Asia's Challenges: Ensuring Inclusive and Green Growth
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Much has been made of the Asian success story. The region is a key driver of the global economy, and the lives of millions of its people have been transformed in ways unimaginable decades ago.
It is ironic, however, that the factors that have driven Asia's rapid growth—technology, globalization, and market-oriented reforms—are the same factors driving inequality. Asia remains home to the world's largest concentration of poor. Millions of people do not have access even to basic services, and weak governance is a serious concern.
Rising inequality is not the only challenge facing Asian countries. There is also the looming threat of environmental degradation. For decades the region has taken the approach of “grow now, clean up later,” wreaking havoc on the environment and putting lives and livelihoods at serious risk.
If Asia is to achieve sustainable growth, it must pursue both inclusive growth and green growth. These should not be separate processes, but rather simultaneous processes that focus on the quality of growth rather than quantity of growth.
Rajat M. Nag, managing director general of the Asian Development Bank, will speak on why and how Asia should boldly confront the twin challenges of inclusive and green growth so that its people, and the rest of the world, will continue to benefit from its successful growth story.
About the Speaker
Rajat M. Nag is the managing director general of the Asian Development Bank (ADB). With broad experience across Asia, Mr. Nag plays a critical role in providing strategic and operational direction to ADB. He also oversees the risk management operations of ADB.
Mr. Nag’s work has given him wide-ranging insight into several issues and challenges relevant to Asia, including infrastructure financing, public-private partnerships, and regional economic integration. His particular interest is in working to enhance regional cooperation and integration in Asia, and to bridge the gap between the region’s thriving economies and the millions of poverty-stricken people being left behind. Read more.
Philippines Conference Room
Rajat M. Nag
Managing Director General
Speaker
Asian Development Bank
Seminars
Memory and National Identity in North Korean Cultural Production
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This conference will bring together scholars of North Korea who will debate various aspects of North Korean culture from historical, comparative, and multidisciplinary perspectives. The prominence of North Korea in world news and the media cannot be understated; yet at a time when much of the analytic energy goes into trying to predict North Korea’s next political move, to assess its military and economic strategies, or to determine the extent of an ever-growing Chinese influence, more attention needs to be paid to its expressions of art, literature, and performance culture that continues to be produced for both internal and external consumption. The presentations in this conference engage with music, graphic novels, art, science fiction, film, and ego-documents with an attempt to illuminate the ways in which North Korea remembers its past, asserts itself in the present, and imagines its future even while outside influences increasingly disrupt its once-hermetically sealed borders.
This event is co-sponsored by the Korean Studies Program at APARC and the Center for East Asian Studies (CEAS). RSVP Required.
Please register at http://ceas.stanford.edu/events/event_detail.php?id=2969.
For questions and details, please contact Marna Romanoff at romanoff@stanford.edu.
Philippines Conference Room
Conferences
North Korea: Diplomatic Prospects in the Coming Year
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A yearlong U.S. effort to engage nuclear-armed North Korea culminated in the announcements by Washington and Pyongyang of the so-called “Leap Day” understanding on February 29. A fortnight later, North Korea announced it would launch a multi-stage rocket carrying what the reclusive state said was a civilian satellite. After an intensive four weeks of public and private calls on Pyongyang from the other five members of the Six-Party Talks not to proceed, the April 13 launch failed, but triggered unanimous censure from the 16-member UN Security Council. Ambassador Davies will describe the talks leading to the Leap Day understanding, the fallout from North Korea’s aborted launch, and where this leaves our efforts to hold Pyongyang to its denuclearization and other promises. He will also discuss Washington’s views of new leader Kim Jong Un, the likelihood of change in North Korea, and diplomatic prospects in this season of political transition in key Six Party states.
Glyn Davies, a career member of the Senior Foreign Service, was appointed by Secretary of State Clinton as Special Representative for North Korea Policy in November 2011.
Ambassador Davies joined the Foreign Service in 1980 and has served in numerous posts in Washington and overseas, including the position of Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for the Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs from 2007 to 2009. From 2009 to 2011, he was U.S. Permanent Representative to the International Atomic Energy Agency and United Nations agencies in Vienna.
Ambassador Davies holds a BS in Foreign Service from Georgetown University and a masters degree from the National War College in Washington, D.C.
Philippines Conference Room
Glyn Davies
Special Representative for North Korea Policy
Speaker
U.S. Department of State
Seminars
Asia's Rise: Thirty Years of Connecting Asia to Stanford
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May 2013 marks the thirtieth anniversary of the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center. Over the three decades of the Center’s existence, immense change has taken place in the Asia-Pacific.
The early 1980s were a time for tremendous, transformative ripples of social, political, and economic change in many Asian countries; many of those changes set in motion trends, institutions, and events that are prominent aspects of the Asian landscape today.
