UNB, Dhaka

Brac chairman Fazle Hasan Abed on Friday said giving the urban people a meaningful life would be a big challenge for Bangladesh as it will have 50 percent of population living in towns within next 35 years.
“In the next 30 years, population of Bangladesh is likely to be around 200 millions. It is also predicted that Bangladesh will have half of the population living in urban areas within the next 35 years. Giving the half of population a productive and meaningful life is a big challenge,” he said.
Fazle Hasan Abed was addressing an inaugural function of the three-day architecture symposium styled ‘Architecture Now/Next’ in the capital.
Noting that now 30 percent of the country’s population is living in urban areas, which was only 10 percent before the birth of the country, Fazle Hasan Abed said Bangladesh poses the most fascinating challenges to the development paradigm, particularly for urban areas and spaces.
Finance Minister AMA Muhith inaugurated the symposium at the Krishibid Institute, which is being co-organised by Bengal Institute for Architecture, Landscapes and Settlement.
Prominent international and national architects, academics, critics and thinkers are participating in the symposium, arranged with an aim to understand new directions in architecture and city building, along with the kind of work that should be recognized as exemplary and instructive.
Chairman of Bengal Foundation Abul Khair was also present at the inaugural session.