Syed Abdus Samad | |
|---|---|
 Syed Abdus Samad | |
| Born | 1942 |
| Died | 28 July 2021(2021-07-28) (aged 78–79)[1] |
| Occupation(s) | Executive Chairman (Cabinet Minister), Board of Investment, Bangladesh |
| Years active | 1965–2021 |
Syed Abdus Samad (1942 – 28 July 2021) was a teacher ofeconomics. He was a faculty member at theUniversity of Dhaka,Boston State College,Boston University, theUniversity of the South Pacific, and theHankuk University of Foreign Studies,South Korea. Samad worked as a national and international civil servant, economist, andhuman rights activist. In Bangladesh, he was the permanent secretary to the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources, and a principal secretary to the Prime Minister. Samad was the executive chairman of the Bangladesh Board of Investment.
Syed Abdus Samad was born to an educated family during 1942 in the village of Digha,Gaffargaon, in theMymensingh district of theBengal Presidency. His father Syed Abdul Ghani was a prominent lawyer.[2] He received his bachelor's degree in economics fromDhaka University. He undertook post-graduate studies atUCLA. In 1977, Samad received his master's degrees in economics and political economics and in 1979, a doctoral degree fromBoston University.
Samad joined the Civil Service of Pskistan in 1964. He also served asBangabandhu's private secretary. He subsequently served as the principal secretary during government's 1996-2001 tenure.
Samad's role in 1971 Liberation War that he joined theMujibnagar Government severing links with Pakistan while serving as the additional deputy commissioner (ADC) of Rangamati being a member of erstwhile Civil Service of Pakistan (CSP).
From 1980 to 1982, Samad was a member of the teaching and directing staff of the Bangladesh Administrative Staff College. Between 1982 and 1985, he was an economic advisor to thePresident of Bangladesh.[3] Then, from 1985 to 1990, he taught students of economics at the Public Administration and Economic Development Training Academy.
From 1990 to 1996, Samad was the director of the Economics andInformation Technology Program of theUnited Nations Asian and Pacific Development Center[4] and from 1992 to 1997, he was the executive secretary of theMalaysian chapter of the Association of Development Research and Training Institutes of Asia and the Pacific.[5][6]
From 1995 to 1997, Samad was president of the Bangladesh Civil Service Association[7] and from 1996 to 1997, the permanent secretary to the Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources. Between 1997 and 2001, Samad was the principal secretary to theGovernment of Bangladesh. Samad also played a crucial role in reaching the historic 1996 Ganges Water Sharing Treaty with India and the 1997 peace agreement with Parbatya Chattagram Jana Sanghati Samity (PCJSS) that saw the end of the nearly two decades long unrest in the troubled hill region.[8]
Between 2006 and 2009, Samad taught at theUniversity of the South Pacific and at theHankuk University of Foreign Studies inKorea.
Samad carried out evaluations of many inter-regional agencies,United Nations funded programmes and projects. He was a member of the technical committee of the global programme on comparative poverty research, funded by theInternational Social Science Council (ISSC), Paris. He was one of the authors of the global research book on poverty published byUNESCO and the Scandinavian University Press in 1996.
