13-16 May 2008 | Singapore

The city-state of Singapore, one of Asia’s tiger economies, was the venue of the Merrill Lynch Asia Rising Stars Conference, “An Asian Conference Week”. Over 100 speakers participated in 60 panel discussions and presentations encompassing a wide array of topics: the global economy and market dynamics, the US and Asian economies, the growth of Asian emerging and stock markets, the emergence of the Asian investor, sovereign wealth funds, the environment and climate change, soft and hard commodities, property, fixed income, smart money, foreign exchange, branding, consumers, socially responsible business, endowments, and various industries such as automobile, energy and tourism. Keynote speakers included former US Vice President, Al Gore; Singaporean Minister for Trade and Industry, Lim Hng Kiang; international investor and author, Jim Rogers; Butch Bacani of UNEP Finance Initiative; and senior Merrill Lynch executives such as Bill McDonough and David Rosenberg. Butch spoke about the Principles for Responsible Investment initiative and the cutting-edge research of the UNEP FI Asset Management Working Group on environmental, social and governance issues. Merrill Lynch also organised a Corporate Focus Day, “Return on Corporate Social Responsibility,” covering topics such as CSR strategies, the Carbon Disclosure Project, and the carbon markets. During the conference week, Merrill Lynch hosted more than 1,400 delegates who interacted in plenary sessions, company presentations, group meetings, and more than 2,200 one-on-one meetings, making the event the largest and leading financial conference in Singapore.