The following is a transcript of questions and answers at an Editors Briefing for the announcement of leadership transition at Temasek Holdings. It has been edited from delivery only for readability.

STEPHEN FORSHAW: We will open the floor now to your questions. Any questions?

QUESTION: I guess I will start the ball rolling. My first question is to Ms Ho. So, why now? Why the leadership transition now? I understand that preparations have been made over the last few years, you have been looking for successors, but why announce it right now in the middle of the pandemic? Is there a particular reason?

HO CHING: Well, why now in the middle of a pandemic? I think the pandemic doesn't derail our long term plans. I am actually very happy, very comforted that we have a team in Temasek, led by Dilhan, who has spent the last couple of years thinking ahead about what it means, what the future means. And in some sense, many of the trends that they have identified, we have seen being accelerated by Covid rather than delayed by Covid – digitalisation, the knowledge economy, and the way the world is changing.

We have put together a plan called the T-2030 Strategy. They [the leadership team] have had extensive debates. It wasn't a ‘slam dunk’ because they come from many, many different perspectives, and they are all passionate about what they believe in. But one of the key developments is they not only put together a plan from an investment perspective, but they have put together a plan that reflects Temasek as an institution that is committed to do well, do right, and do good at the same time. During Covid, we have seen that come together: the depth and the capability of the people, the network they bring to help solve the problems.

More importantly, they have also made the commitment to have sustainability and climate front and centre of their T-2030 plan.

[Agreeing on the plan] wasn't an easy decision to make, they have had extensive discussions, but they have come together and said, that is what Temasek means. And so, I think it is a good juncture to let the younger leadership lead the charge over the next decade.

So, is it in the middle of Covid? I think it is better than last year, since we now have vaccines in place. The rollout still is there, there are still challenges, there are new variants and so on. But I think they are as ready as ever to take on the task ahead.

QUESTION: My question is also for Madam Ho Ching: I'm just wondering, have you considered staying on as a Board member in Temasek? And what were the considerations behind this decision?

HO CHING: My personal belief, and this is something we have instituted as a policy, we generally do not encourage CEOs to remain. I think the key thing is to allow the new CEO to establish his style, his leadership, with full flexibility, without somebody overlooking and saying, "This is not what I want".

They have gone through as a team – and it's a strong team of very many individuals who have got deep experiences and deep convictions. It is not a team that are yes‑men, they do debate, and this is that strength that I see which Dilhan has been able to do, to overcome individual quirks or individual ideas, but pull together the different strengths – and together they have made a commitment to deliver T-2030.

QUESTION: Question to Ms Ho Ching. So, Mr Dilhan joined Temasek in September 2010, slightly more than a decade ago. Maybe can you share with us also how you first met him and what were your first impressions of him? And the second question will be: will you be taking up perhaps an advisor role, especially in a role related to sustainability after your retirement?

HO CHING: Oh, gosh. When I met him, he was a young man! He's still a young man! [laughter] I think one of the key things that we have done in Temasek, as Chairman Lim Boon Heng has pointed out, is that every year we scour and scan the world, and this is part of what the senior leadership has done, to look for potential candidates.

We look for potential candidates who could take over the helm of Temasek on an immediate basis, on a 3‑year basis, 5‑year basis, 10‑year basis, and that gives us a list of potential candidates. And frankly, once we have those lists, the Board makes it a point to go and get to know them, and at the same time the rest of the senior leadership goes out and tries to recruit them.

We are very pleased because some of them ended up helming our Temasek portfolio companies. Some of them came in to Temasek, some of them have come in and gone out to head other operations, so we are very fortunate in the sense that because of what we stand for, because of integrity and because of trust, and as well as the reputation of Singapore, we have been fortunate to find very many people who share those ideals, to be part of the journey.

So, Dilhan wasn't the only who joined Temasek. I mean, Theng Kiat himself also joined Temasek, as well as others.

The difficulty in recruiting Dilhan, which Dilhan didn't mention, is it took me three years to convince him, although he said he made the decision over the weekend, but there were several dozens of weekends before that – more than a 100‑over weekends before that!

So, it's a question of looking at him as somebody who not just led an organisation as an owner, but who understood the value of pulling together a team, of building people. I mean, quite apart from other skills like looking at the commercial world and so on, but the main thing was the values, and the willingness and the confidence to bring in good people and build young people, give young people a chance. And I think this is a strength that he has brought to the table which I think will stand us in very good stead. I mean, in his 10 years, he has also continually tried to bring in other good people.

