Conference Diary

Technology Foresight Summit 2003
March 27-29, 2003, Budapest, Hungary

The Monetary Policy Role of Currency Boards: History and Practice
April 10-12, Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina

Sponsor: Central Bank of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The keynote speech will focus on the decreasing amount of discretion awarded to central banks in the conduct of monetary policy. Presentations will deal with European experiences with currency boards, lessons learned from the Argentinean experience, and the euro.

A session entitled "Flexibility of Currency Boards: An Oxymoron or Reality?" is envisioned as a survey of academic work on the contemporary practice of blending currency board rules with limited elements of flexibility, for example, changes in reserve requirements, issuance of bills, or lender of last resort functions.

Fifth Annual Bank Conference on Development Economics (ABCDE) Europe
May 15-16, 2003, Paris, France

The opening speech will be by James D. Wolfensohn, president, World Bank and the keynote address by Nicholas Stern, chief economist and senior vice president, World Bank, and Kemal Dervis, former minister of economic affairs, Turkey. Session One: Migration Flows (Kevin O’Rourke). Session Two: Trade Flows (Kevin Watkins). Session Three: Knowledge Flows (Claude Henry). Session Four: Private Capital Flows (Graciela Kaminsky, Richard Portes). Session Five: Global Public Finance (Anthony Atkinson). Session Six: Getting Results on Scale (Robert Picciotto). The afternoons will each have six parallel workshop sessions. Participation by non-Bank and non-IMF staff is by invitation only.

Annual Bank Conference on Development Economics (ABCDE)
May 21-22, 2003 Bangalore, India

The ABCDE is being held for the first time in a developing country. Accelerating Development is the theme of this year’s conference. Topics for the plenary includes: fostering entrepreneurship, innovation and growth, challenges of development in lagging regions, participation, inclusion and results, and scaling up and evaluation.

Sponsored by the World Bank Development Economics Vice Presidency (DEC), the conference is organized jointly by DEC, the office of the Bank’s South Asia Regional Chief Economist, and the Bank’s Poverty Reduction and Economic Management Unit at the New Delhi office.

Inaugural/Keynote address by S. M. Krishna, chief minister, Government of Karnataka, India; Nicholas Stern, senior vice president, Development Economics and chief economist, DEC, World Bank; Azim Hasham Premji, Chairman, WIPRO Corporation, Bangalore, India; Rakesh Mohan, Deputy Governor, Reserve Bank of India. Session One: Fostering Entrepreneurship, Innovation, and Growth (T.N. Srinivasan, Anthony J. Venables/Robin Burgess, Chaired by Carole Brookins). Session Two: Challenges of Development in Lagging Regions (Partha Dasgupta, Justin Lin, Chaired by Teresa Bhattacharya). Session Three: Participation, Inclusion and Results (Benno J. Ndulu, Jean Philippe-Platteau, Chaired by Chander Mohan Vasudev). Session Four: Scaling-Up and Evaluation (Orazio Attansio/Costas Meghir/Miguel Szekely, Esther Duflo, Chaired by Wahiduddin Mahmud). The afternoons will each have two parallel workshop sessions. Participation by non-Bank and non-IMF staff by invitation only.

Fifth International Conference on the Enterprise in Transition
May 22- 24, 2003, Split, Croatia

Organizer: Faculty of Economics, University of Split. The conference will have two focus areas: institutions, investment, and integration and new challenges for the enterprise in transition.

Public Relations—An Instrument for Transformation and Development of Higher Education in Central and Eastern Europe
May 23-25, University of Economics, Poznan, Poland

Organizers: Chair of economic journalism and public relations, University of Economics, Poznan, Poland; and UNESCO, CEPES, Bucharest, Romania.

The conference will bring together professionals and academics working in the areas of both higher education and public relations in the European transition economies. Participants will discuss current reforms and development issues as they pertain to higher education and how to forge good working relationships and create strong competition between public universities and newly established private universities. Topics will focus on

• The image of institutions of higher education: selling a "product" or fulfilling a mission?

• Differences in the public relations strategies of private and state-owned institutions of higher education.

• Fund raising, a new phenomenon. Do universities need lobbying?

