July 25, 2022 – Page 2 – Asean Tribune

July 25, 2022

Execution of democracy icons shows Myanmar junta is desperate to exert control

Why would Myanmar’s junta risk fueling more anger at home and outrage abroad through its execution on Monday of four activists, including two icons of the democracy movement? The answer might be found in its failing fortunes on the battlefield amid a deepening civil war.

Myanmar state media announced Monday the execution of Ko Jimmy, a veteran activist since the 1988 uprising against military rule, and Phyo Zeya Thaw, a popular rap artist turned politician. Two other lesser-known activists were also put to death.

The four had been arrested for their anti-junta activism and violating the counter-terrorism law. In January, the four were accused of helping carry out “terror acts” and sentenced to death, despite the fact that Myanmar had not carried out a judicial execution in over 30 years.

Many had thought that that the death sentences were a ploy. The junta, it was assumed, would not risk the diplomatic backlash and popular protest that are likely to ensue. This was a card to be played diplomatically at the right time in a bid to gain international legitimacy – possibly by commuting the death sentences to win credit.

Besides, if the junta has had any success since its February 2021 coup, it’s been on the diplomatic front. Why would it jeopardize the fact that no government has cut off ties?

Considering that some 50 people that had died in military custody since the coup, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, the military had ample time and opportunity to kill the four.

So why now? There can only be one answer.

In the past, the Myanmar military, led by Snr. Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, has been able to do what it wants because the population has been terrified of them. Credit: AFP

The junta is losing on the battlefield. And thus they need to show that they are in total control. They have to show that they are not afraid of international or domestic repercussions from this act; that they are strong enough to withstand that pressure.

Myanmar’s military is spread dangerously thin. They are fighting a multifront war across the country. They are fighting well-trained and well-armed ethnic resistance organizations (EROs) such as the Kachin Independence Army and the Karen National Liberation Army, both of whom are allied with the opposition National Unity Government (NUG).

The NUG itself has some 275 People’s Defense Forces (PDFs) spread throughout the country. Though they have limited resources and armaments, they have succeeded in capturing vast quantities of weaponry, and are now starting to manufacture their own armaments and ammunition. The NUG and affiliated EROs now claim to control roughly 50% of the country.

And things might get a lot worse for the military, which is on the verge of renewing hostilities against the Arakan Army, with which it has had a tenuous ceasefire since November 2020 after two years of bitter fighting in western Rakhine State. The AA has not joined the NUG, but has used the time since the coup to enhance its political and economic autonomy. For many in the military, this has gone too far and the AA needs to be put in its place.

But over 3,000 members of the army have defected to the NUG, despite the multitude of coercive instruments that it wields to deter them. The number of desertions is unknown. The military is estimated to have taken around 15% casualties, and recruitment is proving to be a challenge. Even the elite Defense Service Academy, once considered the most prestigious school in the country and avenue for upward social mobility, cannot fill their seats. The military has stepped up forced conscription and is using collective punishment to target family members of people who have joined the PDFs.

At the same time, the military‘s budget is severely constrained due to their economic mismanagement. The Myanmar currency, the kyat, has plunged, prompting junta authorities to impose more currency controls. There is a net loss of foreign investment, with little new coming in, except from China. Exports are down dramatically. The banking system is teetering. The World Bank just announced that an estimated 40% of the population is now living under the poverty line.

Street vendors wait for customers March 3, 2022, during one of the frequent power outages in Yangon, Myanmar. Economic mismanagement has hamstrung the military’s budget. Credit: AFP

So what will be the impact of the executions? Since the coup, citizens across the country have protested military rule on a daily basis – resorting to wildcat demonstrations after the bloody crackdown on mass protests that initially greeted the coup. And now, notwithstanding the risk of deadly force, there is another compelling reason to protest the dictatorship.

Historically, the military has been able to act with total impunity because the population has been terrified of them. They get away with things because, since 1962, they’ve been able to cow the population into submission.

The problem for them is that for the first time, the population of Myanmar refuses to be intimidated. After a taste of democracy and after enjoying a period of media freedom, diplomatic openness, engagement with the international world, and an open internet, the population refuses to accept the military’s usurpation of power.

In the international realm, the executions may galvanize stronger diplomatic action by foreign governments. It could move the needle and get some European states and Australia to take a tougher stance against the junta. Japan and South Korea, however, are unlikely to change course, though even Tokyo condemned the executions.

Meanwhile the NUG, which is seeking formal diplomatic recognition, is sure to use the executions to further delegitimize the military regime and bolster its own international standing.

So for a military that is losing on the battlefield and that has no legitimacy, and is desperate to prove that it is in charge, the executions were ultimately an act of weakness and desperation. The junta executed four men without knowing what their action may unleash in the coming months.

This matters for one other reason. Since the coup, there’s been little outpouring of support for ousted civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi who had defended the military against accusations of genocide of the Rohingya minority before the International Criminal Court. And these protracted conflicts really need martyrs. In Ko Jimmy and Phyo Zeya Thaw, the junta has created two tailor-made and beloved martyrs that both the international community and domestic population can rally behind.

A banner hanging on the new Dawbon Bridge (New Thaketa Bridge) in Yangon, Myanmar, on Monday reads, “Prepare to pay blood debt.” Credit: Yangon Democratic Youths striker

Zachary Abuza is a professor at the National War College in Washington and an adjunct at Georgetown University. The views expressed here are his own and do not reflect the position of the U.S. Department of Defense, the National War College, Georgetown University or RFA.

July 25, 2022

INTERVIEW: Lin Zhao: a short-tempered martyr who idolized then rejected Mao Zedong

Mao-era Chinese dissident Lin Zhao, whose birth name was Peng Lingzhao, was a writer and journalist who grew up near Nanjing, in the eastern province of Jiangsu. Initially a star student at the prestigious Peking University, Lin was branded a “rightist” and a “class enemy” in the 1950s for her criticism of then-supreme leader Mao Zedong’s Anti-Rightist Movement targeting intellectuals. She was executed by firing squad at Shanghai’s Longhua Airport in 1968 at the age of 36, and her family was ordered to pay five cents for the bullet that killed her. Her biographer Lian Xi, author of Blood Letters: The Untold Story of Lin Zhao, a Martyr in Mao’s China, spoke to RFA about her importance as a recent historical figure:

RFA: Why was Lin such an important figure?

