Executive Director of United Nations Counter-Terrorism Committee Executive Directorate (UNCTED) Mike Smith thinks strengthening the government's capacity, having stronger border control and aviation security as well as stronger financial intelligence can help Bangladesh tackle terrorism.

“Stronger border control means better trained border force, improved aviation security, more secure travel documents, machine readable data having biometric data, and strengthened capacity to see what money is coming to the country are necessary to combat terrorism," he told reporters at a press conference at a city hotel.

There should be a system for all the banks to check the suspicious transactions, he added.

Hie press conference was followed by the concluding session of a three-day regional workshop titled 'Regional workshop for senior police officers and

prosecutors in South Asia for effectively countering terrorism'.

The government and UNCTED jointly hosted the workshop while Bangladesh Enterprise Institute (BET) organised it with the support of the governments of Australia and Denmark.

A total of 18 participants from eight member countries of South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (Saarc) tookpartin theworkshop.

Smith, however, said addressing terrorism is a compli -cated thing, as it requires huge resources and time.

“It's not an easy thing to do as it demands a lot of resources, time and change in thinkingwhen there are a lot of priorities and development challenges in the country like Bangladesh," he added.

Smith said even his country Australia - had to invest billions of dollars, change legislation and create a new mechanism to counter terrorism.

South Asia probably suffered more than any other regions in the world from the dreadful

scourge of terrorism, he said, adding that there have been lots of tenorevents in Bangladesh.

Asked about Bangladesh's legal side, he said there are challenges in legislation and in criminal justice system in every country and the government of Bangladesh is doing its best in this regard.

Smith stressed the need for regional collaboration, saying that Saarc as a regional bloc has one of the most advanced regional collaboration to combat terrorism.

Earlier, State Minister for Home Shamsul HaqueTuku said terrorism is a menace that threatened peaceful coexistence of Saarc countries as well as the democracy of Bangladesh?

"Terrorism knows no' bounds, no borders. We must fight it together." he added.

Inspector General of Police (IGP) Nur Mohammad, Additional Secretary to Home Ministry Ghulam Hussain and BEI President Farooq Sobhan also spoke at the closing session.