Philanthropy Asia Summit 2026 Opening Remarks by Mr Edmund Koh, Chairman, PAA

Chairman of Temasek Trust, Ms Ho Ching

PAA members and partners

Distinguished Guests, Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen,

A warm welcome to the sixth Philanthropy Asia Summit.

It is an honour to join you at this year’s summit for the first time as Chairman of the Philanthropy Asia Alliance.

I step into this role with deep respect for the work that has come before me, and with gratitude for this community, individuals and organisations who continue to lead with purpose and conviction.

When Temasek Trust established this Summit in 2021, it recognised that Asia’s challenges—from climate to healthcare—were becoming more complex and interconnected. What the region needed was connective infrastructure to align them.

The Philanthropy Asia Alliance was founded two years later to build on that vision, expanding the annual convening into a year-round effort to mobilise resources and foster collaboration, translating shared priorities into collective action.

Recent developments in West Asia continue to generate uncertainty and concern well beyond the region. We value the presence of our West Asia peers during such times and recognise that moments like these underscore the importance of dialogue, understanding, and a shared commitment to long-term stability.

The Summit brings this mission into focus each year. Thought leadership and relationship-building converge here with the operational work of directing capital toward outcomes.

During my years in the private wealth space, philanthropy has been a thread running through my work— bringing me into close engagement with foundations, collaboratives, regulators, and individuals who are deeply committed to making a difference. Through these experiences, I’ve seen firsthand the power of bringing ideas, relationships, and resources together with intention, and the opportunities this creates for all of us: to move beyond isolated efforts and instead drive meaningful, collective impact. 

Experiences like this have shaped my belief in the importance of convening with purpose.

The patterns that shape global capital flows today are familiar to anyone who has watched markets through periods of realignment. Capital does not disappear during uncertainty; it redirects. Risk appetite shifts. Time horizons shorten for some actors and lengthen for others. The question becomes where patient, long-term funding can still be found.

In my conversations with family offices and wealth clients across the region over the past year, I’ve noticed something striking— more and more of them are no longer asking whether to give, but how to give impactfully and at scale, and it is happening at a pace I have not seen in my three decades in banking.

With traditional funding channels becoming less predictable, there is a growing sense among philanthropists in the region to step forward and lead. On our own terms, with our own values, and in our own way.

“Asian Innovation. Global Good. “This year’s theme is at its heart about solutions.

What strikes me is how deeply connected the challenges we face have become. Climate change, health, food security no longer sit in separate boxes.

The framing is deliberate. Asia is where many of the world’s development challenges concentrate, and where responses must be built.

In many parts of Asia, communities are facing overlapping risks, from rising sea levels to stronger climate pressures that affect livelihoods, health, and stability all at once:

The recent oil crisis highlights the need for clean energy innovations and climate-resilient developments in Asia, where philanthropic funding can play a crucial role.

Densely populated countries like Bangladesh, Vietnam, and the Philippines have large percentages of their populations in coastal zones, facing converging risks from sea level rise and increasingly frequent flooding.

Six million people in the Asia-Pacific are already at risk from coastal flooding each year, with annual economic losses of US$26.8 billion. Rising temperatures strain health systems and food production simultaneously. Infectious disease, antimicrobial resistance, and displacement feed into one another in ways that single-sector interventions cannot address.

Ocean health shapes food security: disease preparedness strengthens economic resilience; early childhood development determines workforce readiness. Each element reinforces the next.

What this reminds us of is simple: no single sector, and no single solution, can address these challenges alone.

Patient capital has a role in breaking these cycles, absorbing early-stage risk and proving a concept so that larger pools of investment can follow.

We’ve seen this in initiatives like Temasek Life Science Laboratory’s Decarbonising Rice initiative, where support from PAA members enabled science-based trials to scale into pilot programmes across India, Indonesia, and Laos.

Over the next few days, you will hear many more of such examples. Different in approach but connected by a shared belief that when we bring resources together thoughtfully, and work in partnership, we can build solutions that last.

Since its launch in 2023, PAA has grown into a vibrant, year-round platform bringing together more than 110 partners and mobilising over US$615 million across over 300 projects. Of that, more than US$50 million supports 24 catalytic initiatives.

But beyond the numbers, this progress shows what is possible when we align resources, expertise, and intent.

This summit brings together the full capabilities of the Temasek Trust ecosystem from grants and impact investing to research and capacity-building.

Every part of this ecosystem is supporting on the ground over the coming days, and I encourage you to speak with our teams about how these capabilities can complement your priorities.

As the model matures, our team is sharpening its focus. We are scanning the landscape to identify where the largest gaps persist, and where funding can be most decisive.

Working with our members, we are co-creating the next generation programmes, owning outcomes by strengthening how we measure results.

The ambition for the coming decade is to set the pace for collaborative giving in Asia, expanding the Singapore summit and adding regional satellites that bring convenings closer to the communities leading this effort, while carrying proven models beyond the region.

To our members and partners, thank you for your continued engagement.

For those considering deeper involvement, we invite you to join this community. The challenges we face will not wait. Neither should we.

The progress worth making takes time and staying the course during turbulent periods is what separates ambition from achievement.

I look forward to what unfolds over the coming days.

Thank you, and I wish you a productive Philanthropy Asia Summit 2026.