CAG hosted the first Evolving Finance, Trade and Investment in Asia Conference in September 2015. The conference coalesced academics from the United States, Canada, China, Japan, South Korea, Singapore, India and Germany to present on a wide range of pressing issues facing the financial order in Asia. Selected papers from the conference will be published in a special journal issue in March 2016. Under the same flagship project, CAG collaborated with Hong Kong University of Science and Technology’s (HKUST) Institute for Emerging Market Studies (IEMS) and co-hosted a two-day workshop titled Understanding Financial Inclusion in Asia. The workshop addressed key issues including the differing initiatives to enhance financial inclusion and participation in the formal credit market, how these measures can reduce poverty, and case studies on India, Indonesia and Sri Lanka. The selected papers from the workshop will be published in an edited volume titled “Financial Inclusion in Asia: Issues and Policy Concerns” in 2016. With important developments in international relations taking place in Asia in 2015, CAG hosted in August 2015 the first East Asia Symposium titled Shifting Great Power Relations in East Asia at The Fullerton Hotel, Singapore. The close-door symposium brought together top experts and former senior officials from the US, Japan, China, Southeast Asia and India
for frank and honest exchanges on thorny issues such as territorial disputes in the East and South China Seas, challenges in the US-China-Japan trilateral relationship, regional economic and financial architecture, and the shifting power balance in the Asia-Pacific. 2015 also witnessed the expansion of the CAG team. We welcomed two post-doctoral fellows, Dr. June Park and Dr. Brandon Yoder, two new research associates, Mr. Blake Berger and Mr. Jing Bao-chiun, and a research assistant, Mr. Yin Weiwen. We look forward to the contribution the scholars and young researchers will bring to the Centre, and they will have the full support of CAG. As we transition into 2016, CAG has already lined up quite a few conferences, workshops, events, and publications. CAG will be hosting the second conference on Evolving Finance, Trade and Investment in Asia; a conference on the Trans-PacificPartnership (TPP) and its effects on Vietnam’s Textile and Garment Industry; the Fifth Regional Security Dialogue Between China and India. As part of the project on Developing Asia-Pacific’s Last Frontier: Fostering International Cooperation in the Development of Russia’s Far-East, CAG will convene an annual academic conference in Shanghai and a close-door policy dialogue in Tokyo. We will also convene a conference in Washington, D.C. on China’s rise from
the regional perspectives. We at CAG are committed to our goal of providing objective, independent and high-quality research for academia, policy practitioners and the general public on the developments in Asia and the implications for the international system. As a tracktwo organisation and an academic medium, in which the Centre provides an avenue for critical issues to be discussed and explored through edited volumes, journal articles, conference reports, and op-eds, we at CAG are committed to expanding our reach and bolstering our research excellence going into 2016.
Jing HUANG Lee Foundation Professor on US-China Relations Director, Centre on Asia and Globalisation
CENTRE ON ASIA AND GLOBALISATION • 3