PM Edition: Top 10 Business Articles on LiveNews.co.nz for June 4, 2026 – Full Text

Source: New Zealand Government

Minister for Trade and Investment Todd McClay has held a productive bilateral meeting with French Minister of Foreign Trade and Economic Attractiveness, Nicolas Forissier, while in Paris for the OECD Ministerial Council Meeting.

The two Ministers agreed to establish annual ministerial meetings to advance New Zealand-France trade and investment, and to facilitate closer collaboration between New Zealand and French businesses.

“France is an important economic partner and this agreement to meet annually at a ministerial level reflects the strength of the relationship and our shared commitment to growing trade,” Mr McClay says.

“Open trade and strong rules-based frameworks are central to creating jobs and driving economic growth. Regular dialogue between our two countries will help ensure New Zealand and French businesses can identify and take advantage of real opportunities.”

The meeting builds on the successful conclusion of the New Zealand-European Union Free Trade Agreement, which delivers meaningful gains for New Zealand exporters across goods, services, and investment, and opens new pathways for business engagement across the EU, including with France.

Mr McClay says the annual meetings would include business-to-business engagement and industry dialogue across a range of sectors including technology, aviation, space, manufacturing, food production, investment, and agri-tech.

“France is a world leader in many of the sectors where New Zealand has real strengths and ambitions. Bringing our business communities together in these areas creates genuine opportunities for partnerships, investment, and growth that benefit both countries.”

Mr McClay says the annual meeting framework would provide a platform to deepen bilateral trade and investment flows and bring New Zealand and French businesses closer together.

“The EU-NZ FTA represents a landmark achievement. France is one of the EU’s largest economies, and I look forward to working with Minister Forissier to make sure our businesses are well placed to make the most of it.”

Original source: https://nz.mil-osi.com/2026/06/03/nz-french-trade-ministers-to-meet-yearly/

Source: Media Outreach

HONG KONG SAR – Media OutReach Newswire – 3 June 2026 – A large delegation, led by John Lee, Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR), is visiting Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan (June 1-6) to forge closer ties with Central Asia.

Comprising over 70 business and professional representatives from Hong Kong and the Chinese Mainland, the delegation has already yielded significant results at its first stop in Kazakhstan.

Speaking at a business luncheon in Astana yesterday (June 2), Mr Lee highlighted that 43 memoranda of understanding (MOU) and agreements have been concluded by the visiting delegation with companies and organisations from Kazakhstan, with more agreements to come.

“They span aviation, finance and trade, innovation and technology, the digital economy, green development, and more,” Mr Lee said, adding that a Hong Kong airline plans to launch direct flights to Almaty in the first quarter of 2027.

“I believe that Kazakhstan can serve as a hub for Hong Kong to connect with the Central Asian market. In turn, Hong Kong can be Central Asia’s hub in the east and southeast Asian region,” Mr Lee said.

“By strengthening co-operation between our two hubs, we can construct a hub-to-hub co-operation model.”

On his first day of visit in Astana (June 1), Mr Lee met with top government officials including the President of Kazakhstan, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, Prime Minister Olzhas Bektenov, and Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of National Economy Serik Zhumangarin.

Mr Lee noted that Kazakhstan has been actively promoting reforms on various fronts to bring about rapid economic growth.

“As one of the world’s three major financial centres, and the world’s largest cross-boundary wealth management centre and offshore Renminbi business hub, Hong Kong can provide diversified and flexible support including capital and asset allocation for Kazakhstan’s economic reforms and infrastructure development,” Mr Lee said.

The Chief Executive also encouraged companies in Kazakhstan to leverage Hong Kong’s advantages under the “one country, two systems” principle.

“Under this unique principle, Hong Kong has its own economic, social, legal, legislative and judicial systems. We are the only common law jurisdiction in China. We have our own currency, with no capital or foreign exchange controls. We are, as well, a separate customs territory,” Mr Lee said.

“The ‘one country, two systems’ principle ensures Hong Kong’s unparalleled access to the markets of the Chinese Mainland. Capitalising on our global connectivity and world-class professional services, Hong Kong is your ideal, two-way springboard for business expansion.”

Mr Lee also visited the Astana International Financial Centre and the Astana Hub, a local technology and innovation park, to respectively learn about Kazakhstan’s experience in promoting the development of the non-bank financial sector and the latest developments of the country in the field of AI.

Before leaving Kazakhstan today (June 3), Mr Lee visited Nazarbayev University, underscoring the historic significance of the trip.

