IMF Conference

Thursday, March 3, 2016

Coffee and pastries

Opening Remarks by IMF Deputy Managing Director Min Zhu

Mr. Min Zhu assumed the position of Deputy Managing Director on July 26, 2011. Previously he served as Special Advisor to the Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund from May 3, 2010 to July 25, 2011. Mr. Zhu, a native of China, was a Deputy Governor of the People’s Bank of China. He was responsible for international affairs, policy research, and credit information. Prior to his service at China’s central bank, he held various positions at the Bank of China where he served as Group Executive Vice president, responsible for finance and treasury, risk management, internal control, legal and compliance, and strategy and research. Mr. Zhu also worked at the World Bank and taught economics at both Johns Hopkins University and Fudan University. Mr. Zhu received a Ph.D and an M.A. in economics from Johns Hopkins University, an M.P.A. from the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University, and a B.A. in economics from Fudan University.

Presentation

Webcast

SESSSION I. Trade and Financial Linkages between China and Latin America: Spillovers and Risks

Panel session devoted to analyzing recent and potential spillovers between China and Latin America, including through trade and capital flows (e.g., FDI), the risks associated with them, and policy implications.

Webcast

Moderator: Stephen Kaplan, George Washington University

Stephen B. Kaplan is an Assistant Professor of Political Science and International Affairs at George Washington University. His research examines the politics of global finance and development, the political economy of China’s re-entry into the global economy, and Latin American politics. His book, Globalization and Austerity Politics in Latin America (Cambridge University Press, 2013), explores how the relations between international creditors and national debtors affect economic policy choices. Globalization and Austerity Politics, which was selected for Choice’s 2013 Outstanding Academic Titles in the Social Sciences, offers important lessons for understanding economic crises in the U.S. and Europe, as well as the politics of reform in developing democracies. Professor Kaplan is currently working on a book manuscript evaluating the political and policymaking implications of China’s economic expansion into the Western Hemisphere. He holds a Ph.D. from Yale University and an M.S. from Georgetown University. During the 2009-2010 academic year, he was a Niehaus Globalization and Governance Fellow at Princeton University. Prior to his doctoral studies, Professor Kaplan worked as a senior economic analyst at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, writing extensively on developing country economics, global finance, and emerging market crises from 1998 to 2003.

Panelists:

Andres Gluski, (AES Corporation),

Andres Gluski was named President and CEO of The AES Corporation in 2011. AES is one of the world’s largest Independent Power Producers with 35,000 MW of capacity from a mix of fuel sources, including renewables and thermal generation, and has more than 10 million distribution customers. The company currently has 6 GW under construction, the largest construction program in the company’s history, as well as a strong pipeline of development projects. The company is a world leader in the use of lithium ion batteries for energy storage and grid stability with 116 MW in operation, 50 MW under construction, and 100 MW awarded and pending construction. Prior to his current position, he served as Chief Operating Officer, President for Latin America and CEO of AES Gener in Chile and La Electricidad de Caracas in Venezuela. He also held senior positions in banking, telecom, multilaterals and the public sector before joining AES in 2000. Mr. Gluski has served as an expert witness at US Congressional hearings on the subject of energy policy and Latin America. In 2012, he was named International CEO of the year by Latin Trade Magazine and he currently serves on President Obama’s Export Council, the US-Brazil CEO Forum and the US-India CEO Forum. He is a member of the Board of The AES Corporation and Waste Management, and is Chairman of AES Gener in Chile and AES Brasiliana in Brazil. He is also Chairman of the Americas Society/Council of the Americas, and Director of the Edison Electric Institute and the US-Philippines Society. Mr. Gluski is a magna cum laude graduate of Wake Forest University and earned his MA and PhD in economics from the University of Virginia.

