BEI is an independent and non-profit research centre which has given special importance to the growth and development of the private sector. The institute promotes and articulates issues of importance to the private sector and seeks to influence policy to initiate measures crucial to the development of a market oriented economy, as well as sustainable growth of trade,

commerce and industry. To achieve these goals, BEI organizes regular consultations, dialogues, seminars and workshops, conducts research, undertakes surveys, and formulates policy recommendations for the consideration of the government and other stakeholders.

I would like to greet you all through this newsletter that highlights the activities of Bangladesh Enterprise Institute (BEI) during the period of April to September 2011. BEI has conducted several activities like research, workshops, seminars and advocacy works under various projects and programmes. BEI has provided a platform for regular dialogues between the government, the private sector, development partners, and other relevant stakeholders on a whole range of subjects including Corporate G o v e r n a n c e , C o r p o r a t e S o c i a l Responsibility, E-Governance, Foreign Policy and Security, Regional and Economic Cooperation, Regulatory and Economic

Reforms, Public Private Partnership and Trade and Investment . BEI, realizing the importance of peace and stability in the country for a healthy business and investment climate, has undertaken a number of projects on security related issues. Our recent advocacy and research initiatives have particularly focused on Counter Terrorism and National Security and Civil-Military Relations in Bangladesh. In addition, BEI has placed great emphasis on strengthening relations, facilitating trade between Bangladesh and India for deepening regional cooperation in South Asia and focusing on the economic development of Bangladesh. As Bangladesh is facing a number of challenges, BEI is committed to making a contribution in mitigating these by promoting greater co-operation between the government and the private sector in the country. I hope the information in the newsletter would be of assistance to you and we look forward to keeping you informed about BEI’s future activities.

Farooq Sobhan President Bangladesh Enterprise Institute

Message from the President

BEI Profile

BANGLADESH ENTERPRISE INSTITUTE

NEWSLETTER VOLUME 1, ISSUE 2 APRIL - SEPTEMBER 2011 Inside the issue

Trade & Development Workshop on Registra-tion of Designs and Trademarks

2

ECGP Final Presenta-tion and Certificate Awards Ceremony

3

Strengthening Public Institution Oversight Capacity

3

Foreign Policy & Security The Political and Se-curity Outlook for South Asia 2011-2020

4

Countering Terrorism in Bangladesh

4

Developing a National CT Strategy for Bangladesh

5

Promised Land: The Story of Palestinian-Israeli Conflict

5

US Foreign Policy in South Asia

6

The State of Terrorism in Bangladesh 2009-2010

6

BEI People Peace Building Programme

7

Japan & South Asia: Focus on Bangladesh India Relations

7

Training & Capacity Building Improving Trade Flows in and from South Asia: Overcoming Logistics Challenges

8

Role of Media in the Effective Implementa-tion of RTI Process

9

Mapping of IT System in Health and Issues of Interoperability

9

E-Health Scenario in Bangladesh

9

Trade & Development

Training of Trainers on Corporate Governance

Mr. Faisal Ahmed Choudhury, Former Secretary, Govern-

ment of Bangladesh, Miah Rahmat Ali,

Programme Officer, IFC Advisory Ser-vices in South Asia,

ABM Khurshed Alam, Additional

Secretary, Ministry of Industries, Gov-ernment of Bangla-desh, Mr. Farooq

Sobhan, President of BEI and Mr. Kamal Uddin Ahmed, For-mer Secretary, Gov-ernment of Bangla-

desh

BEI, in association with the Bangladesh Investment Climate F u n d ( B I C F ) , organized a workshop on “Success Case P r e s e n t a t i o n – R e g i s t r a t i o n o f D e s i g n s a n d Trademarks” for p r e s e n t i n g Administrative Barrier

Review (ABR) follow-up study reports on May 28, 2011 at Pan Pacific Sonargaon Hotel.

The workshop was held under the Implementing Core Group Alumni Programme (ICGAP) funded by the International Finance Corporation (IFC) & BICF. Mr. A.B.M. Khorshed Alam, Additional Secretary, Ministry of Industries was the Chief Guest. Among others, Mr. Sushen Chandra Das, Joint Secretary and Mr. Matiur Rahman, Director (DS), Bangladesh Betar were also present.

