Wednesday, October 16, 2019

Silver Lining For China On Hong Kong


Hong Kong: Endgame Scenarios

The Chinese currency is nowhere close to full convertibility. And so Shenzen can not replace Hong Kong for China. Hong Kong has been and will continue to be indispensable to the Chinese mainland. More than 60% of Foreign Direct Investment that goes into China goes through Hong Kong, and that figure is a low point.

But Hong Kong is not the "Silicon Valley" of hardware. That is Shenzen.

Something is cooking up in the Hong Kong Bay Area that is really interesting from the tech and innovation viewpoint. Shenzen is number one for hardware in the world, and there is this thing called the Internet Of Things hanging on the horizon. There are also robotics and drones: physical things.

Hong Kong is not being destroyed. Hong Kong is being rejuvenated. That is how I look at the current protests.

The quickest way to end the protests is for Xi Jinping to say, okay, you can have a directly elected Chief Executive. It beats me as to why he will not do that.

A successful conclusion to the Hong Kong protests will not end one country, two systems and will take free speech in Hong Kong to a whole new level. And there will be much innovation as a result.

The Hong Kong Bay Area reminds me of the San Francisco Bay Area.

Also, South China Sea would be a great place where to build the ocean cities of tomorrow. Don't build on Mars. Build in the South China Sea. It has six key components: gravity, water, air, food, capital and demand.





Silicon Valley And Dubai
To: The Crown Prince Of Dubai
Elon Musk's Giant Blind Spot: Human Beings
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Silicon Valley And Dubai



First of all, what is technically Silicon Valley (it is an actual geography ... it's a valley, I have been) is no longer where innovation is happening. The innovation is happening north of that in San Francisco, a big city where young engineers like to live. And, by now, New York is neck and neck. Because, guess what, San Fran has nothing on New York when it comes to big city living. And Dubai makes New York look like a Third World city.

But look at this Founding Father of Silicon Valley. This guy, the first Prime Minister of India, is the primary pusher behind the establishment of IITs across India. No IITs, no Silicon Valley, pure and simple. Sundar Pichai and Satya Nadella look visible now, but Indians have always been the majority of the workhorses in the valley tech companies.


You also need capital. Every VC in California gets their money from the pension funds in New York. It is not like the dollar bill in California is a different color from green. Capital is capital. And Dubai has a ton of it.

Culture is big. In San Fran they have a culture where they celebrate failure. They say, fail fast. Fail better next time. But that culture can be cultivated. In other words, be tolerant.

But the truest form of tolerance is cultural diversity, the number one quality I look for in any city. And there Dubai is number one by a wide margin.

The IITs are still producing super smart graduates. But the visa regime in the US has become very unfriendly. Dubai does great there. And if there is room for improvement, it can be fixed by royal decree. I am sure.

Dubai has capital. Dubai can access the same IITs, and only better. Because Dubai is so much closer to home. People like home. Dubai's cultural diversity is the greatest symbol of tolerance there can be.

What is needed is a city inside a city. And I am going to build that. The world is big. The San Francisco Bay Area, or the Hong Kong Bay Area are not big enough for all the innovation the world needs.

And Dubai has excellent location. You have Africa and you have South Asia nearby, the next two Chinas.

To: The Crown Prince Of Dubai
No Techies In Dubai
Elon Musk's Giant Blind Spot: Human Beings
Dubai's Remarkable Economic Transformation





















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Thursday, October 10, 2019

To: The Crown Prince Of Dubai

Crown Prince Fazza.

A month ago I could not have recognized you or your father if I had seen your pictures. But now I have a relationship with Dubai, thanks to my investors Noor Almuna. And I have been reading, looking at pictures and videos. I follow you on Instagram and Twitter.

I have come to realize Dubai, in many ways the number one city in the world today, lacks a tech scene. Dubai Internet City is not it.

I intend to build a city inside a city, more like the finance hub you do have. It would turn Dubai into the Silicon Hub of the planet. I have been enamored with what I have learned about Dubai in recent weeks. I have come to care about Dubai deeply because I care deeply about the dollar a day people on the planet.

MBS of Saudi Arabia put 50B or 100B into Masa's gargantuan Vision Fund. Masa, by all accounts, is a genius. But his forays into WeWork and Uber were ill-founded. MBS' investment might still do just fine with future moves Masa might make with the rest of the money. But that is another topic.

I gather your net worth is in the range of 400M. I want you to consider making a big bang investment of 100M into my idea. I give us six months to explore the possibility. I am set to visit Dubai in a few weeks. I am scheduled to meet a namesake of your father and a member of the royal family, Sheikh Muhammad of Noor Almuna. It will be a pleasure to meet you, if possible. If not, perhaps sometime in 2020. I will most definitely be in town with my parents for Expo 2020.

