On the 3rd day of the Hong Kong FinTech Week, Prof. Annie Koh, Vice President of Business Development, Singapore Management University (SMU), hosted a panel discussion on “Talent: Nurturing FinTech Talent in Asia”. Prof. Timothy Tong, CEO of AMTD Charity Foundation, Chairman of the Hong Kong Laureate Forum, and former president of The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU); and Prof. Jin-Guang Teng, President of PolyU joined and shared their insights. During the discussion, the importance of “3Ps”, People, Partnership, and Platform, was highlighted by Prof. Koh.
Prof. Annie Koh, Vice President of Business Development, Singapore Management University (top right), Prof. Timothy Tong, CEO of AMTD Charity Foundation, Chairman of the Hong Kong Laureate Forum, and former president of PolyU (top left), Prof. Jin-Guang Teng, President of PolyU (bottom middle)
Shortage of FinTech talents in the GBA
Both Prof. Tong and Prof. Teng agreed that there is a shortage of FinTech talents in not only Hong Kong, but also the Greater Bay Area. Prof Tong provided an example of talent challenge that Airstar faced while building the team.
Collective efforts from industry and academia
Instead of solely relying on Universities, panellists believed that collective efforts from industry and academia is the way to close the skill gap of FinTech talents and maximize the human capital of existing workers.
AMTD and PolyU have launched several initiatives on FinTech talents cultivation. For example, AMTD and PolyU have jointly established Hong Kong’s first university-industry collaborated FinTech centre, AMTD Fintech Centre of PolyU Faculty of Business, leading to the establishment of the first doctoral degree in FinTech program across Asia, DFinTech.
In addition, two enterprises, AMTD and Xiaomi, along with two universities, SMU and the Institute of Systems Science at the National University of Singapore (NUS-ISS), jointly launched the ‘AMTD-Xiaomi-SMU-ISS Digital Finance Leadership Programme’ (“AXSI Programme”).
The establishment of the @-WISE Cybersecurity Centre of Excellence led by AMTD, partnering with the University of Waterloo, iQ4 and the Singapore FinTech Association (SFA) once again showcases the collective efforts by industry and academic players.
Platform is the key
Platform is the key to address the ever-changing FinTech needs and support the growing FinTech talents pools.
