Prof. John Wong

Professor John Wong was born in Guangdong, China. He received his B.A. (Honours) in Arts from the University of Hong Kong in 1962 and his Ph.D. from the University of London in 1966. He taught at the Department of Economics, University of Hong Kong from 1966 to 1971, and at the Department of Economics, National University of Singapore from 1971 to 1990. He served as Director of the Institute of East Asian Political Economy (the predecessor of the East Asian Institute) from 1990 to 1996, and has been Academic Director of the East Asian Institute, National University of Singapore since 1997. Together with Professor Wang Gungwu, he co-founded the East Asian Institute in 1991. He has held visiting professorships at the University of Florida and the University of Toronto, and has been a visiting fellow or scholar at Harvard University's Fairbank Center, Yale University's Economic Growth Center, St. Antony's College at Oxford University, and Stanford University. Since 1970, Professor Wong has delivered academic lectures at over 80 universities and research institutions and participated in more than 300 international academic conferences. He has served as a consultant to numerous international organizations, including the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific, the United Nations Industrial Development Organization, the International Labour Organization, the Asian Productivity Organization, the Asia-Pacific Development Centre, the Asian Development Bank, and the International Chamber of Commerce in Paris. He established the "Peking University Huang Zhisheng Scholarship" at the Department of Public Finance at Peking University to support academically outstanding students from financially disadvantaged families. His edited works include China: Economic and Social Challenges for the Next Ten Years.