The first conference of Bangladesh Economists’ Forum (BEF) begins in Dhaka tomorrow, aiming to identify major challenges and potentials of Bangladesh’s long-term economic development.

The two-day conference will be held at Radisson Hotel. The theme of the conference is set as “Vision 2013: A Framework for Economic Policy Making and Strategy Formulation in Pluralistic Democracy.”

The conference will discuss a series of issues relating to growth strategies, macro and financial policies, fiscal policy and capital markets, trade, aid and infrastructure, poverty reduction strategies and policies.

“We will discuss the future of Bangladesh at the first BEF conference,” BB Governor Atiur Rahman told a pre-conference press briefing at the central bank headquarters in the capital yesterday.

Distinguished scholars, academics, civil society representatives, political and policy leaders, and private sector representative as well as the members of the diplomatic community are expected to participate at the conference.

Finance Minister Abul Maal Abdul Muhith is scheduled to open the conference where some other ministers will chair different sessions, according to the organisers.

Distinguished and keynote lectures will be delivered by Professor Michael Lipton of the United Kingdom, an old friend of Bangladesh; Professor Rehman Sobhan, Chairman, Center for Policy Dialogue; Fazle Hasan Abed, Chairman, BRAC; and Dr. Azizur Rahman Khan, Professor, University of California at Riverside.

Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS), Policy Research Institute (PRI) and Bangladesh Bank (BB) are co-sponsoring the conference.

The governor said different issues including infrastructure facilities will be discussed at the conference, aiming to achieve optimum level of the economic growth that helps the country turn into an upper middle income and developed country by 2030 and 2050 respectively.

“It’s a forum, not organisation,” Mohiuddin Alamgir, former president of the Bangladesh Economic Association, said while replying to a question relating to formation of the new forum.

The senior economist said the prosperity of Bangladesh is much better than many other countries.

Sadiq Ahmed, vice-chairman of PRI, said Bangladesh undoubtedly made progress in all indicators. But the country could improve lot more than it has achieved so far.

He said the country needs a long-term policy for achieving desired development.