The Centre for Social and Economic Progress (CSEP) hosted a Flagship Dialogue on April 10, 2023 from 4:00 pm to 5:30 pm IST on “The Future of Asian Economic Growth” with Simon Commander, Managing Partner, Altura Partners and Shivshankar Menon, Former National Security Advisor, India & Distinguished Fellow, CSEP. The discussion was moderated by Rakesh Mohan, President and Distinguished Fellow, CSEP.

The event was held in a hybrid format with attendees joining in-person at the CSEP auditorium as well as via Zoom and YouTube.

About the event:

Many believe that the 21st century belongs to Asia. Those claims demand scrutiny. To date, Asia’s development model has depended on industrial policy to support new sectors along with a common reliance on large and powerful business groups. These groups use close and highly transactional connections with politicians to acquire assets, secure financing and other preferential treatment. Not only does the resulting economic firepower of these business groups allow them to dominate the various markets in which they operate, but it also allows them to achieve significant scale relative to the economy as a whole. This has been matched by a parallel and rapid accumulation and concentration of wealth. In the recent book by Simon Commander, this is called the Connections World. Although it has, for the most part, supported Asia’s extraordinary growth, problems with this model, and the configuration of economic and political power that it has enabled, are mounting.

Demographics challenge reliance on extensive growth while the attenuation of competition holds back productivity growth, limits the number of high-quality jobs and, most significantly, stands in the way of Asia shifting to greater reliance on innovation. In short, Asia’s further climb up the income ladder has nothing automatic about it. New policies for corporate governance, taxation and the design of competition policy will be needed. Failure to come to grips with the Connections World will impair the brightness of Asia’s future.

Moderator:
Rakesh Mohan is President and Distinguished Fellow at CSEP. He is a member of the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister. Previously, he was Senior Fellow at the Jackson Institute for Global Affairs, Yale University, Professor at Yale’s School of Management, and Distinguished Consulting Professor at Stanford University. Closely associated with the Indian economic reforms process since the late 1980s, he has served in senior roles including as the Deputy Governor of the Reserve Bank of India, Secretary, Economic Affairs, Chief Economic Adviser of the Indian Ministry of Finance, and Economic Adviser in the Indian Ministry of Industry. He has authored books on urban economics, urban development, monetary policy, and economic reforms.

For any inquiries, please contact Trishna Wahengbam at twahengbam@csep.org.

All content reflects the individual views of the speakers. The Centre for Social and Economic Progress (CSEP) does not hold an institutional view on any subject.