Commerce Minister
Born in 1923 and educated at the Universities of Dhaka, Minnesota and Southern California, Kabir Chowdhury is a well-known academic, essayist, translator, cultural worker and civil society activist. He has worked for over half a century in the fields of education, peace and inter-cultural understanding in several National and International organizations like Afro-Asian writers union, Afro-Asian Peoples Solidarity  organization, International Theatre Institute, UNESCO National Commission and Bangladesh Chapter of the World’s Peace Council.

He has written extensively on world’s famous writers and painters He has also written extensively on peace and conflict resolution through discussion and has tried to promote these values by his work both as a teacher and as an administrator. He has taught at the University of Dhaka as a Professor of English for near thirty years and is still teaching there as a part-time teacher. He has worked as the Secretary, Ministry of Education, Cultural Affairs and Sports, Government of Bangladesh before his voluntary retirement from government service. He was inducted as National Professor of Bangladesh in 1998.

Over the years he has attended many International conferences on peace, education and culture in U.S.A former Soviet Union, Bulgaria, France, Germany, Spain, North Korea, Iran, Uganda, Angola and several other places. He had the privilege of meeting Nelson Mandela, Yassir Arafat, Augustino Neto and Kim Il Sung. In a conference of the World Federation of UN Associations held in Bercelona which he attended as the representative of Bangladesh UN Association (he was its Chairman for several years), he worked alongside Nobel Peace Winner Lord Philip Noel Baker and the distinguished Pacifist Sean Mac Bride. Among famous writers he has worked closely with Pakistan’s Faiz Ahmed Faiz, India’s Visam Sahni, Palestine’s Mahmood Dervish and USA’s Edward Albee.

He has received many national and international awards which include the highest honour of Bangladesh, namely, the Independence Day Award. He has also received the prestigious “Tagore Peace Award” from Asiatic Society, Kolkata, India, and “Willium Carey Gold Medal” from William Carey Research and Study Centre of West Bengal, India. Recently he was nominated by the government of Bangladesh for the “UNESCO Prize for Peace Education, 2008”. Mr. Chowdhury is associated with many Socio-Cultural organizations. He is Fellow and Chairman of Bangla Academy, Principal, Theatre, School, Dhaka, Chairman, Bangla-German Sampreeti and of several other organizations.

National Prof. Kabir Chowdhury is also carrying out his responsibility as the Chairman of National Finance Limited (Formerly Self Employment Finance Limited), a Non Banking Financial Institution (NBFI). The nature of business of this company is Leasing and hire purchase of Movable and immovable property, plants, machinery, equipment, apparatus, instrument, air-conditioner, computer materials etc. It also grants loans and advances for industry, commerce, agriculture, housing and transportation. All kinds of financial investment including long term loan, working capital financing, credit programmes at grassroots level are being provided by NFL. The Board of NFL is a unique blending of highly educated, long experienced young entrepreneurs contributing to the planning and policy making of the company. They are reputed and well-established in their respective fields including Trade, Commerce & Industry.