Recollections of My Careerlections of My Career

Suhadi Mangkusuwondo, Professor Emeritus of the Faculty of Economics at the University of Indonesia (FEUI), was born in Solo, Central Java, in December 1927. After participating in the war of independence, he resumed his secondary education in Malang, completing it in 1949. He then studied economics at the University of Indonesia (UI) and later became a teaching assistant there. Suhadi spent two years doing postgraduate study at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and later obtained a PhD in economics at the University of California at Berkeley. Returning to Indonesia and his teaching post at FEUI, he became editor of the journal Economics and Finance in Indonesia (EKI). He was Head of the R&D Agency in the Department of Trade from 1973 to 1975 and again in 1983-88, and Director General of Foreign Trade from 1975 to 1983. Professor Suhadi served as the Representative of the Government of Indonesia in the Uruguay Round when it was launched in 1986, and since 1992 has been a member of the Eminent Persons Group of the APEC (Asia–Pacific Economic Cooperation) forum. His other activities include membership of Indonesia's National Research Council (DRN), and of organisations such as the Regional Advisory Board of the ASEAN Economic Bulletin, the journal of the ASEAN Economic Research Unit of the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies in Singapore. He is now also Vice Chairman of the Jakarta-based Trade and Development Institute. On 8 July 1994, Professor Suhadi talked with H.W. Arndt, Hal Hill and Thee Kian Wie about his views on Indonesia's economic development under the New Order, and particularly about trade policy. On 19 September 1995, in a second interview with H.W. Arndt, Mari Pangestu and Thee Kian Wie, he elaborated further on his work at the Ministry of Trade and his participation in the Uruguay Round and the APEC Eminent Persons Group (EPG).