The full name of this two-day international conference was “Governing the Asian Giants: The Search for Good Governance and Sustainable Development in China and India” and the vivid discussions went on from 29 to 30 March, 2010.
Scholars, government consultants, NGO practitioners and policy advocates from Hong Kong, India, Mainland China, Norway, Singapore and the United States engaged in two days of intensive debates to explore ways of achieving good governance, poverty reduction, sustainable development and transnational policy coordination in the region.
Over 40 papers were presented at the conference and the topics included the search for good governance in Asia, managing environment, urban development and ensuing policy responses, social development and poverty reduction in urban areas, international politics and environmental diplomacy in Asia, and issues concerning human rights, legal empowerment and extreme poverty. The event also officially launched the Journal of Asian Public Policy (Routledge).
The Indian Consul General, Mr. L.D. Ralte, together with Mr. Tommy Flakk representing the Royal Norwegian Embassy in Beijing, and Mr. Ji Jianju, Division Chief of Education Science and Technology Department at the Liaison Office of the Central People’s Government in the HKSAR, officiated at the opening of the conference. The University of Oslo was represented by Dan Banik, Bård A. Andreassen and Maren Aase.
- We are really excited by this opportunity of doing innovative and comparative research on rights, poverty and governance in India and China together with our Asian colleagues. Towards this end, we hope to organise similar events in both the countries in near future’, says Dr. Dan Banik from SUM.
The conference was co-organised by the Centre for Governance and Citizenship of HKIEd, the Centre for Development and the Environment of the University of Oslo, and the Contemporary China Strategic Research Theme and the Faculty of Social Sciences of the University of Hong Kong; with funding support from the Lee Hysan Foundation, Human Rights and Extreme Poverty Project, University of Oslo, the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (Norad) and Routledge.