Asia Business Center Newsletter
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Haas School of Business, U.C. Berkeley
Tel: 510.643.6883
Fax: 510.643.6880
| April 2010
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Greetings!, I hope this April newsletter finds you all well. It has been a busy semester here at Berkeley-Haas, and the Asia Business Center has many new developments. First, I'd like to bring your attention to the new ABC Conference date of March 22, 2011. Several Shanghai city officials and alumni encouraged us to change the date due to their current immersion in Expo-related activities. The speakers will remain the same including Nobel Prize Laureate in Economic Sciences, Dr. Oliver Williamson. The Nanyang Technology University Program has been a huge success. Every year the students spend 2 weeks in Singapore and 2 weeks at Berkeley-Haas. They just finished their Berkeley-Haas segment, and they really were a joy to teach. In related news, the program will grow from 45 students this year to 65 next year because of the addition of a Norwegian group of participants. We welcome them! In other news, some colleagues and I will run a research conference in behavioral economics at the National University of Singapore (NUS) this summer for Ph.D. students and new professors. More information is below. Also, I'd like to congratulate Dwight Crabtree, Justin Tsai, and Khan Yow, the Co-Chairs of the Berkeley Asia Business Conference 2010, who made history this year with record-breaking attendance! It truly was a wonderful event, and ABC was proud to be a sponsor. Lastly, I urge all of you to join our ABC page on Facebook- we will make sure to keep it current, so you'll be up-to-date with all the Center's news. It is our way to reach out and interact with all of you! Please check out all the great content in this rich newsletter below. Sincerely, Teck Ho
Director, Asia Business Center
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Date Change for ABC Conference
Save the Date!The Asia Business Center has moved its conference, "Leading through Innovation in Asia" to Tuesday, March 22, 2011. The conference will still feature Nobel Laureate in Economic Sciences, Dr. Oliver Williamson, Dean Rich Lyons, Professor Michael Katz, and Professor Teck Ho. While ABC originally thought coinciding it with the Shanghai World Expo would be beneficial, we were advised to move it until the spring (after a change of leadership in Shanghai, and when the Expo and any Expo-fatigue are over), as all senior officials have been asked to concentrate on Expo-only activities. The conference will still be held at the Peninsula Hotel in Shanghai. More information will be forthcoming - please keep checking back to our conference page.
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 For Singapore's 50th year of self-government, the People's Action Party (PAP) asked Prof. Teck Ho to write a piece about the PAP's accomplishments. What follows is his assessment.
50 Years of Singapore's People's Action Party (PAP) Accomplishments
By Professor Teck Ho
If I were to grade People's Action Party (PAP) for its performance in the last 50 years, I would give it an A+: a special grade I rarely give as a professor who has taught for 16 years. By all measures, Singapore has done extremely well, thanks to the PAP government.
I was born in Singapore in 1961, two years after PAP came to power. Over the course of my lifetime, I have watched PAP succeed at bringing Singapore economic prosperity and lasting stability. Singapore's GDP has grown 259 times from US$702 million in 1960 to US$181,949 million in 2008. Singapore is also currently one of the safest and politically stable countries in the world.
I have been living in the U.S. for 20 years, but remain a Singaporean citizen and return to Singapore every year. I am still drawn there for the feeling of home, and because my family and friends continue to live there. I also go back out of a sense of duty; the government funded my Ph.D. studies abroad, and so I feel obliged to repay Singapore for the help it has given me.
Even though Singapore is now undeniably a great place to live, I have remained overseas because there are many opportunities that only the U.S. can provide. The U.S. boasts the best universities in the world, and a pool of talent that currently exists nowhere else. Despite my fondness for my homeland, I find myself unable to give this up.
In the next 50 years, PAP must manage a group of much more qualified residents. In the beginning of PAP's tenure, people were poor and desperate, caring only for economic stability. As long as PAP provided jobs, people were grateful and loyal. Now, however, a new generation has grown up in the seat of comfort and has higher expectations for their freedom and exciting global opportunities. PAP will need to adapt itself to meet these higher expectations.
The single most serious challenge PAP faces is the diversity of people living in Singapore, which goes beyond race and religion. It involves nationality, birth place, residency, and class (for example, the vast cultural differences between mainland Chinese and Singaporean Chinese; the perception of foreigners as global talents versus locals).
PAP must promote tolerance to all residents. It is through tolerance that the diverse groups will work together to create a greater social good. If I were to live to 100 years old, it is my sincere hope that I would be able to give PAP another A+ for its ability to manage diversity in the next 50 years.
