Farooq Sobhan, president of BEI, and Manish Pandey, acting project manager of Katalyst, signed the deal on behalf of their organisations at a function at the BEI conference room in Dhaka.

Speaking at the signing ceremony, Sobhan said CSR has become a significant issue in Bangladesh due to the conditions imposed by foreign buyers on readymade garment sector.

Indeed, many multinational firms are now implementing corporate social responsibility initiatives by ensuring standards and closely monitoring the conduct of their suppliers, he mentioned.

"Corporate governance is an area, which has been a growing concern because of scandals, like the Premier Bank IPO scam that erupted mainly due to bad corporate governance practices," he went on.

Sobhan said it is important to understand that the term corporate social responsibility incorporates a company's responsibility towards the environment, its workers, and the society as a whole.

Speaking at the function, Pandey said the CSR centre will help the business community build capacity within their respective organisations.

Iftekar Ahmed, senior research fellow of BEI, Martin van der Wijck, manager, business environment division of Katalyst, and representatives from some local and multinational companies were present at the function.