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Final Report of the CES 2008-09 Board of Directors

Title Final Report of the CES 2008-09 Board of Directors
Date 2009-09-15
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Final Report of the CES 2008-09 Board of Directors
August 31, 2009
 
Dear CES Members,
 
The CES 2008-09 Board completed our term on August 31, 2009.  On behalf of the Board, I would like to thank you for the privilege of serving you and our society during the past year.
 
During our term, we aimed at increasing CES membership and improving services for CES members.  We also gave an emphasis on CES’ long run benefit that goes beyond our term. Despite the global financial crisis coming at our primary fundraising time and the H1N1 emerging during our major conference time, we have delivered a rigorous level of services to achieve these goals.  This was made possible only through our Board’s dedication and your support.  Here is a brief summary of what we have done in the current term. 
 
1)      Membership
  • CES institutional membership been institutionalized in the Bylaws.  Twelve institutions in China became our new institutional members.
  • In collaboration with our Executive Director, Dr. Shuming Bao, CES web has been improved in many aspects including institutional membership, board of regent, conference paper management, gallery, and payment handling.
  • CES brochures have been developed, printed and distributed at many events. 
  • CES flyers have been updated, reprinted, distributed and passed on to future CES leaders through the Office.
2) Conferences  
  • Business meeting and Reception at the ASSA Annual Conference in San Francisco (January 2009) was successfully held.  Ten major Chinese universities appeared to recruit, and a dinner gathering followed.  More than 120 people showed up.  CES promotion materials were distributed.  The food and meal were coordinated by the President Assistant, Lemin Wu.
  • CES’ international conference on Economic Integration in the Greater China Region was held in Macao (March 2009), co-organized by the University of Macau. Leading economists, Robert Koopman, Lawrence Lau, Chien-Fu Jeff Lin, Sir James Mirrlees, Xiaolu Wang, Wing Thye Woo, and Yuxin Zheng gave talks as invited speakers. About 100 people participated including a number of senior CES members. The entire event was organized by CES Board Director Fung Kwan and his assistants.
  • CES 2009 Annual conference, Chinese Economic Growth in Global and Regional Context, was successfully held in Nanning, Guangxi (June 2009) hosted by Guangxi University.  We had Sir. James Mirrlees, Nobel Laureate, Dr. Gregory Chow, and Dr. Chung Ming Kuan as keynote speakers.  Despite that the H1N1 has prevented one keynote speaker and some presenters from coming to Nanning at the last minute, we have about 250 registered delegates and more than 100 auditors from Guangxi University, a total of more than 350 people participated in the conference over the two days of meetings. Among whom, about 20 college deans in Chinese universities attended. Presenters came from 14 countries and regions in addition to mainland China. (For details, see the conference report on the web.)  Vice President Philip Brown has assumed the responsibility of reviewing papers, which is the core task of the conference organization.  Fung Kwan, Geng Xiao and Diana Tsai have all contributed significantly in terms of fundraising and speaker invitation.
  • Work has also been completed to organize three sessions for 2010 ASSA conference in Atlanta (January 2010).  Submitted papers are reviewed by two reviewers, involving nine established scholars. The acceptance rate is less than 50%.
3) Publications
  • Five special issues from alternative journals including our own CER were secured to publish papers/posters presented at the Nanning conference.  We are in the process of receiving and reviewing papers. Thanks go to Drs. Yijiang Wang, Philip Brown, Jack Hou, Shunfeng Song, Junjie Hong and Chengqi Wang.
  • One special Journal issue was secured to publish selected papers from the Macao conference, coordinated by Fung Kwan.
  • Funding is secured from a private donor for the publication of a Chinese book from the conference.  The funding is multi-year and will be available for future CES publication use.  The editorial work is in progress.
  • We are also working on publishing a book in English to be circulated outside China.
 4) Other services
  • We successfully administered Gregory-Paula Chow Teaching Fellowship.  Seven highly qualified CES members were selected to teach in Chinese universities.  All have finished their duties.  Thanks go to Board Director Shaomin Huang who has coordinated the project.
  • Gregory-Paula Chow Best Paper Fellowship was awarded two Winners and one Honorable Mention to junior scholars.  Dozens of conference papers with junior authors were reviewed by two scholars each.  Congratulations to the three awardees!
  • Ford Foundation travel awards were obtained and granted to three female economists from less represented universities in China to attend Nanning conference.
  • One pre-conference CES all presidents’ meeting was held to discuss the future need and direction of CES.
  • One post-conference investigation tour was organized and fully sponsored for all Nanning conference participants to Qinzhou.
  • One post-conference meeting and tour were organized and partially sponsored for a delegation to Guangxi Normal University in Guilin.
Our achievement is built upon the foundation set up by all past CES presidents, boards and members.  Special thanks go to past presidents Jack Hou, Xiaobo Zhang, and Jason Yin for their continuous support, and to special conference assistants Lemin Wu, Yilin Xu, and David Ortega for their tireless effort.  We would also like to express our gratitude to our financial sponsors during this challenging year.  
 
We now pass the torch to the 2009-10 President Yongmiao Hong and the new Board with our support and best wishes.  We believe our new leaders will bring CES to new success.  
Once again, we thank you for your support over the past year! 
  
Sincerely,
 
The 2008-09 President and Board Directors:
 
Holly Wang (Purdue University)
Philip Brown (Colby College)
Geng Xiao (Brookings-Tsinghua Center for Public Policy)
Fung Kwan (University of Macau)
Shaomin Huang (Lewis-Clark State College)
Diana Tsai (National Sun Yat-Sen University)
Mao Ye (Cornell University)
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