That investment by the Shenzhen-headquartered network equipment and solutions provider equaled 14.9 percent of its annual sales.

“For the next 10 years, the company will continue expanding investments — more than $10 billion each year — in new technological innovation,” said rotating CEO Ken Hu at the Huawei Analyst Summit in April.

In July, Huawei announced a $5 billion increase in its R&D budget for this year, with 20 to 30 percent of the increase said to be allocated for basic science research.

For 5G technologies in particular, the Chinese firm spent around 680 billion won from 2009 through 2017.

Such R&D efforts led the company to its current position as the world’s biggest 5G patent holder, with 1,481 patents in the field of 5G New Radio, according to the European Telecommunications Standards Institute.

Across all sectors, Huawei issued 112,849 patents and registered 74,307 patents as of last year.

For the past decade, the company’s total R&D investments reached 66.25 trillion won, according to Huawei.

Tokyo is the most expensive of six major world cities, including New York and London, when it comes to mobile phone service fees. Customers in the Japanese capital shell out ¥7,562 ($67) per month — 4.2 times more than the ¥1,783 Parisians pay, which is the lowest figure among the six cities.

The Internal Affairs and Communications Ministry announced Wednesday country-by-country comparisons of communications service fees for mobile phones in fiscal 2017.

The ministry compared rate plans (the most common plan with 5 gigabytes of data capacity) offered by companies with the largest share of their respective domestic smartphone market.

Compared with price levels in fiscal 2014, the price in Tokyo had fallen by about 10 percent. On the other hand, the prices in three other cities — London, Paris and Dusseldorf — had dropped by about 70 percent.

The price in Seoul went down about 30 percent, while that in New York declined by about 60 percent, indicating a sluggish pace for price drops in Tokyo. This is partly due to delays in the spread of low-cost smartphones compared to other countries.

In response to the situation, a policy subpanel of the Information and Communications Council, an advisory panel to the minister, decided Wednesday to set up new five committees to examine tasks such as a reduction of mobile phone charges.

According to SoftBank, the failure was caused by a malfunction in the company’s filtering system, which automatically sorts out spam emails and blocks their delivery.

The Internal Affairs and Communications Ministry told SoftBank on Friday to provide its users with sufficient explanation for the failure, as the ministry regards it as a serious incident under the Regulations for Enforcement of the Telecommunications Business Law.

The failure lasted for 22 hours and 28 minutes, from 10:48 a.m. on Sept. 17 through to 9:16 a.m. the following day, according to SoftBank. Some emails sent from domain names that included “.co.jp” were mistakenly considered spam and automatically deleted.

The ministry also called on the company to give a report on the cause of the incident and measures it will take to prevent a recurrence.

Current predictions are that humans will reach Mars — up to 400 million kilometers (250 million miles) from Earth — in the coming decades.

But the vast distance means communications with mission control would be delayed by up to 22 minutes.

As a result, astronauts would need to be self-reliant on the voyage, which clocks in at 2.5 years round trip in travel time alone.

“If I were commander of that crew as soon as the Earth started fading in the rearview mirror, I would get the crew together and say: ‘We are no longer Earthlings, we are now Martians. That’s who we are. We need to redefine our relationship with the planet that birthed us,'” former astronaut Chris Hadfield said.

“It’s going to be very difficult not having Mother Earth next to you and it’s going to be really important for that crew to define who they are as the most distant explorers in human history,” he said.

Hadfield, whose 2013 rendition of David Bowie’s “Space Oddity” aboard the International Space Station was watched by millions, was taking part with fellow astronauts in a fireside chat with students at the University of Ottawa.

Robert Thirsk — who holds the Canadian record for the most time spent in space — said new Canadian Space Agency recruits Joshua Kutryk and Jenni Sidey-Gibbons “are going to go to deep space, returning to the moon, to an asteroid… and then 20 years from now we’re going to be on the surface of Mars exploring.”

In the short term, “the idea of living on the moon… is becoming very, very real,” said Kutryk.

