On May 24, 2022, Former Japanese State Minister Yasuhide Nakayama, one of leader of AI World Society Innovation Network (AIWS.net), will visit Boston from May 23 to May 25, 2022.
Mr. Nakayama will discuss at the Global Alliance for Digital Governance High Level Dialog with Governor Michael Dukakis, BGF Chair, and BGF CEO Nguyen Anh Tuan, Harvard Professor Thomas Patterson, BGF Co-founder, MIT Professor Nazli Choucri, BGF Board Member, Harvard Professor Stephen Walt, and Mr. Nam Pham, Former Assistant Secretary of Massachusetts.
He will discuss about:
Cyberpolitics and the role of Japan
AIWS Government for Ukraine and Responsibility of Companies
On November 23, 2021, Boston Global Forum sent the Recommendation to Vietnamese leaders to advise “Breakthrough solutions to restore and develop Vietnam after the Covid-19 pandemic.” In this special report, the Vietnam Spark Initiative of the Boston Global Forum contributes ideas: Building a Community Innovation Economic ecosystem for all people: “Vietnam – Every citizen is an innovator.”
On May 14, 2022, at Harvard Kennedy School, Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh delivered keynote speech, he raised concepts and ideas about Community Innovation Economy.
Mr. Thomas Vallely, Founder of the Fulbright University and the Ash Center’s Vietnam Program, hosted this discussion with Vietnamese Prime Minister Phạm Minh Chính on Vietnam’s economic development strategy. Following his remarks, the Vietnam Program hosted an expert panel to respond to the Prime Minister’s speech and discuss Vietnam’s sustainable economic growth and ambitious climate change commitments in further detail. The additional panelists included: Jason Furman, Aetna Professor of the Practice of Economic Policy at HKS, David Golan, Dean for Research Operations and Global Programs at Harvard Medical School, David Dapice, senior economist with the Kennedy School’s Vietnam Program, and Vietnamese leaders:
Nguyen Chi Dung, Minister of Ministry of Planning and Investment, Nguyen Hong Dien, Minister of Trade and Industry, and Nguyễn Thị Hồng, Governor of the State Bank.
On may 14, 2022, at Harvard Kennedy School, the Ash Center’s Vietnam Program hosted a discussion with Vietnamese Prime Minister Phạm Minh Chính on Vietnam’s economic development strategy. Following his remarks, the Vietnam Program hosted an expert panel to respond to the Prime Minister’s speech and discuss Vietnam’s sustainable economic growth and ambitious climate change commitments in further detail. The additional panelists included: Jason Furman, Aetna Professor of the Practice of Economic Policy at HKS, David Golan, Dean for Research Operations and Global Programs at Harvard Medical School, Nguyễn Thị Hồng, Governor of the State Bank of Vietnam, David Dapice, senior economist with the Kennedy School’s Vietnam Program.
To answer question from Mr. Duong Ngoc Thai, Senior Cybersecurity Expert of Google, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh calls the US to support Vietnam in education cybersecurity.
Thank you, Governor Dukakis, Chair of BGF. Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, I shall be as brief as I can, because it’s been a long session. To start with, may I really congratulate the Boston Global Forum and the Michael Dukakis Institute, and all those who participate in presenting this prize, this recognition to president Zelensky and the Ukrainian people for their extraordinary, superhuman bravery in the face of an enormous aggression by a far superior military power.
