"Establishment of a corporate governance commission is required for business houses to make them fully compliant," said Dr Akbar Ali Khan, former finance adviser to the caretaker government.

Echoing Khan, other speakers also stressed the need for amending related laws to ensure governance in corporate houses.

The Dhaka Chamber of Commerce and Industry (DCCI) and Bangladesh Enterprise Institute (BEI) jointly organised the seminar at DCCI auditorium in Dhaka.

DCCI President Hossain Khaled presided over the seminar. Safi Rahman Khan, consultant of BEI, Mohammad Musa, professor of United International University, and Muhammad (Rumi) Ali, managing director of BRAC Enterprises and former deputy governor of the Bangladesh Bank, presented three separate keynote papers on corporate governance.

The former finance adviser also termed corporate governance the base of economic democracy.

He said accountability and transparency are the two major requirements for both politics and economy.

The present company act is not so adequate to establish corporate governance in the country, Khan said.

He further questioned the effectiveness of monitoring of business activities by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Registrar of Joint Stock Companies and Firms.

There is a lack of proper law to ensure corporate governance in the country, observed Faruk Ahmad Siddiqi, chairman of SEC.

A significant number of companies enlisted on the stock exchanges are practising corporate governance, the SEC chief said, adding that there are hundreds of companies, which do not practise governance.

He also businesspeople should be aware of the benefits of corporate governance.

Citing an example, he said a number of companies hold their annual general meetings without having needful discussion among the shareholders. But the companies need to encourage fruitful discussion among the shareholders.