Lian Xi: Lin Zhao really was an extraordinary person. We know that there were many, many victims of the Cultural Revolution, but there were no real political dissidents like Lin Zhao. There were some big-name intellectuals within [the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP)] … peoplel like Deng Tuo and Wu Han in the early 1960s before the Cultural Revolution started … who tried to persuade Mao to give up authoritarian rule. There were also some political heretics outside the CCP during the Cultural Revolution, like Yu Luoke and Zhang Zhixin, but they never totally broke away from the ideology of the CCP. The only one who openly rejected CCP ideology as enslavement and tyranny was Lin Zhao.

RFA: What impact did Lin Zhao’s parents’ political views have on her world view?

Lian Xi: Lin Zhao herself said that some of her so-called progressive political thoughts came from her mother’s influence. Her father was different. He never put his patriotic enthusiasm into action on the streets. He hoped to help China move towards modernity by introducing Western democratic institutions. But I think the most profound influence on her political ideals came around the time she was applying to go to the Jinghai teacher training college as a high-schooler.

RFA: We know that Lin Zhao broke with her father, dropping his surname Peng and saying that Mao Zedong was her father. What role did her personality play in her story?

Lian Xi: I think personality played a very big part. She was a very emotional person, but also a person who was prone to irritability. She also saw herself as inseparable from her ideals. When she was in secondary school, she was influenced by radical ideological trends within the CCP, and became determined to use her blood and her life to build a society free from social injustice, persecution and oppression.

RFA: In 1954, Lin won a place at Peking University with the top score out of the whole of Jiangsu province. She once aspired to be the best reporter in the Mao Zedong era. When do you think she started having doubts about Mao and about communism?

Lian Xi: As you just said, Lin Zhao once called Mao her father. This kind of complex, this very deep feeling for Mao, was actually very real at the time, and it wasn’t only Lin [who did that]. Lin had a classmate at Peking University called Shen Zeyi, and he was a poet. He used to say that many of their classmates had so much admiration for Mao that they all referred to him as father. Her ideas took a long time to change. She hadn’t given up her belief in Mao or the CCP by the early 1950s, when she was repeatedly suppressed during the land reform movement. It was only when she was labeled a rightist in 1957 that she started to break with the CCP and with communist ideas.

RFA: And she was tortured due to that uncompromising attitude, wasn’t she?

Lian Xi: The earliest torture mostly took place in the No. 1 Detention Center in Shanghai. Lin Zhao called the No. 1 Detention Center a hell-hole. Because she pleaded not guilty … the prison guards tortured her to force a confession. They handcuffed her hands behind her back, not with one pair of handcuffs, but two: one pair on her upper arm and the other on her lower arm … At one point she wore handcuffs for six months because she was determined not to give in [and ‘confess’]. During that time, she was also piercing her fingers and writing poems in her own blood, all of which were addressed to Mao Zedong.

RFA: How much did she write in this way?

Lian Xi: There are about 200,000 words that we know about, which is quite a number. Because she was a reporter, she described prison life in great detail, one of which was how she managed to write in blood. In her “Letter to the Editorial Department of People’s Daily” … she says that this letter isn’t being written in blood but in pen and ink, but it’s sealed with the character Zhao in her own blood. When I went to the Hoover Institution to look at Lin Zhao’s original documents, you could see that her private seal was stamped on each page. Also, the official indictment says that Lin Zhao pierced her own flesh hundreds of thousands of times to write hundreds of thousands of words of extremely reactionary content in her own blood.

RFA: Have you seen any of this writing with your own eyes?

Lian Xi: They’re not around any more. But I interviewed the judge who retried Lin Zhao’s case, and specifically … asked him if had seen her writings in blood, and he said he had seen them. Then I asked him why he didn’t give her writings back to her family, and he said it would have been too harrowing for them. The other [witness] was Chen Weisi, the first reporter to write about Lin, and he saw some of her blood writings too at the time.

RFA: I know that Hu Jie, who directed the documentary “Looking for Lin Zhao’s soul,” found it hard to follow some of the fantastical writings in the manuscripts, and avoided the more bizarre content. How did you approach these writings?

Lian Xi: There is a lot of commentary online … questioning whether Lin Zhao was a mental patient, or her state of mind. Why do these suspicions exist? The main reason is some of her descriptions in “Book of 140,000 Words.” She talks about [channeling] words for Mao, and mentions that her cellmates told her that there was a ‘terrifying light in her eyes’. She also says the torture made her feel like she was going mad. But I think it is very important that when she was imprisoned for the second time in 1962, she was first sent to the Shanghai mental hospital. If we had her medical records from that time, it would be the most authoritative and direct way to determine Lin Zhao’s mental state, but we don’t. So how do we determine her mental state in this case? I did an experiment in which I listed all the words in Lin Zhao’s writing related to her mental state … and gave them to a psychiatrist at Duke University School of Medicine named Professor Warren Kinghorn and asked him to analyze it for me. He said that he couldn’t find any obvious signs of mental illness in this, although he said there could be bipolar disorder … That’s the closest we have to a professional opinion. But it doesn’t prove that Lin Zhao had a mental illness.

RFA: A lot of people have referred to Lin Zhao as the goddess of democracy. Should she be elevated in such a way?

Lian Xi: Lin Zhao wasn’t a saint; she was flesh and blood. During the land reform movement, she supported revolutionary violence, which she later regretted very much. We also know that she was very short-tempered. What I hoped to achieve in the biography to restore this sense of a real person. But her personality, her impatience, don’t mean she wasn’t a great person: she was a truly great person. I wanted readers to get to know Lin Zhao’s mind, her inner life and her psyche; her courage, moral fiber, her values and how she kept going to defend human dignity under unimaginably difficult circumstances. At such a dark time, Lin defended the idea of personal independence and freedom. We should be defending those things with even greater zeal today.

Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.

July 25, 2022

‘Educated youth’ who fled China’s Cultural Revolution remembered in U.S. monument

At the Eternal Sunset Memorial Park in New Jersey, there is a monument engraved with 176 names in Chinese.

“The spirits of heroes are always here, no matter how many mountains, rivers or oceans lie between,” reads the inscription on the black stone, which was inaugurated in a Buddhist ceremony in June 2022.

The monument commemorates young people who died while trying to flee China during Mao Zedong’s Cultural Revolution (1966-1976), which saw them sent away from university to live in poverty-stricken rural areas as part of a nationwide policy targeting the country’s “educated youth.”

