Distinguished experts in the fields of history, international economics and digital finance will share their insights on how today’s tectonic shifts in the global economy and new technologies will shape the future at a forum hosted by the Philippines next week as part of the series of parallel discussions leading up to the 51st Annual Meeting of Asian Development Bank (ADB) this May.
Historian Dr. Peter Frankopan, economist Dr. Paola Subacchi and financial technology leader Eric Jing have been invited to be the key speakers at the forum set on May 4 with the theme “Past, Present and Future of the World Economy.” The forum will also include other experts in banking and finance as panelists.
Frankopan, a professor of global history at Oxford University, is the author of the best-selling book Silk Roads: A New History of the World, while Subacchi, the former director of international economics research at Chatham House, is an acknowledged expert on international financial and monetary systems.
Jing is the chief executive officer of the Ant Financial Services Group, a related company of Jack Ma’s Alibaba Group. Under Jing’s leadership, Ant Financial and its partners have grown to serve 800 million users worldwide.
The forum is among the events organized by the Philippines as this year’s host of the ADB Annual Meeting in Manila.
According to the forum organizers, the event “will bring together distinguished speakers of different disciplines to delve into the past using an unconventional lens to frame one of the biggest global economic shifts, re-examine governance structures in the current global economic order, and explore how governments and development institutions can adapt by harnessing new opportunities while addressing challenges presented by an increasingly digital future.”
Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III, who chairs the ADB Board of Governors this year, will deliver the opening remarks at this host country event followed by a brief message from ADB president Takehiko Nakao. Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) Governor Nestor Espenilla Jr. will wrap up the forum with his closing remarks.
Frankopan will kick off the in-depth discussions at the forum by exploring the dynamics that shaped the ancient world economic order dominated by the old silk road trade routes and how it relates to Asia’s re-emergence as a global economic powerhouse.
Dr. Naoyuki Yoshino, the dean of the ADB Institute, and Dr. Felipe Medalla, member of the Monetary Board of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) and former director general of the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA), will serve as panelists in this session.
The second session on “Saving the International Economic Order” to be led by Subacchi will discuss the tectonic shifts in the global economy and the repercussions of the continued misalignment of representation in the international governance institutions.
She will be joined by Indonesia Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati and Thierry de Longuemar, the vice president and chief financial officer of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank as panelists in the session.
The last topic for discussion focusing on “Financial Technology for Inclusion” will be led by Jing, who will educate forum participants on the use of digital innovations and new technologies as tools to attain inclusive growth and how its accompanying risks and downsides can be addressed.
Vikram Haksar, the assistant director for the Strategy Policy and Review Department of the International Monetary Fund and Lotte Schou-Zibell, the chief of ADB’s Finance Sector Group, will join the discussion as panelists.
Over 4,000 delegates are expected to take part in the 51st ADB Annual Meeting scheduled on May 3-6 in Manila, according to the Secretary of the ADB, Woochong Um.
The delegates to the meeting include finance ministers and central bank governors of ADB member countries, bankers, representatives from the private sector, civil society, academe, multilateral institutions and the media.
Around 8,000 police officers were deployed to secure the event.
Anchored on the theme “Linking People and Economies for Inclusive Development,” among the issues to be discussed during the 51st meeting are globalization, technology and its impact on jobs and corresponding opportunities, private sector mobilization in funding infrastructure, building climate change resilience, expanding opportunities for women entrepreneurs, and using technology to maximize the skills of aging populations to make development inclusive.
According to Dominguez, the ADB meeting will focus this year on how to “make progress more evenly felt throughout the entire membership of the ADB, while Um said the Bank sees “an increasingly complex development landscape emerging – rapid technological progress offering opportunities and challenges, climate change and environmental pressures, aging populations, urbanization and infrastructure gaps.”
Dominguez said that as this year’s host of the meeting, the Philippines will have the opportunity to tell potential investors about its exciting growth narrative anchored on tax reform and its unprecedented “Build, Build, Build” infrastructure program under the Duterte administration.
ADB, which is based in Manila since its inception in 1966, is dedicated to reducing poverty in Asia and the Pacific through inclusive, environmentally sustainable growth and regional integration.
As ADB continues its firm commitment to making all of its annual meetings a sustainable event, this year’s Annual Meeting of the Board of Governors will be the first carbon neutral annual meeting ever held in Manila. There have been 15 previous Annual Meetings held in Manila, with the most recent one in 2012 and an earlier small-scale meeting in 2003.
The host country’s media partners for the 51st Annual Meeting of the ADB Board of Governors are the following: BusinessMirror, BusinessWorld, CNNPhilippines, Manila Bulletin, and Philippine Star.
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