AGAINST THE ODDS: Lessons From the Recovery in The Baltics
Riga, Latvia
June 5, 2012
A Conference on "Lessons From the Recovery in the Baltics" will be held in Riga, Latvia at The Great Guild on Tuesday, June 5, 2012
This day-long conference will bring together prominent policymakers, academics, and civil society representatives to discuss the policies that helped Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia overcome the crisis, restore economic growth, and make progress toward—and in Estonia’s case achieve—the goal of euro adoption. It will address the political, economic, or social factors that made the adjustment in the Baltic countries feasible; how to prevent a reemergence of vulnerabilities in these countries; the role of the Fund and the EC in supporting the adjustment effort in Latvia and the Baltics; whether the adjustment in Latvia and the Baltics can be seen as a model for countries in the euro zone; and what lessons the euro area crisis holds for countries like Latvia and Lithuania that want to adopt the euro.
The conference is open by invitation only. Registered attendees will be required to present photo identification on entering The Great Guild in Riga.
The Great Guild in Riga, Latvia
Tuesday, June 5, 2012
| 10:30 – 11:30 | Registration, welcome coffee |
| 11:30 |
Webcast 
Speech
|
| 11:45 – 13:00 |
Session I: Crisis Management and Recovery in Latvia and
the Baltics The first session will examine the causes of the crisis and the challenging policies taken to address it – fiscal, financial sector, and structural reforms.
|
| 13:00 – 14:30 | Buffet Lunch |
| 14:30 – 16:00 |
Session II: The Remaining Challenges As Latvia and the other Baltic countries emerge from the crisis and aim at (or succeed in) euro adoption, what policies are needed to strengthen the recovery and to secure competitiveness and growth under the fixed exchange rate or common currency?
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| 16:00 – 16:30 | Coffee Break |
| 16:30 – 18:00 |
Session III: High-Level Panel—Lessons from Latvia
and the Baltics What lessons should European policymakers draw from the adjustment experience of Latvia and the Baltics?
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Mr. Bērziņš was elected President of Latvia in
June 2011. He served as parliamentarian from 2010 to 2011 and from 1990 to 1993
when Latvia regained independence. Mr. Bērziņš was previously the
President of the Latvian Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the President of the
Latvijas Unibanka. He holds an economics degree from the Latvian State University.
Ms. Lagarde has been the Managing Director of the IMF since 2011.
Previously, she was a member of the French government starting in 2005, including
as Minister of Finance, Minister for Agriculture and Fisheries, and Minister for
Foreign Trade. Before Ms. Lagarde was a lawyer with the international law firm Baker
& McKenzie and served as Chairman of the Global Strategic Committee. She has
a Master’s degree from the Political Science Institute in Aix en Provence and holds
a law degree from University Paris X.
Mr. Henriksson has been the President of NASDAQ
OMX Stockholm since 2010. Previously, he was a Board member of the IMF from January
2008 to January 2010, and held several positions at the Ministry of Finance in Sweden,
including as State Secretary responsible for economic policy. He has a Master’s
degree in engineering complemented with graduate studies in economics at the Stockholm
university.
Mr. Dombrovskis has been Prime Minister of Latvia
since 2009. He was previously a member of the European Parliament, and served as
Minister of Finance from 2002 to 2004. Prior, Mr. Dombrovskis held
several positions at the Bank of Latvia, including that of chief economist from
1998 to 2002. In 2011 he co-authored How Latvia came through the Financial Crisis.
He has a Master’s degree in physics and a Bachelor’s degree in economics.
Mr. Borg became Sweden’s Minister of Finance
in 2006. He was previously chief economist of the Moderate Party and has served
as an advisor to the Swedish central bank and as head of the economic analysis department
at Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken. Mr. Borg was a political advisor to the Prime
Minister during the economic crisis in the early 1990s. He studied political
science, philosophy, and economics at the universities in Uppsala and in Stockholm.
Ms. Šimonytė has been Lithuania’s
Minister of Finance since 2009. Prior she held various positions in the Ministry
of Finance including as Chief Economist of the Tax Division; Director of the Tax
Department, and as Undersecretary of the Ministry from 2004 to 2009. Ms. Šimonyte
has a Bachelor’s degree in business administration and a Master’s degree
in finance from Vilnius University.