The question of resisting was an existential one for Ukraine, because president Putin has had his delusional and paranoia imperialistic ideas, and his narrative about it, not quite openly but certainly in private, ever since he came to power in the year 2000. And when I had my farewell visit with the French president Jacques Chirac, and we had a friendly lunch together, towards the end of that lunch the president started telling me how—I don’t know how the question came up—but how Ukraine really was not a separate nation; they never had had a separate state of their own, so that they weren’t really a legitimate political entity, that they were sort of a second class sort of Russians who spoke something that pretended to be a different language but really wasn’t. And I think the president was already manifesting some symptoms of a brain disease that later became quite evident, but he had told me frankly and openly what president Putin had been telling to his friends, to the “Putin-Versteher” (Putin’s sympathizers), starting with chancellor of Germany Gerhard Schröder and many others, his vision of reconstructing a sort of Frankenstein monster where he himself, as the supreme leader of a monster race of Russians, with their special culture and their unique existence, would lead a heritage to history which would sort of be a collage of putting together of Peter the Great, Catherine the Great, without the skirts of course, since he’s so macho, and Stalin, an absolute Frankenstein monster construction but with the idea of the greatness of Russia, which must be reconstructed, and with all these countries that became independent at the periphery of what is now the Russian federation really should not exist. The best thing that could happen to them and President Chirac, the late president actually—I’m revealing this now because it’s important at this juncture in history—the best thing that could happen to them is to be governed by the Russians, who would do a better job. Now this is very serious, and we have now come in 2022 with President Putin saying exactly the same things openly as an excuse for his war, and there are people in the world who have said what is happening now—the atrocities that’s being committed, and the crimes of war, and the destruction—it’s the fault of the Ukrainians who were existing. If they had just simply laid down and accepted this domination, they wouldn’t have to suffer. I think this is something that has to be acknowledged: the right of a nation to its existence, to its sovereignty, to its ability to take its own decisions not to be a vassal, a client state, or a colony, just because some neighbor happens to be larger and have more military power. And [Ukraine] had with full goodwill given up nuclear weapons way back in 1994, which now almost looks like a mistaken time.
So before Ukraine can be built back better, which absolutely needs to be done, it needs to establish control over its territory. It needs to resist. And thanks to everybody here present, who has expressed support to this important idea, because their right to existence, when it’s threatened or harmed, really the the same intent is directed to the other countries that had been under the dominion, either direct or indirect, of the Kremlin and its rulers, be their collectives or singular or whatever, a communist or otherwise or capitalist or oligarchic. So before building better, Ukraine needs arms. It needs heavy armament. It needs moral support. It needs support for all the things that we just heard, so well expressed by doctor Silbersweig, in terms of humanitarian needs. I myself is a former refugee child, a wartime refugee, and somebody who started her schooling in a very improvised, very primitive public school, in a refugee camp in the British occupied zone of Germany. May I emphasize that in this before we come to reconstruction, we have to think about the transition, what happens to the refugees right now, and here again thank you to Dr. Silbersweig for thinking about the many multiple needs that refugees have. May I from my personal experience emphasize the importance of having schools for these children, so many of whom now with their mothers and without their fathers, who have become exiles, that they should have the ability to have schooling in their native language, in addition to going to local schools where they could learn a new language. Children do that very easily. I can testify to that as well but for keeping their identity the children need the ability to have some instruction in their native language, and their parents or in this case their mothers, their grandmothers, and aunts, and the other fellow citizens around them. They need an ability to have a social media, to have an interaction. And here I think the Boston Global Forum, with its emphasis on the digital possibilities of the new world, I think this sort of connectivity is something that will have to be considered in building up, either real, which is always the best thing, but also virtual communities of exiles.
I’ve spent much of my life among Latvian communities in exile on practically every continent except Antarctica, and it obviously prepared me sufficiently well and helped me preserve my Latvian identity, that I was able to return when Latvia did become free, even if it did take half a century to wait for it. And I could take on being president, and there was no problem of transition because of that. And finally about rebuilding, when cities are getting rebuilt, hospitals and so on, I think the greatest advances in everywhere in the world in terms of hospitals certainly will have to be taken into account. And it is a great news to hear from Greece for instance that they have already a vision for concrete places where what kind of hospital they’re going to build back in Mariupol. But may I just add one note of caution, is that the people who leave their homes are those who do it reluctantly. They suffer for it. I remember the pain of losing everything that you love, not just the people you are with, your grandma, your aunts, and your uncles, and so on, but the street on which you live, the tree outside the window, and all that sort of thing. So when cities get to rebuild, please, city planners and those who will be offering international aid, do not forget to consult the former inhabitants who live there, because there they will have an emotional need for something that will remind them of the city that has been destroyed, and something that they held dear, and something that they can hang on to so that the continuity of their identity can be built on upon it.
But ladies and gentlemen, may I as a former refugee, thank you all, and as the former president of a country that waited 15 years to recover its independence, thank you all and everyone for the help you are giving to this country, which is under brutal, unmotivated, and completely irrational attack by a totally delusional man who has brings with him a delusional ideology and sadly seems to have influenced his nation as well. Thank you all.
