Panel 1 — The Future of National Resource Companies

Descrip­tion

In a time of eco­nomic uncer­tainty, state-owned enter­prises (SOEs) have reemerged as pow­er­ful play­ers in shap­ing the economies of many devel­op­ing nations, and in shap­ing the global econ­omy as a whole. This is espe­cially true in the extrac­tive indus­tries, where national resource com­pa­nies (NRCs) play an immense role in the eco­nomic and polit­i­cal land­scape of resource-rich nations. This is also a time when many changes are occur­ring in SOEs, includ­ing NRCs, around the globe. Increas­ingly, NRCs are under­go­ing par­tial pri­va­ti­za­tions in order to bring in out­side cap­i­tal from pri­vate investors. They are expand­ing their hori­zons and expand­ing beyond national bound­aries, in a trend of increas­ing glob­al­iza­tion. As state-sponsored cap­i­tal­ism con­tin­ues to present an ever grow­ing chal­lenge to tra­di­tional cap­i­tal­ist mod­els, and NRCs con­tinue play an impor­tant role in national economies and in the global econ­omy, it is cru­cial that we exam­ine the best prac­tices which must be imple­mented, and reforms which must be made, in order to max­i­mize the value of these enter­prises for all stake­hold­ers. In this panel: Mike Lubrano, for­mer head of IFC’s Cor­po­rate Gov­er­nance Unit, now co-founder and man­ag­ing direc­tor at Car­tica Man­age­ment, will speak towards the issue of pri­vate invest­ment in NRCs, and on best prac­tices which must be imple­mented in order to pro­tect pri­vate investors. Nil­gün Gökgür, a devel­op­ment econ­o­mist and inde­pen­dent expert on SOEs, will speak towards reforms which must be made at the State level in order to ensure that the State, as prin­ci­pal share­holder, can extract max­i­mum value from these enter­prises. Peter Rosen­blum, a pro­fes­sor of human rights law at Colum­bia Law School, will speak towards the sub­ject from a human rights stand­point, draw­ing upon his unique research into the inter­sec­tion of trade and invest­ment regimes and human rights.

Panel 2 — China and the Next Devel­op­ment Path

Descrip­tion

Since the begin­ning of the Reform and Open­ing up process in 1978, China has expe­ri­enced a tremen­dous trans­for­ma­tion from a sleep­ing giant to the second-largest eco­nomic power in the world. Dur­ing the process of cre­at­ing a mas­sive mar­ket econ­omy and capac­ity, China lifted more than 600 mil­lion peo­ple out of poverty, account­ing for more than 75% of poverty reduc­tion in the devel­op­ing world, and cre­ated a bur­geon­ing mid­dle class. How­ever, the coun­try is now fac­ing increas­ing dif­fi­cul­ties when she pro­gresses onto the next stage of devel­op­ment. National poverty alle­vi­a­tion mea­sures have trig­gered a shift from the issue of regional poverty to struc­tural poverty between the inland and coastal areas, as well as within the urban cities: rapid eco­nomic growth has been loaded with chal­lenges, includ­ing rapid urban­iza­tion and labor migra­tion, demo­graphic pres­sures related to an aging pop­u­la­tion and per­sist­ing pres­sure on estab­lish­ing a func­tion­ing social wel­fare sys­tem. This panel dis­cusses what pol­icy mea­sures are required to address these chal­lenges and help China achieve a sus­tain­able growth? And what lessons does the Chi­nese expe­ri­ence offer about the process of cre­at­ing this mas­sive struc­ture for eco­nomic growth, and how other major emerg­ing coun­tries can tackle their own challenges?

