But a good friend of mine, Kurt Tong, who I think most people in this room know because Kurt has done just about everything on Asian economic integration that it's possible to do in the U.S. government. He is the principal deputy assistant secretary of state in the Bureau of Economic and Business Affairs. That's his title. But in reality that means he is the senior most civil career official at the State Department working on economic issues across the world. His own background, though, he's served in China, Japan, Korea, the Philippines, and knows in many different capacities of various aspects of Asian economic issues. So he is the best you could have in this kind of forum to talk about a perspective on Asian Pacific economic integration and the role of the U.S. and Japan. And so please join me in welcoming Kurt Tong to the stage. Well, thank you, Matthew, and good afternoon, everybody. It's a real pleasure to be here. I have my friend, Mr. Coffey, you need your coffee, too. And thank you very, very much, Matthew and Mike, and also Yashige San for hosting this event each year. As I understand it, this is the 10th iteration of the CSIS JETRO forum, and it's become a bit of a recognized institution in shaping people's thinking in Washington and in Tokyo about how the United States-Japan relationship can contribute to the very important economic agenda in the Asia Pacific that both of our countries share. So my deep respects to you for continuing your support of this initiative by both organizations. I think you've all had an interesting morning. I watched it from the comfort of my office due to the revolutionary technology that CSIS is invested in. And so I'll try today not to belabor many of the points that you've all already gone over in great detail and with considerable insight. What I'd like to do is talk a bit, broaden out the discussion, and think about the role of the United States and Japan in the region in shaping regional economic integration and shaping the direction that the Asia Pacific economy should be going in the years ahead. And this conversation, of course, happens at a very interesting time. At this juncture, I think there is no longer any reason why anyone in this room should stand up later and ask me a question, is the United States committed to Asia? Maybe there will be no one asking, is the President committed to the Trans-Pacific Partnership and getting it done? Because you can see the evidence thereof and the action on Capitol Hill this week and the action in the negotiating room over the coming weeks I think will be testament to the enormous commitment of the United States to be a shaping factor in the Asia Pacific political economy. As this momentum builds, it's important to think about what are the key institutions and the key players that are working with the United States and Japan in complementary fashion and what are our broad objectives in this joint enterprise. I say actors and players, because all of the main challenges for the Asia Pacific region, if you think about them going forward, are by nature transboundary and by nature multifaceted and by nature extremely complex. And that means that the United States and Japan and the lead, but many other nations and institutions are going to need to be actively engaged in setting out shared solutions to complex problems. But I stand with a very firm sense that the United States and Japan have both a critical leadership role in this enterprise, particularly in strengthening those institutions and in pushing forward as rapidly as possible this enterprise of regional economic integration, bringing the economies of the Asia Pacific and knitting them together in increasingly significant ways so that they accomplish more together. So three things I'm going to do today, and I'll try and do this quickly, and at some point you can just ring the bell or hit me over the head with something heavy. But I'll first talk a little bit about the goals for the region because I think it's important to have goals. Everything in life you need to have goals, right? My main goal right now is paying my mortgage, but as institutions and as nations we need to have goals. Second, think about the tools for achieving them, and then finally think a little bit more concretely about what is the agenda for the United States and Japan in the near term. So goals. You all are having dessert. I had some, thank you very much. It was delicious, so I will refer to pie and considering the roles of the region. And maybe only the Americans will get this, but there are three aspects of this and they all relate to dessert. They all relate to pie. First thing, we got to increase the pie. We need a bigger pie in the Asia Pacific. The economic pie needs to be bigger. And how do we do that? The best way that we can do it is by expanding trade and investment around the region, increasing efficiencies so that there's greater productivity in the economy as a whole. And how do we achieve that? And you've heard this mantra before, but we do that by setting up a region where the rules of the road are open, free, transparent, and fair. Open to all comers, including players from outside the Asia Pacific region, free in the sense of having the minimum number of barriers to trade and investment in the region, transparent, and that everybody knows the rules of the road and has access to the rules of the road. And we're facilitated in that regard by technology, but we need to have agreements to make, to utilize that technology to make sure that the rules are available to everyone. And fair in the sense that competition should be fair, regardless of the ownership of a corporation or the nation that any private sector player comes from, that it should be a fair competition on the playing field of East Asian economics. So the second part of the pie, we've got a big pie. Now what are we going to do with it? It's important, and we need to recognize that the rhetoric of inclusive growth is not just rhetoric. It needs to be a specific objective of the United States and Japan in making sure that the Asia Pacific region is not just prosperous on average, but actually reaches the pockets of poverty around the region in an effective way so that we realize the stability and the political gains and the democratization gains of economic activity around the region. That means increasing the role of women. It means specific actions aimed at poverty reduction for disadvantaged populations. And it also means paying attention to the environment because the environment sneaks up on growing economies and it tends to punish the poorer parts and weaker parts of economies disproportionately and more quickly. All of that needs to happen at the same time as making the pie bigger. We're making the pie bigger, we're sharing the pie, what's the last part? Americans in the room? We're going to eat the pie, right? Okay, this is not just a altruistic exercise from the perspective of the United States. We need to link the American economy deeply to this dynamic region in the Asia Pacific so that we're getting our share of this dynamic growth and activity that's taking place across the ocean. So the tools for making this work, you all have talked quite a bit about TPP. I'll mention TPP, of course, probably the most powerful tool currently being pursued. APEC as an institution, ASEAN as an institution, the financial institutions as institutions, and then finally and most importantly the private sector itself as a tool for accomplishing this mission. Now the Trans-Pacific Partnership, you all know that TPP will boost economic growth and competitiveness around the region. What people don't necessarily, many of people in this room probably get it, but not everyone does, understand that we are in a, David Ricardo was a brilliant economist but he's kind of old and he's been dead for a while. And we need to be thinking about economics in a much more sophisticated way. And the fact of the matter is that the way global supply chains work now and the integration of economies already and the amount of intense intellectual property that is invested in every piece of property, each good that is produced, and the fact that goods and services are so deeply linked in the current global economy. We need more complex rules. And just thinking about tariff elimination as important as it is and it's critical to making agreements work, the non-tariff aspects of TPP are really where the goldmine is from the perspective of advanced economies like the United States and Japan. And this means rules like on areas such as labor, on the environment, intellectual property, state-owned enterprises, the investment rules, financial services issues, all of the transparency and regulatory aspects of TPP. Those things are what people really need to be very excited about as they convince each other that the Trade Promotion Authority and by extension the Trans-Pacific Partnership are essential for the United States and for the region. Of course, TPP goes beyond economics and there are strategic benefits as well. The common characterization of those strategic benefits is that it's a demonstration of commitment by the United States and that I think is manifestly true and is being exhibited by U.S. leadership at this time. But there's another aspect of this, which is economic policy leadership, which is extremely important. And the TPP is the most important expression of economic policy leadership currently taking place on the planet. And through this joint exercise, there's just no way to overestimate the strategic importance of 40 percent of the global economy, including developing countries as well as developed countries, speaking numerous different languages, different religions, widely separated from one another geographically, speaking with one voice that they are on board with rules that are open, free, transparent and fair for trade and investment. And that strategic aspect in the economic realm is going to have a magnetic effect. And I think you've talked a lot about that already this morning, how some of the other countries in the nation, countries in the region are viewing TPP and the magnetic effect that this agreement will have on both sides of the Pacific. There's also the fact that the TPP, particularly for the United States and Japan, is an expression of our values, values favoring fair play, transparency, fighting corruption, protecting labor, protecting the environment. These are all important values, protecting private property, that we're finding expression in, through the, through the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which really makes this a powerful tool. Let me say a word about APEC. APEC is, of course, I think Matthew shares this, my favorite institution in the Asia Pacific, because I used to work on it. And it's also just, it's not just, it's just a lot of fun people getting together. But it's more than that. It is really a, the best way to describe it is the design room for progress in economic policy in the Asia Pacific region. Everyone gets together and they focus on the leaders meeting that takes place each year, which has both economic and political significance. But the real value of APEC has been in pushing forward initiatives in areas where the region is not yet ready for binding commitments. In areas like anti-corruption, regulatory practices, thinking about supply chains, improving customs enforcement and customs facilitation, APEC plays an absolutely critical role. And it's also just kind of a meeting place where the nations and economies of the region can get together and think about future plans. APEC is also a critical piece of the U.S.