“It was here, at Astana’s Nazarbayev University in 2013, that President Xi Jinping first raised the visionary initiative of jointly building the Silk Road Economic Belt – today’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI),” Mr Lee said.

Last year, at the 10th Belt and Road Summit in Hong Kong, the university signed a MOU with the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, demonstrating a shared commitment to advancing higher education co-operation under the BRI. It further reached MOUs with Hong Kong’s Education University and Polytechnic University today.

“These agreements will deepen academic and research collaboration.

“Hong Kong is the only city in the world with five of the top 100 universities. This talent environment is reinforced by our global standing: last year, Hong Kong ranked first in Asia, and fourth globally, in the World Talent Ranking,” he added.

Mr Lee will continue to lead the delegation to Uzbekistan for the second leg of the mission to Central Asia.

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Hashtag: #hongkong #brandhongkong #asiasworldcity #opportunitieswithCentralAsia

The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.

– Published and distributed with permission of Media-Outreach.com.

Source: Media Outreach

SINGAPORE – Media OutReach Newswire – 3 June 2026 – Handshake Finance, the Singapore-based fintech company building escrow-as-a-service infrastructure for high-trust service industries, has closed a S$500,000 pre-seed funding round. The capital will accelerate the company’s expansion across its beachhead renovation and interior design market in Singapore, with longer-term ambitions to extend its platform across other service industries where payment trust remains a structural problem.

Born From Personal Experience

Handshake Finance launched in September 2025, founded by Christopher Chan and Lee Jun Xian. Both had seen the trust gap up close.

Jun’s close friend lost S$80,000 in pre-payments to a renovation company that collapsed mid-project. At the same time, Christopher’s friend paid a deposit on a rental home she had never viewed, only to discover the listing was fraudulent. Both incidents pointed to the same structural failure: in service industries, someone always carries the risk, and when trust breaks down, there is little recourse on either side.

The two founders met as university classmates in London and returned to the problem with complementary backgrounds. Christopher Chan had spent his career in fintech, designing compliant payment flows on regulated infrastructure. Lee Jun Xian came from venture capital, with experience scaling early-stage companies from zero to one.

Trust as the foundation, not the feature

Handshake operates on bank-grade payment infrastructure provided by MAS-regulated partners. All payment flows are fully MAS regulated, and funds are held with DBS in segregated escrow accounts. For the founders, this is not a checkbox — it is the entire foundation of the business.

“We are trying to solve a structural trust gap in service industries. But before any of that, our users have to trust us,” said Christopher Chan, Co-Founder of Handshake Finance. “Making sure every fund flow is fully compliant, and that our users feel completely assured handing us money in what are often life-changing transactions, is our number one priority. Everything else is built on top of that.”

Closing the Trust Gap Across Service Industries

Every high-trust service transaction carries the same structural flaw: either the customer pays before work is done, or the provider works before getting paid. Someone always carries the risk. Across industries — from renovation and interior design to event planning, creative agencies, and professional services — that risk falls entirely on one side, and when trust breaks down, there is little recourse for either party.

Handshake Finance was built to close that gap. The platform holds customer funds in escrow and releases them to service providers against agreed milestones, giving buyers protection from pre-payment risk while giving service providers the confidence to deliver. The model is designed to work across any service industry where the payment trust problem exists.

Why Renovation and Interior Design Is Handshake’s Beachhead Market

Renovation was where the structural failure ran deepest. The industry operates with no mandatory licensing or regulatory framework. Anyone can set up as an interior designer with no accreditation required, leaving homeowners with no reliable way to assess accountability before signing a contract.

There is no standard payment framework either. Homeowners routinely pay up to 50% of the total project value upfront, with funds going directly to the interior designer before any work begins. If a project stalls or a firm shuts down, there is limited protection and recourse. At the other end of the project, interior designers face the opposite problem: the final handover payment, where homeowners hold most of the leverage, can be withheld over disputes that wipe out up to half a project’s margin.

Eight Months of Listening Before a Single Line of Code

Before writing any software, the Handshake team spent eight months speaking with more than 80 interior designers and homeowners across Singapore to understand the real frictions on both sides of the transaction. What they found reinforced the decision to start here: high transaction values, a broken payment norm, an unregulated supply side, and no existing platform that protected both parties.

That research shaped how the product was built. After a renovation contract is signed, Handshake’s AI automatically generates the transaction structure with line items, payment schedules, and sub-milestones set out clearly to remove ambiguity. Homeowners place funds into escrow rather than paying upfront directly to the interior designer.