	Keith Rich­burg | Panelist Keith Rich­burg is a well-accomplished and respected jour­nal­ist, serv­ing as New York Bureau Chief for The Wash­ing­ton Post from 2007 to 2009 and China cor­re­spon­dent from 2009 to 2013. Rich­burg is known for his cov­er­age of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the fall of Jean-Claude Duva­lier in Haiti in 1986. He is the author of Out of Amer­ica, in which he dis­cusses his expe­ri­ence cov­er­ing sto­ries in Africa, such as the Rwan­dan Geno­cide and cholera epi­demic in the Demo­c­ra­tic Repub­lic of Congo.
	Scott Moore | Panelist Scott Moore is a joint Gior­gio Ruf­folo Doc­toral Research Fel­low in the Sus­tain­abil­ity Sci­ence Pro­gram and the Energy Tech­nol­ogy Inno­va­tion Pol­icy project, a joint project of the Sci­ence Tech­nol­ogy and Pub­lic Pol­icy Pro­gram and theEn­vi­ron­ment and Nat­ural Resources Pro­gram at the Belfer Cen­ter for Sci­ence and Inter­na­tional Affairs. He is a doc­toral can­di­date in Pol­i­tics at Oxford Uni­ver­sity. He is a polit­i­cal and envi­ron­men­tal sci­en­tist and is inter­ested in the polit­i­cal and pub­lic pol­icy dimen­sions of envi­ron­men­tal change, par­tic­u­larly energy and cli­mate, water resource, and marine issues. His dis­ser­ta­tion is a com­par­a­tive study of ter­ri­to­r­ial pol­i­tics and river basin man­age­ment in the United States, India, China, and France. Scott is con­tribut­ing to col­lab­o­ra­tive work with the Ini­tia­tive on Sus­tain­able Energy Devel­op­ment in China led by Pro­fes­sor Henry Lee. He comes to the Kennedy School from the Brook­ings Insti­tu­tion, where he researched energy and water pol­icy imple­men­ta­tion in China at the Brookings-Tsinghua Cen­ter for Pub­lic Pol­icy in Bei­jing. Scott was an intern with the US Depart­ment of Energy China Office, a Global Gov­er­nance 2020Fellow, and a youth del­e­gate at sev­eral UN cli­mate conferences. He is a recip­i­ent of a Tru­man Fel­low­ship, Ful­bright Fel­low­ship, and Rhodes schol­ar­ship. He received a Mas­ters of Sci­ence in Envi­ron­men­tal Change and Man­age­ment from Oxford Uni­ver­sity (2008) and a Bach­e­lor of Arts from Prince­ton University’s Woodrow Wil­son School of Pub­lic and Inter­na­tional Affairs (2008).
	Qi Wang | Panelist In 2011, Wang Qi assumed his respon­si­bil­ity as the Coun­selor for Eco­nomic Affairs with the Chi­nese Embassy in the United States of Amer­ica, where he started to work from 2006. Prior to tak­ing up his cur­rent posi­tion in Wash­ing­ton, Wang served as the First Sec­re­tary for Eco­nomic Affairs at the Depart­ment of North Amer­i­can and Ocean­ian Affairs in the Min­istry of For­eign Affairs in Bei­jing from 2001. From 1997–2001, he was the Sec­ond Sec­re­tary for Eco­nomic Affairs in the Chi­nese Embassy in the US. Wang earned his Bachelor’s and Master’s Degrees at Xia­men Uni­ver­sity in Fujian Province and Ph.D Degree in Eco­nom­ics at Ren­min Uni­ver­sity in Bei­jing, China. He was a vis­it­ing fel­low at Hoover Insti­tu­tion of Stan­ford Uni­ver­sity in the year 2004–2005.

Panel 3 — Keep­ing the Promise: Rethink­ing the Role of Government

Descrip­tion

Across the world, fast chang­ing eco­nomic and polit­i­cal con­di­tions are pit­ting states in a race between pub­lic aspi­ra­tions and their abil­ity to deliver, espe­cially on the jobs and ser­vices agen­das. Adap­ta­tion and change are often ham­pered by capac­ity gaps, estab­lished power struc­tures, and an inabil­ity to inno­vate. As a result, many gov­ern­ments around the world are at risk of get­ting trapped in a cycle of weak per­for­mance and weak abil­ity to change.

