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Supporting ASEAN’s creative economy through UK partnership and research

Published

1 month ago

10/04/2026

SINGAPORE – Media OutReach Newswire – 10 April 2026 – The success and impact of the ASEAN–UK Advancing Creative Economy programme was on show at the recent 2^nd ASEAN–UK Creative Economy Symposium 2026 in Manila. The Symposium showcased how research, capacity building, and regional collaboration are shaping the future of the creative economy across Southeast Asia, further advancing the goals of the ASEAN Creative Economy Sustainability Framework, adopted at the 46^th ASEAN Summit. The Symposium also celebrated the 5^th anniversary of the ASEAN–UK Dialogue Partnership, focused on deepening cooperation and connection.

The Department of Trade and Industry of the Philippines, together with the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, the British Council and the ASEAN Secretariat, convened over 270 leaders, policymakers, creatives, and investors from ASEAN and the United Kingdom in Manila for the ASEAN–UK Creative Economy Symposium 2026, reinforcing the region’s push to harness the creative economy as a key driver of growth, innovation, and cultural identity.

Deputy Secretary-General of ASEAN for ASEAN Economic Community (AEC), Satvinder Singh, said:
“ASEAN is well-positioned to harness the full potential of the creative economy. Six out of eleven ASEAN Member States now rank among the top 70 globally in the WIPO Global Innovation Index’s creative outputs dimension. ASEAN recognises that intangible assets, such as intellectual property, brands, and design as the currencies of modern creative economy. The ideas, expressions, and innovations our creators produce must be protected, valued, and commercialised.”

UK Ambassador to ASEAN, Helen Fazey, said:
“The UK and ASEAN are advancing together through trust, cooperation, and shared priorities. This partnership reflects a strong and growing relationship built on mutual respect and a shared ambition to support sustainable economic growth, innovation, and opportunity across the region. Through initiatives like the ASEAN–UK Advancing Creative Economy programme, we are deepening collaboration, strengthening people-to-people links, and supporting the development of vibrant and resilient creative sectors.”

ASEAN-focused research highlights pathways for growth in the creative economy
New research under the ASEAN–UK Advancing Creative Economy initiative is providing critical insights into the evolution and economic potential of cultural industries across the region.

Arts and Technologies in ASEAN: Interconnected Parts, commissioned by the British Council, examines the fast-growing creative technology landscape across ASEAN. Drawing on more than 60 interviews and case studies, the report explores how artists are using digital tools—from AI to immersive media—while also analysing the regulatory environments shaping innovation. It highlights both the dynamism of the sector and the need for stronger support systems to sustain growth.

Complementing this, the Regional Perception Poll on the ASEAN Creative Economy offers a comprehensive view of how the sector is understood across the region. Based on insights from over 4,000 respondents, including both producers and audiences, the study highlights the interconnected nature of creative ecosystems and the relationships between artists, industries, policymakers, and communities. Its findings underscore the need for tailored, context-specific strategies and stronger regional collaboration to unlock further growth.

Together, these research outputs provide valuable evidence to inform policy, guide investment, and strengthen UK–ASEAN partnerships.Building on this work, a new ASEAN festival research and mapping initiative is underway, expanding earlier studies to provide a more comprehensive understanding of the region’s diverse festival landscape and identify opportunities for future collaboration.

Country Director Indonesia and Director South East Asia, Summer Xia, said:
“Through the ASEAN–UK Advancing Creative Economy initiative, we are investing in the research, skills, and partnerships needed to support long-term growth in the creative sector. The symposium in Manila was an important opportunity to share these resources and ensure they are shaped by and for the region. By working closely with the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office and the ASEAN Secretariat, we are helping to build a stronger, more connected creative economy across ASEAN countries.”

Underscoring the broader vision of the initiative, Deputy Secretary-General of ASEAN for ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community (ASCC) San Lwin has reaffirmed, in separate engagements, that the ASEAN-UK Advancing Creative Economy programme maximises the region’s creative potential to fuel socio-economic growth and cultural exchange. He reiterated the shared commitment to leveraging innovation and creativity as key connectors to drive prosperity, deepen cultural unity, advance social equity, and promote sustainable, inclusive development in order to forge an “ASEAN Community of Opportunities for All.”

