April 06, 2010---IPRCC organized a Seminar by Mr. Mahfuz Anam, Editor of the Daily Star.  The Daily Star is the top English language daily newspaper in Bangladesh. 

Dr. Salehuddin Ahmed, the Chief Technical Advisor of IPRCC introduced Mr. Mahfuz Anam and moderated the one and a half hour session.  Anam is a renowned journalist and comprehensive communication specialist.  He is an MA in Economics from Dhaka University.  Worked for many years in UNESCO as a Media Expert. He is also a highly respected TV interviewer and speaker in high level national and international forums.  He contributes in setting up the socio political agenda of Bangladesh with his sharp and witty pen.  Anam is a voracious writer.  In his school and university days, he was also a great debater.

After the brief introduction, Anam gave a presentation on “Why China should be interested in Bangladesh?”.  It was a very interesting and educative talk.  He highlighted on the history, economy and the success stories of Bangladesh.  He mentioned, Bangladesh got her independence in 1971 after a 9-month long Liberation War.  The country had a turbulent political history.  Bangladesh is going through an enormous learning experience.  The good side is that the country has a political democracy since 1991 and achieved a number of mentionable successes in its socio-economic development.  He also sighted some concrete examples of successes, such as, Building Democracy, Food Self Sufficiency, Sustained Economic Growth at 5.5% for the last 20 years, Population Control, Establishing Women’s Rights, Private Development Organisations, Intellectual and Press Freedom etc.

Then Mahfuz Anam spoke briefly about the significance of relationship between Bangladesh and China.  He said, China has a strong commitment for peace and harmony.  Already China is one of the major development partners of Bangladesh, building bridges, factories, power stations, roads etc.  Bangladesh is a market for Chinese products and imports annually 5 billion US Dollars worth of Chinese good sand services.  There are significant scopes to build this mutually beneficial relationship and make it more meaningful.  He also mentioned that China should participate and contribute in the regional partnerships of South Asia and other regional forums.  The lessons China learnt in Poverty Alleviation and Development should be shared with the Asian, especially the South Asian countries.

The last 45 minutes of the Seminar was devoted to a very interactive question, answer and discussion session.  The IPRCC staff present, especially the young professionals made many interesting inquisitive queries, valid observations and comments.  Anam responded to each of the questions with commendable clarity. 

The Seminar ended with a vote of thanks by the Moderator to all present and special thanks to Mr. Mahfuz Anam.