Cultural Revolution expert Tan Jialuo said the idea was to commemorate the young victims of a political mass movement in a country where the memorial was unlikely to be removed or tampered with for political reasons.

He said there is room for many more names, and researchers are still looking for confirmed accounts of others who died trying to cross the border to Hong Kong, then a British colony beyond the reach of the turmoil and violence of the Mao era.

“The full toll should be somewhere between 1,000 and 2,000 people,” Tan told journalists at the inauguration ceremony. “This number [176] is much more conservative but more accurate.”

Tan said he already has hundreds more names he is researching, more than 50 years after the events occurred, and plans a second stele bearing 352 more names.

The project sprang out of an international academic conference on the plight of educated youth during the Cultural Revolution, hosted by the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

Some people set up a memorial in 2014 on Hong Kong’s Kat O, or Crooked Island, off Hong Kong’s Plover Cove Country Park and the neighboring mainland Chinese city of Shenzhen, which was a popular route for people trying to get to Hong Kong.

Worship activities on Kat O Island in Hong Kong in 2014. Credit: Credit: Jin Hong

Drownings and shark attacks

The New York Times reported peaks in arrivals of refugees known as “freedom swimmers” in Hong Kong from China in May 1971 and again in June 1972, noting that many simply swam across the sea, with some sailing or rowing to Hong Kong.

“Not all the swimmers reach their destination,” the paper reported on June 22, 1972. “Some are picked up by Chinese gunboats patrolling the two bays, others are attacked by sharks, and large number become exhausted and drown.”

“Already this year, 59 bodies have been recovered in Hong Kong waters,” the report said.

It is possible that at least some of those people are now remembered on the New Jersey memorial.

But the Kat O memorial has been left moribund since a political crackdown by the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) on public speech and actions deemed critical of the government. Local people have told mourners they are no longer welcome, so a new location was needed, Tan told RFA.

Hong Kong writer Jin Hong, who now lives in Los Angeles and helped to set up the monument on Kat O, said political pressure had already been growing on memorial activities even before the CCP imposed a national security law on Hong Kong banning criticism of the government.

“Originally, we wanted to buy a piece of land in Hong Kong and make a proper monument,” she said. “But that’s not achievable given how the situation there has changed.”

Jin’s research into educated youth fleeing to Hong Kong between 1969 and 1980 suggests that around 200,000 made the perilous trip to Hong Kong, with at least 10,000 deaths along the way. RFA was unable to confirm these estimates independently.

She said before the CCP started putting pressure on the residents of Kat O not to allow mourning parties, large numbers of people would make the trip annually to remember those who died and make offerings of incense, food and wine at the monument.

“In 2014 and 2015, lot of mainlanders came out to make offerings at the small gravestone we put there,” she said. “The numbers of people peaked at nearly 300 after 2015, and we chartered a vessel to get everyone there.”

Risky in Hong Kong

But the gravestone was vandalized in 2018, and by 2019, the year of mass protests in Hong Kong, the group switched locations to the oyster-farming village of Laufausan instead, before splitting up to make smaller offerings across the city.

Despite the risks of taking part, some people are still making those offerings today in Hong Kong, Jin said.

“People paid their respects this year as well,” she said. “They go as tourists to places where educated youths who fled Hong Kong may have landed. Places where you can see the mainland across the sea. That’s where they make their offerings.”

Chen Jianqin, who helped set up the monument in New Jersey, said the idea for a U.S. monument sprang from contact with Jin’s group.

“We contacted Hong Kong, and they said wanted to do this, and so did we,” Chen said. “They were going there to make offerings every year, but said it was getting harder and harder [under CCP rule].”

“I thought maybe it would be more meaningful if we could build a monument in the United States and put the name of every educated youth who died on it,” Chen said. “In a free country, there’s the possibility that it could be permanently preserved. So we started to make preparations.”

The team raised tens of thousands of dollars to purchase the grave site at the Eternal Sunset Memorial park, but the biggest hurdle was collecting names for inclusion on the stone, and meticulously confirming all of their stories.

“It had been more than 50 years,” he said. “We got everyone we knew to spread the word, and collected names for seven or eight months. We tried our best to make sure it was all correct. Then we ordered the stone.”

Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.

July 25, 2022

Latest CBDC Recommendations From the BIS, IMF, World Bank, US Treasury & Bank of Japan Mirror the Existing Structuring & Functionality of Webtel.mobi’s Fully-Operational TUVs

WM’s TUVs are full Digital Currency and CBDC equivalents

Existing Capacities & Functionality of Global Telco Webtel.mobi’s fully-operational TUV Digital Currency + CBDC equivalent mirrors all CBDC Requirements identified by the world’s foremost Macroeconomic & Financial Organizations. Indicates that potential worldwide adoption of the WM TUVs and Global Clearing System by Central Banks and other Foundational Economic and Financial Organizations is possible

LONDON and NEW YORK, July 25, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) —

The most recent Research Reports and Publications of proposed CBDCs and their potential reforms of the Global Financial System issued by:

The BIS (Bank for International Settlements – the Central Banks’ Central Bank),
The IMF (International Monetary Fund),
The World Bank,
The US Treasury’s Office of Financial Research, and
The Bank of Japan

all carry recommendations for proposed CBDCs that mirror the existing capacities and functionalities of Webtel.mobi’s (“WM’s”) Globally tested and due diligenced, fully proven in eight years of global operations and fully-operational TUV Digital Currency-equivalent and CBDC-equivalent.

Moreover, all the capacities and functionalities within WM’s TUV Digital Currency and CBDC equivalent were examined and validated by the former Chief Rapporteur, Commission of Experts of the President of the UN General Assembly on Reforms of the International Monetary and Financial System – Professor Jan Kregel – in over a year of research and review.

The conclusion reached from the comparison of:

the stated prerequisites for CBDCs issued by many of the world’s leading Macroeconomic, Economic and Financial organizations with
the existing, tested, due diligenced, proven and fully-operational TUV CBDC-equivalent

Global Financial Systems – Structures and Flows

is that the WM TUVs can already be adopted and used by Central Banks and other Foundational Economic and Financial Organizations worldwide as an existing and functioning Wholesale and Retail CBDC Instrument – in all their respective currencies, and in multicurrency format.

