Sougata Poddar

USM-AUT International Conference on Sustainable Economic Development: Policies and Strategies An introduction to the special issue

The USM-AUT International Conference on Sustainable Economic Development: Policies and Strategies was jointly organised by the School of Social Sciences at the Universiti Sains Malaysia and the Economics Department in the Faculty of Business at the Auckland University of Technology. It took place on 17 and 18 November 2012 in Penang, Malaysia. The theme of the conference was on sustainable economic development designed to improve the well-being of both current and future generations through the preservation of natural resources, reductions in emissions and pollutants and improvements in the resilience of ecosystems. This was intended at the outset to be an interdisciplinary conference. The idea was that sustainable development was not the exclusive domain of any particular discipline. Researchers from economics, agriculture, public policy, management, tourism and other academic disciplines were brought together to share their research in this diverse and dynamic subject. The conference included participants from Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe, North America and New Zealand. Prof. Masahiro Kawai from the Asian Development Bank delivered the keynote address. He surveyed the wide array of policy changes that were needed in both developed and developing countries over coming decades. In particular, he pointed out the importance of public–private partnerships in achieving the pledged reductions in emissions and greenhouse gases. He emphasised the need to ‘build bridges’ between the private and public sectors to achieve many of these aims. He also picked up on a theme discussed throughout this conference on how sustainable economic development is inextricably linked to issues related to income inequality both between nations and within particular countries. It is impossible to adequately summarise the papers presented in the numerous plenary and parallel sessions held at this conference. We were impressed by the range and quality of the presentations. We were particularly struck by the clarity of the research questions and the willingness, especially among young researchers, to use sophisticated methodological approaches and modern statistical tools to address these questions. This bodes well for the future quality of research from all parts of the world. This special issue presents five studies that highlight the broad range of research currently in vogue, including the innovative capabilities of firms, analysis of millennium development goals, income convergence, institutions-growth nexus and intellectual capital and corporate performance. Although the papers focus on quite different issues, they are linked to the central theme ‘economic growth and development’.