Conference Report on BMBF Academic and Policy Roundtable

In 2012, the Freiburg Southeast Asia Studies Group organized an Academic and Policy Roundtable on "How East and
Southeast Asia Cope with the Global Economic and Financial Crisis". The roundtable took place from on 27 January 2012 in Berlin, Germany.

"How East and Southeast Asia Cope with the Global Economic and Financial Crisis"

by Kristin Kupfer (University of Freiburg)

Since 2008, the U.S. and Europe are faced with financial and economic crises exposing weaknesses of their financial and economic systems but also the eminent difficulties of finding common – regional or global - solutions. On the contrary, Asian economies seem to be affected only modestly and mainly through trade channels. Most of them continue their dynamic growth.

Against this background, the Southeast Asian Studies Program of the University of Freiburg1 organized an Academic and Policy Roundtable on “How East and Southeast Asia Cope with the Global Economic and Financial Crisis”. The event was sponsored by the German Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). Some 40 scholars, practitioners and representatives of East and Southeast Asian embassies convened at the Free University of Berlin on January 27, 2012 to discuss the precise impact of the current crises on the region.

Presentations and debates were organized in four thematically focused panels. Major topics included comparative aspects of the 1997 Asian crisis, the 2008/2009 US subprime crisis and the ongoing European Debt crisis, the response of Asian regional powers to the current crisis, trends and challenges of East Asian economic cooperation and the role of Asia in international economic institutions. A final panel discussion with representatives from Southeast Asian embassies concluded the one-day event.

You can download the full report here.