The Canadian astronaut was on hand for last week’s final tests in the southwestern US desert of the Orion interplanetary spacecraft, designed as he said to “will bring humans back to the moon in the next few years.”

In the coming months Canada will launch three satellites, Canadian astronaut David Saint-Jacques will travel to the ISS, and NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission to study an asteroid will blast off carrying Canadian sensors.

Innovative breakthroughs, “green” technologies and futuristic designs used by leading trade manufacturing plants worldwide are now on show in Berlin at the InnoTrans 2018 trade exhibition for trains. The fair was open to industry insiders until yesterday, and now to the general public from today until tomorrow.

The fair features prototypes of train technologies that will be launched in the commercial market in the next few years, some of them expected to change the world of train transportation.

“The Future of Mobility” was the theme of this year’s biannual fair, and exhibitors delivered with 146 world premieres, highlighting the importance of the event as a showcase of innovation and an economic driver of the sector, said Christian Goke, CEO of Messe Berlin GmbH, which puts on the event.

Ben Mobius, managing director, Verband der Bahnindustrie in Deutschland EV (VDB), said the rail industry is moving innovation forward in e-mobility and automated systems. Electric mobility can move people with less environmental impact than using traditional carbon-based fuels, and automation allows transit operators to run on a tighter schedule and so increase overall capacity. The essence of innovation for the railway industry, he said, is that it makes good sense and that riding on rails remains great fun.

For example, Canadian-based train and aircraft manufacturer Bombardier Transportation introduced its latest train driven by batteries. The trains themselves are emission-free, energy-efficient and low-noise – and the company claims that it sets a standard for sustainable mobility.

The development of the battery-operated train received a 4-million-euro subsidy from the German federal government in the framework of an innovation program for electro-mobility. The project partners include the DB Regio subsidiary DB ZugBus Regionalverkehr Alb-Bodensee (regional transport for the Lake Constance region), Nahverkehrsgesellschaft Baden-Wuerttemberg (Baden-Wuerttemberg Regional Transport Company) and the Nationale Organisation Wasserstoff-und Brennstoffzellentechnologie (National Organisation for Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technology) along with the Technical University of Berlin.

The new battery-operated train is the first of its kind to enter passenger operation in Europe in over 60 years. It generates no exhaust, and sets the standard for smart mobility with peak values of 90 per cent in the areas of efficiency and recyclability. It is also around 50 per cent quieter than modern diesel trains, said the company.

According to a comparative study by the Technical University of Dresden, the battery-operated train clearly has an edge with respect to the total costs across the service life of 30 years.

“With our new battery-operated train, we are putting real innovation on the tracks,” said Michael Fohrer, who heads Bombardier Transportation in Germany. “This train is Bombardier’s technological response to challenges such as air pollution, climate change and scarcity of resources. Around 40 per cent of the German rail network is not electrified. The Bombardier battery-operated train is an attractive option to counter that, both economically and ecologically speaking.”

The prospects for the batter-operated train are positive in general, he said.

Increasing capacity

The range increases proportionally with continuous capacity increases made possible by new battery developments.

The current prototype is equipped with four Bombardier Mitrac traction batteries and can travel routes of around 40 kilometres – and in 2019, the next generation of battery-operated trains will be able to cover distances of up to 100 kilometres on non-electrified railways.

Next year, Deutsche Bahn (DB) will use the current prototype to start a 12-month trial run with passengers in the Alb-Lake Constance region.

The company uses artificial intelligence or AI to support their design and maintenance systems, with the AI helping the engineers understand how the system is functioning and how to maintain the trains.

The fair includes a full-scale mock-up of a double-decker carriage from DB Regio AG, a Deutsche Bahn subsidiary that operates short- and medium-distance commuter train services in Germany. Visitors can board the carriage to obtain a vivid impression of the rolling stock, which will be used for future regional services. Also making its first international appearance is the first half-train of the DB 484 series for the new S-Bahn (light rail train) for Berlin and Brandenburg.

