Country still lacks wealth managers

FE Report

Speakers at a programme have said the country still lacks an adequate number of wealth management professionals in both public and private sectors.

Keeping this in mind, they said, various types of co-curricular activities including talent hunt programme should be organised for the business students in addition to their syllabus to make them professionally competent.

The views came at the final competition and award-giving ceremony of 'FINWITZ 2017', an investment management-based inter-university contest, held at a city hotel on Friday evening.

Institute of Business Administration (IBA) Communication Club (IBACC) of Dhaka University (DU) organised the event, sponsored by LR Global Bangladesh, an asset management company.

Dr Muhammad Abdur Razzaque, chairman of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Ministry of Finance, attended the ceremony as the chief guest while Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of LR Global Bangladesh Reaz Islam as the special guest.

Presided over by IBA director AKM Saiful Majid, the ceremony was also attended by IBA assistant professor and moderator of the club Md Rezaul Kabir.

Six finalist teams competed in the final round showcasing their knowledge on finance. Of those, 'Finatics', a team from IBA, became champion. Another team from the same institute 'Beta Bots' became first runner-up while 'No Name Consulting' from the faculty of DU business studies second runner-up. The winning teams won prize money of Tk 150,000, Tk 75,000 and Tk 50,000 respectively.

According to the organisers, 174 teams from 11 universities took part in the first edition of such competition which was launched on October 24.

Dr Razzaque handed over the trophies to the winners.

Speaking on the occasion, he said financial management is a very important issue for both public and private sectors, but the country still doesn't have such enough professionals.

"Skilled wealth managers are crucial for running any organisation since they are more capable of identifying corruption," he said.

Praising the role of IBA, he said the institution has been playing an important role in creating future business leaders.

He also urged the participants to address the issues for the country's economy including high population density, climate challenge, environmental pollution and degradation of land.

In his speech, Mr Reaz said he faced a serious crisis of skilled professionals in 2008 when his company started operations in Bangladesh.

Congratulating all finalists, he said, "I am hopeful that you will become expert on financial management."

The Financial Express, the country's lone English business daily, was media partner of the competition.

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