Princess Charlene’s epic fundraising adventure, The Crossing: Calvi – Monaco Water Bike Challenge, has raised more than €600,000 for her charity.
It was a fundraising event like none other: a princess, her brother, two teams of celebrity athletes, and a 180-kilometre sea crossing from Corsica to Monaco.
The Water Bike Challenge not only drew headlines across the globe, it also drew in the cash, with generous donors putting forward a total of €603,912 for the Princess Charlene of Monaco Foundation.
“The Princess Charlene of Monaco Foundation wishes to thank all the donors and sponsors who participated in the race ‘The Crossing: Calvi – Monaco Water Bike Challenge’. They turned this unforgettable sporting feat into a human and charity success,” said the foundation.
With the funds that were raised, the Foundation will strengthen its partnerships and increase the number of projects to fight against drowning, raise awareness of water safety and promote the values of sport.
YPI Yachts, Reach Food Service, Richard Mille, G&M Design, Activ5, Adamas Sports, Monaco Asset Management, Balkin Estates, Metabolic Balance and Appleton Capital were all major sponsors of the event.
The Foundation also thanked its partners of the race for their contribution: The City of Calvi, the Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation, the Yacht Club de Monaco, Brooks Brothers, Eaux de Zilia, Nike Monte-Carlo, Scicon Sports, Maison Lino, Fendi, Thermes Marins Monte-Carlo, MyMuscle, Wine Palace Monte-Carlo, Air Corsica, N-Wines, and Monaco Textiles Pro.
Princess Charlene led team Serenity to victory on 13th September, coming in 14 minutes ahead of team Notorious, led by her brother and General Secretary of her Foundation, Gareth Wittstock.
A new operational management centre for the fire brigade and a new armed speedboat for the maritime police will help both entities in their fights to keep the Principality safe.
Two new tools are now, or will soon be, at the disposal of the Monaco fire brigade and the maritime police.
The fire brigade has been kitted out with its new Centre for the Management of Events and the Conduct of Rescue Operations (CGECOS) which is being described as a “technical tool for the use of Monaco’s firefighters allowing management of emergency requests in the Principality 24 hours a day, seven days a week.”
The centre links management to those in the field in conjunction with various partners such as remote alarms at the Town Hall, silent alarms for certain establishments, the Integrated Mobility Management Centre of the Foresight Department, Town Planning and Mobility, the Centre for Supervision and Operational Command of Public Safety, and the Departmental Fire and Rescue Service of the Alpes Maritimes.
It has new functions such as mapping, drones and video feedback and is able to adapt and evolve to local needs. It also allows the use of on-board computing for vehicles using connected tablets and has a mobile app for all staff to be able to keep on top of things such as their weekly schedules, holidays, administrative alerts and interventions conducted by the fire brigade.
Firefighters are now in the position to benefit the population not only of Monaco but of the neighbouring French municipalities, as well.
Meanwhile, the Maritime Police, who are celebrating their 60th anniversary, also have a new toy, but they will have to wait until early December before they get receipt of it. They will be getting a new armoured boat that can reach Ventimiglia in just 17 minutes and is equipped with a machine gun on its bow.
The boat is a symbol of Monaco’s broadened operational capacity as well as a sign that they are serious about defending their shores.
“As part of the Public Security 2020 project, the supervisory authorities felt that it was time for the maritime police to renew its nautical resources, and in particular this boat in terms of intervention, which is devoted to rescue at sea and will be in the category of customs coastguard stars,” revealed the Director of Maritime and Airport Police (DPMA) Isabelle Castelli at a meeting at the police station recently with Minister of State Pierre Dartout, according to Monaco Matin.
The boat is under construction at a shipyard in Viareggio, Italy and has impressive stats. The ship is 24 metres long and 5.6 metres wide and imposing looking enough to scare off any would-be trouble-makers as well as rescue those who find themselves in need of assistance on the sea.
The boat has a gyroscopic stabiliser, which means the boat can remain still during rescue operations, lessening the chance that responders or victims will be injured in rescues, as well as a firefighting system with a massive 4,500 litre per minute flow. It also boasts a crane with the ability to take up to 400kgs, a diver’s platform, and a towing capacity of 60 tonnes.
As for tech, the ship will have radars, autopilot, an echo sounder, a night vision camera and a satellite link.
A new ocean pollution campaign by Monaco Impact has just been unveiled to educate people about the proper disposal of masks and gloves.
Protective gear may be good for safeguarding health against the coronavirus, but items such as disposable gloves and masks are becoming enormously detrimental to the environment due to people’s carelessness when disposing of them.
The BBC recently reported that around 129 billion masks and 65 billion pairs of plastic gloves are being used every month. Many find their way not into bins, but on the beaches, in the sea, in forests and on city streets.
