ALF 9, Conference 2017 in Mumbai, India

The Asia Liberty Forum (ALF) is an annual 2-days conference jointly sponsored by the Atlas Network (US), Center for Civil Society (CCS, India) and the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom (FNF, Germany). Five ALF events so far from 2013-2017 and I have attended the last 3 -- 2015 in Kathmandu, Nepal; 2016 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; and 2017 in Mumbai, India.

Some photos of the ALF 2017 last week, February 10-11 held at The Leela Mumbai Hotel. Below, Baishali Bomjan, a superwoman at the CCS, formally opening the conference on Day 1.

 

Speed networking, a traditional Atlas conference activity where participants introduce to each other one on one for 2 minutes, then move to the next person in front. Notice the background, "Freedom" translated in various Asian languages.

About 250 people registered, some they come and go. About 200 max at any one time.

Among the tweets on Day 1 under the hashtag #AsiaLF17:

"Trade and exchange is not a zero sum game ... both sides can be better off"…

"When you have free markets & property rights, you open up lot of opportunities" - Linda Whetstone

"After the collapse of the Soviet Union, we were intoxicated, thinking that our ideas had won...

I am a free market fundamentalist, I am also a democratic fundamentalist....

Populist trends did not happen on their own, they have been rising over the last ten years.... 

There is a huge political convergence that has taken placeThe traditional left and right agree on one point- use the state." -- Barun Mitra

Why #property rights matter for #India's poor: Give them rights and they turn rocks into a garden. -- #liberal activist Ambrish Mehta

One more #liberal bonmot: "Government is like air, it is all around you in #India." -- Rajesh Jain @freeabillion 

"Technology equalises power of communication and lowers role of money ... there would be no Tea Party without Facebook... "Every human being is fundamentaly a #liberal at heart. #Freedom is built into our DNA." -- Matt Kibbe @mkibbe

"why do we still turn our backs to private schools despite data that these schools are preferred choice for many?" -- Brajesh Mehra

Our panel on Deregulation, 4pm of Day 1.

From left: Vivek, Syed Mizanur, Seetha, Alex, me.

"Incentives for politicians have to be changed; data doesn't support reelection for good eco stewardship" --  Vivek Dehejia

"Standardised containers did more to reduce trade costs than lowering trade tariffs…  Exits are important for Liberty because it disciplines firms." Alex Tabarrok

My 19-slides presentation, Electricity deregulation and re-regulations in Asia, Philippines in particular.

My article in BusinessWorld last February 15 about the ALF17, The public sector is the private sector of those in public offices. It is reposted at the EFN Asia website.

A good keynote speech during the farewell dinner, Day 2 of ALF given by Amit Varma, The landscape of freedom in India.

Thanks to Simon Lee for this photo, with Parth Shah, President of CCS. I met Parth for the 1st time in April 2004 during the Mackinac Leadership Conference in Michigan conducted by Lawrence Reed, Joe Lehman, other great Mackinac guys. Andrew Work, Ellen Sandig Cain, Manali Shah were also our batchmates in that great conference. Andrew is represented in this photo by Simon who was 1 of 3 co-founders of the The Lion Rock Institute in HK.

Below: standing are me and Barun Mitra. Seated are Mohit Satyanand and Julian Morris. In June 2005, the International Policy Network (IPN, UK) organized the Global Development Forum in London, a conference in support of more free trade, less aid. It was held 2 weeks before the G8 summit in Scotland where the main agenda was more foreign aid (or simply more govt to govt aid) to "make poverty history". IPN Exec Dir then was Julian, I and Mohit Satyanand were 2 of about 6 speakers.

Flashback 2014, EFN Asia Conference in HK. Parth, Andrew and me, batchmates in Mackinac Conference 2004. Barun joined us.

