Keynote Speakers
Prof. Shiro Armstrong, Australian National University, Australia
Professor Shiro Armstrong is a Professor of Economics at the Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University (ANU). He is Director of the Australia–Japan Research Centre and the East Asian Bureau of Economic Research, and serves as Editor of the East Asia Forum.
He earned his PhD in Economics from ANU in 2009, following a Master’s degree (2005) and a Graduate Diploma (2004) in International Development Economics from the same institution.
His research expertise lies in international trade, economic integration in East Asia, foreign direct investment, and economic diplomacy. He has edited books and authored numerous papers on these themes.
Professor Armstrong has held multiple visiting roles at institutions including Columbia University, Keio University, Peking University, University of Tokyo, and Harvard’s Kennedy School. He supervises PhD students, teaches at undergraduate and executive levels, and has received awards for public policy outreach and media engagement.
Prof. Arman Eshraghi, Cardiff University, the UK
Prof. Arman Eshraghi has 18 years of academic research, teaching and leadership experience across the UK (Cardiff University, University of Edinburgh and University of Manchester), visiting fellowships in the US, UK and Asia, and some years of professional experience in the banking sector prior to academia. His research spans finance, accounting and management with interests including behavioural/corporate finance and financial technology.
His work is published in some of the leading journals across finance and accounting, and cited widely, including in the Financial Times, Washington Post, Forbes, Bloomberg, BBC, Euronews and Harvard Business Review. Arman contributes to several Elsevier journals in an editorial capacity, chairs the professorial committee of the British Accounting and Finance Association and leads the Behavioural Finance Association in London..
Dr. Jochen M. Schmittmann, IMF for Viet Nam, Cambodia, and Lao P.D.R.
Dr. Jochen M. Schmittmann is the Regional Resident Representative for the IMF Resident Offices covering Vietnam, Cambodia, and Lao P.D.R. Prior to this role, he served as Deputy Head of the IMF’s Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific in Tokyo, was a Desk Economist on the Japan team, and acted as Mission Chief for the Federated States of Micronesia. He also held the position of Resident Representative in Singapore, covering Singapore, Malaysia, and Asian financial markets.
Within the IMF, Dr. Schmittmann has worked across multiple departments—Asia and Pacific, Western Hemisphere, Finance, and Monetary and Capital Markets—and was part of the team managing the Fund’s investment portfolio. He has published extensively on finance and macroeconomics, with topics including behavioral finance, climate finance, currency hedging, labor markets, and Asia’s demographic-economic trends.
He holds a Ph.D. in Financial Economics from Goethe University Frankfurt.
Dr. Jonathan London, UNDP Viet Nam
Jonathan D. London is a political economist and expert in social development. He currently serves as Senior International Economist and Senior Economic Advisor to UNDP Viet Nam. He is also an Associate Professor of Global Political Economy (Asia) at Leiden University in the Netherlands.
He earned his PhD in Sociology from the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 2004. His research focuses on comparative political economy, development studies, welfare, inequality, and the political economy of education and health, with a particular emphasis on Viet Nam.
Jonathan London has contributed to various UNDP projects in Viet Nam, including key background papers for the Human Development Reports and policy papers on governance in essential services. He is fluent in Vietnamese and is recognized as a leading international scholar on Vietnamese development.