Latest news with #localgovernments
NHK
28-05-2025
- General
- NHK
Japan's Diet passes revisions to disaster management law
Japan's Diet has passed revisions to the country's law on disaster management to bolster preparedness. A package of six amendments was passed by the Upper House on Wednesday, based on lessons learned from the 2024 Noto Peninsula earthquake and other events. Local governments will be required annually to make public the status of their stocks of contingency supplies, such as food and portable toilets. Other measures include creating a system for advance registration of volunteer groups, promoting cooperation between volunteers and local governments, and covering expenses of volunteer activities. The revisions widen welfare support for affected elderly people and those with disabilities living in evacuation centers or in their homes or vehicles. Officials will be allowed to provide welfare services for babies and others needing special care, regardless of location. The changes also allow contractors to enter private properties to restore water distribution networks during disasters. This comes after a prolonged delay in repairing damaged water pipes after the Noto quake. The government plans to proceed with campaigns to spread awareness about the amendments among local officials and volunteer groups.
South China Morning Post
28-05-2025
- Business
- South China Morning Post
With urban renewal, China is buying its economy time
In recent months, the Chinese government's deliberate pace in responding to economic headwinds has frustrated markets. Faced with persistent weakness in household consumption, a drawn-out property downturn and growing external uncertainty, many had hoped Beijing would turn to bold stimulus measures or administer direct cash transfers to citizens. Yet time and again, officials have signalled their intent to stay the course – doubling down on slow-moving structural reforms rather than short-term fixes. The State Council's latest campaign to promote urban renewal offers a case in point. Urban renewal is not a novel concept. Since the programme was first flagged in the 2019 central economic work conference, local governments have improved ageing neighbourhoods, redeveloped dilapidated housing and repurposed underused land – progress reviewed at length at a State Council press conference last week. Alongside a fresh set of high-level guidelines, the government pledged more fiscal and policy support for the programme to achieve tangible results by 2030. The push underscores a pivot in China's preferred growth strategy: away from debt-fuelled expansion on the urban fringe and towards more deliberate, infill-oriented development within city cores. From a policy perspective, urban renewal serves short-term needs. With residential housing activity still tepid , upgrading older buildings and the surrounding infrastructure helps keep construction activity afloat and provides a buffer against unemployment But the deeper value of urban renewal lies in its long-term spillover effects. Renovated buildings and neighbourhoods can trigger a wave of follow-on spending – from home refurbishments and appliances to smart home systems. Better parking access and charging infrastructure can spur car purchases. Upgraded public spaces can raise property values, enhance quality of life and generate more stable local tax revenues. In short, renewal is a slow-burning stimulus – one that works through second- and third-order effects rather than headline-making injections.
News24
27-05-2025
- Business
- News24
President Cyrill Ramaphosa responds to questions in Parliament
Operation Vulindlela 2.0 will target spatial inequality among other priorities – Ramaphosa Tackling failing local governments, reshaping housing and public transport to bridge spatial divides, and driving digital transformation – these are the priorities of phase two of Operation Vulindlela. At the launch of the government's flagship economic reform programme on Wednesday, held in the west wing courtyard of the Union Buildings in Pretoria, President Cyril Ramaphosa outlined the government's commitment to dismantling the apartheid legacy of spatial inequality, which forced millions to live far from economic centres. He said: 'The structure of our cities has to change to enable people to access work. That means changing our housing policy so that people can choose where they want to live through demand-side subsidies for home ownership and affordable rentals.'