STEPHEN FORSHAW: There was a question on sustainability.

HO CHING: Oh. Come again, what was your question on sustainability?

QUESTION: So, after your retirement—

HO CHING: Now you see why I have to retire? I cannot remember your second question! [laughter]

QUESTION: After your retirement, will you be, you know, still taking up maybe an advisory role, especially in relation to sustainability and climate change?

HO CHING: Well, I am still with Temasek until 1 October. I will think about what next after 1 October.

QUESTION: Question for Chairman, maybe you can just share a little bit about the quality of the candidates that you all had on the final shortlist and, you know, take us through that final stage of the selection process and what was it that, you know, really eventually led to the Board finally deciding that Dilhan was the top candidate?

LIM BOON HENG: When I joined Temasek, Mr Dhanabalan was the Chairman, and one of the first activities that I was engaged in together with the rest of the Board was the process of reviewing succession planning. And it was, to me, a very intense exercise where the Board interviewed different people to see whether they meet the requirements of the job.

That was, to me, the start of how succession planning ought to be done. And in the list of people that we have, as Ho Ching mentioned, we looked at who are the people who could fit over immediately if we needed such a person to do so, what if it was three years later, what if it was five years later? So, every year since I joined, there has been this exercise by the Board about these candidates.

So, the candidates are both local as well as from overseas. Now, of course, in the last 10 years we have had the opportunity to assess the internal candidates more closely, whilst we keep track of the others that are on our list. What I would say is that the Board, first, were convinced that Dilhan has got a right sense of purpose, and it's a very deep sense of purpose, of what he would want to achieve for the organisation, and for Singapore.

Second, myself particularly, I have observed that Dilhan has the right values, right personal values. Because I think it is very important for the person who heads Temasek to have a clear and deep sense of purpose, and to have the right values.

The third thing we look at would be, has the person got a vision for the organisation? On that, I think all my Board members believe that Dilhan has the vision.

The fourth point would be: can he execute? Now, on this, I would say that eight years ago when I first joined the Board and knew Dilhan, I wasn't sure. But, as he progressed in different portfolios within Temasek, all of us could see that he could deliver – and not deliver in the sense of himself, but pulling together the rest of the team to achieve that. And that's why we are convinced that Dilhan is the right candidate to succeed Ho Ching as the next CEO.

QUESTION: The follow‑up question was also for Dilhan: to concurrently hold the position of CEO of TI [Temasek International], is this likely to be a long term arrangement? Or, you know, is the plan to have someone else become CEO at some point?

LIM BOON HENG: I had described the process which the Board goes through every year. So, every year, the Board will again go through the review and ask itself, you know, who should fill those positions. So, it will be a regular review on an annual basis.

QUESTION: I had a question for Ms Ho Ching and one for Mr Dilhan Pillay. For Ms Ho Ching, could you give us a sense of, come October, what your potential future plans may be in terms of potentially joining other business entities in Singapore? What is your future post‑Temasek, essentially. And I guess more on a personal level, what does it mean for you to step away from such, obviously, an important entity in the Singaporean business ecosystem? And perhaps, I can then ask Mr Dilhan the following question.

HO CHING: I think I have touched on that. As of now, I am still with Temasek, and I am not thinking about anything else until after I have stepped away.

QUESTION: If you could share, I guess, more from a personal point of view in terms of what it means to you to step down from this role after so many years, and again from an organisation that is so—

HO CHING: I think I have been preparing to step down ever since I joined Temasek, so this is not something that is new to me!

QUESTION: Dilhan, I wanted to ask you about the future Temasek strategy especially vis-à-vis China. Obviously, last year we saw that for the first time the exposure to China was the biggest in the portfolio. In light of what happened with the crackdown on Alibaba and obviously Jack Ma in China, does that in any way make an investor like Temasek more nervous about its China strategy? Will you remain as bullish and positive on that market? And also, is there any pressure, real or perceived, to do anything, essentially, in response to Beijing's crackdown on a player like Alibaba which obviously you have shareholdings in?

DILHAN PILLAY: Maybe the first thing I should say is that, at Temasek, everything we do is to deliver long term sustainable returns. So, it's not just a strategy that we will deploy year‑by‑year, or on a very short term basis. We have to figure out, if we think, down the road, 10 years, 15 years, and if we think about the kind of portfolio you'd like to own at the end of that period, what would it look like and how would it be configured?

