FinTech has become one of the many trending buzz words these days and everyone is diving into the market. Yet how many of these new technologies are actually helping to achieve the sustainable development goals or are they widening the digital gap? Pondering this question, I attended the Asia Pacific Pacific Business Forum (ABPF) 2018 organized by UNESCAP and Cyberport on 10 Apr which gave me some insight!
Mobility is an advantage. To enhance one’s mobility is not only about physical movements, but also their assets. Over 2 billion people of the world population are indeed unbanked, meaning that they have neither bank accounts nor access to existing traditional financial services. And more astonishingly, only 27 percent of the population in Southeast Asia has a bank account which signifies a serious equality gap here. To address this social issue, Mr. Alex Kong from TNG.Asia (http://tng.asia) shared his vision of helping these unbanked people and especially domestic helpers with the easy-to-use digital wallet service. With the wallet, they no longer worry about sending cash in an envelope back home and having it get lost in the mail along the way. Starting in Hong Kong, TNG already expanded to cover 12 Asian economies.
This is a prime example of how businesses can innovate to make an impact by navigating in the blue ocean of the underserved and meeting their needs. Rise with Asia now!
By Ajitora
This.Is.Asia Newsletter Issues
AAPI Heritage Month: Interview with Mou Mukherjee
In some ways, I abandoned my culture when I was young because I was trying so hard to fit in. My parents were, and still is very cultural. Growing up, there was always Indian music playing, our house was full of Bengali literature, my Dad’s hero was poet Rabindranath Tagore, and he also loved the films of Satyajit Ray. I was surrounded by culture and yet I couldn’t fully embrace it at the time.
AAPI Heritage Month: Interview with Zhou Fang
I am an immigrant from Guilin, China. In 2010, I moved to the U.S. for grad school. After graduating from Kansas State University (Go Cats!) I moved to Oregon and have been living in Portland for the last 9 years.
Mid-Autumn Festival 中秋节快乐
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How I See It – Privacy Controversy: Trigger of largest digital migration in history
Technology giants, or Big Tech as they are called, have become intertwined extensively with our everyday lives. Early in 2021, Facebook decided to take a step ahead in monetising Whatsapp. This was to be enabled by the changes in the terms outlined in its updated privacy policy. One fine day, users woke up to the notification for the proposed changes in its Privacy Policy. This paved the way to an international conversation about privacy, and also triggered widespread adoption of alternatives to Whatsapp such as Signal and Telegram.