Well, it’s been a busy month… between graduating from Columbia, visiting Ireland, holidaying in Spain, moving to Indonesia, and starting work with the World Bank.
That largely explains my lack of blog activity of late, something I hope to rectify in the coming days and weeks.
Meanwhile, I’m settling into life in Jakarta, a sprawling, bustling, booming metropolis that epitomizes ‘up by the bootstraps’ development in emerging Asia. The fourth most populated country in the world, Indonesia has been Asia’s sleeping giant, but partly driven by a commodities boom, it is rapidly rising to take its place beside China and India.
At the World Bank, I am working on two projects: one on the impact of FDI in the services sector on economic productivity, and the other on trade logistics, notably issues relating to Jakarta’s port facilities. At a time when much of the developed world is mired in economic stagnation, it is fascinating to be exposed to economic policy issues in a rapidly rising emerging nation.
vicduggan 