Exclusive interview with DBS Group CEO: Chinese companies' overseas expansion into ASEAN enters a new phase, with three major potential customer groups emerging

DBS Group CEO Phebe Chen Shushan

Southern Finance 21st Century Economic Report reporter Zheng Qingtin, Beijing report

“Against the backdrop of shifting geopolitics and changing global trade and economic conditions, Chinese companies ‘going global’ to Southeast Asia has entered a new phase. With the region’s booming economic vitality, steadily growing FDI (foreign direct investment), and an expanding domestic market, Southeast Asia offers Chinese companies broad room for development and strategic opportunities.” Recently, as the head of the largest bank in Southeast Asia, DBS Group CEO Phebe Chen Shushan pointed out in an exclusive interview with reporters from Southern Finance 21st Century Economic Report that she holds a positive and optimistic view of the prospects for Chinese companies ‘going global’ to Southeast Asia.

Chen Shushan revealed that DBS is focusing on three categories of potential customers: first, “born global” high-growth new-economy companies that are laid out according to global standards; second, technology innovation companies in areas such as artificial intelligence and semiconductors; and third, enterprises related to green transition. She especially noted that demand from Chinese companies for renminbi products and services is continuing to grow. As the direct participant in the Singapore Renminbi Clearing Bank and the Renminbi Cross-Border Payments System (CIPS), DBS Bank is committed to promoting the use of the renminbi in trade, supply chain finance, and wealth management through innovative solutions such as trade settlement, cross-border investment, and digital renminbi.

Chen Shushan said that ASEAN has been China’s largest trade partner for six consecutive years. The sustained rise in bilateral trade volume, especially the rapid growth in trade in manufactured goods and green products, fully reflects the deep integration and complementarity of both sides’ industrial chains. She believes that this is both a reflection of economic vitality in the Asian region and a demonstration of the strategic collaboration resilience between both sides amid global uncertainty. Against this backdrop, Chinese companies ‘going global’ to Southeast Asia are showing three new trends: deep integration of supply-chain localization and digital, intelligent development; and the leading market standards driven by new energy and green technologies.

From March 22 to 23, the 2026 annual meeting of the China Development Forum will be held in Beijing. When Chen Shushan spoke at the sub-forum on “Financial Innovation Supporting High-Quality Development,” she said that the current global situation is characterized by intense volatility, and the market lacks stability and certainty—two points that are precisely the most core needs for the development of the business economy. China has a secure, stable, and transparent business environment, providing strong support for businesses to develop. She said she is optimistic about the future of China’s high-quality economic development, and the group will continue to deepen its presence in China.

《21st Century》: Under the current complex geopolitical environment, as the largest bank in Southeast Asia, how does DBS Bank view the economic relationship between China and ASEAN in recent years, especially in terms of competition and cooperation in the industrial chains?

Chen Shushan: In the current complex and ever-changing global landscape, we have seen that ASEAN has been China’s largest trade partner for six consecutive years. Bilateral trade volume has continued to reach new highs, and trade in manufactured goods and green products has grown rapidly, fully demonstrating the deep integration and complementarity between both sides in their industrial chains. This is not only an important reflection of economic vitality in Asia, but also shows the resilience and strategic cooperation between both sides amid uncertainty in the global economy.

《21st Century》: Please discuss your forecast for ASEAN’s economic growth prospects in 2026. Which countries are the main economic growth drivers in the region? What are the main upside and downside risks, respectively?

Chen Shushan: Looking ahead to 2026, we hold a cautiously optimistic view of ASEAN’s economic growth prospects. Southeast Asia is entering an “era of investment boom,” thanks to its strong resilience, ample capital, and a reduced dependence on global trends. We expect that in 2026, Asia’s economic growth (including ASEAN) will be only slightly lower than in 2025. Countries including China, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Vietnam will become the main economic growth driver countries in the region.

The main upside risks lie in strong inflows of foreign direct investment (FDI), which will drive Southeast Asia to become a “resilient growth engine,” especially in the manufacturing and technology sectors. Technological progress and the widespread adoption of artificial intelligence will also inject new momentum into regional development. In addition, deepening trade within the region and reducing overreliance on any single market—such as the “TOTUS” (Trade outside the US) strategy—will further enhance the region’s ability to withstand risks.

