Abdar Rahman,
Project Director
Finally the book Banking Almanac: Banks and Financial Institutions of Bangladesh-2016 has been published. I believe this is the first book on Bangladesh’s Banking and Finance sector. This is one of the valuable additions in maintaining information and data flow among the local and global people of this sector.
Our idea on Banking Almanac is much older that was initiated in 2005 and implemented in 2016, eleven years in between already passed. Although there was very specific project proposal including implementation framework on Banking Almanac but it was delayed due to lack of funding.
My little initiative to publish this book has been successful with the assistance and encouragements of many scholars and distinguished personalities of this sector. The members of the Board of Editors are very much renowned in their respective professions. The Editorial Members are Dr. Salehuddin Ahmed, Chairman, Dr. Hossain Zillur Rahman, Professor Khair Jahan Sogra, Md. Nazrul Huda, Mohammed Nurul Amin, Ambassador (rtd) Liaquat Ali Choudhury, Mohammad Amanullah and Mominul Islam.
Under the active guidance and regular follow up of the esteem Editorial Members it has been possible to complete the work of publishing this Banking Almanac without any major obstacle. My endless gratitude to all of them equally and especially I would like to express my sincere thanks and gratitude towards Dr. Salehuddin Ahmed, the ex-Governor of Bangladesh Bank, the most renowned personality nationally and internationally. His continuous guidance on overall improvement of quality of this book is truly acknowledged, and will be remembered for many years.
I would like to acknowledge the invaluable support from Power and Participation Research Center (PPRC), my indebted to its Executive Chairman, renowned Economist Dr. Hossain Zillur Rahman.
1 duly acknowledge my heartfelt indebtedness to Mr. Syed Ziauddin Ahmed, Director PPRC and Executive Editor of Banking Almanac Project. Mr. Ahmed put his best efforts with utmost sincerity in coordinating editorial board meeting, research work, fund raising for publication of the Almanac, without which it would not be possible for me to smoothly accomplish the job.
I express my gratitude to the other Executive Editor Mr. Mohammad Emdadul Haque, the renowned writer on liberation war and freedom fighter for his kind advice and helping me continuously to make this publication a success.
Above all, without the assistance of Bangladesh Bank this book would not have been published. Valuing the project concept and proposal, Bangladesh Bank came forward and made a bilateral agreement with the Shikkhabichitra. This opportunity was created by Dr. Atiur Rahman, the then Governor of Bangladesh Bank, Mr. S K Sur Chowdhury, Deputy Governor and Mr. Manoj Kumar Biswas, General Manager of its Sustainable Finance Department.
I would also like to acknowledge the support from Bangladesh Bank representatives of Project Implementation Committee: Mr. Khondoker Morshed Millat, Deputy General Manager and Mr. Jewel Majumder, Assistant Director of the Bank.
We hereby acknowledge the financial contribution of some of the commercial banks and institutions, besides the financial support from Bangladesh Bank to make this historic piece of work done.
It was very important to engage a specialist on subject matter as an Editor to check back the main script critically. This difficult task has been done by Md. Amanullah, ex-Managing Director of Bangladesh Shilpa Bank, also one of the members of our Editorial Board, to whom I am also indebted.
I am thankful to the great teams for research support, publication and graphics and others who contributed to make the great work done in due time. I always received cooperation from the teams of Shikkhabichitra and ARDS, composed of groups of young and energetic professionals. My all best wishes to them.
Further, in this first edition we received a lot of response from dignitaries, like, Dr. Fazle Kabir, Governor of Bangladesh Bank, Mr. S K Sur Chowdhury, Deputy Governor, Mr. Anis A Khan, Chairman of the Association of Bankers Bangladesh (ABB) and Mr. Mofizuddin Sarker, Chairman of Bangladesh Leasing and Finance Companies Association, who indebted us giving messages and valuable support.
This type of publication needs continuous improvement with updated data and information. So, there is no way of self-complacency, rather the noble journey has been initiated. There will be continuous improvement, no doubt.
It is needless to mention about the difficulty to receive financial support from the banks and financial institutions as per commitment. But we hope it will be easier to manage well in the next edition.
We have tried our best to make this publication error free, although we cannot say firmly that it is hundred percent done.
Along with the printed version there will be is online version of publication of this Banking Almanac so that the readers and users all over the world can have access to the book. This will help promote the capacity of banking sector of Bangladesh globally.
We believe that the Banking Almanac will play the key role in meeting up necessary information and data needs on banking sector of Bangladesh. The readers including the researchers, academicians, investors, professionals, policy makers, students and common people as a whole will be benefitted with this book. It will be used as quick reference, we believe.
We hope that as the first edition has been published with the support of Bangladesh Bank and some other banks and financial institutions, they will come forward to help publish the next edition also.
Therefore, we believe that continuous suggestions and encouragements of all concerned will enlighten the way to move forward the Banking Almanac and publish its next edition in future.
Abdar Rahman
Project Director
Developed by: E A STERN IT