The financial institution division (FID), a wing of the Ministry of Finance is formulating 'The Employment, Promotion and Posting Policy-2023' for the appointment and promotion of senior officers of state-owned commercial banks of Bangladesh. A committee led by the finance minister will appoint and promote people to these posts based on the basis of 100 marks in 8 categories, a source of the ministry told UNB on Sunday. Apart from this, the candidates will be scrutinized before the appointment. A committee of 6 members will be formed, led by the finance minister. Read: Investors’ financial literacy must to boost capital market: Commerce Minister According to the sources, contractual recruitment and posting for a maximum of three years will be made for the posts of Managing Director (MD) and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) through selection from among the Managing Directors working in state-owned commercial banks, specialized banks, and financial institutions or through promotion from Deputy Managing Directors (DMDs). Sources of FID said recommendations will be made by the selection committee following the seniority, experience, report of the NSI and Anti-Corruption Commission, and the circular issued by Bangladesh Bank from time to time. Contractual appointments will be made to the posts of Managing Director and CEO with the recommendation of the committee with the approval of the Prime Minister. Read: Bangladesh earned $27.22b from exports in July-Dec amid new records A senior official of FID said apart from this, promotion, appointment, posting and inter-bank transfers to the post of Deputy Managing Director in specialized banks and financial institutions will be restricted to specialized banks and financial institutions. However, in the interest of the state, posting and inter-bank transfer can be made from among the deputy managing directors of state-owned commercial banks to the post of deputy managing directors in specialized banks and financial institutions. As per the policy, in the case of promotion, the candidates eligible for promotion-educational qualification mark 15, length of service in a bank or financial institution -5, banking diploma-5, professional degree-5, professional publications -5, employment record 5, annual confidential application -40 and interview -15), etc will be selected by the committee on the basis of their mark out of a total 100 marks. Read More: Govt to save Tk10,000 cr annually from importing edible oil: Agri Minister.

Barishal University witnessed a record number of promotions this week, of both academic and non-academic staff and officials. The university registrar's office issued promotion letters to 40 teachers, 15 officials, 27 staff over Monday and Tuesday. Although the bloated number has drawn attention to their eligibility, the university maintains only eligible personnel had been promoted following a proper process and policy. Read Pros and Cons of Reopening Educational Institutions during Pandemic A university official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the administration had formed a board to prepare a list of eligible persons for promotion. In fact several people who were also long due for promotions, again failed to make the cut. Some of them even made it as far as an oral exam that was part of the process. Welcoming the university's move, Barisal University Officers Association President Bahauddin Golap said, "The university never saw the promotion of these many teachers, officials and staff at the same time." Bahauddin did however call for some changes in the university's promotions policy. Read JU treasurer to serve as next Pro-VC Barishal University Vice-Chancellor (VC) Dr Md Sadequl Arefin said, "Even before I joined, promotions of many, including teachers and officials, were stuck in a bottleneck. I wanted to solve the problem from the beginning. Although Covid-19 slowed down the process, I continued it following the upgradation policy." About the ones who missed out on the recent promotion, Dr Sadequl said, "They could not be promoted even after attending the viva due to the upgradation policy." In 2020, around 50 teachers were promoted even in the midst of the shutdown due to Covid-19. Two previous VCs were said to have held back on their promotions. Teachers and staff who did not get promoted for a long time started demanding promotion almost as soon as Dr Sadequl joined as VC in November 2019. Read RU students give 24-hr ultimatum for hall reopening

