Stand Point: At A Glance

Introduction: PRC.bd

A civil society think tank in Bangladesh

Holds the vision to contribute to the

rapidly changing scenario in

Politics

Economy

Technology

Trade

Integration

Environment

And other current affairs

Objectives:

Organizes regular dialogues, seminars, consultations and workshops with stakeholders

Conducts research, surveys and reviews on issues, which are considered to be of vital importance to the private sector

Disseminates knowledge and information on trade, investment, corporate governance and related fields.

Formulates policy measures and identifies issues requiring policy intervention for its stakeholders

Focus

Education Sector

Tourism Sector of Bangladesh

Climate Change

Banking Sector

Budgetary Advocacy

Trade and Commerce

SAARC: Regional Integration

Approacheso Policy Research – In depth primary, secondary and

comparative study and analysis of the existing policies to maximize potential of informed public discussions

o Policy Dialogues- Promotes frank and free environment for productive dialogue between the sectoral representatives

o Conferences-Comprised of important national andinternational figures such as policy makers, economist,researches, academician, ambassadors, highcommissioners, donors, think tank and other civil societyrepresentatives around the world.

o PRC- Journal – An informal journal pleads with and summons articles in some sectors which are required to take in to account by the civil society by researching and exchanging ideas

o Business Review –Bangladesh (BRB) peer reviewed

journal (ISSN: 2224- 1884)

Bangladesh Context

o A developing country with a booming economy growing at a 6.5% in a decade

oo 6th largest populated country with over 150 million people

o Ruled by democratic government

o Vast natural resources

o Second largest exporter in Garments Sector

Exports Jute

Jute Goods

Hides and Skins

Shrimps

Tea

Ocean going Vessels

Handicrafts etc.

o

Achievementsa. On its way to build a happy, prosperous and developed

Bangladesh through phase-wise implementation of long-term visionary programs

b. Banking sector has grown seamlessly during last two decades

c. Education budgets have increasingly been brought under the scrutiny of civil society organizations

d. The Travel and Tourism Sector ranked in Tk. 182.5 billion, about 2.2 % of the GDP on 2011 and to rise by 6.1% annually by year 2022

e. Active member of WTO and pursuing liberalization through regional free trade agreements like SAFTA, BIMSTEC, APTA etc.

f. Invested over 6.5 billion pound since independence to make the country more resilient to climate change

Challenges

a. Large number of un-banked people

b. Quality of education in all level facing challenges like class size, insufficient resources, unequal access etc.

c. Enjoys poor brand values in representing the tourism sector

d. High cost of doing business, inadequate infra-structure, weak human capacity etc are challenges the country is facing in trading.

e. Power shortage, lack of administrative efficiency and uncertainty over the global financial crisis are three main challenges facing budget implementation

f. So far received US$ 0.5 billion from international community as pledges which are far short of the aggregate demand for climate finance

Opportunities a. Private commercial banks (PCB’s) share currently occupy market

share at the expense of the state owned commercial banks (SCB)

and grasp more than 59% of total deposits.

b. Is on track to achieve most of the MDG goals like infant and

maternal mortality by 2015.

c. Adopted an ‘ Open Door Policy’ and established two EPZs to

promote, attract and facilitate foreign investment.

d. Recognized tourism as an industry and a thrust sector in the latest

Industrial Policy and is taking appropriate measures to offer

incentives to both the foreign investors.

e. Achievement in the area of gender parity has been quite

phenomenal. Current progress in enrolment rate indicates

achievement of the target that is practically reachable before the

stipulated MDG time frame.

f. Regional cooperation, along with national initiatives, could play a

useful role in ensuring that no region/country in South Asia left

behind.

Goals and Strategies To reveal and sensitize prospects of banking sector

• Conducting extensive research in general banking, new banking tools

and its context specific application

• Conducting research and facilitating platforms for scoping

possibilities of banking sector in strengthening access of poor and

marginalized people as mean of reducing system leakages and

poverty reduction

• Promoting identified solutions and updating capacity of the banking

sector to new tools and application

To project Bangladesh’s potential as Asia’s top tourist destination

• Conduction qualitative, quantitative mapping study and action

research to identify potential prospects of investment and contribution

by multi-sectoral stakeholders and government in promoting inbound

and internal tourism in Bangladesh

• Catalyzing stakeholders on tourism prospects and strengthening

Press Groups to sensitize government through policy influencing

dialogues and consultations on prospects and hindrances

Goals and Strategies To ascertain the challenges in trade and commerce sector

along with the mitigation mechanism

• Conducting both qualitative and quantitative mapping research to

contribute to sectoral policy influencing dialogue

• Contributing to strengthening capacity of multi-sectoral stakeholders

in addressing challenges and institutionalizing mitigation mechanism

• Promoting and building capacity of researchers to conduct critical research and put forth guideline for policy formulation and implementation

