Episode 40
From booming GDP growth and low interest rates to raging inflation and a shrinking economy, most of us have a sense of how the macroeconomic ups and downs can affect our lives. But have you ever considered what it takes to keep an economy healthy?
Our guest certainly has. Ramkishen S. Rajan is Yong Pung How Professor at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy. He has been a Visiting Fellow at various regional research institutes, including the Asia Competitiveness Institute, the Institute of Policy Studies as well as the Asian Development Bank Institute.
Episode 39
The last time we spoke to Leong Ching, Vice Provost for Student Life, NUS, and Associate Professor at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, we discussed the "yuck factor" which describes people's visceral aversion to drinking recycled water. Today, we'll be expanding on that topic to look at the rationale behind irrational environmental behaviour in general.
As an institutional economist, Professor Leong uses narratives, perceptions and stories to understand collective public behaviour as well as environmental identities.
Episode 38
Urban environments, from infrastructure to green spaces, play a crucial role in shaping lifestyle choices, social dynamics, and overall quality of health. This intricate relationship between urban spaces and health underscores the need for comprehensive strategies that address the challenges posed by modern city living while fostering conditions that promote healthier, happier communities.
Tan Shin Bin is an Assistant Professor at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy (LKYSPP). She previously worked as an urban planner at Singapore’s Urban Redevelopment Authority, the government body tasked with guiding the physical development of Singapore in a sustainable manner.
She joins us to discuss how urban environments impact health, as well as the opportunities and challenges faced when developing policies to promote healthier lifestyles within urban spaces.
Episode 37
Dr Marina Kaneti is an Assistant Professor at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy. Her area of research centres on global governance and questions of migration, climate and geopolitical developments.
She has explored the influence of China around the world, including the Belt and Road initiative. Recently, she produced a two-part documentary series titled “The Seas That Bind Us and Define Us”, exploring maritime heritage and its significance in Asia.
She joins us to talk about maritime heritage, exploring the shaping and impact of narratives, and implications for the present and beyond.
Episode 36
In an increasingly interconnected world, the advent of mobile banking has ushered in a transformative era. Access to mobile banking can have a profound impact on people in developing economies. The impact of mobile banking extends beyond individual lives – it ripples through entire communities, affecting aspects such as migration and inequality.
Dr Saravana Ravindran, Assistant Professor at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, studies challenges and potential policy solutions relating to migration, including mobile banking and digital financial services. He has conducted research into whether mobile technology can reduce inequality by modernising traditional ways to transfer money. He joins us to explore the socio-economic impact of mobile banking on communities.
Episode 35
ASEAN aims to create a highly integrated regional economy by 2025. Known as the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC), the initiative faces obstacles that may hinder the achieving of its goal. To understand the challenges and opportunities, we speak to Dr Denis Hew, Senior Research Fellow at the Centre on Asia and Globalisation, Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy.
Episode 34
Singapore is world-renowned for its urban planning. While it is enjoying the success of the good planning of the past, it finds itself in the middle of an important shift to be prepared for the environment of the future. To understand the challenges and opportunities, we speak with
Dr Woo Jun Jie. Dr Woo is a Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of Policy Studies, Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, where he heads the Governance and Economy department. His work focuses on urban policy, economic development, and crisis management in Asia.
Episode 33
Visiting Professor Emmanuel Skoufias served as a Lead Economist in the Poverty and Equity Global Practice of the World Bank Group, from 2004 until his retirement in 2022.
His area of expertise includes the use of microdata to analyse the determinants of poverty and household welfare, the impacts of risk and risk management strategies, and the targeting of social protection programs.
He joined us for a deep dive into how microdata informs policy planning and decisions.
Episode 32
What are the most effective methods of protecting, and hopefully restoring, the planet's biodiversity?
This is a key question underlying the work of
Tanya O'Garra, Senior Research Fellow at the Institute for Environment and Sustainability, Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy. Tanya is an environmental economist with over 15 years’ experience conducting research on the valuation of ecosystem services and the collective management of shared natural resources. She has recently published a study on the effectiveness of community-based approaches to conservation and natural resource management.
Episode 31
Benjamin Cashore is Li Ka Shing Professor in Public Management and Director of the Institute for Environment and Sustainability (IES) at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy.
He specialises in global and multi-level environmental governance, comparative public policy and administration, and transnational business regulation and corporate social responsibility.
In his role as the Director of IES, he focuses on helping governments and private sectors close the gap between policy commitments and actual outcomes through "fit-for-purpose" policy analysis. He joins us to help explain just how that works in the real world.
Episode 30
Dr Ng Kok Hoe is a Senior Research Fellow and Head of the Social Inclusion Project and Case Study Unit at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, National University of Singapore (NUS). His research interests are public housing policy, homelessness, income security and minimum income standards.
