Arabian Post Staff -Dubai Shares of Larsen & Toubro fell sharply in early trading on January 13, extending losses after reports indicated that Kuwait is weighing the cancellation of oil and gas project tenders with an estimated value of $8.7 billion, a development that unsettled investors exposed to the company’s hydrocarbons order book. The stock dropped close to 3 per cent during morning deals, touching a one-month […]
HONG KONG SAR and SHANGHAI, CHINA – Media OutReach Newswire – 12 January 2026 – Hang Lung Properties Limited (SEHK stock code: 00101) (“Hang Lung” or the “Company”) today announces a new phase in its sustainability journey, unveiling 20 refreshed 2030 targets that build on its success in achieving its 25 x 25 Sustainability Targets.
Launched in 2021, the 25 x 25 targets defined Hang Lung’s agenda to the end of 2025 across four priorities: Climate Resilience, Resource Management, Wellbeing, and Sustainable Transactions. The Company has achieved its earlier ambitions, and exceeded targets related to greenhouse gas emissions reduction, renewable energy, and energy efficiency. Establishing such a concrete and robust set of targets also helped the Company develop practices in sustainability innovation and continual improvement.
Building on this success, now with expanded data, greater organizational maturity, and heightened ambition, Hang Lung’s refreshed 2030 targets reflect its position as an industry leader in sustainability.
The 20 targets for 2030 continue to be organized under the four priorities that define Hang Lung’s approach to sustainability, including the below highlights:
Collaboration across the value chain remains central to Hang Lung’s approach, extending beyond traditional metrics. Hang Lung aims to partner with suppliers and tenants through quantifiable targets to drive progress upstream and downstream. In addition, the Company is committed to supporting innovation in standards development to facilitate impactful sustainability initiatives across sectors and jurisdictions.
Mr. Adriel Chan, Chair of Hang Lung Properties and Chair of the Sustainability Steering Committee, commented: “We are excited to embark on this next phase of our sustainability journey, reflecting Hang Lung’s growing role not just as a leader in sustainability action, but also in sustainability thought leadership. By working closely with partners across our value chain, we are confident that we can deliver on these commitments and continue to foster excellence in sustainable development in Asia.”
Mr. John Haffner, Deputy Director – Sustainability, added: “Over the past several years, we have seen how ambitious targets focus our efforts and help develop a culture of innovation. Building on our achievements and lessons learned, our 2030 targets are sharper and more data-driven, and will help us achieve greater impact in our communities.”
Full details of the 25 x 25 wrap-up and the new 2030 targets will be shared in Hang Lung’s 2025 Sustainability Report to be released in March. The report will provide further insights into the Company’s achievements, lessons learned, and emerging plans to support the refreshed 2030 targets, inviting partners and the wider public to join forces in shaping a sustainable future.
Appendix
Overview of 2030 Sustainability Goals and Targets
| Priority | 2030 Goals | 2030 Targets |
| Climate Resilience
|
Reduce carbon footprint in line with science and adapt to a changing climate
|
1. In-use operational emissions: 56.1% per m2 reduction in scope 1, 2 and 3 in-use operational GHG emissions of owned and leased buildings from a 2023 base year. |
| 2. Upfront embodied emissions: 42% reduction in upfront embodied emissions from a 2023 base year. | ||
| 3. Renewable electricity: 70% of our landlord’s electricity consumption across the portfolio provided by renewable electricity. | ||
| 4. Adaptation: 10% reduction in our Climate Value-at-Risk compared to the absence of implemented adaptation measures. | ||
| Resource Management
|
Drive efficient and circular use of natural resources and help regenerate nature | 5. Energy Use Intensity: 10% reduction in the landlord’s energy use intensity from a 2023 base year. |
| 6. Operational Waste: 35% recycling of municipal solid waste generated from operating properties. | ||
| 7. Construction Waste: 90% recycling of construction waste generated from construction sites. | ||
| 8. Water: 8% reduction in freshwater intensity from a 2023 base year. | ||
| 9. Biodiversity: 10% biodiversity net gain on all new development projects and major renovations with landscape renovation. | ||
| Wellbeing | Foster safe, inclusive and healthy spaces that enhance quality of life for all stakeholders | 10. Health and safety: Maintain zero work-related fatalities, serious injuries, and occupational diseases for employees and contractors. Maintain a Lost Time Injury Rate of 1.5 or below for employees and contractors. |
| 11. Indoor air quality: Maintain, more than 90% of the time, PM2.5, TVOC and CO2 levels below levels defined in the RESET Air standard. | ||
