"It is of crucial importance… not only to turn the tide on inequality, which will be a very long term process, but also to find ways to confine its harmful effects on development"
Why does widening inequality around the world concern you?
Inequality may help or harm growth depending on specific circumstances but it definitely hinders people from reaching their full potentials for development. It is of crucial importance for development-led globalisation not only to turn the tide on inequality, which will be a very long term process, but also to find ways to confine its harmful effects on development.
Mr. Supachai Panitchpakdi will speak at the plenary session on Macroeconomic dimensions of inequality on 18 June.
Biographical Note
Mr. Panitchpakdi started as an officer of the Bank of Thailand, and has served as Thailand's Deputy Finance Minister, Commerce Minister, and twice as Deputy Prime Minister. In between he was for some years president of a commercial bank, and chairman of several private corporations including an international insurance company.
His international career is noteworthy for the fact that he is the first representative of a developing country to be appointed Director General of the World Trade Organisation (2002-2005) followed by two terms as Secretary General of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (2005-2013).
At present he is a board member of the Institute for Cultural Diplomacy in Berlin, a founding member of the Asia-New Zealand Foundation, and recently appointed by the UN Secretary General to serve on the High Level Panel of Experts on Re-costing.