Participants included representatives from various stakeholders and the BICF.

The members of the ABR working group said that The Registration of Designs and Trademarks Office implemented most of their recommendations. Some of the steps Implemented through the office are as follows:

1. Trade Marks Act 2009 enacted. 2. Separate Law for other IP acts under process – e.g.

BD Patent Act 2011 BD Design Act 2011 BD GI Act 2011 Trademarks Rules 2011 sent for

vetting 3. Trademarks registration has been reduced to 120 days. 4. Automation and online registration are under process. 5. Recruitment Rules 2009 has been formulated. 6. Appellate Tribunal introduced with legal support.

They also mentioned a number of areas where the office would need to take further actions to strengthen the process of registration of Designs and Trademarks.

Workshop on Registration of Designs and Trademarks

P A G E 2

B A N G L A D E S H E N T E R P R I S E I N S T I T U T E

Trade & Development

Rizvi, Adviser to Hon’ble Prime Minister, i n a u g u r a t e d t h e workshop as the Chief Guest. Dr. At iur Rahman, Governor of the Bangladesh Bank, was present at the workshop as the Special Guest. Four reports of the working groups were p resen ted by the c o n c e r n e d g r o u p members at the session of the workshop. Both the Chief Guest and the Special Guest distributed certificates among the participants at the workshop.

BEI is implementing the Executive Core Group (ECG) Programme, in partnership with the Korean Development Institute (KDI) and the Institute of Governance Studies (IGS) of Brac University. The Programme is supported by the Bangladesh Investment Climate Fund (BICF). The “Core Group”, an innovative approach introduced by BICF, is an experiential learning programme designed for senior level civil servants of the Government of Bangladesh to facilitate the private sector development in the country. Under this Programme, BEI organized a workshop on June 11, 2011 for final presentation of the ECGP Working Groups’ Reports and for distributing certificates among the ECGP participants. Dr. Gowher

V O L U M E 1 , I S S U E 2 P A G E 3

ECGP Final Presentation and Certificate Awards Ceremony

From Left Dr. Atiur Rahman, Governor of the Bangladesh Bank, Mr. Farooq Sobhan, President, BEI, Dr Gowher Rizvi, Adviser to Hon’ble Prime Minister and Ms. Laura Watson, Representative from International Finance Corporation (IFC)

In order to strengthen public institution oversight capacity with specific emphasis on the Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General (OCAG) of Bangladesh, PROGATI Partner Ministries and the Anti-Corruption Commission, BEI conducted many workshops, seminars and discussions between the period March and September 2011. These initiatives focused on a number of issues: Assessment on the Audit Act for Key Stakeholders, improving of the CAG communication with other public institutions and so forth. The main objective of these initiatives was to promote the accountability of public officials in Bangladesh through strengthening existing oversight mechanisms of the government . Some of the specific objectives were as follows:

• To explore the means and ways of promoting accountability among public officials;

• To analyze the present state of oversight mechanisms I ncluding legal and institutional practices;

• To identify limitations in the existing mechanisms for ensuring accountability and strengthening governance in Bangladesh;

Strengthening Public Institution Oversight Capacity

Speakers at one of the workshops organized by BEI

A delegation from

the National War

College (NWC)

visited BEI on 12

May 2011.

From Left Ambassador (Retd) James Larocco, Director, NESA, Mr. Farooq Sobhan, Presi-dent, BEI, Professor Robert K Boggs, NESA and Ambassador Hu-mayun Kabir, Vice President, BEI

BEI organized a talk on the “The Political and Security Outlook for South Asia 2011-2020”, on 4 April 2011 at the BEI Conference Room. A three-member delegation from the

Near East South Asia Center for Security Studies (NESA), USA, spoke on the subject. The objective of the talk was to analyze the projected trajectory of the political and security outlook for South Asia. Participants included the BEI officials, civil society representatives, senior military officials, security experts, eminent academics and representatives of various embassies. Participants acknowledged the emergence of India and its growing role in South Asia as well as

in International arena. They said that security experts in India were quite concerned about the long-term strategic objective of China and critically viewed the influence of China in Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka. NESA delegates praised the constructive role played by Bangladesh in many areas, particularly, counter-terrorism. They emphasized on more bilateral interactions between the South Asian countries to pave the way for multilateral cooperation. An effective multilateral platform in South Asia is necessary to promote mutual trust in order to solve critical issues. They also highlighted the non traditional security issues in South Asia which are posing existential threat to many countries in South Asia.

strategies adopted by the government of Bangladesh and finally recommended some suggestions on how to counter this menace. Participants said that the threat of terrorism had been contained by the stern actions taken by the incumbent government. How-ever, it has the potency to flare up at any time if political support would have been provided. They emphasized on the promotion of good governance, establishment of rule of law and justice, eradication of poverty in order to ef-fectively counter terrorism in Bangladesh.