| 12. Employee engagement: Maintain an employee engagement survey rating greater than or equal to the 75th percentile. | ||
| 13. Diversity: At least 5% of our workforce across the portfolio is comprised of people from diverse backgrounds.* | ||
| 14. Diversity: Maintain Female-to-Male pay ratio of 1:1; maintain gender balance in management positions. | ||
| 15. Social impact: Create at least HK$40 million in social value through our community investments. | ||
| Sustainable Transactions
|
Collaborate with key stakeholders across our value chain to advance our sustainability priorities | 16. Tenant electricity intensity: Benchmarking provided to 100% of tenants across the Chinese Mainland portfolio and work with tenants towards a 10% reduction in their electricity intensity from a 2023 base year. |
| 17. Tenants: Tenants representing 25% of our leased floor area in applicable Chinese Mainland and Hong Kong properties participate in our tenant sustainability partnerships program. | ||
| 18. Suppliers: Regularly conduct ESG risk screening for 100% of active suppliers and provide ESG assessments for suppliers covering 50% of spending. | ||
| 19. Procurement: 15% of spending on operational procurement qualifies as sustainable procurement. | ||
| 20. Standards development: Undertake at least three innovative initiatives in standards development to help accelerate learning and sustainability impact. |
* Our definition of diverse background includes people with disabilities and ethnic minorities.
Hashtag: #HangLungProperties
The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.
www.hanglung.com. 
Germany’s opposition leader Friedrich Merz has suggested that a long-stalled trade agreement between the European Union and India could be clinched by the end of January, injecting momentum into negotiations that Brussels and New Delhi have struggled to close for more than a decade as global supply chains remain under strain from geopolitical frictions.
Speaking at a policy forum, Friedrich Merz said the bloc and India were “closer than many assume” to resolving key differences, adding that the economic case for a deal had sharpened after prolonged disruptions linked to strategic competition between major powers. His comments come as European manufacturers continue to grapple with uneven access to critical inputs following China’s tightening of export controls on minerals vital for electric vehicles, electronics and defence applications.
Negotiations for an EU–India free trade agreement were relaunched in 2022 after an eight-year hiatus, with both sides aiming to expand trade that exceeded €120 billion in goods and services last year. Officials involved in the talks say progress has been made on tariff reductions and rules governing digital trade, though sensitive areas such as agriculture, labour standards and intellectual property remain contentious. Merz’s remarks underscore a growing sense in Berlin and other capitals that the agreement has moved from a strategic aspiration to an economic necessity.
Germany, Europe’s largest economy, has been among the strongest advocates of diversifying trade ties beyond China, particularly after export controls imposed by Beijing on gallium, germanium and graphite created months of bottlenecks for automotive and renewable energy firms. Those controls, introduced amid the broader U. S.–China trade dispute, highlighted vulnerabilities in Europe’s dependence on a narrow set of suppliers for critical raw materials.
Executives in the auto sector say shortages of battery-grade materials last year forced production adjustments and delayed investment decisions. While some supply has since stabilised, industry groups argue that long-term resilience requires deeper partnerships with alternative producers and manufacturing hubs. India, with its expanding industrial base and policy push to attract foreign investment, has emerged as a central pillar of that strategy.
European officials note that the proposed agreement would not only cut tariffs—currently as high as 60 per cent on some vehicles entering India—but also establish clearer rules for public procurement and data flows. For India, the deal promises greater access to the European market for pharmaceuticals, textiles and IT services, while also encouraging technology transfer and skills development.
Trade analysts caution that closing the pact by late January would require political compromises on both sides. European negotiators have pressed for stronger environmental and labour commitments, while Indian counterparts have sought flexibility to protect small farmers and domestic manufacturers. Still, the geopolitical context is shifting calculations. The European Union has accelerated its “open strategic autonomy” agenda, seeking to balance openness with security of supply, and India has signalled willingness to align more closely with Western economies without abandoning its strategic independence.
