Dr Atiur appointed special adviser to Japanese Social Innovation School

Former governor of Bangladesh Bank Dr Atiur Rahman has been made special adviser to the newly formed action tank on financial inclusion, Creative Response-Social Innovation School in Japan.

The announcement came recently at a special conference on financial inclusion and Sustainable Development Goals held in Tokyo, Dr Atiur confirmed to The Daily Star today.

Dr Atiur, Bangabandhu Chair Professor at the University of Dhaka, gave the keynote address at the conference moderated by Professor Emeritus Sei Yonekura of Hitotsubashi University recently.

In his keynote presentation, Dr Atiur said the core message of Bangladesh’s story of financial inclusion was about the change in bankers’ mindset.

He emphasised on linking finance with sustainability agenda through ingraining socially and environmentally responsible financial ethos, reflecting local and global challenges.

Dr Atiur also said Bangladesh Bank followed this philosophy by enabling the bottom of the social pyramid through financing sustainable entrepreneurial innovations.

“Along with creating an enabling environment for the microfinance sector through prudent regulations, the central bank bolstered growth by fostering innovations in agri-finance, promoting SMEs and female entrepreneurship, expanding green finance and above all digitising the financial services in Bangladesh,” he said. 

As a result, the country’s economy showed commendable resilience in the face of the last global financial crisis, Dr Atiur added.

Professor Emeritus Sei Yonekura said, “I believe that your (Atiur’s) knowledge and experience would definitely inspire Japanese academic and business persons and it will further foster the possible collaboration between Japanese and Bangladeshi citizens in both academia and business.”

President of Bank Asia, Arfan Ali, made a presentation on agent banking at the conference.

Dr Atiur also participated in a panel discussion. Experts on impact investment and development banking participated in the programme as panellists.

Mentionable, CR-SIS is a specialised school for studying and teaching social innovation for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).