KOROR, Palau – Palau held its first electronic gaming exhibition and tournament Wednesday, July 25, as part of a two-day fintech conference at West Plaza Hotel.
“Fintech is a short term for financial technology, it’s a sector where a lot of technologies intersect with finance,” said Steven Rdechor, a host of the event on behalf of the Ministry of Finance.
The tournament featured popular games Tekken 8 and PUBG.
“It was nice to meet new people and see a lot of youth participate in this kind of program and I believe there is a future for this kind of thing moving forward,” said Anthony, a second-place finisher.
Minister Udui said at a Wednesday news conference the event was an opportunity to “identify talent, recruit, and help develop that talent to support government services such as cybersecurity and fintech initiatives such as the digital residency program.”
Udui added, “Next year, we hope to expand this to have regional competition where we bring in friends from Taiwan, Japan, the Philippines and even Guam and have them compete against our team.”
The main fintech conference took place Tuesday at West Plaza Hotel, focusing on digital transformation, retail savings bonds, Palau stablecoin, population digital ID and digital residency.
This is the second year for the fintech forum in Palau.