Merz’s intervention also reflects domestic pressures within Germany, where exporters are seeking new growth markets as demand in China cools. German industry groups have repeatedly urged policymakers to prioritise agreements with fast-growing economies, arguing that delays risk ceding ground to competitors from East Asia and North America.
The broader backdrop includes intensifying scrutiny of China’s role in global supply chains. Beijing has defended its export controls as legitimate measures to safeguard national security and manage resources, but the ripple effects have reinforced calls in Europe for diversification. The European Commission has already launched initiatives to secure access to lithium, cobalt and rare earths through partnerships in Africa, Latin America and Asia, with India seen as both a market and a manufacturing partner.
Diplomats familiar with the EU–India talks say technical chapters are largely drafted, leaving political decisions to bridge remaining gaps. Any agreement would still need approval from member states and the European Parliament, a process that could extend beyond the negotiating deadline even if a political deal is struck.
Towering crocodilians that could rival buses in length once patrolled vast river systems cutting through what is now the Sahara, reshaping scientific understanding of prehistoric ecosystems and predator–prey dynamics during the early Cretaceous Period. Fossil evidence shows these reptiles were not merely oversized versions of today’s crocodiles but apex predators capable of taking on large dinosaurs in a landscape unrecognisable from the modern desert. The most striking […]
Moves to prohibit political donations made in cryptocurrency are gathering pace at Westminster, as lawmakers warn that digital assets could be exploited by hostile states and anonymous actors to influence elections and undermine democratic safeguards. Cross-party concern has sharpened following intelligence assessments that flagged the vulnerability of political finance rules to opaque funding channels. Legislators argue that while donations in cash and traditional banking systems are subject […]
By Nantoo Banerjee The theatres of state-sponsored piracy are expanding, from the traditional Red Sea, Gulf of Oman, Somali Basin to the Black Sea and now the Atlantic. The recent US seizure of Russian-flagged oil tanker, Marinera, originally known as the Bella-1, after pursuing the vessel for weeks across the Atlantic, may be considered as […]
The article US Gunboat Diplomacy Challenges The World Order appeared first on Latest India news, analysis and reports on Newspack by India Press Agency).
Greenlogue/AP Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company PJSC – Masdar has signed a long-term power purchase agreement for a 150-megawatt solar photovoltaic project in Angola, marking its first contracted power deal in the country and extending the company’s African portfolio at a time when regional governments are accelerating grid expansion and energy diversification. The agreement covers the Quipungo Solar PV project, located in Angola’s southern region, and was […]
Bengaluru | Banking-as-a-Platform is moving from concept to commercial backbone across the country’s financial system, as lenders open their digital rails to fintech partners and reposition themselves as infrastructure providers rather than closed institutions. The model allows banks to expose core capabilities—accounts, payments, lending, compliance and data—through secure application programming interfaces, enabling third parties to build, distribute and monetise financial products at speed.
This shift has gathered momentum as regulatory digital public infrastructure, rising smartphone penetration and instant payments have converged. Unified Payments Interface volumes continue to expand across peer-to-peer and merchant transactions, while account aggregation frameworks allow consent-based data sharing that reduces onboarding friction and credit assessment time. Against this backdrop, platform-led banking is emerging as a scalable engine for fintech growth, changing how products are designed, priced and distributed.
Large lenders and new-age banks have invested heavily in API layers that sit atop legacy cores, separating product logic from distribution. This architectural change allows fintechs to “plug” into regulated balance sheets without becoming banks themselves, “play” by composing features such as KYC, payments or credit scoring, and “scale” nationally without building costly compliance stacks. For banks, the appeal lies in fee income, wider distribution and better utilisation of capital through co-lending and embedded finance.
Executives across the sector say the platform approach has shortened product launch cycles from months to weeks. Consumer lending, merchant credit, wealth distribution and cross-border remittances have been early beneficiaries, with embedded finance extending to ride-hailing, e-commerce, logistics and software-as-a-service platforms. Small enterprises, long constrained by paperwork and collateral requirements, are gaining access to working capital through cash-flow based underwriting that draws on real-time transaction data.
