Earlier this week, Reuters held its inaugural Reuters NEXT APAC, bringing its definitive live journalism series to Singapore. The summit brought together more than 350 leaders from business, government, NGOs, civil society, media, culture and academia, including Sri Lanka Minister for Foreign Affairs Ali Sabry, Singapore Minister of Communications and Information Josephine Teo, DBS Bank’s Piyush Gupta, Alibaba’s Kaifu Zhang and Singapore Exchange’s Loh Boon Chye. The complete list of speakers is available on the Reuters NEXT APAC website.
On the main stage, speakers tackled six key themes. Geopolitics, Economy & Markets, Banking & Finance, Technology & AI, Climate & Sustainability, and Leadership Through Change.
In conversation with Reuters Editor-in-Chief Alessandra Galloni, Sri Lanka Minister for Foreign Affairs Ali Sabry said his country will wrap up talks with international bondholders on restructuring $12.5 billion in debt within a few weeks, a major step for the island nation as it emerges from its worst financial crisis in decades. Sabry said that Sri Lanka will also continue to seek to balance its ties with giant neighbors India and China by dealing with the two equally.
Singapore Minister of Communications and Information Josephine Teo said in an interview with Reuters East Asia and Pacific Editor Soyoung Kim that the future looks “messy” without an internationally agreed upon framework for artificial intelligence governance. Teo said Singapore was more excited than worried about AI but added there’s a need to implement specific laws to deal with deepfakes during elections.
DBS Group CEO Piyush Gupta sat down with Reuters Breakingviews Asia Editor Una Galani to discuss the Singapore bank’s strategy, saying it is looking for bolt-on acquisitions that would support its geographic and business strategy but has ruled out making a major buy. Gupta also said that despite growing geopolitical risks DBS remained optimistic on Asia because of its economic growth rates of 4% to 5%. That rate, he said, was almost double that recorded elsewhere in the world.
Galloni also spoke with Alibaba Group Vice President Kaifu Zhang, who said the Chinese tech giant’s international e-commerce unit is tapping generative AI-powered tools to help cross-border merchants with translation, content creation and product returns. Zhang also said he was bullish on AI’s potential for the company, even in the face of increasing tensions between China and the U.S.
Singapore Exchange Chief Executive Officer Loh Boon Chye spoke with Reuters Global Breaking News Editor for Finance & Markets Vidya Ranganathan, saying the exchange has no immediate plans to allow cryptocurrency listings on its bourse, adding that conditions are still not ripe for such a move. “I think for any new product launches, it’s important for this to have a sustainable ecosystem support,” he said. “That really means demand, that really means governance, that really means structure.”
The global Reuters NEXT summit will return to New York in December 2024. The guest lineup will be announced in the coming months.
Head to the Reuters NEXT page on Reuters.com to see more news from the Reuters NEXT APAC summit.
Media contact:
Heather Carpenter
heather.carpenter @ tr.com