China-based CRRC shows the latest-technology metro vehicle “CETROVO”. Its design reduced by 13 per cent the weight of a current train, along with a 3 decibel noise reduction and 15 per cent savings in energy. The design features a carbon fibre car body.

The interior design for all trains shown at the event ensures sufficient space for disabled people, the aged and children.

Space for bicycles are also included, so people could bring them along when travelling by train.

These are the trends in train transportation on display at the fair, and which can be expected to show up on our railways – the use of digital technology, AI, and innovations to improve train technology and design for all people.

Norachai did what the merchants and business owners of Southeast Asia have done for generations. The region’s entrepreneurs know that to compete with businesses from countries like China and India, they must look beyond their local market. They understand that if you want to go big, you need to go regional.

The success of Southeast Asia’s entrepreneurs depends on the region’s continuing integration. Since its founding in 1967, Asean’s member countries have worked hard to eliminate tariffs and improve regional connectivity. Because of these efforts, the bloc is the sixth largest economy in the world today.

For Asean to entrench its position among the world’s leading economies, it now needs to take advantage of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Digital and Internet-based technologies are creating new business models, making it cheaper and faster to come up with new products and ideas. If Southeast Asia rides this wave of technological empowerment, and if it does so together as a region, the opportunities for its SMEs and the region’s economy are unprecedented. According to research published last week by Bain & Company, Asean digital integration could stimulate a US$1 trillion (Bt32.7 trillion) GDP uplift by 2025.

Currently, Asean’s digital economy is 7 per cent of its GDP, compared to China (16 per cent of GDP), the EU-5 (27 per cent of GDP) and the US (35 per cent of GDP). This is clearly a massive digital opportunity for the bloc. As local entities, SMEs may lack room to expand. But as regional enterprises, they have access to the world’s sixth largest economy, its third largest population and a young, rapidly growing middle class. The region’s SMEs account for half of its GDP and employ more than 80 per cent of its workforce. They need to contribute to growth if Asean’s digital economy is to benefit everyone.

There are three measures that are key to unlocking this opportunity for Southeast Asia’s SMEs. First is free flow of data, essential to support digital trade, drive increased innovation and lower costs of regional operations for businesses.

Second, an open and interoperable digital payments system is needed. A connected network of national payment systems would help Southeast Asian consumers and corporations make financial transactions across borders seamlessly, enhancing trade and business activity.

Finally, harmonised and streamlined national regulations on transborder commerce will enable Southeast Asian companies to spend less on navigating different jurisdictions and more on bringing their goods and services to other countries.

Industry also needs to support governments in building a more integrated digital community. Companies have a responsibility to invest in the communities we work in. At Google, we believe that SMEs are the backbone of local communities and the future of any economy. If SMEs in Asean do well, everyone in the region is uplifted as well. That’s why Google is committed to supporting SMEs in Asean. So we will train three million SME workers across all 10 countries of Asean in digital skills by 2020.

Last month in Singapore, Asean economic ministers adopted a framework to advance bloc digital integration. This is an important first step towards empowering the region’s SMEs to drive a US$1 trillion increase in GDP by 2025. More remains to be done. It is time for us to work together to realise a brighter, digital future for everyone in Asean.

Caesar Sengupta is general manager, Next Billion Users and Payments, Google.

The big data industry in Thailand is expected to reach Bt17.7 billion in 2019, a growth of 16.4 per cent from this year’s Bt15.45 billion, which itself represented a 13.7-per-cent increase over 2017.

The Digital Economy Promotion Agency (Depa) last week joined hands with IDC Research (Thailand) to release their “Big Data Analysis and Forecast in Thailand” at the Digital Thailand Big Bang 2018. It was their first such analysis.

The top industries with most spending on big data were financial and banking; media, communication and transportation; and manufacturing and construction. This forecast of the size of the big data market was conducted by working with product vendors, distributors, and service providers/system integrators.

The big data market in Thailand in 2017 was Bt11.84 billion, a growth of 17.4 per cent and was made up of Bt6.47 billion in services, Bt3.87 in software and Bt1.51 billion in hardware.

