Former chief justice and chief advisor to the caretaker government Muhammad Habibur Rahman will formally inaugurate the three-day conference organised by the Bangladesh Economic Association (BEA).

BEA President Dr Quazi Kholiquzzaman Ahmad will chair the inaugural session.

The conference will discuss issues relating to globalisation and the ways through which the least developed countries (LDCs) including Bangladesh can respond boldly to the globalisation process to derive benefit from it.

The topics of discussion include UN Millennium Development Goals, globalisation, inequality and poverty, post-Cancun WTO, new issues in development assistance, policy reforms, governance, global environment security and Bangladesh in the world economy.

During the conference, the BEA will award honourary life membership to five renowned economists. They are Dr Nancy Birdsall of the Centre for Global Development, USA, Nitin Desai, a visiting fellow of the London School of Economics (LSE), Prof Jeffrey D Sachs of Colombia University, Prof Robert Hunter Wade of LSE, and Prof Nurul Islam, former deputy chairman of Planning Commission, Bangladesh.