| |
|
|
News and events 2005
| |
|
| | |
|
US$600,000 RESEARCH GRANT
December 2005
The Centre has been successful, against global competition, in being
awarded one of ten grants of US$200,000 per annum under the Merck
Company Foundation Program on Pharmaceutical Policy Issues (PPPI) for a
further three years 2006-08. The Victorian Government, through the
Ministry of Innovation, Industry and Regional Development, supported the
program over the previous period 2003-2005 by providing one dollar for
every four contributed by the Merck Company Foundation. The Government
has been enthusiastic in its support of this work and of its
relationship with Merck, and has agreed to continue the partly matching
funding of US$50,000 per annum for the three years 2006-2008.
| |
|
INTERNATIONAL SEMINAR
November 2005
Enlarged ASEAN: Issues in Trade, Development and Integration An
important high-level international seminar was held on 24-25 November
2005 by the Centre for Strategic Economic Studies (CSES) at Victoria
University, Melbourne City Campus. The theme of the conference was
Issues of Trade, Development and Integration in an Enlarged ASEAN (the
Association of the 10 Southeast Asian nations) where ASEAN is to be
enlarged to include the world’s other major countries and trading blocs
outside the ASEAN region. These include for example China, Japan, Korea,
India, Russia, the European Union, North America, and Australia and New
Zealand. The significance of this for Australia’s commerce, industry and
education is that an ASEAN+China and India bloc alone accounts for
nearly 50 per cent of the world’s population, more than 54 per cent of
Australia’s total international trade, and most of Australia’s sources
of supply of international students and education income, present and
future.
Convened by Prof Tran Van Hoa (CSES), and funded by the Australian
Government’s AusAID and the Faculty of Business and Law of Victoria
University, the conference attracted eminent economists and speakers
from major countries in an enlarged ASEAN region. These included China (Renmin
University of China, Beijing, and Shanghai Jiaotong University), India (Indira
Gandhi Institute for Development Research, Reserve Bank of India),
Thailand (Ubon Rajathani University), Vietnam (Ministry of Planning and
Investment) and Australia (University of Melbourne and Victoria
University). Participants included state and federal government
officials (e.g. Victorian Department of Innovation Industry and Regional
Development, and Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade),
representatives of major manufacturing, services and consulting
companies (e.g. BlueScope Steel, Orica Ltd, Toll Ports, and TradeData),
and university scholars and international students from countries in the
region. For more information please contact
Prof. Tran Van Hoa. | |
From left to right: Prof. Bhajan Grewal, (CSES), the Hon.
Prof. Stephen Martin (Pro Vice-Chancellor International, Victoria
University (former Speaker of the House, Australian Parliament and
Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade),
Prof. Peter Sheehan (Director, CSES), Prof Tran Van Hoa (CSES)) and
Prof. Shovan Ray (Indira Gandhi Institute for Development Research,
Reserve Bank of India). |
|
INTERNATIONAL SEMINAR
September 2005
Japan Australia Biomedicine Collaboration
The CSES convened the Japan Australia Collaboration in Biomedicine Seminar at the Australian Pavilion at the recent Aichi Expo, Japan. The CSES both convened and managed the seminar, pictured right, for the Department of Education, Science and Training.
The seminar was conducted in the context of increasing globalisation of biomedicine and the need for greater international collaboration and alliances between researchers and their industry partners. This collaboration is needed to undertake large-scale research projects and to develop products and bring them to the market.
Some 35 people took part in the seminar. About half were scientists invited to discuss increased collaboration in three specific areas of biomedicine: regenerative medicine, neuroscience and mental health, and the molecular basis of disease. The CSES will prepare a report for the Japanese and Australian governments in the form of a budget proposal for joint funding of a collaborative program in biomedicine.
For more details email
Margarita Kumnick.
| |
 |
|
SEEK EMPLOYMENT INDEX
July 2005
The SEEK Employment Index developed at the CSES in collaboration with
SEEK
was launched by the Hon. Kevin Andrews, Minister for Employment
and Workplace Relations, SEEK Chairman James Packer and Prof. Elizabeth
Harman, Vice Chancellor Victoria University (see photo on right) on 11 July at Zinc in
Federation Square, Melbourne.