The factors driving the big data industry were digital transformation, the huge and vast data created, and the demand for data analysis. The survey also found that the trend in big data investment in Thailand will see a major increase in the number of projects coupled with a smaller average size for individual projects.

However, there are factors impeding the growth of big data, including the complexity, readiness of data (garbage in and garbage out) and the lack of human resources.

The study found that organisations in Thailand are likely to

invest in big data, artificial intelligence and machine learning.

Key economic driver

Pichet Durongkaveroj, Minister of Digital Economy and Society, said that digital technology will be the key driver for Thailand’s digital economy, as the nation struggles to reduce the wealth gap and move from a middle-income country to a high-income country, while developing the digital capability of the new Thai generation.

There are five factors driving the support of Thailand’s digital economy – security, infrastructure, government, manpower and applications. The government aims to provide infrastructure, called Netpracharat, to ensure that by 2019 high-speed Internet is available for the entire country, covering all 75,000 villages.

The government also places importance on developing digital manpower throughout Thailand, especially in big data, data science, coding as well as encouraging start-ups.

To encourage digital application development, the ministry’s Depa has already established the IoT Institute to offer a platform for digital technology development, to support start-ups and to expand smart cities to seven provinces.

Moreover, the government is also promoting cybersecurity and digital government through many initiatives, including moves to a paperless and cashless society as well as big data, analytics, a data centre, and data science.

Clair Deevy, Facebook’s director of Community Affairs for Asia-Pacific and Latin America, says that big data will deliver unlimited possibilities to Thailand. Some 52 million Thais use Facebook, of which 51 million access it via mobile. Around 38 million users visit the platform every day.

Early this year, Facebook joined hands with Morning Consult to conduct a survey about Facebook usage by Thai small and medium enterprise (SME). It found that most SMEs accepted the role of Facebook in helping them expand their market by reaching new cusotmers, because of information about potential customers on Facebook.

Speaking on the topic of “Big Data, Big Possibilities” at Digital Big Bang 2018, Davey said the challenge is how to create and balance opportunities for both SMEs and large businesses through using big data.

Of the 2 billion Facebook users worldwide, around 1 billion have connected with the Facebook pages of SMEs. Thus SMEs, including those in Thailand, need to improve their digital skills and digital literacy, said Deevy.

Ling Chenkai, vice president of Corporate Strategy and Investment, JD.com, said that big data and data analysis, as well as AI, cloud, and robotics, are must-have technologies for e-commerce business.

Monsinee Keeratikrainon, managing director of Accenture Thailand, said that big data is the key driving factor for supporting the 4.0 industries. He cited the example of Germany, where big data plays the key role in driving industry 4.0 through digital technology that creates the data. Big data is also the key support to the digital transformation that helps maximise value from shifting channels, redefine consumer experiences, reinvent new models for products and businesses, drive operational excellence, empower talent and build teamwork, and connect the enterprise. Napat Jatusripitak, founder and chief executive officer at Siametrics Consulting and analytics adviser of True Digital Media & Platform, said we have entered the golden period of AI and big data.

Meanwhile, Tee Chayakul, country manager of Traveloka, said that big data plays an important role for his company. Big data provides the 4Vs – volume, velocity, variety and value – enabling the company to draw on the findings to develop their business model and offer an auto-complete search function.

Between June and August 2018, some 5 million people visited Traveloka’s website, around 51.2 per cent using a mobile device. The company expects that the digital economy in Southeast Asia will grow 15 per cent, and that within the next decade, the market will expand to US$197 billion (Bt6.37 trillion).

Online travel business will account for 38 per cent of the digital economy or around $77 billion, the company believes. For Thailand, it expects the market value of online travel market during 2015 to 2025 will grow 5 times, from $3.9 billion to $19.8 billion.

National Security Advisor John Bolton said the country’s “first fully articulated cyber strategy in 15 years” was now in effect.

