• The global growth problem will slow down Asian economies because of fear of a lack of confidence; how to revitalize that confidence is crucial for the world economy.

• Uprising nationalism and protectionism is used by some politicians to play short-term political games, while income inequity can fuel potential nationalism, which may lead to misunderstanding and conflicts.

Global risk category and its Interconnection map (2012) show that there could be more than 50 types of risks globally. They can be categorized as preventable, strategic and external risks.

Lack of confidence is a big issue for the global economy recovery, US election and fiscal cliff and Japan’s trade deficit will all have influence. Premier Wen Jiabao’s speech was obviously an encouragement. China’s economy will influence the Korean peninsula (thus it should stimulate and enhance its domestic consumption needs), while who will become the next US president and the new administration’s policy on China and Korea (whether it will be hard ones or soft ones) pose risks to East Asia and can even lead to geopolitical conflicts.

Internal risks exert more influence in East Asia, although external risks also play roles. The fast growth of some countries’ economy and power makes it more assertive while there is no mechanism to balance. Nationalism, history problems and territory dispute emerge and people still do not know how to manage. Currently US or international entities such as the WTO can influence the power structure in East Asia. Some participants raised the rising nationalism in East Asia, especially territorial disputes among certain countries is used by some politicians. The panel responded that some politicians try to use the situation to play a short-term political game, but this does not represent the Japanese government’s attitude. But this information is not well informed and properly explained to the Chinese government. People should remember Deng Xiaoping’s comments during his first high-level visit to Japan, saying that “our generation is not smart enough to solve the disputes and we can let the next generation negotiate to solve”. This is a peaceful rising strategy, which China always claims in the past 30 years, and should keep it.

There is a potential tendency of “retreat” from globalization in Asia, for East Asia is heavily reliant on the global market thus closing the door or protectionism will have a huge impact. The social vulnerability will be especially influential when a society enters a transitional phase. And the external/internal issue will enlarge the vulnerability. The income inequity and protectionism will have strong influence on nationalism, and could lead to frustration and social anger.

In terms of how to solve the risks and challenges, the panellists recommended that people should look at the problem from a governance perspective rather than only a risk management perspective. Currently there are still no specific regional institutions to coordinate and manage those risks while political hostage is increasing. Of course, there are potential platforms to address the issue such as G20 and APEC. But more effectiveness is needed. Looking at the political issue economically will be a solution. There are great opportunities such as green technology collaboration, and collective nature resource purchasing. But although Korea was eager to promote collaboration on the issue of oil purchasing and its transportation, Japan didn’t want to join without any explanation. The key is lack of political trust which is a kind of precondition for the further collaboration so the politicians need new vision. New vision and policy need pluralism and different opinions can be expressed by domestic civil society and opinion leaders.

Compared with 30 years ago, the rising up of East Asia is phenomenal. To enhance strategic level collaboration and communication, and risk assessment  of the three countries, is crucial. As the Fukushima disaster showed, the countries need not only share experience on nuclear safety issue, but also need to build mechanisms to address a series of other risks. The Summer Davos can help to promote solutions to the above problems.