The opening ceremony of Tsinghua PBCSF Finance EMBA Class of 2018 was held on 13th September 2018. 180 industry leaders from 15 countries and regions who have enrolled in either Finance EMBA 2018 Fall Class or B&R EMBA Program for Southeast Asia 2018 Cohort 2 got together at Beijing to kick off their brand-new study experience at PBCSF.  Liao Li, Executive Associate Dean of Tsinghua PBCSF, attended the ceremony and delivered an opening speech.

Anthony Tan, founder & CEO of Grab Holdings spoke as a representative of the new students. The following is the full text of his speech.

Good afternoon everyone,

My name is Anthony Tan, and it is my privilege to join the Tsinghua PBC School of Finance EMBA cohort all the way from Southeast Asia. I’m honoured to represent the Belt & Road Finance EMBA Program for Southeast Asia and Finance EMBA students in this room today.

My family was originally from Fujian. My grandfather moved to Malaysia when he was seven and worked his way up from very humble beginnings to become a successful property developer.

Thanks to my grandfather’s and my father’s hard work in building up their businesses, I grew up in a privileged environment. But we’re a traditional Chinese family, and my father has always had high expectations and believed that his children must work hard and prove themselves.

My father used this analogy often. To make a sword, you must put the metal through burning fire, pound it with a hammer, dunk it in ice-cold water – and then keep repeating the process, before it becomes a sharp blade. There are no shortcuts if you want the best sword.

It reminds me of a Confucius saying, “He that would perfect his work must first sharpen his tools." 工欲善其事, 必先利其器  (gōng yù shàn qí shì，bì xiān lì qí qì).

This is why I’m here at Tsinghua – to sharpen my knowledge and skills, learn from all of you, share with you and forge some lasting friendships along the way. Being here is actually a bit nostalgic. I first came to Tsinghua in 2003 during the early boom of Internet and e-commerce in China. Since then, China’s development and advancement in tech has been astounding. Which is why I love coming back again and again.  百闻不如一见 (bǎi wén bù rú yí jiàn) [translation: seeing it for himself is a hundred times better than hearing from others].

Southeast Asia today reminds me of China more than 10 years ago. This is a generation of firsts for 640 million people in Southeast Asia. Many are going online for the first time, going cashless for the first time. Many are earning livelihoods with their smartphones for the first time.

Grab is building an everyday super app to provide our 110 million users with quick convenient access to essential online services. At the same time, this creates jobs for micro-entrepreneurs, many of whom would otherwise be jobless, lifting them into a new economic reality. Today, we empower 8 million micro-entrepreneurs across Southeast Asia - and we are aiming to more than 10x that to 100 million micro-entrepreneurs.

These are big ambitions, and we would love to work with like-minded partners to make it happen.  Today, Grab is extremely honoured and blessed to partner with Didi Chuxing and Ping An Good Doctor in bringing Chinese technology and know-how to Southeast Asia. As we look to create Southeast Asia’s first Super-app, we welcome more great partners to join us. 因为一箭易断，十箭难折(Yīnwèi Yī jiàn yì duàn, shí jiàn nán zhé) [translation: Because one arrow is easy to break, ten arrows are difficult to break]. Together, we can make this generation of firsts a meaningful one for 640 million Southeast Asians.

Thank you and I look forward to a fruitful time together with you here at Tsinghua.