Pacific Trade and Development

Mission

PAFTAD promotes policy-oriented academic research and discussion of Asia-Pacific economic issues, and serves as an authoritative source of analysis in the Pacific area by providing a forum for forward-looking dialogue on important policy issues. Conferences are organised around a specific theme. Research papers addressing the theme are presented and discussed by invited participants. The results are published in the PAFTAD book series — a record spanning more than five decades of Asia-Pacific economic scholarship.

History

Founded in 1968, PAFTAD has been addressing the big economic policy questions facing the Asia-Pacific for over five decades. With 40 completed conferences, the series has built a comprehensive archive of policy-relevant research on trade, development, connectivity, and integration across the region. PAFTAD conference participants have included well-known research economists and others with considerable policy influence in government and elsewhere throughout the region. The PAFTAD network contributed significantly to developing the agenda for Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) and other Asian institutions for regional economic dialogue. PAFTAD has played an important role in briefing officials and politicians on trade development issues of policy interest, both through publications of conference proceedings and on a personal basis. The PAFTAD research network at both individual and institutional levels provides scope for cooperative interaction at the government level. An underlying assumption of the PAFTAD conference series is that the distinct contribution of the academic sector is critical to achieving effective cooperation among Asia Pacific nations; the history of Pacific cooperation and development in recent decades can be seen as validating this assumption to a remarkable extent. The evidence that the background research, and the conference series itself, have served as intellectual grist for the policymaking mill of Asia Pacific nations is to be found in the development of interest in various forms of Pacific cooperation at the intellectual, business and political levels.

Current Activities