[H.E. Ambassador - Harry Verweij]

Kingdom of Netherlands, Excellencies, 

Ms. Ismene Stalpers, Country Director, SNV Bangladesh

Sheikh Yusuf Harun, Executive Chairman, BEZA

Mr. Md. Sirazul Islam, Executive Chairman,BIDA

Mr. Md. Jashim Uddin, President, FBCCI 

Mr. Md. Anwar Shawkat Afser, President, Dutch Bangla Chamber of Commerce & Industry (DBCCI)

Distinguished guests, Ladies and Gentlemen,

Assalamu alikum.

It is a privilege to be here today for such an interesting session. Indeed, its justice and inclusivity which define the central paradigms of any governance mechanism and possibly we need a solid discourse on this area now much more than ever before. 

I thank both the Dutch SNV and the Dutch Chamber in Bangladesh for taking this initiative.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Let me commence with something that the progenitor of cyberpunk William Gibson had said in his famous ‘Neuromancer’ rhetoric, ‘The Future is Already Here, It’s just not Evenly Distributed”. 

I can safely assume that each of us present here today has undergone many changes, twists, and turns, in the domain of business and governance in our lifetimes. More often than not, these changes have been profound, architectural and transformative. If my observations serve me correct, the rate of change in the domains in which any of us operate here have substantively accelerated over the last couple of decades. 

Only in one century, we have evolved from coal fired ships to artificial intelligence supported by technologies in the nano range. While a hundred years back even a simple transfusion of blood was a rare magical trick, now we have nano-bots performing intra-cranial surgeries. 

These remarkable breakthroughs in science have been accompanied by two world wars; one cold war; one long and ongoing war with and on terror; fascism; fundamentalism; both right-wing and left-wing extremism; decolonization; a seven-fold rise in the number of humans on the planet; a commensurate rise in the production of food and cereals; and an unabated rise of the all-encompassing ‘city’. Across the many parts of the world, we have battled famines – both natural and man-made; tsunamis and earthquakes; floods and cyclones; oil shocks; currency meltdowns; financial bubbles; property bubbles; the rise of both the intelligent machines and vested sub-state actors; adverse changes in the climate and global warming. 

I have put together these highly specific yet seemingly disjointed and deeply fragmented pieces of information to indicate the depth and breadth of the perceptual worlds that affect our thoughts and our thought processing mechanisms. As we proceed with today’s thoughts and also of my own, I want you to remember that a strategist – be it in the public sector or in the private sector and  most certainly in the international affairs domain – must take into account what affects us both individually and collectively to make any decision of significance. It is for this simple reason that inclusivity must not only be in the name but it also needs to be in the thoughts that we generate and tune ourselves to. Dutch Queen Maxima is a promoter of inclusivity, especially financial inclusion. No wonder, Inclusivity is in the 360-degree spherical evaluation of our options and then putting the human identity in the centre of what we wish to achieve through the designs that we create. In our SDGs, we included in its preamble to create a pro-people, pro-planet, more peaceful, more prosperous sustainable world for all where no one is left behind.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Michael Porter’s Five Forces model is still valid for the businesses and the regulators. But the contours and the contexts of the model has become manifold and multilayered. May I take this privilege to add another dimension, multi-temporal and multi-spatial. We cannot discount anyone and anything anymore on the basis of Keynesian interpretation of the so-called ‘profit motive’. Yes, profits will definitely form an epicentre for the firm’s raison d’être – but it can’t afford to be the only one in the scope. Sustainability, renewability, inclusivity, economic and social justice, eradication of systemic bias against the fringes and groups are also solid, valid, and preferred outcomes. 

The Dutch contribution to the world of the arts, sciences – particularly of the ICT area and of epistemology, chemistry, law, cartography and marine studies are legendary. The Netherlands and the people of the Netherlands have been amongst the pioneers of the ESG (Environment, Social, Governance) model of conducting business too. It is no wonder said, God created earth but Dutch created the Netherlands.

Interestingly, if you would look at it, so is Bangladesh!

Our creative minds have kept us alive through the many epochs of resource constraints and traumatic turbulences like wars floods & cyclones which ravaged our landscape over and over again. It is with this that we want to engage with the future which is coming to us.

In 2009, right after Awami League took power under the leadership of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, we defined our core foreign policy priorities as economy, ecology and governance. Our strategic and tactical programming around the constitutional dictate of ‘Friendship to All and Malice towards None’ – as was propounded by the Father of the Nation, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman – have been nuanced by our focus on connecting peoples, connecting markets and optimizing on the global value chain contributions that each of us can contribute both at the human individual level and at the level of enterprise. We are working across a set of both overlapping and differentiated set of priorities, principals and actors – all of which focus on one desired outcome – an inclusive and responsible human development outcome.

Our core idea is simple. To connect factor markets to the consumer markets in an unbroken sphere of goods, services, ideations – fortified by a feedback loop of finance and equitable distribution of wealth. 

I am happy to see the vertices that the Dutch Chamber has put into perspective for the conference today. I have just recently visited the Netherlands and I am indeed fascinated by thinking about the possibilities that we can envision and act upon between the two countries. Starting with the great A P Møller and Maersk Sealand – it could not look into waste management, land reclamation, preventing coastal erosion and connecting the design spaces. We would also like to discuss the possibility of Bangladeshi technical hands contribute to the design space which the Dutch businesses and corporate bodies are sponsoring – including but not limited to agriculture, ICT, and Blue Economy. 

Ladies and Gentlemen,

    RMG and leather products are our pride. We are looking for opportunities where we could contribute meaningfully to the global productivity and finance networks together with the Netherlands. The Netherlands is the seventh largest investor in Bangladesh in 2019. The two-way trade has increased. Blue Economy and the Circular Economy are avenues where we could imagine, envision and create more work! 

Ladies and Gentlemen,

COVID19 had put an element of uncertainty in our thought space.Corona had stymied some of our efforts too. 

But we have not stopped. 

Bangladesh has not stopped. We followed our policy of life and living and kept going. 

Our brave farmers, workers, medical personnel and executives in various sectors have put up a considerable fight against this deadly menace and have continued to fight back with élan! Our death rates are amongst some of the lowest in the world and we have already successfully vaccinated more than 25% of our adult population. We are open for business and we want to grow together with you. We believe that the great reset in the post-pandemic age will be shaped by resilience, inclusiveness, sustainability and collaboration. 

The reason that I became interested in this conference is because we are not only fighting against the pandemic, we are also bracing for impact from adverse changes in the climate. Understanding the risk horizons and the possibilities of uncertainties require building resilience. To synchronise our efforts better both at the national and at the global scale, we need to understand the possible risks and cost of failure in building a resilient society. We must understand the opportunity cost of failing to include all stakeholders in an optimized decision matrix. We must realise that all actions are performed by individuals and a collective operates through the intermediary of one or several individuals whose actions are related to the collective as the secondary source. 

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Value is not intrinsic, it is contextual. The value of a commodityor even and idea depends on the way the actors in a given time and space perceive or conceive its value. It is thus important that we correctly identify the relevant parametric tests to examine and evaluate what matters to us. It is only with greater collaboration that our pay-off matrix becomes positive. 

Both the Dutch and the Bengalis are resilient peoples. We have braved the inclement climates and we have survived. There must have been something common to both our nations which we can leverage for greater benefits to both and beyond. 

I wish the conference Godspeed! 

Joi Bangla !

Joi Bangabandhu !