And that has been what we have been doing for over a decade. So, our T-2020 Strategy, which of course ended last year, already presupposed that we would be more geographically oriented in terms of the portfolio construction, but also in terms of where we would have offices and have talent. Hence, obviously in the previous decade, we had opened up in other parts of Asia, in the last decade we also opened up in the US and in Europe, for example.

China has always had that long term potential for us, going back to even before I joined Temasek, to the decade in the past when I had been very much involved in our strategy and in implementing our strategy, to how we see the future in the next 10 or 15 years. Our thinking is not fashioned by our investment in any one particular company or any opportunity set that we see in a segment of the market – it is an entire market.

And we are still very positive on the long term trajectory of China from what we can see. We can see it in the way consumption spending is evolving in China. We have seen the emergence of strong domestic brands – whereas before you saw international brands, you know, thrive in China, today we are seeing the emergence of strong brands. So, we typically would invest where we see those trends, not just today but for the future.

You know, in the beginning we started with financial services because it was a window to the future of China, it was a proxy for an opening up of China, and that did well for us. And then it was the internet economy: investments in Alibaba, in Tencent, Meituan and so on. But now we see China emerging in the area of biotech, in consumer brands, in enterprise. So, there is always that opportunity in China. So, when we look at China, we look at it from the long term.

It's the same as how we look at investments elsewhere, in the US, for example. Investments that we started five or six years ago are today paying off for us. But we'd have a multi‑year approach to how we invest, and we are patient investors. We are very clear on where we see trends, very clear on the strategies that we need to deploy in light of those trends. We try to make the right investments in the right sectors, and we patiently wait for the harvesting of those investments. And I think it has borne out to be the right strategy for us.

So, what has worked out for us in the past will continue to work out for us in the future, but we also recognise that it is a much more complex world today, for various reasons.

So, going forward, we are very mindful that we should be thinking broadly about all the other considerations we have to take into account, the biggest of which I would say is climate change, and its impact on businesses in every sector and in every part of the world. We have to think what that means for the various geographies that we are operating in. So, that is exactly what we are focused on right now when we say sustainability must be at the core of whatever we do.

QUESTION: Sorry, when you say "geographically oriented", do you mean to diversify your portfolio from a geographic point of view as much as possible?

DILHAN PILLAY: No, no, when I say "geographically oriented", it is where we have decided our portfolio should be. So, for example, right now, if you look at the 2020 annual report, our portfolio is evenly balanced somewhat between developed markets and emerging markets. So if you look at our developed market exposure to the US, Singapore, Europe, Australia, that's very significant. If you look at emerging markets, it is China, India, Southeast Asia and also parts of Latin America.

So that is how we look at geographic orientation, as to where we deploy our capital in line with how we see the world evolving and how we see our portfolio evolving in the context of that changing world.

HO CHING: I think maybe just to supplement, the geographic exposure you see in the pie chart that we report every year is based on the underlying assets. So somebody like Singtel, we would look at where they invest and then distribute that asset value across the different geographies. So, this is a bottom‑up look. It is not meant to be a target.

And the reason why we did that was to give a sense of the potential risk, based on the underlying exposure to the other economies.

As of last year, it wasn't as if we deliberately wanted to make China the biggest part of our portfolio. It just happened to fall out that way because the markets in China came up and the markets in Singapore went down and so on. So, it's just a function of where the market was at that point in time. It's not the target.

Where Dilhan was mentioning, it is based on this idea of growth versus stability. It also is based on where we see the trends are, including particularly the disruptive innovations, whether it is in the life sciences, whether it is in the digital economy and other areas, whether it is in the consumer space because the consumers are all moving toward experiential excitement rather than just, you know, accumulation of material items.

Younger people, as an example, are very focused on sustainability. They want to have a better life but they also want to have a responsible life towards the planet and towards their own future generations.

So, these are the trends which we are seeing and which the team has embraced as part of the T-2030 goal.

QUESTION: I would just like to ask Dilhan, actually, what do you think you would do differently from Ho Ching as the CEO, and how different will your leadership be, and really, what are your immediate priorities after you take the helm?

DILHAN PILLAY: No one can be like Ho Ching! Well, we are all different, let me just say that. Ho Ching has brought a very key sense of purpose to Temasek, and I share that. I feel – and it's not just me, it's our senior management team – we all have the same desired outcome for the way in which we play out our three roles at Temasek.

