Day 3: Monday, November 24

09:30 – 11:30                                                                                     

Report Launching Event   Surma

Press Freedom in Bangladesh: Lessons from the Digital Security Act

The Digital Security Act (DSA) became a symbol of the suppression of free speech in Bangladesh, following in the footsteps of its predecessor, the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Act. Enacted in 2018, the DSA was purportedly designed to address cybercrimes but has instead been weaponized by the government to silence dissenting voices and restrict freedom of expression. The law's broad and vague provisions, such as those criminalizing "offensive," "false," or "defamatory" information, have led to the arrest of journalists, activists, and citizens critical of the government. The DSA had been used to harass and intimidate those challenging state narratives, making it a powerful tool for political repression. This law, much like the ICT Act before it, stifled critical journalism and public discourse, creating a climate of fear that undermines democratic principles. Despite recent legal changes, the legacy of the DSA continues to cast a long shadow over Bangladesh's media landscape.

Speakers:

Md Asaduzzaman, The Attorney General for Bangladesh

Sara Hossain, Barrister & Senior Advocate, Supreme Court of Bangladesh; Honorary Executive Director, Bangladesh Legal Aid and Services Trust (BLAST)

Maneka Khanna, Senior Legal Program Manager, Clooney Foundation for Justice 

Dr. Sazzad Siddiqui, Associate Professor & Chairman, Peace and Conflict Studies, University of Dhaka.

Roman Uddin, Research Associate and Youth Outreach Program Coordinator, Centre for Governance Studies (CGS) (Moderator)

09:30 – 10:30     Meghna

Conversation over Tea (By Invitation Only)

The Bay Beneath the Waves: Hidden Ecologies, Forgotten Communities

Before the climate crisis became a priority on the agenda, it was a daily reality for people who live by the sea. This session examines the invisible frontlines, including coastal erosion, saltwater intrusion, and vanishing islands, as well as the human stories that science often overlooks. The Bay remembers what the world ignores.

Speakers:

Muhammad Azeem Ali Shah, Director, Blue Green Nexus Pvt Ltd, Pakistan 

Priyanka Bhide Mandrekar, Co- founder and Partner, Kubernein Initiative LLP, India  (Moderator)

A N M Muniruzzaman, President, Bangladesh Institute of Peace and Security Studies (BIPSS) 

David Morris, CEO (Tasmania)    Australia China Business Council, Australia

Conversation over Tea (By Invitation Only)      Chitra

The New Middle Class Anxiety: Hope, Debt, and the Cost of Belonging

Across continents, the middle class, often regarded as the stabilizing force of democracy, is losing confidence. Caught between aspiration and exhaustion, it now fears falling faster than rising. This session explores what happens to politics when stability no longer feels affordable.

Speakers:

Nishan de Mel, Executive Director, Verité Research, Sri Lanka

Anurag Acharya, Director, Policy Entrepreneurs Inc, Nepal (Moderator)

Konstantinos Foutzopoulos, Executive Director, Athens Riviera Forum, Greece 

Pushpan Murugiah, CEO, The Center to Combat Corruption and Cronyism (C4 Center), Malaysia

Colloquy (By Invitation Only)      Padma

Sanctions, Shortages, and the Myth of Economic Neutrality

Nowadays, no economy is entirely neutral. Every currency has a side, and every economic transaction has a flag. How can emerging economies find breathing room as sanctions change global financing and supply chains? An open discussion about strategy, survival, and silent dependencies.

Speakers:

Farrukh Irnazarov, Co-Founder and Country Director, Central Asian Development Institute, Uzbekistan

Parvez Karim Abbasi, Executive Director, Centre for Governance Studies (CGS)

Jan Rielaender, Head of Division, The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) 

Faris Hadrovic, Managing Director, SO.. Quantum Growth Agency, Bosnia and Herzegovina (Moderator)  

Aarya Nijat, Co-Founder, Program and Policy Lead, Innovation Ticker (iTicker), USA

Kerry Breen, Senior Director, Brummer & Partners

11:00 – 12:30    Grand Ballroom

The Bay on Fire: Climate Change as the New Security Crisis

Storms have always been in the Bay of Bengal, but these days, politics is a part of the storms. In addition to homes, borders, economies, and tenuous peace are all at risk due to rising sea levels. Farmers and fishermen become refugees, and their migrations lead to fresh debates about compassion and sovereignty. The rivers in the area, which were formerly used for connections and trade, are now becoming points of conflict and authority. Climate change has become a slow-moving security crisis rather than just an environmental issue. Here in the Bay, the battle for the destiny of the planet might start or end.

