Tuesday March 24, 2026

The global economic outlook: Implications for investment
Investors are operating in an era of more volatile inflation, uneven real-economy data and less predictable policy interventions. This session will explore how a higher for longer interest rate environment and widening divergence between the US and the rest of the world is reshaping the nature of risk and return. It will look at the Fed outlook, the durability of US exceptionalism, and what fading tailwinds from globalisation and low rates mean for future real returns.
- Prakash Kannan, chief economist and director, economics and investment strategy department, GIC

After the boom: Rebuilding portfolios for the next decade
A long-running equity rally has been propelled by many market conditions that no longer apply – falling rates, corporate tax cuts, and globalisation. This panel will explore frameworks for navigating this new environment and which foundations of portfolio construction are most likely to still perform. The panel will then identify the greatest areas of risk and take a closer look at a revamped definition of portfolio diversification – and what this means in practice – under this new paradigm.

Decoding China's economic transition and geopolitical strategy
China stands at a pivotal economic juncture, navigating a structural deceleration and demographic headwinds while simultaneously aiming to dominate critical future industries, from green energy to AI. This keynote presentation will break down China’s strategy against a backdrop of intensifying US-China competition and the recalibration of global supply chains. It will provide a critical framework for asset owners to navigate these geopolitical and economic shifts in a world where China remains a systemic force.
- Damien Ma, director, Carnegie China – TBC

The 'China plus one' reality check
As the global economy fragments, the narrative around ASEAN is often one of unbridled opportunity – a beneficiary of 'China plus one' strategies and a hub for green growth. In this academic keynote, Dr. Liu Jingting will present data-driven research on the quality of investment flows, questioning whether they represent deep industrial capacity building or tariff circumvention.
- Liu Jingting, senior lecturer, James Cook University, Singapore

The renaissance of Asia
The global narrative on Asia has shifted from potential to performance. This session examines the rotation of capital towards the region and the structural growth drivers from Korea to India and Southeast Asia, as well as China. It will also explore how leading asset owners are recalibrating portfolios to capture durable sources of alpha across the region in an increasingly bifurcated world.
- Thijs Aaten, chief executive, APG Asia
- Zhe Shen, managing director, head of diversifying strategies, TIFF
- Cameron Systermans, head of multi-asset, Asia, Mercer

The alpha imperative: Exploiting dislocation and deglobalisation in private markets
Long-term expectations for higher interest rates and de-globalisation are changing many core portfolio assumptions across private and public market assets. As the easy beta of the past decade fades, asset owners are exploring new ways to bake in greater diversification and strategies that can simultaneously withstand geopolitical shocks. This session will explore how investors are reassessing private markets, including across Asia, to access uncorrelated alpha and build better risk-adjusted portfolios in a fragmented world.
- Dom Beckers, head of private credit, VFMC
- James Clarke, global head of institutional capital, Blue Owl Capital

Investor perspectives: Steering portfolios through a fragmented world
From AI-driven equity concentration and higher-for-longer rates to worsening US–China tensions, asset owners are operating in a structurally more uncertain regime. This panel explores how fiscal dominance, rising debt and shifting geopolitics are shaping CIOs’ scenario planning and strategic asset allocation. Panellists will also reveal how they are expressing their macro and geopolitical views into concrete portfolio positions including regional and asset-class tilts, liquidity positions, protecting against tail risks and deploying alpha strategies to keep portfolios resilient when shocks hit.
- Richard Nuzum, executive director, Franklin Templeton (OCIO)
- Bernard Wee, group head of markets and investment, Monetary Authority of Singapore
- Wai Seng Wong, head of strategy, Khazanah

Leadership, resilience and the courage of conviction
Whether facing the new ball in a Test match or navigating a volatile global economy, the principles of high-performance leadership remain remarkably consistent. This session brings together leaders from vastly different worlds who share a common trait: the ability to maintain clarity, integrity, and conviction under immense pressure. In this candid conversation, Usman Khawaja, one of cricket’s most resilient figures will discuss the mental fortitude required to lead through uncertainty, the cost of sticking to one's principles, and how to maintain focus when the stakes are highest.
- Usman Khawaja, Australian cricketer

WEDNESDAY March 25, 2026

The future of AI: China's full-stack bet on models, chips and robots
While US AI is driven by big tech platforms, China is increasingly channelling its ambitions through state-backed R&D Institutes that sit at the frontier of both advanced AI development and governance, with privileged access to compute, data and talent. This session will explore the global trajectory of AI, its economic impact and the opportunity set for long-term investors.
- Bowen Zhou, director and chief scientist, Shanghai AI Lab; Huiyan Chair Professor, Tsinghua University - TBC

AI in investments: Is fundamental investing dead?
AI has moved from experiment to essential tool, becoming a cornerstone of quant investing. But how far can it really go? This panel will ask whether AI poses an existential threat to fundamental investing or whether it will simply shift today’s competitive advantage. It will examine which parts of the investment value chain can be automated, where human judgement remains decisive, and whether AI improves outcomes or just speeds up the same calls.
- Stephane Daul, senior investment manager, Pictet Asset Management

Case study: AI agents, game theory and the future of trading
While the macro conversation focuses on the US-China AI race, a quieter revolution is occurring in market microstructure. We are moving beyond simple predictive models to the era of autonomous agents and multi-agent reinforcement learning. This case study will give an overview of the pace of AI advances and reveal the next step of how automated agents can manage portfolios.
- Professor Bo An, President’s Council Chair Professor, School of Computer Science and Engineering, Nanyang Technological University

Regaining the future – frameworks for a reshaped world
The world is undergoing a rapid and disorienting transformation as entrenched historical narratives and diplomatic structures are reshaped. In this session, renowned geopolitical expert Professor Stephen Kotkin will offer a robust decision-making framework to help navigate this uncertainty, moving beyond the simple observation of daily noise to identify the useful parameters that will define the coming era.
- Professor Stephen Kotkin, Senior Fellow at Stanford’s Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, and the Kleinheinz Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution

How governance and decision making frameworks can transform macro uncertainty into high-conviction deployment
CIOs are increasingly re-framing risk and opportunity at the whole-of-portfolio level to turn uncertainty into high-conviction deployment. This session will explore this shifting architecture, including the revamped governance structures that underpin more agile decisions, the benefits of a whole of fund view for capital allocation, and the opportunities that open up.
- James Davis, chief investment officer, OPTrust

Asia’s long game in a divided world
As geopolitical rivalry intensifies, Asia’s next chapter will hinge on a difficult balance: staying open to trade, capital and ideas while preserving strategic room to manoeuvre. This session will set out a long-view on the forces shaping the region’s stability, integration and economic resilience – and what they mean for asset owners grappling with an uncertain future.