Schedule

For an additional fee, Sunday activities are available to Forum attendees and their guests.

PLEASE NOTE: Sunday activities are not included in the Forum Fee.

ACTIVITIES INCLUDE:

While the Wharton Global Forum Kuala Lumpur officially concludes on March 12, 2016, the following opportunity at Sasana Kijang is available to Forum participants. Interested participants should register using the link below.

PLEASE NOTE: registration for this event is not included with Forum registration.

SEACEN Conference on
Central Bank Cooperation and Mandates
in Honor of Former Governor of the Bank of Thailand Dr. Puey Ungphakorn
14 March 2016, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

The primary focus of the SEACEN Conference will be on central bank cooperation in the current context of increased globalization of financial markets and on calls for expanded mandates of central banks as a result of questioning the restricted focus on macroeconomic stability that became a mantra during the so-called great moderation. Dr. Puey Ungphakorn was very active in the process of central bank cooperation in Asia during his tenure as Governor of the Bank of Thailand. He played an important role in a number of national and regional developments, one of which led to the creation of The SEACEN Centre.

The SEACEN Conference will pay tribute to Dr. Puey Ungphakorn in the form of a keynote address by M.R. Pridiyathorn Devakula, former Deputy Prime Minister, Thailand and Chairman of the Puey Ungphakorn Institute in Thailand, giving an account of Dr. Puey’s significant contributions to central banking.

The Conference will also feature a special lecture by Governor Zeti Akhtar Aziz of Bank Negara Malaysia on the topic “Building Institutions to Support Economic Development.”

Apart from these distinguished presentations, the Conference will explore the topics of central bank cooperation and mandates in the form of a panel discussion and a policy dialogue.

Session 1: Panel Discussion on “The Future of Central Bank and Cooperation”

The transmission of the North Atlantic financial crisis of 2008-09 to the rest of the global economy has highlighted the strong interdependencies that now characterize economic relationships between economies. Developments in one part of the global system rapidly spill over to others through financial and trade linkages. The response of central banks will have effects not only on the economy in which they are located but also elsewhere. In this context, there have been renewed calls for greater cooperation among central banks, both in terms of monetary policy and in the regulatory sphere. Cooperation can take the form of sharing information about economic developments or policy intentions. But it could go further and include coordinated regional responses to extra-regional developments. Cooperation may also mean basing policy decisions in part on the effects they may have outside the region.

This session will explore the prospect of cooperation among central banks on these increasingly stringent levels both on regional and global scales, and will assess the likely outcome for the stability of the international monetary and financial system.

Session 2: Policy Dialogue on “A Developmental Role for Central Banks?”

Another consequence of the Great Recession has been calls for the broadening of central bank mandates from a focus exclusively on macroeconomic stability to concerns with financial stability. Central banks in many jurisdictions are already heavily involved with promoting financial market development, in particular through fostering financial inclusion. But pundits go even further, calling on central banks to promote sustainable and inclusive economic growth, take measures to fight inequality, and steer financial resources to socially desirable activities such as preserving the environment.

While all of these goals are socially desirable and candidates for public policy interventions, it is an open question whether central banks are the appropriate institution in which their fulfillment should be vested. Do central banks have the necessary tools? Do they have the expertise? Would expanding the mandates of central banks in this direction dilute their focus and thereby their ability to fulfill their primary mandates related to macroeconomic and financial stability? Panelists will share their views on these and related questions, offering time for discussion with other Conference participants.