Geopolitics, developments in Chinese markets, factor investing, trends in Asia's insurance sector - these were some of the topics that more than 230 attendees explored at the 2019 Asia Pacific Institutional Conference. Co-organized by Invesco and Invesco Great Wall, the conference was held on Nov. 7, 2019 in Beijing, China.

Attendees analyzed how geopolitical events could affect our investments. They also looked at how new technologies and innovations could impact investors in the medium to long term. They then explored possible opportunities in China and the emerging markets. Attendees also had a preview of the survey results from a study on global sentiment towards investing in China. The study was conducted by the Economist Intelligence Unit and commissioned by Invesco. 

True to the conference's theme for this year - "Greater Possibilities Together" - guests, speakers and staff had lively discussions on several topics through polling questions, question-and-answer sessions, and of course the coffee breaks, lunch and cocktail sessions. And through these robust exchanges, Invesco and Invesco Great Wall aimed to help attendees discover new frontiers and uncover new investment opportunities.

Here we share key highlights from the conference.

On geopolitics

"China has a lot more tools to fight trade tensions than the US does. Utimately I think what we'll see happening is that the US takes minor concessions from China - if China is willing to give them - and then walk away after both economies have been hurt by it. 

In this environment what we need to recognise is that the economy is growing, certainly helped by central banks' acommodation, but we are late cycle. And typically late in the cycle is what we see is that cenral banks give less acommodation, and we see inflation rise. So this is not a normal kind of late cycle environment and what I suspect is we could se a longer period of extension - that the late cycle lasts a lot longer than historically, and in this case risk assets could outperform. Read our global markets outlook"

-- Kristina Hooper, Chief Global Market Strategist, Invesco

On factor investing

"The first poll question - I think we would get similar answers from any broad group anywhere in the world. What that demonstrates is there's a huge divergence around the factor journeys. 

I'm going share some information that we can draw from a global survey that we've done for four years and we've just released the latest results with key findings.

One was actually about the idea of flexibilty and evolution - similar to the second poll question. There's lots of ongoing research and area of factor investing, new technologies, new data sources, new research it's not in any way static. so we weren't surprised that investors indicated a large preference to having a mroe dynamic or more fleixble approach. those of you tha tanswered you like to use factors in atactical way this is particularly important for those investors to have flexibility to adapt as markets change. Read the study"

-- Stephen Quance, Global Director, Factor Investing, Invesco

On emerging-market debt

"For emerging markets (EM), the two most improtant countries are the US and China. That's why in the second question, people said that the US dollar and the Chinese renminbi have the greatest impact on EM, I think that's very observant of every one in the room.

As for the two most important factors - global growth is improving and in that non-US growth is improving; and financial conditions are getting easier.

We're at the point of growth is slowing down, but financial conditions are getting easier. We're in a Goldilocks situation, but we're not worried from an EM-investing standpoint. If growth slows down materially below 2.5%, we'll be very concerned about credit quality. But for now, we do not see a recession in the near future.  Read Hemant's views

Increasing exposure is the right answer for the first question, because there's a significant opportunity set today in EM."

-- Hemant Baijal, Head of Multi-Sector Portfolio Management – Global Debt, Invesco

On China's A-share market

"Any market undergoing reforms attracts investors' attention, but the real China story is actually about technological innovation as well as consumer spending. Read our paper

There's research that the more companies spend on R&D, the more they make. And that's the power of technological innovation and you see a lot of living examples in China. This drives investors' interest.

As for consumer spending, China has one of the largest middle class in the world and this will ensure that its economy will conotinue to grow. This is a very powerful catalyst. Read our paper"

-- Chin Ping Chia, Head of Business Strategy and Development, China-A Investments, Invesco