Payment releases to the designer as work progresses against agreed milestones, with sub-milestone releases providing faster cashflow access without compromising homeowner protection. The platform also replaces the manual spreadsheet-based back-office admin most interior design firms still run, and offers complimentary mediation and independent assessments in the event of a dispute.

More than 40 Interior Design Companies Onboarded and 2 Major Partnerships Signed

Handshake now has more than 40 interior design companies onboarded. The company has signed partnerships with Renonation.sg and Network SG, two of Singapore’s most established renovation marketplaces, to drive awareness and adoption across the broader ecosystem.

“It is an incredible feeling to see this much support behind us, and we are excited about what is ahead,” said Lee Jun Xian, Co-Founder of Handshake Finance. “We are industry-agnostic by design, but we are laser-focused on fixing renovation first. The scams that are still everyday occurrences in this space need to go, and the transactional experience for everyone involved needs to be better before we turn our attention to the next industry or market.”

Homeowners and interior designers can learn more or request access at handshake.finance.

Hashtag: #HandshakeFinance

The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.

– Published and distributed with permission of Media-Outreach.com.

MIL OSI

Source: Media Outreach

SINGAPORE – Media OutReach Newswire – 3 June 2026 – Webdorks Pte Ltd, a Singapore-based web design and development agency, has leveraged Claude Design-assisted prototyping within selected website and Minimum Viable Product (MVP) development projects since May 2026.

The approach is intended to help businesses visualize concepts, explore design directions, review user journeys, and refine core requirements before progressing into full-scale UI/UX design and development.

Claude Design, launched by Anthropic in April 2026, allows users to collaborate with Claude to create visual work such as designs, interactive prototypes, wireframes, mockups, presentations, and marketing materials. The tool enables teams to describe an idea, generate an initial version, and refine the concept through further instructions and edits.

Since its launch, tools such as Claude Design have made it significantly easier to turn early ideas into interactive prototypes. This creates new opportunities for businesses to review concepts more quickly before committing substantial time and budget to a full build.

However, Webdorks believes that early-stage prototyping and production deployment should remain distinct phases, particularly for corporate websites and digital products that support business-critical functions.

“Claude Design has made it much faster to visualize an idea and explore different directions,” said Alex Choong, Founder of Webdorks Pte Ltd. “The distinction is that an interactive prototype is not necessarily a production-ready website or application. For higher-stakes corporate projects, the final product still needs proper planning, design review, development, testing, security considerations, and ongoing support.”

Using AI at the Initial Prototyping Stage

Webdorks is incorporating Claude Design into the initial prototyping phase of suitable website and MVP projects. Depending on the project requirements, the prototype may be used to demonstrate selected screens, page structures, feature concepts, interactions, or user journeys.

For corporate website projects, this may include exploring the homepage direction, content hierarchy, lead-generation flow, service pages, or selected interactive elements.

For MVP projects, this may include illustrating how users navigate a customer portal, internal dashboard, booking system, membership platform, marketplace, workflow automation tool, or Software-as-a-Service product.

The initial prototype provides stakeholders with a clearer reference point for discussion. It can help businesses identify gaps earlier, compare alternative approaches, and refine requirements before the project enters the more resource-intensive design and development stages.

“Previously, businesses often had to rely heavily on written descriptions, static references, or wireframes during the early stage,” Choong added. “AI-assisted prototyping makes discussions more visual and practical. Clients can react to something tangible, which helps us identify what should be retained, changed, or removed before the full build begins.”

Prototype First, Production Build Second

Webdorks does not position AI-generated prototypes as a substitute for structured production development.

Corporate websites and digital products may need to support requirements such as brand consistency, responsive behaviour across devices, content management systems, third-party integrations, analytics, customer data, payment gateways, user access controls, internal workflows, performance optimization, quality assurance, security testing, and future scalability.

These requirements become more important when a digital product is customer-facing, revenue-generating, operationally critical, or connected to internal business processes.

For this reason, Webdorks uses AI-assisted prototypes primarily as an early validation tool. Once the direction is confirmed, suitable projects proceed through a structured workflow that may include discovery, UI/UX refinement, technical planning, custom development, integrations, testing, deployment, and post-launch support.

“AI is changing the speed of the first draft,” Choong said. “The role of an agency is to turn that first draft into a digital product that is aligned with the business, tested properly, and built for real-world use.”

Supporting Faster Validation for Businesses

The introduction of Claude Design-assisted prototyping is part of Webdorks’ broader approach to helping businesses launch digital projects in stages.