However, downside risks cannot be ignored either. Trade protectionist measures and the “pause-and-go” nature of the global trade environment may bring challenges—for example, the potential negative impact of US tariffs on exports of electronic products from countries such as Malaysia, Thailand, and Vietnam. In addition, global trade uncertainty requires us to remain vigilant.

《21st Century》: Under geopolitical shifts and changes in global trade and economic conditions, how does DBS view the prospects for Chinese companies going global to Southeast Asia? Which areas or types of potential customers are you focusing on? Is their demand for renminbi products and services continuing to grow?

Chen Shushan: Against the backdrop of geopolitics and changing global trade and economic conditions, Chinese companies going global to Southeast Asia has entered a new phase. Southeast Asia’s booming economic vitality, steadily growing FDI, and an increasingly large domestic market provide Chinese companies with broad development space and strategic opportunities. We are positive and optimistic about the prospects for Chinese companies going global to Southeast Asia.

We have observed that Chinese companies going global to Southeast Asia are showing three major new trends: first, supply-chain resilience and localization, with enterprises actively laying out regional supply chains in Southeast Asia to diversify markets; second, deep integration of digitization and intelligence. Chinese enterprises combine AI application experience with Southeast Asia’s market demand—especially in areas such as cross-border e-commerce—using AI technology to improve operational efficiency and unlock market potential. Third, new energy and green technologies are leading market standards: China’s “new three” (solar photovoltaics, lithium-ion batteries, and new energy vehicles) drives regional industrial upgrading through technological cooperation to achieve mutual benefit and win-win outcomes.

We are focusing on several categories of potential customers. First are high-growth new-economy enterprises, especially those “born global” companies (Global Day One) that are laid out according to global standards from the very start, focusing on global markets rather than only domestic ones. These companies show strong international competitiveness in areas such as smart home solutions and technology innovation. Second are technology innovation enterprises. As China promotes technological self-sufficiency and industrial upgrading, high-tech fields such as artificial intelligence, semiconductors, and green energy will become key growth drivers. We are committed to providing these enterprises with full-lifecycle financial services, covering every stage from initial financing to cross-border finance, listings, and M&A integration. Finally, we place high importance on enterprises related to green transition. With the shared efforts of China and Southeast Asia on green and low-carbon transition, companies in the areas of renewable energy, high-carbon industry transition, and green urban infrastructure have substantial potential for cooperation.

Of note is that demand from Chinese companies for renminbi products and services is continuing to grow. As the direct participant in the Singapore Renminbi Clearing Bank and CIPS (Renminbi Cross-Border Payments System), DBS Bank is committed to continuously enhancing its renminbi cross-border service capabilities. Through innovative solutions such as trade settlement, foreign exchange, cross-border investment, and digital renminbi, DBS promotes the use of the renminbi in trade, supply chain finance, and wealth management—thereby supporting the progress of renminbi internationalization.

《21st Century》: Chinese companies going global to Southeast Asia are shifting from “exporting products” to “exporting capacity” and “exporting brands.” In this new stage, what are the three common misconceptions or risks that DBS observes companies often fall into?

Chen Shushan: In the new stage of going global, we observe that Chinese companies may have three major misconceptions or risks:

First, companies may underestimate geo-economic risks. Since this year began, outbreak points of conflicts have emerged one after another—from Latin America to Europe, from the Middle East to Asia. In a complex international environment, some companies have not adequately assessed how changes in trade policies, tariff barriers, and geopolitical tensions may affect supply chains and market access. This could lead to investment losses—for example, some ASEAN companies with a high reliance on exports to the US market are vulnerable to tariff fluctuations.

Second, companies’ localization strategies are not deep enough. Although Chinese companies have started transitioning to “exporting brands,” if they fail to deeply understand the culture of the target market, consumer preferences, and the regulatory environment, it may hinder brand promotion or result in poor fit with the local market, making it difficult to achieve genuine localized integration and long-term development.

In addition, companies tend to overlook market volatility and regional differences. Although the overall economic outlook for Southeast Asia is optimistic, there are differences in development levels and economic structures among countries. Some countries may face issues such as domestic political uncertainty, slowing fiscal spending, or inflation pressures. If Chinese companies do not fully take these regional macroeconomic risks into account, it may affect local investment returns and business stability.

《21st Century》: DBS Bank has been rooted in China’s market for more than 30 years. Could you briefly review key milestones of its development in China? What are DBS’s core competitive strengths in the Chinese market? How do you define the Chinese market?

