Venue : Guanghua School of Management, Peking University
Co-organised by the French Embassy in China, the CEFC, Guanghua School of Management, the ESSEC and the ADETEF.
Monday 16 November:
Session 1 – Can the global macroeconomic imbalance be ended?
China's mounting trade surplus and the corresponding rise in American deficit have for long served as a measure of global macroeconomic imbalances, one of the profound causes of the international financial crisis. The issue, however, is more complex, implicating structural changes in the world's major economies and thus precluding the stigmatisation of any one country. Only a coordinated approach unencumbered by trade disputes can possibly lead to a durable solution. But the failure of years long multilateral discussions on this subject as well as the reticence over dealing with the issue at the political level are a measure of the difficulty in attempting this task.
This session will seek to address the following questions: To what extent are macroeconomic imbalances an integral part of North-South relations? Is there a link between global imbalances and the financial crisis? To what extent will economic stimulus policies contribute to alleviating these imbalances? What adjustment measures can be expected in each of these economies? How to foster a constructive international dialogue on thissubject?
Session 2 – Regional monetary zones: European experience perspectives for Asian monetary cooperation
Session 2a – European experience on monetary cooperation
The collapse of the Bretton woods system in 1970's triggered an unprecedented momentum for monetary cooperation among European Nations which led three decades later to the creation of the Euro. Eight years after its introduction, Euro has become the second international currency reserve and proved to be an efficient buffer against monetary instability during the early stage of the crisis. What lessons can be drawn from these three decades of European monetary cooperation? How can we assess the role of Euro in the midst of the current international crisis? Is the European monetary cooperation reproducible in Asia?
Session 2b – Asian monetary cooperation
The Chiang Mai Initiative (May 2000) had led to a series of bilateral liquidity swap arrangements among Asian central banks. In 2007, ASEAN+3 entered a new stage, undertaking the multilateralisation of these accords by opening the door to the creation of an "Asian Monetary Fund". While Asia has the necessary resources – huge foreign exchange reserves – to manage this project, it also faces the same political and technical difficulties that have dogged the reform of the international financial institutions: governance, share of contributions, macroeconomic supervision, conditionalities attached to the use of these resources. However, the region has never been able to overcome the inter-state differences and now, nine years later, the project is yet to take off. Could the current international crisis mark a new stage for Asian monetary cooperation? More generally, which model should this regional agreement follow? And what should its relationship with the IMF be?