The course of the project was interrupted by the Indonesian financial crisis that began in 1997. This led to a significant redirection of research effort, and the researchers were in a position to provide input into the important policy debate surrounding this event. For example, the team produced a volume of works addressing the crisis, entitled 'Indonesian Economic Crisis: Effects on Agriculture and Policy Responses'.
The reviewers considered that the project was very successful in spite of the extremely unfavorable political and social environment in which it had operated. The review report focused largely on the CGE model, whose quality was considered to be excellent, and the large volume of output (over 80 papers) was noted. The significant capacity building effort was acknowledged and the review recommendations focused on how to continue the life and usefulness of the model and modelling capacity arising from the project.
The reviewers commended the management of the project researchers from Adelaide University, who made several important decisions during the project that led to an improved output. The first was the change in model design when new software for efficiently solving large CGE models became available. This meant significantly more work for them but produced a better product. As well, the decision to refocus some of the modelling effort onto the effects of the crisis was commended by the reviewers.