The inaugural ceremony of the 4th SANEM Annual Economists’ Conference 2019 took place in Dhaka city on Saturday.
The session was chaired by Chairman of SANEM Dr Bazlul Haque Khondker.
In the ceremony, Executive Director of SANEM Dr Selim Raihan gave a welcome speech.
The chief guest of the ceremony was Planning Minister M A Mannan.
In the opening ceremony, Director of the ESCAP-SSWA Dr Nagesh Kumar gave the keynote presentation, focusing on the challenges regarding the implementation of SDGs in South Asia.
In his speech, Planning Minister M A Mannan said the government is focusing on increasing investment in research, believing that relevant research is necessary to help identify key policy areas for the future.
In his keynote speech, Research Director of Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS) Dr Binayak Sen focused on the rising inequality of Bangladesh and the world.
His presentation showed that in the short run growth-inequality trade-offs are difficult to avoid in the urban region.
In his speech, Dr Bazlul Haque Khondker focused on the fact that Bangladesh is failing to collect tax from existing sources of taxation.
The workforce involved in the informal sector of the economy are not paying taxes, he said, providing emphasis on the fact that the government needs to work on collecting taxes from all possible sources to increase the tax-GDP ratio.
The inaugural ceremony ended with the organisers providing tokens of appreciation to the guests.
