The Hendra Esmara Lecture on Regional Development is convened by the Faculty of Economics and Business, Universitas Andalas and the Indonesian Regional Science Association (IRSA) in honour of the late Professor Hendra Esmara for his pioneering work in the field of regional analysis in Indonesia.

The 3rd Hendra Esmara Lecture on regional development will be delivered by Professor Arief Anshory Yusuf (Universitas Padjadjaran and Dewan Ekonomi Nasional) entitled Seventy years of the Kuznets Curve: is education a facilitator of structural transformation or a driver of inequality?

The second part of the seminar will discuss extractive industries and regional inequality with Professor Werry Darta Taifur (Universitas Andalas), Professor Budy Resosudarmo (The Australian National University).

Both sessions will be chaired by Ratih Ramadhani (Universitas Andalas) and will feature Q&A. Please refer to the detailed program below.

In addition to his academic work, Professor Esmara served as advisor to numerous Indonesian government agencies including Statistics Indonesia (Badan Pusat Statistik) and BAPPENAS. He actively participated in managing the Indonesian Association for Economists (Ikatan Sarjana Ekonomi Indonesia) and supported the career of many junior economists in academia and government. He also played significant roles in international organizations. Among others, he was a member of the Executive Council for Asian Manpower Studies; member of the Steering Committee for the World Health Organization (WHO) research program on socio-economics of health in Geneva; and Deputy Executive Director of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC).

In 1985, Hendra Esmara was appointed professor of regional planning at Universitas Andalas, the first professor at the university’s Faculty of Economics. He served in this position until his passing on 13 August 2000.