Honourable Chief Guest Mr Sartaj Aziz, Advisor to the Prime Minister on Foreign Affairs. Dr Asad Zainan, President of the Pakistan Society of Development Economists (PSDE) and Vice Chancellor, PIDE, Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen!

It gives me great pleasure to welcome you all to the 32nd Annual General Meeting and Conference of the Pakistan Society of Development Economists. I would especially like to welcome and thank our Chief Guest Mr Sartaj Aziz who has very kindly spared time from his busy engagements to grace this occasion.

2. I welcome our distinguished speakers, panellists, discussants and presenters who have travelled from abroad and from within Pakistan to participate in the Conference.

Ladies and Gentlemen!

3. The Society is the only Pakistani professional association of economists and social scientists that provides an institutional framework for exchange of ideas and for professional and research development. Through the Annual Meetings, it has provided an effective forum to promote dialogue among academics, researchers, and policymakers on important economic and social issues.

4. PSDE being the pioneer professional forum of Economists in Pakistan has been performing a number of academic and professional activities for more than three decades. The holding of AGM and Conference is an annual event to provide a consistent forum for policy debate and action oriented solutions. The galaxy of prominent academics which gathers here from around the globe not only provides wisdom on critical development issues but also generates meaningful dialogue on economic policy.

5. Since its inception in 1982, the Society has been at the forefront of the development discourse in Pakistan. It has fostered intellectual thinking and scholarly debate that have helped develop ideas for tackling diverse challenges facing a developing country like Pakistan.

6. The Society's membership has steadily increased to more than 1800 members including Noble Laureates and eminent scholars from around the world. The support and active participation of these members in the Annual General Meetings have kept the Society vibrant and have been vital for maintaining high standards in lectures, panel discussions and research papers.

7. I am pleased that the Pakistan Society of Development Economists (PSDE) has taken the initiative of organising this year's Annual General Meeting (AGM) and Conference on the theme of the China Pakistan Economic Corridor and Regional Integration. The 32nd AGM will certainly provide a great opportunity for policymakers, academics and other stakeholders to discuss and debate various issues pertaining to CPEC. The research papers on various aspects of CPEC would be supportive not only to assess the present phase of implementation of the plan but also to provide guidance about the way forward.

8. Having experienced the previous AGM and Conferences as a participant and joint Secretary of the Society; my aim was to take PSDE as a professional organisation to new heights. This included extending activities which were initiated by earlier Secretaries to the AGMs and conferences. One of the core activities was to extend the collaboration efforts to the development stakeholders. Since PIDE is hosting PSDE; the academic strength of PIDE was proposed to be the main collaboration handle which was extended to partners and new MOUs were signed.

PhD Graduates technical session was a new addition to the existing setup in the conference where both fresh PhDs and PhD scholars were approached to contribute their academic papers other than the conference theme. PSDE also provided a forum for Book Launch as the audience is just the right mix which can really benefit from these contributions.

9. I am pleased to report that there has been a growing interest of scholars to present and discuss their research papers in our Annual General Meetings. This year we received more than 140 Abstracts for technical papers, About 100 papers were received by the final paper submission date. These papers were reviewed on the basis of their originality, analytical rigor, and thematic relevance. After a careful review process by a Committee of Experts, and keeping in view our space constraints, 33 papers have been selected for presentation in the 9 technical sessions.

10. I am also pleased to report that the authors of these papers belong to Universities and Institutes located in different parts of the country and Abroad. During all these presentations we look forward to a fruitful interaction among researchers, policymakers and civil society.

11. The Society has the tradition to invite eminent scholars to deliver distinguished lectures on topical issues. I am pleased to report that this year we have four such lectures:

* Dr. Mark Goh K. H., Professor Business School, National University of Singapore will deliver the Allama Iqbal Lecture.

* Dr. Ehsan Choudhri, Distinguished Research Professor, Department of Economics, Carleton University Canada, will deliver the Mahbub-ul-Haque Lecture

* Dr. Arshad Zaman, Former Chief Economist and Economic Advisor to the govt, of Pakistan will deliver the A.R. Kemal memorial Lecture. And

* Dr. Ather Hussain, Director Asia Research Centre, London School of Economics will deliver the prestigious Quaid-i-Azam Lecture.

In addition to the distinguished invited lectures, we have arranged Six Panel discussions by the leading experts in the relevant areas from Pakistan and Abroad including Canada, Germany, UK and USA.

12. We have invited leading experts from diverse professional backgrounds as our Panelists and discussants and hope that their knowledge and experience will greatly enrich the deliberations of the Conference.

13. Following our tradition, I am pleased to report that we have invited Faculty and Students from Universities of Pakistan. Their participation in the Conference will not only enhance their understanding of economic and social issues but also provide them an opportunity to interact with leading scholars in the profession.

14. I would like to commend the efforts of my core team and auxiliary committees in planning and organising the conference. The team has really worked hard to assemble together leading academics and policymakers on one platform. I would also acknowledge the support of our conference organising partners who have helped us in terms of both material logistics and human resources.

Finally, it would be unfair if I do not recognise the efforts and support provided to us by the planning commission of Pakistan and CPEC centre at PIDE to realise our objective of the successful and fruitful conference. My special thanks go out to all the staff of PIDE for their dedicated efforts in organising the Conference. I am hopeful (Inshallah) that the three days conference will come up with useful policy prescriptions for making CPEC a huge success for Pakistan.

Thank You

Dr Ejaz Ghani

Secretary, PSDE