Dhaka – Bangladesh needs continued political commitment, administrative structure and budgetary allocations to effectively combat terror financing, said Foreign Secretary Md Shahidul Haque on Sunday. UNB news agency reported
“There’s absolute political commitment,” he told the inaugural session of a two-day workshop at Foreign Ministry in the morning.
The Foreign Secretary said Bangladesh has taken comprehensive steps to stop terrorist financing in the ‘difficult and ever-changing’ world and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina takes the lead from the front on counterterrorism with zero tolerance policy.
Haque also laid emphasis on monitoring how money flows in and goes out, and mentioned that coordination is another important area for combating terrorism and terror financing.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the United Nations Counter Terrorism Implementation Task Force, CTITF jointly organised the workshop titled ‘Terrorist Designation and Asset Freezing Regime under UN Security Council Resolutions’ to make government officials aware of the relevant UN Resolutions.
Addressing the session as the chief guest, National Board of Revenue (NBR) Chairman Md Nojibur Rahman said terror financing has been a big problem.
He said the Customs can play a very strong role in stopping terror financing. “We pursue a common vision and shared responsibility.”
The NBR chairman focused on five Ps — coordination, commitment, courage, cooperation and coherence — to get better outcomes in dealing with the matter.
A total of 35 participants from the customs department, police and Bangladesh Bank’s financial intelligence unit are taking part in the workshop that ends on Monday.
The workshop is focusing on capacity building of the customs officials in addressing the threats and flow of terror financing.
The workshop has been specially designed for immigration and customs officials who are responsible for dealing with this task at the immigration and border entry points.
Bangladesh has taken bold strides in strengthening its legal and regulatory regimes on combating terrorism and financing of terrorism and Bangladesh is working closely with other countries, regional organisations and the UN to fight this threat.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs also formed a National Committee on implementation of UN Security Council Resolution relating to terrorism and financing of terrorism.
One of the responsibilities of the committee is to organise workshops and training sessions for different actors to build capacity and raise awareness for fulfilling their obligations under the concerned terrorist financial sanctions by the UN Security Council.
