Focus more on generating good ideas: Sir Abed

Sir Fazle Hasan Abed, founder and chairperson of BRAC, stressed the need for generating good ideas rather than producing more new ideas while making investment.
He spoke at an interactive session titled “Chasing the next big idea” at the World Economic Forum in Myanmar on June 7.
Sharing the panel with Tony Blair, the Middle East quartet representative, Abed addressed the session, which focused on the dimensions of investing in smart infrastructure for the future, moving beyond low-cost manufacturing.
Tony Blair also stressed the need to focus more on enabling innovation and execution of the ideas.
The sessions of the three-day forum that started on June 5 were structured to identify the lessons of leadership and innovation, which are emerging from East Asia, as the world looks to the region for resilient growth and new models of regional integration.
On the opening day, Sir Fazle initiated a session on “Aligning actors for inclusive growth and development”, BRAC said in a statement yesterday.
The session promoted common goals and activities already underway, and identified opportunities for coordination and collaboration to create further positive developments in the country.
Aung San Suu Kyi, chairman of the National League for Democracy, and Shwe Mann, speaker of the house of representatives of Myanmar, attended the session, according to the statement.
The heads of global organisations working actively in Myanmar and representatives from local businesses, civil societies, government and other stakeholders also take part in the session.
Aung San Suu Kyi thanked Abed for sharing the Bangladesh experience and shed light on skills development and education for the people of Myanmar.
“The country has the opportunity to forge its own balance of partnerships and by opening up to NGOs and industries it can experience more innovations, which can happen to scale,” Sir Fazle wrote in an op-ed for the Myanmar Times.