This March 2018 issue of Thinking Aloud has been dedicated to cover the news of the 3rd SANEM Annual Economists’ Conference (SAEC) 2018 on ‘Leave no one behind in South Asia’. This year’s conference was dedicated to the memory of Late Dr. Saman Kelegama, who served as the Executive Director of Institute of Policy Studies (IPS), Sri Lanka.
The first-page article on “In pursuit of a South Asian development model”, analyzing the East and Southeast Asian development models, raises the question whether there is any ‘South Asian development model’. The article suggests that there is a much weaker convergence of economic and development policies, related to trade openness, foreign investment, macroeconomic management and social policies, in South Asia, which have led to the divergence in their development outcomes too. All these show the absence of any ‘South Asian development model’ yet. The pursuit of a ‘South Asian development model’ will, therefore, require countries of this region to get their domestic policies ‘right’.
The second and third pages present brief overviews of the different sessions of the conference. The conference started with the keynote speeches by Prof. Kunal Sen and Dr. K.A.S. Murshid, and launching of a book, which was followed by six breakout sessions on Economic Growth & Productivity, Investment & Capital Market, Strong Institution & Good Governance, Social Inclusion, Health & Nutrition and Gender Equality & Education. In addition, to the sessions on different contemporary issues, the pages also include the special session titled “Honoring Economists of Influence”, SANEM-IGC, SANEM-BIGD organized sessions, an interdisciplinary session, and also covers the session for budding researchers. The fourth page provides short descriptions of special lectures by Dr. Martin Rama and Dr. Selim Jahan. It includes SANEM-ESID organized session- A South Asian panel discussion in memory of Dr. Saman Kelegama, and SANEM-MCCI and SANEM-DECCMA organized sessions. The fourth page also includes snapshots of the 3rd SAEC.
