Policy Challenges for Growth in Africa and South Asia

IGC Growth Week public debate

The developed world has recently fallen behind in the numbers game, as African and Asian countries have experienced enviable growth. However, this debate will focus on the challenges that the two continents now face in maintaining this positive trend and the policies that are necessary to ensure that growth is sustainable.

Omotunde E.G. Johnson is the IGC Sierra Leone country director. Dr Johnson has taught at the University of Sierra Leone, the University of Michigan and George Mason University. He was a staff member of the International Monetary Fund for 26 ½ years. Since his retirement from that organisation in November 2000, he has been an independent researcher as well as a consultant for organisations including the IMF, UNCTAD, African Peer Review Mechanism of the African Union, African Development Bank and the West African Monetary Institute.

Dr Louis Kasekende is deputy governor at the Bank of Uganda. He recently served at the African Development Bank as chief economist, a position he held for three and a half years. Previously he served as Alternate Executive Director and later as Executive Director at the World Bank for Africa Group 1, including 22 countries mostly from Anglophone Sub-Saharan Africa. He is a member of the United Nations Group of Eminent Persons for the Least Developed Countries and was recently appointed to the Financial Stability Board taskforce on Emerging Markets and Developing Economies.

Ijaz Nabi is the IGC Pakistan Country Director and a former professor of economics and dean of the School of Humanities, Social Sciences and Law at Lahore University of Management Sciences. He is also member of the prime minister’s economic advisory council, chief minister of Punjab’s advisory council and the monetary policy committee of the State Bank of Pakistan. Dr Nabi returned to Pakistan in 2008 after 22 years at the World Bank in Washington where he worked on Mexico, Korea, Thailand (leading the World Bank team during the East Asian financial crisis), Malaysia, Korea, Laos and Myanmar.

Dr Abdul Hafiz Shaikh is Pakistan’s minister for finance, revenue, economic affairs, statistics and planning and development. Dr Shaikh has previously worked at Harvard University and The World Bank. Dr Shaikh served as minister for finance, planning & development in Sindh Province from 2000 to 2002, and was the architect of the financial recovery of Sindh. From 2003 to 2006 he served as the federal minister for privatisation & investment. Dr Shaikh was awarded Pakistan’s “Man of the Year” in 2004 by the business community in recognition of his contributions to the country. Dr Shaikh has a Ph.D in economics and has authored many publications including a book on Argentina.

Suggested hashtag for this event for Twitter users: #LSEIGC

Register to tell a friend about this lecture.

Comments

If you would like to comment about this lecture, please register here.

©2003-2006 Niminim Limited. Created by

Any ad revenue is entirely reinvested into the Lecture List's operating fund