The annual conference will be hosted in Hong Kong and Guangzhou (live-streamed in Greater Bay) in a hybrid format.
The Annual Conference would be organised through formats including keynotes, panel discussions and regional forums, along with Key stakeholder roundtables, technology roadshows and city government meetings
Vladimir Bataev is an expert in smart & circular deeptech urban solutions — applications of novel technology in urban environments. He focuses on tight integration of transport, energy & urban infrastructure with the help of technology, facilitating strong collaborations between municipalities, urban designers, architects & technologists. His particular emphasis is on building urban innovation ecosystems with the help of startups & SMEs.
He has presented or moderated sessions at 30+ events on smart cities & innovation globally, including the World Urban Forum 10 in Abu Dhabi (AE).
Since 2018 he is an international advisor in the Advice for Small Businesses initiative & mentor in the Star Venture program of the European Bank for Reconstruction & Development.
In 2017 together with Boyd Cohen (the author of the definitive Smart City Wheel model) he developed & taught a people-/innovation-centric smart city induction course to the municipality officials at the Public Administration Academy of Kazakhstan.
In 2016 he was nominated for the Global Smart City Leader & Promoter Award by the Smart Cities UK program.
In parallel, since 2016 he has been collaborating as a principal consultant with Zaz Ventures (CH/BE/UK), the top EU innovation funding consultancy which has raised €450m+ of funding for various innovative companies & consortia.
He has led 50 SMEs to funding under the ultra-competitive Horizon2020 SME Instrument. Companies funded include such prominent innovative European startups & SMEs as SeaBubbles (FR), Carbiotix (SE), PureFiber (IE), Pharem Biotech (SE), Daedalean (CH), Botalys (BE), Insikt Intelligence (ES), Skypull (CH), Furhat Robotics (SE), Airinum (SE), Connecterra (NL), Intrinsic-ID (NL), Hydromea (CH), Gleechi (SE), Mirrakoi (CH), Aiva Technologies (LU), Scientific Visual (CH), Racefox (SE), CREAL3D (CH), Dufour Aerospace (CH), Eco-Tech Ceram (FR), Mycorena (SE) & multiple others. He advised SMEs in smart cities, IoT, ICT, AI, security, transport, logistics, energy, 3D printing, biotechnology, healthcare & other industries.
Since 2016 he has been an SME Instrument Business Innovation Coach for European Agency for SMEs (EASME). In particular, he has coached the IoT security solution provider Intrinsic-ID (NL) selected by the European Commission as the most innovative European SME in 2016. He is a business innovation expert & mentor for the Smart Cities Month (BY) and the startup accelerator Generation S (RU), and an external evaluator of the Eurostars-Eureka innovation funding program. He adjudicated numerous startup competitions in Belarus, Malaysia, Netherlands & Russia with major industrial partners (e.g. SAP).
In 2015 he founded & headed the Smart Urban Solutions Unit at the smart transport & logistics solution provider EsperantoXL (NL). This unit focused on applied research, consulting & project implementation of smart urban solutions at the intersection of information technology, data analysis, urban design, architecture & policy frameworks.
He has prior extensive experience in business analysis & IT product management for one of the largest European business software vendors Exact (NL), where he was responsible for large vertical solutions in professional service delivery & service management. Before that he worked for the European Patent Office (NL) where he was one of the leading developers of the key global search engine of patent data Esp@cenet.
Matthew Perkins an economic affairs officer with the United Nations specializing in IT
issues. He has over ten years of experience working on economic and developmental aspects of
information technologies. Mr. Perkins works at the United Nations Economic and Social
Commission for Asia Pacific, one of the five regional Commissions of the UN. Mr. Perkins has
specialized experience in data analytics, including data warehousing and big data applications.
He has been involved in the preparation of studies, research and analytical papers and lead IT
projects in the public and private sectors. His previous experience has included work in Beirut,
Lebanon and Heidelberg, Germany.
