CATHAY FORUM 2018 – SMART CHINA

May 4, 2020
Global

The fifth edition of Cathay Forum has been successfully held in Suzhou, China on September 13th 2018.

We had the pleasure to welcome over 400 guests from Cathay Capital’s global ecosystem to share their knowledge and to discuss the theme of “Smart China”.

Suzhou, an ancient Chinese city that perfectly combines a long historical heritage with innovation, was the ideal place to hold our yearly signature event. Numerous keynote speeches and discussions on the theme of “Smart China” were animated by a variety of speakers from all over the world. Investors, CEOs of leading corporations, entrepreneurs, policy and academics shared the stage to discuss innovation in China, the future of their sectors, AI and the new possibilities and challenges in this new digital era. Mixing eastern and western perspectives, the Forum was a perfect melting pot of ideas and knowledge, breaking the traditional boundaries between geographies, and between “Traditional” and “Innovation”.

 

KEYNOTES 

Mingpo CAI, Founder and President of Cathay Capital

The initiative of the creation of Cathay Capital has never changed. We are still determined to enable the internationalization of companies and entrepreneurs. When the international environment is full of uncertainties, there is always a third road, a road we trust – the road of mutual exchange, trust and cooperation between companies.

Xiang WANG, Member of the Standing Committee of Suzhou Municipal Committee, Executive Vice Mayor

Suzhou is constantly and continually making efforts towards innovation. It is very gratifying to see Cathay Capital and Suzhou having such a deep and strong cooperation. Suzhou Municipal Government, is dedicated to the development of companies, the expansion of development spaces and the creation of a first-class environment for innovation.

Axel CRUAU, French Consul General in Shanghai

France and China have the same ambition to support innovation. Cathay Capital is the first and only independent Sino-French fund management company that has been recognized by the French Financial Market Regulatory Authority. Cathay Capital provides a very large scale of help to enterprises and innovation in both countries based on its deep mutual understanding of the Sino-French culture, through its presence in both economies and markets, and via its very effective network of people.

Shuang DENG, Executive Vice President of China Development Bank Capital

When we first met the team of Cathay Capital eight years ago, they were fewer than ten people. Today, Cathay Capital has undergone tremendous changes in terms of team, product line and asset management scale. I believe that Cathay Capital’s ability to create such a miracle in the past eight years is derived from Cathay Capital’s excellent culture and team’s endeavor, but more importantly, Cathay Capital is very good at capturing China’s globalization. This opportunity of historical development has brought China to the world and brought the world’s outstanding companies to China.

Benjamin PATERNOT, Executive Director of BPI France

Globalization is in the core of our strategy, and cross-border funds are closely related to this goal. In 2007, we made a bet on Sino-French relations, and we needed a fund with sufficient experience and knowledge of both markets. We chose Cathay Capital and it succeeded. It is believed that Cathay Capital will go further and continue to promote exchanges and interactions between China and France.

Jean-Philippe BURCKLEN, Deputy Director of European Investment Funds

Investors of European Investment Funds include some sovereign funds of the European Union. Together with Silk Road Fund, we invested in the Midcap II fund of Cathay Capital, hoping to enhance commercial synergies between Europe and China and contribute to the development of both markets.

“SMART CHINA” – FOUR MAIN SUBJECTS OF SHARING

SHARING 1: Focus on China and APEC market

Yuan DING, Vice President and Dean of CEIBS

If a European company continues to grow in Europe, it will become a small and  medium-sized enterprise in 12 years; if you continue to maintain your leading position in Asia, you will be ranked as one of the top 500 companies in the world. It is a big trend, it is simple as that.

Jean-Etienne GOURGUES, CEO of Pernod-Ricard China

“Créateurs de convivialité” is our tagline. China is our biggest importer in the world. We own brands such as Martell, Chivas and Absolut. In the future, especially on the Chinese market, we will further develop ourselves based on the following scenarios: offline social, sales and family leisure.

Lijun ZHAO, President of Poten Environment

Poten Environment’s growth is also a microcosm of China’s environmental industry. Poten Environment has grown with the help of environmental policies and capital. The Chinese environmental industry has also grown by dealing with the world’s most complex environmental issues. Poten Environment’s entire business structure has extended from the end of problem solving to the front end, an extension from visible to invisible.

Olivier GINON, President of GL Events

GL Events holds numerous world/regional sporting events and major exhibitions, such as the Olympics, World Expo or Asian Games thanks to 40 years of professional event planning and operational experience. Today, Asia is indeed the only region on the global exhibition market that is still growing significantly. “We announced a few days ago that our sales have increased by 9%. I hope to count Cathay among us for our future developments. Many thanks to Cathay and Mingpo! “

SHARING 2: Big data and AI

Puijang ZHENG, President of Aihuishou

We have accumulated very strong data capabilities over the years. It is very difficult to accurately price front-end users on the recycling market. Based on the tens of millions of users we have been supporting, through the product’s appearance, we have continuously updated and achieved our tens of thousands of SKUs, giving front-end users the most accurate quotation and achieving smart pricing.

