Shell International Limited and the International Institute for Management Development (IMD), one of the most respected business schools worldwide, announced expansion of a unique, long term partnership to develop future business leaders in global markets including India. The expanded partnership extends support and promotion of an existing Master in Business Administration (MBA) alumni scholarship programme to include students from Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe, and Latin America. The programme represents the first global corporate alignment by IMD to help mature, experienced professionals with diverse backgrounds and strong international experience to attend the IMD MBA program to develop their leadership capabilities.

 

 

Ha Noi (VNA) - The Government should take drastic measures to bring about an economic growth rate of 9 percent in the remaining months of the year, so that the target of 8.5 percent growth this year can be achieved, said Prime Minister Phan Van Khai at the Government's March meeting in Ha Noi on Mar. 29 and 30.

He instructed ministries and localities to implement measures to boost production and business, especially industrial production, and make use of material resources in the country to raise the value of Vietnamese export items.

The PM called for the proper exploitation of crude oil, development of the market for industrial products, including steel, electricity, cement, garment and textiles, while accelerating the process of equitising and restructuring State-owned enterprises.

The PM told the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development to continue assisting provinces and cities to effectively combat droughts and minimise the damage caused by droughts, and the Ministry of Science and Technology and other relevant ministries to conduct research into water resources and their use.

Ministries and localities were requested to review their master plan of allocating the State budget to projects with a view to increasing the efficiency of investment capital.

PM Khai also asked for stronger measures to boost exports, focusing on enhancing trade promotion activities, expanding traditional markets, and seeking new outlets. He called for an increase of garment and textile exports to the European Union and the United States , stressing technological modernisation, product quality improvement and the diversification of export items.

Other measures were to mobilise all available investment sources, control inflation, minimise traffic accidents, fight social problems, crack down on illegal loggers, and prevent and fight forest fires.

Reviewing the socio-economic situation in March and the first three months, the cabinet members agreed that economic growth was affected by a serious drought in the central highlands and central region, threats of forest fires on a large scale, the outbreak of avian flu, and increases in materials prices.

The national gross domestic product is estimated to have risen 7.2 percent in the first quarter of this year compared with 7 percent last year. The agro-forestry and fisheries sector has expanded by 4.1 percent; industry and contruction, 8.5 percent; and services, 7 percent. The non-State sector's industrial production has grown 25.5 percent. Products recording high increases include coal, processed seafood, cartons, medicine, and motorbikes.

The country's three-month export turnover is forecast to reach almost 6.72 billion USD, up 16.2 percent year-on-year. Turnover from retail sales and services have seen a year-on-year increase of 18.5 percent.

However, the growth rates of many economic sectors including industrial production are much lower than the projected 8.5 percent. The State enterprises' low growth rate has affected the whole sector. Although export revenues have risen, the monthly figure has only reached 2.2 billion USD, remaining far below the targeted 2.5 billion USD. National economic growth has also been affected by the high and unstable prices of oil, cement, steel, and materials. Crime, especially drug crimes, have seen complicated developments with the fast increase in the number of new drug addicts. Additionally, a number of ministries, branches and localities have not yet strictly carried out regulations on investment and construction management.

The cabinet members discussed and gave opinions on reports on the State budget balance and auditing of the State budget in 2003, land use planning, a Government action programme on education, a draft law on practising thrift.

PM Khai took this opportunity to admit the Government's responsibility for the recent railway accident in central Thua Thien-Hue province. He praised and thanked people living at the site for their assistance to the victims and relevant agencies in helping them overcome the consequences of the accident.

 

