Wednesday, March 01 - Thursday, March 02, 2006

Conference on Corporate Governance for SOE at BEI Conference Room

Bangladesh Enterprise Institute (BEI) has successfully completed a two-day Capacity Building Conference on Corporate Governance for SOEs at the BEI Conference Room from March 1 – 2, 2006.

The Conference was designed to promote and increase awareness about Corporate Governance and also strengthen the practice of good governance among the State Owned Enterprises of Bangladesh.

About 42 participants from various Ministries, SOEs, regulatory bodies and NCBs including representatives from Ministries of Finance, Agriculture, and Commerce, and SEC, BRTA, BADC, EPB, Tariff Commission and WASA among others attended the conference.

Mr. Md. Abdul Karim, Secretary, Ministry of Commerce was present at the closing session of the conference as the chief guest and distributed certificates of attendance among the participants; speaking on the occasion he said that the participants would be carrying with them important deliberation from the conference that will be useful for their practical life.

Mr. Farooq Sobhan, President, BEI and the chair of the session said that improved Corporate Governance is critical for the image and performance of a country; he also thanked the chief guest for his encouraging words.

The conference was conducted by two international experts of Corporate Governance, Mr. Michael Gillibrand, Co-founder and Consultant for Commonwealth Association for Corporate Governance (CACG) and Dr. YRK Reddy, Chairman, Yaga Consulting and Founder Trustee of the Academy of Corporate Governance (ACG) in India.

Mr. Gillibrand and Dr. Reddy have both been actively engaged in the reform programme for the Public Sector Enterprises of the Government of India, and have achieved success in improving the performance of those enterprises through the training programme on Corporate Governance for state owned enterprises that they have been conducting in India for the past few years.

Bangladesh Enterprise Institute (BEI) is a nonprofit, nonpolitical research institute, which among its many activities is committed to establishing sound practices of corporate governance in Bangladesh, through its continuous research, training, and advocacy & capacity building programmes on corporate governance. With its Corporate Governance Strengthening Project, BEI is sending a strong message to investors and observers in the international arena that Bangladesh has recognized the importance of corporate governance and is taking definite steps to improve corporate governance performance in the private, public, and the non-governmental sector.

For further information, please contact Ms. Sherina Tabassum, Media and Communications Coordinator at tabassum@bei-bd.org or Ms. Lopa Rahman, Project Coordinator, Corporate Governance Strengthening Project at lopa.rahman@bei-bd.org.

 Sunday, March 19, 2006 from 9:30 AM - 5:30 PM

Seminar on Facilitation and Promotion of Trade between Bangladesh and India jointly organized by BEI and SEDF at Hotel Ashok Brahmaputra in Guwahati, India

Bangladesh Enterprise Institute (BEI) and SouthAsia Enterprise Development Facility (SEDF) will hold a seminar organized under the BEI-SEDF joint project on Facilitation and Promotion of Trade between Bangladesh and India.

The event will be held on Sunday, March 19, 2006, from 09:30 AM to 5:30 PM, at Hotel Ashok Brahmaputra in Guwahati, India.

Currently, trade between Bangladesh and India is valued at US$ 1.8 Billion (according to the Export Promotion Bureau data for the fiscal year 2004-2005); however, of this amount, Bangladesh exports to India is only valued at US$ 144.2 million.

The goal of the project is to enhance cross-formal trade between Bangladesh and North East India, where there is a clear potential to increase bi-lateral trade by highlighting and advocating the removal of Non-Tariff Barriers (NTBs).

Four main NTBs have been identified and studied under the project. They are: Disputes arising from Harmonization and Classification of goods, differing Standards and Certification, lack of infrastructure at Land Customs Stations, and finally Visa and Connectivity issues, which will be the focus of this seminar.

Professor Altaf Jalil will present a keynote paper on ‘Visa and Connectivity Issues between Bangladesh and North East India’ followed by an open-floor discussion. Other outstanding issues including harmonization and classification, standards and certification, infrastructure at land customs stations in Bangladesh and Northeast India will be discussed and reviewed.

Under this project, three seminars have already been held in Dhaka and Kolkata with keynote papers focusing on ‘Infrastructure in Land Custom Stations’, ‘Harmonization and Classification’ and ‘Standards and Certification’ in regard to Bangladesh-North East India trade relations.

For further information, please contact Mr. M. H. Khaleque at bei@bol-online.com or Mr. Ashim Zaman at ashim.zaman@bei-bd.org.

 Tuesday, March 28, 2006 from 3:30 PM - 5:30 PM

Dialogue Series on CSR in Action: 7th Roundtable on CSR Practices and Challenges in Bangladesh at BEI

The CSR Center at the Bangladesh Enterprise Institute (BEI) organized the 7th Roundtable on CSR Practices and Challenges in Bangladesh. The roundtable was part of a dialogue series on CSR in Action that BEI organizes every month to hear the perspectives of key stakeholders and raise awareness on CSR practices and implementation challenges in Bangladesh.

At the roundtable, presentations were be made by:

Brig. Gen. (Retd.) Aftab Uddin Ahmad, Executive Director, UCEP

Ms. Rubina Farouq, Principal, Tommy Miah's Institute of Hospitality Management and

Mr. Andrew Fawthrop, Managing Director, CHEVRON International Exploration & Production Bangladesh

The brief presentations highlighted specific CSR programs being practiced at these organizations and the challenges they face in implementing the programs in Bangladesh.

The roundtable was attended by young CEOs and professionals, as well as representatives from the government and the civil society.

For further information, please contact Mr. Iftekar Ahmed, Senior Research Fellow at iftekar.ahmed@bei-bd.org or Ms. Sherina Tabassum at tabassum@bei-bd.org.

 Wednesday, March 29, 2006 from 3:00 PM - 5:00 PM

Roundtable Discussion on WTO Stalled: Is Multi-lateral System Heading for Crisis

The roundtable discussion on WTO Stalled: Is Multi-lateral System Heading for Crisis will be held at BEI Conference Room on Wednesday, march 29, 2006 from 3:00 pm to 5:00 pm.

Dr. Jean-Pierre Lehmann, Professor of International Political Economy, IMD, Lausanne, Switzerland and Founding Director of Evian Group will make a presentation on the subject. Former Commerce Ministers Mr. Tofail Ahmed and Mr. Amir Khosru Mahmud Chowdhury, MP will be present at the occasion as Special Guests.

For further information, please contact Mr. Zahid Hossain, Senior Research Fellow at zahid.hossain@bei-bd.org