6 April 2017
14:30-16:30 | Role of Multilateral Development Banks in a Developing Country’s Growth Process-A Case Study of ADB-PRC Partnership
Ayumi Konishi, Director General, East Asia Department (EARD), ADB
ADB has been a development partner of the PRC for the last 30 years, helping the country to achieve the largest reduction of poverty in the world and the rapid transformation to the upper middle income status. This opening lecture will discuss how ADB assistance’s to the PRC has evolved over the years, and the recent change in emphasis now that the PRC is an upper middle income country. In particular, the lecture will review the role PRC is expecting ADB to play and how ADB is planning to respond to these expectations. |
4 May 2017
13:30-15:30 | The PRC’s Energy Sector Development 1987-2017
Ashok Bhargava, Director, Energy Division, EARD
The lecture will elaborate on how ADB- PRC partnership in energy sector has evolved over the past 3 decades from accelerated capacity addition to bridge the demand supply gap in early days to forward looking low-carbon energy sector transformation with larger role of energy efficiency and renewable energy. There will be examples of projects and knowledge work that have helped reforms, demonstrate new technologies and introduce market-based mechanisms. |
18 May 2017
10:00-12:00 | Green Urban Development and Green Financing
Jenny Hubert, Principal Infrastructure Specialist, EARD
The urbanization ratio in the PRC increased from 19% in 1978 to 54% in 2013 The number of cities rose from 193 in 1978 to 658 in 2013. Continued rural–urban migration is expected to lead to a projected urban population of 816 million by 2020. In 2014, the government set-up a Green Finance Task Force, which issued a series of recommendations to set-up a green finance system. The understanding is that a country based green finance model requires strong national policies, supported by financing, addressing the specific risks of urban infrastructure investments and catalyzing large scale Private and Commercial Funding into green urban infrastructure. The China Development Research Foundation estimates that the PRC needs to invest CNY24 trillion ($3.8 trillion) in urban infrastructure by 2020 to meet the needs with public funding capped at 15%, resulting in a massive gap. Challenges for local governments include increased debt, a limited tax base, and limited options to finance infrastructure. The lecture will first look at planning strategies to green urban master plans addressing infrastructure gaps and institutional bottlenecks and then review funding options to finance green urban infrastructure. |
18 May 2017
14:30-16:30 | Transport: Connecting People, Places, and Markets in the PRC
Robert Guild, Director, Transport and Communications Division, EARD
The PRC has experienced major growth and expansion in the past 30 years. Transport investments have been among the main drivers of this growth, including ADB support of over US$20 billion (in constant 2016 prices) to the sector since 1989. This session will introduce the economic and social rationale for investment in transport infrastructure; survey the development of ADB’s support over the past 30 years; and present case studies of projects in the road, rail, and water transport subsectors. The session will include an interactive discussion of future priorities for ADB support, including urban transport, regional cooperation and integration, and climate change. |
26 May 2017
13:30-15:30 | Healthy Rivers and Ecosystem Restoration: the Role of ADB
Qingfeng Zhang, Director, Environment, Natural Resources and Agriculture Division, EARD
The lecture will present an overview of water security in the countries of Asia and the Pacific, discuss why healthy rivers are the foundations for the sustainable achievement of a water secure future. The lecture will argue the need for 4 increased action and investments to restore and protect rivers in many DMCs and basins, and present the role of ADB in restoring healthy rivers and ecosystems. The lecture will share the speaker’s thoughts on knowledge solutions for restoring aquatic ecosystems in Asia. |
1 June 2017
13:30-15:30 | Water Supply, Flood Risk Management and Disaster Prevention
Sangay Penjor, Director, Urban and Social Sectors Division, EARD
The topic on water supply will cover integrated water resource management, water security, water conservation, urban water supply and corporatization of water utilities, treatment of incremental wastewater generated, water tariff reforms and sustainability of water supply systems and citing some past and ongoing ADB water supply projects. On flood risk management, approaches and designs as part of urban environmental improvement strategies based on completed and ongoing ADB projects in the PRC. And on disaster risk management, based on the case study of Guangxi Wuzhou Project. |
9 June 2017
13:30-15:30 | Promoting Economic Diversification and Employment Creation in Mongolia through Regional Cooperation