Appropriate economic and social policies are needed at the national level in Bangladesh to capture global opportunities in trade, capital flows and migration, and to protect people against the vulnerabilities that globalisation creates. For example, the government can manage trade and capital flows more carefully, invest in human capital and in more flexible sets of workers' skills, foster small enterprises -- these will contribute to job-creating growth; manage new technology, and provide safety nets.
At both the national and global level, the governance challenge is to reduce the threats of financial volatility which have become increasingly common and all their human costs. The costs of governance failures in this arena are larger than generally perceived.
The East Asian crisis and its global repercussions resulted in output losses (over a three-year period) estimated at nearly US$2 trillion, while the human costs included civil conflict, rising unemployment, declining school attendance, erosion of the social fabric, more crime, more violence, etc. At the national level, emphasis should be given to liberalising the capital account more carefully, subjecting financial institutions to greater transparency and accountability, integrating macroeconomic management and social policies. At the international level, the focus should be on strengthening international action to regulate and supervise banking systems, developing better systems of early warning and crisis management and establishing an international lender of last resort.
Information communication technology (ICT) can improve education, health, governance and trade. It is dramatically changing social and economic relationships and interactions, giving people, businesses and governments the tools with which to devise more productive, more inclusive and more development-friendly societies and economies.
The government as a major stakeholder in the RMG industry must take proper steps to face the challenges posed by the post MFA period in order to steer it through the impending crisis to a prosperous future.
Rehabilitation programme of the unemployed persons from garments sector owing to the possible shock of post MFA era should be taken as a precautionary measure. As such, training and development programme for the garments workers are required so that if they fall victims of retrenchment, then they can rely an alternative ways for their livelihood. Social compensation and safety net programmes for the garments workers are required. Labour productivity in the garments sector must be improved; capacity utilisation should be strengthened and lead-time should be matched with demand for increasing efficiency and speed.
Motivations from the owners are required. Workers should think that they are the parts and parcels of the organisation. Sense of participation, sense of identification and sense of development among the workers should be grown so that they can be motivated to work.
Development of develop human resources through creation of appropriate institutional facilities, training, researches etc. are needed. Owners should invest more on training for workers so that they can be turned as efficient. There might be night school for educating workers and also special correspondence courses for them so that they can be trained on weekly holidays. Open University may come forward with this sort of course module. Intensive training is required. Most of the unskilled workers who are trained add to value and this is needed in these days of globalisation for having a competitive edge. Pharmaceutical Industries of the country should be boosted up so that they can increase export volume. Moreover, not only IT sector but also greater emphasis should be given to develop English language skill.
Due acknowledgement of the contribution of the women labour force national economy by the government is required. Women workers in the garments sector are valuable for earning foreign exchange of the country. The government may introduce prizes for awarding to the best garments workers.
Bangladesh bank must be concerned with the stability of exchange rates. Even when currencies are flexible, frequent exchange rate changes and sharp devaluations are undesirable in general. Small changes in flexible exchange rates are to be expected, but acceleration in the trend and abrupt changes pose problems. Recently Taka value is depreciating against US Dollar whereas in the global market value of the US Dollar is declining.
Bangladesh bank with a supervisory function has a key role to play in developing and implementing adequate prudential regulations and an effective supervision of financial institutions. Commercial banks in Bangladesh are not playing a proper role. Moreover, financial intermediaries like contractual and investment intermediaries will have to go long way.
Financial reform measures should be carried out so as to ensure financial transparency with identification of duties and responsibilities of all concerned. Independence of Bangladesh bank, allocation of capital funds, growth oriented resource mobilisation, designing of appropriate tax structure, removal of red tapism and removal of unnecessary control of bureaucratic machinery etc. are required. (Concluded)
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The writer is Associate Professor, School of Business Administration, The People's University of Bangladesh

 

 

Users should rebel and demand vendors compensate them for security foul-ups, said pugnacisous Professor Klaus Brunnstein of the University of Hamburg

 

Brunnstein told delegates to an IT security conference in London on Wednesday that attempting to protect against IT risks - such as hacking attacks - by increasing the complexity of systems is futile. 'That would be like trying to expel the devil with Beelzebub,' he said.

 

The present wave of IT security incidents is caused by inherently insecure assumptions, including overly complex systems. The interoperation of these systems with other insecure technologies magnifies the problem, the applied informatics academic argued.

 

He said more secure technologies will only be developed after a fundamental rethink involving building security into applications rather than adding it as an afterthought. Beyond saying that applications shouldn't delete valuable data when they failed, Brunnstein failed to elaborate on this key point preferring instead to criticise suppliers for resisting change.

 

Brunnstein called on user groups to rebel and lobby for customer protection laws and compensation for security failures. 'Manufacturers must be made to pay for damages. Certainly Microsoft has made enough money to do so,' Brunnstein said.

 

The professor made his comments during a keynote presentation at the Gartner IT Security Summit conference in London on Wednesday. ®

The aim of the new kit is to improve decision-making with regard to the integration of ICT in education.

Information and communication technology has been used to improve the quality of teaching and learning and to reach those who have been otherwise excluded from education. Innovative use of ICTs can truly realize the promise of Education for All. However, examples worldwide have shown that when not implemented correctly, ICT hardware, software, and training can waste scarce resources.

Participants in the workshop include Ministry of Education staff from Pakistan, Philippines and Thailand. The three countries are about to, or have begun, the process of updating their education plans and would like to integrate ICT in Education policies into those plans. The ICT in Education Toolkit will first be introduced to Ministry of Education staff from these three countries in the Asia-Pacific region. Eventually other education professionals will be trained in its use.

What is the product?

Who can use the toolkit?

How does the toolkit help?