RIS/SACEPS Workshop on Monetary Cooperation in South Asia

RIS jointly with South Asia Centre for Policy Studies (SACEPS), Dhaka, Bangladesh organized a Workshop on Monetary Cooperation in South Asia: Potential and Prospects on December 23, 2003 in New Delhi. The workshop began with remarks by Dr Nagesh Kumar, Director-General, RIS; Prof Rehman Sobhan, Executive Director, SACEPS, Dhaka; and Dr Arjun Sengupta, Chairman, SACEPS.

As is well known, monetary cooperation among the SAARC countries has attracted a lot of attention as one of the areas of potential cooperation. RIS has prepared a study on this subject. The workshop was organized to discuss the issues raised in this study, as well as to discuss the issue for macroeconomic coordination in Asia.

Shri Muchkund Dubey, President, CSD, New Delhi chaired the first session on monetary cooperation in South Asia; potential and prospects. Dr Mirza Allim Baig, Research Associate, RIS made the thematic presentation. Dr Saman Kelegama, Executive Director, Institute for Policy Studies, Sri Lanka; Professor I N Mukherji, School of International Studies, JNU; Professor Sunanda Sen of Academy for Third World Studies and Dr Ramgopal Agarwala, Senior Advisor, RIS were the panelists.

The second session on macroeconomic coordination in South Asia was chaired by Dr Sudipto Mundle, Chief Economist, ADB, New Delhi. The panelists in this session were: Dr Ramgopal Agarwala, Senior Advisor, RIS; Dr Arjun Sengupta and Prof Rehman Sobhan.