WHAT IS NEFMC?

NEFMC is an annual 3-rounds competition organized by the NUS Economics Society for pre-university students to experience university-level economics. Every year, teams from pre-university institutions will challenge themselves with real-world scenarios, where their Economics knowledge is put to test.

NEFMc 2024 Theme: The Rise of the Digital Economy

This theme reflects the current trend of global economies, emphasizing the role of digitalization in shaping contemporary economies. This theme also touches on the issue of economic inequalities globally, encouraging participants to look into how digital inclusion in addressing these disparities. Overall, the theme introduces interesting economic and financial concepts that are both relevant and intellectually stimulating for pre-tertiary students.

NEFMC 2024

This year, we are proud to host over 100 teams from various junior colleges, international schools, and polytechnics across Singapore in our annual NEFMC competition. The theme, The Rise of the Digital Economy, reflects an important global trend — the growing role of digital technologies in shaping modern economies.

Students were invited to explore how digitalisation is changing the way economies function, from online businesses and digital banking to the use of technology in improving productivity and services. More importantly, the theme encouraged participants to think about how greater access to digital tools and services can help reduce economic inequality, especially in less developed communities.

Following the preliminary rounds, the top six teams advanced to the finals and were invited to the National University of Singapore (NUS) to present their final solutions to a distinguished panel of academics and industry professionals. Each team demonstrated commendable analytical rigour, originality, and an acute awareness of the real-world relevance of their proposals.

Judges’ panel

The finalist presentations were evaluated by a panel of judges with strong backgrounds in economics, public policy, and finance. We are pleased to have:

Mr. Euben Paracuelles: Chief ASEAN Economist, Nomura
Professor Danny Quah: Dean of Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, Li Ka Shing Professor in Economics
Mr. Nikhil Bhandari: Head of ASEAN Equity Research, Goldman Sachs
Ms. Caroline Chang: Managing Director (Group Finance), DBS Bank
Mr. Chetan Agarwal: Strategic Partnerships Lead, Amazon Web Services

Sharings by Guest of honors

The finals also featured sharings by two highly anticipated Guest of Honors who brought depth and real-world insight to the event.

Mr. Ravi Menon: Former Managing Director of the Monetary Authority of Singapore
Professor Alberto Salvo: Deputy Head (Research) / Dean’s Chair, Department of Economics, NUS

We would like to extend our sincere gratitude to all participating teams for their hard work, creativity, and thoughtful engagement with this year’s theme. We also express our sincere appreciation to our panel of judges and our Guest of Honors, Mr. Ravi Menon and Professor Alberto Salvo, for their time, insights, and support in making the event a meaningful learning experience.

Finally, we congratulate the top three winning teams for their outstanding performance:

🥇 IonKnow (Raffles Instituition) – 1st Place
🥈 The Market Failures (Raffles Instituition) – 2nd Place
🥉 The Disequilibria (Hwa Chong Instituition) – 3rd Place

We congratulate them on their outstanding performance and look forward to their continued pursuit of excellence in the fields of economics and finance.

Previous Years NEFMC

Financial Markets - Financial Crisis and Bank Runs
With the increased popularity of online brokers and trading platforms, as well as the rise of cryptocurrency as a popular component of many peoples’ investment portfolios, it is worth bringing pre-tertiary students through the thought process of deciding where to invest their money so that they will be able have greater agency in making sound financial decisions in the future. Coupled with the ills that the pandemic has brought about on financial markets, there is no better time than now to analyse the precarity of global financial markets to identify policies that could prevent the world from lapsing into a financial crisis.
Transitioning towards a Sustainable Future
There is currently an increasing focus on energy transition and sustainability in recent years. Countries worldwide are reviewing climate change targets after COP26, and industries are speeding up then incorporating sustainable practices into their operations. Singapore is no different, with the unveiling of the Singapore Green Plan 2030 that outlines the nation’s efforts towards zero-net emissions.
Building A Resilient Post Covid-19 Economy
Through this theme, we hope that the participants will be able to critically analyze the impacts of Covid-19 and assess different ways major economies in the world recover.

National Economics & Financial Managment Challenge 2024