Horasis Asia Meeting26-27 November 2017, Kolkata, India

a Horasis leadership event

Co-host:Government of West BengalIndian Chamber of Commerce (ICC)

Report

© Horasis

2017 – All rights reserved

The publication was prepared in cooperation with International Management Institute (IMI),Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur and Indian Chamber of Commerce.

No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means.

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Horasis Asia Meeting26-27 November 2017, Kolkata, Indiaa Horasis leadership event

Co-hosts:Government of West Bengal

Indian Chamber of Commerce (ICC)

Co-chairs:Sanjiv Goenka Chairman, RP-Sanjiv Goenka Group, India

Yoshito Hori Founder and Chairman, Globis, Japan

Huynh Quang Hai Chief Executive Officer, VSIP Group, Vietnam

Hemant Kanoria Chairman, Srei Infrastructure Finance, India

Rajive Kaul Chairman, Nicco Group, India

Om Prakash Lohia Chairman & Managing Director, Indo Rama Synthetics, Indonesia

Thiri Thant Mon Managing Partner, Sandanila Investments, Myanmar

Timothy Ong Chairman and Founder, Asia Inc Forum, Brunei

Mohan Das Pai Chairman, Manipal Global Education; President, AIMA, India

Prinn Panitchpakdi Governor, Stock Exchange of Thailand, Thailand

Ron Somers Founder and Chief Executive Officer, India First Group, USA

Wang Dong Secretary General, The Pangoal Institution, China

Bryan Yang Chief Executive Officer, Inspiration Inc., China

Co-organizers:

All India Management Association (AIMA)

Young Presidents’ Organization (YPO)

Strategic Partner:

RP-Sanjiv Goenka Group

State Partners:

Government of AssamGovernment of Himachal Pradesh

Knowledge Partners: Asia News NetworkInternational Management InstituteIndian Institute of Technology, KharagpurSREI Infrastructure Finance

Supporting Partners:

Quality Tea PlantationsNicco Parks and ResortsBengal NRI ComplexSimplex InfrastructuresMerlin Group of CompaniesIVL Dhunseri Petrochem IndustriesPoddar Family HoldingsShree CementsExport Import Bank of IndiaEveready Industries IndiaPatton InternationalPowerGilt Treasuries Inc.Luxmi TeaITC

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The Horasis Asia Meeting is about to start

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Registering participants

Table of Contents

Foreword 6

Summary 12

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Foreword

By Frank-Jürgen Richter, Chairman, Horasis, Switzerland

The second Horasis Asia Meeting tookplace in Kolkata, India over November 26-27th, 2017. It was a momentous meeting,gathe ring over 350 delegates from 67 na tionsincluding seven government Ministers. Itwas co-hosted by the Government of WestBengal, and the Indian Chamber of Com -mer ce (ICC) and on behalf of the Chamber,Shashwat Goenka, President, IndianChamber of Commerce, India, thankedHorasis for bringing this Horasis Asia Mee -ting to India for the first time and affirmedthat ‘today we stand together as Asia’.

The Horasis Asia Meeting is poised to bethe ideal platform to explore and advanceregional cooperation, impact investing andsustainable growth,’ pinpointed SupachaiPanitchpakdi, Former Secretary-General,UN Conference on Trade and Develop -ment, (UNCTAD), Thailand. According toMamata Banerjee, Chief Minister, WestBengal, India, ‘Kolkata is the ideal locationto advance the region’s economic, politicaland social agenda, being India’s gateway to ASEAN and the whole of Asia’. ‘Asiarepresents a huge potential global growthengine to the world economy. Bangladesh,in particular, is hitting record growthfigures,’ added Tofael Ahmed, Ministerof Commerce, Bangladesh. Reflecting onthe host country’s economy in a videomessage, Suresh Prabhu, Union Minsterfor Commerce and Industry, said that ‘theIndian economy’s prospects for the nextcouple of years look very good.’ ‘The newGoods and Services Tax (GST) and theexpanded digital economy will give anadditional boost,’ added SarbanandaSonowal, Chief Minister, Assam, India.Zaw Myint Maung, Chief Minister,

Mandalay Region, Myanmar, noted that‘Myanmar’s economy is rebounding andmacroeconomic imbalances are stabilizingwith growth expected to be around 7 per -cent in 2018.’

Asia represents a huge potential globalgrowth engine with China and India leadingthe way. Indian business managers celebra -ted the November release of the IndianMarkit Manufacturer’s Index rising to 52.6having apparently shrugged-off the effectsof the recent tax reform (GST). Elsewhere,communiques from the recent 50th annualASEAN meeting held in Manila, Indonesianoted – all of its nations look to create apeaceful world inclined to better businesslinks. In today’s globalised world this aim isimportant as food, fuels and raw materials,part-finished and finished goods must flowfreely to raise living standards for all. TheASEAN nations state they are committed tofight terrorism and drugs peddling, boostinwards investment, and to create greaterease in doing business. Furthermore, Asia,with its predominantly young work-forceoffers a demographic dividend for some20-30 years ahead. Indeed, Pana Janviroj,Executive Editor, Asia News Network notedthis year, and for years beyond, Asia willexperience huge investment in infra struc -

Mamata Banerjee, Chief Minister,West Bengal, addressing the delegates

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tu re driven by the OBOR initiative byChina, plus other initiatives. His remarkswere supported by Huynh Quang Hai,Chief Executive Officer, VSIP Group,Vietnam who stated ‘Vietnam’s growthaccelerated in the third quarter to morethan 7 percent, with the economy on trackto remain among the world’s fastest’

Asia must maintain its confidence in theformal institutions that generate sustainabledecisions and which lead to an increase inthe incomes of the poor, which ultimatelyraise all incomes. Millions of people havebeen raised from poverty in China, andIndia is on the way to uplift its rural poor.Other less populous nations will do thesame for their citizens; in part, because all nations have agreed to meet the UNSustainable Development Goals by 2030.Thiri Thant Mon, Managing Partner,Sandanila Investments, Myanmar, suggestedthat a positive spin by Asian governmentsthrough the mechanism of ASEAN, or otherregional forums, will pave the way to anuptick of personal wealth and well-beinggenerating a feedforward effect on growth,including economic and technologicaldevelopment. Such developments willmove towards the development of a strong pan-Asian identity emphasised by

Tan Yuvaroath, Deputy Director Generalof Trade Promotion, Ministry of Commerce,Cambodia who suggested ‘we need moreintegration between the nations and busi -nes ses with implementation being the focus.’

ASEAN however is a complicated institu -tion with new groupings that include +1(with China in attendance) but sometimesnoted as +2 and +3 (in which case there areChinese, Korean and Japanese represen -tatives). There are several Free Tradeagreements in place as well as a RegionalComprehensive Economic Partnership(RCEP) being negotiated with 10 ASEANmember states. These institutions areengaged also in the continued developmentof the Trans Pacific Partnership (TTP) nowthat the US has withdrawn. Horasis delegatesnoted that the inclination of ASEAN andTPP were different as the latter was abouttrade, while ASEAN will continue to be ameeting of like minds, unwilling to rushahead, and at all times aiming for compro -mise and harmony. This was underlined byTimothy Ong, Chairman and Founder,Asia Inc Forum, Brunei who opined thatthe ASEAN countries are good in conflictmanagement and conflict resolution, andthis could open doors to ‘let a thousandflowers bloom.’

Virtual Ribbon Cutting Ceremony – the 2017 Horasis Asia Meeting is opened

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President Trump’s executive order nullifiedthe US membership in the Trans-PacificPartnership (TPP) yet the pressure ofglobalisation and perhaps the search for apan-Asian identity offers a strong counter-incentive. At the APEC meeting in Vietnamin November, the TPP-11, that is, theremainder nations (comprising Australia,Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia,Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore andVietnam) agreed to rename the TPP to bethe ‘Comprehensive and ProgressiveAgree ment for Trans-Pacific Partnership’(CPTPP). Its Ministers revised the originalTPP text so that it can come into force 60 days after at least six signatories ratify itafter their domestic discussions. The Japanesenegotiators asked other nations to quickly

ratify the new accord before the round of2018 elections commence in Asia and inMexico because newly elected govern mentsmay take a negative view and denouncefree trade.

The current US trade model flies in the faceof the long-dead Doha aims of reducingtariffs to zero globally, and interacts nega -tively with initiatives such as the RegionalComprehensive Economic Partnership(RCEP), which accounts for 40 percent ofglobal trade and covers three billion peopleacross the Asian region. Further, Chinainitiated the Belt and Road Initiative in 2013with a very broad international footprintas it extends into Africa and Europe. Theseschemes are expected to bridge infrastruc -ture gaps and accelerate economic growthacross the Asia Pacific area, Central andEastern Europe.

