With Baiterek Hackathon happening in only a few short days, what do you have to know?

“I don’t like banks anyway,” muttered a bank executive as he spoke about the reality of being intrinsically entrenched in the banking industry, and by extension, in the larger fintech space.

With so many obstacles that banks face today, barriers such as scrutiny coupled with piles upon piles of regulation have put so much pressure on banks to keep up with the times. Adil Nurgozhin, Chief Digital and Innovation Officer of Baiterek, lamented that the fintech ecosystem in Central Asia has fallen two to three years behind.

“Banks are huge. They’re aggressive, but they are heavily regulated. So the compliance people are the most important people in the banks right now, no longer the loan department,” he added. For this reason, most banks are no longer able to focus on rendering unique and innovative services because of the pressures of compliance requirements.

With banks like The House Construction Savings Bank of Kazakhstan (HCSBK) whose primary driving force is to support the sustainable economic development of the Republic of Kazakhstan in order to implement public policies and achieve goals set by the 2050 strategy, being able to achieve things has become harder to come by.

HCSBK, a subsidiary organisation of Baiterek National Management Holding where Nurgozhin works as a Chief Digital and Innovation Officer, is trying to change that. One initiative that the organisation is spearheading is the Baiterek Hackathon: a programme whose main goal is to assemble the best thinkers to come up with solutions to pre-existing problems in the region.

What exactly is the Baiterek Hackathon?

Baiterek Hackathon is a tech programme in Kazakhstan that seeks to gather the most ambitious and talented developers and problem solvers in the vibrant region of Central Asia. The objective of this programme is simple: to come up with cutting-edge and innovative solutions to address problems faced by everyday people in the region.

The key problems that the programme seeks to address are issues in areas such as saving, consumer education, banking experience, and other similar problems being dealt with by people in the region, particularly problems in the fintech space.

The programme will be focusing on these four particular challenges:

1.) Savings — how we might help users save better, track their savings, and proactively remind them to be more active savers.
2.) Consumer Education — how we can simplify bank processes to make it easier for customers to better understand all the products and services offered by the banks.
3.) Enriching experiences — how we can make the experience of waiting in line an enriching experience, one that consumers will be able to talk about to their friends and will have a positive experience with.
4.) Others — How we might improve transparency internally and promote cross-collaboration among all bankrupt units.

Also read: Baiterek Hackathon: pushing for solutions in finance for everyday people in Central Asia

The Baiterek Hackathon is open to programmers, designers, business experts, and everyone in between. With teams composed of 3 to 5 members, participants are encouraged to co-create and innovate solutions to these pressing problems.

Co-organised by HCSBK, Baiterek, and Qaztech Ventures, the Baiterek Hackathon is slated to happen on November 29 to December 1.

With 2,000,000 Tenge up for grabs, the Baiterek Hackathon hopes to solve current fintech issues in Central Asia using the vigor and the fresh perspectives of talented and ambitious developers from the country’s tech ecosystem and beyond.

Here, we take a closer look at the ideas and insights that inform, mitigate, and inspire the programme to ultimately help out the people of Central Asia.

Going in-depth with Baiterek Hackathon

In an interview with e27, Nurgozhin argued the importance of producing a corporate outcome in programmes like the Baiterek Hackathon. “I would like them to have this kind of exercise more often. Ideally, it should turn into a lab or something similar, and would lead to a corporate VC fund,” Nurgozhin remarked.

He said that while this is the long term outcome that the programme is trying to gear for its participants, the more immediate goal is as simple as being able to teach participants to communicate with each other. To help them learn to identify the challenges between corporates and startups, and ultimately work together to come up with solutions.

Nurgozhin, who has extensive experience as a venture capitalist for the last 10 years having been a partner at I2BF Global which is an American VC headquartered in New York, now works towards developing a digital agenda for Baiterek.

