The new registration system, built on Joget DX Enterprise, brings farmer and land information together across all 10 districts, giving the Ministry a stronger foundation to serve farmers.

MOYENI, Lesotho, Aug. 30, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — The Ministry of Agriculture, Food Security and Nutrition (MAFSN) has officially launched the Lesotho Farmers Portal, the country’s first national digital platform bringing farmer and land information together in one central registry. The Honourable Selibe Mochoboroane, Minister of Agriculture, Food Security and Nutrition, led the launch in partnership with Vodacom Lesotho. Field officers across all 10 districts will use the platform to register farmers and their land parcels, and to capture information about households, farming activities, livestock, assets and support services.

Prior to the portal, farmer information was held in paper files, spreadsheets and separate district-level records that did not connect to one another. Built by FiscalAdmin Ltd on Joget DX Enterprise platform, the new system replaces that patchwork, giving the Ministry a clearer picture of the country’s agricultural community.

Field officers use the portal to register farmers against their national identity number, capture household, farming, livestock and asset information, and record land parcels with GPS boundaries. Ministry staff can then search and review that data centrally, giving the government a live, national view of the farming population for the first time.

For farmers, formal registration means the Ministry can identify who they are, what they grow or raise, and what support they may need, laying the groundwork for future services such as targeted subsidies and input distribution. For the Ministry, the registry replaces incomplete and scattered records with one verified source of data to guide policy and budget decisions.

The wider platform already includes capabilities for programme applications, eligibility evaluation, decision management and entitlement issuance, which can be introduced as the programme progresses beyond this initial registration phase.

The Farmers Portal is an important step in strengthening how the ministry understands and supports farmers across Lesotho. Having reliable information in one place will help the Ministry better understand the needs of the farmers, plan agricultural programmes and improve the way services are delivered. Transitioning from development into a national service enables the platform to benefit farmers across all 10 districts.

Built for the needs of a public-sector team

The Farmers Portal was delivered by FiscalAdmin Ltd using Joget DX Enterprise, with several partners contributing to the programme. MAFSN owns the registry, the data and the process; the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) provided the programme framework and digital-government methodology; GovStack supplied the Registration Building Block specification and reference architecture; the World Food Programme supported the implementation, including the Joget DX Enterprise licence; and Vodacom Lesotho partnered on the launch and on reaching officers in the field.

The portal was built with the realities of a small public-sector ICT team in mind. Much of the application is managed through configuration rather than traditional software development, including forms, lists, workflows, user access and reference data. This means Ministry staff can maintain information such as districts, villages, crops, livestock types and document types through the system itself, without needing a developer for every change.

“We wanted to build a service that could work at a national scale and still be practical for the people using it every day. The Farmers Portal brings together a number of processes that would otherwise remain separate, while giving the Ministry greater control over its own data.

We built this as a live implementation of the GovStack Registration Building Block, so it needed to hold up under real conditions in the field, not just on paper. Joget’s enterprise application platform enabled a very small team to turn a working prototype into a national service the Ministry can run and maintain on its own, and that is what made the two-year timeline possible.”  said Aare Lapõnin, Founder and CEO, FiscalAdmin Ltd, Technical Delivery Partner.

The delivery approach also used what FiscalAdmin describes as LLM-assisted spec-driven development. An LLM assistant worked against a written specification rather than the live system directly, with each result pushed through the platform’s own API and checked by an automated test suite before release. When something did not work, the fix went back into the specification, not into the system directly.

Raveesh Dewan, President and CEO of Joget Inc., said the project shows how technology can help public-sector organisations build practical digital services while keeping them adaptable as their needs evolve.

“What makes this project meaningful is the real-world problem it addresses. The Ministry needed a better way to understand its farmers and manage information that can support agricultural services across the country. We are proud that Joget could provide the foundation for that work.

The portal also shows how an agentic AI application platform can help a small team build and maintain a national service while leaving room to expand it as new needs emerge.”  continued Raveesh Dewan, President & CEO, Joget Inc..

As registration reaches full national coverage, the Ministry expects to introduce further services building on the registry, including programme applications and input distribution, extending support to farmers across Lesotho.