The US Congress has noted that India sharesUS democratic values and has overlappingstrategic interests. Congress concurs withthe ‘Indo-Pacific’ region terminology andthe resuscitation of the QuadrilateralDialogue with democratic partners Japan,Australia and India. They also applaud thatIndia, with Japan, has proposed an African/Indian/Japan trade corridor which will be

Suresh Prabhu, Union Minster for Commerce and Industry, IndiaSanjiv Goenka, Chairman, RP-Sanjiv Goenka Group, India,introducing Chief Minister Banerjee

Amit Mitra, Minister for Finance, Commerce & Industries, West Bengal, India

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Rajive Kaul, Chairman, Nicco Group, India, greeting Sarbananda Sonowal, Chief Minister, Assam, India

a counter-action to the B&R proposed byChina – Horasis delegates will appreciatethe power of competition to drive eco -nomic development. Focusing again onAsia, Wang Dong, Secretary General,The Pangoal Institution, China said thatgovernments and businesses in Asia aremuch more optimistic and that is a verygood sign. It shows that countries arewilling to come together to make Asia theeconomic super power. This was empha -sised by Hemant Kanoria, Chairman,Srei Infrastructure Finance, India who saidthat ‘once we reskill manpower to absorbIT skills and digitization there will be nostopping Asia’.

Participants of Horasis Meetings havenoted that infrastructure developmentprecedes economic gain. Infrastructuredoes not only mean transport – althoughthe great railways building flurry broughtnew global wealth in the early 19th century.Presently a massive economic stimulus isguided by China through its Belt & Roadinitiative that was originally announced byPresident Xi Jingping in 2013. This de -velopment is expected to develop hubinfrastruc tures supporting innovation andeconomic growth in many nations acrossAsia, Africa and Europe.

In 2013 the China-led Asian InfrastructureInvestment Bank (AIIB) approved 57 nationsas prospective founding members to helpdevelop infrastructure through the Asia-Pacific region. Although the AIIB is seen asa potential competitor to global financialinstitutions such as the US-led IMF or theWorld Bank, the IMF chief ChristineLagarde has stated they would be glad tocooperate with the AIIB as it would com -plement existing international institutions.And the United Nations called the launchof AIIB as having a potential to ‘... scale upfinancing for sustainable development’.Prinn Panitchpakdi, Governor, StockExchange of Thailand, Thailand noted plat -forms like ASEAN-China and ASEAN-Indiafunds are being set up which are essential

Supachai Panitchpakdi, Former Secretary-General, UN Conferenceon Trade and Development (UNCTAD), Thailand

Zaw Myint Maung, Chief Minister, Mandalay Region, Myanmar

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to long-term growth and eventual gainsfrom trade.

Turning specifically to India and WestBengal we note that India progresses on alleconomic fronts – developing its science,its infrastructures and its support for itspeople. Prime Minister Narendra Modiassuming office in May 2014 has achievedmuch, and accelerated change overcominga great deal of inertia, but he also dependson regional Chief Ministers. Globalisationwill create a borderless world, remarkedAmit Mitra, Minister for Finance, Com -merce and Industries, West Bengal, India.He accepted that social entrepreneurship

can be an effective way of delivering glo -ba lisation at the doorstep, and in for medthe Horasis delegates that West Bengal hasinitiated fully integrated financial manage -ment services and e-governance. The ChiefMinister of West Bengal, Mamata Banerjeestressed the strategic advantages of WestBen gal and the state for its geographicloca tion and its stable political and socialclimate. Proximity to the East Asian coun -tries justified the position of West Bengal asa gateway to countries like Nepal, Bhutan,Bangladesh, China, Japan, Malaysia,Singapore, and Thailand, and it has become aconnecting avenue to East Indian states andalso the eight sister-states of North East India.

Shashwat Goenka, President, Indian Chamber of Commerce, India,welcoming participants

Minister Amit Mitra with Rudra Chatterjee, Executive Director, Luxmi Tea and Horasis Chairman Frank-Jürgen Richter

Myint Naing, Chief Minister, Sagaing Region,Myanmar

Huynh Quang Hai, Chief Executive Officer, VSIP Group, Vietnam

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The Horasis Asia Meeting is at the fore frontof exchanging business knowhow, idealsand moving nations to ease restrictions todevelop a stronger pan-Asian identity. InKolkata many delegates comprising govern -ment ministers, chief executives andacademics freely presented their ideas andwere mindful of how the interactions ofpolitical and commercial policies combineto develop trust and accords which mightenhance the future well-being within theirmany nations. With this meeting Horasisaims to present a systemic view of thedrivers of the region’s economic develop -ment across all sectors, recognising that thewide-reaching Asian region is acknowledged

to be the growth engine of the future. As with the other Horasis meetings, it isexpected this important meeting will behosted in different Asian cities over thenext years.

‘The Horasis Asia Meeting is poised tobe the ideal platform to explore andadvance regional cooperation, impactinvesting and sustainable growth’Supachai Panitchpakdi, Former Secretary-General, UN Conference on Trade and Development, (UNCTAD), Thailand

Thiri Thant Mon, Managing Partner, Sandanila Investments,Myanmar

Delegates gathering for a plenary panel

Yoshito Hori, Founder and Chairman, Globis, Japan, one of the meeting co-chairs

Hemant Kanoria, Chairman, Srei Infrastructure Finance, India

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SummaryBy International Management Institute (IMI),Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur andIndian Chamber of Commerce.

The 2nd Horasis Asia Meeting comprised amix of plenary and panel discussion sessions:a summary is presented here.

The meeting began with five update sessionsdiscussing Unity, Partnership, Accountabili -ty, Knowledge and Entrepreneurship sosetting the themes for the following panels

and plenaries. These updates reminded thedelegates of the great progress Asia hasmade over the last decades, particularlyrecently – within and between its nationsand also in pan-Asian institutions.

The panel upon ‘Valuing Unity in Diversity’noted the region was home to many diffe -rent ethnic groups, languages, cultures andreligions. Nira Sharan, CEO, Aura Inc.,India pointed out that tribalism was indeedstill too strong across the region and withthe prevalence of social media apps falseinformation could be fomented far tooeasily and government regulation may beneeded to reign this in. Lou Marinoff,Professor of Philosophy, City University,New York, USA as panel chair said we donot yet have a globally agreed value systemso we must respect differences to strive forequitable relations within and betweengroups, even states. Competition betweenthe Asian nations has increased as their oldsecurity alliances have eroded. And KV Rao, Resident Director – ASEAN,Tata Sons Ltd, Singapore suggested ‘we haveto immerse ourselves in the culture to beable to create a chemistry inclined towardsgood business practices’.

Lou Marinoff, Professor of Philosophy, The City College ofNew York, on unity in diversity

Plenary ‘Economic Outlook – The View from Asia’ Mohan Das Pai, Chairman, Manipal Global Education; President, AIMA, India

Rajeev Singh, Director General, Indian Chamber of Commerce,India, about Asian management styles

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Sudhir Sharma, Chairman, MitkatServices, India led the panel on ‘ValuingPartnerships in Competition’ and opinedthat businesses can not only contribute tothe processes of globalisation, but can becatalysts for change. Harukata Takenaka,Professor, National Graduate Institute forPolicy Studies, Japan spoke for the worriesof developing economies, noting coopera -tion and mutual assurances are the need ofthe hour. It was A N M Muniruzzaman,President, Bangladesh Institute of Peace andSecurity Studies stressed we need to bindpeople in trade, culture, tourism and busi -ness to form both soft and firm alliancesacross Asia and across the globe who probablysummed up the inclination of this panel.

Another of the update panels discussed the greater value we ought to give ‘PublicAccountability’. Vinod Juenja, VP,SAARC Chamber of Commerce andIndustry, India highlighted the issue of fake

or false news and the need to verify sources– he said that India has more than 400 newschannels awaiting official clearance across28 languages. Media hype is massive andthe Ministry is taking care to assess themedia channels. Yet, suggested Soe Myint,Editor in Chief and Managing Director,Mizzima Media Group, Myanmar it is themedia that has to highlight controversy tosearch for truth and bring it to the attentionof its audiences: media need freedom toperform this action. Ken Koyanagi,Editor-at-Large, Nikkei Asian Review,Japan chaired this panel’s discussants withdiscretion noting there are many issues; ifnot burning they are smouldering beneaththe surface in many states and not all areequally free.

Similar sentiments were noted in the paneldiscussing ‘Knowledge as a Public Good’chaired by Cod Satrusayang, ManagingEditor, Asia News Network, Thailand whostated that the judgement of the value orveracity of the public knowledge comes fromordinary people, not the government. This was a sentiment echoed by Thaung Su Nyein, Managing Director,Informationmatrix, Myanmar. Peggy Choi,Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Lynk,Hong Kong SAR looked to the benefits of

‘Globalisation will create a borderlessworld. Social entrepreneurship can bean effective way of delivering globali -sa tion at the doorstep’Amit Mitra, Minister for Finance, Commerce and Industries, West Bengal, India

Meeting co-chair Rajive Kaul, Chairman, Nicco Group, Indiaduring the closing plenary

Timothy Ong, Chairman and Founder, Asia Inc Forum, Brunei

A N M Muniruzzaman, President, BangladeshInstitute of Peace and Security Studies, Bangladesh

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technology, stating we ought to create aculture for people who want to learn, aslearning is important for development.And states need to be aware yet not fearfulthat when knowledge is distributed so ispower said Vinay Bapna, Co-founder andChief Executive Officer, Unomer, India.All panellists were concerned about know -ledge veracity and its application throughschemes of learning. Yet they said we mustaccept that inquisitiveness beyond a diplomais to be valued as real-life skills are acquired.Indrajit Gupta, Co-founder and Director,Founding Fuel Publishing, India stated ‘the

ability to think goes beyond qualificationas it shows competence.’

