management, singapore ’ s thriving family office ecosystem is helping wealthy asian families to professionalise the management of their wealth and support their growing interest to invest for impact, as wealth is transferred to the next generation. in insurance, new capabilities are being developed to provide risk advisory services for complex and structural risks in asia, like cyber - attacks, pandemic, and climate risks. the increasingly pervasive use of technology in our financial sector will be another key driver of growth. financial institutions in singapore are making significant investments in technology. major banks and insurers are accelerating their digital transformation and ramping up hiring in application development, data science, and artificial intelligence. example : ocbc bank recently announced that it plans to hire 1, 500 technology staff over the next 3 years, with the majority of those positions to be based in singapore. bank of america has based one of its two overseas global cyber security centres in singapore. the bank currently has more than 800 headcounts in singapore focusing on technology. another example is shanghai pudong development bank, which set up its first overseas innovation centre in singapore. likewise, global insurers like scor have established innovation labs in singapore. local insurers have invested heavily in technology too. singapore has made a name for itself as providing one of the world ’ s most conducive environments for financial innovation. we are now home to over 50 global and regional innovation labs and more than 1, 400 fintech firms. last year, we saw record high fintech investments of us $ 3. 9 billion last year, up from uss $ 2. 5 billion in 2020 [ 2 ]. leading players at the forefront of digital asset innovation have anchored their operations in singapore. jp morgan has partnered dbs bank and temasek to establish partior, which is a multi - currency, cross - border settlement platform, leveraging blockchain technology. r3, a global distributed ledger technology provider with roots as a banking consortium, has grown its innovation hub in singapore to become the regional headquarters for asia. the newest and possibly most promising area of growth is sustainable finance where we aspire to support asia ’ s transition to a low carbon economy. the task of reducing emissions is urgent, as pointed out by the most recent report of the united nations intergovernmental panel on climate change. all sectors of the economy need to achieve progressive and deep emission reductions. some us $ 2 trillion in infrastructure investments will be needed over the next decade

worth individuals ( hnwi ; people with at least us $ 1 million in financial assets ), not far behind the us with 2. 7 million and europe with 2. 6 million. asian hnwis control an estimated us $ 7. 2 trillion in financial assets. the size of this group in asia is growing at 7 % per year, second only to the middle eastern hnwi, now 300, 000 which is growing at 9 % per year. traditionally, asian and middle eastern investors have looked to the developed, western markets to meet their investment needs. but increasingly, they are looking to diversifying their assets globally. it is a interesting new story, that is only beginning to unfold in asian markets. this is not just a post - 9 / 11 story. increasingly, wealthy investors the world over are looking to spread the risks and enhance the overall returns on their investment portfolios. we are seeing this search for diversification and improved returns on investment amongst sophisticated investors from the middle east and asia. it provides an opportunity for markets in asia and the middle east which can offer wealthy investors with higher expected returns at acceptable risk. the demand side of the financial equation in our two regions is equally compelling. first, there are unprecedented demand for funds to finance infrastructure projects, across the region. in southeast asia alone, about us $ 461 billion is expected to be spent over the next 15 years to upgrade infrastructure. this is not even looking at china and india. likewise in the middle east - the reconstruction of iraq and qatar ’ s infrastructural plans are each expected to cost us $ 100 billion. second, besides infrastructure finance, we are seeing huge growth potential in the consumer finance sector in our two regions. it is driven by a rapidly expanding middle - class, who want better housing, cars and other big - ticket items like middle classes anywhere else in the world. for instance, india ’ s “ consuming class ” will rise from the current 30 % of households to 40 % by 2010. similarly in china, the “ middle class ” is set to double over the next 5 years. facilitating greater financial flows between asia and middle east financial services are therefore growing rapidly in asia and the middle east. and there is scope for greater deployment of our savings within our two regions, as investors in both regions look for improved returns. we are seeing the beginnings of a fruitful and meaningful relationship in financial sector cooperation. there is much scope for regional financial centres like singapore