Han Do-Hyun (Academy of Korean Studies), Nguyen Thi Phuong Cham (Vietnam Academy of Social Sciences), Nishikawa Kunio (Ibaraki University), Mini Sukumar (University of Calicut), KeralaWen Tiejun (Renmin University of China), Moderator: Elizabeth J. Perry (Harvard-Yenching Institute)

This interdisciplinary panel of distinguished scholars from China, India, Japan, Korea and Vietnam will explore the record of successful and unsuccessful efforts at rural development in their own countries. Why have some programs succeeded in increasing productivity, improving infrastructure and public services, alleviating poverty, and ameliorating social and economic inequality, whereas others proved much less successful? What have Asian countries learned from these achievements and shortcomings? And, based on that knowledge, what lies ahead for 21st-century Asian villages?