-Japan equation. If you think about Japan's role as a founding member of APEC and a real leader in its fostering and development over the years, it's quite impressive and quite significant. And I go back to 2010 in Yokohama when it was Japanese leadership and no offense to Chinese friends who rightly emphasized the free trade area of the Asia Pacific as a major idea at the 2014 APEC in Beijing. But it was in 2010 under Japan's leadership in Yokohama where this idea of using TPP, RCEP and other mechanisms to push towards a shared goal of the free trade area of the Asia Pacific was firmly solidified. And Japan's leadership role in APEC continues. It's currently pushing us all forward on the nexus between infrastructure and public-private partnerships. Japan is pushing APEC in the direction of thinking about how to make economies more resilient based upon some of the lessons of the major earthquake in Japan three years ago. Japan has been actually maybe ironically but truthfully a leading force in pushing women's empowerment and economic empowerment issues in the APEC context. And also the U.S. and Japan have been utilizing APEC effectively to promote the ideas of digital free trade and keeping the digital environment free from excessive government interference. So that's APEC. How am I doing on time? ASEAN, another institution that just does not get enough attention. And the fact of the ASEAN economic community being concluded at the end of this year and being launched as an entity which is headed in the direction, it's not the European Union yet, but it's headed in that direction, is just enormously significant. It's mostly most significant, of course, to the economies of the ASEAN region. But it means a lot to the rest of us as well, to the United States and Japan looking at Southeast Asia from the outside. Because the creation of a unified platform for economic activity in Southeast Asia will make those economies stronger, but it will also facilitate the participation of other economies in the regional development of Southeast Asia. It's just an enormously important development and something that we should all be both feed-in supporting as vigorously and effectively as we can. Some of the things that the United States is working on with ASEAN, we've been spending money to support the computer work and the thought work behind customs facilitation and customs enforcement through a program called the ASEAN Single Window Program, which is managed by USAID. We've launched a U.S.-ASEAN business alliance for competitive small and medium enterprises, kind of modeling the small business network of the Americas to try and get smaller companies networking across the region inside ASEAN and with partners outside ASEAN to develop more innovative solutions to corporate growth in that region. And the United States has just this year initiated new dialogues with ASEAN on aviation, on telecommunications, and on the issues related to trade and in the environment, which will, I believe, have a significant impact going forward. So I would be remiss in not mentioning another set of institutions which play an important role in the region, which is the multilateral development banks. And as you all know, the multilateral development banks have been a bedrock of the global development architecture, playing a very critical role, not just in providing capital to developing countries, but also in pushing reform and economic policy leadership, not just in the Asia Pacific, but globally. And those institutions have been particularly effective in the Asia Pacific. The World Bank, the Asian Development Bank, and other institutions active in the region have played really a vital role. Let me give you a couple of examples that people don't think about. You think about the Asian Development Bank giving big loans to build a road somewhere, or facilitate the improvement, upgrading of a port. That's all extremely important. But the ADB has also been pushing the Greater Mekong Subregion Program, pushing economic integration in a very specific environment. There are also the lead on the Central Asia Regional Economic Cooperation, which to date, unfortunately, because there's a lot more to do in Central Asia, and I just got back from Kazakhstan, but that is the best program to date in pushing regional economic integration among the economies of Central Asia. So these institutions have an enormous and important role to play in pushing development and policy. They're also well-run. They're run on principles of transparency, sound governance. They pay special care to social environmental safeguards, and there's a lot of oversight that goes into these institutions. So there's a new player on the block, the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank. And let me start by just saying the United States is excited about this prospect. We're not angry. We're not mad. We're not churlish or surly about it. We're not a member. We don't need to be a member to welcome a new institution that's going to make a contribution to the region. There are other things going on. There's a new development bank that's been proposed by the BRICS countries. Frankly, we're in a position of wanting to know a lot more about that, because there's not that much information yet about how that institution is going to involve.  And on the same trip was in Beijing, learning a lot from counterfeit parts in China. Let's be clear about the situation. It is a good thing that China is going to provide development capital to the Asia Pacific region. Do we care about how it is done and the details of how it is applied when China is an untested leader in providing development finance? Yes, we care. And we'll continue to care. But are we upset about this or is this some kind of geostrategic game where the United States and China are juggling things? No. That's just not the case. This is a bank. It's going to do good work. And the United States is going to help it be a good bank and a bank that does good work. There's some ways to do that. There's co-financing is a very specific way. And I know that the Asian Development Bank and AIB, although it doesn't exist yet, are already talking about how they could do co-financing. And the World Bank is doing the same thing. President Kim has signaled a real interest in working with the AIIB, both in terms of personnel exchange and in terms of co-financing going forward. And we can also work with the AIIB directly, thinking about how it should be structured and how it should be organized and share some ideas and thoughts going forward on that. Which brings me to my final point on the issue of tools. And which maybe we should have a quiz. What did I say was the most important tool in shaping the region? Okay, so no one's paying attention. Scott, come on. Private sector, right? Yeah, absolutely. The key to making all of this work at the end of the day, and this is where the United States and Japan really add value. And we've got to remember this. All this talk about trade agreements is great. And all these talk about institutions is great. And what government is doing is very, very important in pushing forward on policy. But if we don't have good private sector people energetically pursuing these initiatives, and this then gets, brings us back to people-to-people exchange and the importance of actual on the ground partnership and contact between people. But we have to have the private sector be actively and positively engaged on this. And the good news is that the United States and Japan have the best companies in the world. The most innovative, they have the best technology, smartest people. And they're very good at linking finance and marketing and technology in significant ways to produce positive outcomes for development. And that is something that should make us extraordinarily confident and excited about the coming decades in the development of the Asia Pacific region. So finally, what then does that leave us in terms of the U.S.-Japan agenda going forward? Clearly the United States and Japan are close partners. I've lived and breathed that throughout my career. Many people in this room have experienced that firsthand throughout their careers. We communicate a lot. We talk a lot constantly and largely have a shared vision. In business, as I said, we have the best companies. Together, we constitute 30 percent of the global economy, our bilateral trade, $280 billion. The United States has over $120 billion in foreign direct investment in Japan. Our companies are interlinked. In security, we are partners. And the visit of Prime Minister Abe, I think, manifestly demonstrated the fact that that partnership is getting closer and more profound day to day. And finally, we have shared values in democracy and transparency and free markets that will keep us together going forward. So we have this incredible capability to do teamwork based on shared vision and extraordinary capabilities. And we need to expand that and continue to go forward. And it's starting to go forward in ways that people don't talk about quite as much yet because of the focus on trade. But take, for example, the Internet economy for a number of years now and at the instigation of the private sector, the U.S. and Japan have been involved in an Internet economy dialogue, which is, and the people that work on this work with me is described by them as the most important bilateral activity that the U.S. is involved in on Internet policy in cementing common views between the United States and Japan and then making sure that those views are shared out throughout the entire global system of Internet policymakers. And it's had an enormous positive impact. And we should keep doing that. Another is, of course, in development policy, where I've had the privilege of co-chairing the dialogue between the United States and Japan, where we think very specifically about what we can do together on development policy. And it goes beyond doing a few joint projects. It's questions about implementing the financing for development goals, the post-2015 sustainable development goals, and thinking about how the development policy regimes around the world should be shaped going forward. So my point being, a huge amount of potential for the U.S. and Japan to work together. So let me leave you with then some homework. Seven items that the United States and Japan should be focusing on together in this space of Asia-Pacific economic integration. TPP, first and foremost, what's the phrase? Just do it? Is that patented? Am I allowed to say that? Let's just do it. Let's just get it done, and then we'll move on and do even greater things on the trade front. APEC, keep it strong, keep it focused, and continue to utilize it as an important tool. ASEAN, frankly, we need to do more here. The U.S. and Japan both could be even more engaged with ASEAN and thinking about how to support that. With ASEAN and the lead, of course, in developing economic integration in the region. Working on the multilateral development banks, and we have room for dialogue on this, we need to do some more thinking about it. But the goal should be to make sure that both the old and the new institutions are doing a good job in effectively supporting development in the region. Five, the inclusive growth agenda. It's talked about a lot in APEC, but we need to be thinking more specifically about how actually are we going to make sure that not just in developing countries, but also in the United States and Japan, we are effectively reaching all of our people with the benefits of economic growth. The green growth agenda, six. Again, the United States and Japan, both in a technological sense and in an idea sense, are positioned to lead the region forward in thinking about solutions to these paradoxes of economic growth versus environmental degradation and how to achieve growth at the least environmental