SINGAPORE, Oct. 15 (Xinhua) -- With China's economy growing at a fast pace and a vibrant spirit in its young people, there is huge potential for many "Jack Mas" of the world to rise up, said Allan Zeman, chairman of Lan Kwai Fong Group, a major property owner and developer in Hong Kong.
Zeman made the remarks in response to the question whether China would produce more entrepreneurs like Alibaba's former executive chairman Jack Ma or whether it was just a one-time phenomenon.
Zeman was among the five speakers in a dialogue during the Forbes Global CEO Conference 2019 held in Singapore on Tuesday. The two-day event kicked off with the first session "Global Economy - The Imperfect Storm," where the speakers discussed topics including the collision between geopolitics and macroeconomics, volatile shifts in trade and investment flows and its impact on businesses. The session was moderated by Rich Karlgaard, editor-at-large of Forbes Media.
A key policy priority should be to ensure robust domestic demand and better income distribution to create a "sizable middle class" to compensate for a weaker external environment. This will be the key differentiator among countries, said Yuwa Hedrick-Wong, visiting scholar at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, National University of Singapore.
Amid weakening global demand and a situation of "entrenched uncertainty," emerging Asia is in the "best position to weather the storm," with China as an important anchor for the region, said Hedrick-Wong, who is also chief economics commentator at Forbes Asia.
This region has the most sophisticated and dense global value chains while ASEAN countries like Thailand and the Philippines are beginning to turn their investment ratio into GDP, he said.
Despite the challenging climate, savvy investors can also take advantage of new opportunities "in a positive way," said Antoine Firmenich, founding partner of Alatus Capital, a European-based value investment management firm.
"The reality is that through rivalry, some companies will stumble... and if these are good companies in good sectors... this is wonderful because after a stumble, you can pick them up at a cheaper price and try to do (something) for social good," said Firmenich.
Now in its 19th year, the conference is an annual gathering for some 400 global CEOs, tycoons, entrepreneurs, investors and mind leaders to discuss key issues of global concern and build new partnerships.
Themed "Transcending the Turbulence," this year's conference examines how CEOs, companies and countries are navigating the challenges and opportunities arising from the storm of uncertainty in the global economy.