Robert Schoellhammer, Advisor, EARD
Taking the case of Mongolia, the lecture will explore how cooperation with the PRC can help economic diversification and create employment. The lecture will provide an overview of the Mongolian economy, ADB’s role in promoting its development, including investments that promote mutually-beneficial regional cooperation. The lecture will also examine the prospects for regional programs and initiatives for promoting development in Mongolia, and other inner Asian countries. |
12 June 2017
10:00-12:00 | Inclusion and Gender Equality in the PRC
Benedict Bingham, Country Director, PRC Resident Mission, EARD
The lecture will discuss issues of inclusion and gender equality in the PRC. The lecture will seek to explore two questions (a) does inequality in the PRC matter, given the dramatic reduction in poverty over the past 30 years? and (b) why focus on gender equality specifically? The lecture draws on two forthcoming ADB studies. The first is a paper prepared in collaboration with the IMF entitled “Inequality in China: Trends, Drivers and Policy Remedies”. The second paper is a study prepared in collaboration with the ILO entitled “Gender Equality and the Labor Market, Women, Work and Migration in the People’s Republic of China.” The lecture hopes to draw on the research in these two studies to answer these two questions and draw some lessons on potential areas of reform to promote inclusive growth, covering both macro-economic and micro-economic reforms.” |
14 June 2017
10:00-12:00 | Trade Facilitation
Ying Qian, Director, Public Management, Financial Sector, and Regional Cooperation Division, EARD
The lecture will cover how trade facilitation can help countries better reach economic development potential through more efficient and increased flow of goods, finance, information and people across borders. The lecture will introduce: (i) definition of trade facilitation; (ii) agencies and stakeholders involved in trade facilitation and agency specific trade facilitation issues, including customs, sanitary and phytosanitary agencies, immigration agencies, and private sector; (iii) international conventions including the WTO trade facilitation agreement and international bodies focusing on trade facilitation; (iv) trade facilitation and regional cooperation; (v) ADB’s ongoing programs and projects on trade facilitation; and (vi) trade facilitation results. |
15 June 2017
10:00-12:00 | Fiscal Management in Resource Rich Economies
Akiko Hagiwara, Senior Economist, EARD
This lecture sheds light on Asia’s growing demand for commodities and factors affecting economic performance of commodity dependent economies. First, commodity price cycles in the past decade have synchronized, taking in oil, metals, and many agricultural products. While supply shocks such as bad harvests account for commodity price spikes, they do not explain why such a broad range of prices have moved nearly in unison. This suggests that the commodity boom– bust cycle has a strong demand element. The lecture discusses to what extent demand from developing Asian economies—particularly larger economies like the PRC and India—affect global commodity price trends. Second, while most countries in the region welcome lower commodity prices, as low prices would help contain inflation, commodity exporters naturally have a different perspective. Countries that depend on commodity exports for foreign exchange and government revenues can suffer significant macroeconomic shocks from volatile or excessively low prices. This is particularly true for countries that rely on extracted natural resources such as petroleum, metals, and minerals. The lecture looks more closely at these economies to examine the factors that help some resource-dependent economies cope with these shocks better than others. |
15 June 2017
13:30-15:30 | ADB’s Operations and Portfolio in the PRC
Xinning Jia, Deputy Country Director, PRC Resident Mission, EARD
This lecture session will give a snapshot of ADB’s operations in PRC over past 30 years, its portfolio, and the evolving sectoral and geographical interventions over the time. The lecture will provide an overview of ADB’s operational cycle in terms of programming, project preparation and implementation. The lecture will briefly touch upon the implementation challenges of projects. The lecture will also give a quick brief of ADB in general, who we are, how we help, and its opportunity. |
26 June 2017
10:00-12:00 | Growth Opportunities in Asia: Role of Global Production Networks and Economic Corridors
Teresa Kho, Deputy Director General, EARD
The lecture will present the changing economic context of growth in the region, India’s “Make in India” campaign, India’s resulting focus on industrial corridor developments, and the opportunities it will present for foreign direct investment in the country. The lecture will also discuss ADB’s overall role in the corridor development as well as facilitating regional trade and investments in South Asia. |