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 1st Asia Summer Institute in Behavioral Economics in Singapore
Our strategic partner National University of Singapore (NUS) is hosting the 1st Asia Summer Institute in Behavioral Economics on the NUS campus, from July 26 to August 6, 2010. The Institute will feature three ladder Berkeley-Haas faculty members, Teck Ho (William Halford Jr. Family Professor of Marketing), Matthew Rabin (Edward G. and Nancy S. Jordan Professor of Economics) and Terrance Odean (The Rudd Family Foundation Chair of Finance). In addition, participants will be treated to Prof. Ted O'Donoghue from Cornell University, and Vince Crawford from the University of Oxford. Professor and Director of the Asia Business Center Teck Ho, a key organizer for this institute explains, "The purpose of this summer institute is to introduce graduate students and beginning faculty in economics, business, and related disciplines to the findings and methods of behavioral economics." The institute will host 50 Ph.D. students and new professors from all around the globe, including from China, England, Italy, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, Spain, and the United States. More information and the program schedule can be found here (PDF). |
 Student-Run Asia Business Center Conference A Success
The Berkeley-Haas student-run 10th Anniversary Asia Business Conference themed "Asia: Shifting the Global Center of Gravity," was a sold-out success! Put on by Berkeley MBA students, they had record attendance with 563 registrants and a 90% attendance rate. The conference featured four keynote speakers, Scott Matlock (Chairman of Asia
Mergers and Acquisitions, Morgan Stanley); Joi Ito, CEO (Creative Commons
and Co-founder/Board Member, Digital Garage); Lim Siong Guan (Group President, Government of Singapore
Investment Corporation); and Arun Sarin (Senior Advisor, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts
and former CEO, Vodafone). Also featured was an India Forum, and various panels addressing clean technology, brand recognition, finance, and design and innovation in Asia. For more information about the conference, its panelists, keynote speakers, sponsors, organizers, and past conference themes, please visit: http://berkeleyabc.org/2010/index.html |
The Asia Business Center on Facebook!
The Asia Business Center is on Facebook. To keep abreast of all of our current happenings, please become a fan here. |
Upcoming Events
Tuesday, April 20, 2010 - 2010 Numata Lecture: Inconceivably Remote Future Accessible Now: The Bodhisattva and Future Buddha Maitreya during the Kus.a-n.a Period, 5-8 p.m., Institute of East Asian Studies (2223 Fulton), 6th floor conference room
Wednesday, April 21, 2010 - China in the 21st Century: What Everyone Needs to Know, 4 p.m., Institute of East Asian Studies (2223 Fulton), Sixth Floor
Wednesday, April 21, 2010 - Connecting the Broken Pieces after the Cambodian Genocide: Legacy as Memory of a Nation, 4:30-6 p.m., International House, Home Room
Thursday, April 22, 2010 - Awakening Giants, Feet of Clay: Assessing the Economic Rise of China and India, 4-6 p.m., The Bancroft Hotel, Great Hall
Monday, April 26, 2010 - UC Berkeley's 15th ANNUAL FISHER CENTER REAL ESTATE CONFERENCE, 8 a.m.-5 p.m., The Westin St. Francis Hotel
Friday, April 30, 2010 - Haas Scholars Interdisciplinary Undergraduate Research Conference: "Borders in Flux,"10:30 a.m.-3:45 p.m., Berkeley City Club, Members Lounge
Saturday,
May 1,
2010 - Haas
Scholars Interdisciplinary Undergraduate Research Conference: "Borders
in Flux," Berkeley
City Club, Members Lounge
Monday,
May 3,
2010 - Empires
of the Indus: The Story of a River, 5-7 p.m., Stephens
Hall, 10 (CSAS Conference Room)
Tuesday,
May 4,
2010 - The
Mongols and Global History, 12:30 p.m., Institute
of East Asian Studies (2223 Fulton), Sixth Floor
Wednesday,
May 5,
2010 - QPOC
Talk: Queer People of Color, 5:30-6:30 p.m., César
E. Chávez Student Center, 202 - Gender Equity Resource Center
Thursday,
May 6,
2010 - Esotericism
in the Late Ming - Early Qing Buddhist Revival Colloquium, 5-6:30 p.m., Institute of East Asian Studies (2223 Fulton), 6th floor conference room
Thursday,
May 6,
2010 - The
Dancing Shiva: Nataraja and the Cosmos, 6-8 p.m., 370 Dwinelle
Hall
Friday,
May 7,
2010 - Mission
Suhani: Bringing Back India's Lost Opera, 6-8 p.m., The Bancroft Hotel
For more information, visit the ABC calendar...
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