Amir Khasru Mahmud Chowdhury
| Former Minister |
| Politics, Business |
Full Name: Amir Khasru Mahmud Chowdhury
Affiliation: Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP)
Position: Mamber, National Standing Committee
Date of Birth: 1949
Place of Birth: Bangladesh
Home District: Chittagong
Constituency: 285, Chittagong-8
Term: Fourth (5th-1991, 6th-1996 February, 7th-1996, 8th-2001)
Nationality: Bangladeshi
Profile:
Amir Khasru Mahmud Chowdhury (born 1949) is a Bangladeshi politician and businessman. He is a standing committee member of Bangladesh Nationalist Party and former Minister of Commerce. He hails from a political family in Chittagong and headed the city's BNP unit momentarily to organize the party.
Chowdhury is the founder chairman Chittagong Stock Exchange, a former president of Chittagong Chamber of Commerce and Industries and the first president of Federation of South Asian Exchanges. He was the former commerce minister in the BNP government from 2001 to 2004. He resigned on 25 March 2004 from the cabinet.
Chowdhury is the chief adviser of Khaleda Zia, the chairperson of Bangladesh Nationalist Party. He is the chief of BNP's Chittagong city unit.
Chowdhury’s intellectual command and experience lies in the area of trade and the role of LDCs (Least Developing Countries) in a globalizing world. He led LDCs in the WTO Ministerial in Cancun, and Bangladesh in the Doha Ministerial. In 2003, he hosted pre-Cancun conference of LDCs in Dhaka and later spearheaded the Dhaka Declaration, which later served as the basis for the Cancun Declaration. He is an expert on trade policies, especially with regard to LDCs’ integration into global trade, and a veteran of regional and global policy negotiations. Currently, he is in the process of setting up a research think-tank, Development Initiative, which will look into the effects of trade policies on Bangladesh, and act as a recommendation and technical assistance body to other LDCs and the WTO. He is a frequent speaker on issues relating to trade and poverty alleviation both in and outside of Bangladesh. In 2003, he was invited to address the Commonwealth Business Council to address the topic of ‘Global Trade and LDCs.’
Chowdhury is an avid believer of regional cooperation and harmony and invested a considerable amount of his effort in improving ties with Bangladesh’s neighbors and greater neighbors. He led various economic, business and friendship delegations to numerous countries promoting trade and economic cooperation with Bangladesh and the South Asian region. His most influential visits include the ten-member all-party parliamentary delegation to South Korea in 1995 and the five-member team under the banner of China-Bangladesh Friendship Delegation to the Peoples Republic of China in 1998.
The year 1986 marked the beginning of Chowdhury’s entry into public service. He was elected as the President of Chittagong Chamber of Commerce and Industries and served two consecutive terms until 1990. In the years that followed, he founded and spearheaded multiple financial institutions in Bangladesh. As an ardent believer of South Asian cooperation and economic integration, he initiated the pioneering step and succeeded to establish the very first regional federation of stock exchanges. In 2000, he was accorded with the prestigious Sher-e-Bangla National Award for his contribution to Bangladesh’s economy.
Chowdhury is passionate advocate of sustainable development and was instrumental in setting up Bangladesh’s first eco-friendly Export Processing Zone (Korean EPZ) in Chittagong. In recent years, he founded The Mahmudun Nabi Chowdhury Foundation (as a memorial to his late father - a former minister and social critic) and focused its activities in the preservation of the environment, and the development of human resource as a means to combat extreme poverty. The foundation supports tree planting projects and conservation of biodiversity within the general city area.
In order to integrate the poorer section of the people in the national and global economy, Mr. Chowdhury believes that human resource development (by equipping individuals with skills and expertise) is the most promising path to poverty alleviation for LDCs and developing economies. For this reason, the Foundation had taken steps by setting-up internet-based learning centers in eighteen secondary schools with the purpose of investing in the people and hence the future of Bangladesh. He helped to setup a technical institute providing trainings in skill development for people from disadvantaged backgrounds with the intention of enhancing their chances of securing a dignified job. The Foundation is a source of great personal fulfillment for Chowdhury.
Chowdhury is a successful industrialist with investments in the hotel, insurance, shipping and export-oriented packaging and apparel sectors.
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