Every first week of October, the Financial Executives Institute of the Philippines (FINEX) celebrates the annual FINEX Week with various activities revolving around a central theme. In the decade prior to the pandemic, it was highlighted by the FINEX Annual Conference held at one of the hotels in Metro Manila. During the 1990s and the 2000s, the conference venue shifted to major provincial cities like Cebu, Davao, Baguio, and Subic every other year, but this practice was stopped in the 2010s.
Due to the Covid-19 outbreak in 2020 and 2021, the FINEX Week became a series of webinars keynoted by global and regional guest speakers whose sessions were all virtual. With the easing of restrictions this year, a hybrid format has been employed consisting of webinar sessions on October 3, 4, 6, and 7 plus an in-person event at the Fairmont Hotel Makati last October 5. The conference theme for the 2022 edition is “Reshaping the Future with Transformational Change.”
“Emerging Giants in Asia Pacific: The Secret to Business Success” was the topic of the last virtual session at this year’s conference. The four speakers were: Philip An, co-founder of Vietnam-headquartered Homebase; Darius Cheung, CEO of Singapore-based 99.co; Dr. Roberto Galang, Dean of the John Gokongwei School of Management at the Ateneo de Manila University; and Darren Yong, KPMG Asia Pacific’s Head of Technology, Media, and Telecommunication. Serving as the forum moderator was FINEX President Michael Guarin.
The session was an offshoot of a recent study conducted by KPMG Asia Pacific and HSBC involving 6,472 technology-focused startups with valuations up to $500 million that were seen as potential emerging giants in 12 key markets: Mainland China, India, Japan, Australia, Singapore, South Korea, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Indonesia, Taiwan, Thailand, and Vietnam.
From this pool of companies, 10 were identified as the leading emerging giants for each of the 12 markets, as well as the overall top 100 emerging giants in the Asia Pacific region. Dominating the latter list were companies from Mainland China (32.8%), India (30.1%), and Japan (12.7%).
One of the key takeaways from the study is the fact that more than one billion Asians will become middle class by 2030, according to Austria-domiciled World Data Lab. China’s current middle class population of 900 million will rise to 1.2 billion by the end of this decade, followed by India which will double its 400 million middle class population to 800 million.
Making up the remainder will be Southeast Asia led by rises of 76 million in Indonesia, 38 million in the Philippines, and 23 million in Vietnam. The ASEAN countries have proportions of millennials and Gen Zers who see themselves as digital natives – eager to try out and adopt new technologies.
“Asia Pacific is in the midst of a major business shift as fast-growing companies tap the potential of new technologies. Across the region, not only is the number of startups increasing, but so is their size and their importance. Concurrently, new sector verticals are emerging that are attracting investment dollars and inspiring more and more startup founders to enter the space,” the joint KPMG-HSBC study said.
Unfortunately, the Philippines is not among the 12 key markets identified as targets of venture capital investment. Thus, no Filipino company is included in the list of emerging giants for the entire region. Are we going to miss the boat again?
J. Albert Gamboa is a Life Member of the Financial Executives Institute of the Philippines (FINEX). He is the Chairman of the FINEX Media Affairs Committee and the Editor-in-Chief of FINEX Digest. The opinion expressed herein does not necessarily reflect the views of these institutions and the Manila Bulletin. #FinexPhils www.finex.org.ph