From Hub of Spice Trade to Global Lead in Tech and Entrepreneurship: Challenges and Success Stories from the South Asia
 

The Indian sub-continent has been a historical hub of trade and commerce. For centuries, businessmen and explorers from all across the world have ventured for South Asia to explore the region’s unique assembly of spice, cultural practices, art, cuisine, industries and people. Throughout the course of history, the region has been divided into nations like India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bhutan and much more. But the sense of South-Asian-ness connects people throughout the region.

Currently South-Asia has become a global tech hub. South Asian Innovations and Solutions have brought significant impact on other parts of the world. Home to a couple of tiger economies and some of the largest economies in the world, South Asia covers 5.2 million km2 which is 11.71 % of the Asian continent with almost 2 Billion resilient people living in the region.

The panel discussion will explore the glorious past of South Asia, the potential future of the region, challenges to overcome and will define the meaning of “SouthAsian-ness” through discussion among entrepreneurs from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal.

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Since the outbreak of Covid-19, all walks of leaders in the cities have strived to create initiatives or take professional emergency measures to respond to Covid-19. In response to the public health in the urban cities, it comes to the crucial engagement and preventive measures before the scenario goes further out of control.

For entrepreneurs, how have they taken their enterprises beyond the pandemic since then? How could they use their resources to support other meaningful causes which are in need of attention in society? Young entrepreneurs can put their heads together in this session to discuss creative solutions to sustain their current operations, and create more value throughout and beyond the Covid-19 response period.

Meanwhile, for medical professionals and policy planners, how would they respond collectively and in alignment with the private sector to ensure stability in the city and long-term sufficiency and consistency of public health planning, policy design and governance with digital technologies?

The following panel aims to explore deeper the lesson learnt in Covid-19 and draw some new knowledge that long-term potential planning and response to the new normal and development of their own cities. The panel would be especially a centre of the Summit to crystallize public health emergency and preventive planning for reference of other emerging cities that are prone to other waves of pandemic in future.
 

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Moderator

Pandemic shock, movements, global shift and disparity of economic landscape and inefficiency of digital transformation in all layers of society, are the multiple leading factors driving 2020 one of the most challenging years ever. According to a latest report by the International Labor Organisation(ILO), Covid-19 has caused the global labor working hours to fall 14 per cent during the second quarter of 2020, equivalent to the loss of 400 million full-time jobs. When much of our structural inequalities and city fragility are revealed at the time of the pandemic, how do we envision our future workforce to be part of the solution and what exactly does it take to build a workforce that is both agile and resilient to more uncertainties and complicated challenges?

The following panel gathers a group of young leaders of different sectors in Hong Kong, and together we explore what is pressingly needed to be fixed in the system, how they see the shifting meaning of workforce in the future and most importantly, how the new generation of Hong Kong leaders, the 80s and 90s, can take a more proactive role to nurture such agile and resilient workforce in and for the future.
 

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Washing Away Our Pandemic Woes: Improving Water and Sanitation through Innovative Financing

Situated at the crossroads between environmental sustainability and health and hygiene is that issue that refuses to go away: Water and sanitation.

With more than 2.2 billion people - almost 30% of the world’s population - lacking access to safe water, and twice as many to safely managed sanitation services, we face a fight against time to build a sustainable water and sanitation system that ensures equitable and just access that safeguards the lives of many. And COVID-19, beyond being a public health crisis, once again has us staring at the systemic water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) issues right in the face.

Perhaps a silver lining throughout the pandemic is the increased attention that impact-focused projects and funding have gained, as a way to make use of global markets to bring about systemic change. Besides impact investing, the Development Impact Bond (DIB) has risen in prominence as an alternative option that delivers a more rigorous, sustainable and substantial impact to local communities affected by WASH issues.

In this second panel within the Sustainability, Environment and Humans track, we will dive deep into the process of DIBs in the WASH context, and learn from investors and local partners on how synergies can take shape in local communities. From the experiences, lessons and challenges on delivering and assessing impact shared from both project owners and investors, we look forward to pushing the conversation forward on systematically improving WASH issues from the ground up.
 

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Moderator