Through this, they adopted a digital strategy that allowed them to dig further into business processes, and automate whenever possible especially in areas around the data processing infrastructure such as mining data, collecting, processing, among many others—solutions that are often used internally.

Of course, it goes without saying that these efforts need to be pushed even further. “Strategically, we want to have a corporate system in place. But for that to happen, we need to [communicate it] again and again until everyone memorises and understands it, and hopefully learns to extract value out of it,” Nurgozhin said, highlighting the role of Baiterek as a facilitator for the exchange of ideas that is expected to happen during the said event.

The importance of going regional

“If you look at it actually, you don’t say Kazakhstan. You should say Central Asia,” Nurgozhin mentioned as he addressed the fact that the region is populated by a lot of people with no credit history, and how a big chunk of the economy still uses cash.

“How do they serve that? How do you get these people to trust you so that you could serve them?” he asked, suggesting that the programme is poised to help bridge that gap and foster a platform that people will trust enough to go digital for.

It is in this regard that parallelisms between the Central Asian and the Southeast Asian contexts can be drawn. Nurgozhin likened the cases of Uzbekistan and the Philippines to one another, with the two economies benefitting largely from global remittances. Kyrgyzstan, on the other hand, gets about 30-40% of its GDP from remittances. On top of that, both economies happen to be dealing with their own large unbanked populations.

Congruently, Nurgozhin notes that Kazakhstan finds itself in the same startup path as Singapore, having started in e-commerce, to fintech, and possibly, to deep tech in the future. The difference, however, is that while Southeast Asia enjoys a 63% internet penetration rate, Central Asia lags behind with only 50%.

This is what makes Baiterek Hackathon important: because by convening the best and brightest developers from Central Asia into the Republic of Kazakhstan, a country that stands out in Central Asia with its internet penetration rate of 76%, the region has a strong chance to bridge gaps and empower people to go digital.

It is also worth noting that the startup culture in Kazakhstan is steadily growing especially in the large metropolis of Almaty, which boasts the highest GDP per capita in the country. Additionally, the city is gifted with a lot of talents sprouting from the many universities that populate it.

With all of these variables being taken into consideration, at the end of the day, Nurgozhin is optimistic that initiatives like the Baiterek Hackathon will ultimately turn the tides for Kazakhstan and the rest of Central Asia. For more information, you may visit their official website.

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For startups, it’s a great time to consider Taiwan as the country redoubles its efforts to kick-start a startup ecosystem. Following Google’s latest US$851 million investment in a Taiwan-based data centre, the island’s attractions have become an open secret in terms of its location, low operating expenses, and world-class IT talent. As an entrepreneur, though, you might not know its ultimate enticement for a growing business like yours.

Specifically, eligible companies and subsidiaries may receive initial funding up to NT$20 million (US$650,000) followed by NT$100 million (US$3.3 million) in subsequent rounds, courtesy of the government’s new direct investment program for startups—and this is not limited to Taiwanese founders.

If you have substantial markets in the Asia Pacific or are thinking of setting up an operational centre in the region, Taiwan’s National Development Fund (NDF) is now offering a lucrative reason for you to follow Google’s lead and set up shop in the country.

First, a bit of history

To understand this program and why it may be a good fit for your business, it helps to know what the NDF is and how it has been fine-tuning its approach over the years. As the investment arm of the state-level National Development Council, the NDF has tried various means to foster a supportive local startup environment.

This included an NT$100 million grant program introduced in 2013, an entrepreneur visa program introduced in 2015, and investing its own funds directly and via local accelerators and other venture capital partners.

As earnest as these initiatives have been, they’ve had mixed success to date. The NDF’s previous grant program carried repayment obligations whose terms could be seen as unclear, entrepreneur visas had few takers at first, and the local startup scene was still hobbled by a lack of engaged angel investors.

Also Read: What is the state of Taiwan’s AI ecosystem?

Critically, a lack of good exits and quality startups have been cited as reasons for early-round investor reluctance. As it faces an increasingly tight race with top innovation hubs in Hong Kong, Japan, and Shenzhen, the NDF is strongly motivated to adopt a bolder stance.