The priorities of the organisation have been set out in the T-2030 Strategy. I would say the most important thing is continuing to have the right talent within Temasek. That is the key focus, because that allows us to always evolve, that allows us to bring in place the right kind of skills that we need in an evolving world. We can't sit still because the world changes in front of us.

As HC mentioned the trends, you know, we continuously do a refresh of the trends as well, see to what extent those trends that we identified five or six years ago continue to be relevant in the way we formulated them.

And so, we are always trying to figure out the way in which we can tap into the different societal and economic changes that we are seeing in the world as a whole, in the emerging world, in the developed world. As HC mentioned, the experiential offerings that people are looking for, it's not just in the western world, it's not just in the developed world, it's also in the emerging world. We see that in China, for example. We see that in India. We see that even in Southeast Asia.

So, as we look at these things, our biggest priority is to make sure that we have a very clear‑minded approach to how we can translate the trends into our portfolio strategy as a first instance. Second of all is how we can build the capabilities we need to have in order to get the best out of those strategies. And that ultimately comes to the value of human potential within Temasek. So, I would say that my priorities are no different from the priorities Ho Ching had in place over the past 10 years and beyond, ever since I've joined Temasek.

HO CHING: Two points I want to make. First is, Dilhan has been in charge since 2019 on the investment side, so it is not as if it is new for him to take charge.

So, on the investment side he has taken the leadership role, and he has been driving that, and part of the T-2030 plan is very much integral to the investment role. And he has taken leadership on that.

The second one, for which I am very grateful for, is that in taking on the investment role, he did not just think of it as, "Well, let's be a fund manager and let's do well". He has very clearly articulated and brought his team together to recognise that sustainability must be front and centre and embedded into our investment role. It is not an adjunct, it is not something that you tick the box, but it is something that we are serious about and therefore we have integrated, or he has integrated with his team, into the investment process.

And that is why you will see, for instance, the previous year where we announced that we have achieved carbon neutrality as a company, and we are working towards halving the carbon emissions of our portfolio as a whole, and issues like that. But they have gone one step further, to look at what it would take to commit ourselves to try and reach a 1.5‑degree world, and based on that, they are prepared to do a shadow carbon pricing for all our investment decisions.

Now, that is something which is very bold, that is something that didn't come from me, and that is something that is going to be very different from what we have done in the past, where carbon didn't factor as much, sustainability didn't factor as much.

So, this part will be very, very different because it is going to be a difficult journey. It's not an easy journey, and it takes a lot of courage and conviction to try and pull together.

DILHAN PILLAY: Maybe if I can just add to, HC, what you said about sustainability at the core. So, we have an internal carbon pricing that is factored into our cost of capital. And it goes into an evaluation of every investment we currently own, which means it will increase the cost of capital by reference to the carbon emissions of each investment. And it will go into the evaluation of every new investment we make.

So, every investment will be measured not just by financial and operating metrics, but also by ESG metrics.

We have even bulked up on our capabilities in that area by hiring people who are experts in that area to join us to make sure that we keep to a true cause of what we want to do. So, we have internal carbon pricing because we want to be disciplined in the way we allocate capital to achieve that 1.5‑degree world as much as we can. That is the discipline we have to put in place.

At the same time, we recognise that as a provider of private capital, we have a role to play in the context of the carbon abatement process, and to try to help achieve a reduction of the carbon abatement cost curve. It's not just us, it's all other providers of private capital who have to do this, but we feel that we have no time to waste to put aside capital for these types of carbon abatement solutions that are out in the marketplace. And this sometimes will require us to go much earlier than we are usually focused on in terms of investment, in order to join others in ensuring that those proven technologies have an opportunity of being commercialise-able and being available for that carbon abatement process.

So, if I look at the business models of companies today, the biggest thing we have to determine is how those business models have to evolve in that climate change world. How are they addressing climate risk, climate adaptation, climate mitigation, in their business models? What are the transition risks associated with that? That's all part and parcel of determining what your true cost of capital is for the investments you already have, and the investments you are going to make.

Even when you look at investments today, because we are focused on long term sustainable returns, that is a big issue for us to determine. That is a fundamental part of our strategy for 2030, and that is what it means to have sustainability at the core.

Now, as an institution we are also committed to make sure that our own carbon footprint is reduced, and that is a commitment we have also made in the way we ourselves are going to conduct our own activities going forward.