The Building the Foundation for the Global Digital Economy Conference (Digital Bretton Woods) is organized by Boston Global Forum, EY, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Connection Science, Prosperity Collaborative, and the World Bank on June 27-29, 2022 at MIT.
Global opportunities and challenges call for global action. The world is far past the Washington-consensus, in search of a new development paradigm. A paradigm that must reconcile national strategies for prosperity with the deepening integration of the world’s economies, driven by the digitalization of communication, commerce, and knowledge. This calls for renewed international cooperation and stronger global institutions.
The Digital Bretton Woods conference responds to this challenge through four themes of reinvention:
Developing a Growth Strategy in the Digital Economy
Investing in Digital Infrastructure
Managing Disruptive Technologies
Strengthening the Governance of Digital Systems
These themes are part of a single continuum of reinvention.
The first theme on growth strategies aims to reconceptualize growth in the digital era, recognizing that the systems of value creation are rapidly evolving, the product cycles shorter, and the policy handles changing. Importantly, digitalization calls for a stronger treasury role in coordinating public investments in digital platforms, leveraging big data for evidence-based policy making, and rethinking the government’s role in promoting innovation.
The second theme recognizes that governments play a critical role in regulating and investing in digital infrastructure, including taxation, trade, digital identity, and payment systems. These foundational systems improve how services are delivered to citizens and enable the creation of new markets and ecosystems in which private-sector firms and other players can compete and collaborate.
The third theme explores the opportunities and risks created by emerging technologies such as Artificial Intelligence, blockchain, quantum computing, and the Internet of Things. These innovations can impact critical infrastructure, transform industries, and redefine the way in which governments interact with their citizens. Consequently, the technologies need to be carefully assessed in terms of their economic and society impacts.
Finally, the development of new digital infrastructure and disruptive technologies call for strengthening governance frameworks to ensure that technology design and implementation, and multi-stakeholder collaboration around technology, are equitable and responsible. These governance challenges go beyond improving information security and privacy control. Core issues center around the delegation of decision making to autonomous systems on economic, legal, and administrative matters; reallocating the ownership of data to individuals and local communities; and the creation of trusted, decentralized information systems that respect privacy while promoting transparency and value creation.
This is a very significant event recognized by the Global Alliance for Digital Governance. At this conference, AIWS Government for Ukraine and AIWS City for Ukraine, as parts of the Rebuilding Ukraine program, will be presented and discussed as a pilot project for these reinventions.
Distinguished participants, it is an honor to join you this morning on this important and solemn occasion. I thank Boston Global Forum and Latvian Transatlantic Organization for inviting me to deliver some remarks on the issue that brings us together today. On the issue of Ukraine, on behalf of the club of Madrid, I wish to express our most sincere solidarity with the people of Ukraine and its heroic president Volodymyr Zelensky. Mr. Zelensky’s leadership is inspiring his people, as it is inspiring the world. We wish him the best to bring peace to people of Ukraine, to people he serves, and we fully support the basic principles and values for the people of Ukraine. What the people of Ukraine are fighting for, peace, self-determination, democracy, as well as political independence and territorial integrity, must prevail and will prevail. We in the Club de Madrid support and will continue to support the people of Ukraine in their struggle. The armed conflict in Ukraine is of global significance, and we can clearly see evidence of global support in the United Nations and elsewhere. This was clearly expressed in a series of resolutions adopted by the General Assembly, and that support is going to continue. These resolutions are also evidence of commitment of the international community to the cause of peace and peaceful cooperation among nations.
Ladies and gentlemen, today you will discuss all aspects of the situation in Ukraine, including the international assistance to the rebuilding of the country when peace returns. It is hard to say that this aspect of your discussion is not timely. The war is going on, but it is timely to start discussing about the need to rebuild the country and to bring full normalcy to the country. One of the most important humanitarian and political tasks will be the return of many refugees who have left Ukraine and who will want to go back to their homes. It is very important that the questions relating to the rebuilding of the country and creating conditions for the return are discussed now, and this particular aspect will be of particular relevance for the future. I wish you in your deliberations all success, and let me once again state, we members of the Club de Madrid World Leadership Alliance fully support and are fully in solidarity with the people of Ukraine.
