The future of public finance: What does fiscal responsibility mean today?

• Lim Hwee Hua, Second Minister for Finance and Second Minister for Transport, Singapore
• Cesar Virata, Corporate Vice Chairman of聽 Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation and former Prime Minister of the Philippines
• Zubaid Ahmad, Vice Chairman 鈥� Institutional Clients Group and Global Co-Head- Public Sector Group, Citi

Dialogue co-chaired by Emmanuel Daniel, President & CEO, The Asian Banker and Gordian Gaeta, International Resource Director, The Asian Banker

Public debt management: Can a one-size-fits-all approach work in Asia?
Debt management has grown in complexity as the scarcity of concessionary financing has led many countries to turn to commercial credit sources. Events in Dubai and other developed economies reinforce that debt problems don鈥檛 just lie in the purview of developing states. This session will examine the recent developments and financial instruments assisting countries to develop their domestic debt markets and manage the risk in their debt portfolios.

• Financing needs of governments and their need to access global capital markets
• Developing the domestic market for government securities
• What is the range of support services for issuers raising short-term and mid-term debts to minimise risks in transactions?

• Gabriel Makhlouf, Deputy Chief Executive, New Zealand Treasury
• Nikolay Surikov, Head of Secretariat of the Deputy Chairman, Accounts Chamber of the Russian Federation
• Shailesh Venkatraman, Director 鈥� Asia-Pacific Capital Markets Origination, Citi

Moderated by Emmanuel Daniel, President & CEO, The Asian Banker

Accelerating the growth of the local bonds market in Asia
Urban governments of emerging economies in many parts of the world are rapidly developing their municipal bonds markets to finance their critically needed infrastructure rather than through sovereign borrowing. However, as the US model is hard to recreate in other diversified landscapes, what techniques can policy makers adopt to attract investors in a sustainable manner? How important are deep domestic markets for economic growth and sovereign ratings?

• Dr. Bindu N Lohani, Vice President 鈥� Finance and Administration, Asian Development Bank
• Elena Okorotchenko, Managing Director, Standard & Poor鈥檚 Ratings
• Jaafar Badwan, Group Treasurer, Tourism Development Investment Company, Dubai
• Andrew Wai Hung Ng, Head of Treasury and Markets, DBS

Moderated by Neil Parekh, Partner, Starin Capital

Lessons from the Euro crisis: Impact on currency management of the future
As the world watches carefully the EU鈥檚 response to Greece crisis, regional unions elsewhere feel the pressure on their institutions. What are the future prospects of common or regional currency arrangements in the aftermath of the Euro crisis?

• Gabriel Makhlouf, Deputy Chief Executive, New Zealand Treasury
• Dr. Pham Huy Hong, Chairman, ASEAN Bankers鈥� Association

Moderated by Gordian Gaeta, International Resource Director, The Asian Banker

How will sovereign development funds operate to shape the future of global finance?
Despite the retreat to operating under the radar in the initial aftermath of the economic meltdown, sovereign development funds have doubled up as a source of stabilisation for their domestic markets and continue to be large capital providers to global finance. This session will examine trends in sovereign development funds-led investment such as changing allocation to investment styles, commitment to pre-crisis investment, evaluating sovereign development funds performance based on TSR and CSR.

• Michael Paulus, Managing Director and Public Sector Group Head 鈥� Asia Pacific, Citi
• Kotaro Tamura, Chief Executive Officer, Tamura Institute and former Senator and Vice Minister of Japan
• Prof. Yvonne Lee, Assistant Professor 鈥� Faculty of Law, National University of Singapore

Moderated by Mathew Welch, Managing Director 鈥� Financial Institutions, ING and John Dahlberg, General Partner, Republic Capital Partners

Asset management of pension funds in the post-crisis world

• How much risk is acceptable when dealing with pension funds?
• Can pension funds invest in alternate asset classes?
• How can these funds be used for nation-building?
• What are the key considerations for long-term investors in the region?
• Lessons to be learnt for pension funds of emerging markets like India where asset management is still at a nascent stage

