Promoting Economic Cooperation in South Asia: Beyond SAFTA

Ejaz Ghani is Economics Adviser, Poverty Reduction and Economics Management Department, South Asia Region, The World Bank.

Sadiq Ahmed is the Sector Director of the Poverty Reduction and Economic Management Unit of the World Bank.  He was educated at Dhaka University, the London School of Economics, and Boston University.  He taught briefly at Dhaka University, was a Research Economist at the Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies, and then joined the World Bank in 1981.  At the World Bank he worked in many countries including Egypt, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Thailand, and former Yugoslavia, before moving to the South Asia region.  He served previously as Country Director for Pakistan and Afghanistan and Chief Economist for the South Asia region.  Since October 2006, he also concurrently manages the South Asia Finance and Private Sector Development Department.  His research interests are in areas of macroeconomic policy, public finance, trade, and development.  He has written and published extensively.  His last book, Explaining South Asia's Development Success: The Role of Good Policies was published by the World Bank in 2006.

Saman Kelegama is Executive Director, Institute of Policy Studies of Sri Lanka. He was the former President of the Sri Lanka Economic Association. Dr. Kelegama received his Doctorate from Oxford and Masters from IIT, Kanpur, India. He is also a Fellow of the National Academy of Sciences of Sri Lanka and co-editor of the South Asia Economic Journal. Among Dr. Kelegama's recent publications are Contemporary Economic Issues: Sri Lanka in the Global Context (2006), South Asia after the Quota System: The Impact of the MFA Phase-Out (2005) and Economic Policy in Sri Lanka: Issues and Debates (2004).