Appointment of Dr. Nagesh Kumar as ESCAP chief economist and director of MPDD

Executive Secretary of ESCAP Dr. Noeleen Heyzer appointed Dr. Kumar as chief economist and director of the Macroeconomic Policy and Development Division (MPDD). He assumed this position on 11 May 2009.

From 2002 to May 2009, Dr Kumar served as Director-General of Research and Information System for Developing Countries (RIS), a New Delhi-based premier public-funded policy think-tank devoted to international economic and development issues. During 1993-1998, Dr Kumar served the faculty of the United Nations University-Institute for New Technologies (UNU/INTECH, now UNU-MERIT) in Maastricht , the Netherlands and directed its research programme on Globalization, FDI and technology transfers. He has also served as a consultant to the World Bank, Asian Development Bank, UNDP, UNCTAD, UNIDO, UN-DESA, ILO, the Commonwealth Secretariat, and the Commission on Intellectual Property Rights, among others.

Dr Kumar has served on the board of directors of the Export-Import Bank of India, and on the Governing Boards of the International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development (ICTSD), Geneva; the South Asia Centre for Policy Studies (SACEPS), Kathmandu; and the Institute of Studies in Industrial Development, New Delhi, besides a number of committees, task forces and expert groups set up by the Government of India. Dr Kumar was nominated by the Indian Government on the Track-II Study Group on Comprehensive Economic Partnership of East Asian Countries (CEPEA), and the Expert Group on Economic Research Institute on ASEAN and East Asia (ERIA) set up in 2007 by the leaders of the East Asia Summit. He chaired the regional study group set up by the SAARC Secretariat that prepared a blueprint for liberalization of trade in services in South Asia currently under negotiations; and an ERIA study group on infrastructure development in East Asia.

Holding a PhD in Economics from the Delhi School of Economics, Dr Kumar is recipient of the Exim Bank of India 's first International Trade Research Award in 1989 and a GDN Medal for best research awarded by the World Bank and the Japanese Government in 2000.

Dr Kumar has written extensively on the development cooperation, developmental impact of FDI, industrial and technology development policies, the challenge of new technologies for development, on regional economic co-operation in Asia, and on WTO and development, among other themes, resulting into 15 books and over 80 research papers in international and national peer reviewed journals, among other publications. His recent books include: Asia's New Regionalism and Global Role (Singapore: ISEAS, 2008); International Competitiveness and Knowledge-based Industries in India (Oxford University Press, 2007); India-ASEAN Economic Relations: Meeting the Challenges of Globalization (Singapore: ISEAS, 2006); Towards an Asian Economic Community: Vision of a New Asia, (Singapore: ISEAS, 2005); Reforms, Labour Markets and Social Security in India (Oxford University Press, 2004); Protecting Foreign Investment: Implications of a WTO Regime and Policy Options (Zed Press, London, 2003); Globalization and the Quality of Foreign Direct Investment (Oxford University Press, 2002).

He co-founded the South Asia Economic Journal (published by Sage) and was its co-editor during 2000-2009. He writes a monthly column ‘Trading Ideas' in The Economic Times ( New Delhi ) .

Contact info: nkumar@un.org

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