
Economist
Papa Demba Thiam
Professor, researcher investor and private entrepreneur for value chains development before working as an international expert serving the Swiss and German governments, Dr. Papa Demba Thiam was successively Products and Markets Development Coordinator , projects director for private sector and trade development for ACP countries (Africa Caribbean Pacific) in liaison with the European Commission, international consultant to the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) and to the European Commission, International civil servant at the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and lead competitiveness economist at the Sahel and West Africa Club. From May 2003 to October 2016, Dr. Thiam worked as international civil servant at the World Bank before leaving this last institution on early retirement. He is currently developing operational and advisory products and services in the area of strategic Public-Private Partnerships on value chains to support local resource-based industrial development in Africa, including the development of urban industrial agglomerations and integrated economic clusters that are linked to national economies such as multi-purpose industrial parks and integrated agro-industrial parks among others. Dr. Thiam authored many publications in the areas on economic integration, manufacturing poverty and multilateralism. He christened innovative approaches to resilient inclusive growth with his “interface strategies for value chains based industrial development” published in 1991 by Peter Land Editions, Bern, Switzerland.