QUESTION: A few clarifications and then one question each for Madam Ho and Dilhan. Madam Ho, you mentioned the conversations that you had with Dilhan in the process of recruiting him to Temasek over three years. Just to close the loop on that, how did these conversations take place? Were they meetings over the phone, and you know, to the point where Dilhan sort of agreed to join Temasek? So, that is one clarification. 

And the second clarification is, did Covid‑19 in any way move the timeline of the announcement today? Was it planned for 2021 that you would make this announcement?

HO CHING: In 2010 and before 2010, it wasn't a Covid world, so it wasn't over the phone. We don't recruit people over the phone.

I do remember that it was a hard sell. And it was more than once, so it wasn't like a ‘slam dunk’. But then if you want to recruit the best people, it is always a hard sell.

As far as whether Covid hastened [the announcement], no. I think the key decision that the Board made was actually two years ago, when the Board decided that Dilhan be appointed the CEO of Temasek International, because that is one of the biggest pieces of Temasek, the investment role.

And really, if you look at it, because the team has come together, because the team has put in place a clear strategy for 2030, I think it is just timely, with or without Covid.

DILHAN PILLAY: I remember the last one. I don't know, HC, if you remember, it was May 2010, the last discussion.

I remember I was having lunch with HC when she said, "Okay, it's time for you to come,” literally. Well, I was eating my favourite food, chai tow kway {fried carrot cake} at the Four Seasons coffee shop. So, I guess that also contributed to my decision. But I would say one thing, from the time that HC first started having conversations with me to the time I decided to join, Temasek was also evolving. At the first conversation, Temasek wasn't even in Latin America, for example. It primarily opened up in China and India. They had just started an office in Vietnam, and so it was very Asia‑centric, if you could think of it that way.

In 2008, they opened up in Latin America, so emerging market‑centric, if you think about evolution of the portfolio. By the time I joined in 2010, we were thinking about this mix between developed market and emerging market, and the need for us to think about Europe and the US, which we started doing in earnest in 2012, and we opened up offices in London in March of 2014 and New York in June of 2014.

So, I would say that even during that time when HC was talking to me, Temasek was changing. But the most important thing I remember her telling us is that Temasek has a sense of mission in what it wants to do. Its portfolio will never be static. It will always have to be refreshed and changed as you go forward. And it needed all kinds of people with different backgrounds who are committed to doing what was right to come and join Temasek.

If you ask me, was I intrigued? Definitely, in the early days. Was I thinking seriously about joining Temasek? I would say yes, because it's an exciting prospect to join an organisation that is looking at this change and it's evolving.

The GFC [Global Financial Crisis] was an intervening issue in 2008 and 2009, if you remember, the effects of GFC were still there.

Actually, in 2010 around the time I joined, we had another crisis, it was the PIIGS crisis in Europe – Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Greece, and Spain. And so, I remember that HC truncated my start date, which was supposed to be 1 January [2011], all the way down to 1 September [2010], and I finished my job at my previous firm on 30 August, so I didn't really have a break.

The reason why I bring that up is because things are always evolving. And at some point in time, you have to go and take that risk, take that plunge. Because if you don't do it, if you are not going to step up to contribute, then the question is whether at the end of the day, you will ask yourself: have you always done the right thing?

It's not just about me, by the way. My colleagues in Temasek, who have joined from outside or who have been homegrown, feel the same way. And I think that is the most exciting thing about Temasek, that we have a cohesive group of people who feel the same way.

It is interesting to know that we can find people from outside who come into Temasek and have the same sense of purpose and mission and values. But it takes time to find those people and bring them in, because you have to make sure the team is cohesive and could grow together. And that is what we have been able to do over the last 10 years. The majority of us in senior management have worked together for much of the last decade, so we know each other really well.

I would classify myself as the leader of a great team, you know, at Temasek International. And so that gives me, as I said, confidence that we can take advantage of opportunities, and face the challenges together and face them well. Thank you.

QUESTION: I have a question for Madam Ho. What have been some of the high points and low points of your Temasek journey?

HO CHING: I haven't reflected on that, I think there is time later to do that.

QUESTION: And one question for Dilhan. You have been largely a career lawyer, and for the last 10 years you have been in investment. How difficult has that been?

DILHAN PILLAY: I think whenever you take on something new, you are taking a risk. You are taking on a reputational risk as to whether you are going to succeed or not. But I think if you don't try, you never know, right?

