Cultivating Talented Individuals

Toronto, CANADA

As I wrote a working paper as the requirement of the Summer Institute of GIARI in this summer, it was important to present this paper in an international forum to get feedback from other researcher involving in the same field. Under this basic purpose, this investigative research project has the following main objectives;

• To present the research paper in the conference; "2nd International Development Conference 2008" in Canada and to get the feedback on it. This gives the confidence on my research work as well as increase the research capability.
• To make the research output more acceptable to international academic community by incorporating the comments and suggestion by the participants from different parts of the world.

Title: Mainstreaming the key elements of economic integration in the PRSPs in Asia and the implications for poverty reduction.

Main purpose of this research project is to make academic contribution on the field of economic integration in Asia. To achieve this goal it follows two approaches; analysing the policy documents and the empirical study. Firstly, it finds the level of mainstreaming the issues of international trade, investment, ODA, tourism and international migration in the PRSPs in Asia. Secondly, it observes the impacts these elements on poverty reduction.

The research project is successful to meet its objectives. It was great opportunity to present the working paper in the international conference abroad. Participants from Charles Stuart University-Australia, University of Waterloo-Canada, and the University of Bonn- Germany made valuable suggestions. Brief explanations of the achievement of this are as follows;

• The working paper has been presented successfully in 28th of November, 2008, in the International Development Conference 2008, Toronto, Canada. Professors, PhD students, NGO professionals, government officials, journalists and others have been participated from different parts of the world, such as Australia, Europe, Asia, Middle East, Africa and Canada.
• The discussion was very lively after the presentation. Several professors and PhD students from various universities provided very useful and insightful comments and suggestions. Particularly, comments by Dr. Kiprono Langat of Charles Sturt University, Australia were very inspiring and the suggestions from the Dr. Larry A. Swatuk from the University of Waterloo were valuable to improve the paper.
• The conference was very educational as it covered most of the issues of development and MDGs of the United Nations. Particularly, the panel, "Research and Development on Poverty Reduction", in which I presented the paper, covered the poverty, development and economic integration issues in Asian region among others. The panel agreed that the problem of poverty should be solved to achieve the regional integration.
• After incorporating the comments and suggestions, the paper would be ready for publication, hopefully. This research project certainly helps to increase the value of the research output.

Finally, I earnestly thank to the GIARI and its considerate team for the generous financial support and valuable guidance to conduct this research project.

Shujiro Urata

GIARI Research and Investigation Support Scheme II (Autumn Semester 2008)
Investigation Area: Toronto, CANADA /
Jeet Bahadur SAPKOTA
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