Dr. Vaqar Ahmed
Deputy Executive Director, SDPI, Pakistan
Dr. Vaqar Ahmed is the Deputy Executive Director at Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI). Earlier, he has served UNDP as Advisor, and has undertaken assignments with Asian Development Bank, World Bank Group, and Ministries of Finance, Planning and Commerce in Pakistan. Between 2009 and 2011, he was the Head of Macroeconomics Section in Planning Commission of Pakistan, which is responsible for the formulation of annual, medium and perspective development programmes. He remained the technical associate and member of the task forces, constituted by the Government of Pakistan, including Advisory Panel of Economists (2008), Task Force on Private Sector Development (2009), Working Group on Macroeconomic Framework for Tenth Five Year Plan 2010-15, and Working Group on Social Sector Development for Pakistan Vision 2025.
He has published extensively in areas such as macroeconomic modeling, inclusive growth and infrastructure reforms, trade and taxation policies, regional trade agreements, trade in services, energy governance, border-related trade infrastructure, youth employment, women-led social enterprises, and social safety nets.
He is the visiting faculty member and researcher in different international universities and institutes, including the University of Le Havre in France, National University of Ireland, IMT Institute of Advanced Studies in Italy, Quaid-e-Azam University and Pakistan Institute of Trade and Development. His PhD students are working on, economy-wide evaluation of regional trade agreements, simulating growth and welfare impact of infrastructure and investment policies. At regional level, his research includes: evaluation of Pakistan – Sri Lanka free trade agreement, non-tariff barriers in trade with neighboring economies, trade in health services, transit cooperation between Afghanistan and Pakistan, South Asian value chains, and intra-regional foreign direct investment in South Asia.
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