In the late 2021, the The 14th Five-Year Plan of Mainland China promoted the highest long-term development vision 「Common Prosperity」(共同富裕), which it marks a profound concept and ambition to drive higher prosperity among all citizens through comprehensive redistribution of resources for more equitable society. However, what are the underlying principles of development exactly behind the execution and development? How will the grand vision implicate the future social development and its impact on the capital market?
The following China Prosperity Chat sheds light to the official explanation of the grand vision 「Common Prosperity」, its political and economic values and design thinking principles behind, potential positive impacts to the global affairs with the China market and implications to the adjustment and adoption of thinking under such new business normal.
By 2020, Southeast Asia has become the region throughout the Asia-Pacific region which had the highest internet penetration, in which 69 percent of the total Southeast Asian population used the internet, turning Southeast Asia’s internet economy to hit $105 billion in 2020, as the coronavirus crisis prompted stuck-at-home consumers to go online to shop, get food delivered at home and for their daily use during the pandemic.
On the other hand, the bigger challenge for both the policymakers, technologists and venture capitals is how to penetrate further to the last 31% of the region, in which most of whom are populations in the suburban, rural areas, and disconnected islands:
The following Southeast Asia Digital Economy Inclusion Forum sheds light on the conversation among the technology entrepreneurs, tech-savvy venture capitals and industry experts to discuss the latest trend of digital economy development in major nations in Southeast Asia: The Philippines, Indonesia; uprising Cambodia and Thailand; and the shaken Myanmar, and explore the thoughts on market sustainability and development in the rest of the underserved communities in the region.
Live polling would be conducted among the audience and delegates to engage instant technical response and development opinions.
Against the slowdown by the COVID-19, the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA) has finally taken effect in January 2021, with 55 participating African nations, the largest regional free trade area than any others in the global trade. With the market of 1.2 billion people and a gross domestic product (GDP) of $2.5 trillion, the World Bank proclaimed that “the FTA is expected to lift 30 million people out of extreme poverty”.
Although home to 1.2 billion people, “Africa accounts for just 2% of global trade. And only 17% of African exports are intracontinental, compared with 59% for Asia and 68% for Europe,” says the World Economic Forum. While the AfCFTA has set up a common protocol and infrastructure prospect for more convenient trade and development among the continent, it is up to all country members with their strategic economic development, allocation of resources and talent development to upbring the local SMEs, corporates and innovation to participate in the global trade:
The following 「African Trade, SME and Technology Forum」 with the main theme 「Accelerating Afrika: 1.2 billion dreams in better life through business and technologies」 sheds light on the critical discussion on trade development of Africa to the world, entrepreneurship in SME perspectives and technology innovation with the highlight of countries: Nigeria, Tanzania, Ghana and others.
The world is in the reshuffle of independence and interdependence with the strikes of the global pandemic, trade conflicts and rapid digitalisation. Economies are struggling for dual circulation to adjust the global supply and demand over their domestic resilience. With widespread, sustained declines in fertility, the world population will likely peak in 2064 at around 9.7 billion, and then decline to about 8.8 billion by 2100. By 2050, the increase in global food demand (102%) would be 1/3 greater than the hypothetical scenario of all countries growing (78%), greater than the extent of the increased rate of global food supply. The global food pressure drives world leaders to rethink the model of global collaboration under a new normal.
How shall the younger generations of new professionals (e.g. green banks, financiers and ESG-driven corporates), technopreneurs (social innovators) and technocrats (policymakers) come together for rebuilding trust and confidence for a new format of collaboration and partnership? What newly consented guiding principles shall be explored or adopted to encourage sustainability in its economy to renovate “collaborative advantages” to continue the next generation of global development and fight against the global wicked challenges like Climate Change and the Great Reset of Global Economies?
The following panel discussion is conducted in partnership with St. Gallen Symposium in Switzerland, echoing to the Main Theme of the Symposium “Collaborative Advantage”. We will explore the evolving intrinsic natures of collaboration models across regions and countries:
Ms Hu is the deputy managing editor of Annual Report On City Internationalization of Guangzhou, and one of the main contributors of Guangzhou Global City Development Report Series. She currently focuses on the international trade and investment flows of global cities.
