CPD to host South Asia Economic Summit this year

The Centre for Policy Dialogue will host this year's South Asia Economic Summit, a regional platform for discourse on socio-economic issues in the South Asian region.

The announcement came from the 46th meeting of the board of trustees of CPD on Thursday, the think-tank said in a statement.

A national conference for young researchers, expert group meetings in Bangladesh and Turkey on the Istanbul Programme of Action review and appreciation courses on concurrent issues for various professional groups will also be held.

The trustees of CPD recommended strengthening outreach efforts of the organisation, emphasising research quality and capacity building and diversifying the portfolio of communication activities to meet emerging challenges in the policy environment.

The trustees also lauded CPD's performance at the national, regional and global levels between July and December 2015, according to the statement.

The board approved CPD's annual accounts for 2015 and the budget for 2016.

The board also endorsed the annual plan for research, dialogues and publications of the organisation, which will involve undertaking various research and outreach activities at the country as well as at the global level.

Concurrent issues to be dealt with in Bangladesh include the analysis of macroeconomic performance, inclusive growth and employment, delivery of ADP, green growth and apparel sector restructuring.

At the global level, the implementation challenges of sustainable development goals, including financing and data availability, and generating inputs for the official process of the mid term review of the Istanbul Programme of Action will take centre stage for CPD. Prof Rehman Sobhan, chairman of CPD, presided over the meeting.

CPD trustees M Syeduzzaman, a former finance minister; Advocate Sultana Kamal, executive director of Ain o Salish Kendra; Rasheda K Choudhury, executive director of CAMPE; Debapriya Bhattacharya, distinguished fellow of CPD; and Prof Mustafizur Rahman, executive director of CPD and member secretary of the CPD board of trustees, were also present.