Meeting the Challenge of COVID-19 in Asia

Description

The Reischauer Center for East Asian Studies and Asian Development Bank will be co-hosting "Meeting the Challenge of COVID-19 in Asia." The keynote address will be by Masatsugu Asakawa, president of the Asian Development Bank. The event will be moderated by Kent Calder, director of the Reischauer Center.

While individuals, businesses, and communities have persistently been exposed to a variety of natural hazards and humanmade disasters, the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic evolved to be a global biological disaster that is one of the most serious and catastrophic events in human history. What are the challenges for us to exit from the COVID-19 crisis? How can we prepare for the great reset in Asia? Prominent experts will discuss strategies for the post COVID-19 recovery and beyond.

8:00 p.m. EST, Keynote Address by Masatsugu Asakawa, president, Asian Development Bank

Masatsugu Asakawa is the president of the Asian Development Bank and the chairperson of ADB's Board of Directors. He was elected president by ADB's Board of Governors and assumed office in January 2020. Before joining ADB, he served as special advisor to Japan's prime minister and minister of finance, and has a professional career that spans nearly four decades in diverse fields such as international finance, development, and taxation at the Ministry of Finance. Asakawa also worked for international organizations as the chief advisor to ADB president between 1989 and 1992, senior staff at the Fiscal Affairs Department of the IMF (1996–2000), and chair for the Committee on Fiscal Affairs at Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (2011–2016).

Panel I: Exiting the COVID Crisis

• Vaccine Production and Distribution
• Re-opening Asian Economies
• Public Health
• Impacts on Other Sectors

Panel II: The Great Reset in Asia

• Digitalization and its Implications
• The Workplace of the Future
• Asia's Smart Cities
• Infrastructure for the Future

10:45 p.m. EST, Concluding Remarks by Kent Calder, Event Moderator