Veteran Egyptian economist Samir Amin passed away in Paris on Sunday at the age of 87.

Amin was born on September 3, 1931 in Cairo for an Egyptian father and a French mother.

From 1947 to 1957, he studied in Paris, gaining a diploma in political science (1952) before graduating in statistics (1956) and economics (1957). He returned to Egypt after he had completed his PhD in economics from Sorbonne University.

Amin left Cairo, to become an adviser to the Ministry of Planning in Bamako (Mali) from 1960 to 1963. In 1963 he was offered a fellowship at the Institut Africain de Développement Économique et de Planification (IDEP). Until 1970 he worked there as well as being a professor at the university of Poitiers, Dakar and Paris (of Paris VIII, Vincennes). In 1970 he became director of the IDEP, which he managed until 1980. In 1980 Amin left the IDEP and became a director of the Third World Forum in Dakar.

He authored many books including The Liberal Virus 2003, A life Looking Forward 2006, Accumulation on a World Scale 1970 and Capitalism in the age of globalization 1997.

MENA