A workshop on "Annual Performance Agreement (APA) and National Integrity Strategy (NIS)" was held at the Foreign Service Academy on Saturday.
Cabinet Secretary Khandker Anwarul Islam attended the workshop as the chief guest while Foreign Secretary Masud Bin Momen presided over it.
Ambassador Shabbir Ahmad Chowdhury, Secretary (West); Ambassador Mashfee Binte Shams, Secretary (East); and other senior officials of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) and Cabinet Division were also present at the programme conducted by Mehdi Hasan, Director General (Admin) of MoFA.
The Foreign Secretary talked about the initiatives taken and services provided by the MoFA in 2021, including unified website, digitalising the consular services through mygov platform, implementing e-nothi and d-nothi, mofa archives, Government Resource Planning (GRP), Branding Bangladesh.
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He also discussed Neural Network - a new initiative of MoFA.
Two officers of the rank of joint secretary talked on APA and NIS with presentations.
This was followed by a question-answer session.
The challenges that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs faces to reflect their diplomatic and consular activities properly in APA due to the nature of the work of the Foreign Office and its Missions abroad were discussed precisely.
The officers from the Cabinet Division suggested ways to overcome these challenges.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Cabinet Division agreed that by having discussions, the challenges can be properly addressed and solved.
The importance of proper documentation and ensuring training on APA for officers were also discussed.
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After a presentation on NIS by the Joint Secretary, Cabinet Division, Cabinet Secretary explained the background of formulation of the National Integrity Strategy (NIS) and demonstrated its necessity and significance with some examples.
Rector, Foreign Service Academy and Inspector General of Missions, Ambassador Asad Alam Siam expressed his gratitude to the Cabinet Secretary for his presence in this interactive session between MoFA and Cabinet Division.