Hanwha heir highlights fintech at Boao Forum

Hanwha Life Innovation Center head Kim Dong-won, center, participates in the Boao Forum’s Young Leaders Roundtable in Hainan, China, Tuesday. / Courtesy of Hanwha Group

By Yoon Sung-won

Kim Dong-won, second son of Hanwha Group Chairman Kim Seung-youn and head of Hanwha Life Innovation Center, discussed the company’s new growth engines at China’s Boao Forum for Asia (BFA), the group said Wednesday.

Kim was invited to the Young Leaders Roundtable as one of its official panelists, meeting with heads of Chinese financial institutions and insurers to discuss financial technology, or fintech, and future growth engines.

“The advancement of mobile and artificial intelligence technologies will not change the core values of human relationships,” Kim said during a roundtable discussion about the definition of distance, Tuesday. “The development of advanced technologies should be based on fundamental philosophies about societal happiness.”

Kim became the second Korean to join the session, following ex-lawmaker Hong Jung-wook in 2010. Kim’s elder brother Dong-kwan, chief commercial officer at Hanwha Q CELLS, was chosen as a young global leader at the Davos Forum in 2013.

Earlier in January, Kim visited the Davos Forum in Switzerland where he made a lasting impression on the global industry and met with business leaders including Oliver Samwer, founder and CEO of Europe’s largest Internet firm Rocket Internet.

Tuesday’s session was also attended by Dubai International Finance CEO Arif Amiri of the United Arab Emirates, NetEase founder and CEO Ding Lei, Alibaba Group’s financial subsidiary Ant Financial CEO Eric Jing, The Information founder and CEO Jessica Lessin and Eurasian Resources CEO Benedikt Sobotka.

Before the session, Kim met with Jing to talk about the future of fintech and discuss joint business ventures in the Southeast Asian fintech market. Ant Financial has provided Alipay and expanded to crowd funding, mobile asset management platforms and Internet banking. Its corporate value is estimated at $60 billlion.

On Wednesday, Kim met with Anbang Insurance Group Chairman Wu Xiaohui and shared views on the future of the Chinese insurance market and strategies for rapidly aging societies. In 2004 Wu established the Chinese insurance company, which is now one of the country’s top five.

Earlier on Monday, Kim signed a memorandum of understanding with Chinese real estate development company Yida Group to collaborate on support for startups.

Under the agreement, Hanwha Life and Yida Group will upgrade their respective startup-nurturing programs in diverse sectors including fintech, Hanwha said.

Yida Group has pushed for investments in Chinese startups through a subsidiary and has established eight startup centers in major Chinese cities including Beijing and Shanghai. It has already boosted more than 100 startups so far.

Under the agreement, startups under Hanwha’s support will be able to benefit from Yida’s market and investment channels in China.