AMTD News | Establishment of @-WISE CCoE in Singapore

AMTD Foundation and AMTD Digital, a subsidiary of AMTD Group with headquarters in Singapore (collectively “AMTD”), the University of Waterloo, iQ4 and the Singapore FinTech Association (SFA) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to establish the @-WISE Cybersecurity Centre of Excellence with Singapore as its permanent base. Knowledge advisor and supporting organisations for this platform include Ernst & Young Advisory Pte. Ltd. (EY), HK Cyberport fully owned by the HK Government, AMTD Charity Foundation, and Infinity Power. This new partnership builds on AMTD’s collaboration with the University of Waterloo and the SFA, including the University of Waterloo-AMTD Innovation Hub in Hong Kong, AMTD Waterloo Global Talent Postdoctoral Fellowship Program, and AMTD-SFA Global FinTech Fellowship Programme, to groom and develop the local entrepreneurs and strengthen their long-term competitiveness, as well as to cultivate research talents and develop world-class scholars in the waves of globalisation.

The @-WISE Cybersecurity Centre of Excellence aims to raise the awareness of the importance of cybersecurity among digital platforms, FinTechs, financial institutions, and other sectors in Singapore, as well as grow and groom cybersecurity talents, and build a cybersecurity ecosystem in response to the escalating cybersecurity threats experienced by many organizations in light of global digitalization. The @-WISE Cybersecurity Centre of Excellence will promote Singapore as an international hub for cybersecurity in the digital era and contribute to Singapore’s vision as a Smart Nation.。

The @-WISE Cybersecurity Centre of Excellence plans to organize an annual Cybersecurity Summit with Singapore as the first stop, gradually expanding to other locations in ASEAN and the Greater Bay Area. This latest initiative adds to AMTD’s continuous endeavours in talent cultivation and ecosystem building including the AXSI Digital Finance Leadership Programme, AMTD-SFA Global FinTech Fellowship Programme, AMTD Fintech Centre of PolyU Faculty of Business, and being the first corporate founding member of ASEAN Financial Innovation Network (AFIN).

The founding members, knowledge advisors, and supporting organisations of @-WISE Cybersecurity Centre of Excellence include:

⚫ AMTD Digital, headquartered in Singapore, aims to build a one-stop, comprehensive, cross-market, and innovative digital connected solutions platform across Asia and beyond;

⚫ AMTD Foundation is a charitable institution founded and chaired by AMTD Group’s Chairman and CEO Mr. Calvin Choi;

⚫ University of Waterloo is renowned for its innovative research and quantitative and computing power, and it has been named as Canada’s most innovative university for 28 consecutive years, with world-class cutting-edge academic courses and influential research capabilities;

⚫ iQ4 is a workforce and mobility platform that enables enterprise re-skilling and supply/demand, applied learning through the strategic collaboration between students, academia, and the business world, and captures life-long learning using its “Myhub Passport”, a digital skills persona Learning and Employment Record (LER);

⚫ Singapore FinTech Association is a cross-industry and non-profit organisation. Its purpose is to support the development of the FinTech industry in Singapore, and to facilitate collaboration among the participants and stakeholders of the FinTech ecosystem in Singapore;

⚫ Hong Kong Cyberport is an innovative digital community wholly owned by the Hong Kong SAR Government, with a vision to be the hub for digital technology thereby creating a new economic driver for Hong Kong;

⚫ EY is a global leader in assurance, tax, strategy, transaction and consulting services. The insights and quality services it delivers help build trust and confidence in the capital markets and in economies the world over.

Mr. Calvin Choi, Chairman and CEO of AMTD Group, commented, “As the lead founding member of @-WISE Cybersecurity Centre of Excellence, we are excited to partner with the University of Waterloo, iQ4, SFA , and have the Hong Kong Cyberport as our supporting organisation and EY as knowledge advisor, to establish this Center with its permanent headquarters located in Singapore. Continued digitization has brought tremendous benefits to our economy, connecting everyone more effectively and efficiently than ever before. However, with an overwhelming amount of data and records located on interconnected networks, it’s increasingly important to actively protect them all. AMTD will leverage its network of resources and global connectivity through its AMTD SpiderNet ecosystem to contribute to @-WISE Cybersecurity Centre of Excellence, and support Singapore and ASEAN’s digital community and ecosystem building and connectivity with the Greater Bay Area and rest of Asia and beyond.”

Mr Sopnendu Mohanty, Chief FinTech Officer of the Monetary Authority of Singapore, said, ”The demand for cybersecurity talent is at an unprecedented level globally owing to the surge in digitalisation effort by multiple sectors brought about by the Covid-19 pandemic. Organisations are also dealing with increasingly sophisticated cyber threats during pandemic and this has set a new normal which requires accelerated growth in cybersecurity capability to safeguard systems and retain the digital trust of customers. The @-WISE Cybersecurity Centre of Excellence will accelerate the development of a next-generation cybersecurity workforce and is a laudable effort and a step in the right direction to deepen capabilities. I would like to congratulate the consortium members for their effort to strengthen Singapore as a centre of excellence in cybersecurity.”

@-WISE Cybersecurity Centre of Excellence’s mission will be achieved through four pillars:

1) Education: establish training programmes to train and certify workforce with cybersecurity skills;

2) Thought leadership: provide cyber risk mitigation products and strategies tailored to the needs of the market, and organize seminars and roundtables among industry leaders;

3) Collaboration: foster a start-up ecosystem in cybersecurity domain and deepen connections across organizations and industries; and

4) Research: enable strong international, regional, national level collaboration in R&D.