Martin Jacques, the author of “When China Rules the World,” addressed the key factors that resulted in the growth of China’s economy and global ascendancy.

In his discussion during this RadioFinance session, Jacques highlighted the cyclical rise and fall of nations and as China takes centerstage, it will continue to impact the geopolitical dynamics around the world.

The following key points were discussed during the interview:

• The rise of China represents a new economic modernity illustrated in different areas such as its economy, political institutions, culture, the nature of the society inherited from its history and growing along with the country’s development

• It is time to have a process of better and deeper mutual understanding between China and the West to have a common ground of communication and learn about their differences.

• The challenges faced by China, related to its unity and stability, is due to its large geographic size and demographic factors as compared to Europe and the US

• China’s culture is resilient—as reflected by its political values, unity, and stability—and it is capable of reinvention, however, it will not adapt to the western model of governance.

In this RadioFinance session, we explored Daniel Hanna on his role as Global Head of Sustainable Finance, Standard Chartered and his view on sustainable finance in financial industry and in the whole society. We also covered his opinion on what are the main challenges he or the whole industry confronting in transmission to a low carbon future from perspectives such as regulation, investor side and financial institutions themselves, and what are the other key trends in sustainable or impact investment around the global.

In this RadioFinance session, Taimur Baig, chief economist of DBS Bank, highlighted that Asia now depends more than ever on China economic performance. If China grows by 11% in the first quarter of 2021, it will be a strong galvanising factor for production to recover and investments plans to be re-guided across Asia.

Mike Laven, CEO at Currencycloud, defines the company’s embedded finance business model via API and how its cloud-based platform differs from the host of many payment players today.

Barney Frank, the former US Congressman who chaired the House Financial Services Committee and co-authored the Dodd-Frank Act, shared his insights on the key priorities of the incoming Biden administration and the imperative for the President’s cabinet picks to balance growth with the fair distribution of wealth. He stressed that the Biden White House must steer economic, foreign and regulatory policies towards benefitting the average American worker and the US economy.

He acknowledged that while innovation and technology are creating growth and wealth in the new economy, they have also caused a deep social divide between workers with and without the requisite skills and tools to be successful. He quipped, “While rising tides may lift all boats, not everyone can afford a boat. And if you are tiptoeing in the water, a rising tide may not be such a good idea”.

One way to address the imbalance, Frank suggested is the establishment of labour unions for workers in the service and “gig” sectors along the line of industrial labour unions created by President Franklin Roosevelt in the 1930s and 1940s that birthed the American middle class after the Great Depression and Second World War.

With inflation being less of a concern and Congress’ support, Frank pointed to increased infrastructure spending and expansion of Medicare facilities as means to put money into the pockets of the average worker to drive growth with equity. In a clear message to the financial industry, he stressed the need for the new administration to be fair and reasonable but at the same time hard on matters pertaining to financial regulation. Under the Biden administration, he envisages a socially responsible trade policy supported by fair terms but also one that reduces ‘hurt’ on American people and protects local interests.

In this RadioFinance session, we interviewed Bikram Chaudhury, a veteran in investment banking, about his current initiative to run a startup which aims to expand credit facilities to inclusive borrowers and the base of the pyramid populations through its proprietary artificial intelligence (AI) lending platform. He clearly explained the issues of the microfinance industry and the significant movements of different players during the pandemic in both developed and emerging markets today.

Chaudhury, CEO at GreenArc Capital, emphasised that the growth of environmental, social and governance (ESG) in the asset management industry is transformational, and how asset managers evaluate an impact investing factors need to be more transparent. The key issue in today’s microfinance industry is the embedded cost. Technology is now enabling the cost of the transaction to go down and the lower the cost the more impactful inclusive finance can be.

In this RadioFinance virtual roundtable on payments transformation, practitioners discussed how pressures from low rates and thinning margins are forcing banks to streamline operations, lower cost, plug into customer ecosystems and explore new revenue opportunities.

Andrew Takyi-Appiah, managing director and co-founder of Zeepay, discussed efforts around promoting financial inclusion through his venture Zeepay, the only currently existing non-telco fintech player to receive an Electronic Money Issuer (EMI) or mobile money license in Ghana.

He described an average African user as highly dependent on a mobile device for accessing financial services. Takyi-Appiah also talked about how an innovative yet simple platform built on the over-the-top (OTT) instant messaging service players such as WhatsApp could offer the scale to penetrate millions who do not have access to formal financial services across the African sub-continent and help transform its payment ecosystem.

In this RadioFinance session, emphasis was given to Africa’s status as leading continent for money-mobile services, and a pre-existing and well-established interoperable financial system infrastructure in Ghana could usher an all-inclusive growth in payments.

In this RadioFinance session, self-styled investment guru, Adam Khoo, explained the investment philosophy which has allowed him to be continuously successful in different market conditions.

He compared traditional wealth management approach, which is product focused such as provided by insurance companies, banks, and fund/asset managers, against self-investment which he described as value investing. He also shared outlook on specific market like US and China and different asset classes.

Khoo, who is executive chairman and chief master trainer at Adam Khoo Learning Technologies Group, emphasised that “there is no free lunch” in this world. Self-investors have to be humble enough to achieve higher return in a sustainable way. The key questions an investor should be asking is not “Where the market will go”, but “What are the best businesses to buy” and “What is the rational price to sell at.”

Richard Byworth, CEO at Diginex, discusses his entrepreneurial journey in leading the first digital asset financial services with a crypto exchange to be listed on NASDAQ in the US.