Prof. CHEN Xikang was elected recently as a fellow of the International Input-Output Association, the highest honor for IIOA members, together with Prof. Geoffrey J.D. Hewings, the President of the International Input-Output Association (IIOA).

Till 2009, there only have 6 fellows like Clopper Almon, Ronald E. Miller, Graham Pyatt, Anne P. Carter, Karen R. Polenske et al. A ceremony for two new fellows will be made at the 18th IIOA conference in Sydney, Australia in June 2010.

Since 1960, CHEN Xikang committed himself to the introduction and promotion of input-output (IO) analysis in China. CHEN initiated and designed the first IO table for China (i.e., the 1973 table) in the State Planning Commission. Later, the State Council of China decided (due to the efforts of CHEN Xikang, MA Bin, and other experts) to construct China’s IO tables every five years.

He used IO methods in combination with other techniques and forecasted China’s grain output with a remarkably high accuracy in the past 30 years. The lead time of the annual prediction is more than half a year; the prediction of the bumper, the average and the poor harvests are all correct; the average error rate over the past 30 years is only 1.8%; and the results outperform the similar predictions by the other countries.

Prof. CHEN developed and analyzed the extended input-output models with assets. He was awarded the Outstanding Science and Technology Achievement Prize of the Chinese Academy of Science in 2003, Award of Distinguished Achievements in Management Science of China in 2006, IFORS Operation Research in Development Prize in 1999, First Prize of Science and Technology Progress Awards of Chinese Academy of Sciences in 1992 and 1997 et al.