Why this conference is so important in today’s context:

The 21st century has often been spoken of as heralding the rise of Asia. It is home to billions of people with improving life expectancy, literacy and income levels. It continues to serve as the world’s manufacturing hub while proving equally capable in the technology innovation space. A vast amount of global trade courses through the South China Sea.

Yet, there are tremendous challenges to Asia in the 21st century. The strategic competition between US and China often plays out in the business world with strategic and tactical implications. ASEAN and Singapore see a vast amount of global trade pass through the South China Sea and Straits of Malacca and our businesses need to “mind the gap”.

We are in 2023 and to-date the world over has not achieved the scale and speed of transition needed to keep temperatures below 1.5 degrees Celsius. If anything, the evidence seems to point towards the contrary as The World Meteorological Organization in its latest assessment expects the world to exceed 1.5 degrees warming sometime in the next 5 years. What Asian century will we then have in such a climate? Clearly, finance leaders are more than just about ‘finance’. As our recent report highlights, finance leaders are Chief Value Officers, i.e. custodians of value all along the value chain. We need to play a more proactive role in steering our businesses towards a faster transition towards net-zero. Future business profitability, balance sheets, employability and generations depend on it.

ChatGPT has announced itself to the world in 2023. Artificial Intelligence (AI) continues to make breakthroughs and as business leaders we need to start grappling with that this means. Where will such higher-end AI prove useful to our organisations and where will we still need the Human Intellect, complete with its EQ and SQ? Are finance functions adapting to such technological change?

Finally, all the growth, technology prowess and business prosperity that we can expect from a rising Asian 21st century would be meaningless if vast numbers of people are struggling with cost of living issues. As ACCA’s Global Talent Trends 2023 report shows, accountants are not spared from this – across gender, generation or geography. In Singapore, property rental increases in 2022 provide strong evidence of this. While the government has responded with its measures, what should be the role of business in addressing this crisis? We think of employees as costs, but they are also another business’ consumer. Can we afford a ‘beggar thy neighbor’ principle