One of the most memorable lessons Her Excellency Serey Chea learned at the Lee Kuan Yew Senior Fellowship in Public Service (SFPS) programme was on risk. As part of the course, the Senior Fellows were brought to Changi Airport where they learned how Singapore’s former Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew moved the city’s air terminal from Paya Lebar to Changi despite already having committed significant investment into the former location.
“How bold should a leader be? It turned out to be a successful decision for him but I cannot help but think what if it did not, what could have happened? Look at it today, Changi is probably the best airport in the world,” said Serey.
Serey, together with other Senior Fellows, in class at the LKY School
As an Assistant Governor and Director General of Central Banking at the National Bank of Cambodia, Serey is no stranger to the concept of risk, but learning just how bold the late Mr Lee was made her question her own risk appetite.
Serey said that although she has had to make decisions that involved calculated risks, they still provided good lessons although they were not on the same scale as Mr Lee’s. “Sometimes you make a move and realised it is wrong, how willing are you to admit the mistake and turn it around? How do you communicate that to the public?” she elaborated.
Pay it forward
Serey manages all aspects of central banking, except banking supervision. Like many central banks around the world during this pandemic, she had to ensure the banking system is healthy and has the liquidity to support the economy. One of her crowning achievements, which grabbed international headlines, was the launch of a payment system called the Bakong Project. It uses the distributed ledger (also known as blockchain) technology.
Serey, during the Official Launch of the Bakong Project at the NBC Sen Sok branch
[ALUMNI-INFO TEXT="
“We are the first in Southeast Asia to launch it in the real environment. One of the benefits of electronic payments is that it reduces contamination (from COVID-19) by reducing the need to handle cash,” she explained.
It has also made government assistance more efficient, she continued. Beyond the pandemic, Serey hopes to give her people an alternative credit scoring which could help them access formal financial services. Banks often would check credit history before granting a loan or credit line. That makes it difficult for businesses or individuals with no payment history to secure credit. Through electronic payments, the bank can now assess risk scores through the businesses’ payment history.
The potential of digitisation is massive. “There are a lot of algorithms that can measure your income based on your spending behaviour. I am not saying we have that capability now but these are the potential scenarios,” she described. “Look at how Alibaba learns your buying behaviour. They analyse the kinds of things you buy, how much you spend, etc. Then they look at the delivery timings. If you ask for deliveries in the evening, as opposed to 10am, that says you have a job. Those are the things we could do with data.”
"][/ALUMNI-INFO]
Drawing interest
Serey also recently held an art exhibition despite not having held a brush since her school days. Through a charity auction, she raised US$70,000 (S$94,000) for the Raksa Koma Foundation which she had founded. The organisation provides children in Cambodia from all backgrounds with basic healthcare and welfare needs. “When people say, ‘oh you have a hidden talent’, I would tell them it was hidden to me too,” she joked.
Serey, during her first art exhibition named "Interlude" at the White Mansion Legend Boutique Hotel
I want to help women discover themselves and give them a sense of self-worth. I want to demonstrate that if something interests me—even if I never had lessons, even if I have not painted in a long time—I can still hold an exhibition. It was not a Van Gogh or a Monet kind of exhibition but there were a lot of colours on the canvas and it was a joyful thing,” shared the Monet fan.
[ALUMNI-QUOTES TEXT="Holding a public exhibition has some elements of risk for the budding painter as well. There is a chance people may not like your work or understand it. “I learned this lesson from my 11-year-old. I asked him what he thought of one of my abstract paintings. I painted a flower in a vase but he saw something else. I was disappointed but he patted me on my shoulder and said, ‘Mommy, abstract has no real identity’.
“I share that wisdom with a lot of women. I tell them, ‘just paint whatever comes to your mind. There will be people who love it. There will be people who hate it. There will be people who do not understand but it is fine. That is you, and it comes from within you.’ That has encouraged people to explore their artistic skill,” she analysed.
A strong advocate for women’s economic empowerment and financial inclusion, Serey used to serve as an Alliance for Financial Inclusion (AFI) Committee member, Gender and Women Financial Inclusion. She then moved on to Women’s World Banking where she sat on the advisory board for Southeast Asia. She helped women gain access to financial services as she believes it is important for women to be independent and to be empowered economically."][/ALUMNI-QUOTES]
At home, she works with the Ministry of Women’s Affairs of Cambodia to help women entrepreneurs better understand financial products and services. The ministry also collaborates with schools to include financial literacy in the general education programme. “We want to help children learn very early on about financial management because that is a more important skill than geometry. I was helping one of my children with a math problem about triangles and I thought, ‘why don’t they teach you about money?’”, she mused.