The salient point recommendations – and the existing WM TUV capacities and functionalities that mirror and validate these recommendations – from the joint Report to the G20 published by the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank are as follows (with the Report’s recommendation in italics and the WM capacities and functionalities bullet-pointed thereunder) –

BIS, IMF and World Bank Joint Report to the G20:
“Options for access to and interoperability of CBDCs for cross-border payments”

CBDCs can help to enhance cross-border payments in various ways.

First, is the opportunity to start with a “clean slate”. CBDC infrastructures could be made available 24/7, allowing for instant cross-border settlement and overcoming mismatches of operating hours between different jurisdictions. Interoperability of CBDC systems could facilitate cross-border CBDC payments between financial institutions, corporates and consumers by reducing the costs for PSPs and shortening transaction chains, which might eventually result in a higher transaction speed and lower end user fees.

WM’s TUVs already provide 24/7/365 global operation worldwide, shorten Transaction Chains to be directly P2P / P2B / B2P / B2B, exponentially reduce transaction times to 1/100^th of a second and reduce cost to either zero cost or close-to-zero cost. This already facilitates global payments between financial institutions, corporates and consumers by reducing the costs for all participants and shortening transaction chains. This again already results in higher transaction speeds and lower end user fees.

Second, cross-border CBDC arrangements would improve the safety of cross-border payments since CBDCs are a direct liability of the central bank, there is no need for PSPs to act as liquidity providers, which could increase the number of PSPs. However, those PSPs acting as FX providers must have CBDC accounts with the central banks to hold and transact both currencies. A common FX trading venue could enhance competition and bring additional benefits. An increased number of PSPs and direct access to central bank money could then shorten cross-border transaction chains, simplify processes and address current frictions in cross-border funding arrangements.

WM’s TUVs already improve the safety of global payments as WM has a 100% reserve (Full Reserve) system with participants providing full liquidity. This exponentially increases the numbers of WM’s VSMPs. All VSMPs work through WM and its Full Reserve system at a common FX trading venue. This already shortens cross-border transaction chains, simplifies processes and addresses current frictions in cross-border funding arrangements.

Third, CBDCs, as a new means of cross-border payment, would increase payment diversity, thereby stimulating resilience, competition and efficiency in a cross-border context. The potential programmability features of CBDCs enabled by smart contracts and APIs could facilitate faster and better interoperability with other CBDCs and non-CBDC systems. This would allow payments to be tightly linked to business processes enabling self-triggered and conditioned transactions, leading to vast improvements to payment speed, and hence promote efficiency. CBDCs could also specifically be designed to improve individuals’ and businesses’ access to affordable cross-border payment products and services, for example through simplified onboarding allowing remote registration or electronic know-your-customer (e-KYC) processes and through low-cost and easy-to-use instruments.

WM’s TUVs for global payments have already increased and stimulated efficiency in a global context. The programmability features of WM’s Smart TUVs facilitate faster and better interoperability between the WM System and other Legacy Systems. This already allows payments to be tightly linked to business processes enabling self-triggered and conditioned transactions, and already results in vast improvements to payment speed, heightening of payment security, lowering of payment costs and exponentially increased efficiency. TUVs are also already specifically designed to improve individuals’, businesses’ and all 2+Billion Unbanked Persons worldwide access to affordable cross-border payment products and services. This includes WM’s fully-operational simplified onboarding via its remote registration and electronic know-your-customer (e-KYC) processes and through low-cost and easy-to-use instruments.

Overall, interlinking of CBDC systems through a hub and spoke or single system might bring more improvement to the cross-border payments market than compatibility or single access points, and the same holds for direct access models compared to closed or indirect access.

WM’s Global Clearing System and its TUVs already function globally according to a sophisticated “combined direct access with hub and spoke” system. This enables all Central Banks and Foundational Economic and Financial Organizations to retain their own Monetary Policies and Currency Sovereignty while participating in the same system.

As can be seen, every recommendation regarding proposed CBDCs by the BIS, IMF and World Bank to the G20 – and many more aspects – are already existing and fully-operational realities with, and within, WM’s TUVs. The same is the case with the second set of salient point recommendations from the Bank or Japan, as follows (with the Report’s recommendation in italics and the WM capacities and functionalities bullet-pointed thereunder) –

Bank of Japan Interim Report:
“Liaison and Coordination Committee on Central Bank Digital Currency”

As a general purpose money issued by a central bank, CBDC must incorporate the following core features.

First, universal access – that CBDC is available to anyone as a foundational payment instrument.

WM’s TUVs already provide global and total “Whole Market” access for all persons in all countries worldwide via Smart Phone and Pre-Smart Phone access and usability regardless of “local” bandwidth or mobile data costs, internet literacy or location. They additionally bring the 30% of the world’s population that is currently Unbanked and/or Underbanked into the 21^st Century Global Digital Economy.

Second, for secure CBDC payments, sufficient security needs to be ensured.

WM’s TUVs already provide the most secure access and control systems available worldwide from the perspective of users, of monetary authorities, of financial and systemic stability, of global KYC & AML considerations and of user and systemic security.

Third, CBDC system must incorporate resilience so that it can be used anytime, anywhere 24/7/365.

WM’s TUVs already function – and enable total functionality for transactions – on a 24/7/365 basis globally, in a fully secured and managed manner, with total resilience.

Fourth, CBDC should offer settlement finality and instant payment capabilities, similar to cash.

WM’s TUVs already provide instant processing + FX Conversion + Settlement + Reconciliations + Reporting – within 1/100^th of a second, globally, for all transactions. This also includes Real Time Gross Settlement, Payment versus Payment and Deliver versus Payment – regardless of the transaction size – with full FX and Full Reserve guarantees. Moreover, its TUVs are able to – and do – fully replicate and surpass the attributes of cash, and the system is built to accommodate and include countries and communities that favor cash over digital, such as Japan, Germany and the majority of developing countries worldwide.

Finally, it should ensure interoperability with private settlement systems.

WM’s TUVs are already fully interoperable with all internal components of its own internal Closed-Loop Global Financial System as well as all external components of the existing / prevailing Global Financial System and all of its private settlement systems. Moreover, private settlement systems can also become part of the WM internal Closed-Loop system, at no cost, by becoming WM VSMPs.