BEI organized a roundtable on “Countering Ter-rorism in Bangladesh” for seven member visit-ing delegation of the National War College (NWC), USA at BEI Conference Room on Thurs-day, 12 May, 2011. Security experts, eminent academics, representatives from the civil society and various embassies participated at the round-table. Mr. Humayun Kabir, Senior Research Director of BEI, made a presentation on ‘The State of Ter-rorism in Bangladesh’ highlighting the causes of terrorism, the counter terrorism measures and

Talk on The Political and Security Outlook for South Asia 2011-2020

P A G E 4

B A N G L A D E S H E N T E R P R I S E I N S T I T U T E

Foreign Policy & Security

Roundtable on Countering Terrorism in Bangladesh

civil society representatives, senior military officials, security experts, representatives from the law enforcement and intelligence agencies, and eminent academics. Participants at the workshop crafted a comprehensive National Counter Terrorism Strategy for Bangladesh. Dr. Gowher Rizvi, Adviser to Hon’ble Prime Minister, inaugurated the workshop as the Chief Guest. Among others, Mr. John Hansen, Program Coordinator of DIRI, Mr. Nicholas Dean, Charge D’Affairs, U.S. Embassy in Dhaka , and Mr. Farooq Sobhan, President of BEI, spoke at the inaugural session of the workshop. BEI has already presented this strategy paper to the relevant stakeholders involved in countering terrorism. BEI hope that this would be useful for the g o v e r n m e n t o f B a n g l a d e s h i n preparing a National Counter Terrorism S t r a t e g y f o r Bangladesh.

On 4-7 July 2011, BEI, in association with the Defense Institutions Reform Initiative (DIRI), USA, held a workshop on Developing a National Counter-Terrorism Strategy for Bangladesh at Hotel Westin, Dhaka. This was the final in a series of workshops organized by BEI in association with DIRI. Participants of this workshop included Members of Parliament, former ministers, former ambassadors, government officials,

V O L U M E 1 , I S S U E 2 P A G E 5

Workshop on Developing a National Counter-Terrorism Strategy for Bangladesh

Participants at the discussion identified dialogue as the most viable options to resolve the problems of oppression, subjugation, deception, deprivation, occupation, arms race, human rights violations, religious extremism and terrorism in the Middle East. They said that the United Nations and the United States should play more active role in finding out a viable and acceptable solution for the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict to decrease the sufferings of the Palestinians.

On 12 June 2011, BEI organized a discussion meeting at the BEI Conference Room on a book, “Promised Land? The Story of Palestinian-Israeli Conflict”, authored by Mr. Muslehuddin Ahmed, former Secretary and Ambassador. The book provides deep insights into the Middle-East conflict between the Arabs and Israelis and sheds light on the sufferings of the Palestinian people in occupied Palestine and the Palestinian Diaspora.

’Promised Land: The Story of Palestinian-Israeli Conflict

Participants attending the workshop

Dr. Gowher Rizvi, Adviser to Hon’ble Prime Minister, was addressing the inaugural session of the workshop.

From Right to Left Mr. Farooq Sobhan, Presi-dent, BEI, Ms. Lisa Cur-tis, Senior Research Fel-low, Heritage Foundation, USA, Ambassador Huma-yun Kabir, Vice Presi-dent, BEI, Professor Sha-hiduzzaman, DU, Dr. An-war Husain, Editor, The Sun, Mr. Nurul Huda, Former IGP.

BEI held a roundtable on ‘U.S. Foreign Policy in South Asia’ on the 31st of May 2011 at the BEI conference room.