The final update panel was concerned at‘Valuing Start-ups and Entrepreneurship’– topics that would emerge throughout theHorasis meeting. The differences betweenAsia and the US are stark, noted JamesFierro, Founder and Chief ExecutiveOfficer, ECO Capacity Exchange, UK ‘inAsia it is about business and investing inR&D, while in the US individuals prefer tobuy stocks and receive dividends’. The sessionwas chaired by Shefali Rekhi, Editor, Asia

Shefali Rekhi, Editor, Asia NewsNetwork and The Straits TimesAsia Report, Singapore

Plenary ‘Shaping the Asian Century’

Prinn Panitchpakdi, Governor, Stock Exchange of Thailand,commenting on the Thai economy

Om Prakash Lohia, Chairman & Managing Director, Indo Rama Synthetics, Indonesia and Pramit Pal Chaudhuri, Foreign Editor, Hindustan Times, India

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News Network and The Straits Times AsiaReport, Singapore who asked the panelliststo consider the difficulties between havingan idea that leads an innovator towardsbeing a start-up. The acceptability of failureis different across the globe and this createsdifference management drivers. Shin Ito,Chief Executive Officer, iKoyoo Inc., Japanoffered salutary advice ‘make sure yourlocal eco-systems work for all your payingcustomers before venturing overseas.’Vaibhav Singh, Chief Executive Officer,myCOL – Circle of Life Healthcare, Indiapointed out that having a diploma was notthe end of learning ‘one needs constantly tore-skill oneself as education never ends.’

The update sessions provided a strongback-drop for the first plenary session titled‘Asia’s New Agenda’. The discussion wasled by Pramit Pal Chaudhuri, ForeignEditor, Hindustan Times, India as chair -person who noted the emergence of Asiain recent times as the most dynamic globalregion which has somewhat shocked therest of the world: yet Asia must remain

vigilant. This theme was further stressedby Yoshito Hori, Founder and Chairman,Globis, Japan who said that the speed ofleadership, creating multi-national agree -ments and high standards should not allowthe region to forget the issue of NorthKorea and consequently the need to becollaborative and consistent in dealing withperceived threats to stability. It was a facetsupported by Supachai Panitchpakdi,Former Secretary General, UN Conferen ceon Trade and Development, Thailand whostated ‘economic development is nothingwithout geo-political participation.’ Morebroadly, Om Prakesh Lohia, Chairman andManaging Director, Indo Rama Synthetics,Indonesia reminded us that cooperationought not to be concentrated in trade ofgoods but in the exchange of services as well.

The formal opening of the Second HorasisAsia Meeting could be summarised by thewords of Janab Tofael Ahmed, Ministerfor Commerce, People’s Republic ofBangladesh who noted ‘Bangladesh, oncean almost failed state is now growing well,having achieved solid innovation and withnew entrepreneurial spirits. Business hasgrown with free trade agreements across theregion. It might be said that ‘DestinationBangladesh’ is no longer a dream but a

‘Today we stand together as Asia’Shashwat Goenka, President, Indian Chamber of Commerce, India

Harshavardhan Neotia, ManagingDirector, Bengal Ambuja HousingDevelopment Ltd, India

Ron Somers, Founder, India First Group, USA, making a point Wang Dong, Secretary General,The Pangoal Institution, China

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reality.’ These sentiments were echoed byhis fellow panellists as they declared themeeting open, inviting everyone to thereception and dinner.

The day’s work began with five parallelBreakfast Session discussions. The first upon‘Asian Values 2.0’ attempted to discern ifthe old values of collectivism, authority andcollectivism were still dominant in today’sdigital world with its fast innovation andentrepreneurial modality. Variations acrossthe business world were explained byMasato Wada, CEO, J Platform, Japan,that when one looks at American values agreat deal of importance is given to indivi -

dual happiness, whereas in Europe, work-life balance is a priority. In the pursuit ofindividual happiness, European societiesdo not forget their responsibilities towardsthe weaker communities. The Chinese andJapanese more or less function on theprinciples of Confucianism. But he thoughtthe Japanese now rely too much on thegoverning organisations as a result of whichthe country is beginning to stagnate.Prashant Tandon, Founder, 1mg, India,accepted many Asian societies followauthoritative based management whereleaders are the sole decision makers. But amore collaborative managerial approach isadopted in some other nations, thus the Eastand the West are going through a massiveflux especially under multi-national colla -bo rative work modes. Shivaji Bagchi,Editor, BRINK Asia, Singapore, pointedout that technology indeed makes a hugedifference. Asia is a political construct ofcolonialism which seems to suggest thatthe continuum comes from developmentand not just the merging of Asian Values.We are moving towards the age of informa -tion where technology comes to play. It isnot the ‘what’ but the ‘how’ that makes thedifference and that will cause furtherdevelopment of the concept of ‘Asia 2.0’in the near future.

Bryan Yang, Chief Executive Officer, Inspiration Inc, China Francis Schortgen, Professor,University of Mount Union, USA

Chief Minister of Assam Sarbananda Sonowal meeting delegatesKen Pyi, Chief Executive Officer, Parami Energy, Myanmar

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The second session addressed the ‘Belt &Road’ initiative which was noted as a newventure, only four years old and calling forabout $1 trillion investment. As it is pan-Asian, in fact spreading even further overCentral Asian and European states,Nimnual Piewthongngam, DeputyDirector, E-Saan Centre, Thailand dwelledon the integration of South East Asia and theintangibles of mutual benefit, thus multi -lateral communication is quintessential.Ken Pyi, Chief Executive Officer, ParamiEnergy, Myanmar developed the idea ofT2T (Think Tank to Think Tank) relation -ships, where, through mutual cooperation,one can define opportunity and achieve it– this will become very important as thelocus shifts from a China-driven project to asemi-global project (at least in the northernhemisphere). John B. Kidd, ResearchFellow, Aston Business School, UnitedKingdom chairing the panel noted how thefinancing of project sectors might distortthe perception of an individual state’ssovereignty as one might (wrongly) perceivethis as Chinese hegemony. MashiurRahman, Economic Advisor to the PrimeMinister of Bangladesh presented a reasonedapproach ‘internal connectivity coupled withexternal connectivity is the way forwardfor sustainable growth.’ He concluded

‘Only when the leading trios of South Asiaare on board and the Belt works in conver -gence with the Act East Policy can there bestable global growth.’

The third parallel session directed discus -sion upon the ‘Asia’s digital economy’ andthe disruption this might bring. VenkatMatoory, Member, Statwick Ventures,

‘Myanmar’s economy is reboundingand macroeconomic imbalances arestabilizing with growth expected to be around 7 percent in 2018’Zaw Myint Maung, Chief Minister, Mandalay Region, Myanmar

Venkat Matoory, Member, Statwick Ventures, India, asking a question

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Dilip Cherian, Partner, Perfect Relations, India

Nimnual Piewthongngam, Deputy Director, E-Saan Center,Thailand

A discussion on Asian geopolitics

India chairing the panel spoke about thedifferent connotations of the real meaningof ‘digital’. In this context, by under stan dingmore deeply, he suggested that digitisationcould help us comprehend the disruptionsthat are happening in the present era andhow they affect our daily lives. Shiv Dave,Founder, Televisory Global and EmindobizAdvisory, Singapore citing how post 2008he has gone completely paperless in termsof his work as well as professional life. Hesuggested that the concept of digitisationbeyond the concept of development andprogression is a paradigm shift from theexisting system. However, we might like tonote the experience of one of the Horasisdelegates as he passed through the e-Visa

Immigration desk at Kolkata airport – theimmigration officer demanded a paper copyof the entry document which was held inthe visitor’s smartphone. As this was notimmediately forthcoming as a piece ofpaper the officer only reluctantly let himpass. We all have a lot to learn about thedigitisation process – while discussingdisruption in the panel it was stated thatdisruption is about the unknown still beingunknown and how we come to the realmof reality with those ideas.

