition’s code of ethics and entry rules.

One of the judges, Donald Weber, said the World Press Photo was more than just a photo competition due to its ability to generate public debate.

“The winning image fosters debate — about who we are and where we’re going and what we’re trying to say — not only within the photo community, but also in the larger community. The images are seen and discussed by tens of thousands of people,” he said.

The forum called for urgent solutions to restructure the cultivation schedule and prioritise short-term rice varieties tolerant of salinity of up to three parts per thousand.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development’s Crop Department advised local farmers, especially those in coastal areas, not to grow a spring-summer rice crop this year.

It said that all 12 Delta provinces and Can Tho city should create a comprehensive system of dams and culverts that could control salty water.

In the long run, the ministry said it was essential to develop drought and saltwater-resistant crops and trees.

Local cultivation practices also needed to be changed to cope with an expected rise in sea level.

Doanh said climate change had been seriously affecting the region in recent years, resulting in drought and saltwater intrusion over hundreds of thousands of ha of farmland.

In the 2015 – 2016 dry season (from November to April), there has been early and acute saltwater intrusion.

The saline intrusion could last until July, said Doanh, adding that it had already seriously affected agricultural production.

Speaking at the forum, Phan Huy Thong, director of the National Agricultural Extension Centre, said more than 1.5 million ha of rice were planted in the region in the 2015 – 2016 winter-spring crop.

Among 340,000 ha prone to drought and saltwater intrusion, 104,000 ha have been severely affected, mostly in the provinces of Long An, Tien Giang, Ben Tre, Tra Vinh, Soc Trang, Bac Lieu, Kien Giang and Hau Giang.

A large area of fruit trees in Vinh Long, Hau Giang and Soc Trang provinces has been threatened by salinity of over three parts per thousand, Thong said.

In a recent seminar in Can Tho, Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc said the Government would allocate VND2.3 trillion (US$104 million) from bonds and Official Development Assistance loans for the delta to combat drought and saltwater intrusion.

The region needs a few billion dollars to implement sustainable solutions, according to Doanh.

Phuc told the Ministry of Finance and the delta provinces to provide relief worth VND2 million ($95) per hectare to affected households.

The Cuu Long (Mekong) Delta, the country’s largest rice, fruit and fisheries producer, is facing the worst drought and saltwater intrusion in 90 years. However, it is not yet the peak of the dry season, according to the ministry.

Laos last chaired Asean in 2004. Its economy grew by an average of 7 per cent annually in recent years, mostly on the back of its natural resources, a construction boom in Vientiane and rising tourism.

The year will culminate with the Asean and East Asia Summits in September – held earlier than usual because of the United States election in November.

US President Barack Obama is expected to attend the summit.

The foreign ministers “will discuss the implementation of the Asean Community Vision 2025… [and] will also exchange views on Asean’s external relations, and on regional and international issues”, Singapore’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a brief statement Thursday.

The Asean Community Vision 2025 emerged from the 2013 Asean summit. It aims to develop a “politically cohesive, economically integrated, socially responsible, and a truly people-oriented, people-centered and rules-based Asean”, the 10-member group’s official website states.

An issue that has divided Asean, the South China Sea dispute, will figure in the discussions too, officials say.

China – an Asean dialogue partner – claims almost the entire South China Sea, but its claims overlap with those of several Asean countries, most critically Vietnam and the Philippines.

Analysts have noted that Laos, which was perceived to be drifting into China’s sphere of influence, appears to have changed course and returned to its traditional closeness to Vietnam and to balancing other major powers.

New Lao Politburo chief Bounnhang Vorachit studied in Vietnam and speaks fluent Vietnamese. He is expected to be president when the new Laotian government is formed at the end of next month.

While the Laos political system is opaque, with only news reports in state media to go by, recent reports indicated that the government wants good relations with the US and Japan, observers say.

“Vietnam is a strong counterforce to China, it is seen as a trusted friend,” a Vientiane-based diplomat said. “Laos has always walked a tightrope, and it will hide behind the Asean consensus.”

Increasing trade ties in Southeast Asia are a boon not only for business but also for crime, though local officials have not quite figured out how to control the latter.

The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), in a report released Thursday, warned of the significant danger posed by criminal activities such as drug trafficking, maritime piracy and human trafficking should local officials continue to neglect security needs thrown up by streamlined Customs controls.

“Regional integration is happening so fast it is changing the threats,” UNODC’s regional representative Jeremy Douglas told The Straits Times. But regional leaders, while focusing on economic needs, are not paying enough attention to the risks brought about by closer ties within the region, as well as between South-east Asia and the rest of the world.

“The security agenda is lagging far, far behind,” he said. “It hasn’t got the attention of policymakers the way it should have.”

The illicit flows in Southeast Asia are valued at about US$100 billion a year, but that’s a conservative estimate.

That money – generated from the trade in drugs, wildlife, people and fake products, for example – also destabilises the region by funding criminal networks. The loss in tax revenues reduces the benefits of trade liberalization and hurts law-abiding businesses.

