Commission

BRUSSELS: The European Commission on Friday sought feedback to its planned extension of rules which ended mobile roaming charges across the bloc three years ago, with the move likely to trigger battles between telecoms operators on wholesale price caps. While EU users do not pay additional charges when making a call, sending a text message or surfing the internet when travelling within the bloc, telecoms providers still have to pay wholesale fees to their counterparts in other countries that connect them. Wholesale price caps were substantially reduced in 2017, along with the bloc's adoption of the roaming regulation which ended roaming charges. The regulation will expire on June 30 next year. Operators in northern European countries, whose citizens tend to go abroad for holidays, are keen to pay lower wholesale price caps to networks in southern holiday destinations. Companies in Mediterranean countries on the other hand are more likely to lobby to keep such caps as high as … [Read more...] about EU Commission seeks feedback to extending rules ending roaming fees

LONDON: The International Olympic Committee (IOC) says women now account for almost half of the membership of its various commissions, an all-time high in the organisation's drive for gender equality. Across the 30 IOC commissions, 47.7per cent of the positions are held by women, up from 45.4per cent in 2019. "Since 2013, as a result of Olympic Agenda 2020, female participation in the IOC commissions has more than doubled (coming from 20per cent in 2013)," a statement said. Eleven of the IOC's commissions now have female chairs with Khunying Patama Leeswadtrakul, IOC member in Thailand, heading up the Culture and Olympic Heritage Commission and China's former Olympic speed skating champion Zhang Hong chairing the newly-formed IOC Coordination Commission for the 4th Winter Youth Olympic Games Gangwon 2024. "Advancing women in leadership roles in sport is truly a team effort, and I want to thank all those who have contributed to this for their continued support, commitment and … [Read more...] about IOC says record high female representation on commissions

LONDON: British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said a cross-government commission would examine racism and the disparities experienced by minority ethnic groups in education, health and the criminal justice system following Black Lives Matter protests. Johnson said he could not ignore the strength of feeling shown by tens of thousands of people who had demonstrated in British cities following the death of African American George Floyd in Minneapolis last month. READ: More than 100 arrested after violent disorder at far-right linked UK protest "What I really want to do as prime minister is change the narrative, so we stop the sense of victimisation and discrimination," he said on Sunday (Jun 14). "We stop the discrimination, we stamp out racism and we start to have a real sense of expectation of success. But it won't be easy. We'll have to look very carefully at the real racism and discrimination that people face." Simon Woolley, advisory chair of the United Kingdom … [Read more...] about Britain’s Johnson to launch cross-government commission on racism

SINGAPORE: FairPrice Group and food delivery start-up WhyQ have launched a new digital platform offering islandwide food delivery at zero commission to vendors, the companies announced on Friday (May 29). "This is in response to the lack of affordable delivery platforms, an issue that has been in the spotlight recently due to increased demand of food delivery options for F&B establishments amid safe distancing measures," the companies said in a joint media release. Known as [email protected], the pilot roll-out of the platform aims to help the "local F&B community, especially the smaller food establishments", the companies added. READ: As COVID-19 hits F&B sector, calls emerge for delivery apps to lower commission fees Unlike most online food delivery platforms, vendors on [email protected] are not required to pay any commission or set-up fee. Instead, a 6 per cent markup on food price will be used to "offset payment gateway and server costs for the platform", … [Read more...] about COVID-19: FairPrice Group, WhyQ launch zero-commission islandwide food delivery platform

SINGAPORE: The authorities will work with food delivery companies to see how they can adjust their operating models to better suit hawkers, Senior Minister of State for the Environment and Water Resources Amy Khor said in Parliament on Tuesday (May 5). "In fact we are already engaging them to see how they can actually adapt their model for the hawker centre context," she said. “This will potentially lower costs for the hawkers, not just on the circuit breaker period but beyond." Dr Khor was responding to questions from Member of Parliament Melvin Yong, who asked about the number of hawkers who have turned to food delivery options and who have tapped support from schemes by Enterprise Singapore and the National Environment Agency (NEA). Dr Khor recognised that the model for food delivery services, including the commission structures, would "need to evolve" to be attractive to hawkers. “These models must strike a balance among all parties in the food delivery services … [Read more...] about Commission fee structure of food delivery firms ‘needs to evolve’ to attract hawkers: Amy Khor