Tan Kong Yam

Biography

"Tan Kong Yam is presently Professor of Economics at the Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. From June 2002 to June 2005, he was a senior economist at the World Bank office in Beijing where he worked on issues of macro stabilization, integration of the fragmented domestic market, banking reform, international trade and investment as well as regional inequality. In 2004, he was a member of the World Bank expert group on the eleventh five year plan (2006-2010) for the State Council in China. The expert group provided analysis and policy recommendations on urbanization, regional inequality, innovation policy, energy and water policy as well as strategy on banking reform to the Chinese government. Prior to that, he was the chief economist of the Singapore government at the Ministry of Trade and Industry (1999-2002 May), Head, Department of Business Policy, Faculty of Business Administration at the National University of Singapore (NUS). He is a graduate of Princeton (1975-79, class of 1931 scholar, Paul Volcker Thesis prize) and Stanford University (1980-83). Prior to joining NUS, he has worked at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, World Bank, the Monetary Authority of Singapore, and was the Director of Research at the Ministry of Trade and Industry in Singapore."

Research Interest

His research interests are in international trade and finance, economic and business trends in the Asia Pacific region and economic reforms in China. He has published five books and numerous articles in major international journals including World Bank Economic Review, American Economic Review, Long Range Planning, and Australian Journal of Management etc on economic and business issues in the Asia Pacific region. He served as board member at the Singapore Central Provident Fund Board (1984-96) and the National Productivity Board (1989-90). He has also consulted for many organizations including Citigroup, IBM, ATT, BP, ABN-AMRO, People's Bank of China, EDB, Areva, Guangdong provincial government, Samsung, Mauritius Government, Ministry of Trade and Industry, Mobil, Singapore Technology, Temasek Holdings, GIC etc.