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  Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation and former Prime Minister of the Philippines
• Zubaid Ahmad, Vice Chairman – 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

New markets, new demands: Redefining the role of the state and regulators in the national financial value chain
The role of the state has evolved over the years. People and companies look up to the state to act as a facilitator for smoother business operations and stable infrastructure support. As countries in Asia continue to grow and breakneck speeds, governments will have to function more like corporate entities competing with other states to develop a unique brand that brings in more resources for development. The financial value chain is one such component that sets apart one state from another. How smooth can funds flow be? How easy is it setup large financial infrastructure?

• Dr. Valery Goreglyad, Deputy Chairman, Accounts Chamber of the Russian Federation
• Filippo Sabatini, Global Head for Public Sector – Global Transaction Services, Citi
• Navinder Duggal, Managing Director, Global Transaction Services, DBS Bank

Moderated by Gordian Gaeta, International Resource Director, 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 – Finance and Administration, Asian Development Bank
• Elena Okorotchenko, Managing Director, Standard & Poor’s Ratings
• Andrew Wai Hung Ng, Head of Treasury and Markets, DBS

Moderated by Neil Parekh, Partner, Starin Capital

Building a robust IT infrastructure to support e-governance projects
Governments- both central and local- are paying greater attention to improving efficiencies in G2G and G2C services. E-governance is broadly accepted not just to accelerate service delivery, but to keep operating costs down. This session examines the various state/ nation-wide network infrastructure models that provide the backbone to a range of e-government services to citizens.

• Dr. K. Pelly Periasamy, Assistant Dean (Business)  and Associate Professor (IT Management), Nanyang Technological University
• Tan Teik Guan, Chief Technology Officer-  Data Security Systems Solutions Pte Ltd
• Satyanarayan Ramamurthy, Executive Director, Head of Government - Asia Pacific, KPMG
• Chak Wong, Director of Marketing, Intel

Moderated by John Dahlberg, General Partner, Republic Capital Partners

Mobile banking (mBanking) for government services
Customers are realising m-Banking as a convenient and secure alternative channel to Internet or traditional banking services. For the unbanked, it allows access to financial services even in remote places where traditional banking and Internet services are too expensive or nonexistent. This session will evaluate if mobile banking would be the best source for government benefits to reach the unbanked.

• Jaikishan Rajaraman, Senior Director, GSMA
• Tomasz Smilowicz, Managing Director and Global Head of Mobile Solutions – Global Transaction Service, Citi

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

Taxation: Efficiency and innovation in tax collection and administration
Taxes – both direct and indirect – account for a sizeable portion of government revenue. As governments mete out complex tax reforms to increase their revenue from taxes, the issue of collection and administration comes to the fore. How can governments seize core banking solutions to facilitate collection of taxes from various sources and manage e-Ticketing? Implementing the tax smart card for tax collection: Challenges and successes

• Prowmatr Huntra, Deputy Director General - Revenue Department, Thailand
• G T Venkateshwar Rao, First Secretary (Economic), High Commission of India, Singapore

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

Coffee Break

Addressing the growing foreign exchange and hedging needs
Large PSUs and SOEs are currently sitting on large amounts of cash and they are now moving to acquire and manage resources outside their home turf. This cross border movement of business transactions has given rise to the need to manage the foreign exchange funds and hed

• Ms. Corinne Neale , Investment Banking, Foreign Exchange, Credit Suisse
• Mr. Lim Peng, CFO, International SOS

Moderated by Dr. Annie Koh, Associate Professor, Singapore Management University and Peter Hoflich, Managing Editor, The Asian Banker

Managing government finances during disasters
When facing natural disaster, how does the central government act quickly and effectively to ensure the collection of sufficient resources to solve the problem? What will be the best way to use these resources efficiently and effectively? The participation of financial institutions is definitely important, however in which way?

• Filippo Sabatini, Global Head for Public Sector – Global Transaction Services, Citi
• Pratyaya Amrit, Secretary-  Road Construction Department, Government of Bihar

Managing government finances in a crisis
When facing the economic crisis or natural disaster, how does the central government act quickly and effectively to ensure the collection of sufficient resources to solve the problem? What will be the best way to use these resources efficiently and effectively? The participation of financial institutions is definitely important, however in which way?

• Jean-Luc Schneider, Deputy Director- Policy Studies Branch, OECD
• Filippo Sabatini, Global Head for Public Sector – Global Transaction Services, Citi
• Pratyaya Amrit, Secretary-  Road Construction Department, Government of Bihar

Managing government finances during a crisis

• Jean-Luc Schneider, Deputy Director – Policy Studies Branch, OECD

Administering the fiscal stimulus package: Best practices from the crisis

• Professor Hiroko Ota, Vice President – Public Finance Policy, National Graduate Institute of Policy Studies and former Minister of State for Economics and Fiscal Policy, Japan
• Dr. Arporn Chewakrengkai, Senior Director and Department Head, Research and Planning, Government Pension Fund, Thailand
• Gabriel Makhlouf, Deputy Chief Executive, New Zealand Treasury