Latest news with #KellySikkema
IOL News
6 days ago
- Business
- IOL News
Vietnam scraps two-child limit as birth rate declines
Birth rates have fallen from 2.11 children per woman in 2021, to 2.01 in 2022 and 1.96 in 2023. Image: Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash Vietnam's communist government has scrapped its long-standing policy of limiting families to two children, state media said Wednesday, as the country battles to reverse a declining birth rate. The country banned couples from having more than two children in 1988, but a family's size is now a decision for each individual couple, Vietnam News Agency said. The country has experienced historically low birth rates during the last three years, with the total fertility rate dropping to just 1.91 children per woman last year, below replacement level, the ministry of health said this year. Birth rates have fallen from 2.11 children per woman in 2021, to 2.01 in 2022 and 1.96 in 2023. This trend is most pronounced in urbanised, economically developed regions, especially in big cities such as Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City as the cost of living rises. Tran Minh Huong, a 22-year-old office worker, told AFP that the government regulation mattered little to her as she had no plans to have children. "Even though I am an Asian, with social norms that say women need to get married and have kids, it's too costly to raise a child." Video Player is loading. Play Video Play Unmute Current Time 0:00 / Duration -:- Loaded : 0% Stream Type LIVE Seek to live, currently behind live LIVE Remaining Time - 0:00 This is a modal window. Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window. Text Color White Black Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Background Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Transparent Window Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Transparent Semi-Transparent Opaque Font Size 50% 75% 100% 125% 150% 175% 200% 300% 400% Text Edge Style None Raised Depressed Uniform Dropshadow Font Family Proportional Sans-Serif Monospace Sans-Serif Proportional Serif Monospace Serif Casual Script Small Caps Reset restore all settings to the default values Done Close Modal Dialog End of dialog window. Advertisement Video Player is loading. Play Video Play Unmute Current Time 0:00 / Duration -:- Loaded : 0% Stream Type LIVE Seek to live, currently behind live LIVE Remaining Time - 0:00 This is a modal window. Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window. Text Color White Black Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Background Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Transparent Window Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Transparent Semi-Transparent Opaque Font Size 50% 75% 100% 125% 150% 175% 200% 300% 400% Text Edge Style None Raised Depressed Uniform Dropshadow Font Family Proportional Sans-Serif Monospace Sans-Serif Proportional Serif Monospace Serif Casual Script Small Caps Reset restore all settings to the default values Done Close Modal Dialog End of dialog window. Next Stay Close ✕ Sex imbalance Deputy Health Minister Nguyen Thi Lien Huong, speaking at a conference earlier this year, warned it was increasingly difficult to encourage families to have more children, despite policy adjustments and public campaigns. She emphasised that the declining birth rate poses challenges to long-term socio-economic development, including an ageing population and workforce shortages. She urged society to shift its mindset from focusing solely on family planning to a broader perspective of population and development. Vietnam is also grappling with sex imbalances due to a historic preference for boys. On Tuesday the ministry of health proposed tripling the current fine to $3,800 "to curb foetal gender selection", according to state media. The gender ratio at birth, though improved, remains skewed at 112 boys for every 100 girls. Hoang Thi Oanh, 45, has three children but received fewer benefits after the birth of her youngest, due to the two-child policy.
Forbes
20-05-2025
- Business
- Forbes
3 Business Pain Points AI Agents Can Address Now
Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash Running a business is hard—trust me, I know. But the challenges I'm facing now, 20 years in, are different from the ones I struggled with early on, when I was attempting to launch a startup around working a 9 to 5 job. Back then, I was balancing building my product with reading a secondhand copy of 'Marketing for Dummies,' trying to turn what I thought was a good idea into a viable, profitable business. These days, the issues that keep me up at night are more existential: What is the next big thing? What's the most impactful thing I should be working on? What skills do I need to add to my teams, and how can we recruit top-tier talent? Like many other leaders out there, a lot of this rumination revolves around AI. According to research from McKinsey, 92 percent of executives said they expect to boost spending around AI in the next three years, and 55 percent say they plan to increase their investments by at least 10 percent from current levels. At my company, Jotform, we've already seen our operations improve thanks to AI innovations. Now, as AI agents dominate conversations throughout the tech world, I've been thinking about how these new systems can ease the pain points that have plagued leaders since the dawn of enterprise. A healthy business should be constantly innovating, but that's easier said than done. In a company's early years, innovation is a given, but as it grows, it becomes easier to stagnate. Once-lean startups get set in their ways and become less nimble. Established businesses have more to lose, and fear of failure can be paralyzing. Any company that hopes to survive in the long term needs to constantly reassess the needs of its customers, adjusting and updating its products and services. The longer it goes without reevaluating, the harder it will be to pivot when need be—just look at what happened to