ReleaseWire

By 2025, the German government intends to invest up to 700 million € in research into 6G technology. Germany's Federal Ministry of Education and Research stated that the first German research project into 6G technology would begin mid-April. The aim of the first funding measure, according to the ministry, is for it to lay the groundwork for an engineering environment for future communication technology, centred around 6G. Federal Research Minister, Anja Karliczek, said "We have to think about the day after tomorrow and help shape new key technologies and standards in communication technologies right from the start.

The UK procurement industry continues to adapt to the challenges presented by the Brexit transition as the UK Government's changed to the procurement process presents a radical divergence from the pre-Brexit regimes. The changes are aiming to speed up and simplify procurement processes, deliver value for money and give small businesses the opportunity to innovate in public service delivery. This modification, in principle, gives a significantly greater discretion of authorities in relation to their public procurement processes.

The technology sector is urging G7 policymakers to work collaboratively to ensure economic recovery and resilience in a post-pandemic age - by outlining 4 specific objectives. A joint effort between techUK, the Technology Sector Trade Associations of the G7 countries, and the EU (Tech7*), have been tasked to push for international cooperation to reap the rewards of technical growth in a post-COVID world. The Tech7 alliance is calling for their countries to work together to facilitate global trade flows and provide common guidelines for the digital economy that prioritises a transparent, compliant and non-discriminatory digital policy, which will be implemented at an international level.

Clinical jobs have been at the heart of the global response to the COVID-19 pandemic, enabling governments to mobilize vaccine programs and care strategies that have helped to keep infection rates under control.

Risk is an area where cutting edge technology can have a big impact in terms of producing more effective solutions to existing obstacles. Artificial Intelligence (AI) and machine learning have a lot to offer and are already being employed by forward thinking firms in order to close loopholes and create opportunities for greater efficiency. One recent example of this comes from BNP Paribas Asset Management, which is using machine learning in order to estimate carbon emissions for those organisations that don't report their carbon footprint. The modeling of carbon emissions to be provided by the machine learning technology will provide estimates for around 10,000 companies, supplying data that simply wouldn't otherwise be available.

The past year has seen a great deal of progress in innovative areas of financial services such as quantitative analytics. Two key trends look set to dominate in 2021: Portfolio Construction/Optimisation and FICC Execution. As a quant recruiter we've seen demand for those with skills in both these areas start to spike. Portfolio Construction/Optimisation has been a growth area for several years now and many hedge funds have already invested in team building to support it. However, this is now a dominant trend in the StatArb industry and, as a result, there is an increasing need for candidates with the right skills.

There is no doubt that 2020 was a challenging year for the financial services sector in Hong Kong. Like many other jurisdictions the region was hard hit by the pandemic. However, there are now plenty of green shoots of recovery across the industry and specialisms such as fintech jobs have continued to thrive even through pandemic conditions. Many positive signs exist for 2021. For example, Chinese intentions to open the domestic Chinese financial services sector to foreign investment have been made clear by the wholly foreign-owned enterprise rules (WFOE), which will enable foreign investors to tap into growing investor demand. The Wealth Plan from the People's Bank of China is another clear sign of recovery in the region and is especially promising for Hong Kong. Innovative banking is also gaining ground in Hong Kong, from fintech jobs to virtual banks and there have even been record trading volumes in many of the world' largest banks, all indicating a promising 2021 to come.

The past 12 months have had plenty of lessons for investor relations recruiters - in particular, that change is constant. This is especially apparent from trends that are emerging in areas such as corporate and investment banking. An increasingly competitive and swiftly changing landscape represents one of these trends, with the launch of Hong Kong's first virtual bank a prime example of just how fast the industry here is moving to get ahead.

This is a great time to be a quantitative analyst - even the impact of a global pandemic has barely slowed the demand for talented people. In fact, as a quaint recruiter we have noticed that many of our liquidity providing clients had one of their best years in decades in 2020, and expect this to continue throughout 2021. There is obvious resilience in this area of banking and financial services and there are two key skill sets that are likely to be in demand across the buyside and the sell side throughout the year. The first of these is portfolio construction/optimisation, which is being driven by a focus on creating novel portfolio construction and optimisation techniques now that uncorrelated alphas are proving increasingly hard to come by.