Again, every recommendation by the Bank of Japan’s Liaison and Coordination Committee on Central Bank Digital Currency for their proposed CBDC mirrors the existing functionalities and capacities within WM’s existing and fully-operational TUVs. The same is the case as regards the conclusions reached by the US Treasury’s Office of Financial Research, as follows (with the Report’s recommendation in italics and the WM capacities and functionalities bullet-pointed thereunder) –

US Treasury Office of Financial Research – Working Paper:
“Central Bank Digital Currency: Stability and Information”

However, the introduction of CBDC creates two other key changes. First, it reduces depositors’ need for liquidity insurance and, therefore, leads banks to do less maturity transformation. Second, inflows into the CBDC give policymakers real-time information that can be used to improve the policy response to a crisis. Both of these changes decrease depositors’ incentive to withdraw from weak banks. In some cases, the net effect of introducing a CBDC in our model is to improve rather than undermine financial stability.

WM’s TUVs have already proven these views conclusively. The Full Reserve that guarantees the TUVs and the requirement for full cover prior to a transaction taking place provide full security – from the user’s perspective and from a systemic perspective – with regard to the integrity of the instrument and the process. Moreover, the real-time and instant availability of complete systemic data provides permanent full oversight capacity on all aspects of all transaction / liquidity / demand cycles on a global basis, enabling instant response times.

All of the primary and salient-point recommendations of all these entities – as well as many other capacities, structures and requirements that have not been identified by external parties yet – are already existing and fully-operational realities within WM’s TUVs – on a global 24/7/365 basis for all transaction types in all currencies.

Previously, the WM Global Clearing System and WM TUVs were reviewed by one of the world’s leading macroeconomic entities for over a year. The former Chief Rapporteur, Commission of Experts of the President of the UN General Assembly on Reforms of the International Monetary and Financial System – Professor J. A. Kregel, who was at that time also the Director of Research at the Macroeconomic Institute – personally headed up the detailed review.

As the person who was previously the head of the Commission of international Experts charged with formulating potential means of reforming the international Monetary and Financial System, Professor Kregel has some of the broadest and most in-depth knowledge and experience on all systems, structures and methodologies related to these matters.

The result of the review – for over a year – of the WM Global Clearing System and WM TUVs led to Professor Kregel publishing five Research Papers on the WM System and TUVs. Self-explanatory extracts from two of the five Research Papers are as follows:

Professor Jan Kregel – Former Chief Rapporteur, Commission of Experts of the President of the UN General Assembly on Reforms of the International Monetary and Financial System:

Research Paper – “New Dimensions for the TUV in the Webtel.mobi system”

The [WM] system provides for global, multicurrency real time transactions at lower costs and greater efficiency than traditional payments systems, or currently proposed cryptocurrency and other digital currency systems, that carry substantial environmental and security risks.

The result that emerges is a global transfer system, a global payment system, a global credit system and a global foreign exchange system, which emanates from the members’ instructions transmitted from their mobile telephone. This complete clearing house equivalent thus provides the basis for services that are equivalent to a global, multilateral, multicurrency transfer, payment and credit system.

If one considers all of the capacities that already exist and function within the WM system it is clear that the WM system represents and provides virtually all capacities (and/or the ability to replicate virtually all capacities) of the existing global financial system. Moreover, it provides them in a more secure, more rapid, less costly and centrally managed manner. It can therefore be taken that the WM system — including its TUV facilities — is a replication and improvement of the existing global payments system and global financial system.

Research Paper – “Money and Credit – Potential Expansion of the WM System”

The WM TUV system — combined with its Currency Conversion, Currency Swap, ICLM Transfer and Currency Wallets facilities — together already provide all the features of national or international Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDCs), whether introduced at either the inter central bank or retail level. Indeed, the WM system provides the equivalent of Keynes’s proposed Bancor, without requiring the introduction of an international currency. The current distribution and implementation of this potential of the WM system has allowed the creation of these possibilities as a complement to the current global commercial and central banking systems, and without infringing on central bank or national monetary policy sovereignty – and the WM system is already fully operational worldwide.

The above extracts illustrate once again that the primary recommendations of the world’s foremost Macroeconomic and Financial Organizations are not only correct, but also that they have been existing and fully-operational realities within the WM Global Clearing System and WM TUVs for some time. Moreover, there are no “unknowns” with regard to the WM TUVs, as they – and the WM System in its totality – were fully tested, due diligenced and proven in global operational testing for eight years.

There are very many additional advantages, savings, efficiencies that the WM System and its TUVs have introduced, of which – although very applicable now – its solutions for countering Inflation and Currency Depreciation are only two of dozens of added advantages in respect of global macroeconomic and financial stability.

While Meta (formerly known as Facebook) and other entities have shut down and ended their attempts to develop a functioning digital currency, and Central banks worldwide are struggling to even reach consensus on a roadmap towards CBDCs, WM’s TUV Digital Currency and CBDC equivalent has been going from strength to strength.

It has been globally tested, due diligenced and proven over many years, and is fully-operational worldwide. It provides – in existing reality – all the advantages and solutions postulated in the conclusions of various Research Papers on CBDCs and the Reform of the Global Financial System – and many more that have not yet been realized. Moreover, it has been constructed to enable a worldwide switch to – and utilization of – the TUVs and the entire WM System by:

Central Banks, Commercial Banks and other Systemic Entities within the current Global Financial System. This is able to be done by them worldwide, in a short timeframe, at no cost, without having to alter any of their existing systems or structures, while still maintaining 100% control of their own monetary policies / currency sovereignty / other strategic aspects of their national or international financial and economic systems + policies + strategies, and with complete security.
Individuals and entities worldwide – at no cost, and without having to stop or change their simultaneous utilization of the existing entities / systems / structures / products that they use within the current Global Financial System.

The final confluence of views from all relevant organizations worldwide now indicates that the requirements, capacities and functionalities within the sought-after CBDC instrument already exist within – and are surpassed by – the WM System and its TUVs.

The stage has therefore now been set for the potential worldwide and systemic adoption of the WM System and its TUVs as the means through which to achieve – in a very rapid timeframe, and by all role-players – the inclusive Global 21^st Century Digital Economy that has long been sought.

As was stated by Professor Jan Kregel in the Research Report ‘New Dimensions for the TUV in the Webtel.mobi system’:
“The WM system therefore represents an operational and fully functioning global financial system, which does not reform the existing one, but rather functions in parallel to it, and has the capacity to replace it.”

