ASIAN Economic Panel (AEP), the premier economic forum dedicated to promote high quality analysis on key economic issues and formulate the best practical solutions, came to Penang this week.
AEP was first convened by Prof Jeff Sachs in April 2001 at Harvard's Centre for International Development (now at the Earth Institute, Columbia University) in conjunction with Keio University and Korea Institute for International Economic Policy. This time, the 26th AEP brought together about 50 scholars from Asean, China, Japan, Korea, Europe and Australia. As is traditional, thoughtful papers covering a wide range of topics ranging from innovation and knowledge to debt and budgets; from water and sustainable development to trade integration and financial centres, were presented and discussed.