Consumption protection and employment promotion should be the dual priorities of the upcoming national budget during the Covid-19 pandemic, said renowned economist and public policy analyst Dr Debapriya Bhattacharya. To this end, the government has to give direct and substantive fiscal support to the traditionally disadvantaged communities as well as to the “new poor”, he said in an interview with UNB about the national budget for fiscal year 2021-22. Dr Debapriya said the new budget also needs to promote domestic market-oriented industrial diversification and introduce a universal social protection system. He said the expansionary fiscal policy should focus not on maximising the public expenditures for health exigencies, but also put more disposable income in the hands of disadvantaged households and investable resources in the hands of micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs).  Also read:  Dhaka, Delhi need much stronger framework for future economic ties: Debapriya The international noted economist said the new budget should neither increase tax rate nor apply new taxes, but should focus on improving efficiency of tax administration to prevent tax leakages and evasion, stop undue exemptions and definitely discontinue favouring black money launderers. Core Budget with a longer time frame Noting that one of the fundamental issues for the next budget will be dealing with the protracted impact of the Covid-19, Dr Debapriya said the last budget was done under the incorrect assumption that the pandemic would vanish within 3-4 months and then normalcy would be restored in the economy.                                                                                                                      “At that time, we pointed out that even if health emergencies subside, socio-economic impact of pandemic will be felt much longer. Now 12 months later we’re in the midst of another Covid peak,” he said.  The basic point is that, under the circumstances, public expenditure choices and other fiscal decisions within one-year time-frame is not appropriate from policy perspectives, he added.   “So, a “core budget” focused on defeating the pandemic and recovering from the fall-outs demand a time policy frame of at least two-three years. This has to be aligned with the current Five Year Plan (2021-25), SDG delivery schedule and climate action commitments,” he said adding that a core budget is essential identifying major policy instruments which will ensure the reprioritised development outcomes. Also read:  Development community needs to support graduating LDC: Debapriya    “The development variable needs to be reprioritised from the point of view of employment retention and generation and no less important will be protection of consumption, otherwise poverty rate and inequality will increase further,” he said. Favouring an expansionary fiscal policy, Dr Debapriya emphasised the need for accelerating public expenditures and improving supply of liquidity to boost domestic demand for goods and services. Spending more is the challenge Dr Debapriya Bhattacharya said the major challenge for the government is that even if it wants to enhance public expenditures, it is not being able to do so. One critically constraining factor is this regard is the stagnating (if not falling) tax-GDP ratio. Low utilisation of foreign aid is further increasing resource pressure. However, the government’s inability to spend whatever money it has is due to low absorptive capacity of the public agencies, he said, adding that poor quality of public expenditures remains a major concern too. Streamlining the implementation of public expenditure portfolio will be an overriding priority for the next budget, mentioned Dr Debapriya. Mentioning that there has been the marginal increase in the budget deficit (the deficit is now around 5 percent of GDP) over the last two-three years, he said, “In the financing of the budget deficit, we are using costlier domestic borrowing rather than international concessional funds. “And the utilised international funds are mostly less concessional, together resulting in increased debt burden”. The public policy analyst said that the post-Covid mid-term recovery programme demands structural reforms to make the fiscal framework efficient and effective. “The recovery demands a high-energy fiscal multiplier effect.t. For that the government also not only has to spend more, but it will also have to give the money to those people who have greater propensity to consume and invest,” said the macro-economist. Need larger direct fiscal transfer “So, the very important part in the Covid recovery would be in the future to have much more targeted fiscal transfer along with food support for the traditionally marginalised communities as well as to the newly disadvantages households (the so-called new poor)” he said. He held that while the government announced programmes are in the right direction, they are miniscule in comparison to need and often implemented in a deficient way. Dr Debapriya maintained that overwhelming portion of the disbursed pandemic-related public support (stimulus package) went to the big businesses, while a small portion to MSMEs, informal sector and other disadvantaged communities and activities. It is obvious that these people will not be able to off-set the adverse fall-outs of the pandemic through monetary policy measures including the ones with interest rate subsidy. Thus, it calls for food support and direct cash transfer in larger volume through effective digital financial inclusion, he opined. Use domestic demand to accelerate growth Given the emerging global situation and our recent Covid-time experience, Bangladesh should boost its aggregate demand for GDP growth by aggressively stimulating domestic demand. “For example, we need to invest further in agro-based manufacturing, post-harvest mechanisation in agriculture, digital platform-based activities,” he said. Also read:  New conversation on int'l dev cooperation needed: Debapriya “Since the international market will remain volatile in near future, we would need to urgently improve our domestic productive capacity to diversify our labour-intensive manufacturing base for inclusive growth,” said the economist. Upcoming budget should deploy fiscal measures to promote labour productivity across sectors. Time for universal social protection Dr Debapriya said the Covid has given us the lesson that Bangladesh needs to move from the safety net programme for the poor to universal social security for all citizens. “We need to move from mere expansion of social safety net programmes to a universal social protection scheme as majority of Bangladesh's population is without any public or private support system,” he added. The recognised economist pointed out that the except the government employees, the poor who are under the social safety net and a small number of private service holders who have pension schemes, the overwhelming rest of the population are not under any public or private social insurance scheme. “So, it will be only opportune for this year’s national budget to initiate a universal social protection scheme for all citizens of Bangladesh.”

Country’s electronics giant Walton has honoured 60 individuals and enterprises with ‘Branding Heroes Award’ as a recognition of their outstanding performance in promoting customers’ attraction towards digital campaign through creative branding.  Apart from them, some 19 personnel were also awarded in different categories for their outstanding performance in reducing non-moving raw materials inventory as well as raising sales and export volumes in the current fiscal year, said a press release. Also read: Walton shares Tk 77cr profits with employees They have been awarded at a programme titled “Branding Heroes” that was organised virtually at Walton Corporate Office in the capital on Sunday. Virtually, the award-giving ceremony was attended by Walton Hi-Tech Industries Limited’s Managing Director Engineer Golam Murshed, Additional Managing Director Abul Bashar Hawlader, Deputy Managing Directors Nazrul Islam Sarker, Eva Rezwana Nilu, Amdadul Haque Sarker and Md. Humayun Kabir, Walton Plaza Trade’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Mohammad Rayhan among others. Read Walton to export electronics products to Mali, Senegal Executive Directors Ariful Ambia, Dr Shakhawat Hossen, Amin Khan, Firoj Alam, Mofizur Rahman, Shahjalal Hossain Limon and Rakib Uddin, Walton AC’s CEO Tanvir Rahman, Refrigerator’s CEO Anisur Rahman Mallick, TV’s CEO Engineer Mostafa Nahid Hossain, Electrical Appliances’ CEO Md. Sohel Rana, Home Appliances’s CEO Yeasir Al-Imran, distributors and Walton Plaza network’s area, zonal and plaza managers also attended the function. Walton is conducting Digital Campaign across the country to accelerate its digital customer database initiative for delivering online-based warranty and best after sales services swiftly. Also Read Marcel Digital Campaign Season-10 begins During the campaign, customer’s name, contact number and Walton products model number have been stored on Walton server. As a result, customers will not have to keep the warranty paper and also they will get the desired after sales service even. Customer database will also help the service center’s representatives getting customers’ feedback about their respective Walton products’ service. Read Walton targets to become top electrical appliance brand by 2022 On the occasion of ‘Walton Day’ celebration at the 20th March last, Walton started the Digital Campaign Season-10.’   To encourage customers’ participation in the campaign, the local brand has been offering sure cash back worth of lakhs of taka, free products and crores of taka cash vouchers upon the purchase of Walton fridge, TV, AC, washing machine and ceiling fan from any of the Walton Plazas or distributors’ outlets across the country Read: Walton to export electronics products to Mali, Senegal.

The government has promoted seven secretaries to the rank of senior secretary.