So, I would say that I was an M&A lawyer and a corporate lawyer, so it wasn't as if I wasn't comfortable with commercial concepts, markets and even balance sheets and financial statements. In fact, the interesting thing was, my best subjects in law school were actually subjects in finance, accounting and corporate finance. And I like numbers. And as a lawyer, you know, you do get involved in it if you want to.

So, it wasn't like I was a fish out of water. But having said that, the interesting thing is I went from being a specialist as a lawyer – I was an M&A lawyer, as I said – to being a generalist or maybe even a rookie when I joined Temasek, because I was given the role of heading portfolio management straight away, so being put in the deep end. You have to first of all recognise what is it you know and what is it that you don't know. And when you recognise that, then you have to find those people that help you with what you don't know, to be good at what you are doing.

I can say one thing in Temasek is that I have been given different roles. Each time with each role, I have been tested and I have tested myself. The only reason, if at all, I have succeeded is because I have had others come along with me to augment whatever I could bring to the table with what they could, in order for that success to happen. So the success isn't mine, by the way. It belongs to a team of people who worked with me, in each of the seven roles I've had at Temasek.

But, you know, it's been an incredible 10 years for me. I would say that each time I was given a role, I had to learn new things. But you know, that's life, isn't it? We always want to learn new things. Temasek gives you that opportunity, incredible opportunity, to learn new things and to develop professionally and personally when you do that. It's not just something that I have experienced, it's something that my colleagues have experienced, something that we want all of those in Temasek to experience. And that is our focus.

QUESTION: Madam Ho, you hold the dual role of being the CEO of Temasek, as well as wife to PM Lee. Sometimes, do you feel that this has put Temasek in the wrong spotlight? Or has it improved over the years because we have seen efforts from the management team instead of only Madam Ho? In addition, how do you think this transition would play out when it comes to Temasek meeting companies from China? Because Dilhan is not linked to Singapore Inc. in a way, do you think that that will have an impact?

LIM BOON HENG: Let me answer this question.

People in Singapore don't realise the Great Firewall between husband and wife. From time to time, when there are issues that Temasek faces with the Government, it is not the Prime Minister's wife who talks to the Prime Minister to resolve the problem. It is me, as Chairman, interceding with the relevant Ministry, or even Prime Minster himself, to put across Temasek's point of view.

So, let me state very clearly, there is a Great Firewall between the Prime Minister and his wife, the CEO of Temasek Holdings.

QUESTION: Dilhan, you talked about the challenges ahead for Temasek and also the operating environment. I want to touch base on specifically Singapore Inc. You’ve got a number of Singapore companies which are undergoing restructurings, or Temasek has come out and supported Singapore Airlines, and also with Sembcorp.

Can you just share some colour on how big are the challenges and what sort of action do you expect Temasek to play in the restructurings of Singapore companies?

DILHAN PILLAY: First and foremost, I think that it is for the boards of those companies and for management teams to figure out what they have to do in the context of a changing global environment. Our companies have historically been successful companies and there is no reason to believe why they won't continue to be so. Where Temasek can work with them, and where it makes sense for us to work with them, we will of course do so, as an engaged shareholder. That would be our role as an investor.

Our Board is very well aware of the issues out there. But by the way, it's not just our Singapore companies. Even our companies in the US and Europe are also facing the same issues. Covid‑19 has accelerated the pace of innovation, the pace of change, with digitalisation becoming ubiquitous. These are all challenges faced by every single company that we have an interest in, and we are well aware that boards of companies and management teams are themselves very engaged on this subject. Our own investment teams are engaged with them on this subject, bringing our knowledge and the knowledge of our network to these companies. And that is perhaps some of the value that we can provide to them.

It is not for us to drive these companies, to drive their strategies. That is really, from a governance perspective, the role of the Board, working with the management team.

So, that's how we operate. Obviously, you know, if you think 10, 15 years down the road, companies will have to take into account, as I mentioned before, in addition to the current environment, issues within climate change. But for that, we have an opportunity to share with them what we know. Because we have been thinking about it for a long time, we have been engaged with different organisations around the world on this issue, we have been building up our own store of knowledge, but also our network of friends and other institutions who have added on to that knowledge base we have.

And that is what we would like to provide to our companies as they think about this broader picture down the road, and that's the value Temasek brings. The value of our network to our portfolio companies.