cost. And then finally, the United States and Japan, whether it's on infrastructure or finance or environmental issues or the internet economy, the U.S. and Japan should keep the private sector in our focus out in front, working with us, and we should continue constantly to think about more and better opportunities to coordinate activity between the public sector and the private sector to achieve good outcomes going forward. So I apologize, I went over a little bit, but those are some thoughts, and remember, it's all about dessert. Thank you. Thanks. Thanks, Kurt. Come and sit over here. Well, thanks, Kurt. That was a special second dessert for all of us, or fourth, I guess, because I had three desserts before, and really validated our desire to have you here because, as advertised, you know, Kurt has this terrific breadth of experience and perspective on these Asian economic questions. I didn't mention in introducing him that, but he sort of hinted at it that he was, one of the times we've worked together was on APEC, and so there are two of us at least in the room. I know Scott likes APEC too, so there are at least three of us in the room who think APEC is important. And so just, but you're framing of this with goals and tools, and then implicitly something that you created in APEC, which was the notion of getting stuff done, which was the PG version of our motto for our APEC host year in 2011, get stuff done. He had t-shirts made, and it was fantastic. You know, in other words, you set the goal, you figure out the tools, and then you just go ahead and start doing stuff and get it done. That's the way to proceed. I thought it was a terrific way of framing this, and your focus on economic policy leadership is what we're really trying to assert in TPP, in addition to the economic benefits and the sort of what are often called broadly strategic objectives. I think this is the key. Economic policy leadership is what's at stake, really, in TPP in all these endeavors. So terrific framing presentation. Let me just ask you a question, then I'll open up to the floor. So some people give the U.S. a hard time because it doesn't match up its strategy in the region with the various developments going on in the region.  But not all of ASEAN is in APEC. I didn't say before, but for those who don't follow this, stuff closely, Cambodia, Laos, and Myanmar are not a part of APEC. And so we're sometimes the U.S. governments criticize for not somehow marrying up these issues, and specifically these institutional approaches, and specifically when it comes to TPP, you know, getting from TPP, which is an APEC initiative, even if you ultimately got everybody involved in TPP or a free trader of the Asia Pacific, you wouldn't have everybody in the region. Involved. I'm not even going to go to the point of India, but that's another question that's in the same spirit of trying to cover the entire Asia Pacific region. How do you answer that sort of, you know, it's a criticism that the U.S. engages sort of selectively in these different organizations, but doesn't have a coherent overall approach to the region in its economic strategy in the region? Thanks. That's a really good way to put what is often heartfelt and astute criticisms of the various approaches that have been taken. My response to that would be that the world is a messy place. There are opportunities that present themselves, and you seize upon them, and there are things that are doable and things that are not. And the important thing, particularly in the economic realm, and this is why I was putting that emphasis on goals, is to have a consistent vision and then grab opportunities as they come, whether it's only 12 of the 21 economies of APEC signing up to TPP in the first round, or the fact that APEC has proven to be a good organization, or the rapidly positive developing aspect of ASEAN as a group, take advantage of those opportunities as they come, and not let the tidy get in the way of the effective. And so we just have to do what we can, push forward, have long-term objectives, but at the same time, and this is a more direct answer to that criticism, be aware of what you're missing as you focus on the opportunities that are at hand, because there are other opportunities that are out there. Let me give, for example, another country that I recently visited, Cambodia. That's a happening place. They've got a lot going on there.  I'm not going to debate that in front of people, but they are doing interesting things, and they've got some ideas and they're pushing forward. They've also got some challenges in the form of corruption, infrastructure, some governance issues. Should we be doing more with them? Absolutely. So we need to think about walking and chewing gum at the same time, I guess is the best metaphor I can think of on the spur of the moment, but doing the strategic and important and focused and difficult high-energy exercises like TPP at the same time as not neglecting those pieces that were not capturing through those initiatives and effectively following up with those opportunities as well. So it's a lot of work. So if you want to give us more money, that's great. You make a good point. Okay. Well, I said at the beginning of my remarks earlier that it is messy, and you just have to kind of get over that and get comfortable with it and work with what you've got. The fact that we say almost identical things, just I know we look alike and everything, but we were not in fact separated at birth. Right. But okay, with that, let me open the floor. Yes, there's a gentleman back there. Please wait for the microphone and identify yourself. Yes, thank you. Rob Colorena, AIAC Investments. Regarding question regarding the infrastructure bank, the developing one, you had mentioned the ability for it to have co-financings with some of the current options there. Do you know whether the mandate exists towards co-investment, and then secondly, does it touch either sectors or countries that aren't available in some of the main options? I didn't quite catch the last part. Could you just say that again? Right, it just whether the mandate would touch either sectors or countries, something differentiating versus some of the current financing options that could be available. Right. Some of those questions you're going to need to ask of the AIIB as it emerges. My understanding is that it will be organized in a way that makes co-financing possible, and that's a common practice, especially in the infrastructure area, where of course everyone wants to diversify risk by having more supporters of major projects or even less major projects. But co-financing is a well-established practice. It's also useful and by nature provides a tool for sharing best practices across institutions in designing and implementing projects so that they're guaranteed to have the desired and positive impact. In terms of reach, again, you'll need to get an authoritative view from the AIIB as it comes out. My understanding is that the positioning of that institution will be somewhat to the commercial side of where the World Bank and the ADB generally operate, but to the public side of where commercial banks generally operate, which potentially could be a useful space, although it's a very complex space because it brings projects into the realm of co-financing from private capital as well, or projects which are actually supporting directly private sector activity, and then how much skin in the game does the private sector bring to such projects, etc. So it's going to be a complicated exercise to sort out the various roles and methodologies. And that'll be challenging, but I think it's doable, but it could create some new opportunities for how infrastructure in particular gets financed in the region. That said, again, going back to the basic theme of the importance of the private sector, if you think about the scope of any of these institutions, whether it's the ADB, the Asian Infrastructure Bank, the Road and Belt Initiative, all of these, the size of them actually pales in comparison to the demand. So the primary way that infrastructure is going to get developed in the Asia Pacific region in particular, but globally, is through self-generated resources of economies, through good fiscal practices, taxation practices, and transparent utilization of their resources, and greater tapping of private sector capital, through primarily through public-private partnerships and other ways of bringing the private sector into these developments. And those are also very complex and difficult. And if you ask people that do infrastructure around the region, they say that the main impediment is not the absence of cash. There's actually quite a lot of money that's available. It's the designing of projects that have a return on capital that gets people to want to spend that cash, and designing of good projects that have a guaranteed positive impact on populations and the environment and actually result in economic growth. So it's a complex exercise, and something that we all need to just keep working on. Again, more money is welcome, but it's not like you just write a check and everything happens in the region. Seriously, I promise we didn't compare notes before. Yes, something similar. Yes, ma'am. Didn't say it as well. Hi, my name is Ping. I'm from Epoch Times Newspaper. This one's a massive cyber attack hate federal government and 4 million employees information leaked. The Washington Post said China is actually behind this. Also, CBS confirmed the CCP is part of it. And this morning, Senator mentioned we need more cooperation to brought China's behavior up to the international standard. What's your thought? And do you think that would work? And is there any other ways to prevent this kind of cyber attack in the future? Thank you. So I don't have any news to make in terms of taking the role of law enforcement and explaining what we do or don't know. Frankly, I don't know anything more than you do. With respect to the breach at the Office of Personnel Management, I was comforted to know that the State Department operates on a different computer.  