Yan XIA, R&D Director and Partner of Momenta

We have two very important visions. The first one is safety. We hope to reduce the traffic accident rate by 50% in the next five years. Lives of 1 million people will be saved in ten years. Our second important vision is time. We hope to liberate 100% of drivers’ time in the next decade.

Ling FAN, Founder and CEO of Tezign.com

Although the consumer end has achieved big range of personalization offering through data intelligence, large-scale data and accurate recommendation and matching, the supply end is relatively traditional. Many of the supplying abilities and skills are wasted because they are not used the right way.

SHARING 3: The evolution of innovation

Yan GONG, CEIBS Pioneering Camp / Venture Capital Program Director

Innovation is not a black or white or 1 or 0 concept of but a continuous variable. From 100% imitation to 100% originality, it is a concept of spectrum. In China, more and more companies directly enter the leaping mode of innovation. An original business model has thus emerged.

Peng CHENG, President and CEO of NavInfo

We have understood that innovation is about understanding the needs and pain points of users. NavInfo is focused on smart vehicles, smart cities and smart homes, leading changes in these areas through digitalization.

Fandi MENG, Founder and CEO Of Soocas

In three years since our creation, we have applied for more than a hundred of patents and have owned our core technologies in various fields. For example, if there is a smart chip on your toothbrush’s head, you can know when you should change the brush. What’s more, our razor has a multi-dimensional floating patent. And having ceramic material used inside the knife is something that we had never imagined before.

Guang YU, Founder, President and CEO of Brass Master

Not only does Brass Master have a close cooperation relationship with the Chinese National Museum and the China Academy of Art, but the company also obtained authorization to create copper-made characters in Marvel’s popular IP “Justice League”. From our experience, what do small brands need to do in a strong competitive industry? The first thing is to peg the market segment, to create one’s own blue ocean and to specialize in products that giants are not willing to produce and that small factories do not manufacture well.

SHARING 4: The power of platform

Yilong CHEN, Vice President of Meinian

Our core strategy can be divided into mainly four points: the first is to continue in the main business. The second is to build the ecology, to control a key core track, and to train the technology giant. The third is to complete the closed loop because a model that generates a closed-loop is a long-term profitable model. The fourth is to continue to work on these three engines to consolidate the advantages of the super-entry and the leading technology of our brand.

Antoine Rostand, Founder and President of Kayrros

We observe and analyze crude oil production, storage and pollution status through real images such as drilling, actual combustion of oil fields and analysis of water density. We obtain information in real time in order to make the energy market more transparent.

Haisha CHEN, Founder and CEO of SXL

We can see many industry changes within the WeChat ecosystem. For example: retail + WeChat = new retail and business + WeChat = new business. For those who focus on the Business end, they must rely on our C-end kind of service providers to sort out the vertical segmentation in the industry. This is also our chance.

Iñigo JUANTEGUI, Founder and CEO of ONTRUCK

Thanks to its own patented technology, data and its platform, OnTruck has greatly reduced the supply chain cost for shippers and the number of unloaded miles for truck drivers. OnTruck has large multinational companies as customers such as Procter & Gamble and Decathlon. The truck transportation market today counts 700 billion demands in China and 405 billion in EU. If we capture even 1% of this market, we can make a huge difference.

ROUND TABLE PANELS

ROUND TABLE PANEL 1: WeChat ecosystem and mini-programs

From left to right: Nicolas Du CRAY, Partner of Cathay Innovation; Mr. Haisha CHEN, Founder and CEO of SXL; Mr. Joseph LEVEQUE, Managinf Partner of 31Ten; Mr. Zhu LI, Founding Partner of INNOANGEL FUND; Xiaomei WU, Founder and CEO of Seesaw Coffee 

  1. WeChat being able to launch mini programs at first place is mostly thanks to its lack of historical burdens. Wechat has made what we previously hoped to achieve through AR or NFC a reality in a low-cost way. I believe that it will eventually become mainstream in other countries.
  2. Mini programs are adapted to many scenarios because they are convenient, they have a low threshold and they are lighter products. They can replace more than 90% of APPs.
  3. WeChat counts 900 million daily activities. As a daily social tool, it allows to establish a deep communication relationship between merchants, customers and employees. As a service application, it offers great opportunities and development prospects.

 

ROUND TABLE PANEL 2: Unlocking the Tech-breakthrough of Automobile Industry

 From left to right: Maoxiang LI, Partner of Cathay CarTech Fund, Dr. Jiangling DU, Dean of GM China Academy of Sciences, Dr. Jianmin GU, Chief Technology Officer of Valeo China, and Mr. Zhengkang LIU, Commercial Manager of Asia Pacific, GM Automotive Network Group

  1. The automotive industry will achieve in-depth developments in the next three to five years. The first is electrification, the second is autonomous driving and the third is digital mobile travel.
  2. In the next ten years or longer, our first goal will be to achieve zero emissions through new energies and electric vehicles. Of course, the most critical thing in electric vehicles is the battery. This is the most important difficulty in the development of electric vehicles.
  3. In China, perhaps in the next 10 to 15 years, 50% of the travel history might be achieved through shared travel scenarios, including three major roles: drivers, passengers, and our travel management platform.


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