Presenters

 

Aasim Wajid Head of Strategy, Bank Alfalah Aasim Wajid Jawad is the Head of Strategy at Bank Alfalah with over 20 years of local and international experience. A Chartered Accountant from England & Wales, he holds a bachelor’s in economics from LSE. Previously, he served as Financial Controller and Head of Investor Relations at UBL and worked in London with Ernst & Young and Deloitte in audit and corporate finance roles.

Kiyoshi Taniguchi Regional Lead Economist Kiyoshi Taniguchi is Regional Lead Economist, Economic Research and Development Impact Department (ERDI), Asian Development Bank.

Kiyoshi is currently a regional lead economist for the Central and West Asia Department. Prior to his current position, he was a country economist at the Pakistan Resident Mission, overseeing Afghanistan and Pakistan’s economies. He led the team to process Pakistan Country Partnership Strategy 2021-2025 and made noteworthy achievements in economic knowledge work. In his tenure at ADB, he carried out economic analysis for the Pacific Department as well as the Private Sector Operations Department and worked at the Uzbekistan Resident Mission, where he led a team of economists for Central Asia and the South Caucasus. Prior to ADB, he worked for the World Bank’s Indonesia Country Office and began his career as an economist at the UN Food and Agriculture Organization in Rome, Italy. He has also taught development economics at the International University of Japan, Westminster International University in Tashkent, and the University of the Philippines Diliman.

He holds a Doctorate and Master’s degree in Economics from the Ohio State University, United States. He obtained his second Bachelor’s degree in Economics with honors from the University of Oregon, United States, and his first Bachelor’s degree in Law from Chiba University, Japan.

Marcel Schröder Country Economist, Pakistan Resident Mission (PRM) Marcel Schröder is Country Economist, Pakistan Resident Mission (PRM), Asian Development Bank. Prior to joining ADB, he was an Assistant Professor at the Lebanese American University and a Lecturer at the Australian National University (ANU). He specializes in policy-oriented research centered around macroeconomic aspects of economic development. He holds a PhD in Economics from the ANU.

Manzoor Ahmad Country Economist, Pakistan Institute of Development Economics (PIDE) Manzoor Ahmad is a Senior Fellow at the Pakistan Institute of Development Economics (PIDE). He also serves as the Chairman of a WTO trade dispute panel in Geneva, a member of the Governing Council of Pakistan Single Window, and a Trade Advisor to the REMIT project.

From 2002 to 2008, Dr. Manzoor was Pakistan’s Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the WTO. He later served as the Director of the Food and Agriculture Organization’s (FAO) Liaison Office to the United Nations in Geneva. Prior to that, from 1986 to 1996, he worked as Deputy Director at the World Customs Organization (WCO). Between 2000 and 2002, as Member Customs, Dr. Manzoor led key tariff and trade facilitation reforms, earning Pakistan recognition as one of the World Bank’s top 10 reformers globally. His earlier roles in the Customs Department included serving as Collector of Customs in Karachi and Peshawar, as well as Chief Tariff at the Federal Board of Revenue.

More recently, Dr. Manzoor has been actively involved in various government reform initiatives. He served as a member of the Task Force on FBR Reforms and as Chairman of the Subcommittee on Tariff Rationalization for Export-Led Growth.

He has also held leadership positions in public sector organizations such as the Chairman, Board of Directors of Pakistan LNG Ltd and in think-tanks such as the President/Chairman of the Policy Research Institute for Market Economy (PRIME). Additionally, he has been a member of numerous advisory bodies and a regular columnist on economic and trade issues. Some of his recent articles are available at The Express Tribune.

Nasruminallah Mian Country Operations Planning & Team Lead Digital Transformation, Pakistan Nasruminallah Mian is Country Operations Planning & Team Lead Digital Transformation, Pakistan Resident Mission (PRM), Asian Development Bank. Nasr is leading business planning and Digital/ICT sector at ADB Pakistan Office. He is from the 23rd Common batch of Civil Service of Pakistan (IRS) where he worked at World Bank and ADB funded projects. He has worked with the private sector for 10 years before joining ADB. Nasr has a Management degree from the Australian National University (ANU), a master’s degree in chemistry and LLB from Pakistan.