rof. Kishore Mahbubani, keynote speaker at the 59th World Congress & Exhibition of the International Association of Public Transport (UITP)

Kishore Mahbubani will be the keynote speaker at the 59th World Congress and Exhibition of the International Association of Public Transport (UITP), which will take place in Dubai from 10 to 14 April 2011. His speech, entitled 'From Tokyo to Dubai, the rise of Asia - Good or bad for public transport?', will analyse whether the rise of Asia will have a positive or negative impact on the development of public transport in light of UITP's strategy that aims to double the public transport market share worldwide by 2025.

Prof. Mahbubani is Dean and Professor in the Practice of Public Policy at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy of the National University of Singapore. He is an expert on development economics and a strong supporter of the rise of Asia and other emerging economies, as discussed in his latest work entitled 'The New Asian Hemisphere: the irresistible shift of global power to the East' (New York, 2008): "We are moving from a monocivilizational world to a multi-civilizational world."

His contribution to the UITP 59th Congress and Exhibition will give an insight into global developments in the near future, pushing the public transport sector to think differently in a changing world.

Prof. Kishore Mahbubani was included in the March 2009 Financial Times list of the top 50 individuals (including Barack Obama, Wen Jiabao and Nicolas Sarkozy) who would shape the debate on the future of capitalism. He has been described as "a gifted diplomat, a student of history and philosophy, a provocative writer and an intuitive thinker" by the Foreign Policy Association Medal in 2004 and he was listed as one of the top 100 public intellectuals in the world by Foreign Policy and Prospect magazines in September 2005.

He is also the author of 'Can Asians Think?' - published in Singapore, Canada, the USA, Mexico, India, China and Malaysia - and of 'Beyond the Age of Innocence: Rebuilding Trust between America and the World' - published in New York.

If you wish to learn more about the 59th UITP World Congress & Exhibition and apply for a press accreditation, please visit the Press Corner on the UITP Dubai 2011 website.

Click here in order to download the PressRelease_Dubai2011Keynote or the Congress Programme - UITP Dubai 2011

UITP Press contact: Sarah D'Angelo | Press Junior Manager

Direct phone: +32 (0)2 6636639 | Fax: +32 (0)2 6601072 | sarah.dangelo@uitp.org