China

Ant Group’s INCLUSION Fintech Conference Makes Its Debut in Shanghai

Ant Group, yesterday officially launched its much-talked about inaugural INCLUSION Fintech Conference both to a live audience and virtually.

The first day of the conference began with a morning plenary session, followed by 17 forums in the afternoon and a nature-themed music festival along Shanghai’s iconic Huangpu River in the evening.

The conference welcomed prominent speakers from all corners of the world, including representatives from the United Nations and the International Monetary Fund, as well as Nobel Prize-winning scholars, to participate in a wide-ranging conversation on how digital technology can help build a more inclusive, green, and sustainable world.

An exhibition area showcased the latest fintech innovations and technology solutions from Ant Group and Alipay, as well as a variety of other major companies from the technology and financial communities, including Kenyan telecommunications provider Safaricom, Swiss-Thai fintech company Ascend Money, and US financial services company Mastercard.

Key speakers from the first day of the INCLUSION Fintech Conference

Kristalina Georgieva, Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) delivered the keynote speech where she provided a comprehensive overview of the global economic outlook, highlighting the pivotal role financial inclusion can play in building a better and more resilient world, especially as economies and businesses continue to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Kristalina Georgieva

“Fintech is already playing an important part in slowing the spread of COVID-19. It has made contactless and cashless transactions very popular and very useful. Digital financial services also enable governments to quickly expand social safety nets and help facilitate direct payments between people, in turn accelerating economic recovery.”

During the plenary session, Eric Jing, Executive Chairman of Ant Group, envisioned a new financial ecosystem that is powered by technological innovation. He stressed that digital technology accelerates the evolution of financial services and makes it more accessible to those in need, bringing equal development opportunities for all.

Simon Hu, CEO of Ant Group, echoed the chairman’s sentiment by asserting that technology is at the heart of Ant Group’s DNA as they “continuously drive the evolution of their strategy, operations, and value proposition”.

Nobel Economics Laureates Michael Spence and Bengt Holmström also shared their views and insights on the current state of global finance and the integration of technology and financial services in a conversation with Long Chen, director of the Luohan Academy, an open-research initiative by Alibaba Group.

Forums in the afternoon focused on an array of different topics, including open banking, insurance and technology, and new methods of global remittance, amongst many others.

A full playback of the plenary session will be available on the INCLUSION Fintech Conference’s YouTube channel as well as on the conference’s official website.