ICC Bangladesh President Mahbubur Rahman recently called on Former President of Indonesia Prof. Dr. H. Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono in Bali and extended invitation to him to be the Keynote Speaker at Asia Pacific Business Forum(APBF) of UNESCAP to be hosted by ICC Bangladesh in Dhaka sometimes in November-December this year. It may be mentioned that earlier Mahbubur Rahman was honoured by the President of Indonesia as the “Presidential Friend of Indonesia” in 2012. The ceremony was held at the Presidential Palace in Jakarta in August 2012 at the celebration of the 67th Independence of Indonesia.
The Asia-Pacific Business Forum (APBF) is the flagship regional business forum organized by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP). With its 53 Member States plus nine Associate Members, ranging from least developed and Pacific Island countries, to countries with emerging markets, ESCAP secretariat as well as ESCAP Business Advisory Council(EBAC) and Sustainable Business Network(ESBN) are the driving forces behind APBF.
APBF’s mission is to provide the best platform for regional public-private sector dialogue on the role and needs of business in achieving inclusive, resilient and sustainable development. APBF was first launched in 2004 in Shanghai, where it attracted over 2,000 participants from business, government, academia and civil society from across the region. Over the course of one decade, it has helped form a pan-Asian multi-stakeholder network, and has been hosted in various locations, such as Almaty, Bangkok, Colombo, Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur and Kunming
At the request of ESCAP Business Advisory Council, ICC Bangladesh will be hosting the APBF in Dhaka this year.