Learn more at: ASEAN Creative Economy Initiative
Hashtag: #BritishCouncil

The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.

About the British Council

The British Council is the UK’s international culture and education organisation. We support peace and prosperity by building connections, understanding and trust between people in the UK and countries worldwide. We do this through our work in arts and culture, education and the English language. We work with people in over 200 countries and territories. In 2024–25, we reached 600 million people.
www.britishcouncil.org

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Expereo Achieves EcoVadis Silver Rating for Sustainable Supply Chain Performance

Published

17 hours ago

21/05/2026

Media Outreach

SINGAPORE – Media OutReach Newswire – 21 May 2026 – Expereo, the world-leading Managed Network-as-a-Service (NaaS) provider, announced it has been awarded an EcoVadis Silver Rating ranking in the 92nd percentile and placing among the top 15% of its industry category this year. This reflects a 10-point improvement from its previous Bronze rating, strengthening the company’s position in sustainable supply chain performance, ESG governance and responsible business practices.

The company recorded gains across all four EcoVadis assessment pillars: Environment, Labour and Human Rights, Ethics, and Sustainable Procurement. The strongest improvements came in Environment, up 10 points, and Labour and Human Rights, which rose 19 points year-on-year, with the latter independently validated by Expereo’s Great Place to Work UAE Certification for 2026 and Singapore Employee Experience of the Year win at the Asian Experience Awards 2025.

Commenting on the recognition, Ben Elms CEO Expereo, said, “We are incredibly proud of this achievement. Moving from a Bronze to a Silver rating in just a year reflects the progress our teams have made in embedding sustainability across our operations, procurement, and people practices.

We have reduced material consumption, minimised waste, and rolled out initiatives such as the Cisco Refurbish Project, while strengthening risk assessments and introducing bi‑annual supplier sustainability evaluations. These efforts give our customers confidence that they are working with a company aligned with their values and ethical business standards. This milestone is a testament to our collective commitment to driving meaningful and lasting impact, and we look forward to building on this momentum in the year ahead.”

Looking ahead, Expereo plans to expand the use of refurbished equipment, further align cloud hosting and supplier selection with lower-carbon criteria, and deepen transparency across its value chain.

This builds on its FY25 sustainability strategy anchored around three core pillars:

Environment: building a rigorous CO₂ inventory and embedding circular economy practices across its operations,

People: investing in employee health, wellbeing and a more inclusive workplace culture across its global teams,

Green procurement policy: implementing strong sustainability criteria for Data Centre partnership focused on clean energy, prioritizing the procurement of recycled customer equipment and extending CPE lifecycle in a safe manner.

These initiatives are designed to support customer and partner expectations for more resilient, transparent and sustainable digital infrastructure. By combining supplier governance, circular economy practices and improved carbon accounting, Expereo is building a more data-driven foundation for future ESG performance and reporting.

Hashtag: #Expereo #EcoVadis

The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.

About Expereo

Expereo is a world-leading Managed Network as a Service provider that connects people, places, and things anywhere. Solutions include Global Internet, SD-WAN/SASE, and Enhanced Internet. With an extensive global reach, Expereo is the trusted partner of 60% of Fortune 500 companies. It powers enterprise and government sites in more than 190 countries, with the ability to connect to any location worldwide, working with over 2,300 partners to help customers improve productivity and empowering their networks and cloud services with the agility, flexibility, and value of the Internet, with optimal network performance.

Expereo was acquired in Feb 2021, by Vitruvian Partners which acquired a majority shareholding from Seven2.

For more information, visit:

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TP deepens AI data services capabilities across APAC markets – showcased live at Asia Tech x Singapore 2026

Published

17 hours ago

21/05/2026

Media Outreach

SINGAPORE – Media OutReach Newswire – 21 May 2026 – As part of its Future Forward strategy, global digital business services leader TP (ex-Teleperformance) is deepening its award-winning TP.ai Data Services capabilities across Asian markets. This is in response to rising enterprise demand for AI systems trained in local languages and compliant with evolving in-country data residency and governance requirements.

