The seminar saw debate and reflection on an ILO-supported study on Bangladesh Bank’s role in pursuing developmental objectives alongside traditional objectives of price and macroeconomic stability.

The study, entitled ‘Challenges of price stability, growth and employment in Bangladesh: Role of Bangladesh Bank’ was presented by its author, former ILO director Dr. Muhammed Muqtada.

Speaking at the event Dr Atiur Rahman, Governor of Bangladesh Bank said, “It is very heartening that the sustainable global growth visions of the UN and its organs like the ILO and UNEP are totally in sync with Bangladesh Bank’s visions for socially responsible inclusive and environmentally sustainability financing as key requisites. Bangladesh Bank was therefore very happy to welcome ILO’s engagement with us in Dr. Muqtada’s study seeking to establish the analytical underpinnings and empirical validity of the bank’s approach in developmental central banking, eliciting lessons both for carrying forward Bangladesh Bank’s agenda in Bangladesh as also for wider replication of similar initiatives elsewhere.”

Dr Iyanatul Islam, Employment and Labour Market Policies Branch Chief, ILO, Geneva, highlighted the linkages between macroeconomic policy and employment and expressed his hope that the study would pave the way for greater and more expansive collaboration between Bangladesh Bank and ILO.

It is a long standing conviction of the ILO that labour markets are shaped by supply and demand side factors as well as macroeconomic and microeconomic policies. ILO must therefore deepen its comprehension of macroeconomic, sectoral and labour market policies and the way they shape employment outcomes. We must reach out and foster linkages with core macroeconomic institutions that reinforce our regular interactions with the Ministry of Labour and social partners,” he said.

The meeting was addressed, among others, by Bangladesh Bank Change Management Advisor Allah Malik Kazemi, E ILO Country Director, Dhaka, Srinivas Reddy, Policy Research Institute (PRI) Chairman Dr. Zaidi Sattar, ILO ^Senior Development EconomistDr. Noman Majid, BB Chief Economist Dr. Biru Paksha Paul, DSE (Dhaka Stock Exchange) CEO Dr. Swapan Kumar Bala, Pubali Jute Mills Limited MD Kamran T. Rahman and Asian Development Bank economist Shamsur Rahman.

The study, ‘Challenges of price stability, growth and employment in Bangladesh: Role of Bangladesh Bank’ can be downloaded at link