TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – Taipei City marked Earth Day Thursday (April 22) by setting 2050 as its target for net zero emissions.

The move symbolized the Taiwanese capital’s determination to shoulder its responsibility as a citizen of the global community and cut carbon emissions, Taipei City Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) said.

Taipei will take the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for 2030 as its base to transform the city as it faces the threat of climate change. The use of recycled materials, electric vehicles, smart and zero-carbon buildings, and investment in innovative businesses will form part of the capital’s long-term emission reduction policies.

(Reuters) – Toronto-based semiconductor group Alphawave said on Thursday it was planning to apply for a London listing of its shares, adding that the cornerstone agreement with certain investors gave it a valuation of up to $4.5 billion.

The initial public offering would include issuing new shares, raising roughly $500 million, as well as an offer of existing stock to be sold by current shareholders, the company added.

While many of us have been forced to work from home during the past year, few are likely to say they raised tens of millions for their startup from their bedroom, like Estonian entrepreneur Kaarel Kotkas.

Kotkas is founder and CEO of identity verification startup Veriff, which recently announced that it raised €58 million in a new Series B round led by venture capital firms IVP and Accel, on top of the €14 million it raised last year.

"Before the pandemic hit, I was in the UK and US for six months. Now for the past year, I have just been in Estonia and pretty much raised Series B from my bedroom/office in Tallinn," he says.

The eighth Smart City Summit & Expo (SCSE) successfully concluded on March 26 at Taipei Nangang Exhibition Center Hall 2.

Despite the strict entry control on the number of attendees, the four-day event drew over 80,000 visitors. The organiser, Taipei Computer Association (TCA), also invited delegations from more than 50 industrial and business associations to the event. Many local governmental agencies sent delegations to join the hustle and bustle of the marketplace. During this time when many international fairs are called off, SCSE brings a silver lining to the economy devastated by the pandemic. In addition, the livestreaming forum sessions have taken down cross-border walls to reach international professionals and city leaders. This kind of physical-virtual hybrid form appears to be a ‘new normal’ for the future of conferences.

Taiwanese memory chipmaker Nanya Technology plans to spend $10.69 billion on a DRAM facility in New Taipei, Taiwan.

The company trails Samsung, SK Hynix, and Micron in dynamic random access memory sales, but is benefiting from a rapidly growing overall market.

Amazon marked the start of construction work on a new $1.5 billion office precinct in Melbourne that it will take space in, with a ceremony attended by Victoria’s leaders.

The ceremony took place on Wednesday to mark the foundations being poured for the precinct’s first stage, and was attended by Melbourne’s Lord Mayor Sally Capp and Victorian Treasurer Tim Pallas.

A city focused on environmental sustainability, one of six Factors in the ICF Method defining success for cities and regions in the 21st Century

(New York, USA and Tallinn, Estonia – April 6, 2021) – When Tallinn, Estonia was named the Intelligent Community of the Year in October 2020 by the Intelligent Community Forum (ICF), one factor in its selection was a commitment to environmental sustainability. In May of that year, Tallinn had been shortlisted by the European Commission as one of four finalists for the 2022 European Green Capital Award. The city followed up these achievements by launching a new brand as a Green Global City.

MONTREAL, Jan. 5, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- GlobalStep, a leading global provider of Technology Services to the Games Industry, today announced its new Center of Excellence for testing, deployment and the complete lifecycle management of games, located in the heart of Montreal's Mile End neighborhood. The opening aligns with GlobalStep's commitment to additional rapid growth and expansion in the region.

The 17,000 sq. ft. facility has been custom designed and is home to GlobalStep's Center of Excellence for Games QA, Localization, and Localization QA lines of service, as well as AR/VR testing. Located at 5800 Saint Denis, the space lays the foundation for GlobalStep to build closer ties and provide greater global support to its growing customer base.

With the right investments in technology, rural communities could use this moment to remake their futures. One small town shows how.

Signs direct visitors to Mitchell, S.D., for hundreds of miles around. The town, which is a bit more than an hour west of Sioux Falls along Interstate 90, is home to the Corn Palace, a classic roadside attraction that in a non-pandemic year attracts about a half-million visitors. Enticed by the endless string of billboards, weary travelers pull off the interstate to take a look at the palace’s onion-shaped domes and corn-colored murals depicting bison, Mount Rushmore and George McGovern, the late senator and long-ago presidential candidate who was a native son of Mitchell.

Mitchell Technical College and Lake Area Technical College in Watertown are going to be beneficiaries of more than $4 billion of giving from philanthropist and novelist MacKenzie Scott, it was announced Wednesday.

The amount of the gift for the colleges was not stated in the announcement. Scott, who is deemed the richest woman in the world with a net worth of more than $60 billion, has committed $4.15 billion in philanthropy, much of it directed toward supporting those affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.