Roland Rajah

Roland Rajah is Lead Economist and Director of the Indo-Pacific Development Centre at the Lowy Institute, focusing on economic development challenges across Southeast Asia, the Pacific Islands, and South Asia. His research spans macroeconomics, aid and development finance, geoeconomics, and regional integration.

Roland has held the position of Lead Economist since joining the Institute in 2017. As Director of the Indo-Pacific Development Centre, he leads a work program organised around post-Covid growth and development, globalisation and regional integration, climate change and development, technology and the digital economy, aid and development finance, and geoeconomics. The Centre also houses the Lowy Institute Pacific Aid Map, which tracks official aid and development finance flows to the Pacific Islands.

A development economist by background, Roland has extensive experience across emerging Asia and the small island developing states of the Pacific. He has previously worked for the Asian Development Bank, the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, the Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID), and the Reserve Bank of Australia. He holds a master's degree in economics from the Australian National University, where he was awarded the Helen Hughes Prize in International and Development Economics, and serves on the board of the Cambodia Development Resource Institute.