JAKARTA: A Lion Air passenger plane has crashed into the sea shortly after taking off from Jakarta on Monday morning (Oct 29), Indonesia’s search and rescue agency said.
A total of 189 people – including two infants, one child and eight crew members – were on board the flight, the agency said at a press conference.
The plane lost contact 13 minutes after takeoff, spokesman Yusuf Latif told Reuters, adding that a tugboat leaving the capital’s port had seen the craft falling.
The jet was a Boeing 737 MAX 8, according to air tracking service Flightradar 24.
Flight JT610 took off around 6.20am (7.20am Singapore time) and was due to have landed in the capital of the Bangka-Belitung tin mining hub at 7.20am, the tracking service showed.
The international forum “Eurasian Week” organized by Eurasian Economic Commission took place from 22 to 24 October in Erevan, the capital of Armenia. It is worth noting, that the host country of the Forum becomes the Chairman of Eurasian Economic Community (EEC).
EEC economy digitalization became the main theme of the Forum. Among important questions which were discussed there were also problems of industrial and transport corridor digitalization, emergence of the unified EEC digital agenda, formation of the one-stop subcontracting platform, etc.
Russia Singapore Business Council was represented by the Director for Strategy and Development Andrei Bykov, who made two statements on October, 23. The first one with the presentation “RSTrade B2B International Information and Service Platform” took place at the Plenary “Subcontracting: Large, Medium and Small Business. Collaboration of Customers and Providers”, the second one – at the foresight session “EEC Digital Consortium – a Pool of Oppotrunities for High-Tech Business”. The theme of this statement was “Digital Business Cooperation with the Use of Eurasian Technology Transfer, Industrial Cooperation and Subcontracting Net as an Instrument of EEC and ASEAN Economical Integration”.
During the first session in which of the Council’s expert participated there was represented a concept of an initiative to create and improve Eurasian Technology Transfer, Industrial Cooperation and Subcontracting Net as an Instrument of EEC and ASEAN Economical Integration. The initiative was supported by Eurasion Econimic Comission. The Platform is going to become the basis for creating Eurasion Information System. RSTrade Platform operated by the Council executive structure “Russia Singapore Trade House” is one of the platforms, services of which are integrated into the new Eurasian Net. Services for foreign economic activities are going to be represented there. The Platform is also going to become a digital gateway connecting EEC and ASEAN enterprises. Population of EEC is cca 182 millions of people, and its aggregate GDP is the fourth in the world. Population of ASEAN is more than 630 millions of people, and this community is the third in the world according to its aggregate GDP and export and import development. Russia is the largest economy of these two macro-regions. It is also one of the ten world’s largest economies and one of the ten world’s most developed e-commerce markets. In 2017, the volume of e-trade amounted to 20 billion dollars.
At the foresight session special emphasis was placed on the problems of complementarity of EEC and ASEAN economies and on the role which consortiums play in the formation of electronic platforms and digital solutions. Andrei Bykov at his statement drove a theme of forming business development and infrastructure and of digitalization as a driver of this process, which was touched earlier by Koh Poh Koon, Minister of Trade and Industry of Republic of Singapore. Special attention was payed to the development of the integration between two platforms – Russian RSTrade and Singapore CamelOne driven by vCargo Cloud. In September Russian and Singapore companies signed the Memorandum of Cooperation, and the platforms are now working on the integration of various services, some of which are overlapping. The unique services will be simply used by the second part, and the overlapping will be mutually complemented with instruments and subservices. In particular, the Singapore side and all ASEAN companies through it will get an access to contract manufacturing, which grows faster than manufacturing in general. The Russian side and all EEC companies through it will get an access, for example, to the service which automates custom clearance process. Although the integration preparatory phase is going to be completed only in mid-November, all platform users in EEC and ASEAN already have an access to the services on both platforms.
There was also presented a project of the formation of Russian Hi-tech Companies Foreign Promotion and Investment Projects Representation Centre. This project was started in Singapore at the initiative of the Council, and ASEAN partner companies showed interest in it. It was mentioned that EEC companies would be able to present here their products, services and technologies and to create international cooperation groups.