Ms. Lisa Curtis, a Senior Research Fellow at the Asian Studies Center of the Heritage Foundation and a renowned Political Correspondent on South Asian issues spoke on the subject. The roundtable was chaired by Mr. Farooq Sobhan, President of BEI. The key interlocutors at the discussion were IGP Nurul Huda, Prof. Dr. Syed Anwar Husain, Prof. M. Shahiduzzaman, and BEI Vice President Ambassador Mr. Humayun Kabir. Dignitaries from NSI, RAB, BIISS as well as representatives of various governments, media and private organizations were also present.

The purpose of this roundtable was to analyze the status of past and present U.S. policy in South Asia with a particular focus on Pakistan. Geopolitical implications of national and regional issues in Nepal, China, India and Bangladesh as well as the complex relations between these countries in the context of U.S. Foreign Policy were also discussed. Ms. Curtis stated that Bangladesh’s liberation war in 1971 had entrenched secularism, democracy and pluralism into the country’s identity. She praised the secular Bengali doctrine being established by the current government which she considered as key determinants in eradicating extremism in Bangladesh.

security experts. The report presented the current threat as-sessment and possible responses in counter-ing terrorism in Bangladesh. It also identified different aspects in the trends of terrorism in Bangladesh. Participants at the workshop stressed on de-veloping the de-radicalization techniques by the government as part of its counter-terrorism measures.

BEI organized a Launch Ceremony of a report on “State of Terrorism in Bangladesh 2009-2010”, on 26 September 2011, at BEI Confer-ence Room. The report was developed under a project entitled “Towards Developing a Bet-ter Counter Terrorism Regime in Bangladesh”, conducted by BEI since 2009.

H.E. Mr. Svend Olling, Ambassador, Royal Danish Embassy, attended the ceremony as the Guest of Honor. Participants of this workshop included representatives of the intelligence agencies, senior military officials, civil society members, academics, former ambassadors and

Roundtable on US Foreign Policy In South Asia

P A G E 6

B A N G L A D E S H E N T E R P R I S E I N S T I T U T E

Foreign Policy & Security

Report Launch on The State of Terrorism in Bangladesh

2009-2010

Mr. Faiz Sobhan, Research Director, BEI, discussed the report at the session.

BEI launched two reports . The first

report was on ‘Public

Information: The Role of

Intelligence Agencies in

Bangladesh: A Strategy Paper ’ and the second report was on

‘Modernization of Madrassa

Education in Bangladesh : A

Strategy Paper.’

Mr. Humayun Kabir, Senior Research Direc-tor, BEI, presented the report at the launch ceremony.

BEI organized another Launch Ceremony of the two reports under its BEI People Peace Building Programme on 25 September 2011. The first report is on ‘Public Information: The Role of Intelligence Agencies in Bangladesh: A Strategy Paper’ and the second report is on ‘Modernization

of Madrassa Education in Bangladesh: A Strategy Paper.’ H.E. Dr. Justin Lee, High Commissioner, Australian High Commission, attended the workshop as the Guest of Honor. Participants of this workshop included representatives of the intelligence agencies, senior military officials, civil society members, academics, former ambassadors and security experts.

The first report explored the ways and means how to promote collaboration and cooperation between the intelligence agencies and the grassroots. Participants identified the establishment of an institutional mechanism for sharing information as one of the vital steps to combat terrorism in Bangladesh. The second report analyzed the state of Madrassa education in Bangladesh with a particular focus on the ways and means of initiating necessary reforms to modernize madrassa education with the aim to integrate madrassa into the mainstream of education. The report also recommended to introduce multi disciplinary courses into the madrassa curriculum in order to make madrassa graduates competitive.

rity experts, eminent academics and repre-sentatives of various embassies. The purpose of this roundtable was to ana-lyze the contemporary Bangladesh-India Relations in the context of Japanese foreign policy in South Asia. Regional implications of Bangladesh-India relations, bilateral concerns and recommendations to mitigate critical is-sues, as perceived by Japan, were also dis-cussed. The success of ‘Look East Policy’ of both Bangladesh and India is depended on their mutual relationship towards each other.