Instead of building every feature immediately, businesses can begin by clarifying the objective, visualizing the core user journey, and validating the most important requirements. This may be followed by a lean MVP, a more comprehensive version with selected integrations, or a full custom build based on the project’s complexity and commercial requirements.

The approach is intended to support businesses exploring new digital initiatives while reducing avoidable rework during later stages of the project.

“AI tools and agencies solve different problems,” Choong said. “AI makes early exploration more accessible. For the foreseeable future, agencies will remain important when businesses need to translate an idea into a structured, scalable, and maintainable platform.”

https://webdorks.com
https://www.linkedin.com/company/webdorks
https://www.instagram.com/webdorks_sg/
https://webdorks.com/ai-app-builders-vs-web-development-agencies/

Hashtag: #Webdorks #ClaudeDesign #ArtificialIntelligence #WebDesign #WebDevelopment #MVPDevelopment #DigitalTransformation #CorporateWebsites #Webagency

The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.

– Published and distributed with permission of Media-Outreach.com.

Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-NZ-AU)

NEW YORK, June 03, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — IREN Limited (NASDAQ: IREN) (“IREN”) today announced the signing of a transmission connection agreement to support a planned 800MW data center campus in Bundey, South Australia.

Highlights

• 800MW data center campus in Bundey, South Australia
• High-voltage transmission connection secured into the utility’s substation
• On track to commence energization from 2028
• Submarine fiber connectivity into key Asia-Pacific demand centers
• Expected to create over 200 ongoing skilled jobs, plus more than 500 during construction

This marks IREN’s first announced Australian data center project and one of the largest in the Asia-Pacific region announced to date. The site is located approximately 78 miles northeast of Adelaide.

Asia-Pacific is among the world’s fastest-growing sources of AI demand, with a significant gap between projected demand and available infrastructure. South Australia’s grid targets reaching 100% net renewable energy by 2027, and the site benefits from submarine fiber connectivity into major regional demand centers including Singapore, Indonesia, South Korea, and Japan.

The transmission connection agreement secures four 330kV feeder exits at the utility’s substation, expected to support up to 800MW without requiring network upgrades. IREN expects to commence early works and procurement in parallel with satisfaction of regulatory approvals and conditions under the transmission connection agreement.

Daniel Roberts, Co-Founder and Co-CEO of IREN, said:

“South Australia offers what AI infrastructure at scale requires: abundant clean energy, the connectivity to serve the APAC region, and a State Government that understands the opportunity and is acting on it.

“The Bundey campus is able to serve global and regional AI demand, as well as South Australia’s own growing need for AI compute. We look forward to partnering with the Government of South Australia, local communities and industry to expand domestic access to AI infrastructure, support research and innovation, and help build the skills and jobs the AI economy requires.”

Peter Malinauskas, Premier of South Australia, said:

“Data centres are a significant economic opportunity, which can bring high-quality jobs, stronger renewable energy infrastructure, and new opportunities for regional communities.

“South Australia’s leadership in renewable energy, our record investment in higher education, our unashamed pro-jobs and pro-business outlook and appointing the nation’s first dedicated Minister for Artificial Intelligence means we are uniquely placed to seize the opportunities of AI.

“IREN’s proposed Bundey campus represents a significant investment in our state, with the potential to create hundreds of construction jobs, support long-term skilled roles, and strengthen South Australia’s position as a technology and innovation hub for the Asia-Pacific region.”

About IREN

IREN is a vertically integrated AI Cloud provider, delivering large-scale data centers and GPU clusters for AI training and inference. IREN’s platform is underpinned by its expansive portfolio of grid-connected land and power in renewable-rich regions across North America, Europe and APAC.

Contacts

Investors
ir@iren.com

Media
media@iren.com

Forward-Looking Statements

This news release contains “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, that involve substantial risks and uncertainties. Forward-looking statements generally relate to future events or IREN’s future financial or operating performance. Forward-looking statements include information concerning possible or assumed future results of operations, including descriptions of our business plan and strategies, revenue targets, expectations relating to capital expenditures, anticipated hardware deliveries, receipt of planning, environmental, grid and other regulatory approvals and completion of applicable grid studies, pipeline capacity, geographic expansion initiatives, labor requirements, job and skills creation, economic benefits and trends we expect to affect our business. These statements often include words such as “anticipate,” “believe,” “may,” “can,” “should,” “could,” “might,” “plan,” “possible,” “project,” “strive,” “budget,” “forecast,” “expect,” “intend,” “target,” “will,” “estimate,” “predict,” “potential,” “continue,” “scheduled”. Forward-looking statements may also be made, verbally or in writing, by members of our Board or management team in connection with this news release.

