New centre launched to confront the challenge of technology for developing world

On 29 May 2008 international experts are discussing the role that science and new technologies are playing in emerging world economies at a two-day conference to launch a new research centre at Oxford University. The focus of the conference (29-20 May) is the rising economies in the South, known by economists as BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa). Leading economists from the World Bank and the United Nations will join world-renowned academics, from the developed and developing world, for the launch of the Sanjaya Lall Programme for Technology and Management for Development (SLPTMD). The new Programme is housed in Oxford University’s Department of International Development, and will carry out research into the development of technology and management in the developing world.

Highlights from the conference include:

Does Fast Growth in India and China Harm US Workers?

Ajit Singh, Emeritus Professor in the Department of Economics at Cambridge University, will ask whether fast growth in India and China is harming labour markets in the US and other advanced countries.

Technological catch-up in the BRICS: what lessons can we learn?

Keynote lectures by Augusto Alcorta, from the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) and William Maloney, lead economist with the World Bank.

BRICS and the world economy

Deepak Nayyar, Professor of Economics at Jawaharlal Nehru University, India, will examine to what extent China, India, Brazil and South Africa are engines of growth in the world economy.

Anne Miroux, from the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), will examine third world multi-nationals and foreign direct investment between developing countries.

Alan Rugman, Professor of Management from Indiana University, US, will examine how less developed countries are managing to integrate into the global economic system.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         Date: 29-05-2008