The fifth “Japan-IMF Macroeconomic Seminar for Asia (JIMS)” took place from February 22 to February 26, 2016, at GRIPS. It was organized in collaboration with the IMF Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific (OAP). JIMS is an important OAP technical assistance program aimed at senior officials involved in macroeconomic policy in countries of the Asia-Pacific region. The seminar was attended by 30 selected participants from 21 countries.

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

The last session was the wrap-up session. The participants discussed and shared their experiences related to the topics of each session. Subsequently, the completion ceremony was held, and each trainee was awarded a certificate of completion from Professor Roberto Leon-Gonzalez, Program Director of JIMS.
On the last evening, a farewell reception was held for seminar instructors as well as embassy officials of the participants’ countries.

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

JIMS HP: http://www.grips.ac.jp/jims/