Professor Ozolina, thank you very much indeed for those kind words of welcome. Professor Thomas Patterson, co-founder of the Boston Global Forum, governor Dukakis in absentia, the Dukakis Institute, President Levitz the president of Latvia, ambassador Makarova, fellow consuls general, distinguished speakers, and thank you very much indeed for having me here today. Before I start, I just wanted to pay tribute, as many have done before me, to president Zelensky and to the extraordinary bravery, tenacity, and commitment that the Ukrainian people have shown over the last two months. It is truly extraordinary, and I think an example to all of us. So, my name is Peter Abbott. I’m the British consul general to new England. I have something of a graveyard slot; I see people already leaving to get coffee, so I hope I can give you a sort of a reasonably entertaining next five or six minutes before we break. I want to talk this morning about two things: firstly, what the UK has done to support Ukraine, and secondly what we think the lessons might be for the conflict and further future conflicts in the in the coming months and years.
Firstly, as others have said, the international community has shown remarkable strength and unity in response to Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, and the UK has worked closely with those allies, particularly in the G7, NATO, and the United Nations to impose an unprecedented package of sanctions and other economic measures. In fact, the UK has imposed sanctions on more individuals and more organizations in Russia than any other nation, starving them of their access to finance with asset freezes on 18 banks, with global assets of over a trillion US dollars, removal of selected Russian banks from the SWIFT system, and ending all our new outward investment to Russia. We’ve also taken decisive action on trade, stripping Russia of most favored nation status at the WTO, and stopping Russian aircraft from flying or landing in the UK, and banning their vessels from our ports by the end of this year. The UK will end all dependency on Russian coal and oil, and end imports of gas as soon as possible thereafter. We’ve also worked to isolate Russia diplomatically, using our presidency of the UN security council to lead the push to suspend Russia from the UN human rights council and to expose Russian war crimes, including the appalling rape and sexual violence that we have seen systematically used in Ukraine. Last month, alongside Nobel peace prize laureate Nadia Murad, the UK launched a new global code of conduct to gather information from survivors of sexual violence in war more safely and more effectively to improve the chance of justice, and we have also worked with our allies to refer Russia to the international criminal court. Perhaps like no other conflict before, the past two months have been something of a battle of truth, as much as a battle for territory, and as professor Ozolina mentioned, the UK has played its part here too in helping to counter Russian disinformation. For the first time ever, the UK ministry of defense is posting twice daily on social media our latest military intelligence about the state of play on the Ukrainian battlefield, where Russian troops are, what moves they’re making, and which regions are most under threat. Some of you might know that the UK intelligence services are some of the most secretive in the world, so it really is a remarkable change of culture to see that intelligence being posted on a daily basis, and this has helped the UK and our allies dominate the information space and counter Russian narratives. the UK has also helped give president Zelensky the extraordinary international platform that he has built so quickly. His address to the British parliament on the 8th of march was one of his first and received a prolonged and standing ovation from MPs and peers. My prime minister’s visit to Kyiv on 9th of April was the first by a G7 leader, and we are delighted that thanks to the bravery and fortitude of the Ukrainian people, we’re able to join our allies in reopening our embassy in the capital. Finally, we have provided desperately needed military and other practical support to Ukraine. The UK in fact was the first European country to provide lethal aid. We have already supplied 6000 anti-tank weapons, 10000 missiles, and 120 armored fighting vehicles, as well as ammunition body armor and other weapons. We have provided maritime support and trained more than twenty thousand Ukrainian soldiers via joint exercises. The UK has also committed nearly half a billion US dollars of aid, urgent humanitarian support, and donated more than 500 mobile generators, and earlier this week, two convoys of more than 40 fire engines arrived in Ukraine, packed with rescue equipment. This follows the donation of more than 20 ambulances equipped with paramedic kits and medical grab bags, and overall, the UK’s package of humanitarian economic and military support is worth more than two billion us dollars.
