#6150
#10
From: "Mikhail Slobodinskii" <mslobod@iet.ru>
Subject: Yegor Gaidar's Conference
Date: Thu, 21 Mar 2002
Dear Mr. Johnson
I write this letter on behalf of the Institute for the Economy in Transition. I am an assistant to Dr. Yegor Gaidar (former prime minister of Russian Federation). Just an hour ago we closed our conference "Economic Growth after the Communism". (Take plase Moscow, 20-21 March 2002, Hotel Aerostar) Please, find the attached file (gaidar.doc) with the brief descriprion of the conference. Not all of participants are mentioned (Like Irina Khakamada etc.) because of the limited time for this letter. In a while all presentations and discussions will be published on our site www.iet.ru.
Thank your for your work
Mikhail Slobodinskii
Information support
Institute for the Economy in Transition
101999 Moscow
Gazetny street, d 5 str 3 office 452
TEL 7-095-2294883
FAX 7-095-2024378
www.iet.ru
mslobod@iet.ru
Institute for Economy in Transition (Gaidar Institute) on March 20-21, 2002 held in Moscow an international conference "Post-Communist Economic Growth." The end of the first stage of the post-communist transformation made it urgent to discuss the character of economic growth in Russia and the possible ways of its consolidation. The following economists have taken part in the conference:
- Yegor Gaidar - IET Director and the Deputy of the State Duma of RF
- Anne Krueger - First Deputy Managing Director of the IMF,
- Arnold Harberger - Professor, UCLA
- Alexander Pochinok - Minister of Labor and Social Development of RF
- Alexei Ulyukaev - First Deputy Finance Minister of RF
- Andrei Illarionov - Economic Counselor to the RF President
- Mikhail Zadornov - Deputy Chairman of the Budget Committee of the State Duma,
and the Former Finance Minister of RF
- Arkadiy Dvorkovitch - Deputy Minister of Economic Development and Trade of RF
- Vladimir Mau - Head of the Working Center for Economic Reform under the
Government of the RF
- Sergei Dubinin - Deputy Chairman of the Board of Directors, RAO UES of Russia,
Former Chairman of the Central Bank of Russia
- William Easterly - Senior Fellow, Center for Global Development and Institute
for International Economics, Washington
- Kalman Mizshei - Director of Bureau on Europe and CIS, UNDP
- Barry Eichengreen - Professor, University of California, Berkley
- Thorvaldur Gylfason - Research Professor, University of Iceland in Reykjavik
- Michael Alexeev - Professor, University of Indiana, Bloomington
- Leon Aron - Senior Fellow, American Enterprise Institute, Washington
- Tatiana Paramonova - First Deputy Chairman of the Central Bank of Russia
- Irina Hakamada - Deputy Chairman, State Duma
- Robert Conrad - Professor, Duke University
- Niclas Sundstrom - Chief Economist-Russia and Economic-Political Strategist,
Citigroup/Schroder Salomon Smith Barney
- Alexander Zhukov- Chairman of the Budget Committee of RF
- Anatoliy Vishnevsky - Head, Center for Demography and Human Ecology
- Anders Aslund - Senior Fellow, Carnegie Foundation, Washington
All the speakers highly praised the Russian economy development after 1998. Such issues as consolidation of economic growth, creation of guarantees for sustainable economic growth in Russia became the focus of the discussion at the conference
Anne Krueger highly praised the results of the Russian economic development for the last three years and the current economic policy of the Russian government. She has named the following priorities in the economic policy in Russia: banking reform, strengthening of the ownership rights, reform of the natural monopolies, etc. In a separate presentation she shared her vision of the development of the international finance architecture and the prospects for its restructuring.
Alexei Ulyukaev has analyzed the results of the year 2001 and has described major trends in financial policy for the near future as a main prerequisite for sustainable growth. Mikhail Zadornov has proposed the vision of this issue from the point of view of lawmakers. He has stressed the need to create a stabilization fund in order to guarantee the economic growth in Russia. He also mentioned the need to turn to a three year period for budgetary planning, to include the dynamics of tariffs of natural monopolies into budgetary planning, deepening of the fiscal federalism Yegor Gaidar has warned the economists about "the dangerous conceit" and especially the politicians who try to raise the economic growth artificially. Vladimir Mau has aired this issue in detail. He stressed that artificial stimulation of economic growth can result in major economic fiasco. Aimed at the economic growth, the economic policy should correspond a simple criterion - it should not be populist and should be understood by an investor who reads Financial Times.
Andrei Illarionov on the basis of the detailed analysis of macroeconomic factors of economic development for 1990s has revealed the threats that are in the way of economic growth in Russia at present. The main threat comes from the policy of appreciation the real of ruble and from a refusal to contain the growth of tariffs of natural monopolies. Arnold Harberger has developed a detailed system of arguments against the real ruble appreciation in contemporary Russia. On the contrary, Sergei Dubinin has insisted on the real ruble appreciation and increase in the tariffs of natural monopolies, which, according to his view, should stimulate structural reforms.
Alexander Pochinok has discussed the issues of strengthening reform in the social sphere. His main conclusion was unexpected for conventional ideas about the Minister of labor and Social Development. Instead of usual complains about the shortage of budgetary funds for social sector, he has called for a deep restructuring on present budget expenditure on social needs in order to radically increase the efficiency of their use.
Barry Eichengreen and William Easterly have given their views to the reasons for insufficient of international financial institutes and have offered their vision to the ways of reform of those institutes. Naturally, their recommendation differed considerably.
Thorvaldur Gylfason has explained in detail the issues of the importance of natural resources on the future of economic growth. This influence, to his view, is in the majority of cases negative.
The work of the following panel have been organized in the framework of the conference:
- Macroeconomic Determinants of Economic Growth
- Institutional Aspects of Growth
- International Financial Institutions in Russia: Past and Future
- Budget and Fiscal Policy and Economic Growth
- Myths and Realities of the Agrarian Sector
- Social Dimensions of Economic Growth
- Political Economy of Economic Growth
- Regional Aspects of Economic Growth
- Economic Growth and Natural Resources
Detailed information on the conference and presentations will appear on IET web site: www.iet.ru
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