The council of advisers in a meeting on Thursday identified 367 urgent and actionable recommendations from 10 reform commissions, with 37 measures already implemented.
The commissions 鈥� covering public administration, the electoral system, the police, the judiciary, anti-corruption, local government, labour, women鈥檚 affairs, and the media 鈥� were formed to identify and implement structural reforms across the key sectors.
The Constitution Reform Commission鈥檚 recommendations were not discussed under the review.
Chief adviser Professor Muhammad Yunus presided over the 38th meeting of the council at his Tejgaon office in Dhaka, where the progress on reform implementation and investigations into past surveillance and arms procurements were discussed.
After the meeting, chief adviser鈥檚 press secretary Shafiqul Alam told reporters at a press briefing at the Foreign Service Academy in the city that 16 of the 121 under-implementation recommendations -- as stated past week -- had been fully and 14 partially implemented, while the remainder was still in progress.
He said that 246 more important actionable reforms had since been identified, with the cabinet informed of their implementation timelines. This brought the total number of reforms to 367, of which 37 had already been implemented.
Of the newly added reforms, 82 are in the labour sector, 71 in the women鈥檚 commission, 37 under the Local Government Engineering Division, 33 in the health, and 23 in the information sector.
The chief and other advisers stressed the importance of prioritising 鈥榣ow-hanging fruits鈥� 鈥� reforms that can quickly be implemented 鈥� to accelerate tangible progress, Shafiqul said.
He said that the reforms were expected to play a key role in supporting Bangladesh鈥檚 planned graduation from the Least Developed Country status in 2026.
The 37 implemented recommendations cover a broad range of governance, justice, anti-corruption, labour rights, and gender equality measures.聽
They included amendments to the International Crimes Tribunal Act, empowering the ICT to ban political parties, cancel party registrations, and confiscate the assets of parties charged with crimes against humanity, genocide, or war crimes.
Other measures comprised the issuance of election observation and media policies, the abolition of police verification for passport issuance, gender-sensitive training for law enforcement and legal professionals, compulsory life insurance for migrant workers, and enhanced safety provisions for women and child labourers.
Judicial reforms included the establishment of a Supreme Judicial Appointment Council, chaired by the Chief Justice, to ensure transparent, merit-based appointments to the higher judiciary, alongside the creation of information desks, separate spaces for women and children in courts, online witness testimony, and procedural amendments to expedite the resolution of civil and criminal cases.
Shafiq said that 90 per cent of the harassment cases filed against labour leaders during the previous administration have been withdrawn.
A new amendment to the public procurement law has been drafted and will be circulated among ministries before being tabled in the cabinet, he said.
Professor Yunus鈥檚 recent visit to Malaysia was termed a landmark trip by the chief adviser鈥檚 press secretary.
The trip began on August 11, with the chief adviser meeting Malaysian prime minister Anwar Ibrahim and several ministers the following day.
Agreements were reached to grant Bangladeshi workers in Malaysia the same social benefits as Malaysian nationals and allow them to lodge complaints in Bengali, while the issue of regularising undocumented Bangladeshi workers was also raised, shafiq said.
He also said that talks on new recruitment focused on high-demand categories such as security guards and caregivers, and Bangladesh requested that its more than 10,000 students in Malaysia be included under the Graduate Plus work facility, enabling them to access high-skilled jobs.
The Malaysian side agreed in principle while the recognition of Bangladeshi degrees was also discussed.
According to the press secretary, both countries decided to begin negotiations on a Free Trade Agreement and Bangladesh expressed its interest in joining the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership.
Cooperation in the halal industry was another key agenda item, with Malaysia agreeing to send a team to help build Bangladesh鈥檚 halal certification capacity, he said.
Plans are under way to create a halal economic zone or industrial park to tap into the $3 trillion global halal market.
Defence cooperation was also discussed, with both sides expecting closer collaboration between security agencies, particularly in counter-terrorism.
The Rohingya crisis was deliberated in three meetings between Professor Yunus and Anwar Ibrahim, including in a restricted session, in a one-on-one meeting, and in delegation-level talks, Shafiq said.