I am very thankful to EFN Asia for providing me the travel grant to attend ALF 2016 (KL) and ALF 2017. Thank you Pett, Siggi. My attendance of ALF 2015 (Kathmandu) was courtesy of Media 9/Business 360, thank you Charu; and partly by Samriddhi, thank you Robin.
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See also:

ALF 6, Panel discussion on property rights, February 23, 2016 

ALF 7, Panel on TPP, RCEP and other RTAs, March 18, 2016

ALF 8, Toast to Douglas North, March 19, 2016

EFN Asia 57, Conference 2014 in Hong Kong, part 2

Continuation of notes made by Karthik Chandra during Conference 2014. The full 25-pages notes are posted in http://efnasia.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/EFN-Asia-2014-Conference-Report.pdf

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Day 1, November 6, 2014

Opening Key Note Address: “Economic Growth and Income Inequality”

Dr. Razeen Sally

The National University of Singapore (NUS)

• As liberals, we always face this rather fundamental issue of why at all should we bother to address the issue of income inequality.

• Such inequality has two facets: inequality of outcomes (a “collectivist approach” of typical socialists, communists, or do-gooders) and the inequality of procedures/treatment (eg. rule of law, equality, etc.). We need to clearly distinguish between the two.

• There is also a need to go back to the basics (abstract approach) of Schumpeterian capitalism:

 * Capitalism is always dynamic. Schumpeter said that ‘capitalism is a perennial gale of creative destruction’. Enormous progress takes place due to this creative destruction. This is not just an economic cycle but the story of our civilization itself.

 * At the heart of this powerful engine of capitalism is the entrepreneur, who is not necessarily a rational, objective person. Several impulses and incentives guide him. This engine thrives on inequality.

• Capitalism and Asia & the Global Financial Crisis (GFC):

 * Originally, economic freedom and capitalism was primarily a European idea. Subsequently, it became an Atlantic idea. Later, Asia too has witnessed greater economic freedom and increase in prosperity.

 * However, after the GFC, we saw assaults on economic freedoms and increase in restrictions. Capitalism is currently under assault and therefore pessimism is back. GFC saw a shift in policies and approaches: now there is much greater state intervention in both macroeconomic policy (debt, interest rates, deficits, etc.) and microeconomic policies (in the form of governments intervening in the smaller

details of markets like car standards, energy, pollution, etc).

 * Note: we need to understand the contrasting takes of Schumpeter and Keynes on capitalism.

 * More importantly, what unites such macroeconomic and microeconomic anti-capitalist intervention is the ‘social engineering’ mindset among a small group of high-minded, smart people who think that they can intervene in the micro- and macro-economic and the institutions.

 * But such interventions are inevitably counterproductive and harmful because the assumption that these individuals are fully knowledgeable is incorrect because 100% of information is never at their fingertips (much of the real information is tacit and non-formal).

* Rarely are the individuals themselves disinterested in the outcomes. Such interventions (even if beneficial) are deeply offensive to the very concept of freedoms and individuals.

• Given the above, the classical liberal take on inequality runs somewhat like this:

 * Globalization has improved incomes but also has driven inequality upwards. Yes, there is currently greater income inequality.

 * New technologies (3D printing, automated data storage, management and analysis systems, etc.) are destroying jobs – not just the blue collar ones - but also middle class white collar jobs (accountants, analysts, etc.)

 * And, what about the solutions to inequality? The classic interventionists (typically, social democrats) talk about greater taxation, etc. to “fix this problem of greater inequality”

• However, we need to look at the issue of inequality from a different perspective:

 * Usually, when we talk about inequality, we usually talk about income inequality within a country and not between countries. While economic liberalization has increased inequality within a country (E.g.: China, city states like HK, Singapore, etc.) it has actually reduced global income inequality (see Surjit Bhalla’s article saying that global inequality is at its lowest since 1850) i.e. between countries.

 * Increase in consumption, arising from greater liberalization of economies, has depressed incomes in some areas/countries but has greatly reduced overall inequality both within a country and between countries.

 * Education (see S. Bhalla’s article/ppt) actually is a great improver of averages.

 * However, a major challenge is the lack of big innovation. Yes, innovation is taking place at a big level but in narrow sectors and benefitting a narrower group of people. The IT sector serves as a good example where companies are getting easy money from globalized markets, and are getting great profits, and therefore are not seeing incentives to invest in innovation in other sectors. For instance,

Apple spends more on lawyers than on innovation of new products. At the same time, even though some people say that innovation results in job destruction, in the long run, innovation actually creates new and better jobs.

