Haque Specialized Group's News

The government is formulating four separate rules on 'Overseas Employment and Migration Act-2013' aiming to implement the law. Of them, formulation of the rule on 'overseas employment and expatriates' management' is now at a final stage. After getting approval from the law ministry, the rule is now waiting for Statutory Regulatory Order (SRO) to be issued by the expatriates' welfare ministry, said an official. Other rules on 'classification and code of conduct' of recruiting agencies, 'welfare' and 'registration' of overseas jobseekers have already been drafted, he said. When asked, the official hinted that it would take time to make the remaining rules as it goes through a procedure. According to a report of Refugee and Migratory Movements Research Unit (RMMRU), only eight cases have so far been filed in last three years after the law was enacted in 2013. According to the report on 'The Trend of Labour Migration from Bangladesh-2016: Achievement and Challenges', one-third of the outbound Bangladeshi workers or jobseekers were cheated somehow by dishonest manpower recruiters, but they did not go for receiving any legal support under the law. It has also suggested that the government should launch awareness campaign and formulate necessary rules to help implement the act.     arafat_ara@hotmail.com....

Published at: 2017-02-27 00:00:05

Businesses will seek policy strategies on priority basis to promote sustainable development of the country's trade and businesses. The strategies should be adopted in line with the three out of 17 SDGs (sustainable development goals) related to the trade and businesses. The demand will be raised at a seminar titled "Strategies for Business Benefits from Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for the Private Sector" to be organised by the Dhaka Chamber of Commerce and Industry (DCCI) in the capital on March 01. High profile representatives from the government, non-government organisations, trade bodies and UN offices in Dhaka are expected to take part in the event to put forward suggestions for the private sector development. Of the three trade and business-related goals, the goal-08 suggests promoting sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all. The goal-09 is about building resilient infrastructure, promoting inclusive and sustainable industrialisation and fostering innovation, and the goal-12 is about ensuring sustainable consumption and production patterns.   The businessmen said they will seek a way forward for the private sector growth and achieve the SDGs. "We don't want to see the SDGs as burden on flourishing our businesses. We must find out strategies that will ensure benefits of the country's trade and businesses," DCCI president Abul Kasem Khan told the FE. He said that there must be strategies from SDGs within the context of Bangladesh for the development of country's trade and businesses.     "The private sector plays a key role to promote the country's trade and businesses," said former finance adviser to the caretaker government Dr AB Mirza Azizul Islam. He suggested ensuring development of infrastructure that is favourable for doing businesses. Besides, the businesses should also implement the corporate social responsibility (CSR).        talhabinhabib@yahoo.com....

Published at: 2017-02-27 00:00:05

Cyber security in banks can no longer be seen as a technological issue and it should be owned by the 'C-suite' of the banking institutions rather than the IT, experts said at a workshop in the capital on Sunday. Cyber risk is more than an IT issue; it is a business issue, they said during a discussion session of the Chief Risk Officer's Forum held at the Bangladesh Institute of Bank Management (BIBM). "While information security risks have dramatically evolved over the past few decades, measures that the financial institutions take to manage them have failed to keep pace," said Dr. Toufic Ahmad Choudhury, Director General of BIBM. "Cyber risks should be treated like other serious business risk issues and need to be viewed as an inevitable cost of doing business in today's digital world," he added. Experts in the forum observed that attacks in the form of 'hacktivism', corporate espionage, insider and nation-states' threats, terrorism and criminal activity can cost an organisation a lot in terms of time and resources while doing irreparable harm to its reputations. In this context, experts recommended that cyber risk management programme should be one of many components of the institution's overall business risk environment that feeds into its Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) framework. "I consider an institution to be cyber resilient when it has a comprehensive, well-crafted cyber risk management programme as a subset of the ERM framework while its management is hold accountable for the programme's performance and results," said Sajib Azad, who is the Risk Management Consultant of BIBM. "To avoid potential damage to a financial institution's bottom line, reputation, brand and intellectual property, the executive team needs to take ownership of cyber risk," he observed. "Specifically, they should collaborate up front to understand how the institution will defend against and respond to cyber risks and what it will take to make their organisation cyber resilient," he added. Experts in the forum observed that at present, threat monitoring and analysis activities of the financial institutions are often disjointed which inhibits their ability to gather and manage cyber risk intelligence.   "Existing information security in the banks is largely focused on identifying and reacting to cyber threats in isolation," Azad said, adding: "Traditional tools are only capable of identifying specific unusual patterns or traffic types and alerting operational teams when something outside the norm happens." "Often organisations' cyber defenses rely on data generated by internal monitoring rather than by reaching beyond enterprise boundaries to share insights and experiences," he added. He also noted that many financial institutions do not consider the value of different assets when planning their cyber risk management strategy, making it difficult to set priorities regarding the investment of resources.   In this context, experts recommended specific steps like establishing cyber risk governance, understanding cyber organisational boundary, identifying the critical business processes and assets, identifying cyber threats, improving the collection, analysis and reporting of information as well as planning and responding for building a cyber risk management programme.       "The ultimate objective of cyber risk management is to build cyber resiliency where an organisation's systems and operations are designed to detect cyber threats and respond to cyber threats to minimise business disruption and financial losses," said Helal Ahmed Chowdhury, supernumerary Professor of BIBM. Noting that underinvestment in the capability to detect cyber attacks weakens defense capabilities, discussants in the forum also stressed the need for better investment in cyber security system.   Effective oversight of supply chain and third parties that handle information processing or IT systems is also critical to effective cyber resilience, they said.     mehdi.finexpress@gmail.com....

Published at: 2017-02-27 00:00:05

The indefinite transport strike enforced in 10 districts of Khulna division protesting the life term imprisonment of a bus driver in a case filed over a road accident that killed five people, including noted filmmaker Tareque Masud and cinematographer Mishuk Munier, entered the second day on Monday. The 10 districts are: Bagerhat, Chuadanga, Jessore, Jhenidah, Khulna, Kushtia, Magura, Meherpur, Narail and Satkhira, reports UNB. All modes of vehicles, including the long-distance ones, stayed off the roads due to the strike enforced by Bangladesh Road Transport Workers Federation, causing immense sufferings to passengers. Loading and unloading of goods at Benapole land port came to a halt due to the strike. Thousands of goods-laden trucks remained stranded at the port. The massive traffic congestion was triggered following the strike. Khulna regional committee of Bangladesh Road Transport Workers Federation declared the strike on Saturday. On Wednesday, a court in Manikganj sentenced bus driver Jamir Hossain, 48, of Daulatdiar village of Chuadanga district, to life term imprisonment in a case filed over the deaths of Tareque and Munier. The court also fined the driver Tk 5,000 and he will have to suffer three months more imprisonment in default to pay the fine. He was also awarded two years more imprisonment and fined Tk 2000, in default, to serve one month more imprisonment, for using his expired driving license during the incident. Tareque Masud, Mishuk Munier and three others were killed as a microbus, carrying them, collided with a bus, driven by convict Jamir, on Dhaka-Aricha Highway in Ghior upazila while returning to Dhaka from Manikganj on August 13, 2011.  ....

Published at: 2017-02-27 00:00:05

A fire broke out at a garment factory at Kanchpur in Sonargaon upazila under Narayanganj on Monday morning. Probash Chandra, an inspector at Fire Service Headquarters, said the fire broke out on the 11th floor of 'Sinha Garment' around 7:09am, reports UNB. On information, eight fire-fighting units rushed in and doused the blaze around 8:50am. It was not clear what caused the fire.  ....

Published at: 2017-02-27 00:00:05