Blooming economists in South Asia to shine in Colombo

Young and talented economists in South Asia are to gather and share their knowledge and research findings at the 12th South Asia Economic Students’ Meet (SAESM) to be held 3 and 4 April at the BMICH.

The event will be hosted by the University of Colombo, for the third time with the partnership of the Word Bank and other corporate sponsors. The Colombo SAESM this year, is conducted under contemporary economic theme of ‘South Asia in the Asian Century’ with the expectations to accommodate an economic perspective to the contemporary situation in the region. 

Prof. Sirimal Abeyratne, who is one of the co-founders of SAESM and chief organiser in Colombo SAESM 2016, commenting on the event said, SAESM assist economic undergraduates in South Asia in multiple ways to develop themselves and pave the way to take the local talent in to international level. 

“When we started SAESM our objective was to enhance the talents and abilities of young economists and bring them up to the level of brightest economists in the globe. After a decade or so, we were able to produce quality and talented economists from the South Asian region who were given enormous support through SAESM,” Prof. Abeyratne added.  The event provides a platform to the Economics undergraduates in local universities for networking, knowledge sharing, and fostering a collective understanding in issues of and formulating strategies for a South Asian economic development and prosperity. The conference is organized by the undergraduate students with the guidance of the staff members and it will consist of student’s conference, quiz competition and a budding economist’s competition. The participants for the event will be the students from University of Colombo and other local universities, Dhaka University of Bangladesh, Delhi University of India, Lahore University of Management Sciences of Pakistan, Kabul University of Afghanistan, Royal Thimpu College in Bhutan, and Tribhuvan University in Kathmandu. 

SAESM, has been in practice for the last 12 years hosted by each country, after its inauguration in 2004 with its first meet in Delhi as a pilot project to meet the growing demand for sharing of knowledge, experience and practices in the field of economics. The main objective of initiating the event was to promote understanding of economic development and regional cooperation amongst the students who are to be the future leaders, managers and the policy makers in the region.