Numerous meetings and negotiations during “Eurasian Week” showed that companies and countries are interested in the increase of economic integration within EEC. The development of public or publicly available digital services becomes one of the most efficient formats of such integration. The cooperation can reduce the time needed for the development of competitive products and services, the costs of promoting on foreign markets. It can also become a driver of economy growth for 5 countries and help to bring the digital economy to an advanced level. We are sure that instruments and services provided by the companies of Russia Singapore Business Council will be sought after and useful and that the international RSTrade Platform has already captured an important niche of digitalization of foreign economy activity services.
The European Union (EU) and Singapore signed the EU-Singapore Free Trade Agreement (EUSFTA) and the EU-Singapore Investment Protection Agreement (EUSIPA) on the sidelines of the 12th Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) Summit in Brussels, Belgium.
Minister for Communications & Information and Minister-in-charge of Trade Relations of Singapore S Iswaran said, “The EUSFTA and EUSIPA are progressive agreements, with ambitious provisions to create more opportunities for businesses from both sides. This is the first free trade agreement between the EU and an ASEAN country, and reflects the EU’s continued interest in engaging ASEAN and anchoring its presence in the region. Both agreements serve as building blocks towards an eventual EU-ASEAN FTA, paving the way for future region-to-region cooperation”.
Currently the Singapore government has intensified work on the signing of such agreements with key global partners. Among them is the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU). In the near future, an agreement on a free trade area between the EAEU and Singapore is expected. Negotiations on the agreement began in 2016. Four rounds of approvals have passed since then, the last of which ended in June of this year. In August 2018, the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of Russia and Singapore confirmed the start of the final round. At the moment, Singapore’s Senior Minister of State Dr Koh Poh Koon is taking part in the international business forum Eurasian Week in Yerevan, where the discussion of the specifics of conclusion of such an agreement is under way. Dr Andrey Bykov, Director for Strategy and Development of the Russia-Singapore Business Council also speaks at this forum.
The Russia-Singapore Business Council, established on the initiative of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Russian Federation with the support of the Ministry of Economic Development of the Russian Federation and the State Corporation Rostec, will hold an exhibition of Russian technologies in Singapore on November 12-30, 2018, timed to the official visit of the leadership of the Russian Federation and delegations from ASEAN and its partner countries to Singapore at the East Asia Summit. The exhibition will be held at the Center for foreign promotion of Russian high-tech companies and the presentation of investment projects in Singapore.
2018 is the year of the 50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Singapore and Russia. A significant number of Russian companies from various sectors of the economy familiarized with the opportunities offered by Singapore as an international transport, financial and scientific hub of Asia. With a focus to expand bilateral and multilateral cooperation between Russian, Singaporean and organizations, enterprises from the countries of Southeast Asia the business mission of the Russian delegation to Singapore will be held from 26 to 29 November 2018. The program will be accompanied by cultural and social events, including concerts of Russian orchestras in Singapore.
To celebrate this Special 50th anniversary of the Russia Singapore Diplomatic Relations, a leading Russian Orchestra, Moscow Suvorov Military Orchestra, named after Lieutenant-General V. Khalilov, and representing the greatest musical minds of Moscow Suvorov Military Music College, will stage its performance in front of the Singaporean audience.
Russia-Singapore Business Council together with Progression Engineering (W14) had the honour to organize the Cultural Event and cordially invites you to join them @ Singapore Botanic Garden on 25th November 2018 (FOC) and NUS UCC Theatre (ticketing event) on 27th and 28th November and experience an evening of Russian Musical Delights.
On October 9, 2018, the meeting of the management of JSK Development Corporation of Nizhniy Novgorod region with the experts of the Russia-Singapore Business Council was held at representative of the Government of Nizhny Novgorod region under the Government of the Russian Federation.
The parties discussed possibilities of cooperation between the two organizations, including participation in events organized by them, joint organization of business missions to countries in Southeast Asia and their representatives in Volga region, presentation of investment projects at the Centre of international promotion of high-tech companies and presenting investment projects in Singapore and also posting information about the companies of Nizhny Novgorod region at the platform RSTrade (www.rstradehouse.com).
Deputy General Director of JSC Development Corporation of Nizhny Novgorod region Dina Polilova, the head of the corporation department on exhibition and congress activities Dmitry Druzhkin and the experts of the Russia-Singapore Business Council Andrey Bykov and Kirill Solntsev.