In Northeast Asia, China embraced market reforms and opened its doors to foreign investment and trade, setting the stage for its role as a contemporary global leader. Japan experienced the peak of its post-war boom, consolidating its role as a pioneer in technology and manufacturing. South Korea underwent a dramatic transformation that, paired with its rapid economic growth, created a regional powerhouse. Southeast Asia emerged from the shadow of war to become a region of economic tigers and emerging powers.
At Stanford, the Northeast Asia-United States Forum on International Policy and the Center for International Security and Arms Control (CISAC) were established in May 1983 as independent, but complementary, entities. The Northeast Asia-United States Forum later grew into the Asia/Pacific Research Center and, in 2005, was endowed as the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center (Shorenstein APARC). The two centers still closely collaborate on research and events. In the ensuing three decades, Shorenstein APARC expanded its reach beyond core expertise on Northeast Asia to the fast-developing region of Southeast Asia and to South Asia, which has emerged as a new center of power in the Asia-Pacific. The Center has focused increasingly on the crosscurrents of growing economic, cultural, and institutional integration in the region alongside a troubling rise of tensions driven by intensifying nationalism.
Today, Shorenstein APARC boasts five vibrant programs focusing on contemporary Asia and engaged in policy-oriented research, training, and publishing: the Asia Health Policy Program, Japan Studies Program, Korean Studies Program, Southeast Asia Forum, and the Stanford China Program. It also takes great pride in its unique Corporate Affiliates Program, whose alumni roster of over 300 Asian business, government, and media professionals continues to expand. Rounding out Shorenstein APARC’s Asia expertise, its South Asia Initiative has produced many important publications and events for over a decade.
On May 2, 2013, Shorenstein APARC will celebrate its anniversary with a special public symposium exploring Asia’s transformation over the past three decades, developments in U.S.-Asia relations, and the trajectory of Shorenstein APARC’s own history. You are invited to join us in marking this historic occasion.
Panel 1: Asia's Rise
Panel 2: Shorenstein APARC's History
Panel 3: Developments in U.S.-Asia Relations
Bechtel Conference Center
Symposiums
Bin Wang
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Corporate Affiliate Visiting Fellow
Bin Wang is a corporate affiliate visiting fellow at the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center (Shorenstein APARC) for 2012-13.
From 1993 to 98, Wang worked for the Ministry of Electronic Industry of China (MEI). At MEI, he was in charge of managing the Electronic Industry Development Fund, which invested in companies engaged in information technology in China. He also participated in the research and formulation of industrial policy. In 1999, Wang set up a high-tech company and served as its CEO. The company specialized in developing embedded software and finally became the only provider of mobile payment solutions for China UnionPay. This company was acquired in 2010 as a price of $47.5 million USD and generated over 100x returns for the initial investors. Wang joined Infotech Ventures, a leading venture investment company in China, as a venture partner in 2010. His current responsibilities include identifying potential investment projects in the IT industry and doing research in venture investment and entrepreneurship. Wang received his bachelor's degree in management engineering from the University of Electronic Science and Technology and his master's degree in public administration from Sichuan University.
Chengbao He
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Corporate Affiliate Visiting Fellow
Chengbao He is a corporate affiliate visiting fellow at the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center (Shorenstein APARC) for 2012-13. Since 2005, He has been the vice deputy director of the Science and Technology Management Department of PetroChina. He is responsible for the R&D management of the refining and chemical businesses of PetroChina and for the intellectual property management. He graduated from Tianjin University with a master's degree in chemical engineering in 1990. After graduating, he worked at the Dalian Petrochemical Company (DPC) for 16 years, serving as the vice president in 2002. DPC became the largest refinery in China which had a crude oil capacity of 400kBPSD. During the period from 2002 to 2005, He was responsible for the technology of DPC's capacity expansion project. In 2012, He graduated from the University of Houston with an Executive MBA degree.
Democracy in Korea: The Politics of Extreme Uncertainty
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Professor Jang-Jip Choi argues that South Korean politics are characterized by extreme uncertainty and that this is exemplified by the campaign for the presidential election on December 19. Succeeding generations of politicians have failed to organize parties on a new social basis, to represent the interests and passions of the voters, or to develop their own competence in dealing with urgent social and economic problems. Professor Choi seeks to explain this phenomenon from historical and structural perspectives.
Specializing in the contemporary political history of Korea, the theory of democracy, comparative politics and labor politics, Professor Choi is the author of numerous books, scholarly articles and political commentaries on Korean politics, including Democracy After Democratization: The Korean Experience (forthcoming), From Minjung to Citizens (2008), and Which Democracy? (2007). He holds a BA from Korea University, and an MA and a PhD, both in political science, from the University of Chicago, and was a professor in the department of political science at Korea University until his retirement in 2008.
Philippines Conference Room
Jang-Jip Choi
Professor Emeritus of Political Science at Korea University
Speaker
Seminars
