SINGAPORE—Companies and industry leaders from different sectors are urged to “rethink” their strategies going forward, as the integration within the Asean happens to allow them to keep up with the changing and diversifying markets in the region.
At the annual Invest Asean conference hosted by Maybank in Singapore on Tuesday, corporates in the region were told to reshape their integration plans and strategies and update them to present day trends—such as the use of technological advances in the delivery of payments of goods and services, the rising role of the so-called millennials, the rapidly growing Asean consumer base and the increasing role of women in economic growth.
“Today to be Asean is no longer simply a matter of being part of cooperative regional grouping. It is an urgent necessity and whether you like it or not, Asean is going to change us in more ways than we can imagine…. Common sense dictates that we need to rethink,” Datuk Abdul Farid, Maybank CEO, said in his address.
The conference—which included about a thousand attendees mostly from 67 corporates in 11 countries in the region—highlighted the expanding role of technology in banking and its proposed integration.
In one of the plenary sessions on Tuesday morning, panelist Ratan Malli, strategic planning director of J. Walter Thomson Asia Pacific, cited the mobile cash-remittance transfer system in the Philippines as a model for other companies involved in the movement of cash and capital.
Malli said the innovations are good examples of technology “leapfrogging for opportunities.”
“That kind you don’t see in other markets,” he added.
Malli further said that innovations represent the “future” of the region, as more and more people migrate and travel within Asean and companies must set up the infrastructure or pathways to make this more convenient for individuals in the region.
Likewise, the Maybank CEO said the use of technology to transfer funds is important for demographic purposes given that 60 percent of the people in Asean are the so-called millennials.
Millennials are those people born beginning early 1980s to early 2000s.
“In Asean, we have a very young population, with a median age of 28 years old. They are tech savvy, ambitious and also very sensitive to social events with a strong sense of fairness and justice. They are our largest, best educated new work force—ready to spend in our market places,” the Maybank CEO said.
Among the Philippine companies present at the event were Cebu Air, Concepcion Industrial Corp., Century Pacific Food, RFM, Robinsons Retail Holdings, Security Bank, Universal Robina and Vista Land and Lifescapes. The conference is a two-day event, with sessions centering on technological advances for companies, such as mobile media and cloud technology. Other sessions also include the role of the millennials and Asean women. Discussions on aviation, oil and gas and gaming were also conducted in afternoon sessions.