Former Russian PM To Visit New Zealand

Dr Yegor Gaidar, former Russian Prime Minister and father of Russia’s free-market economic reforms, will visit New Zealand next month as a guest of the New Zealand Business Roundtable (NZBR).

Dr Yegor Gaidar is internationally respected as Russia’s leading advocate of economic liberalism and has served as Prime Minister, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Finance, Leader of Russia’s Democratic Choice party and member of the Duma (the Russian Parliament).

He is now Director of the Institute for the Economy in Transition and is an increasingly influential figure in the Putin government, which includes his own party. A brief biography of Dr Gaidar is attached.

Dr Gaidar will be available for media interviews in Auckland on the afternoon of Wednesday 25 October and in Wellington on the afternoon of Thursday 26 October and the morning of Friday 27 October.

Dr Gaidar will deliver the 2000 Sir Ronald Trotter Lecture in Auckland on Wednesday 25 October. He will also speak to a function in Parliament hosted by Minister of Commerce Hon Paul Swain MP on Thursday 26 October. Dr Gaidar will give a first-hand account of the Russian revolution of October 1991, the reforms that followed and the programme of the current government.

The Sir Ronald Trotter Lecture is an annual event hosted by the NZBR to honour its founding chairman’s contribution to business and public affairs. The lecture was first held in 1995 and guest lecturers have included Richard Epstein, Thomas Sowell, Norman Barry, Antonio Martino and Judith Sloan. The full text of all past lectures is available on the NZBR website (www.nzbr.org.nz).

For further information, please contact:

Catherine Judd
JM Communications
Telephone: (04) 498 7246
Email: cjudd@jmnz.co.nz

Dr Yegor Timurovich Gaidar

Dr Yegor Gaidar is currently a member of the Duma (the Russian parliament) and the director of the Institute of the Economy in Transition (IET) based in Moscow. The IET is a liberal think tank connected with President Vladimir Putin and key reformers in the present coalition government.

Dr Gaidar’s father is well-known in Russia for his stories of the heroism of the red forces in the civil war. Dr Gaidar is married with three children.

Key positions:

 Deputy Head of Government and Minister of Finance and Economy (1991-1992). As Minister of Finance and Economy, Dr Gaidar implemented price liberalisation in January 1992

 Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance (1992)

 Acting Prime Minister (1992)

 Presidential Advisor on Economic Policy and head of the Expert Council on Economic Reform (1992-1993)

 Member of the Duma (Russian Parliament) (1993-1995; 1999-present)

 Director, Institute of the Economy in Transition (1992-present). More information on the IET can be found on its website (www.iet.ru/index2.html)

 Leader, Demokraticeskii Vybor Rossi (Russia’s Democratic Choice) (1993-present). The DVR successfully contested the 1993 and 1995 Duma elections on its own and the 1999 Duma elections as part of a coalition of liberal parties, Sojuz Pravych Rossija (Union of Right Forces)

 Co-chairman, Sojuz Pravych Rossija (2000). The SPR currently has 29 seats in the 450 seat Duma and is part of the present coalition government

 PhD in economics from Moscow State University (1990) for his dissertation on “Economic Reforms and Hierarchical Structures”

ENDS
For further information, please contact:

Catherine Judd
JM Communications:
Telephone: (04) 498 7246
Email: cjudd@jmnz.co.nz

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