In August this year, Dr Ng Kok Hoe from the Social Inclusion Project at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy published findings from a nationwide count of the number of homeless people sleeping on the streets and in temporary homeless shelters during the COVID-19 pandemic. This is the second nationwide street count of homelessness in Singapore. The first, conducted by the same researcher, was in 2019.
In this podcast, we will discuss with Dr Ng on how the research came about, what we have learnt and what we need to do next.
Episode 29
Selina Ho is Assistant Professor in International Affairs and Co-Director of the Centre on Asia and Globalisation at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy. She is an expert on Chinese politics and foreign policy. She is especially interested in how China wields power and influence via infrastructure and water disputes in Southeast Asia and South Asia. She is co-author of Rivers of Iron: Railroads and Chinese Power in Southeast Asia.
She joins us to discuss China's domestic politics and foreign policy, as China approaches key meetings, the 20th Party Congress, the National People's Congress and the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Congress.
Episode 28
Terence Ho is an Associate Professor in Practice at Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy. Over the past decade, Professor Ho has held various policy research and leadership positions in the Singapore public service, including as an economist in the Ministry of Trade and Industry and Divisional Director of Manpower Planning and Policy at the Ministry of Manpower.
A frequent commentator for publications such as the Straits Times and Channel News Asia, Professor Ho specialises in economic and manpower policy, fiscal policy, public sector management, and organisation, social security, inequality, and social mobility. He joins us to discuss Singapore's economy in this time of volatility and uncertainty.
Episode 27
Vinod Thomas is Visiting Professor at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy. Previously he served as Director General of Independent Evaluation at Asian Development Bank, where he worked to institute change. In his role, he assessed ADB’s development effectiveness while providing lessons to help inform ADB’s actions. This was instrumental in making green growth and action on climate change more integral to ADB’s strategy. This is just one example of Professor Thomas' deep understanding of issues affecting climate change and the environment. So he's in a perfect position to help us answer this question “Renewable Energy – how real is this for Asia?”
Episode 26
Francesco Mancini, Vice Dean (Executive Education) and Associate Professor in Practice at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy has an extensive background in the prevention and settlement of armed conflict. He was a senior director at the International Peace Institute in New York, a think tank that works very closely with the United Nations and its member states. He has been working in and around conflict, peacekeeping, conflict resolution and negotiation for close to 20 years. In that light, we've asked him to share his views on the current military conflict in Ukraine.
Episode 25
“What is public policy?” It has often been broadly defined as a set of actions the government decides to take when approaching a problem that affects society as a group. When Global-is-Asian decided to explore the question of public policy and its impact on Singapore, one faculty member stood out as the perfect person to speak with to get their input: Lim Siong Guan is Professor in Practice at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, instructing on leadership and change management, and his depth of experience is impressive.
Episode 24
Dr. Marina Kaneti specialises in questions of global development, including the Chinese Belt and Road initiative, environmental governance, human rights, the sustainable development goals and for the purpose of this discussion – migration. I started by asking her what made her interested in migration in the first place.
Episode 23
Episode 22
Assistant Professor Taha Hameduddin at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy says, "if you want to sell a talk or a speaker or a class, you have to put the word leadership in it". But the fact is, leadership matters.
Episode 21
“It’s time for ASEAN to act and lead the de-escalation and mediation process in Myanmar.” That’s the main message of a paper published by The Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, co-authored by our guest, Yongwook Ryu, Assistant Professor at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, together with Bernard Minn and Myat Myat Mon, who are both Master in Public Policy candidates at LKYSPP.
Episode 20
In the 21st century, terrorism continues to be a phenomenon that plagues countries all around the world. In this Foreseeable Podcast, Professor Francesco Mancini gives us insights on terrorism and how it could change in the future.
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Episode 19
There was a lot of media attention when a Pew Research Center study came out in late 2020 saying that 61 percent of citizens in 14 major economies hold unfavourable views of China.
But what about public opinion inside China? How did Chinese citizens view these same 14 countries? That’s exactly what our guests found out. Their survey revealed that the negative feelings are largely mutual, particularly Chinese views of the US, which 77 percent responded was “very unfavourable" or "somewhat unfavourable".
Episode 18
After a tense and controversial election period, Joe Biden is now set to become the next president of the United States. We asked Assistant Professor Yongwook Ryu to give us his perspective on the past four years under the Trump administration, as well as on what the Biden administration has in store for China and the rest of Asia.
Episode 17
Episode 16
Episode 15
Razeen Sally is Associate Professor at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy and Chairman of the Institute of Policy Studies, the main economic-policy think tank in his native Sri Lanka. His research and teaching focuses on global trade policy and Asia in the world economy. He has also written on the history of economic ideas, especially the theory of commercial policy.
Episode 14
James Crabtree sheds light on his latest book, "The Billionaire Raj: A Journey Through India's New Gilded Age" with an in-depth look at the “…billionaire class in a radically unequal society” where the country’s top 1% now own nearly 60% of its wealth.