About Ministry of Agriculture, Food Security and Nutrition (MAFSN)

The Ministry of Agriculture, Food Security and Nutrition (MAFSN) was first established in 1935 as the Department of Agriculture. Since its inception, like any other government Ministry and/or department, the Ministry has not been immune to transformations and structural changes that have been occurring.

Following a government wide reorganisation and restructuring of Ministries and Departments, the Ministry was renamed Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security in 2003.

Today the Ministry is now known as the Ministry of Agriculture, Food Security and Nutrition. The Ministry’s principal responsibility is to facilitate sustainable production and productivity of agricultural outputs and promotion of food and nutrition security in the country.

About FiscalAdmin

FiscalAdmin is a software engineering and consulting company established in 2015 in Tallinn, Estonia.

We focus on assessment, modernisation and development services and technologies for tax administrations, ministries of finance, the public sector and international organisations.

Our Tallinn Office, located in the middle of the Nordic startup scene, is focused on the development of products for the new digital age. We develop new operational models for the public sector to help tackle the complexity of digitalisation through the creation of platforms and ecosystems for public finance, revenue management, marketing, e-commerce and public transport.

About Joget

Joget offers an open-source, enterprise Agentic AI application platform that converges no-code/low-code development with AI agents to help organizations rapidly build and customize enterprise applications at scale. By combining AI agents with visual app builders, not raw code, Joget makes app generation faster, safer, and more accessible for business users and developers alike.

With Generative AI and Agentic AI capabilities, Joget Intelligence enables organizations to automate and enhance processes while maintaining oversight and compliance.

Through Vibe Composition, Joget enables AI-assisted application development where AI interprets business intent and assembles applications using governed, pre-validated composable components. Unlike typical AI code generation, Joget’s visual-first approach ensures applications remain maintainable and governed within collaborative human workflows.

As an Application and Integration Fabric, Joget connects legacy and modern systems seamlessly. Its extensible, open-source core and plugin architecture offer unmatched flexibility, and its White Label solution allows OEMs and digital solution providers to fully rebrand the platform.

Trusted by startups, global enterprises, and government agencies, Joget delivers the speed of AI with the control of visual development for scalable, intelligent digital transformation.

Visit www.joget.com and follow us on LinkedIn, X, Facebook, or YouTube.

Media contact: 

FiscalAdmin: info@fiscaladmin.com

Joget Inc: pr@joget.com 

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HONG KONG, Aug. 30, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — PetroChina Company Limited [“PetroChina” or the “Company”, (HKSE: 00857; SSE: 601857)] announced that in the first half of 2026, the Company proactively responded to changes in the international situation and volatility in the oil and gas markets, strengthened the organization of production and operations, and deeply advanced quality and efficiency improvement. The two major oil and gas industrial chains remained safe, stable and efficient, the green and low-carbon transition was accelerated, the financial position remained sound, and operating results once again hit a record high for the same period in history. In the first half of 2026, the Company achieved revenue of RMB 1,527.49 billion, representing a year-on-year increase of 5.3%, profit attributable to owners of the Company reached RMB 103.94 billion, exceeding RMB 100 billion in a half-year period for the first time and representing a year-on-year increase of 22.0%, and basic earnings per share were RMB 0.57.

Results Review

Oil and gas supply capability was continuously strengthened, with new energy business accelerating development. The Company adhered to efficient exploration, profitable development and the reserves-production balance, intensified conventional oil and gas exploration, and made vigorous efforts to tackle unconventional resources, achieving 6 new discoveries and 19 new developments. The Company cultivated and established two hundred-billion-cubic-meter-level large-scale reserve areas, namely the Cambrian system in northwestern Sichuan Basin and the Cretaceous system in the southern margin of Junggar Basin, as well as one hundred-million-ton-level deep conventional oil reserve area in Tarim Fuman. The Company fully tapped the potential of mature oil and gas fields to improve recovery rates, accelerated the construction of shale oil and shale gas projects including Daqing Gulong, Xinjiang Mabei Fengcheng and western Chongqing in the Oil and Gas Field, and promoted the large-scale production ramp-up of deep coalbed methane in Daji Gas Field and other gas fields. In the first half of the year, the Company recorded oil and gas equivalent output of 921 million barrels, domestic crude oil output of 393 million barrels, and marketable natural gas output of 2.66 trillion cubic feet. Both domestic natural gas output and oil and gas equivalent output reached the best levels for the same period in history. The new energy business continued to accelerate its development. In the first half of the year, the Company generated 5.07 billion kWh of wind and solar power, representing a year-on-year increase of 37.3%, and signed new geothermal heating contracts covering an area exceeding 60 million square meters. The Company initiated the construction of zero-carbon demonstration plants and fully advanced carbon capture, utilization and storage, injecting 1.37 million tons of CO2 in the first half of the year, representing a year-on-year increase of 14.2%. The oil, gas and new energies business achieved an operating profit of RMB 100.45 billion.