A new approach, with plenty of money to go around.

And bold it has been, formulating no less than a “version 2.0” initiative to help startups. The NDF may now invest up to NT$20 million in any new startup versus a prior ceiling of NT$5 million, thereby emphasizing an equity stake rather than a grant that must be repaid.

Moreover, criteria for investment have been loosened in that the NDF no longer expects a one-for-one match in putting up its own money vs. other shareholders.

The main requirement continues to be that the fund invests on the same terms as the company’s other investors. This also holds true for subsequent rounds of funding, where the NDF may invest up to NT$100 million of its pro-rata shares on the same terms as other participants.

It’s still highly suggested that a firm have its own capital sources lined up, of course, but the pressure of seeking out an exactly corresponding dollar amount has been relieved.

The administrative process has also been streamlined, as applicants need only gain approval from half of the review board instead of two-thirds as was the case before. So long as they are recognized members of the investment community, the other investors can be based overseas as well (except mainland China).

The NDF has also made it easier to buy out its stake once a business gets off the ground. Angel investors and new startup owners may now repurchase NDF shares at 1.5 times the original price, down from 3.0 times previously.

With the cost of buying out the government’s stake effectively halved, early investors are incentivized with a call option—a potentially lucrative prospect as a successful startup approaches an exit with a much higher valuation for the same shares.

The overall program has also been expanded to NT$2 billion (nearly US$66 million, doubled from last year). As of now, 57 companies have received a total of around NT$760 million in funding, meaning NT$1.2 billion (US$40m) remains available. The fund is committed to fully invest this amount—so there’s still plenty of money to go around.

What this means for overseas entrepreneurs

In their quest to invigorate Taiwan’s startup space, officials understand that success will depend on much more than taxpayer dollars. Such money means nothing without worthwhile investments, and authorities are determined to welcome ideas and talent from abroad while better cultivating them at home.

Broadly speaking, initiatives like the “Employment Gold Card” as well as tax and retirement benefits for foreign professionals all show the seriousness of Taiwan’s efforts in the past few years.

Regarding the NDF’s expanded angel investment program, foreigners are by no means excluded here either. The fund’s litmus test for foreign companies and entrepreneurs would be the establishment of a Taiwan subsidiary with operations within its borders (i.e., not a branch office or representative office).

Meeting that criteria, the NDF is open to investing and routinely invests in offshore domiciled companies; this contrasts with other well-known national funds like Singapore’s.

It may sound daunting, but the process of setting up a subsidiary in Taiwan can actually be quite straightforward and 100 per cent foreign ownership is allowed (again, except for mainland Chinese entities).

One hurdle is that it can be difficult to find English-language information online, though this too is changing (e.g., see this handy checklist for incorporating in Taiwan). While regulations may seem exacting in places, they can be navigated, and authorities are progressively cutting red tape to make the process easier and more accessible for foreign investors.

Judging if this program is a good fit for your business

Foreign-domiciled startups can benefit from liberalized government investment in Taiwan, after carefully assessing their own needs and situations.

Practically speaking, the NDF investment may be a worthy consideration for a) bootstrapped entrepreneurs or b) seed stage to pre-A start-ups, companies that can benefit from an additional investment of US$100,000 and US$650,000 (i.e., up to the ceiling for initial NDF investment under the current setup).

Also Read: 6 common questions about establishing a fintech company in Vietnam

For foreign start-ups and entrepreneurs, setting up in Taiwan makes the most sense if there is an organic reason to do so, e.g. accessing Taiwan’s market or establishing a human resource hub in the country.

Naturally, the additional overhead will arise due to doing business in multiple markets and the usual caveats would apply regarding business risk, currency risk, political risk and so on.

Lastly, there are nuances of the NDF program that is not fully covered by this article and all final decisions rest with the fund and its designated administrators.