Episode 13
Episode 12
Global-is-Asian caught up with
Assistant Professor Anubhav Gupta at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy. With a research focus on governance issues surrounding the non-profit sector, he was able to add an interesting perspective to the conversation of governments and their response to COVID-19.
Episode 11
Following the second episode of the Asia Thinker Series Talkback - After the Pandemic "A Test of Resilience: Workplace Innovation and Strategies", Global-is-Asian caught up with
Assistant Professor Taha Hameduddin to find out how workplaces have changed since the COVID-19 pandemic hit.
Episode 10
Episode 9
China recently passed a national security law that could completely change Hong Kong's relationship with the mainland, yet how it will be implemented remains to be seen.
The dynamic between Beijing and Hong Kong is what
Associate Professor Alfred Wu at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy would call a "centre periphery" relationship.
Episode 8
2.1 children per woman is the approximate replacement level fertility for a given population. These days, most advanced economies have total fertility rates lower than that. And some of the lowest fertility rates can be observed in Asia.
Assistant Professor Tan Poh Lin from the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy has called this a crisis " of national importance."
Episode 7
“Homelessness exists in Singapore.” That’s the first thing that Senior Research Fellow at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy
Dr Ng Kok Hoe told me when we had a chance to discuss the topic. And it’s true. They are just less visible. (This conversation was recorded on 15 October 2019.)
Episode 6
Recycled drinking water is not a new concept. In Singapore, it has been around for two decades, but if you talk to people about it, there's still a certain "yuck factor" that surrounds the idea.
Associate Professor Leong Ching at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy dedicates a lot of time studying why people behave the way they do when it comes to the environment.
Episode 5
In light of the COVID-19 virus that continues to plague China and other countries, we caught up with
Visiting Professor Tikki Pangestu at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy.
He shares his insider's view of the global health response. (This podcast episode was recorded on 14 February 2020 and does not take into account more recent developments of the ongoing pandemic.)
Episode 4
Ong Ye Kung, Singapore's Minister for Education has been a Member of Parliament since 2015 and has held a wide range of government positions, including Deputy Secretary-General of the National Trades Union Congress - NTUC, Chief Executive of Singapore Workforce Development Agency - WDA, and Deputy Chief Negotiator for the US-Singapore Free Trade Agreement.
Minister Ong recently spoke at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy's Festival of Ideas
2019, where he shared his views on what he considers the key governance issues of our
time; like technology disruption, inequality, and climate change.
Global-is-Asian met up with the Minister to follow up and have a deeper discussion:
Episode 3
Thomas Friedman, noted author and foreign affairs columnist for the New York Times, believes the world is being reshaped today by three simultaneous accelerations: in technology, globalisation and climate change. He presented his ideas in a panel at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy's Festival of Ideas 2019, then sat down for a discussion with Kishore Mahbubani, Distinguished Fellow at the Asia Research Institute. Later, Global-is-Asian sat down with both of them for this podcast interview.
Episode 2
Singapore's national pledge recited daily by school children states, "regardless of race, language or religion" - yet discussing racial integration remains a touchy subject.
Dr. Mathew Mathews is Senior Research Fellow and Head of the Social Lab at the
Institute of Policy Studies where, among other things, he conducts research in race, religion, immigrant integration, family aging, and poverty.
Episode 1
Danny Quah is a noted economist, teacher and writer. He is currently Dean and Li Ka Shing professor in economics at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy. His work focuses on income inequality, economic growth, and international economic relations.
Lately he's been studying the global power shift and the rise of the East and alternative models of global power relations.
Episode 19
Australia's Lowy Institute “ranks 25 countries and territories in terms of their power” in their 2019 Asia Power Index — which highlights China's rise.
Episode 19
At the heart of India’s water crisis is the pollution of the Ganges — a river not only rich in culture, but waist-deep in man-made hazards that continue to plague the sacred stream.
Episode 19
Economist Professor Elinor Ostrom believed the ‘Tragedy of the Commons’ could be avoided. But collective action is still a problem especially when it comes to governing global public goods. A former student of Elinor Ostrom's - Associate Professor Eduardo Araral - shares some insights.
This podcast was developed as part of PP5908 Global Governance in a Changing World, a core course for the Master in International Affairs (MIA) programme at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy.
Episode 19
Vinod Thomas, Visiting Professor at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, joins Adam Cotter, head of Asia at OMFIF. They discuss countries’ increasing exposure and vulnerability to climate change, its impact on economic growth and the challenges facing policy-makers in implementing appropriate strategies to mitigate climate change.
Episode 19
Danny Quah, Li Ka Shing Professor of Economics and Dean of the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore, joins Adam Cotter, OMFIF's head of Asia. They discuss the shifting global economy, the rise of China and the impact of technological advances.