Refining transformation advanced toward innovation and excellence, with the new materials business showing abundant highlights. The Company proactively responded to changes in market demand, flexibly adjusted refined products yield and unit operating loads, continuously optimized the product mix, and increased the production and sales of high value-added refining and chemical products. Adhering to the direction of high-end, green and intelligent development, the Company accelerated the construction of key transformation and upgrading projects. The Tarim 1.2 million tons per year phase II ethylene project and the supporting green and low-carbon demonstration project at Dushanzi Petrochemical were completed and brought into operation, becoming China’s first whole-chain green and low-carbon ethylene project. The construction of projects including Blue Ocean New Material Company’s high-end polyolefin project and other projects progressed in an orderly manner. The Company continued to accelerate the development of the new materials business. The thousand-ton-level high-performance carbon fiber project of Jilin Petrochemical commenced construction, and the polyolefin elastomer projects at Guangxi Petrochemical and Daqing Petrochemical advanced at a faster pace. The Company actively deployed the bio-manufacturing business, and the bio-based polyacrylamide project of Daqing Refining & Chemical and the bio-aviation kerosene project of Huabei Petrochemical commenced construction. The Company intensified marketing efforts for chemical products and refining specialty products. Chemical product sales maintained rapid growth, and the domestic market shares of products including bonded marine fuel oil, paraffin, low-sulfur petroleum coke and special asphalt remained first. In the first half of the year, the Company processed 655.0 million barrels of crude oil and produced 54.35 million tons of refined products. Chemical commodity products reached 21.32 million tons, representing a year-on-year increase of 6.7%, and both ethylene and paraxylene output reached new record highs for the same period in history. New materials output reached 2.69 million tons, representing a year-on-year increase of 61.4% and maintaining growth of around 50% for five consecutive years. The refining, chemicals and new materials business realized an operating profit of RMB 14.53 billion.

Marketing capability was continuously strengthened, with the marketing business expanding sales and enhancing profitability. The Company’s domestic marketing business proactively responded to changes in the market situation, continuously strengthened marketing, and enhanced refined marketing in segmented markets. The Company accelerated its transformation pace and continued to vigorously develop vehicle LNG refueling, charging and battery swapping, and non-fuel businesses. In the first half of the year, 592 integrated energy stations were newly established, 208 LNG refueling stations were newly put into operation, and 18,500 charging guns were newly built. The Company’s domestic market share of refined products increased by 0.2 percentage points year-on-year, vehicle LNG retail volume increased by 78.7% as compared with the same period of last year, and charging volume increased by 150%. The profit of the non-fuel business maintained growth, and the gross profit of the international trading business increased. The marketing business achieved an operating profit of RMB 11.36 billion. The natural gas marketing business reasonably optimized the resource structure of domestic and imported natural gas as well as long-term contract and spot natural gas, and endeavored to control procurement costs. The business further optimized the sales flow direction and user structure, with the domestic market share increasing by 1 percentage point as compared with the same period of last year and incremental sales in high-end markets accounting for over 50%. The business also continuously improved the construction of the end-market sales network to constantly enhance service quality and value creation capability. In the first half of the year, the Company sold 161.22 billion cubic meters of natural gas (including LNG), representing a year-on-year increase of 3.9%, of which domestic natural gas sales reached 124.89 billion cubic meters, representing a year-on-year increase of 1.1%. The natural gas marketing business achieved an operating profit of RMB 24.09 billion.

