Fostering Asia-Latin America Economic Integration
IR/PS Students Work With the Inter-American Development Bank
04/15/2009
Mira Mendoza,
The Asian emerging economic powerhouses represent a great opportunity for Latin American and the Caribbean (LAC) countries to increase their trans-Pacific trade and capture new investments. However, there are numerous policy, procedural, and logistical hurdles for LAC to expand trans-Pacific economic exchanges. The Integration and Trade Sector of the Inter-American Development Bank with the help of IR/PS students produced a comprehensive report on the challenges and opportunities facing LAC private sector players in penetrating Asian markets and in interacting with Asian partners and investors. The report is based on a series of rigorous data analyses and surveys across the two regions.
The IR/PS team worked with alumna Kati Suominen ‘04 from Integration and Trade Sector on developing a dataset, a succinct analysis of the data, and illustrative case studies for the report. The purpose of the project was to produce a high-quality chapter and case studies that deepen the understanding of the bottlenecks in Asia-Latin America economic integration, as well as further the bi-regional economic ties. Three out of the ten IR/PS students that worked on the project, Lane Jost, Olivia Patterson, and Helio Bertachini, presented their findings in Washington, DC during the spring break. Other IR/PS students who contributed to this project are: Nicholyn Chang, Jeevika Chhatwal, Matthew Eblen, Deana Gullo, RoseAnna Harrison, Areeluck Parnsoonthorn, and Linda Wong.
The project was very successful and as Kati said, “The students did a fantastic job and added a great deal of value. All of us (at IADB) were immensely impressed by the caliber of students that IR/PS continues to produce. They made me once again a very proud alumna. I will make every attempt I can to engage another set of students to work at the IADB and elsewhere in Washington next spring”.