However, while the requirements for the NDF investment scheme are dynamic and constantly changing, it is fair to say that it is evolving towards a more entrepreneurial friendly format.

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Image Credit: Adam Jang

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Streets and smartphones 

Though you may not remember, there was a learning curve to using a smartphone. You had to learn how to click and double-click. You had to learn how to navigate from the home screen to your desired app. You had to learn how to use the basic functionalities that they offer, such as the alarm clock or calculator.

For most of you, this process took a few minutes or a day at most. This learning curve is considerably longer for people who have never interacted with a digitally-enabled device before, which is the case for many first-time smartphone owners in Southeast Asia, made possible through the wide availability of cheap devices as well as financing plans and other incentives and schemes.

This milestone is too often overlooked. People now have the greatest tool – the smartphone – to take even greater agency over their own social and economic mobility. Southeast Asia is touted as home to the fastest-growing economies in the world, and smartphones in the hands of its people can enable them to tap into this hyper-growth for their own well-being. But which goods do you direct them to?

Also Read: Threat or opportunity? boosting digital banking in Asia

This sounds like a philosophical question: What digital services would you provide an upwardly mobile demographic who now has access to and knowledge of a smartphone for the first time? Unfortunately, many tech businesses take this question lightly. There is a veritable gold rush of tech companies lining up to offer this demographic their products and services, but these are not always in their best interest.

There are apps and sites for everything including digital personal finance and plenty of e-commerce that has come mainstream only in the last couple of years.

What is the digital good 

While this demographic does need the convenience afforded by digital goods, what they arguably need most is digital good. The former – while momentarily satisfying – generally serves a single need. The latter, in contrast, helps them grow across many multiple needs, chief of which is economic prosperity. The difference between the two may sound vague until you look at examples of the latter. 

In Singapore, for example, fin-tech StashAway democratizes wealth management through an app. StashAway allows users in Singapore and Malaysia to automate their investing, all depending on their individual investment goals. People now have access to wealth management that only a few years ago was limited to high net worth individuals who would be attractive to a brokerage.

StashAway is an example of a digital good. As the minimum balance is US$0, the company provides a digital service that can potentially uplift people’s stature in life bringing them closer to financial freedom. Looking at the company in the abstract, StashAway compounds the value of smartphone ownership into actual dollars and cents.

StashAway, of course, is not explicitly marketed toward the upwardly mobile Malaysians and Singaporeans who may have just gained access to these devices. But the value is greatest for them.

The delta between going from not investing in being able to invest is much wider than going from currently investing in being able to more conveniently invest. The newly connected, in short, have much more to gain.  

The same can be seen in the insurance space. InsureShop, which was recently re-launched by leading Philippine insurance firm, Pioneer creates a powerful digital good. On InsureShop, Filipinos can avail of three main types of insurance, each catering to dramatically different needs.

MediCash provides medical insurance to people stricken with Dengue or Leptospirosis; SafeTrip provides travel insurance for travellers based on destination, distance, and other variables; and SafeTrip provides motorcycle insurance that can be customized to meet people’s desired coverage given the various possible circumstances.  

Like StashAway, InsureShop is quite literally a digital good: It creates impact and protects value for the people who need it most, including everyone from motorcycle drivers and travellers to health-conscious Filipinos.

The insure shop platform itself is one that appeals to a new generation now used to shopping and transacting online for their many needs. It sure helps in educating us about the practicality and wisdom indeed of obtaining insurance.

Also Read: Digital literacy for the masses: How Apple is investing in tech education across Singapore

Other large businesses ought to borrow a page from the digital good playbook. With smartphone penetration increasing rapidly in Southeast Asia, thanks to affordable price points and financing plans, enterprises ought to think about how they can best serve the newly connected.

Providing them with valuable products and services often makes more business sense than just selling them items: You not only create social impact by uplifting them, but you also contribute to the growth of upwardly mobile people now likely loyal to the brand. Your company, after all, was one of the first wave of brands to empower them.