• In summary, the current state of affairs, post GFC is as follows:

 * at a macroeconomic policy level:

 Greater state intervention

 Redistributive approach (taxes)

 Debt/deficit financing with the threat of inflation always hanging over the head

 Central banks interfering in fiscal policies

 * Similar state of affairs at a micro-economic policy level also.

 * But, such interventionist approach is wrong on a more fundamental, constitutional basis and is based on several false assumptions, etc.

• Therefore, the unfinished business and important pending items to be done to liberalize product and factor markets: Making systems inclusive. (See reformulation by Daren Acemoglu and team on inclusive vs. exclusive systems.) In exclusive systems, esp. in Asian countries, the political and economic freedoms are closely intertwined. One cannot happen without other. Even the city states of HK and Singapore are lacking in innovations. This is because their systems are still bureaucrat-dominated.

• Finally, there is good news and bad news:

 * Compared to the past century (1914 to 2014), we have a more prosperous world: we are enjoying greater incomes, better health and better lifestyle overall. While today’s interest groups are still a problem they certainly are not as big a problem as interventionists of World War I.

 * But in the short run, post GFC, the pendulum has swung in the wrong direction i.e. towards greater state intervention. However, we should have greater liberalism and lesser state interventions in both micro and macroeconomic policies.

Asian Liberty Forum 2015, Kathmandu

The 3rd Asia Liberty Forum will be held this week in Kathmandu, Nepal. It is mainly sponsored by the Center for Civil Society (CCS) India and the Asia Center for Entrepreneurship (ACE), and is co-sponsored with  Samriddhi, The Prosperity Foundation (Nepal), FNF South Asia, and the Atlas Network (US).

Here is the program.

Day 1, January 08

6:30 pm  Welcome Address & Keynote Address

Introduction (Video) by Baishali Bomjan, Asia Centre for Enterprise

Welcome by Suraj Vaidya, Chairman, Samriddhi Foundation, Nepal

Opening Address by Linda Whetstone, 

Chairman and CEO, 

Network for a Free Society, UK

Dinner

Day 2, January 09

Speed Networking

Hosted by Deependra Chamlagain, Samriddhi Foundation, Nepal

Liberty in 2014

Welcome by Robin Sitoula, 

Executive Director, 

Samriddhi Foundation, Nepal

Address by Dr Ronald Meinardus, 

Regional Director, 

Friedrich Naumann Foundation South Asia, India

Freedom Champions in Asia: Reasons for Hope

Chair: Peter Goettler, Atlas Network, USA

Speakers:

Nouh El-Harmouzi, Arab Center for Scientific Research, Morocco

Cong Minh Nguyen, DoiMoi.org, Vietnam

H'ala Shakshir, Palestinian Centre for Peace and Democracy

Asoka Obeyesekera, Verité Research, Sri Lanka

Ulil Absar Abdalla, Freedom Institute, Indonesia

Casey Lartigue, Freedom Factory, South Korea

Elevator Pitch by Think Tank Start Up Training Graduates

25 graduates from the Think Tank Start-up Training will each deliver a one minute pitch to the audience. The winner, decided by audience voting will receive USD 500 prize money.

Hosted by Cindy Cerquitella,
Program Manager,

Atlas Leadership Academy, USA

Concurrent Breakout Sessions

Fund Students, Not Schools: Education of Choice for all

Track A: Big Ideas

Chair: Gagan Thapa, Constituent Assembly, Nepal

Speakers:

James Tooley, Newcastle University, UK

Rohan Joshi, Centre for Civil Society, India

Wan Saiful Wan Jan, 

Chief Executive Officer,
Institute for Democracy & Economic Affairs, Malaysia

Madan Rai, Ashoka Fellow, Nepal

Ensuring a Policy Win: Strategies & tactics to engage with governments

Track B: Think Tank Leadership

Chair: Dr Ronald Meinardus, Regional Director, Friedrich Naumann Foundation South Asia

Speakers:

