Touhidul Alam Khan, Deputy Managing Director of Prime Bank Ltd, presenting his paper in the Bangkok conference held on Tuesday Experts in an international conference put thrust on localization and customization of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and private sector's enhanced role to achieve the targets of SDGs.
"First of all, awareness must be created at all levels in turning 2030 Agenda from a global vision into a local reality. And targets and indicators of SDGs for contextualising the 2030 Agenda need to be appropriately synchronised with local development plans and strategies with utmost importance", Touhidul Alam Khan, the lone Bangladeshi participant told the concluding session of the conference.
"The Cost & Management Accountants (CMAs) of Bangladesh can play an important role in making the business case for pursuing appropriate SDGs, monitoring and evaluating their impact, and ensuring alignment of sustainability initiatives with corporate activities. Moreover, CMAs can encourage businesses to meet SDG requirements through improved innovation capabilities; emphasize the importance of ethical behaviour with professional engagement", Mr Khan, a member of jury board of the conference titled 'International Sustainable Development Conference (SDC-2019)' said.
More than 35 attendees from different countries and territories including Canada, Japan, U.S.A and other Asian & African countries participated in the conference. Discussions spanned topics like practical measures for implementing the SDGs, progress evaluation methodologies, and mechanisms for achieving social consensus.
Some new theories and models like Sustainable Enterprise Theory (SET) were presented in the three- day conference.
Regarding the progress and implementation status of SDGs in Bangladesh, Touhidul Alam Khan, Deputy Managing Director of Prime Bank Ltd. explained, "Bangladesh together with other world leaders adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development at the United Nations General Assembly in New York on 25 September, 2015. This is a global commitment towards a more sustainable, resilient and inclusive development, with 17 SDGs and 169 targets."
As the central bank of Bangladesh, Bangladesh Bank is playing a vital role to design policy guidelines and programs for stakeholders of financial sector of the country towards implementing the above SDGs, he added.
"Knowledge limitations should not stop enterprises from doing business with a goal of better long-term life on earth. Life demands stewardship of the resources used during one's lifetime", Dr. Sc Arne Fagerstorm, Professor of Accounting & Sustainable Finance, University of Gavle, Sweden presented a Sustainable Enterprise Theory (SET).
Bianca Apps delegates from Northwestern University of Qatar presented a paper on "A Sustainable path forward: The use of Cognitive Behavioral Techniques (CBT) and Coaching in Business" which was very innovative idea for the audience. Her paper explores the sustainability aspects of mindful leadership and the utilisation of behavioral therapy in the workplace.
Keynote speakers from 16 countries from USA, Egypt, India, Morocco, Malaysia, Vietnam, Philippines, Japan, Canada, Bangladesh, Czech Republic, Thailand, Korea, Madagascar, Sweden and Qatar presented their papers on various topics.
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