Peter McCawley

Peter McCawley is an economist who has worked on Indonesian and Asian economic issues for many years. He is currently a visiting fellow in the Indonesia Project, ANU, and has recently (2014-2017) been Principal Author for a book about the 50-year history of the Asian Development Bank, based in Manila.

His most recent work in Indonesia (2011-2013) has been with the SEADI (USAID) project in Jakarta as an economic advisor in the National Planning Board (Bappenas). Earlier, on several occasions he worked as an adviser in the Ministry of Finance in Jakarta in projects with the World Bank and the Indonesian Ministry of Finance.

He has a PhD in economics from the ANU (1972). He later taught at Gadjah Mada University in Yogyakarta in the early 1970s before returning to the ANU and becoming head, Indonesia Project, ANU. In 1986 he joined AusAID as a Deputy Director General and later became an executive director on the board of the Asian Development Bank in Manila.

He has worked as a ministerial adviser in Canberra to several Treasurers of Australia (Bill Hayden and John Kerin) and has provided many articles to the Australian media.

He was dean of the Asian Development Bank Institute in Tokyo in 2003-2007. He has written a number of books and numerous articles about the Indonesian economy and other aspects of Asian economic development.

BRIEF CV

1972-1974 – Lecturer, faculty of economics, Gadjah Mada University, Yogyakarta, Indonesia

1974-1975– Adviser to the minister for Social Security and later Treasurer, Bill Hayden

1976-1985 – Research fellow and later head, Indonesia project, Australian National University

1986-1991– Deputy Director General in the Australian aid agency (1986-91) then known as AIDAB and later in 1996-2002 (then known as AusAID)

1991 – Adviser to the Australian Treasurer, John Kerin

1992-1996 – Executive Director, Asian Development Bank, Manila

1999-2008 – Chair and Co-chair of negotiations for successive rounds of replenishments of the Asian Development Fund (ADF VIII, ADF IX, and ADF X)

2003-2007 – Dean, Asian Development Bank Institute, Tokyo

2011-2013 Economic adviser, USAID-SEADI project in the Indonesian National Planning Bureau (Bappenas), Jakarta

2014-2017 Principal author, Asian Development Bank history project, Manila

2007-present – Visiting fellow, Arndt-Corden department of economics (Indonesia project), Australian National University

Asian economic development; multilateral development banks; banking and investment in Asia; foreign aid; Indonesian economic development; infrastructure policy in Asia; regional cooperation in Asia