Honorary Chairperson, Central Pattana, Thailand, Former Deputy Prime Minister of Thailand and Former Secretary General of the UN Conference on Trade and Development, Dr. Supachai Panichpakdi will deliver the keynote address at the Sri Lanka Retail Forum on Wednesday, September 13 in Colombo.
The Sri Lanka Retail Forum 2017, held under the theme, ‘Winning the New Consumer: Energizing Retail’, is organized by the Sri Lanka Retailers’ Association.
Dr. Supachai Panitchpakdi was Secretary-General of the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) from 2005 to 2013. Prior to this, he was the Director-General of the World Trade Organization from September, 2002 to September 1, 2005.
Dr. Supachai received his master’s degree in Economics, Development Planning and his Ph.D. in Economic Planning and Development at the Netherlands School of Economics. In 1973, he completed his doctoral dissertation under supervision of Prof. Jan Tinbergen, the first Nobel laureate in Economics.
In the same year, he went to Cambridge University as a visiting fellow to conduct research on development models. He has published numerous books, including Educational Growth in Developing Countries (1974), Globalization and Trade in the New Millennium (2001) and China and the WTO: Changing China, Changing World Trade (2002, co-authored with Mark Clifford.
In 1986, Supachai Panitchpakdi was appointed as Thailand’s Deputy Minister of Finance, but when the parliament was dissolved in 1988 he left politics and became president of the Thai Military Bank. In 1992 he returned to politics and became Deputy Prime Minister until 1995, responsible for trade and economics.