4^th Asia Economic Forum Addresses Global Financial Crisis and Regional Issues

With global financial markets currently treading through rocky waters and the Asian stocks taking a swift plunge in October, this year’s Asia Economic Forum could not have been more strategically placed.

“Indeed, this financial crisis has negatively affected millions of people, particularly those in Asia, and mounted to obstacles against development and poverty reduction that we can hardly achieve so far,” Prime Minister Samdech Hun Sen said in his keynote, which opened the conference.

How appropriate, then, that the convening of the 4th Asia Economic Forum, The University of Cambodia’s independently run think-tank, brought in experts from around the region and the world October 14 and 15 to examine, analyze, discuss and exchange views on such issues as stable development, global competition, poverty reduction and environmental sustainability. This year’s forum focused on the topic “Asia in a Globalizing World: Challenges, Priorities, Leadership and Future Directions,” and a focus on the financial crisis was the thread that linked the conference’s four sessions together.

As the opening speaker of the first plenary session, “Issues and Challenges Confronting Asia,” Lord George Carey of the UK offered an outsider’s perspective on how the fragile state of the economy has affected Asian countries. Although East Asia holds some of the weakest economies, he said, the buoyancy of East Asain trade has guarded the region against the global economic downturn.

“It is undeniably the case that Asia has been blessed with able and inventive people and enriched by ancient cultures,” Lord Carey said.

However, this safeguard is a structure the AEF panelists considered could impede economic development. Much discussion during the session led to concerns about how East Asia countries face the challenge of not only competing regionally with countries like China and India, but competing on the global scale as well. According to the panelists, challenges such as rising expectations in regards to poverty, the environment and disease control, as well as the challenge of educating people to improve human resources and technology have to be balanced alongside current economic concerns like rising food and oil prices.

Moving into session two, “Current Priorities for Asia,” the panelists gave their personal viewpoints on what Asia needs to focus on in order to be able to compete globally. Concern for education, community building and sustainability – both environmental and economical – ranked high as “should-be” focal points for Asia’s leaders.

“Some problems of education have yet to be addressed, such as lack of school facilities, very low teacher-to-student ratio and the inadequacy of curriculums,” said Imron Cotan, Secretary General of Indonesia’s Department of Foreign Affairs. “The solution to this problem is conscientious national planning with an eye to the goal of universal education.”

During day two of the conference, the session opened up discussion on the topics “The Role of Asian Leadership in the World” and “Asia’s Future Directions.” In the former, the panelists highlighted qualities they would like to see in their leaders as Asia continues on the path toward globalization, including a service attitude, aggression toward achievement and logical thinking, as well as what issues the leaders need to think critically about. The conference ended with thoughts on future directions for the continent.

“East Asia’s combination of intelligent interventionist states and visionary entrepreneurs willing to think long-term should enable our home region to pace global growth all over again – as it did between 1960 and 1990,” said Jose de Venecia, Jr., Congressman in the Philippines’ House of Representatives and Chairman of CDI Asia Pacific.

AEF International Coordinator Bandol Lim saw the discussions at this year’s conference as vital to helping influence the current economic climate changes in Asia.

“Given the current financial events, I hope that the discussions will be used to guide policy decisions. We must learn to manage natural resources and deal with climate change in order to have a stable global economy because everyone’s economies are tied together,” he said.

Asia is especially important to analyze, he added, because of the economic growth Asia as a whole is seeing.

“In this century, China and India will surpass the U.S. economy. If the preemptive formation of the ASEAN Community is truly realized, Asia will have three of the largest economies in the world.”

The dialogue will continue next year as the AEF adds another facet to include the Australian perspective. According to UC President Kao Kim Hourn, there will be two conferences, one in Phnom Penh and another in Perth, Australia.