And could be anybody. The question about cyber security, however, is a very important one. And I think the best way to describe what we're engaged in with China as well as with other partners is a heartfelt and sincere conversation about the fact that everyone is threatened by cyber crime. Everyone is threatened by the potential for cyber terrorism. And in that context, we all need to, regardless of our approach towards freedom of information, where we have very, you know, some significant differences with China about questions related to whether the internet should be provided information in a freely available way to all citizens. Regardless of our views on that fact, and we should be very seriously trying to fight cyber crime and prevent cyber terrorism in a very concerted way. And that requires cooperation across borders, because by nature this is an international problem. Another corollary to this is really the importance of keeping in mind that even as we make concerted efforts to prevent cyber crime, the policies which are economic in nature and end up having negative economic effects on private enterprise should not be constitute an appropriate response to the threat of cyber crime or cyber terrorism. What I mean by that is that in designing ways to fight the bad guys, we shouldn't be telling the good guys that they have to keep their information in a specific location or follow or give up important private property to government and particularly a government which is not their own in support of those efforts. And so because there's no real justification for doing so as part of fighting the bad guys. So it's a complex exercise, a very good question. And we are, and you'll see this again through the strategic and economic dialogue conversation coming up later this month, engaged in a very sincere and heartfelt approach with China to try and improve how this is all done. All right, yes, sir. Thank you very much. My name is Dong Hui Yu, which is China's real news agency of Hong Kong. A follow up question on AIIB. It was reported yesterday that the AIIB has a linear structure so that the decision would be made easily and China will have a veto power. So my question is under this situation and condition, is the U.S. still willing or possible to join in the AIIB? Thank you. A lot of those details that you're describing, I think they're still under discussion among the countries and economies that are considering joining the bank. And so I don't have any particular information for you on exactly how the rules are going to be shaped. The rules matter, as I said earlier. It's important that the governance of the institution be transparent and reinforce high standards. So efficiency, and you mentioned the word lean, and Mr. Jean, the designer of the AIIB, has talked about lean, green, and mean as his vision for the institution. Lean, green, and clean. Oh, was it clean? Lean, green, and clean. Oh, I was thinking. No, no, no, clean means not corrupt. Green is environmental. I was thinking about that. Excuse me, I was talking about the Green Bay Packers. The, sorry, lean? Lean, green, and clean. Green, lean? Not corrupt. I can't even pronounce that now. Now that I'm embarrassed by my mistake. And that's an admirable vision. Everyone doesn't want to waste money. They want to protect the environment. And they don't want corruption in their institution. And that's something that is a good thing. How you achieve that is important. And so we're dialoguing with the AIIB and interested in the details as they emerge and will continue to be interested observers. And as for the question of whether the United States will join, and I've actually, at this very podium, addressed this question before, we're not now considering joining the AIIB. We've got a lot on our plate already. The United States is extraordinarily active in development finance, and the World Bank, the Inter-American Bank, the African Bank, the European Bank, Asian Development Bank, IMF, you know, just keep going. The, right now, that's not on our plate. Doesn't mean we're disinterested. It just means that what we're doing is talking to the AIIB as it is developing and to the countries that are participating in it to make sure that it reinforces, from our perspective, the positive development of the region. Okay, I'll take three final questions in a cluster. Three final questions, and then you can choose which ones to answer one there and then that gentleman. Okay, thank you. Ping Lu of China Times, Taiwan. We really enjoy the pie, and it packs a big pie or a pie of a variety. And, you know, for more than maybe four decades, U.S. and Japan were the most important trade partners of Taiwan, but now China is replacing or has replaced Taiwan. You have any worries? And I know you visited Taiwan not long ago, and so did a certain secretary, Rivkin. And what did you advise to Taiwan's high-rank officials, such as Taiwan should be more integrated with the U.S. and Taiwan instead with China? Thank you. Thank you. My name is Kunio Kikuchi, and I'm an independent, well, with Washington Research and Analysis. My question is about things that were not mentioned, mainly the country, European countries, and also Pacific countries sitting closest to Japan, namely Russia. Is it okay to ignore Russia so completely? I've sat here for four hours, and I haven't heard a word mentioned about that Pacific country. Thank you. Indirectly, we did talk about SCO and APEC, but you're right, we didn't talk about Russia. Yes, ma'am, last question. Hello, my name is Grace Rashomet, Grace Clegg, at the East West Center. My question concerns the demand side for integration. Clearly, the United States and Japan would greatly benefit with our regional supply chains to see that greater integration, the unified market, if you will. But what about the lesser-developed countries? Is there more interest in getting their domestic economic chaos in order to make it, if you will, before turning their attention to integration, or do they see that as an integrate now as a means to further development? Good question. Okay. Taiwan, Russia. Thank you. So briefly on Taiwan and Russia, and then the fascinating last question, which I think is quite profound. On Taiwan, I think our U.S. goals with respect to the Taiwan economy are very similar to our goals with other economies. We want to have a deep trading relationship. We want to have a strong investment relationship. And we want to be sharing ideas. We want to have, and we are. You talked about my boss, Charlie Rivkin's trip to Taiwan. He recently announced, I guess it was last week of the week before, a new Internet dialogue with Taiwan. He talked about improved conversations in other areas as well. And that is something that we want to continue to deepen in that aspect. And the advice that we are giving to Taiwan is again similar to advice to other economies in the region is to open the economy, diversify the economy, and increase integration with other economies as a way of promoting growth and improving outcomes for the people of Taiwan. And I think that that is something that we are, in American English, preaching to the choir, a vision that is shared by leadership there. The interesting additional aspect, of course, is the question of diversification of the Taiwan economy. As you rightly noted and appropriately so, the Taiwan economy and the Chinese economy are becoming increasingly interlinked. And that is a good thing. It's promoting growth on both sides of the straits, as well as other benefits outside the economic realm. And we don't oppose that by any means, but I think it is useful for the Taiwan economy to have strong ties to the United States and to other economies in the region. And that's something we want to help. And so we'll keep having that conversation. With respect to Russia, we could go on for hours, but let me, in this context of today's meeting, say that it's actually unfortunate that Russia's current approaches in a westward direction, I think, are obscuring the value that would accrue to Russia's economic development, as well as its broader future. If it were doubling down instead of on the issues that the leadership is currently focused on most, was instead thinking about economic development, about reaching out to Asia in a positive way, and about participating more in that positive project that is embodied in APEC and all the activity in the Asia Pacific region. And so frankly, it's a missed opportunity, is the best way to describe the situation, and the one that is missing it the most is Russia itself. With respect, you're going to have to remind me now. Demand side. Absolutely. You know, and TPP, of course, is the best example of this, where you have a communist country that's, I think, recently graduated to lower middle income status, but maybe, I apologize, I'm not sure exactly where Vietnam is, but it's on the low end of the income spectrum still. You've got Islamic nations. You've got economies of all different sizes and shapes and levels of development. You've got Peru, Chile. All of them have signed up to and bought off on a real vision of economic integration as being in their interest. So is it just then this handful of economies that feel that way? I would argue not. I mentioned Cambodia earlier, which is very interested in deepening its ties, both through its immediate neighbors as well as broader, more broadly. It's actually a very consistent theme around the world, as long as the developing country nations are in a political space and a security space that is sufficiently stable for them to think about their medium term and long term future, they almost always have an opening, market opening, free market economy emphasis in their policy as they think about the direction forward. The days of sort of state led economic growth being the primary vision for how to go forward, I think are fading, frankly. I may be drinking too much Kool-Aid, but I think it's true. If you look at the trade facilitation agreement that came together in the WTO, that was all of the nations of the WTO that signed up for that because they understood that having reduced barriers to trade across their borders was going to be in their benefit. And that's a pretty significant vote against protectionism on the part of the entire planet. So I think things are continuing to trend in the right direction. And that, again, to get back to that basic theme is primarily because people value the role of private enterprise in their economies. And we now have how many, quote, unquote, communist governments around the world that are very much valuing the role of private enterprise in how they grow. I think that's the way forward, and it's going to continue. Great. Again, great question and good answer. And I'm going to ask you to join me in thanking Kurt. But first, I forgot to say, again, another thing about him at the beginning, which is that he is a member of the Red Sox Nation, which means that he is used to disappointment. But then... So let me interrupt. The guy with the 0.61 ERE is pitching tonight. So let's see how it goes. Okay, we'll see how it goes. All right. So I couldn't resist the baseball theme at the end here. But please join me in thanking Kurt for a terrific presentation. Thanks. Thank you, sir. All right. Now, let me introduce Jettro President Yukota to come up and close us off here. Before I do, let me just say, on behalf of John Hamry, the CSA as Japan Chair, Mike Green, the CSA as Simon Chair, myself, and everybody else involved in organizing this conference, thank you to Jettro for partnering with us again. Thank you all for your attention and for really good questions. And we look forward to doing this again next year. Thank you so much. Thank you, everybody. On behalf of Jettro, I'd like to express my sincere appreciation for my colleagues of CSIS and distinguished speakers and participants everybody here today. About half a year ago, I visited here and I talked with Michael-san about today's seminar. And we have chosen, we have chosen today, maybe this is the best timing. And it is more than happy if we can send a positive message from this conference room to the Congress. In my closing, I'd like to talk about three of TPP. First of all, the negotiation of TPP is TPP. Tough pathway to proceed. However, secondly, if we can, I establish TPP. TPP is TPP. Totally productive platform for Asian-Pacific economic integration. And finally, in order to enhance the framework of TPP, U.S. and Japan should closely work TPP together with potential partners. Thank you very much.


This woman was so angry at her husband that she tied him to the bed and jabbed him a total of 193 times and left him there while she cleaned up the mess that she had made. The crime was so incredibly heinous that it earned her the nickname the Blue-eyed Butcher.  Well, according to Susan, he'd been abusing her for years. Susan claims that she'd been subjected to every type of abuse or neglect you could imagine, and she'd finally had enough. After the crime was over, she cleaned up her bedroom with a bucket of bleach, then buried her husband in the backyard. The only problem was, the couple had a tiny dog that was a very curious little guy. He eventually dug up his former owner and began, well, playing with him. That's when Susan realized the jig was up, and she finally confessed to the crime.  Subscribe and check out the full story on my channel.