In direct response to this problem, Monaco Impact has launched a new campaign under the slogan ‘Don’t protect your life at the cost of millions of others’ in an effort to raise awareness.
In partnership with Dietsmann Monte-Carlo, Monaco Impact hopes the message will remind people of the consequences of their actions.
In addition to being a rather disgusting health concern, as this type of waste can be contaminated, it is also an ecological concern due to the length of time these items take to decompose.
A plastic glove takes 100 years to decay in nature, whilst masks take up to 400 years. When ingested by marine life, these gloves and masks in their original forms are macro plastics that can kill wildlife through suffocation.
Surgical-style masks are made with a non-biodegradable, non-recyclable thermoplastic material that has a habit of breaking up into small fragments when immersed in water. The fragments become microplastics over time, and are equally ingested by marine life, also eventually causing death. The same goes for non-latex gloves.
If this isn’t enough to raise the alarm in people’s minds, it should also be noted that for those animals that are living with plastics in their systems, many find their way into the food chain and onto our plates.
Monaco Impact is asking that everyone act responsibly and dispose of these items in a dedicated bin bag. When the bag is full, leave it tied up and away from other rubbish for a full 24 hours before adding it to regular waste to decrease the risk of contamination.
A few simple steps can reduce the chance of these items finding their way into the waterways of the world, saving lives and making a difference.
Tokeny is the start-up that has not only been entrusted with protecting investors on Monaco’s digital platform, it also has the enormous responsibility of protecting the Principality’s reputation.
In June this year, the Monaco government signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with blockchain startup Tokeny Solutions, a Euronext backed FinTech based out of Luxembourg. It coincided with a dedicated Security Token Offering (STO) law voted in by the National Council just two weeks earlier. The aim: to create a safe and secure system of digital fundraising to support Environmental and Social Governance (ESG) projects that will be rubber stamped by the government. Tokeny will provide the solutions to secure the issuance and management of those digital assets on the blockchain infrastructure.
“The Prince’s government saw an opportunity for Monaco to take a leading role in how to provide a regulatory framework to leverage the blockchain technology for funding projects,” Daniel Coheur, co-founder of Tokeny, tells Monaco Life. “Only the best projects will qualify, and only a limited number will be granted the mandatory label. By giving its stamp of approval, Monaco will help a project gain visibility in an investment community. That is the commitment the government is taking in delivering this label.”
The first project seeking funding through Monaco’s blockchain-enabled platform is IceBreaker Studios for the production of its works with Oscar-winning documentary filmmaker Luc Jacquet (March of the Penguins). The company is looking to raise around €50 million through an initial security token offering, as well as the sale of additional tokens. In other words, investors will receive digital tokens in exchange for their money. The more successful the project, the higher the value of these tokens. They can then be sold on the cryptocurrency market.
The new funding model allows IceBreaker to keep all rights and maximise the use of the material to distribute it across multiple channels, something which is virtually unheard of in film production.
“IceBreaker intends to leverage blockchain technology to facilitate the financing of meaningful content production while retaining all associated rights enabling new monetisation opportunities via films, exhibitions, etc,” said Luc Jacquet. “March of the Penguins and the subsequent Antarctica exhibition have demonstrated that the model can be a profitable one, making it appealing to investors while preserving the freedom to express my creativity and promote the virtuous value of the projects I carry.” March of the Penguins by Luc Jacquet and IceBreaker Studios
For social impact projects like IceBreaker to issue a token for fundraising, they will have to first be presented to the government of Monaco for assessment and approval. Between five and 15 ESG projects will be selected and rubber stamped by the government each year.
The token issuer will need to get a Monaco STO visa and set up as an entity in the Principality. This is all expected to generate around 100 new jobs each year.
While increasing employment opportunities within a two-square kilometre Principality is vitally important, the scheme will also be an opportunity for Monaco to prove that it can do compliant, on-chain finance and increase financial activity in the wealthy state.
“The government in Monaco wants to accelerate capital formation with this technology to reach a global audience of investors, but in order to do that it also needs to be able to give guarantees to those investors that the fundamentals of the project are good. The STO provides that,” explain Daniel. “Meanwhile, our ambition at Tokeny is to protect the reputation of Monaco and make sure that all those projects are in line with the strict rules and regulations. People are eager to see how this industry will transform, and they are looking to be reassured by the technology.”
Prospective security token holders being wooed in Monaco are qualified investors who will be expected to come up with a minimum investment of around €100,000.
Tokeny’s unique OnchainID enables stakeholders to securely and accurately identify themselves and their assets on the public blockchain. The rules are enforced through smart contracts which enable market participants to access high functioning tokenised securities, and the platform allows investors to recover their access as they please, guaranteeing the integrity of their assets.
