“Vietnam, Asean and Singapore should think of themselves as enlightening, powerful consumers on the demand side of the market for world order”. This is quoted from the interview with Prof. Danny Quah - Dean of the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, Singapore during his attendance at Young Scholar Initiative 2019 held at VNU University of Economics and Business from 12th – 14th April 2019.
At the plenary session of the convening, Prof. Danny Quah presented the discussion on “The New World Economic Order as Asia Rises” to over 500 young scholars coming from 38 countries all over the world. In the discussion, he described the challenges that Asia faces in the new world order, including Key economic ideas for Asia’s rise, the next challenges for the world order and New Economic Thinking. He also presented the key ideas for Asia’s Rise such as move assets from low- to high-productivity, let people do what they do best and stop doing the same thing but focus on technology, innovation and creativity.
Overview of the convening
The discussion from the Dean of Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy attracted opinions and comments from a number of scholars attending.
Also at the convening, Prof. Danny Quah had an interview with mass media about the role of Asean in general and Vietnam in particular in the new world order. He said, “The role of ASEAN in general and Vietnam in particular in this emerging world order is going to be a very important one.”
The way that Vietnam has been thinking about immediate events that are happening with US - China conflict will have effect on business. From looking at the numbers, I can say that Vietnam is seeing a positive result of this as business, as global supply chain. If this benefit continues, my worry is that it will be only short term. The worry is that because of these benefits, we might begin to think that it doesn’t matter what happens in the rest of the world with that US-China conflict, we will still be able to benefit from this.
More importantly, the question is whether the structure of the international system can survive these ongoing conflicts. In my opinion, we need to be more proactive. ASEAN, Vietnam need to be more proactive helping build a new world order, helping build a new regional order.