Karachi, 28 July 2023:

Bangladesh Deputy High Commissioner in Karachi, S. M. Mahbubul Alam had a courtesy call on Professor Dr. Khalid Mahmood Iraqi, Vice-Chancellor of Karachi University, who very warmly welcomes the Bangladesh Deputy High Commissioner at the University Campus and his Office. Few other distinguished academicians and researchers including Professor Dr. Saista Tabassum, Dean of Social Sciences, Professor Dr. Naem Ahmed, Chairman of International Relations Department and Professor Dr. M. Abu Tayyub Khan, Head of Bengali Department, Karachi University among others were present and exchanged their encouraging views during the meetings.

During the meetings, the Deputy High Commissioner S. M. Mahbubul Alam highlighted the distinguished academicians of Karachi University about various development initiatives and sectorial achievements in Bangladesh. He said that Bangladesh has become a ‘Role Model’ of socio-economic development in the world. He shared the success stories of socio-economic progress in Bangladesh in different sectors including education and cited as an example that Bangladesh has constructed the 6.15-kilometer-long Padma Bridge by her own finance, which is a symbol of her pride and confidence.

Deputy High Commissioner also appraised the renowned academicians of Karachi University that Bangladesh is now among the five fastest growing economies in the world, ranking 35^th in terms of GDP. He added that Bangladesh has made impressive progress in girls’ education and women empowerment. He cited that according to WEF, Bangladesh is ranked seventh in the world in terms of political empowerment of women. The ‘Digital Bangladesh’ initiative has stimulated transformative impacts on socio-economic development, education, and women’s empowerment, he added.

Deputy High Commissioner further briefed on the progress in education sector in particular and mentioned that the government of Bangladesh has been distributing free textbooks for pre-primary to secondary level students since 2010 and currently distributes over 400 million copies of textbooks each year on 1^st of January among around 45 million students in pre-primary, primary, secondary, ebtedayee, dakhil, vocational, SSC vocational, ethnic minority groups and visually challenged students across the country. He commented that distribution of free text books in Bangladesh in such a massive scale is a unique program in education across the globe.  Deputy High Commissioner further added that Bangladesh has taken initiative to transfer the stipends for nearly 13 million children currently enrolled in the stipend program directly to the mobile banking accounts to around 10 million mothers. Currently the literacy rate is around 80% and the Primary enrollment is almost 100% in Bangladesh. There are over 170 Universities in Bangladesh including 57 public universities.

During the meetings and interactions, the prominent academicians of Karachi University highly appreciated the socio-economic developments in Bangladesh including the impressive development in women empowerment, literacy rate, higher education, digitization, and science and technology. The innovative and far reaching policies of Bangladesh helped to achieve her development goals. During the discussion they expressed their willingness enhanced collaboration in research and sharing of experience with Bangladeshi universities. The academicians of Karachi University also discussed about any possible MoU with relevant university or department of Bangladeshi university for wider cooperation, exchange and collaboration in education and research. Professor Dr. Khalid Mahmood Iraqi, Vice-Chancellor of Karachi University, a visionary and dynamic academician and a friend of Bangladesh,  also attached importance for wider people-to-people contacts, researcher-to-researcher collaboration in the filed of education and research between the two brotherly countries.  

Deputy High Commissioner in Karachi S. M. Mahbubul Alam assured the distinguished academicians to extend all possible supports and coordination for cooperation and collaboration in the filed of research between Universities in Bangladesh including Dhaka University and Karachi University.