CNN hosted the inaugural Asian edition of its new event franchise, Global Perspectives, at the Ritz-Carlton in Bangkok, Thailand. Graced by the presence of H.R.H. Princess Sirivannavari Nariratana Rajakanya and opened by H.E. Anutin Charnvirakul, Prime Minister of Thailand, the invitation-only forum gathered more than 500 prominent leaders and decision-makers to examine Asia’s expanding role in shaping the global economy, policy, technology, and culture.
The event brought together distinguished international speakers—including European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde, World Trade Organization Director-General Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Grab CEO Anthony Tan, and Academy Award-winning creator and co-director of “KPop Demon Hunters” Maggie Kang—to address leadership, global trade resilience, and the future of artificial intelligence. Conversations were moderated by CNN journalists Dr. Sanjay Gupta, Richard Quest, Kristie Lu Stout, Will Ripley, and Hanako Montgomery, covering topics across belief systems, structural power, and future trajectories.
The event was sponsored by B.Grimm, Dangote, JFOODO, Bank of America, Siam Piwat Group, Tencent, Central Pattana, the Tourism Authority of Thailand, and the Thailand Convention & Exhibition Bureau.
Key Executive & Speaker Statements
Anutin Charnvirakul, Prime Minister of Thailand, said “I am especially pleased to welcome CNN Global Perspectives, building on the success of CNN Countdown last year…CNN Global Perspectives gives us the chance to hear different views and discuss how economic decisions affect people’s daily life. I hope today’s program will bring different perspectives together and keep the discussions grounded in practical choices.”
Christine Lagarde, President of the European Central Bank, said, “What we have at the moment is this recurring, infamous war of Russia against Ukraine, that is continuing and it’s putting pressure on refinery capacities, as you know. But since March ’26, we also have the war in the Middle East, which is also putting a huge strain on the supply and movement of oil and gas.”
Dr.Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Director-general of the World Trade Organization, told CNN’s Richard Quest, “Trade is facing the biggest disruptions it’s ever faced in the 80 years history of … the World Trade Organization… But at the same time, Richard, what has really surprised us is the resilience of trade.”
Grab CEO Anthony Tan, said “AI itself is not going to take your job … but who will take your job is somebody who knows and uses AI, they’re going to take your job… If you aren’t going to re-invest and self-invest and learn and embrace AI, I’m sorry, the person on your right, on your left who is embracing AI will take your job.”
Maggie Kang, Academy Award-winning Creator and Co-director of “KPop Demon Hunters”, said “We had already, you know, as a culture, kind of cemented our place in movies and TV with ‘Squid Game’ and in music with Kpop, and I saw all of that, and you know growing up where my culture wasn’t so cool, I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, we’re cool now’. Maybe it’s time that we could do something cool in the animation space because Koreans have produced a lot of animation for a lot of other people, but we never really had like something that we could call our own.”
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