Collectively though, we need to go further. We need to bring even tougher sanctions and cut off oil and gas imports entirely from Russia. We must also put in place, as many have said, a robust humanitarian response to support the Ukrainian people, including with the involvement of the United Nations, and this is the second and final point I want to come to. What lessons have we learned? The primary lesson that we’ve learned is, I think, don’t mess with Ukraine. Secondly, the lesson that we’ve learned is that the economic and security structures developed after World War II have failed, as my German and French colleagues have said, Russia’s invasion has destroyed the idea that economic integration alone can drive political change.
So I think we need three things in a new approach based on military strength, economic security, and deeper global alliances. First, we need to strengthen our defense. There is no substitute for hard military power, backed by intelligence and diplomacy. That means a stronger NATO, with a sacrosanct open-door policy and a more global outlook. It means investing in both traditional defense and modern capabilities, and it means greater collective spending on defense, correcting a generation of under investment. NATO’s target of spending two percent on GDP must be a floor and not a ceiling. Second, we need to recognize and respond to the growing role that the economy plays in our collective security. We must take an assertive approach to economic policy to reduce strategic dependency on authoritarian regimes. We should expand trade investment and science and technology ties with countries who play by the rules, pursuing what the Dutch have described as open autonomy, and we need a better, more coordinated approach on international development, including in this case helping vulnerable countries whether the storm of rising food and energy prices. Third and finally, we must broaden our network of partnerships to promote collective security partnerships that stand up for sovereignty and self-determination, and are built on shared prosperity. What my foreign secretary has described as a network of liberty. The UK will continue to invest in existing partnerships and alliances, such as NATO, the G7, and the five eyes intelligence sharing network, and we will build new ones as well, such as the strategic defense alliance that the UK formed with the United States and Australia last year, illustrating our joint commitment to the Indo-Pacific region, and I hope this crisis will give greater impetus to deepening and strengthening UK cooperation on foreign policy and defense issues with our friends and neighbors in the European Union.
There is a Ukrainian expression which says that the church is near but the way is icy. I say victory is near for Ukraine, but the way will be tough, and the UK will be with you every step of that way with our prayers, and yes with our weapons too. Thank you very much.
Dear chairs of the Boston Global Forum, Nguyễn Anh Tuấn, dear fellow councils general and distinguished member of the audience, as the french consul general in Boston, let me express my deep appreciation for the initiative taken by the Boston Global Forum and the Dukakis Institute for leadership and innovation to focus on the dreadful war in Ukraine and award president Zelensky, an inspiring leader for Europe and the world, its leadership prize for peace and security. As you mentioned, professor [Zaneta] Ozolina, France is now holding the chair of the EU council and as such can speak for the EU and condemn the military invasion launched by Russia on Ukraine in the strongest possible terms. This invasion constitutes a brutal violation of international law, and we demand that Russia immediately cease its military operation, and that a total unconditional ceasefire is established. As it was said earlier, this is an unprecedented situation. It’s a turning point in the history of Europe and our countries. It will have profound lasting consequences for the geopolitics of our continent and beyond, and we will respond. This crisis seriously calls into question the international order. Ukraine brave resistance has inspired us all, and France and its partners are not at war with Russia, but we support free and sovereign Ukraine to respond and create the conditions so that Russia realizes the inanity of its war and negotiate.
This crisis has seen the EU emerge as a major foreign policy actor, both in terms of sanctions financial support and defense capabilities. The European union has never responded to a crisis with such strength and agility. Within 48 hours, the 27 EU member states adopted an extensive package of sanctions against Russia, a systemic actor and permanent member of the UN Security Council. Since then, we have constantly increased these sanctions with major decisions taken by all EU member states on SWIFT, North Stream 2, and against Vladimir Putin himself. Our sanctions are currently targeting 70 percent of Russia’s banking system including the Russian central bank with a ban on transaction involving the management of its reserves and assets with regards to defense. For the first time the 27 member states financed a European legal defensive weapons budget, worth a total of 1.5 billion euros for Ukraine. Sweden has called into question its principle of neutrality. Germany has increased its defense budget, and Denmark is preparing a referendum on this issue. The strategic compass has been approved, and following the Versailles summit on 10th and 11th March, the commission is expected to propose significant reinvestment in defense industries. And with a view to European energy independence, the european union is also committed to provide support to the Ukrainian government for its immediate needs. And once the Russian onslaught has seized for the reconstruction of a democratic Ukraine, the EU has now set up an international fund to help finance the reconstruction of Ukraine, and we look forward to the May 5th donors conference to provide concrete resources.
