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Bangkok Draws Regulators, Stablecoin Giants and K-Pop to Southeast Asia Blockchain Week

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BANGKOK, May 15, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Top Thai and Indonesian officials will gather with senior figures from SCBX, Bitkub, Circle, Tether and Ascend Bit, the blockchain venture of Thailand’s CP Group, at Southeast Asia Blockchain Week 2026 (SEABW 2026), held May 20-21 at ICONSIAM Hall in Bangkok. Organized by Hashed and ShardLab, the Web3 innovation and research venture of Hashed and SCBX, the event arrives as the region positions itself at the center of the next phase of global Web3 adoption.

With Southeast Asia emerging as one of the world’s most closely watched digital-asset markets, SEABW 2026 makes Bangkok a meeting ground for the public- and private-sector leaders shaping how adoption unfolds in practice.

The policy track anchors the program. From Thailand, delegates from the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Thailand Digital Asset Association (TDA) will outline how the host country is approaching digital innovation, regulatory reform and long-term ecosystem development. From Indonesia, Muhammad Neil El Himam, Deputy for Digital Creativity and Technology Creativity at the Ministry of Creative Economy/Creative Economy Agency (EKRAF), brings the perspective of a country whose digital economy is gaining regional weight. The result is a rare cross-section of how Southeast Asia’s largest markets are thinking about Web3, a conversation now being shaped across government, regulators, industry and politics.

Thai industry will be represented by Kaweewut Temphuwapat,Chief Innovation Officer at SCBX & Chief Executive Officer at SCB 10X, and Atthakrit Chimplapibul, co-founder of Bitkub. They will be joined by Apinand Dabpetch, Group Head of Wallet and Growth at True Money and Managing Director of Ascend Bit, the blockchain arm of Ascend Group, the CP Group subsidiary that operates True Money. Between them, the three represent an established financial group pursuing large-scale innovation, a homegrown exchange that has helped push the asset class into the local mainstream, and the blockchain venture of one of Thailand’s largest consumer-fintech platforms. Their participation grounds SEABW 2026 in Thailand’s evolving financial infrastructure and the country’s expanding role in the region’s digital-asset economy.

That local presence is matched by a regional and global roster aligned with this year’s core themes. David Katz of Circle addresses the policy and strategic outlook for regulated digital assets and USDC across Asia-Pacific. Tether’s regional leads Ploy Boonyavee and Eddy Christian Ng speak to the expanding role of stablecoins in payments, market access and cross-border settlement in Southeast Asia. Joining them are StraitsX, Ripple, BitGo, Anchorage Digital, Canton, Avalanche, the Solana Foundation, Xapo Bank, Token X and AWS, covering AI, payment infrastructure, institutional custody, tokenization and real-world deployment. The combined program points to where the market is heading: more practical use cases, stronger institutional participation and deeper integration between on-chain finance and the broader financial system.

Beyond the main stage, curated roundtables create room for more focused exchange on adoption challenges and opportunities specific to the region, lending the program a more strategic, implementation-focused tone.

The event also breaks from the typical format with a performance by K-pop group tripleS. Operated by Modhaus, tripleS is built around an on-chain fan governance system where NFT holders vote on group decisions. This represents how digital culture, fandom and entertainment are converging with the technology across Asia.

“Southeast Asia is at an inflection point for digital finance, and Bangkok is where that conversation is happening. SEABW 2026 reflects our belief that the next chapter of financial technology will be built on open collaboration between regulators, innovators and institutions across the region — and SCBX is proud to be at the center of that.” said Kaweewut Temphuwapat, Chief Innovation Officer at SCBX & Chief Executive Officer at SCB 10X.

“Bangkok is where the conversations that matter for Southeast Asia’s digital-asset future are happening this year, with regulatory clarity meeting institutional momentum in a way few other markets can match. SEABW 2026 is built around that intersection, and around what comes next as digital assets and AI converge into a single agentic economy. Our job is to bring regulators, institutions and builders into one room so the region’s next phase of adoption gets shaped through dialogue, not in silos,” said Hojin Kim, CEO at ShardLab.

Sponsorship spans the full stack. Local backing comes from SCBX, SCB 10X and InnovestX, alongside Thai exchanges Bitkub and Bitazza Thailand and tokenization platform Token X. Regional and global support includes Tether, the Solana Foundation and Xapo Bank, with AWS, SOOHO.IO, AriqoX, Tiger Research and StayGold extending the program into infrastructure, security and research. Combined, the partners cover payments, tokenization, exchanges, custody and institutional adoption, positioning SEABW 2026 as the regional forum shaping Southeast Asia’s digital finance, technology and culture agenda.

