The Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Government of India has recently appointed Rohan P. Shah as India’s Representative and Governor on the board of Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia (ERIA). The appointment is for a period of three years.

ERIA, set up in 2006 by the Governments of the ASEAN countries, is engaged in research and guidance on policy formulation related to economic integration, cross border trade issues and narrowing development gaps in the ASEAN region. The Board meets once in every six months with alternate meetings taking place in Jakarta and Japan.

Shah is the son of Pradeep Hiralal Shah, and is an alumnus of Government Law College (GLC), Mumbai. A practicing counsel at the Supreme Court and in various High Courts, he specialises in tax, trade and other corporate issues. In 2003, he was associated with India’s WTO trade negotiations as an Industry Representative at Cancún, under the then Minister of Commerce Arun Jaitley.

Each of the 17 members of the ASEAN appoints a Governor to the ERIA board which usually includes Ministers, ex-Ministers and senior industry leaders. India’s previous nominees as Governor have included Ratan Tata, Rajiv Kumar (currently Vice-Chairman, NITI Aayog) and economist Ajit Ranade.