So, good morning and welcome back to the in-pital lecture series on classics in total synthesis part 1 and the last lecture we talked about total synthesis of natural products. There we talked about total synthesis of isochromines by Michael P. Reng's group and Fritzer's group. Today we will continue our discussion on again total synthesis of isochromines. This synthesis is reported by Veresh Rabel. So Veresh Rabel had reported the total synthesis of both alpha and beta isochromines and he reported this in 1994. His total synthesis involved 3 or 4 key reactions. One pattern of the key reaction as you know pattern of the key reaction gives an oxytane it is form number ring and it is an intramolecular pattern of the key reaction to get oxytane as the key step. Second opening of the oxytane to get homo-allylic alcohol, highly regioselective opening of the oxytane to homo-allylic alcohol followed by a simple fragmentation reaction which converts the bridge system into fused system. So, these are 3 key reactions which Rabel has used in the total synthesis of isochromines. Let us see what he has done and from retrosynthetic point of view so these are alpha and beta isochromines both can be obtained from one common intermediate and this is enone and it is very simple the phi xo radical cyclization can be used successfully to construct the third 5 ombre ring. See there are 2 5 ombre rings and the third 5 ombre ring can be easily constructed by this phi xo radical cyclization. So, once it is done then simple vitic will give one isochromine and isomerization of the double bond to endo-olipine will give the other one. And of course the bromide can be easily obtained from the corresponding alcohol and the first key step is this fragmentation. Fragmentation of the bridge system to the fused ring is the first key reaction from retrosynthetic point of view. So, this is the bond which is broken during this fragmentation and this can be obtained from this oxytane using regioselective opening of the oxytane followed by oxidation of the secondary alcohol you get this beta gamma unsaturated enone. And this can be easily obtained from this bicyclic compound by another key reaction which is pattern of the key reaction pattern of the key reaction is nothing but photochemical reaction between an alkene and a carbonyl group. So, this is an intramolecular pattern of the key reaction and this can be obtained from cyclopentadiene and this enone followed by alkylation. So, in 2 steps one can get this interesting bicyclic compound starting from cyclopentadiene. So, before we start discussing the total synthesis of isochromines reported by Ravel as I said there are 3 key reactions and we will briefly discuss about these 3 key reactions.  Suppose if you start with benzophenone and isobutylene and the photochemical condition you get this 4 membered ring. And one can also do the same thing with an aldehyde basically it is a reaction between a carbonyl group and an alkene. So if you do the same thing with benzaldehyde and dihydrofuran you end up getting this bicyclic compound. And this was cleverly used in V-Rationables total synthesis. The second key reaction is the conversion of an ester into methyl ketone. So, this was reported by E.J. Coray where if you have an ester and then treat with this lithium dimethyl sulfoxide you take dimethyl sulfoxide and then generate anion here. This can add to your ester to form this beta keto sulfoxide. This upon reduction with aluminum amalgam that will give you a corresponding ketone. This can be easily cleaved under this condition, reducing condition. The third one which is very important from the point of view of synthesis of this isochromines is the opening of the oxidant ring. How this oxidants can be successfully open? So I will give one example which was reported by V-Rationable before we go to the total synthesis. If you do a Diels Hall reaction between cyclopentadiene and methyl vinyl ketone you get this endo product. Once you have this endo product then shine light to carry out the intramolecular pattern of the reaction to get this tetracyclic compound. This oxidant can be opened by strong base, it can be opened by strong base like LDA to get the corresponding alcohol. Once you have this alcohol then you can use any oxidizing condition. For example, sewn oxidation will give you the corresponding ketone. So now in 4 steps one could get successfully this tricyclic compound. Now what you need is you need to remove or break this bond to get a di-qnane skeleton. So that was successfully done with one of the 2 reagents. One either with lithium ammonia or with LIDBB. LIDBB is nothing but lithium di tertiary butyl biphenyl, lithium di tertiary butyl biphenyl. So basically both reagents give one electron. So one electron is added to this carbonyl group you get a radical anion. Then the radical opens up to give this required skeleton. So let us see how does it work. So once you have this enone and when you had this one electron as I said it forms this radical anion. So the radical anion is not stable so it has to open up. So if there are 2 ways a bond can break to give more stable compound or more stable intermediate you should know whether bond A breaks or bond B breaks because once you have that radical here so it can easily break. If bond A breaks you will get this enolate and an allylic radical and that should give you this enone. So you have a tykunine with the keto. So if you look at this automatically the double bond goes inside it is a more stable compound so you get internal alkene but this is not the product you get. What you get is based on the cleavage of bond B. If the bond B breaks okay now if you see this there is a conjugation that enolate or enol which is formed is conjugated. So that is why this is more favorable than this bond A breaking. So when the bond B breaks you get this dienol that tartarises to give this conjugated enol. So in one step you can convert this into bicyclic enol. This is the key step. There are three key steps, pattern of the key reaction and conversion of ester to ketone then opening of this. Now let us see how he achieved the synthesis of isocomics. So he started from cyclopentadiene and then did a Dielsall reaction with this dienophile methylchrotonate and you heat it you get this compound. Now the next step should be to remove the methoxy with methyl but before that you need to do alkylation at this carbon okay because you need a 3 carbon unit which should be attached here that 3 carbon is required for intramolecular radical circulation. So before you convert this methoxy into methyl what you should do is you should alkylate here because if you convert this methoxy into methyl then the alkylation can go to the methyl group. So that is why the alkylation should be done at this stage. So you take this ester then treat with LDA and then quench with this iodide. So this iodide is prepared in 3 steps from this propane 1, 3 diol okay. So you protect one of the alcohol as ma-meter then convert the other alcohol as mesolate and then treat with sodium iodide you get this iodic compound. Now you generate anion here and then quench with this iodide and it goes stereo selectively it goes to the exo position. So now what you can see here is the methyl group here and this side chain that is a 3 carbon unit they are cis to each other because this stereochemistry will be maintained when you do the next step okay. Next you have to convert this methoxy into methyl group as I said you can follow Cori's procedure so that reaction worked well to get the corresponding methyl ketone. So diol cell reaction is over you introduce the 3 carbon side chain and you also converted the methyl ester into methyl ketone which is required for intramolecular pattern of reaction. So the intramolecular pattern of reaction also worked very well to give the corresponding oxidant. So once you have the oxidant next you have to open the oxidant. So either you can use LDA or the strong base to get the corresponding Homo allylic alcohol. So this Homo allylic alcohol upon oxidation under one condition gave this enone and now upon treatment with LIDBB the reaction worked very well and opened the tricyclic compound to the bicyclic compound. So now you have already the diquinine okay. So what you need to do is you need to cyclize here that will give the third ring which is required. So that way you will achieve the synthesis of angular triquinine core structure then it is just the functionalization of the carbonyl group. So for that first you have to remove the mom group. So the mom group can be easily removed using lithium fluoroborate. So that will give the alcohol and this alcohol for the radical reaction you convert that alcohol into corresponding bromide by treating with NBS and triphenylposphine. So NBS and triphenylposphine gives you the corresponding primary bromide. So once you have the primary bromide then treat with tributyltrin hydride and AABN that will give you that radical here. So this will go and you form a radical that will attack here in a phi exofashion and give you the angular triquinine. So now once you have the angular triquinine simple vitic simple vitic will give you beta isochrome okay. So for the synthesis of alpha isochrome so basically one can isomerize this double bond but what he did he went back to the alcohol okay and converted that alcohol into iodine okay using triphenylposphine and iodine one can easily convert the primary alcohol into corresponding alkyl iodine. This on treatment with butyl lithium okay N butyl lithium you can exchange this lithium. Then that lithium undergoes a 1, 4 addition to this enone and once that happens it forms an enolate it forms a 5 umbered ring followed by enolate formation. That enolate is coincided with this reagent it is called commincy reagent that will give you the corresponding enol triplets. So once you have the enol triplet then you couple with Gilman reagent that is lithium dimethyl cuprate that will give you corresponding isocomium. So he used cleverly the Diels-Aubreaction, Patronubicke reaction and opening of the oxidane and also opening of the bridge system to fuse system to synthesize both alpha and beta isocomium. And his synthesis started with commercially available inexpensive cyclopentadiene and these are the key reactions which he used to synthesize both beta and alpha isocomium. Overall the total synthesis was done in 14 linear steps and the yield was close to 20 percent. Overall yield is really very good considering the triquinane complexity. Now since we are talking about this Patronubicke reaction and application of Patronubicke reaction in the total synthesis we will continue our discussion again reported by Viresh Ravel in the synthesis of another triquinane called sylphyperphol 1651. So this was isolated in 1980s by Bolman and if you look at this molecule this is also an angular triquinane and here yet again Viresh Ravel used the same sequence that is Patronubicke reaction opening of the oxidane and followed by opening of the bridge system he could successfully synthesize this compound but importantly he could achieve this in 5 steps. So that is significant improvement compared to what he had earlier reported for the total synthesis of isocomins. So let us see how he has done not only you know sylphyperpholines there are so many other natural products which are having almost similar structure with some minor modification in the functional groups here are some. His retro synthesis actually started with you know this oxidane as you know already we discussed how oxidane is the key intermediate in the synthesis of isocomins. So this precursor is this oxidane that oxidane can be redrawn like this.  