Twelve senior government officials from the Ministry of Expatriate Welfare and Overseas Employment, Bureau of Manpower Employment and Training (BMET) and Technical Training Centers (TTC) will go to South Korea to attend a seven-day training next month. The training course titled “Leadership Programme for Policymakers and Managers of BEST (Better Employment with Skills Training)” will be conducted in two batches. Training for the first batch will be held from October 2 to October 8 while the second batch’s training is scheduled for October 9 to October 15. Speaking at the pre-departure orientation session held at KOICA Bangladesh office on Thursday. County Director of KOICA Young-Ah Doh said Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) is one of the priority areas of KOICA. Read: KOICA to improve Bangladesh fire service officials' capacity through training in S Korea “KOICA is continuously supporting the development of the skilled human resources of Bangladesh so that Bangladesh can meet the demand of skilled human resources to be a high-income country by 2041,” Doh said. Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) is supporting this training programme under its BEST project. The BEST project is being implemented in collaboration with MoEWOE and BMET with a budget of $8.5million for the period of 2018 to 2023. The project’s main objectives are to support improving the quality of Bangladesh’s TVET, develop capacity of the training providers for quality training delivery, enhance opportunity of employment by developing mid-level technical human resources aligned with Bangladesh’s job market and strengthen institutional capacities of three TTCs namely, Bangla-German TTC, Sylhet TTC and Khulna TTC. On behalf of KOICA, KPC (Korea Productivity Center) will organize the training including field visits to important sites and offices in Korea for better understanding of Korea’s TVET policy and strategy.

The government has put on hold all kinds of overseas travel of its officials until further notice due to the current global crisis and to help post-Covid economic recovery . The Finance Ministry issued a notification in this regard on Thursday. All kinds of exposure visit, study tour, visits under APA and innovation along with overseas travel to attend seminars and workshops have been indefinitely postponed, said the notice. This restriction will be applicable for all officials under the operational and the development budget with immediate effect. Also read: Finance minister hints at hard decisions due to Russia-Ukraine war Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal on Wednesday said the prime minister has issued directives against frequent foreign trips of the government officials unless these are very exclusive or essential from a strategic point of view. Frequent overseas tours by government officials often raised many eye brows. Also read: Bangladesh’s forex reserves cross $44 bn thanks to better inflow  

State Minister for Public Administration Farhad Hossain on Tuesday said the Rules of Business does not allow addressing the government officials as sir or madam. “There is no directive to address the government officials as sir or madam as it is against the Rules of Business. The Father of the Nation’s directive to government officials had been to become the service provider of people,” he said.  Farhad said this while speaking at a dialogue organised by the Bangladesh Secretariat Reporters Forum (BSRF)  held at the Secretariat. “Your (government officials) attitude is most important to the people. If you get angry or snub someone then it will be considered as corruption. Misbehaviour is tantamount to corruption. We’ll not allow it as your (government officials) behaviour is the behaviour of the government,” said Farhad. Also read: Take preparations for future challenges: Farhad Hossain

Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan on Tuesday said the government officials and employees will be brought under dope test in a year and action will be taken against those who would test positive. “The government has made dope test mandatory for government jobs in a bid to discourage use of drugs and many proposals are on line,” he said while talking to reporters at the Secretariat. “The educational institutions will be brought under the system and the students who will get enrolled in educational institutions, universities and colleges will be brought under dope testing. And the teachers too will undergo the test. We have a discussion in this regard,” said the minister. Also read: Law equal for all, no exception for police: Home Minister Replying to a question on when it would be implemented, the home minister said “The Cabinet secretary will tell about it.” Referring to the clash between police and BNP at Chandrima Udyan in the city, the Asaduzzman said “BNP has violated the rule as the government has imposed restriction on public gatherings considering the Covid situation. A chaotic situation was created there as the BNP men entered there forcibly. They just forced the law enforcers to take action.” Police will take further action against those involved in it, he said. Earlier in the day, BNP activists clashed with police in front of Chandrima Udyan in the city on while visiting Ziaur Rahman's grave after the formation of new city committees. Also read: Won’t tolerate anarchy: Home Minister The clash broke out around 10:30 am when the newly-formed convening committees of BNP's Dhaka city north and south units went to place wreaths at the grave of the party's founder Ziaur Rahman. He dismissed as baseless the talk of Bangladeshis leaving for Afghanistan. “This is baseless and those who said it are wrong. Everything is closed now. Our air service has been suspended there. How would they go to Afghanistan? Did they go on foot? There is no way to go to Afghanistan?” “The people of our country are Islamic minded and they did not support any militant activity and extremism. So what is happening in Afghanistan is its own business,” he said.

The government on Sunday directed all government, semi-government and autonomous offices to avoid all routine tours of the officials, in a bid to ensure utilisation of limited resources during the coronavirus pandemic.