Robeco ‘Searching for Growth’ Conference Concluded Successfully
Manama, Bahrain: Robeco—leading global asset managers and the Central Bank of Bahrain’s (CBB) knowledge partners—concluded an exclusive 1-day conference on 26 March 2009, at the Banyan Tree Desert Spa and Resort. The Conference followed the CBB’s 9th GCC Banking conference, and was held under the auspices of the CBB under the theme: “Searching for Growth”.
The private and select gathering of around fifty senior figures from Gulf-based Central Banks, sovereign wealth funds, banks, and other financial institutions, aimed to identify opportunities for growth amid the global economic downturn, and to address longer-term challenges for the twenty-first century.
Mr. Hansen-Luke, Robeco’s Middle East Chief Executive Officer, comments: "This event brought together some of the regions most influential investors with strong and provoking contributions from Robeco's top management, Dr.Martin Feldstein and Dr. Nasser Al Kaud. We hope to have worked with the participants to set their investment agenda for 2009 through the contributions from the all of the speakers and expert at our conference, as investment decision made now will be amongst the most important for the decade."
The conference included four plenary sessions in the morning: ‘Global Opportunities: The International Perspective’, ‘Global Opportunities: As seen from the Middle East’, ‘Alternatives & Absolute Returns’, and ‘Searching for Growth: When will the US lead us out of global recession?’
The afternoon sessions comprised two workshops on: ‘Which alternatives show absolute returns without market growth?’ and ‘Ethical Investing’, followed by a debate on ‘Flight or Fight: Bonds or Equities’.
Speakers were led by internationally renowned Dr. Martin Feldstein, Harvard Professor and President and CEO of the National Bureau of Economic Research.
Dr. Martin Feldstein, who was also a keynote speaker for the 9th GCC Banking Conference, was previously Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers and President Reagan's chief economic adviser.
Other speakers included Dr. Nasser AlKaud, Deputy of the Assistant Secretary General for Economic Affairs, Gulf Cooperation Council – Secretariate General; H.E. Ambassador Abdul Kareem Mohammad Al-Amri; Mr. Richard Duncan, author of “The Dollar Crisis”; Dr. George F. Baker, Professor of Economics at Harvard University; Mrs. Eithne Treanor, Managing Director of eTreanor; Mr. Andre Hoenig, Executive Director of Transtrend; Mr. Elyas Al Gaseer,Head of Fixed Income Middle East Credit Agricole; Mr. Yousef Nizam, Head of Equity Research Middle East Audi Group; and several of Robeco’s senior management.
For further information please contact the Conference Managers: Eventscom – Bahrain [T]+973-17226775 [F]+973-17226698.