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Image Credit:  Gilles Lambert

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On the 10th of October, the world celebrated World Mental Health Day. An initiative by the World Health Organisation, it is observed to call for more awareness and destigmatization.

In recent years, many public figures such as celebrities, actors, athletes and business leaders have come out to talk about their struggles with mental health issues. While being a phenomenal Olympic swimmer, Michael Phelps also struggled with depression. Ryan Reynolds fought anxiety disorder. In the startup world, many founders fight a slew of mental health issues.

While there is rising awareness, the workplace still generally remains as a place where you don’t talk about mental health issues.

When employees are facing mental health issues, productivity is often the first to go. It comes in many different forms: absenteeism, struggling to find momentum, lack of creativity and simply failing to complete work.

Regardless of what form it takes, the statistics are sobering: about 400m workdays are lost every year due to mental health issues in the states. That comes to a lost productivity cost of USD$33.6bn.

A major bulk of lost productivity comes from millennials and Gen Zers—who will eventually make up a majority of the labour force—as recent studies revealed that 50 per cent of millennials and 75 per cent of Gen Zers left their job due to mental health reasons.

With startling statistics like these, leaders need to step up and begin addressing mental health issues.

Though there is a need for organizations to address mental health issues in the workplace, the root of the problem comes from stigma. On top of societal stigma, workplaces that offer little to no psychological safety are often the biggest culprits in rising mental health problems at work.

With no psychological safety, employees are often unwilling to talk about their mental health issues. Recent studies have shown that 60 per cent of employees are unwilling to talk about their mental health issues with their leaders.

Mental health symptoms aren’t unicorns: they are very common in the workplace. We suffer from prolonged stress that can affect our daily mood. We suffer from anxiety symptoms when we are placed in high-stress environments. Depending on our personality traits and experience, we can face a plethora of mental health symptoms throughout our career journey.

Many understand that such symptoms are problematic in the long run. Yet, companies are still prescribing band-aid solutions. Mental wellness perks and programs are great, but the problem comes from within.

Also Read: Leadership is not a benefit to yourself but an obligation to others

When the problem comes from within, leaders need to tackle it from within as well.

Address the problem at its root—start building a psychologically safe culture

In recent years, companies have become enthusiastic about improving their workplace culture. Software tech giant Atlassian revamped their performance reviews to start identifying problematic “superstars”. Uber vowed to clean up its cutthroat culture.

While these are big companies, enhancing workplace culture is not limited to places with more than 10,000 employees. Reality is, every workplace needs to have clearly-defined workplace culture, with psychological safety at its core.

Improving the state of mental health at work is more than an HR issue: creating new HR policies, cookie-cutter solutions and introducing it into leadership programs will not create long-lasting impact.

Instead of relying on HR to create impact across the company, leaders working with their team members in the day-to-day need to spearhead impact.

Changing culture is a top-down process.

Changing culture is a top-down process: it starts with consistent actions and pledges from the CEO, trickling down to the senior management, middle management and finally the entry-level employees.

Companies can start by transforming their leaders into allies.

It is not enough for the middle and junior management to spearhead change; without internalising the purpose of changing the culture, they have little impetus and/or motivation to start, let alone prolong it.

A pledge from a senior leader can go a long way. For instance, the CEO can start pushing for leaders to address mental health issues. By being the ‘normaliser-in-chief’ conversations about mental health at work, they can start building awareness at the top.

The onus to build a psychologically safe culture lies on the senior leaders for this reason: when they are true and driven in their objective, it permeates throughout the company.

Rather than rely on leadership programs, numerous memos and meaningless meetings, creating an internal motivation such as a mission or value have a larger potential to create impact.

Senior leaders need to show commitment

It is not enough to simply say “let’s focus on tackling mental health challenges” and call it a day. There needs to be clear push: middle management needs to see that their senior leaders are pod-committed on the mission.

