AI, renewable energy, healthcare sectors will be focus areas for 2025, says Hong Leong Bank

The Star

Hong Leong Bank says artificial intelligence (AI) will be a potential “next frontier,” with the sector’s focus on healthcare, energy, power management and quantum computing presenting significant opportunities in the new year.  WATCH MORE: https://thestartv.com/c/news SUBSCRIBE: https://cutt.ly/TheStar LIKE: https://fb.com/TheStarOnline

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00:00What are some key growth areas you see that have potential this year from an industry

00:08standpoint?

00:09I think key growth, definitely AI.

00:11I think we're just beginning of a cycle in AI.

00:13If you look at back in 30 decades ago, we have the PC boom and then the internet boom.

00:19I think the AI boom has just started.

00:21At least the cycle will remain the same or even get stronger the next five, 10 years.

00:24So we're very, very bullish on AI.

00:26The other area that we really like is actually healthcare.

00:28I think a lot of the technology advancements that's coming from AI will be applicable

00:33on the healthcare side.

00:35And lastly, I think on the back of a cheapening of cost of production, we think renewable

00:40energy will continue to be very strong.

00:42We saw what happened this year with extreme weather.

00:45So I think we believe that renewables is an area that we should focus on.

00:47As an experienced wealth and investment expert, how has the space changed over the years?

00:52Are people investing differently?

00:54Okay, I think a lot has changed.

00:56I think a few things.

00:58On the back of high volatility, we believe a lot more investors are now a bit more cautious

01:04of actually taking decisions on themselves.

01:06So a lot of money now is actually being managed by professional managers.

01:09I think that trend will continue.

01:11It's not very dissimilar with other markets.

01:13It's just that it started many, many decades ago, where a lot of money is being managed

01:18by professional managers.

01:19Asian investors tend to want to invest a lot on themselves, by themselves, make decisions

01:23themselves.

01:24So I think that trend is going to continue to move more of the investment decisions given

01:26to a professional manager.

01:28Secondly, I think the interest on alternative investment is very, very strong.

01:33If you look at a lot of the interesting companies, interesting sectors, many of those companies

01:38are not in the public markets.

01:40So we really like some of the private asset space, especially real estate infrastructure

01:44and some of the selective private equity markets on the alternative side.

01:48And lastly, I think in terms of how the wealth management landscape and investment has changed,

01:54I think digital is a big aspect.

01:56And especially with the younger generations, I think they tend to want to talk to RM sometimes,

02:01but not that often.

02:02So making digital available on their hand is something that wealth managers need to

02:07be aware of.

02:08I think there is tremendous opportunity for wealth management in this part of the world.

02:11If you combine India, China and ASEAN alone, we're talking about a 3 billion population

02:17and rising middle income.

02:19We are known to be a very strong commercial bank, a very strong SME bank.

02:23On the wealth management side, I think we are looking to expand our presence a bit more.

02:29You will see a lot more from us in the next couple of months.

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