Saturday, January 09, 2016

ALF 4, Conference 2016 in Kuala Lumpur

Aside from the Economic Freedom Network (EFN) Asia annual conferences, the second biggest annual event for free market leaders, scholars and advocates in the region is the Asia Liberty Forum (ALF). Good opportunity to meet many like-minded people in the region plus friends from the US and Europe.


Main sponsors this year are the Institute for Democracy and Econ. Affairs (IDEAS) in Kuala Lumpur, Atlas Economic Research Foundation in Washington DC, and Center for Civil Society (CCS) in Delhi.

The 1st and 2nd ALF in 2013 and 2014 were held in Delhi, India. The 3rd ALF in 2015 was held in Kathmandu, Nepal. This is the 4th ALF2016 and first time it will be held in South East Asia.

Good lineup of speakers, including Parth J Shah and Baishali Bomjan of CCS, Wan Saiful Wan Jan and Tricia Yeoh of IDEAS, Razeen Sally of NUS, Singapore, Ali Salman of PRIME, Pakistan, Tom G. Palmer of Atlas, Eamonn Butler of Adam Smith Institute in UK, and Leon Louw of Free Market Foundation, S. Africa.

Also Rainer Heufers of the Center for Indonesian Policy Studies (CIPS), Andrew Shuen of Lion Rock Institute in HK, Arpita Nepal and Robin Sitoula of Samriddhi Prosperity Foundation in Kathmandu.

I suggested a panel discussion about labor migration in Asia.  CIPS is producing a long paper on labor migration, although the focus is on the experience of the Philippines and Indonesia, the panel can be broadened to other countries, include also a discussion on refugees in Europe. So 4 possible speakers, one each from CIPS-Indonesia, from China, India and Germany.

China and India are the biggest recipients of overseas remittances annually, they also have the biggest number of overseas workers and professionals worldwide. The speaker from Germany can talk about the impact of huge number of refugees on the labor market there and the rest of Europe.

Congrats to the three think tanks -- IDEAS, CCS and Atlas -- for this great initiative.
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