Chen Shushan: DBS Bank entered China more than 30 years ago. Overall, it has been a step-by-step journey following China’s financial opening up—from doing cross-border business initially to becoming a deeply localized, full-license, full-scale foreign bank. At the beginning, it focused mainly on foreign enterprises, cross-border trade, and settlement. Later, it established a legal entity bank in China, and its branches, business lines, and customers gradually became localized. Over the years, in step with the pace of the country’s opening up to the outside world, it has successively obtained many key licenses, such as bond lead underwriting, futures exchange membership, renminbi clearing, various cross-border financial businesses, and derivatives. It also established a technology R&D center in China, laid out initiatives in the Greater Bay Area, and deepened renminbi cross-border business. Today, DBS is one of the foreign banks with a complete footprint and the most comprehensive business qualifications in China.

DBS Bank’s core competitive strength in the Chinese market lies in our distinctive strategy of “integrated professional services as one bank.” With our deep understanding of the Asian regional economy and our broad network advantages, we are able to provide customers with end-to-end solutions covering corporate banking, personal banking, and investment banking—especially with notable strengths in full-lifecycle financial services for technology innovation enterprises. At the same time, as a key bridge connecting the offshore and onshore renminbi markets, leveraging DBS’s direct participation status as the Singapore Renminbi Clearing Bank and CIPS participant, DBS effectively promotes cross-border trade and investment and helps renminbi internationalization. More importantly, we are an active promoter of sustainable development and transition finance: in the Chinese market, we innovate green financial products, supporting the transition of renewable energy, high-carbon industries, and the construction of green infrastructure.

We always define the Chinese market as a key market with strategic significance. It is not only a consumer market with great potential and a production base, but also an important hub for global innovation. China’s government’s high-quality development goals proposed in the “15th Five-Year Plan” (actually “14th Five-Year”?—as written in source) and its emphasis on technological innovation, green transition, and high-level opening up to the outside world provide DBS Bank with immense development opportunities.

《21st Century》: In recent years, more and more foreign banks have been restructuring their development paths in China. During the “15th Five-Year” period, how will DBS Bank adjust its layout in China? What are the main directions? Will it continue to increase investment?

Chen Shushan: DBS Bank is currently entering a new stage of development in China and value co-creation. We fully recognize the strong resilience of China’s economic development. Looking ahead, we will continue to leverage Singapore’s advantages as a leading financial hub in Asia, root ourselves in China, and support China’s real economy in moving toward higher-quality development. Specific directions include:

We will focus on “new quality productive forces,” providing in-depth financial services to technology innovation and new-economy enterprises and offering full-lifecycle financial services. The “15th Five-Year” plan identifies technological innovation, green transition, and high-level openness as key deployment areas. Policy support and fiscal investment in these fields are expected to bring major development opportunities for businesses with strong momentum. China is currently in a breakout period in areas such as artificial intelligence, intelligent automobiles, and fintech (SciTech). AI technology accelerates and empowers intelligent driving, driving industrial upgrading; fintech supports digital transformation and efficient, inclusive development. DBS China has set up a dedicated team at the head office to serve new-economy businesses. Through cross-departmental and cross-regional collaboration, we provide full-lifecycle financial services to tech-and-innovation enterprises across different fields and different stages, firmly capturing China’s policy layout.

At the same time, we will deepen cross-border financial connectivity, expand our participation in the interbank bond market, enhance our position in the underwriting of Panda bonds, and deepen connectivity mechanisms such as “Bond Connect” to attract international investors and promote two-way flows of funds between onshore and offshore. In addition, we will expand the wealth management market. Using the Shanghai International Wealth Center as a foothold, and building on our regional insights in Asia and global asset allocation capabilities, we will provide customized wealth management solutions for high-net-worth clients, and plan to open more international wealth management centers in China. Also, we will deepen our transition finance framework, expand the matrix of green financial products, support low-carbon transition of high-carbon industries through innovative products such as transition financing, and extend into key sectors including aviation and logistics.

《21st Century》: In recent years, China has introduced many initiatives to open up its financial sector (such as allowing foreign investors to increase control and expanding business scope). How do you assess the direction and pace of China’s financial opening up? What opportunities has DBS Bank gained from it?

Chen Shushan: In recent years, China has introduced a series of forward-looking measures in financial opening up, such as relaxing limits on foreign investor equity control and expanding business scope. The direction and pace of China’s financial opening up are steady and resolute, bringing unprecedented development opportunities to foreign financial institutions.

