Global thinkers to join ADB’s 51st annual meeting in Manila

Influential thinkers in the fields of international economics, history, and digital technology are set to speak on global economic trends that will shape the world’s future during a forum to be hosted by the Philippines this May.

The forum will be conducted in the run-up to the 51st Annual Meeting of the Board of Governors of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) in Manila.

Historian Peter Frankopan, economist Paola Subacchi, and technology investor Masayoshi Son will be among the key speakers at the May 4 forum, which will also include as panelists former Socioeconomic Planning Secretary and current Monetary Board member Felipe Medalla, the Department of Finance said Friday.

Dr. Naoyuki Yoshino, dean of the ADB Institute, Jin Liqun, president of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, and Steven Mnuchin, secretary of the US Department of the Treasury are also joining the forum as panelists

Frankopan, a professor of global history at Oxford University, is the author of the best-seller “Silk Roads: A New History of the World,” while Subacchi, the former director of international economics research at Chatham House, is an acknowledged expert on international financial and monetary systems.

Son is the CEO of the multinational conglomerate Softbank Group, which owns businesses in media, finance, internet, marketing, e-commerce, telecommunications, and technology services.

Finance and development ministers and central bank governors of the bank’s 67 member-economies will attend the 51st annual meeting on May 3 to 6 at the bank’s headquarters in Mandaluyong City.

Some 3,000 representatives from the bank’s development partners, private sector and civil society organizations, media, and the academe are expected to take part in the four-day event, said Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III, who is this year’s chairman of the ADB Board of Governors.

This year’s annual meeting has for its theme “Linking People and Economies for Inclusive Development.” It will be preceded by a series of forums and conferences meant to examine the changing global and regional realities and challenges and, more importantly, determine how the bank can play an “even more effective role” in helping attain inclusive growth for the poorest communities in its member-economies, Dominguez said. —VDS, GMA News