Top global economist Dr. Roy to speak at Ceylon Chamber anniversary forum

The Ceylon Chamber of Commerce (CCC), the pioneering business chamber in the country will turn 173 years on 25 March.

In celebration of this significant milestone, the CCC will hold an anniversary forum for its distinguished members and top corporate personnel on 22 March from 5.30p.m. to 8p.m. at the Golden Pond, Hotel Taj Samudra, Colombo.   

The keynote address at the event will be delivered by Dr. Jayanta Roy, an internationally respected trade and macro economist with close to 40 years of development experience worldwide. Currently Dr. Roy is a Senior Economic Adviser to Deloitte Consulting LLP.

Previously, Dr. Roy served as the Lead Economist of the World Bank for Europe and Middle East. He has led structural adjustment missions to Turkey, Lebanon, Yemen, Egypt and Jordan. He also led complex trade policy missions in several countries and represented the World Bank in key trade policy and trade and transport facilitation discussions at the WTO, where he was recognised as a key trade policy contact person from the World Bank.

He has led efforts in structural adjustment lending, and sector adjustment loans in energy, agriculture, and financial sector and worked in a number of countries including Turkey, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, China, India, Bangladesh, Yemen, Saudi Arabia and other GCC countries.

Dr. Roy has held senior policy making positions in the Government of India, where, as the Economic Adviser in the Commerce Ministry, he was a key member of the team that designed and implemented economic and structural reforms to open up the Indian economy.

He provided valuable inputs into the US-India Nuclear Deal and also advised the 13th Finance Commission of India on fiscal transfer matters related to the North-Eastern states. Dr. Roy also represented the Indian private sector in Government of India appointed Joint Study Group in examining the feasibility of free trade agreement with China, Japan, Korea, ASEAN, EU and Singapore.

He made significant contributions in furthering bilateral economic relations between India and the USA.

Dr. Roy has written extensively on trade policies and institutions and related topics such as national and economic security. He has published three books, over 50 papers/reports and about 75 articles in an op-ed page in a leading Indian financial paper.

He has also taught at the World Bank Institute, Cornell University, the University of California at Santa Cruz, the University of Warwick, UK, and the Indian Institute of Management at Calcutta. Dr. Roy earned a PhD in Economics from the University of California at Berkeley.  

The Anniversary Forum will be followed by cocktails.

Those interested in attending this event may contact Ayoni Waniganayake on +94 11 5588804 or [email protected].