It is well-established that innovation is the new source of growth. Asia has the potential to cope as it has already spurred demand for biotech, precision engineering, and other information technology-enabled services. Unfortunately, the conventional metrics has put developing Asia behind their developed neighbors. Learn more from ADB’s Shanti Jagannathan as she shares some recommendations on skills and knowledge can bring in inclusive development in the region.

As mindsets and institutions take a long time to change, implementing sustainable reforms instead of practicing good enough governance is the right approach. Reforms, however, are not sustained when preferences differ between those stated and the ones revealed. Political commitment is a necessary condition for sustainable reforms to take place at all levels of government.

State-owned enterprises (SOEs) in the Pacific provide core public infrastructure services but its support of climate change adaptation has seen a number of challenges. This presentation discusses ADB’s Green Climate Fund Financing and how it helps leverage private sector involvement with climate financing in SOEs in the Pacific.

Although FinTech has been given focused attention in the financial sector only in 2014, it actually has a long history and evolution. Seen today as the new marriage of financial services and information technology, it has contributed signficantly to financial inclusion and economic development in various settings. This presentation will help readers understand what Fintech is all about, its implications to the finance sector, and how RegTech can be tapped to regulate its innovations.

ADB remains committed to scale up its climate financing to US$6 billion by 2020. Half of the US$6 billion will be in the Energy Sector, largely renewables and energy efficiency. This target requires a robust, consistent, and sound methodology for counting climate finance, which is discussed in this presentation.

Back in 2008, Mongolia suffered from the highest inflation rate in Asia, reaching up to 30%. This led to lower food quality, especially for women and limited funds for education and health needs. The government, through ADB assistance, established a food stamp program to help the poor buy critical food items. This presentation shares how this program was succesfully implemented and how it helped ease the burden of those affected by the crisis.

More than a rate of return calculations, economic analysis serves as an integrated framework or tool to select and design good projects. Economic analysis has a crucial role in assessing a project’s economic benefits and costs, potential development impact, and potential risks. This presentation gives a snapshot of how economic analysis is applied in ADB operations.

Investing in communications by creatively allocating or leveraging funds for project communication activities results to conflict prevention. This report examines ADB’s Accountability Mechanism and discusses the role of communications in conflicts featuring ADB-assisted projects in Cambodia, Nepal, and Samoa as case studies.

Can Fiji overcome the challenges to its healthcare system and meet the health service demands of its people?

ADB's Frances Ng, in a session of ADB's in-house Health Talks lecture series, discussed Fiji’s health system. Using a population-centric approach, the health service demands of the Fijian population have been modelled into the future to assess and quantify infrastructure and service requirements. The results highlight clear opportunities for investments.

What can Asia's youth do to promote healthy lifestyles and fight noncommunicable diseases?

ADB's Enrique Corpus and Shruti Mehta shared lessons from an experiential learning program on the youth's role in creating a conducive environment for promoting physical activity to fight noncommunicable diseases in the region. They also shared data on the economic burden of physical inactivity, and best practices cases on how sports and play-based learning play a positive role in ADB projects. This presentation was part of Health Talks, an ADB in-house lecture series.