Five Diamond International Conference Cycle: Conference I “Thinking Outward: Global Players from Emerging Markets”

Date: April 28, 2008
Location: Columbia University, New York

The Conference was organized by the Columbia Program on International Investment; Fudan University (China); Fundação Dom Cabral (Brazil); Indian School of Business; Moscow School of Management SKOLKOVO; and the United Nations Development Programme’s Special Unit for South-South Cooperation.

Between 2003 and 2006, emerging market outward foreign direct investment quadrupled to reach $210 billion – a figure that is expected to grow in the coming years, as emerging market multinationals acquire foreign firms and establish new operations to boost their international competitiveness. The inaugural Five Diamond International Conference on “Thinking Outward: Global Players from Emerging Markets” convened more than 160 corporate executives, government officials and academic experts from 25 countries to examine this phenomenon at Columbia University.

Participants discussed the importance of a coherent policy framework for outward investment and the need for multinationals to manage the “social environment” by overcoming attitudinal barriers at home and deepening their social impact in the communities in which they operate. The event also featured remarks by Mr. Roger Agnelli, CEO of Vale, and a keynote address by Professor Jeffrey D. Sachs, Director of The Earth Institute at Columbia University, who outlined some of the challenges that emerging market economies face.

The next in the cycle of five global Conferences, held August 18-19, 2009 in Brazil, explored a host of internal (firm-specific) and external (especially policy) issues identified during the inaugural event as priority areas requiring attention.

The Conference papers will be published in a proceedings volume.

For further details about the Five Diamond International Conference Cycle, please contact ccsi@columbia.edu.

Download the conference program.