To contribute in Government Budget Planning Process

• Conducting critical research with multi-stakeholder participation on

proposals for the budgetary allocation and application of policies

and systems on priority areas

• Facilitating multi-sectoral dialogue on budgetary prospects, challenges and advising National Board of Revenue (NBR) and Finance and Planning Ministry on propositions

Goals and Strategies To eradicate food crisis

• Generate primary and secondary perception based studies on the

challenges and prospects of agriculture sector through expert and

community surveys and disseminate to stakeholders through informed

dialogues

• Conduct comparative analysis of mechanism and technologies context relevant to enrich potential for food security and food sovereignty

Catalyzing reduction of environmental pollution

• Study on pollution mitigation mechanisms and sensitize stakeholders to

influence responsiveness protocols and actions through mass education

program

• Facilitating platforms for shared knowledge generation on prospects and challenges of bi-lateral and multi-lateral cooperation

Sensitizing regional cooperation and integration

• Conducting comparative analysis of regional success story of integration

and co-operation in context of SAARC region and advising regional

governments on potentials within regions

•Conduct research for development of banks and financial

institutions in Bangladesh through removal of administrative and

financial irregularities.

•Capacity development of PRC staff through training and

dissemination of new ideas by IDE.

•Exchange of researchers between IDE and PRC for

organizational development

•Exchange of books and journals between the two institutions.

Professor Dr. Akbaruddin Ahmad, Chairman & CEO isan educationist and founder of several schools, colleges anduniversity. He is an MBA from Edward University in USA. He didhis PH.D. in Banking & Finance from Bircham InternationalUniversity, Spain. Graduated from Dhaka University fromCommerce Department. Currently he is the Vice chancellor ofDarul Ihsan University. He also held the position of Treasurer,Dean, Director, Institute of Business Studies. He has extensiveteaching experience in BBA and MBA programs. He is a regularcontribution daily newspapers. Prof. Dr. Akbaruddin Ahmad is alsothe Chairman, Editorial Board and Editor-in-chief, Finance World.He has a large number of publications in current affairs,economies, banking , financial sector reforms and IT tourism.

o

Our Team

Management Panel

H.E. Ashraf ud Doula

Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer is a career diplomat and former army officer with almost forty years of global experience in diplomacy, relationship building and forging alliances. Ashraf served in East Germany, Italy, United Kingdom, Singapore, Australia, Sri Lanka, Vietnam and Japan, the last four postings as Ambassador.

Afeef Ahmed

Working as Vice President. He has a specialization on

research and Youth rights and hunger mitigation

programming. He has previously worked with ActionAid

Bangladesh (international non-government

organization) for 4 years. His expertise is in designing,

organizing and managing policy influencing advocacy

on Hunger Mitigation, Food Rights, Youth Rights and

HIV Response to influence accountability and macro

level social change. He has been one of the few

instrumental behind initiating dialogue on

Constitutional Recognition of Food Rights and

more recently on Women Farmers Recognition in

Bangladesh.

Rashed AhmedAssociate Professor and Deputy Director of Research, obtained dual Masters in Business Administration from USA and Bangladesh, perusing M.Phil. from the University of Rajshahi, completed his PGT in Applied Business Research from Dhaka University. He has served a number of universities in Bangladesh as a Chairman of the Department, Proctor and Director. He is the Executive Editor, Business Review Bangladesh (ISSN: 2224-1884) and Advisory Editor of Finance World.

Prof. Nusrat SultanaSenior Research Fellow, PRC and former Principal, and faculty member, Department of English, Southeast University, Dhaka. She completed her MA in Philosophy, Dhaka University and presented papers in Conferences in USA, Italy, Malaysia, Japan, Delhi and Philippines. She is the Vice President, Women’s Federation for World Peace, Bangladesh, International Association for Religious Freedom (Bangladesh Chapter), Secretary, WARM HEART ASSOCIATION, Treasurer, International and Inter-religions Federation for World Peace.

Kazi Nasrin Farooque

Is Ph.D. from DU, Senior Research Fellow, PRC

and former Director, Bangladesh Council of

Scientific and Industrial Research. She has also

completed her MS in Environmental Science and

Technology from IHE, The Netherlands. She

published 15 scientific papers in reputed journals

and developed 10 processes and patents. Mrs.

Farooque undertook refresher course on Climate

Change organized by UNESCO-IHE, Palembang,

Indonesia, 2008.She is a life member of various

professional societies

Gholam RabbiAnalyst, MBA (Canada) major in International Trade (Thesis

in Garments Merchandising), Post-Graduate Diploma in

Personnel Management, Ex-Naval Officer (Trained at

BRNC, Dartmouth, UK) and a senior retiree from export

oriented industrial and trading organizations in Bangladesh.