BEI held a roundtable on ‘Japan & South Asia: Focus on Bangladesh– India Relations’ on 11th of September 2011 at its premises in Dhaka. The Keynote Speakers were Professor Takenori Hori-moto, Shobi University, Japan and Ms Mayumi Murayama, Deputy Director-General, Inter-disciplinary Studies Center of the Institute of De-velopment Studies, Japan External Trade Or-ganization. The roundtable was chaired by Am-bassador Humayun Kabir, Vice-President of BEI. Participants included the BEI officials, civil soci-ety representatives, senior military officials, secu-

Report Launch on BEI People Peace Building Programme

P A G E 7

B A N G L A D E S H E N T E R P R I S E I N S T I T U T E

Foreign Policy & Security

Roundtable on Japan & South Asia: Focus on Bang-

ladesh-India Relations

Dr. Debapriya Bhattacharya, Distinguished

Fellow, Center for Policy Dialogue

(CPD), spoke at the Session

From Right to Left Am-bassador Humayun Kabir, Vice-President, BEI, Mr. Farooq Sobhan, President, BEI, Col Mu-hammad Faruk Khan, Honorable Minister of Commerce, Mr. Su-jeevan Perera, Adviser from Commonwealth Secretariat

A two day Regional Symposium on ‘ Improving Trade Flows in and from South Asia’ was organized by the Commonwealth Secretariat, in collaboration with BEI on 22-23 June 2011 at the Ruposhi Bangla Hotel, Dhaka. Mr. Muhammad Faruk Khan, Hon’ble Minister, Ministry of Commerce, Government of Bangladesh was inaugurated the workshop as the Chief Guest. Mr. Farooq Sobhan, President, BEI, Mr. Asif Ibrahim, President, Dhaka Chamber of Commerce and Industry (DCCI), Professor M A Taslim, Director General, Foreign Trade Institute (FTI), Dr. Mojibur Rahman, Chairman, Bangladesh Tarrif Commission, Dr. Debapriya Bhattacharya,

Distinguished Fellow, Center for Policy Dialogue(CPD), Maj. Gen. (Rtd) Amjad Khan Chowdhury, President, Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce and Industry (MCCI), Dhaka have chaired the sessions. The prime objective of the Symposium was to assess and identify the existing bottlenecks in improving the trade facilitation system in South Asia. The other objectives included the logistics challenges with the special focus on suggesting possible recommendations to facilitate the intra-regional trade in South Asia. Participants at the workshop recognized that there had been a significant growth and improvement in the regional trade which has enormous potential in promoting connectivity in the region. The promotion of export competitiveness among the countries of South Asia is needed to promote growth, prosperity and development. Participants also highlighted that improvement of infrastructure would necessary to facilitate trade and development in the South Asian region.

Regional Symposium on Improving Trade Flows in and from South Asia:

Overcoming logistics Challenges

P A G E 8

B A N G L A D E S H E N T E R P R I S E I N S T I T U T E

Training & Capacity Building

importance on the role of civil society along with media in implementing the right to information act in Bangladesh. They also said that the implementation of the Right to Information Act is necessary to promote awareness and good governance in the country, which u l t ima te l y wo u ld c o n t r i b u t e i n e m p o w e r i n g t h e common citizen. They argued relevant stakeholders to take necessary steps in order to implement the Act.

On 19 April 2011, at the Information Commission Bangladesh, a dialogue on ‘Role of Media in Effective Implementation of the RTI Process’ was organized by BEI under a project titled ‘Program on Implementing the Right to Information Act 2009 in Bangladesh.’ Ambassador Muhammad Zamir, Chief Information Commissioner, Information Commission Bangladesh, chaired the workshop. Ambassador Humayun Kabir, Vice President of BEI, and two information commissioners Md. Abu Taher and Prof Dr. Sadeka Halim also spoke at the session. Participants of the workshop included policy makers, senior representatives from the government, development agencies, NGOs, the private sector, academia, and the media. The main objective of the workshop was to highlight the significant role of media in effective and proper implementation of the RTI process in Bangladesh. Participants at the workshop emphasized the same

V O L U M E 1 , I S S U E 2 P A G E 9

Dialogue on Role of Media in Effective Implementation of the RTI Process

Workshop on Mapping of IT System in Health and Issues of Interoperability The objective of the workshop was to review the current situation of IT system and interoperability issues among private hospitals and NGOs/INGOs and also to discuss the challenges and possible recommendations for developing future national eHealth Policy in Bangladesh. Participants pointed out the areas where the IT system could play a significant role in developing health services across the country, particularly the establishment of e-health facilities in the remote areas of Bangladesh.

