September 12 - 13, 2006
Corus Hotel, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Organised by: Friedrich Naumann Foundation
in cooperation with: Malaysian Economic Research Institute (MIER) and ATLAS Economic Research Foundation

Mohit Satyanand

Mohit Satyanand is an entrepreneur and portfolio investor, with active business interests in education, food processing and the performing arts. Trained as an economist, he has been involved in the economic debate in India, largely through his role as a Trustee for the Liberty Institute, a Delhi-based think-tank.

An avid trekker in the Indian Himalayas, he is also a trained group-leader, and an established writer on the Indian Himalayas. He also writes a fortnightly column on wealth management for Outlook Money.

Mohamed Ariff

Emeritus Professor Dr. Mohamed Ariff, a specialist in International Economics is currently the Executive Director of the Malaysian Institute of Economic Research (MIER). Previously he held the Chair of Analytical Economics at the University of Malaya where he had also served as the Dean of the Faculty of Economics and Administration. He is a Board Member in the National Productivity Corporation (NPC) and a member of the Domestic Trade Council under the Ministry of Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs, Malaysia. He is also professionally affiliated to several institutions including the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies (ISEAS) in Singapore. He is a member of the Malaysian National Council for Pacific Economic Cooperation (MANCPEC) and a Council Member of the East Asian Economic Association. He is also a member of the International Steering Committee of the Pacific Trade and Development (PAFTAD) Conference.

He has authored, co-authored and edited many books and monographs, in addition to publishing numerous articles in academic journals and mass media. His book “The Malaysian Economy: Pacific Connections - published by Oxford University Press - won the prestigious Tun Razak Award in 1993. Most of his works deal with international trade, foreign direct investments and regional economic integration. In addition, he has also made some pioneering contributions to the theoretical and empirical literature in the field of Islamic Economics.

Dr. Wolf – Dieter Zumpfort

Dr. Wolf-Dieter Zumpfort is the honorary Deputy Chairman of the Friedrich Naumann Foundation (FNF), a German NGO working towards promoting open market, democracy and other liberal ideas.

Since 1972, he is a member of the FDP (Free Democratic Party) Germany. From 1979 to 1983, he has been a Member of Federal Parliament in Germany, the German Bundestag, and from 1987-1988 Member of Parliament of the County of Schleswig-Holstein, Germany.

Dr. Wolf-Dieter Zumpfort is a member of committees of several national and international institutions and organisations such as the Confederation of German Industry (BDI),Berlin, the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC),Paris, the Union of Industrial and Employers confederation of Europe, UNICE, Brussels, the European Services Forum, ESF, Brussels and others. He is currently the Director of Governmental Affairs of the TUI AG (former Preussag AG), Hannover, and the Head of the TUI AG Representativ Office in Berlin.

He wrote several publications on problems of national economy and international money market as well as on the topic of lobbying. Dr. Wolf-Dieter Zumpfort also is one of the editors of the Friedrich Naumann Foundation’s quarterly liberal magazine.

Mark Mullins

Mark Mullins is the Executive Director of the Fraser Institute. Prior to becoming Executive Director in September 2005, he was the Institute's Director of Ontario Policy Studies in Toronto. He has published numerous studies on government finance, tax policy, insurance, health care, electricity and urban issues over the past several years.

Mullins served as President of MSG Hedge Corporation, a privately owned consulting firm, prior to joining the Institute in 2003. He was also Senior Vice-President and Chief Economist at Midland Walwyn Capital Inc. from 1990 to 1998, where he was responsible for communicating the firm’s outlook on the North American economy and financial markets. Mullins brings extensive applied policy experience, having served as economic and fiscal policy advisor to the Canadian Alliance Party, the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada, and the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario.

He has an MA from the University of Western Ontario and a Ph.D from the London School of Economics and has written extensively on subjects such as Canadian tax reform, health policies, and stock market and investment issues. Mullins is a member of Ontario’s Task Force on Competitiveness, Productivity and Economic Progress. He is also a regular media commentator.

Thierry Rommel

Thierry Rommel is the current Ambassador and Head of the European Commission Delegation to Malaysia.

