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FES Events around the IMF–World Bank Annual Meetings in Bangkok

FES brings progressive perspectives to the 2026 Bangkok Economic Festival taking place during the IMF–World Bank Annual Meetings in Bangkok

Picture of Bangkok from afar during sun set
stock.adobe.com / by nukul2533 #299217820

FES at the Bangkok Economic Festival | 13–15 October 2026

This October, the IMF and World Bank Annual Meetings come to Bangkok — a city deeply connected to debates over the global financial system. Alongside the official meetings, FES and its partners will convene five sessions at the Bangkok Economic Festival, bringing together policymakers, experts and civil society to discuss what needs to change — and who gets to shape what comes next.

Nearly three decades after the 1997 Asian financial crisis, fundamental questions about the international economic architecture remain unresolved. More than 50 developing countries spend more on interest payments than on health or education, the global trading order is under pressure, and the Sustainable Development Goals remain far off track.

Across our five sessions, we explore how stronger cooperation can help rebalance a system in which creditors, capital and major economies have long coordinated across borders.

Bangkok offers an opportunity to move beyond diagnosing what is failing — and toward the ideas, experiences and coalitions that can shape what comes next.

Joining us in Bangkok? Explore the five sessions below and register for the conversations most relevant to you.

An Idea Whose Time Has Come: The Borrowers' Platform

Tuesday, 13 October 2026 | 12:00–14:00 | Valia Room, Valia Hotel, Sukhumvit 24

Creditors coordinate through the Paris Club, the G20 Common Framework and IMF roundtables, while borrowers negotiate one at a time. The Borrowers' Platform – agreed at FfD4 in Sevilla, serviced by UNCTAD, and launched at the 2026 Spring Meetings – is starting to change that imbalance. This session, co-organized with Sur Americana, Latindadd and ITUC, meets the day after the platform's first annual meeting. Panelists debate what belongs at the top of its agenda, from CCRT reform and development-sensitive debt sustainability analysis to legislation against holdout litigation, and whether workers and parliaments will have standing in it.

Register here

Delivering Beyond 2030: Financing the Next Era of Global Development

Tuesday, 13 October 2026 | 15:00–17:00 | Valia Room, Valia Hotel, Sukhumvit 24

The SDGs gave the world a shared vocabulary for development. The harder task is delivery. This panel is part of our Beyond 2030 initiative co-organized with UNRISD. It asks which SDG-era policies actually reduced poverty, and what a post-2030 framework built on public investment, domestic resource mobilization and state capacity would demand of the global financial architecture. Speakers include Amitabh Behar (Oxfam International), Jayati Ghosh (UMass Amherst), Pepukaye Bardouille (Bridgetown Initiative), Hod Anyigba (ITUC Africa) and Lutfey Siddiqi (LSE).

Register here

Advancing Sovereign Debt Reform: Practical Steps Forward

Wednesday, 14 October 2026 | 8:30–10:00 | Valia Room, Valia Hotel, Sukhumvit 24

Pandemic-era borrowing is coming due, and the Common Framework remains slow and uncertain. The latest roundtable in the FES, CGD and RBWC series brings together around thirty finance officials, IFI representatives and experts to build on our April discussions in Washington. Participants will identify near-term reforms for the UK's G20 presidency and discuss how to build the political support to carry them forward. Masood Ahmed (CGD) moderates, with contributions from Mary Svenstrup (CGD), Anahí Wiedenbrüg (IISD), Martin Kessler (FDL) and Reza Baqir (Alvarez and Marsal).

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Strengthening International Tax Cooperation to Fund Growth and Reduce Inequality

Wednesday, 14 October 2026 | 15:30–17:30, followed by a reception | Valia Room, Valia Hotel, Sukhumvit 24

This event, organized with ICRICT, the G-24, South Centre, ATAF and Oxfam, has two panels. The first takes stock of the UN Framework Convention negotiations as they reach their most politically sensitive stage. It focuses on a fairer allocation of taxing rights to source countries and on where consensus is within reach. The second turns to taxing the super-rich. Panelists will look at what governments can achieve nationally and what coalitions such as the Sevilla Platform for Action can accomplish together. Finance ministers join Mary Baine (African Tax Administration Forum), Abdul Chowdhary (South Centre), Susana Ruiz (Oxfam), Jayati Ghosh (ICRICT), Shari Spiegel (UN DESA) and Rodrigo Valdés (IMF).

Register here

A New Deal for Global Trade

Thursday, 15 October 2026 | Reception 18:00, dialogue 19:15–21:00 | Chulalongkorn University, Maha Chulalongkorn Building, Room 111

This lecture and discussion launches “Toward a New Deal for Global Trade: A Progressive Agenda”, the new paper by Joseph E. Stiglitz and Martín Guzmán, which argues that neoliberal trade delivered neither the inclusive growth nor the growth it promised, in rich and poor countries alike. Martín Guzmán presents the paper’s argument and its proposals on governance, intellectual property, digitalization, and coalition-building among the Global South and progressive actors in advanced economies. There will be a dialogue with a high-ranking interlocutor from the WTO and a moderated question and answer session.

Register here