Practitioners and data vendors discussed the opportunities and legal considerations that US and European data users face when seeking new datasets from China, Japan, India and Southeast Asia at Neudata’s spotlight on Asia deep dive event on Thursday.

The program kicked off with a presentation from Paul Krake, founder of macro research firm View from the Peak. Krake discussed the current state of the US-China relationship and identified some of the most pressing underlying issues related to misunderstanding and mistrust between the two nations.

Krake noted that he believes foreigners are experiencing a “golden age” of access to Chinese data sources. Currently, the Chinese government is not enforcing the full extent of its planned and rolled-out data security laws, which is leaving the market more open to investment managers that want to collect data from the country.

He also explained that the Chinese data economy contains a shockingly large amount of information on both public and private corporations, which could prove useful to traders who seek a deeper understanding of Chinese businesses.

Gilbert Wong from Morgan Stanley then presented a quant perspective of Asia. If you’d like to see a copy of that presentation, please reach out to us at info@neudata.co.

Next, Nathaniel Rushforth of DaWo Law Firm in Shanghai spoke to Neudata’s Don D’Amico about updates to China’s cybersecurity and data protection framework. While Rushforth conceded that Chinese authorities aren’t fully enforcing some of their data laws, he cautioned against using the term “golden age” to describe foreign access to Chinese data.

He explained that, until last year, China had a patchwork of cybersecurity regulations that are now beginning to coalesce. Many of these regulations — like the Personal Information Protection Law and Data Security Law — are currently in draft form and aren’t being strictly enforced, but data users that look at the Chinese landscape as the “Wild West” are risking being shut out from the market in three to six months when they do come into effect.

While some laws make data collection in the region more difficult, many — like PIPL — at least provide a framework for data collection and guidelines on doing cross-border transfers legally. Rushforth also recommended firms that are serious about buying Chinese data to work with companies that are on-the-ground in China have hands-on experience working with regulators to understand their concerns.

We finished the day with three case studies from vendors who are focusing on Asian markets. First, Melvin Tan of S&P Global Market Intelligence discussed using fundamental, textual and alternative data to uncover opportunities within APAC. Next, Daiki Uehara of Tokyo Stock Exchange, Inc. presented on new initiatives at the firm. The final speaker of the day was Ben Soemartopo of Eureka AI, who shared the opportunities associated with using ASEAN telecom data to better understand ride hailing and food delivery SPAC investment opportunities.

Photo by Mitchell Luo on Unsplash