Dr. Khalilur Rahman has been appointed as the Special Representative of the Chief Adviser to the Interim Government on Rohingya Issues and Priority Issues.
This information was given in a notification signed by Cabinet Secretary Sheikh Abdur Rashid on Tuesday (November 19).
The notification said that Dr. Khalilur Rahman has been appointed as the High Representative of the Chief Adviser to the Interim Government on Rohingya Issues and Priority Issues.
He will be entitled to the status, salary and allowances and ancillary facilities of an adviser during his tenure as the High Representative.
This order will come into effect immediately.
Dr. Khalilur Rahman joined the Bangladesh Civil Service (Foreign Affairs) cadre in 1979. He secured first place in Bangladesh's first regular BCS examination in 1977 and first place in the first class in the MA examination in Economics of Dhaka University in the same year. He worked as an executive at American Express International Bank from 1978-79. He studied at Tufts and Harvard Universities in the United States from 1980-83 and obtained an MA in Law and Diplomacy and a PhD in Economics.
During 1983-85, he served in the South Asia Division of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and as the Personal Secretary to the Foreign Minister. In 1985, he was transferred to the Permanent Mission of Bangladesh to the United Nations in New York. There, he represented Bangladesh in the Economic and Financial Committee of the United Nations General Assembly and served as the spokesperson for the Least Developed Countries (LDCs) in this Committee and the United Nations Economic and Social Council.
Dr. Rahman joined the UN Secretariat in 1991 as a Special Adviser to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) in Geneva. During the next 25 years at the UN, he served in various important positions in New York and Geneva, including Head of Economic, Social and Development Affairs in the Executive Office of the UN Secretary-General; Executive Secretary of the UN Secretary-General's High-Level Group on Technology; Head of the Technology Division, Management Division and International Trade Policy Analysis Group of UNCTAD; Head of the UNCTAD Bureau at UN Headquarters; Head of the Least Developed Countries Program at the UN Secretariat; Chair of the UN Inter-Agency Group on Non-Tariff Barriers to International Trade; and Chief Coordinator of the Program on New and Dynamic Sectors of World Trade.
Dr. Rahman was a principal author and contributor to various flagship UN publications. He has also written and edited many analytical reports on trade, economics and development for the UN Secretary-General and UNCTAD Secretary-General. He led the drafting of the Program Plan at the Brussels Conference of the Least Developed Countries in 2001, which took the historic decision to grant duty-free and quota-free access to exports from LDC countries.
In 2001, Dr. Khalilur Rahman served as Private Secretary to Justice Latifur Rahman, Chief Adviser to the Third Caretaker Government. Dr. Rahman is one of the founders of East West University, located in the capital Dhaka. He currently serves as a member of the University's board of trustees.