“Rithy is a leading light in the Cambodian entrepreneurial and social innovation sector. His SmallWorld venture, started in 2011, was one of Cambodia’s first ever co-working spaces. SmallWorld now provides space, mentorship and capital investment for young teams looking to start or scale start-up ventures. SmallWorld Venture Building program have spanned over education & consumer electronic & open source operating system under KOOMPI (http://t.me/KOOMPI) brand, Blockchain under Selendra (http://t.me/selendraorg), sustainable living & reforestation under VitaminAir (http://t.me/vitaminair) to count a few. His biggest interest lied in three industries including technology, real estate development with nature & sustainable living, and adventure tourism.”
Jojo is Co-Founder at Plug and Play Tech Center, a Silicon Valley based technology startup accelerator, which he started in January 2006. Plug and Play accelerates over 2,000 tech startups yearly from all around the world in 20 countries in 35 global offices, which access a network of over angel investors, venture capital firms, and over 520 large corporations. Since inception, Plug and Play startups have been able to raise in excess of $9 billion in funding. Plug and Play Ventures have over 1,200 companies in its portfolio, with over 20 unicorns including PayPal, Dropbox, Lending Club, N26, Soundhound, Honey, Guardant Health, among others.
In the Philippines, Jojo is Co-Founder of Launchgarage, which started operations in March 2016. Patterned after Plug and Play, Launchgarage is an accelerator and investor in tech startups in the Philippines and the ASEAN region. Jojo currently advises startups in the country, including PearlPay, Tangere, Taxumo, Magpie, Mober, Galileo, among others.
In addition, Jojo serves as a Board Member and Vice-President in the Science and Technology Advisory Council to the Philippine government and leading universities, helping them bridge technology entrepreneurs to Silicon Valley. He is also a Board of Trustee at De La Salle Lipa. As well, a board member at Animo Labs-ICAST of De La Salle University.
Dr. Naveed Anwar, a Pakistani-born structural engineer and academician is the Vice President for Knowledge Transfer at the Asian Institute of Technology (AIT). During twenty-six years of work in AIT in various capacities, he has headed and participated in several important initiatives, including the establishment of AIT Enterprises Alliance, AIT Entrepreneurship Center, AIT Solutions, Innovation Lab and the Asian Center for Engineering Computations and Software (ACECOMS).He has been engaged as a specialist by ADB, World Bank, UNESCAP, UNESCO, USAID. He has taught several courses and supervised researches focusing on new trends and technologies in structural engineering and software development.
“Chit Aein Thu, is a founder of CCEducare Myanmar. CCEducare is an award-winning social enterprise that has started with a strong vision of providing equal opportunities to access education, focusing on vocational and professional in Myanmar since 2017. CCEducare has been recognized globally through various awards such as YSEALI Seeds for the Future in 2018, International Telecommunication Union (ITU) in Korea 2019, and many others. She won an Alumni Impact Award (AIA) winner in Washington, D.C, a special award at Women’s Forums Asia 2019. She was also selected as a finalist by Global Women in Telco & Tech Awards 2019 in London, UK. She was also named Women of the future in 2020.
She has earned her bachelor’s degree in Computer Science at the University of Computer Studies, Yangon (UCSY), and her post-graduate diploma in Systems Analysis from the National University of Singapore (NUS). Chit also gained experience working in the technology sector in Singapore and Myanmar for more than ten years.”
Salum Awadh is a corporate advisor, Investment banker, Public speaker, Author, Angel Investor, VC Enthusiast, and Entrepreneur. He is the CEO of SSC Capital, an investment banking and financial services firm.
The firm offers services in Strategy Advisory, Investment Banking, Private Equity and Venture Capital, Training, and Financial Services
Salum also founded Tanzania Venture Capital Network, Tanzania Angel Investors Network, and Wengi Equity Crowdfunding
He holds an MBA in Finance, Chartered Global Investmemt Analyst (CGIA), USA, and certification in Islamic finance and banking with Chartered Institute of Management of Accountant -UK,Professional Certificate In Capital Investment Techniques with Metropolitan School of Business and Management UK, Securing investment returns in the long run by University of Geneva, and Innovation Finance from University of Cape Town.