‘Acting on Climate change’ – the fourthpanel’s topic is a complex global projectaffecting all nations and having goals to bemet by 2030. Dilip Dua, ManagingDirector, Krishna Hydro-Projects, India, asthe chairperson of the session, urged thepanelists to share their views and expe -rien ces in dealing with climate change.Mridula Ramesh, Founder, SundaramClimate Institute, India shared her experien -ces as she grew up amidst huge water crisisin South India. She pointed out variousindigenous examples where farmers inNorth India burn the biomass to preparefor the next harvest season instead of moreclimate friendly alternatives; and also have‘forgotten’ how to harvest monsoon waterin shallow reservoirs, rather as now, letting

Dalip Dua, Managing Director,Krishna Hydro Projects, India

Mridula Ramesh, Founder, Sundaram Climate Institute, India

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Plenary ‘Powering ASEAN’s Future’

James Fierro, Founder and CEO,ECO Capacity Exchange, United Kingdom

Amir Yaar, Chief Executive Officer,China Israel Synergy Holdings,Israel

it run-off quickly and possibly contributingto flooding down-stream. The discussion wasenriched with open contributions from thedelegates speaking on India’s enormousavailability of coal for the generation ofenergy. While some noted how India canattempt to use wind, solar and hydroelectricsystems to generate electricity, as they areassociated with no air pollution emissions,others suggested the nuclear option. Fewexpressed their conviction on this option,but it may help to take India forward.However, all agreed that creating andbuilding awareness amongst people forinitiating a nuclear power project or anypower project is not easy. It is essential toeducate people regarding climate adversityand make them realize the need for powerefficiency across all modes. HidetoshiUchiama, Chief Executive Officer, Unerry,Japan suggested ‘Big data analytics aroundcommon behaviour will be useful to solvea lot of climate change problems.’ Thisidea was agreed by Lee Wook, Chairman,W-Foundation, Korea who said ‘Creatingawareness about climate change by innova -tive communication is the way forward.’

The remaining panel in this session focusedon ‘Youthful Beliefs, socio-economic change’.Millennials are the largest stakeholders in the

world and have non-uniform value systems.For instance, the advent of radio taxis orfree-to-call services like Uber have changedtheir car ownership intentions – they areessentially looking for flexible schedules andno geographical restrictions. Sai Prakash,Founder and President, Erin Foundation,India pointed out that it is important for usto encourage the youth to choose vocatio -nal trainings or any other unconventionalcourses for the real benefit of the society.IT-apps are easy to develop, but at the endof the day the youth should be empoweredto think beyond for more sustainable dirty-hands solutions. Yet the constructs arecomplex – Varun Lohia, President, NepalYoung Entrepreneurs Forum, Nepal notedthat the power of internet is the biggesttechnology that gives the entrepreneurialenvironment its edge. The new generationshould be attuned to the importance ofservice as the differentiator and the focus on‘only’ earning money should be explainedwith vigour. Akash Bhavsar, Chief Archi -tect, SDG Accelerator, USA said that it isimportant to understand how ideas fromacademics can be used for human develop -ment. The need is to inculcate empathy inyouth, and then to mobilize the youth to becreative while they are solving problemsand adding value in the process.

Charles Tang, Chairman, Brazil-China Chamber of Commerce & Industry, Brazil Sai Prakash, Founder and President, Erin Foundation, India

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The second plenary titled ‘EconomicOutlook – the View from Asia’ was chairedby Pana Janviroj, Executive Editor, AsiaNews Network, Thailand who noted howthe Belt & Road initiative (the more modernname for the OBOR) might be an Asianfocus for many years to come, while othernations are worried about how technologi -cal progress will affect their economiesand their ability to develop regional trade.Wang Dong, Secretary General, ThePangoal Institution, China was moresanguine, stating ‘the objective of OBORis to increase connectivity and improveinfrastructure across countries.’ HuynhQuang Hai, Chief Executive Officer, VSIPGroup, Vietnam noted how inward invest -ment to Asia is high but very variable: inthe case of Vietnam, FDI has increased by

45 percent and exports have grown by 25 percent – but these exemplary figuresmust not cause complacently as regionalintegration is key. Looking from outsidethe region, Ron Somers, Founder andChief Executive Officer, India First Group,USA acknowledged that ‘innovation is thekey to success and future of economicdevelopment.’ And Myint Naing, ChiefMinister, Sagaing Region, Myanmar, statedthey, as a nation, were ready to play aninstrumental role in Asia’s connectivityand growth.

After a break five more panels were con -vened – the first concerning the effect of‘the withdrawal of the US from the TPP.’Charles Tang, Chairman, Brazil-ChinaChamber of Commerce& Industry, Brazilas chair of the panel briefly introduced theexit of US from TPP and expanded a littleupon his own views about the US departurestating ‘India and China need to be amembers of TPP as well as the US. Withoutthese big economies TPP would have a

‘All Southeast Asian economies areenjoying a robust growth resurgence’Huynh Quang Hai, Chief Executive Officer, VSIP Group, Vietnam

Varun Lohia, President, Nepal Young Entrepreneurs Forum, Nepal

Pana Janviroj, Executive Editor, Asia News Network, Thailand

Akash Bhavsar, Chief Architect, SDG Accelerator, USA

Hidetoshi Uchiyama, Chief Executive Officer,Unerry, Japan

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rocky existence’. Somewhat in agreement,Rahul Mazumdar, Chief Manager EximBank of India, expressed India’s incapabilityof leveraging TPP standards to its advantagein the current economic scenario. He alsopointed out that except for Canada andMexico, most other partner nations areprimarily export based economies. In hispoint of view, India will face challenges ifthey become a member of such trade agree -ments right now, as the country’s focus ismore toward the services sector. He summedup his views by stating that: ‘Today, tradeagreements are not the cup of tea for India’.Yet, Julius Amrit, Co-founder, Team Indus,India expressed that the effectiveness oftrade agreements depend upon the firmunderstanding of the benefits of theseagreements. He emphasised that as SMEsare the backbone of every economy, theeffectiveness of agreements should bejudged from an SME’s point of view – theyshould be encouraged and promoted totrade globally through these agreements.He highlighted that various countries andorganisations are spending fortunesdeveloping the exact same technologiesindependently which could be resolved byopen and free global trade and this freedcapital can be re-invested in other sectorswhich will help cascade economic progress

in multiple directions. Kang Chang Mo,President, Ilju Enterprise, South Koreapointed out that there are still many barriers(social, cultural, political, economic,inclu ding financial support to SMEs)among the partner Asian countries yet theyare still trading and surviving without TPP.But once TPP is implemented these barrierswill come down, more and more trade willhappen. He pointed out that the GDP gapsamong different partner nations are signifi -cant which will help contribute to TPP’ssuccess. He suggested that the partnercountries should wait for 5 to 10 years tocheck their profitability before they diveout of TPP.

Jacques Tourel, Chairman, World Trade Centre Warsaw, Poland

Wei Chuan Beng, Executive Chairman, Digital Way Ventures, Malaysia

Kang Chang Mo, President, Ilju Enterprise, Korea

Junie del Mundo, Chief Executive, EON The Stakeholder RelationsGroup, The Philippines

Erick Hadi, Chief Executive Officer, PT. Electronic Science Indonesia

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The second panel focused on ‘Asia’s newbusiness context’ was chaired by JohnWest, Executive Director, Asian CenturyInstitute, Canada who noted that govern -ments have made many beneficial policyshifts enabling new forms of investment.Siddhart Poddar, Founder and Manging

Editor, StoneBench, Singapore agreed thatthe reforms have brought about develop -ment in the region but reflected that manyfund managers have been unable to investbecause of the friction in the system, giventhe lack of centralised development acrossall the nations. It was noted that China, thelargest economy, is gradually opening todirect investment in its banking services.Pankaj Saran, Director, Andhra PradeshAerospace and Defence Electronics, Indiawas more general in his views ‘To reap therewards of the economic reforms, self-learning, up-skilling and re learning are amust.’ Susheel Kumar Saraff, Founderand Chairman, Saraff Group of Companies,Thailand while talking about job creation,reiterated that we need to focus on entre -preneurship and not only towards services– to become job-givers rather than job-seekers ‘In the present age of informationand knowledge sharing, the reforms need tobe more focussed towards inclusive growth,keeping entrepreneurship at the core.’

The third panel reviewed the ‘Asian inno va -tion scene’ and Ravishankar Gundlapalli,Chief Executive Officer, MentorCloud, USAchairing the panel invited the delegates tocomment on its diversity. Erick Hadi,Chief Executive Officer, PT. Electronic

‘Governments and businesses in Asiaare much more optimistic and that is avery good sign. It shows that countriesare willing to come together to makeAsia the economic super power’Wang Dong, Secretary General, The Pangoal Institution, China

Philippe Monin, Academic Dean,EMLYON Business School, France

JP Chowdhary, Chairman, Titagarh Wagons JohnWest, Executive Director, Asian Century Institute, Canada

Ravishankar Gundlapalli, CEO, MentorCloud, USA

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Science Indonesia, Indonesia talked aboutinnovation ‘that matters’. He was quick toclassify innovation into three kinds, incre -mental, radical and disruptive ‘Innovationmatters if it creates social impact.’ But thatraised even more questions for debate. An important intervention was given byDavid Gann, Vice President Innovation,Imperial College, United Kingdom. Helooks at innovation as a process, saying thatthe physical manifestation of innovation isnot necessarily important. He noted theadvancement of biotechnology and citedsome exotic examples like developingantimicrobial resistance and designing theDNA of yeast. He also threw a very openquestion to the panel, ‘What does successmean?’ Mr. Gann was able to give some keypointers for innovation: abundance of highquality ideas, abundance of talent, diversity,patient capital (a situation where VentureCapitalists are not in a hurry to exit thestart-up), collaboration with big industrialpartners, ability to scale quickly and theability (for VCs) to exit: ‘innovation is away to successful exploit ideas.’ Avi Basu,Chief Executive Officer and Founder,Argolis, USA believes that innovation is aprocess, and listed five questions: What arethe rules and assumptions my industryoperates under? What would happen if

opposites were true? What would be thebuying criteria of my customers for thenext five years? Who uses my product thatI didn’t imagine? What are my unshakablebeliefs about what my customers want?Start-ups he noted, call for different stylesof innovation at different stages of theirlife cycle. ‘Sometimes’, he said, ‘you andyour assumptions are the constraints.’