This panel will review recent expe­ri­ences in Africa (with a focus on post con­flict coun­tries), the Mid­dle East (with a focus on the “upris­ing coun­tries”), and Europe (with a focus on the cri­sis and the periph­ery coun­tries). In each case, it will eval­u­ate the chal­lenges ahead on the twin agenda of jobs and ser­vices, ask what new mod­els of the state are more adapted to coun­try cir­cum­stances. And dis­cuss inno­v­a­tive inter­ven­tions that can be more effec­tive to free gov­ern­ments from this trap?

	Ishac Diwan | Moderator Ishac Diwan is Lec­turer in Pub­lic Pol­icy and the direc­tor for Africa and the Mid­dle East at the growth lab of the Cen­ter for Inter­na­tional Devel­op­ment. Diwan received his PhD in eco­nom­ics from the Uni­ver­sity of Cal­i­for­nia at Berke­ley. He taught inter­na­tional finance at NYUs Busi­ness School from 1984–87. In 1987, he joined the World Bank in the Research Com­plex, where he focused on inter­na­tional finance, trade, and macro­eco­nom­ics. In 1992, with the com­ing of the Oslo Agree­ments, Diwan joined the Banks Mid­dle East depart­ment, first as the coun­try econ­o­mist for the West Bank and Gaza and later as a regional econ­o­mist. He con­tributed to the Eco­nomic Research Forum and the Mediter­ranean Devel­op­ment Forum. Most recently, Diwan lived in Addis Abeba (2002–07) and Accra (2007–11), as the Banks Coun­try Direc­tor for Ethiopia and Sudan first, and then for Ghana, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Burk­ina Faso, and Guinea. Diwan led sev­eral ambi­tious ini­tia­tives, such as Ethiopias Pro­duc­tive Safety Net, Ethiopias Pro­tec­tion of Basic Ser­vices Pro­gram, and in West Africa, ini­tia­tives to sup­port com­mer­cial agri­cul­ture, nat­ural resources devel­op­ment, and jobs for the youth. Diwan will be direct­ing the Africa Growth Project from the CID, and the Eco­nomic and Polit­i­cal Trans­for­ma­tion group at the ERF.
	Andy Rat­cliffe | Panelist Andy Rat­cliffe is Direc­tor of Strat­egy and Devel­op­ment for the Tony Blair Africa Gov­er­nance Ini­tia­tive (AGI). AGI works with African lead­ers to build the capac­ity of their gov­ern­ments to deliver their devel­op­ment pri­or­i­ties (www.africagovernance.org). Their work focuses on the abil­ity of the cen­tre of gov­ern­ment –par­tic­u­larly the Pres­i­dent or Prime Minister’s Office –to man­age imple­men­ta­tion from the cen­tre. They work at both the polit­i­cal level through Tony Blair and other expe­ri­enced polit­i­cal lead­ers, and prac­ti­cally with teams of imple­men­ta­tion sys­tems experts based in each of their part­ner gov­ern­ments. AGI cur­rently works in seven coun­tries –Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Guinea, Nige­ria, South Sudan, and Malawi. Andy leads AGI’s inter­nal learn­ing pro­gramme to iden­tify and share the lessons from their work. He pre­vi­ously ran AGI’s pro­gramme in Rwanda, where he worked in Pres­i­dent Kagame’s Strat­egy and Pol­icy Unit; and before that worked in the cen­tre of the UK gov­ern­ment as a Senior Pol­icy Adviser for Edu­ca­tion in the Prime Minister’s Strat­egy Unit. Before enter­ing gov­ern­ment Andy was an aca­d­e­mic at the Uni­ver­sity of Oxford focus­ing on def­i­n­i­tions and mea­sures of poverty in the UK and Africa (for more infor­ma­tion www.casasp.ox.ac.uk)
