Zambia, Second Visit for IGC

Mark Henstridge (IGC Deputy Executive Director), Paul Collier (IGC Co-Academic Director) and Kareen El Beyrouty (IGC Country Fellow) visited Lusaka between 9-11th June 2010 to initiate full engagement with the Government of Zambia.

Growth questions and concerns were discussed with the Ministry of Finance, the Treasury, the Central Bank and consultations were held with representatives from donor organisations.

Discussions focused on resource management, including a comparison of Zambia’s structure of mineral taxation with other countries, transport (infrastructure and management) and agriculture. The decline in tax revenue/GDP is also a prominent challenge for the government of Zambia, and could be amenable to IGC rapid response work.

Discussants included the Governor of the Bank of Zambia, the Deputy Governor, the Minister of Finance, the Secretary to the Treasury, and the Economic Advisor to the President.

The IGC has begun to ascertain with the Government of Zambia the demand for rapid policy response work and research. Cooperation with the Bank of Zambia is already underway, through a DFID-funded book project on economic policy with which the IGC will participate.

The IGC looks forward to establishing the country program in the months ahead.

Meetings:

Caleb Fundanga - Governor of the Central Bank of Zambia
Situmbeko Musokotwane - Minister of Finance, Government of Zambia
Kapil Kapoor - World Bank Country Manager, Zambia
Dr. Mwilola Imakando - Executive Director, Zambia Institute for Policy Analysis & Research (ZIPAR); President, Economics Association of Zambia
Likolo Ndalamei - Secretary to the Treasury, Government of Zambia
Bob Liebenthal - National Coordinator, MCA; Technical Advisory Group Member, ZIPAR
Mike Hammond - Head of Office, DFID
Alan Whitworth - Economic Advisor, DFID
Kevin Quinlan - Deputy Head of Office, DFID
Jacob Mwanza - Former Central Bank Governor and Chairman, Finance Bank
Richard Chembe - Economic Advisor to the President of Zambia

Update

6th September 2010
New Growth Week speakers

The IGC is delighted to confirm new speakers for Growth Week: Ricardo Hausmann, Ronald Fischer, Geeta Kingdon and Rama Sithanen

24th March 2010
Transport infrastructure and economic growth in China

What is the impact of access to transport networks on economic growth? Working in China, Abhijit Banerjee, Esther Duflo and Nancy Qian will use the historical determinants of the country’s rail network construction to examine the impact of transport on trade and growth in the areas located on or near these communication channels. Read more...

24th March 2010
On the distribution of climate damages in the poor world

Policy-makers increasingly agree that climate change poses a serious threat to world order. But there remains limited understanding of how the economic impact of climate change will be spread across the world, and this restricts progress on policies to mitigate the effects. John Hassler and colleagues will develop new models to estimate the different welfare effects of such policies around the world. Read more...

24th March 2010
Joint workshop with AERC

The agriculture programme will organize a workshop with AERC in Nairobi in December.