Webinar on Closing the Trade Finance Gaps

Ms. Cyn-Young Park is Director of the Regional Cooperation and Integration Division in the Economics Research and Regional Cooperation Department of the Asian Development Bank. She manages a team of economists to examine economic and policy issues related to regional cooperation and integration (RCI). During her career within ADB, she has been a main author and contributor to ADB’s major publications.

Prior to joining the ADB, she served as Economist at the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). She received her Ph.D. in Economics from Columbia University. She holds a bachelor degree in International Economics from Seoul National University.

Mr. Yann Duval is currently Chief of Trade Policy and Facilitation at ESCAP, the regional branch of the United Nations Secretariat for Asia and the Pacific.

Over the past 15 years, Mr. Duval has conducted research and delivered technical assistance and advisory services on trade policy and facilitation throughout Asia and the Pacific, including on the WTO Trade Facilitation Agreement. He spearheaded the development of the Asia-Pacific Research and Training Network on Trade (ARTNeT), as well as the creation of the ESCAP-World Bank Trade Cost Database and the UN Global Survey on Trade Facilitation and Paperless Trade Implementation. Mr. Duval was also instrumental in the development of the United Nations Network of Experts for Paperless Trade and Transport in Asia and the Pacific (UNNExT) and the negotiation of a new intergovernmental Framework Agreement on Facilitation of Cross-Border Paperless Trade in Asia and the Pacific, adopted as a UN treaty in 2016.

Prior to joining the UN, He held faculty positions at the Asian Institute of Technology and Washington State University, USA.

Ms. Sanchita Basu-Das is Economist at the Regional Cooperation and Integration Division of the Economic Research and Regional Cooperation Department of ADB. She contributes to the division’s flagship publications, knowledge products and analytical studies. Her core research interests include regional cooperation initiatives and issues related to them, such as trade, logistics, industrial corridors, tourism, digital economy, institutions and others. Sanchita has published in international journals including the Singapore Economic Review, Journal of World Trade and Asia Pacific Economic Literature, authored/ edited books and book chapters and wrote for media. Sanchita joined ADB in November 2018 and initially served as an Economist in the South Asia Regional Department.

Prior to joining the ADB, Sanchita was the Lead Researcher for Economic Affairs at the ASEAN Studies Centre of ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute, Singapore. She was concurrently a Fellow of the Regional Economic Studies Program, coordinator of Singapore APEC Studies Centre and a co-editor of Journal of Southeast Asian Economies (JSEAE), all housed under the same institute. Sanchita earned her PhD in International Political Economy from Nanyang Technology University, Singapore, and her Masters in Economics and Business Management from the University of Delhi and the National University of Singapore respectively.

Mr. Kijin Kim is Economist in the Economic Research and Regional Cooperation Department, Asian Development Bank. Since he joined the ADB in 2017, he has been working on trade, trade facilitation, and trade finance within the context of regional cooperation and integration (RCI). He contributed to ADB’s publications on these areas including the Asian Economic Integration Report, Trade Finance Gaps, Growth, and Jobs Survey, and Asia-Pacific Trade Facilitation Report.

Before joining the ADB, he was a research fellow of the Regional Economics Applications Laboratory at the University of Illinois since 2012. From 2004 to 2010, he worked as Economist at the Bank of Korea. He earned his PhD in economics from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2016, focusing on research within the fields of regional economics and applied econometrics, centered on the role of labor markets, the effects of heterogeneity in consumption spending and labor market participation on regional economies.

In 2021, Hannah Nguyen joined the Digital Standards Initiative with special focus on engaging industry participants, standards developing organizations, solution providers, governments and intergovernmental organizations to coordinate standardization efforts across the ecosystem.

In her previous role at one of the world's largest commodity logistics service provider, she led business development efforts for C. Steinweg Group in Asia Pacific, resulting in key expansion projects in Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam. Earlier in her career, Hannah provided market intelligence and advisory work to corporates interested in actionable advice on how to compete and grow in Asia. She also spent 2 years at Enterprise Singapore, working closely with global traders, brokers, exchanges, financial institutions and other intermediaries to drive the growth of commodities and derivatives sector in Singapore.

Mr. Steven Beck is the head of trade and supply chain finance at the Asian Development Bank (ADB). He has managed exponential growth of the bank’s trade finance business and implemented its first supply-chain finance business.

While at the ADB, Steven initiated a tool that maps the entire supply chain for COVID-related goods to address shortages. He initiated the Trade Finance Register of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), which compiles the only industry-wide statistics on trade-finance default and loss rates. These statistics underpinned changes to the Basel III regulations, freeing billions of dollars to support trade in emerging markets. He created the ADB led study that, for the first time, quantified trade finance market gaps and their impact on economic growth and jobs. Under Steven’s leadership, a gender audit was conducted of ADB partner commercial banks to develop specific recommendations to attract, retain, and promote more women in banking. Steven undertook several initiatives to make global trade and supply chains more robust through digitization, including establishing the Digital Standards Initiative in partnership with the Government of Singapore and the ICC. He began his career with roles as a special assistant to the Canadian minister for international trade and as a senior manager at the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC). He left CIBC to help start up a new multilateral development bank, the Black Sea Trade & Development Bank (BSTDB), which focused on economic development in Turkey, Russia, and countries of the former Soviet Union. Following BSTDB, he took up roles as a senior consultant, including work with the United States Agency for International Development in southern Africa.

Steven is on the governing board of the Digital Standards Initiative, International Chamber of Commerce. He is a member of the World Trade Organization (WTO) Working Group for Trade Finance. He has an M.A. from the Fletcher School at Tufts University, USA and a B.A. from Queen’s University, Canada.

The International Trade Centre (ITC) is the UN body responsible for international trade and sustainable enterprise development, with a particular focus on the internationalisation of SMEs, women and young entrepreneurs.

Ian Sayers is ITC’s Senior Adviser for Access to Financing and investment. ITC helps MSMEs to upgrade their skills and find the financing they need at a fair cost to accelerate sustainable business growth, value-addition and competitiveness in international trade. Ian can be contacted at: The International Trade Centre, Geneva E: [email protected]

ITC works with industry leaders, financing providers, business development services, policy-makers, MSMEs and communities of enterprises in more than 120 countries to open-up new markets, reduce operational risks, improve ESG performance, resilience, sustainable COVID recovery and the expansion of clean trade.

ITC provides a comprehensive package of information platforms, publications, technical and advisory assistance through its donor-funded projects and public goods at: www.intracen.org

Alexander R. Malaket is the President of OPUS Advisory Services International Inc., Canada, and Founder, Prism Global Partners LLP, UK as well as Partner, ESG Validation Ltd., UK. Mr. Malaket engages in advisory and consultancy activities in international trade, trade financing, trade-related international development and ESG/sustainability. Alexander is the author of “Financing Trade and International Supply Chains”, Taylor & Francis UK 2014. Malaket serves on several boards and advisory bodies, engages in advocacy through various multilateral institutions and advises several startups.

Ms. Chandnee Jha is a professional accountant and a fellow member of ACCA, UK. She also holds BSc (Hons) from Oxford Brookes University, UK.

Her career spans more than 21 years with initial years working in field of audit and accounting.  Her banking career started in 2005 with Laxmi Bank where she is still continuing.  She has led wide range of departments such as Internal Audit, Operation Risk and Trade Operations. For the last 7 plus years she is the Head of Trade & International Business at Laxmi Bank.