bodies for a sustainable global environment. It also adopted a resolution in favour of the movement of natural persons in the form of temporary movement of workers from LDCs to developed country markets.

The meeting was attended by about 150 participants from 13 countries including Bangladesh. Twenty three overseas participants from both co-organising institutions and leading international civil society organisations such as the South Centre, the Third World Network (TWN), the International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development (ICTSD) and the Consumers Unity Trust Society (CUTS) participated in the Forum. Seventeen local civil society organisations also joined the forum.

regards the growing marginalisation of the LDCs in global trading system under the World Trade Organisation (WTO). They criticised the developed countries for using the WTO to advance their own vested interests and for not providing global zero-quota, zero-tariff market access to the LDCs. They observed that LDCs are yet to derive any tangible benefit from the various agreements in the Uruguay Round and in the WTO.

Speakers at the meeting demanded an early implementation of Special and Differential Treatment (S&DT) measures in support of the LDCs. They also called for appropriate measures to ensure effective participation of the LDC members in the policymaking affairs of the WTO. Professor Rehman Sobhan, Chairman, CPD noted that there was an increasing gap between the voice of officials in the

WTO and the common people of the LDCs; if this gap cannot be bridged, the WTO cannot properly serve its declarative objective of being an organisation that has the agenda of 'development' at its heart.

The International Civil Society Forum adopted a 14 point "Priorities for Cancun" paper and a Declaration on important issues relating to LDC interests. These were handed over to the LDC Trade Ministers' Meeting which was held in Dhaka from May 31 to June 02, 2003. Based on the common concerns of all the 49 LDCs, the objective was to sensitise the policy makers as regards the demands of the civil societies in the LDCs as they strived to devise a common strategy and plan of action for the Cancun meeting. The forum also urged the governments of LDCs to work towards good governance which would consolidate gains from trade and contribute towards poverty alleviation.

The forum underscored the need for LDC participation in standard-setting

The National Policy Review Forum 2003 which was held during June 3-5, 2003 was the culmination of the year-long programme of the CPD to prepare a set of concrete policy recommendations in various areas of development of the country. These recommendations were presented at the National Policy Review Forum where they were discussed and debated by a large number of representatives from the country's stakeholder community. CPD organised the event in association with The Daily Star and Prothom Alo, two leading dailies of the country.

Regional Dialogues

It is to be recalled that prior to the 2001 parliamentary election the CPD organised 16 Task Forces on various developmental issues to contribute to the pre-election policy debate. These Task Forces were reconvened in 17 issue-specific Task Forces on January 14, 2003 as a mid-course review of the implementation status of the various pre-election recommendations. After the first drafts were prepared, these Task Forces presented their analysis and recommendations at eight regional dialogues in Dhaka, Narayanganj, Barisal, Rajshahi, Mymensingh, Sylhet, Khulna and Chittagong. These regional dialogue sessions were organised with a view to discussing the recommendations of the Task Forces with major stakeholder groups. These dialogues were attended by more than 1100 participants including people from general walks of life and a broad cross section of civil society organisations including NGOs, citizens' groups, professional bodies, members of the parliament, government officials, members of the academia and development partners. The views and recommendations received during the regional dialogues were finally incorporated in the revised Task Force reports and presented at the National Policy Review Forum 2003.

Regional Dialogue in Sylhet: (From left to right) Mr A Quayum Mukul of Prothom Alo, Dr Debapriya Bhattacharya, Mayor of Sylhet City Corporation Mr Badar Uddin Ahmed Quamran, Former VC of Shahjalal University of Science & Technology Prof. Md Habibur Rahman, Former Chairman of Sylhet Municipal Corporation Mr A F M Kamal, Dr N I Nazem of Dhaka University and Mr Mahfuz Anam.


Inaugural Session

The inaugural session of the National Policy Review Forum 2003 was held at the Hotel Sheraton, Dhaka, on June 03, 2003. Hon'ble Minister for Finance and Planning, Mr M Saifur Rahman, MP inaugurated the session as the Chief Guest, Deputy Leader of the Opposition in the Jatiyo Sangshad Mr Abdul Hamid was the special guest.

In his speech the Finance Minister said "Good politics is the foundation for good governance," and that democracy, transparency and rule of law depend on a good political