Trade-led growth and ESG – can Asia strike the right balance?

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.