Resources:

To contact WM: wm@thoburns.com

To contact Professor J.A. Kregel: wm@thoburns.com

Research Papers on the WM System’s Converged Capacities by Professor Jan Kregel – former Chief Rapporteur, Commission of Experts of the President of the UN General Assembly on Reforms of the International Monetary and Financial System:

Another Bretton Woods Reform Moment: Let us Look Seriously at the Clearing Union
https://tinyurl.com/WM-System1

Keynes’s Clearing Union is Alive and Well and Living in your Mobile Phone
https://tinyurl.com/WM-System2

Money and Credit: Potential Expansion of the WM System
https://tinyurl.com/WM-System3

New Dimensions for the TUV in the Webtel.mobi System
https://tinyurl.com/WM-System4

The Economic Problem: From Barter to Commodity Money to Electronic Money
https://tinyurl.com/WM-System5

Attachments:

Details on WM’s TUVs:

Examples of TUVs: https://tinyurl.com/TUV-Examples

Standard TUVs: https://tinyurl.com/Standard-TUVs

Secured TUVs: https://tinyurl.com/Secured-TUVs

Smart TUVs: https://tinyurl.com/Smart-TUVs

Media Articles on WM:
https://webtel.mobi/info/current-media/

WM’s urls:

https://webtel.mobi/pc (Tablets / Laptops / Desktops)

https://webtel.mobi (Smart Phones)

https://webtel.mobi/wap (Pre-Smart Mobile Phones)

Photos accompanying this announcement are available at:
https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/d01fc484-6738-420f-8751-36ae28313962

https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/9b222984-4c5a-425b-8fc7-0cf4de3aa762

The photo is also available at Newscom, www.newscom.com, and via AP PhotoExpress.

July 25, 2022

Taiwan’s aircraft and warships stage five-day live-fire exercise

The Taiwanese military kicked off a five-day annual live-fire exercise on Monday aimed at bolstering the island’s defense capabilities and combat readiness at a time when China and Taiwan’s allies have been facing off in the airspace and seas around the island.

The Han Kuang drills will be taking place at a number of locations in Taiwan, with President Tsai Ing-wen observing a large-scale naval exercise from a warship off Yilan County in northeastern Taiwan on Tuesday, according to the Taiwan Ministry of National Defense.

More than 20 military aircraft and warships will be taking part in the Yilan exercise, including some of Taiwan’s indigenous fighters and frigates. The two Chien Lung class submarines, manufactured in the Netherlands for Taiwan, will also be deployed.

Taiwan is developing its own submarines with 2025 earmarked for the first one to enter service.

‘Inconvenient but necessary’

During the first day, Taiwanese fighter jets were dispatched to counter a simulated enemy air attack while local anti-air artillery units watched over the airspace. Military transport aircraft also evacuated fighter jet spare parts away from the combat zone as the focus was on “testing the military’s preservation and maintenance of combat capabilities.”

The defense ministry said in a press release that during the week mobile military radar vehicles and warships will be deployed and forces on Taiwan’s outlying islands will also perform a variety of exercises including counter attacks to beach landings.

Han Kuang, now in its 38th year, is Taiwan’s largest war games exercise involving all military branches and designed to test the army’s combat readiness in the event of a Chinese invasion.

This year’s drills will also test the population’s preparedness and contribution, the military said.

Most Taiwanese consider the island an independent, democratically-run country but Beijing calls it a province of China and has repeatedly vowed to reunite with the mainland, with force if needed.

In recent months, Chinese aircraft have been crossing into Taiwan’s air defense identification zone (ADIZ) almost daily and Chinese warships have patrolled the waters near Taiwan.

An aircraft takes off during Taiwan’s annual Han Kuang drills. CREDIT: Taiwan Ministry of National Defense

The Taiwanese people have been training to deal with imminent threats of war. A four-day air raid exercise simulating Chinese air attacks began on Monday with air raid sirens going off in the capital, Taipei and some other locations in northern Taiwan. It will move to central and southern parts of the island during the week.

The 45th Wan An drill aims at boosting citizens’ awareness and preparedness. For half an hour, residents are required to evacuate stress and remain indoors to allow for an emergency response. MRT (mass rapid transport) underground stations are open but passengers will have to stay inside until the end of the drill.

Suzy Tsang, an office worker who got stuck in the Taipei metro during the exercise, said she and her friends take part in the event every year.

“It is quite inconvenient because you can’t move for 30 minutes but I think it is necessary,” she said.

“Who knows when we will need it for real,” Tsang added.

July 25, 2022

Philips’ performance impacted by headwinds; order book strength and improving component supplies expected to deliver growth and profitability improvement from second half of 2022 onwards

July 25, 2022

Highlights

Group sales amounted to EUR 4.2 billion, with a 7% comparable sales decline mainly caused by continued supply shortages and prolonged lockdowns in China, on the back of 9% comparable sales growth in Q2 2021
Order book remains strong; comparable order intake increased 1% and includes a 5 percentage-points negative impact related to China
Income from operations amounted to EUR 11 million, compared to EUR 85 million in Q2 2021
Adjusted EBITA of EUR 216 million, or 5.2% of sales, compared to EUR 532 million, or 12.6% of sales, in Q2 2021
Operating cash flow was an outflow of EUR 306 million, mainly due to temporarily higher inventories, compared to an inflow of EUR 332 million in Q2 2021
In connection with the field action for specific CPAP, BiPAP and mechanical ventilator devices, Philips Respironics has produced 3 million replacement devices and repair kits to date, and published encouraging test results for the first-generation DreamStation devices
Comprehensive measures in place to improve supply chain resilience and pricing; productivity program increased to EUR 500 million per year through 2025
Company has revised full-year 2022 outlook to 1-3% comparable sales growth and around 10% Adjusted EBITA margin, driven by 6-9% comparable sales growth in the second half of 2022
For the 2023-2025 period, Philips has provided a revised performance improvement trajectory of 4-6% average annual comparable sales growth, and an Adjusted EBITA margin of 14-15%, as well as a free cash flow of around EUR 2 billion by 2025

Frans van Houten, CEO of Royal Philips:
“Across our businesses, we have stepped up our actions on productivity, pricing, and strengthening supply chain resilience to mitigate the ongoing headwinds and associated risks. The positive impact of these actions, together with the strength of our order book and improving component supplies, give me confidence that we will resume growth from the third quarter onwards, resulting in 6-9% comparable sales growth and improved profitability in the second half of the year. For the full-year 2022, we expect to deliver 1-3% comparable sales growth and around 10% Adjusted EBITA margin.

