Day 1 of the conference is plenary devoted to all four themes, but will include a poster session in the evening where everyone will have opportunity to present their views. Day 2 is the time for discussion of the four themes individually in four parallel sessions. This is the time for developing concrete outcomes regarding economic development. It requires presentation of examples of economic development and problems associated with it and presentation of proposals for concrete outcomes. These proposals are then discussed and further developed at a further plenary session on Day 3. The aim is to have an action plan and commitments from people to do the work.
Day 1
Papers on economic development to be presented during the plenary session on day 1 are as follows:
1. Introduction – the role of physics in economic development, Peter Melville, UK
2. Physics and industrial development – examples from South America, José Valentin Lolich, Argentina
3. Physics and agriculture, TR Ariyaratne, Sri Lanka
4. New technologies and economic development, Hashem Rafii-Tabar, Iran
Day 2
The themes on economic development for day 2 are:
a) Training and employment of physicists (including technology-based small enterprises)
Chair: Dawood Parker, UK
b) Applied research in developing countries
Chair: Nguyen Xuan Phuc, Vietnam
c) Physics and agriculture
Chair: Kedro Sidiki Diomande, Côte d’Ivoire
d) New technologies and economic development
Chair: Hashem Rafii-Tabar, Iran