On April 24, New Zealand and Vietnam have launched a New Zealand-funded 3.8m USD initiative to reduce dam related flooding in Vietnam.
New Zealand’s Foreign Minister Murray McCully joined Mr Ha Cong Tuan, Vietnam’s Vice Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, in Hanoi, April 24 to launch the five-year project, which focus on dam safety for the 1000km long Ca River in Vietnam.
At the launching ceremony, Mr McCully said: “New Zealand is sharing its expertise in water engineering and natural hazard management to help Vietnam address its development challenges”.“Our support will help Vietnam effectively assess dams most in need of repair, coordinate dam owners with officials and communities, as well as upgrade the training curriculum for future water managers”, he commented.
The project aims by 2021 to halve the death toll from flooding on the Ca River and reduce associated economic losses by 30%. Vietnam has been known as a country affected fiercely by climate change which the government is seeking way to cope with.
Vietnam has more than 7000 dams, which are used for irrigation, electricity and drinking water. In the past 10 years there have been 43 unplanned water releases or dam failures, sometimes harming downstream communities.
The Vietnam – New Zealand Dam Safety Project is funded by the New Zealand Aid Program and will be implemented by Vietnam’s Thuy Loi University, New Zealand’s Damwatch Engineering and GNS Science.
Speaking at the launching event, Mr Ha Cong Tuan confirmed: “The event plays as stark example of our two country partnership (Vietnam – New Zealand). After 30 years of development, Vietnam has turned from a poverty country to the one can produce enough to meet the domestic demand. Vietnam government acknowledge the importance of agriculture development and invested significantly to facilitate agriculture infrastructure.”
“Vietnam highly appreciates effective partnership with countries including New Zealand. We established a Comprehensive Partnership in 2009. Vietnam have received large amount of investment from New Zealand in food safety, agriculture, disaster management... The Dam Safety project is among the most important cooperative activities between two nations”, Mr Ha Cong Tuan pressed. On behalf of Vietnam’s leaders, Mr Ha Cong Tuan pledged to boost the project’s speed and effectiveness.
The New Zealand Aid Programme in Vietnam is focused on supporting agriculture, education and disaster risk management. It will invest NZD$ 27m over 2015 – 2018.
Phase One of the Vietnam – New Zealand Dam Safety Project (2012 – 2015) developed a hazard assessment method tailored to Vietnam, which will be rolled out in Phase Two. New Zealand also provides disaster risk management training for Vietnamese officials through its scholarship programme, and provided emergency relief of NZD$ 250.000 following the severe flooding in central Vietnam in late 2016.
New Zealand’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Murray McCully is visiting Vietnam on 24 and 25 April. This follows Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Affairs Minister Pham Binh Minh’s successful visit to New Zealand in November 2016.
| A HanoiTimes release || April 24, 2017 |||
Ξ Motueka-Whanganui ferry service could boost regional economy
Ξ PharmaZen factory extension costly but complete
Ξ Earthquake engineering conference a sobering quake reminder for Wellington
Ξ Buckley Systems attracts new C-Suite
Ξ High costs and worker shortage hit construction
The car industry, the computer industry and even the machine industry present every few years new and modern designed models.
Why? To be able to attack new markets and new customers. However, it is hard to see something new in the conveyor industry. Most of the unit conveyor systems were developed 15, 20 or even 50 years ago and are still sold today in a construction, which remembers on the patents of the British toy manufacturer Frank Hornby, who has already registered his patent of a “Meccano” kit in 1901.
Now, the two young founders of the start-up Avancon SA are ready to revolutionize the conveyor industry with this new and streamlined concept. It’s full of innovative and functional ideas and has been patented worldwide.
Originally, Dieter Specht had developed this system for Interroll. But it didn’t fit to their philosophy. So he found two enthusiastic entrepreneurs, Denis Ratz, he has a bachelor of science in business informatics and Dr. Daniele Gambetta, who has a PhD in electric machines. They established in Ticino/Switzerland a new start-up under the name Avancon SA (from Avant-garde and Conveyor).
The CEO, Denis Ratz showed the new conveyor system to some large and important manufacturers of conveyor- and logistics-systems and got a very positive response.
| An Avancon SA release || <ay 03, 2017 |||
For more detailed information on the Avancon SA products and who to contact email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
The engineering.com office is swarmed daily with new product news, gee-whiz technology, and each and every “paradigm shift.” In the midst of it all, I was surprised to get an invitation to the launch of AutoCAD 2018.
“AutoCAD—is that still around?” asked one of our editors.
It seems as though it never went away. Rumors of AutoCAD’s demise, helped by the rise of Inventor or Fusion 360 on the mechanical side and Revit on the BIM side, were ... well, just rumors.
“We still have millions of users,” assured Rob Maguire, director of Autodesk’s AutoCAD product line.
Maguire has gathered a handful of “influencers,” aka social media wonks, power users and select old media, to Autodesk’s San Francisco office to see that the patient is not only alive and well, but is being improved. (Read more about the product improvements in our previous report.)