Md. Farhad Hossain, Information Commission of Bangladesh

Chakshu Roy, Parliamentary Research Services, India

Ali Salman, Policy Research Institute of Market Economy, Pakistan

Innovative products to replicate

Track C: Products & Tools

Chair: Judd Weiss, Weiss Investment, USA

Speakers:

Fred Fransen, Common Sense Economics, USA

Shefali Malhotra, 100 Laws Project, iJustice, India

Surath Giri, Onion Films, Nepal

Kelly Dhru, Lawtoons, Research Foundation for Governance in India

Concurrent Breakout Sessions

Free market environmentalism

Track A: Big Ideas

Chair: Dalibor Rohac, Cato Institute, USA

Speakers:

Anil Chitrakar, Samriddhi Foundation, Nepal

Barun Mitra, 

Founder and Director,

Liberty Institute, India

Rainer Heufers, Siap Solutions Inc, Singapore

Effective Board Management for greater outreach

Track B: Think Tank Leadership

Chair: Dan Grossman, 

Chairman of the Board, 

Atlas Network, USA

Speakers:

Linda Whetstone, Network for a Free Society, UK

Bridgett Wagner, 

Director of Coalition Relations, 

Heritage Foundation, USA

Luis Miranda, Centre for Civil Society, India

Measuring Institutional Performance

Track C: Products & Tools

Chair: Kriengsak Chareonwongsak, 

President, 

Institute of Future Studies for Development, Thailand

Speakers:

Lorenzo Montanari, 

Executive Director, 

Property Rights Alliance, USA

Sumita Kale, Indicus Analytics, India

Zilvinas Silenas, Lituanian Free Market Institute

Robert Alt, Buckeye Institute, USA

Remembering the lost heroes of Liberty

A tribute to the great champions of Liberty we’ve lost this past year and a toast to continuing their legacy.

Hosted by Rainer Heufers, 

Founder and Managing Director, 

Siap Solutions Inc, Singapore

Expressing ideas for a Free Society; a Creative Competition – Awards Ceremony

Hosted by Sarita Sapkota, Samriddhi Foundation, Nepal

Dinner

Day 3, January 10

The next big idea: Alternatives to current governments

Speaker: Randolph Hencken, The Seasteading Institute, USA

Concurrent Breakout Sessions

Open borders & Free trade: migration & trade policies in Asia

Track A: Big Ideas

Chair: Suraj Vaidya, SAARC, Nepal

Speakers:

Ken Schoolland, 

President, 

International Society for Individual Liberty, USA

Cris Lingle, Universidad Francisco Marroquin, Guatemala

Kriengsak Chareonwongsak, Institute of Future Studies for Development, Thailand

Raising money for Liberty: How, What & Whom

Track B: Think Tank Leadership

Chair: Daniel Green, Templeton Foundation, USA

Speakers:

Robin Sitoula, Samriddhi, Nepal

Peter Wong, 

Executive Director, 

Lion Rock Institute, Hong Kong

Gulmira Aidaralieva, Central Asian Free Market Institute, Kyrgyz Republic

Evidence-based policy

Track C: Products & Tools

Chair: Tom Palmer, 

Vice President for Intl. Programs, 

Atlas Network, USA

Speakers:

Baladevan Rangaraju, India Institute, India

Jamyang Tashi, QED, Bhutan

Nilanjan Chaudhuri, Centre for Civil Society, India

Celebrating 10 years of Jeevika Asia Livelihood Documentary Festival & Awards Ceremony for 2014

What started as nine film entrees for the festival today boasts of over 100 entries each year from all over the world. Following a 2-day screening in Delhi, the awards ceremony will be held during the conference with a  screening of the best films followed by a discussion on the theme.

Host: Samta Arora & Sadaf Hussain, Centre for Civil Society, India

Concurrent Breakout Sessions

Are Religion & Liberty Compatible?