So one can do and Patronubicke reaction to get this intermediate okay and this can be easily synthesized from Diels Alde reaction if you start with 2, 4 dimethyl cyclopentadiene and this cyclopendene having a carbonyl group as dienophile this Diels Alde reaction will straight away give this tricyclic compound. So he started this synthesis with 2, 4 dimethyl cyclopentadiene and cyclopendene having a carbonyl group for the Diels Alde reaction he used a European salt okay this 10 mole percent actually helped in getting exclusively the endoisomer okay. So now if you look at this he got how many chiral centers though it is a resemic synthesis now so 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 okay so all these chiral centers are fixed in one step that is Diels Alde reaction okay. So it is a relative stereochemistry but still you get only one relative isomer once you have that then you carry out the intramolecular photochemical 2 plus 2 cycloaddition that is Patronubic reaction to get this oxidant okay this also worked very well though you can see this slightly congested system but photochemical reactions are known to give sterically as well as you know ring strained compounds okay. So once you have that then using the LIDBB you could easily open the oxidant to get the allylic alcohol okay. How many steps 1, 2, 3 in 3 steps you could get the core structure of this natural product and what is left for the synthesis of a selfie perfol 1650 is just oxidation if you oxidize this that is a natural product. So simply it took this compound and oxidized with PDC you got the natural product. For the other compound other natural product one more natural product that is without the carbonyl group that is called selfie perfol 16 he needs to remove this carbonyl group. So he tried several conditions to remove this carbonyl group but all of them gave poor yield of the required compound plus complex mixture. So he has to go via a two step process first he acetylated the allylic alcohol to get the corresponding acetate then he treated that with lithium in 1, 2 diamino ethane. So that gave the other natural product which is selfie perfol 16 okay. If you look at the synthesis as I said both the natural products are made in 4 steps and 5 steps. The first one was made in 4 step and the second one was made in 5 steps. And this was reported by various novel group in 2000 and synthesis started from 2, 4 dimethyl cyclopentadiene as in the case of isochromines here also the key reactions are intramolecular patronomic reaction and the cleavage of oxytane and cleavage of the C-C bond using lithium diethase rebutyl biphenyl and more importantly if you look at the total synthesis it involved only 4 and 5 steps okay. So the first natural product it took only 4 steps and for the second natural product it took only 5 steps and the overall lead is extremely high 33 percent and 35 for synthesis of angular tricunin is extremely high one of the very efficient synthesis of angular tricunin reported by variation novel. So with this we have completed the total synthesis of 4 tricunin and we will continue our discussion on the synthesis of more angular tricunin followed by linear tricunin okay thank you.


Good morning to your daily news update from the Frankfurt office of CMC markets Stanley Fisher He's the number two behind Janet Yellen the vice president of the Federal Reserve has said that the Fed or the US economy is actually Right at or near at least the targets the Federal Reserve has set for inflation and employment and in his opinion he's actually very much for Proceeding with the normalization of of monetary policy in the United States and that will be actually the main topic Markets will be focusing on this week. It's the Jackson Hole Central Bank Symposium in the United States, which is going to Start and kick off on Thursday There will be a speech on Friday by Janet Yellen herself. She will have I guess new signals On how the forward guidance on monetary policy in the United States will be there is also Bank of Japan The the president there Kuroda who says that negative rates or at least the media sites him are saying that negative rates could go More into the negative in Japan. So many central bankers and also the Recently very quiet ECB and Mario Trage could send new signals on a Jackson Hole to the markets There has been in the past weeks and that is of note a lot of discussion going on in central bank circles about What to do next because they Realized that what they have done by now Hasn't had a real very positive effect It might have had that positive effect in the United States But it didn't have that very positive effect in Japan and didn't have that very positive effect in the euro zone So it might be that the ECB and Bank of Japan and other central banks Outside of the Federal Reserve are beginning to suggest to go to new ways and I don't know what those new ways will be But we might hear something from Jackson Hole this week. So Marcus will be focusing on that after Stanley Fisher and several Members of the Open Market Committee which decides on rates in the United States have said actually that they are very much for To proceed actually with a normalization of monetary policy. It might be interested to get signals if the September meeting of the Federal Reserve could be a Meeting where they hike rates again would be the second time after the 16th of December of 2015 Second rate hike or if they would only proceed after the US elections, which would come in December or would there be any date? I don't know it might be that at least there might be signals from tenor DL and that she thinks if data is going to come in as expected or better than expected then there could be some sort of Guideline that another rate hike is in the cards this year. So we are focusing on that actually primarily this week Besides that markets and equity markets are in some sort of consolidation after the rally in the past weeks Still at summertime still volumes are below the trend A lot of people are just on the beach and not trading that might change this week and next week So slowly Holiday season is coming off and so volumes are coming back and so pricing Will be getting more interesting again


One of the projects that I'm involved in is in my capacity as the incoming president of the International Union of Immunological Societies. So this is all immunology societies worldwide. We've got 60,000 members. And one of the projects that I want to oversee is a project that supports the training of immunologists from Africa and can be extended to other low and middle income countries. This project is important to me because Africa has a huge burden of disease and yet it's got very few scientists that can understand the biology of the pathogen and come up with interventions like vaccines, like new medicines. But within the society this presents a solution. We've got 60,000 members all over the world with laboratories who are doing themselves excellent science. And so the project aims to use this massive faculty to support the training of scientists from Africa. And this is called the FICE Legacy Project. We aim to train 1,000 African PhD level scientists over 10 years in immunology, in labs all around the world. With this project we're aiming to train scientists from each and every country in Africa. There's 54 countries right now listed in Africa and we want to train scientists from each of those countries. And in a way it's planting a seed because when those scientists, some of them are going to mature and they're going to grow like trees with lots of branches supporting additional scientists. We want to make the immunology community in Africa strong because I think that this is a sustainable way to deal with persistent problems, to deal with new threats like Ebola coming in, where the African scientists that will sequence and figure out what the strain is, figure out how they can block transmission, figure out all these sort of interventions that are needed. And I'm really convinced that the way for the future is to train the people that are affected by the disease. It's like teaching a man to fish rather than giving him fish. And that's the principle. To answer the question, what can Africans do for themselves? I think we're already doing a lot of stuff. I think there are a lot of capacity building initiatives in Africa. There are new centers of excellence where we try to concentrate researchers in one place so that you've got the critical mass of people spurring each other along with the science. And as individuals we're doing whatever we can. We're running courses. We're taking on new students. We're really trying to be aware of each other and to support one another because in the end Africa is waiting for us. We're the scientists. We should come up. That's our role to play. So I think there's already a lot going on. And what I like also about the present time is the internet. Before it would take me forever to find out that there was a scientist in Congo or there was a scientist in Senegal with whom I share interests. But now with all the social media platforms and with the exchange of information over the internet I think we're becoming much more cohesive and realizing that there's actually a good number of us trained. And part of the problem is that we just don't know each other. We don't know where we are and we're coming together. So I'm really quite optimistic. So we find each other through different platforms. Sometimes it's conferences that you meet in America, not in Africa. But for example we have the Federation of African Immunological Societies. So it's the African part of the big international society. And there we have countries, national societies within that. At the moment they're 17 out of 54 countries that have a national society. And so we're working every year to increase that number. And we have regional conferences, regional courses, just so that we can come together. And we're really keen also on connecting with the diaspora. There are a lot of scientists who've left Africa in the name of Braindrain. And they're working all over the world. And we just have no way of finding them and them finding us. So one of the things that the Federation of African Societies is doing is also reaching out. Because even people that are in the diaspora can be helpful to Africa whilst they're there. They can support students, they can support with resources, all sorts of things. So it's a movement that's just growing. So there are places where there's really good energy for research. And I come from one of them and that's the Chemri Welcome Trust Research Program, which is supported by Oxford University here. There's another center in Ghana, a West African center for cell biology and parasitology. There are other centers in Mali at the Malaria Research and Training Center. So there's really a number of initiatives. I've got a very good colleague in the University of Cape Town. So these are nodes, if you like, scattered through the continent. And my dream is that this will increase. And the role that I can play is to support the human capacity.  Perhaps, maybe I'll be lucky and I'll be that person. But from where I am right now, what I can contribute is the human capacity. And I think that human capacity is always a great place to start. Because once you've got people fired up, they can practically do anything. I feel that the world is changing. And when I think that people can soon go to the moon on holiday, I just think, well, how is it possible that with all the technology around me, we as a community have not been able to protect a child from getting malaria and have their life cut short. So I just feel there's enormous potential for us to make lives better. And I come from a humble background. I'm only here because my parents were able to protect me from disease. So I went to school. I was bright. I could progress. I could succeed. But for millions in Africa, they'll never get that chance because a mosquito that was infected bit them.  And then they're in a poverty cycle. And then they drop out. And then they get pregnant. And then, you know, it's such a waste. And we can do something about it. So that's what drives me. I think we need to give children in Africa a chance. So when I think of the diaspora, I actually found a new term in Germany that I like. And that's brain circulation. Rather than think about it as brain drain, I find it really much more fulfilling to think about it as brain circulation. And actually, I tell scientists in Africa, you can't do science by sitting in your village in the middle of nowhere. Science is an international affair. You need to get out and get the experience of just being everywhere where scientists are, that movement, that interaction, that spurs new ideas. So I'm not suggesting that scientists in the diaspora should jump on a plane and rush back to Africa. We can all contribute to Africa from wherever we are. Let's stay connected and contribute to Africa.


