28 companies felicitated for superlative governance

Some 28 listed companies were awarded on Tuesday night for practising good governance in their day-to-day operations.

Finance Minister AMA Muhith handed over the awards to the winners of the second National Award for Corporate Governance Excellence, held at the capital's Sonargaon hotel.

The Institute of Chartered Secretaries of Bangladesh (ICSB), the only recognised professional body in Bangladesh tasked with developing, promoting and regulating the profession of chartered secretaries, hosted the awards.

In the banking category, Eastern Bank Ltd got the gold award, UCB silver and Social Islami Bank bronze.

In the non-bank category, the gold award went to Prime Finance & Investment; IDLC Finance won the silver award and Delta Brac Housing Finance Corporation bronze.

Green Delta Insurance received the gold award as an insurance company, Prime Insurance silver and Popular Life Insurance bronze.  Beximco Pharmaceuticals won the gold accolade in the pharmaceutical and chemicals category. The silver went to Square Pharmaceuticals and the bronze award to ACI Ltd.

In the textile and garment category, Square Textile won the gold award, while Envoy Textiles won the silver award.

Golden Harvest Agro Industries won the gold award in the food and allied company category. Agricultural Marketing Company Ltd (AMCL-PRAN) won the silver award.

Bangladesh Submarine Cable Company, a state-run company, won the top award in the IT, telecom and service companies category. Unique Hotel & Resorts and BDCOM Online won the silver and bronze award respectively.

Singer Bangladesh won the top award in the engineering company category. BSRM Steel Ltd and Ratanpur Steel Re-rolling Mills Ltd won the silver and bronze awards.

Summit Power Ltd was the winner of the gold award in the fuel and power company category, while MJL Bangladesh and Linde Bangladesh received the silver and bronze awards respectively.

British American Tobacco BD Ltd won the highest award in the manufacturing category. Premier Cement won the silver award and HeidelbergCement Bangladesh the bronze award. 

Speaking as chief guest, Muhith said company secretaries are important along with accountants and management for proper functioning of a corporate body.

M Khairul Hossain, chairman of Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission, said bigger roles have been assigned to the company secretaries through various reforms. He said the BSEC is now in a position to monitor all activities of listed companies on a real-time basis, allowing the regulator to detect any manipulation and discipline the market.

Hedayetuallah Al Mamoon, senior secretary of the commerce ministry, said the country's Companies Act is huge, complicated and complex. “So we are taking care of it. We hope we will get a new Companies Act within a few months.”

ICSB President Mohammad Asad Ullah said there are 1.4 lakh corporate firms registered with the Office of the Registrar of Joint Stock Companies and Firms.

They account for 73 percent of the economy and yet they are neglected. There should be a separate ministry, named the corporate affairs ministry, to regulate the corporate firms, which will ultimately boost the country's revenue income, he said.

The awards, launched last year, aim to encourage and promote governing excellence in the corporate sectors of Bangladesh and facilitate them to become competitive in the global arena.