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The
20th meeting of the CPD Board of Trustees was held on March
9, 2003 at the CPD Dialogue Room. With CPD Chairperson Professor
Rehman Sobhan in the chair, the meeting was attended by BOT
members Mr Fazle Hasan Abed, Professor Anisuzzaman, Ms Laila
Rahman Kabir, Mr M Syeduzzaman, Mr Nurul Haq, and Mr Syed
Manzur Elahi. CPD Executive Director Dr Debapriya Bhattacharya
attended the meeting as the member-secretary of BOT while
CPD Research Director Professor Mustafizur Rahman was present
on invitation. BOT members Dr Qazi Faruque Ahmed, Professor
Muhammad Yunus, Barrister Ishtiaq Ahmed and Mr Syed Humayun
Kabir could not attend the meeting because of prior engagements.
The
BOT members took note of the various research and dialogue
activities of CPD and confirmed the minutes of the 19th meeting
of the BOT which was held on September 5, 2002. The BOT members
had a follow up of the Policy Brief
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Review
Exercise which CPD has been conducting in partnership
with the Daily Star and the Prothom Alo.
The CPD Executive Director informed the BOT that because
of measures taken, the third CPD Quarterly was better
in quality than the previous issues. He also mentioned
that the BOT members are kept updated about the various
ongoing and upcoming activities of the Centre through
the CPD Quarterly and that the time lag in publishing
the Quarterly would be brought down gradually.
The
Executive Director also presented the interim activity
report before the BOT members covering the period
between September 2002 and February 2003. The Board
appreciated the extensive research projects implemented
by CPD during the period and suggested that a three-year
Research Plan articulating the core areas of CPD's
research should be prepared.
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Policy
Review Task Forces Reconvened
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CPD
has reconvened the Task Forces that were formed
before the last parliamentary election to provide
inputs to the debate on major development issues.
The sixteen pre-election Policy Brief Task Forces
were formed in June 2001 with a view to coming
up with a set of policy recommendations that would
be reflected in the election manifesto of the
leading political parties and serve the party
elect with necessary inputs. The CPD organised
a meeting to convene the National Policy Review
Forum 2003, which was attended, by the Chairmen
and Member Secretaries of the Policy Brief Task
Forces.
As
the tenure of the present government goes past
the second year, the need for a revisit to the
recommendations put forward by the citizen's
Task Forces has been increasingly felt.
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This
exercise is expected to provide useful feedback
to both the policymakers and the parliamentarians
whilst examining the implementation status of
their electoral pledges. The initiative is also
expected to provide opportunities for mid-course
corrections through debate in the Parliament.
Apart
from assessing the extent to which the pre-election
policy briefs got reflected in the different
governmental policy initiatives and the implementation
strategies, the Policy Review Task Forces will
put up recommendations with due attention to
the existing socio-economic realities and the
governmental constraints. The final reports
of the various Task Forces will be presented
at a national forum, scheduled to be held by
early June 2003.
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CPD
Professionals Overseas
..............................................
Prof.
Rehman Sobhan
CPD
Chairman Professor Rehman Sobhan participated in the
following events over the January - March quarter of
2003.
•
Several SACEPS Task-Force Meetings held in Nepal
and India.
•
Conference on Equity, Security and Basic Education:
An Agenda for Research and Action held in Kolkata,
India on January 11-12. The meeting was organised by
the Commission on Human Security under Harvard's Global
Equity Initiative and Pratichi Trust and UNICEF.
•
Capacity Development and Aid Effectiveness, an
international symposium held on January 14-16 in Manila.
It was organised by the World Bank.
•The
Delhi Sustainable Development Summit 2003, organised
by TERI during February 06-09 at Vigyan Bhavan, New
Delhi.
•
The 20th Anniversary Celebrations on CUTS held in New
Delhi during March 02-04. The seminar focused on the
theme of Governance and its Relationship with Poverty
Reduction.
•The
Track II Indo-Bangladesh Dialogue held at CPR
in New Delhi during February 11-12.
•
The Fourth BCIM Forum held in Yangon, Myanmar,
during March 19-21.
Dr
Debapriya Bhattacharya
CPD
Executive Director Dr Debapriya Bhattacharya attended
the following events during January - March, 2003.
•Fourth
Annual Global Development Conference on Globalisation
and Equity, organised by the Global Development
Network on January 19-21 in Cairo, Egypt. Dr Bhattacharya
was part of the expert group.
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•The
Third Meeting of the UNEP Working Group on Economic
Instruments for Environmental Policy in Geneva,
Switzerland during February 17-18. He was one of the
key discussants at the meeting.
•
The Asian Conference on Consumer Protection, Competition
Policy and Law organised by UNCTAD and CIROAP in
Kuala Lumpur on February 28th. He presented a paper
there.
•At
a conference at the Wilton Park, UK during March 25-27
Dr Bhattacharya presented a paper on Experience of
Attracting FDI in Low Income Countries: The Case of
Bangladesh.
•
The Fourth BCIM Forum held in Yangon, Myanmar,
during March 19-21.
Prof.
Mustafizur Rahman
CPD
Research Director Prof. Mustafizur Rahman attended the
Fourth Annual Global Development Conference on Globalisation
and Equity organised by the Global Development Network
on January 19-21 in Cairo, Egypt.
Mr
M Rahmatullah
During
the first quarter of 2003, CPD Programme Director (Transport
& Communication) Dr M Rahmatullah took part in the
following events :
•
The Indo-Bangladesh Dialogue, held in New Delhi,
India, during March 11-12. He presented a paper on
Indo-Bangladesh Relations: Transport Connectivity
and Transit at the dialogue.
•
The Fourth BCIM Forum was held in Yangon, Myanmar,
during March 19-21 where Dr Rahmatullah presented a
paper on Improving Transport Connectivity and Facilitation
Measures at the seminar.
•
The Sixth SAARC Economic Co-operation Conference
in Kolkata, India on March 28. A paper on Movement
of Goods and People in SAARC was presented by the
CPD Programme Director at the seminar.
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