‘Building an Asian Brand’ is a creativeprocess that is difficult across the regions.Motoya Kitamura, Partner, ROC Partner,Japan, as chairperson, emphasized that whenAsian brands try to reach across bordersthere is always a question of language.

David Gann, Vice PresidentInnovation, Imperial College, United Kingdom

Lawrence Pratchett, Dean of Business, Law and Government,University of Canberra, Australia

A delegation from Vietnam

Motoya Kitamura, Partner, ROC Partners, Japan, chairing the panel on Asian brands

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Generally ‘the name of the brand shouldcome naturally to the people outside thedomestic market’ but due to the sensitivityof translations sometimes a strange newname is created, or one with the wrongassociations. Usually ‘branding reflects ourflow of thinking’ but the product will not sellif it is named poorly. Kanesan Veluppillai,Director, Safeguards Corporation, Malaysiaalso reiterated the problem of translating anew brand name. Managers have to makesure that the sensibilities of the local peopleand their languages are taken into accountwhen deciding about a brand name. He said‘the market dynamics change across the

borders.’ Dilip Piramal, Chairman, VIPIndustries, India noted that in about 139countries there is only one market leaderin luggage, the multinational company,Samsonite: but India is the only marketwhere it has not been able to build againstthe strong local brand of VIP. It is a 45 yearold brand – but, even as the owner of VIP, henotes he might not buy as it seems ‘dated’:‘brand loyalty makes all the difference’, butnovelty must now occur. He quoted theexample of Toyota as a generic brand butthey wanted a more aspirational brand, thusLexus was born. Mikhail Treyvish, Presi -dent, Omnigrade Universal CrowdsourcingAgency, Russia believes that branding isrequired to create global strategies. Hepointed that ‘groups of supporters whoassociate themselves with your brand helpto promote the name of your company.’He said that ‘Now is a good time for Asianbrands because people are a little tired ofthe US brands and the German brands andso on.’

And finally in this sector we come to ‘socialresponsibility’. The panel members wereasked by its chair, Takashi Kawabata, ChiefAsia Economist, Uzabase/NewsPicks, Japanhow can one accelerate inclusive growthby reconnecting core for-profit activities

Sanjiv Chopra, Addl Chief Secretary,West Bengal, with Takashi Kawabata, Chief Asia Economist, Uzabase – NewsPicks, Japan

Dilip Piramal, Chairman, VIP Industries, India

Kanesan Veluppillai, Director, Safeguards Corporation, Malaysia

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with the delivery of social benefit? SanjaySethi, Director – Sustainability, PhoenixGroup, UAE gave 3 examples of businesseswhere social benefit has been delivered. Hespoke about Jain Irrigation’s indigenizationof drip irrigation technology, Manila WaterCompany’s efforts in plugging leakages inwater supply, and the Egyptian farmerIbrahim’s start of their organic farmingrevolution in 1977. He notes that impactmeasurement is feasible and must be em -bed ded as a part of the project budget. Now,following the UN’s sustainable developmentgoals, there is unprecedented support byprivate sector companies. Diana Mao,President, NomiNetwork, USA mentionedthe case of ‘Lauren Bush Company FEEDbag’, which through shaving a little fromthe price of the bag purchases has raisedcash to buy 94 million meals for kids aroundthe world. Although the digital and socialmedia connect is driven by millennialconsumption, but it is all about creating avalue chain. Sanjeev Chopra, AdditionalChief Secretary, Agriculture Dept., Indiafocused on agriculture sector of WestBengal. Here, the farmers are marginal,farm sizes are small, but still have scopefor improvement. There are large businessfirms who can provide technological helpto improve the small sector agriculture.

‘Using right technology, institutions andunderstanding, we can create a win-winsituation’, he concluded ‘the time to net -work with good people has begun. Let’s alllive together for creating a better future.’

A special plenary after lunch focused onWest Bengal. We heard an address byMamata Banerjee, Chief Minister WestBengal, India who stressed the strategicadvantages of Kolkata and the state of WestBengal for its geographic location, its stablepolitics, and its social climate. Proximity, shesaid, to the East Asian countries justifiedthe position of West Bengal as a gateway tocountries like Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh,China, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, andThailand. It is a success story of strategiescentred on the improvement of compe -tive ness and thus West Bengal is one of thetop Indian states on ‘Ease of Doing BusinessMatrix’. This sentiment was supported bySanjiv Goenka, Chairman, RP-SanjivGoenka Group, India, joint chair of thissession, who noted that over the last sixyears there has been a considerable changeof work culture and investment opportuni -ties in West Bengal. The state has maintainedgood relations with its industrial counter -parts as well as the working class to avoidloss of revenue due to industrial strikes.

Marko Kasic, Founder, FundLifeInternational, United Kingdom

Amitabh Jaipuria, Chief Executive Officer, Quess Corp Global Service, India

Diana Mao, President, NomiNetwork, USAMikhail Treyvish, President, Omnigrade Universal Crowdsourcing Agency, Russia

Sanjay Sethi, Director, Phoenix Global, UAE

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It has become a place with burgeoninginvestment in infrastructure and supportspositive change in all sectors includingeducation, health, social, and has shiftedfrom dependency on agriculture to theindustrial sector; and is a marvel in theIndia’s growth trajectory.

The next session, a plenary, discussed how‘ASEAN could power the region’s future’

chaired by Pranjal Sharma, ContributingEditor, BusinessWorld, India who guidedthe discussions about ‘The View from Asia’the panel members. Timothy Ong, Chair -man and Founder, Asia Inc Forum, Bruneisaid that the ASEAN countries are good inconflict management and conflict resolution,and this could open doors to ‘let a thousandflowers bloom.’ He noted the scope forcollaboration is immense, and individualnations have precision interventions. For instance, the Indian entrepreneurialspirit and ability to manage technology isappreciable and that it makes ASEAN nationsrespect India: ultimately, the ‘Asian centuryis a work in progress.’ Prinn Panitchpakdi,Governor, Stock Exchange of Thailand,Thailand said that he wished India engagedmore in developing regionalism whilediscussing generally how to address non-tariff barriers. He noted various platformslike ASEAN-China and ASEAN-India fundsare being set up which are essential to longterm growth and eventual gains from trade.Tan Yuvaroath, Deputy Director Generalof Trade Promotion, Ministry of Commerce,Cambodia continued this discussion on howASEAN nations can become more cohesive.He cited tariff barriers as one of the realissues affecting trade: issues like lack offree movement of goods and services are a

‘Kolkata is the ideal location to ad -vance the region’s economic, politicaland social agenda, being India’s gate -way to ASEAN and the whole of Asia’Mamata Banerjee, Chief Minister, West Bengal, India

Plenary session – Asia’s New AgendaPeggy Choi, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Lynk, Hong Kong

Pranjal Sharma, Contributing Editor, BusinessWorld, chairing a panel

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hindrance to growth, ‘We need more inte -gration between the nations and businesseswith implementation being the focus.’ This was also a sentiment expressed byMohan Das Pai, Chairman, ManipalGlobal Education; President, AIMA, Indiawho said ‘This is the Asian century and weneed to create a forum to instil an excite mentfor Asia.’ Thiri Thant Mon, ManagingPartner, Sandanila Investments, Myanmarsummed up the plenary intonating thechallenge lies in maintaining harmony andbringing about the changes: ‘I would liketo see a push towards greater integration.While technology is the key, we also needheart and need to be smart about drivingground level growth and infrastructure.’

