--- title: "‘You’ve got to be there in the first place’: Why OCBC China’s CEO wants more Singaporeans to work overseas" type: "News" locale: "en" url: "https://longbridge.com/en/news/294443914.md" description: "OCBC China CEO Ang Eng Siong encourages Singaporeans to take overseas postings for exponential career growth, noting that while Singapore's local success reduces motivation, global exposure offers significant advantages. He highlights rapid changes in China's market, such as the shift to cashless payments and focus on TMT and renewables sectors. Ang emphasizes the importance of understanding local business nuances and building long-term trust over speed, despite personal sacrifices like family separation." datetime: "2026-07-31T02:33:36.000Z" locales: - [zh-CN](https://longbridge.com/zh-CN/news/294443914.md) - [en](https://longbridge.com/en/news/294443914.md) - [zh-HK](https://longbridge.com/zh-HK/news/294443914.md) --- # ‘You’ve got to be there in the first place’: Why OCBC China’s CEO wants more Singaporeans to work overseas \[SINGAPORE\] Not many Singaporeans volunteer for overseas postings, especially to developing markets. But for OCBC China CEO Ang Eng Siong, taking that calculated leap became one of the defining decisions of his career. Eleven years after signing up for what was meant to be a two-year stint in China, Ang remains one of only three Singaporeans based there. Despite repeated calls from the Singapore government for more locals to gain overseas exposure, not many have heeded the call. “This is still a struggle, to be honest,” Ang told _The Business Times_ in an exclusive interview. “I don’t think it’s only in the banking industry.” Ironically, he believes Singapore’s own success may be part of the reason. “It’s also an issue of Singapore doing very well on its own,” he noted. “If opportunities are abundant in Singapore, will people even take the extra step to move overseas?” Yet, Ang remains convinced that meaningful overseas immersion offers Singaporeans an “edge” over others, as career growth can be “in multiples or exponential”, rather than merely incremental. His own professional journey reflects that belief. Since relocating to China, he has risen up the ranks to become CEO after eight years. “I always tell people I happened to be at the right place, (at the) right time,” he said. “But you’ve got to be there in the first place.” ## Career growth When Ang first moved to China in 2015, OCBC had just acquired Wing Hang Bank and was integrating its China operations. With Greater China a core market for OCBC, he saw the chance to grow alongside the franchise. “It would get bigger, so to me, that’s important – there were going to be a lot of potential growth opportunities,” he noted. By then, he had already been with Singapore’s second-largest lender for six years, where he joined as a management associate. Based in Shanghai, Ang’s experiences in China spanned roles across corporate banking and risk management, before taking on the top job there as CEO in 2023. “The thing about China is, no matter how many years you stay there, it never gets dull because the market is always changing so quickly,” said Ang. “When Singapore colleagues get posted over, I’m always trying to get them up to speed.” In the decade that he’s been there, he has seen rapid developments in China, such as its quick shift towards a cashless economy. When he first started working in China, he was still withdrawing cash from ATMs each week. Today, Alipay and WeChat Pay dominate everyday transactions – a transition that banks such as OCBC need to adapt to as well. Ang also noted that the type of companies they finance has also changed. “Now it’s very much TMT (technology, media and telecommunications), anything that’s got to do with renewables – I think for the foreseeable future, that will be the key engine of growth,” he said. Even as China’s growth slows, he pointed out that there are specific industries that are still growing. “Net-net, maybe (growth) is flat, but as a bank, we need to know which are the growth drivers – this is also one of the biggest changes that is happening right now,” he added. ## Lessons learnt While he is fluent in Mandarin, Ang said one of his biggest lessons learnt was that effective communication in China was also about nuance and what was left unspoken. “When you go over, you realise that it’s not only what is said, but sometimes what is not said that also needs to be appreciated,” Ang said. Rather than hearing an outright rejection, he found that clients tended to give more “holding replies”. “When working on certain deals, it helps to have big meetings to get everyone (onboard), and then to break up into smaller meetings to really get input from key stakeholders,” he observed. Singapore prides itself on being efficient and being “black and white”, Ang said, but executives who work there also need to understand the local business context to truly grasp why processes are done a certain way. Clients tend to prioritise long-term trust, rather than just focus on pricing and speed. “You find that over time, you build up a relationship and that makes it sticky, because it’s not just based on dollars and cents,” he added. ## Trade-offs Even as Ang’s career took off, his success did not come without personal sacrifices. He remained in China during Covid, which endured some of the strictest lockdown measures in the world. “Your parents really age… when I met my mum in 2023 after not seeing her for three years, I noticed how much less nimble she was,” he recalled. His wife and children live with him in Shanghai, whom he described as settling in well due to how “liveable” the city is. Still, overseas life meant that Ang missed family gatherings and old friends, trading regular football sessions in Singapore for cycling in Shanghai because he no longer had enough friends nearby to form a team. “I will say it’s a trade-off,” he said. “But looking back now, I think I made the right choice to go over.” Today, he actively encourages colleagues to consider overseas postings, be it in China or elsewhere within the OCBC group. In fact, the earlier the better, due to opportunity costs, he added. But he is careful to warn them that there is no guaranteed promotion or pay jump when taking up such assignments. “I cannot give you any safety net, I cannot make you any promises,” he said. “But we do value people, especially talents who take calculated risks.” Instead, what he offers staff is a “support net”, where he makes sure he keeps up with those who did take up overseas postings to make sure they are not forgotten. The reluctance to relocate is not unique to Singapore, he noted. Even within China, convincing staff from Tier One cities such as Beijing to move to Tier Two cities remains a challenge. For Singaporeans weighing an overseas posting, Ang’s advice is to understand the “why” and how they can make an impact. “It may not be immediate, but over the longer term (you will reap the benefits), because it offers you an edge over other Singaporeans.” **This is part of a series profiling Singaporean executives working overseas and what drives them** ### Related Stocks - [O39.SG](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/O39.SG.md) ## Related News & Research - [OCBC deploys agentic AI platform to halve wealth client onboarding time](https://longbridge.com/en/news/294151237.md) - [Oversea-Chinese Banking (SGX:O39) Rolls Out HELIOS, Is The Stock Fully Priced?](https://longbridge.com/en/news/294388942.md) - [OCBC expands HNW succession programme with Hong Kong heirs](https://longbridge.com/en/news/293712076.md) - [GALP: Raised EBITDA guidance, boosted dividend, and expanded renewables amid volatile market](https://longbridge.com/en/news/293953539.md) - [Brisanet appoints Antonio Carlos Valente to board of directors](https://longbridge.com/en/news/293979829.md)