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The 2014-2015 CES President Annual Report

Title The 2014-2015 CES President Annual Report
Date 2015-09-10
Link
File Annual Report 2014-2015_finalized.pdf

Dear Members and Friends of the CES:

As the work of the 2014-2015 CES Board of Directors and Presidency is drawing to a conclusion, now is a good time to reflect upon what we have accomplished over the past year and to look ahead. We would like to take this opportunity to express our sincere appreciation to you for the confidence you placed in us and the privileges you granted us to serve the Society. With your trust and support, our team has been able to continue providing excellent programming through the two CES conferences in North America and China, implement projects that will advance the scholarship of our members, and provide knowledge to our members and external stakeholders. In this letter, it will be our great pleasure to highlight some of CES’s organized conferences and events this past year:

1. The 2015 CES Business Meeting and Reception

The 2015 CES Business Meeting and Reception were held on January 3 at the American Economic Association (AEA) Annual Meetings in Boston. More than 100 CES members and friends including honorable lifetime member, Dr. Gregory Chow, and past presidents (Dr. Wen Hai, Dr. Tony Fang, Dr. Jinlan Ni, and Dr. Jack Hou) attended the event. The meeting was well organized and received many positive comments. CES Board Member Harry Zhang and Xuepeng Liu led the coordination of the Business Meeting and reception. President Lizheng Shi announced a series of activities undertaken by the 2014-2015 CES leadership team, including the CES North-America conference, which was held at the University of Michigan in March. Representatives from five Chinese universities gave faculty recruiting presentations.

2. The CES Booth at the AEA Meetings

The CES continued having a booth in the exhibitor area during the 2015 AEA meetings. The booth proved to be a valuable hub for representatives from Chinese universities, as well as scholars and graduate students interested in the Chinese economy.  Dr. Shuming Bao provided valuable logistic support for the booth. Three student volunteers and the CES BOD members staffed the boot during the entire conference period.

3. The CES North American Conference

The CES 2015 North America Conference, co-hosted by the University of Michigan and Henan University, was held in Ann Arbor, Michigan March 14-15 at the beautiful Kingston Court Hotel. The conference features the theme “Economic Transformation and China’s Role in the World Economy”.  There were about 180 conference participants, including a large number of Ph.D. students and many of them were attending a CES conference for the first time. The conference drew faculty members and students from a wide variety of institutions in the U.S., Canada, China, Europe, Australia and many other countries.

Many distinguished guests attended the opening ceremony.  Among them were Professor Jack Hu, Vice President for Research, University of Michigan, Professor Bingtao Song, Dean, School of Economics, Henan University, Ms. Luomei Shu, Commercial Counselor, Chinese Consulate in Chicago, Professor Mary Gallagher, Director of Center for Chinese Studies, University of Michigan, and Professor David Lam, Chair of Department of Economics, University of Michigan.  Following a welcome remark by CES President Lizheng Shi, distinguished guests went on stage to congratulate the CES for the successful opening of the conference.   Michigan Governor Rick Sydner could not attend the opening ceremony due to conflicts but sent his special envoy Mr. Brian Connors to present his congratulations letter.

The conference was highlighted by three excellent keynote speeches by Dr. Changwen Zhao, Director General, Department of Industrial Economy, Development Research Center, Dr. Mustafa Mohatarem, Chief Economist, General Motors Corporation, and Dr. Jerry Davis, Wilbur K. Pierpont Collegiate Professor of Management, University of Michigan.  Their keynote speeches generated enthusiastic responses from the audience during the Q&A sessions.  The conference organized 30 concurrent sessions, at which a total of 122 papers were presented on a wide range of topics.  In addition, a pre-conference education workshop was given on Spatial Economics, attended by about 30 conference participants. The $20,000 generous contribution by the CES Finance Committee was designated to support travels of Ph.D. student members, who presented papers at the conference.  At the dinner banquet, President Lizheng Shi presented the Gregory Chow Best Paper Award to Guojun He, a junior faculty from Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.  CES Regent and former CES President presented a plaque of recognition to the retiring CES President Jinlan Ni.

4. CES 30th Anniversary: CES Leadership Retreat and Deans Forum

In the morning of June 12th, 2015, the CES Board held a leadership retreat at the Radisson Hotel in Chongqing Shapingba District.  The participants include Lizheng Shi, Jack Hou, Henk Folmer, Bruce Sun, Ding Lu, Shuming Bao, Tong Fang, Bingtao Song, Wing Woo, Orn Bodvarsson, Yong Yang, Harry Zhang, Jian Yang, Jason Yin (via phone), and Jinlan Ni (via phone). The goal for the leadership was to have an open dialogue on issues that are facing the CES today.  The participants focused on the following three topics:  (1) Establish a CES Office in Beijing, (2) Broaden CES outreach to policy-making agencies and increase CES’ influence on economic policy, reform and development, and (3) Extend the term of CES president to more than one year.   The discussion generated spirited exchanges among participants on these topics and consensus was reached on some major issues.  Nonetheless, different views remained.  The participants agreed to disagreed and looked forward to working together to search for better answers.

