What will be in Asia’s news headlines in 2022?

Q. What is one news story in Asia that you think we will hear more of in 2022?

A. It is tempting to say COVID, since that is not going to magically disappear, or China, which will continue to try to exercise influence over its neighbours in 2022—or COVID in China, which is looking increasingly worrying. But I suspect the biggest story in Asia in 2022 will be democracy: there are important elections across the continent, from presidential ones in the Philippines and South Korea to Parliamentary ones in Japan and Australia to sub-national ones in India. Malaysia and Thailand may hold general elections too. The region has seen democratic backsliding in recent years that has accelerated over the course of the pandemic. The people of Asia will tell us this year whether or not they are willing to put up with it.

Q. What are you optimistic about in the year ahead?

A. This is the year Asia opens up again. This was already starting before Omicron hit and will pick up pace once the worst of this latest wave is over—too many countries have been closed for too long, and it will no longer be sustainable, in this third year of the pandemic and as the idea of endemic COVID gets embedded, for tight border controls and travel restrictions to continue. I am hopeful that by the end of 2022 Asians will be able to visit each other again with an ease approaching that of the pre-pandemic era.

Q. What is one news story in Asia that you think we will hear more of in 2022?

A. There is so much pent-up demand for travel. As we transition to living with COVID-19 as an endemic, a travel boom is looming but is the industry prepared? Travel bubbles will continue to have a stop-start cycle as countries attempt to align travel policies amid new waves and variants. Booster dose, travel corridors and COVID-19 border restrictions are here to stay as travel recovers in the region.

Q. What are you optimistic about in the year ahead?

A. The pandemic has underscored the importance of adequate healthcare spending. One silver lining from the pandemic is the acceleration of digitalisation. I’m excited to see how technologies such as AI, cloud and metaverse would transform healthcare and its delivery to address gaps such as accessibility and quality.

Q. What is one news story in Asia that you think we will hear more of in 2022?

A. The one big news story out of Asia over the past decade and more has been the rise of China. In the months ahead, we will no doubt continue to hear, and see, more of an ever more assertive China — including of its reach beyond Planet Earth.

Q. What are you optimistic about in the year ahead?

A. I think this reflects more a strong desire than optimism, though the WHO chief’s latest remarks (on December 29) did spur hope — that we might finally see the end of the pandemic in 2022, and have more than a semblance of a return to life BC, before COVID. 

Q. What is one news story in Asia that you think we will hear more of in 2022?

A. The biggest theme from 2021 which we will hear much more of in 2022 is around Chinese regulation – not so much of the banking sector, but of sectors which have an impact on banking.

There are two key examples. One is tech regulation, which continues to tighten. This has a major impact on incursions into mainstream financial services, such as the cancellation of the Ant Group IPO last year. It is still not clear how much further this tightening has to run, but it will have knock-on effects way beyond China.

The other is the increasing control the state has exerted over private sector property developers, which is one reason Evergrande has run into trouble. We will learn how this recalibration impacts the rest of China’s economy, and we will also see how it affects Asia’s high yield market, which is dominated by Chinese real estate developers.

Q. What are you optimistic about in the year ahead?

A. I hope that 2022 will be the year when a lot of technological developments in areas like trade finance and cross-border payments will reach widespread commercial utility. Initiatives in these areas have been underway for years, and if there was a positive from Covid, it was that it forced many customers to take steps towards digital engagement they would probably always have taken eventually but at a much slower pace.

The result: more efficient trade and supply chains at a time when the world economy needs it; cheaper and more reliable payments across borders, particularly for the vulnerable, such as domestic workers remitting funds home.

Q. What is one news story in Asia that you think we will hear more of in 2022?

A. 2021 was a year in which many countries saw an explosion of interest in cryptocurrencies. Their rising popularity left regulators nervous and central banks insecure. Over the next year, we will likely hear a lot more about the regulatory approach to cryptocurrencies. Can you ban them? Should you? Or should regulatory capacity be managed to manage risks, particularly of money laundering, that may emerge from these tokens.

Q. What are you optimistic about in the year ahead?

A. Equally, as central banks move towards launching their own sovereign backed digital currencies, the question of what it means for traditional intermediaries — the banks, will loom large. Central bank digital currencies can hurt bank deposits and the stability of the financial system as we know it. Expect tentative steps in this direction even as the debate rages.

Q. What is one news story in Asia that you think we will hear more of in 2022?

A. I am keen to hear and will read about the changing role of China in the world. What next for US-China relations? What next for Australia-China relations? What will happen in the lead up to the 20th Party Congress in China? How will the Chinese economy fare? And how will China’s actions affect the region? These are issues we will all watch closely and we need to watch closely.

Q. What are you optimistic about in the year ahead?

A. I am most optimistic about the sheer adaptability of human beings and companies as they constantly adjust to COVID-19. There is a resilience which has been shown by societies despite enormous strains being put upon them – but, enabled by technology, somehow the world has shown a stunning ability to constantly change, adopt, pivot and rework itself in the face of two years of uncertainty.

Q. What is one news story in Asia that you think we will hear more of in 2022?

A. Sustainability is likely to be a major story through 2022 and continue to be at the heart of many important conversations in the media this year. I hope that as governments and businesses across the region step up their own efforts to promote sustainability related policies, lifestyles and business practices, we see more newsrooms step forward and leverage their reach to help drive broad-based awareness and inspire both individual as well as collective action to achieve sustainability. There is no turning back the clock – we need to act decisively, especially given that many countries in the region have been experiencing devastating disasters and fallout from climate change.

Q. What are you optimistic about in the year ahead?

A. I am optimistic that 2022 will usher in a new era of living with COVID-19 in which the virus will no longer represent a major public health threat. As vaccination levels go up and through natural infection we will see increasing levels of immunity among the global population. This will hopefully set the stage for a weary world to settle into a post-pandemic normal in which COVID-19 will no longer be a major disruptor to daily family and community life. We will see schools and workplaces confident to stay open, in parallel with a steady resumption of economic activity and international travel. And ultimately this resilience will see us all repair and resume face-face interactions and relationships.

Q. What is one news story in Asia that you think we will hear more of in 2022?

A. When you look at the indicators around the property market in China, it’s fairly clear that 2022 is going to be a relatively difficult year for the Chinese economy. Even relatively difficult years for the Chinese economy still tend to involve high levels of growth. But that definitely bears watching.

Q. What are you optimistic about in the year ahead?

A. If you look at what’s happened in Asia over the last 20 or 30 years, hundreds of millions even more than a billion people have been lifted out of poverty by economic growth, free trade, the capitalist economic system. It’s truly one of the most awesome and inspiring success stories in human history. And it just ticks along every year without people noticing – just this amazing material transformation in people’s lives.

Q. What is one news story in Asia that you think we will hear more of in 2022?

A. China has over the course of the last year made very clear that there’s a national interest in the control of data. And the US has made it clear that it sees a national interest there. So, I think that has all kinds of implications for evolving industries like the networked automobile, for example, and on how that evolves, and whether there are dual and competing standards.

Q. What are you optimistic about in the year ahead?

A. I think professionally, I’m barred from optimism or pessimism but if you look at the resilience of the economy over the course of last year, the capacity of companies to adapt and innovate, I guess I want to be optimistic about the kind of capacity for upside surprise that’s still there.