Good morning, everyone. Welcome to the World Economic Forum on the Middle East and North Africa. We are coming to you live from Dead Sea, Jordan, where we are here to talk about the Internet for All program in Jordan that we are launching today. My name is Eric White. I am the project lead for Internet for All at the World Economic Forum. The Internet for All project is about increasing multi-stakeholder collaboration to bring more Jordanians online and to advance the government of Jordan's digital transformation strategy. Through a structured program of meetings that bring together technology companies, civil society, industry, government, international organizations, and academia, Internet for All will identify impactful partnerships to accelerate new approaches for bringing people onto the Internet and into the Fourth Industrial Revolution. By employing a full-time project secretariat, the project will coordinate these partnerships to ensure that they achieve maximum impact. This will create millions of new Internet users in Jordan. We're very lucky to have a distinguished panel with us today to talk about the new initiative, so let me just take a moment to do introductions. To my immediate left, we have Hani Raad, General Manager for the Levant for Cisco. Then we have her Excellency, Minister Majd Schwecke, Minister of Information and Communications Technology, and Minister of Public Sector Development of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. To her left, we have Ahmed Alhanande, CEO of Zayn Jordan, and on the end we have Andrew Harper, Head of the Innovation Service at the UN High Commission for Refugees. So to begin the panel, I'd like to first turn to her Excellency Minister Schwecke and ask why the government of Jordan is interested in implementing Internet for All and what you expect the project to deliver for Jordan. Okay, good morning everyone. So happy to be here today to talk about this launch, the launch of Internet for All. We strongly believe that absence of connectivity is isolation in nowadays. We have maybe probably you have seen that Ministry of ICT and Ministry of Public Sector Development, and that's my new title, the Minister of Both Ministries, and the question was why. We strongly believe that Jordan should go through digitization transformational journey for its public administration, and it has many reasons. First, rule of law. Second, efficiency and effectiveness for the whole government. Third, enhancing the business enabling environment. And fourth, which is the most important to me, it's upgrading and enhancing citizen life. So Internet for All came just a spot on, and we really thank World Economic Forum for this initiative, and we were extremely excited because we strongly believe that Internet for All is the mean to having proper digitization and transformation journey in Jordan. We have identified areas of weaknesses, but we have identified the opportunities. We're, Alhamdulillah, in Jordan, the Internet penetration rate reached 80, 85%. The mobile penetration rate with a very resilient state of the art infrastructure for mobile operators, we have reached 150% penetration rate on mobile. So we know that we have the readiness from mindset, from infrastructure, from people who are keen and eager to use technology. In terms of infrastructure, we said by 2020, we will have the National Broadband Network, which is connecting Jordan from South to North. And having the real legislations, laws and legislations, pure proper human capital skills, so we said we are ready. We identified four areas to focus on. First of all, e-government adoption, e-government services adoption. And the reason for that, we have learned from our experience that there is this fear from using Internet for e-services. Well, we need to build confidence, and that's one of the main pillars for Internet for All. The second one is for women empowerment. I strongly believe that connectivity is a mean of empowering women. Having access to Internet, having access to what's happening in the world from educational point of view, from entrepreneurial point of view, it's key, and it's really influential. The third element, which is very close to our hearts as well, to me, it's the Arabic content. Once we have the e-services, we will have abundance of data, abundance of data. And we all know that big data is the new name of the game. So I strongly believe that 3% of Arabic content is not enough. Having the services online, we will have all this data, which should allow, again, entrepreneurs to have the opportunity to start new services, new products. And of course, Arabic content should be the mean of having more access and more enticing, but again, relevant content, not any content. Because we know that culturally speaking, people, they go to the Facebook and to social media platforms because of communicating in Arabic. No, we would like to have added value content in Arabic in order to build their capacities and to enrich their knowledge. The fourth element, which is a fact we're living, we have refugees, and it's our aim to include these refugees in our health sector, in our education sector, for the well-being of Jordan. So we have four areas of focus, a government adoption, empowerment of women, and women empowerment, third one, Arabic content, and the fourth one, refugees. Thank you. Thank you very much, Minister. So on the point of refugees, I'd like to now go down to the end of the panel and ask Andrew Harper from UNHCR. Why is UNHCR interested in being involved in internet for all, and why is it important for refugees to be connected to the internet in the first place? Thanks, Eric. And I'd like to say that's a perfect segue from Her Excellency to my intervention because often the strength of a society can be assessed by what services are being provided to the most vulnerable. And unfortunately in the modern day and age, refugees are a reality. And the fact that the government of Jordan recognizes that in the World Economic Forum have brought the private sector, the government, and the UN agency responsible for refugees together is a fantastic demonstration of a commitment that the internet for all actually means the internet for all. So if we can provide communications, digital services, including as Her Excellency mentioned, education, health, financial security, that encompasses the needs of the most vulnerable, then it makes it much easier to cover everyone else. I believe that if we're talking about a generational transformed to take account of the digital revolution, then that is not just going to be fixated on one particular group. It needs to be looking at the entire society. And something which Jordan has recognized for some time is it is better to empower people than restrict people. And we need to empower refugees so they can contribute for themselves, move away from a dependency approach so they can actually contribute to the societies which has generously provided them safe haven. So we see refugees as a means to also contribute to the well-being of the Middle East and North Africa. But we also need the support of the international community to provide the, let's say, the safe space in which this digital transformation can be supported in countries like Jordan and elsewhere. So we see the digital transformation connectivity as the key to the future. Thank you very much, Andrew. So then to my immediate left, Mr. Rod, Cisco is a major global corporation. Could you talk a bit about what activities Cisco has engaged in in Jordan in connecting the unconnected and your interests in participating in Internet for All? So for nearly two decades, so we've been in Jordan for over 20 years working closely for the local government with the Ministry of ICT, other local stakeholders to drive the Kingdom Digital Agenda in support of the development of a robust knowledge economy and ICT ecosystem across multiple fronts, from the ICT skills development, training, infrastructure, and channel development. And to us, digitization, I mean, I would believe that it enables countries to maintain global competitiveness. We talk about increased GDP. We foster innovation. I mean, all these things are really popping up as we engage in any initiative in Jordan or even in our day to day development of the business. And because of the technology landscape and its fast change, we need, there are requirements for more complex skills, for skills that for jobs, we don't know what they are in the future. So our partnership with the local government of Jordan and the introduction of the Network Academy about 18 years ago, actually the Network Academy started about 20 years ago. So for Jordan to have 18 years ago, that means we really have an early start into developing skills in Jordan with enrolled over 16,000 students. We enroll currently about almost 3,500 a year. 41% of them are female. So when we talk about women empowerment, you see it, you feel it. This is one of the highest in the globe in terms of women. Not only this, we've introduced entrepreneurship and IoT courses. We are looking at Arabization of some of the academy content with just. So all of them are in line with what you're talking about in order to really kind of accelerate the adoption and digitization and also improve some of the skills. So it's not like just we're looking at, okay, teach him IT or teach him, you know, computer and so on. So it's more, it's beyond. It's now we're moving about unleashing the innovation and the creativity of the students, equip them with different, you know, thought leadership approach with out of the box thinking. We ran together with the MOICT, some software development camps here over a couple of days recently, which was the first in the Middle East. So you see a lot of activity happening in Jordan that are leading within the region that we'd like to actually strengthen that partnership with the government of Jordan. And with the initiative of the Internet for All, this comes exactly in line with the acceleration that her excellency also has been pushing us to participate in. And but as previously mentioned, we need to work together to bring this connectivity together. It cannot be done alone. So without the public-private partnership, without the stakeholders coming, sitting around the table, thinking collectively, putting it proper milestones, looking at the various hurdles and trying to remove those obstacles as we move forward, we can't just rely on the government to do it on their own. Even the citizens have their role. They have to embrace technology. Otherwise, we will lose the edge of acceleration. So I also want to mention that Cisco is involved in a number of regional Internet for All projects. So this is not our first. So we've done one for the African Corridor, Northern Corridor. We're involved in Argentina, Buenos Aires, Internet for All. We want to replicate what we've learned there. We want to bring it to Jordan. And we want to not replicate it, but actually learn from what we've done there and come out with something that people will replicate what we will do here. So I think we want to make sure that we innovate. We take it even further and make Jordan our model. So we're very, very pleased to be part of this initiative. We look forward to work together on making it a