Jakarta, 1 April 2021: The second Entrepreneurship, Start-Up, and Innovation (E-S-I) webinar with theme From Resilience to Success – Entrepreneurial Mindsets and Skills was held on 1 April 2021 and attracted more than 270 participants from the Asia-Pacific region.

 The four speakers of the webinar were:

•  Raffaele Trapasso, Economist, OECD
• Jeff Sandhu, Head, FutureX Talent, Sunway iLabs (42 Kuala Lumpur), Malaysia 
• Sinn Chanserei Sophea, Managing Director, SinnC Creative Solutions, Cambodia
• Stefan Ye, Founder, Events Experience, Compass Events, Singapore

Dr Giulia Ajmone Marsan, Director of Strategy and Partnership, ERIA, opened the webinar by highlighting the importance of skills development for the rapid growth of digitalisation, in particular for the ASEAN region. She added that providing better skills means providing better opportunities to improve individual’s well-being and empowerment and accelerate economic development.

Dr Raffaele Trapasso explained the difference between cognitive and non-cognitive skills, in particular how both skills are essential to achieve social and economic development. He highlighted how one of the key elements in today’s skills development and training is  ‘Learning to Learn’. He added that training and education institutions have to focus not only on developing skills, but  also on activating entrepreneurial skills through real experience for the students.

Mr Jeff Shandu highlighted that the pandemic has enabled entrepreneurs to be adaptive and collaborative thus decreasing competition between institutions. Moving forward he pointed out the importance of stepping out of one’s comfort zone in order for entrepreneurs to develop resilient skills. He also mentioned the necessity to accelerate skills development of employees at all levels in a company.

Ms Sinn Chanserei Sophea described the disruptive impact of the pandemic on her business including business opportunities due to the acceleration in the usage of digital technologies. She discussed how her company made adjustments to survive the pandemic in which she prioritized the wellbeing of her employees. She shared three important characteristics for entrepreneurs during times of disruption: to seize opportunities, to be flexible, and to be resilient.

Mr Stefan Ye highlighted three guidelines for entrepreneurs to remain resilient during the pandemic: entrepreneurs have to react fast, ask for help, and listen to their clients. Mr Ye also offered an alternative mindset to embrace the post-pandemic world: to help other entrepreneurs in need, embrace the fact that entrepreneurs are also human with feelings, and to take every opportunity.

The webinar was co-hosted and moderated by Mr TJ Ooi, Founder of Curated Connectors, a Singapore-based start-up. During the Q&A session, moderated by Ms Lina Maulidina Sabrina, Programme Officer at ERIA, Speakers discussed the differences between skills and attitudes and how both can be improved. Speakers also briefly discussed about upskilling of the workforce.

The Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia (ERIA) has launched a new series of webinars to discuss the E-S-I development and strategy in the post-recovery in the region. This webinar series is organised under ERIA’s Strategy and Partnership Programme, funded by Australia.