Regional Outlook Forum

As part of the privileges of being an intern in Institute of Southeast Asian Studies (ISEAS), I had been invited to participate in the Regional Outlook Forum 2007 at Shangri-la Hotel. I was impressed by the scale and the importance of the event. Diplomats from all over the world attended the event. I had seen the delegates from the European Union, Japan and Southeast Asian countries. Interestingly, I was seated in between a Japanese diplomat and a African diplomat. (As I was late and there were few seats available, the usher had not choice but to seat me there) Apart from the luxurious decoration of the ballroom, which seems to have unlimited amount of crystal chandeliers, the meals were excellent. Despite the "conducive" environment, I regret to say that after listening for one whole day, I can only recall 30% of it. (Not a bad ratio actually, considering the fact that I did not use the ACP skills. Haha...)

Here are some of the things that I remember:
1. Prof M, the speaker for Malaysia's economic outlook, gave the least impressive presentation. Ironically, it is this "least impressive" that made an impression on my mind. He gave sufficient attention to the economic data, but did not assess the possible economic impact of political issues like ethnic relations. That is what I wanted to hear.

2. Prof Emil Salim, the chairman of Indonesia's Economic Advisory Council, is a great visionary and idealist. His speech was enlightening. I learned from his speech that most issues are usually symptoms of a deeper problem. For instance, haze is actually a symptom of unsustainable development. His call to establish a spiritual and knowledge-based lifestyle and an sustainable economy that co-exist with our tropical rain forest struck the idealist chord in me. But the most difficult part of the haze problem is still the implementation of the measures.

3. Dr Victor Fung, the luncheon speaker and the Chairman of the Greater Pearl River Delta Council, gave the best speech. He was there to promote Hong Kong. I think he was probably "invited" to speak because the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office sponsored the lunch. His use of analogy is awesome. He compared the geographical position of Hong Kong as that of the narrow tube on a hourglass. While the top bulb is compared to the Southern China, the bottom bulb corresponds to Southeast Asia. Using this analogy, he then said that Hong Kong is the center for 4 flows: Capital flow, talent flow, goods flow and information flow. Great analogy to convince people.

All in all, it's a great experience to attend a forum like this. I hope I'll get to attend another one like this. And school is going to start. It's time to switch off my politics/economics learning mode and switch on my science and literature learning mode. Yeah! So exciting!