• Jerry Davis, Chairman & CEO, New Orleans Employees鈥� Retirement System
• Vanessa Wang, Partner and Retirement, Risk and Finance Consulting Leader 鈥� Asia, Mercer
• Chris Ryan, Managing Director and Senior Advisor- Investor Services Securities and Fund Services Asia Pacific, Global Transaction Services, Citi

Moderated by Neil Parekh, Partner, Starin Capital

US鈥� high consumption and China鈥檚 high savings: Managing global economic imbalances
The global marketplace is seeing the evolution of a new economic world order, where emerging economies are expected to lead the world out of the crisis. This session would seek to answer questions like; What is the potential for the Renminbi to be the next global currency? What to make of China鈥檚 high savings and investment-driven growth model? How will public finance affairs evolve in the developed world and the emerging economies in the forthcoming years?

•  Andrew Colquhoun, Director, Fitch Ratings
• Michael Paulus, Managing Director and Public Sector Group Head 鈥� Asia Pacific, Citi

The evolution of the global infrastructure finance market: How have development projects taken economies out of recession?
The first step many governments take during a recession to boost the economy is infrastructure development. Singapore committed $4.4billion in 2008, Indonesia $3.8billion in the first half of 2009 and over $300million from Kenya in the first quarter of 2010 to name a few. Are these stimulus packages correctly positioned toward infrastructure development? How will they help the ballooning global economic imbalances or, on the micro-level, individual country debts? Will infrastructure development and financing be handled at regional levels or will governments expand country-level frameworks? What are the more successful financing frameworks for these massive projects undertakings? This keynote will address these questions.

• Kamran Khan, Program Director, World Bank-Singapore Urban Hub
• Pratyaya Amrit, Secretary-聽 Road Construction Department, Government of Bihar
• Anggito Abimanyu, Secretary, Indonesian Economists Association and former Head of Fiscal Policy Office, Ministry of Finance Indonesia
• Dr. Arporn Chewakrengkai, Senior Director and Department Head- 聽Research and Planning, Government Pension Fund, Thailand

Moderated by: James Harris, Chairman, International Project Finance Association and Managing Partner, Hogan-Lovells Lee&Lee

Outsourcing revolution in the public sector: New trends in strategic procurement
According to the ADB, Asia-Pacific needs about US$7.9trillion for infrastructure investment. Atleast 80% of this will come from the private sector. Governments have acted fast in outsourcing infrastructure projects using the build-operate-transfer (BOT) and public-private partnership (PPP) models in recent projects.
Truly enough the BOT model is used widely on big-ticket infrastructure projects as it governments to transfer technical and financial risks to the project concessionaire. But due to the complexity in individual projects and their long-term operating, it is important to identify and assess the risks involved. Similarly, the session will also question how PPPs can bridge the gap between the appetite for projects and the financing capabilities http://vardenafilotc.net/.

• Anna Roy, Director 鈥� Finance Secretary鈥檚 Office, Ministry of Finance, India
• Kao Chia Nung, Senior Secretary 鈥� Private Participation Unit, Public Construction Commission

Moderated by James Harris, Chairman, International Project Finance Association & Managing Partner, Hogan- Lovells Lee & Lee

Administering the fiscal stimulus package: Best practices from the crisis

• Professor Hiroko Ota, Vice President 鈥� Public Finance Policy, National Graduate Institute of Policy Studies and former Minister of State for Economics and Fiscal Policy, Japan
• Mr. Jean-Luc Schneider, Deputy Director 鈥� Policy Studies Branch, OECD
• Gabriel Makhlouf, Deputy Chief Executive, New Zealand Treasury

Dialogue co-chaired by Emmanuel Daniel, President & CEO, The Asian Banker and Gordian Gaeta, International Resource Director, The Asian Banker