Dr Cecilia Tortajada of the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy noted that the change in environmental, social and governance for China’s corporations is almost as dramatic as its economic transformation over the past 35 years and the changing skylines of its urban centres.

Dr Yu Hong, Senior Research Fellow at the East Asian Institute at NUS discussed the challenges that China faces in using soft power to its advantage.  

NUS Business School students, Chen Zihua, Lucas Tan, Ryan Quek and Wilson Chan opined that from its origins in 2000 as an IT firm, Aedge Holdings has diversified into many different industries, growing from strength to strength and expanding into other areas such as security, manpower and transport services.

Prof Zheng Yongnian from the East Asian Institute at NUS discussed the effectiveness of traditional autocracy or democracy and the challenges of governance in the contemporary world.

At the annual Singapore Perspectives conference organised by the Institute of Public Policy at NUS on 20 Jan, Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat said that amid challenges such as inequality and economic disruption, the fourth-generation leadership was determined to build a future of progress and prosperity for Singaporeans. Minister of Trade and Industry Chan Chun Sing also spoke on issue of public access to data and highlighted that sharing data is not the panacea to all policy issues.

Assoc Prof Goh Puay Guan from the Dept of the Analytics and Operations at NUS Business School discussed the prospects of bike-sharing in Singapore with a second wave of new industry players, which includes three homegrown companies: SG Bike, Anywheel and Moov Technology. 

Assoc Prof Robert Beckman, Head of the Ocean Law and Policy Programme at the Centre for International Law at NUS, discussed Indonesia’s interests in defending the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (Unclos) with regard to disputes with China in the South China Sea. 

NUS scientists are part of an international team producing a first-of-its-kind ultra-high resolution 3D comprehensive map of the neural network within the human brain. This effort could lead to more effective treatments for neurodegenerative diseases in the future.

Prof Tommy Koh from the NUS Faculty of Law and Ambassador-at-Large at Singapore’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs opined that his global outlook for 2020 is that we will have both blue skies and stormy weather, and that the positive will outweigh the negative.

Assoc Prof Mak Yuen Teen from the Dept of Accounting at NUS Business School, and Chew Yi Hong, an active investor and researcher in corporate governance commented that the incorrect or omitted disclosure of mandatory information has become far too commonplace by companies.