He has also received certifications in the areas of investment management, private equity and venture capital,AAOIFI Sharia Standards financial markets, supply chain management, labor economics, consultancy services, accounting packages (QuickBooks and Smartstream), risk management, governance, pension funds administrations, and E-marketing, he received these courses from local institutions, Swaziland, and United States of America. He is also an Empretec trained from United Nations Commission on Trade and Development
Salum is also the Founder of Shirkah Invest, Jabalnur Finance, SSC Academy, and Mbadala Impact Fund He is the Ex-Board Member of UN Global Compact (TZ Chapter), Investor Readiness Board by Anza & Village Capital, Thaqaafa High school, NICE, Best Dialogue Grants award committee, Shule Direct, Esnan Dental clinic, and Program committee member of TPSF Board
Salum previously worked for State University of New York (SUNY) and Public Service Pensions Fund , He is also a member of the National Entrepreneurship Development Committee.
He is also a Public speaker, Angel Investor and Author.
He is the author of the books “Dare or Die”: The Courage to Pursue your Dream”, “Smart-up your Start-up”, and Where is the Money?- Ask the VC . Salum operates in Tanzania, Rwanda, and Dubai
Initiative’s mandate as the regional partner in Africa, is to advocate for the private sector adoption of the Shared Value Business Management concept, created by world renowned economist and academics from Harvard Business School , Prof Michael Porter and Prof. Mark Kramer. In 2018 Tiekie negotiated for the SVAI to become the regional partner of the global Shared Value Initiative started by Profs Porter and Kramer and the SVAI was launched on Africa Day, May 25th, 2018. The SVAI currently has a footprint in 12 countries across the Africa continent. Sister Shared Value networks currently include India, Hong Kong, Australia and the USA.
It is Tiekie’ s dream that every company and every entrepreneur on the Africa continent will one day practise creating Shared Value that focus on creating economic value and value for society – profit with purpose.
Tiekie believes in the power of the collective and it is her philosophy that each person that crosses her path has been send by a higher power and needs to be treated with respect as that person in some form or another will add value to her journey. The interaction might be short, or it might develop into a mutually beneficial long-term relationship that will assist with per vision to make a difference in the lives of those that need it most.
In addition, Tiekie is an advocate for gender equality and is passionate about fighting GBV and in June 2020 the Shared Value Africa initiative Iaunched the GBVF #ITSNOTOK movement to create public awareness of our second global pandemic and to motivate change through the private sector and government.
The GBV #ITSNOTOK Movement since June 2020 has forged relationships with many organisations, delivered various webinars on discussion on GBV within the private sector to assist in the awareness creation of our second pandemic and is an active member of the GBV National Strategic Plan collaborative.
Tiekie is a Shared Value Strategist, Gold Member of the GRI, Member of Vega School of Brand Leadership Advisory Committee, Member of the global Shared Value steering committee, Member of Agrilux Marketing Advisory Committee , a Board Member of Creatella Impact, an impact investment firm from NYC, and member of faculty at Strathmore Business School. Tiekie has extensive experience on Shared Value Business Management concept and advising organisations on its implementation and alignment.
In 2019 Tiekie conceptualised and co-created the first ever Shared Value course on the Africa continent in collaboration with the Strathmore Business School(SBS) in Kenya. In September 2020 the SVAI and SBS , delivered the 5-day online course which Tiekie participated in as a programme manager and co-lecturer.
In 2017, Tiekie was nominated for the South Africa Businesswomen’s Association Regional Business Achievers Award, in the Social Entrepreneurship Category .
In 2019 Tiekie completed the Harvard Business School Creating Shared Value : Competitive Advantage Through Social Impact course that was delivered by Michael Porter and Mark Kramer.
In December 2020 she was awarded and recognised as one of Africa’s Women Leaders by the World Women Leadership Congress and Awards.
