net zero. today, 140 countries have made a similar commitment. how the winds have changed. if anything, the last ten years have shown how foolhardy it is to predict the future. nonetheless, at the risk of being proven completely foolish in ten years, i ’ m going to take a crack at laying out what i believe might be three dominant investment themes for the asia - pacific in the next decade : asean alternative energy artificial intelligence asean – the new growth story i will start with asean - among the most dynamic economic regions in the world. real gdp growth has averaged 5. 3 % annually since 2015 outside the pandemic years, compared to 4. 3 % in emerging and developing economies. growth in asean will continue to outpace the rest of the world – according to the imf, real gdp is projected to grow by 4. 6 % in 2023, compared to 4. 1 % for emerging and developing economies [ 1 ]. asean ’ s growth will be driven by several factors – favourable demographics, rising affluence, rapid urbanisation, supply chain reconfigurations, a digitally savvy consumer base, growing entrepreneurship, and deepening economic and financial integration. asean is likely to benefit from an outward shift of manufacturing from china. the southeast asian economies are emerging as key intermediaries for us - china trade. both superpowers are reconfiguring trade and manufacturing through the asean region. vietnam and thailand stand to benefit the most from this trade diversion. during 2017 - 2022, while china ’ s share in global electronics fell 4. 1 % - points, vietnam ’ s and thailand ’ s market share leapt by 14 % - points and 5. 7 % - points respectively. asean ’ s digital economy is growing rapidly. according to industry estimates, some 100 million additional internet users have come online in asean in the last three years, and asean ’ s digital economy has nearly doubled during this period. it is estimated that asean ’ s digital economy could grow up to us $ 330 million gross market value by 2025. digital financial services in particular are set to grow rapidly. payments, remittances, loans and investments are projected to grow annually by between 13 % and 38 % from 2022 to 2030. asean is becoming a hotspot for start - ups and unicorns. the number of start - ups in asean that have raised more than us $ 1 million in funding almost tripled between 2015 and 2021.

recommendations for increasing efficiency in chicken rearing. its technology currently helps farmers supply up to five million chickens across the archipelago each month. thai agri - tech company easy rice uses ai to inspect and verify the quality and variety of harvested rice and reduce the cost of human error and digitalise this checking process. in financial services, ai can help accelerate transition financing for a low - carbon future. last year, mas launched project nova! - an ai utility aimed at helping financial institutions generate insights on financial risks. its first use case is to help financial institutions assess the sustainability performance of singapore ’ s real - estate sector. financial institutions can now use nova! for their esg risk assessment for originating, underwriting, and servicing sustainability - linked loans. asean could become a fertile ground for generative ai to thrive. it has a digitally savvy consumer base, favourable demographics, and investor interests in genai developments in asia [ 9 ]. genai could have broad - based impact on asean ’ s productivity and affect many sectors ( such as e - commerce, education, operations and virtual assistance ) [ 10 ]. at mas, we have launched project mindforge, which looks into the risks and opportunities of genai for the financial sector. this project brings together data resources and domain expertise from the banking sector, together with top ai companies ’ start - ofthe - art technologies and advanced algorithms. we will take an action - oriented approach of use cases, prototypes and pilots to aid in the learning and translation process. we need safe and responsible ai. mas is working on this. back in 2018, mas developed the fairness, ethics, accountability, transparency ( or feat for short ) principles with the financial industry, to provide guidance on the responsible use of ai by fis. this work was continued through the veritas consortium to translate and operationalise these principles. with the benefit of road - testing, the consortium released a veritas toolkit 2. 0 to support fis in integrating feat principles into their internal risk governance. it demonstrates singapore ’ s willingness to facilitate the responsible development of innovations that offer transformative economic potential. conclusion so these were the three investment themes that i touched on : asean, alternative energy and artificial intelligence. before i conclude, let me add that singapore ’ s connectivity and ecosystem makes it the perfect place for financial institutions to capture the “ winds ” of opportunity – in asean, in alternative energy, and in artificial intelligence. singapore has political and economic stability, well - regulated