Across Southeast Asia, female leaders from different fields are driving the region’s sustainable transition through policymaking and the creation of new business models. In this session from the Asian Development Bank's (ADB) third Southeast Asia Development Symposium (SEADS), experts discussed the innovative solutions and policies by female change-makers in the region. The session was organized by ADB and the Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia.

ASEAN has been an important player in the global value chains (GVCs) and global production networks for decades. In this session, experts at the Asian Development Bank's (ADB) third Southeast Asia Development Symposium (SEADS) examined the risks and challenges facing ASEAN's participation in GVCs and global production networks.

Moderator: Mia Mikic, Advisor, ARTNeT

Keynote: Caroline Freund, Dean, School of Global Policy and Strategy, University of California San Diego

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The Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) believes resilience is key to the tourism sector's recovery. In this session at the Asian Development Bank's (ADB) third Southeast Asia Development Symposium (SEADS), experts explored tools to help destinations, tourism businesses, and communities not only to recover from COVID-19 but also to be "future-proof." The session is organized by PATA.

In this session at the Asian Development Bank's (ADB) third Southeast Asia Development Symposium (SEADS), women leaders offered perspectives on the role empowered women can play in the region's recovery. The session was organized by World Women Tourism.

Speakers:

As Asia embarks on its path of economic recovery in 2022, it gets a boost in regional cooperation as the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) Agreement took effect on 1 January 2022. In this session at the Asian Development Bank's (ADB) third Southeast Asia Development Symposium (SEADS), experts looked at the finer points of RCEP to inform policy makers and the business community on what to expect from its implementation.

Since the pandemic, Asia has gone beyond just digital transformation, with the region clearly moving and with urgency toward digital acceleration, said Microsoft Asia Pacific President Andrea Della Mattea at the Asian Development Bank's (ADB) third Southeast Asia Development Symposium (SEADS). She highlighted the need to skill the region's workforce, noting that it is people that drive digital transformation.

SEADS 2022, "Sustainable Solutions for Southeast Asia's Recovery," was held on 16–17 March.

The pandemic has transformed many of the world's cities into hot spots, reversed many socio-economic achievements, and devastated labor markets, leading to adverse economic effects, said United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat) Executive Director Maimunah Mohd Sharif at the Asian Development Bank's (ADB) third Southeast Asia Development Symposium (SEADS).

SEADS 2022, "Sustainable Solutions for Southeast Asia's Recovery," was held on 16–17 March.

Thanks to the pandemic, the Philippines is now rethinking "tourism for the future," said Philippine Tourism Secretary Bernadette Romulo-Puyat at the Asian Development Bank's (ADB) third Southeast Asia Development Symposium (SEADS). She said the government is currently drawing up a 6-year tourism development plan to revive the sector and ensure the industry is more resilient against future crises.

Since the pandemic started, Tokyo has been accelerating measures so it does not return to life before COVID-19 but instead be able “to realize a city that is sustainable into the future,” said Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike at the Asian Development Bank's (ADB) third Southeast Asia Development Symposium (SEADS).

SEADS 2022, "Sustainable Solutions for Southeast Asia's Recovery," was held on 16–17 March. For insights on solutions helping Southeast Asian countries address development challenges, visit ADB SEADS: https://seads.adb.org.

To prepare for more pandemics in the future, countries should continue surveillance efforts, boost vaccine research and development and manufacturing capability, and strengthen the regulatory environment and health structure and systems, said Anh Wartel, deputy director general for Clinical, Assessment, Regulatory, Evaluation Unit at the International Vaccine Institute at the Asian Development Bank's (ADB) third Southeast Asia Development Symposium (SEADS).