Sheilah is the Country Lead for KTN Global Alliance Africa. She is an ecosystem builder and convener with 12years of experience in supporting startups, building innovation ecosystems, and convening stakeholders in the technology industry across Africa.
She has mentored and worked with 1,000+ entrepreneurs across the continent. She was named by Root magazine among the top six black women in leading the charge to grow the technology sector across the African continent.
Sheilah is also a Guest Lecturer on Entrepreneurship. Has spoken about African innovation and startup ecosystem in 50+ International Conferences. She is part of several boards.
Christina Jäger co-founded Yunus Environment Hub (YEH) together with Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Prof. Muhammad Yunus and his Creative Advisor Hans Reitz. YEH develops social business solutions that tackle the environmental and climate crisis. The expertise of the global YEH network covers waste & plastic management, circular economy, carbon neutrality, biodiversity, afforestation, sustainable agriculture, clean energy and access to clean water.
Christina Jäger was appointed to the Commission on Sustainable Business, Trade and Finance of the German Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation & Development and serves as co-chair of the ministry’s PREVENT Waste Alliance. Since 2015 she is a Responsible Leader of the BMW Foundation World Responsible Leaders network and has received a Social Impact Scholarship of KfW Foundation in 2016. She has lectured at several universities and speaks regularly at high profile events.
In 2016 she co-founded “Circular Economy Rhein Main” and in 2019 “Colombia Circular”, platforms to develop a circular economy in Rhein Main metropolitan region and Colombia respectively; in 2016 she co-founded “The Plastic Lab”, a creative laboratory to keep plastics out of nature.
YEH is a spin-off company of Grameen Creative Lab where Christina Jäger is an Advisory Board member and has served before as Managing Partner and various other roles since 2011. Prior, she worked as Assistant to the Executive Director of Yunus Centre in Bangladesh and was trained in micro-finance with Grameen Bank. She holds a master’s degree in Political Science & International Economics from Otto-Friedrich University Bamberg and studied International Relations of Latin America, Spanish & Portuguese at UADE. During her studies she was an active member of AIESEC, the largest international student run NGO on developing societal leaders. She was Vice President Talent Management, Conference Manager for the annual International Congress in Brazil (2008) and India (2010) and served as trainer and facilitator in various conferences.
Yannick currently serves as CFO and Head Community & Partnerships of the St. Gallen Symposium, the worlds leading student initiative for cross-generational debates.
He oversees the selection of the young leaders who are invited to join the community as well as finances. Both in close cooperation with the student initiative behind the symposium.
Prior to re-joining the symposium, he spent several years in corporate and private banking in Zurich and Singapore. In client facing, as well as strategic roles he gained global and national insights.
During his studies at the University of St. Gallen he was himself part of the students organizing committee of the symposium, responsible for the United States, the UAE and Communications.
Hong Kong Virtual Experiential Tour is in partnership with Our Hong Kong Foundation and M+ Museum to highlight the latest launch of M+ Museum, history and the current development outlook of the West Kowloon Cultural District. With the long-term strategic development of Hong Kong 《Hong Kong Vision 2030+》, the communities in Hong Kong expect to join hands to shape Hong Kong the next global – Asian hub of arts, culture and technology innovation with the iconic rising of West Kowloon Cultural District.
The West Kowloon Cultural District (WKCD) is a large arts development in Hong Kong. Based on a Foster and Partners master plan and comprising 40 hectares, the district will eventually include 17 venues. The Xiqu Center for Chinese opera and the Freespace centre for contemporary performance are already open, while the M+ Museum, Hong Kong Palace Museum, and Lyric Theater, as well as spaces for arts education and commercial structures, are expected. It is managed by the West Kowloon Cultural District Authority (WKCDA).
The virtual tour would be conducted with Insta360 Live-Stream with participation mode in Zoom or Virtual Reality on Facebook Live through basic setup (such as mobile phone compatible VR headsets, Oculus Quest or HTC VIVE Cosmo, etc.). More technical inquiries in the participation can be addressed through contact to our Community Team: community@futurecitysummit.org.