Registration for SEABW 2026 is now open at [https://www.seablockchainweek.org/]. The event takes place May 20-21 at ICONSIAM Hall, Bangkok.

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SOURCE Southeast Asia Blockchain Week (SEABW)

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NEC Vietnam Appoints New General Director to Advance Digital Innovation

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HANOI, Vietnam, May 18, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — NEC Vietnam announced the appointment of Yasushi Numakura as its new General Director, effective April 1, 2026. The appointment reflects NEC’s continued commitment to expanding trusted technology partnerships and supporting Vietnam’s growing digital ambitions.

Numakura-san joined NEC Group in 1990 and brings over three decades of experience across systems engineering, mobile technology development, and global business leadership. In 2014, he was appointed Head of NEC Vietnam’s Ho Chi Minh branch, where he drove business portfolio transformation and strengthened regional partnerships. He subsequently held leadership roles at NEC Solution Innovators and most recently led resource management reform initiatives as part of delivery model transformation efforts.

In his new role, he will lead NEC Vietnam’s business operations and strategic direction, with a focus on strengthening software development capabilities and accelerating digital transformation initiatives across key sectors, serving both the Japanese and APAC markets.

“I am excited to join NEC Vietnam and build on the strong momentum established by the local team over the years. Together with our customers and partners, we look forward to creating what’s ahead through trusted technologies and meaningful solutions that create lasting value for businesses, communities, and society. In line with NEC’s 2030 mid-term direction, we will also advance our capabilities as an AI-native organization with security at the core, ensuring that our innovations are both impactful and resilient,” shares Numakura-san.

Under his leadership, NEC Vietnam will continue providing technologies and solutions spanning software development, biometrics, and public safety.

***

About NEC Vietnam

NEC established its liaison office in Vietnam in the early 1990s under the global business framework of NEC Corporation. It was re-organized as NEC Vietnam Co., Ltd. in 2006, with a newfound commitment to grow the business and contribute towards the people and society of Vietnam.

In a rapidly changing business environment, NEC Vietnam has evolved into a comprehensive solutions provider, leveraging their core competence in delivering Solutions for Society, focused on building social infrastructure that benefits citizens and communities.

Visit https://vn.nec.com to learn more.

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SOURCE NEC Vietnam

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South Asia’s First-ever Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G) Demonstration, Led by ISGF in Collaboration with its Technology and Utility Partners

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NEW DELHI, May 19, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — South Asia’s first ever groundbreaking Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G) Technology Demonstration in India implemented by India Smart Grid Forum (ISGF) marks a major advancement in smart Electric Vehicle (EV) charging and grid stability, paving the way for a future of bidirectional energy flows between EVs and the power grid. ISGF, with its utility partners and technical support from the University of Delaware (UDEL), USA, executed this first-of-its-kind Alternating Current (AC) V2G pilot demonstration in South Asia. The demonstration project was implemented at BSES Rajdhani Power Limited, BSES Yamuna Power Limited, TATA Power Delhi Distribution Limited, as well as at the Agency for New and Renewable Energy Research and Technology (ANERT), Kerala. This pilot demonstration has tested a variety of V2G use cases and found it highly relevant for distributed renewable energy integration and grid stability.

As part of the project, four Tata Nexon EVs were retrofitted with on-board bidirectional power modules and connected to the grid through bidirectional AC chargers. The equipment cost of AC V2G is significantly lower than DC V2G. ISGF is working with local technology companies and EV OEMs to build a V2G ecosystem in the country.

For more information, please write to contactus@indiasmartgrid.org

About India Smart Grid Forum (ISGF)

ISGF is a public private partnership initiative of the Govt. of India, with the mandate of accelerating smart grid deployments across the country. With 170+ members comprising of ministries, utilities, technology providers, academia and research, ISGF has evolved as a Think-Tank of global repute on Smart Energy and Smart Cities. The mandate of ISGF is to accelerate energy transition through clean energy, electric grid modernization and electric mobility; work with national and international agencies in standards development and help utilities, regulators and the Industry in technology selection, training and capacity building.

