Executive Chairman Vijay Eswaran with QI Director for Network Affairs, Donna Imson

As a Global Growth Member of the World Economic Forum, the QI Group was a proud participant at the Forum’s fifth Annual Meeting of New Champions – more commonly known as the “Summer Davos” – held in Dalian, China from 14-16 September, 2011. The overall theme of the meeting was ‘Mastering Quality Growth’.

At the opening session of this foremost global business gathering that convened more than 1,500 industry, government, technology and civil society leaders, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao announced China’s resolution to contribute whatever it could to global economic recovery and stability in the coming months. Wen, who has lent his personal support to this event since 2007, in close collaboration with the People’s Republic of China, said that he is indeed positive and far-sighted about China’s economic potential of achieving long term, better quality growth.

Present at this world-class event as a representative of the QI Group was Executive Chairman Vijay Eswaran, who also served as a panellist at a special session titled Asia’s Youth Culture. The discussion, which was centred on one of the most popular topics of today – youth – touched upon how societal changes in Asia are shaping youth values in the region.

Vijay Eswaran, a panellist at the event

In his remarks on the panel, Eswaran pointed out that today’s youth live in a borderless world, and the lines between the East and West are blurring.  He said that youth today are far more aware than they were 10-20 years ago, because of the internet. This level of hyper-connectivity is dissolving barriers and strengthening universal values. This is mainly why the impact of the youth has gone international in today’s society. Eswaran also highlighted Social Media as the cloak of anonymity that equals freedom for youth in tightly regulated societies, such as the Arab community.

This insightful session sparked off a lively and heated debate among panellists, and was moderated by Thomas Crampton, Asia Pacific Director at Ogilvy from Hong Kong. Other panellists alongside Eswaran included Feng Jun, CEO of Aigo Digital Technology from China, Kenny Low, CEO of  City College & O School in Singapore  and Sun Xun, a leading artist from China.