Connecting the dots

TO HAVE a conversation with group co-CEO of Chinese juggernaut Ping An Group Jessica Tan is to speak in terms of multiples and scale.

Take, for example, the launch of a digital platform by Ping An for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Guangdong province in China. That's 11 million SMEs in that province alone.

That platform is meant to eventually link to businesses in the Greater Bay Area - connecting the cities in the Guangdong province to Hong Kong and Macau - with the bay area already contributing more than 10 per cent of China's gross domestic product (GDP). It is projected to be the world's largest bay area in GDP terms by 2030.

The digital platform is fronted by Ping An's unit OneConnect, a technology service that sells its expertise to Chinese banks and, increasingly, financial institutions in the rest of Asia and the Middle East. Recently listed in the US, OneConnect is also a business spinoff that, …