Focus of 3-day meeting is improving "productive capacities" - abilities of developing countries to make and market wider varieties of goods
Geneva, 19 February 2010 - Experts will meet at UNCTAD headquarters from 22-24 Feb. to explore how developing countries can be helped to enhance their "productive capacities" -- that is, their abilities to produce goods and services of greater variety and sophistication, the kind of transformation that leads to rising salaries, more jobs and sustained economic growth.
The meeting, titled "Contribution and Effective Use of External Resources for Development, in Particular for Productive Capacity Building," takes on more relevance as the world´s poorer nations struggle to cope with the impact of the global recession and financial crisis.
Attention will focus especially on how productive capacities can be better built through appropriate macro-economic policies, official development assistance (ODA), external debt, and infusions of foreign direct investment (FDI).
Panels of experts during the six half-day sessions will include academics and analysts from a diverse range of institutions and research centres, including the following:
- American University of Beirut, Lebanon
- Bangladesh Development Research Center (BDRC), USA
- Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC)
- European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD)
- Fundacao Getulio Vargas, Brazil
- Global Development Network (GDN), India
- Lancaster University Management School, United Kingdom
- Other Canon Foundation, Norway
- Peterson Institute for International Economics, USA
- Universidad Torcuato Di Tella, Argentina
- University of Johannesburg & The EDGE Institute, South Africa
- University of London, United Kingdom
- World Bank
Panelists also will include senior experts nominated by the governments of Bangladesh, Chad, Peru, and Swaziland.
The concluding session (3 p.m., 24 February) will feature a roundtable discussion on follow-up to UN conferences on Financing for Development and the Global Financial and Economic Crisis. A videoconference briefing will be given by Jomo Kwame Sundaram, Assistant Secretary-General for Economic Development of the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN-DESA).
