Growth Commission

The independent Commission on Growth and Development was launched in April 2006 and is supported by multilateral and bilateral donors (AusAID, Australian Government; Department for International Development, DFID; SIDA, Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs; William and Flora Hewlett Foundation; and the World Bank Group).

The Commission comprises 21 members (including 15 from developing countries) with policy and business experience. There are two academics on the Commission: the Chair, Michael Spence, Nobel Laureate and former Dean of the Stanford Business School, and Robert Solow, Nobel Laureate and Professor Emeritus, Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The other Commissioners include (in alphabetical order):

*Montek Singh Ahluwalia, Deputy Chairman, Planning Commission, India
*Kemal Derviş, Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme and formerMinister for Economic Affairs and the Treasury, Turkey
*Alejandro Foxley, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Chile
*Danuta Hübner, European Commissioner for Regional Policy
*Carin Jämtin, former Minister for International Development, Sweden
*Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, former Prime Minister of Peru
*Trevor Manuel, Minister of Finance, South Africa
*Mahmoud Mohieldin, Minister of Investment, the Arab Republic of Egypt
*Robert Rubin, Chairman, Citigroup
*Han Duck-soo, Current Prime-Minister, former Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance and Economy, Republic of Korea
*Goh Chok Tong, Senior Minister in Cabinet and Chairman of the Monetary Authority of Singapore
*Zhou Xiaochuan, Governor of the People's Bank of China
*Ernesto Zedillo, Director of the YaleCenter for the Study of Globalization and former President of Mexico

The Commission’s role, like that of the Club of Rome and the Brandt Commission preceding it, is to increase understanding of economic growth and to present strategies that can be endorsed by experienced and credible leaders from developing countries.

Over a two-year period the Commission’s work aims to: • Take stock of the state of knowledge on economic growth—both theoretical and empirical—from developed and developing countries.• Provide the best possible advice to governments in the developing world for generating rapid and sustained growth—defined as annual growth of 7 percent over a period of 25 years or more.• Give governments, donors, and others the most current assessment of the forces that drive rapid and sustained growth in a globalized world.

Over the past year, the Commission has commissioned over 50 thematic papers and 25 country case studies from internationally recognized experts, which will be published in a soon-to-be launched working paper series. A series of workshops have been held over the last six months with universities and think tanks to review the papers and solicit feedback. The Commission is also seeking to share preliminary findings and key issues from the research with a broader audience and to get their feedback. The final report will be published in June 2008.

Some articles of interest written by the Commission Chair, Mike Spence, and Vice-Chair, Danny Leipziger, on the topic of growth appeared in the Financial Times [http://www.growthcommission.org/articles/FT%20Mike%20and%20Danny.pdf] and the Wall Street Journal [http://www.growthcommission.org/articles/Wealth%20of%20Nations%20Article%20Part%201.pdf]

External links

*http://www.growthcommission.org/