The index is the first Australian indicator to directly compare
labour market supply with labour market demand.
The SEEK indicators have been created to complement existing
indicators (Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) and the ANZ jobs ads
series), by:
- providing separate measures of trends in both the supply of and
demand for labour, and hence of the changing balance between the two;
- providing flow indicators over a period (of new ads posted and of
applications in response to those ads in a given month) to complement
current indicators of the stock of ads or vacancies unfilled at a point
in time; and
- eliminating problems of duplication and inconsistency, through the
use of a single coherent data source covering a high proportion of the
job market.
More information on the methodology underlying the SEEK Employment
Index and access to monthly data on New Job Ads, Applications and
Applications per Ad since October 2001 are available at
SEEK. Project Co-ordinator:
Dr George Messinis.
| |
|
|
BIO 2005 USA
June 2005
The Centre was invited to conduct one of the conference breakout
sessions at BIO 2005, the
largest biotechnology conference in the world with some 15,000
attendees. The Biotechnology Industry Organization’s
(BIO) 2005 Annual International Convention was held in
Philadelphia on 19-22 June. The program included more than 150
educational sessions and workshops on topics including industrial and
environmental applications, finance, science, manufacturing, food and
agriculture, vaccines and business development, as well as over 1,000
speakers.
The CSES breakout session was within the session “Doing
Business Globally” sponsored by the Victoria Government
and is titled: Drug Pricing: The Return to Innovation and Industry
Development. CSES participants were Peter Sheehan, Bruce Rasmussen and
Kim Sweeny.
Session Chair
David Anstice (President, Human Health, Merck & Co. Inc.)
Session Speakers
Peter Sheehan, Ph.D., Director, Centre for Strategic Economic Studies,
Victoria University
Patricia Danzon, Ph.D., Celia Moh Professor, Health Care Department, The
Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania
David Griller, Ph.D., FCIC, FRSC, Associate, SECOR
Joseph Palo, MBA, Partner, IBM
Presentation The Economic and Social Return to Innovation in Medicines, by Peter
Sheehan.
| |
|
|
LAUNCH ICT TRADE UPDATE
June 2005
On June 3rd, the Australian Computer Society launched Australian ICT Trade Update 2005, the latest in a series of
ICT Industry and Trade Updates produced by John Houghton at CSES and sponsored
by the Australian Computer Society . It was launched with a lunch-time presentation by John Houghton
(pictured right) at the Stamford Plaza Hotel in Adelaide, which was hosted by the South Australian Branch of the
Australian Computer Society. Revealing a renewed upsurge in ICT equipment imports during 2004, the report noted a record ICT trade deficit of $19 billion. The report and launch function were widely
reported in the press, including in The Australian Financial Review, The Australian, Sydney Morning Herald, The Age and the Adelaide Advertiser.
| |
 |
|
CSES HONOURS DIRECTOR
January 2005
The Centre recently held a function to mark the 65th birthday of CSES Director Prof. Peter Sheehan. Prof. Sheehan was presented with a festschrift entitled Global Knowledge Economy and Society: Strategic Economic Studies in Honour of Peter J. Sheehan. The festschrift includes 23 original papers written by leading
Australian and overseas researchers in the fields of global knowledge economy, labour market studies, fiscal governance, health
policy and pharmaceuticals – representing the fields in which Prof. Sheehan’s own publications have made a lasting
contribution. Prof. Bhajan Grewal and Margarita Kumnick edited the festschrift.
Among others, Faculty of Business and Law Dean Prof. Colin Clark attended the function. Former Deputy Premier of Victoria Robert Fordham, former Victorian Treasurer Rob Jolly, and Prof. Bob Gregory from the Australian National University spoke about Prof. Sheehan as the person, the scholar and the
philosopher.
| |
Above: Prof. Bhajan Grewal presented the festschrift to Prof. Peter Sheehan (right).
|
|