Track A: Big Ideas

Chair: Charu Chadha, 

Editor, 

Media 9, Business 360, Nepal

Speakers:

Bican Sahin, Freedom Research Association, Turkey

Chin Huat-Wong, Penang Institute, Malaysia

Ruki Fernando, Human Rights Activist, Sri Lanka

Building & retaining a high performing team

Track B: Think Tank Leadership

Chair: Nupur Hasija, Friedrich Naumann Foundation South Asia

Speakers:

Ashutosh Tiwari, Sherpa Adventure Gear & Samriddhi Foundation, Nepal

Dhanuraj D, Centre for Public Policy Research, India

Hamad Siddiqui, Center for International Private Enterprise, Pakistan

Messaging for liberty

Track C: Products & Tools

Chair: Daniel Anthony, Atlas Network, USA

Baishali Bomjan, Centre for Civil Society, India

Wan Saiful Wan Jan, Institute for Democracy and Economic Affairs, Malaysia

Zero Hour with Freedom Champions

Mentors:

Ali Salman, Policy Research Institute of Market Economy,Pakistan

Bridgett Wagner, Heritage Foundation, USA

James Tooley, Newcastle University, UK

Ken Schoolland, International Society for Individual Liberty, USA

Linda Whetstone, Network for a Free Society, UK

Rainer Heufers, Siap Solutions Inc, Singapore

Robert Alt, Buckeye Institute, USA

Robin Sitoula, Samriddhi, Nepal

Tom G Palmer, Atlas Network, USA

Wan Saiful Wan Jan, Institute for Democracy & Economic Affairs, Malaysia

Zilvinas Silenas, Lituanian Free Market Institute

Freedom Dinner

Closing Address by Dr. Bholanath Chalise

Freedom Toast by Pinky Gurung, Blue Diamond Society, Nepal

Freedom Toast by Louis Lo, Shue Yan University, Hong Kong

Live performance by Kutumba!

Vote of Thanks by Arpita Nepal, 

Director of Research and Development,

Samriddhi Foundation, Nepal

Close out and announcement for ALF 2016 by Baishali Bomjan, Asia Centre for Enterprise

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See also:
EFN Asia 43: Day 1 of Conference 2014, November 06, 2014
EFN Asia 44: Day 2 of Conference 2014, November 10, 2014

2004, MG and LRI Were Born

The Lion Rock Institute (LRI) held its 10th year anniversary Dinner Gala last November 06, 2014, at Harbour Grand Hong Kong, the same venue for the EFN Asia Conference 2014. Among the most memorable photos for me that night is this. From left: Parth Shah, President of the Center for Civil Society (CCS) in India, Andrew Work, co-founder of LRI, HK, me, and Barun Mitra, founder and Director of Liberty Institute, India.

Parth, Andrew and me were batchmates at the "Mackinac Leadership Conference 2004", held in April 2004 at the Mackinac Center for Public Policy in Midlands, Michigan, USA. More than ten years have passed and we are still around  fighting for free market, free trade, limited government, rule of law, individual freedom and personal responsibility.

Minimal Government (MG) was only one month old and LRI was possibly two-three months old then. I and Ellen Cain of the Foundation for Economic Freedom (FEF), Andrew and a few others, were granted an International Fellowships by the Atlas Economic Research Foundation. So  it was my first exposure to the international free market movement. Thanks to Atlas and Priscilla Tacujan who recommended us to Atlas.

Our batch photo, 10 years and seven months ago at Mackinac Center. 

Mackinac President at that time was Larry Reed, VP was Joe Lehman. Around 2007, Larry became President of a bigger free market think tank in NY, the Foundation for Economic Education (FEE) and Joe became Mackinac President. At one of our evening events at Mackinac. The "Asians table" plus our batchmate from Italy (to my left) and Larry Reed, beside Parth.

After Mackinac, we went to Chicago to attend the Atlas Liberty Forum, April 2004. I shared a room in the hotel and my roommate then was Barun Mitra! Barun is perhaps the most veteran (and most prominent) among all Asian free marketers, having been in the movement for about three decades now. When I was still a socialist and a great fan of Marx, Engels, Lenin and Trotsky in the 80s, Barun was already spreading the ideas of Hayek, Mises, Ayn Rand, Friedman, among others.

These are portions of the Atlas Year in Review, Fall 2004. Page 14.

And on page 15.

After the event in Chicago, we went to Virginia, stayed at the Atlas staff house in Fairfax and we started meeting various market-oriented think tanks and research institutes in Washington DC, Arlington, etc. I came back after a month, May 2004.

