Foreign Minister AH Mahmood Ali yesterday said the government is putting adequate emphasis on improving local capacity of both the institutions and professionals involved in applied statistics to rightly provide inputs in programmes and policy formulation ensuring proper allocation of resources.
He was addressing as the chief guest the inaugural session of three-day
the International Conference on Applied Statistics (ICAS) 2014 at Nabab Nawab Ali Chowdhury Senate Bhaban at the DU.
The Institute of Statistical Research and Training (ISRT), University of Dhaka arranged the event.
DU VC Prof AAMS Arefin Siddique, Director of Institute of Statistical Research and Training (ISRT) Prof Muhammad Shuaib and chairman of the conference organising committee Prof Dr M Sekander Hayat Khan also spoke on the occasion.
The foreign minister urged the statisticians to play the pioneering role to promote socioeconomic development in the country and meet the global challenges of 21st century.
He also urged the teachers and researchers to provide useful contributions to implement development plans for vision 2021.
Mahmood Ali said the conference is an excellent idea and would surely provide a platform for local and international practitioners, researchers and faculty to discuss and explore the new developments of statistical theory as well as their applications to meet the challenges of contemporary and imminent issues.
The theme of the conference “Applied Statistics: Meeting the challenges of the 21st century” is therefore very much timely and appropriate, he added.
“I also expect, from this forum, specific proposals may be generated that would be useful to the policymakers and planners in implementing national plan of action in line with the ‘Vision-2021’ of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in transforming Bangladesh into a Middle-income country by 2021 and into a developed one by 2041,” he said.
He hoped that the conference will also play a major role in sensitising statistics within the non-governmental organisations, research institutions, media, and other stakeholders to have a shared view in development and economics of the country.
Speaking at the conference, the DU VC urged the students, teachers and researchers of ISRT to come forward with zeal and zest to provide beacon light to solve the problems that all are confronting today due to lack of appropriate data and information in the country.
“Students and researchers have to work hard to fulfill the dream of our three million martyrs by making Bangladesh free from poverty, hunger, malnutrition, illiteracy, fundamentalism and incivility,” he added.
