National Policy Review
Forum 2003 opens on June 3

Staff Correspondent
01 June, 2003

 

The Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD), the Prothom Alo and The Daily Star will open the 'National Policy Review Forum 2003' at a city hotel on June 3 and discuss a raft on important national issues in subsequent working sessions. Finance and Planning Minister M Saifur Rahman will open the forum as the chief guest while Deputy Leader of the Opposition Abdul Hamid Advocate will attend the event as special guest.

Local Government, Rural Development and Cooperatives Minister Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan will join the closing function as the chief guest. Prof Rehman Sobhan, chairman of the CPD and convenor of the Policy Review Task Forces, will chair the inaugural session.

The three-day forum, split into several working sessions, will discuss a range of issues at separate venues. The inaugural session will include statements by the co-organisers -- Mahfuz Anam, editor of The Daily Star and Motiur Rahman, editor of the Prothom Alo -- and presentation of policy review reports.

The working sessions on June 4 will be held at three venues -- the CIRDAP Auditorium, Academy for Planning and Development Auditorium and National Press Club. At the CIRDAP, the issues of budgetary discipline and fiscal programme, financial sector reforms, industrial policy and privatisation and SME will be discussed.

At the Academy for Planning and Development, the working sessions will tackle governance (corruption and judiciary), democratic process (election and parliament) and gender equality and women's empowerment issues.

Development and governance of the energy sector, environment policy, information and communications technology and administrative reform and local government issues will be discussed at the Jatiya Press Club. The working sessions on June 5 will also be held at the same venues.

At CIRDAP, the issues of transport and infrastructure and urban governance will be discussed while at the Academy for Planning and Development, rural economy, agriculture and non-farm activities and poverty eradication and employment generation will be tackled. At the Jatiya Press Club, education, health and population policies will be discussed. The concluding ceremony of the forum will be held at Hotel Sheraton on the same day.