The commercial logic is reinforced by economics. API monetisation—charging per call, per transaction or via revenue sharing—creates annuity-like income streams for banks. Fintechs gain variable cost structures that align expenses with growth. Analysts note that platforms with high uptime, predictable latency and robust documentation are attracting repeat developers, creating network effects similar to cloud marketplaces.
Regulatory guardrails remain central to the model’s credibility. Data localisation rules, customer consent standards and outsourcing guidelines shape how banks expose systems and how partners handle information. Supervisors have emphasised accountability, making licensed entities responsible for customer outcomes even when services are delivered through partners. This has pushed banks to strengthen vendor risk management, audit trails and incident response, while fintechs have had to mature governance and security practices.
Competition among banks has intensified around developer experience. Dedicated sandbox environments, self-serve onboarding and standardised APIs are becoming differentiators. Some lenders have carved out platform subsidiaries to attract talent and ring-fence technology risk, while others have partnered with specialist middleware firms to accelerate rollout. Public sector banks, once seen as slow movers, are also modernising stacks to participate in ecosystem distribution rather than cede ground.
The platformisation trend is reshaping balance-sheet strategies. Co-lending arrangements allow banks and non-bank financiers to share risk, with fintechs originating and servicing loans using data-driven models. In payments, banks are focusing on high-volume, low-cost rails while fintechs compete on user experience and value-added services. Wealth platforms are distributing mutual funds, bonds and insurance through APIs that streamline compliance and reporting.
Challenges persist. Legacy core systems can constrain throughput, requiring phased migrations that test execution discipline. Cybersecurity threats rise with greater connectivity, demanding continuous monitoring and zero-trust architectures. Pricing APIs too aggressively risks discouraging innovation, while underpricing leaves money on the table. There is also the question of differentiation: as APIs commoditise, banks must decide where to invest for unique value, whether in data analytics, sector-specific products or risk pricing.
Talent remains a pressure point. Demand for engineers fluent in financial protocols, security and scalable systems outstrips supply, pushing up costs. Cultural change inside banks—shifting from project delivery to product thinking—has proven as important as technology. Successful platforms tend to empower cross-functional teams, publish clear roadmaps and treat external developers as customers.
Dell has acknowledged that withdrawing its XPS laptop range damaged customer trust and weakened its premium credentials, prompting the company to restore the line with new models unveiled at CES 2026. The admission marks a rare public reversal by a major technology manufacturer and signals a recalibration of Dell’s strategy in the high-end personal computer market. Speaking during product briefings in Las Vegas, Dell executives conceded that […]
HONG KONG SAR – Media OutReach Newswire – 12 January 2026 – Asia News Network (ANN) and Media OutReach Newswire have entered a partnership for corporate news releases. The landmark agreement means that Media OutReach Newswire, as the only newswire, provides guaranteed online news postings on the ANN news website.
ANN was formed in 1999 to promote coverage of news from Asia through Asian journalists, bringing Asia closer. This aligns well with Media OutReach Newswire’s goal of bringing the stories of Asian organisations to journalists and audiences across Asia Pacific and globally.
As Asia’s leading news media alliance, ANN consists of 20 leading media titles from Southeast Asia, East Asia and South Asia. The full list of ANN member media can be found in the table below.
| ANN Member Media | Country |
| The Daily Star | Bangladesh |
| Kuensel | Bhutan |
| Borneo Bulletin | Brunei |
| The Phnom Penh Post | Cambodia |
| China Daily | China |
| The Japan News | Japan |
| The Statesman | India |
| The Jakarta Post | Indonesia |
| MYSinchew | Malaysia |
| Vientiane Times | Laos |
| The Star | Malaysia |
| gogo Mongolia | Mongolia |
| ELEVEN Media Group | Myanmar |
| The Kathmandu Post | Nepal |
| DAWN | Pakistan |
| INQUIRER.net | Philippines |
| The Straits Times | Singapore |
| The Korea Herald | South Korea |
| The Nation | Thailand |
| Việt Nam News | Vietnam |
The landmark corporate press release partnership means that Media OutReach Newswire significantly enhances the reach and impact of clients’ communications across Asia, making their press releases reach even wider audiences in countries across the region and the globe. It is also testament to the uniquely high level of trust that exists between Media OutReach Newswire and the media. Each of the 20 member media gave Media OutReach their vote of confidence, and each of the media is the leading publication in their respective home country.
