NEW PERMANENT REPRESENTATIVE OF BANGLADESH PRESENTS CREDENTIALS
| Press Release BIO/3398 |
Biographical Note
NEW PERMANENT REPRESENTATIVE OF BANGLADESH PRESENTS CREDENTIALS
(Based on information received from the Protocol and Liaison Service.)
Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury, the new Permanent Representative of Bangladesh to the United Nations, presented his credentials to Secretary-General Kofi Annan today.
Before his current appointment, Mr. Chowdhury served for two months as Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Dhaka, and from January to September 2001, he was Special Adviser to the Secretary-General of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD). He served as Bangladesh's Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the United Nations Office at Geneva from 1996 to 2001, and before that, from 1994 to 1996, he was Ambassador of Bangladesh to Qatar. For the three prior years, Mr. Chowdhury served as Director-General of Economic Affairs in his country’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The five years before that he spent at the United Nations in New York, initially as First Counsellor at the Bangladesh Mission (1986-1988), and then as Deputy Permanent Representative (1988-1991).
Mr. Chowdhury began his diplomatic career as a civil service probationer in Bangladesh in 1969. In 1971, he became a Subdivisional Officer, and the following year was appointed Deputy Secretary of the Ministry of Shipping and Aviation, a post he held until 1974. He was then named Deputy Chief of the External Resources Division of the Planning Commission (1974-1976), and following four years in which he was working towards his doctorate, he served as Director of Economic Affairs in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (1980-1983), and then as Counsellor at the Bangladesh Embassy in Bonn, West Germany (1983-1986).
Mr. Chowdhury earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science at Dhaka University in 1967. He received his Master's and doctoral degrees in international relations at the Australian National University in Canberra.
Born on 25 October 1946 in British India, Mr. Chowdhury is married and has a daughter.
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