South Asian Federation of Accountants (SAFA) International Conference 2022 was held in Dhaka on Saturday.
Commerce Minister Tipu Munshi inaugurated the conference, hosted by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Bangladesh (ICAB) at a city hotel, reports BSS.
Salman F Rahman, the adviser to the prime minister on private industry and investment, and State Minister for Planning Dr Shamsul Alam spoke as special guests.
Parveen Mahmud, Chairman of the Organising Committee of Conference; ICAB President Md. Shahadat Hossain and SAFA President HM Hennayake Bandara also spoke on the occasion.
Md. Humayun Kabir, past President and Council Member of ICAB, gave a brief note on the entire conference at the valedictory session. About 30 delegates from South Asian countries participated in the conference.
Commerce Minister Tipu Munshi said that the development of Bangladesh is an example to many countries. "By 2026 the country will be graduated ...To sustain the development growth, we need to boost up our trade among the countries in this region, therefore, regional connectivity is a must."
He said although Bangladesh has many challenges, however, working together regionally can propel the country to go forward.
“There is no shortage of rationale for increasing regional trade cooperation among South Asian countries as trade between these countries has been steadily increasing especially over the last decade,” said former Bangladesh Bank Governor Dr Atiur Rahman while presenting the keynote paper on Regional Connectivity for Sustainable Growth.
Dr Atiur said this growth has a much slower pace than the true potential. "The trade between Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, and Nepal increased by six times between 2015 and 2019. But, still unexploited regional trade potentials for Bangladesh remains to be as high as 93 per cent," he added.
“To tap the unexploited potentials, South Asian countries need to invest more on improving regional connectivity,” he suggested.