His career with the European Union goes as far back as 1983, in the Monetary Affairs Directorate. Since then has held various posts such as Economist in the Unit in charge of Economic analysis and North-South Economic Relations; within the Directorate general for External Relations, in charge of EC Relations with UN organisations in the field of sustainable development, and fight

against drugs. From 1996-2000 he was in the Directorate general for External Relations at the EC Delegation in Bangkok and successively was Development, Economic-Commercial Counsellor and finally Chargé d’affaires at the EC Delegation to Thailand, Malaysia, Cambodia, Lao PDR and Burma/Myanmar. In November 2001 he was appointed Senior Economic Advisor for the negotiation and implementation of the Association Agreements with the EU, and to the writing of the Country Strategy Papers and National Indicative Programming.

Before taking up his post as the Ambassador and Head of the new European Commission Delegation to Malaysia, he was the Deputy Head of the Policy, Planning and Coordination Unit for the Asia Directorate.

Prior to joining the Commission, he was with the International Monetary Fund in Washington D.C.

He has a Master degree in Economics from UNDP in Namur, Belgium and a PhD in Economics (international and development economics) from the University of Chicago, USA.

Colin Helmer

Colin Helmer heads the economic section at the U.S. Embassy in Kuala Lumpur. He joined the U.S. Foreign Service in 1979. He has served overseas in The Netherlands, the USSR, Sri Lanka, and Iceland, and in the U.S. Mission to the European Union in Brussels. He also has held several positions in the State Department in Washington, DC, most recently in the Office of Australia, New Zealand and Pacific Island Affairs. He holds a BSFS degree from Georgetown University, a MA in economics from George Washington University and a MS in National Security Strategy from the U.S. National War College. The latter degree was awarded with distinction.

Swarnim Waglé

Swarnim Waglé is Specialist on Trade Programs and Policy at the UNDP Asia-Pacific Regional Centre in Colombo. A development economist with seven years of experience at the World Bank and UNDP, he has worked on trade issues related to the Doha Development Agenda since 2002 as part of the UNDP Asia Trade Initiative out of bases in Viet Nam, Nepal and Sri Lanka. His research and policy advisory work in more than 15 countries covers regional and bilateral free trade agreements, intellectual property, trade in services, agriculture, textiles and apparel, investment policy, and WTO Accession.

He has taught economics to undergraduates at Kathmandu and Harvard universities, and been a newspaper columnist, regular broadcaster on the BBC Nepali Service during 1995-97 and the South Asia Editor of Harvard Asia Quarterly in 1999-00. A Nepali citizen, Swarnim is a graduate of the London School of Economics and Harvard University.

Robert Lawson

Robert Lawson received his Ph.D. from the Florida State University, Tallahassee in 1992. He has a B.S. in Economic and M.S. in Economics from the Florida State University, Tallahassee. Since 2003, Robert Lawson is senior fellow at the Buckeye Institute for Public Policy Solutions where he was Director of the Centre for Economic Growth and Prosperity from 2001 to 2003. From 2001 until now, he is owner of the George H. Moor Chair, Capital University, Columbus, Ohio. In 2002 Robert Lawson received the Faculty Award for Excellence in Research of the Capital University School of Management.

He has written and edited several books on economic issues. His articles have been published in professional journals such as the European Journal of Political Economy as well as the Asian Economic Review. Together with James Gwartney and the Fraser Institute he published the “Economic Freedom of the World Report 2004”.

Wang Xiaolu

Xiaolu is Deputy Director and Senior Fellow of the National Economic Research Institute, China Reform Foundation, Beijing, China.

He received his Ph.D. in 1998 from the Australian National University (ANU), where he also received his Master degree in 1993. He was a visiting fellow at the United Nations University, Tokyo (1997-1998), a senior research fellow and division director of the Chinese Institute for Economic System Reform of the State Commission of Economic System Restructuring, China (1985-1989). Furthermore he was working as an economics editor of the Journal of Chinese Social Sciences (1982-1985). He is also a guest professor of several universities, and has been a consultant for the World Bank, IFC, ADB, UNDP, and AusAID.

Dr. Wang has written more than 70 academic articles and book chapters in English and Chinese published internationally and in China. He specializes in the Chinese economy, with particular focus on economic growth, regional development, and economic reform.

Feng Xingyuan

Feng Xingyuan is Associate Professor at the Graduate School of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and Associate Research Fellow of Rural Development Institute. He is the co-founder and board member of Cathay Institute for Public Affairs as well as co-founder and member of Chinese Hayek Society.

He is a member of many organisations and associations such as the National Association of Promoting the County and Township Development, and the Committee of Agriculture and Forestry of Jiusan Society (a democratic party in China), the Association of German Studies, the Association of European Studies.

