Leading socio-economic experts and influential policy advisors of South Asian countries gather in Colombo today at the start of the 6th South Asia Economic Summit (SAES) kicking off at the Cinnamon Grand hotel. The Summit organised by Sri Lanka’s apex economic policy think tank, the Institute of Policy Studies of Sri Lanka (IPS), will go on for three days, until 4 September. The SAES, inaugurated in 2008 in Colombo, is a premier platform to debate and discuss the socio-economic challenges faced by South Asia, currently one of the fastest growing regions in the world. This year, under the theme ‘Towards a Stronger, Dynamic and Inclusive South Asia’, the Summit will bring together over 120 renowned socio-economic experts to debate and discuss the pressing concerns to sustainable and inclusive growth in the region during four plenary sessions, 12 parallel sessions, and four special events, over the course of the three days. Senior Minister of International Monetary Cooperation and Deputy Minister of Finance and Planning Sarath Amunugama will grace the inauguration as the Chief Guest, joined by Federal Minister for Planning and Development of the Government of Pakistan Ahsan Iqbal Chowdhury, who will deliver the keynote address. Other influential personalities joining the summit include SAARC Secretary General Ahmed Saleem, International Affairs Advisor to the Prime Minister of Bangladesh Dr. Gowher Rizvi, Minister/Senior Advisor of Economic Affairs to the President of Afghanistan Sham Bathija and World Bank’s Chief Economist for South Asia Dr. Martin Rama. Today, the summit kicks off with an Expert Panel Discussion on the topic ‘A Closer South Asia: Re-energising Regional Economic Integration and Connectivity’ and will be followed by the first plenary session on ‘Harnessing Human Capital Potential’ and a special event on the ‘South Asian position for the 9th WTO Ministerial’. This summit not only provides a timely response to the mutual socio-economic challenges facing the region, but, is a strong impetus to regional integration in South Asia. All of the summit’s plenary sessions will be broadcasted via live web stream for free viewing on ips.lk/saes2013. Rapid response as well as in-depth insights of the 6th SAES will be active on all IPS social media platforms including Facebook, Twitter, Flickr and the summit blog. This year, for the first time in the history of the Summit, young South Asian bloggers will be taking the discussion of the summit to a younger demographic generation across South Asia and beyond, supported by the World Bank South Asia office.
Posted on: Mon, 02 Sep 2013 03:26:31 +0000
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