Finally, let us think of the millions of Ukrainian families impacted by Russia’s war. As of March 22nd, 10 million Ukrainians have had to leave their homes. 3.4 million are already in the European union. Under the French presidency of the EU, we have jointly decided to activate the temporary protection directive for the first time in our history. It will allow all Ukrainians and Ukrainian residents who are fleeing their country to be welcomed on the territories of the 27 member states, and to benefit from immediate protection, which can now be renewed to last up to three years. Ladies and gentlemen, I hope I have demonstrated to you how committed the EU is in this crisis. We will be on Ukraine’s side, and we support president Zelensky’s ambitious vision for Ukraine, modern, prosperous, forward-looking, and part of our European family. Thank you very much.
Good morning, and I will be brief. Okay, straight to the point, and allow me to start with the obvious. These are difficult times, very difficult times, and they are very dangerous times. This is not the first time that a major power has invaded a neighbor that is smaller and weaker, as we are reminded by a statement made by the head of the WHO, but it is the first time, and this adds to the complexity of the current situation, that the world’s second largest nuclear power invades the world’s third nuclear power. So far we have seen, or we have heard of, we have assumed that the nuclear domain is in the background. It will never be touched, may that be the case. So far, the present aggression has been undertaken by traditional means, not pleasant means, but traditional ones we may see, and we may see the deployment of cyber capabilities, which are now still in the background. We may also see the deployment of cyber capabilities by Russia in other directions, directions that are intended to depress, reduce the support for Ukraine. Unfortunately, I do have to remind you that a number of states of countries have selected not to condemn Russia. Now that is a fact that has to be taken into account as we proceed, and that does not help. So what must be done, what are some essentials have already been mentioned, and I will just highlight a couple of them. They are all in one of your written papers, that have been circulated. And as a previous speaker noted, we have a short run, and we have a longer run. We can envisage what is needed in the short run, and there is very little disagreement among analysts, and there will probably be little disagreement among ourselves here as to what is needed to support Ukraine in the very very short run, meaning today, tomorrow, as needed. We know that humanitarian assistance is essential. In fact we keep repeating that, but we also know that regretfully the delivery accelerated, the delivery of advanced weapons, is also essential. We know that the current sanctions on the Russian system, Russian leadership, etc. must be continued. And we also know that there are movements for trying to organize a high level conference to bring the parties together.
To articulate conditions for maintaining the security and integrity of Ukraine, some of these issues will come back again today. There cannot be much disagreement, and other than what is required is certainly much a longer list than what I’ve just mentioned. Let me turn to the longer term, which is highly complex and may carry its own dynamics.
We would like to make sure that the message has becomes clear that compromising with excessive behaviors on dictators or authoritarian regimes creates backlashes and will not be tolerated. We have previously talked about the formation of an analogous type of program for the reconstruction of Ukraine, analogous to the martial plan that’s already has been mentioned, and we also know that for the long run we have to revisit what we consider our ethics, and our humanitarian perspectives, and the legal foundations for the robustness of the international system. And in that context, allow me to draw your attention or to publicize the book that the group has put together on remaking the world. It tries to be both ethical and pragmatic, and may have good ideas. Now I will conclude with some questions or issues for us all to think about, and that is we are in a transition. We are unfortunately in a transition, and we don’t see clearly what the past might be. We have a bifurcated world, which makes a cold war look really very pleasant in comparison with what we have now. There is some talk about encouraging the formation of mechanisms for a more robust alliance to support an easy transition, but as far as I can tell, so far they’re really just concepts and words. But what is very important is the evidence we have that Sweden and Finland may actually make an effort to apply for membership in NATO. Now in the broader context, this is quite an extraordinary set of moves, for it to happen. In the narrower context, short run, it signals how critical the present situation is, and how ways of dealing with the unpleasantness that we had in the past. At least these two countries recognize fully that they cannot walk the line in the middle, that they may have to take some kind of a position.
And to conclude, let me just say or ask you to think about what this might mean at the global level in the context of the fact that some countries, i don’t really know what their number is, or I don’t want to know what the number is, have not condemned the Russian move. So with this, I thank you for your attention.
