[Index]
UNECE Spring Seminar
Financing for Development in the UNECE
Region: Promoting Growth in
Low-income Transition Economies
Palais des Nations (Conference Room
XX), Geneva
Monday, 21 February 2005, 10 a.m.
Geneva, 15 February
2005 - On Monday, 21 February 2005,
the United Nations Economic Commission
for Europe (UNECE) will hold its eighth
Spring Seminar, which this year will focus
on “Financing for development
in the UNECE region: Promoting growth
in low-income transition economies"
(see programme).
The Seminar will focus
on:
- Strategies for development and
growth
- Economic integration and trade
- Financial management and sustainable
growth in resource-rich economies
Brigita Schmögnerová,
Executive Secretary of the UNECE, will
open the Seminar. José Antonio
Ocampo, Under-Secretary General for Economic
and Social Affairs, will deliver the keynote
speech focusing on the global agenda for
financing for development. There will
also be a statement by José Luis
Machinea, Executive Secretary of the UN
Economic Commission for Latin America
and the Caribbean (ECLAC).
The following session
on “Strategies for development
and growth” will focus
on the political economy of financing
for development in the emerging market
economies in the ECE region. Steven Fries,
Deputy Chief Economist, European Bank
for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD),
will discuss the political economy of
reforming domestic financial sectors.
Taner Yigit, Bilkent University, Ankara
will focus on how political instability
affects the ability of countries to attract
foreign direct investment.
The third session on
“Economic integration and
trade” will analyse the
prospects of the initiatives to revitalize
economic relations and their contribution
to promoting growth and employment in
the western Balkan region and the Commonwealth
of Independent States (CIS). M. Uvalic,
University of Perugia, will focus on the
impact of trade liberalization on the
economies in the Balkans. R. Grinberg,
Russian Academy of Sciences, will examine
the implications of the development of
a Common Economic Space for economic integration
in the CIS.
The final session on
“Financial management and
sustainable growth in resource-rich economies”
will address some important issues arising
in economies that are richly endowed with
natural resources. On the one hand, rich
natural resource endowments can be a blessing
generating large export revenues and hence
potential funds available for financing
economic development. On the other hand,
rich natural resource endowments can also
become a curse, causing Dutch Disease
and rent-seeking behaviour and making
both the economy in general and government
finances in particular highly vulnerable
to swings in world market prices. The
two papers that will be presented by Rüdiger
Ahrend, Organisation for Economic Co-operation
and Development (OECD) and Michael Kaser,
Oxford University, respectively, will
discuss policy choices for using the revenues
derived from resource extraction to foster
sustainable economic development, including
eventual diversification of production
and exports, while avoiding the ‘resource
curse’.
The Seminar is open to the public.
For further information please contact:
UNECE Economic Analysis Division
Palais des Nations
CH - 1211 Geneva 10, Switzerland
Phone: +41(0)22 917 2445 or 917 1269
Fax: +41(0)22 917 03 09
E-mail: [email protected]
Web site: http://www.unece.org/ead/ead_sprin_sem_new.htm
Ref: ECE/GEN/05/P02