our networksSingapore’s leading professional networkCorporate Network operates the leading professional network in Singapore 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. Request to join this network
April 19 — 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 23 — 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 5 — Hot spots: Opportunities and risks in India In our regular series on the hot-spots of regional growth, we look at the economic and political outlooks for India.India is likely to be one of the world’s fastest growing big economies in 2023. A vast national market is being created, allowing firms to grow from economies of scale, internal migration is shifting tens of millions of rural people, there is a confident and prosperous middle-class emerging, and empires are being built on new, and green, technologies. From 2014 to 2021, India’s economy grew by 40%. By 2027, India will be the world’s fifth largest economy. Its’ stock market is the 4th largest in the world, and it has about 100 unicorns. A single national market is emerging in which more firms and consumers use the modern financial system, subsidies are being handed out by the Modi government to attract MNCs. Yet, there are questions over the resilience of its financial system, inequality within cities and between states, the education system and religious tensions. What can we expect from India over the next decade?
June 29 — CEO Roundtable: the future of Singapore As the world faces perhaps its most challenging geopolitical and economic outlook over the past three decades, what is the place of Singapore and what can we expect of its future?
July 25 — 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. How can firms operate in this environment? How will it change over the next 2-3 years?
August 21 — The business promise of the metaverse While a clear vision of what the metaverse will look like has not formed, interest in such virtual worlds, seamless and interconnected and always on, has grown. This will increase the types of virtual interactions, work and business opportunities. Whatever you think about the metaverse, the hype generated has attracted significant investments, as well as generated discussion around the pitfalls – regulatory, trust and safety and financial – that are relative unknowns. What does the metaverse offer? How can we mitigate against the pitfalls? What will the killer metaverse app look like? What are brands doing in this space? What does your industry need to be doing about it? We will explore the value of the metaverse for real-world businesses, the economics of the metaverse and its social and ethical implications.
September 20 — Regional Strategic Forecast The EIU’s Global Chief Economist Simon Baptist will present the EIU’s global and regional outlook for the second half of 2023 and beyond – with political and economic highlights. And a panel of Southeast Asian business leaders will debate their interpretations of the data, and explore the opportunities and risks they suggest.
Kuala Lumpur: Regional Strategic Forecast This is a moment of transition for international trade and the global economy. Business | South-east Asia | Malaysia
September 2023 Regional Strategic Forecast Africa | Business | China | Middle East | North Asia | Politics | South-east Asia | Supply chains | Global
Kuala Lumpur: The Risks and Opportunities of Artificial Intelligence thank you South-east Asia | Malaysia
Supply chain resilience in South-east AsiaResponding to the pandemic underscored the need for leaders to accelerate the adoption of agile ways of working and value chain transformation to outmanoeuvre uncertainty. This event explored the themes of agility and change management, as well as emerging trends in supply chain resilience. Panellists included executives from EY Asean, Anaplan Asia and Ipsen Pharma.
Malaysia’s State of Recovery: A Mid-Year ReviewIn 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 AsiaIn 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 directorSumana 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. Learn more