Fifteen officials to visit Turkey for skills training as 34 BCS officers begin training in Pakistan

Bangladesh is opening new avenues of international cooperation to raise the skills, leadership capacity and administrative experience of government officials, with Pakistan, Turkey and several other countries joining as partners.

The government has taken the initiative to draw on the experience of the two countries in areas including public administration, policymaking, good governance, technology, education, defence and disaster management. Beyond training officials, the move is also expected to build long-term links and exchanges of experience between Bangladeshi administrative institutions and international ones.

A 15-member delegation of the Bangladesh government will visit Turkey from November 23 to 27 to use training and administrative and technical experience to improve officials’ skills. The delegation will include Shahriar Kader Siddiqui, secretary of the Economic Relations Division (ERD), Munshi Alauddin Al Azad, secretary for religious affairs, and Mohammad Saiful Islam, secretary for disaster management and relief.

Officials from the Prime Minister’s Office and the ministries and divisions of public administration, defence, industry, science and technology, commerce, health services and higher education will also be part of the team. The government of Turkey will bear all the costs of the visit.

The purpose of the visit is to draw on Turkey’s experience in defence, education, technology, disaster response and the skills development of government officials. According to sources, Bangladesh will seek Turkey’s cooperation on training for officials’ skills development, technology transfer to universities, the use of artificial intelligence (AI) technology in educational institutions and the establishment of modern laboratories.

Turkey’s experience could be particularly important for Bangladesh in defence technology, disaster management and early-warning systems. Cooperation will also be sought on technology to reduce deaths from lightning, early warnings for earthquakes and landslides, and expanding health services in the Rohingya camps. The establishment of an international-standard hospital and nursing institute in Dhaka with Turkish funding may also come up for discussion.

The Bangladesh-Turkey Joint Economic Commission (JEC) is scheduled to meet in Dhaka on January 20 and 21, 2027. If the November visit identifies areas of cooperation, it will open the way for agreements or memoranda of understanding to implement them later.

Meanwhile, 34 senior officers of the Bangladesh Civil Service (BCS) travelled to Lahore, Pakistan, on Sunday for two weeks of training. Officers of additional secretary and joint secretary rank will take part in an Executive Leadership Training Programme at the country’s National School of Public Policy (NSPP).

According to an order of the Ministry of Public Administration dated November 4, 35 officers were to take part in the 14-day training in Lahore from November 9 to 22. In the end, 34 officers travelled, according to a notice from the Pakistan High Commission. Earlier, in May, 12 senior officers completed the first round of training at the country’s Civil Service Academy.

Sources say the initiative to develop officials’ skills has been taken under the Pakistan-Bangladesh Knowledge Corridor. According to the programme published by Pakistan’s Higher Education Commission (HEC), the training covers public-sector management, good governance, human resource management, policy formulation and implementation, financial management, budget preparation, project planning, monitoring and evaluation, information technology, strategic management, and ethics and accountability in public service. The HEC has said the government of Pakistan will bear the costs of training, accommodation, food and travel.

At a dinner held in honour of the officers taking part in the training programme, Pakistan’s High Commissioner Imran Hayder said the programme was an important initiative to strengthen bilateral cooperation by increasing institutional engagement, professional cooperation and people-to-people contact. He said the leadership of Bangladesh and Pakistan was committed to making the relationship between the two countries closer and expanding cooperation in public administration.

Imran Hayder said 170 students from Bangladesh enrolled in various renowned universities in Pakistan in 2026, and 20 more are expected to go soon.

Firoz Mia, a public administration expert and former additional secretary of the government, said it would certainly be good if officials trained in Turkey and Pakistan could put that training to use, and that it was also an opportunity for Bangladesh. He noted that training used to take place mostly in India, but apart from some areas their administration was much like Bangladesh’s, while Turkey’s administration was far more advanced.