“Tokeny’s system is based on Ethereum’s ERC-20 standard and the tokens are compatible with all Ethereum wallets,” says Daniel. “If projects want to market tokens to foreign investors, for example, they will have to comply with local rules.” Photo courtesy Tokeny Solutions
In July, cybersecurity firm Kaspersky confirmed the security of Tokeny Solutions’ smart contract protocol, the Token for Regulated EXchanges (T-REX).
The T-REX, a protocol implemented by a set of smart contracts, enables a ‘compliance-first’ approach through the whitelisting of digital identities and not the wallets of the investors.
“If the compliance criteria that we are enforcing can be hacked, then most investors wouldn’t buy it. So, we had a third party – Kaspersky – audit our smart contracts to confirm that there were no failures and that it is programmed in such a way that it will effectively enforce the rules and conditions, which is essential,” says Daniel.
Monaco is the first country in the world to introduce a dedicated STO law, and the world will be watching closely to see how this leap into digital finance plays out.
“People are naturally weary of the security tokenisation industry, so it is very courageous of the Principality, which is very careful with its reputation, to go in that direction,” concludes Daniel. “Once we share the first project and demonstrate that it is creating value and the technology protects against risk, then people will start to be comfortable and understand what it really means for the Principality.”
Daniel Coheur and Tokeny CEO Luc Felmpin have now established a subsidiary in Monaco and are hosted in the government’s incubator, MonacoTech.
People travelling from Monaco to Italy for quick trips will not be required to produce PCR test results, however passengers flying out of Nice for longer periods will be subject to the new rules.
The Italian Health Minister has announced that travellers arriving from seven regions of France, including the Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur region, will be required to take PCR tests for long-term entry.
This is part of the country’s efforts to stem the tide of the latest wave of Covid-19 cases hitting Europe, though not all people entering will be treated equally.
According to the new rules, cross-border workers will not be subjected to testing, nor will those who are entering for less than 72 hours. This means that Monaco and Riviera residents who regularly visit Italy for work or shopping will not be affected.
However, those who fly out of Nice Côte d’Azur airport for an extended holiday in Italy will be subject to the new rules.
“I signed a new ordinance extending the obligation of molecular or antigenic tests to citizens of Paris and other regions of France with significant circulation of the virus,” Roberto Speranza, Italy’s Minister of Health, announced on social media on Monday. “The European figures are critical. Italy is better off than other countries, but great caution is needed not to circumvent the sacrifices made so far.”
The seven regions of France that Italy has placed on alert are PACA, Paris, Île-de-France, Auvergne-Rhône Alps, Corsica, Hauts-de-France, Nouvelle-Aquitaine and Occitania.
Italy was the first and hardest hit country when the coronavirus first came to Europe earlier this year, so it comes as little surprise that measures to ensure there is no repeat are being put in place. In addition to the new rules for certain travellers, the usual health regulations are still in place, such as social distancing, obligatory mask-wearing in all indoor public spaces as well as masks outdoors from 6pm to 6am.
The crisis brought about by Covid-19 cost the Principality €900 million in profits for the first half of the year, the latest report from IMSEE has revealed.
The Monegasque Institute for Statistics and Economic Studies (IMSEE) unveiled the Principality’s Economic Bulletin to the press on Monday 21st September.
Alongside Government Ministers Didier Gamerdinger and Jean Castellini, Director of IMSEE Sophie Vincent discussed the exceptional nature of the April-May-June 2020 period.
According to Ms Vincent, in the first half of the year, the Principality’s turnover plunged 13% compared to the same period in 2019, losing more than €900 million.
“Only two sectors resisted the trend: Construction and Scientific and Technical Activities, and Administrative and Support services. On the other hand, the hotel and catering industry lost 60% of its turnover and there was also a very clear decline in wholesale trade, but also in retail trade,” she revealed, adding, “foreign trade fell back to the level of 2016-2017, recording -51% for purchases and -37% for sales.”
At the end of June 2020, there were 8,000 fewer jobs compared to June 2019 (- 13.8%) in the private sector, despite rebounds of +13% between May and June once confinement was lifted. The hotel and catering industry alone saw a jump of 74%.
Meanwhile, due to business support measures, the number of business closures was lower than in 2019, with 208 against 268.
Regarding employment, Minister of Social Affairs and Health Didier Gamerdinger said the aid benefits implemented by the government, such as the CTTR, “erected a protective shield for companies and their employees.”
However, he announced that five new social claims were underway in the Principality, in addition to the existing 20, concerning around 30 employees in the yachting sector.
He also confirmed that the State and its social partners were currently working on the concept of labor flexibility to further stem the effects of the crisis to come.
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