Center for Balanced Development

Vienna, 6 November 1999/P/K/16656c-is

The President of the International Progress Organization, Professor Hans Koechler (Austria), has been appointed as member of the International Advisory Board of the newly-established Center for Balanced Development (CBD).

The Center is dedicated to helping emerging communities by studying the goals and consequences of developmental strategies, providing educational support, and advocating balanced development that combines economic growth with civic empowerment and political maturation.

The Center intends to generate cross-cultural dialogue among intellectuals of different cultural and religious backgrounds to bring about understanding and reform. One of the major research projects of the Center for Balanced Development is entitled "Global Governance: Who Speaks for the South?" This study is focused on the structure, the decision-making processes and the major actors in international organizations such as the UN, WTO, IMF, World Bank. The study attempts to find out the extent to which the interests of the peoples of developing countries are represented in the plans, policies, and programs of international organizations.

Other research projects deal with "Unequal Development: Sources, Remedies, and Consequences," and "Islam and the West: Civilizational Clash or Cultural Dialogue?"

The Center for Balanced Development is located at Sterling, Virginia (United States of America). Among the members of the International Advisory Board are Prof. Ali Mazrui, Director of the Institute of Global Cultural Studies at the State University of New York, Professor John Esposito of Harvard University, and Mr. Mustafa Ceric, President of the Islamic Council of Bosnia (Sarajevo).

END/Center for Balanced Development/1999-11-06