Technological innovation empowered development, with core competitiveness continuously enhanced. Taking innovation as the primary development strategy, the Company vigorously strengthened the construction of an innovation highland for energy and chemicals, established the CNPC Basic Research Institute, coordinated the advancement of applied basic research, basic research and breakthroughs in key core technologies, and continuously promoted the high-efficiency application of research results and the supply of high-quality scientific and technological achievements, comprehensively enhancing its innovation capability and scientific and technological strength. Focusing on its main businesses, the Company intensified research efforts. The Company took the lead in building a national-level continental shale oil demonstration zone. “The Early Formation and Evolution of Petroleum” won the Second Prize of the 2025 National Natural Science Award. The Company vigorously implemented the “Artificial Intelligence Plus” special initiative, and promoted the deep integration of digital and intelligent technologies with the energy and chemical industry as well as the coordinated development of industrial digitalization and digital industrialization. In the first half of the year, the number of newly granted invention patents of the Company increased by 174% year-on-year, and the Company led the development of 4 international standards and 7 national standards.

In the second half of 2026, the Company will closely track the domestic and international macroeconomic situation and the trends of the oil and gas markets, adhere to market-oriented and profitability-centered principles, and uphold the five development strategies of innovation, resources, market, internationalization, and green and low-carbon development. The Company will organize the production and operation of the two major oil and gas industry chains in a safe and stable manner, accelerate the development of the new energy and new materials businesses and the green and environmental protection industry, continuously and deeply promote quality and efficiency improvement, effectively prevent and defuse various risks, and strive to achieve stable growth of the Company’s profitability and steady enhancement of its value.

Additional information on PetroChina is available at the Company’s website: http://www.petrochina.com.cn

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SOURCE PetroChina Company Limited

BEIJING, Aug. 30, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — China’s auto market today is more dynamic – and more fiercely competitive – than ever before.

The pace of new-model launches has broken industry records. In the first half of this year, more than 100 all-new models built on new platforms or featuring major generational upgrades entered the market, alongside hundreds of modified and upgraded models. Gasoline-powered vehicles made up less than 20 percent of the all-new models.

This is an unprecedented intensity of supply and an unprecedented speed of product iteration in the history of global automotive development.

Historically, at the peak of Germany’s auto industry, the number of newly developed production models launched in a full year was around 100. China introduced more all-new models in just six months than major European and US markets typically do in a full year. Compared with China’s own gasoline-car sales peak in 2016-17, the annual number of all-new models launched at the time was less than one-third of the comparable total in the first half of this year.

Such breakneck iteration is possible only in the intelligent era. As China enters the opening year of the 15th Five-Year Plan period (2026-30), its auto market is undergoing profound changes.

Profound changes

On the demand side, NEVs have become the mainstream choice for new-car buyers, fundamentally reversing the previous balance between gasoline-powered and electric vehicles.

After monthly NEV retail penetration surpassed 50 percent at the end of 2025, the retail penetration rate of new-energy passenger vehicles remained above 60 percent from April through July 2026, reaching 65.1 percent in July.

For consumers, NEVs are increasingly the preferred choice. Even steep price cuts on gasoline-powered vehicles have failed to reverse this shift in purchasing behavior. Research shows that more than 80 percent of gasoline-car owners choose an NEV when replacing their vehicles. Meanwhile, intelligent in-car technologies are moving from premium options to standard features, with competition increasingly shifting toward an era of “AI-defined vehicles.”

On the supply side, China has built a largely self-sufficient domestic industrial chain, reshaping the traditional global division of labor in the auto industry.

China has achieved a high degree of self-reliance in batteries, electric motors and electronic controls, as well as silicon carbide power modules and electric-drive systems, reducing its dependence on powertrain technologies long dominated by overseas suppliers. Chinese companies now occupy seven of the world’s top 10 places in installed power-battery capacity, with a combined market share of more than 72 percent. China’s national battery safety standards are also beginning to be introduced overseas.

More telling is the rise of “reverse joint ventures,” with joint-venture brands increasingly turning to Chinese technologies. On March 13, the ID. UNYX 08 – the first model jointly developed by Volkswagen and XPeng – rolled off the production line at Volkswagen Anhui’s plant. Audi, meanwhile, has teamed up with SAIC Motor to create the China-focused AUDI brand, which makes extensive use of Chinese-developed platforms and intelligent technologies.