Further parallel Boardroom Dialogue ses -sions followed – the first of five focused onthe growing mode in Asia of using ‘venturecapital’ was chaired by Akinori Niimi,Chief Executive Officer, ACA InvestmentsIndia, Japan who noted how investment

was growing across Asia and not only fromfamily wealth, but from institutions.Martin Haemmig, Visiting Professor,Renmin University, China said that thearrival of global investors depend on theperformance of the country. He cited theimportance of time value of money andinsisted that it be invested to avoid theopportunity cost. In terms of the globalinvestment, Asia has 35% of money in ves tedthrough Venture capital. Also, in total thereare 170 funds actively venturing capital inthe early stage and 102 funds in the growthstage. Hence, a massive evolution for theVenture capital scene has been observedover the last decade – ‘If the performanceis good then the global investors come and

‘Positive demographics and risingincomes shall advance Asia’s presentgrowth narrative’Timothy Ong, Chairman and Founder, Asia Inc Forum, Brunei

Sanjay Budhia, Managing Director, Patton Group of Companies, India

Tan Yuvaroath, Deputy Director General of Trade Promotion, Ministry of Commerce, Cambodia

Akinori Niimi, CEO, ACA Investments India, Japan

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that’s good news for Asia.’ This wassuppor ted by Gaurav Chopra, Founder,Indialends, India who stated that it’s notabout the best deal on the table, whatmatters is the support of the investor andthe extent of the support. Vaibhav Singh,Chief Executive Officer, myCOL- Circleof Life Healthcare, India said that money israised from B2B projects in his sector.Sometimes it becomes a function of howquickly the investors want the company togrow. It’s also imperative to know that whilelocal business is becoming competitive onemust venture out and look for internatio nalopportunities. Yoshiki Sasaki, ChiefExecutive Officer, Japan Strategic Capital,Japan, explained that it’s difficult to persuadeVenture capitalists to invest in the early

stage of business. But, Japan is adapting tochanges and the first investment examplewas in the Artificial Intelligence sector.However Japanese young corporates are alsochanging and are becoming less dependenton family and friends for capital back-up.And Kazushige Kobayashi, ManagingDirector, CapitalDynamics, Japan believesthat investments are to be done worldwideand not just in domestic market, althoughhe strongly agrees on the fact that Japan isgrowing.

A second discussion concerned ‘Inclusive nessand the Asian gender gap’. How can morewomen be brought into business? PreetiDubey, Founder and Director, Strive High,Singapore, chairing the panel set the scene,emphasizing the need of having more womenrole models to provide an inspiration to theupcoming generation. According to her,women in India have made a huge progresseven at a global level. Yet, economic partici -pation of women remains quite low at 58%and political empowerment stands at only

‘Japan is increasingly competing toinvest in infrastructure projects inSoutheast Asia’Yoshito Hori, Founder and Chairman, Globis, Japan

Preeti Dubey, Founder andDirector, Strive High, Singapore

Martin Haemmig, Visiting Professor, Renmin University, China

Ken Koyanagi, Editor-at-Large, Nikkei Asian Review, Japan, on public accountability

Yoshiki Sasaki, CEO, Japan Strategic Capital, Japan

Alistair Howard, Associate Dean, Temple University Japan, with Toshihiro Toyoshima, Chief Executive Officer, Mercuria Investment Co., Japan

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23%. While the percentage of literatewomen has gone up to 48% we still do nothave many women representatives on theBoard of companies across the globe. If weprogress at the current rate, it might takeus over 200 years to achieve equality withmen. And Rose Swe, Co-founder, MangoGroup, Myanmar enthusiastically exclaimed‘Women really know how to multi-task!But they still have a tough time climbingtheir way up to the top in spite of beingequal and sometimes more capable.’Shital Somani, Co-founder, Science forSociety, India pointed out the day to dayresistance that women face in general withintheir families. She reflected on the wide -spread notion that women, once they reacha certain age, have to question their timedevoted to family or pursuing their passionat the same time. To tackle the problems of the dual-role as an entrepreneur on onehand and as a mother on the other, sherecommends role changes and job-sharingduring maternity leaves as possible measures‘Resistance starts within the family and thatis how it passes on to society as a whole.’Rekha Sethi, Director General, All IndiaManagement Association, India agreed,stating ‘Gender discrimination prevails insubtle ways today. Access to health care andeducation for women is inadequate.’ This

session highlighted the challenges womenface at a psychological level. Women areoften conditioned to think in a way thatmakes them feel guilty when they are notin a position to deliver their best in each oftheir roles as a mother, a wife, a daughterand as a working woman. The panellistsagreed that the gender gap issue is morethan just a male vs female debate. It isdeep-rooted in our culture that needsprescriptive acculturation across boundariesand prejudices. However some hope wasexpressed by Matthew White, Co-Founder,Nu Advisory, Vietnam who noted ‘I don'tthink the past is going to represent whatthe future looks like. Things are changingand we find more and more successfulwomen today.’

Rose Swe, Co-founder, Mango Group, Myanmar

Rekha Sethi, Director General, All India Management Association, India Shin Ito, Chief Executive Officer, iKoyoo Inc., Japan

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‘Reorienting Education in Asia’ was thetitle of another panel. Atul Temurnikar,Executive Chairman, Global SchoolsFoundation, Singapore and chair of thispanel asked the discussants ‘Are our kidslearning from what we are teaching?’eliciting an immediate reply from MohitAnand, Visiting Professor, EMLYONBusiness School, France who highlightedthe mismatch between big expectation andreality. He said the focus should be onhelping the problem identifiers and not onproblem solvers. In the current scenario,students take specializations as per acompany’s specifications since educational

institutions are essentially perceived as jobproviders. Shiv Khera, Founder, QualifiedLearning Systems, USA pointed out thevirtues of three Ps (People Skills, Persua sionSkills & Prioritization Skills) that would berelevant for the present generation. WhenPeople Skills are mastered, other problemsget solved automatically. V Balaji, Founder,Grade1to6.com, India, pointed out thevoid in the school education system that isprevalent in India: lack of critical thinking,critical curriculum and inter-personal skillorientation needs timely introspection.Further, a connected curriculum betweenschools, colleges and the University systemneeds to be worked out with a freer handto the teaching community. He did notmention the presently appalling achieve -ment grades across India in his target range– Grades 1 to 6 – that might nullify thecommonly accepted demographic dividend.Even so, Dilip Chenoy, Chairman, SantLongowal Institute of Engineering andTechnology, India said novel ideas like FlipClassroom, Life Projects, Virtual Learning,Virtual Laboratories should be brought into strengthen the new architecture for theeducation system in Asia. Which was agreedby Shriya Damani, Co-founder, SkyquestTechnology Group, India demandedEducational institutions should work as

Atul Temurnikar, Executive Chairman, Global Schools Foundation, Singapore

Shiv Khera, Founder, Qualified Learning Systems, USA in discussion with Frank-Jürgen Richter

Jayesh Parekh, Managing Partner, Jungle Ventures, Singapore,chairing a panel

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learning institutions that impart criticallearning around skills like problem identifi -cation and problem solving that are complex.Rakesh Murali, Co-founder, Stratonik,India asked for holistic learning that incor -po rated the academic as well as traditionalskills. And he was supported by AlokTibrewal, Chairman, Omdayal Group ofInstitutions, India further emphasised theneed for skill training. He expressed thatthe skill foundation would be built on thebasis of learning innovation that identifiesthe need to provide proper care and guidanceto students who are weak in studies. Andfinally, perhaps ultimately, Nick Jonow,Partner, Pacific Consulting Group, HongKong said ‘Curiosity in young minds shouldbe encouraged to help develop interest inthe culture of innovation.’

Turning to the key to much of Asia’s success‘Family Businesses’, Lawrence Abeln,Dean, AIT School of Management, Thailandchaired this panel and over time leddelegates to address a series of questions.Delegates were asked how talented entre -pre neurs nurture heirs. Mark Daniell,Chairman, Raffles Family Wealth Trust,Singapore spoke extensively on legacystrategy and he dwelt on the time whenfamilies need to start thinking about

managing wealth effectively. Identifying theright time would be crucial for the businessessuccess. He also noted the old adage thatbusinesses managed by the 3rd generationseem to become under-performers. Thiscan be attributed to cultural variations andgeneration gaps within which the 3rd-genmanagers are unable to identify with thevision that the previous generations had forthe business. Genri Goto, CEO, JaQool,Japan suggested that education plays a keyrole in successorship of the business as themain challenges faced by these businesses areglobalisation, the shortening of the industrylifecycle and the local orientation of the

Shriya Damani, Co-founder,Skyquest Technology Group, India

Dilip Chenoy, Chairman, Sant Longowal Institute of Engineering and Technology

Mark Daniell, Chairman, Raffles Family Wealth Trust, Singapore

Genri Goto, Chief Executive Officer, JaQool, JapanDelegates from Myanmar

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businesses. Future generations find it hardto align goals leading to a failing succession.One solution was noted by DaisukeTakatsuki, MD, CVC Capital Partners,Japan stating that the success of successionof family businesses in Japan owes much tothe current trend where the Japanese familybusinesses often hire talented corporateleaders to support them and manage withmore efficiency. Shea Wickramsingha,Managing Director, Ceylon Biscuits, SriLanka suggested the need to instil valueswhere the successors of the business areencouraged to take initiatives of their ownto truly garner a larger perspective of whata business is in reality. This was accepted

by Ajit Shah, Managing Director, LotusHoldings, Nepal who spoke from his ownexperience where he suggested that as asuccessor of a family business one shouldonly do things that they one is good at andfor the rest be a facilitator for change.Bringing in talent from outside and allowingfor collaborative management style is key inchanging times. The thrust for growth willbe an important differentiator for successfulfamily owned businesses, ‘in family ownedbusinesses it is important to reinvent yourbusiness constantly.’ The chair of the panelLawrence Abeln concluded ‘Deep personalrelationships and strong networks establishedthrough the value chain in family ownedbusinesses are the driving forces of success.’

