The first edition of the “Japan-IMF Macroeconomic Seminar for Asia” (JIMS) took place 20–24th February 2012 at the National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies (GRIPS) and was organized in collaboration with the IMF Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific (OAP). JIMS is an important OAP technical assistance program directed towards senior officials involved in macroeconomic policy in countries of the Asia-Pacific region. The seminar was attended by 23 selected participants from 16 countries and two from Japan (Ministry of Finance and Japan Bank for International Cooperation).

The seminar lasted 5 days, each of them consisting of two sessions, one in the morning and another in the afternoon. Under the theme of “Achieving Sustainable and Balanced Growth in Asia”, each session was composed of a main presentation by speaker, an evaluation and comments by a discussant and a Q&A and discussion session for everyone.

Only the last session had a different format. Five of the participants gave short presentations on important issues related to their economies, with ample time devoted to questions/comments or experience sharing. Subsequently, the completion ceremony was held and each trainee was awarded a certificate of completion from Prof. Masahiro Horie, vice president of GRIPS.
On the last evening, a farewell reception was held for seminar instructors as well as officials and embassy officials of the participants’ countries.

This seminar was conducted for the first time this year, and in a questionnaire given after the seminar, it was highly evaluated by the surveyed participants.

JIMS HP: http://www3.grips.ac.jp/~jims/