Margaret Myers, (Inter-American Dialogue),

Margaret Myers is the director of the China and Latin America Program at the Inter-American Dialogue. She established the Dialogue's China and Latin America Working Group in 2011 to examine China’s growing presence in Latin America and the Caribbean. Myers also developed the China-Latin America Finance Database, the only publicly available source of empirical data on Chinese lending to Latin America, in cooperation with Boston University’s Global Economic Governance Initiative (GEGI). Myers has published numerous book chapters and articles on Chinese leadership dynamics, international capital flows, Chinese agricultural policy, and Asia-Latin America relations, among other topics. Myers received her bachelor’s degree from the University of Virginia and conducted her graduate work at The George Washington University, Zhejiang University of Technology, and the Johns Hopkins University/Nanjing University Center for Chinese-American Studies. Myers is a Council on Foreign Relations term member. She received a Freeman fellowship for China studies in 2010 and a Fulbright Specialist grant in 2014 to research China-Colombia relations in Bogotá.

Moises Naim, (Carnegie Endowment),

Moises Naim is a distinguished fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, an internationally syndicated columnist and a contributing editor to The Atlantic. He is also the host and producer of Efecto Naím, a weekly television program on international affairs that airs throughout the Americas. Naím was the editor-in-chief of Foreign Policy magazine for 14 years and is the author of many scholarly articles and more than 10 books on international economics and politics. His most recent book, The End of Power (2013), a New York Times bestseller, was selected by the Washington Post and the Financial Times as one of the best books of the year. Bill Clinton has said that The End of Power “will change the way you read the news, the way you think about politics, and the way you look at the world.” The End of Power was also Mark Zuckerberg’s inaugural pick for his 2015 “A Year of Books” initiative. Naím has served as Venezuela’s minister of trade and industry, director of Venezuela’s Central Bank, and executive director of the World Bank. He is a board member of the Open Society Foundation. Naím holds MSc and PhD degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Xie Wenze, (CASS).

Xie Wenze, Professor at Institute of Latin American Studies, CASS

 

 

Coffee Break

SESSION II. Assessing the Trans-Pacific Partnership: Key Opportunities and Challenges to Integration between Asia and Latin America

Panel session devoted to examining how trade integration between the regions can be strengthened through the lens of the expected trade and macroeconomic impact of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), what’s next, and policy implications.

Webcast

Moderator: Shawn Donnan, Financial Times

Shawn Donnan World Trade Editor, Financial Times, leads the FT's coverage of trade, the International Monetary Fund and World Bank from his base in Washington. He previously served as World News Editor, coordinating the FT's international economic and political news coverage. In that role he oversaw the paper’s award-winning coverage of major news events including the Eurozone crisis and the Arab spring.

Panelists:

Caroline Atkinson (Former U.S. Deputy National Security Advisor),

Caroline Atkinson, Former U.S. Deputy National Security Advisor

 

 

Dr. Herminio Blanco (Former Minister of Trade and Industry, Mexico),

Dr. Herminio Blanco (Former Minister of Trade and Industry, Mexico) has 27 years of experience in international trade: as Trade and Industry Minister of Mexico, Vice Minister of International Trade Negotiations and Chief Negotiator of the North American Free Trade Agreement, the Agreement with the European Union, and other bilateral FTA with smaller economies such as Nicaragua or Bolivia. He has also had an important role in the design and implementation of deep structural changes that have made Mexico a more open and competitive economy. During his 12 years of experience in the private sector, he has advised governments, both at the federal and local level, as well as corporations and international organizations on trade and political strategies. Dr. Blanco is founder and CEO of IQOM, the only service in Mexico and Latin America that provides on-line daily analysis of the events affecting commercial and trade operations in the region. He holds a PhD in Economics from the University of Chicago.

