Maltese Researchers Invited by the Organisation of American States Four Maltese researchers have been invited by the Organisation of American States to present their findings on economic resilience building at a high level seminar to be held in Washington DC on 18 September 2007. The seminar will be attended by senior officials from international organisations, representatives of donor countries and diplomats.

The team of researchers, lead by Professor Lino Briguglio, have been instrumental in constructing an economic resilience index, which was developed following a recommendation by the United Nations International Meeting, held in Mauritius in January 2005, that the international community should support the development of a resilience index to assess the extent to which small states can withstand their economic vulnerability.

The other members of the team are Dr Gordon Cordina, Ms Nadia Farrugia and Ms Stephanie Vella. Together with Professor Briguglio they have proposed a methodology to explain why small states, like Malta and Singapore, have managed to generate a relatively high GNP per capita in spite of their inherent disadvantages, associated with small size and high exposure to external economic shocks. The paper which summarises the outcome of the research is available at http://events.um.edu.mt/resilience2007/papers/briguglio_cordina.pdf

The Washington high level seminar builds on the International Conference on Small States and Economic Resilience organized by the Commonwealth Secretariat and the University of Malta, in April 2007 which sought to further develop a framework for the conceptualisation and measurement of economic resilience primarily by considering its practical relevance for policy formulation at the national, regional and international levels, including its applicability to donor relationships and to the functions of international organisations.