TENTATIVE AGENDA 

 

09:00 - 09:30    OPENING CEREMONY 

H.E. Mr. Abdallah Al-Dardari, Deputy Prime Minister for Economic Affairs, Syrian Arab Republic

H.E. Mr. Bader Al Dafa, Under-Secretary General and Executive Secretary, UN-ESCWA

                Mr. Maurizio Bussi, Deputy Regional Director, ILO 

                H.E. Mr. Tayseer Al-Radawi, Head of the Syrian State Planning Commission

H.E. Mr. Bader Al Dafa, Under-Secretary General and Executive Secretary, UN-ESCWA

                Mr. Nabil Safwat, Chief, Economic Development and Globalization Division, UN-ESCWA

            Press Conference 

10:15 - 10:45    COFFEE BREAK 

10:45 - 12:45    SESSION ONE: Sectoral Impact of International Financial Crisis on ESCWA Member Countries moderated by Mr. Jomo Kwane Sundaram, Assistant Secretary General for Economic Development and member of the Commission of Experts of the President of the UN General Assembly on Reforms of the International Monetary and Financial System (TBC) 

Mr. Khaled Hussein, First Economic Affairs Officer, UN-ESCWA

Mr. Mahmoud Abd El Fadil Hussein, Professor of Development Economics, Cairo University

"The impact of the crisis on the macroeconomic growth in the ESCWA Member Countries" 

Mr. Salaheddin Abosedra, Regional Advisor, Economic Development, UN-ESCWA

"The impact of the crisis on world oil market and its implications on the GCC countries" 

Ms. Nicole Moussa, Investment Trends and Data Section, UNCTAD

"The impact of the crisis on the inflows of FDI to the ESCWA Member Countries" 

Mr. Fadi Khalaf, Secretary General of the Union of Arab Stock Exchanges

"The impact of the Crisis on the Stock Markets in the ESCWA Member Countries" 

Discussion 

13:00 - 14:30    SESSION TWO: Sectoral Impact of International Financial Crisis on ESCWA Member Countries (ctnd), moderated by Mr. Jan Kregel, Senior Scholar with the Monetary Policy and Financial Structure program at the Levy Economics Institute of Board College and member of the Commission of Experts of the President of the UN General Assembly on Reforms of the International Monetary and Financial System (TBC) 

Mr. Eckart Woertz, Program Manager Economics, Gulf Research Center

"The impact of the crisis on the economies of the GCC countries with focus on the Sovereign Wealth Funds"  

Mr. Bachir Hamdouch, Professor of Economics at the Mohamed V University

"The Impact of the crisis on the inflow of workers’ remittances in the ESCWA Member Countries" 

Mr. Fouad Shaker, Secretary General, Union of Arab Banks

Mr. Farrukh Iqbal, Sector Manager, MNSED, Middle East and North Africa Region, World Bank

"The impact of the crisis on the trade of the ESCWA Member Countries" 

Mr. Hussein Amach, President of Al Jazeera University (Dair Ezzour, Syria)

"The impact of the financial crisis on the inflows of ODA to ESCWA Member Countries" 

Discussion 

DAY TWO, Wednesday 6 May 2009 

 

09:00 - 10:30     SESSION THREE: The Global Response to the Crisis and The United Nations System Response to the Crisis, moderated by M Farrukh Iqbal, Sector Manager, MNSED, Middle East and North Africa Region, World Bank (TBC) 

Mr. Yu Yongding, Director, Institute of World Economics and Politics, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Former Member of Monetary Policy Committee, People's Bank of China and member of the Commission of Experts of the President of the UN General Assembly on Reforms of the International Monetary and Financial System 

Mr. Jan Kregel, Senior scholar with the Monetary Policy and Financial Structure program at the Levy Economics Institute of Bard College and member of the Commission of Experts of the President of the UN General Assembly on Reforms of the International Monetary and Financial System 

Mr. Hazem Fahmy, Chief, Multistakeholder Unit, United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, New York 

Discussion 

10:30 - 11:00    COFFEE BREAK 

11:00 - 13:00    SESSION FOUR: National Responses to the Crisis, moderated by H.E. Mr. Tayseer Al-Radawi, Head of the Syrian State Planning Commission 

National Responses: Representatives of ESCWA Member countries

Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Yemen 

Discussion  

13:00 - 13:15    COFFEE BREAK 

13:15 - 14:45    SESSION FIVE: Regional Responses to the Crisis, moderated by Mr. Fadi Khalaf, General Secretary of Union of Arab Stock (TBC) 

Regional responses: Representative from the Arab Planning Institute, League of Arab States, Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf, Representatives of the Development Funds in the ESCWA Member Countries. 

Discussion  

DAY THREE, Thursday 7 May 2009 

 

09:00 - 10:30     SESSION SIX: From a Financial Crisis to a Job Crisis? The Social Impact of the Crisis and Policy Responses in the ESCWA Region, moderated by Ms. Christina Behrendt, Social Security Specialist, ILO 

Mr. Issam Maldaoun, Deputy Ministrer of Social Affairs and Labour, Syrian Arab Republic 

Mr. Jameel Hmeidan, Undersecretary, Ministry of Labour, Bahrain 

Mr. Fahallah Omrani, Union of Textile Workers, Jordan  

Mr. Mounir Bsat, Association of Lebanese Industrialists, Lebanon  

                Mr. Zafiris Tzannatos, Independent Consultant, Lebanon 

Discussion           

11:00 - 13:00     SESSION SEVEN: Concluding Remarks and Adoption of Declaration, moderated by Mr. Nabil Safwat, Chief, Economic Development and Globalization Division, ESCWA 

Discussion and adoption of the declaration of the Regional High-Level Consultative Forum on the Impacts of the International Financial Crisis on the ESCWA Member Countries: the Way Forward. 

END OF THE FORUM