His research focus is economic and social order and is an expert in study on Austrian School of Economics, Freiburger School of Economics and Constitutional Economics. He has authored a number of books such as “The EMU and the Euro”, “Reducing regional Disparities in the EU and Germany,” “Rural Enterprise Finance and Informal Rural Organizational Innovations in China.” Feng Xingyuan has also co-authored the book “The European Constitution Making and Implication for China” and published dozens of newspaper articles and journals in China and abroad. Since 2006 he is Member of the Editorial Board of the Electronic Journal of Sustainable Development (EJSD), a joint venture between the University of Buckingham and International Policy Network, England. He is also Editor-in-chief of a new book series “Theory of Order and Economics Series”.

Mao Yushi

Mao Yushi founded the Unirule Institute of Economics, which is an independent think tank in China, with other four economists and acted as Director, and Chairman of Board.

He graduated from the Department of Mechanical Engineering, Shanghai Jiaotong University, and served as apprentice locomotive driver and engineer at Qiqihar Railway Administration 1950-55, then moved to the Railway Research Institute in Beijing as Research Engineer and Fellow on locomotive thermodynamics and train resistance during 1955-84.

Since late nineteen seventies, he became interested in mathematical economics and worked on the Principle of Optimal Allocation in 1979. He moved to the Institute of American Studies, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in 1984 and went to Harvard University as visiting scholar for one year during 1986 and was appointed as resource person for the Africa Energy Policy Research Network during 1987-1994. In 1990 he was invited by the University of Queensland, Australia, as visiting senior lecturer teaching advanced microeconomics. In November 2004 he was elected by the International Business Review as one of the ten most influential economists in China.

His research area concerns institutional economics, energy and environmental economics, transportation, policies on economic reform and poverty alleviation.

Rajesh Mehta

Rajesh Mehta is Senior Fellow at the Research and Information System for Developing Countries (RIS), New Delhi. He has been consultant to various national and international organisations including World Bank, FAO, ADB and UNCTAD. Professor Mehta has specialised in the areas of International Trade and Development. He has written widely in the areas of regional trading blocs, trade policies of South Asian countries, WTO-related issues, Sanitary and pysto-sanitary issues, Market Access, tariff and non-tariff barriers, forecasting, etc. He has also served on the faculty of University of Western Ontario. He did his Ph.D. in economics from the Delhi School of Economics, University of Delhi.

He has authored and co-authored seven books/monographs and has contributed regularly to national and international journals.

Dushni Weerakoon

Dushni Weerakoon is currently the Deputy Director of the Institute of Policy Studies (IPS) of Sri Lanka. Since joining the IPS as a Research Fellow in 1994, her research and publications have covered issues related to regional trade integration, macroeconomic policy and international economics. She also has extensive experience working as a consultant to international organizations and is currently a faculty member for the World Trade Organization (WTO) Asia-Pacific Regional Trade Policy Course conducted annually for government officials of the region by the WTO.

She serves in an advisory capacity on committees of the Government of Sri Lanka (GOSL) related to trade and macroeconomic policy, including as a member of the Trade and Tariff Cluster of the National Council for Economic Development. She has served as an official of the Sri Lankan delegation to the Committee of Experts (COE) negotiating the South Asian Free Trade Agreement (SAFTA) and chaired the Sub-Group on Rules of Origin in those negotiations. Dushni Weerakoon received her BSc in economics from the Queen’s University of Belfast, U.K., and her MA and Ph.D in economics from the University of Manchester, U.K.

Young-Han Kim

Professor Young-Han Kim got his Ph.D. degree in Economics from Indiana University at Bloomington, and started his researches on regional economic integration and international trade issues at Samsung Economic Research Institute from 1988. Since 1998, he has taught international trade issues at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, and Sungkyunkwan University, where he currently serves as the Chair of Economics Department. Professor Kim has served also as an economic policy advisor to the Korean Ministry of Commerce, Industries, and Energy since 2002, and Vice President of the Korean Association of Trade and Industries Studies since 2005.

Professor Kim’s major field of researches includes the analysis of industrial impacts of regional economic integration, the role of multinational firms in restructuring international division of labor focusing on fragmentation and industrial agglomeration. Recently, he is undertaking government-supported researches on the industrial impacts of Korea-Japan FTA and Korea-US FTA.