The 2017 Asia Think Tank Summit “Think Tanks, Public Policy and Governance” was held on 22-23 November 2017, in Singapore. The summit was jointly organized by the Asia Competitiveness Institute, the Lauder Institute, and the Asian Development Bank Institute. Deputy Director, Odonchimeg Ikhbayar representated the EPCRC during the event.

The summit was attended by think tanks and organisations from across Asia and around the world. Opening remarks were made by Mdm Halimah Yacob, the President of the Republic of Singapore, Fatouma Toure Ibrahima, the World Bank, Naoyuki Yoshino, the Dean of the ADBI and the Mckinsey Global Institute.

The summit had eight sessions including “Developing Human Capital” session which focused on how policymakers can promote human capital development in Asia, “How to promote SMEs in Asian Region” session which addressed possible solutions for the SMEs in the Asian region and “How to finance infrastructure investments in Asia” session which focused on more robust and sustainable financing strategy to fund infrastructure investments in the region.

The summit addressed that think tanks have become more important than ever before. Against a backdrop of rapid technological development and adoption in Asia, an increasingly competitive world economy, and ever increasing volumes of data, insights and analysis by credible organisations are increasingly sought-after. Think-tanks across Asia, including the EPCRC, are increasingly relied upon to assist policy makers make sense of the world around them.