In October 2004, the Economic Freedom Network (EFN) Asia conference was held in Hong Kong. LRI was part of the team who helped organized it of course. Out of the eight Asian participants who went to  Mackinac, six of us went to HK as well. From left: Cuoung, Joe Lehman, Ellen, Jargal, Parth and me. Andrew was there of course but we could not  find him as he was moving around when we assembled for this photo.

The group photo of the EFN 2004 conference. Taken from the Atlas 2004 report.

Thanks to Atlas, thanks to EFN and the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom (FNF), for their support to advocates and fighters for limited government and free market in Asia. 

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See also:

Liberty Notes from Larry Reed (1), February 01, 2012

EFN Asia 31. Friends in the Asian Free Market Movement, November 07, 2013

Lion Rock 16: 10th Anniversary of LRI, November 07, 2014

EFN Asia 10: Conference November 2012 in Hong Kong

The Economic Freedom Network (EFN) Asia has announced last week that the Annual Conference this year will be held in Hong Kong this coming November 5-8.

EFN Asia annual conferences are sponsored by the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Liberty (FNF). My first exposure to EFN conferences was in 2004, also held in Hong Kong. When we formed Minimal Government in early 2004 -- not yet as a think tank, more of a small political movement for liberty and free market -- I have not met any free marketer yet outside of the Philippines, nor did I have any idea that there were existing regional and international network for free market.

When the Atlas Economic Research Foundation gave me an international fellowship for one month in the US in April 2004, I was amazed at the wide network of free market-oriented think tanks and groups worldwide. But I met only a few Asian free market leaders there. Like Parth Shah of the Center for Civil Society in India, Barun Mitra of Liberty Institute also in India, Andrew Work of Lion Rock Institute in Hong Kong, Jargal Dambadarjaa from Mongolia, Cuong Nguyen from Vietnam, and Ellen Cain of the Foundation for Economic Freedom here in Manila.

When the EFN Asia conference was held in Hong Kong six months after that, sometime in October 2004, Atlas, upon the initiative of its Vice President for Institute Relations, Jo Kwong, partnered with FNF and Jo Kwong brought to the HK conference some free market think tank leaders who were not members of the EFN Asia yet, including me. So the HK conference was my first exposure to the Asian free market network. Thanks to Jo Kwong and the FNF.

At the HK conference, I was able to meet free market thinkers from China like Dr. Mao Yushi of Unirule Institute, guys from NERI, Chinese Academy for Social Sciences (CASS) and the Cathay Institute for Public Affairs (CIPA) like Xingyuan Feng. From Indonesia I met Dr. Chatib "Dede" Basri, also from India Mohit Satyanand, from Pakistan Dr. Khalil Ahmad,  and many others.

Below, some of our photos in the HK conference in 2004. Upper left photo, from left: Ellen Cain of FEF, Colleen Dyble and Jo Kwong of Atlas, me, (I forgot the guy's name beside me) and James Lawson, co-author of the annual Economic Freedom of the World (EFW) annual reports.

Second row, left photo: Jo Kwong, me, Joe Lehman of Mackinac Center in Michigan, USA and Ugnius Trumpa of Lithuanian Free Market Institute. Bottom photo: Cuong Nguyen, Joe Lehman, Ellen Cain, Jargal Dambadarjaa, Parth Shah, me. Joe was a speaker in behalf of then Mackinac President Larry Reed who could not come.

Last row, from left: Cuong Nguyen, Joe Lehman, Ellen Cain, Jargal Dambadarjaa, Parth Shah, me.


I have also met many FNF officials in HK for the first time, like Dr, Hubertus Von Welck, then FNF Regional Director for East and South East Asia, Rainer Adam then Project Director Indonesia, Rainer Heufers from FNF Malaysia, Ronald Meinardus from FNF Philippines, Siggi Herzog who later replaced Ronald in heading FNF Philippines. Hubertus later moved to Africa and Rainer Adam took his post, until now. Siggi was promoted to become the  FNF Regional Director for South Asia and Jules Maaten replaced Siggi in heading the dynamic and fun-filled Philippine office.

