DHAKA: Economic Relations Division (ERD) organized a workshop on ‘Effective South-South and Triangular Cooperation and Knowledge Sharing’.
The workshop was held at the NEC Conference Room of the capital on Sunday.
Finance Minister AMA Muhith inaugurated the workshop as chief guest while State Minister for Finance M A Mannan and UNDP Country Director in Bangladesh Pauline Tamesis were present at the opening session as special guest.
Cabinet Secretary Mosharraf Hossain Bhuiyan attended the closing session as chief guest while Ambassador of the Republic of Korea Lee Yun-young and Ambassador of the Kingdom of Denmark Hanne Fugl Eskjær were present as special guest.
ERD Secretary Mohammad Mejbahuddin presided over both the opening and closing session of the event.
South-South cooperation, triangular cooperation and knowledge-sharing, is one of the five themes to be discussed in the upcoming High Level Meeting on Global Partnership to be held in Mexico in April.
In this context, the workshop was organized to diagnose the current practices of South-South and Triangular Cooperation and Knowledge sharing in Bangladesh.
It also aimed to analyze how South-South Cooperation can be done more effectively and how to increase its impact on development. At the same time, it also sought to identify good examples and practices which could be emulated.
Recommendations coming from this workshop are expected to provide input for the aforementioned upcoming High Level Meeting in Mexico as well as for the Foreign Assistance Policy of Bangladesh that is now under formulation.
There were a number of working sessions in the workshop dealing with the current state of South-South and Triangular Cooperation and Knowledge Sharing in Bangladesh, scope of trade as well as skills development and overseas employment opportunities for Bangladesh with its Southern partner countries and also for analyzing the comparative advantages of the Southern assistance comparing to Northern ones ambassadors and representatives from various embassies and high commissions like India, China, Republic of Korea and Denmark, representatives from bilateral and multilateral agencies; representatives and dignitaries from various business chambers and trade associations and high officials from various government ministries including ERD attended the event.
Eminent economist and the Rector of Dhaka School of Economics Dr Q K Ahmad, Secretary, Ministry of Expatriates’ Welfare and Overseas Employment Dr. Zafar Ahmed Khan, Member of Planning Commission Professor Dr Shamsul Alam, ERD Additional Secretary Ashadul Islam, Mohammad Asif-uz-Zaman and Arastoo Khan, ERD Joint Secretary Muhammad Alkama Siddiqui and Nurjahan Begum, ndc, First Vice President of FBCCI Monowara Hakim Ali, President of BGMEA Md. Atiqul Islam, CEO of Bangladesh Association for International Recruitment Agencies (BAIRA) Shahjalal Majumder and CEO of Bangladesh Foreign Trade Institute (BFTI) Dr Mozibur Rahman among others were also present in the workshop.
BDST: 1935 HRS, FEB 02, 2014
