Seminar: APEC: A Changed Global Landscape, Rising Protectionism, and Directions Ahead
About the Seminar
The APEC Leaders Meeting held in Lima, Peru, on November 20, 2016, discussed challenges that member economies are facing in terms of achieving a free and open trading environment, the Bogor Goals, the eventual realization of the Free Trade Area of the Asia-Pacific (FTAAP) and regional connectivity among other issues. Donald Trump’s surprise election victory in the United States on an anti-trade sentiment and his marked dislike for the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement affirm the growing fears of rising protectionism and its detrimental effects on economic growth and regional economic integration.
How APEC member economies respond to these challenges and what role APEC has to play, as an organisation, will be of vital importance in the future. The worries over these challenges of economic growth and international trade are also reflected in the Pacific Economic Cooperation Council’s (PECC’s) annual survey of the Asia-Pacific region.
To discuss these and more, the seminar will answer the following: What are the key highlights of Peru’s chairmanship of APEC Meetings in 2016? How may APEC position itself as a relevant regional bloc and how will the eventual realization of FTAAP promote regional integration? How is the business community viewing such developments?
About the Speakers
Topic: APEC in Lima – Has Regional Trade and Investment got a Future?
Dr Alan Bollard is the Executive Director of the APEC Secretariat based in Singapore, the body that promotes trade, investment and sustainable economic growth in the Asia-Pacific. Dr Bollard advances APEC’s agenda by executing APEC’s work programmes as mandated by Leaders and Ministers.
Prior to joining APEC, Dr Bollard was the Governor of the Reserve Bank of New Zealand from 2002 to 2012. From 1998 to 2002, Dr Bollard was the Secretary to the New Zealand Treasury. As the government’s principal economic adviser, he managed the Crown’s finances and helped guide economic policy. He has served as New Zealand’s Alternate Governor to the International Monetary Fund, the Asian Development Bank and the World Bank. Dr Bollard wrote a best-selling account of the GFC called “Crisis: One Central Bank Governor and the Global Financial Collapse”. He has also published a novel entitled ‘The Rough Mechanical’ and a biography of famous economist Bill Phillips in 2016. Dr Bollard has a PhD in Economics from the University of Auckland. He has since been awarded several honorary doctorate degrees. In 2012, he was honoured as a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit.
Topic: State of the Region 2016-2017
Mr Eduardo Pedrosa is the Secretary General of the Pacific Economic Cooperation Council and coordinator of its report on the State of the Region. Mr. Pedrosa first joined PECC as its Director (Policy Program) in 2001 where his responsibilities included the management and coordination of the Council’s research program. Before moving to Singapore, he was the coordinator of the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung’s Southeast Asia cooperation program based in Manila and also the co-editor of its journal on regional economics and politics. He has also worked for the government of the Philippines and the Economist Intelligence Unit. He is a graduate of the London School of Economics.
He has authored a number of papers including “Towards an ASEAN Economic Community: Matching the Hardware with the Operating System” and “Implications of an Uncertain Global Economy on Integration Initiatives” and was the co-editor of “An APEC Trade Agenda: The Political Economy of a Free Trade Area of the Asia-Pacific”.
Topic: APEC: Back to the Future
Dr Malcolm Cook is a Senior Fellow at ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute in Singapore. From 2003 to 2010, he was the inaugural East Asia Program Director at the Lowy Institute in Sydney and then the inaugural Dean of the School of International Studies at Flinders University in Adelaide.
Before that, he was a lecturer at Ateneo de Manila University in the Philippines. Malcolm has worked in Japan, South Korea, the Philippines, Australia and Singapore.
Topic: What Lies Ahead for Businesses in the New Trading Environment?
Ms Joanne Guo Wei Ling is Assistant Executive Director, Strategy & Development of the Singapore Business Federation (SBF). SBF is the apex business chamber here, that champions the interests of the Singapore business community in the areas of trade, investment and industrial relations. SBF is also the ABAC Singapore Secretariat. SBF represents more than 22,500 companies, as well as the key local and foreign business chambers, located here.
Ms Guo is involved in strategic and corporate planning, research, promoting the interests and engaging the large companies based in Singapore, and FTA and cross-border trade and investment advocacy issues. She heads the ABAC Singapore and B20 Singapore Secretariat. Ms Guo graduated with a Master of Business Administration from INSEAD where she specialised in and topped her class in strategy and finance.
Registration
To register, please fill in this form and email it to iseasevents3@iseas.edu.sg by 5 December 2016.