Editorial

Cautious optimism

Recent anti-Asian racist attacks in America have renewed focus upon xenophobia towards Asian people in the US and the Western world. We want to make sure that we support our readers who may be feeling anxious about this worrying trend. Calls for racial equity for black people in America have been supported the world over and likewise protections for Asian people facing rising xenophobia and terrifying attacks must be extended everywhere. Although when walking on the streets of Singapore and Hong Kong it is easy to feel inured from such actions, particularly during a pandemic where business travel is at a minimum, we are all so globally exposed and globally connected that this trend must concern us all. We will be addressing this issue throughout the year and in particular will discuss at our upcoming Women in Treasury APAC Forum taking place in June, to which we invite all of our Asian treasury community to attend.

Elsewhere spring 2021 is tentatively ushering in an air of new optimism alongside blossoms blooming in some parts of the world and plans for the end of the pandemic. We are busy preparing for the first of our digital events and look forward to 2022 and the start of new physical events.

In this issue we take a look at Singapore and its approach to sustainability. This comes at the same time as we close our 2021 Global Sustainability Study and we look forward to analysing, assessing and sharing the results of our findings this year. The pandemic has only served to highlight the problems caused by a lack of sustainability and we hope to emerge from 2021 with companies across the board in a far advanced position on such issues when compared to their positioning at the start of 2020.

We look forward to sharing these articles with you and to hearing from you at our digital events throughout this quarter. If you have any concerns or suggestions please don’t hesitate to reach out.