As enterprises accelerate AI deployment across Asia, success will increasingly depend on the quality, localization and governance of the underlying data powering these systems. At Asia Tech x Singapore 2026 this week, TP is present on the ground and is delivering two sessions to cover the insights of TP’s Future Forward strategy of scaling AI-led services.

Assaf Tarnopolsky, TP’s Chief Business Development & Customer Officer, APAC is joining the panel “The Enterprise AI Execution Challenge” to discuss the advantages of Asia-based enterprises in investing in robust data preparation before constructing AI tools. Michael Costevec, Head of Value Creation Office, TP APAC and Jonathan Phang, CTO, TP APAC are also delivering a keynote on “AI Orchestration in the World’s Most Complex Markets”, which covers the principles behind the shift from AI operations to AI orchestration.

TP.ai Data Services, an end-to-end AI data services solution, enables enterprises to build, train and scale AI systems that are locally relevant, operationally resilient and deployment-ready across Asia’s diverse markets. With specialized AI practitioners distributed across Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, China, Japan, South Korea and Vietnam, TP delivers end-to-end AI/ML and GenAI support services, including data collection, validation, annotation, labeling, model evaluation, analytics operations and human-in-the-loop governance.

“The companies seeing real operational impact from AI in Asia are the ones investing in scalable data foundations, in-country execution and human expertise alongside the technology itself,” said Dave Rizzo, APAC President, TP. TP.ai Data Services has a proven track record in supporting customer live deployment. Within three weeks, it successfully created customized warehouse video streams, annotated with detailed object labels and dimensional data, enabling physical AI model training to support a client with real-time worker-safety-risk detection.

TP has been recognized globally for helping organizations move beyond fragmented data operations and reporting toward an analytics-led operating model that improves performance, governance, and AI outcomes. The 2026 Data Breakthrough Awards named TP’s data analytics services Overall Data Analytics Platform of the Year, citing measurable business results, including:

Up to 31% improvement in customer experience quality scores
Up to 30% lift in sales conversions
Up to 20% improvement in resource forecasting accuracy
Up to 15% gains in workforce efficiency

Beyond technology delivery, TP also places strong emphasis on preparing its own workforce for an AI-led operating environment. Across APAC, TP continues to invest in AI upskilling programs that equip employees with capabilities in model evaluation, synthetic data, human-in-the-loop and human-on-the-loop orchestration and AI governance. By combining advanced AI systems with locally trained human expertise, TP enables enterprises to scale AI responsibly across diverse Asian markets, ensuring that innovation remains grounded in cultural understanding, operational oversight and real-world business outcomes.

Hashtag: #TP

The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.

ABOUT TP IN SINGAPORE

TP in Singapore is part of the TP Group, a global leader in digital business services which consistently seeks to blend the best of advanced technology with human empathy to deliver enhanced customer care that is simpler, faster, and safer for the world’s biggest brands and their customers. The Group’s comprehensive, AI-powered service portfolio ranges from front office customer care to back-office functions, including high-value digital transformation services, collections and operations consulting. It also offers a range of specialized services such as interpreting and localization, visa and consular services, and recruitment process outsourcing services. The teams of multilingual, inspired, and passionate experts and advisors, spread across close to 100 countries, as well as the Group’s local presence allows it to be a force of good in supporting communities, clients, and the environment.

For more information: www.tp.com.

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State Street Expands Global Operating Model with New Manila Office

Published

17 hours ago

21/05/2026

Media Outreach

MANILA, PHILLIPINES – .

*Assets under management as of March 31, 2026 includes approximately US$184 billion of assets with respect to SPDR® products for which State Street Global Advisors Funds Distributors, LLC (SSGA FD) acts solely as the marketing agent. SSGA FD and State Street Investment Management are affiliated.