Blockbuster. The once ubiquitous video rental retailer has gone extinct because it failed to appreciate changing viewer habits before it was too late. Agents can help drive innovation in two ways: The first is by simplifying draining, routine tasks, giving teams needed time and space to flex their creative muscles. Whether you need assistance writing coding or want to automate your social media strategy, agents are ready to take these tasks off your plate. Agents' utility doesn't end there—they can also assist with innovation itself. Tools like DeepResearch can conduct extensive, academic-level research on a given topic, tailoring its final report to your specifications. If Blockbuster could go back in time, its executives may have asked an agent to collate a report on viewership trends, emerging technology and evolving consumer habits, gaining the insight they needed to save themselves before Netflix stole the show. Every leader wants to attract the best possible employees, and most find it challenging—according to one study by Manpower Group, four in five employers globally report difficulty in finding the skilled talent they need. Organizations are forced to compete for top-tier recruits, and a lengthy search for the right person means key positions end up sitting vacant. Recruitment has already embraced AI in a number of ways, from resume-parsing to automated candidate matching, helping recruiters make cohesive, data-driven hiring decisions faster. These are helpful developments—but they're nothing compared to ways that agents can supercharge the recruitment process. Agents can complete complex, multi-step processes from end-to-end. When it comes to hiring, that means their first order of business is to source candidates, combing through talent databases and matching profiles to job descriptions. But even after they've compiled a robust list of qualified candidates, their work isn't over—their next step is to send out interview requests, schedule phone screens, and field candidate questions— all in a fraction of the time it takes human recruiters to do the same. Why does this matter? Because when it comes to hiring, time is of the essence. You don't want to lose a great candidate to a competitor because you were too bogged down to schedule a timely interview. Organizational culture is the glue that holds companies together. It defines shared values, guides behavior, and fosters a sense of belonging that motivates people to do their best work. But culture can erode when employees feel disconnected from each other, don't have clear direction, or spend so much time on mundane tasks that they lose sight of the bigger picture. Conventional wisdom says that organizational culture comes from the top—leaders are responsible for making sure teams understand company values, and how their work is helping to advance its larger goals. That remains true, and it probably always will. But agents can help support a thriving culture in several ways. An Onboarding Agent, for example, can offer personalized help for fresh hires still working to make sense of the organization's work dynamics, offering everything from guidance on using unfamiliar tools to setting up introductory meetings with other staff members. Established employees can benefit from agents that collect feedback, generate insights into problem areas, and create action plans to improve team cohesion or learning opportunities for professional development. Instead of replacing human connection, well-implemented AI agents can ease operational burdens, freeing leaders and employees alike to focus on collaborative brainstorming, mentoring, and fostering the collective energy that keeps a culture strong. There will always be challenges that come with leading a business. AI agents, however, can lighten the load, freeing executives to focus on the bigger picture and cultivate a thriving-future focused organization. When paired with clear direction and strong leadership, AI agents have the potential to help businesses not just keep pace with change, but lead it.
The Star
15-05-2025
- Politics
- The Star
EU seeks to better protect children from online dangers
The European Union has increasingly expressed concerns about online dangers for children, with the latest alarm raised by Belgium and France over the trend of #SkinnyTok videos promoting extreme thinness. — Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash BRUSSELS, Belgium: Pushing to better protect children online, the EU on May 13 invited the public including parents and minors to help prepare recommendations for digital platforms such as TikTok and Instagram. The European Union has increasingly expressed concerns about online dangers for children, with the latest alarm raised by Belgium and France over the trend of #SkinnyTok videos promoting extreme thinness. The commission has prepared a list of draft measures that platforms could take to protect minors as part of a public consultation that will run until June 10. It will then publish the final list of recommendations in the summer. Suggestions include verifying a user's age, setting children's accounts to private by default, and modifying how content is recommended to reduce the risk of children being exposed to harmful material. The commission also suggested making it easier for children to block and mute users, as well as making sure users can be added only with a minor's explicit agreement, "which may contribute to reducing the risk of cyberbullying". "The wide range of measures will aid the different online platforms in protecting minors' safety, security, privacy and well-being," the EU's digital chief, Henna Virkkunen, said in a statement. The guidelines are part of the EU's landmark Digital Services Act (DSA), which covers all digital platforms. The DSA requires companies to police content online, or face hefty fines. The EU has already opened investigations under the DSA into Meta's Facebook and Instagram, as well as TikTok, over fears they are not doing enough to combat an addictive nature of their platforms for children. – AFP
