Institute of Chartered Secretaries of Bangladesh (ICSB) has organized a Continuing Professional Development (CPD) programme on “Role of Independent Directors in the Corporate World” September 21, 2020 at virtual platform.
Professor ShibliRubayat-Ul-Islam, Chairman , Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission (BSEC) graced the occasion as the Chief Guest.Professor Dr. Md. MizanurRahman, Commissioner, Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission was the Special Guest. Mohammad SanaullahFCS, Immediate Past President and Chairman, Professional Development Committee of the Institute chaired the Session.
Muzaffar Ahmed FCS, President of the Institute gave the welcome speech.CS Nisar Ahmad, former President, Institute of Company Secretaries of India (ICSIpresented the Keynote Paper on the subject. Md. EunusurRahman, Chairman, Dhaka Stock Exchange Limited and AkhterMatinChaudhury FCA, FCS, Council Member of ICSB were the Official Discussants. Chief Guest Professor ShibliRubayat-Ul-Islam thanked for organizing an event on Independent Director issue. He also thanked CS Nisar Ahmad for his informative presentation.
He said that BSEC is currently working on the Independent Director issue. The role of Independent director is broad and important.
He found that in many companies in Bangladesh the appointments are made just from relatives, friends and they are not doing their due role.
Special Guest Dr. Md. MizanurRahman said that Independent Directors need to handle the interest of different stakeholders and mitigate their conflict. There is a problem that a large number of shareholders and some stakeholders’ voices cannot reach to the management. Corporate Governance Code is not well defined.
President of the Institute expected that the collaboration of ICSB and BSEC would run long. As of now we have a good number of professionals so BSEC can keep the governance audit only for the Chartered Secretaries.
Keynote paper presenterCS Nisar Ahmad in his presentation elaborated different factors of Independent Directors, Global trends of US, Europe and Asia.
He also gave a comparative analysis of Malaysia, Singapore, Bangladesh and India as well as models of corporate governance of Anglo US Model and Japanese.
He highlighted the responsibilities, roles and functions of Independent Directors. He also suggesteddeveloping Directors database.
Taking part in the discussion,Md. EunusurRahman thanked the keynote presenter for his presentation. He opined about the responsibility of Independent Directors.