On 27 December 2005 the
Secretary-General appointed Mr. Marek Belka
of Poland as the new Executive Secretary
of the United Nations Economic Commission
for Europe (UNECE).
Marek
Belka has outstanding qualifications
and numerous accomplishments in
the area of economics and global
economic governance. He
served as Prime Minister of Poland
between May 2004 and November
2005. He
helped to direct Iraq’s
post-war economy by serving first
as Chairman of the Council for
International Coordination for
Iraq (responsible for international
aid coordination for the reconstruction
of Iraq, June-October 2003),
and later as Director of Economic
Policy (responsible for the preparation
of economic reforms in Iraq,
October 2003-March 2004). He served
as Poland’s Deputy Prime
Minister and Minister for Finance
(February-October 1997 and October
2001-July 2002). He
also served as Chief Economic
Adviser to the President of Poland
(1996-1997 and 1998 -2001).
Previously,
Mr. Belka was an adviser and
consultant to the Ministry of
Finance and the Ministry of Ownership
Transformations and Central Office
of Planning (1990-1996). He
was also a Consultant to the World
Bank between 1990 and 1996 dealing
with projects in Poland, Central
and Eastern Europe, Russia, Uzbekistan
and China, and again from 1997 to
2001. He also served as Adviser
to the Prime Minister of Albania
(1997-2001) and Senior Adviser to
JP Morgan for Central and Eastern
Europe (November 2002-June 2003). Mr. Belka
has authored several books and articles
dealing with socio-economic issues.
Mr. Belka
was born on 9 January 1952. He
earned an M.A. (economics of foreign
trade), a Ph.D. in economics and
a Ph.D. (“habilitation” in
economics) from the University
of Lódź. He
earned a Fulbright Scholarship
at Columbia University (post-doctoral
programme) and an American Council
of Learned Societies’ Scholarship
at the University of Chicago.
Mr.
Belka is married with two children.
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