Asia Economic Dialogue 2023

Asia and the Emerging World Order

PUNE: Asia Economic Dialogue (AED) 2023, the flagship geo-economics conference organized jointly by the Pune International Centre policy research think tank and the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), Government of India, will be held in Pune from February 23 to February 25, 2023.

The theme for AED 2023 is ‘Asia and the Emerging World Order’ in the backdrop of the post-pandemic geopolitical developments in Asia and Europe, which continue to have a global impact.

This conference is a major international event, featuring high-level participation from ministers, policymakers, industry leaders, domain experts, academia, and global trade and finance experts. A total of 44 speakers from 12 nations including Brazil, the USA, Taiwan, the UK, South Africa, Bhutan, Maldives, Switzerland, Singapore, and Mexico will be participating in this conference.

India’s G20 Presidency this year will be a part of the deliberations with two important sessions on ‘India’s Vision for its G20 Presidency’ and ‘How the Global South will Shape the G20 Agenda’. In the first session, India’s Chief G20 Coordinator, Mr. Harsh Vardhan Shringla, will be in conversation with Dr. Ajit Ranade, the noted economist and Vice-Chancellor, of Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics.

The session on ‘How the Global South will Shape the G20 Agenda’ will feature a panel discussion between Mr. Shringla, Mr. João de Mendonça Lima Neto, Consul General of Brazil in Mumbai, and Ms. Andrea Kühn, Consul General of South Africa in Mumbai. This session will be chaired by Dr. Ranade.

The inaugural session at 4:00 pm on February 23rd will begin with a warm welcome by the eminent scientist Dr. Raghnuath Mashelkar, FRS, President, PIC. This session will

feature a discussion between External Affairs Minister Dr. S. Jaishankar, Mr. Lyonpo Namgay Tshering, Minister of Finance, Royal Government of Bhutan, and Mr. Ibrahim Ameer, Minister of Finance, Maldives.

The other highlight of this session is a Fireside Chat with Mr. N R Narayana Murthy, founder, of Infosys on the theme ‘Technology and Talent for Global Success’. This one-hour conversation will be conducted by Dr. Ganesh Natarajan, Executive Chairman and Founder, of 5F World and trustee, of PIC.

The Union Minister of Commerce and Industry, Mr. Piyush Goyal will deliver the valedictory address on 25th February, and the session will be chaired by Dr. Vidya Yeravdekar, Pro-Chancellor, Symbiosis International University.

The conference will feature 11 sessions over 3 days. These sessions include Global Growth Prospects: Looking Forward; Making Semiconductor Supply Chains Resilient; FTAs: The Way Forward and Metaverse: Understanding the Future.

The session on ‘Pioneering Socially Responsible Business in the Emerging World Order’ has been curated by the Confederation of Indian Industry and will be chaired by Mr. Banmali Agrawala, President – Infrastructure, Defence & Aerospace and Global Corporate Affairs, Tata Sons Pvt Ltd. Panellists in this session include Mr. Farhad Forbes (Co-Chairman, Forbes Marshall and Global Chairman, Family Business Network International), Dr. Kathryn Ibata-Arens (Vincent de Paul Professor of Political Economy, DePaul University, USA and award-winning author of ‘Pandemic Medicine’), Mr. Aleksi Arpiainen, (CEO and Board Member, TT Gaskets, Finland and Mr. R. Gopalan (IAS), Director, TVS Motor Company, and former Secretary, Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance.

The session on ‘Revolutionizing the Economy: Integrating Payment Systems and Digitizing Currencies’ has been curated by The Asia Society India Centre and will be chaired by Dr. Navin Kabra, CTO and Co-founder, ReliScore. Panelists in this session include Ms. Tanvi Ratna, CEO, of Policy 4.0, Mr. Dilip Asbe, Managing Director and CEO, of National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), Mr. Prabhat Kumar, Special Secretary, Ministry of External Affairs, and Mr. Lito Villanueva, Executive Vice President and Chief Innovation & Inclusion Officer, Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation (RCBC), Philippines.

Two sessions have been devoted to the globally challenging issue of climate change. This includes, ‘Climate Change: A Real Threat’ . The session on ‘Meeting Climate Targets: The Road Ahead’ will be chaired by Mr. Pradeep Bhargava, Chairman, Automotive Stampings and Assemblies Ltd. Panellists in this session include Ms. Neha Mudaliar, Country Representative (India), Global Green Growth Institute; Ms. Wendy Werner, Country Manager, IFC India and Dr. Ashok Sarkar, Programme Leader, Infrastructure & Senior Energy Specialist, World Bank.

Other prominent speakers at this conference include Prof. Ajay Shah, Senior Research Fellow and Co-founder, Xkdr; Mr. Joshua Felman, Director, JH Consulting, USA; Amb. Marcos Caramuru, Member of International Advisory Board, CEBRI, Brazil; Dr. Ila Patnaik, Chief Economist, Aditya Birla Group; Amb. J.S. Deepak, former Permanent Representative of India to the World Trade Organisation (WTO); Mr. Juan Carlos Baker Pineda, Founder and Principal Chief Executive Officer, Ansley International Consultants, Mexico, Mr. Anup Wadhawan, former Union Commerce Secretary and Prof. Abhijit Das, former Head & Professor, Centre for WTO Studies, Indian Institute of Foreign Trade; Mr. Amit Paranjape, Co-founder, Reliscore; Mr. Ajit Manocha, President, and CEO, SEMI, USA; Mr. Colley Hwang, Founder and President, DIGITIMES, Taiwan and Mr. Ajay Prakash Sawhney, former secretary, Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY).

The session on ‘Metaverse: Understanding the Future’ will be chaired by Dr. Ganesh Natarajan with prominent panelists, Mr. Rajan Navani, founder, of Jet Synthesis, India; Mr. Chau Nguyen, Partner, McKinsey & Co., Singapore, and Mr. Akshay Gautam, Chief Consultant, GraphityIO.

The conference will be held at Hotel JW Marriot and participation is by invitation only.