Ocean-based sectors contribute significantly to the economic growth of Asia-Pacific countries, where oceans are at the core of socio-economic functioning, among which South Asia is one of the most vulnerable regions globally to a number of direct and indirect effects of climate change, including sea level rise, cyclonic activity, and changes in ambient temperature and precipitation patterns. Ongoing sea level rise has already submerged several low-lying islands in the Sundarbans region, displacing thousands of people.
Pakistan, India and Bangladesh have been ranked high (top 10) in the Global Climate Risk Index by Germanwatch over the years. Combining with other legacies of high population and density itself, poor urban planning and disaster-relief urban protection, persistent relative poverty challenges with widespread of urban slums, the long-reliance of oceans for economic trade and civilisation evolutions among the South Asian nations would become the largest risk for their own detrimental existence threats.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change(IPCC) figure shows that the mean annual value of temperature rise by the end of the century in South Asia is 3.3 °C with the min-max range as 2.7 – 4.7 °C. Climate-related factors could cause India’s GDP to decline by up to 9%; contributing to this would be shifting growing seasons for major crops such as rice, production of which could fall by 40%, with 7 million populations in Mumbai and Chennai being replaced and 400 million poor populations; 43℅ of its population in Pakistan will lose jobs in agriculture; Bangladesh will lose land along the coast line, Aggregating all impacts, the socio-economic challenges over food and waters would be a global disaster.
The combat against climate change in oceans shall be cross-sectoral and beyond borders. The following panel sheds light on the representatives of the 5 major South Asia economies from policy, technology innovation, venture capital and urban planning to address their roles to play in regional economy to fight against climate change:
Bernard Charnwut Chan is a deputy to the National People’s Congress of China, a non-official member of Hong Kong’s Executive Council (2004-09 and from 2012) and (from 2017) the Convenor of the Non-Official Members of the Executive Council. He is also a former member of Hong Kong’s Legislative Council (1998-2008).
A graduate of Pomona College in California, he is the President of Asia Financial Holdings and Chairman of Asia Insurance. He is Chairman of the Hong Kong – Thailand Business Council and an advisor to Bangkok Bank (China) Co. Ltd. He sits on the boards of several local and overseas companies in financial services and is a director of Bumrungrad Hospital Public Company in Thailand.
Among his public service activities, he is Chairperson of the Hong Kong Council of Social Service, Chairman of the Hong Kong Palace Museum Ltd, Chairman of Tai Kwun Culture & Arts Co. Ltd., Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Hong Kong Chronicles Institute and Vice Chairman of the Board of Governors of Our Hong Kong Foundation. Past positions include Council Chair of Lingnan University, Chairman of the Council for Sustainable Development, Chairman of the Antiquities Advisory Board, Chairman of the Advisory Committee on Revitalisation of Historic Buildings and Chairman of the two Standing Committees on Disciplined Services and Judicial Salaries and Conditions of Service. He is also a Trustee Emeritus of Pomona College.
He was appointed a Justice of the Peace in 2002, and a Commander (3rd Class) of the Most Noble Order of the Crown of Thailand in 2004. In 2006, he was awarded the Gold Bauhinia Star by the Hong Kong SAR Government, and in 2020 he received Hong Kong’s highest honor, the Grand Bauhinia Medal. He has been conferred honorary degrees from Lingnan University, City University of Hong Kong, the Open University of Hong Kong and Savannah College of Art and Design.
He is married and has two children.
Helen So leads the Arts Innovation team in policy research and advocacy at Our Hong Kong Foundation, the largest public policy think tank in Hong Kong. Her team’s latest policy recommendation proposal on the topic of Arts Tech was Hong Kong’s first-of-the-kind to actively call to action the arts and technology sectors to work together. The key recommendations in funding, infrastructural support, and network & capacity building were subsequently adopted by the Chief Executive in her Policy Address 2020. The team now continues to monitor closely the implementation of these new policies.