The dozen or so of us gathered in Autodesk’s office. We wondered when we had last seen each other. It was definitely before we started being called “influencers.” We recount the days when an AutoCAD release was Autodesk’s biggest news—highly anticipated, occurring 18 months or 2 years, max. A major release was trumpeted months in advance by a PR staff, with a wave of information going out to the press and bloggers. The CAD world would wait with bated breath for our reports. That is what we liked to think. In the last couple of years, major releases of Autodesk software have not even warranted a press release. If we were lucky, we heard about it, someone at Autodesk wrote about it on a blog post.
Continue to the full article here | An engineering.com release || May 02, 2017 |||
Climate Change Minister Paula Bennett and Finance Minister Steven Joyce have asked the Productivity Commission to review how New Zealand can maximise the opportunities and minimise the costs and risks of transitioning to a lower carbon economy.
“This next step in our climate change work programme will enable us to properly assess the economic trade-offs that we’ll need to make to meet our ambitious 2030 Paris Agreement target,” says Mrs Bennett.
“In the long-term – 2030 and beyond – New Zealand will likely need to further reduce its domestic emissions in addition to the use of forestry offsets and international emissions reduction units, although these will continue to remain an important part of the country’s climate change response for meeting our targets.”
“New Zealand’s domestic response to climate change is, and will be in the future, shaped by our position as a small, globally connected and trade-dependent country” says Mr Joyce. “The Productivity Commission is well-placed to dispassionately assess which of the many ways of reducing emissions will make the most economic sense for New Zealand.”
Given that climate change is an economy wide-issue, the Commission will be able to draw considerable expertise from a range of stakeholders including: central and local government, the Climate Change Iwi Leadership Group, relevant industry and NGO groups, scientific and academic bodies and the general public.
The government is already taking action to support meeting the 2030 target of the Paris Agreement, this includes:
“This complements the work undertaken by the Parliamentary cross-party group GLOBE NZ, as well as the Government’s expert advisory groups on agriculture, forestry and adaptation,” says Mrs Bennett.
“We look forward to the final report and recommendations for how New Zealand should manage a transition to a lower net emissions economy, while still maintaining and improving the incomes and prosperity of New Zealanders,” says Mr Joyce.
The Commission will report back by 30 June 2018.
| A Beehive release || May 02, 2017 |||
New Zealand's pavilion at the World Expo 2020 in Dubai will have strong potential to showcase this country’s primary industry products and innovation in sustainability.
So says Catherine Beard, chief executive of ExportNZ.
The Government has just announced New Zealand will participate in World Expo 2020, to be held in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. It is committing $53.3 million to construct a NZ pavilion.
Economic Development Minister Simon Bridges says “that will allow Kiwi businesses to highlight their innovative products and services and open doors to new export markets”.
The expo site will be about 2 sq.km and will contain three themed areas: opportunity, sustainability and mobility. NZ has been invited to participate in the sustainability precinct.
Beard told Rural News Dubai is the largest and most populous city in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the UAE is NZ’s largest export market in the Middle East and the country’s 12th-largest trading partner.
“In addition NZ is close to securing a free trade deal with the wider area of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) which includes the UAE and Saudi Arabia,” she says.
“If the trade deal comes off then our exports will become even more competitive than they are now and there will be increased interest from NZ firms to tackle those markets.”
This expo in Dubai will be an important showcase for NZ’s country brand, showing the range of things we can do as a country with a sustainability theme, Beard says. “GCC countries are rich in oil and gas, but lack farmland for food production and have high demand for imported food and drinks,” she says.
“NZ’s trusted dairy and meat exports meet some of that demand and there is increasing interest in food service exports into hotels, restaurant chains, etc.
“GCC countries are also motivated to reduce their trade reliance on oil and diversify their economies into high-tech and service sectors.”
Beard says the focus of NZ’s stand will be showcasing our innovation in sustainability, showing we can do more than just sell commodity products.
“I imagine we will be showcasing sustainability in farming practices right through to manufacturing and services.”
Bridges says showcasing NZ to the world is a crucial aspect of boosting economic growth. Expo 2020 will provide a springboard to promote us as an innovative, solution-focused economy to the 25 million visitors expected to attend from Europe, the Middle East, North Africa and Asia.
“It will also allow us to build on our strong economic and transport links to the UAE, which acts as a global air and sea logistics hub, providing access for NZ exporters to a much wider region. We’re already well connected by five direct daily Emirates flights, contributing $700 million to the economy,” says Bridges.
The expo will run from October 2020 to April 2021.
The organisers expect about 180 nations to participate. NZ is among the first 20 to formally confirm attendance.
| A Rural News release || May 02, 2017 |||
Palace of the Alhambra, Spain
By: Charles Nathaniel Worsley (1862-1923)
From the collection of Sir Heaton Rhodes
Oil on canvas - 118cm x 162cm
Valued $12,000 - $18,000
Offers invited over $9,000
Contact: Henry Newrick – (+64 ) 27 471 2242
Mount Egmont with Lake
By: John Philemon Backhouse (1845-1908)
Oil on Sea Shell - 13cm x 14cm
Valued $2,000-$3,000
Offers invited over $1,500
Contact: Henry Newrick – (+64 ) 27 471 2242