GUEST & SPEAKER STRUCTURE

Chief Guest: Mr. Md. Mostaqur Rahman, FCMA - Governor, Bangladesh Bank

Moderator : Mr. Syed Mohammad Kamal, Vice President, MasterCard. President of AmCham

Keynote Speaker: Mashrur Arefin, Managing Director & CEO, The City Bank
Panelist (Government): Dr. Md. Khairuzzaman Mozumder, Secretary / Senior Government Representative, Government of Bangladesh
Panelist (Government): NAHIAN RAHMAN ROCHI, EXECUTIVE MEMBER, Invest Bangladesh

Panelists (Private): Syed Mahbubur Rahman, MANAGING DIRECTOR & CEO, Mutual Trust Bank

Panelists (Private): Rashed Mahmud, CEO / Director,Dipon Group/ JOHAN BUSE, Chief Executive Officer, Banglalink Digital Communications Limited 

Panelists (Development Partner): Chandan Sapkota, Economist, ADB

Panelists (Development Partner): Senior Representative, International Finance Corporation (IFC)/ UN Representative 

Panelists (Innovator): Professor Farhad Anwar, Technology & Innovation Expert
Panelists (Academia Representative & Diaspora): Dr. Khondaker Abdullah -Al-Mamun, Professor, Dept. of CSE & Director, IRIIC

CONTEXT & BACKGROUND

Mobile financial services have transformed money in Bangladesh: well over 200 million registered MFS accounts move more than Tk 1.5 trillion every month (Bangladesh Bank), and bKash alone serves tens of millions of customers. Yet cash still dominates the vast majority of transactions, merchant digital acceptance remains thin outside cities, and interoperability between banks, cards and wallets - through Bangla QR and the national payment switch - is only beginning to bite. Bangladesh Bank has set its sights on a largely cashless economy within this decade; with two-thirds of the population under 35 and one of the world's largest online freelance workforces (Oxford Internet Institute), the youth dividend is the force that can make digital payments, platforms and ventures the country's next growth engine.

SYNOPSIS

Bangladesh's digital economy can become a major engine of youth-led growth when skills, entrepreneurship, digital finance, platforms and innovation capital connect. Centred on the core agenda - growing the digital economy and achieving a cashless society - this plenary brings together the leadership of payments networks, banks, MFS providers and startup investors to chart the route from cash dominance to interoperable digital payments, and from youth talent to scaled digital ventures. It examines merchant digitization, financial inclusion, consumer trust and cybersecurity, and the capital pathway from seed to growth stage for young founders.

OBJECTIVE OF THE SESSION

Define how Bangladesh can achieve a cashless, digitally inclusive economy - interoperable payments, digitized merchants, trusted systems - and connect youth entrepreneurship with the capital and platforms of the digital economy.