Event Summary
Simeon Djankov, Minister of Finance of the Republic of Bulgaria, delivered the second Sunrise Emerging Markets Speakers lecture on February 14, 2013, at the Peterson Institute. Minister Djankov addressed his vision of how Bulgaria can achieve European average levels of income in the face of the ongoing euro area crisis and competition from neighboring states. Sunrise Foundation President Antoine van Agtmael introduced the minister.
Djankov became the deputy prime minister and minister of finance of Bulgaria in 2009. In these leadership roles, Minister Djankov hopes to complete reforms that would lead Bulgaria from being among the poorest in Central Europe to one with middle-income status. Prior to his appointment in Bulgaria, he was the chief economist for the finance and private sector department and vice president of the World Bank. Among his accomplishments at the Bank was the creation of its now famous and influential annual Doing Business Report, which provides objective measures of business regulations for local firms in 185 economies and selected cities at the subnational level.
The Sunrise Emerging Markets Speakers series is the newest of named lecture series at the Peterson Institute. Intended to bring emerging leaders from emerging markets to a Washington leadership audience, the Sunrise lecture series is sponsored by the Sunrise Foundation and its president Antoine van Agtmael, the principal founder and former chairman of Emerging Markets Management and previously an executive of the World Bank and the International Finance Corporation (IFC). The first Sunrise lecture was given in September 2012 by Dr. José De Gregorio, previous Governor of the Central Bank of Chile.
Event Materials
Op-ed: Why Austerity Works and Stimulus Doesn't
Anders Åslund
January 7, 2013
Book: The Last Shall Be the First: The East European Financial Crisis
Anders Åslund
October 2010