FONDAD
Fondad is an independent policy research centre and a forum for international discussion established in the Netherlands. Supported by a worldwide network of experts, it provides policy-oriented research on North-South issues in a globalising world, in particular international financial issues for developing countries. Fondad offers factual background information and practical strategies for policymakers and other interested groups in industrial, developing and transition countries.
History. Fondad was created in 1986 to discuss the functioning of the international monetary system and the debt crisis, with the view that the debt crisis of the early 1980s was a symptom of a malfunctioning, flawed system - see, for example, Jan Joost Teunissen's article "The International Monetary Crunch: Crisis or Scandal?", Alternatives, Volume XII, No. 3, July 1987.
Among the economists who supported the founding of Fondad were the late Robert Triffin and Jan Tinbergen. H. Johannes Witteveen, former managing director of the IMF and former minister of finance, who still actively follows current developments in global financial markets and the world economy, has been acting as a member of the Advisory Board and has contributed to several Fondad publications.
New Plans. Fondad is planning a series of workshops on the current turmoil of global financial markets, in cooperation with the North-South Institute in Canada and other organisations. The first workshop will be held in New York at Columbia University. Other workshops will follow in Asia and Europe.
New on the website. Inspired by Robert Triffin, Maria da Conceição Tavares, Jan Kregel and Wim Duisenberg, whose thoughts he extensively reports, Jan Joost Teunissen explains in a long article how crises in international finance up to the mid-eighties have been determined by "an amazingly small group" of central bankers, finance ministers and commercial bankers of the rich countries. Fondad includes "The International Monetary Crunch: Crisis or Scandal?" on its website to stimulate readers to draw lessons from history. Jan Joost Teunissen is writing a Postscript and would welcome critical comments -- for his email address, see Contact.
Asian Economic Integration, and National Development Strategies: Challenges to Asia in a Fast-Changing World - Kuala Lumpur Conference, August 2007.
With the Malaysian Institute of Strategic and International Studies (ISIS) and other co-sponsors, Fondad organised a very fruitful conference in Kuala Lumpur in August 2007. Papers were presented by Fan Gang (National Economic Research Institute), Lin See Yan (National Economic Action Council), Muhamad Chatib Basri (University of Indonesia), Maria Socorro Gochoco-Bautista (University of Philippines), Yung Chul Park (Seoul National University), Chia Siow Yue (Singapore Institute of International Affairs) and Wing Thye Woo (Brookings and University of California).
Global Imbalances and Developing Countries: Remedies for a Failing International Financial System
In June 2007, Fondad published Global Imbalances and Developing Countries: Remedies for a Failing International Financial System. This book, following up on a previous volume discussing the role of the US dollar in global imbalances, suggests what developing economies, rich countries, and the IMF can do to address global imbalances and prevent their harmful unwinding. The remedies range from capital market integration in East Asia to the creation of a new global payments system. .