Vibrant young population can play huge role in country's economic growth: FM

Foreign Minister Dr AK Abdul Momen has said Bangladesh is blessed with a vibrant young population who can play an enormous role in the economic growth of the country.

"I absolutely agree that it is the youth of today who will determine the right future of our country. We only have to ensure that they have the right platform to flourish," Dr Momen said.

The Foreign Minister said he personally believes that it is creativity, innovation, competitiveness, motivation and networking that are the engine of growth and this can lead one to excel in life and living.

He was addressing the grand finale of "Battle of Minds", the talent development platform in Bangladesh for aspiring graduates, held on Monday, said a media release on Tuesday.

The champions of the 17th edition of this competition were declared.

Dr Momen said students can showcase their talents through the Battle of Mind and also learn to think out of the box.

"This is a platform that helps bridge the gap between academic life and the corporate world to create leaders for tomorrow. We are very happy that Battle of Minds is working towards enhancing employability of our country’s youth which is also one of the key priorities of the government of Bangladesh," he said.

‘Reimagine Tomorrow’ was the theme of this year’s Battle of Minds.

After passing several stages of the competition, team ‘Time Travelers’ consisting of students from Institute of Business Administration (IBA) -University of Dhaka, Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET) and Independent University Bangladesh (IUB) became the champions this year.

‘Team Anything’ Works from Institute of Business Administration (IBA) -University of Dhaka, IslamicUniversity of Technology (IUT) and Bangladesh University of Professionals (BUP), were named the First Runners up and team ‘Go for It’ from Institute of Business Administration (IBA) -University of Dhaka were named second runners-up.

About 2,800 students took part in the competition that continued for several months. Three teams were declared the winners on Monday (December 14, 2020), after completing multiple competitive stages of the competition.

Commenting on the event, Managing Director of British American Tobacco (BAT) Bangladesh Shehzad Munim said BAT Bangladesh believes that drive and success go hand in hand.

"It is the very core of this organization. Over the past decade and a half, Battle of Minds has transformed thousands of talented minds across the nation, by giving them a platform to showcase their skills in solving complex real-world problems. The aim of this competition is to bring out the best from the participants and we hope that we succeeded to some degree in accomplishing that."

He hoped that as part of achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the Government of Bangladesh, Battle of Minds will play a key role in nurturing/developing the talents of young people and also in creating jobs for the country.

British American Tobacco Bangladesh has been organizing the Battle of Minds since 2004.

This year the competition took a virtual spin and was met with enormous response and spontaneous participation of students with around 2800 students registering across the country from 25 universities.

The participants brought their unique and innovative ideas to solve the final cases given to them.

During the grand finale, participants presented their final case solutions to the esteemed Judges Panel.

The top 18 students who were chosen through a rigorous multi-stepped selection process, got the chance to participate in the finale for the prestigious title.