Jennifer Kok, Founder & CEO of Media OutReach Newswire, said: “We are very pleased, proud and honoured to have entered this partnership with ANN. Not only is it Asia’s leading news media alliance, but the group’s members are also the leading newspapers of their countries, publications with the highest of reputations. The partnership enables us to significantly increase the reach and impact of our clients, across Asia and the globe, further cementing Media OutReach Newswire as the leading newswire for Asia Pacific.”
Jennifer continued, “The partnership also means that we’re the only newswire that provides guaranteed online news posting on ANN, strengthening our clients’ online visibility – both in terms of SEO and GEO for AI search – leading to higher rankings and citations in AI generated answers.” She concluded, “Furthermore, ANN and Media OutReach share the same ethos and goal, which is to promote the coverage of Asian affairs, bringing the stories of Asian organisations to audiences across Asia and the globe, so the partnership is a perfect fit.”
Media OutReach Newswire is the only newswire that provides guaranteed online news posting exclusively and 100% on real, authentic news media. The guaranteed posting of press releases on authoritative online news media sites such as ANN, with its high credibility and trust, along with hundreds of thousands monthly visitors, provides a powerful tool to boost brand visibility – both GEO for AI Search and SEO for search engines – and it leads to brand citations in the AI generated answers from the leading LLMs.
The landmark partnership with Asia News Network further cements Media OutReach Newswire as the leading global newswire for Asia Pacific. Media OutReach Newswire offers clients the widest press release distribution network in Asia Pacific – along with guaranteed visibility on real news media across Asia Pacific, the wider Asia region and the globe.
Media OutReach Newswire’s total communications solutions help PR professionals achieve success, with targeted distribution, direct journalist access, guaranteed visibility on real news media, ready-to-use reporting, and C-suite ready PR campaign intelligence showing ROI.
Hashtag: #MediaOutReachNewswire #pressrelease
The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.
Media OutReach Newswire is Asia Pacific’s first global newswire, serving as a trusted partner to the media, and PR professionals at corporations, agencies and governments across the region and the globe.
Founded in 2009 as a champion of the PR industry, Media OutReach Newswire leverages next-generation technology to redefine press release distribution and reporting, with data insights and PR campaign intelligence, providing total communications solutions for PR professionals.
With a global network of 200,000 journalists and editors, 70,000+ media titles, 1,500 media partners, and more than 40 languages, Media OutReach Newswire is the only newswire with guaranteed verbatim postings exclusively on real news sites. Press releases on authentic media are trusted by search engines and AI models, powering both SEO and AI search GEO, surfacing brands for LLM citations.
Headquartered in Hong Kong, with offices across China, Singapore, Japan, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, and Taiwan, the global press release distribution network spans Asia Pacific and Southeast Asia, the US, Canada, South and Latin America, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa.
