UN chief to attend major business event in Bangladesh

UN Secretary-General António Guterres and his predecessor Ban Ki-moon are expected to attend a major business event to be hosted by the International Chamber of Commerce to mark its centennial in Dhaka.

President Abdul Hamid is scheduled to inaugurate the three-day Asia-Pacific conference on financing for inclusive and sustainable development on Dec 10 at the InterContinental Hotel.

The conference will focus on how to scale up investment and international development cooperation and adequately finance the 2030 agenda for sustainable development in Asia and the Pacific.

“The conference will play a positive role in promoting Bangladesh's trade in the international arena,” ICCB President Mahbubur Rahman told reporters in Dhaka on Saturday.

About 100 delegates from 30 countries will attend the conference. Besides, about 400 delegates, including business leaders and bankers from Bangladesh, will also attend the conference.

ICCB in collaboration with the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific, the Asian Development Bank and the London Institute of Banking and Finance is organising the conference.

During the event, ICCB will also celebrate its 25th anniversary.

The topics to be discussed in the conference will include policy and regulatory options for financing SDG project and infrastructure development, raising awareness on climate finance, capital market development, and SME financing.

Besides Hamid, Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal, Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen, and Salman Fazlur Rahman, the prime minister’s adviser on private industry and investment, will join the conference.

Armida Salsia Alisjahbana, UN ESCAP under secretary-general and executive secretary, Bandula Gunawardena, Sri Lankan ICT and innovation minister, Riyaz Mansoor, Maldives deputy minister of planning and infrastructure, and Laim Kimleng, Cambodian vice minister of industry and handicraft, will be among the foreign dignitaries at the conference.