Contents
- Editorial
- Zooming to a digital future
- Insight & Analysis
- ASEAN pins hopes on digital agreements
- Women in Treasury
- Women in Treasury: Sharon Wang, Alibaba Group
- Technology
- Metaverse heralds new future for treasurers
- Smarter Treasury: Citi
- Taking control of liquidity in Asia
- Liquidity Management
- Liquidity management and working capital – a work in progress
- The Corporate View
- Corporate View: Marianna Polykrati, AVRAMAR
- Regional Focus
- Corporates adjust to shift in Taiwan tensions
- Back to Basics
- Picking your payment battles
- Question Answered
- Question Answered: In-house banking
Editorial
Zooming to a digital future
Zoom is often given as the example of how the Covid pandemic has changed our lives. Now we can connect with anyone anywhere, creating virtual connections instead of the physical, making working from home much more convenient.
Digitalisation since the pandemic has had a huge impact, and this is something that the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) is running with. The region has long hoped for economic integration so that it can function as a single market that can compete with the likes of the US and China. And now ASEAN is looking to the future with a digital integration initiative that lays the foundation for how digital commerce will be done in the future. Zoom highlights the many issues that digital trade agreements need to take into account, such as where data is stored, how freely it can cross borders, how companies should be taxed, and whether each and every Zoom call should be subject to taxation.
Such digital trade agreements lay the foundation for countries to engage with each other and trade freely. This is also the case with the recent trade deal that was agreed between the US and Taiwan, although it has a different significance, a topic that this issue explores.
Zoom also springs to mind in discussions of the metaverse where the virtual and digital can collide. With virtual reality, and the right headset, it will soon be possible to feel like you are in the same room – or on holiday, or in space, if you prefer – with your colleagues, even though you are working at home. For treasurers, it’s not just the virtual world of the metaverse that is interesting, but rather the technologies that underlie it and the shift in thinking that is required in the brave new world of Web 3.0, cryptocurrencies and non-fungible tokens.
These are just some of the topics explored in this issue of Treasury Today Asia, along with many others including a feature on payment service providers, how treasurers can effectively manage working capital and liquidity, and also on choosing the right time to set up an in-house bank.
