Your Excellencies
Distinguished delegates
Ladies and Gentlemen

It gives me great pleasure to welcome you all on behalf of Dr. Rima Khalaf our Executive Secretary and Under Secretary General to the UN House in Beirut to our gathering of distinguished experts and illustrative expertise to discuss and Issue of Macroeconomic Simulations for MDG Achievement.

In the last three decades the literature of Macroeconomic Modeling has benefitted from innovative techniques that have been increasingly enhanced in order to be used as tools for analysts and policy makers.
Among these, macroeconometric and general equilibrium modeling have come to the centre stage. These techniques have helped decision-makers to take informed decision on a variety of issues such as measuring the impact and identifying the winners and losers of trade liberalization, tax reforms, external shocks, etc. In the last decade or so, the literature has also focused on the impact of social and MDG-related indicators. Among these new techniques, MAMS (Maquette for Millennium Development Goal Simulations) is a model for economy-wide, country-level analysis of medium- and long-run development policies, including strategies for reducing poverty and achieving the MDGs. MAMS has been applied to more than 35 developing countries. It allows a highly flexible model disaggregation. For example, the core model may be used for macro analysis based on a database that can be assembled quickly for any country with basic macro statistics or go to a more data-intensive level by using household-level data in order to capture feedback effects between macro-level and micro-level variables.

To date, some of these techniques have been used in our region, with differing outcomes, based on country-level initiatives and capacities. Today, we intend to re-launch such a technical discussion and see how we can create a continuum within our community between the global knowledge that some of our invitees hold, the regional level that can be a formidable transmission engine of such a knowledge, and the national level which is the ultimate beneficiary.

Other regions such as Latin America and East Asia have moved quickly in this critical field, and in time of a global economic crises combined with protracted instability and high uncertainty in our region, decision-makers desperately need high-level advisory services and technical assistance to face an increasingly complex globalized economy where risk, social impact, and opportunity costs need to be calculated carefully.
We hope that this two-day meeting can result in feasible options on the optimal direction this region should be heading through the crucial exchange of views and experience that experts such as you can generate. On ESCWA’s side, I can say that we will ensure that we are fully committed to supporting all of you in this great and challenging endeavor.

Allow me again to welcome you to this serious conference. Our expectations for its success are high but so is our confidence in your abilities and expertise to realize these expectations and hope.