GUEST & SPEAKER STRUCTURE

Chief Guest:  Mr. Tarique Rahman, MP - Prime Minister, Government of the People's Republic of Bangladesh

Special Guest:  Mr. Faqir Mahbub Anam, MP - Hon'ble Minister, Ministry of Science and Technology

Special Guest:  Mr. Rehan Asif Asad - Hon'ble Advisor, Ministry of Science and Technology

Session Chair:  Mr. Md. Anwar Hossain - Secretary, Ministry of Science and Technology

Keynote Speaker:  Dr. Muhammad Anisuzzaman Talukder, Professor, BUET and UNESCO Chair on Industry Integration in Higher Education Systems and Dr.  Sadaf Saaz Siddiqi- Founder and CEO of EskeGen

CONTEXT & BACKGROUND

Bangladesh's economy has expanded to roughly US$450 billion (World Bank, 2024), sustained by average GDP growth above 6 percent for more than a decade. With renewed economic dynamism expected over the medium to long term, the government has set the national ambition of transforming Bangladesh into an upper-middle-income country with an annual GDP of US$1 trillion by 2034.  . Yet the growth model that carried the country this far - low-cost labour, a single dominant export sector and remittances - is reaching its limits: national R&D spending remains below 0.3 percent of GDP (UNESCO Institute for Statistics), far behind the 2 percent-plus invested by East Asian economies at a similar stage. Closing that gap requires a coordinated national innovation ecosystem in which government patronage, private capital, universities and startups pull in one direction.

SYNOPSIS

Bangladesh Innovation Fair 2026 is more than a three-day exhibition: it is a platform-building initiative that brings innovators, researchers, universities, industries, investors, policymakers and development partners under one national innovation agenda. This inaugural plenary sets the strategic direction for the Fair and for the proposed Innovation Hub, examining how deliberate patronage of innovation - through policy, finance and institutions - can lift Bangladesh onto a trillion-dollar trajectory. The session positions innovation as a national productivity and competitiveness agenda, with a clear pathway from knowledge creation to commercialization and long-term economic value, and culminates in the inauguration of the Innovation Community Acceleration web portal and app and the opening of the Innovation Fair.

OBJECTIVE OF THE SESSION

Establish a shared national direction for an integrated innovation ecosystem, define how patronizing innovation will help Bangladesh reach a trillion-dollar economy, and identify the policy actions needed to make the proposed Innovation Hub the national connector of research, talent, industry, finance and markets.