Speakers:

Muhammad Azeem Ali Shah, Director, Blue Green Nexus Pvt Ltd, Pakistan 

Monirul Islam Akhand, Managing Director, Summit Power Limited

Shafqat Munir, Research Fellow, Bangladesh Institute of Peace and Security Studies (BIPSS)

Pyrou Chung, Director, Knowledge for Development Foundation 

M. R. Kabir, Vice Chancellor of Daffodil International University

Jan Rielaender, Head of Division, The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) (Moderator)

12:30 – 13:40       Chitra

Knowledge at Risk: Scholarship, Power, and the Future of Democratic Inquiry

In a world where facts compete with fictions and public debate is shaped by emotion, speed, and synthetic narratives, intellectual inquiry has become a frontline of governance. Research is no longer passive, its absence reshapes institutions as much as its presence. Around the Bay of Bengal, democratic transitions, digital authoritarianism, migration shocks, and environmental insecurity demand new forms of knowledge that can guide policy beyond slogans and crisis management. The CGS Journal of Governance, Security & Development emerges in this moment as a space where evidence, critique, and imagination can coexist. This session explores how scholarship can reclaim relevance in an era when states govern through improvisation, societies live in permanent uncertainty, and truth itself feels negotiable.

Speakers:

Habib Zafarullah, Adjunct Professor, School of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences, University of New England, Australia (Moderator)

Gregory Simons, Professor in Journalism, Daffodil International University, Bangladesh

Clay Wescott, International Advisor, Centre for Governance Studies (CGS)

Pramod Jaiswal, Research Director, Institute for International Cooperation and Engagement, Nepal

12:30 – 13:40     Grand Ballroom

From Growth to Fairness: Re-imagining Prosperity After the Great Inequality

For decades, the world worshipped growth as progress, as if numbers alone could measure human well-being. That illusion has cracked. The pandemic, debt crises, and cost-of-living shocks have revealed a deeper poverty hidden beneath prosperity. Inequality is no longer a social issue; it is a structural wound that shapes politics, anger, and faith in the future. As the Indian Ocean region becomes a central arena of global competition and cooperation, these pressures take on added geopolitical weight. Emerging corridors of trade, energy, and technology offer new opportunities for shared prosperity, yet they also risk reproducing or deepening existing divides. The question now is not only how fast economies grow, but who truly benefits when they do, and how states in this region can balance strategic interests with social fairness. Real progress may depend less on expanding wealth than on rediscovering fairness as the foundation of stability in a shifting geopolitical landscape.

Speakers:

Park Young-sik, Ambassador, Embassy of the Republic of Korea in Bangladesh

Lulzim Pllana,             Ambassador, Republic of Kosovo to Bangladesh 

Rüdiger Lotz, Ambassador, German Embassy, Bangladesh

James Goldman, Deputy High Commissioner and Development Director,              British High Commission 

Susan Ryle, Australia’s High Commissioner to Bangladesh 

Zillur Rahman, Chair, Bay of Bengal Conversation 2025 (Moderator)

13:40 – 14:00      Grand Ballroom

Special Address

Ajit Singh, High Commissioner of Canada to Bangladesh

14:00 – 15:00      

Lunch        Oasis                    

15:00 – 15:10     Grand Ballroom

Speed Talks

Hossain Zillur Rahman, Executive Chairman, Power and Participation Research Centre (PPRC)

