Ambassador Farooq Sobhan (President & CEO - Bangladesh Enterprise Institute, Former Chairman - Board of Investment Bangladesh, Former Secretary Foreign Affairs and Special Envoy to Prime Minister & Former Ambassador / High Commissioner to China, India, Malaysia & United Nations) will join us as one of the Keynote Speakers at Second Edition of SOUTH ASIA CONCLAVE on Thursday & Friday, November 20 & 21, 2014 in LAHORE, the Cultural Capital of South Asia. He will share his views on Shaping South Asias Future: Role of Regional Cooperation. Ambassador Farooq Sobhan is the President and CEO of the Bangladesh Enterprise Institute (BEI) which was established in October 2000. BEI is an independent research institute committed to the development of the private sector in Bangladesh. BEI is involved in a variety of research projects relating to the improvement of the investment climate in Bangladesh, the development of the SME sector, Public-Private partnerships, regional cooperation in South Asia, Indo-Bangladesh relations, Sino-Bangladesh relations and Counter Terrorism. BEI also serves as a regular platform for dialogue between the government and the private sector. Under the guidance of Mr.Sobhan, BEI has implemented over 50 projects during the past 13 years. BEI is currently implementing six projects. Ambassador Sobhan was Executive Chairman, Board of Investment (BOI) and Special Envoy to the Prime Minister 1997-1999 and Foreign Secretary 1995-1997. He has also served as Ambassador / High Commissioner to India, China, Malaysia and the United Nations. He visited Washington and the United Nations in New York in May 2007 as the Special Envoy of the Caretaker Government, with the rank and status of a Cabinet Minister. He served as Chairman of the Group of 77 at the UN in New York (1982-1983), and was Chairman, UN Commission on TNCs (1991-1992). He is a founder member of the Board of Governors of the South Asia Centre for Policy Studies (SACEPS), established in 1999. He was Co-Chairman of the Coalition for South Asian Co-operation (CASAC) from 1994-2001. He was a visiting professor at the Elliott School for International Affairs at George Washington University in 2003, where he taught a post graduate course on South Asia. Ambassador Sobhan helped in the establishment of the Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) Foundation, a public-private undertaking to oversee the development of SMEs in Bangladesh and served as a Member of its Board of Directors from 2007-9. He also served for six years as a Member of the Board of Directors of the Chittagong Stock Exchange. He is currently serving as an Independent Director on the Board of IDLC Finance Ltd., the largest non-banking financial institution in Bangladesh. Mr. Sobhan is the Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the independent Centre for Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), established in Dhaka in September 2007. He is the Chairman of a high level Task Force on Counter Terrorism established in 2006, which includes several senior persons from the government, including the armed forces and the police. He is a member of the International Advisory Board of the Asia Society in New York and the International Editorial Board of the Round Table in the UK respectively. He served as chairperson of a Task Force on Regional Economic Integration in South Asia established by the Near East and South Asia Center for Strategic Studies in Washington DC. He is also on the Board of the Center for Global Counter Terrorism Cooperation in the US and is a member of the Private Sector Advisory Group of the Global Corporate Governance Forum. Mr. Sobhan is currently a Member of the SARI Steering Committee on Energy Cooperation in South Asia, a US AID funded project. Ambassador Sobhan has been a key-note speaker on various aspects of private sector development, as well as international affairs at conferences organized by the World Bank, IFC, DFID, IISS, OECD, IDSA, ISS, ORF and various other organizations. He chaired the Task Force established by the Asia Foundation in 2004 on “The US Role in South Asia”. In August 2013 he was invited by UN ESCAP to deliver the key-note speech at an intergovernmental conference on Regional Economic Integration in the Asia-Pacific Region. He is a Patron of the Ramphal Centre in London. He served as member of the Ramphal Commission on Migration and Development and presented its report at the Commonwealth Summit in Perth in 2011. He held consultations with six Commonwealth member states on their respective visa policies on behalf of the Ramphal Institute and was designated as one of three Ramphal Commissioners to carry out this assignment during the period May to September in 2013. Ambassador Sobhan has written extensively on international affairs and relations. His publications include a book entitled “Opportunities for South-South Co-operation” and “Shaping South Asia’s Future: Role of Regional Co-operation”. He has edited the following BEI publications: “Strengthening Cooperation and Security in South Asia Post 9/11”, “ Bangladesh-India Dialogue: Vision of Young Leaders”, “Dynamics of Bangladesh-India Relations: Dialogue of Young Journalists Across the Border”, “A Comparative Analysis of Corporate Governance in South Asia: Charting a Roadmap for Bangladesh” “Reducing the Cost of Doing Business in Bangladesh”, “Study of e-Commerce in Bangladesh”, “Study of e-Government in Bangladesh”, “Countering Terrorism in Bangladesh”, “Trends in Militancy in Bangladesh: Possible Responses”, and “Bangladesh-India Relations: Security Perspectives”. #SAC
Posted on: Thu, 28 Aug 2014 07:03:38 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015