AGM 2014
Since a huge amount of time, effort and money goes into our PSDE Annual Meetings, it is worth planning them well, to get maximum bang-for-the-buck. Notes on an initial meeting were circulated, and several people have responded with good suggestions. Not all good ideas can be implemented, and we will have to carefully select those which have the highest priority.
ECONOMETRIC SOCIETY: I wrote to Ali Khan, who used to be a regular visitor at these meetings. He suggested that we should revive connections with the prestigious Econometric Society as follows:
And now that you are at the helm, it might be worth also reviving the contacts with the Econometric Society. You are in an ideal position to do that, and both Bhaskar Dutta and Arunava Sen have been mentioning this to me over the years. As you are undoubtedly aware, Kaushik Basu is now the Chief Economist at the World Bank. Also scholars from Europe and Latin America have been telling me over the years that they would love to come to Islamabad, and learn about the country.
We could have a joint meeting of the Econometric Society, together with the PSDE – that would make it a higher profile event, especially if we can get these international scholars.
ACTION: All interested parties are welcome to attend the second planning meeting for AGM 2014, tentatively scheduled for Friday 31st January at 9:00am. [Zaheer to notify all, get RSVP, and arrange venue for meeting]
ACTION: We can also plan a joint meeting for the 10th International Conference on Islamic Economics & Finance in Islamabad in 2015 – this is the biggest event in Islamic Economics and very prestigious. It is held on a two year basis. Islamabad was tentatively proposed as the venue at the 9th meeting which was held in Istanbul. I will launch the process to arrange for this very soon. [Asad Zaman]
AGM 2014 Planning Committee
We are forming a committee consisting of Dr. Durr-e-Nayab, Dr Idrees Khwaja, Dr. Usman Mustafa, and Dr. Hassan Mohsin and myself, to plan the next AGM. Prior to planning the future, a report (for internal consumption) on what was achieved in the previous AGM, and what could or should our realistic targets be for the next AGM. Did we have policy impact, publicity, build networks with foreign researchers, create social capital, start joint research with outsiders, etc. There should be an assessment on what goals are worth achieving with such conferences (which are expensive and time consuming and also involve investment of fairly large amounts of human capital). So we should work hard to get bang for the buck. This requires some thoughtful planning. This is a preliminary committee to choose topic, and