Uzbekistan Quality Job Creation as a Cornerstone for Sustainable Economic Growth

Bahtiyor Eshchanov
is a senior lecturer in economics at Westminster 
International University in Tashkent. He holds an MSc in sustainable 
technologies from the Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden and a PhD 
in applied economics from the Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium. He has 
served as a senior economist for the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and 
department chairman at the Academy of Public Administration under the 
President of Uzbekistan. He is engaged in national and international research 
projects in partnership with international financial institutions, including 
ADB, the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs (NUPI), the Swiss 
Renewable Energy and Energy Resource Efficiency Program (REPIC), and 
the United Nations Development Programme. He has publications in peer 

---

xv
reviewed journals. In line with teaching industrial economics and energy-
environmental economics, he is supervising theses on renewable energy and
development economics.
Edimon Ginting
is the deputy director general of Economic Research and 
Regional Cooperation Department (ERCD). He was director of the Economic 
Analysis and Operational Support Division (EREA), supervising the review 
of the economic viability of all ADB projects and leading the preparation of 
country diagnostic studies for ADB’s developing member countries (DMCs). 
He joined ADB in 2007 and has led several large and strategic ADB operations 
to support economic reforms, including loans to support DMCs’ response 
to the global financial crisis. Before joining ADB, he was an economist at the 
International Monetary Fund; advisor to the Indonesian Parliament; research 
economist at the Productivity Commission, Australia; researcher and lecturer 
at the University of Indonesia; postdoctoral fellow at Monash University; 
and research economist at Gadjah Mada University. He received his PhD in 
economics from Monash University. 
Jozef Konings
is a full professor of economics at the University of Liverpool 
Management School and at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium. He 
is a research fellow of the Center for Economic Policy Research in London and 
director of the Center for Regional Economic Policy (VIVES) at the University 
of Leuven. He has held visiting positions at the International Monetary Fund, 
Dartmouth College, the University of Michigan, Ljubljana University, and the 
Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Between November 2008 and March 2010 
he was an economic adviser to President Barroso at the European Commission. 
He also served as a Dean of the School of Business and Economics at the 
University of Leuven. His research focuses on emerging markets, global firms, 
international macroeconomics, and micro drivers affecting macroeconomic 
fluctuations. He has published in leading academic journals.