Sanem Annual Economists’ Conference to begin on Saturday

The sixth round of the Sanem Annual Economists' Conference is scheduled to begin next Saturday under the slogan of "Building Resilience to Shocks: Priorities, Challenges and Prospects".

Around 150 economists, experts and young researchers from home and abroad will join the two days event to be hosted by the South Asian Network on Economic Modeling (Sanem).

A total of 80 papers are to be presented at 20 technical sessions of the event and prominent economists will join three other plenary sessions. 

Professor Dr Selim Raihan, executive director of Sanem, presented details about the event at a media briefing arranged virtually on Thursday ahead of the conference.

He said that Professor Shamsul Alam, state minister of planning, will be the chief guest of the event who will attend the first plenary session titled "Shocks and shields: Sustaining development in a turbulent time". 

Selim Raihan said the economy of Bangladesh is facing one crises after another. The pressure is deepening due to global tension that arose even before recovering from the adverse impact of Covid-19. 

The conference will make recommendations for the government and policymakers to cope with the crisis.

He said that about one-third of the papers would be presented by researchers from Bangladesh and one-third from India. The remaining papers would be presented by researchers from other South Asian countries.

Professor Dr Sayema Haque Bidisha, research director of Sanem, spoke at the briefing among others. She said that issues regarding political economy, health, education, and labour market will be prioritised at the conference. 

One session will discuss political economy and another major session will be about the overall macro economy considering the global context.

Sanem officials said that the event will be arranged at Brac Centre Inn of the capital and will be live-streamed virtually.

Responding to a question from journalists Selim Raihan said a $4.7 billion loan from the IMF is very low considering the need of Bangladesh, as the country is facing a crisis in forex reserves. 

However, the loan will encourage other multinational institutes and countries to provide low-cost loans for Bangladesh.