Kuala Lumpur’s leading professional network

Corporate Network operates the leading professional network in Kuala Lumpur where members can access critical insights while engaging in high-level networking with senior business leaders from some of the most important MNCs operating in South-east Asia. Bring the collective expertise of The Economist Group and other business leaders into your organisation to allow you to explore new ideas and create space for understanding how external factors will impact your business.

Upcoming events

If you would like to attend any of these, please fill out the form at the bottom of this page.

April 18 — Cities of the future: Urbanisation, megacities and how we will live in the future

In ASEAN alone, there are 20 cities with over 1.5 million citizens. From 2017 to 2030, South-east Asia’s urban population will grow by 100m people to 373m. In 2030, four cities – Bangkok, Manila, Jakarta and Ho Chi Minh – will have populations of over 10m people, while Kuala Lumpur will be close and Singapore is projected to have around 7m people. What are the challenges of promoting productive, inclusive and sustainable urbanisation? How can cities be engines of development? What are the implications at the city-level for climate change, including mitigation and adaptation? How can businesses thrive in these cities?

May 24 — Talent: Gen Z and the four-day work week

Our EICN networks around the world will come together for this research-backed exploration of the global talent landscape with a particular focus on the preferences and motivations of Gen Z. We will also examine how and why companies are experimenting with a four-day working week, and how it is impacting employee attraction, retention, workflows and productivity.

June 28 — Regional development in Malaysia: The Eastern Economic Corridor

Malaysia is home to five investment corridors, who offer different investment options, and whose development is overseen by individual governing bodies. The idea behind the corridors was to shift focus from urban areas to rural ones – as a result the investment corridors already envelop close to 70% of Malaysia’s landmass.The East Coast Economic Region, which covers half of Peninsular Malaysia,  aims to leverage its strategic location as a gateway to ASEAN and the Asia-Pacific. What are the key projects and initiatives in the region? What types of cross-border investments are there? How are urban areas being transformed in the region? What industries are positioned to take advantage of the plans for the region?

July 26 — Tech cold war: Rising tensions

Over the past few years, countless predictions have been made that the global technology industry will suffer a painful rupture because of tensions between America and China. The split is happening at two velocities. The American and Chinese software universes are heading at light speed towards total separation. They were never particularly connected, so the bull for shutting up shop and finding substitute products is quite low.  Hardware is moving much more slowly – that is because it is more globally integrated. How should trade architecture work in an age of mistrust? The goal should be to maximise trade consistent with both sides’ strategic security. That means fencing off flashpoints, such as tech, that generate lots of tension but a minority of trade, and let commerce in other areas flourish.

Recent events in Kuala Lumpur

In conversation with Anwar Ibrahim

In this exclusive event, EICN members in KL heard from Mr Anwar Ibrahim as he shared his perspective on Malaysia’s political developments, the possible challenges posed by disunity by the then ruling coalition government and the leadership transition in 2020. Members were able to engage directly with the then PM in waiting.

Skyline of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Malaysia’s State of Recovery: A Mid-Year Review

In this discussion, our panellists from SERC Malaysia and UOB discussed how Malaysia’s economic recovery is panning out. The discussion touched on thematic issues such as investments, technology adoption and government policy, which are instrumental in driving the longer-term growth trajectory.

C-Suite Congress: Developing the “Singapore Core”

The cost of bringing in foreign employees, and the obstacles highlighted by the pandemic, have led companies to reconsider their workforce strategy. In this CxO brainstorming session, EICN members explored ways they could reduce their reliance on expatriate employees and leaders in favour of a strong locally-based talent pool.

US-China Relations and South-east Asia

In this session our panellists from Tencent Cloud, Nanyang Technological University and Straumann Group examined how the US-China relations have changed under the Biden administration and the potential implications for governments and businesses in the region.

Meet our South-east Asia director

Sumana Rajarethnam is the South-east Asia director of the Economist Intelligence Corporate Network based in Singapore. Responsible for both the Singapore and Kuala Lumpur networks, Sumana works closely with network members to help inform their business strategies through political, economic and operational insight and to connect them with their senior leadership peers .Sumana is a senior policy professional with 17 years of business advisory experience, nine of those as an analyst, principal and director with the EIU from 2011-2020. He has most recently been working in the Chinese technology sector, including stints at Kuaishou Technology and ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok.

Request to join

To request to join our Kuala Lumpur professional network, please fill out the form below.