Of great current interest globally is thedrive to capture the power of ArtificialIntelligence. This panel looked towards‘Trusting the Unknown’ was chaired byJayesh Parekh, Managing Partner, JungleVentures, Singapore who noted, and notonly in Asia, that Artificial Intelligence (AI)is expanding exponentially, transformingalmost all aspects of our lives. On thedownside, two-thirds of jobs in Asia couldbe lost and replaced by AI and Robots.Pravin Chandrasekaran, Chief Exe cu -tive Officer, OpalCrest, USA expressed the

Shoummo K Acharya, CEO, eTrans Solutions, India, with Kobsak Chutikul, Secretary-General, Asian Peace and Reconciliation Council, Thailand

Lawrence Abeln, Dean, AIT School of Management, Thailand,chairing a panel on family business

Ajit Shah, Managing Director, Lotus Holdings, Nepal

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importance of a balance between humancapital and machine. ‘Human creativitycannot be replaced by machines’ so it isimportant to determine how and in whatsector changes are to be made. Eddie Thai,Partner, 500 Startups, Vietnam stated thatAI is just a layer across every single sectorboth digital and offline, and often we don’tnotice the seamless join ‘Don’t fear thechange, embrace it.’ Sanjay Choudhary,Founder and Chief Executive Officer,Crowdinvest, United Kingdom discussedhow technology has become an inevitablepart of daily life and made work space moreefficient. ‘Enterprises which can see thefuture and adapt will be the leaders infuture.’ Inevitably therefore Robots areredefining the nature of work. Improvedalgorithms have made machines capable ofstructured learning themselves. As it isfaster to train machines than humans, thecurrent education system needs to beadapted so that we can reskill people whosejobs are being replaced by AI. SunandanDowerah, Executive Vice President,Danieli, Italy explained carefully that a fullcost/benefit analysis ought to be undertakenbefore ‘rushing into new technology’.Kumar P Saha, Managing Director,Senrysa Technologies, India highlightedhow AI has significantly transformed the

professional sector, especially the banking,healthcare and manufacturing sector – inparticular ‘big data’ 360 Degree Customerprofiling is benefiting the banking sectortremendously.

Following a coffee break the chair of thesession ‘Corporate Asia’s Global Expansion’Manish Maheshwari, Chief ExecutiveOfficer, Network 18 Digital, India notedoutbound investments are rising, with Asiaaccounting for around 30% of the invest -ments into the global economy. Asiancorporations are growing in transnationalmarkets, especially those from China andIndia. Global mergers and acquisitions

Sanjiv Puri, Chief Executive Officer, ITC, India

Pravin Chandrasekaran, ChiefExecutive Officer, OpalCrest, USA

Eddie Thai, Partner, 500 Startups, Vietnam, on Artificial Intellegence

Daisuke Takatsuki, Managing Director, CVC Capital Partners, Japan

Sanjay Choudhary, Founder and Chief ExecutiveOfficer, Crowdinvest, United Kingdom

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have also been on a rise and have played acrucial role in Asia’s presence globally. It wassaid that the Asian economies are on thecusp of transformation from intra-regionalexpansions and have global aspirations togrow. Kian Hoe Seah, Managing Director,Heng Hiap Industries, Malaysia noted thatbeing global suppliers for major players inhigh quality sectors, there is a need tomobilize resources from all over the globe.In terms of strategic goals there was a clearfocus on pan Asian market penetration andutilization of the growing ASEAN markets.Than Aung, Chief Executive Officer,MaximaxSolution, Myanmar thought thateven though Myanmar lacks primary infra -

structure in many avenues, it may still be aveiled potential for the state in terms of theamount of development that can happen inthe future. Kazuma Yamauchi, ChiefOperating Officer, KonMari Media Inc,Japan spoke of China and its differenceswith Japan in being more oriented to thewestern world. In terms of market dynamics,Japan has around 16 trillion of assets in bankaccounts and capital markets. Although thefigure is huge growth is hindered in theJapanese market, they are thus investingoutside to keep up the growth. But in Japanthe traditional culture is very stressful whichis why it becomes difficult to attract newtalent from outside. Naoaki Mashita,Chief executive Officer, V-Cube, Japanmentioned how a change in mind-set isrequired and there is a lot of room to growfor IT in Japan. New entrepreneurs arecoming up but it’s still a challenge forJapanese companies to succeed outsideowing to cultural differences amongcountries. He said, echoing Yamauchi, wefocus on Japanese investors and unless weare comfortable with an English speakingmarket, venturing into western economiesis difficult. Jonathan Ward, PrincipalCommercial Officer, US Consulate General,Kolkata started with the US being thenumber one foreign investor overseas. FDI

Nitin Mantri, Chief Executive Officer, Avian Media, India

Sudhir Sharma, Chairman, Mitkat Services, India Lee Kwang, Acting Ambassador of South Korea to India, in a discussion

KV Rao, Resident Director – ASEAN, Tata Sons Ltd, Singapore

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in the USA in 2012 was $2.17 trillion and4 years it has gone to $4.6 trillion. Hesuggests, the economic ties between theUS and Asia Pacific continue to increase.There may be some blips but the situation itwill only get better which is an interestingreflection on President Trump’s attitude toTPP, and trade deals in general.

The next discussion on ‘Smart Cities’ notedfirst of all that ‘Smart’ is difficult to under -stand. Worsak Kanok-Nukulchai,President, Asian Institute of Technology,Thailand chaired the panel citing that Smartcities should be able to optimize the cityoperations with the help of ICT andInternet-of-things and connect all the peopleinhabiting the cities. Smart cities shouldfeature the provision of clean infrastructure,energy and connectivity and sustainabilityfor the future generations. He recognisedone of the major reasons for urbanizationis paucity of jobs. In the digital age, jobsdo not need to be in cities. He talked of‘Digital Nomads’ who only need the servicesof the internet to work. With access todigital technology, healthcare and energyneeds could be deurbanized, but as morethan half of the Asian population lives incities what would be the smart solution?Anil Bhaskaran, Managing Director,

Idea Centre Architects, India reflected onthe existing problem in cities such astraffic congestion, pollution, power andwater shortages, affordable housing andwaste management. Thus, if the cities areallowed to grow infinitely, all their supplychannels will get congested. Therefore, citydesign should be done only by hardcoreexperts and cities should be made modular.Appropriate technology could make thecities smart as well as sustainable if a cityhad a maximum diameter of 35 minutes ofwalking distance. This way we can eliminatecars and congestion. But cities have grownin an uncontrolled way and are not smart inany way. Nitin Tripathi, Professor, Asian

Sang Yeon Hwang, Co-Founder,Heartisans, Hong Kong

Worsak Kanok-Nukulchai, President, Asian Institute of Technology

Mohana Prabhakar, Chief Executive Officer, Apex Press andPublishing, Oman

Sunandan Dowerah, Executive Vice President,Danieli, Italy

Kumar P Saha, Managing Director, Senrysa Technologies, India

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Institute of Technology, Thailand cited thattoday almost 68% of India lives in cities.When thinking of smart cities, one shouldthink of medium level cities and make themsmarter. Geoffrey Clements, Chairman,Commonwealth Infrastructure Partners,United Kingdom emphasized that we needto reverse the psychology that urbanizationis essential for economic development. Weneed to build smart countryside and smartvillages. This will help prevent the erosionof the rural community. Many cities aretorn apart because they are alienating thepeople and not capturing the communityspirit. Local off-grid solutions for the ruralcommunities are going to be fundamental.‘Traditional cities that grow organically,

grow on the basis of community.’ Howeverthe panel recognised that some solutionslike electric vehicles are needed to reducepollution, but for some mega-cities and inAsia there are expected to be at least 30 by2025 the whole situation has entered intochaos. Reverse engineering may not bepossible. Takeshi Izuka, President, A2ATown Cambodia, Cambodia said ‘we arenot the professionals, we are the users. Weenjoy cities if they are good for us.’