Within the Asean Economic Community, which came into being at the end of last year, “there has been increased pressure on border personnel to maintain a swift and lean clearing process”, said the UNODC report.

“But not all clearing points are equipped to handle these pressures,” the report said. “And if new rules are not accompanied by capacity-building and smarter checks, it will result in a dangerous situation of large undetected illicit flows.”

Experts say the poorer countries in the region that throw open their doors to earn foreign exchange are often unprepared to police the surge of goods and people across the borders.

But the growth in traffic is unrelenting: The Pacific Asia Travel Association has predicted that visitor arrivals to the Asia-Pacific region will grow at an average rate of 6.2 per cent every year between 2014 and 2018, to hit 660 million.

Meanwhile, $5.3 trillion worth of global trade passes through Southeast Asian waters each year, making ships a ripe target for pirates. Less than 2 per cent of the 500 million containers shipped annually are inspected.

Against this backdrop, criminal networks are adapting their operations according to new connecting infrastructure.

“It appears that infrastructure projects joining eastern India to the rest of the [Greater Mekong Sub-region] has resulted in an increase in production of ketamine and methamphetamine,” it said.

While the space for cross-border crime has expanded, “the systems and safeguards that accompany infrastructure projects are reflective of a time when crime was more of a local phenomenon”.

The UNODC called for countries to share intelligence in real time using existing tools and technologies. It also urged them to strengthen regional data collection, as well as respond more efficiently to mutual requests for legal assistance.

The newspaper also reported that Apple is expected to bring its Apple Pay product to Vietnam as well. Nguyen Tu Anh, CEO of Banknetvn said transactions via Samsung Pay and Apple Pay took only 10 seconds. She hoped that both Samsung Pay and Apple Pay will setup in Vietnam.

Multiple new payment methods that do not use bank cards have recently been launched, including Apple Pay, Samsung Pay, Facebook Payments, Google Wallet and Amazon Payments. They are seen as a threat to the payment market share of local commercial banks.

Samsung has reported a strong response to its mobile payment system, notably due to the fact that its technology is compatible with magnetic stripe card readers, which are already being widely used by retailers.

A representative from a local commercial bank told the newspaper that it’s not only foreign tech giants who wanted to enter Vietnam, but domestic tech companies are also eager to offer e-payment services. Together, they are seen as a major threat to local banks.

Banks need to renovate

The number of smartphone users has rapidly increased, which will lead to a related increase in using e-payment, said Tran Huu Linh, Director General of the Vietnam E-commerce and Information Technology Agency, Ministry of Industry and Trade.

Linh said that over two billion people used smartphones globally, 35 million of which were in Vietnam.

According to statistics from the Ministry of Industry and Trade, at least 25 per cent of online buyers bought products using their smartphones in 2015. The new consumer trend was quickly followed by the tech giants. In response, commercial banks will have to quickly renovate their banking technology.

Can Van Luc, a finance and banking expert said that all banks will need to quickly renovate and improve their banking technology, create new banking products, develop similar technologies to compete or repurchase the technology from existing tech companies.

Nguyen Hung, General Director of Tien Phong Bank, said both Apple and Samsung had already revealed their plans to enter the e-payment market in Vietnam this year, but that the Vietnamese market remained too small for them to give much priority to major investment.

Hung said that the tech giants would perhaps run test trials, but thought it would still take at least one or two years for e-payment to become popular in Vietnam.

He said that investment in banking technology still remained essential. However, investment in banking technology cost a lot of money, with an average project costing between US$2-$5 million.

If banks wanted to expand their networks they must invest in developing technology, and then the development of e-banks would bring them a high profit, said Hung. For this reason, TPBank would continue to invest in banking technology to make its banking system more efficient.

Cash payment habit

Speaking at the Vietnam E-Payment Forum held in Ha Noi in December, Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam said that although Vietnam’s e-commerce market had seen recent growth, in-cash habits in Vietnam were still overwhelmingly popular, accounting for 65 per cent of total payment transactions.

“This habit has hampered the country’s economic development as well as people’s living standards,” he said.

Dam highlighted how in other countries electronic payments accounted for 90 per cent of total payments and had helped increase their GDP by about 1 per cent.

With more than 120 million mobile subscriptions and more than 40 million Internet users in Vietnam, electronic transaction processes have a lot of potential, he said.

The Deputy PM said that in 2014, e-commerce in Vietnam was valued at US$2.97 billion, and was expected to reach $4 billion in 2015, increasing to $7 billion in 2017. Many experts agreed that the country’s e-commerce sector has potential, but that the cash payment habit remains a big and resilient hurdle for its growth.

According to statistics issued by the Vietnam Bank Card Association, 90 per cent of card payment revenues came from transactions at ATM machines. Of this figure, 85 per cent came from money withdrawals, 14 per cent from transfers, and the remainder from payments.