The Institute for Global Economics, a leading private think thank in Korea, published on Thursday a book containing reports and summaries of the two-day international financial conference held in Seoul.

Titled “Asia in the New Global Financial Scene,” the book goes over all the sessions and discussions of the conference held from May 17-18 under the same name, co-hosted by the Institute for Global Economics, Asian Development Bank, Institute of International Finance and KB Financial.

Influential financial figures from throughout the world attended, including Bahk Jae-wan, South Korea’s finance minister; Kim Choong-soo, governor of Bank of Korea; Kim Seok-dong, chairman of the Financial Services Commission; SaKong Il, chairman of the IGE; Andre Meier, the International Monetary Fund’s resident representative in Hong Kong; and Masahiro Kawai, dean of the Asian Development Bank Institute.

The book covers the keynote speeches as well as presentations of the four sessions of the conference ― the status and challenges of the global economy and Asian financial markets; the European sovereign debt and banking crisis and its implications for Asian financial institutions; consequences and implications of the global SIFIs; and the future of Asian financial cooperation ― in English and Korean.

Stephen Roach, Yale University senior fellow and former chairman of Morgan Stanley Asia, said in the special session that a serious imbalance is the single most critical factor of most major crises of the past 30 years and that it was “now or never for global rebalancing.”

By Park Min-young (claire@heraldcorp.com)