15:10 – 16:30     Grand Ballroom        

From Silos to Systems: Rewiring the Global Data Order

Artificial intelligence is no longer a tool we use; it has become a force that interprets us and increasingly decides on our behalf. From justice and public services to markets, security, and diplomacy, machine intelligence is reshaping how authority works. Yet the systems meant to govern this power, our data frameworks, regulations, and institutions, remain fragmented and slow to evolve. Across the Bay of Bengal region, rapid digitalization has created vast but siloed data ecosystems. As governments, businesses, and platforms adopt AI at scale, they do so atop infrastructures that lack coherence, transparency, and accountability. The result is a widening gap between technological capability and responsible governance. This session examines how societies can move from isolated data practices to integrated, trusted, and future-ready governance systems capable of overseeing intelligence that is no longer human. It brings together global experts, policymakers, technologists, and private-sector leaders to explore what it means to govern synthetic power in a world where data itself has become a strategic resource.

Speakers:

Subimal Bhattacharjee, Treasurer And Head Critical and Emerging Technologies, The Society to Harmonise Aspirations for Responsible Engagement (SHARE) 

Masudur Rahman, IT Strategy and Digital Transformation Leader, Big 4 Consulting Firm 

Hossain Zillur Rahman, Executive Chairman, Power and Participation Research Centre (PPRC)

Faiz Ahmad Taiyeb, Special Assistant to Hon'ble Chief Adviser

Owais Parray, Country Economic Adviser, UNDP Bangladesh

Veronica Portugal, Founder and CEO, Paideia Civica, Mexico

16:30 – 17:40        Grand Ballroom               

The Human Century: Building a Moral Economy for a Planet in Peril

This century will test not just our intelligence, but our conscience. Progress has come at a cost we can no longer ignore, rising seas, burning forests, broken economies, and the quiet erosion of empathy. Growth without responsibility has left the planet weary and people divided. Yet crisis also brings a rare opportunity to begin again, to build an economy that values care as much as competition, and dignity as much as data. The question is simple but urgent: can we build a future that serves humanity, not just markets? The answer will define whether the next hundred years belong to humans, or just to history.

Speakers:

Kallol Bhattacherjee, Senior Assistant Editor, The Hindu, India

Constantino Xavier, Senior Fellow, Centre for Social and Economic Progress. India

Adi John Walker, Director, POD International Consulting    

Nishan de Mel, Executive Director, Verité Research, Sri Lanka (Moderator)

Zain Khan, Editor Diplomatic Affairs, Minute Mirror Newspaper, Pakistan

17:40 – 18:00         Grand Ballroom

Closing

Zillur Rahman, President, CGS; Chair, Bay of Bengal Conservation, Bangladesh

18:00  – 18:30                                                                                    

Tea / Coffee     Oasis

20:00 – 23:00           Grand Ballroom

After Event Party (By Invitation Only)

Studio Sessions

Titas

11:00 to 11:30
Sanctions and Shadows

conceptual hint:Trade wars and blacklists now shape more lives than actual wars.

guiding questions:

Do sanctions strengthen justice or just shift power?

How are regional economies adapting to parallel financial systems?

Is the era of globalisation truly over, or just under new management?

12:00 to 12:30

From Growth to Security

conceptual hint: Economies are no longer measured only in GDP but in survival capacity.

guiding questions:

Can economic resilience replace growth as the new development goal?
How do sanctions, supply shocks, and climate risk redefine stability?
What does economic security mean for a country like Bangladesh today?

13:00 to 13:30
Lines on Water

conceptual hint: The Bay of Bengal is where climate meets conflict and humanity tests its endurance.

guiding questions:

Are rising tides the next trigger of regional displacement?
How can diplomacy respond to a borderless crisis like climate migration?
Can the Bay become a laboratory for cooperative adaptation? 

 15:00 to 15:30
The Politics of Survival

conceptual hint: When climate disasters strike, politics often decides who gets saved first.

guiding questions:

 How do we ensure justice in adaptation and recovery?
Are rich nations ready to pay their climate debts?
What does survival mean for low-lying nations like Bangladesh?

16:00 to 16:30
Heat, Hunger, and Human Security

conceptual hint: Climate change is rewriting the grammar of rights, health, and hope.

guiding questions:

Can traditional security institutions adapt to climate-driven threats?
How do food, water, and health become strategic weapons in a warming world?
What new partnerships are needed to secure the Bay’s human future?