Md. Masud Sadiq

Md. Masud Sadiq is an accomplished trade facilitation strategist and former Grade-1 Member of the National Board of Revenue (NBR) under the Ministry of Finance, Government of Bangladesh, with more than 30 years of premier leadership in customs administration. Throughout his distinguished career, he has driven macro-level institutional reforms, border modernization, and national compliance frameworks. He is recognized as an expert in optimizing international trade flows and aligning national regulatory practices with international standards, currently offering high-level technical expertise in trade facilitation and performance benchmarking.

In his apex regulatory role as Member of the Customs Policy & ICT Wing from 2020 to 2024, Md. Sadiq provided strategic vision for Bangladesh's nationwide customs modernization initiatives. During this tenure, he spearheaded critical commitments under the WTO Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA), directing the integration of the National Single Window (NSW) and pioneering Pre-Arrival Processing (PAP) systems to analytically reduce cargo dwell times. His leadership extended to overseeing multi-agency coordination mechanisms across port authorities, financial institutions, and freight forwarders to achieve seamless cross-border regulatory harmonization.

Md. Sadiq is a foremost authority on World Customs Organization (WCO) Time Release Study (TRS) methodology. He successfully led and validated multiple national-level, evidence-based TRS initiatives, utilizing ASYCUDA World transaction data and end-to-end process mapping to isolate and eliminate systemic bottlenecks. Prior to his appointment as Member, he served for over a decade as Commissioner of Customs (2009–2020), managing the full import-export clearance lifecycle at major seaports, land ports, and international airports. There, he successfully implemented risk-based selectivity criteria to optimize operational efficiency while maintaining strict enforcement integrity.

His foundational career includes serving as joint commissioner at the Chattogram Custom House, first secretary of customs policy, and deputy director at the Customs, Excise, and VAT Training Academy (CEVTA). As an educator, he shaped institutional capacity by designing training curricula on GATT/WTO valuation rules, tariff classification, and modern inspection techniques. His early contributions to automation date back to 1999, when he collaborated with international consultants on the baseline Customs Administration Modernization (CAM-1) project, transitioning legacy workflows into automated digital frameworks.

Md. Sadiq holds a master of social sciences in economics from the University of Dhaka. He possesses an excellent command of both Bangla and English and has collaborated extensively with global development partners and donor-funded programs. His deep analytical proficiency, coupled with a lifelong record of balancing trade facilitation objectives with revenue protection, positions him as an elite expert in South Asian customs ecosystems