Event Details

• Date:  Wednesday, March 19
• Time: 10:00-11:00 am ET
• In-person: William & Mary Washington Center, 901 4th St. NW (D.C. Bar Building), Suite 700, Washington, D.C. 20001. Light refreshments will be served.
• Virtual: Details to attend the event as a webinar will be sent to registered attendees.

Program

The event will feature a group of international development finance experts for a panel discussion on "How Can Indo-Pacific Countries Bargain for Better Deals with Development Partners?"

• 10:00-10:30 — Welcome and Introductory Remarks
• 10:35-11:00 — Audience Q&A
• 11:00-11:30 — Wrap-up and Networking

Confirmed speakers include:

• Alice Albright (virtual) served as CEO of the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) from 2022 to 2025. Ms. Albright was previously the chief financial and investment officer for the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI), and executive vice president and chief operating officer (2009-2013) of the Export-Import Bank of the United States.
• Shehan Semasinghe served as Sri Lanka’s State Minister of Finance (2022-2024). He represented the country at international bodies including the IMF, World Bank Group, ADB. He was elected Vice-Chair of the 10th Asia Pacific Forum on Sustainable Development and has been a Sri Lanka Member of Parliament since 2010.
• Dr. Bradley C. Parks is executive director of AidData, an international development research lab at William & Mary, and an expert on Chinese development finance.
• Dr. Kai Kajitani (virtual) is an economics professor at Kobe University, and an expert on the Chinese economy and development economics.
• Felix Salmon (Moderator), chief financial correspondent for media outlet Axios. Since 2014 Salmon has also hosted the weekly 'Slate Money' podcast.

Background

The development finance landscape is shifting rapidly. There is a new administration in Washington D.C. Beijing is overhauling the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), its flagship global infrastructure program, to address debt repayment, project performance, and reputational problems. The G7 and the EU are pitching new global infrastructure initiatives—including the Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment (PGII), Global Gateway and the Blue Dot Network. In response, Indo-Pacific countries are “comparison shopping” for aid and credit and seeking more favorable contractual terms and conditions. To help make sense of it all, panelists will discuss how bilateral and multilateral agencies can more effectively respond to the needs and preferences of their overseas counterparts, and how leaders from the Indo-Pacific region can negotiate more favorable deals with foreign donors and creditors.