Committed to improving the state of the world

Here I am in a private meeting room, set up for the purposes of bilateral discussions for delegates to the World Economic Forum. The forum, which I first attended with D 20 years ago in Davos (even brushing past Yasser Arafat and his entourage of security personnel) has since then grown into quite a brand and its meetings has become the de-facto place for the business community to meet. 

I usually attend the East Asia gatherings, first in KL, then Jakarta, Bangkok, Nyapitaw and now in Jakarta again. After several such meetings, it becomes a bit like a school reunions. There is a bunch of people one has interacted with and even know well, and a whole lot of familiar faces because one has seen them over the years.

But unlike school, everyone here has an agenda. To shape some policy, to help their business, to publicize their company, to brand their wares and themselves. 

Likewise I am here to meet relevant people (clients or clients to be of the firm), to understand where they are and share with them our views. But I am also here because whether we like it or not (esp since some have likened it to be a bit of a vanity talkfest), the people here can and do make a difference to society. They are government leaders, and if they are truly listening, may take away an idea or two that will find it's way into the next policy implementation. They are corporate captains who has the ability to move products, services to where they are most needed. 

And nowhere is the need as stark as the view from my room, where it's obvious how the growth in Indonesia, manifested in modern sky rise towers are gobbling up all spaces.

I then flew from Jakarta to HCM City, another 10m+ mega city in ASEAN, and here the development is no less frenetic. Even the notorious district 4, which curiously resembles other poor quarters elsewhere in the world like the Favelas in Brazil, are giving way to new buildings. In fact HCM City is even boldly re planning their city, including turning Nguyen Hue in front of City Hall into a pedestrian mall and building underground tunnels for traffic to flow. 

These developments are common all across Southeast Asia and if you consider that these are being implemented in countries that are not regarded to be the most well run, or having the most competent civil service, you must believe in the future of the region. It is rising despite of inefficiencies, despite of corruption, even despite incompetence. There is a force unleashed.

I am fortunate to be in the middle of all of this, experiencing it, even shaping it. And I am able to contribute to shaping it because I have spent much of my life living, studying and working in this region. Looking back, it's amazing how all the dots are connected. When as a management trainee, I learnt that my first posting was to Bangkok, I wasn't overjoyed. My colleagues and friends were getting assignments in HK, in London. Then my next posting was to Ho Chi Minh City. While some of them got more developed stations. But what then seemed like inferior postings now look like it a divine plan. It allowed me to understand these important countries in the region from the ground level and have certainly helped me function better leading the business across the region.