A workshop on “Mapping of IT System in Health and Issues of Interoperability in Bangladesh” was organized by BEI, in collaboration with MIS, Directorate General of Health Services and iStrategy, on 12 April, 2011 at MIS Department’s Auditorium, DGHS, Dhaka Dr. Abul Kalam Azad, Director, MIS, DGHS, was the Chief Guest at the workshop. Representatives from public hospitals and from NGOs/INGOs took part at the workshop.

From left to right– Mr. Abu Taher, Information Commissioner, Ambassador Muhammad Zamir, Chief Information Commissioner and Ambassador Muhammad Humayun Kabir, Vice-President, Bangladesh Enterprise Institute.

From left to right- Mr. Farooq Sobhan, President, BEI, Dr. Abul Kalam Azad, Direc-tor, MIS, Directorate General of Health Ser-vices and Dr. Sohail Inayatullah, Adjunct Professor, University of Sunshine Coast,

Australia

Workshop on E-Health Scenario in Bangladesh

BEI organized a three day workshop on ’E-Health Scenario in Bangladesh’ on 21-23 August 2011 at MIS Auditorium, DGHS, Mohakhali, Dhaka. Dr. Abul Kalam Azad, Director, MIS, DGHS, was the Chief Guest. Participants of the workshop included senior government officials, officials from the private sectors particularly IT and Telecom Industries, international and local e-Health experts, representatives from public and private hospitals, development partners, NGOs, academia, corporate houses and media. The objective of the workshop was to do a scenario planning exercise for better understanding of future possibilities for digital health in Bangladesh over the next few decades. Participants at the workshop discussed the challenges and opportunities to promote E-Health in Bangladesh. They also discussed various methods and plans on how to promote E-Health facilities unto the grassroots levels of Bangladesh.

This workshop

can be seen as a

starting point for

a new chapter of

Corporate

Governance in

BEI.

Dr. Atiur Rahman, Governor, Bangla-desh Bank, inaugu-rated the workshop as the Chief Guest.

BEI, in association with the International Finance Corporation (IFC), Global Corporate Governance Forum (GCGF) organized a workshop on ‘South Asia Regional Trainer of Trainers: Corporate Governance (CG) Board Leadership for the Banking Sector’  on  21-23

June, 2011 at Hotel Westin. Participants of the Workshop included representatives from local banks, academic institutions, as well as international financial practitioners from Nepal, Bhutan and India.

The purpose of the workshop was two folds. Not only was it training on CG for board leadership in financial institutions; it was also a platform for sharing best practices amongst the regional country members. Since the workshop was being hosted in Bangladesh, the participants were asked to rate the status of CG in Bangladesh. In response, they said that it had been mostly an emerging practice here. They emphasized that it would be essential for Bangladesh to introduce a good established culture of CG to promote sustainability in Bangladesh’s economic growth.

The workshop looked specifically at board functioning of the financial institutions and drew on lessons learnt from the financial crisis. During the session, five key elements of board leadership were identified and discussed. These elements were as follows: • good board practices; • control environment; • transparent decisions; • well-defined shareholder rights and

board commitment. Principles of good leadership such as sincer-ity, commitment, balanced communication and coordination were also talked about with specific relevance to good corporate govern-ance. This workshop particularly will help propel the issue of CG further into the mainstream busi-ness scene in Bangladesh.

P A G E 1 0

B A N G L A D E S H E N T E R P R I S E I N S T I T U T E

Training of Trainers on Corporate Governance

Five Key Elements of Board Leadership Discussed at the Workshop

Governance

Participants at the Workshop

P A G E 1 1 Photo Gallery

B A N G L A D E S H E N T E R P R I S E I N S T I T U T E

For your comments and suggestions, or if you want to be included in our mailing list, you may kindly contact at the following address: Bangladesh Enterprise Institute House 3A, Road 50 Gulshan 2, Dhaka 1212 Email: ashish@bei-bd.org, ayreen@bei-bd.org Telephone: 989-2662-3, ext: 116 or fax: 988-8583. For this newsletter, please visit BEI’s Website: www.bei-bd.org