Helen’s public service includes various advisory roles appointed by the Hong Kong Government: she currently serves as Member of the Advisory Committee on Arts Development, and Member of the Museum Advisory Committee. She is also Director of the Hong Kong Palace Museum Board under the West Kowloon Cultural District Authority. Ms So holds a Master of Studies (MSt) in Musicology & Ethnomusicology at St. Catherine’s College, University of Oxford. She is a cellist and continues to perform today.
Dr. Sunil Babu Shrestha is the Vice- Chancellor and an Academician of Nepal Academy of Science and Technology. Dr. Shrestha was a former member of National Planning Commission, Nepal and has more than 25 years experiences, working in different organizations and served with different portfolios. He obtained Doctor of Engineering on Environmental Development Engineering in 2004 from Osaka Sangyo University, Japan. Dr. Shrestha had Bachelor Degree in Civil Engineering and Master Degree in Urban Planning from Tribhuvan University (TU), Nepal. He is also Chief Editor of Nepal Journal of Science and Technology. He has been honoured with many medals and awards in Science and Technology field.
Ms Indu Weerasoori is a Charted Town Planner with twenty five years of experience with the Urban Development Authority, Sri Lanka where she attained the post Deputy Director General (Planning). Ms Weerasoori’s experience includes preparation of development plans and working on town planning projects across Sri Lanka. Ms Weerasoori joined UN-HABITAT in 2012 worked as a Project Manager (urban ) and has overseen the development of this unit and roll out of the resilient city Programme across four districts. Ms Weerasoori is a Fellow Member and Past President of the Institute of Town Planners Sri Lanka. At present she serve as Vice President (west Asia) of Commonwealth Association of Planners(CAP)Ms Weeraoori has been appointed as a member of the advisory committee of the Cities and Climate Change Initiative (CCCI), UN-HABITAT and she is also visiting lecture to many national universities in Sri Lanka.
Ms Weerasoori has a M.Sc. in Urban Development from the University of London and Post graduate Diploma in heritage management and urban revitalization and from IHS –Rotterdam,The Netherlands.
Mrs. Weerasoori is an expert in the field of Urban Development, specializing in Urban & Regional Planning, Urban Governance& Local Government, Resettlement, Disaster Risk Reduction and Managing Climate Change.
Helen’s public service includes various advisory roles appointed by the Hong Kong Government: she currently serves as Member of the Advisory Committee on Arts Development, and Member of the Museum Advisory Committee. She is also Director of the Hong Kong Palace Museum Board under the West Kowloon Cultural District Authority. Ms So holds a Master of Studies (MSt) in Musicology & Ethnomusicology at St. Catherine’s College, University of Oxford. She is a cellist and continues to perform today.
Omar Shah is an entrepreneur, a co-founder and CEO of COLABS.Omar has been working on redefining workspaces in Pakistan in the form COLABS since 2018. He is among the founding partners of SABCON Ventures,and he is also currently serving on the Foundation Council of the National Incubation Centre Lahore.
Omar has been a board member for a Pakistani music streaming service: Patari. He also has a decade of experience in a financial securities firm, working in emerging markets for private equity and venture capital in Dubai, Mexico, Istanbul and Pakistan.
The Pandemic, Climate Change, Carbon Neutrality and Urban Transformation. 2021 has been a critical year since the vaccination has rolled out, where countries have decided to commit that carbon emission has to be largely cut, urban innovation shall adopt the new liveability normal and world leaders shall speak and act more entrepreneurially. 「Planeet Renaissance」 is an idea to recover what needs to be rebuilt, and renew what should be done more sustainably.
The Opening and Keynote Address put forth by the representative of the World Economic Forum and the Asian-focus 4-generations family business with the theme 「Planet Renaissance: Future Lock In Not Lock Down」highlights the latest challenges upon the COP26. As we are passing the critical points of no return of 1.5ºC, how harder shall we and the next generation prepare to do? Upon such a lock-down economy as the next business normal, what shall the world leaders, businesses and the younger generations see further to collaborate and regenerate our better future?
