Feature

6th South Asian Economics Student's Meet 2009

Gaushey Shahriar

THE economics department of the University of Dhaka organised the 6th South Asian Economics Students' Meet 2009 in Dhaka. The two day event was held on the 9th and 10th of December. This international congregation was a platform for students from all over South Asia to engage in a constructive battle to demonstrate the best of their potential as future economists. Five countries namely Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka participated in this war of the economists.

The Honorable Finance Minister of the Government of Bangladesh Abul Maal Abdul Muhith and Prof. Abul Barakat, Chairman, Department of Economics, University of Dhaka inaugurated the event in the presence of notable economists from South Asia. Reputed corporate entities in the country sponsored the programme .The sponsors of the event were Beximco ltd., National Bank ltd. , Standard Chartered Bank ltd., Janata Bank ltd., Prime Bank ltd., Exim Bank ltd. and United Commercial Bank ltd. and the Institute of Financial Management and Research, India.

Reputed Universities from the South Asian region included University of Dhaka, BRAC University, Ramjas College, University of Delhi, ST. Stephens College, Delhi, St. Xavier's College, Mumbai, Miranda House, Delhi, Sacred Heart College, Cochin, Symbiosis School of Economics, Pune, St, Joseph's College, Bangalore, St. Xavier's College, Kolkata, Lahore University of Management Sciences, Lahore School of Economics, University of Colombo, University of Sabaragamuwa, Kathmandu University, and Tribhuvan University.

The inauguration ceremony and the programmes for the first day were held in Hotel Sheraton of the city. The event featured presentations of research papers on contemporary topics, the Budding Economist Contest and an Economics Quiz Competition. Although, there was more than one university from all participating countries, each country participated in the event as a team .The participating universities had to present a research paper on eight different topics important in the context of the contemporary times. The topics included Multilateral and Regional Integration, Food Security, Agrarian Land and Aquarian Reform, Global Economic Crisis, Human Development and Poverty, Environment, Nexus between energy power and development, and SMEs/Informal sector and Financial Economy. In the afternoon of the first day, the first round of the Budding Economist Contest took place. The first round featured a written examination. The written examination was conducted in two phases. The subject of the first phase was Economic Theory and covered both micro and macroeconomics. The second phase focused on quantitative economics and spanned over statistics, econometrics and mathematical economics. IFMR will provide an opportunity for internship to the Budding Economist of South Asia this year at its centre in Chennai.

The second day of the event, started with the round two of the Budding Economist contest. This round was titled Extempore on Visual Economics. Five participants from the first round moved into the second round. In this round, the participants had to give an interpretation of a still picture from an economist's perspective. The still pictures were widely diversified and tricky to interpret, especially given that, the participants had only about 30 seconds to come up with their interpretation. One such picture depicted the fuel meter of a car with the indicator at near zero level. A participant brought in the concept of alternative sources of energy to interpret the picture. He emphasized on the scarcity of energy resources that modern civilization faces and stressed on the need to come up with sustainable alternative sources of energy to fuel the continuous economic growth.

In the afternoon of the second day, the third round of the Budding Economist contest was held. This was basically an interview round for the participants. The afternoon session also included the Economics Quiz competition. All events in the afternoon session were held in the Senate Building of Dhaka University.

The programme ended with the prize giving ceremony and a closing dinner in Hotel Sheraton. Prof. AAMS Arefin Siddique, Vice Chancellor, University of Dhaka, and Prof. Abul Barakat, Chairman, Department of Economics, University of Dhaka, were present during the prize giving ceremony. Bisma Haseeb Khan of Lahore University of Management Sciences emerged as the Budding Economist of South Asia 2009. Pakistan emerged as the champion of the Economics Quiz Competition.