CAREER IN TREASURY MANAGEMENT
Nurul Karim Patwery (Mamun), Head of Treasury, IDLC Finance Limited
In the field of treasury, Nurul Karim Patwery is one of the most prominent figures in Bangladesh. He has completed his BBA and MBA from Accounting and Information System, Dhaka University. He started his career as a probationary officer back in July 2006 in IDLC Finance Ltd. He successfully climbed his ladder to becoming Head of Treasury of this very organization. He has always been a role model for people not only in the treasury sector but also for those who aspire to conquer the top positions in their career life. Our MBR team had an opportunity to have a one-on-one conversation with him.
MBR: How treasury differs from other finance functions and roles of an organization?
Nurul Karim Patwery (Mamun): Generally, finance functions and roles are the part of accounting which deals with recording, analyzing, summarizing and reporting transactions to meet the financial objectives of the organization whereas Treasury is a specialized field which deals with the management of cash inflows and outflows to ensure sufficient liquidity of the organization to meet the debt obligations as well as managing risk associated with liquidity and market interest rate.
In a nutshell, finance focuses on the long term strategic planning but Treasury Management focuses on the short term and day to day monitoring of cash flows and ensuring the liquidity at minimum or feasible cost.
MBR: What type of skills is a must to have a career in treasury management? Are professional degrees needed in this career? If so, which one would be most fruitful?
Nurul Karim Patwery (Mamun): As specialized functions, to have a career in Treasury management someone should possess the following skills set.
In general sense, professional degrees are not mandatory for making career in Treasury Management but, certainly, business professional degrees like CFA, FRM etc. will add extra value or competitive advantages in the career. However, academic degrees from school of business and economics are mandatory for starting career in Treasury Management.
MBR: What advice would you give to the candidates who are looking for a career in this sector?
Nurul Karim Patwery (Mamun): From my experience in Treasury department, undoubtedly, I can say career in Treasury Management is very exciting and the officials of Treasury can oversee the helicopter view of the whole economy. In Treasury, we pass through the numerous ups and downs with financial market volatility. If anyone is interested to develop a career in Treasury, along with relevant academic background, he/she needs to be selfmotivated and then have to try to attain the skills set we mentioned earlier and, of course, have to keep close visibility in the financial systems, macroeconomic factors and relevant regulatory changes.
MBR: What are the challenges you faced in your career and what steps did you take to mitigate those?
Nurul Karim Patwery (Mamun): Of course, every business functions have some unique challenges and as a Treasury personal I also faced many challenges in my career. Since, I work closely with the financial market so most of the challenges I encountered from the market volatility and regulatory policy changes.
To mitigate this kind of risks/ challenges, first of all we focused on setting up the policy and process regarding how to react with those challenges and after developing those policies and guidelines prudently and implementing the same, we easily coped up with all the challenges. Since, I mainly deal with liquidity and interest rate risk, so we as a team developed liquidity and interest rate risk management policy and guidelines to mitigate those risks. My strategy to mitigate any kind of challenges is to acknowledge the situations first and then take necessary steps to encounter the same. Another major challenge we face in the industry is the weaker peer group and to mitigate these challenges we always try to remain vigilant in the market through better risk management, honor all debt obligation in times and always remain connected with the market participants.
RICE MILL INDUSTRY OF BANGLADESH: PRESENT MARKET SCENERIO AND FUTURE PROSPECTS
The Rice Mill Industry of Bangladesh: Surviving throughout pandemic and bringing technological change
Corona virus has affected almost every spheres of life in the world including different businesses and industries where agricultural sector is not an exception. Rice is the most vital element of this agricultural sector. The average per capita rice consumption in Bangladesh stood at around 179.9 kg per year from 2016 to 2019, more than three times the world average. According to the USDA, approximately 500 million tons of rice were produced globally during 2019-2020. Bangladesh ranked fourth, contributing about 7% to the world production. Despite being one of the leading producers, Bangladesh cannot find a place among the top five rice exporters since its output is used to meet the domestic demand. Our domestic demand
has almost tripled since independence, causing us to somewhat dependent on imports to meet the demand.
Due to technological advancement and changing demands, the rice milling sector in Bangladesh has slowly shifted from the traditional “Dheki” or husking method of processing paddy to a more automated process. More than 12,000 husking mills had to shut down between 2012 and 2014 as they could not compete with the auto and semi-auto rice mills. Currently, 18700 public and private rice mills operate in Bangladesh, mostly in the North Bengal region. These mills broadly produce three categories of rice- Aus, Aman and Boro.
Since rice is a non-cyclical product, its demand is relatively inelastic. As such, the pandemic did not have much effect on the sector. Although the producers faced a temporary cash crisis during March and April due to the lockdown and limited banking hours, the situation improved from May and onwards. Handsome production and suitable government policies helped the producers to avoid any difficulty during the pandemic. Sales increased as people hoarded rice due to uncertainty, and different organizations procured rice for relief distribution. As a result, during the third quarter of 2020, the price of rice increased by BDT 5-7 per kg.
As technology advances, we need to use more modern technologies such as drones and field sensors in our farming process and adopt Climate Smart Agriculture (CSA) to boost our productivity. These need to be implemented almost immediately as we lose 1% of our cultivable land every year due to growing population demands. The government should also ensure proper financing and insurance facilities for the producers. Doing these will decrease our dependency on the RMG industry as our sole exporter and allow this industry to be a potential source of our export income.
Sushmita Saha
Assistant Manager
IDLC Finance Limited