The rules formed in the gasoline-car era are losing relevance, while new dynamics are rapidly taking shape in the NEV era. The much-discussed problem of excessive competition, or “involution,” therefore needs to be examined through a new market logic.

First, just how “new” are all these new models?

Of the hundreds of models launched in the first half, most were facelifts, configuration tweaks or niche variants, leaving some models facing refreshed rivals almost as soon as they hit the market.

This reflects a fundamental change in supply capacity made possible by technology in the intelligent era.

Gasoline-powered vehicles are constrained by complex mechanical architectures, making major hardware changes costly. Developing a new model typically takes 36 to 48 months, while a basic model may remain in use for five to 10 years. NEVs, by contrast, use modular electric platforms, software and over-the-air (OTA) updates, allowing derivative models to be developed in just six to 12 months – closer to the pace of consumer electronics. The logic of auto production has fundamentally changed.

Growth curve

The next question is: What has happened to the market’s growth curve?

From January to July 2026, China produced 9.014 million NEVs and sold 9.007 million, up 9.5 percent and 9.6 percent year-on-year, respectively. But the market has become increasingly differentiated, with a large number of Chinese brands posting double-digit growth. The 10 fastest-growing brands were concentrated in the mid- to high-end pure-electric segment, with Chinese brands overwhelmingly dominating the list. Tesla China was the only foreign brand among the top 10.

More notably, sales of NEVs priced above 400,000 yuan rose 46 percent year-on-year in the first half, with Chinese brands taking nearly 60 percent of the segment. Their growth has been driven not by low prices, but by technology, intelligent features and stronger brands. Those losing ground, by contrast, are mainly joint-venture brands slow to transform, low-end micro-EVs and highly similar models.

This changing growth curve points to an important trend: upgrading and vehicle replacement are becoming the dominant forces driving demand.

China now has 371 million vehicles on the road, the world’s largest fleet and nearly one-quarter of the global total. Gasoline-powered vehicles account for 86.81 percent of the fleet and are 8.2 years old on average, while many first-generation NEVs are nearing the end of their warranty periods. This is setting the stage for the world’s largest vehicle-replacement cycle, with the 15th Five-Year Plan period becoming a key window for replacement demand and mid- to high-end consumption.

Half-year earnings announcements released in July showed a sharp contrast between weaker profits at some automakers and strong earnings at leading supply-chain companies. This shift in profits should be viewed in the broader context of industrial evolution.

For decades, key auto components and advanced technologies were dominated by overseas companies, with nearly all of the substantial profits they generated flowing abroad. Today, Chinese supply-chain companies increasingly master key technologies through in-house R&D, allowing healthy profits to support long-term investment in frontier technologies.

New trends

Taken together, the new trends emerging in models, sales and profitability in China’s NEV industry in the first half of 2026 offer important insights into where the market is heading.

One conclusion is becoming increasingly clear: China’s auto market is both the world’s largest arena for vehicle replacement and a bellwether for the next round of NEV upgrading and iteration, helping determine the cycle and pace of transformation across the global auto industry.

Unprecedented market potential, rapid innovation and fierce competition are converging in the same market, creating a uniquely powerful draw for global automakers. In an open market, some companies gaining ground while others lose – it is a natural outcome of competition, not a zero-sum game.

“You only get stronger by getting into the thick of competition,” BYD Executive Vice President He Zhiqi wrote recently on social media, capturing a sentiment shared by many Chinese entrepreneurs.

Geely Holding Group founder Li Shufu has said that the auto industry should not fight price wars, but instead compete on technology, services, quality and brands.

Price wars are unsustainable, and destructive “involution” should be avoided. Vigorous competition, however, is what defines a major market.

A growing consensus is taking shape among both Chinese and foreign automakers: competition must shift from price to value and move onto a new track of high-quality development, with companies engaging in healthy competition through diverse technological pathways, stronger core capabilities and continuous improvements in user experience.

For Chinese consumers – particularly younger buyers who grew up with smartphones, this kind of vibrant, innovative market with an abundance of choice is precisely what they want.

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SOURCE Global Times