Our products remain in good demand, as evidenced by the further growth of our already strong order book, confirming the relevance of our strategy and portfolio of innovations to our customers. In the second quarter, comparable order intake increased 1% and includes a 5 percentage-points negative impact related to China. We partnered with 19 more hospital groups to help them transform the delivery of care and boost staff productivity. In our Personal Health businesses, we delivered a second consecutive quarter of double-digit comparable sales growth in North America.

Our performance in the second quarter was impacted by global, industry-wide challenges including supply shortages, COVID lockdown measures in China, inflationary pressures and the Russia-Ukraine war, resulting in a comparable sales decline of 7%, with an Adjusted EBITA margin of 5.2%. The impact of the COVID lockdowns significantly affected our business in China, where comparable sales and order intake declined almost 30% in the quarter. Production in several of our factories, as well as those of our suppliers in China, was suspended for two months, which exacerbated the global supply chain and cost challenges. The China lockdowns directly impacted the Adjusted EBITA margin of the Group by 120 basis points due to lower sales and a further 110 basis points because of factory under-utilization. Global inflation and cost headwinds had an additional impact of around 290 basis points on Group profitability in the quarter.

Philips Respironics continues to make solid progress with the repair and replacement program for the CPAP, BiPAP and mechanical ventilator devices affected by the June 2021 field safety notice, and published encouraging results related to the comprehensive test and research program to assess the possible health risks. We know how important the affected devices are to patients and are working very hard to get a resolution to them as fast as we can.

Looking ahead to 2023 and beyond, while we continue to see risks and a challenging macro-environment, we expect our supply chain measures to take full effect, resulting in a significant improvement in the conversion of our order book to revenue. Our pricing and increased productivity measures will expand margins. Based on these actions, the strong fundamentals of our businesses, and taking our 2022 outlook into account, we now expect to deliver comparable sales growth of 4-6% and an Adjusted EBITA margin of 14-15% by 2025, with further improvement thereafter.”

Business segment performance
The Diagnosis & Treatment businesses’ comparable sales decreased 4% on the back of 16% comparable sales growth in Q2 2021. High-single-digit growth in Enterprise Diagnostic Informatics and mid-single-digit growth in Image-Guided Therapy was more than offset by a decline in Ultrasound and Diagnostic Imaging, due to specific electronic component shortages. Comparable order intake increased 3% on the back of 29% comparable order intake growth in Q2 2021, with growth across all businesses, reflecting ongoing solid demand for Philips’ portfolio. The Adjusted EBITA margin was 6.2%, mainly due to the decline in sales, cost inflation and an unfavorable mix impact, partly offset by productivity measures.

The Connected Care businesses’ comparable sales decreased 13%, mainly due to the consequences of the Respironics field action and the impact of supply chain headwinds. Comparable order intake showed a 2% decrease, while demand for Hospital Patient Monitoring and Connected Care Informatics remains robust. The Adjusted EBITA margin amounted to 1.1%, mainly due to the decline in sales and cost inflation, partly offset by productivity measures.

The Personal Health businesses’ comparable sales decreased by 5% on the back of 33% comparable sales growth in Q2 2021. Double-digit growth in North America was more than offset by double-digit declines in China and Russia. The Adjusted EBITA margin amounted to 12.4%, mainly due to the decline in sales and cost inflation.

Philips’ ongoing focus on innovation and customer partnerships resulted in the following key developments in the quarter:

Philips signed 19 new long-term strategic partnerships with hospitals in Europe, Asia, and North America, including a 10-year patient monitoring agreement with a large hospital in Germany. Through Philips’ advanced enterprise monitoring offering, the hospital will transition from stand-alone devices towards a scalable enterprise-wide patient monitoring solution that keeps care teams connected and informed for enhanced patient care management.
Philips received FDA clearance to market its new 7700 3.0T MR system, featuring an enhanced gradient system for Philips’ highest image quality to support a precision diagnosis. Philips also received FDA clearance for its SmartSpeed MR acceleration software, adding AI data collection algorithms to Philips’ existing Compressed SENSE MR engine for higher image resolution with three times faster scan times and virtually no loss in image quality.
Philips received clearance from the Chinese National Medical Products Association (NMPA) to launch its helium-free operations MR Ingenia Ambition, which is produced in China for the Chinese market. Philips is joining forces with B-Soft, a Chinese healthcare informatics company, to develop a healthcare informatics solution tailored to the needs of Chinese hospitals. This highlights the continued progress of Philips’ strategy in China to drive market-relevant offerings through its local footprint as well as partnerships with the local innovation ecosystem.
Demonstrating the clinical benefits of Philips’ minimally invasive therapy options, the company announced positive results from its Tack Optimized Balloon Angioplasty below-the-knee clinical trial. The results show that the Tack endovascular system provides a sustained treatment effect for patients with critical limb ischemia, a severe stage of peripheral arterial disease.
Building on Philips’ leadership in interventional cardiology solutions, the company launched the latest version of its EchoNavigator image-guidance tool, which seamlessly integrates live ultrasound, interventional X-ray imaging and advanced 3D heart models to help interventional teams treat structural heart disease with greater ease and efficiency.
Philips signed a long-term agreement with the Rijnstate hospital in the Netherlands to deliver a wide range of advanced ultrasound devices for 17 different departments at multiple locations of the hospital. The agreement involves ultrasound devices and services for cardiological, vascular or radiological examinations, OB/GYN, as well as mobile devices for the emergency department.
Building on the successful strengthening of the company’s innovative power toothbrushes portfolio, ranging from entry-level to premium propositions, as well as targeted advertising and promotion campaigns, Philips Oral Healthcare recorded continued strong double-digit comparable sales growth and market share gains in North America in the quarter.

Philips Respironics field action related to specific CPAP, BiPAP and mechanical ventilators
Philips Respironics continued to make solid progress with the repair and replacement program for the CPAP, BiPAP and mechanical ventilator devices affected by the June 2021 field safety notice, as well as the comprehensive test and research program to assess the possible health risks. To date, 3 million replacement devices and repair kits have been produced. Philips Respironics aims to further increase capacity and complete around 90% of the production and shipments to customers in 2022. The test results to date for the first-generation DreamStation devices, which represent the majority of the registered affected devices, are very encouraging. They show a very low prevalence of visible foam degradation, and new and used first-generation DreamStation devices passed volatile organic compound and respirable particulate emission testing.

