Originally posted in The Daily Star on 3 September 2023
Technology, ethics to help ensure sustainable development
Analysts say at Bangladesh Strategy Summit 2023
Analysts and economists yesterday recommended ensuring environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG), technological advancement and ethics in every stage of development activities to attain its sustainability.
Their comments came at a two-day Bangladesh Strategy Summit 2023 organised by Valor of Bangladesh at Radisson Blu Dhaka Water Garden with the theme of “Advancing Economic Sustainability”.
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The organiser describes itself as a platform to facilitate constructive dialogue focusing policy analysis and sustainability of different sectors of the country.
Sustainability refers to the ability to maintain or support a process continuously over time, said Anis A Khan, chairman of the Valor of Bangladesh.
It has five principles – protecting the ecosystem or the environment, conservation of biodiversity of the planet, sustainable development of society, conservation of human resources and population control and management, he said.
This decade will be the one where governments and businesses act together to tackle the climate emergency alongside other environmental and societal challenges, he added.
So, collaboration, control, communication and commitment are necessary, he said.
Bangladesh’s per capita income and GDP grew at handsome rates but income distribution was not up to the mark, said Khondaker Golam Moazzem, research director of the Centre for Policy Dialogue.
So, Bangladesh needs reforms in many sectors in order to improve public services, which have been deteriorating and whose quality is not of the standard expected from a developing nation, he said.
He also suggested to adopting reforms in domestic revenue mobilisation, public expenditure, capital market, energy and power sector, skill development and education, urban development and law and order situation.
Non-performing loans are rising alongside risky assets of the banking sector, so people are having more concerns about banks, said Syed Mahbubur Rahman, managing director and CEO of Mutual Trust Bank.
As a result, some 16 percent of the money in circulation is with people whereas earlier it was 12 percent, he said, adding that banks were suffering from trust issues mainly due to a lack of governance.
When people do not pay back loans and banks cannot catch them and take punitive measures, it leads to even more people adopting the malpractice. “Now, it has become a disease,” he added.
Masud Khan, chairman of Unilever Consumer Care, chaired the first panel discussion on “Strengthening Economic Resilience”.