These forward-looking statements are based on management’s current expectations and beliefs. These statements are neither promises nor guarantees, but involve and are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other important factors that may cause IREN’s actual results, performance or achievements to differ materially from any future results performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements, including IREN’s ability to successfully execute on its growth strategies and operating plans, achieve its targeted annualized run-rate revenue and operating capacity, continue to develop its existing data center sites, design and deploy direct-to-chip liquid cooling systems, and diversify and expand into the market for high performance computing solutions (including the market for cloud services and potential colocation services), along with other important factors discussed under the caption “Risk Factors” in IREN’s Annual Report on Form 10-K, filed with Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) on August 28, 2025 and our other filings with the SEC. These and other important factors could cause actual results to differ materially from those indicated by the forward-looking statements made in this press release. Any forward-looking statement included in this press release speaks only as of the date of such statement. Except as required by law, IREN disclaims any obligation to update or revise, or to publicly announce any update or revision to, any of the forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

– Published by The MIL Network

MIL OSI

Source: Media Outreach

• FOMO Pay merchants in Singapore will soon be able to accept DuitNow QR payments, enabling Malaysian travellers and visitors to pay using familiar home-country banking and payment applications.

• The rollout comes ahead of the Johor Bahru–Singapore RTS Link, expected to carry up to 40,000 passengers daily upon launch in January 2027.

Supporting Singapore Merchants with Growing Malaysian Visitor Traffic
As travel between Singapore and Malaysia continues to increase, merchants are seeing a growing demand for payment experiences that are frictionless to regional consumers.

By enabling DuitNow QR acceptance in Singapore, FOMO Pay allows Malaysian visitors to pay using their local banking and payment apps in Malaysian Ringgit (MYR), while Singapore merchants receive full settlement in SGD. The rollout will simplify payment acceptance for merchants, removing the need for separate payment setups or manual foreign currency handling.

Enhancing Cross-Border Payment Experiences

“Cross-border commerce is no longer limited to large enterprises or international brands. Increasingly, everyday businesses are serving consumers who move frequently across markets,” said Rose Wang, Head of Digital Payments at FOMO Pay. “As travel and consumer movement across Southeast Asia becomes increasingly fluid, real-time payment rails like DuitNow are fast becoming part of the infrastructure powering everyday regional commerce. Enabling DuitNow QR acceptance in Singapore helps merchants better connect with Malaysian consumers in ways that feel natural to how they already transact in their daily lives.”

The rollout marks another step in FOMO Pay’s broader efforts to help merchants access Asia’s growing network of national instant payment systems through a unified multi-rail, multi-currency platform, better supporting increasingly cross-border consumer spending across the region.

https://www.fomopay.com/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/fomo-pay/
https://x.com/FOMOPayOfficial

Hashtag: #DigitalPayment #DigitalBanking #DigitalAsset #FinTech #AI

The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.

– Published and distributed with permission of Media-Outreach.com.

Source: Media Outreach

SINGAPORE – Media OutReach Newswire – 3 June 2026 – Aon plc (NYSE: AON), a leading global professional services firm, today released insights for Asia Pacific (APAC) from its inaugural Human Capital Trends Study, revealing a critical gap between organisations’ rapid adoption of AI and their ability to translate it into meaningful workforce and business outcomes.

AI Adoption Accelerates

AI adoption across APAC is accelerating, with 74 percent of organisations having already deployed or piloting AI programs. The region has moved from experimentation to implementation, as organisations focus on efficiency, automation and innovation. However, talent shortages remain a structural constraint to scaling, with only 21 percent believing they can effectively recruit and retain sufficient AI talent – trailing the global average of 24 percent.

Organisations increasingly view AI as a tool to augment and reshape work rather than eliminate jobs. In APAC, 84 percent of respondents expect AI to automate certain tasks without replacing jobs entirely, while 87 percent anticipate it will create new roles requiring different skills. At the same time, 25 percent expect some job displacement as AI adoption evolves, reinforcing the need for continued investment in skills and workforce development.

“Across the Asia Pacific region, businesses are making strong progress in AI and workforce data, but technology alone will not deliver better outcomes,” said Tim Dwyer, head of Human Capital in APAC for Aon. “The study highlights a critical gap between access to workforce data and the ability to act on it meaningfully. Insufficient investment in skills and workforce planning is constraining the value organisations can realise from AI. Addressing this gap will require stronger workforce planning, more personalised employee experiences and closer alignment between talent strategies and long-term business priorities – unlocking productivity gains and sustaining long-growth across the region.”

