SEMINAR on Impact of the Global Financial Crisis: What Lies Ahead for Asia

Speakers:

Dr Michael Lim Mah-Hui
Senior Fellow,
Asian Public Intellectuals Program
Nippon Foundation

Mr Manu Bhaskaran
Director and CEO,
Centennial Asia Advisors, Singapore

Date:

Friday, 5 December 2008

Time:
3.00 pm – 5.00 pm

Venue:

ISEAS Seminar Room II

About the Speakers

Dr Michael Lim Mah-Hui is a Senior Fellow in the Asian Public Intellectuals Program of the Nippon Foundation. He taught political economy and sociology in various U.S. and Malaysian universities before he joined international banking. He has over twenty years experience as an investment, commercial, and development banker at Chemical Bank (now JP Morgan Chase), Credit Suisse First Boston, Deutsche Bank, Standard Chartered Bank, as well as Asian Development Bank. He has written extensively, and delivered public lectures in various regional institutions and universities on the present global financial crisis and its impact on Asia. Dr Lim writes extensively for newspapers and journals in Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand, Australia, India and the United States. He is also active in community and civil society groups. Dr Lim received his B.A. (Honors) in Economics from the University of Malaya, a Masters in International Affairs, a Masters in Sociology, and a PhD in Development Studies from the University of Pittsburgh.

Mr Manu Bhaskaran is currently Director and CEO of Centennial Asia Advisors, Singapore. Mr Bhaskaran has over twenty years of experience in analyzing political and economic trends in Asia. He has worked for the Singapore government on issues of regional security, and has also subsequently worked with the SG Investment Bank (an international investment banking division of Societe General), as Chief Economist and Chief Strategist. Mr Bhaskaran writes extensively for the Far Eastern Economic review, the Nikkei, and other business weeklies. He is also a frequent speaker at the World Economic Forum. He also continues to be involved in several government initiatives; he is a Council Member of the Singapore Institute of International Affairs, and serves on the board of a listed Singapore government-owned company. He has also served as a Visiting Fellow at the Institute of Policy Studies. Mr Bhaskaran has a Masters degree in Public Administration from the John F Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University and a Bachelors degree in economics from Cambridge University. In addition to these, he is a qualified Chartered Financial Analyst.

Abstract

As the global economy still reels under the effects of one of the most serious financial crisis and economic downturns in decades, Asia ponders the particular effects the crisis is likely to have on the region’s economies. The US and EU have already made massive financial interventions in their domestic financial systems; and heads of the G20 discuss major reforms and solutions to the global financial system in their meeting in November. Simultaneously, there have been calls for urgent and coordinated action among Asian economies to protect their economic growth in the face of the economic downturn in the US and EU. While Asia appears to be cushioned against immediate effects of the financial turmoil, there are several concerns about the potential long-term effects of the crisis on the region’s growth. Have the Asian economies learned valuable lessons from the severe financial crisis that hit the region a decade ago? Will Asia play a prominent role in rejuvenating the global financial system post-crisis? These are some of the questions on everybody’s minds as they try to understand the implications of the global financial crisis from a regional perspective.

Dr Michael Lim Mah-Hui and Mr Manu Bhaskaran will discuss some of these important issues in depth as they present their views on the global financial crisis from the regional perspective of Asia.

ISEAS cordially invites you to the Seminar.