In the case of the latter, it was certainly right and fitting to focus on the enormous and extraordinary strides Asia has made since the mid-1960s in its economic development; notwithstanding a lot still needs to be done. In the case of the former, there’s similarly a lot to commend in terms of the policy tools that have been created and implemented; regulatory evolution; and government-to-government collaboration and cooperation that stand if not to prevent future crisis scenarios then certainl

Søren Elbech Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank Søren Elbech has been treasurer of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank since December 2016, based in Beijing. Before that, he served as treasurer of the Inter-American Development Bank in Washington DC between December 2007 and April 2014 and of Eksportfinans between 2002 and 2007. Earlier, Elbech worked at Nordic Investment Bank and at Danske Bank. Andreas Dombret Deutsche Bundesbank Andreas Dombret has been a member of the executive board

Welcome to this IFR seminar, entitled “Mobilising Asian Investors for Sustainable Development”. One of the central themes of the 2017 ADB meetings in Yokohama is infrastructure. In this session, I wanted to go beyond restating the vast sums of money needed and discuss if and to what extent the infrastructure funding gap can be closed by capital markets, which is a key assumption among policymakers. We will also talk about the emergence of green finance in Asia and address topics relevant to Asia

Keith Mullin, KM Capital Markets: Banks are comfortable taking construction risk; they’ve been doing it for a long time. Will asset managers ever get over the notion of construction risk? Kunihiro Asai, Nikko Asset Management: Infrastructure is among the most attractive asset classes for Japanese investors. Japan has lost any semblance of yield even in the 10-year JGB [which was quoted at a yield of 0.021% on the day of the seminar, having been negative between February and November 2016]. We do