Business Leaders Discuss Innovative Strategies for COVID-19 Pandemic

For Immediate Release
PRESS RELEASE

Business Leaders Discuss Innovative Strategies for COVID-19 Pandemic

May 27, 2020, HK: Amid the global spread of the novel coronavirus pandemic, the second webinar organized by China Daily, themed “Economic Impact of the Pandemic: A New Approach to Doing Business” was held today with the aim of helping businesses gain new insights and opportunities in the current challenging environment. The webinar attracted some 200 business leaders, investors, academics and Consulate Generals from across the globe.

Enterprises embracing a wide range of sectors from across Asia have been struggling to keep themselves afloat, with economies battered in the face of national lockdowns. Hong Kong saw its unemployment rate hitting 5.2 percent between February and April this year – the highest in more than a decade -- while the number of people who were jobless climbed to 3.1 percent – the highest for the past 15 years. Although the number of daily cases of coronavirus infections in Asia has been falling and some regions are gradually returning to normal, the path to economic recovery remains fraught with challenges.

The webinar consisted of two parts. Prof. Xiao Geng, President, Hong Kong Institution for International Finance, talked about the “Economic Recovery Outlook post-COVID-19” in the first part, analyzing the overall economic recovery as the daily coronavirus infection rate has slowed down dramatically. Prof. Xiao also shared his insights on China’s economic development in the second half of 2020, based on the economic policies unveiled at the third session of the 13th National People’s Congress this year.

Prof. Xiao Geng said that in regard to the China-US relations in post-COVID 19 world, there are three issues to consider, including national security, people’s needs and global order. He pointed out that without the cooperation between China and US, the whole world can achieve nothing, like what have happened during this pandemic crisis. He thought that there is only one way to deal with their relations, which is to cooperate. Otherwise, the cost will be so big for the whole world.

With cloud-based remote work becoming the new normal, companies are moving internal assessment work, staff training, team meetings and interviews online, and it’s estimated that business travel budgets could be trimmed by about 20 percent as a result.

The second part of the webinar features three prominent speakers -- Mr. Tim Lee, Founder & CEO, QFPay; Mr. Dennis Ng, Founder and CEO, Mober Technology Pte; and Ms. Edith Yeung, General Partner, Race Capital – shared their insights and survival strategies under the current economic climate.

Tim Lee said the pandemic has moved the development of the whole mobile payment related industries and all digital payment businesses at least three years faster. He thought it’s also a really good opportunity to deepen people’s knowledge of digital payment and accelerate digitalization of corporations.

Dennis Ng said during the lockdown, instead of reacting to on-demand delivery platforms, they decided to focus on how to make their business sustainable. He said that they want to create a community and give customers an easy way to book deliveries from malls.

Edith Yeung thought it’s the time when entrepreneurs and founders need to be realistic and think hard to cut costs as the hard time may last at least 1 to 2 years. She pointed out that Chinese entrepreneurs are good at presenting and explaining their products to others, but for venture capital companies, compared with the product itself, they care more about if founders really understand the market and have a clear mindset of how to run a business.

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About China Daily Asia Leadership Roundtable
The China Daily Asia Leadership Roundtable is a by-invitation network of movers and shakers in Asia, providing platforms for focused dialogue, issue investigation and possible collective action on strategic issues relating to Asia’s economic, business and social development. Our aim is to enhance communication and increase mutual understanding between China, Asian and Western countries. Roundtable events are held in major cities across Asia.