Jordan to host international economic conference on June 6

AMMAN — More than 600 economists, politicians, academicians, bankers, and representatives of international organisations will convene for the International Economic Association’s (IEA) 17th World Congress, to be held at the Dead Sea on June 6th to discuss global and regional economic and political challenges.

The five-day meeting will be held for the first time in the Arab world, organisers said.

Issues of concern to the Middle East and the rest of the world are scheduled for deliberations including the political economy of change in the Middle East and the dilemma of subsidy reform and equity in Middle East and North Africa (MENA), the Amman-based Columbia Global Centres-Middle East, which is organising the event in collaboration with the IEA, told The Jordan Times on Saturday.

Participants in the event will also look into current labour market policies under academic scrutiny, monetary policy in a post-crisis world, and recent research on inequality of opportunity in the Middle East, challenges and dilemmas of policy making after the Arab Spring, and the post-2015 Development Agenda. 

 “The IEA brings together diverse communities of economists, from both developed and developing countries… working on a wide range of topics with a diversity of approaches,” Joseph Stiglitz, IEA president and university professor, Columbia University, told The Jordan Times in an e-mail on Saturday.

“Jordan has proven an attractive location for this congress. Its location has enabled strong participation from some regions of the world [including Africa and the Middle East] that have often been underrepresented in the past. It provides a valuable opportunity to promote discussions about the economic situation in this vital and diverse region,” Stiglitz said.

Safwan Masri, executive vice president for Global Centres and Global Development, Columbia University and director of the Columbia Global Centres-Middle East, said the event provides a “unique opportunity for engagement with a number of Nobel laureates and some of the world’s leading economists and academics”, Masri told The Jordan Times on Saturday.

Various research institutions and think tanks will participate in the congress, such as the Economic Research Forum in Cairo, Kuwait Foundation for the Advancement of Sciences and Jordan’s King Abdullah II Fund for Development, said Masri.