	Omer Yal­vac | Panelist Omer Yal­vac is cur­rently work­ing as a senior advi­sor at the Inter­na­tional Mon­e­tary Fund, rep­re­sent­ing the Repub­lic of Turkey. Dur­ing his career, he worked in var­i­ous depart­ments at the Turk­ish Trea­sury. He also worked as advi­sor to the Deputy Prime Min­is­ter Mr. Ali Baba­can who has been in charge of Eco­nomic and Finan­cial Affairs. Before join­ing the Inter­na­tional Mon­e­tary Fund, he was in charge of exter­nal financ­ing from inter­na­tional cap­i­tal mar­kets as the Depart­ment Head of Inter­na­tional Cap­i­tal Mar­kets at the Turk­ish Trea­sury. Omer Yal­vac received his MA degree from SIPA, Colum­bia Uni­ver­sity on Inter­nal Finance and BA degree from Bogazici Uni­ver­sity on Economics.
	Pana­gi­o­tis Vla­chos | Panelist A native of Athens, Pana­gi­o­tis holds a BA in Law from the National and Kapodis­trian Uni­ver­sity of Athens (Greece), an MA in EU Devel­op­ing Coun­tries from Pan­teion Uni­ver­sity and an MSc in EU Pol­i­tics and Gov­er­nance (LSE). A found­ing and lead­ing mem­ber of non-governmental move­ments (Greek Euro­pean Youth Asso­ci­a­tion and For­ward Greece), he has worked as a polit­i­cal and polit­i­cal com­mu­ni­ca­tions advi­sor to polit­i­cal par­ties, insti­tu­tions and politi­cians among many other intern­ships and research posi­tions. Dur­ing his tenure at the Greek Min­istry of Devel­op­ment & Com­pet­i­tive­ness in 2010–2011, Pana­gi­o­tis imple­mented a cohe­sive strat­egy for youth entre­pre­neur­ship, spear­headed the use of new media for pub­lic sec­tor agen­cies, and coor­di­nated the first-ever “Open­Gov” pub­lic con­sul­ta­tions on the ministry’s draft laws and pres­i­den­tial decrees. As a spokesman and com­mu­ni­ca­tions direc­tor for the Min­istry of Cit­i­zens’ Pro­tec­tion from 2009–2010, Pana­gi­o­tis pio­neered a series of open data poli­cies rel­e­vant to crime, road safety, ille­gal migra­tion, as well as imple­mented an inno­v­a­tive web-based tool for the min­is­ter to com­mu­ni­cate and con­sult thou­sands of police offi­cers on new home­land secu­rity poli­cies. He has served as a research assis­tant on labor affairs at the Hel­lenic Par­lia­ment. Pana­gi­o­tis is a founder and lead­ing mem­ber of the new­born pro­gres­sive polit­i­cal com­mu­nity “For­ward Greece.”
	Hedi Larbi | Panelist Hedi Larbi is the Direc­tor of the Mid­dle East Depart­ment at the World Bank. From 1993 until 2007, he held the fol­low­ing posi­tions at the World Bank: Infra­struc­ture Econ­o­mist, Lead Sec­tor Spe­cial­ist, and Sec­tor Man­ager of Trans­port and Urban unit in MNA. In Decem­ber 2007, Mr. Larbi was appointed Coun­try Direc­tor cov­er­ing Lebanon, Jor­dan, Syria, Iraq and Iran. Through­out his career in the Bank he com­bined oper­a­tional and strate­gic advice and lead­er­ship to coun­tries (devel­op­ment strate­gies, oper­a­tional invest­ment pro­grams, devel­op­ment and imple­men­ta­tion of invest­ment projects in var­i­ous sec­tors) and to Bank senior man­age­ment (coun­try part­ner­ship and busi­ness devel­op­ment strate­gies in many Africa and MNA coun­tries, and to staff (led and man­aged large sec­tor and coun­try teams to deliver Bank coun­try pro­grams). Mr. Larbi’s assign­ments within the Bank focused on two regions (Africa, Mid­dle East and North Africa), and pro­vided exten­sive tech­ni­cal and strate­gic cross sup­port to other regions includ­ing Latin Amer­ica and the Caribbean (LAC) and Europe and Cen­tral Asia (ECA). Prior to the World Bank, Mr. Larbi worked in pri­vate con­sult­ing firms in France and in Tunisia where he founded his own con­sult­ing firm in the 1980s.