My NSE Summer School Experience

My name is Kiru Sichoongwe, a Zambian. I chose to attend the 4th New Structural Economics (NSE) Summer School, organized by the Center for  New Structural Economics (CNSE) at Peking University for the following reasons: to start with, the summer school is  able to create value for me in a more convenient and  professional way. Besides, I value the richness the CNSE brings in terms of diversity and knowledge. 

During the summer school, I enjoyed   communicating every day with people with different cultural backgrounds.Minding cultural differences, religious preferences and values and keeping an open mind are some of the important things an international environment has brought me.   Besides, I gained more inspiration and knowledge from my international friends—that’s a wonderful experience!

New Structural Economics reminds us that we live in a time of great economic consequence and that the world faces many economic challenges that cannot be ignored or wished away. Instead, they must be confronted with focus and resolve. For example, the economic challenges at local and international level affect each and every one of us and they require a unique skill set to address. Some of these challenges include a sharp rise in unemployment, inflation, balance of payments deficit and falling incomes. As Adam Smith once said "No society can surely be flourishing and happy, of which the far greater part of the members are poor and miserable".Therefore, New Structural Economics offers an opportunity to everyone (economists, researchers,policy makers, etc) interested to rethink economic development and policy, and to be part of the solution to the ever occurring economic problems facing individual  countries  and the global economy. 

Lastly, I  would like to thank the fantastic team at the CNSE, headed by Prof. Justin Yifu Lin and Prof. Jiajun Xu,for the opportunity given to me. I appreciate their generosity. I thank them for their faith in me and I will forever be grateful for their wonderful and relentless work they are doing at the CNSE.

All in all, I recommend the summer school to everyone out there,who would be interested in being challenged intellectually by the unique mixture of policy insights from the perspective of New Structural Economics.

Kiru Sichoongwe is a lecturer of School of Business, Information and Technology, Cavendish University Zambia. He is a full scholarship winner of the 4th New Structural Economics Summer School.