Conference Presentation, Panel, Fireside Chat
Lunch Program | The World in 2037: Asia On Demand
- Event Context: The lunch program "The World in 2037: Asia on Demand," hosted by Asia Square in partnership with the Milken Institute, features a panel discussing the intersection of digital disruption, infrastructure, and real estate in Asia.
- Moderator: The session is moderated by Tan Sue Shan, Group Head of Consumer Banking and Wealth Management at DBS Bank.
- Key Speaker - Rohan (DBS/Asia Square):
- Emphasizes that real estate developers must design for future flexibility to avoid limiting the space's long-term capability.
- Describes Asia Square as a flexible, sustainable development with efficient floor plates and multiple access points for power and telecoms.
- Panelists:
- Patrick Ho (iFlix): Founder and entrepreneur focusing on digital entertainment across Asia, the Middle East, and North Africa.
- Mayor Ridwan Kamil: Mayor of Bandung, Indonesia (ranked #1 in government performance index in Indonesia), leveraging technology for smart city governance.
- Ming (Grab): Executive at the third-largest ride-sharing business globally, driving transport and financial ecosystem expansion.
- Rohan Mudevan: Representative from PayPal, highlighting the evolution of payment infrastructure and risk management.
- Mobile-First Adoption Trends:
- iFlix Survey Data: 85% of users in Myanmar and 70% in the Philippines prefer taking a mobile phone over a loved one on a hypothetical holiday, signaling the phone as a primary utility.
- Market Size: Southeast Asia alone possesses more smartphones than the entirety of the United States or Europe, creating a massive addressable market for digital businesses.
- New Markets: iFlix reports significantly higher user metrics in Myanmar, Pakistan, and Saudi Arabia compared to established markets, driven by a population transitioning from lower class to middle class.
- Disruption Speed: iFlix projects having more paying subscribers in Indonesia and the Philippines within two quarters than the existing cable and satellite TV industry in those countries.
- Smart City & Governance Models:
- Bandung's Transformation: Mayor Ridwan Kamil transformed Bandung's government performance ranking from #200 to #1 in three years by deploying approximately 400 software applications for services like e-budgeting and online complaints.
- Engagement Strategy: The city utilizes social media data to anticipate citizen needs (e.g., deploying "visiting doctor" programs for the poor) and preemptively address protest agendas, achieving a 92% approval rating.
- Economic Reform: Bandung eliminated permit requirements for businesses with revenues under $5,000, resulting in 30,000 new businesses born within six months.
- Smart City Stages:
- 1.0: Digitization of manual processes.
- 2.0: Interactive services allowing direct citizen feedback and government accountability via data analytics.
- 3.0: Intelligent infrastructure where weather and disaster data inform proactive government responses.
- Transportation & Mobility Disruption:
- Scale: Grab handles approximately 3 million rides per day (1 billion annual transactions) across 112 cities, with plans to reach 150 by year-end.
- Efficiency: The "Pooling" feature has permanently removed 16,000 cars from the road in Singapore and Indonesia, reducing 60,000 vehicles' worth of pollution.
- Platform Evolution: Grab is transitioning from a pure transportation marketplace to an ecosystem combining transport, payments, and financial services, leveraging high-frequency user acquisition.
- Payment Infrastructure & Risk:
- Velocity: PayPal processed $385 billion in payment volume last year, with a shift from 14-day transaction cycles to near-instantaneous settlements (e.g., PayPal OneTouch).
- Future Authentication: Experts predict passwords and usernames will become obsolete by 2037, replaced by multi-factor authentication, geofencing, and invisible transaction authorizations.
- Risk Management: PayPal invests $1.2 billion annually into fraud prevention, noting that while the 1% bad actor causes 99% of fraud, the company guarantees reimbursement to protect consumer trust.
- Real Estate & The "On-Demand" Economy:
- Co-Working Boom: 80% of commercial tech leases are renegotiated early, often for larger or different spaces, due to unpredictable growth rates.
- Lease Flexibility: Industry players predict co-working spaces will fulfill 20–40% of all commercial real estate needs by 2037, moving away from traditional two-year leases toward flexible "office on demand" models.
- Diverse Usage: Only 20% of co-working clients are tech companies; the remaining 80% include legal, accounting, and other service firms seeking agility.
- Infrastructure Financing Challenges:
- Municipal Bonds: Mayor Kamil notes the absence of municipal bonds in Indonesia, hindering the financing of urban infrastructure projects.
- PPP Gaps: Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) are in early infancy; the panel suggests a need for private sector capital to fund long-term (15–20 year) city-level infrastructure contracts.
- Social & Economic Impact:
- Cost of Cash: Moving from cash to e-commerce can reduce the price of staple goods (e.g., umbrellas) by 40%, significantly lowering the cost of living for lower-income populations.
- Supply Chain Democratization: Technology is being used to connect farmers directly to urban consumers, allowing farmers to increase prices by 2–3x while lowering costs for buyers by removing middlemen.
- Human Capital: Despite digital advancements, the panelists agree that physical social interaction remains critical for community happiness and mental well-being.
- Forward-Looking Predictions for 2037:
- Transportation: Ming predicts a 50% reduction in cars on the road due to autonomous and electric vehicles, reducing travel time between Bandung and Jakarta from 3 hours to 30–45 minutes.
- Inflation: Rohan forecasts a 15% deflation in the Consumer Price Index (CPI) driven by efficiency and the removal of intermediaries.
- Entertainment: Patrick envisions a billion people in emerging markets paying $1/month for premium entertainment content.
- Governance: Mayor Kamil predicts Indonesia will be the "happiest country" in 2037, potentially with him serving as President.
- Physical Presence: Patrick jokes that he will attend future events via avatar or robot while living in Bali, reflecting a shift to fully digital participation.