Cloud infrastructure has emerged as the preferred method of modernizing IT portfolios, with CIOs stating that the intermixing software between public and private clouds permits them greater market agility. Increased use of cloud computing to improve enterprise resiliency, and the transition to e-commerce models during the pandemic, each acted as some of the strongest validations of the market for software provisioned over the internet. However, incorporating hybrid cloud frameworks comes with its own challenges, including the viral sprawl which comes with significant migrations. Operating cloud environments has its own set of financial challenges, as IT leaders have discovered that inadequate governance will make running cloud computing more costly than managing computer services on premises.

In the wake of the US economy battling to regain control after the onslaught caused by the pandemic, there's a significant short supply of the computer chips that power a wide variety of products that connect, transport and entertain us. Since last summer (2020), the shortage has been oscillating through different markets. This has made it impossible for schools to purchase enough computers for students who have been expected to study from home, postponed the arrival of iconic products, such as the iPhone 12, and caused major frenzies when it comes to sourcing the latest video game consoles. Unfortunately, in recent weeks the situation has worsened, specifically in the automobile industry where factories are closing due to a lack of chips to finish the construction of technology-heavy cars.

As a leading global recruitment agency, Volt International offers life science recruitment services to leading life science organisations across the UK, US Asia and core European locations. With a deep understanding of the full development cycle, they add significant value to the recruitment process. Their recruitment experts provide services for biotech, CRO, pharmaceutical, medical device & healthcare communications agencies. Hiring the agency for recruitment can have a range of benefits for companies including a consultative and flexible approach to the hiring process, extensive experience, access to business and candidate networks, accreditations from APSCo and similar organisations and a proven track record of developing long-term successful relationships.

A well-renowned global recruitment agency, Volt Singapore offers services procurement solutions to help businesses meet their procurement needs from local to global. Regardless of the size of the business, the agency can help drive down costs in the products and they're procuring. With a global delivery platform, the company designs and delivers innovative, flexible procurement solutions that help its clients manage and improve their supply chain. Their end-to-end offering with full visibility over project scope, RFX, process and planning, monitoring and review, billing and performance management is a flexible and cost effective answer to ever evolving demands of the clients.

The extent of Hong Kong's freight capabilities is set to increase further this year through the partnership of Cainiao Smart Logistics Network with Hong Kong Air Cargo. The implementation of multiple new flights from Hong Kong to Manila, Kuala Lumpur, and Bangkok is set to support the growing e-commerce demand in Southeast Asia, with an aim of delivering a quarter of a million parcels per week.

Hong Kong continues to position itself as an influential leader by advancing the development of China's Greater Bay Area, thus, spearheading China's further integration into the global marketplace. Establishing itself as a global aviation hub with excellent transportation networks, Hong Kong is set to attract related business, manufacturing, and service activities from around the world. "With our strong international finance sector and global supply chains, Hong Kong is a natural candidate to become the world's centre for trade finance," stated The Fung Group's Victor Fung Kwok-king, chairman of The Think Tank.

President Joe Biden has recently outlined an extensive list of environmental aims for his administration. Establishing a climate plan for the Amazon, is one of the US' key environmental goals, since it acts as an important component of a US strategy toward South America, as well as its pivotal position in a global response to the climate crisis. In 2012, the US played a key role in establishing the Tropical Forest Alliance (TFA), a coalition of governments, businesses, and civil society to end deforestation in commodity supply chains.

The US Government spends over $500 billion on goods and services per year to support and finance its activities, making it the single biggest consumer in the world. When the federal government spends money tactically, it can operate as a dominant industry leader, influencing whole markets. Experts have suggested that targeted spending on clean energy, electric vehicles, and greener construction materials can have an effect on sustainability and this in turn, can help support the fight against climate change. Procurement experts have indicated that although federal strategic spending would affect the climate crisis, it is likely that this will take years and should not be seen as an immediate solution.

