PIDE and elsewhere on various socioeconomic problems of Pakistan, the region, and the world, as well as for suggesting new initiatives for further research. These meetings provide for the much-needed communication amongst the economics professionals, policy-makers, and various schools of interested observers of the ongoing debate concerning development-related issues. Twenty one such meetings have been held thus far, with over 600 papers presented in areas such as agriculture, industry, international trade and exchange rates, fiscal and monetary economics, project appraisals, demography, human resource development, resource mobilisation, debt, governance, gender, poverty, structural adjustment, and Islamic economics. The papers presented in the meetings are subsequently published in the Papers and Proceedings issue of The Pakistan Development Review. The highlights of the PSDE meetings are the Distinguished Lectures. Three of these are Memorial Lectures dedicated to the memory of the Quaid-i-Azam, Mohammad Ali Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan, Mohammad Iqbal, poet-philosopher, and Mahbub ul Haq, economist. The Distinguished Speaker list in different years has had on it such names as Lawrence R. Klein (Nobel Laureate), Sir Hans W. Singer, E. Malinvaud, Paul P. Streeten, Ansley J. Coale, David P. Laidler, Robert Lecture series A lecture series, entitled “Lectures in Development Economics”, was instituted many years ago. Twenty-three lectures in this series have been delivered so far; eminent economists, demographers, and other social scientists have been on the speakers’ list. Many of these lectures have already been published by PIDE. Another seminar series on public policy issues was initiated in June 2002, which analysed the current policy issues. The new PIDE Lectures Series attracts major new contributions to various fields. Conferences and workshops A new series of conferences and workshops has been launched at PIDE for discussion and exchange of information. The main objective of the round-table conferences based on the new themes introduced at PIDE is to provide a forum for discussion to identify research issues in the area that the Institute and other researchers may follow. The objective of the workshops is to share findings of the studies on current issues in Pakistan. The proceedings of these conferences and workshops are available at PIDE's website. PIDE Viewpoint—Seminar Series The Pakistan Institute of Development Economics initiated in 2006 a weekly seminar series to stimulate intellectual thought for development discourse. A similar PIDE Viewpoint—Seminar Series has been in place since early 2008. The seminars are open to policymakers, researchers, planners, practitioners, educators, individuals from