I see Dubai becoming a major hub of operations for me in the coming years.

I am a very political person, and I have my thoughts about political systems, be they in the US, China, or the Middle East. Be they India, Africa or the Swiss Alps. I have my thoughts. And I have readily shared them at my blog. But I have also very open-mindedly looked at your father's indispensable leadership to where Dubai is today. I just don't see the Mayor of NYC doing what your father has done. And that makes me ponder. What gives?

Remarkable as your father's achievements have been, I suggest your father's ceiling has to be your floor. And Dubai needs to be taken to new heights. The rest of the Gulf is now scrambling to "diversify" just like Dubai. That is not bad news for Dubai. That simply means Dubai now needs to move up the food chain. Moving up the economic food chain is a readily available option for every major economy, be it the US or China, Dubai or India/Pakistan.

I can not publicly talk about everything I have in mind. But I hope to share privately in much greater detail. I hope to have a full-fledged presentation in something like six months.

I intend to turn Dubai into a Silicon Hub that will accelerate Africa's and South Asia's marches to becoming the next two Chinas. To that end I'd like to build a city inside the city of Dubai. That piece of real estate will primarily house my tech startup that will firmly rest on the Blockchain, will draw the best engineering talent from Bangalore to Mumbai to San Francisco to New York and Berlin, and will go to the bottom two billion with identity, and the basic financial services. I see that a trillion-dollar opportunity.

That city inside a city will also be an experiment both in corporate culture and city culture. What is the best city culture for tech and innovation? I don't think San Francisco and New York have the answer. Because the answer is still out there.

I look forward to meeting you, in a few weeks, or a few months. I will have my presentation ready.


No Techies In Dubai
The Dubai Magic (4)
Elon Musk's Giant Blind Spot: Human Beings
Dubai's Remarkable Economic Transformation
Softbank's Problem: Vision, Not Money
The Dubai Sheikh Is A Business School Case Study
Masa, MBS, And The Broader Investment Climate





Juwan Lee: Fintech in Greater Bay Area: No Wait State a great effort of this region in South China to challenge San Francisco Bay Area, Tokyo and New York as the world’s leading and most quickly developing business, financial and technological clusters...... GBA (the region was previously referred to as the Pearl River Delta) includes Hong Kong, Macao and nine cities in South China’s Guangdong province — Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Zhuhai, Foshan, Dongguan, Zhongshan, Jiangmen, and the whole of Huizhou and Zhaoqing. ...... Being home to 70 million people, it produces 37% of the country’s exports and 12% of the gross domestic product. ....... the grandiose 55 kilometer Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao bridge, the longest sea-crossing on earth ...... the Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong Kong Express Rail Link ..... the special economic zone of Shenzhen holds absolutely distinguished manufacturing and high-tech capabilities, processes supply chain integration ....... combine the best of the banking talents in Hong Kong and the best of tech talents in Shenzhen...... Earlier this year the internet giant Tencent Holdings announced that it would share its technologies (AI, blockchain, payment and cloud computing) with the HKSTP startups, boosting innovation and promoting the growth of financial technology in the city.


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Wednesday, October 09, 2019

No Techies In Dubai


I just realized perhaps there are no techies in Dubai. Big brands like Microsoft managed to snag 50 years of free rent from the city, but they have not kept a major tech presence.

There are engineers in the city, of course. There must be a ton of civil engineers, electrical engineers.

But I don't see some hardcore tech team building the next big thing.

I am going to change that. I think Dubai is going to be my second base after NY/NJ. Not right away, but down the line for sure.

Dubai has an amazing location. It is so close to Africa and South Asia. I had a college friend who, given the choice between New York and London, she chose London. Because she was from Eastern Europe. And there's just something about home.

Dubai has an amazing infrastructure. It is quite literally number one. In my book, the most appealing aspect of any city for me is its cultural diversity. And I don't mean restaurants. I mean people. There Dubai is number one. That is a major clincher for me. I am sold.

I intend to build Dubai's first major tech team that is primarily based in Dubai and goes on to build a world-changing company. Port Silicon.

I was talking about the three buckets yesterday (or maybe two days ago). Dubai has a ton of two: human capital and financial capital. The third bucket you build.

Dubai's Remarkable Economic Transformation
The Dubai Magic (1)
The Dubai Magic (2)
The Dubai Magic (3)
The Dubai Magic (4)
Elon Musk's Giant Blind Spot: Human Beings

That Microsoft sign looks sad, if you ask me.

Silicon Hub might be a better name than Port Dubai. When you have the world's number one airport, you are a hub, not a port.

Dubai, you had me at hello.





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