In the afternoon, the CES and Chongqing University held a Deans Forum on “Internalization of Economics Education” with participating representatives from many Chinese Universities including Renmin University, Zhejiang University, Heilongjiang University, SWUFE, Xiamen University, Guangxi University of Science and Technology, Shandong University of Finance and Economics, Jilin University, Henan University, SUFE, North China University of Water Resources and Electric Power, Fudan University, Nankai University.  Professor Weidong Meng (Vice President of Chongqing University) and Professor Shujie Yao made welcome remarks for the participating guests.  Bingtao Song of Henan University highlighted achievements his school had made through collaborations with the CES. Yongjun Chen of Renmin University reflected upon a joint research project he conducted with the CES in early years.  Han Li of SWUFE shared the experiences of his school in areas of recruiting “sea turtles”, running internationalized teaching and research programs, and making tangible impacts on government policies.  Jun Zhang of Fudan University emphasized increasing importance of conducting “on-the-ground” applied economic research.  Representatives from SUFE, Heilongjiang University, Jilin University, and Xiamen University also shared their experiences on the internationalization of economics education.  Many of the representatives thanked the CES for its contributions to growing their schools into nationwide and internationally recognized programs.

At the end of Deans Forum, the CES held a ceremony to celebrate the 30th Anniversary. Two Nobel Laureates Professor Kenneth Arrow and Sir James Mirrlees reflected their participations in the CES conferences and advised the CES leadership team on further growth in the new decade.

5. The 2015 CES Annual Conference

The 2015 China Annual Conference was held at Chongqing University, Guangzhou, on June 13-14. 2015. The conference was hosted by the Faculty of Social Sciences, School of Economics and Business Administration and School of Public Affairs of Chongqing University.  The conference’s theme was “In the Context of “New Normal” Theory: Deepen the Comprehensive Reform in China”. Qifan Huang (Chongqing Mayor), Yali Zhang (Deputy Administrator, State Administration of Foreign Experts Affairs),Xuhong Zhou (President of Chongqing University), and Lizheng Shi (President of CES) delivered speeches at the opening ceremony.  There are more than 400 conference participants from China and many other countries. This conference promoted exchanges of academic ideas related to the Chinese economy. In addition to more than 230 research presentations, this conference included six keynote lectures, two of which were given the Nobel Laureates in Economics: Professor Kenneth J. Arrow and Sir. James Mirrlees.  Distinguished economists Torsten Persson, Shangjin Wei, Justin Yifu Lin and Weiyin Zhang also delivered keynote speeches in the plenary sessions. There were five round table forums on the important topics including air population, health form, Chinese currency internationalization, state-owned enterprise transformation, and China’s national development strategy.  The conference attracted more than 30 Chinese Media organizations and some of this media coverage (http://cq.xinhuanet.com/2015-06/15/c_1115615726.htm, http://economics.cenet.org.cn/show-1537-67461-1.html)

6. Publications

This year CES arranged for quality post-conference special issues to be published in China Economic Review and conference proceedings by the World Scientific Press. In addition, we have several journals to make call for proposals on the CES conferences:  Frontiers of Economics in China, International Journal of Migration and Residential Mobility, Chinese Economy, China Agricultural Economic Review. A large number of submissions to these journals have been received and paper selections are in progress.

7. Other scholarly activities

With generous financial support from the Gregory and Paula Chow Foundation, seven Chow Teaching Fellowships were awarded this year to CES members who taught Economics and Management courses at various Chinese universities. A winner of the Chow Best Paper Award was announced at each of the 2015 domestic and China conferences.

The success and achievements of CES this past year were made possible by the hard work of past CES presidents, the CES Executive Board, and the CES membership. Special thanks are due to former presidents and senior members Jinlan Ni, Tony Fang,  Li Gan, Wen Hai, Jack Hou, Justin Yi-fu Lin, Shuanglin Lin, Ding Lu, Shunfeng Song, Guoqiang Tian, Holly Wang, Yanling Wang, Yang Yao, Gang Yi and Jason Yin, for providing advice and support, and to Shuming Bao for administrative assistance. We would also like to express our gratitude to the generous help and support from the School of Economics and Business Administration and School of Public Administration at Chongqing University, the School of economics at Henan University, the University of Michigan, Ministry of Education, and the State Administration of Foreign Experts Affairs of China.

We now pass the torch to the 2015-16 President Wing Thye Woo and the new Executive Board and wish to extend our best wishes for their continued success.

Once again, thank you for your encouragement, participation, and support!

With warm regards,

President and Board of Directors

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