Takatoshi Ito (Columbia University),

Takatoshi Ito, Professor, School of International and Public Affairs, and Associate Director of Research at the Center on Japanese Economy and Business, Columbia University, has taught extensively both in the United States and Japan since finishing his Ph.D. in economics at Harvard University in 1979. He taught as Assistant and tenured Associate Professor (1979–88) at the University of Minnesota, as Associate and full Professor at Hitotsubashi University (1988–2002), as Professor at the Graduate School of Economics at University of Tokyo (2004–2014) before assuming his current position in 2014. He held visiting professor positions at Harvard University, Stanford University, and Columbia Business School, and was Tun Ismail Ali Chair Professor at University of Malaya. He has distinguished academic and research appointments such as President of the Japanese Economic Association in 2004; Fellow of the Econometric Society, since 1992; Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research since 1985; and Faculty Fellow at the Centre for Economic Policy Research, since 2006. He was Editor-in-Chief of Journal of the Japanese and International Economies, and is Co-Editor of Asian Economic Policy Review. In an unusual move for a Japanese academic, Ito was also appointed in the official sectors, as Senior Advisor in the Research Department at the International Monetary Fund (1994–97) and as Deputy Vice Minister for International Affairs at the Ministry of Finance of Japan (1999–2001). He served as a member of the Prime Minister’s Council on Economic and Fiscal Policy (2006–2008). In 2010, he was a co-author of a commissioned study of the Bank of Thailand’s 10th-year review of its inflation targeting regime. He frequently contributes op-ed columns and articles to the Financial Times and Nihon Keizai Shinbun. He is an author of many books including The Japanese Economy (MIT Press, 1992), The Political Economy of the Japanese Monetary Policy(1997) and Financial Policy and Central Banking in Japan (2000) (both with T. Cargill and M. Hutchison, MIT Press), An Independent and Accountable IMF (with J. De Gregorio, B. Eichengreen, and C. Wyplosz, 1999), and more than 130 academic (refereed) journal articles, including Econometrica, American Economic Review, and Journal of Monetary Economics, and chapters in books on international finance, monetary policy, and the Japanese economy. His research interest includes capital flows and currency crises, microstructures of the foreign exchange rates, and inflation targeting. He was awarded the National Medal with Purple Ribbon in June 2011 for his excellent academic achievement.

Jeffrey Schott (Peterson Institute for International Economics).

Jeffrey Schott, Senior Fellow, Peterson Institute for International Economics, Washington, DC, joined the Peterson Institute for International Economics in 1983 and is a senior fellow working on international trade policy and economic sanctions. During his tenure at the Institute, Schott also has taught at Princeton University (1994) and Georgetown University (1986–88). He was formerly a senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (1982–83) and an official of the US Treasury Department (1974–82) in international trade and energy policy. During the Tokyo Round of multilateral trade negotiations, he was a member of the US delegation that negotiated the GATT Subsidies Code. He is a member of the Trade and Environment Policy Advisory Committee of the US Trade Representative’s office and a member of the Advisory Committee on International Economic Policy of the US Department of State. He also is a member of the Advisory Council of the Department of Economics of Washington University in St. Louis. Schott is the author, coauthor, or editor of numerous books on trade, including most recently Local Content Requirements: A Global Problem (2013), Understanding the Trans-Pacific Partnership (2013), Payoff from the World Trade Agenda (2013), NAFTA and Climate Change (2011), Figuring Out the Doha Round (2010), Economic Sanctions Reconsidered, 3rd ed. (2007), and NAFTA Revisited: Achievements and Challenges (2005). Schott holds a BA degree magna cum laude from Washington University, St. Louis (1971) and an MA degree with distinction in international relations from the School of Advanced International Studies of Johns Hopkins University (1973).

Luncheon conversation (by invitation only)

Future of Asia and Latin America's Relationship

Min Zhu (IMF Deputy Managing Director),

Mr. Min Zhu assumed the position of Deputy Managing Director on July 26, 2011. Previously he served as Special Advisor to the Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund from May 3, 2010 to July 25, 2011. Mr. Zhu, a native of China, was a Deputy Governor of the People’s Bank of China. He was responsible for international affairs, policy research, and credit information. Prior to his service at China’s central bank, he held various positions at the Bank of China where he served as Group Executive Vice president, responsible for finance and treasury, risk management, internal control, legal and compliance, and strategy and research. Mr. Zhu also worked at the World Bank and taught economics at both Johns Hopkins University and Fudan University. Mr. Zhu received a Ph.D and an M.A. in economics from Johns Hopkins University, an M.P.A. from the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University, and a B.A. in economics from Fudan University.

Michael Froman (U.S. Trade Representative).

Michael Froman, U.S. Trade Representative