The Asian Development Bank's 2017 Economic Forecast for Asia
Decades of rapid growth transformed developing Asia into a largely middle-income region, but the pace of expansion has fallen off since the 2008 global financial crisis. This has serious implications for American businesses and the global economy as a whole.
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) explores this challenge in its Asian Development Outlook 2017, a comprehensive economic forecast providing country and regional analysis and growth projections for 45 economies, including the People’s Republic of China, India and Indonesia. ADB's Chief Economist Yasuyuki Sawada will outline the report’s findings and policy options for innovation, education and infrastructure to spur growth in middle-income economies amid uncertainties ranging from protectionist threats to changing monetary policy.
Mr. Sawada previously served as a Professor in the Faculty of Economics at the University of Tokyo, Japan. Earlier, he was an Associate Professor at the University of Tokyo; an Adjunct Professor of Economics at the Korea University; a Research Associate at the Australia-Japan Research Centre, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University; and a Visiting Researcher at the Asian Development Bank Institute. He previously performed research work in a variety of institutions, such as the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) Research Institute; the World Bank; Economic Research Institute of ASEAN and East Asia (ERIA); Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS); Pakistan Institute of Development Economics (PIDE); International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) in the Philippines; International Water Management Institute (IWMI) in Sri Lanka; Research Institute of Economy, Trade, and Industry (RIETI) in Japan; and Japan Society of Promotion of Science (JSPS), where he led a number of large-scale development policy evaluation projects in Asia and other developing countries.
Mr. Sawada's research fields are macro- and micro-development economics, microeconometrics, economics of disasters, and field surveys and experiments. He has published more than 60 peer-reviewed research articles on diversified topics pertaining to Asia and other developing countries ranging from macro development issues, such as long-term economic growth and structural change, sovereign debt sustainability, foreign aid, trade, ageing and social security, and natural and man-made disasters to micro issues of poverty, education, infrastructure, microenterprises, microfinance, health, and disabilities.
A Japanese national, Mr. Sawada holds a Doctorate degree in Economics and a Master's degree in International Development Policy from Stanford University, USA; a Master's degree in International Relations from the University of Tokyo, Japan; a Master's degree in Economics from Osaka University, Japan; and a Bachelor's degree in Economics from Keio University, Japan.
David Timberman is a political analyst and development practitioner with 30 years of experience analyzing and addressing political, governance and conflict-related challenges, principally in Southeast and South Asia. As a Visiting Scholar at Stanford/APARC he is working on a book on the contemporary Philippine political economy. During 2015-2016 he was a Visiting Professor of Political Science at De La Salle University in Manila. He has lived and worked in the Philippines, Indonesia and Singapore, including experiencing first-hand the democratic transitions in the Philippines (1986-1988) and Indonesia (1998-2001). He has written extensively on political and governance issues in the Philippines and has edited or co-edited multi-author volumes on the Philippines, Cambodia, and economic policy reform in Southeast Asia.