• Differences in the visual identity of private and state-owned schools.

• Role of alumni associations as multipliers of a positive image.

• Role of ranking in creating positive images of a university.

• University newspapers and editing houses, their role in the school’s public relations.

Promise and Problems: Economic Development and Strategic Planning in Eastern Europe in a Globalization Context
May 27-28, 2003, Kharkiv, Ukraine

Organizers: Ministry of Economic Development and European Integration, Kharkiv National University, Kharkiv State Academy of Municipal Economy, University of Texas at Arlington, Institution of Economic-Ecological Studies of the National Academy of Science of Ukraine. Co-organizers: Kharkiv State Regional Administration and Institute East-West.

The symposium will address critical topics and professionalization issues in economic development and strategic planning. Participants will explore the current international framework as a context for local and regional economic development and strategic planning. They will investigate the following questions:

• How should local and regional economic development authorities respond to the current context of economic development and strategic planning?

• What institutional restructuring is necessary for the effective practice of economic development and strategic planning?

• Given the current framework, what are appropriate public policies and economic development strategies?

• Participants will consider the role of academic research in informing economic development theory and practice. Specifically, they will endeavor to determine

• What new research questions are necessary for public policy research to inform economic development and strategic planning?

• How can the academy better inform public policy for economic development?

Accounting and Finance in Transition: European and Asian Experiences and Public Policy Considerations
July 10-12, 2003, London, United Kingdom

The University of Greenwich, in collaboration with the Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, Beijing Renmin University of China, and Jinan University is organizing an international conference devoted to current issues facing accounting and finance during periods of rapid economic and social change.

The conference will examine issues related to the transition from a command to a market-oriented economy and its implications for accounting and finance, as well as all other aspects of accounting and finance in times of rapid social and economic change. Papers are welcome, especially those that address issues such as the failure of classical models and methodologies to grasp the nuances of emerging markets. Privatization is also a natural topic for consideration, particularly if the authors relate the influence of privatization to the development of the accounting and finance profession and its processes and procedures. Papers on accounting and finance issues in the EU may address the role of the EU as a major regulatory player, and also issues related to the EU’s influence on the development of accounting frameworks throughout Europe in both EU member countries and those countries that are existing and prospective candidate for entry to the EU. Papers on international business (international finance and financial strategy) are also welcome, as are those dealing with the future of the accounting/finance profession(s). Comparative studies on the development of the accounting profession in emerging markets are of particular interest for one of the conference tracks. Papers dealing with issues facing the accounting and finance professions in the 21st century will find a positive response from the International Program Committee.

Authors are invited to submit a full paper (in triplicate and electronically) by April 15, 2003, although it would be desirable if they could contact the Organizing Committee regarding their intention to submit a paper prior to this date.

The conference will have a number of tracks, including (tentatively): the EU and its influence, Central and Eastern Europe, public finance and public policy, the future of the profession and accounting methodology, China and Asia, and young scholars. It is also possible that one track will be organized and presented in Chinese (Mandarin).

Information and registration: 2003 Conference, Department of Accounting and Finance, The Business School, University of Greenwich, Old Royal Naval College, Maritime Greenwich Campus, 30 Park Row, Greenwich, London SE10 9LS, United Kingdom; fax.: 44-(0)20-8331-9005, email: Acc-Conf.2003@gre.ac.uk (preferred mode of communication), URL:http://www.gre.ac.uk/schools/business/Events/Account%20and%20finance.html.

The International Society for New Institutional Economics Seventh Annual Conference
September 11-13, 2003, Budapest, Hungary

In addition to economics, the conference program will include sessions on the application of institutional analysis to political science, law, and organizational behavior. The theme of the conference is institutions and change, and it will focus on examining institutional change, as well as the effects of institutions on development, transitions, and growth. Keynote addresses will be given by Douglass North and Vernon Smith.

Essential Consulting Skills International Training Event
October 26-November 1, 2003, Berlin, Germany

Topics: Consulting skills, process, customer demand, defining objectives, contracting and roles, thinking styles, bringing the whole system into one room—introduction to large stakeholder interventions, the systemic context, and creativity.

Information: http://www.change-management-toolbook.com.