The Global Financial Crisis: ACE Conference on APEC Turns 20 and Anniversary of the Financial Tsunami

Background

Sustained economic growth can contribute significantly to poverty reduction. Indeed, countries that have enjoyed economic growth for long periods of time have witnessed marked declines in poverty incidence. But an economic and financial crisis could frustrate such development. Even though countries can recover quickly from the crisis, they may not return to the same growth path as before the crisis, thus delaying further the economic development process. Because a crisis can have long-term developmental implications, ADBI is keen in making a contribution to the understanding of the causes of a crisis and to the formulation of policy measures that ADB's developing member countries (DMCs) could adopt to avoid a crisis.

The current financial crisis and global economic downturn did not originate in Asia, and, indeed, Asian countries in structural terms are generally in good shape. Nonetheless, Asian economies and financial markets have already begun to feel the impacts of the crisis, and these are likely to deepen substantially over the coming year. The most obvious areas of impact have been exports and equity markets, which have declined sharply across the region, but stresses in currency and credit markets have emerged as well, and domestic demand has softened. This sensitivity has been heightened by the export-led growth strategies followed by many countries.

In this environment, it is very important to analyze issues related to the need for economic and financial reform of the financial sector in Asia. This activity will contribute a keynote speech and a session on Asian economic and financial policy issues to the All China Economics International Conference (ACE International Conference), which is being organized by the City University of Hong Kong. The conference will be held in Hong Kong on 13-16 December, and the theme of the conference this year is “APEC Turns 20 and Anniversary of the Financial Tsunami”. The session will also contribute to the development of chapters for the planned overall book on the global financial crisis.

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Objectives

To present a keynote address on “APEC Turns 20 and Anniversary of the Financial Tsunami” and to organize a conference session on the subject of economic and financial policy issues in Asia. The individual presentations will cover:

• Macroeconomic policy issues and policy recommendations
• Financial sector reform and regulation and policy recommendations
• Regional cooperation and architecture, and policy recommendations

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Outputs

Conference presentations.

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Partners

City University of Hong Kong.