Southeast Asian countries should seize the opportunity presented by the pandemic to rebuild tourism so it is more sustainable, inclusive, and less susceptible to shocks, said leaders at the Asian Development Bank's (ADB) third Southeast Asia Development Symposium (SEADS).

Moderator: David Ingles, Anchor, Bloomberg TV and Radio

Speakers:

Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) presents a major financing challenge made even more daunting by the setback and fiscal stresses created by the COVID-19 pandemic. In this session during the Asian Development Bank's (ADB) third Southeast Asia Development Symposium (SEADS), experts focused on unlocking financing for the SDGs and explored how governments, the private sector, and other partners in the region are innovating to rise to this challenge.

Moderator: Smita Nakhooda, Senior Results Management Specialist, ADB

Speakers

COVID-19 has fast-tracked digitalization across many spheres of society, sectors, and markets. In this session during the Asian Development Bank's (ADB) third Southeast Asia Development Symposium (SEADS), experts examined the importance of harnessing digital technology and innovation to accelerate sustainable development in Asia and beyond.

The session was organized by ADB and Amazon Web Services.

Spawned by advancements in technologies in the last 2 decades, a plethora of information and content has led to the public sector struggling to make sense of all the information and knowledge needed for policy making. In this session at the Asian Development Bank's (ADB) third Southeast Asia Development Symposium (SEADS), experts shared experiences on how knowledge management and future thinking can be employed to plan better for development. The session was organized by ADB.

The COVID-19 pandemic has reversed decades of robust tourism growth in Southeast Asia, causing widespread business closures and millions of job losses. Consequently, progress toward several Sustainable Development Goals has been derailed in tourism-dependent destinations. Women, youth, and disadvantaged groups are suffering disproportionally.

In this session at the Asian Development Bank's (ADB) third Southeast Asia Development Symposium (SEADS), experts highlighted innovative examples of how to shift to more sustainable tourism.

This presentation gives an overview of ADB programs on regional cooperation and integration.

This presentation discussed the unprecedented excess demand for PPEs due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to domestic and international PPE supply chain disruptions and put frontline healthcare workers at risk. It also discussed various trade barriers to PPE supply, how governments ramped up PPE production, ADB's own response to the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as policy implications and lessons learned from path health crises.