The launching ceremony had Mr. Salman F Rahman MP, Honorable Private Industry and  Investment Adviser to HPM as the Chief Guest. Mr. Zunaid Ahmed Palak MP, Honorable Minister of State for Information and Communication Technology (ICT) graced the occasion as Special Guest. Ms. Mohsina Yasmin Executive Member-3, International Investment Promotion, BIDA was also a special guest at the ceremony. Mr. Md. Sirazul Islam Executive Chairman, Bangladesh Investment  Development Authority (BIDA) was the program chair.

After opening remarks by Mr. Sudipto Mukerjee Resident Representative, UNDP Bangladesh, Yasir Azman, CEO, Grameenphone Ltd., provided a background on the program during the ceremony. Futurenation is an alliance of the private, public and development sectors, created to accelerate the Nation's future economic growth by enhancing the skills and potential of youth by identifying opportunities for development, employment, entrepreneurship, and investment in the post-pandemic situation.

In this regard, CHRF is an academic partner of FutureNation to upskill the youth by covering three streams in healthcare – diagnostics, community health work and research.

A panel discussion also took place during the ceremony, which was moderated by CHRF's Director & Scientist, Dr. Senjuti Saha. The distinguished panel members included - Mr. Bikarna Kumar Ghosh, Managing Director, Bangladesh Hi-tech Park Authority, Mr. Russel T  Ahmed, President, Bangladesh Association of Software and Information Services (BASIS), Mr. Anir Chowdhury, Policy Advisor, UNDP Bangladesh, Mr. Håkon Bruaset Kjøl, SVP, Head of External Relations Asia, Telenor Group, Mr. Zaved Akhtar, Managing Director, Unilever Bangladesh Ltd., Mr. Rashedur Rahaman, Associate Professor and Executive Director, ICE Center, University of Dhaka and Dr. Nazneen Ahmed, Country Economist, UNDP Bangladesh. A press release on the event published in The Business Standard (TBS) is also available here.

Special representatives from CHRF included two of our interns from Asian University for Women (AUW), Chittagong - the future graduates who we hope will be directly benefitted by programs like Futurenation. 


Photo: From left, CHRF's Microbiologist & Science Communicator, Nazifa Tabassum, Maliha Kabir, Bioinformatics Undergraduate Students from Asian University for Women (AUW) and Intern at CHRF, Dr. Senjuti Saha, CHRF's Director & Scientist, and Tasfia Farah, Bioinformatics Undergraduate Students from Asian University for Women (AUW) and Intern at CHRF.