12 June 2001                                                            Press Release No. G/22/2001

ESCAP to discuss Macroeconomic Policy Analysis and Modeling
in the Economies of Central Asia

A subregional seminar will be held in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, 20-22 June 2001

BANGKOK (United Nations Information Services) -- Policy makers dealing with macroeconomic analysis and modeling from Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan are expected to participate in the seminar on Macroeconomic Policy Analysis and Modeling in the Economies of Central Asia. The subregional seminar is organized by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) in Tashkent, Uzbekistan from 20 to 22 June 2001.

The immediate objective of the seminar is to assist the Central Asian economies in strengthening national capacities in developing macroeconomic models for policy analysis. These models are capable of quantitatively evaluating macroeconomic impacts of alternative policy packages. Governments can then choose policy which produce desirable impacts and minimize the undesirable impacts. The seminar will serve as a subregional forum for sharing the experiences of Uzbekistan and other Asian countries such as Bangladesh, India, Japan, and Viet Nam in using macroeconomic models for generating policy scenarios or simulations. As such, the seminar, will enhance greatly the awareness of countries from Central Asia as regards the usefulness and limitation of models based on concrete experiences gained by other economies in Asia.

The subregional seminar is a follow-up to the two training programmes on macroeconomic modeling and policy analysis held by the Research and Policy Analysis Division of ESCAP for Uzbekistan government officials in 1998-1999. With technical assistance of ESCAP, Uzbekistan has accumulated initial experience in macroeconomic modeling for policy analysis which could be of great interest for other economies of Central Asia.  Uzbekistan is expected to present Social Accounting Matrix (SAM), Small Size Macroeconomic (SSM), and the World Bank’s RMSM-X models developed in that country.

The tentative programme of the seminar also includes presentations on Sustainable Human Development (SHD) models used in Bangladesh and developed for Viet Nam, as well as economic models for medium/long-term development plans developed in Japan.

For more information, kindly contact the seminar organizer, Mr. Eugene I. Gherman, Economic Affairs Officer, Development Rearch and Policy Analysis Division (DRPAD), ESCAP at tel no. (66-2) 288-1625, fax no. 288 3007,  or e-mail: <gherman.unescap@un.org>.

                                                                       -- UNIS --