This panel discusses some of the most cutting-edge issues in the ongoing, global effort to promote the digital economic transformation. It explores some existential challenges and the prospect of cooperative actions going forward.
Speakers
Deborah Healey is a professor at UNSW Law and a co-director of China International Business and Economic Law (CIBEL) Centre, UNSW Law & Justice. She is also a member of the Centre for Law, Markets and Regulation. Her research and teaching focus on competition law and policy in Australia, China, Hong Kong and the ASEAN nations and she has written widely on them over a long period of time. She is a regular visitor to those jurisdictions to research and teach. Within the area of competition law, she is particularly interested in the role of government in the market, both in Australia and internationally; merger regulation; competition in banking and finance; and the digital economy. Deborah has undertaken substantial research in the development of the Anti-Monopoly Law of China against the background of its political economy and has written widely alone and with Chinese co-authors and in material translated into Chinese. She has consulted with, and completed research projects for, UNCTAD, OECD and ASEAN. She is a Non-Government Adviser to the International Competition Network and
Shailja Singh is a lawyer and trade policy advisor with close to 14 years of experience in international economic law. She is a Legal Consultant (Associate Professor) at the Centre for WTO Studies, a think tank established by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, India. She is part of the Government of India’s trade negotiation, policy and dispute teams. She has previously worked at the Advisory Centre on WTO Law, an intergovernmental organisation based in Geneva, on a secondment. She has law degrees from the W.B. National University of Juridical Sciences, Kolkata and the University of Cambridge, UK.
Monika is working as Legal Consultant at the Centre for WTO Studies, a think tank established by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, India. She provides legal and policy advice in wide range of international economic law issues, such as digital trade and non-tariff barriers. She has law degree from National Law University, Jodhpur and European Master in Law & Economics Degree with specialization in Economic Analysis of Markets, Corporations and Regulators.
Heng Wang is a Professor of Law at Yong Pung How School of Law at Singapore Management University (SMU). He is an adjunct professor and CIBEL fellow at UNSW Law & Justice.
Heng is a recipient of major grants and awards. Heng has advised or spoken at events organized by international organizations and institutions (e.g., APEC, Bank for International Settlements, Hague Conference on Private International Law, International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes, International Chamber of Commerce, IMF, United Nations Commission on International Trade Law, World Bank, World Trade Organization), and the private sector.
His current research focuses on the governance of digitalization and sustainable development, as well as the future of international economic relationships
Marta Soprana is a Fellow in International Political Economy at LSE, where she teaches courses on the political economy of trade. She has extensive experience working with international organisations – including FAO, ITC, UNCTAD, UNESCAP, World Bank and WTO – and national governments on trade policy-related projects. Her research interests include digital trade, trade in services, law and technology, with a focus on the relationship between AI governance and international economic law.
She holds a PhD cum laude from Bocconi University, a Master in International law and Economics (MILE) summa cum laude from the World Trade Institute (WTI) in Bern, and a MA in International Relations from the University of Bologna.
Chair
Anton Didenko is a Senior Lecturer at the Faculty of Law & Justice in the University of New South Wales (UNSW Sydney, Australia). He specialises in banking and finance law (with a focus on the regulation of FinTech and cyber security) and has published widely on the legal aspects of central bank digital currencies, regulatory sandboxes, decentralised finance and open banking.
Prior to joining UNSW Sydney, Anton worked as a practising lawyer in various roles, including as head of legal support of international operations in major commercial banks. More recently, he helped AFI develop the world’s first regional regulatory sandbox and was the lead author of an ADB report on central bank digital currencies as a response to the financial inclusion challenges in the Pacific region.
Anton is a leading expert in transnational commercial law: he is the author of a monograph on the documentary history of the Cape Town Convention on International Interests in Mobile Equipment (Hart, 2021) and the general editor of the Cape Town Convention Journal.
Anton holds multiple law degrees from several countries, including an MJur and a DPhil from the University of Oxford.
About CIBEL Global Network Conference 2023
Reshaping the Global Economic Governance: Opportunities and Challenges for the Asia-Pacific Region
Global economic governance typically refers to the institutional, policy and regulatory framework established by governments to facilitate and manage their interaction and engagement in global economic activities. As the world emerges from the COVID-19 pandemic, there is a pressing need for governments to closely examine not only their own economic systems but also the global economic governance in light of the many new contexts. Numerous challenges lie ahead, including: the further rise of economic nationalism and protectionism, the persistent geopolitical confrontation between the world’s superpowers, the ever-greater fragmentation of the international legal order, the lack of progress in reforming key international institutions particularly the World Trade Organization (WTO), and difficulties and uncertainties in the pursuit of the shared goals of sustainability, inclusiveness and digitalisation. To address these challenges, international cooperation and communication is critical, with much of the collective effort increasingly focused on the Asia-Pacific region. Some recent and telling examples include the conclusion of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (RCEP), the US-led negotiations of the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF), pioneering plurilateral and bilateral arrangements in the region such as the Digital Economy Partnership Agreement between New Zealand, Chile and Singapore and the Digital and Green Economy Agreements between Australia and Singapore, and the potential expansion of the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) in the region and beyond. Understanding these and other significant developments, exploring potential opportunities and challenges, and strategically and actively engaging with the Asia-Pacific region, are thus of critical importance for reshaping global economic governance for the benefit of all stakeholders.
The 2023 CIBEL Global Network Conference & Young Scholars Workshop seek to promote academic and policy debate over the major opportunities for and challenges faced by governments in reshaping their own economic systems, as well as that of the global economic governance collectively, focusing on the role and impact of the Asia-Pacific.
Panel 4: Regulatory Challenges and Cooperative Opportunities in the Digital Transformation
This panel discusses some of the most cutting-edge issues in the ongoing, global effort to promote the digital economic transformation. It explores some existential challenges and the prospect of cooperative actions going forward.