success under your leadership as well. Thank you. Thank you very much, Mr. Rod. And then last but very certainly not least, Mr. Ahmed Al-Hanande is the CEO of Zayn Jordan. So as one of the leading telecommunications operators in Jordan, how do you see Internet for All contributing to the creation of a broader Internet user base in the country? And what is Zayn's interest in participation and contribution to the project? Thank you very much, Eric. I'm happy today that I'll be talking for the telecom industry in Jordan and on behalf of the telecom industry in Jordan, not only Zayn and why we as telecom operators would be interested to get involved in such initiative. To be honest, the industry has been investing heavily into growing the Internet infrastructure in Jordan. And it has been major and tremendous efforts from all operators to come up to the stage of reach, coverage as well as diversification of speed and capacity that is available in Jordan. And it has been always a main objective for us to reach every single corner of this country. Internet for All for us means not only the connectivity to the Internet, but it means what kind of Internet that we are trying to secure for All. Is it the educational Internet? Is it the health Internet? Is it the building capacity Internet? Is it the e-commerce Internet? I was hearing, I was in a session yesterday and it was said clearly that the major channels of spending for consumers are being disrupted, which means consumers are going to, the need is going to be unleashed very soon for consumers to be on the online world and do transactions on the online world because it's efficient, it's cost effective and it's faster than going and spend offline. Accordingly, the online world has to be ready for that. The base for it is the Internet. The main requirement of the infrastructure for the online world is the Internet. And as we talk about the digitization and the transformation where the Internet is going to be the main pillar for the transformation and digitization in Jordan, it becomes very, very clear for everybody that we'll have to be part of these efforts and we'll have to coordinate and cooperate with all the stakeholders and Internet for All gives us that chance to be part of a joint effort in Jordan and that will help us to direct our investments for the future. That will help us to be more responsive to the needs and requirements of the users of the Internet in each and every sector, in each and every geographical location in Jordan. And from there, I think, and plus our target to maximize the utilization of the Internet infrastructure in Jordan for the purpose of securing better revenue streams for an infrastructure that actually got a huge amount of money invested into building it and maturing it to the level where it is today. From there, we found this initiative as a great initiative for us to be involved in, for us to support, for us to play a major role into it in order to achieve the mutual interest and to secure the mutual or actually it secures a mutual interest for all stakeholders from the consumer part, corporate and private sector government as well as telecom operators. Thank you. Okay. Thank you very much. So with that, I'd like to open the floor to questions from the audience. So a couple of points on how we're going to do this. So when you ask a question, we've got a microphone in the back that will come to you so please raise your hand, state your name, your organization, and ask your question clearly and succinctly. Please questions, not comments, and also please keep your questions on topic. So we have several minutes, so the floor is open. Thank you. Hello to all. This is a very exciting initiative. I'm Janet Longmore with Digital Opportunity Trust and Dot, globally in Dot here in Jordan. We all know and we've heard from the past few days about the power of young people as early adopters of technology. And so I'd love to hear from the panel, as you know, Dot is engaged in partnering with you as well and we mobilize young people. But how do you really see and how can we look at ensuring that there is support for the role that young people can play in building digital literacy skills, reaching out to women, moving into more marginalized communities and driving that adoption and creativity in the use of the tools that are out there. Thank you. Let's take a couple of questions and then we'll answer all of them together. Okay. This is Vagah Jazeem from Jordan News Agency. My question to Mrs. Majdeshweka. What is the impact of this initiative on the society regarding creating jobs and also the competitiveness? Thank you. Okay. Can we have another question that we can take as well? In the back. Thank you very much. Because we don't have translation, so I'm just going to throw the floor to the minister and she can address them. I'll skip the youth because I'm sure it can be covered. I can speak about it but I'd rather focus on the two other questions. Impact on society and creating jobs. Maybe you have heard about Leach 2025 initiative, which is, of course, it is initiative by His Majesty and we worked heavily with all stakeholders on reaching digitization or digital economy for Jordan by 2025. When we did our analysis, we found that our competitive edge in Jordan is our human capital and we have a very resilient infrastructure. We have very enabling legislation. We have very, let's say, advanced and modern way of thinking. We have the political will. We said, let's take all these components and see how can we integrate the technology in every other sector. For example, in transportation, in health, in education, in clean tech, in fintech. When we looked at this study and we did our analysis, we found out that if we go this path, we definitely empower entrepreneurs. It will be a great opportunity for them to create new companies. I wouldn't say new jobs but creation of companies will be a result of this direction. Our estimate that if we go this path with the plan we have, which is infrastructure regulation, advanced programs and human capital, we will be able to have probably around 130 to 150,000 new jobs between now and 2025. That's why it's very important that we have the platform for that. The platform for that is internet for all. That's why we believe that this is spot on and it's one of the enablers when we speak about the digital transformation. I haven't talked about our plans but I will speak about our plans. May I speak in Arabic? Okay. The most important thing from the government's steps is to put forward the digital transformation plan, the economic transformation plan. The digital one. And this came to us in a study that we found out that, thank God, the Lord of the worlds is in Jordan. He is an expert in our speed with technology. When Ahmed talked about technology, there has been a huge investment and investment in the development of technology and information. And there has been an agreement on mobile. When we talk about a government, the world stopped saying a government. They started talking about smart government because in the course of time, the way the internet is connected to mobile or the way the computer is connected to it, you need access, you need internet access. This has been a part of our daily life. It has become a part of our daily life, the social, the economic, the political, the cultural, all of the stages. So, in this respect, we are talking about the digital justice that exists among all citizens. It is possible for the communities and I haven't talked much about the type of the cold and the digital transformation because these businesses are present. I am not saying that the country is not independent. There is no cold, there are unknown sites, there must be digital services. There must be a lot of them, because in fact, some skills are developed, the youth can do it, and the first time when we got here, they said, what do you benefit from the internet for all? Educate, empower, engage. Learn, place, engage, and share them to all, whether in terms of education, culture, social or health, so for us, the internet for all has become a responsibility for us, it has become a responsibility for us because the internet has become like electricity, like water. There is internet in every house of the most important institutions that we are looking at. Sorry Eric, I had to speak in Arabic. Thank you. Absolutely fine. We have a few more minutes. I'll just go, it's probably just not only youth, I think what we have to be looking at is providing a digital learning opportunity and engagement for everyone, and then give options, no matter who they are, because I think also just focusing on youth, people who have missed out on a learning experience due to no fault of their own, so I think it's the issue of making sure that the internet is all accessible for all and people have the digital literacy to also use it correctly as well. We understand the concerns in the region so it's more about empowering for the good while mitigating potential risks. To be honest on the youth part I would comment, I would agree and disagree with what he said. But the thing is I have to agree with you that the focus has to be on the youth. I'm happy to see youth attending the World Economic Forum this year and I was happy to see that they're looking to the future positively because of technology. Every single entrepreneur I met in the World Economic Forum this year see his future in technology. The thing is those are the selective groups that we brought into the World Economic Forum. We want the whole youth of Jordan to see a potential for themselves in technology. To be able to do that they have to be familiar with technology and they have to be experienced with technology and they have to see the opportunities that is there in the technology and the technology revolution is going to create a revolution in the job availability for the youth to grow up. Everybody knows that the older studies say more than 50% of the jobs that are available today are not going to be available tomorrow because of technology and there are new jobs that will be created. 60% of the kids in schools today are going to work in jobs that they don't exist actually today. So at the end of the day this is all driven by technology and I agree with you in the Arab world in specific where the youth represent the majority of the community where in 5 years from today we are going to need 10 times the jobs that we need today because of the number of people graduating every year from the school I see that there is a huge potential in technology being the answer to all the questions and the main solution to most of the challenges that youth are going to face in the very near future so I have to agree with you that we have to build the capacity of youth when it comes to technology, we have to secure that they understand that internet is not just a connectivity it's a platform full of opportunities where they can create their jobs online rather than go and try to find a job and search for a job offline. Thank you very much Unfortunately we are out of time so what I would like to do is thank the panelists for their excellent contributions Thank you in the media and in the audience for attending and this concludes the internet for all press conference Thank you