The School of Business and Economics at United International University has launched the “NEXUS Seminar Series”, a long-term initiative aimed at strengthening industry–academia dialogue on business, the economy and society.

The monthly public seminar series was launched at the university campus on Tuesday. It is designed to provide a platform for policy-oriented academic engagement at a time when the Bangladesh economy is facing global volatility, banking sector stress and rising business costs.

The NEXUS seminars will feature practitioner-led discussions, giving United International University students direct exposure to senior industry leaders and helping connect classroom learning with practical experience.

Doctor Iftikhar Mostafa, Senior Agriculture Economist at the World Bank and an internationally recognised expert, delivered the keynote lecture titled “Innovation, Value Chains, and Public–Private Collaboration for Systemic Reform”.

Drawing on three decades of global experience, Doctor Mostafa highlighted the importance of building innovation ecosystems, strengthening global value chains and fostering meaningful public-private partnerships to drive systemic reform.

He shared examples of scalable solutions from regions including Australia and Africa, showing how aligned incentives can support sustainable and inclusive development.

Professor M Omar Farooq, Head of the Department of Economics at United International University, attended the event as the designated discussant.

He said moving up global value chains requires a broader and more sophisticated understanding of value creation, value capture and value distribution in Bangladesh’s post-least developed country economy.

Professor Farooq also stressed the importance of systems thinking and capacity building, saying systemic reform does not occur in a vacuum. He underlined the need to promote interdisciplinary approaches and capabilities in higher education, as many of the pressing challenges facing society cut across the boundaries of individual academic disciplines.

Professor M Niaz Asadullah, Convenor of the NEXUS series, warned that Bangladesh’s traditional growth model has reached its structural limits.

“In the Fourth Industrial Revolution era, minimising difficult economic trade-offs demands scalable, innovative solutions,” Professor Asadullah said, adding that systemic reform requires the state, private markets and academia to speak a unified language.

Professor Emeritus Doctor M Rezwan Khan, Executive Director of the Institute for Advanced Research and Former Vice Chancellor of United International University, and Professor Doctor Salma Karim, Director of the Bachelor of Business Administration Programme at United International University, also shared their views on institutionalising research-driven policy dialogue.

The launch event ended with an interactive question-and-answer session on actionable policy reforms. Heads of departments, faculty members, researchers and senior representatives from the banking and financial sectors attended the event.