Md. Masud Sadiq

At TRACE Consulting, Md. Masud Sadiq serves as Senior Trade Facilitation, Customs & Trade Policy Lead. He serves as the senior expert on TRACE Consulting's projects with development partners such as the World Bank, ADB, and UNDP, lending technical weight to team capacity on projects involving customs modernization, border-agency coordination, and regulatory compliance reform. He anchors the firm's credibility with government counterparts, particularly NBR, and contributes to its capacity-building and training deliverables, functioning as TRACE Consulting's senior sign-off authority on customs-related technical quality and government relations. 

Mr. Sadiq is a former Grade-1 member of the National Board of Revenue (NBR) under the Ministry of Finance, Government of Bangladesh, bringing more than three decades of NBR leadership into his current role. His distinguished career is defined by driving macro-level institutional reforms, border modernization, and national compliance frameworks. He is widely recognized as an elite expert in optimizing international trade flows and aligning national regulatory practices with international standards. 

In his apex regulatory role as a member of the Customs Policy & ICT Wing from 2020 to 2024, Mr. 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 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. 

Mr. Sadiq is a recognized authority on the World Customs Organization (WCO) Time Release Study (TRS) methodology. He has led and validated multiple national-level, evidence-based TRS initiatives, leveraging ASYCUDA World transaction data, process mapping, and performance analytics to identify clearance delays and recommend targeted reforms. Before his appointment as Member, he served as Commissioner of Customs for more than a decade (2009–2020), overseeing import and export clearance operations across major seaports, land ports, and international airports. During his tenure, he introduced and strengthened risk-based selectivity systems that enhanced trade facilitation, improved operational efficiency, and upheld robust customs compliance and enforcement.

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 designed 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.

Mr. 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.