The British Council and the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited (HSBC) celebrated the Global Money Week 2017 by organizing a panel discussion titled ‘Building the Next Generation Socio-Economically Capable and Responsible’.
This year the theme of Global Money Week is ‘Learn. Save. Earn.’ It is an annual global celebration, initiated by Child & Youth Financial International (CYFI). The aim of celebrating the week every year in more than 130 countries around the world is to develop financial literacy as a core skill among children in the modern society.
This panel discussion session was the second among a three-phased celebration of the week. The first phase was held on 1 April 2017, where an interactive session on ‘Efficient Time and Money Management’ was conducted by Professor Dr. Yousuf Mahbubul Islam, Vice Chancellor (VC), Daffodil International University (DIU) with 30 students from different universities.
In the second phase, a panel discussion moderated by Shawkat Hossain Masum from the Daily Prothom Alo discussed how to educate socio-economically capable and responsible youth. The distinguished panelists were Md Abul Bashar, GM, Financial Inclusion, Bangladesh Bank, Md Sabur Khan, CIP, Chairman, Daffodil Group, Ajay Dasgupta, Associate Editor, Daily Samakal and Shaulee Kamal Khan, Head of Regulatory Compliance and General Counsel, HSBC Bangladesh. Sixty participants, including heads of different institutions, teachers and entrepreneurs joined this session.
The third phase, titled ‘Learn. Save. Earn: Financial Literacy Workshop and Games’ will start from 6 April 2017 and will continue till 10 April 2017. One thousand students will participate from four primary schools in knowledge building games supported by HSBC volunteers.
“The core objective of this initiative by the British Council is to create awareness among teachers, entrepreneurs, and students about financial literacy, and to develop basic skills on effective financial management, which is a core life skill to survive and excel in the increasingly complex modern society,” said Barbara Wickham, Director, British Council.
To mark the occasion Francois de Maricourt, Chief Executive Officer, HSBC Bangladesh said, “We at HSBC are committed to supporting youth around the world to build their confidence and decision making, and help raise their aspirations by supporting programs that increase their financial literacy knowledge. With a solid financial understanding, young people will benefit from day-to-day decisions such as the ability to budget, generate savings and invest for their future.”
The British Council, which has already reached thousands of children in hundreds of schools in Bangladesh through language, social and leadership programs, has taken the responsibility to equip the future leaders of tomorrow’s Bangladesh with financial literacy through this program.
In 2016, the Global Money Week was celebrated in 132 countries with seven million participating youth. This year, the size of participation and reach has expanded significantly.