Mr. Blanchard is the Economic Counselor and the
Director of the Research Department at the IMF. He has had a long career with MIT,
where he served as the Chairman of the Economics Department from 1998 to 2003. Mr.
Blanchard is currently on leave from MIT. He has been an adviser for the Federal
Reserve bank of Boston since 1995. Mr. Blanchard obtained his PhD in economics from
MIT and his Bachelor’s degree at Paris Dauphine University
Mr. Giudice is responsible for the surveillance
of Greece, and its Economic Adjustment Program, at the European Commission, DG ECFIN.
From 2009 until May 2012, he was the EU mission chief for Latvia. He has served
as economist with the EC since 1994, including in the private office of the Commissioner
for economic and monetary affairs Joaquín Almunia. Mr. Giudice is an economics graduate
of the Bocconi University and of the Institute for International Policy Studies,
Milan.
Mr. Raudseps is one of Latvia’s leading journalists
and commentators. He was one of the founders of the daily Diena and subsequently
its managing editor and editorial page editor. He recently founded the weekly news
magazine "Ir". In 1990 he joined the Popular Front, which led the quest
for Latvian independence. Mr. Raudseps received a degree in Russian and Soviet Studies
from Harvard University.
Mr. Ligi has been Estonia’s Minister of
Finance since 2009 and oversaw the country’s introduction of the euro. Mr.
Ligi served as Minister of Defense from 2005 to 2007. He was a member of the Estonian
Parliament, from 1995 to 2005 and from 2007 to 2009. Mr. Ligi has an MBA from Estonian
Business School and studied geography and international economics at Tartu University.
Mr. Vilks has been Latvia’s Minister of
Finance since November 2010. Prior to his appointment, he was economic and financial
advisor to Prime Minister Dombrovskis from 2009 to 2010 and chief economist at SEB
Banka from 2007 to 2009. Mr. Vilks is a trained geographer with a degree from the
University of Latvia.
Mr. Corsetti is Professor of Macroeconomics at
the University of Cambridge and part-time professor at the European University Institute
in Florence. He was previously Associate Professor of Economics at the University
of Bologna and is a member of the editorial board of the IMF Economic Review. Mr.
Corsetti has a PhD in economics from Yale University.
Ms. Hermansson is Chief Economist at Swedbank
and overseas a team of economists based in Stockholm, Riga, Tallinn and Vilnius.
She has held positions at Sweden’s Ministry of Finance and at the Swedish
International Development Cooperation Agency. Ms. Hermansson co-chairs the Conference
Board’s Council of European Economists and is a graduate of Stockholm School
of Economics.
Mr. Griffiths has been IMF’s Latvia mission
chief since 2008. Prior he was the mission chief for Macedonia. Mr. Griffiths started
his career at the Fund in 1993, where he has worked on the Thailand, Indonesia and
Turkey crises programs. Previously he held teaching positions at Exeter College,
Oxford and at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute. Mr. Griffiths has a PhD in economics
from Oxford University.
Ms. Freeland was appointed editor of Thomson Reuters
Digital in 2011 and joined the company in 2010 as Reuters global editor-at-large.
Prior, Ms. Freeland held several positions with the Financial Times including as
the US managing editor, Moscow bureau chief and Eastern Europe correspondent. She
authored Sale of a Century: The Inside Story of the Second Russian Revolution,
and has a bachelor’s degree in history and literature from Harvard University.
Mr. Asmussen has been a Member of the Executive
Board of the European Central Bank since January 2012. He is responsible for the
Directorate General for international and European relations and for the Directorate
General for legal services. Prior to joining the ECB, Mr. Asmussen served as State
Secretary at the German Ministry of Finance from 2008 to 2011. He has a Master’s
degree in Business Administration from the Bocconi University in Milan.
Mr. Rehn has been the European Commissioner for
Economic and Monetary Affairs since 2010 and Vice-President of the Commission since
2011. He was previously the Commissioner for Enlargement. Mr. Rehn was a member
of the Finnish Parliament from 1991 to 1995 and of the European Parliament from
1995 to 1996. He has a PhD in international political economy from Oxford University.
Ms. Burrow was elected General Secretary of ITUC
in June 2010. Prior to that, Ms. Burrow was the President of the Australian
Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) starting in 1992. She served as inaugural President
of the ITUC when it was founded in 2006, and of the International Confederation
of Free Trade Unions (a predecessor organization to the ITUC).