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The wind of changes blowing over the world should be capitalised for taking forward the SAARC process through a strong action, the minister for foreign affairs, M Morshed Khan, said.
   “The member states of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation, which enters the third decade of inception, should work on a blueprint of action to make the forum effective in the coming days,” he told the inaugural ceremony of a regional seminar in Dhaka on Wednesday.
   The Bangladesh Institute of International and Strategic Studies organised the two-day seminar on “a vision for the third decade,” before the 13th summit meeting of the seven-nation forum slated between January 9 and January 11 in Dhaka.
   “The colossal,and often most daunting challenges, that we still face can only be addressed in an environment of peace,
   harmony and abiding commitment of cooperation,” Morshed said.
   He said the SAARC members “must have a forward-looking vision which is ambitious, yet pragmatic” to realise its full potential and also in the process to uplift the countries and the region from poverty, backwardness and lack of progress.
   “We must work out the strategy to make a sure and decisive dent on poverty.”
   The institute’s board of governors chairman, Mufley R Osmani, who presided at the function, said the drag of bilateral political issues continued to dampen the “warm popular enthusiasm” for SAARC.
   Bilateral issues are restricted to discussion in the SAARC forum although such contentious issues frustrated
   four SAARC summits since 1998 and four more before that, he said.
   “Bilateral irritants and contentious issues can either be washed away or be centralised in the SAARC process, not at least at this point of time,” Osmani said.

An efficient disaster management system could not be made without strengthening the agriculture sector and increasing resource inflow to the rural economy, participants of a conference said on Wednesday.
   Despite declining contribution to the GDP, agriculture sector still adds a lot in the national economy, they told the first working session of the 15th biennial conference of the Bangladesh Economic Association held at the Institute of Engineers, Bangladesh.
   The director general of the Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies, Dr Quazi Shahabuddin, presided over
   the session, titled “agriculture, rural economy and natural disaster’’.
   Fifteen papers on food production, monga (a near famine situation), flood, river erosion and other issues, mostly prepared on the basis of recent field-level surveys, were presented in the session.
   Those presented the papers were: Uttam Kumar Deb, MA Sattar Mandal, Jahangir Alam, Mihir Kumar Roy, Md. Badiuzzaman,
   Milan Kanti Bhattachariya, Newaz Ahmed Chowdhury, Md. Abul Quasem, Sardar Syed Ahmed, AFM Motiur Rahman, Md. Nurul Huda Chowdhury and Md. Kamrul Hasan.

A group of non-government college teachers Wednesday launched another forum and announced its convening committee comprising 101 members.
   With the Bangladesh College Teachers’ Association, the number of associations of non-government college teachers stood at 12.
   Chowdhury Mughisuddin Mahmud, who was named convener, announced the committee at a National Press Club conference.
   He said the association has been formed to produce new leadership for non-government college teachers.
   Pressing the government to make services of non-government college teachers “public services” will be one of the major agendas of the new association, he said.
   Mahmud said, “Although there are eleven associations of non-government college teachers, they are not active.”
   Sajjadur Rahman, Mariam Khan and Abu Saleh Miah were also present.

A monthlong Muktijuddher Bijoy Utsab began at the MA Aziz Outer Stadium in the Chittagong city on Wednesday.
   The state minister for civil aviation and tourism, Mir Mohammad Nasir Uddin, inaugurated the fair as chief guest where the state minister for liberation war affairs, Professor Mohammad Rezaul Karim, was present as special guest.

The Ministry of Women and Children Affairs and four national public service training academies signed a memorandum of understanding on Wednesday for the implementation of gender issues in all development activities of all the policies, programmes and projects.
   The ministry, along with Bangladesh Public Administration Training Centre, Bangladesh Civil Service Administration Academy, Academy for Planning and the Development and national Academy for Educational Management will work together to implement the capacity building for gender mainstreaming project of the UN Development Programme.
   The signing was held at the Sheraton Hotel in Dhaka in the presence of the minister for women and children affairs, Khurshid Jahan Haque, who was chief guest, and Mortuza Hossain Munshi, secretary of the ministry, who was special guest.
   The UNDP Bangladesh deputy resident representative, Larry Maramis, UNDP gender expert Shirley Randell, Planning Division secretary Fazlur Rahman, education secretary Faruq Ahmed Siddiqi, establishment secretary Safar Raj Hossain, national project director Jahirul Hoque, also deputy chief of the women affairs ministry, chief executives of the training institutes and other officials involved un the project were present.
   The minister said the government recognises the gender training as a key instrument in building the capacities of government officials towards strengthening gender governance.
   Under one of the terms of the project, civil servants will attend the gender training sessions to be organised by the four academies.
   The objective of the project is to promote gender-responsive governance through major civil service training courses and to assist the ministry in formulating a programme approaching to gender mainstreaming in Bangladesh.
   “I believe that gender mainstreaming is a mammoth task because it is not just you and me, individuals, groups and organisations, but the whole society and effectively the whole nation, that needs to be involved,” said Maramis. The project officials said a comprehensive and relevant gender training manual for this project was under way.
   It will involve concepts of genders, equity issues and relevant legal mechanisms and institutional frameworks during the inductions and in the service training, the officials said.

Lutful Khabir, a senior sub-editor and writer of the Bangla daily, Inqilab, died in Dhaka on Wednesday of cancer. He was 41.
   He was buried at the Azimpur graveyard after his namaz-e-janazas held at the national mosque, Baitul Mukarram, and Inqilab Bhaban.

The Rapid Action Battalion and police recovered seven firearms and three magazines including one AK-47 after separate drives at several places in the last 24 hours ending at 4:00pm on Wednesday.