Three Indian-origin business leaders have been named as members of the Singapore government-led Emerging Stronger Taskforce (EST) aimed at addressing short and long-term challenges arising from COVID-19 pandemic.
Piyush Gupta, CEO of DBS; Sunny Verghese, co-founder and CEO of Olam; and Caesar Sengupta, VP, Payments and Next Billion Users, Google, are among 15 industry representatives from across various sectors that have been appointed to join the panel.
They were selected for their wealth of experience and expertise, broad perspectives on the global economy, and strong business networks.
The taskforce is co-chaired by Minister for Social and Family Development and Second Minister for National Development Desmond Lee and PSA International Group CEO Tan Chong Meng convened its first meeting via video conference today.
At its inaugural meeting on May 6, the taskforce agreed that it was important to look beyond the immediate challenges and plan for the longer term, so that the Singapore economy can emerge stronger from this crisis.
Three focus areas were listed – namely, identifying systemic shifts arising from COVID-19; assessing the impact of these shifts on the Singapore economy, and how these translate into challenges and opportunities; as well as providing recommendations on how Singapore can stay economically resilient and build new sources of dynamism in the post-COVID-19 world.
“The bigger the challenge, the greater the opportunity for growth. While COVID19 has dented economies around the world, we can come together to find solutions that will help Singapore stay economically resilient and build new sources of dynamism. Digitalisation will be especially important in this new normal," said Sengupta.