The grand finale of EconProdigy 3.0, a round titled 'Policy Dialogue' was held on the December 10 at the North South University campus. After the highly competitive rounds, Team Icons were declared as winners of EconProdigy 3.0. They bagged a prize money of Tk 100,000.
Fall 2017 witnessed the return of EconProdigy, the flagship event by Young Economists' Forum, North South University's first academic student organisation. EconProdigy 3.0 was the third installment of this prestigious event, a policy development competition in the country. The theme of this year's competition was 'Urbanisation'.
The opening of the event took place on November 20 along with a workshop for the participants at the North South University campus. During the workshop the participating teams were briefed on the details of the event, and were provided with the topic for Round 1, which was a presentation round.
In Round 1 ('Speakonomics') on November 27, participants presented their cases on the subject: 'Should Dhaka Pursue Urbanisation as a Mandate for Economic Growth?' Judges for the event included professors and other faculty members from the School of Business and Economics, and the School of Humanities and Social Sciences of North South University along with Nawed Wahed Asif, head of Treasury of IPDC Finance Limited.
Ten of the initial 40 teams exceedingly impressed the judges, moving on to the second round of the competition, which was a debate round. Six of these ten teams were from North South University, two were from Bangladesh University of Professionals (BUP) and of the remaining two teams, one originated from BRAC University, and the other from Dhaka University.
In Round 2, 'Cross-talk' was held on December 04. In this round teams engaged in zealous debates on topics such as 'Investment into New Transport Systems in Dhaka will equate to Wasted Efforts', 'The Growth of Urbanisation will lead to a Decrease in Agricultural Output', and 'The Damage to the Environment Outweighs the Benefits of Urbanisation.' The debates, which lasted 30 minutes each, were followed by a question and answer session. The judges for Round 2 included several senior faculty members and professors of North South University. The teams that came out triumphant in the debates of Round 2 were Teams Ignite, Citified and Icons of North South University, Team Led Zeppelin of BRAC University and Team Defenders from Dhaka University. These teams moved on to the third and final round of EconProdigy 3.0.
In the grand finale, five finalists were given 15 minutes each to present their full-fledged policies on the topic 'Decentralisation; Rejoin the Urban Map of Bangladesh?' This was then followed by a question and answer session where the competing teams answered questions by the panel of judges, which included Dr. Ashikur Rahman, senior economist at the Policy Research Institute (PRI) of Bangladesh; Md Nurullah, chief engineer at Dhaka South City Corporation; Dr. Chowdhury Zaber Sadeque, additional SP, Bangladesh Police; Professor M Ismail Hossain, chairman of the Department of Economics, NSU, and Dr. Saiful Momen, assistant professor, Department of Environmental Sciences and Management, NSU.
The chief guest for the event was Mohammad Sayeed Khokhon, mayor of Dhaka South City Corporation. Rehana Rahman, founder Life Member of NSU Board of Trustees was the guest of honour of the event. The event was also graced by Professor M Mahboob Rahman, dean, School of Business and Economics, NSU; Professor Dr. Gour Gobinda Goswami, treasurer, NSU; Mominul Islam, managing director IPDC Finance Limited, Kazi Mashiur Rahman, managing director and CEO, Mercantile Bank Limited, who were special guests as well as Session Chair Professor G U Ahsan, VC- in-charge, NSU.
After impressive performance from all the teams during the presentations and the question and answer sessions, and intense deliberation on the part of the judges, the winning teams were announced. Team Icons was crowned winners of EconProdigy 3.0, receiving a monetary prize of Tk 100,000. The first runner-up was Team Led Zeppelin that received Tk 50,000, and the second runner-up was Team Defenders which received Tk 25,000 as a monetary prize.
The title sponsors for this event were Mercantile Bank Limited. The event was powered by IPDC Finance Limited. Associate sponsor for the event was Wave Deodorant and Air Freshener. The Financial Express was the Youth Engagement Partner for the event. The Clothing Partner for the event was Fine Threads and the Snacks Partner was Goldmark Biscuit.
The writer is a student at North South University and team leader of Academic Practices at Young Economists' Forum (YEF). She can be reached at rabitasaleh13@gmail.com