Editorial

Focus on fundamentals continues

To many, quantum computing sounds like something so far-off that it still remains in the realm of science fiction. This technology, as well as the potential of artificial intelligence heralds an exciting future for treasury and are both topics that are covered in the January/February 2024 issue of Treasury Today Asia.

Technological developments are always interesting, but, as any good treasurer will tell you, despite all the new-fangled technology that is out there, it is always important to remain focused on the fundamentals. This is a theme that runs through the risk management piece that looks back at 2023 and analyses the key learnings that treasurers can apply to the year ahead.

Many treasurers that we speak to didn’t intend to pursue a career in treasury and land in the profession from other areas. In this issue, we speak to Jason Teo at LOGOS Group who started his career in branch banking, where he got a solid foundation in the fundamentals of how banking actually works.

Managing risk is also often about diversification – a fundamental idea – and this continues to be a strategy that corporates are pursuing when it comes to their reliance on China. China+1 strategies gained much attention due to the pandemic and subsequent lockdowns, which wreaked havoc on supply chains. Although the pandemic is now behind us, these strategies remain – for a variety of reasons – and there are some clear beneficiary countries that have emerged from this shift.

A focus on the fundamentals is also pertinent to analysing the current state of the Korean economy. Given the buzz around hallyu – or the ‘Korean Wave’ of popular cultural content that has taken the world by storm – it is easy to assume that the creative industries have taken over as the mainstay of South Korea’s economy. This, however, is not the case as our feature on the topic explores.