Finally I met one of my idols at Invest Fair held at Suntec City. The legendary investment expert Jim Rogers, who co-founded Quantum Fund with George Soros was the key-note speaker for yesterday event. I woke up early to listen to his speech which started at 10.30am. Alas, there were many people attending his talk and all the seats were filled at the centre stage so I had to stand at the side but the sound system was bad and I could hardly hear what he said except he talked about agriculture and China.
Fortunately in the afternoon, Jim Rogers with three other investment experts like Roger Montgomery, Song Seng Wun (Straits Times like to seek his views on economy) and Chan Kum Kong from Singapore Stock Exchange shared their views in the Market Outlook 2017-Opportunities and Risks at 3pm. To secure the seat at the centre stage, I waited for the event at 2.30pm. This time, the sound system is much better. Well it seem like most of them are quite pessimistic with 2017 to 2018. Cheap stocks could be cheaper. It seems many are still cautiously optimistic. Nevertheless, Arnold Gay asked what advice would they would give to young people, Jim Rogers gave 2 advices. He advised young people to save money and be farmer. He also shared it would be important to be able to converse in Mandarin. He emphasized China Mandarin and not Singapore Mandarin since most Singaporean Chinese mix Mandarin with English.
He believe the 21st century will be the century of China. I brought his three books like Street Smarts: Adventures on the Road and in the Markets, A Bull in China and Adventure Capitalist. So far I only completed reading Street Smarts and he shared that his daughter started learning Mandarin when she was young. Now her daughter who is enrolled in Nanyang Primary School, a school that is strongly rooted in traditional Chinese values and cultures, is very fluent in Mandarin. In the morning, he showed a video of his daughter speaking Mandarin.
Jim Rogers is now residing in Singapore as most Singaporeans Chinese speak English and Mandarin and he want his two daughters to be conversant in both English and Mandarin.
Jim Roger is deep in thought.
Sharing by Geoff Howie from Singapore Stock Exchange.
He like to wear white.
SGX Pavilion
Jim Rogers and his daughter Happy.
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