Shamsul Alam, an acclaimed economist and a former member of the Planning Commission, has taken the oath of office as a state minister of the government.
President Md Abdul Hamid administered the oath of office to Alam, who is poised to serve the Sheikh Hasina's administration as state minister for planning, at the Bangabhaban on Sunday evening, reports bdnews24.com.
Several ministers attended the oath-taking ceremony.
Currently, the cabinet has 25 ministers and 19 state ministers. Also, three deputy ministers have taken charge of government offices.
Jamalpur-2 MP Md Faridul Haque Khan Dulal was the last to be appointed as a state minister. He was assigned to the Ministry of Religious Affairs after taking his oath on Nov 24 last year.
Shamsul Alam, whose term as a senior secretary to the General Economics Division under the Planning Commission ended on June 30, will be in the cabinet as a technocrat.
With 35 years of academic and research experience, Alam joined Bangladesh Planning Commission as a member in 2009. He has since become the longest-serving member of the Planning Commission.
Born in Chandpur's Matlab Upazila in 1951, Alam did his MSc in agricultural economics from Bangladesh Agricultural University in 1973. He earned an MA in economics from Thammasat University, Bangkok, in 1983 before completing his PhD in economics from the University of Newcastle upon Tyne in 1991.
Alam had a lengthy spell from 1974 to 2015 as a faculty at Bangladesh Agricultural University.
He led the preparation of several national planning documents as a member of the Planning Commission's General Economics Division, from the 2009-19 period.
Alam worked at the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations from March 2002 to December 2005, having also served as a full-time national consultant at UNDP, Bangladesh.
He wrote analytical columns on socio-economy and politics on the opinion pages of national dailies for more than three decades.
The government honoured him with Ekushey Padak in 2020 for his contribution to the agricultural economy.