Synopsis

Over the last Decade, there have been many extreme catastrophes that were not on the radar screens of planners, policy makers, risk analysts, or researchers. Examples are the Great Asian Tsunami of 2004, Hurricane Katrina of 2005, the Pakistan floods of 2010, the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami and the resulting Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant meltdown are but just a few examples of such events. The global financial crisis of 2008, triggered by the housing bubble in USA is still reverberating around the world. In 2008 unprecedented food scarcity dictated the rules of a new political order where individual countries were scrambling to secure their own food supplies with little concern for the rest of the world. The evolving nature of climate also may pose serious challenges to nations and societies.

There has been much written about how often such Black Swan Events occur. There are even suggestions that such events take place more often than most experts have indicated. It is obvious that the inter-connected world is entering a new phase of evolving challenges. The ICRM Symposium 2012, with its theme on Black Swan Events is timely and aims to bring together researchers, policy makers, governments and risk management gurus to contemplate and create an understanding of such events and possible mitigation strategies.

It is the aim of the Symposium to raise awareness and understanding of Black Swan Events particularly for ASEAN countries. This will contribute towards the development of novel and innovative approaches in possibly mitigating and managing such risks.

This Symposium will have the following sub-themes:

• Thoughts on Black Swan Events
• Asia’s Recent Black Swan Events
• Future Black Swan Events - Challenges and Plans for ASEAN Countries
• Black Swan Events and Insurance
• Black Swan Events – Perspectives from ASEAN

Who will attend

The world’s leading scientists, engineers, researchers, and representatives from the finance, insurance, public and private sectors.