APAC Lags in Personalised Employee Benefits

Employers across APAC report higher HR data maturity than the global average, enabling greater access to real-time workforce insights. Forty-two percent report high HR data maturity compared with 38 percent globally, and 74 percent having deployed or piloted AI, slightly ahead of the global level of 73 percent. This capability is supported by ongoing workforce development, with only 9 percent reporting that their workforces have not recently participated in AI reskilling or upskilling initiatives.

Despite these advancements, only 22 percent of employees in the region have access to customizable employee benefits, well below the global average of 33 percent. This is significant, given that 76 percent of APAC employees place a high value on personalised benefits, yet the majority lack access to them.

In response, organisations are focusing on three core priorities: accelerating digital transformation within HR functions, strengthening leadership and succession planning and optimising workforce planning and organisational design. Adaptability and change management are also cited as the most critical workforce skills required over the next three years, underscoring the rapid pace of business and technology change across the region.

Wellbeing and Employee Value Proposition Show Mixed Progress

While 85 percent of organisations report that their wellbeing strategy meets workforce needs, leadership visibility remains a concern, with only 26 percent reporting strong and visible commitment.

The employee value proposition (EVP) also remains underdeveloped, with just 22 percent stating that their EVP is clearly defined and understood by employees. Communication challenges persist, with information overload identified as the top barrier to effective employee engagement.

Pay Transparency and Equity Require Greater Focus

The report highlights persistent gaps in compensation practices across the region. Only 18 percent of organisations rate their pay transparency practices as mature, while 26 percent have not benchmarked employee compensation in the past year.

At the same time, 31 percent of organisations are implementing initiatives to close the gender retirement savings gap – exceeding the global average. Together, these findings show uneven progress, with continued gaps in pay equity and transparency.

“The findings demonstrate that organisations in APAC are positioning themselves to thrive in the future of work, but accelerating the shift from insight to action remains critical,” said Puneet Swani, head of Talent Solutions in APAC for Aon. “Enhancing pay transparency, expanding benefits personalisation and aligning workforce strategy with business priorities will help build greater workforce resilience.”

About the Report

Aon’s Human Capital Trends 2026 Study surveyed 2,361 business, HR and people leaders globally, including 504 respondents from APAC across markets including Australia, China, Hong Kong, India, Malaysia, the Philippines and Singapore. More information about the report can be found here.

Hashtag: #Aon

The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.

– Published and distributed with permission of Media-Outreach.com.

Source: New Zealand Government

The Government is backing New Zealand’s creators and cultural institutions with proposed changes to copyright law, says Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Cameron Brewer.

“Last week we announced a 20-year extension to copyright protection, keeping some of our most iconic works earning for the artists who created them. Now we’re going further with a set of changes that strengthen creators’ rights and help safeguard our cultural treasures for future generations,” Mr Brewer says

“Our museums, libraries, galleries and archives are the keepers of our national story. But too much of what they hold is fragile, at risk of deterioration, and locked up by copyright rules built for a different era.

“We are updating the Copyright Act so not-for-profit galleries, libraries, archives and museums have greater flexibility to make digital copies of works to help preserve them before they’re lost and to open them up to public access. They’ll also be empowered to use works whose copyright holders are unknown or can’t be contacted, after making a reasonable search.

“The rights of creators are staying front of mind. Digital copies made by these institutions can’t be used for commercial purposes.

“We’re also hitting back at offshore piracy. The courts will get a clear framework to block overseas websites that rip off the work of creators.

“Creators who use copyright licensing organisations to manage their rights will have the assurance these bodies can take collective action on their behalf to prevent illicit uses of their works.

“And for commissioned works, like hiring a photographer to capture an event, the creator will be the first copyright owner unless they agree otherwise, putting creators in a stronger position from the start.

“Alongside the 20-year extension, we’re also strengthening protections for the digital tools creators use to guard their work online. Together, these changes give Kiwi creators longer, stronger protections than ever before.

“Looking ahead, Cabinet has invited me to report back by 31 March 2027 on a possible copyright framework for generative AI in New Zealand. Issues around AI and copyright are complex, and different countries have taken various approaches.”

Original source: https://nz.mil-osi.com/2026/06/03/creative-and-cultural-sector-gets-further-copyright-support/