Bert Hofman

Bert Hofman, a Dutch national, is the former director of the East Asian Institute of the National University Singapore and now non-resident senior fellow at that institute. He was also a professor in practice at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy of NUS. He is also a Senior Fellow at MERICS in Germany, honorary senior fellow at the Asia Society Policy Institute, visiting honorary senior fellow at CSIS Indonesia, and Member of the World Association for China Studies. Before joining NUS, he worked with the World Bank for 27 years, 22 of which in Asia, and 12 of which on China. Mr. Hofman was the World Bank Country Director for China 2014-2019, the country economist 2004-2008, and the Chief Economist for the World Bank in the East Asia and Pacific region 2011-2014. He also worked on Indonesia, the Philippines, Korea and Mongolia, South Africa, Namibia, Zambia, Brazil, Russia, and others. Mr. Hofman also worked at the Kiel Institute of World Economics, The OECD and NMB Bank (Now ING). He studied economics in Rotterdam and Kiel. Mr. Hofman has extensive experience in advising governments around the region on a wide range of development issues, and he has published on fiscal policy, decentralization and debt issues, and China’s and Indonesia’s recent economic history. His current interests include China’s future growth trajectory, technology, aging, and geopolitics and China-US relations.