Sandwip (Chittagong) Correspondent 

The 32-year milestone celebration and central convention 2025 of the social development organization Society for Development Initiatives (SDI) was held with a colourful program and great enthusiasm.

The convention was held for three days from July 23-25 at the Captain Cox Convention Venue in Ocean Paradise, Cox's Bazar, the world's longest sea beach city.

The inaugural session of the three-day program began with the rendition of the national anthem. The inaugural session was presided over by Shamsul Haque, founder and executive director of SDI. The chief guest at the program was eminent physicist and Vice Chancellor of Gana University and Honorable Chairman of SDI, Professor Dr. Md. Abul Hossain. The special guests were SDI Vice Chairman S. M. Golam Mostafa, MD of Ubico MM Mostafa Billal, AGM of PKSF Abul Kalam Azad, AGM of Sonali Bank Md. Manjur Morshed and Head of MFI and Agricultural Finance Department Taposh Kumar Roy. Also present were Director of Activities of SDI Md. Kamruzzaman. 

In the beginning, the welcome speech was given by Assistant Director (General) of SDI Sohelia Nazneen Haque and Deputy Executive Director of SDI Abu Bakar Siddique. In the first session, the central presenter Shakib Ahsan and Assistant Director Development Md. Ashraf Hossain presented the details of SDI's activities. 

The chief guest at the closing session was Rubaiya Afroz, Additional Deputy Commissioner of Cox's Bazar and Deputy Director of Development and Human Resource Management Department. The special guest was Additional Superintendent of Police of Cox's Bazar District Police PPM-Service Md. Jasim Uddin Chowdhury (Traffic), Cox's Bazar. The second session was presided over by SDI Chairman Professor Dr. Md. Abul Hossain. 

After the program, a special cultural program titled Gala Night was held. It first started with Bengali folk dance, then Pahari dance and the program ended with band music and DJ songs. On the third day, everyone wore T-shirts and caps with the SDI logo on their heads, had a special photo session, and various games and prizes were distributed from 10 pm to 10 pm.

SDI authorities said that in the 2024-2025 fiscal year, 1232 crore taka of loans were disbursed and 81 crore taka of arrears were collected. Through development activities, 78.6 crore taka of assets and technology were transferred to 1,84,078 people. The savings of rural partners increased by 329 crore taka and assets increased by 325 crore taka.

As for the goals and plans for the 2025-2026 fiscal year, they said that the target of loan disbursal is 1,800 crore taka, which will be distributed among marginalized communities, the disabled, the elderly, the very poor and small entrepreneurs.

 The target is to increase the wealth of 2,45,583 borrowers by Tk 425 crore. The total number of branches will be 164 with the opening of 45 new branches, and the number of rural partners will be 2,59,227. There is a plan to transfer wealth and technology to 1,44,059 people through 8 development projects.

As part of the special initiative of the financial year 2025-2026, 17,452 new entrepreneurs will be created and 78,563 people will be self-employed. 1,12,795 people will be given salaried employment opportunities, which will increase self-employed employment by 30-35% compared to last year. Digitalization will be added to various programs, market connectivity will be strengthened and a pilot branch will be launched under women leadership. Also, SDI will launch its own email domain and expand online business.