StarBiz Summit 2021

This presentation uses three cases to frame the topic: two are winners of the APEC Prosperity Award; and the third the case of Vevoenah Mosibin who hiked up a hill in Rural Sabah to study and complete her exams when Malaysia went into lock down and she needed to get internet access. These three cases are but pieces of a picture of what needs to be done if Malaysia is to make headway in ensuring we have the eco-system to facilitate our digital transformation, and an inclusive digital economy.

She also posits that the future will be less about regional economic integration and more about regional digital economic integration. The pandemic has turned the heat on the digital economy. This an imperative that governments cannot ignore. She stresses that Malaysia has a comprehensive to do list, if it is not to be left behind in this intensely competitive environment.

Organisations today need to look beyond the ‘new normal’, and thrive in the ‘never normal’. Business transformation, empowered by technology can help companies achieve more with less, deliver a best-in-class customer experience, build resilient supply chains, while inventing new business models and revenue streams for growth and the digital future. Discover how you can take the lead as an intelligent enterprise, and learn more about best practices for your companies to retain your competitive advantage, build a sustainable business operation and drive success.

Waiting for “the new normal” is a popular way of dealing with the present heightened levels of COVID-inspired business volatility. The problem is the world is never normal. Tariffs and trade wars, the search for talent, disrupted supply chains, and more continue to buffet businesses in the region and around the world. Add digital transformation and technological innovation into the mix and the world begins to look very complex. When planning their leadership agenda for the coming years, what should SME business heads, industry practitioners, and policy-makers focus on? This interactive panel discussion will help you decide.

Focused on the transformation and digitisation of SME businesses for a post-pandemic world, the panel will explore newly evolving opportunities and challenges facing the public sector, and the SME private sector. By combining insights from the panelists, who will share their success stories and challenges with digitalisation, with ample opportunity for audience members to discuss and voice their opinions, highlight their challenges, make requests, and ask questions, this session will help identify ways that the SME industry as a whole can embrace, prepare and thrive in 2022.

This presentation will focus on recent performance and likely growth drivers; explore the likely impact of Industry 4.0 strategies and RCEP on manufacturing; examine how the Belt and Road Initiative is developing across the region; and analyse how the global sustainability agenda will impact on both sectors.

This topic discusses how Cyberjaya has successfully uses technology as the focal point in driving the development of the smart city thus far, and how its focus on emerging technology embedded in the purpose-designed Cyberjaya new masterplan is expected to propel further development, unlock and optimise development potential.

The COVID-19 viral pandemic is an unprecedented global phenomenon that is also a highly personal experience with wide-ranging effects. The pandemic disrupted lives across all countries and communities and negatively affected global economic growth in the past year and a half beyond anything experienced in nearly a century.

Last year, Global GDP declined by 6.7 percent, as a result of COVID-19.

Malaysia certainly wasn’t spared. Both manufacturing and construction industries were severely affected. Department of Statistics Malaysia (DOSM) reported that the manufacturing production index fell by 2.7% in 2020 and the manufacturing output for 2020 was $75.1B, a 3.96% decline from 2019. In the construction industry however, output shrank by 17.2%. It brought the construction industry to a standstill across many parts of the country, owing to the impact of containment measures.

This panel will discuss how the Manufacturing & Construction players have responded to Covid-19 in Malaysia, and how the Malaysian government is supporting the players.

The remarks from Ms. Panudda Boonpala, Deputy Regional Director of the Asia-Pacific region of the International Labour Organization, discuss emerging perspectives on the future of work in light of the COVID-19 crisis and recovery efforts. It highlights the challenges and opportunities of growing technology adoption in the workplace and the importance of fostering a skilled digital workforce. Reflecting on national policy priorities in Malaysia and throughout the Asia region, the speech draws attention to transformative policies for an inclusive and human-centred future of work.

Employees will be looking to their employers to help them redefine what the future of work looks like. In turn, the decisions made by organisations today could directly impact on productivity, culture, and wellness. Leaders need to balance the employee preferences with a desire for productivity and collaboration optimisation and remote workplace. Hence, the hybrid workforce policies, expectations and new way of working will be the new milestone on effective managers and virtual teams, which results in attracting and retaining talent in many industries going forward.

Prepare Your Firm For The Four Shocks Your Future of Work.

The future of work has weighed heavily on executives’ minds for the past two years as the pandemic upended how and where employees work. But the pandemic is only one of four shocks that will reshape the future of work in the 2020s:

• Systemic risk (not only the pandemic but also climate change, geopolitical events, and other exogenous shocks),
• Robots and automation
• The downpour of as-yet-unmanaged employee data
• And rising employee power

These shocks will all contribute to a need for organisations to continuously reinvent work. This panel will focus on discussing how organisations are addressing these four shocks in the region.

Digital financial services have the potential to lower costs by maximising economies of scale, increase the speed and security of transactions and to allow for more tailored financial services that serve SMEs and other financially underserved groups. This presentation looks at the evolving nature of digital financial services in Malaysia and the East Asia and Pacific region and describes some of the challenges and opportunities presented by the COVID-19 pandemic. It examines how digital financial services can be used to support more efficient and inclusive financial services, and explores some of the emerging issues around digital financial services globally and actions relevant to catalyse digital financial services and mitigating risks.

The fintech industry is booming. E-commerce, BFSI, traditional fintech, and crypto products - all go through a significant evolution period. As a product owner or a company executive, it's your duty to ensure your business's success not only from the marketing perspective but from the perspective of building a great product users would love. Due to recent events, hiring local developers may not be an option and presents many challenges. The trend of building products with remote developers is as high as it has ever been.

During this presentation, you will learn:

• Whom is best to hire for your fintech product,
• Where to hire people and which places to avoid at all costs,
• How to structure the remote team management process,
• How to minimise the legal risk and protect your intellectual property.

All the recommendations are supported by data from managing over 600 developers on projects for over 150 organisations across the world, including North America, Europe, UK, South Africa, Middle East countries, Australia, South East Asia, and New Zealand. Such geography of application clearly shows that this method works well for businesses from all over the world and can be applied successfully for your organisation too.

Southeast Asia’s digital economy is experiencing a period of rapid growth. According to the latest e-Conomy SEA 2021 report from Google, Temasek and Bain & Company, the extraordinary shift in consumer behaviour has led to the rise of the digital merchant: native digital SMEs and early adopters who have embraced digital services end-to-end. There is a significant opportunity in the region for established players and newcomers to serve unbanked and underbanked consumers. The panel will discuss how the financial services industry can do better in rebuilding their business growth or transformation journey in 2022 or in this 'never normal', be it with or without tech optimisation.