The new more aggressive posture follows a decision by President Donald Trump to revoke rules established by his predecessor Barack Obama to require high-level authority for any big military cyber operations.

“Our hands are not tied as they were in the Obama administration,” Bolton said.

“For any nation that’s taking cyber activity against the United States, they should expect… we will respond offensively, as well as defensively,” Bolton said.

“Not every response to a cyber attack would be in the cyber world,” he added.

Bolton referred to China, Iran, North Korea and Russia as major sources of threats, saying “Americans and our allies are under attack every day in cyberspace.”

Hostile intrusions target everything from US infrastructure to government bureaucracies, businesses and elections, according to Bolton.

Among the most notorious incidents is the hacking, allegedly by Russian military agents, of Democrat figures’ email accounts just before the 2016 elections, in which Republican Trump took a surprise win against the heavily favored Hillary Clinton.

– Multi-pronged offense –

On the defensive side, US efforts will include “network hardening” and improved cyber security, the Pentagon said.

But the new strategy of what the Pentagon called “countering, disrupting, degrading and deterring” attacks emphasizes much more than better firewalls.

US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said that the department “has used its cyber sanctions authorities to impose costs on Russia, North Korea, Iran and others for a wide range of behavior.”

And Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen said that the domestic security department would push “for electronic surveillance and computer crime laws to be updated to keep pace with the rapidly evolving environment.”

“Transnational criminal groups are employing increasingly sophisticated digital tools and techniques,” she said.

The State Department, meanwhile, focused on what it said would be increased efforts to build up internet security in allied countries “because of the interconnected nature of cyberspace.”

“When our partners improve their cyber security practices, it ultimately makes other states, including the United States, safer and more resilient against cyber threats,” the State Department said.

Updates to the internet giant’s Alexa-infused Echo smart speakers will allow them to tend to microwave cooking and even have “hunches” regarding what users may want or have forgotten.

When Alexa is told “corn on the cob,” a digital Echo speaker starts an AmazonBasics microwave oven in a faux home demonstration room, setting the preferred time and voicing what it is doing.

But when asked to add 30 seconds, Alexa paused and then started to play songs by the band “Thirty Seconds to Mars.”

Such misunderstandings are routine enough with smart speakers that they have become fodder for humor, and even cropped up while Amazon devices and services senior vice president David Limp showed off new devices in a nearby building a short time earlier.

Alexa has gotten smarter, more conversational and even intuitive during the past year as teams at Amazon work hard on getting the digital assistant to better understand people, according to Limp.

– Beer, pets and music –

Alexa is even developing a personality, complete with a favorite pet or beer.

It has also learned to understand whispers, responding in equally hushed tones in a feature to be rolled out in the coming weeks.

Amazon on Thursday teased a coming feature called Alexa Hunches that is designed to infuse the digital assistant with intuition. For example, when a user bids Alexa a good night, it might respond by mentioning they forgot to lock a door.

Alexa uses artificial intelligence to identify patterns in the lives of users, factoring in habits, weather, time of year and more. To know what is happening with other smart devices in a home, the Echo speaker needs to be connected to them.

Amazon recently passed the 20,000 mark for smart home devices made by the Seattle-based company or partners.

“We are really at a tipping point for the smart home,” Limp said while unveiling a cornucopia of new devices.

An overhauled Echo Dot smart speaker boasts much-improved sound and design while keeping the $50 price tag of the original.

Amazon added Echo equivalents of stereo components for home sound systems, along with improvements to its online music service, with partners including Spotify, Pandora, and Deezer.

Limp unveiled a “frustration free setup” platform intended to grow into a framework that any smart device maker can use to make getting gadgets to talk to Alexa as easy as plugging them into an outlet.

“That is not going to happen overnight,” Limp said. “As we imagine a future that has thousands of these devices in your home, this is going to become absolutely essential.”

And, of course, there was the $60 microwave, which Limp contended was a strong test because of how much microwaves interfere with wireless connectivity used by devices to communicate.