‘The Indian economy’s prospects for thenext couple of years look very good.’Suresh Prabhu, Union Minster for Commerce and Industry, India

Cod Satrusayang, Managing Editor, Asia News Network,Thailand, chairing a panel on Knowledge as a Public Good

Geoffrey Clements, Chairman, Commonwealth Infrastructure Partners, United Kingdom

Panel ‘Artificial Intelligence – Trusting the Unknown’

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‘Capital Market reform in Asia’ was thenext topic. Tom Luescher, Chairman,SwissCham Singapore, Singapore as chair ofthe panel presented a concise summary ofthe issues. The most important agenda tobe considered for the financial and capitalmarket from Asia’s perspective have beennoted as – Performance, Inclusion andControl. Aiming at the efficiency improve -ment, the capital market in the region hasembraced the technological advancementsin the domain. Artificial Intelligence,Blockchain and Internet of Things are threeof the disruptive technologies that themarket will have to adopt to have a betterperformance and maintain the global com -petitiveness. Interoperability of differentfinancial markets to ensure free trade dependson having common platform through tech -nological development and implemen tation.The Asian capital market needs to have self-dynamic power to grow, and there is aneed of a regulatory body that understandsthe technologies and can strike a balancebetween technological innovations andregulatory reforms to control the market‘the regulatory bodies shall first embracethe new technologies, understand them andthen only they will realise how to regulatethe capital market in terms of these tech -nologies.’ Much of the above was agreed by

Nitin Datta, Managing Partner, ChanksBusiness Services, United Kingdom statedthe Government and Royal Bank of India(RBI) have been working towards inclusivegrowth and the changes in the economicpolicies indicate a bright future for theCapital Market, but we still need someradical changes. And in the spirt of jointAsian cooperation Roopendra NarayanRoy, Founder and Chief Executive Officer,Sumantrana, India suggested the Distri -buted Ledger Technology that was beingimplemented in various European countries:this will take out the middle man from thecapital markets. Thus, instead of reinventingit every time, countries shall open up and

Lee Wook, Chairman, W-Foundation, Korea

Vinita Bajoria, Executive Director, Titagarh Wagons, India

Hans J. Roth, Chairman, EurAsia Competence, SwitzerlandBinod Bawri, Chairman, Bawri Group, India Subhendu Moitra, Senior Vice President, SBICapital Markets, India

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adopt technologies and frameworks fromother bodies who have succeeded in thedomain. Hiran Embuldeniya, Director,Ironwood Capital Partners, Sri Lanka in Asiaas a whole ‘The countries need expertiseand talent to exploit the capital market andclosing down in terms of people partici -pation from foreign countries would greatlyhamper the market. Policy makers shallbring in the reforms to bring in moreparticipation’

The session on ‘Tourism in Asia’ was chairedby Tatsuya Masubuchi, Chief ExecutiveOfficer, HighNetWorthLab, Japan. Hebriefly introduced the topic and discussedthe growth of tourist industry in Asia Pacific

region and the importance of the touristindustry in creating jobs and in increasingwealth in the target countries. He expressedconfidence on multi-country cooperationto promote tourism in South East Asiannations. Praveen Roy, Advisor – Skills,Confederation of Indian Industry, Indiafurther highlighted the need to developsustainable tourism. He also discussed theimportance of developing the entrepre neur -ship spirit amongst local residents whichcan help reduce geo-demographic shiftswhile developing a tourist site. However abalance had to be struck between the site’sattractiveness (in bringing in busloads oftourists) against destroying the intrinsicworth of the site. Sailesh Purswani, Pre -si dent, Thai Martin Group, Thailand, notedAsian tourism industry is very affordable andattractive to foreign tourists but also findingit exacerbates the over-load situation. Hepointed out education and skilled labour isnecessary for this industry to remain sus -tain able. Shiv Siddhant Kaul, ManagingDirector, NICCO Engineering Services,India noted a forecast of 535 milliontourists who might arrive in Asia and thePacific region by 2030. According to him,there is a need to develop clusters and hubsof tourist destinations to absorb this hugeinflux of tourists which can also act as hubs

Tatsuya Masubuchi, Chief Executive Officer, HighNetWorthLab, Japan

David James, President, BSI Corporation, USA

Shea Wickramasingha, Managing Director, Ceylon Biscuits, Sri Lanka

Praveen Roy, Advisor – Skills, Confederation of Indian Industry, India

Sailesh Purswani, President, Thai Martin Group, Thailand

Tunku Abdul Aziz, Chairman Advisory Board, Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission, Malaysia

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for the skilling of staff and provide modelsfor potential entrepreneurs who can thenhelp develop new destinations in far-offlocations. He emphasized the need to in -crease corporation amongst Asian countriesto reduce Visa restrictions, and the need toreduce constraints in private and publicsectors to help promote tourism. AtriBhattachrya, Principal Secretary, Tourism,West Bengal discussed the importance oftourism for the state in contrast to the costof setting up manufacturing industries thathas very high cost (land, environment, timeetc) and possibly low employment giventhe increasing use of robots. Hence tourismsector offers a good solution for generatingemployment. Finally Chris Robb, Founderand Chief Executive Officer, Mass Partici pa -tion Asia, Singapore discussed the increasingimportance of sports tourism for the tourismindustry as 50% of these tourists returnfor recreational tourism. According to himsports tourism is directly linked to wellnessand fitness of the host state.

‘Managing Asian firms’ was the title of thefinal boardroom session chaired by RajeevSingh, Director General, Indian Chamberof Commerce, India. He noted Asianenterprises increasingly subscribe tointernational best management practices.He noted the adoption of technology byvarious Asian countries is at different levelssince companies had looked for partnersover differing time-scales. In India there isthe added complexity of every state havingunique business challenges. So managers,so called ‘Next Generation’ face differentculture and values. Better governance,better management and transparency arerequired by businesses to compete globally.

‘Asia represents a huge potentialglobal growth engine to the worldeconomy. Bangladesh, in particular, is hitting record growth figures’Tofael Ahmed, Minister of Commerce, Bangladesh

Matlub Ahmad, Chairman, Nitol Niloy Group, Bangladesh

Shiv Siddhant Kaul, Managing Director, Nicco Engineering Services, India

Chris Robb, Founder and Chief Executive Officer,Mass Participation Asia, Singapore

Vinod Juneja, Vice President, SAARC Chamber of Commerce & Industry, India

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Abdul Matlub Ahmed, Chairman,Nitol-Niloy Group, Bangladesh suggestedAsian business systems should attempt tomix the best practices of local and Westernmodes. And Binod Bawri, Chairman,Bawri Group, India suggested we need moreclarity upon business goals: focus on wealthcreation not just cash values ‘wealth creationwill only be successful through continuousvalue addition in any organization.’Subhendu Moitra, Senior Vice President,SBI Capital Markets, India said that businessis changing and product and enterprise lifecycles have shortened. Artificial Intelligenceis growing exponentially and by 2025 it issaid it will surpass human intelligence.Even so, ‘Knowledge is ineffective unlessyou innovate and this has to be done bymixing technology and entrepreneurialskills.’ And finally Hans J. Roth, Chairman,EurAsia Competence, Switzerland suggestedAsian nations are generally integrated withintheir social environment, whereas Europeansdetach themselves from society. This makesthem perform better in research anddevelopment; and their approach is strongerat the strategic level, whereas Asian nationsare more inclined to focus on the operationallevel. Thus ‘while the West has strength instrategy, a new combination of strategy andoperations would work wonders for Asian

nations, but it’s very difficult to combineboth strategies.’

The closing plenary looked to the future toconsider ‘Shaping the Asian Century’. It waschaired by Rajive Kaul, Chairman, NiccoGroup, India who introduced SarbanandaSonowal, Chief Minister, Assam, India.He said that the ‘Act East Policy’ is thebiggest enabler of economic developmentfor North East India and highlighted thepotential sectors for investment in Assam asphytopharma, food processing, oil and gasas well as tourism; he hoped Assam wouldbecome India’s first pollution-free State.Rajive Kaul, Chairman, Nicco Group,India reiterated the many voices heard atthis meeting saying something like ‘the 21st

century is the century of Asia’ but he warnedthere are many difficulties ahead. This wasagreed by Hemant Kanoria, Chairman,Srei Infrastructure Finance, India whonoted the region had to concentrate upon‘Reskilling manpower to imbibe IT skillsand digitization.’ And very importantly,

‘The ‘Act East Policy’ is the biggestenabler of economic development for North East India‘Sarbananda Sonowal, Chief Minister, Assam, India

Sarbananda Sonowal, Chief Minister, Assam, India Niraj Sharan, Chief Executive Officer, Aura Inc.,chairing a panel

Soe Myint, Editor In-Chief and Managing Director,Mizzima Media Group, Myanmar, making a point

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echoing many voices heard during the panelsessions, Bryan Yang, Chief ExecutiveOfficer, Inspiration Inc., China repeatedthat ‘China and India should cooperate andcollaborate.’

The closing dinner considered the theme‘India – the next superpower’. RudraChatterjee, Executive Director, LuxmiTea, India chaired, and suggested ‘we needto strongly digitize to bring efficiency intogovernment and business’s functioning’.

On that note he introduced Amit Mitra,Minister for Finance, Commerce& Industries,West Bengal, India who opined there was aninteresting geopolitical matrix emerging inAsia. He continued, stating that globalisationwas set to create a borderless world. Andwith care, social entrepreneurship can be aneffective way of delivering globalisation atthe doorstep. He believed that West Bengalhas already initiated fully integrated financialmanagement services and e-governancewhich bodes well for its bright economicand social future.

In conclusion the Second Horasis AsianBusiness Meeting has competently promoteda broad discussion of the factors that supportgrowth, success and security of the region.The many delegates took away ideas thatcould bring new ventures to the table overthe next year and beyond.

Finally, Horasis is pleased to invite you allto join the next meeting – the third AsianBusiness Meeting which will further catalysepositive change and joint development.

Discussion about trends of tourism in Asia

Arrival of Chief Minister Banerjee

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The evening was framed by traditional musicThe Victoria Memorial, one of Kolkata's landmarks

Belur Math, located on the river Ganges

The team of the Indian Chamber of Commerce

Some of the delegates were set for a cruise on the River Ganges, on the day after the event

Informal luncheon upon arrival

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