For instance, senior leaders can start changing the culture by having conversations with middle management—mental health symptoms affect everyone in the organizational structure.

Without the senior leaders taking action, no external change can really create an impact.

Invest in training and education

Managers and leaders need not be therapists—that’s best left to actual medical professionals. Rather, leaders need to understand what tools they have at their disposal. They also need to be aware of how they can broach difficult topics.

There is no one-size-fits-all solution to mental health challenges: different people experience different ranges of emotions. Leaders need to know how they can identify the best approaches and methods to start tackling mental health challenges in an employee.

Leaders need to drive inclusion as well: employees must feel that they are not judged when they speak up about their problems. Without fear of consequences, employees become more comfortable with opening up.

Involve technology in the mix

Besides driving the change through workplace training programs, leadership programs, and mental wellness perks, companies can opt to use mental health tools as well. In recent years, mental health startups have been on the rise. Even companies like IBM have also begun research into how technology can help improve mental health at work.

Companies should not shy away from technology. Often, the thought is this: how can a software solve something within a human’s mind?

Rather, it is not about complete reliance. It involves a blend of different approaches to tackle such a complex culture. Leaders can consider using meditation tools, mood trackers, pulse surveys and other forms of mental health services to add to their arsenal of tools they are using to drive change.

In a meritocratic society, mental health problems are often viewed as an obstacle: it is blocking our way to success and we need to solve it as quickly as possible.

Also Read: Identifying leadership gaps in your organisation

Companies need to start changing the way they view mental health problems: it is part of us as human beings and it can be solved.

Hence, it is important that companies start understanding the extant culture in their company. Is it a cutthroat culture? Are people usually bringing each other down? Is it a high-stress environment?

Regardless of how the work is like in the company, building a psychologically safe culture is possible in every industry and subsector.

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Editor’s note: e27 publishes relevant guest contributions from the community. Share your honest opinions and expert knowledge by submitting your content here.

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Image Credit:  Volkan Olmez

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While the concept of fintech itself has been known in Malaysia since 2013, it had only become a buzzword in the country starting from 2016.

In its initial years, financial institutions and services industries were once worried about the disruption fintech could cause to their business. But as the years went by, we could see changes happened when these companies decided to embrace working with fintech startups instead.

Today, Malaysia is one of the fastest-growing fintech markets in Southeast Asia. This would not happen without the hard work of prominent fintech personalities in the market, as detailed in the e27 Malaysia Fintech Report.

Here is a list of 16 of those influential figures in alphabetical order:

Amran Hassan
Head of Innovation
Maybank

Aznan Abdul Aziz
Head of the Financial Technology Enabler Group
Bank Negara Malaysia

Also Read: How Islamic finance can work with fintech to promote financial inclusion in Malaysia

Chang Chew Soon
Founder
Soft Space

Chin Wei Min
Executive Director (Digital Strategy and Innovation)
Security Commission

Chris Davidson
CEO
BigPay

Chris Leong
Chief Strategy Officer
Soft Space

David Fong
Senior Non-Executive Independent Director
GHL Systems

Jasmine NG
CEO
Razer

Also Read: Compliance, lending are the most popular fintech sectors among banks in Malaysia

Khairil Abdullah
CEO
Axiata Digital Services

Mehedi Hassan
Co-founder and CEO
MyCash Online

Naysan Munusamy
Co-founder
MoneyMatch

Ng Wan Peng
COO
MDEC

Norhizam Kadir
VP (Growth Ecosystem Development)
MDEC

Raja Adam Malik
CFO
MoneyMatch

Also Read: Shanghai Pudong Development Bank (SPD Bank) holds the 3rd Global Fintech Competition in Singapore, stating a favorable fintech ecosystem

Raja Teh Maimunah
CEO
AmInvestment Bank

Ridzuan Aziz
Country Director and Head of ASEAN
WorldRemit

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Image Credit: Azlan Baharudin on Unsplash

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