In course of job he participated in a number of UN

sponsored Training programs in Bangladesh Suppliers

Compliance, Garments Merchandising Operations

Management, Letters of credit for Export Operations,

Costing and Pricing of Export Goods, Export Credit

Guarantee Scheme, Generalized System of Preferences

etc.

Syed Ahmed Ali Reshad

Research coordinator,After completion of higher study

from North south &India, he joined Bengal Group. He

Achieved additional degrees from Bangladesh & UK and

shifted to Multinational companies 9Jmaes Finally) and

then BnagasTallu Group. Later on got engaged and

achieved 8 years of experience in trade with

singapore,Japan&Canada.

Md. Rajibul Islam,Research Coordinator, PRC. He has done both B.Sc.

& M.Sc. in Statistics, Biostatistics & Informatics from

Dhaka University. He has interest on Research and

Development. He has completed SPSS training

programme from Dhaka University, E-Views training &

Applied Academic Research training programme from

World Institute of Business, Australia. He has

presented papers in several conferences in both

Bangladesh and abroad and which were published in

reputed journals.

Advisory Panel - Md. Lutfor Rahman ChowdhuryServed in the Government for more than 30 years and retired as Secretary to the GoB. He also served as a member of the DWASA board. After retirement, Mr. Chowdhury worked with UNICEF and Save the Children -USA on an intermittent basis. He got his masters from Dhaka University and post-graduation from the Netherlands.

Dr. Mohammad Habibur Rahman

Has been teaching since 1987 in the fields of public administration, political science, and development studies in universities in Bangladesh (Dhaka), Canada (Lakehead), Fiji (University of South Pacific) and Brunei (Universiti Brunei Darussalam). He was a Senior Fulbright Scholar at Syracuse University in USA and a Visiting Fellow at York University in Canada. His 25 year professional experience includes advising UNDP and providing consultancy to a range of international agencies including the World Bank and Asian Development Bank in governance/development projects in Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka and Nepal.

Mr. I. H Sharif

Obtained Master’s Degree in journalism from the Dhaka

University in 1977. He spent most of his career in the

Daily Newspapers, namely the daily New Nation, The

daily Independent and the Financial Express. He also

worked with BBC as an outside contributor staying in

London between June 1978 and August 1979.

Prof. Dr. Manal Shah

Completed double Master’s degree along with a Ph.D. from India. He started career as a lecturer and rose to the distinguished position of Dean at the faculty of Arts in Calcutta University. He served as an Ambassador of India to Uzbekistan.

Prof. Dr. Yusuff Ali

Started his career as a lecturer in the

Department of Chemistry in the University of

Rajshahi and retired as the Vice-Chancellor

from the same institution. He also served as the

Vice-Chancellor as well as the Member of the

Board of Governors of Green University of

Bangladesh. Hundreds of International

publications made him famous at home and

abroad

Prof. Dr. Anwarul Islam

Started his career in University of Dhaka as a

lecturer after completing master’s degree from

University of Rajshahi with record mark. He

obtained the Doctoral degree from India. He

served as the Vice-Chancellor in Bangladesh

Islami University.

Prof. Dr. Anisuzzaman

Completed B.A (Hons), M.A and M.Phil from Dhaka

University and Ph. D from Wales. His post-doctoral

degrees are from USA and UK. He is the Advisor of the

honorable Vice Chancellor of DIU. He has been serving

in Dhaka University as a Professor in the Department

of Philosophy.

Prof. Dr. Anwarul Islam

Started his career in University of Dhaka as a

lecturer after completing master’s degree from

University of Rajshahi with record mark. He

obtained the Doctoral degree from India. He

served as the Vice-Chancellor in Bangladesh

Islami University.

Prof. Dr. Anisuzzaman

Completed B.A (Hons), M.A and M.Phil from Dhaka

University and Ph. D from Wales. His post-doctoral

degrees are from USA and UK. He is the Advisor of the

honorable Vice Chancellor of DIU. He has been serving

in Dhaka University as a Professor in the Department

of Philosophy.

Seminar: Trade and Commerce in Bangladesh Challenges Ahead

AIM: Identify the major challenges faced by

Bangladesh economy in the field of

trade and commerce and to suggest

remedial measures

Seminar: Banking In Bangladesh:

Prospects and Challenges

AIM: Highlight on the major issues

confronting the banking

sector of Bangladesh and

suggest remedial measures .

AIM:

Seminar: Beautiful Bangladesh Toward Asia’s Top Tourist Destination

To Promote Tourism By Participation of

Local People

Seminar: Food Security Challenges: Impact of Climate Change

AIM: To Remove Barriers of the to Food Security,

Coordination among nations and New Trade

agreements between Countries.

Seminar: Climate Change and Environmental Pollution In Bangladesh

AIM: Develop Alternative Bricks By Utilizing

Industrial Wastages.

Seminar : “ Regional Integration: SAARC”

AIM: Discuss the critical issue affecting the

growth and integration of SAARC