Cabinet nods draft laws on patents, standards and testing institution, atomic energy commission

The Cabinet has cleared in principle drafts of three updated laws related to patents, standards and testing institution, and atomic energy commission.

Staff Correspondentbdnews24.com
Published : 30 May 2016, 02:28 PM
Updated : 30 May 2016, 02:29 PM

A regular meeting of the Cabinet cleared the drafts of "The Bangladesh Standards and Testing Institution (BSTI) Law, 2016", "The Bangladesh Patent Law, 2016", and "The Bangladesh Atomic Energy Commission Law, 2016" on Monday.

Cabinet Division Secretary Mohammad Shafiul Alam briefed the media about the meeting chaired by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

Patents law

Alam said the patent law of 1911 has been updated by keeping consistency with the Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRAIPS) to make the law more time befitting.

He said seven chapters and 29 sections have been kept in the draft law.

The issues of the previous law have been more specified, according to the secretary.

BSTI law

The secretary said the BSTI was being run under the law passed during martial law in 1985. “So it needed changes.”

“There are many changes in the field. New ideas that have meanwhile arisen have been added to the new law,” he said.

The new law has changed the definition of standard from “foreign standard” to “international standard”, he said.

Provisions related to annual reports and budget, audit, formation of the organisation, use of standards and ways to give licences have also been included in the new law, he added.

Atomic Energy Commission law

The draft of the law has been made by revising the Presidential Order of 1973.

The commission will be constituted with a chairman and four fulltime members in line with the proposed law. The tenure will be three years.

The cabinet has also approved a proposal for signing a draft agreement between Bangladesh and Kuwait for the deputation of the Bangladesh Armed Forces' personnel to Kuwait.

It has approved another proposal for ratifying an agreement signed between Bangladesh and Kuwait on mutual exemption of prior entry visa for holders of diplomatic, special and official passports.

A proposal for signing a deal between Bangladesh and Saudi Arabia on cultural cooperation was also approved by the Cabinet.

Secretary Alam said the cabinet gave the final approval to the draft of "The Bangabandhu National Agriculture Award Trust Law, 2016" by transforming the Bangabandhu Award Fund.

Under the proposed law, an 11-member Trustee Board headed by the agriculture minister will be formed while the ministry of agriculture will perform the secretarial duties of the Board.