Treading carefully amid uncertainties in the year ahead

DESPITE contributing two-thirds of total global growth as the world's main growth engine, Asia is starting to sputter due to the impact of major economic, political and social developments unfolding across the region. Asian countries are grappling with a myriad of factors, including economic disruption, geopolitical risk and even social change, that are driving a cycle of uncertainty.

Ask any C-suite executive what will keep him or her up at night in 2020, and the reply will likely be uncertainty arising from factors such as growing indications of trade protectionism like the US-China trade war and Brexit. Even if both superpowers deliver the recently negotiated "Phase One" deal signed and sea…