Website: https://indiasmartgrid.org/ 

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Tencent Cloud and Stream Partner to Accelerate the Development of Real-Time Multimodal AI Agents

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HONG KONG, May 19, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Tencent Cloud, the cloud business of leading global technology company, Tencent, today announced a strategic collaboration with Stream, the company behind the open-source AI agent framework Vision Agents, to accelerate the development of real-time, multimodal AI agents.

Through this collaboration, Tencent Real-Time Communication (Tencent RTC) becomes an officially supported edge transport plugin for Vision Agents, giving developers worldwide a low-latency path to build and deploy interactive AI applications across global markets, including regions where network complexity and real-time performance are critical.

Unlocking Lower-Latency Transport for Enhanced Experiences Across China and Asia

Vision Agents is an open-source, edge-agnostic Python framework from Stream that helps developers quickly build low-latency vision AI applications. Rather than retrofitting video onto a voice-centric stack, Vision Agents was designed as a video-first solution — running models such as YOLO, Roboflow, OpenAI Realtime, and Google Gemini on every frame, with sub-500ms end-to-end latency and over 25 out-of-the-box integrations across LLM, STT, TTS, vision, RAG, telephony, and avatar providers.

Through this partnership, Tencent RTC becomes an officially supported edge transport plugin for Vision Agents. Developers can use Tencent RTC to replace the default communication layer in Vision Agents and instantly leverage Tencent Cloud’s enterprise-grade backbone — more than 3,200 global nodes, sub-300ms worldwide latency, AI-driven noise suppression, and weak-network resilience — while keeping every existing LLM, STT, TTS, vision, and avatar plugin unchanged.

The integration supports both audio and video, making it suitable for voice agents, video agents, and multimodal scenarios — powering use cases such as gaming assistants, virtual avatars, sports coaching, and robotics. AI agents can join TRTC rooms and interact with participants in real-time through high-quality audio and video streams.

Tencent RTC operates a globally distributed real-time network with particularly strong performance across some markets in Asia where many global real-time stacks face connectivity and latency challenges. By integrating Tencent RTC, Vision Agents gives developers worldwide a reliable transport option for delivering low-latency, multimodal AI experiences to users in Asia. Developers can improve real-time communication performance by simply swapping the interface.

Wison Xie, Head of Product at Tencent RTC, said: “Vision Agents represents exactly where conversational AI is heading, beyond voice-only, into agents that can truly see, hear, and act in real time. By bringing Tencent RTC’s global real-time backbone to the Vision Agents framework, we are giving developers worldwide a turnkey path to ship multimodal agents that perform reliably from Silicon Valley to Shenzhen. This collaboration reinforces our commitment to powering the next generation of real-time AI experiences for enterprises and developers across global market.”

Neevash Ramdial, Director of Marketing and Vision Agents Lead, said, “Our goal with Vision Agents is to make real-time AI development faster, more flexible, and open, giving developers the freedom to choose the models, infrastructure, and plugins that work best for their applications. Developers building global conversational AI applications also need reliable real-time performance in every market, and Tencent RTC brings high-quality, low-latency connectivity across Asia to the Vision Agents ecosystem. We’re excited to work with Tencent RTC to help developers scale multimodal AI experiences worldwide while having the freedom to use whichever plugin or model best fits their app.”

About Tencent Cloud:
Tencent Cloud, one of the world’s leading cloud companies, is committed to creating innovative solutions to resolve real-world issues and enabling digital transformation for smart industries. Through our extensive global infrastructure, Tencent Cloud provides businesses across the globe with stable and secure industry-leading cloud products and services, leveraging technological advancements such as cloud computing, Big Data analytics, AI, IoT, and network security. It is our constant mission to meet the needs of industries across the board, including the fields of gaming, media and entertainment, finance, healthcare, property, retail, travel, and transportation.

About Tencent RTC: 
Tencent RTC provides real-time communication solutions, including audio/video calling, live streaming, and in-game voice. With enterprise-grade security, AI-powered enhancements, and a global network of over 3,200 nodes, Tencent RTC powers mission-critical communication for customers worldwide.

About Vision Agents: 
Vision Agents is Stream’s open-source framework that helps developers quickly build real-time video AI applications. It works out of the box with most major LLM, speech-to-text, text-to-speech, avatar, and infrastructure providers, so teams can go from idea to production in just a few lines of code, building everything from real-time sports coaches to rich, context-aware avatars.

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/apac/news-releases/tencent-cloud-and-stream-partner-to-accelerate-the-development-of-real-time-multimodal-ai-agents-302774565.html

SOURCE Tencent Cloud

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