E-commerce among topics at webinar for young S'poreans

Companies will have to be nimble and transform their business models with digital technology to join the e-commerce bandwagon, if they want to remain relevant in a rapidly advancing digital economy.

This and other topics were covered in a webinar session yesterday for about 800 young Singaporeans.

The main speaker was Mr Ho Suu Wei, who is online payments provider PayPal's South-east Asia government relations director.

Yesterday's session - the second of seven - also touched on the importance of data protection amid digitalisation.

The webinar series is the first event to be rolled out under the Asia-Ready Exposure Programme (AEP) first announced in February by Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat.

The programme aims to equip young Singaporeans with cross-cultural skills, and help them better understand Asean, China and India.

Mr Heng said then that more Singaporean students from institutes of higher learning would have the chance to go abroad, and had set a target for 70 per cent of them to gain overseas exposure, up from about half of all students from local universities, polytechnics and the Institute of Technical Education currently.

The Asia-Ready webinar series was launched last month by the National Youth Council, in partnership with the Singapore Institute of International Affairs and Asean Business Youth Association.

The series will run till March next year, and give youth insights into issues and opportunities in Asia, enhance their appreciation for the region and equip them with relevant knowledge in the evolving socioeconomic climate.

During the dialogue, Mr Ho said the rise in e-commerce and digital payments has changed the way people live and work.

If merchants are not able to transform their business models fast enough by embracing digital technology to jump on the e-commerce bandwagon, "they might find themselves in some sort of trouble", he added.

Prime locations of physical shops used to be a key business differentiator, but this is no longer the case, he noted.

"(In the past), if merchants had a strategic location with good human traffic, their businesses were likely to do better... Now, the considerations have changed with e-commerce sites and social media platforms," said Mr Ho.

"If you are familiar with online marketing, distribution and logistics, the world is literally your oyster."

Under the AEP, participants will also take on e-learning modules to learn more about the languages and cultures of Asean, China and India.

They will have to work on a local project curated by AEP organisers to broaden their exposure to Asia's growing economies, as well as attend facilitated debrief sessions to reflect and share about the AEP experience with their peers.