Coin Geek
27-05-2025
- Business
- Coin Geek
Pakistan's birth, death records go digital; Tencent expands
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready... In a bid to advance its digitization efforts, Pakistan has initiated a comprehensive digital platform designed to systematically record birth and death events nationwide. The National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) is leading the initiative and will onboard other government agencies. It has inked a tripartite deal with local governments to launch the digital birth and death registration platform. 'NADRA is modernizing the civil registration and vital events registration system,' said NADRA in an X post. 'Birth and death information will be available directly in hospitals and health centers thanks to the digital system.' The nationwide rollout will change the landscape for birth and death registrations across Pakistani hospitals. Prior to the digital platforms, civil registrations relied on manual processes plagued by undue delays and the risks of human error in inputting details. The new initiative has received plaudits from a broad spectrum, with international and local organizations highlighting the benefits of streamlined record-keeping. Hospitals will be able to register births and deaths with NADRA in real-time without the downsides of delays, steep costs, and errors. Furthermore, turning to digital record-keeping offers NADRA the perks of transparency and immutability, adding a layer of credibility to the system. NADRA notes that the data will play a key role in planning economic policies under the government's Uraan Pakistan initiative. 'It will be possible to enter accurate and complete information in the citizens' database in a timely manner,' added NADRA in the X post. NADRA disclosed that it will push the frontiers of digitization with a new partnership with the World Bank. Dubbed the Digital Economy Enhancement Project (DEEP), local authorities and the World Bank will collaborate to improve the state of emerging technologies in Pakistan. Pakistan's latest integration of advanced technology in civil registrations follows a growing list of next-gen technology use cases in the country. The country has previously made a play toward increasing its digital wallet coverage, improving its financial inclusion metrics. Furthermore, financial authorities are focusing on on-chain remittances to improve the state of cross-border payments. Despite its indecision toward digital asset trading, there are plans to jolt block reward mining activities with excess electricity alongside deliberations for robust regulations. Tencent heightens overseas investments Elsewhere, Chinese technology giant Tencent (NASDAQ: TCTZF) has unveiled plans to double down on the size of its overseas investments in emerging technologies. The Internet company is eyeing an expansion of its overseas commitments on the back of impressive financials over the last quarter. Executives shared the plans at the Tencent Global Digital Ecosystem Summit in Guangdong, signaling increased capital injection in operations outside China. Tencent's financials for 2024 saw revenues increase by 8%, with the technology giant racking up 660.3 billion yuan ($91.5 billion) over the year. Recent figures show that operating and gross profits surged to new highs, driven by a risky gamble in artificial intelligence (AI) in 2023 and 2024. Buoyed by glowing financial metrics, Tencent says it will invest $500 million to build a data center in Indonesia to meet rising demand in Southeast Asia. Tencent has previously set up two data centers in Indonesia and is keen to expand its footprint in the country. The China-based company is eyeing the Middle East, with ambitious plans to spend $150 million to set up a data center in Saudi Arabia, its first in the oil-rich Gulf State. Company executives at the Summit hint at a broader expansion of its cloud computing business. Over the last three years, Tencent's aggressive expansionist plans have seen it onboard 10,000 customers across 80 countries. On the home front, Tencent's cloud computing business has recorded meteoric growth, setting up data centers in leading economic hubs in China. A hefty investment in research and development in the first quarter of 2025, particularly with large language models (LLMs), suggests an inclusion of AI in its expansionist plans. Apart from cloud computing services, Tencent has hinted at plans to roll out its suite of AI services to a global audience. Tencent's Hunyuan AI model has received praise for its range of capabilities, with the company famously reshuffling its metaverse department to focus on AI. Previously, Tencent dabbled with blockchain-based invoices while developing its permissioned distributed ledger for internal operations. Chinese technology companies are giving United States-based firms a run for their money despite a head start. In AI, DeepSeek threatens ChatGPT and Gemini's dominance, given its low development cost and impressive capabilities. Amid the growing macroeconomic tensions between both nations, China is turning its gaze inwards to develop semiconductors for its AI push. For now, Chinese researchers have discovered a novel approach to pruning LLMs, while the launch of Supermind is tipped to give the country an edge in the AI arms race. Watch: What can organizations do to get on the Web3 & digital identity bus? title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen>
Japan Times
25-05-2025
- Automotive
- Japan Times
Japan to scrap monochrome special license plates
The transport ministry is considering abolishing monochromatic versions of "gotochi" special vehicle registration plates designed by local governments, it was learned. The ministry will allow only multicolor versions of gotochi license plates from as early as the next round of solicitations for plate designs, in an effort to ease the burden on license plate makers amid an expected increase in demand. License plates with special designs were introduced in 2017. There are 73 types of gotochi plates, issued to residents of the local governments that created the designs, and two types available to drivers nationwide, including a design related to the World Exposition in the western city of Osaka. Currently, applicants for specially designed license plates can choose between multicolor and monochromatic versions. The ministry is mulling a review of the criteria for introducing gotochi license plates. After the review, such plates are expected to be more widely available across the country. But the need to create both multicolor and monochromatic versions of the same plate design is a major burden on license plate makers and is feared to weigh on license plate supply, especially amid a spike in prices of aluminum used to make the plates. The ministry decided to consider offering only multicolor versions of both gotochi and nationally available designs after an expert panel pointed out the issue. However, monochromatic versions of designs are popular among drivers of minivehicles who want to avoid using the yellow license plates designated for the vehicle type. The ministry will discuss offering nationally available license plates with subdued colors, in light of complaints that all existing multicolor designs are too colorful. Fees paid by license plate purchasers stand at around ¥2,000 for ordinary plates and around ¥10,000 for specially designed plates, with a donation of at least ¥1,000 necessary for multicolor versions. Such donations are expected to increase by over ¥370 million per year after monochromatic versions of specially designed plates are scrapped. Donated funds are used to improve transportation services.