The theme of the HK conference then was something like "The Role of Asian Governments in Economic Development". The original plan, I learned later, was to hold the conference in Beijing and FNF would not be mentioned as the main sponsor, but Unirule, NERI, CIPA and Atlas. But the Chinese government showed a not-so-happy attitude in hosting such a possibly controversial conference. Sensing difficulties in securing a permit from the government, and the consequent difficulty in getting a visa for international participants, the organizers have to move the venue to Hong Kong, just a few months before the scheduled dates.

This year, the conference theme will be How Welfare Populism Destroys Prosperity-The Populist Challenge to Economic Freedom. This is a good theme, just look at Europe, the US and Japan now. Heavy welfarism, forced equality and forced collectivism policies are punching huge holes in the public finance position of these countries, also huge holes in the pockets and savings of many taxpayers in these economies.


The Lion Rock Institute (LRI) will be the co-host of FNF in organizing this conference. Big work for LRI Executive Director Peter Wong and other LRI guys like Simon Lee, Andew Work, Andrew Pac Man, Nicole. LRI was also formed in 2004 along with MG. 


FNF and EFN Asia are the only institutes that consistently hold an important annual conference among free market-oriented think tank leaders and individuals in Asia. They are playing an important role in asserting the liberal, individual liberty, more personal responsibility, rule of law, and private property rights philosophies in our continent.

For interested think tanks, research institutes, especially the independent ones and not government-owned think tanks, that advocate free enterprise, free trade, rule of law, private property rights, check http://efnasia.org.

* Update: this article is also posted in the EFN Asia website,
http://efnasia.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=345:efn-asia-conference-2012-in-hong-kong&catid=1:latest-news&Itemid=4
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See also:
EFN Asia 1: From HK to Phuket to KL, September 16, 2006
EFN Asia 2: Hayek in Asia, September 20, 2010
EFN Asia 3: Conference in Jakarta, October 06, 2010
EFN Asia 4: Migration and Freedom, Jakarta Conference, October 09, 2010

EFN Asia 5: MG Thinkers Now with EFN, October 19, 2010

EFN-Asia 6: Conference in Kuala Lumpur, Oct 10-12, October 09, 2011

EFN Asia 7: Conf, Dinner at German Ambassador, KL, October 11, 2011

EFN Asia 8: KL Conference, Day 1, October 12, 2011

EFN Asia 9: Panels on Education, Health, Transpo and Telecomm, October 14, 2011

EFN Asia 9: Panels on Education, Health, Transpo and Telecomm

On the afternoon session of Day 1 during the recent EFN Asia Conference this week, the topic was "Competition in Public Service Delivery".

This session was moderated by Wan Saiful Wan Jan, CEO of IDEAS-Malaysia. The speakers and their main messages were as follows:

1. Part Shah, Center for Civil Society-India, Education. Fund students, not schools. Education voucher system will enable students and their parents/guardians choose from many competing schools who can provide better quality education. Diversity and competition can respond to varying needs of students, encourage excellence, whereas centralized government education system offers uniformity and less competitive environment.

2. Dr. Steven Chow, FPMPA-Malaysia, Healthcare. Healthcare has two aspects, business and social. As business, HC is a commodity given to those who need it; as social, to comfort the sick, never to harm. There is high information asymmetry in healthcare, the HC provider knows better than the patient, so free market cannot be relied on. Government must come in to correct market failure. But there are advantages to competition, which is a good business model. Some aspects of HC can be done via competition, others not.

3. Saumura Tioulong, Sam Ramsay Party - Cambodia, Transport. Airline privatization and competition in Europe where she used to be based resulted in better services, planes arrived on time, less strikes. Cambodia to Malaysia, there are two choices, Air Asia or Malaysian Airline. But Cambodia to Vietnam is monopoly, high price. Free competition does not mean being wild, players have to adhere to rules and regulations. State-owned enterprises and monopolies in Cambodia were turned over to private monopolies, not good.

