Iftikhar Ahmed (Bengali: ইফতেখার আহমেদ) a development economist and author, is the first Bangladeshi born Swiss lawmaker. He is a former International Labour Organization (ILO) official.
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Life
He was born in Bangladesh, and has lived in Switzerland for last 40 years as Swiss Citizen. His father late Dr Momtazuddin Ahmed was the founder vice-chancellor of Rajshahi University.
Lawmaker
He took his oath in the Parliament (Conseil Communale) as a Swiss Lawmaker on Tuesday December 15, 2015 in the outskirts of Geneva.
Economist
As an economist, he served for three decades (1974-2004) in the employment sector of the International Labour Office (ILO) in Geneva as the editor-in-chief of the International Labour Review and director of the ILO's Bureau of Publications.
Assignments
Previously, he was a post-doctoral associate at the Iowa State University of Science and Technology, the USA, a visiting fellow at the Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex, United Kingdom; and associate professor of Economics, Dhaka University. He, was the elected general secretary of the first Bangladesh Economic Association (1974) of the vice-president FH Hall Union (1964-65) of Dhaka University.
Author
His published works are the Voices of the Working Children and Their Parents: Will Anyone Listen? (London, Austin Macauley Publishers Ltd, 2015) and the Technological Change and Agrarian Structure: A Study of Bangladesh (Geneva, ILO, 1981). Moreover, he is a co-author of a number of other publications.