The Prime Minister of India, Shri Narendra Modi will deliver the Key Note Address in the Opening Session of the three day International Conference on ‘Advancing Asia: Investing for the Future’. The Conference is being held in the national capital from March 11-13, 2016.It is jointly organized by the Ministry of Finance, Government of India and International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Ms Christine Lagarde, Managing Director, International Monetary Fund (IMF) will make the Opening Remarks on the occasion. Thereafter, Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi along with Shri Arun Jaitley, Union Minister of Finance, Corporate Affairs and Information & Broadcasting and Ms. Christine Lagarde, Managing Director, IMF will participate in a 'Ceremony for South Asia Training and Technical Assistance Center'.

The First Thematic Session of the Conference will be held on the subject ‘Asian Growth Models’ in which Dr Arvind Subramanian, Chief Economic Adviser (CEA), Ministry of Finance, Government of India, Mr.Martin Wolf, Chief Economics Commentator, Financial Times, Eisuke Sakakibara, former vice-Minister of Finance, Japan, Caroline Atkinson, former U.S. Deputy National Security Adviser for International Economic Affairs and Zhongxia Jin, Executive Director for China, IMF will participate in the panel discussion.

In second Thematic Session on ‘Income Inequality, Demographic Change, and Gender’, Dr. Arvind Panagariya, Vice-Chairman, NITI Aayog India, Mr Milwida Guevara, CEO, Synergeia Foundation, Phillipines, Azeema Adam, Governor of Maldives Monetary Authority, Mr Fazle Hasan Abed, Founder and Chairperson of BRAC, Bangladesh and Mr Zia Mody, Partner, AZB and Partners, India will participate in the panel discussion.

Other Sessions include on Infrastructure Investment, Fiscal Space, and Growth: Does Asia Need More Official Financing for Investment; and Developing Asia: Challenges of Climate Change and Economic Resilience among others.

Dr Raghuram Rajan, Governor, Reserve Bank of India will deliver the Keynote Address while Ms Melinda Gates, Bill and Gates Foundation will converse with Ms Christine Lagarde, Managing Director, International Monetary Fund (IMF) during the three day Conference.

On the concluding day, March 13, 2016, there will be sessions on Managing Capital Flows; Finance, Financial Inclusion and Growth: Challenges for the Next Decade. Closing Session will be addressed by Shri Arun Jaitley, Union Minister of Finance, Corporate Affairs and Information & Broadcasting and Ms Christine Lagarde, Managing Director, International Monetary Fund.

The Minister of State for Finance, Shri Jayant Sinha and Ms Christine Lagarde, Managing Director, International Monetary Fund will jointly address a Press Conference after the closing ceremony.

The three day event will end with a Special Session between Asian Ministers and Governors and Ms Christine Lagarde, Managing Director, International Monetary Fund, Mr. Changyong Rhee, Director, Asia and Pacific Department Director and Sharmini Coorey, Director, IMF Institute for Capacity Development among others.

International economic conference convenes regional policymakers and multilateral institutions to advance investment, growth models and capacity development. An international economic policy conference, jointly organised by the national Ministry of Finance and the IMF, convenes senior policymakers, central bankers, multilateral officials and practitioners to address Asian growth models, infrastructure investment and financing, fiscal space, income inequality and demographic and gender impacts, as well as capital flows, financial inclusion and climate resilience; the programme features keynote addresses, thematic panel discussions, a ministerial and governors' special session, and a post conference press briefing to advance policy dialogue and capacity development.