The commission "will highlight fundamental aspects of economic growth for the attainment of development objectives and identify forward-looking growth policies," the Treasury said in a statement last week.

Noted policy-makers, academics and businesspeople have been invited to sit on the commission, which will be chaired by 2001 Nobel economics laureate Michael Spence. The commission will deliver a report at the annual meeting of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund in Singapore. 

The report, to be finalised in 2007, is expected to direct World Bank thinking on national development and growth strategies. Manuel is also chair of the Development Committee, a forum of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund that facilitates intergovernmental consensus-building on development issues.

Manuel was appointed South Africa's minister of finance in April 1996 and has since become one of the world's longest-serving ministers of finance.

He has been awarded a host of honorary doctorates and other accolades, the latest being an honorary doctor of law degree from South Africa's Rhodes University, presented last week. He was named one of the World Economic Forum's "global leaders of tomorrow" in 1994.

Source: SouthAfrica.info / April 2006

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