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Trade-led growth and ESG – can Asia strike the right balance?
The concept of sustainable trade has never been more important than in this time of change, induced by the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic and climate crisis. As part of the GTR Asia 2021 Virtual conference, Senior Research Fellow Stephen Olson will join other experts of the field to explore sustainability in Asia's business environment.
Trade has often led a delicate balancing act when it comes to its contribution to humanity. Whereas the West had its industrial revolution over 200 years ago, Asian markets – boosted by China's own process of industrialisation – only started growing significantly towards the end of the last century, fuelled by increased emissions and a strong focus on natural resources. Hindered by widely differing regulatory environments, opaque governance practices and a complicated web of supply chains, regulators are faced with an unenviable task.
This session will consider a range of topics around this argument and the challenge of striking the necessary balance:
- Supply chain resilience lessons learned from the pandemic and the impact of changing supply chains shifts (such as reshoring away from Asian markets);
- The role of finance as leverage in establishing ESG as a priority issue;
- Understanding regional dynamics to reduce the risk of 'greenwashing';
- Establishing universal metrics on which to measure progress and ensuring companies have greater understanding of their accountability to shareholders, customers and employees.
Panelists for this session include:
- Stephen Olson, Senior Research Fellow, Hinrich Foundation
- Gopul Shah, Director, Head of Global Treasury & Trade Finance, Golden Agri-Resources
- Melissa Moi, Head of Asia Pacific, Environment, Social, Governance, Bank of America
- Matthias Schemuth, Partner, DLA Piper
- Kamran Khan, Head of Environment, Social & Governance (ESG), Asia Pacific, Deutsche Bank
This discussion will be moderated by Tolentino Mendonca, Managing Director, Regional Head of Trade Finance, Asia Pacific, Credit Agricole CIB.
The webinar has ended.