QUESTION: I have a question which could be either for Madam Ho or Dilhan. How do you feel now that the ‘deed is done’, the announcement is out? And how do you feel, Dilhan, looking at the challenges that lie in front of you?

DILHAN PILLAY: First of all, Ho Ching is still with us until 1 October. I don't feel any additional burden… as yet. I am excited about where Temasek is headed. I have been for much of my 10 years here, and especially in the last two years since I took over as CEO of Temasek International. I am excited because we have a plan for the next decade, which I believe is the right plan for us.

And I am very much heartened by the fact that my colleagues believe in that plan and are also committed to it. I believe that collectively we can steer Temasek through whatever the world may bring before us in the next decade.

As HC mentioned, our T-2030 Strategy may well evolve and need to change because the world will change, we can't be rigid about what we know. And, by the way, in 2025 we will probably have a 2035 strategy, and by 2030 we will have a 2040 strategy. That is the only way for us to be able to deliver long term sustainable returns.

So, where I am today is that I am comfortable with the plan we have ahead of us for 10 years. The main part is to translate the plan into strategies and be prepared to execute well on them, to be prepared to pivot if we have to. Make sure that we have the right people in place, I believe that we have a very good team right now, that team will be augmented in the next few years and beyond.

I am very encouraged by the youngsters who have joined us, because they come with fresh ideas. And, you know, HC mentioned that in our own discussions amongst senior management, we would challenge each other. Well, the younger people in Temasek challenge us too, because the future belongs to them, and we are making decisions for their future.

And so, that's what I'm actually excited about. And I think that if we do the right thing, things will turn out well for us, and by extension to our stakeholders as well.

QUESTION: This is for Dilhan – you've spoken actually about the optimism over China. I am keen to hear your views about the other markets because you have such a wide footprint, especially given this very, very challenging time. And lastly, do you see there being any strategic review as the CEO once you come onboard?

DILHAN PILLAY: The second one is easier, because we had our strategic review, which is the T-2030 Strategy, and my colleagues and I own it. We have to deliver to the Board what we said we would do.

We had a look at it in the context of Covid‑19, and we are quite confident that what we put in place continues to be relevant to us. And that's why we have not held back in implementing the initiatives that we highlighted in the T-2030 Strategy.

Actually, markets are markets. We are very focused on the companies we invest in, and we are not going to be driven by how the stock market performs on a short term basis. It's not that it is irrelevant. I mean, short term impacts on the market are relevant for us because we have a portfolio where over 50% is in public market securities.

But for the long run, you have to look at the intrinsic value of companies – the long term value proposition of those companies to your portfolio. So, we are very focused on the companies themselves. And therefore, we don't look at markets with a view towards having a top‑down allocation and investing in markets. We invest in good business models, good companies, good management teams. That's our focus.

Then we try to figure out how our capital can be catalytic capital. Not just financial capital but capital that brings value to the companies in which we invest in. Hence, the building up of our capabilities in areas like AI, blockchain, digital, digitalisation, cyber, sustainability – even in the way in which companies should prepare the workforce for Industry 4.0. Those are all very important things, because they go to the health of the companies that we invest in for long term sustainable returns and value.

So, that is how we will approach it. We are not a top‑down capital allocator according to geographies and markets, but we have a view as to which markets might do better over short, medium or long term horizons. Now, that may of course drive part of the strategy, but the focus is always on long term sustainable returns, wherever we are.

So, for example, if you look at our portfolio construction, in the last decade, more and more investments have been made in private investments, and those are fundamentally in the new areas that Ho Ching mentioned – the areas that involve innovation – because we are investing earlier than we would have done so a decade before, as early as series A and series B.

Why have we done that? The idea is to capture the value of companies early on and work with them as they progress in their businesses and in their business models, to where we believe value will ultimately be captured.

We have done that quite successfully in some areas like technology, life sciences, agritech, and we will continue to deploy that as we see the decade ahead of us.

STEPHEN FORSHAW: Okay. Thank you very much, we've really got to wind up. I'm sorry, but thank you very much for coming, ladies and gentlemen, and we can lift the embargo so you can file as you need to.

HO CHING: Thank you, everybody, for coming.

DILHAN PILLAY: Thank you.

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Click here to read the transcript of the remarks by Temasek Chairman Lim Boon Heng.

Click here to read the transcript of the remarks by Temasek Holdings CEO-Designate Dilhan Pillay.