Dr Atiur Rahman speaks as a guest of honour at the inaugural session of the International Conference on 'Changed Social Responsibility' in New Delhi recently. Former governor of Bangladesh Bank Professor Dr Atiur Rahman has stressed greater social responsibility of the corporates to contribute more to the society from which they make all the profits.
He made the observation while speaking as a guest of honour at the inaugural session of the International Conference on "Changed Social Responsibility" in New Delhi.
Jamia Hamdard University organised the event, says a statement.
The vice chancellor of the university and president of the PHD Chamber of Commerce also participated in the session.
Dr Atiur Rahman said that although Bangladesh has not enacted a mandatory CSR policy like India, the Bangladesh Bank (BB) has provided a prudent guideline for CSR contributions by the banks and financial institutions.
He elaborated these ideas in the following session where he presented a keynote, titled "Contributions of CSR for Financial Inclusion".
In his keynote, Dr Atiur Rahman said that the Bangladesh Bank has been an exceptional public institution in providing regulatory support for both socially responsible financing policies and monitoring actual CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) activities of the financial institutions on the ground.
He emphasised the fact that the essence of Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) is to eradicate poverty and expand access to banking, insurance and financial services for all. Along with the government, a collaborative effort of a vibrant non-governmental sector, private sector bodies as well as efforts of common people is required to achieve the goal, he opined.
He further said that the perfect execution of CSR programmes guided by the central bank can bring dynamism in the management system of the financial institutions and thus help the government in achieving its goals of poverty eradication and social responsibility in country like Bangladesh.
He pointed out that the BB has motivated the entire financial sector to provide a part of their gross profit to the socially-disadvantaged and environmentally-challenged segments of the society as a part of their CSR policy.
In addition, as of FY 2015, grants were given to 70 projects from the BB's own CSR fund for disaster management, health and culture, he mentioned. Other regulators of Bangladesh and similar developing countries can certainly apply a virtuous cycle of innovation, demand, and trust for ensuring sustainable inclusion in line with the principles of socially responsible finance pushed by Bangladesh. However, it requires fostering of innovation, encouraging partnership between banks and MFIs, financial literacy, consumer protection, and coordination among regulatory agencies.
Finally, he called for South-South collaboration in embracing principles of sustainability and to harness the transformational power of a shared value approach focused on people.
Foreign banks in Bangladesh having structured CSR programmes can also work as building bridges with other development and educational institutions in this arena, he added.
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