Supply Chains: A Shifting Indo-Pacific
VIEW EVENT DETAILSThe Indo-Pacific region is witnessing a dynamic shift in supply chain movement in response to a number of factors including, the COVID-19 pandemic, geo-political tensions and other disruptions. As a result, companies are actively weighing the benefits of diversifying their supply chains, as well as reshoring, to build resiliency and reduce overreliance on a single market. Although China continues to be the world’s manufacturing powerhouse, other economies in the Indo-Pacific region are quickly emerging as attractive, alternative destinations for industrial operations. Governments have been taking note of these movements and are implementing measures to attract new investments.
On September 15th, the Asia Society Policy Institute is releasing a new interactive web tool: Supply Chains: A Shifting Indo-Pacific, which maps out the concrete policy measures that 17 economies in the region are taking to improve their investment climates, incentivize the movement of supply chains, and, in some cases, encourage the reshoring of overseas businesses.
In order to better understand these developments and associated challenges, the Asia Society Policy Institute (ASPI) will be convening a panel of experts to explore these questions and more:
- How have supply chain diversification efforts impacted foreign direct investment trends in the Indo-Pacific region and what are the prospects for further shifts?
- Which economies in particular are benefitting from shifting supply chains and why?
- What steps are governments in the region implementing to attract investment? Where do trade agreements fit in?
- What strategies are private firms implementing to build resiliency and further diversify their supply chains in light of growing disruptions?
Asia Society Policy Institute Vice President Wendy Cutler will join Charles Freeman, Senior Vice President for Asia at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Jayant Menon, Visiting Senior Fellow of the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies (ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute), and James Zhan, Director of Investment and Enterprise at the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), for a virtual panel discussion.
SPEAKERS
Wendy Cutler (Moderator) is Vice President at the Asia Society Policy Institute (ASPI) and the managing director of the Washington, D.C. office. In these roles, she focuses on building ASPI’s presence in the nation's capital and on leading initiatives that address challenges related to trade, investment and innovation, as well as women’s empowerment in Asia. She joined ASPI following an illustrious career of nearly three decades as a diplomat and negotiator in the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR), where she also served as Acting Deputy U.S. Trade Representative. During her USTR career, she worked on a range of bilateral, regional and multilateral trade negotiations and initiatives, including the U.S.-Korea Free Trade Agreement, the Trans Pacific Partnership, U.S.-China negotiations and the WTO Financial Services negotiations. She has published a series of ASPI papers on the Asian trade landscape, and serves as a regular media commentator on trade and investment developments in Asia and the world.
Charles Freeman is Senior Vice President for Asia at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and has been helping companies navigate complex markets in the Asia-Pacific for 25 years. Previously, Freeman was Assistant U.S. Trade Representative for China affairs, serving as principal U.S. trade negotiator with China. He has also served as PepsiCo’s vice president for global public policy and government affairs for Asia, the Middle East, and Africa. Earlier in his career, Freeman was based in Hong Kong with the Asia Foundation and the International Herald Tribune where he worked as a securities lawyer and venture capitalist investing in emerging markets in Eastern Europe, Central Asia, and China.
Jayant Menon is Visiting Senior Fellow at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies (ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute) in Singapore and co-editor of the Journal of Southeast Asian Economies. His current research focuses on the economic impacts of COVID-19 in Southeast Asia, the US-China trade war, the regional economic architecture, and restructuring of GVCs in Asia. Previously he was Lead Economist in the Office of the Chief Economist at ADB, having joined in 1999.
James Zhan is Director of Investment and Enterprise at the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD). Mr. Zhan is the team leader for the annual UNCTAD World Investment Report and leads the division’s research and capacity-building work in the areas of international investment agreements; business facilitation and investment promotion, among others. He has more than 30 years of experience at the national and international level in investment, trade, technology, business facilitation and enterprise development and has published extensively on these issues.