In an age marked by rising inequality, climate uncertainty, and fractured policymaking, one student from Southeast Asia is quietly but confidently charting a new path—one where economic thinking becomes not just a tool of analysis but a force for human progress.
Though raised and educated in Singapore, Richard regularly returned to his native Myanmar, where exposure to poverty, broken infrastructure, and faltering public systems shaped his worldview from a young age.
“In Myanmar, so many things just don’t work,” he reflects. “The systems fail. You see people struggling, not because they don’t try, but because the support structures simply aren’t there.”
Those experiences planted the seed of a mission that now spans finance, education and policy. Through four ambitious initiatives from fundraising and research to game design and development finance, Richard is reframing what it means to be a student of economics in the 21st century.
Turning Plastic Into Possibility
“Where I come from, economics isn’t abstract. It’s daily life,” Richard explains. Born and raised in Singapore, summers back in Myanmar showed him how policy failures directly affect livelihoods—access to education, food, and even safety. These experiences shaped both his academic path and personal purpose.
One of Richard’s first ventures into development work was through the XS Project, a collaboration with an Indonesian NGO that supports families who survive by trash-picking.
“We sell items made from recycled materials like computer bags, wallets, detergents, and return all profits to help their children go to school,” he explains. “I work with younger members to introduce and recruit them to this mission.”
But he didn’t rely on conventional donation drives. Instead, he created campaigns that offered value for value— like a bubble-blowing challenge that raised over 40,000 SGD during his work with Jakarta Street Kids, a staggering amount given Singapore’s strict fundraising policies, while engaging participants in a fun and memorable way.
“It’s not just about asking for help,” he says. “It’s about designing incentives that get people to act. If you want to make systems work, you have to understand human behaviour and that’s where economics comes in.”
Financing Resilience in Small Island States
After placing as a finalist in the Harvard International Economics Essay Competition with a proposal for a carbon tax, Richard was invited to the UN’s 2025 Asia-Pacific Forum on Sustainable Development (APFSD), where he encountered the urgent challenges facing Small Island Developing States (SIDS).
“I had never even heard of the SIDS before the UN meeting,” he admits. “But their situation really struck me, so vulnerable to climate change, yet with very little funding or capacity to address it.”
Rather than simply raising awareness, Richard went to work. He founded an organisation, Communivest, that is developing a documentary series that also explores how new green bond adjustments can be leveraged to fund tailored national strategies — a more targeted alternative to blanket IMF-style programs.
“A big issue is miscommunication between government sectors and inefficient use of funds,” he explains. “Green bonds offer potential, but implementation has to be specific to each country’s economic and geographic context.”
His framework involves three steps: raising awareness about green bonds, helping SIDS governments design customised strategies, and bringing in global experts to train local workers. “If we can equip them with the skills to build and manage green infrastructure, that’s real, lasting development.” Recognised for its brilliance, Richard was invited to present the documentary at the UN Future of Economics Forum.
Research That Balances Climate and Growth
Growing up in Singapore, Richard vividly recalls experiencing high levels of air pollution caused by giant fires in Indonesia, a development cost, he was told. This experience sparked his interest in a positive correlation between development and the environment.
“When countries develop, emissions naturally increase. The challenge is managing that without stopping growth altogether,” he says.
Richard wrote a research paper, overseen by Professor Ceyhun Elgin, who previously served as the director of Columbia University’s Master’s Economics Department, to identify which carbon control model offers the best balance between reducing emissions and preserving economic growth. His analytical approach shines in his research comparing two major carbon pricing mechanisms: the EU’s cap-and-trade system and the U.S.’s green subsidies to support green transition.
What makes Richard’s work, published in the Princeton Journal of Science, stand out is his emphasis on policy applicability. He’s not interested in abstract solutions: he wants to know what works, where, and why.
“I’m not trying to say one policy is the best,” he explains. “I’m looking for frameworks that reduce emissions and allow countries to keep developing, especially countries like Myanmar that can’t afford to stagnate.”
Gaming the System (In a Good Way)
Richard’s most creative undertaking may be his economics video game, inspired by the popular (but outdated) “Third World Farmer.” Where that game was limited in scope and theory, Richard’s version is immersive, dynamic, and syllabus-aligned.
“The player starts as a seller of basic resources like wood,” he says. “As they earn money, they can get loans, buy capital, and start producing secondary goods — all tied to economic theory.”
Each transaction is linked to real IB and IGCSE content: supply and demand graphs, price changes, opportunity costs, and more, all visually integrated and accompanied by explanations.
“Our goal is to make students enjoy learning economics,” Richard says. “Not just memorise textbooks, but understand how systems work and that decisions have consequences.”
Planned future expansions include government intervention, a stock market, game theory simulations, international trade and green finance.
A Voice for the Global South
What makes Richard’s story even more compelling is how deeply rooted he is in the Global South—and how powerfully he brings that perspective into international discourse. At UN forums, he consistently advocates for policies that recognise the unique challenges facing countries like Myanmar and others in Southeast Asia and the Pacific.
“Often, these countries are talked about, but not listened to,” he says. “My goal is to change that and to bring our voices into the global conversation with evidence, ideas, and urgency.”
He wants to return to Southeast Asia equipped not just with theory but also with tested tools and scalable frameworks that can guide public and private decision-making.
“Development isn’t about copying the West,” he explains. “It’s about building systems that work for us, our people, our environment, our futures.”
To other students like him, especially those from developing nations, he offers a simple but powerful message: “Don’t wait for permission to start. Build the thing, run the experiment, launch the project. Your perspective matters more than you know.”
As he looks ahead, his vision remains unchanged: to turn economic theory into tools for justice, sustainability, and opportunity—for Myanmar, the region, and the world.