4. Shaifubahrim Mohd Saleh, PIKOM-Malaysia, Telecomm. 17 sectors to be liberalized by 2012 by the Malaysian government. More players to come in, more outsourcing, more competition. Cost of broadband still very high, up to 20x than other countries; local R&D on-going. Telecomm industry needs further liberalization.

I support Parth's advocacy for school choice. Personally I would like to see all schools should be private, government can provide voucher or fixed amount of money per student per year, at least in the elementary and secondary levels. Parents who want to bring their kids to more expensive schools will have to pay extra. Education is mainly parental/guardian responsibility, not government's.

Healthcare is another aspect where personal and parental responsibility is more paramount than government's. While it is true that there is high information asymmetry between patients and doctors/hospitals, patients and individuals are also the ones who manage their own body, not doctors or hospitals or government. People should realize that if they smoke a lot, or drink a lot, or eat a lot, there will be adverse result in their body whether in the short or long-term.

After the Q%A for this panel, there was a "World Cafe" where participants would move from one table to another, one table represents one topic or sector. Four tables to tackle four topics: education, healthcare, transportation and telecommunication, four sectors that are previously known to be bailiwick of "government provision."

Participants would discuss and answer for themselves, "Should government be the main service provider of _____ sector, or just referee of competition among players?" I was one of the eight table hosts (two hosts and two tables for each sector in order to reduce the participants/moderator ratio). I chose to moderate the discussion on healthcare.

There were four batches of participants then that will come to my table. In order to make my work simpler, I asked them at the onset, "Anyone here who thinks that government should be the main provider of healthcare?", then "Anyone here who thinks that government should totally step back in healthcare and just be a referee to competition among HC providers?"

The result was rather clear. None of the participants from the four batches said Yes to any of the two questions that I asked. Most if not all of them wanted a combined function for both government and market players in healthcare. In particular, they want competition to be left alone in urban and richer areas where they are plenty of healthcare providers and thus, people will have many choices. But they want the government to provide HC in rural and poor areas where private hospitals, clinics, physicians, other HC providers are either few or zero.

Another proposal was that for infectious and communicable diseases, government should be the main provider of HC, like giving people vaccines and flu shots, getting ride of mosquitoes in wide areas, also for diseases of children. But for non-infectious or non-communicable diseases, competition among HC providers should be encouraged.

Many of the participants shared that in their respective countries -- China, India, Malaysia, Thailand, etc. -- the poor usually go to government hospitals and health centers, but the lines are long and facilities are often not adequate.

Parth sat on my table and suggested that one option is for the government to give a conditional cash transfer (CCT) type of direct assistance to the poor: X amount as education voucher, Y amount as healthcare voucher, Z amount as transportation subsidy, and so on. Expanding the voucher system to other sectors and services.

We table hosts of the World Cafe then reported to the plenary the summary of the discussions in our tables. After the summary, many of us went to another room to finalize the Conference Resolution. We discussed and debated the draft paper for nearly two hours and we ended up with this brief but straightforward paper.
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RESOLUTION

Economic Freedom Network Conference 2011

Preamble

Competition is an essential engine for prosperity. To prosper, all nations should encourage and nurture competition. Competition encourages innovation and creativity.

It motivates producers to make the best offers to consumers, therefore creating lower prices, higher quality products and better services.

The Role of Government

The primary role of the government is to enforce the rule of law, provide impartial judiciary, protect property rights and individual freedom.

Competition is the best regulator; therefore, the government should foster competition rather than restrict it.

Competition in Public Service Delivery

The people will benefit more if the government does not monopolize the delivery of public services.

Competition can be introduced and fostered in the major public services such as education, healthcare, transport, communications, and utilities by diversifying the providers through various form of private participation.

Competition, Economic Freedom and Prosperity

Free market economy is necessary for progress. Empirical evidence shows that open economies are more prosperous.

Competition is a key element in a free market economy.
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See also:

EFN Asia 5: MG Thinkers Now with EFN, October 19, 2010

EFN-Asia 6: Conference in Kuala Lumpur, Oct 10-12, October 09, 2011

EFN Asia 7: Conf, Dinner at German Ambassador, KL, October 11, 2011

EFN Asia 8: KL Conference, Day 1, October 12, 2011