For more information about our services, solutions and network, please visit www.media-outreach.com
BYD has begun integrating advanced LiDAR sensing into some of its lowest-priced electric vehicles, a move that signals a sharp escalation in the race to make assisted and autonomous driving features available to mass-market buyers. The Chinese automaker has confirmed that models including the Seagull and Dolphin will carry LiDAR-based perception as part of its proprietary “God’s Eye” driver-assistance system, despite starting prices that hover around the […]
Google has unveiled a Universal Commerce Protocol designed to allow artificial intelligence agents to search, recommend and complete purchases across multiple retail platforms, marking a strategic push to standardise how online shopping works in an era of increasingly autonomous digital assistants. The announcement was made at the 2026 National Retail Federation conference, where technology providers and merchants gathered to outline priorities for the year ahead. The protocol […]
Senate Republicans are accelerating plans to bring a sweeping cryptocurrency bill to a vote, betting that momentum and industry pressure can overcome lingering Democratic reservations even as bipartisan talks remain unsettled. The move was confirmed late on Friday by the chair of the Senate Banking Committee, who said the panel would press ahead with scheduling despite parallel efforts by the Senate Agriculture Committee to refine a cross-party […]
Federal regulators have approved a major expansion of SpaceX’s Starlink satellite network, clearing the company to deploy up to 7,500 additional second-generation spacecraft and lifting the authorised constellation to about 15,000 satellites, a decision that deepens the company’s lead in the fast-growing satellite broadband market while tightening safeguards around orbital congestion and interference. The Federal Communications Commission’s order allows SpaceX to activate the first tranche of its […]
Indonesia has moved to block access to Grok, the artificial intelligence chatbot developed by xAI, marking one of the first national-level actions taken specifically against a generative AI system over deepfake and synthetic sexual content risks. The decision places Southeast Asia’s largest economy at the centre of a growing global debate over how far governments should go in regulating AI tools that blur the line between expression […]
Meta has secured access to as much as 6.6 gigawatts of nuclear power through a cluster of agreements with established utilities and advanced reactor developers, underscoring how the energy demands of artificial intelligence are rewriting the investment playbook for Big Tech and the power sector alike. The arrangements, involving power supply and development pathways with Vistra, Constellation, TerraPower and Oklo, aim to underpin Meta’s expanding network of […]
By Nitya Chakraborty U.S. commerce secretary Howard Lutnick’s stunning podcast on Thursday claiming that the bilateral India-US trade deal was almost ready but was not signed as Prime Minister did not call the U.S. President Donald Trump as was expected by the Americans. This lack of proper gesture on the part of the Indian PM […]
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Bangkok’s long-held reputation as the “Detroit of the East” is under strain as the global shift towards electric vehicles reshapes South-East Asia’s industrial map, with Vietnam emerging as a more agile rival built around a powerful domestic champion. For half a century, Thailand’s automotive sector has been the backbone of its manufacturing economy, contributing about a tenth of national output and supporting hundreds of thousands of jobs […]
Apple has filed a patent that outlines a method to turn AirPods into precise gesture sensors by using the earbuds’ existing radio-frequency antennas, a move that could expand how users interact with devices without adding new hardware. The proposal centres on detecting subtle finger movements such as taps, swipes and pinches through changes in RF signals, allowing faster and more accurate input while potentially lowering latency and […]
Gmail is being overhauled to place artificial intelligence directly inside everyday email workflows, with Google removing the standalone Gemini side panel for subscribers to its AI Pro and AI Ultra tiers and replacing it with in-line assistance embedded across core actions. The change marks a decisive shift away from a separate chat-style interface towards contextual AI that appears where users write, read, search and organise messages. At […]
Decentralised derivatives trading on public blockchains has crossed a defining threshold, with on-chain perpetual futures volumes touching about $12 trillion over the past year as traders migrated from centralised venues to faster, cheaper and more transparent rails. Data compiled across major protocols show that activity more than tripled through the year, with monthly volumes cresting near $1.8 trillion in October, underscoring how on-chain markets have matured from […]
Pressure is mounting on Apple and Google after a group of United States senators urged the companies to remove the X and Grok apps from their app stores, citing what they described as disturbing failures in content safeguards that allowed the generation and amplification of harmful material. The appeal intensifies scrutiny of how major technology platforms police artificial intelligence tools distributed through mobile marketplaces that reach hundreds […]
By Nitya Chakraborty West Bengal is going to the state assembly polls in March-April 2026. The election fever has soared high with the visits of the BJP leaders Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Home Minister Amit Shah to the state which is being ruled by the Trinamool Congress led by the chief minister Mamata […]
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Boltz has raised $28 million in fresh funding while entering a strategic partnership with Pfizer that underscores the accelerating push by major drugmakers to embed artificial intelligence deeper into biomolecular research. The deal combines Pfizer’s extensive scientific datasets and therapeutic development expertise with Boltz’s open-source foundation models designed to analyse and generate biological data, aiming to shorten discovery timelines and improve the odds of clinical success. The […]
