How long will it take for the gender pay gap at the top of the UK financial sector to close? About 30 years| reading worldwide

Reading Global(2022.03.07)

How long will it take for the gender pay gap at the top of the UK financial sector to close? About 30 years

The Guardian reported on the 7th that Amanda Blanc, a supporter of the British Treasury on this issue, warned that if nothing is taken to improve the current "frustrating slow" pace, it will take 30 years for the top management of the financial services industry to achieve gender equality.

In 2016, the UK government launched a Charter for Women in finance as a voluntary agreement in which businesses commit to achieving gender diversity goals. More than 400 city institutions have signed the charter, including Aviva, the Bank of England, the London Stock Exchange, BlackRock Fund Management, Morgan Stanley, Santander and Monzo, and the building association Nationwide.

The Women in Finance Task Force study found that among the 400 signatories, the proportion of female senior executives increased by only one percentage point between 2018 and 2020, from 31 percent to 32 percent. It calculates that at this rate, it will take another 30 years for the financial services industry to achieve gender equality at the top.

According to another new study by market research firm Ipsos UK and community businesses, nearly six in ten (58 per cent) of women said that the responsibility of caring for their families prevented them from applying for a promotion or a new job, and one in five (19 per cent) chose to leave because they had difficulty balancing work and caring for their families.

While more than a third of adults and 44 percent of working adults have responsibilities for caring for their families, the study found that these responsibilities are not evenly distributed. Women accounted for 85 per cent as sole caregivers for children and 65 per cent as sole caregivers for the elderly. People from minority backgrounds (42 percent) have more caregiving responsibilities than whites.

Japanese companies want to build "floating cities" with a diameter of 3 kilometers on the water

Japan Economic News reported on the 7th that in Japan, where typhoons and earthquakes are frequent, it is very difficult to completely avoid flooding of living space. Japanese builder Shimizu Construction is continuing to launch a challenge to build a floating city with a diameter of 3 kilometers on the water to protect people's lives and corporate activities. The concept is "to build a safe and secure urban infrastructure that can replace land reclamation".

A giant artificial island with a diameter of 3,000 meters floats on the surface of the sea. The 1,000-meter-high tower tower tower towering over the center of the island spreads upwards like petals, and at the top is a living space that can accommodate 30,000 people. There is a plant factory in the tower part, which uses carbon dioxide, domestic garbage, wastewater and other nutrients emitted by the air city to provide nutrients for the plants.

In order for the artificial island to float on the surface of the sea, the foundation uses cement floating body. Multiple hexagonal columns 20 meters wide and about 50 meters high are combined in a honeycomb shape. The float itself uses a structure called a "honeycomb combination", which Shimizu Construction used to use when building mobile artificial islands to extract natural gas.

The components of the tower use magnesium alloys smelted with seawater as the main raw material. It is said that magnesium alloys are light in weight and high in strength compared with ordinary steel, and can be recycled after remelting, which can reduce the environmental load.

It is a concept of building large buildings such as commercial facilities and office buildings on the water, but it faces the challenge of reducing the cost to the same level as land reclamation. In the future, we will also develop automation technologies that can help realize the humanization and unmanned construction of offshore construction.

From the patent application, we can see which country is strong in "flying car" technology

Japan Economic News reported on the 7th that the "flying cars" that have launched empirical tests around the world are receiving more and more attention. As China and the United States take the lead in promoting relevant measures, Japan is also vigorously promoting practical application.

There is no clear definition of a flying car, but it is generally considered to be a small electric aircraft with characteristics such as vertical take-off and landing and automatic driving. It is expected to be applied to transportation services such as taxis and logistics such as door-to-door delivery.

The JPO report conducts statistics and analysis on the structure of flying cars, drive sources such as motors, batteries, and control technologies, based on patents filed in five countries and regions, namely, U.S., Europe, Japan, and South Korea, as well as international patents filed under the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT).

From 2012 to 2018, the number of patents of the same family applied was 1106, and from the perspective of the nationality and region of the applicants, China was 444, the United States was 399, and China exceeded the United States. While the overall number of applications has increased year by year, China surpassed the united States, which has always led the way, in 2017 and more than doubled the united states in 2018. However, the majority of applications for Chinese nationality are in China. If you look at the number of applications based on the Patent Cooperation Treaty alone, the total number is 310, of which 138 are filed by U.S. applicants, accounting for nearly half, more than twice that of Europe and China after the United States.

According to the ranking of the number of patent applications by applicants, U.S. companies are strong, accounting for 11 in the top 15 companies. Companies from a variety of industries made the list, including large IT companies like Amazon Technologies and Google's conglomerate Wing Aviation, aircraft manufacturers like Bell Helicopter Textron and Boeing, and retail companies like Walmart. Chinese companies also performed eye-catchingly, with flying car start-ups "Foshan Kamikaze Aviation Technology" ranking first, and the affiliates of DJI, a large UAV company, ranking fourth.

In Japan, Aeronext, a start-up engaged in technology development business such as drones, is the only Japanese company that ranks among the top ten. In addition, A.L.I. Technologies, a startup working on hovering motorcycles, ranked 19th and Honda ranked 36th.

In terms of research and development, Europe has strong strength. From 2012 to 2021, a total of 404 papers related to flying cars were published in English, of which 152 papers were published by in-service researchers of European research institutions and enterprises, accounting for nearly 40%. In the ranking of affiliated institutions, Cranfield University in the United Kingdom ranks first, and the Politecnico di Milano in Italy is also very high.

The number of related papers in the United States is second only to Europe, with 94, followed by China's 42. South Korea has 20 papers, Australia has 15 papers, and Japan has only 6 papers published in English.

Singtel subsidiary ENSON acquires Australian IT service provider for $325 million

Lianhe Zaobao reported on the 7th that Singtel subsidiary Enson (NCS) announced that it acquired The Dialog Group (TDG), Australia's largest private information technology (IT) service provider, for 325 million Australian dollars. This is the largest acquisition in the history of ENSIL, which aims to expand new growth opportunities in the Australian market and accelerate ENSIL's internationalization strategy.

According to the statement, TDG is known for providing comprehensive services, covering IT consulting, application development and application services hosting services, with operations in Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra, Perth, Darwin and Adelaide.

The acquisition marks Australia's largest overseas presence, with a local IT talent team of 1,300 people, three times the size it currently does, strengthening the company's ability to serve clients across a wide range of industries, from government, healthcare, transport, communications, finance to business services. This combination of talent and expertise and skills enables ENSON to provide stronger end-to-end technology and digital services to clients in Australia and the Asia-Pacific region.

(This article is compiled from The Guardian, Nihon Keizai Shimbun, and Lianaia zaobao)

Economic Observation Network intern reporter Zhou Yuqing sorted out