Speaking at the inaugural session of the workshop, ICC-B President Mahbubur Rahman said, "Economic development and corporate governance in Bangladesh can only be effectively established if identified willful defaulters, corrupt officials, businesspersons and political hoodlums are exposed as well as effective sanctions are imposed to act as a deterrent."

He made the comments referring to the huge outstanding loans of Tk 19,327 crore as of March 2005, bulk of which was given by the nationalised banks followed by private commercial banks, according to a press note released by the ICC-B.

The ICC-B president expressed his concern that it would be almost a 'mission impossible' for the country's banking sector to recover unless quick and deterrent actions are taken. He said that the situation could have been avoided if the banks were careful in disbursing credit only after careful analysis.

Latifur Rahman, ICC-B vice president, Mamun Rashid, chairman of ICC-B Standing Committee on Banking Technique and Practice and CEO of Citibank NA, NC Raghava, vice president of Structured Finance and Enterprise Banking of DBS Bank Singapore, S Kutubuddin Ahmed, deputy general manager of Commercial Bank of Ceylon, and Ataur Rahman, ICC-B secretary, were also present at the inaugural session of the workshop.

A total of 90 senior and mid-level executives from 54 organisations comprising from banks, non-banking financial institutions, CA firms, investment as well as multinational companies are taking part in the workshop.