Dr Hasneen Choudhury PhD

Welcome to this, the official launch of a new organisation - The British Bangladeshi Professional Association- the BBPA. As the name suggests, this is a new organisation for second generation Bangladeshis.

I want to briefly say something about how we started, our objectives and how we intend to achieve these objectives.

The BBPA was formed after as series of discussions which I am sure many of you might have had. That is, what does it mean to be a British-Bangladeshi and why does our community have such a poor profile? Also, how should we make the most of our unique British and Bangladeshi identity?

With these questions in mind we have set up the BBPA with the following objectives:

• Creating a professional support network - there is currently no forum for young British-Bangladeshis to gather; exchange views and meet. It is now time to share in our experiences; give each other strength as we seek to establish ourselves in the UK. Let us be honest: there is nothing wrong with networking with ourselves.

• Encouraging educational attainment in the community - here is in fact a good story to tell. We have tonight examples of accomplishment in a whole series of professions. But this is too often forgotten by the media. What we aim to do is to encourage this process and help to publicise the achievements of second generation Bangladeshis, both within the community and outside.

• Forming links with educational and professional bodies in Bangladesh - it is important to maintain our connections with our motherland. One of the more positive ways of keeping our connections with Bangladesh could be to use the skills we have learned and developed here in the UK. We aim to explore these possibilities.

How we will achieve these objectives will be driven by how you feel, we as an organisation should work. We welcome all feedback and any suggestions on how to take forward this new organisation.