Following the FDA’s inspection of certain of Philips Respironics’ facilities in the US in 2021 and the subsequent inspectional observations, the US Department of Justice, acting on behalf of the FDA, recently began discussions with Philips regarding the terms of a proposed consent decree to resolve the identified issues.

Capital allocation
In the second quarter, Philips issued EUR 750 million fixed-rate notes due 2027, EUR 650 million Green Innovation Notes due 2029 and EUR 600 million Sustainability Innovation Notes due 2033 under its Euro Medium Term Note program, and entered into a series of transactions to extend and optimize the company’s debt maturity profile. See here for more information on Philips’ current debt structure.

Following the issuance of 14,174,568 new shares related to the share dividend, and the cancellation of 8,758,455 shares that were acquired as part of the EUR 1.5 billion share repurchase program for capital reduction purposes, Philips’ current issued share capital amounts to 889,315,082 common shares. As communicated earlier, Philips intends to have 19,571,218 shares delivered through the early settlement of forward contracts (entered into as part of the same share repurchase program) and to cancel those as well, which would result in 869,743,864 issued common shares at year-end 2022 (2021: 883,898,969).

Click here to view the release online

For further information, please contact:

Ben Zwirs
Philips Global Press Office
Tel.: +31 6 1521 3446
E-mail: ben.zwirs@philips.com

Derya Guzel
Philips Investor Relations
Tel.: +31 20 59 77055
E-mail: derya.guzel@philips.com

About Royal Philips

Royal Philips (NYSE: PHG, AEX: PHIA) is a leading health technology company focused on improving people’s health and well-being, and enabling better outcomes across the health continuum – from healthy living and prevention, to diagnosis, treatment and home care. Philips leverages advanced technology and deep clinical and consumer insights to deliver integrated solutions. Headquartered in the Netherlands, the company is a leader in diagnostic imaging, image-guided therapy, patient monitoring and health informatics, as well as in consumer health and home care. Philips generated 2021 sales of EUR 17.2 billion and employs approximately 79,000 employees with sales and services in more than 100 countries. News about Philips can be found at www.philips.com/newscenter.

Forward-looking statements and other important information

Forward-looking statements

This document and the related oral presentation, including responses to questions following the presentation, contain certain forward-looking statements with respect to the financial condition, results of operations and business of Philips and certain of the plans and objectives of Philips with respect to these items. Examples of forward-looking statements include statements made about our strategy, estimates of sales growth, future Adjusted EBITA*), future restructuring and acquisition- related charges and other costs, future developments in Philips’ organic business and the completion of acquisitions and divestments. Forward-looking statements can be identified generally as those containing words such as “anticipates”, “assumes”, “believes”, “estimates”, “expects”, “should”, “will”, “will likely result”, “forecast”, “outlook”, “projects”, “may” or similar expressions. By their nature, these statements involve risk and uncertainty because they relate to future events and circumstances and there are many factors that could cause actual results and developments to differ materially from those expressed or implied by these statements.

These factors include but are not limited to: Philips’ ability to gain leadership in health informatics in response to developments in the health technology industry; Philips’ ability to transform its business model to health technology solutions and services; macroeconomic and geopolitical changes; integration of acquisitions and their delivery on business plans and value creation expectations; securing and maintaining Philips’ intellectual property rights, and unauthorized use of third-party intellectual property rights; Philips’ ability to meet expectations with respect to ESG-related matters; failure of products and services to meet quality or security standards, adversely affecting patient safety and customer operations; breaches of cybersecurity; Philips’ ability to execute and deliver on programs on business transformation and IT system changes and continuity; the effectiveness of our supply chain; attracting and retaining personnel; COVID and other pandemics; challenges to drive operational excellence and speed in bringing innovations to market; compliance with regulations and standards including quality, product safety and (cyber) security; compliance with business conduct rules and regulations; treasury and financing risks; tax risks; reliability of internal controls, financial reporting and management process. For a discussion of factors that could cause future results to differ from such forward-looking statements, see also the Risk management chapter included in the Annual Report 2021. Reference is also made to Risk management in the Philips semi-annual report 2022.

Third-party market share data

Statements regarding market share, contained in this document, including those regarding Philips’ competitive position, are based on outside sources such as specialized research institutes, industry and dealer panels in combination with management estimates. Where information is not yet available to Philips, market share statements may also be based on estimates and projections prepared by management and/or based on outside sources of information. Management’s estimates of rankings are based on order intake or sales, depending on the business.

Market Abuse Regulation

This press release contains inside information within the meaning of Article 7(1) of the EU Market Abuse Regulation. This press release was distributed at 07:00 am CET on July 25, 2022.

Use of non-IFRS information

In presenting and discussing the Philips Group’s financial position, operating results and cash flows, management uses certain non-IFRS financial measures. These non-IFRS financial measures should not be viewed in isolation as alternatives to the equivalent IFRS measure and should be used in conjunction with the most directly comparable IFRS measures. Non-IFRS financial measures do not have standardized meaning under IFRS and therefore may not be comparable to similar measures presented by other issuers. A reconciliation of these non-IFRS measures to the most directly comparable IFRS measures is contained in this document. Further information on non-IFRS measures can be found in the Annual Report 2021.

Use of fair value information

In presenting the Philips Group’s financial position, fair values are used for the measurement of various items in accordance with the applicable accounting standards. These fair values are based on market prices, where available, and are obtained from sources that are deemed to be reliable. Readers are cautioned that these values are subject to changes over time and are only valid at the balance sheet date. When quoted prices or observable market data are not readily available, fair values are estimated using appropriate valuation models and unobservable inputs. Such fair value estimates require management to make significant assumptions with respect to future developments, which are inherently uncertain and may therefore deviate from actual developments. Critical assumptions used are disclosed in the Annual Report 2021 In certain cases independent valuations are obtained to support management’s determination of fair values.

Presentation

All amounts are in millions of euros unless otherwise stated. Due to rounding, amounts may not add up precisely to the totals provided. All reported data is unaudited. Financial reporting is in accordance with the accounting policies as stated in the Annual Report 2021 except for the adoption of new standards and amendments to standards which are also expected to be reflected in the company’s consolidated financial statements for the year ending December 31, 2022.

Prior-period amounts have been reclassified to conform to the current-period presentation; this includes immaterial organizational changes.

*) Non-IFRS financial measure. Refer to the Reconciliation of non-IFRS information