Cyber security has quickly become one of the most pressing issues for businesses across the world. This has been reflected in the sharp uptake of firms investing in cyber security spending over the last year. This is partly due to the global pandemic as the increase in remote working calls for a greater focus on cybersecurity, because of the greater exposure to cyber risk. Megan Hannes, Cyber Product Head for Hiscox said, "Managing [cyber security] in one office location has morphed into managing [cyber security] in huge numbers of workspaces across the country, almost overnight. The pandemic-induced chaos has bred opportunities for [cyber criminals], and they've been taking advantage".

COVID-19 has had a seismic impact on many areas of the economy and specialists in risk management have been forced into a rethink of many previous approaches. This is something that is starkly reflected in recent data from the Business Continuity Institute drawn from a survey on business risks.

As a result of the changes in working conditions, brought on by the global pandemic, businesses have had to pivot, and act quickly when it comes to preventing different types of cyber security breaches. With a variety of devices now connecting to different networks - due to the blurring of lines between office work and home work - there is now more opportunity than ever before, for cyber criminals to target numerous databases. As a result, there has never been a more crucial time for businesses to introduce leading IT technologies, collaborative tools and digitalisation into their overall business functions, in order to safeguard and protect their digital infrastructures.

The model and event management industry is quite large, considering that there is a significant demand for their services, especially by corporate organizations and independent bodies who need to host events or need people to be their brand's faces. The world over, model agencies and event companies that have carved a niche for themselves in delivering excellent services to their clients in the entertainment industry and other industries, have saddled themselves with this responsibility. In the UAE, UAE Hostesses, a modeling and hostess agency, is the leading Dubai models agency and event company.

Thanks to the GDPR, compliance has been an even hotter topic in recent years, in particular areas such as the duty to provide information on data protection requests. Article 15 of the GDPR gives individuals the right to ask a company for information about the storage of their personal data with that company and this is something that has caused a number of headaches. There is the time-consuming logistics of searching all available databases and directories for one thing, as well as the potential discrepancies that can arise with spellings.

In light of the global health crisis supply chain, procurement, and sustainability leaders are invested in rebuilding more robust and resilient supply chains. The emerging collegiality between specific topics includes digital transformation and the integration of sustainability indicators into procurement and supplier management processes. To support a post-COVID world, supply chain leaders must rethink strategy, moving away from 'Just in Time' to 'Just in Case' using supply chain resilience as a strategic differentiator. Additionally, a rethink of monitoring is needed to shift toward digitally integrated intelligence that scales internationally at the speed of cloud platforms and adjust easily into ecosystems.

The past year has been especially turbulent for the supply chain industry as online retail exploded with 46% of consumers making an online purchase, according to the NatWest Group. The supply chains which businesses rely upon have been subject to irregularity and instability throughout the pandemic and alongside Brexit in the UK, businesses have had to rapidly adjust. After facing such gigantic challenges, 2021 is the time for supply chains to diversify, and data will be the cornerstone upon which these new channels will be developed. Smaller, more flexible networks that can respond rapidly to consumer demand can now overtake monolithic, slow-moving supply chains. The post-covid supply chains will include digital warehouses, connected factories, automated ordering, and AI-based interconnected consumer intelligence which will redefine modern-day logistics.

After a year of intense logistical disruptions as a result of the pandemic, the supply chain and transportation industry were hit by another massive setback that sent shockwaves across multiple international supply chains. The end of March saw a 200,000-ton tanker run aground in the Suez Canal, one of the world's most important trade routes which sees nearly 12% of imports and exports pass through it. One day after the incident, there were more than 100 vessels stuck waiting to transit the 120-mile channel. This catastrophe is set to intensify an already strained pressure point, causing backlogs and delays for days, from which industry professionals across the globe will have to bounce back from.