– Guarding homes –

A freshly announced Alexa Guard service synchronizes with Echo speakers in the home and security cameras from Amazon-owned smart doorbell maker Ring.

When Echo speakers are set to guard mode, they listen for breaking glass or the sound of alarms from smoke or carbon dioxide detectors and send alerts to smartphones or even security companies.

Ring cameras can also be connected to Echo devices with screens, letting people see who has come calling, demonstrations showed.

A new Echo Show device boasted twice the screen display area as its predecessor, and Fire TV Recast that acts as a digital recorder for traditional television broadcasts.

Not satisfied with being built into new cars, Alexa will be able to work in older models with an Echo Auto device that can be affixed to dashboards and reach the internet through smartphones.

“Amazon launched today what I believe is the industry’s largest assortment of home automation products and added meaningful improvements to its services,” said analyst Patrick Moorhead of Moor Insights and Strategy.

“The company once again separated itself again in the smart home space from both Google and Apple by adding new devices and capabilities.”

This agreement opens up opportunities for employees at all levels to skills covering professional and lifestyle topics, SkillLane said in a press statement.

With SkillLane, employees can learn at their own convenience from anywhere, at anytime on any devices from personal computer, tablet or smartphone. With over 400 courses and counting including both soft skills and hard skills, IRPC now serves career development needs of their employees, in accordance with their strategy to solid its position as Asia’s leading petrochemical company.

Sukrit Surabotsopon, IRPC President, said, “Amidst the digital trends within the energy industry, we brought in new technologies to transform our operations at all levels. In accordance with our IRPC 4.0 project, we invest heavily to elevate the capacity of our employees by integrating digital technology and providing rigorous training in areas such as communication and problem solving in the e-learning format.”

“In the past, we primarily focused on personnel development with the objective of increasing our technical production capacity. However, today’s focus is to instill our personnel with greater diverse general knowledge, which is regarded as a life skill, so that they can efficiently adapt such knowledge in their professional and personal matters. By encouraging employees to take up learning for self-renewal, the company can help add value to each employee.Thereby making them a decent and skillful person. In the future, they will be important assets to the organization in generating more profits and achieving sustainable development for the organization.”

“We’ve faced a typical constraint in time management whenever employees were required to attend classroom or external training programs. Full attendance is difficult to achieve. So, we’ve converted some of classroom training to an online format which allows employees to learn more within a limited period of time. This year our training plan is aligned with the training roadmap which is designed to link training activities to organizational goals, primarily based on the competency-based training approach. The training objective covers three personnel development aspects, that is, organization knowledge and technical and functional competency as well as leadership competency. Therefore, we’ve worked with SkillLane to provide our employees over 400 courses which they can freely choose from. Moreover, we’ve also worked together to organize workshops where employees learned how to transfer knowledge into DIY online courses  so that video presentations could be uploaded on the SkillLane for Business platform and other employees throughout the organization could learn from them.”

Titipong Pisitwuttinan, CEO and co-founder of the digital learning platform SkillLane, said, “Nowadays leading organizations digitize their training because it allows them to monitor results and set a clear goal. Moreover, the digital classroom fit with the employee’s lifestyles which everything happens on mobile. Besides being a hub of knowledge and skills, we also provide learners with an opportunity to choose personal development contents on their terms without having to spend time traveling to attend any offsite training program. All they need is a device and determination to learn.At present, this is an important learning trend. According to SkillLane’s survey, 97% of working people wanted to learn new skills but 94% of them could not do that because they could not arrange time for training. For this reason, we’re confident that this cooperation can accommodate this lifestyle very well – that is, the desire to learn more from the best people anytime anywhere.”

“Today’s cooperation with IRPC marks a vital step for a tech start-up like SkillLane. Our most important mission is to turn knowledge into on-demand contents available for everybody who seeks constant access to new knowledge. Knowledge and skills available on SkillLane’s on-demand learning platform are valuable for long-term human resource development of an organization, and they reflect the ongoing learning trend which indicates that many businesses are evolving into a truly digital organization,” Titipongsaid.