DBS Bank has gained opportunities in multiple areas. Wider market access: relaxing foreign equity control enables us to participate more deeply in China’s financial markets. Business growth from renminbi internationalization has significantly enhanced our renminbi cross-border service capabilities, helping meet the growing demand from Chinese enterprises for renminbi products and services across borders. The benefits of opening up the bond market allow us to better connect global investors with China’s bond market. The huge potential of the wealth management market: demand from China’s high-net-worth clients for diversified global investment continues to grow, providing us with fertile ground to expand wealth management business. And the strategic opportunity of green finance: China’s efforts in green and low-carbon transition align highly with DBS Bank’s sustainable development philosophy, creating broad cooperation space for us in green finance and transition finance.

In 2021, we established DBS Securities (China) Co., Ltd., the first China-Singapore joint venture securities company, and in 2024 increased our shareholding ratio to 91%, demonstrating our firm confidence in the China market.

In 2021, we strategically subscribed for 13% equity in Shenzhen Rural Commercial Bank, becoming its largest shareholder, and in 2025 further increased our stake to 19.9%.

In addition, in 2023, DBS established its third global technology R&D center—DBS Technology Industries (China) Co., Ltd.—at Guangzhou Nanshing? (as written: 广州中新广州知识城) in Guangzhou, focusing on AI technology innovation and application development, which demonstrates our recognition of China’s innovation capability and technology talent.

In 2025, we were authorized to become a Singapore Renminbi Clearing Bank, and became a direct participant in CIPS (Renminbi Cross-Border Payments System), greatly improving cross-border renminbi settlement efficiency and service capabilities.

《21st Century》: In 2023, DBS Group established DBS’s third global technology R&D center in Guangzhou Knowledge City in the China-Singapore Guangzhou Knowledge City area. What is the mission of this R&D center? Why choose Guangzhou? What achievements have been made?

Chen Shushan: DBS Group established DBS Technology (China). This reflects our strategic investment in technology innovation. The core mission of this R&D center is, through leading financial technology R&D and deployment, to help DBS Bank continuously balance business resilience, innovation, security, and cost efficiency, and to fully support DBS in using AI to empower bank operations and enhance service upgrades, improving our digital competitiveness globally.

We chose to set up this important center in Guangzhou based on several strategic considerations: first, talent advantages—Guangzhou and the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area have abundant reserves of technology talent, which closely matches our demand for high-quality technical teams; second, an innovation ecosystem—the China-Singapore Guangzhou Knowledge City provides a favorable innovation ecosystem and policy support, enabling us to deeply integrate into and benefit from China’s booming technology innovation environment; and lastly, strategic positioning—Guangzhou as an important node in the Greater Bay Area is our strategic choice to expand the China market and deepen technology innovation, thereby building it into a technology innovation hub in the Greater Bay Area.

At present, the center has built a complete set of technical capability systems, effectively promoting DBS Bank’s global digital upgrade.

《21st Century》: DBS is known for digitalization. In China, one of the most fiercely competitive global digital finance ecosystems, what has DBS learned? And what digital practices have been reversed from China and exported to Southeast Asia?

Chen Shushan: DBS Bank has accumulated valuable digitalization experience in China’s most competitive digital finance ecosystem. We have deeply recognized that, given the rapidly changing competitive landscape in China’s market, we must continuously accelerate our own digital transformation and innovation to meet customers’ growing and evolving digital finance needs. At the same time, Chinese users have very high requirements for convenience and experience in digital finance products, which prompts us to place even greater emphasis on being customer-centered and to continuously refine the best-in-class user experience. Moreover, China’s large user base and rich application scenarios provide us with more opportunities to use data analytics and artificial intelligence to optimize business and improve efficiency.

Digitalization practices in China have also successfully provided important references for DBS Bank’s business development in Southeast Asia. China’s advanced experience in mobile payments, as well as an ecosystem model that deeply integrates financial services into everyday consumption scenarios, has provided important inspiration for DBS Bank to promote similar innovative services in the Southeast Asian market. China’s practices in applying artificial intelligence to areas such as financial fraud prevention, intelligent customer service, and risk management have helped us optimize operating processes and improve efficiency in Southeast Asia. Leveraging China’s rich experience in cross-border renminbi payments and digital trade, we have also developed more efficient and convenient cross-border digital finance products, better serving trade and investment connections between China and ASEAN.