Industry leaders push for digital, shared approaches for recovery

Pindar Wong, chairman of VeriFi (Hong Kong) Ltd, reflected on the opportunity COVID-19 brought, which is to see that work is something that you do, not a place you go. But it is not true in Asia, he said, where manufacturing is still happening.

"COVID-19 is now moving from liquidity crises to solvency crises as we see many companies are financially constrained from being able to operate in this new world and being pushed to the wall. The blockchain technology is a huge opportunity," Wong said.

He believes Islamic finance can work well in the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, bringing in a new world.

Jason Ma, founder, CEO and chief mentor at education and global business advisory firm ThreeEQ appealed to an intergenerational audience in being understanding when it comes to the use of technology. He said the younger generations are looking to be purposeful and want to contribute, highlighting the importance of reverse mentoring.

Ma called on older people to put away their ego. "Help them help you with the digital stuff," said Ma.

Meanwhile, David Morris,vice chair at UN ESCAP Sustainable Business Network (ESBN) and senior research fellow at Beijing Foreign Studies University in China, made a comparison of two types of globalization: the flow of chains and investment and the flow of data and intelligence networks.

Morris said, with Asia being the center and driver of the world economy now, everybody should rethink what is Asia's role in this next phase of development. "We are going to need to work with each other. We need to work on technology, not against each other but on a shared enemy, which is climate change."

At a parallel session on property development, smart cities, and tourism development at the 2020 WCES, experts were seeking smarter approaches to property development, technology and tourism sectors.

Michael Geh Thuan Peng, immediate past president at FIABCI Malaysian International Real Estate Federation, said that during Malaysia's lockdown period in the first half of the year, there were a lot of online viewings though physical transactions were not available.

"I believe throughout the region, in Singapore, Jakarta, Malaysia, after June, the property market has held up, it has moved upwards in transactions," said Geh.

He said he does not believe the property market will crash because of the current low interest rate regime, adding that he believes the property market will continue to perform well in the next two to three years.

Geh said even from New York, Tokyo to Jakarta, there has been a big shift from urban to rural properties. He believes that investing in property is still a good investment and also encouraged everyone to look for hot spots, and "futuristic locations".

David Chua, managing director at DC &A Group Sdn Bhd, said there is a new thinking in the tourism sector on how to approach the future and the leisure sector is growing very fast.

Leisure "will attract a lot of interest, including government intervention...which supports a lot of employment and supply chain activities," he said.

TayKok-Chin, chairman and co-founder at Smart Cities Network and ASEAN Leader at Smart Cities Council, shared the main trends to look out for in the use of technology.

One of them is the "digital twin" in smart cities, allowing stakeholders to access the digital replica of the city, such as its assets, people, places, system and devices.

He also said the internet of things and the processing of data in general must be qualified with good data.

The first premise in any master planning, he said, is people being at the center of it. And the land, meaning the environment, must be considered for them to move forward.

Fred Wang, chairman at Salon Films Group in Hong Kong, said his company has been utilizing high technology in their movies. "It was the film that really required the high bandwidth."

He also made an appeal to both technology and property developers, saying after the pandemic, it is not only about the use of technology in the home, but how the buildings can be well-organized and how the people in the building can utilize the services.

"My suggestion is, everything is already there, but not in one place. Everybody has something very nice. I'd really like to see how we can come up together and visit all these places," said Wang.