BIOGRAPHY

Mr. Andrew Jeffries has 28 years of professional experience including over 13 years with the Asian Development Bank (ADB). He is currently the Country Director for Viet Nam, serving as ADB’s representative and is responsible for ADB operations in the country. ADB’s main instruments for helping its developing member countries are policy dialogue, loans, equity investments, guarantees, grants, and technical assistance.

From 2016 to mid-2020, he was the Director of the Southeast Asia Energy Division, where he was responsible for the division’s investments in energy infrastructure, policy advice, sector reform assistance, and promoting regional energy cooperation in the Southeast Asia region.

From 2013 to 2016 he headed ADB’s energy sector operations in India based in New Delhi, where he led ADB’s country partnership strategy for the energy sector with the Government of India (~$800 million to $1bn of annual lending), and institutional and stakeholder coordination work including arranging cofinancing.

From 2007 to 2013, he led complex ADB energy infrastructure projects in the South Asian region, including medium-to-large hydropower, rural electrification and other energy sector infrastructure programs, technical assistance, and sector analytics.

In the 10+ years prior to joining ADB in 2007, Mr. Jeffries held senior positions at private sector financial institutions conducting structured finance transactions including project financings, equity and preferred equity investments, joint ventures, privatizations, international project development and financial advisory services. Mr. Jeffries has direct experience in how multinational, institutional, and private investors view and analyze a diverse number of government incentive programs to promote direct investment in general and infrastructure specifically.

Mr. Jeffries is a national of the United States of America. He holds a master’s degree in international affairs from Columbia University, and a bachelor’s degree in economics from Bucknell University in the USA.

TOPIC

Harnessing Digital Technology for Strengthening Resilience Key to Long-term Economic Recovery in Viet Nam

ABSTRACT

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought home the importance of resilience for governments, businesses and people alike. Bold and transformative steps are urgently needed to shift the focus to resilience—the ability of societies to survive, adapt, and grow in the face of shocks. Strengthening resilience requires new solutions to the challenges facing communities and businesses during the pandemic and beyond, and strategic use of digital technology is the means to achieve this.

As digitalization has become an integral part of longer-term economic recovery, a new vehicle of promoting continued growth and innovation across many important economic and social sectors, Viet Nam should use this opportunity to accelerate its own digital transformation across businesses and government, and strive to reap the full benefits of digitalization. If it doesn’t, it would have lasting impact on future competitiveness and growth, and could have consequences towards one of Viet Nam’s important objectives of becoming a key, integrated player in the global value chain.

To realize the potential gain from digitalization, the government will need to concentrate policies and reforms on several fronts. There are some general thoughts on both the ‘hard’ and ‘soft’ sides of digital infrastructure development for discussion, including:
· Digital connectivity
· Digital infrastructure investments
· Regional cooperation
· Trade and logistics processes and infrastructure
· Digital financial services
· Regulatory environment and institutional capacity
· Human resources and reskilling and upskilling
· Startup ecosystem
· ADB Ventures

The COVID-19 pandemic has created an unpreceded momentum and interest to achieve digital infrastructure in scale. Strong collaboration among government, the private sector and development partners is the only way forward.